chocolate - the new drug

I doubt a lot of people will disagree when I say that chocolate is very addicting. And it's not weird when you come to think about how good it makes you feel :)


When I first came to america it was

then...


...then



I look back at my past year, and what seems to show up, almost everyday is chocolate, in different forms.


I wonder what my next addiction will be..

Will I ever get over this love for chocolate, or will it be my down fall ?!

when gravity hits

Gravity is a bad thing.. It ruins your face, makes your body all weird. It makes hard heavy things fall on your toes, and we can blame gravity for the need of using a bra.

but a thing I never thought I would blame gravity for was my job;

you see;I was at work, and we were closing, so we had to take the garbage out, and I decided to be nice and do it. I was carrying two of those huge heavy black garbage bags, with tons of holes in them, coffee and all sorts of liquid gross stuff was pouring out of it...

The final destination was the container. I swung the bag back and forth, and did a over my shoulder toss.. or at least it was supposed to be.. It went fine till it was right over my head, and then gravity.. dear dear gravity hit, and the garbage bag, fell, on my head. It was pretty gross and I am never doing the heavy garbage bags + over shoulder toss again...

Other than that, it was a rainy day. I borrowed my sisters rain pants. Picture small rainpants on a big girl.. it's very nice when you can see half the leg, where the rain pants should of been.

What an exciting day

It's sunday

Not the typical sunday I would have in Iowa. There I would wake up, hurry to get dressed and go to church, eat, hang around at home,do laundry, church, popcorn, go to bed...

But this sunday. I woke up. Or my mom woke me up. I went to work, which went surprisingly fine. It must of been my almighty dad who watched over me :) I got back home, eat some supper, and fell asleep.

My mom knocked on my window and told me that "Julie, you have to clean the bathroom"

MY WORST FEAR


Okay, it's not that bad, but you get the point..
When I was done, I went back upstairs.. half an hour later I go back down, and what do I find?! SOMEONE MESSED UP MY MIRROR!
Why even bother cleaing, if it's gonna be just as messy half an hour later...

My new job

I start my job tomorrow.

First let me explain it..

I work in a zoo/amusement park (www.dyreparken.no)and I used to work in a nice little waffle house, with plenty to do


But this year, my job is the assistant over all the places in the park where you can eat... Meaning that I am to tell the daily leaders of the place what to do.. There are 10 of those assistants.. They have all been daily leaders of one of the places you can eat in the park. They have been chosen because they were so good at their job. But I on the other hand, didn't get chosen because I was awesome at being a daily leader.. I was never one of those...

So you can kinda say that I am pretty scared, and I feel pretty clueless.

BUT, (there is always a but)I hope, and chose to think that they chose me because they saw potential in me, and I know that with God on my side nothing is impossible. So to those of you out there reading this, please pray that God will work through me, because there is no way I can tell people how to do their job, when I don't know how to do it.

Wish me luck!!

Is this when you say "break a leg" or does that even work?!

My exciting day....

I went shopping with my mommy :) Now I'll finally be able to sleep in the morning (yaay)

I drove a little. And it's not easy.. just so you know, it's stick shift, and it's scary. So far top speed is like 10mph...

Decided to make some brownies, but it never got to the oven.. sadly


I was so bored, so I went to my friend Stine's house and we watched Big fish :)

It was a pretty long movie and my hair was in the way, so I decided to change it...

then i came home and had to take it out...

Tip: if you want volume in your hair, braid it..:)

But it's almost 1 a.m in Norway and if I have an idea what's gonna happen if I stay up any longer


Good night :)

Prom

Prom in America is a big deal. Girls talk about it for months and months, buy their dresses several months in advance and put down a lot of money into it..

Here is some pictures of my prom april 17,2010

Decorah with "grandma"

I woke up around 7am and we drove to grandma Epley with the big tractors. Grandma and I drove to Decorah. It was very nice. It didn't really feel like a very long time. She went to this quilt shop, to learn a new pattern. She told me that I could go and explore main street, so I did. I should maybe mention that I might of torn my ACL, and for those of you who don't know what that is, it makes the leg stable. It's in the knee. So My knee is very swollen and looks more than anything like a very very big potato.

You see. I had a soccer game on wednesday. The first actually, and a couple of minutes into the game, I slide tackled a girl, and she lost balance and stepped on my knee.. I could hear a crack inside, but the trainer said that I was good to go, so I played the rest of the game, which was like an other hour, and it didn't hurt too much. But it kept swelling up. So that's the story...
Back to Decorah. We also went to a Norwegian museum and I bought Daim chocolate and Ballerina kjeks, even though they were very dry, it was still awesome. When we got home, grandma epley found some crutches I could use.

