Dette er vel egentlig første gang jeg skriver på norsk i denne bloggen. Merker at jeg trengte litt pause fra Amerika i Jula. Det har vært et spennende og utfordrende semester; både akademisk og opplevelsesmessig eller hva jeg skal si. Har blitt kjent med mange nye folk, møtt flere familiemedlemmer og opplevd masse jeg kommer til å ta med resten av livet.

Med tanke på det akademiske så har det vært et tøft semester. Som sagt i et tidligere innlegg så har kunne jeg droppe et fag siden jeg ikke trengte det. Det lettet litt på trykket. Men jeg har ikke hatt lite å gjøre av den grunn! Min største bekymring har vært at jeg ikke kom til å ende med en GPA på 2.0. Det vil si at jeg ville hatt en snittkarakter på C- eller lavere. For hvis det hadde vært tilfellet, ville ikke jeg fortsatt på PLU i 2013. Heldigvis gikk det over all forventning; B, B+ og A var karakterene jeg fikk i de tre forskjellige fagene jeg hadde. Storfornøyd!

Å komme til Norge på ferie har vært merkelig. Jeg sitter igjen med masse minner fra oppholdet i USA. Det er rart at de minnene om leiligheten vår i USA, alle menneskene og omgivelsene der ikke bare er minner; men faktisk det jeg skal tilbake til om ca 2 uker. Som en “påminnelse” på dette har jeg ikke stilt klokka mi til norsk tid. Men tenk deg at du er på feire i Spania i 4 uker eller noe. Så lar du mesteparten av tingene dine bli igjen, hopper på et fly tilbake til Norge, er der en uke og drar tilbake til Spania igjen. Gang #denfølelsen med 10 så har du det kanskje slik jeg har det nå. Oh..og ja, tenk deg at det er i desember når du forestiller deg det jeg sa. Må selvfølgelig ikke glemme å nevne at det har vært fantastisk å se igjen familien, alle vennene, leiligheten og sist men ikke minst Bose anlegget mitt.. haha.

30. desember drar dama, en kompis av meg og jeg til New York for å feire nyttårsaften. Gleder meg sykt! Etter fem dager der drar vi videre til Los Angeles for å feriere litt. Og her møter vi min kjære kusine som for tiden er på verdensreise helt alene!! Er utrolig morsomt at hun er i LA akkurat da! Hvis dere vil kan dere lese om reisen hennes her www.supermarie.net. Gleder meg nesten mer til LA enn NYC tbh.

God jul og godt nyttår til deg og dine!

The urge to write in this blog has faded a bit. To be honest I don’t have that much to write about either. With midterms round two, and upcoming finals, I don’t have time to write. But in less than a week we’re sitting on a plane heading for Norway! I am so excited to see my family and friends, eat home made Norwegian food and sleep in my very own bed. Not that I don’t sleep well in our apartment in the US.. but our bed back in Norway is dangerously comfortable. (That is, it is very easy to oversleep).

Just to keep you updated on my finals; I got the final assignment for my Computer Networks class this monday. It is a “take-home” exam that have to be done by next friday; almost done! Yesterday (friday) I had my “Computer Organization and Assembly Language” exam, and wednesday next week I have the “Concepts of Programming Languages” exam. I need a GPA(Grade Point Average) at at least 2.0; which translates to an average grade of C. I don’t think that will be a problem.

As the time passes by I meet new people, learn new stuff and share some laughs with my new friends. What I find kinda challenging is that there are different students in all my classes. I took a while before I could remember all their names and such. And about names.. I’m not sure if it’s only a coincidence or if there is on purpose, but I find that some of the professors names are very fitting. 

Like this guy, Matthew Hacker, network systems administrator. How awesome is that? There are some other people with, in my opinion, funny names. 

“I am now Dong K. Kim; soon J. Kim.”. Maybe not that funny, but I laughed the first time I saw it. Heh.

I don’t know if you have ever seen “Archer” or “Bob’s Burgers” but there is this guy in one of my classes that totally sounds just like Archer or Bob (same voice). The most awesome moment ever was when I told him that, and he actually realized that he did sound like them. Or..now he keeps quoting the shows all the time, which is kinda annoying.

Bob’s Burgers

What’up! As said, or written, in one of my previous posts I was going to drop a class. After getting an “ok” from my academic advisor in Norway, I finally have some spare time! And in good time. This weekend we hosted a halloween “pre-party”, or vorspiel. Had a couple of friends over, drank some beer and had fun. I was the only one without a costume. Lucky for me one of my friends had a spare beard I could borrow. Haha. At one point I was wearing an afro wig and beard; I looked like a hippie bum.

Yes, that is me to the right.

After a while we all went to a house party hosted by a Norwegian fella and his friends. Sure had a lot of fun that night.

Now that I have three classes instead of four, I’m actually able to focus more on the classes. Because I have to admit, when I have too much homework, I kind of phase out. I’m not sure if that is the right word to use, but I kinda get distracted and unmotivated. Anyways. I’ll be in touch more frequently from now on!

Ayo! Sorry for my abcence but, I guess you know why, I am so busy. I waved goodbye to spare time and social life about a month ago. But I may have a solution for my lack of free time though. All of my professors and my academic advisor use the word “inhumane” or similar words when I tell them I have four CSCE classes at once. So I have no idea why my academic advisor in Norway thinks this is okay. I have been in contact with my university college in Norway about this, and one of my professors told me that he could write an email about this if needed. To bad the semester is almost over.

The reason I stress this stuff is because I need to maintain good academic standing (which is at or above 2.0 Grade Point Average). And with four relativly hard classes it’s kinda hard keeping focused on all of them; I have to prioritize which class I will focus on all the time, which is a bad thing.

