Halloween

Cut to scene:

ME:        You'll never get me in a short dress or skirt! Nevergonnahappen!

I failed... But none the less, it was a pretty awesome night, and I LOVED the cape. The cape was awesome. I should wear a cape every day! *swoosh*

The Halloween party was a true success. Almost everybody had dressed up, and it was a nice variation too! We actually went down to the garage to take a group picture of the class!

And here's the crime fighting squad, plus 2 bad boys.

They were really bad boys too! One of them kept giving me the finger all night, and the other kept closing the door when I came...

Now... what do you do when you're outside a bar, freezing and waiting for a taxi that never shows up? I don't know what you guys do, but I walked to a hotel nearby and checked in. And while you're at it, why not choose a room with a jacuzzi and fireplace? It was sweet! ^^ Sitting in the jacuzzi watching Golden Girls on rerun.

The cons? Sitting in a Batwoman outfit on Subway the day after, waiting for someone to come pick me up. But still worth it!

End of week 4

It's Friday already? Time moves too fast! I've been her over a month already! And sorry for not updating, but time has been spent on school and studying. Believe it or not. And by the way, I scored 24/25 on my test today... 96%. Boo! Shame on me. I failed on a trick question... I just assumed the guy who wrote the test had written a small error without knowing it.

Other news, not that much. It's Halloween this weekend, so it's only natural to have a Halloween party with costumes. Which I bought on Wednesday. Stay tuned for pictures over the weekend! Unless I think I look really stupid. Then I might have to photoshop a bit. So sis, expect me in dire need of a photoshop tutorial on msn on Sunday. Mmmkay?

Also, I've started rock climbing at the wellness center. So. Much. Fun. At the moment they're not using ropes, but it's still fun, even though I don't really like to jump from 3-4 meters. But gosh! After being there only 3 times, I've already progressed! I am definitely going to continue with it. Only sad thing is that next week we're back to the late shift again, which means we're at school when they're open.

But a funny thing happened the other day when we WALKED the whole 800 meters to the wellness center.

Cut to scene:


Receptionist:       Welcome to the Wellness Center... Did you guys walk?!
Classmate:           Uhm... yeah. We live over at Hamline. Not far from here.
Receptionist:        But it's cold!

It was like barely below freezing and wind calm. A pretty comfortable temperature to walk in when using jackets and caps. The people over here are really, REALLY, fond of driving e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.


Also! THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!

 If you've ever watched the show Castle (which I lovelovelovelovelove), you probably know that it's a show about a writer following a detective to get inspiration to write books. THESE ARE THE BOOKS FROM THE SHOW! They're totally fictional, but ABC has actually printed them as books! And it actually says that Richard Castle is the author, even though he's fictional. And the picture of the author is the actor playing him. Frigging AWESOME!

I'm so going to read these books. I promise. They will not end up like all the other books I buy. On my shelf, unopened... It's not my fault I have the attention span of a 3-year old... Oh! a coin!

Errr... where was I? Oh! Gotta go my minions. I have to get ready for bowling night with the class! And by getting ready I mean sitting on the sofa surfing the web until i have to go.

Song of the day: Linkin Park - Waiting for the End

Definition of good cook

The opposite of me:

Managed to set the oven mitten on fire by just taking a pizza out of the oven! I guess my mother was right.

Cut to scene:


Mum:        That sister of yours.... she's not very domestic, is she?
Sister:       Nope.


Anywho... I'm off to watch a horror movie in 3D! Should be... interesting. I might bring my brother next time if it's extra scary ^^ Get it bro? Cuz you're a wuss.

End of week 3

And I aced my weekly test. Again! :D It's all good ^^. So far. So what to do on a Friday when you're finished at school at 1030? Why, join 3 other classmates on a road trip to look at a good old American muscle car, which one of them was contemplating on buying. It was only a 4-5 hour drive one-way, in the outskirts of Minneapolis.

