Friday, May 21, 2010

To be tanned or not be tanned? That is the question!

Just found out that I PASSED my first exam!! =D I'm that cool. No, in all honesty I thought I was going to fail... My head was spinning drastically in all directions while I was doing the exam (that's what she said). We had to memorize all kinds of theories related to the inner workings of all kinds of organizations... All sorts of crap and I couldn't remember what theory belonged to what explanation and the name of whoever came up with the theory. It took me an hour (it was a 4hour exam) to complete it and I only wrote about 3 pages. But, I'm a good bullshiter to be honest. I can usually write (or talk) my way around anything I don't know jack about. It's a very useful quality, and it makes me look smarter than I am. =D And of course the blonde hair also contribute, since everyone expect me to be stupid they are baffled by my "fake" intellegence. Then again, wouldn't that make me smart? Hmm...

So I celebrated with nuggets from McDonalds, and used up all my money buying the meal. (I didn't have much money to begin with, so it's not like I bought buckets of nuggets). And afterwards I sat out in the wonderous sun and tried to get tanned. There we have another problem; I CAN'T get tanned! Seriously, I've tried everything. Last summer, the two week trip to Greece (read bellow) I returned from that trip just as pale as when I left. And I was on the beach a lot during the trip. I'm baffled, I don't know what to do about that. On a side note; right now I can't really show much skin. I look like I've been raped with all the bruises I have all over my body. Last weekend when I visited my parents and friends back home, appearently one of my friends thought it would be funny to bite me and pinch me all over. Not funny. Really. Douche.

Anyway, only got 2 exams left and life will be fantastic. =D Summer is here appearently, if you go outside and feel the burn. Time to clean my room, pack my stuff, study like my life depended on it and wait for my mom to come with the big car so I can move the fuck out of the hellhole city that I currently reside in. If you ever come to Norway, stay awat from the OL city; Lillehammer. It's boring. Don't go there. Take a trip to Oslo or Sandnes or even Bergen. I've officially warned you.

That's all for today. It was a hot and boring, yet joyful day.
~ Tone

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Have a drink! Drinks on me =D

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Greece. Best vacation evah!

Last summer me and 3 friends of mine went to Greece for 2 weeks. Since we were all adventerous girls, we decided to go "Island jumping". Our first visit was Santorini, since that's where our plane landed. We stayed there for a day, then went on to bigger and better places. Santorini is more for those who prefer a quiet and peaceful vacation, and we were looking for a little more fun place to be at.

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Me, my friends and the two Norwegian guys we met

Our next stop was Ios; the infamous party Island. If I'm ever going to recommend you to go somewhere, this would be it! The whole Island is made for party loving tourists; with bars at every corner, nice places to go shopping for clothes and other stuff to remember the trip, and an awesome beach with everything you could ever want. We met some other Norwegians there; some guys from Bergen. We went out with them and had a foreparty at a bar called "Sunrise" before hitting the town. We split up with the guys and went to a place called "Rehab" where they were having a Ladies Night; with male strippers and everything. One of the bartenders actually wore the "Borat swimsuit". We laughed, we drank and we had a lot of fun.

Next we went on to Naxos. It was a little quieter, which was a good thing, we needed that after those 3 days on Ios. And after that we went to Paros, where we went out on the town in Parikia (I think it's called). There we met some Irish people and such and had a great time with them. Actually, we flashed ourselves to get a drink at one bar. It was free drinks if we flashed the bartenders. We were drunk and didn't care much, so we did it.

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Me and a Norwegian bartender on Ios

After 3 days on Naxos and 3 on Paros we went back to Ios. The Norwegian guys were still there, so we joined them out on the town again. This time one of my friends drank too much and we ended up having to take her to the hospital, she had alcohol poisoning. She was okay after a night at the hospital though. The same night I hurt my thumbs, they were swollen and I couldn't move them for a month after.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and we're repeating it this summer! (minus the hospital visit we hope). I would recommend anyone that is young and want a great party vacation to go to Ios, Greece. It's worth the trip <33

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Renovations of our new house!

