Back From Abroad!

As you may or may not know, the past three weeks I have been out of the country. I have spent my time in the country that stole my heart: Norway. We also spent a week in Stockholm, but I thought Norway was more fun. You could consider my opinion biased, though. Before my aunt, uncle, sister and I left for our Scandinavian adventure, my cousin got married! It was a beautiful ceremony where a tear may or may not have been brought to my eye. And the reception was a blast. Not only was the food and drinks good (and there were S'mores!), but the dancing was, as the kids say now-a-days "off the chain". Everyone, from my grandma, my aunt who had recently gotten a knee replacement and my the bride and groom, shook their groove thangs.

The Wedding was in San Francisco!!

My sister, me, and my little brother. I would say we clean up well. :)

Me and my sister enjoying the wedding.

Now, I have a lot to say about my vacation in Norway and Sweden. So for the two of you that may actually read this blog, I will let you know that I will do a separate entry for that trip. But because I have a lot to write about, I also need a lot of time to write it - and that I do not have now.

But after I got back I have had jetlag like never before. Our flight from Stockholm to LA was delayed for over 8 hours, so while we were supposed to touch down in LA at approximately 4PM, we landed a little but past midnight. So me and my sister were anything but tired, because we were used to the 9 hour time change in Norway/Sweden. So at about 1AM, me and mah bestie went to a 24 hour restaurant in Manhattan Beach that has muffins to die for (it's called The Kettle for those of you who want to know..). We then proceeded to walk to the beach and sit on the pier for a bit, then took the long way to get back to El Segundo, where we stopped at Vons to pick up a RedBox movie. We got back to the house and we figured out that a donut shop in town opened at 4AM. So at about 5, my sister, friend and I made our way over to get a box of freshly made donuts. Then we came back and started the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. But both me and my friend fell asleep about 30 minutes into it, and woke up 4 hours later to start our day.

It is only about 3 weeks now until I move into my dorm at University of Delaware, and my friend, Sarah, said for the next 3 weeks that she is not letting me out of her sight - and she doesn;t care if I ever see my family (sarcasm implied...I think).

UD NSO!

Well, college is just around the corner. So me and my mother went back to Delaware for New Student Orientation. We went back on Saturday, went down to the outlet malls on Sunday, and went to New Student Orientation on Monday.

At New Student Orientation (NSO) we were welcomed by smiling and dancing NSO leaders. Then, we got the down low on everything at University of Delaware from what it means to be a blue hen to health and safety. We had advisement meetings where we chose classes and met new people that we would be attending school with.
It was very informational and I met a lot of new people.

beautiful sunset on the flight over

my NSO group

a beautiful sunset in Delaware

My mom and I left on the first flight out the next morning and were back home and out of the humidity of the east coast.

The day I got home, my friend and I spent the rest of the day at Santa Monica Pier riding the rides, seeing the sights, and listening to the music on the pier.

Santa Monica

Santa Monica Pier from the Ferris Wheel

She's gotta get her selfie

Chillin' on the Ferris Wheel

at night

Ferris Wheel at night..

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Well, for the first time in a long time I was at home on my birthday and was actually able to celebrate my birthday, on my actual birhtday. Overall, it was a pretty good day.

Last year on my birthday I had to say goodbye to all my friends and family in Norway to leave for the US. So as you could imagine, that was one of the worst birthdays.

On my birthday I was able to decide what I wanted to do. So, I went to high tea at the Huntington Rose Garden with my sister. It was very nice and I loved it! I love tea, so much, more than words can describe. And nothing compares to little tea sandwiches and fruit tarts with a nice English Breakfast Tea. My sister and I stayed at tea for about 2 hours, then we walked through the gardens. We decided we should get our entry fees worth - but we got the student fee so it all worked out well! My favorite gardens were the Japanese banzai gardens with the cute little bridges and trees. And the Australian gardens were very misleading. There were no gardens. I guess it was probably like the Australian outback, there was just dirt and rocks and the occasional tree. We left there shortly after becasue it was about 90 degrees and we weren't about to walk around in black dresses through the cactus gardens in 90 degree heat.

TEA TEA TEA

My sister in the tea room

Walking through the gardens

a self-explanatory flower

In the cactus garden

me and my sis

After that I decided that because I was now a legal adult at the age of 18, I would be the classic rebel and get my ear pierced without parental consent. So I got my cartilage pierced. YEAH for teenage rebellion!

My instagram post of my monumental ear piercing.

Then after a little down time at home and a quick run to the 99 cents store to go buy birthday balloons. My family and one of my friends went to dinner at PF Changs. nomnomnom.  And then tried to go to a movie, but by the time me and my friend got there they were sold out. So we just went to the kettle for some muffins and coffee. 

Then, the day after my birthday we went over and had a bar-b-que at our family friends' house so they could help us eat the four layer cake I made. It was four layers, two layer plain vanilla, two layers vanilla with chocolate chip with chocolate butter cream frosting in between each layer and vanilla butter cream frosting around the cake and then I put vanilla butter cream roses and writing on the cake. Yes, I made my own birthday cake. Why? Because that is just how my family works.

my not-so-perfect homemade cake

Make a wish!

Well, Hello Again!

Wow! It has been a long time sine I last posted anything! I only wrote one blog post fr my entire senior year of high school!!!
Anyway, as you could imagine, quite a bit has happened since my last post. We had the homecoming football game and the coronation dance at my school. My date was one of my best friends, Hunter.