What's best though, is that they own the previously mentioned pimpmobile! Which is actually a 1983 Oldsmobile of some sort. But it is Aaaamazing on the road. It feels like it is floating on the road, you barely notice the bumps on the road. It's in excellent condition, only been driven about 40 000 km. And the seats are a dream to sit in (also, the front seats are electrical! And all the windows are electrical! Truly, truly a luxury car in its time, and still is). Just look at it:

Aaand here's the object of our road trip.

Sweet or what? Mustang Fastback 1971, about 280 hp. *drool* Only cost $8000, and my buddy ended up buying it.

Here it is 10 mins after the purchase:

Dead battery

Here it is 30 mins after the purchase:

The radiator leaked

Here it is 40 mins after the purchase:

Dead battery

I did sit in it when he tested it around the block before buying it, and it is a noisy car. Very noisy. So I was lucky enough to be one of 2 to drive the Oldsmobile home, which is extremely quiet. You almost can't hear the engine. While the other 2 drove the Mustang, but not before buying some earplugs ^^.

Funny thing, we ended up driving 2 different routes back towards Grand Forks. Which would turn out to be a bad idea for the Mustang crew.

But before I dive into that cosy story, we, the Oldsmobile crew, received a text message from the Mustang crew while on the road. It went something like this:

"How are you guys doing? We've bought ourselves some gloves! It's fucking freezing here!"

I laughed. Out loud. Alot.

The sun had set, the car's heater didn't work and they had to drive with their windows slightly open because of exhaust fumes entering the cabin of the car.

We, the Oldsmobile crew, got home at around 11PM. The Mustang crew? Oh, about 3 AM, only 4 hours after they were supposed to. Why?

1. In the beginning they actually drove East when they were supposed to drive West for about 10 minutes or so.

2. They had to stop to buy gloves and neck warmers to keep them less cold warm.

3. About 40 mins from Grand Forks, they went out of fuel. And ended up stranded at the highway.

Now... They did have spare fuel, but before they could fill it in the gas tank, the car shut down. And it wouldn't start again, which brings me to;

About 7.5 hours after purchase:

We had to come find them and jump start the car again =) The poor guys had to wait 1.5 hours in the cold! And this time we drove together all the way back, with just a few detours to a gas station and Wal-Mart (they're open 24/7!)

All I can say is, EPIC ROAD TRIP!


Oh, by the way, I got to drive the Oldsmobile when they got stranded at the highway. It made me love it more <3

Song of the day: Depeche Mode - Wrong

I should be studying, but...

Why study when you can exceed your highest expectations in this wonderful game?

ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK!

(link here)

Proof:

Yes, I used my extremely high paint skills to highlight it with a star
Beat THAT mraasen ^^

And yes, this game is already on my iPod. The iPod of which I haven't used to play music with yet..

That's a nickname I haven't had before

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know I haven't updated in DAYS! I bet you guys are experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the lack of blogging. But to be honest, there hasn't been much happening these last few days. We've ventured into the mesmerizing world of Meteorology at school, where I've had the luck of correcting the instructors a few times ^^ In their defense, I don't think any of them has had much to do with constructing a METAR (meteorological observation of vinds, clouds, temperature, etc)

What I did forget to mention about this weekend, was that I played blackjack at the club we went out to this Saturday. A classmate of mine and I grouped together and bet 10 bucks each, and what do you know! We gained 10 bucks each! :D Which made us run like little schoolgirls towards the bar to celebrate.

Also, another thing worth mentioning, I've been lucky enough to get a nickname at school from one of the instructors. And the class is slowly getting used to use it too.

Cut to scene:


While going through the names of every member of the class.

Instructor:      And your name?
Me:                  Liv.
Instructor:      Lick?


Aaaaand it stuck. Another classmate has the obvious nickname Oddbear! Guess his real name. I dare you to be wrong.

In other news, I've bought myself a new toy! :D

<3

Yup! A lovely iPod! 64 GB ^^ It cost 800 NOK less than in Norway.

Aaaaand since I ordered it from Apple online, I got a free little gem;

MissFantastic <3

An engraving :D Life is so much better with material goods.