You norwegians back home know how much I hate crutches, because of my history. I even wrote a hate essay about them for a Norwegian class my sophmore year.. But these are american crutches, so if they make me get less blisters than the norwegian, I'll be very pleased :)

Kindness outreach

I woke up waay to early, around 8.30 am. Miranda picked me up at 9am. We went over to Vinyard Heartland church. People talked and we did an outreach.. I went to college students appartments and gave them free groceries. It was really nice. I got answers like:
"Oh, thank you SO much" (You pretty much made my day)
"Oh thank you" (What is this weird foreign chick doing at my door giving me food for free)
"oh thanks" (But what's the hatch?)
And one girl with a kid said; what do I have to do.. I got a lot of different responces, but I focus on the positive once I got, instead of focusing on the negative.

Miranda went to the mall to hand out free bags of popcorn. They went in to scheels and they actually got KICKED OUT of the mall!!! For giving out FREE popcorn..

I am counting down hours till Audhild gets here. Only 4 hours now :) YAAY!

But I wish that she wouldn't be tired when she got here, I wanna stay up all night eating the candy my mom bought for me :D I might stay up all nightk, just eating the candy by myself too :)

Counting down....

Audhild is coming tomorrow! TOMORROW! I can't believe March 18 is almost here! We've been talking about this day for a very long time, and it's almost here! I am very exited, very exited...

But back to reality. I am speaking for the Dike Lions club tonight. Am I exited? Not extremely, but I will survive. I'm planning on speaking for around 20 minutes, then they are going to ask questions. Then they're gonna eat food filled with eggs, so I'm going to look at them eat, then I'm going back home.

I am concidering if I am going to go out running, but It's probably not going to happen. Why? because I'm extremely lazy. But the thought of dying on monday when soccer season starts is not very tempting, so I'll just have to see :)

Ahh, the pleasures of spring break :D

All State

I made it to All State in Individual Story telling :D
I am a non preformer, but i still think it's awesome.

I played soccer outside in the nice weather with Noah, Eli and the neighbor boy, Braxten:) Norway won 10-9 over the United States. Then I went to Carlos O'Kellys With Miranda, Ally, Chris and Jared. We had a lot of fun, and I ate toooo much for my poor stomach. And I topped it of with a sundae with hot fugde :) It was awesome :D



I even sat out in the sun for an hour, not that I got any color, but if felt nice to be able to do it :)

Individual State Speech

Today was state individual speech. It was a lot of fun, and I was very nervous.. It did actually go okay. I got all 1's, which is the best you can get. There is a few tht makes it to all state. I would guess 1-200 goes. So I'm one of 40 in my group that got all 1's. So the chance that I will be going is very small. But I met my goal, All 1's :D

Dear imunesystem

I don't know if I forgot you back in Norway or what I did, but somehow I lost you. I miss our relationship. I feel so... Sick without you.

I miss the good times we had together, when I could go months without you leaving me. Our relationship was meant to be. I want you back!!I wish we could go back to the way it used to be. You and me, hand in hand. Helping me through snow storms, rain, sun and wind.

Do I have to prove myself worthy of you? I have taken cough syrup and cough drops, but they just don't make me feel the same way you do! I miss you!

P.S

Don't think that I don't miss you my dearest imunesystem, cause I truly do..
Please come back

Love
Julie!

Spring

Spring is finally here. That means that the snow is melting, and poor New Hartford will most likely flood to a degree.

I had individual speech practice today, So I waited around with Jared and studied until 4.45. Then we started practice.. I went to memorize my new changes. Around 5 I found out that I did not have a ride home, so I asked the track girls if one of them could give me a ride home. Meaghan was done, so she could. Which meant that I had to go home without actually having practice. It had it pros and cons.
Pros: I got to go home
Cons: Individual State Speech, and I don't really know my moves all that well..

Here's the story about individual speech: There is 3 people in my storytelling. Me, myself and I. I sit on a chair and tell a story. I have to be all the people in the story, and change my voice. My story is "how I became a pirate". I am Julie Jakobs, and I'm four years old. I failed map class, so my parents make me draw a map to the sandcastle that I'm about to make.
The pirates comes and takes me along on pirate adventures...

I'm going to study for American History and Math... Or I'm gonna "study" I brought the books home, and that makes me feel a lot better :)

It's been a while...

My big plan behind making a blog, was so that I could update people on my life in America. And guess how well that went?! (not too well at all) So here is a little update on my life in america for the two maybe three of you who will read this :)

August:

Started to play Volleyball, which was very hard since I was not only out of shape, but also because my team is VERY good. I am not being modest, AT ALL! when I say good, I mean good. I played on the freshman team, which didn't bother me, as long as I played. I also started school, which was very different from school in Norway.