So, as I promised I'll post some pictures from the house my parents are building and here you've got some information about it too =)

The "house" is not really a house; it was buildt as a small school waaay back in the days. It's also been used as a kindergarden and the last person to own it remodeled and did some work to make it work as a small house (it looked horrible though). So here is what we're going to do with it: The 1st floor will be my parents place, with their own living room, bathroom, bedroom and so on. On the 2nd floor I will get an apartment that I'll get to design myself. My sister will also get a big bedroom with her own bathroom on the same floor as me and in between our two rooms there will be a library with books and all my movies and such. We will build another ajoining building, a small one, that will house a small swimming pool. There will be a garage for our cars on the backside. And in the large garden we'll build a stable for my sisters horse, and a fenced place for the horse to go outside, aswell as a place for my sister to ride the horse.

It's a pretty big project, but we hope to be done by Christmas so that we can have a big christmas party there for the entire family. That's about it, probably forgot something, but that's all I remember at the moment. =)

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My sister, her horse Chanel and the house in the background

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Progress 1st floor

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Progress 2nd floor + my dad

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Worst, yet tolerable day evah!

Alright so I had one of those days that are rather weird yesterday. I couldn't sleep all night, might have something to do with the 4-5 Redbulls i chugged, but who knows. So, I geeked on YouTube all night, watching whatever I found and edited my Vlog a little. At 6am my taxi came and took me to the train station. Where I had to wait about 20mins until the train finally came. Since it was the first station for the train, it barely had any people on it, which was nice. But, an hour later the train was packed with screaming kids and people with no personal hygiene. You can imagine the fun of that. So, I had to sit there for one more hour and listen to constant howling from small kids, and I practically had to hold my breath the entire way not too puke on someone (which to be honest had propably improved the way they smelled).

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At 8am I reached the airport. I bought myself a few books; "Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger and some other fantasy books that I love to read. I'm a geek, live with it. Then it came time to board the plane. I already had a headache from all the screaming and foul smells on the train, and wouldn't you know, it was just as bad on the plane... Lucky me, the plane ride only took 1 hour and I was half asleep the whole time. My dad came and picked me up at the airport when my plane landed and I had to sit in the car with him for about 20 minutes. Now, I don't know about you, but me and my dad we have a sort of tolerate/hate relationship. He thinks he is so funny and always makes jokes that actually hurts a lot, and he always ends up making me work at the dry cleaner he owns when I'm home to visit. I'm not so lazy that I don't mind working, it's only that he's so superior about it all, he just tells me to do it and doesn't ask me. I have friends, and I was planning on hanging out with them, since I'm only home for 4 days. But, noooo, that's impossible appearently.

Anyway, I got home and tried to sleep. No luck there. So I tried to find my laptop (my other computer is in my dormroom in Lillehammer). No luck there either. Then, I tried to find my videocamera. What do you know, no luck... Then after an hour I tried to find my car! You know, my car is small and everything, but it's a car and shouldn't be too hard to find, right? Yeah right, couldn't find that one either o_o Well, it turned out that my car was at work and my laptop was in the trunk of my car. My sister is 17 now, and in Norway you get your drivers license at 18, so she is practising driving with my aunt. And when I'm not at home they take my car, without telling me. So, I ended up having to take a loooong walk downtown to pick up my car.

After I finally got my car I drove to my bestfriends house (His name is Kissi). He was having some friends over and they were just sitting there with their computers playing some sort of new game. I don't have a computer to play on when I'm home, so I had to sit there and watch them. Kissi's mom wasn't home, so I couldn't go talk with her as I always do. So in my boredom I started filming them and their tragicness. That wasn't too popular. First I get attacked and pushed down (couldn't move at all) and they started tickling me. I hate being tickled, it's the worst thing ever because I'm reaaally ticklish. Then Kissi comes over with his small keg of beer and starts pouring that over me and my new hoodie. -_- I have such great friends! (that's sarcasm if you didn't catch it)

The rest of the day was pretty alright though. I went to the mall with my cousin (who is pregnant) and we ate and I bought myself a new really cheap videocamera (cause I'm practically broke and I haven't paid my rent yet). Then I went back to Kissi's house and talked to his mom about all thing random in life. Sometimes, I think I'm better friends with his mom than him. She agreed to cut my hair the next day. I don't have money to do it professionally, it's the curse of being a student.

