International Week at UC San Diego

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This week is International week at my school. It started with a bang on Tuesday when I was going to a Networking Mixer with American companies who are interested in International Students. As a Norwegian, it is very strange to "network" and it was way beyond what I am comfortable with. I prepared a couple of days ahead reading about the companies, preparing: "my accomplishments, skills and career goals" in a "30-second commercial" for yourself. Now that's a culture shock right there. Bragging about yourself is definitely NOT very Norwegian, but I managed to come up with a nice "commercial" I would say... Did I bring it to life? No, I didn't.. The mixer was mostly for International students who, luckily for me, also were not familiar or comfortable with throwing themselves out there. However, I felt satisfied leaving the mixer having introduced myself without the commercial, but asking some good questions to the CEO of a company, and representatives from two other companies. Babysteps...

Tuesday-night dinner at "Little Norway" was very special this time. Karen went to all the trouble of creating a Tapas-feast celebrating my birthday a bit early ! :D I was extremely happy and extremely full! :D

Wednesday was the day where I decided to represent Norway in a booth being part of the International week. I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet and talk to other international people. Also, teach some Americans that Norway is not in Sweden!

 

Our UCSD contact, Megan, was surprised to find out that A-ha was Norwegian, so we did teach an American something!

People were impressed by our posters and we played some fiction and facts
"Fiction or Facts. It's so cold that girls are pregnant for 15 months. The sun is gone for 2 months"
They didn't laugh after the first sentence, but they immediately guessed the sun as fact.

China was also represented.

Me and Erik agreed that Korea was the most impressive booth with their nice costumes.

We talked to a lot of people, and we also met some new Norwegians that we hadn't met before!

All in all, a fun day!

San Diego Rockettes take on West Coast Knockouts

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The San Diego Reader is one of the most informative magazines/websites when you live in San Diego. I try to read it every week to see what fun is coming into town. Last week me and Aliza found out that there is a roller derby team here in San Diego. For those of you who don't know what roller derby is, check out the movie "Whip It" with Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore and Juliette Lewis. They all go are hard-core ladies and go by incredible names such as "Babe Ruthless".

The San Diego Rockettes in blue

Knockouts in black

San Diego Roller Derby Rockettes take on West Coast Derby Knockouts!!!

We didn't really know the sport, but we got to know some few rules and jargon by the people sitting next to us. The girls in the back with a star on their helmet are called the "Jammers" and are the only ones who can score points by going past the all the other players. It was a very entertaining sport and we got very into it even though we didn't understand everything!

The San Diego team won!! wohooo!

Can't Go Wrong With Chris Brown, Bow Wow and T-Pain

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T-pain and Chris Brown are some of R&B's most hated on performers I daresay.. Chris Brown due to the Rihanna-incident and T-Pain gets a lot of beef for "ruining" music by his "electrical voice". Instead of thinking of T-pain as a sell-out or whatever people call him, I think of him as an innovator..Look at all the people who started doing "electrical vocals" after him; Kanye West, Usher, Drake, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Akon, Justin Timberlake and also Chris Brown, who knows, T-Pain might be an artist that inspired R&B to get involved in Dance music.

As far as Chris Brown goes, I have been a fan since he came out with "Run it" when he was only 16 years and he had his breakthrough when I worked in the USA at that time. I can't say I was a supportive fan during his troubles and I can't say I support all his violent actions or outbursts in the media either. What I can say however, is that Rihanna has publicly  forgiven him, the music business seems to have forgiven him and he is once again creating beautiful songs and incredible entertainment. That is my reasoning for being the great fan I am and you should take a look at the great entertainer he is in the videos below.

At MGM Grand in Las Vegas: Tribute to Michael Jackson

Me and Elin went to the concert and had bought Platinum Seats, supposedly the "best seats in the house". It was a very cold night and raining too and it was an outside concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre so the first thing we did was buy something HOT to drink. Not exactly what you picture in San Diego, huh?

We were running late, the concert started at 7 pm, and in Norway that means that the performers get on around 10 pm, but here in USA they actually start at 7 pm. So we missed the first performer TYGA. When we got to our seats, which were right in front of the stage by the way, Bow Wow was on the stage singing "bow wow wow yippi yoo yippie yeey".

Then he took his shirt off and threw it into the crowd which of course led to a cat fight right in front of us.

Next was T-Pain and me and Elin couldn't believe how many songs he has been featured in when he did a little medley of songs.





If there ever was any doubt whether T-Pain can sing, it will certainly disappeared after you watch this clip. Now just to quote T-Pain:  "This shit ain't no autotune, this is for all you haters out there:"

Next was Chris, and we all know he can sing, but here is a little clip of him doing some a capella.

It was an amazing show. He had lots of costume changes, lots of different acrobatic moves, great dancing, goofing around... Here is Chris and Bow Wow together performing.

  There were many big screens so we could see, but we didn't really need them because we were really close to the stage.

