Sport, Schedule & John Mayer

It's been another week, and it's time for another update. But since time flies so fast I'm no longer able to write things in chronologically.. The ''big'' things I've done the past week is attending a John Mayer concert with Nicole & her friends, tried out a few sports, ruined my body trying to keep up with Tim's training schedule and set up my schedule for school. I've also been shopping a few times and we went to Six Flags (a big attraction park-thing).

The John Mayer concert was great, and a lot more of a rock-artist than I thought he was after listening to Continuum (his last album). There were also loads and loads of stoned and drunk people around..

When it comes to sports, Tim and I went to the first soccer practice. The conditioning part was nice and though, and we didn't lag too much behind either. But then they brought out the balls.. And I hadn't been playing with a ball for like, two years. So it didn't work out very well. And then we didn't have shinguards either, so we were told to run around the field for two hours. And then we quit.

Yesterday, we tried the Crosscountry team, and the coach is really nice! Also, the team seems great, and one of the girls had a poolparty which Tim and I attended. We ran like 5 miles and I didn't do too bad! Today there's a five km run for time, which I'm not looking too much forward to.

On Tuesday Tim and I went to Six Flags with an Estonian exchange student and her host-sister and loads of her host-sisters friends. The park is huge, and we didn't even do half the rides! But Batman and Mind Eraser were great. I missed out on The Superman because I'm too tall.. Which almost made me physically abuse the guards there, because I was really ON the limit, and the heels of my shoes were like 3 cm..

As for my school schedule I've chosen:
Honors Chemistry
Physics
Calculus
Academic US History
Academic English
and Photography or Digital Design, depending on how the counselor can make it work better.

Yeah.. so that's basically my last week! I'm looking very much forward to school on Tuesday, so I can make some more friends and meet people. Later tonight there's an YFU pizza-thing going on somewhere north of here. I think Tim and I have to sleep over someplace there.. And miss out on a crosscuontry training! (and that's usually VERY bad)

Maine, Lobsters, Tim & Tim

It's been a long time since I wrote now, and I've probably forgotten some of the things I've done, but I'll try to come up with the most important and memorable things :)

We didn't go to the waterpark even though we went through a massive hassle to get some waivers signed. Instead we went to a family-friend of Nicole and their pool. I also watched a LOAD of olympics, went with mom to her toastmasters club, met a few other exchange students and waited patiently for my ATM to arrive.

On Friday morning mom and I picked up Tim (Timothy Dawson, and Australian exchange student) from where he lives, and drove to Maine and a place called Ogonquit. Rick followed on Saturday because he had so much work to do after a storm (he works with security systems that get problems when hit by lightening).

Anyway, Tim and I went to the beach while mom relaxed with a book. We also bought ourselves some Maine t-shirts. We set of the fire-alarm cooking burgers and watched Nastia Liukin win the allround gymnastics gold.

The following day Tim and I went to York (a small tourist town next to Ogonquit), and we went through the arcade, but instead of playing on the machines, we just exchanged bills for quarters trying to collect all the 50 state-quarters. We also went to a couple of stores and asked politely if we could look through their change, and I found myself an awesome shirt of the Joker (which mom said was ONLY appropriate for in the house, inside-out..). In the evening we ate lobster (which was really good!).

On Sunday we went to the beach again, this time to try to use a so called "body-board" in the waves, but because of the significant decrease in wavesize since the days before, we failed. On Monday the waves were bigger so the board worked great!

On Sunday we also visited Kennebunkport further north and saw George Bush's summerplace! In the evening Tim and I had a walk around Ogonquit at night, spotting several nice girls and some gay couples.

After getting home again on Monday evening (and picking up Missy from Mike, and leaving Lucy :(..), Tuesday was pretty much back to normal. Watching tv parts of the day, msn-ing with people back home and eating. I did do one thing out of the ordinary though; I decided to have a look around Rocky Hill by bike! So I pumped up the tires and left the only safe place I knew.

Shockingly enough, I managed to loose my way! After several round-trips and seeing the same streets over again, I finally found something familiar.. Dunkin' Donuts! But as I was really looking for the gym on the other side of Rocky Hill, I had to start over again. But I did find it, and I found out it was too expensive compared to how much I'd want to use it. The good thing is that now I know my way around the place better than I'd ever get to know it by car! Also, my wallet arrived :D

On Wednesday the carpet cleaner came, mom picked up my LA-resident-sister, Erin, from the airport and I went to Nicole to play Wii and to "Ritas" to eat icecream :) Then mom and Erin picked me up and we went to grandmother to eat more icecream and play a nice game called Sequence. In the evening we picked up Tim (Timi, with an American touch to his name), and we sat up half the night talking about school subjects and random things.

Today we've been to the school for an orientation and to make our schedules. We missed out on the orientation because we had to get cleared by the nurse first, and we didn't get to put up our schedules because the school had a new computer-system which they had to learn first. But we spoke to the counselor and he went far in promising we could both be seniors! (Btw, my name is from now on Lawrence B, all other varieties are WAY to hard to pronounce or understand for Americans)

After that we went to the supermarket, and Tim had to get himself all kinds of protein, vitamin and other bodybuilder-like foods! I had noticed his decent biceps before, but I was surprised to find out he actually exercises very seriously! Later we went to grandmother to play more games and meet all the other grandchildren (most for Tim, because I'd already seen them all). Now I'm trying to heal after joining one of Tim's hardcore exercises, and even without much weight-training I'm totally wasted :)

That's more than enough for now. Peace!