Hopefully today will be a lot better. I've been out to buy alcohol and later I'm going to a party at a friends house. I'll get to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in a while, so it'll the awesome. I'm also taking a trip out to the countryside, where my parents are renovating a house that should be done by christmas. They're building me an apartment on the second floor so can't wait for that to be done. I thought I might take a trip out there to see how far they've come and stuff. I'll take some pictures and then make a post here with a little details on the house and everything. =)  I'm off to cut my hair.

~ Tone <33

Thursday, May 13, 2010

the blond foreign xchange student.

I thought I might write something interesting, so I thought about it and I figured my 10 day trip to NYC is entertaining enough to read about. So, here you go:

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When I was 17 years-old, I did what (almost) every teenager wants to do; I ran away from home. But, I didn't just run to one of my friends house or something like that, no I fled the country as if I had a freaking assassin on my tail. And, of course, I did it with the approval of my parents; they paid for it all after all. I traveled with STS High School; a exchange student program that sends you to school in places like the USA. I had a host family waiting for me in a small town in Wisconsin called New Richmond. But, before I went to join my host family in Wisconsin, I went to an Introduction Camp in New York.

All toghether we were about a 100 students from all over Europe. We stayed at a place called Adelphi Univercity on Long Island, not far from New York. We were assigned dormrooms at the Univercity, I ended up sharing a room with two other girls; one Swedish and the other from Switzerland (I think...) Anyway, this happened in August 2006, and we arrived in NY just in time to experience one of the worst heatwaves I have ever experienced. And the unfamiliar humidity didn't help much either to be honest. Jetlagged, hot and sweating like a pig. Sounds like lots of fun, right? =D No, jk. We got used to everything pretty fast, so didn't ruin much of the trip. What ruined my mood for a couple of days though, was that I caught a cold/fever from walking out of buildings and back in. The aircondition was insanely cold inside, and outside the sun worked as your own big-ass sauna. On top of everything, the aircondition in our room was broken, it was too cold! We had to go fully clothed to bed some nights...

Putting all that aside and getting on with the good stuff. We were assigned to different groups. because we had competitions and stuff like that to make the stay there more fun. The leader of my group had the best name evah! You're not going to be able to top this... His last name was "Jerker"! Yes, you heard me! And when we found out we had to come up with a name for our team, it was pretty obvious what we went with. That was the birth of "The Jerkers". We had our own cheerleading routine and song; "We are the Jerkers. The mighty, mighty Jerkers! Goooo Jerkers!" I promise you it was pretty awesome =D

The awesome thing about this Introduction Camp was that they took us sighseeing and shopping in Manhatten. We went to see "Ground Zero", which was actually pretty sad. An old man was playing a flute there, a really sad tune, in honor for his daughter that he had lost when 9/11 happened. I might be remembering some of the details wrong, but I remember the flute pretty well and that half the people there had tears in their eyes. We also went to see the Statue of Liberty. Well, we didn't go up close, we took one of those boat tours. Which was a really good time. And we spent a day shopping in Soho. The funny thing about Soho, was the our leaders had gotten us really wound up and scared about going off shopping on our own. We had gotten a map that told us where we could and shouldn't go and everything. And they told us that if we went off to the place that was marked as forbidden we could get killed or raped. I was 17, New York was a new place for me and the other kids, we just believed whatever our leaders told us o_O Anywho, I ended up shopping for about $400, almost couldn't fit all the stuff in my suitcase.

Most of our time in NY we spent on Campus though. Me, being the cheeky, unafraid Norwegian chick, got to know some of the older students that were attending the Univercity (they were Americans, mostly). The 3 people I hung out with the most were 2 girls and 1 guy. We called the guy Turklish (He was half Turkish, half English). We usually just sat around talking outside on the benches, but some nights one of the girls smuggled some rum mixed with cherry coke to us and we would sit there drinking. I was underaged, they weren't, but it was still not allowed to drink alcohol on campus, so we tried being a little discreet about it all. A couple of days later our group leader announced that they had a suspicion that someone was drinking alcohol (*gasp*), so they were going to investigate this and have one on one interregations. Needless to say, I was pretty anxious and scared. Even just smelling alcohol would get you sent back to your country, and getting sent home after 5 days wasn't my idea of fun. I've always been an excellent liar (the trick is to believe it wholeheartedly yourself), so I denied everything and they had no proof.

