Gjøvik

So, I had the best possible time in Gjøvik this weekend. I went to school on Friday to find that I didn't have any classes, so I returned home....on the bus. Which, believe it or not, I managed to have another difficult time getting on, although there was only ONE bus. argh. Why is that part of life so difficult for me. :) Enough complaining, anyway, Trude got off of work early to take me to Røa, a town outside\in\a part of Oslo. ha. I was then picked up at around 3ish at a gas station called Esso by a man called Kjell. We had a wonderfull conversation while driving around trying to find Luke (from Washington) house. The three of us would then drive on to Gjøvik around 3ish hours away. The scenery was outsdanding! Never before, had it been that good. Ha. I think I say that in every post....but this time it is true. :) Again, MOUNTAINS, and farms, and sheep, and all the old buildings and barns. I absolutly love it. That is my favorite part of my stay here, that no matter where you go, it is beautifull. After 20 different topics covering anything from having to pay fines for carying a pocket knife, to jelly and cheese sandwitches....we arived at our destination. We were a bit late because we got help up by a three car terrible terrible accident for about 45 minutes or so. Actually I'm not so sure how long it was, but I know that it felt like a long time. :) The cars didnt look so great, so I can't complain. Anyway, we arived at a motel. We joked about it being a "motel" the whole weekend. One of the exchange students had asked "What do you call it when it is not a hotel, but you stay there, but its smaller than a hotel?" We were all like "Hmmm.... a Motel." Ha. It doesnt sound so funny, but it kinda was...somehow. :) Actually, our ideas of it being a motel were confirmed when we were handed keys for our rooms. They were keys....actual keys...keys you have to turn. Bahaha. I don't think I have stayed in a hotel\motel with REAL keys since forever. :) We had fun. Anyway, on from that ... ha ... we arived on Friday evening at the hotel, and waited for everyone to show up. Once the majority of the group was present, we walked about 10 minutes to a resteraunt called "Peppes Pizza." There weren't any plates, and you sit in a circle. It was sooo cool. So, four large pizzas later, we headed back to the motel. We had a meeting in the basement area with everyone and talked about what would be happening throughout the weekend. They split us up into groups devided by countries. Each country had to show a talent of some sort that represents where Some countries didnt have enought kids, so they grouped up....but as far as America goes. Well...there was a bunch of us, so they decided to split us up into two groups. I came up with the idea of spliting off into "City" kids and "Country" kids. So....everyone else flew with the idea, and thats what we did. Everyone went to seperate rooms, and started deciding on what talent they should do. Since I already knew that there was going to be this talent show type thing, I had previously sent an e-mail out to all students to practice a line dance. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQiwN1hcloo ) So, to make our talent a little longer we all decided since we were the "country" kids of America, that we should go with that theme. We ended up making up a skit about Cowboys and Indians. The indians had their own dance and then the cowboys did this line dance. I thought it looked quite well and was excited to present it to all the Rotarians of Norway. The plan was that on Saturday evening after lunch, we would present them, then....well, Ill get to that later on in the blog. Anyway, so, we were all in our rooms practicing. We had the volume up on a country song, starting to line dance, when another group came in. We ended up getting a little side tracked and started to Samba dance instead. The Brazilians took the "stage" and showed off their moves.

This is Genly and Camila, possible the best dancers in the world.( I now see the picture didnt show up...I will try to load it again some time and include it in the next post...about the banquet.) Anyway, GemGem (Genly) tried to teach me....needless to say, that didn't go so well. :) Well, after the tone of the music changed yet again...to some sort of pop\rap crap, I went to bed....at 4 in the morning! ahhh. I didn't have an alarm clock or a cell phone to use as one, so I opened a word document on my computer and wrote "Please wake me up at 7!" and set it on the floor in front of the door where the next person to walk in would see it, then hopped into bed. At around 7:30, Nichole, one of my room mates, shook me and said that she had just came into the room and hadent slept all night, so she didnt see my note that I left. ha. Kirsten, my other room mate also didnt sleap that night. :) So, although I waited until 4, I guess you could still say that I was the "good" kid. ha. Okay, so, I got up to go take a shower to find out that so many people had used it the bathroom was flooded, probably around 2 or 3 inches. argh. :( discusting....so, instead of using it, I knocked on Emily's door and asked if I could take a shower in her room. (Every other room in the motel had a bathroom....and hers was one of them...mine was not) Breakfast started at 8 and then we practiced our talents until 11. We walked to a huge amaizingly awsome hotel around 10-15ish minutes away, had a large lunch, practiced our talents some more, presented them, and then walked back to our motel where we got ready to go to the place where the Olympics were held in '94 to skate. It was amaizing. I absolutely loved it. There was like a door, and then you walk in....and the whole entire building is inside the mountain. :) So, we put on our skates and helmets, and hit the ice for a nice brutal game of hockey. What a magnificent time I had, and to think it was at such an "important" place. I really did love it.