Definition of awkward

Do you know what doesn't work very well? Trying to speak poor Spanish to a guy from Portugal... Or was it Brazil? Bah! My memory doesn't work properly when under the influence of alcohol. Or when sober.


Cut to scene:


Me:          Hey! You're Mexican? "Mi español es muy, muy mal."
Guy:        I'm from Portugal (or Brazil...)
Me:         ...ah.



Song of the day:
This is mostly for main man O-Gay! FeiteGutenSlank! Ended up playing this little gem of a game today, and it reminded me of you and that lady who's always in your apartment.

Erasure - Always

End of week 2

Another Friday, another test. Which I aced again ^^ 100%. Sweet!

One of my roomies baffles me... After dinner, she put her definition of leftovers in the fridge.

Picture of said leftovers

It's... it's a small piece of chicken! It's one bite! Either

1. She's extremely nazi when it comes to throwing out food

2. Shes's misunderstood the idea of leftovers

3. She's just quirky

Personally, I'd go with number 3. God bless her quirky mind.

Anywho... I have some unfinished business to show you guys. And that is;

THE AMERICAN WAY

This is the continuation of.... THE FLUFFERNUTTER! I found my creamy marshmallow at the store today, and was ready to test the sandwich once again.

You need:

Marshmallow cream

The amazing peanut butter

2 slices of bread

Mmmm... Creamy....

Apply of the ingredients like this on the slices

Put the slices together and cut in half

Which makes it look like this! Delicious?

The brave test subject dives in with no remorse

Moment of truth....

Approved!

Yup! That's right. It's edible. It doesn't taste healthy, but it's good. 

I'm still waiting on that corn dog at the gas station. Every time I'm in there, they're nowhere to be seen. I might have to ask the clerks to save one for me soon. It's a must that I try them! But until that happens, feel free to give me tips on what to try out in the next 

AMERICAN WAY

Last but not least on the agenda, some of the clothes shops around here have some pretty cool/funny t-shirts. And I couldn't help myself the other day when I saw some of them. I just had to buy them! This is mainly for my Volda possé, but if you've been a regular surfer on youtube you might have seen these gems.

It's too much!

and yo' husband cuz they rapin' everybody out hea

Is this stuff too old by the way? Or is it still funny? I think so. And that's what matters. To everybody!

At least they didn't use the unoriginal name 'Vikings'

So a bunch of the guys in our group started a soccer team, and they're in some sort of an university championship thingie. Basically, it's a bunch of amateur soccer teams from the University of North Dakota (of which I am enrolled in, in case you've missed it. Got me a student card and everything!).

And their first game was this Monday! So we girls (+ one of the guys) went with them to cheer them on. It started out great, after the first half the score was 3 - 1 to us. But it went downhill in the second half. I'm not sure what the final score was, but I think it was 3 - 5 or 4 - 5. Now, it may have been because of some stupid rules that Europeans are not familiar with. For instance, you almost weren't allowed to touch someone from the other team without getting 2 minutes. That's what it looked like to me anyways. Stupid rules... Or maybe it had something to do with the name of our soccer team? The Viqueens!


One of my classmates has brought his girlfriend, and she's gonna have a few dance classes at a high school in the area. She got invited to a.... wait for it...

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL! 

(No, not the High School Musical musical)

Or so we thought. Turned out to be a theater play of the "12 Angry Men", or "12 Angry Jurors". But the coolest part was that she could bring friends, for free, so we joined her. I was impressed. To say the least. The cast was great considering they're in high school, and the scenes was as if you went to a professional theater in Norway. (Haven't really been to many theaters in Norway, so I might be wrong here... But I don't think so)

What was great, though, was that one of the teachers gave us a tour of the school before the play started. It's so very, very different from Norwegian school. So. Much. They actually spend money on the schools over here! Sad thing though, I forgot to bring my camera... Again! Aaargh!

I've come up with a new corner in my blog. It's called

THE AMERICAN WAY

Now.. this is where I'll share with you things i do/try out which is regular stuff for the Americans. Today?

