Basketball

In girls athletics we had to choose a sport we wanted to try out for and I choose basketball. Last week we didn't work out at all, but today was different. We were running dribbling, jumping doing sit ups and push ups running some more doing pretzels, dribbling and a little stretching. I didn't even know it was possible to be as exhausted as I was when we were done. I could hardly breath because my chest was hurting so much. We had only been working out for 40 min! I know that the volleyball team has 2.5 hours long practices and I could hardly do 40 min! I'm really out of shape, but hopefully I'm gonna get better so that when I'm back in Norway I will be in the best shape I have ever been in.

I'm not looking forward till tomorrow. My muscles is going to be so soar and I have the same practice every day.

Getting better and better

My first week of school is over. I like the school more and more every day. The first 3 days was the most confusing, after that I got used to the system and learned some names. The names was what I had most problems with because I met so many new people! There is only 2 or 3 people that I have more than one class with so it's a lot of names to learn. I know at least the names of the people I have talked to now.
I have been eating lunch with different people everyday. I'm always worrying that I won't find any one I know in the cafeteria among the 1150 students that's there eating, but here is always someone . I'm glad because if I just sit down with people I don't know I feel like I'm intruding.
In my anatomy (biology) class this last time we took a lot of tests. Not not writing down answers tests, but BMI and body fat. We also checked our hight and wight. We are going to do this every 6 weeks and our teacher has given us tips about how to eat right. He is very blunt and if he thinks some one is to fat he tells them. He showed us which category we were placed in. The categories were Athletic, lean, normal, over normal, over fat and obese. Believe it or not I was lean. I never considered my self as fat, but never lean ether. I know I eat too much junk and is too lazy.
American Football is the big thing here. I think every one of the guys I have talked to plays football. I haven't seen them play yet, but to day I watched football on TV and my hostparents tried to learn me the rules. To me the game still just looks like an excuse to fight, but I guess I have to learn to like it while I'm here.
Today we also went to my hostsis' soccer games. We where out side for 5 hour straight I don't think I have been outside that much since I was home in Norway, but there is a reason. It's too HOT. I've never been sweating that much in my entire life! It was nice to go inside my hostparents new cars then. They bought two cars this week. They are huge! It's true as they say: “Everything is bigger in Texas”

More school

Today and yesterday was a lot easier. I know a few people, I know now the lunch system and where my classrooms are. In my first biology class we had a quiz, 5th grade level. Are you smarter than a 5th grader? It was hard, but I still got 10 out of 12 right so it wasn't too bad. Some of the questions were: How many muscles is in a human body? How long is your small intestine? Some of the question were multiple choice though, if not I wouldn't have scored that high.
Today I had both English and Spanish, and I spoke more Spanish in English class than In Spanish class! There was a guy that started ti talk Spanish to me and I told him that I don't speak Spanish very well, but he kept speaking Spanish. I didn't under stand much, because he was speaking fast and mumbling at the same time so it was extra hard. I just nodded and smiled when there was something I didn't get.
Today we had bad luck. Americans are very paranoid so I'm not allowed to walk home even though it would probably not take me more than 15 min. To day my host parents got out of work late so I had to stay at school for 2 hours and 30 min after my classes was done That was not very fun and I was hungry! When They finally picked me up we had to go back to my hostmom's work to look for my hostsisters backpack that she had lost. It took about 30 min before we found it. My host dad was with one of my hostsisters at practice and he managed to lock bough his keys inside the truck so he couldn't get in. After a while someone called they cops because they thought he was going to steal it! And about the time we all got home it was already 8:30.
One thing that I forgot to mention last time was what A and B days are. My schedule is divided in two so I have half of my classes one day and the other half the next day. The first half I have on A days and the other on B days. So if I have an A day on Monday I have B day on Tuesday and than A on Wednesday again.