Me and Hunter before the Coronation Dance

Spirit Week - Would You Be My Friend? Day

Me and Carolyn on 80s Day

Home Coming Pep Rally!

Then, for a kind-of, sort-of, early graduation present my Aunt Judy, Aunt Kas, and Ladala (my grandma) took me to England. It was over Thanksgiving break. So, once again I was outside of the United States for Thanksgiving, but it's not a big deal.. We were in London most of the time, but we also went to Salisbury and Bath. I loved England! London was gorgeous! We walked the streets, saw the sights, and drank tea - it was lovely.

Kensington Palace

Inside Kensington Palace

Being Royal

Kensington Gardens

Big Ben!!

Me and the Paddington Bear

At the Roman Baths in Bath

Throw a coin in for good luck

Aunt and Grandma reading info about Bath

The Bath Cathedral

Stonehenge

Salisbury Cathedral

221 B Baker Street

Sherlock Holmes Museum

Tower of London

Me and  a Beefeater

London Bridge

Buckingham Palace

Then it was Christmas! I got back into the family traditions this Christmas with my blood-related family again, unlike last year when I was with my Norwegian family. It was great, because some of them I hadn't seen since I had gotten home from Norway in July. One of the best Christmas presents that I received was a round trip ticket to Norway! I got to go back to one of the two countries that I can call home and see all my friends that I had to say goodbye to six months earlier. It was fantastic, I got to spend New Years there also. New Years Eve is just celebrated better in Norway than the US.

Candy Cane Lane

Church on Christmas Eve

Me and the Sister on Christmas

Off to Norway!

Oslo Airport

my friends

Me and Katinka - reunited!

Then, it was all the college stress. All the college applications had to be in by January 15, 2014. I didn't apply to any schools in California (because that would be boring) and only 2 on the West Coast. Spring Break was filled with college visits. I visited Allegheny College in Middle-of-No-Where, Pennsylvania, University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. I had to choose by May 1, 2014 which college to attend. I chose...drum roll please...University of Delaware!! Yeah!! The only Division 1 school with a female mascot (The Blue Hens) and the first school to offer study abroad opportunities. I still don't know what I will study though... Fun!

Senior Steps Photo

Committed to DelaWhere?

I joined an improv team at my high school, called Comedy Sportz. We had a few games and were entered in a tournament that was at the professional stage in Hollywood. We didn't win, but we did make it to the second round in the tournament.

My comedy sportz team

improv...

Then there was prom! One of my best friends, Sarah, asked me to prom and we shook our groove things till the midnight hour. It was a lot of fun. I have completely stopped caring what anyone thinks of me, especially in El Segundo and the people at EL Segundo High School. The theme was Masquerade and it was a some ball room in Downtown LA. We didn't rent a limo, we had one of my friend's cousins drive us in a pretty sweet mini van.... No after party for us either, we went to a restaurant called The Kettle and had muffins and tea or hot chocolate. That's my kind of party!

Sarah and I

me and my sister

Me and ASHLY

Next was graduation. After weeks of stress, no sleep, and a surplus of coffee and tea I finally graduated from El Segundo High School! It was good. Graduation in and of itself wasn't exactly fun. It was a lot of sitting, a lot of listening, and a little walking when your name was called. I am just happy to be done. You could say it was bittersweet, but it was a lot more sweet than it was bitter for me!

Me, Kira, and Payton - Best Friends since 6th grade

On the morning after graduation I had a dentist appointment at 8:30AM, then I met one of my friends in Beverly Hills for lunch. She is from Norway, I met her when I was an exchange student, this year she was an exchange student in Illinois, and she was on a tour/vacation with other exchange students on the West Coast. So I met her for lunch at a place called Olive. I had a green tortilla wrap, and it made me feel like a stuck up Californian with a lemon in my water glass...
Because of my lunch date, I was almost late to the bus for Grad Nite! But I made it...barely. Graduation took place on June 12, 2014 and Grad Nite took place on June 13, 2014 at Disneyland. Sarah, my prom date, was my guest at grad nite too. It was fun. We spent the day at Disneyland and the night at California Adventures. It was a long day with a lot of people and a lot of walking, and for some reason there was sand in my shoe... But I had a good day.

Me and Malin in Beverly Hills

Then me and my family went on a cruise out of Long Beach. It stopped in Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. After the weeks of what seemed like endless stress, it was nice to go on a vacation. We rode electric bikes on Catalina Island and went zip-lining and sight-seeing in Ensenada. I was going to practice my Spanish (which I received an extra sash for at high school graduation), but I never got to it and they laughed at me when i said si instead of yes. On the last day we were at sea and it was my sister's birthday. We celebrated both hers and my birthday since the whole family was together and they wouldn't be on my birthday.  I got sick on the last day though. I don't know what it was from or how I got it, but I was in bed for the following 3 days. I missed my last Comedy Sportz game because of it. But my team found a replacement and did well anyway...

Electric Bike Ride

Carnival Imagination

Getting ready for a formal dinner. I am ever so happy...

Then my sister had her birthday party on June 21st. It was supposed to be my party too, but I had 3 friends that came and she had 15. So it was her party that I made the food for. We just had a backyard tiki party with friends. :)