Ben, Sarah and I went to a wedding in Minnesota and we got lost, so we did not go to the reseption (We got a flat tire, and could not find the way back) so we went to Mall of America for a couple of hours extra instead.

I also watched my first american football game, which last for a very long time.

September:

Most of the time I played volleyball, watched football games and i also had a fun and different experience with something called Homecoming; which is a week where you have a dress up theme for everyday, and at the end of the week, you have a dance. You also have homecoming king and queen.

Themes:

Monday: super star

Tuesday: Dress your best:

Julie and McKaila

Wednesday:

Culture day

Thursday:

80's day

Friday:

Blue and white

The homecoming king and queen

Joe and hannah

October:
I went to mall of America again with my IEC Cecilia McCloud and the exchange students from my organization from my area. I also went to Wisconsin with an other exchange student at my school. We went to Gays Mills, which is an apple orchard, and I fould a store called; Norske Hagen, and I bought a T-shirt saying; not only am I perfect, I am Norwegian too. (it's only for the fun of it, ofcourse)

We also have the BIG event of Halloween. Some rules you might or might not know: No costumes with guns allowed. if their front porch lights are not on, don't go to their door. You chech the candy before you eat it, to make sure that no one has put something dangerous in it.

November:

State Volleyball. Where to begin. it's a BIG DEAL in Iowa. It's the best team competing. we got second in 2008. Everyone had super high expectaions, but we lost our first game, and that was it. We were all very dissapointed. (Don't get me wrong. I did not play, but I watched it)

I also went to the premiere of NEW MOON! We stood outside waiting for two hours in the cold. (it just happened that I was sick too) the movie started at 12. I did not get home until 4 a.m. The movie was awesome though :)

Americans also have the tradition of Thanksgiving. For those of you who do not know what that is, I'll explain: It is a celebration celebrating the immigrants coming over from England. Here in America, it is a time when family comes together and eat A LOT of food. I went to Wisconsin to visit my (Host) aunt. The rest of Sarah's side of the family was there too. it was super nice, and a lot of very good food.

I also witnessed the moving of cows. You'll see 100's of cows running down the road. It's been a very long time since I've seen a cow that close up before. or it was not just A cow, but cows..

December:

the snow started falling. It had been the first time in around 50 years that they did not have snow in November.. I also started Speech, Which isn't holding a speech, but it is more like miny plays. I was in choral reading and readers theatre. where you are a group of people and dramatize the script. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lof of fun.

Some days before christmas, a snow storm was supposed to be coming. So we went over to Sarah's moms house. because we did not want to get stuck at home without Ben. A thing that was very smart, since the power in New Hartford stopped working. It was weird not having a huge christmas meal at grandma Tora's. but it was nice. We opened the packages on christmas morning, WAY too early if you asked me. We were there for a while, then we went over to Sarah's aunt and then Ben's parents. As you might understand. This is a lot of food. but luckily for me.. (or it depends how you look at it) I could only have half of what they offered because of my egg allergies.

On new years eve I went to a friends house and we played play station, Wii, guitar hero and watched movie. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to have fireworks. So we watched it on tv the things they did in New York City.

January:

Was like all Januaries. Boring, cold, dark. I spent most of my time with Speech. we were getting ready for Speech Contest.

We also had an other dance called Winter Formal. Which is just a random dance. We went to Tokyo, A japaneese restaurant. IT WAS AWESOME! I've never seen anyone do stuff they did.. they threw eggs up, fire (they cooked the food infront of us) I was a little sceptical about the whole egg thingy, because of my allergy, but it was delicious!

We also had speech contest, which means up very early on a saturday moring. preform and go home. All Dike- New Hartford teams made it to state without one, which is VERY good.

February:

State speech. Woke up at 5am. not very cool. we preformed, I blacked out, had to "fight" to preform our readers theatre. We made it to All state with our Choral Reading, which is very hard.

Two weeks later we had All State speech. it was awesome. there were so many people there, and so much good stuff to watch. We were all very nervous before our choral reading preformance. We did well, but didn't go all the way.

march:

It is only march 7, so it has not been too exiting. but i had a Soccer tournament yesterday, and that was a lot of fun. We won the whole tournament. Please show your amazement. (I should, I guess also mention that to win, we had to win two games...)

That's the main points of my year so far. Audhild my friend from norway is coming soon. I'm super exited about that. I am also super exited that the snow FINALLY is starting to melt :D