Anyways, it isn’t all bad though. The last couple of weekends have been fun! Had some of the guys over for some beers and pizza; had a blast!

Yes, we actually made the pizza ourselves!

Attended a hiking trip to mount Rainier last weekend, so beautiful! Reminded me of Norway. Except the part that there was asfalt and concrete road halfway up there. And that we had to stay on the trail at all times. But it was a nice trip and an amazing view. Since we were there as a group organized by the school, we had to wait for people several places.It was okay though, I had my camera so I took a lot of pictures while waiting. And the wildlife was amazing, saw some pretty cool creatures! I guess they were kinda used to see people too, because they didn’t flee when we got up close to them.

The reason I named this post unmotivated is that I feel like I have more homework than I can squeeze into a week. This monday I had a project presentation, and I feel that altough I feel that my english is decent I don’t get to show it. It’s like going back in elementary school and having a presentation for class. I usually don’t have a problem speaking in front of a crowd, but this was kinda rough. I’m not sure how it turned out actually, I just have to wait for the results. Had a nice dinner with my girlfriend at Ferrelis later that day. Felt good to just be the two of us for once. And that monday night I didn’t feel like doing anything. I stayed up late and watched Family Guy on Hulu.

Today I have a lot of homework to do, so I treated myself with a cup of french press coffee and a bowl of Raisin Bran. Doesn’t seem like much maybe, but that is what I usually have for breakfast. Minus the coffee; don’t have time for that at 7am.

Eyo. Sorry for not writing more posts, folks. Been kinda busy with assignments, projects and other time consuming activities. I’m having a hard time adjusting to the new school system or what I should call it. I’m used to having quite some time on my assignments, and actually having some time off from school. Now I have absolutely no free time at all. It feels like I’m having homework enough for two students. But I guess this is how college works in the US. I had an appointment with an academic advisor(adviser? w/e) the other day. And the nice lady said that I should not worry. She told me that it’s like this for all the international students, because it’s always some difference in how different colleges in different countries work.

In the midst of all the agony, we went to Seattle with all the international students; fun! We went as a group and did some tourist stuff, and then we divided in to groups and did what ever we want.

Smiiiiile!

The girls went shopping, and some of the guys and me went…some other place. It was nice to be in Seattle with guys, not girls. I’m so tired of shopping…

Anyways, I promise to keep posting more frequent. But I’m sure you understand that I prioritize school.

This week has been a blast so far, so awesome to meet up with all the other international students. There is 26 norwegian transfer students, ca 15 danish and 40 others from around the world. It’s nice that there are som many of us, but at same time it’s a bad thing. I’m here to speak english; not norwegian. I’m trying to mingle as much as possible with the english speaking students though. I’ve made many new friends, both norwegian and others. There are so many awesome people in this group! Below you’ll see a picture of all of us.

Amongst all the fun, there is some boring stuff too. I thought I was done signing papers, waivers and documents; I was wrong. In addition we had to attend courses on how to behave and stuff on campus.

Today all the other students of PLU arrived; domestic students. It used to be quiet and not a lot of people on campus. Now it’s not and I love it! This is how it should be! I must say it’s really stereotypical, with the “jocks” and how the americans behave you know? Almost too extroverted and outward for my taste, but it’s part of the experience. And it was so much fun to see the americans get settled in their dorm rooms. With mom, dad and siblings helping out with carrying stuff. It’s a special semester this year, because PLU have a new school president. It was fun to be a part of the experience.

The new president!

After the “ceremony” there was food, mingling and activities; kinda fun!

Foss field.

After all the fun at the Foss field, there was ice cream social and some kind of performance by the drama group in the concert hall. A real american experience!

This week we have been staying at some of my relatives who lives in Ballard, Seattle. We were there from tuesday to thursday night. I have met them before when I was in the US summer 2007. Nancy and Don(Donald) lives in Old Ballard, which is north-east of Seattle city. I think. Nancy is my fathers second cousin, and I do not know what that makes me. Anyways, they are so welcoming and kind, and they loved to have us over for a couple of days. I must say, it was really nice having home cooked meals everyday. They volunteered to show us around in Old Ballard. This place is known for nordic descendants. I’m not sure I wrote that sentence right btw. We went over to see the Nordic Heritage Museum, where I actually learned something about the scandinavian emigrants and such.

Don loves to tell stories about the old days. He told us about how everything has changed in Ballard, and Seattle for that matter. And he told me about my relatives that came to the US in hope of a better life. Quite interesting! I also met Nancy’s brother, and Nancy and Don’s son and daugther. But I’m going to stop there. I’m sure that you don’t want to read about my family..hah. Please take a look at some of the pictures from our trip!

(PS! I took som pictures of some of the names of the nordic emigrants; maybe you know some of them?)

This saturday it’s Garfield Street Fair, where the local people gather to enjoy music, food and stands with home made merchandise. There is just one catch… the stage is RIGHT outside our appartment. And we cant close the windows because of the heat. At 6am they started rigging up the stage. I kinda slept trough it, but Lone did’nt. Anyways, after a quick breakfast I went out to see what all the fuzz was all about. Btw, just to get a clear picture of how close we were to the stage, I took some pictures.

To the left is the stage, and our appartment is at the one at the top left corner of the building.

As I am writing this, I am down at the coffee shop. I am sitting here with my headphones on listening to house music. Since there is a street fair going on, this place is crowded. The atmosphere is a bit different than usual. Altough it’s fun to experience an american street fair, I am a bit glad that it last only this one day.

I really enjoyed the car exhibition tough, cool to have a look at all the veterans. I took som pictures of it, have a look!