Grey, Reese, Lucy, Missy and The Bird

Missy, is an old dog, and she's kindof small.

Lucy, The Big Dog. Is very attention seeking :)



The Bird, some sort of parrott. It's really noisy from time to time, and could probably need some more attention.

Grey, the big cat. He's so bossy that he drove Gizmo (another cat) away. He's really fluffy and cute though. And he doesn't have a tail. Grey can threaten Missy and make her fleed.


Reese is Grey's sister, and she's very shy. Like Grey she has no tail, and loads of hair!


Another one of Reese.


I couldn't find Sarah, but she's another cat. And really skinny.

(Oh yeah, and according to one of the neighbours here, the HUGE poop on the pavement underneath the tree where Fox Hill Drive crosses France belongs to a BEAR! I might take a picture of it. Anyway; there was a bear warning on the news, and a bear was spotted digging up a bee nest/colony thing in someones yard last winter. And I thought I could walk outside safely at night...)

Some Pictures

Mom, Rick and me in Greenport, Long Island, where we went with the boat the first weekend.
















An interesting indoor carousel in Greenport, photo taken at night after seeing Batman















This is the view from my room, and as you can see there is some forest.. But there ARE actually houses there!















This is the living room with the big tv where I've been killing some time lately..
















The kitchen with the table and the door to the balcony.















My room, seen from my bed.


I'll take some more pictures of the animals later :)

Arrival & First Week

It already feels like I've been gone for a loong time, but it's really just a week.
Anyways, I'm now settled here. I picked the room with the tv and an extra bed instead of the one with the double.

So, I got here on wednesday evening at 10:30, which doesn't sound bad. But I didn't sleep much on the plane(s), or at home the night before I left. What I'm trying to say is that is was REALLY tired when I arrived!

Thursday through Saturday we went to Gracenote (the Greens boat) with a Danish friend of them named Klaus. It's located a few miles up the Connecticut river, and we took it down the river and to Greenport on Long Island. It's a nice little town and we watched Batman in the movie theatre, shopped a little (I bought five rubber ducks.. among them a really badass ninja) and ate at Claudios, the oldest family run restaurant in the US. Initially the plan was to visit Block Island as well, but because of a bad weather forecast (thunder) we didn't and went home instead.

On Sunday I went with mom to church, visited her mother, we interviewed a potential host family and we met my area rep, Anette, and her Finnish host daughter, Anni, at the mall. It was a nice day, with many new people and loads of names to forget :)

Yesterday was like my first day home alone, and I spent it struggling with the animals and watching tv. Then, at four o clock, Nicole and her friend from Arizona, Beth picked me up. They showed me Rocky Hill by car, and I was supposed to pick up a prepaid simcard at AT&T, but they had a 20 minute line, so we bought some food at this really interesting supermarket instead. It contained loads of moving animals in a western theme. We played some Wii, I was a witness to proper high-school-girl drama and we met Alicia for an hour and bought some ice cream.

And for today; I'm going to some waterpark thing which seems like great fun. So I'll write more later, but now I have to go!

Rocky Hill & the Greens

Since it's the first day, I'll allow myself to post twice in a day, but don't get used to it!

Anyway, the place I'm going to is called Rocky Hill, and is located a little south of Hartford in the middle of Connecticut, a relatively small state in the northeast of the US. From 2. September, I'm attending Rocky Hill High School, which has about 700/800 students, if I got everything right. I'll try to do some sports and make new friends daily!

As for the Greens, they're going to be my family :)
Nancy and Rick, a couple who take in an (or two) exchange students every year. I've had quite a lot of e-mail contact with them, and they seem great! (which is what everyone else tells me about them as well).

There are dogs, cats, two big green (of course) SUV's and a 40-foot boat, local girls already offering me a guided tour around the place and a Finnish co-exchange-student named Timi!

Basically interesting and fantastic! Can't wait to leave now! Only 30 hours and 30 minutes till the plane takes off!

Getting Ready to Leave

The entire idea of this blog is to keep all of you worried people in Norway and Holland updated on how I'm doing, and my goal is to post something weekly.. Good luck to me!

So, in like 28 hours and 40 minutes I'll leave my home for the last time in a year, and in 30 hours I'll say goodbye to the last people I know now, and in 31 hours and 35 minutes my plane will take off and there will be no turning back.

Am I ready?
Well... not exactly.
I've yet to pack my bags, I've got no idea which clothes to bring, and I've completely forgotten about getting some dollars or traveler checks.. (which will leave me in deep shit if my Visa Electron takes a break). But I have made the biggest decision and sorted out which cd's to bring, and I've prepared my rooms for new inhabitants (who areFilip (little brother) @ my fathers, and Robin (dutch exchange student) @ my mothers)

Other than being careless with packing, I'm mentally well prepared (I think), and looking forward to it(I know)!