The peanut butter and marshmallows sandwich! Never heard of it? Yeah, whatever. It's out there. Now. I finally found me a BIG bag of mini marshmallows. The peanut butter was already bought and paid for, and I actually found a bread that doesn't act like a pillow when you touch it! By the way, a bread we bought almost 2 weeks ago is still soft. And still looks fresh. So freaky. I don't even wanna touch it wearing gloves. Holding a stick.

Note to self: Check out how to make these things before you go out and buy the ingredients.

Apparently, you can get marshmallow cream over here. Which is what you're actually supposed to use on the sandwich. Which makes me understand why the sandwich is actually called 'Fluffernutter' (Fluff is the name of the marshmallow cream, peanut butter has nuts in it. Fluff, Fluffer. Nuts, Nutter. There. I spelled it out for you. With a teaspoon)

But behold! I have a microwave in my kitchen! So I figured I could just melt the marshmallows and apply it on the sandwich, which brings me to;

Note to self 2: Marshmallows in a microwave expands. ALOT! Pay attention next time... oyh.

The sandwich? It was alright enough, but I HAVE to try it with the proper ingredients, so it's a TO BE CONTINUED.


PS: Wanted to see Criminal Minds on TV tonight, had checked the airtime on the web and was ready in front of the TV 5 minutes to 9 PM. Only.... apparently the time wasn't relevant to my time-zone, so Criminal Minds aired at 8 PM. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU! Gimme a friggin' break!

Song of the day:
Heard this song the other day and brought me back to the good old childhood years in my grandparent's basement living-room.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Looking Out My Backdoor

4 concerts in one day? No problem!

Went to an american football game yesterday. I understood more or less nothing of the game! Good thing I've bought a ticket for a NFL-game in November then (on my birthday actually). It's time to find someone who can teach me the rules. Was pretty excited to watch the mid-pause entertainment, because some of us thought we'd get to see some 'Bring-it-on' cheerleading. WRONG! They just danced some sort of a contemporary dance thingie... No pyramids, no throwing or jumping, NOTHING! But I bet the NFL cheerleaders will be better.

We didn't stay to the end of the game, though. We had to get home and change into our party outfits for the evening, because we had tickets for a big-ass, legendary country artist! BRAD PAISLEY! Never heard of him? Yeah. Me neither. But he's apparently one of the biggest country stars in the US. He had 2 support bands! And he was pretty awesome to watch live, even though I'm not much of a country fan.

What did we do after a 4-hour live show you say? Why, drink more! :D After all, it was Saturday. And what do you do when you're out of alcohol? Why, walk trough a cemetery to get to a pub in the slums! At 1 AM :D Where, by the way, I found Bill Gate's twin brother. He plays in a garage-band. They were pretty good, actually. Playing cover music.

Best part of that pub? When they closed, and you wanted to go to a nachspiel but didn't have any booze, fear not! There was a liquor store right next to the pub! Which was open until 2 AM :D So we went, we bought and walked to an apartment nearby where one of my classmates lives. Epic.

The cemetery was surprisingly un-scary at night by the way.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures to show you guys... I didn't have the guts to bring the camera with me to the concert, because I thought we we're going out right after...

Now, excuse me while I log off to hunt down some food.

End of week 1 (at least at school)

Temperature of the day: 

27 °C 

(just putting it out there)

Had the first test today. Which went well =) Scored 24/25, but after a small complaint I got 25/25. ^^ Seems they had given me 'wrong' on one answer even though I answered right, but I restored balance in the universe again by pointing it out. So you don't have to look out for black holes just yet.

After school a bunch of us went to Texas Roadhouse to eat dinner. It is, after all, Friday. So it's allowed to go out for dinner. Even though we've been eating out almost every day. Excellent food ^^ The meat is... mouth-watering. But I need you twin sister! I need you to be here and tell me that I'm an idiot and to stop me from buying a big-ass brownie for dessert even though I'm full. Seemed like a good idea at the time, not so much now. Ugh...