My first day of school

Yesterday at 8 am my first day of school started. It was really nice but overwhelming. When I got to the school I was told to go to the cafeteria and find my name on the list. My name was not on the list. Then I was told to go to the Auditorium to get my schedule. I sat there about 1 hour before they found it. Then I went back to the cafeteria with all the other seniors. There were some students that were playing drums and everyone showed a lot of school spirit. After a while we were told to go to our first period and I did. When I got there the teacher did not call my name when he checked attendance. We weren't supposed to go to our first period but our third. It was kind of embarrassing.
Finally I got to the right class and it turned out great. It was American Government. We didn't really do much in our classes the first day. They only told us what they were expecting us to do and about the school rules. The funny thing was that all my classes started with the teachers going over some rules and they saying, “But you are seniors you you have been here for so long that you know all this” or “ You have only 9 month left of high school. I didn't know the rules and I'm still going to go to school one more year after this.
It was really different at this school than what I'm used to. We had no freedom at all. No walking in the hallways except the 5 min you have to go from one class to the other. In lunch you have to be in the cafeteria. You are not allowed to were tops that's less then 5 inches over your shoulder or short shorts or skirts. You are not allowed to color your hair in an unnatural color or shave patterns in your hair. No piercings and guys are not allowed to have earrings. You call your female teachers miss and her last name and the male teacher sir.
My class mates were all really nice and asked me lots of questions about Norway. No one new where Norway is and when I told them it's in the north of Europe they still looked confused. A girl asked me if I had A or B lunch. Whaaat? If you have your 5th period on the first floor you have A lunch which is between 4th and 5th period. If you have your 5th period in 2nd floor you have B lunch which is between 5th and 6th period. It's really confusing! Another thing that was confusing was the times. My last period starts 2:58 pm and ends at 3:47.
When I got home about 5pm I was exhausted and starving. I ate a little and then watched a little TV. After a while I started feeling really ill. I thing I got a fever so I went to bed early. Thats why I didn't write last night. When I woke up this morning I was already much better.

My 3rd week in Texas

This week I got a package from my parents. They sent Norwegian chocolate, licorice, magazines and brown cheese. My host family loved the chocolate and the brown cheese, not so much the licorice. It was really good to eat something Norwegian after almost a month with only Mexican and American food.
This weekend is tax-free weekend in the state of Texas and all the shops are packed this weekend. That is why my hostmother didn't want us to go to any shops this weekend, but we did. Shara and Sidney needed clothes for school and some supplies. On Saturday we went to the mall to get the clothes. It was people everywhere and the lines was really long. They got what they needed and I bought a couple of shirts I did not really need.
On Sunday we went to a store to get the rest of the school supplies the girls needed. I figured I could use some folders so I bought some and do you know how much they cost? 1 penny each! Its nothing! After our shopping trip we went home and my host-grandmother made us some Mexican food. I think they called it posole or something. It was really good.
In the afternoon, my hostfathers cousin form Florida came to visit and we all went to Mexico. Mexico is only 20 min form where I live. They had a lot of stuff there and they sold silver really cheep. We looked around ate some tacos and then went back home.
I know I have been writing week reports, but I really wanted to get to what is going on now. Tomorrow will be my first day as a student at Pharr, San Juan, Alamo Memorial High School! Also called PSJA Memorial or Wolverins. I'm really excited and very nervous, but I'm sure it will be alright.

My hostsister

My other hostsister

My room

Sarah's basketball team + a few sisters at the pool-party

My hostparents, -sister, grandparents, my hostfather's cousin and me

One of our dogs Coco

2nd week in Texas

In my 2nd week in Texas I got registered for school. We went to my high school where we had to fill out a lot of forms. After all the forms were filled out the nurse checked my weight, hight, hearing and sight. The last thing we had to do was go and talk to my counslor she helped me set up a schedule. The classes I'm taking is: U.S. History, American Government, Economics, English 4, Spanish 1, Girls Athletics, Algebra 2, Physics and Anatomy & Physics. I'm really excited about going to school now. To meet new people and see how the American school system is really like. I'm a little nervous too. The school I'm going to has 2300 students! That is quite a lot compared to the 450 that was on my previous school.
This week I also went to get a haircut. I didn't do anything drastic just trimming it a little, but the price I had to pay was ridiculous. It was 8 dollars! In Norway you have to pay between 50 and 80 dollars. I was a little concerned that I would have too little money while I'm here, bot now I don't think it is going to be a problem. Everything is super cheep here.
Our weekend was really busy on Friday after everyone got home we cleaned the house. We were done within an hour because everyone helped. After the house was shining and clean we went to go bowling. It was a lot of fun especially because I won.
On Saturday Shara had her last basketball game, we went to see her win again and afterwards everyone in the team and they're families were invited to a pool/ bbq- party. It was lots of good food and cakes. We had a great time!
On Sunday we went to the flee-marked. It's a place where they sell everything you can imagine. They had turtles and ducks, fruit and vegetables, and new and used clothes, shoes and computers. After we had been looking around for a while we went to the mall. I bought a lot of stuff. I needed a backpack and clothes for school. The have dress-codes at my school so I had to make sure I had enough clothes that I'm going to bee allowed to use. I also bought a pair of shoes and some earrings. Because I'm worth it ;)

