The US of A

I know I’m super slow, but what to do? When you have to finish a degree, say goodbye to crazy many wonderful, amazing, beautiful people and move out of the best place anyone could ever live (I’m talking about Moholt studentby) all at the same time. Anyway, here it is for all you patient people (or AK, as still might be the only one reading this).

Part 1
As mentioned we flew over the big sea to bring AK back home. It was Simon and me, arriving Wednesday, and then we picked up Alejandro in the airport Thursday after a day of cancelations and confusion. No need to get into this, lets just say it was wonderful to be together again, the four of us.


We started of in New York. A beautiful place, I must say. Breakfasting in central park, overeating on doughnuts and bagels, drinking way too much starbucks coffee, and trying all the different brands of beer produced. I think we can conclude with the fact that it’s no wonder this place struggles with obesity, you see… everything is so damn good!


We did some shopping and sightseeing while the weather was changing a lot…


Among a lot of other stuff we caught up with some old friends…


Went to a standup show…


And a basketball match (New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors)…


And we tried the hot dogs on Wall St.


After some days of living the American dream we finally caught up with the American way of thinking. As a result of this we realized that what we thought was minor problems before arrival actually are super important and far beyond our imagination (and once again, no wonder about that obesity problem when they tell people “potato chips beats depression”)…


During our days of sightseeing in New York we also stumbled over a…

This was pretty close to the Flat Iron Building, and also (in our concern) pretty hilarious. To explain in a graphic way, and to spare excess use of your imagination, I give you the video:

(And to the people in charge of maintenance of the streets in NY, I ask you to take care of this problem, I believe your inhabitants will benefit from this and you will see a lot more happy faces driving around).

HAHAHA!

Part 2
After 5 days in NY we got ourselves a car and got on the rout direction south to Washington. Here we stayed in a somewhat better facility than the one in NY. This was located a little bit outside the city, but they also served bagels with cream cheese for breakfast, in other words – I was still IN HEAVEN! 4 days we spent here, sightseeing, shopping and visiting museums and other fancy buildings.And not to forget fast-food places with bulletproof glass between you and the cashier.




Then, after a superfunny trip together, Alejandro had to get on a plane back to Europe :( We got to the airport just in time for a airportwoman to grab him and drag him to the front of the line. I don’t know, but I think she might have over exaggerated just a bit, and used the fact of us being slightly late as an excuse to touch a famous movie star from Spain. In the end he was safe on his way back home, while we moved on to another part of the airport to pick up Catherine who was flying in to spend the weekend with AK in NY while me and Simon travelled on to Williamstown, Temple and Boston.


Part 3
It was a little bit different to be just the two of us in the car from that point on (of course we missed you people). But at the same time rather wonderful to be travelling with a guy in totally control of everything and seemingly on a mission to show me everything that is needed to see in the area. The rest of the trip was completely wonderful. First we went to see Kelsey and Emily in Williamstown. They showed us their university – amazing place. And they also, unfortunately without any luck, tried to convince us to stay the night to join the big campus party that was taking place. Sadly we had to drive on the same day to reach Temple, a place Simon worked for one year, 2004/05, but also this place knew how to through a party, so no bad feelings.



We lived in Temple for 3 days, we got to live in the place Simon worked and everyone was very welcoming and we were invited to join them in the Easter activities that were taking place over the weekend. In between we also managed to go shopping and sightseeing in the area.



Monday morning we started the drive back to NY, stopping in Boston on the way including Hampton Beach to try out my new investment…


That was is I think, I mean… the short version ;)

Thank you guy’s soooo much for the amazing US-safari, I hope we will travel together soon!

- Ida -

My (sister's) big fat jewish wedding!

Wow wow wow!

My sister just got married in Paris, and it was the most amazing wedding I've ever been too! Let me walk you through it step by step.

On Wednesday it was the ceremony at city hall, and as many guests as possible (including the bride and groom!!) wore their national costumes:


The official ceremony was conducted in French, so I didn't really understand too much (and when I say "not too much" i mean "not a damn shit") but when they got to the OUI part, I must admit I started tearing up.

After we went to eat cakes and have coffee, and according to Jewish tradition the bride and groom were showered with gifts (aka christmas eve) - something to think about for future weddings? OUI.

The next day, Thursday 21.May was the day of the "real" wedding!
And the location was Chateau de Villiers just outside Paris


The bride was gorgeous


and after the ceremony, just like in the movies, the groom got to step on a plate and break it! Mazel tov!!

We still don't know why the groom is so tall!