So, this is a spectacualar :) view of the "dug out" (sorry about the baseball terms, I'm not so sure what it is called in hockey) Just think....'94 Olympic people were here!!!!!

So, start to feel famous....this is what you would see when comming out to the rink to play. It makes me feel so "cool." hehe

Okay so..Lucas stole my stick.

Our spectacular team. Woot Woot- Go "Texas Rangers" (Emily, I am still wearing my badge..ha)

Senior picture!

Here comes a goal!! yeeeahhh. (ha...not really, cuz Lucas stole my stick, and now I have to use a left handed one.....idiot! We could have one.)

No cheating allowed Braulio. :)

Nobody is getting past me....okay, maybe just a few of em.

WATCH OUT!

So, I went straight from saying that we presented our skits to saying we went skating, but I never elaberated on the talent part of the evening. So, we walked to the hotel, and did a "dress rehersal" of our show to see how long it would take. Since we had been informed that our Cowboys and Indians skit makes America look bad, all of our work went down the drain in 5 seconds. So...we pondered for a bit, and decided to do a re-enactment of "The Wizard of OZ"...only becase we were the "Country" American group and somehow this topic came up and we were able to fit it in by saying that Dorthy lived on a farm in Kansas. :) Anyway, we practiced it in the hallway once, then infront of the other kids once. By this time, we were all ready to leave and go and present all of our talents in front of THOUSANDS!!! of Rotarians. (maybe I exagurated a bit....but not too much. ha. ) The plan was that everyone lines up behind their countys flag and then walk like a pirade throughout all of the chairs in the audience and then up on stage all whilst a lady played the accordian magnificently well. Now, I want to play the acordian. hehehe. Okay, not so fast......seconds before we enter the room, our group is told that our skit has too much English and is not acceptible....so, we ended up doing (uhhhhh) the Hockie Pockie. So Embarassin! THE HOCKIE POCKIE! ahhhh. Out of all things, why that one? It was terrible. Nobody knew the order in which we would be saying the body parts, and the hole group was lost. We even decided to bring Rotarians up on stage with us out of the crowd to make us look a little less terrible. ha. Anyway, I taped bits and pieces of everyone elses talent and they are up on youtube now, where all of you can see them. (All of them except for ours..ha.)

The following are links to the sites where you can see the talents:

BRAZIL: The video is quite short...and the ending. What happened was that there was a small soccer game between Brazil and Argentina. A girl dances onto the field and distracts the boy, when "Argentina" makes a goal. Come to find out, the Argentinian girl is actaully playing for Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhjOaDuZqC4

TAIWAN\ CANADA\ FRANCE: There was very few people from each of these countries, so they grouped together and did one big skit featuring each country. Each country did a song, weather it was acting it out or singing it. They were all good though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wcWwPbrPEQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAts8TkVXZ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1D-B_oo258

AUSTRALIA: I taped two videos of this group even though it was only one country. They did a skit and then sang a song as well. The skit used words that can be found in Norwegain, England English, and Australian English... yet all mean different things. From the clip that I have of their skit, you can't tell that i what it is at all. Sorry about that...but the second one, the one of the song, is quite good I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J36a31PQsTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbttvpYy7yQ

GROUP: So, all of the exchange student got together and sang a song called "Heg gikk en tur på stien" We sang it in three diffenet rounds, except the "rounds" didnt stand together. There is a part in the song where you bob up and down, so, since the rounds weren't next to eachother, it was kinda funny because random people were bobbing up and down throughout the group and it looked halarious. :) See for yourelf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8NuvB9YeW4

AMERICA: This was the "towns" people of America. Their skit was by far the BEST ever. It is tittled "American History in About 5 Minutes." Absolutely halarious! It kinda makes America look bad though, so I'm not so sure why we wern't allowed to do our "Cowboys and Indians" skit. Anyway, thats besides the point. They deserve all the glory on this one...its amaizing. Seriously, if your going to watch any of these talents, this would be the one. And....better yet, I got the whole entire thing on video! (If you want to know what "My son has a website." is...just ask, but I dont think I should put it on here for the world to see. hehehe.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsZGYjjHRA

Okay, so, after the whole skating scenario, we walked back to the motel to get ready for our big "District Governor's Banquet." It was supposed to be supper fancy, so everyone was getting into their dreses and suites. I have written so much I think the file might be too large to post....so, I will do that now, and then follow up on the banquet some other time.