The first week

On the weekdays that followed we didn't really do much. My hostparent were at work sydney (my hostsiter) was in daycare. I was only me and Sarah (also hostsister) at home. We watched some tv, worked out a little and did some chores around the house. In the evenings my Sarah had some basketball games and we went to cheer for her. Her team was really good! They won against girls that were up till two years older than them!
On Saturday me and my hostmother drove Sydney to cheerleading practices and then we met my hostgrandmother and went to a bunch of garage sales. It was fun, but also HOT. It so hot down here one day it was 45 degrees Celsius! That is why we mostly stay inside. It's nice and cool with the air condition on.
On Sunday we didn't og to church, went to the beach. It was so beautiful there. It was nice and soft sand, the water was warm and clean. We were there all day just relaxing and enjoying ourself in the water.

My first days in Texas!

Later that first night we went to both my host grandparents houses and I got to meet some more of the people I'm gonna be around the next 10 months, and they were all realy nice.

The next day was a Sunday and here Sundays means church. We went to the church at 10 am because that is the only time the sermon is in English, the others is in Spanish. When we got to the church it was packed with people so we decided to go to another church and we were in a Spanish one after all, but it did not really matter.
After church my hostmother and my new sisters took me to a movie. We watched “Aliens in the Attic”. It was actually a pretty funny movie. We also went to the mall just to buy my hostsister some shoes, but I ended up buying a pair of capri jeans and a pair of shoes too. When I was going to pay, the cashier started talking to me in Spanish. I didn't understand a thing of what she was saying so my answer was “ØØH English pleas”. My hostsister will never stop teasing me for that.

Traveling

I cried on the buss until I fell a sleep. When we got to the airport we had to wait in a long line to check in there were so many people there. Then I had to say good bye to Mirko too because he was going on another plane. When I finally got on my plane I fell a sleep again.
When I woke up the plane was about to land in Washington DC. The airport was huge, and I had only seen a small part of it. I took a bus to the terminal that my next plane was going to leave from. It was about 9 am and I figured that I should go and find something to eat. Because of my allergy there wasn't much to choose from so I ended up buying fries for breakfast. And then there was only 3 and a half hours more waiting.

The worst part about the waiting wasn't that I was board, but I was tired and emotionally a mess. I had just said goodbye to all my new and old friends at the camp first of all, I had started to miss my friends and family home in Norway and I was excited and nervous about meeting the family I was going to spend 10 months with. Some how the time passed bye and I was on a plane again and again I fell asleep. And then I we were in Huston. I only had to wait in Huston for about 15 min. I was on my last plane for the day and I was too excited to sleep.

The airport of McAllen was really small. I did not know what my host family looked like so I started looking for two young adults with two kids, and I found them rigth away. They were looking like Mexicans like most of the people in the area. They were really nice. They helped me find my luggage and then we went out to eat. I was starving, I had not eaten any thing else than the fries all day.

The last day of camp!

The last day came to fast. We could nor believe it was Friday already. It's incredible how fast you can make good friends. We had known etch other only 2 weeks, but still we had become really close. The day started as usual with breakfast and classes only the classes was shorter tis last day we were finished by 12 and then it was lunch. All our teacher had been great and we had learned s lot from them. We bought them all a thank you card were everyone in my class signed. We also bought our homeroom teacher Heather a t-shirt that everyone wrote a little something on.
After lunch all the classes in Kennedy High School (A3, B3, C3 and D3) met in the auditorium to have a “Graduation”. We went on the stage one and one and got a diploma for finishing the camp.
We went of to pack our stuff, but we had to leave some cloths because we were having a goodbye dance. After dinner we went down to the ice arena and left our luggage there and went to change for the dance. Suddenly they told us to go out on the football field and no one knew why. It was fireworks! It was beautiful and lasted for about 20 min. I even think I saw the map of Norway in red white and blue!
We went back and danced some more before we went back to our dorms for the last time to change. After we had changed we went back down to the ice arena were they were showing a lot of pictures from the past two weeks. It was really sad everyone was crying and hugging. Max were the first one to leave at 12 am and then it was Mirko and me at 12.30 am. It was to soon. I felt like I didn't have enough time to say goodbye. I think the worst part was knowing that now I was one my own. Madeleine had been with me so far, but not any more.

