Track & Field

Two weeks ago we had District for Track and Field which is the most important meet of the year. As usual I ran the 400 and 800m runs. I was very nervous, it was going to be my last meet in Texas and my coach expected me to do well. I ran the 400 first and PRd (personal record) by 6 seconds! I was so happy, 6 seconds is a lot! Then I was going to run the 800. I gave it my very best and used every trick my coach had taught me. It really payed of! I PRd by 20 seconds! I could not believe it! It was definitely my best meet.

I'm done running now, but I try to run a little on my spare time to stay in shape. Track really gave me more muscles than I have ever had before. I really hope I will continue to run when I come home. I didn't get fat as an exchange students as many others. I learned to like sports and got in shape.

Friday march 26 my family came from Norway to visit me here in Texas. My American family and I went to San Antonio to pick them up at the airport there. It was so good to see them again after 8 months. I even shed tear of happiness. I had missed just to have them around me in my daily life. Finally I had them all to my self for 10 days.

We went to Austin that Saturday. We saw the capital which btw the only state capital bigger than the National capital Washington DC. We also went to see the Texas Longhorns football stadium. After Austin we went to Gruene, the worlds cutes little town. In the evening we went to the River Walk in San Antonio. On Sunday we went back to the River Walk and got on one of the little tour boat. After that we went to the Alamo, and then we headed back home.

I had to go to school the week they were here, but we still got to do many things together.They went to see me in a track meet, we went to the outlets and in the beginning of the weekend we spent at the beach. Easter Sunday we had a big easter party with humonguos amounts of food an egg hunt and a piñata.

On Monday I took the day of from school to say goodbye. It was harder than I had thought to see them leave again, but at least this time I knew that I was going to see them again in less than 2 months.

Crazy week

This week has been crazy! My host dad told me and my Brazilian brother to go to our counselor first thing in the morning, and we did. Our counselor told us to go wait in the office for the principal. Our awesome principal told us to come in to the conference room where 10 other students where waiting. “We are up for an award and I want all of you to help represent the school” she said. If we win our District gets a lot of money. Our district is 1 of 5 school in all of Texas that are chosen. First we were going to have a power point presentation and then a tour around the school.
We practiced our presentation over and over.

Later that Monday a solider came to visit the school. We had a project called “project Christmas cards”. Many of the students wrote Christmas cards and they were sent to American soldiers in Afghanistan. The solider that came to visit us was one of the ones that received the cards. We greeted him in the auditorium. The band played and the cheerleaders cheered. After that a small group of students got to come to the library and ask him questions and eat cake. He had many interesting things to tell. Chanel 5 was there too, and I actually came out on TV. Wow I'm famous :p!

Tuesday and Wednesday we practiced more. And when they came on Thursday we were fully prepared. We were really spirited and bragged as much as we could about the school. We did a good job, when they announce the winner on May 2nd I really hope we are the winners !

On Thursday I also had my first track meet. It was so much fun. I ran 400m and 800m. I was very nervous before I ran. I was afraid that I was going to be last and way behind everyone else because this is the first year I'm in track. I did ok, for a first timer. At least I wasn't last.

On Friday the principal got me out of class again, this time we went on the buss. We went to get measured for a letterman jacket. The jackets are in your school color and has the first letter of your school it. You can get your name and patches on it. The patches are for the sports or clubs you are in. These jackets are worth $200. You get them if you have been in a club or in varsity (the a team) in a sport for 2 years. I'm only here for one year, but my principle wanted me to have one, so she is going to pay for it!

After practice on Friday we went to Mercedes to a cook of. It is only about 20 min away, but still we went in the RV and spent the night over there. My host dad was awake all night an put the first meat in the bbq pit at 4 am. He cooked chicken, brisket, fajitas, beans and ribs. It all tasted so goooood! I ate and ate all day! We didn't win any prices, but it was a fun experience and a lot of good food!

There was a little competition for children too. It costed $35 and they gave the kids two pork chops a little bbq pit and an apron. My hostsisters joined. Also in the picture are my hostsisters friends who came with us.

Finally an up date

I have been real bad at writing, and a lot of things has happened since last time. We had Christmas break an new years it was Nice to see how they celebrate the holly days in another country. What i noticed was that it's not as formal as in Norway. Some of our guests even came in warm ups. For me Christmas is all about traditions but they didn't have very many here. They invited a lot of people over for Christmas eve and my host dad made a real good meal.

