shop stop

So guess who I've been chillin' with today? Yeah, that's right. No, just kidding. As a matter of fact, I did run into him in the lobby. "Did you get a picture with him?", you may ask - and my answer to that my friend, is "yes". But it wasn't the greatest picture of him. And he is rather shy. So we made a deal, and I promised him to never ever show it to anyone. Also, this was right before a whole bunch of teenagegirls came running at him, and he tore his tux off, and there he was - Red Mist. He took me in his car and we flew over Las Vegas. Or not... But anyway, I did se him. And he is short. And geeky. And I found multiple pictures of him on google (yes, I am a creep) where he wore THE SAME OUTFIT AS HE DID TONIGHT! aaaaagh (that actually makes me feel good)

So this is our last night in Vegas, and the last night of our trip. The alarm is set to 4am tomorrow, and then we will be on our way back to La Crosse! It has been two fantastic week with a fantastic mom. We were just talking about it here the other night that we havent had one fight. Not one. My mom was impressed. Until I reminded her of how we don't usually fight, and then she reminded me of a couple of times... Oh well, let's just say we're not perfect either!

This evening we went to see Phantom of the Opera, which was fantastic. Just... all the... I don't even know where to start. I loved it.

As we were walkin through Macy's on our way back to the hotel after the musical my mom suggested a "shop stop", since we were both walking in our sleep and weren't interested in shopping at all. And a shopstop it was. Right there. In the middle of Macy's. We are done.

And now we are going to bed! Have a nice weeekeeeeeeend. hei pus, love gurthi

California, rest in peace

So we are in Chinatown. My mom and I. And we are looking for somewhere to eat supper, or dinner if you want. A Chinese place, with Chinese food of course, since we are in Chinatown. That's actually WHY we are in Chinatown. So, my mom wants to eat somewhere nice. Decent. Clean. In Chinatown.. This didn't make any sence to me. So we ended up at a place where we spent 3,423 minutes looking at the menu, and when we ordered we were both pretty satisfied. That was, of course, until we, or should I say I, noticed there were shrimp in everything. Mmmmh, gotta love the seafood. But oh well, we ate and we both ended up full. We left the restaurant happily, and not aware of all the stores right around the corner. What can I say, yes, I did spend over an hour looking at "chinese-toys".

I started thinking about the expression "China-town" today, and I realized how offended I would get if they started "building" small Norway-towns in every big city. As if they could merge all the great things of Norway into a block.
Gotta go get some sleep!
hei pus, love gurthi.

The confusion of illusion

I find myself confusing myself.
English has become my language: I would even argue my English is more fluent than my Norwegian.
La Crosse has become my city: I would even say I know as many street names and different ways to get to different places in La Crosse as in Førde, even though La Crosse is 4 times bigger than Førde.
Central has become my school: Where I respect&like my teachers, and enjoy my classes.
And last but not least: This is my friends' homes.

So it is confusing. Because it is all just an illusion.
This is not my language. Nor my city. Nor my school, nor my friends.

Today my mom and I went on a tour bus, with 7 other people - all from Texas. And I found myself laughing at their "ya'll"s and their Texas-orange tshirts(that I remember so vividly from springbreak in Washington D.C.) and, of course their arguements that everything is better and bigger in Texas. One hour later I found myself walking along "The Muscle Beach", and I could see parts of a sign to a store/fastfood place/restaurant. The sign was in two words. And they both started with Ch. Or that's what I thought. And without even thinking about it I made the assumption it said "Cheddar Cheese". Well, it turned out to be The Cherry.
After the whole "Cheddar Cheese" thing, I concluded with this being a sign: Wisconsin is my home. It is my 2nd home. Or so it seems.

Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind living in Los Angeles either. It is fantastic here!
love gurthi