The last volleyball game

On Thursday was the last volleyball games. We were placed in the gym by our “high schools”. I was in Kennedy high and our mascot was the cougar. We were all wearing our yellow Kennedy Cougar shirts and we were really good a cheering. The first game was between the teachers and the returnees. The teachers won, so they played the class that had won the tournament and won over them too. It was actually the first time the teachers had ever won over the students. We had a lot of fun and we really got the high school spirit that we have all heard so much about.

The rest of the weekend

Saturday we went to a beach by the lake. It was really nice there. We could rent a bout, play volleyball, swim or just relax in the sun. I wanted to go swimming, but I had forgot my bikini in my dorm so I just swam with my dress on. It was rally hot so it dried fast. We passed an American football to each other and got something to eat from the kiosk, and then it was time to go “home” again.
On Sunday we got to catch up on some sleeping. We had brunch from 10 to 12 I think and my volleyball game was at 11.50. After the game we where just hanging around until we left for the baseball game.
I was really excited about the game because I had never seen a baseball game before, not even on TV. I must say I was a little disappointed. First of all the game lasted 3 hours and there was not a lot of action. I liked the BBQ we got though and the Cracker Jack. When we got home we just sat down on the grass right outside our dorms because it was soon to be bed time.

Boston!

The next days followed pretty much the same. We tried new activities, learned new actually useful things in our classes and continued eating unhealthy. They served donuts, ice cream and pancakes for breakfast. I usually ate eggs for breakfast and saved the ice cream for lunch. Wednesday we had a volleyball game. All the classes played against each other. First we played my friend Max' (from Germany) class and we won! We had another game on Sunday, but we lost that one so we did not get to play any more.
Friday was one of the best days at camp. We went to Boston! We had to get up at 5 am because breakfast was at 6 am and the buses left at 7. It was a 3 hour long drive and a lot of people slept on the bus and the others took pictures of the once that slept.
When we finally got there the “gang” consisting of Madeleine (Norway), Mia (Norway), Elisabeth (Norway), Max (Germany), Mirko (Switzerland), Jonas (Switzerland) and me went together. First we went to some stores just looking around then we took the subway to Harvard. We visited the university which was huge, but we were not allowed to go inside. We went to the Harvard store and bought t-shirts and then we went to a restaurant. It was a nice restaurant and it wasn't really expensive we payed about 7 dollars each. The waiter we got was really nice to. He made us a note and showed us on the map where he recommended us to go.
We took the subway back and enjoyed the rest of our day in the rain.

Language and culture camp in Vermont

I haven't written in a while now because I have been at camp and didn't want to use the little time I had to write. Here comes the first part and I will write more later.
Madeleine and I said goodbye to our friends and family at the airport in Oslo, July 18. That was really sad. We cried or harts out, but I had not really realized that I'm not going to see this people in 10 months. We went through security and started to really looking forward to our stay.
On the airplane we watched movies, TV series and the time flew bye. We got of the plane and in to security again. I had been a little nervous about this because people had told me that the people that worked there were really grumpy, but they were not. They were actually really nice. When we had picked up our luggage we could see the returnees with EF signs. The first thing we could see when we reached them was a Dunkin Donut. How American! We got on a buss and enjoyed our 3 hour long buss drive form Boston to Vermont. When we finally arrived at Norwich university we where all really tired after 20 hours of traveling. We got our room key and went straight to bed.
We were really lucky that we got there on Saturday because then we could sleep out some of our jet-leg on Sunday. We used the day to play soccer, volleyball and getting to know new people. Monday were supposed to be our first day with classes, but we didn't have “real” classes. First we had a parade where we were divided in by which country we were form. We went down to a big hall where all the teachers presented them selfs and we got together in our classes. We only had homeroom the first day. Monday night we had a dance in the big hall. It was a lot of fun.
Tuesday we had regular classes. At 9 am we had homeroom and English. In homeroom we got to know about everything that was going to happen the next days, and in English we learned about baseball and idioms. After English we had “life in America” where we learned about what kinds of expectations our host families would have to us, about dollars and cents, quarters and dimes, holidays and prom. Then we had “current issues” where we learned about the 10 amendments and issues that is coming up in America now, like gay marriage and abortion. From noon until 2 pm we had lunch and then we had history where we learned about the deceleration of independence. At the end of the day we had homeroom again and then we where done around 3.15 pm.
After classes we had a ton of activities to choose from: American football, soccer, arts and crafts, yoga, cheerleading, movies +++ We had to be in our dorms by 11 pm. Most people where really tired by then so no one complained. TBC