The wedding party got started with a bang with the "traditional" waltz:


And the dancing just continued! The bride and groom were thrown up and down on a big sheet and on carried on chairs (the parents too)




The night continued with dancing, good food, alcohol, and fun! :)

My sister is married!! :O

The rest of the days were spent sightseeing


with a baguette...MON baguette!


And we even got time to meet this crazy gal


To do another kind of "sightseeing"


And a picture for the road (my face when Madcon, a norwegian group, comes on the radio in Paris)

MON BAGUETTE!!

Hey there world!

AK is finally back where she belongs, in the heart of Trondheim, aka Moholt Studentby. I must say, life has been somehow more difficult without her. For instance it was suddenly not that many big dinnerparties in our kitchen anymore, as a result of this i found myself in such a bad state that I stopped going home after uni and stayed out all night (this happened maximum one time), or I didnt get up in the morning at all (this happened more than once). On top of this I struggled with the fact that there was no singing around me anymore, no singing spiced up with a lot of laughter, the melody of life flowing through the building had dissapered. And the worst part of it all, there were no more tall, sexy, morena chica lying on my bed after a night downtown, and noone to help me get the people out and about when I wanted to sleep.

Now everything is so much better, spring has arrived, and we just (I'm slow, I know) got back to this wonderful town after a 3-week-roadtrip including New York, Washington DC, Boston and Lofoten, AK was waiting for us when we came home ... I feel the melody is on its way back in trough the front door.

-Ida-

PS. A résumé from both trips will come soon, I just need to fulfill my duties as a groupmember writing a kind of importaint paper first.

Norway!

I`m back in what some of my American friends might refer to as the country Europe!

I`ll post pictures of my last trip in not too long, but before that I thought I`d beat you to the punch and tell you what I`m gonna miss the most about the US:
1) the people (not all of them of course, but the ones that I loved and spent a lot of time with)
2) the prices (did I tell you a long island icetea with LOTS of alcohol was 1dollar??)
3) being able to speak a language that nobody understood (it was difficult not to make comments about hotties in Norwegian when we got back to Norway!)

See you soon for some picture-mania! :)

Oh Canada..."out and about"

It`s roadtrip time again!

Lloyd, Kyle and I drove to Toronto Canada for the weekend - stopped in Niagara Falls, went to a casino, lost some money...and here`s a little summary:

The roadtrip was entertaining as always, thanks to Lloyd

that man spins my head right round!

Niagara Falls


This is a view over a part of Toronto seen from the CN Tower, the tallest free standing structure in the world (ps. Toronto is HUUUUGE)


There is a glassfloor in the CN Tower, and this is my feet standing approx. 550meters above the ground, on something that looked like a thin glass floor:


I naturally INSISTED on going to the Hockey Hall of Fame:


Lloyd is doing a plie on the way to a club


As you might have noticed I don`t have to many pictures from the sightseeing part of the trip, that`s cause someone decided that the best way to get to know a new city is to sit inside a bar..with my camera..and not take any pictures.

Anyway, to sum it up:
driving - Niagara Falls - casino - sightseeing - party - driving

Another great weekend in the US! (no, wait..in Canada! well...poteito / potato) :)

Last day of teaching

So today was my last day of teaching in the US.
And I pretty much had the best day possible!

My students had made and brought lots of different treats like a home made ice cream cake:


brownies, cup cakes, cookies, taco rolls, potato chips and soda and we basically had a party.


One girl even made me a poem! Needless to say I almost started crying, being the cry baby that I am.

I am so flattered, and I`ll miss them all!

Here we all are, goofing off like always:


I wish I could stay longer..but Norway is calling my name!
But first: a weekend trip to Toronto, Canada.
Stay tuned!

Nice try!

I LOVE it when my students try to answer my questions by rephrasing the question itself.

I gave them a surprise quiz today to check if they read their homework chapters (Jane Eyre), and I really enjoyed correcting them.

Let me give you a few examples:
"What does Jane decide to draw and why?"
answer: Jane decides to draw.

this one is also a good one:
"Jane really likes to draw, so she decides to draw. It makes her feel calm."

another question from the quiz: "What is peculiar about the gypsy?"
answer: the gypsy is peculiar because he doesn't act the way gypsys normally do.

or maybe you prefer this answer to the same questions:
"the gypsy"
or:
"the gypsy is very strange looking, which is peculiar"

I can definitely appreciate (and recognize) the rephrasing strategy,
I just hope I did it a tad more subtly!

I`m adding a picture of my mentor and me out and about this weekend, shaking it loose, for your pleasure. or whatever. Please notice Jillian with her drink in the back!