If there's one thing I've learned since coming here, it's that Americans love their cheese. On everything. EVERYTHING. And if you don't want cheese, that's a shocker.


Cut to scene:


Me, at Subway, ordering a sandwich.

Me:            I'll have the BLT, please.
Clerk:         BLT coming up. Do you want cheese on that?
Me:            No thanks.
Clerk:         No? No cheese?
Me:            Uh... No.
Clerk:         ....Okay....

Dude! She seemed so surprised, I was surprised.


But since I'm in the US, I've figured that I want to try out some of the national dishes. First up was peanut-butter-jelly sandwich. To tell you the truth, it was better with jelly than without. Without it, the taste was dry as he**. But I don't think I'll be eating much of that peanut-butter. It consists of 25% fat O.o
But not until I've tried the peanut-butter-marshmallow sandwich.
Another national food item on my list is the corn dog. I've always wondered how they taste, since they look pretty tasty on film. There's a gas station right next to the school, but every time I'm in there, they're out of corn dogs. Apparently, the store clerks have a tendency to eat them up.

Now, excuse me, but I have to lie down on the couch and  groan at the feeling my full stomach gives me...

Song of the day: Local Natives - World News

Drivers Licence :D

Isn't it a beauty? Yes, yes, yes... It's temporary... but all I had to do was take a theory test, and BAM! This was in my hands :D

Cut to scene:


Standing in line, waiting to take the test.


Classmate 1:     I failed...
Classmate 2:     I failed... I should have read before coming here.
Classmate 3:     I failed... God! This is embarrassing!
Me:                  Shit! What am I doing here? I've barely read the damn driver's book! *Starts reading in panic while waiting*
Classmate 4:    I failed too... It was harder than I thought!


But I passed! :D 2 out of 7 passed. That includes 4 guys failing, 2 girls passing. Did I kinda rub it in their noses? Yes. Without a doubt.


In other unrelated news;

I bought a new house decoration. Elmo! And my roomie bought the cookie monster! :D The third roomie wasn't too excited about it, but we agreed on buying 3 decorations each, where the others can't complain. Luckily, we have another agreement where the third roomie agreed to stop looking for pink decorations after we got a pink coffeemaker.

We're still missing stuff on the walls, though. And I still haven't gotten the banner up on my wall yet. I found some tape called "Duck Tape", but somehow I don't think that's the same as "Duct Tape". I might have to do some investigation in that matter. To be Continued.

Also, I was the last to pick a room in the apartment. But I'm not so sure that was a bad thing =) One of the roomies got the bedroom with most closet-space, of which she also agreed to wash the bathroom the whole year (although, I don't think I have the conscience to let her do it by herself. I might do it once.), the other roomie got here first, so she got the room with a bathroom by herself. And I got the one right next to an entrance... But wait! There's more! It turns out, my room is the only bedroom with an air condition! Hah! Ahahahah! I bet that'll come in handy when summer comes a-knocking next year ^^

By the way, do you want to know the weather forecast for Grand Forks throughout the week? Oh, it's only gonna be around 20 degrees.. I know! Chilly, right?

Song of the day:
One of my favorite bands this year, and I can't wait until they come out with their next album (at least I hope they're gonna come out with more...)

Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man

So. Much. Love.

Peace out!

First day at school

First off, I'm proud to present my newest application to my blog, the translator! You can find it in the top-right corner. It's all for you mom. Just choose the language of your choice, and the blog becomes another language (with some hilarious translations some places). It's not perfect, but it'll do the trick. This application became available after a few cusswords like 'fudge', 'fiddlesticks' and 'manure on a stick' (disclaimer: these words may not represent the true words spoken). So appreciate my efforts! It included HTML-source, which I am extremely basic in.

So we've finally started our way to become air traffic controllers. My first step in my final part of becoming Rigmor 2.0 (the massively improved version). Not much to tell yet, besides the fact that we're divided into two classes. And our class has the 'late-shift' this week. That means we start at 1500 and end at 2300. But we got to finish early today =)
Note to self: It's a good idea to eat something else than just chips before a school day.