It was an amazing concert.. the only thing missing was my favorite song "With You", how could he NOT play that?? He finished off with a cool light-show and with a party song because they were all going to party since this was the end of the F.A.M.E tour!

At the end of the concert the whole entourage came on stage and they all started a circle to dance and freestyle, which was fun. And we also got a snapshot of Mona, the Norwegian girl that won the Scandinavian "So You Think You Can Dance", who was on tour with Chris Brown.. Now, that's a dream job! For those of you who don't know who she is, she is right next to TYGA number 4 from left.

I am going to be happy for a while now :D

When in Rome....

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A lot of people decided to go away for Halloween so we decided that we needed to make just as a good time here in San Diego. There was a huge promotion for a big block party downtown called MonsterBash, so we created an event on facebook for a pre-party and finally we were about 40 Norwegians going there together! Talk about traveling in packs!

We had a good mix of costumes! Some were cute, some were tough, some were scary...

We had some coordinated outfits:
Beer bottles

Mario and Luigi

Matching babies




Everybody were drinking beer and having fun

Nobody watched the baby!

The Jedi and the nun tried to save the baby..

But the force was not with Obi.. so the nun joined forced with a zombie!

On our way to the bus we were hungry so we had some grapes join us!

Some were more excited about taking the bus than others...

After an hour in line, and losing a lot of people who wanted to buy tickets at the door when they were sold out, we finally came in to see what the Americans had dressed up as..

I was NOT disappointed! A lot of effort was put in to some of the costumes.. AVATAR!!

Ass-man

 Lady Gaga

And some scary or gross costumes

Looks like something from Saw!

We found someone to look after the baby.. Although, I don't think it worked..

I found Caesar! Oh yeah, I was Cleopatra by the way!

The nun found the savior..

 

I also found my twin-Cleopatra!



  

All in all, a great night!!

Out of Visitor-Midterm-Mode In To The Blogosphere Again

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WOW, three weeks since my last post.. That is a disgrace.. A short update:

I had a two weeks visit from my childhood friend Beate, which was awesome, and I had a lot to do in school.

We started out with the hottt days in San Diego, so we headed down to the beach. AAAHHH.. October 12th and still going to the beach, not bad huh? :D

After the beach we were hungry so we decided to try some "Superfood" which has become very popular here in San Diego. Acai berries: a lot of nutrients, 6 times as much antioxidants as blueberries and has no sugar in its natural state and a LOT of energy! It was frozen, so it pretty much tasted like sorbet ice cream, yummy!

Of course Starbucks was a natural in all of Beate's stay...

We were so lucky to be invited for pumpkin carving, which was soooo much fun :D

Step 1; get all the seeds and "food" out so the pumpkin doesn't rot!

All clean :D

Step 2: Pick a pattern

Step 3: Poke it out

Tadaaaaa:

Step 4: Cut the pattern with a mini-saw, special pumpkin tool :D

All of our pumpkins in daylight

SCARY at night:

Beate and Aliza made Norwegian waffles with goat cheese, yummmyyyyy!!

So delicioso ...

In the spur of the moment we decided to go to Santa Barbara with some friends to visit some Norwegians who are studying at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). This school has the reputation to be America's biggest party college, and I think we can vouch for it!

This picture is taken from the balcony at a house in the party-street. There was a DJ and large speakers on every house in the street. The people were partying as if the lawn in front of the house was the dance floor. Pretty awesome!

 

When we got back there was a concert at the Winelover which was perfect so I could show Beate Hillcrest.

We went for some Tapas in Pacific Beach at Costa Brava, which was delicious!

The waiter was very fond of the "bird-perspective"..

Beate met a celebrity ! :D IT made her stay!

We just made it home from Santa Barbara to Tuesday night dinner with Karen's fierce margaritas!

Socializing at the family dinner table...

After my mid-term we headed down for Los Angeles!First stop, celebrity hot-spot The Grove.. But, I guess we used our quota!

We stopped by Barnes and Noble where Jon Arne found a book he recommended to us!!

All under "Local Interest".. haha!!

We stopped by Rodeo Drive only to be met by this bad boy:

Rodeo Drive...

90210, a MUST!

At night it was time for the Hollywood Bowl with a total of 18 Norwegians supporting Røyksopp and Robyn in Los Angeles!

It was a great concert! We all got a little bit patriotic!

We weren't too cocky when we found out that the Americans in the row behind us knew more about "Råyksåpp" and "Annely Drrreckerrr" than us.. We still had fun though!

The next day we headed down for Venice Beach and Santa Monica, but the marine layer caught up with us.. So we decided to hang out at the skate park and boardwalk instead of the beach.

Beate got some new glasses to wear next Oktoberfest !

Back in San Diego we decided to check out the new iPhone..

Then... decided NOT to when we saw the line of people...

All in all, a wonderful two weeks packed with excitement and wonderful friendship :*

Stay tuned for the post about this weekend's Halloween party :D