In the break i also went to San Antonio on s field trip to see the lion king musical. I was so good and i was really impressed about the creative costumes and the actors were really good too!

Today i had my last basketball practice and to morrow is my last game! I cannot believe that the season is over already. I have had so much fun and i have learned a lot. I'm very grateful to all my coaches and team mates for being patient with me and teaching me everything I know about basketball.

Today was also the varsity team's last home game and parent night. They presented all the varsity players with their parents. At the end they said "we would also like to recognize another young lady for her dedication to basketball, an exchange student Linn Boldevin from Norway. I didn't know anythig about it. They also gave me a poster with my picture on it. I Think it was very Nice of them.

Basketball games

On December 1st we won our first basketball game or actually we had won one before but that was when i went to Austin so it didn't really count for me.

This time we played against la Joya and won 36-43, but i have never seen my coach as mad as he was that day. We didn't really play that good. We lost a lot of balls because we made bad passes an we also lost 20 free throws! The day after he punished us with 20 laps around the gym.

The next Tuesday we played against Edinburg Bobcats and lost bad. The head coach was mad at us for not being depressed about the loss. Everything here is very competitive and this was our first district game so they were not happy, but I can't help but being happy. Of course I like it better when we win, but I realize that we are not gonna win every game. Our district is the toughest in the valley and we are not that good, but I like the game a lot and I'm happy as long as I get to play. I have finally found a sport that I really like.

Thanksgiving

Thursday November 27 was thanksgiving. This is an American celebration
where you eat a lot of food. We ate turkey. Mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, breads, pies cakes and ice cream. In a traditional celebration you say grace before you eat and every one have to say what they are grateful for. It is also very common to watch football games. We saw
Texas longhorns win against their rivals Texas a&m.

After we ha eaten first at my hostmothers mothers house and then my hostfathers parents house we went Home to change and then we went to aStore. I went to HEB. I sat outside the store for 7 hours to wait till it opened, i did it because the day after thanksgiving is known as black Friday and is the day of the year they have the most sales. When HEB finally opened at 5 a clock in the morning i ran in to the store to Get an iPod touch. I got it for 169 dollars that is about 1000 nok. Everyone went crazy to get what they wanted. All the Wii's and TV's got sold out within 30 sec. It was a fun experience, but practice was hard that day. I came home at 6:30am so i only got two hours of sleep before practice that was from 9:30 till 12:30.


I would also like to send my thougths to Regine Stokke's family and friends. I have been reading her blog where she have been writing ever since she got to know that she had cancer. She fougth for 15 months she died December 3. You can read her blog www.sinober.blogg.no (it's in norwegian) .
R.I.P Regine

Texas Longhorns

We left school early on Friday to go to Austin. We were going to see a collage football game. Texas Longhorns against Kansas Hawks. Austin is a 6 hour drive from here so we had a long drive ahead of us. The trip actually went by really fast. We did not drive all the way to Austin on Friday through we spent the night in a small town called Gruene which is about 40 min from Austin.


Gruene was a super cute town. It had a lot of old buildings, like the oldest Dance hall in Texas. They also have a market there every third Saturday of the month were they sell hand made jeweleries and homemade sauces and a lot of other things.

From Geuene we went to Austin to get a hotel room and then we went to the game. We stopped by the Texas longhorn store we bought stickers to put in our faces and my host dad bought a football that he wanted to get signed by the players.

We knew that our seats were going to be high up but i was a lot higher than i had expected. We had to take 11 escalators to get up there and after that we walked up some stairs almost all the way to the top. We were saying that we would probably not come out on TV because then they would have to get a Helicopter to film all the wat up there.

I ejnoyed the game very much even though we were high up. The band were doing all kinds of cool formations before the game and i halftime ad it is actually better to see that from were we were sitting. Texas won the game in the end of course. When the game ended we went outside of the stadium to see if we could get autographs from some of the players. I didn't have anything to get signed, but i got to take a picture with some of them and my host dad got the signature of about 20 players. I felt bad for the players though because when they left tha stadium it was about midnight and they had practice at 6 am the next morning.