Lucky me, it wasn't me that had gotten them suspicious. At the same time as we were staying there. there was another group of exchange students from Germany also staying there. It turned out that it was some of the German boys that had been drinking and they had told the truth about it. I was beyond relived. you can't even imagine! I don't really know what happened to those German kids, but I figure they were sent back to Germany for that little stunt. I'm telling you; if you're going to do something stupid then at least don't get caught doing it!

Our last day there we got a big lecture from our leaders. One of the bigger topics we talked about was our showeing habits. You see, when we showered we undressed in our room. wrapped a towel around ourselves and then walked out to the showers the girls shared together. I didn't really see a problem with that, although the guys did get a good view of girls walking around half naked from down the hall. They told us we couldn't do that when we got to our host families. Appearently, walking around half naked in the house is frowned upon in the States. Who knew? *shrugs* After the lecture and tearful goodbye's we were all shipped off to different states.

I have to say; New York is one of my favorite places so far. I've traveled a lot through Europe; Spain, Greece, France and so on. But, nothing compares to those 10 days I had in NYC. It's been almost 4 years since my last visit there, so next summer I'll be going back. Either just on vacation or for summer school to improve my English Just need to save up some cash first =)

lastly, I have a question for you guys; Do you want to hear more from my stay in the States? I do actually have a lot of crazy stories and I can explain why one of my teachers called me The Crazy Norwegian. I'm asking because I don't know if you actually care, I don't want to bore you guys with something you don't find interesting. So, let me know in the comment section :3

<33
Tone

Going home - 3 day drinking marathon

Hey!

So, I just started a Vlog on YouTube, but since I think I sound retarded when I talk english, it's in Norwegian. But, I wanted to do something in English too, so here it is. My blog is going to be far more detailed then my vlog and I'll probably post some pictures and stuff as well.

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I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Tone and I'm from Norway. My name means the same thing in Norwegian as it does in English, but since I've always thought it sounded retarded in English I tell people to call me Tony instead. I actually lived in Wisconsin for a year when I was 17, and I tried to teach them how to say my name in Norwegian, but that was appearently too dificult. They ended up calling me Tuna instead and you can say that I wasn't very happy about being associated with a fish that I don't particularly like very much. One guy actually asked me how we say Tuna in Norwegian; "Tunfisk" and I was dumb enough to tell him. Tunfish became my nickname for the rest of the year -_-

Well, I'm 20-years-old now and a student at the Univercity of Lillehammer. I live in a dorm in Lillehammer, a very overpriced dorm, but atleast I have my own bathroom. My hometown is called Sandnes and is on the west coast in Norway. It's a shitty little place to be honest, but all my friends are there so we have a good time when I go home to visit. I'm studying Tourism and this will be my last year, so I'll be moving back home to Sandnes in June.
Since 17th of May (Norwegian National day) is coming up, I'll be going home on Friday and stay there for 4 days. I talked with some friends yesterday, and they tricked me into going out drinking three days in a row. Which really isn't that bad, I'm sorta used to that happening around this time a year. You see, in Norway May 17th is a family day, you spend it with your family and have dinner with them and all that. But, May 16th is the day you spend with your friends getting uncoherently drunk; we call it the Unofficial Drinking Day. And, before any Americans accuse me of drinking while underaged; the drinking age in Norway is 18, not 21. So I can drink as much as I want. =P

I'm going to get a few pictures of the parade on May 17th and post them and maybe some while we're out drinking and having fun as well, so be very excited =DD I'll be blogging almost every day too and I'll tell you guys what happens and what not. =) I gotta go make me some microwave dinner now (I know, I'm laaazy when I don't have my mom to cook for me)

Until tomorrow,
Tone

PS. For those who want to check out my vlog: http://www.youtube.com/user/Tonedoev
I'll be adding English subtitle when I get used to the software I'm using