California show you teeth

Its saturday, and I've been with my mom for over a week now.
She arrived in La Crosse Thursday evening, June 3rd. Here's a summary over what we've been up to the last week or so:
FRIDAY JUNE 4TH: We got up relatively early and went "to school". Since i got done with school Tuesday of the same week it didn't really feel like going to school, it was more like hanging out at a school. We met most of my teachers, and we also met most of my friends around school as they were walking between classes or eating lunch. At lunchtime my mom, Patrick and I ate at Jimmy John's(aka BigBite). After this my mom and I went to "the mall", and spent 4 (or so??) good hours there. We went home in a hurry before we met Jerry, my last hostdad, at the church right across from my hostfamily's house. Later he took us to The Waterfront, a nice restaurant in downtown La Crosse right on the Mississippi river.
SATURDAY JUNE 5TH: Both Mary (who's my Rotary counselor) and Patrick showed up at our house at 9am and we all jumped into Mary's car and she took us with her to her house - where she has her boat, and we went on the Mississippi river. It was fabulous. In the afternoon we went on Grandad's Bluff, the Pearl, and ate dinner at Grizzly's, and in the evening we went to Cheryl and Savannah's.
SUNDAY JUNE 6TH: GRADUATION! I did not much&nothing around the house before I got ready for graduation and took my cap&gown on, and went to the La Crosse center. The American graduation Ceremony sure was an experience! After this pretty mich everyone I know in La Crosse came to my graduation party at my hostfamily's cabin. Where they had lots of good food, a beach volleyball court and a swimmingpool - it was a great day.
MONDAY JUNE 7TH: My mom and I departed La Crosse at 715am and arrived our hotel in Las Vegas, The Venetian, around noon the same day. We spent the day swimming, laying by the pool, eating, shopping, walking "the streets of Venice", went to Blue Man Show (not a success), and finally walked the Strip at nighttime. We made sure to not miss the watershow (?) at Bellagio of course.
TUESDAY JUNE 8TH: We went to the airport in Vegas and picked up our sweeet Cheverolet rental car, and drove to Grand Canyons. Ate supper in a cute, western/cowboy-themed restaurant in the canyons where a REAL cowboy was playing his banjo, or whatever, and sang.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 9TH: Went to the imax theatre and watched the 30min long video on the Grand Canyons. We went for a walk with a beautiful view over the Grand Canyons before we hopped in the car and headed for Monument Valley. When we got there we enjoyed the amazing view from our very own hotel room before we ate dinner.
THURSDAY JUNE 10TH: We both woke up at 530am to watch the beautiful sunrise (at least my mom did, I stayed in bed and watched an episode of Charmed)....(shame on me, I know). At 8am the Cheverolet rolled out of the Parking lot at our hotel, The View, and we decided our final destination that day would be Victorville, CA. All in all we drove 900km(560miles) that day...... (Shame on us, we know). We ate chinese for supper and went to bed, exhausted.
FRIDAY JUNE 11TH: Hopped in the car relatively early and drove aaaaaaaaaaaall the way to Los Angeles (it took us 1,5 hours). We took a look around the hotel in Santa Monica before we went shopping. We ended the day with an hour or so on a couch in the sun, and then a good 20 minutes in a hot tub.
TODAY! SATURDAY JUNE 12TH: Ate a delicious breakfast (definition of breakfast: waffles, fruit loops, pancakes, strawberries, fresh orange juice, hot chocolate.....), before we rented bikes and biked along the beach for an hour or so. We came back to the hotel and joined a tourist-bus-tour-thing around LA because my mom didn't feel like driving around in the city. The tour was fabolous, and we saw everything I felt like I needed to see in less than 5 hours. We got back to the hotel and spent another hour wearing swimsuits in the sun before we topped it all off in the hot tub, again.

hei pus, love gurthi

carrie on

Ja. Eg har sett Sex and the City 2. Med Allison, mi kinesiske vertsoester. Ho dro foroevrig tilbake til China i dag tidlig, og kl 5 kom ho og vekte meg for aa gi meg en hadetbra klem, og vi haapte begge to at vi kom til aa moetast en gang i framtida og at veiane vaare ville kryssast en gang til. Enten i USA, eller i Kina. Eller kem veit, kanskje til og med i Norge?

Allerede i maarrakveld, torsdag kveld (fredag morgen i Norge) kommer mamma. Eg gleder meg VVEELLDDIIGG. Saa gjett ka eg skal gjoere i dag?

Jepp, det stemmer. Rydde. Eg skal hvertfall rydde rommet mitt. Meredyth har planlagt at naar eg viser mamma kor ryddig rommet mitt er skal Meredyth smile og nikke og sei at det har vert saa ryddig helt sida eg flytta inn!! EEeeeh,ja..

No er det 4. time, og eg har 1 skriftlig test igjen og saa er eg ferdig med skuleaaret mitt paa Central High School. Det er litt spennande, litt skremmande og litt kjekt.

Ha ei fin uke!

love gurthi