Good thing about the 'late-shift', we can drink a few beers (cider on me) in the evening with a good conscience. Yes, we drove to the liquor store that's only 700 meters away again, even though it's around 20 degrees outside. It's called laziness. And the fact that some of the boys has the coolest pimpmobile ever. The same boys also bought a pool table for their apartment, which makes it unnecessary to go to a pub :D

In other unrelated news; went to a hockey game last night =) It was pretty awesome =) The arena is just across the road from where we live, so it's something to experience. And since we're enrolled students at the University of North Dakota, we get tickets for $7! Cheap as he**.

Cut to scene:


Me:                     I'd really wish there'd be more fights...

5 seconds later:   A big fight between almost all the players on the ice breaks out


I'm so getting a foam finger for the next game!
And a shirt! I'm starting to think that my savings account will bleed these next months...

Before I log off, I'm just putting it out there... I'm contemplating on staying in the US this Christmas. Seems a bunch of people are planning on staying to travel in the US. Feel free to give me pros and cons, people! Christmas vacation is 18.12 - 03.01


I'm sorry, but I just have to choose this song as song of the day, because I love it to bits. Despite the fact that it's in Spanish. The singers' voice is just... wonderful.

Song of the day: Facto Delafé y las Flores Azules - Enero en la Playa

Definition of stupidity

When you think you know better than the clerk at Club Tan, and decide to take 10 minutes of sun instead of the recommended 7. Apparently, the sunbeds in the US are different from norwegian. Good news is that I've got a sunburn again! :D

Picturemania!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't updated the last few days... But I've got places to be! And things to do! Important things. Like buying this:

Yup, that's right. bought an awesome plane. It's got wheels and everything! Sadly, the globe isn't mine. That's one of my roomies'. But they do make a nice pair in our corner. It's the second decoration we bought for this place. The first decoration? Why, in my mind that's the only decoration we need.

Holy big-ass plasma screen, batman!

It's a 50" full HD TV! Plus a small home-cinema. :D Livin' the american dream. American prices = <3. And what better way to inaugurate the new family member than to watch Boondock Saints? Epic.

Now... I'm guessing what you're wondering most about is the apartment, right? Oh, alright. I'll give you some pictures. If I had a video camera I could give you an interactive tour, but my roomies would probably think I'm weird.

Kitchen! With a big-ass fridge, big-ass stove, big-ass microwave. Did I mention everything in USA is BIG? I didn't? Well, it is.

Dining corner! Where you can eat bread that never gets hard! It's weird. And probably unhealthy. Seriously. It's freaky.

Living-room with my new love <3

Mah bedroom. Sadly, I haven't been able to hang up the übercool banner I got when I left... But It'll get there. I just need to find some duct tape. That'll probably do the trick!

Flashback:

Notice the good location for my room. Next to an entrance! Weee....

My closet. And yes, I've got 20ish pants hanging there. They're all necessary. So there.

 Bathroom. Nothing much to say. Oh! Wait! Bathtub ^^ Looking forward to getting acquainted with it :D

And before I bid thee good-day, I present you perhaps the coolest belt ever made:

Hmm? You're saying I forgot something? Oh! The car!

It's a beauty ^^ Cost us $700 :D

Nah... Just kidding. Almost everybody bought more or less big cars, so we decided to go the other way. A cute little 2-door car. I bet OJ will be disappointed, but I'm not! I'm the owner of a Chevrolet! CHEVROLET.

 Chevrolet Cavalier LS to be more exact. 2002 model. And it cost us about $3700 including taxes. 

Cut to scene:

Us gals:       Guys! We've bought a car! :D:D

Guys:          Cool. What car did you get?

Us gals:       Um.... Hang on.. Cadillac? No... Let's have a look at the papers.

Yeah. We're oozing experience in the world of automobiles. But as long as it gets us from A to B, we're happy =) It's gonna be more exciting when we have to fill gas. I bet we're gonna choose the wrong kind.

In tribute to one of the coolest films ever made, here's;

Song of the day:   The Blood of Cú Chulainn