Things to do some time in your life

Get a little too drunk at a work party where your boss is also your mother? Check.

Buy a one-way ticket to New York with a hangover? Check.

These are the days of my life.

starstruck

So, uhm. I just saw Mary-Kate Olsen. In Oslo.

Fra en notis

Dette skreiv Mari på en Stickie Note på dataen min da vi var på tur i Florida:

solbrentheten svir som et uvær i en oterpung
-sigrun, 15/5, 22:41

To tusen og ni - mobilinnlegg

Dette skreiv jeg på mobilen i begynnelsen av januar i et "inspirerende" øyeblikk:

To tusen og ni. Totusenåni. Det klinger helt ålreit. Jeg likte null-åtte og ikke bare på grunn av uttalen. Jeg flytta hjemmefra, bare for en kort periode, men i gjengjeld til New York. Jeg har fått utrolig mye ut av det oppholdet og kanskje er jeg der igjen innen år null-ni er omme. Det drømmer jeg om. Tidligere i vinter/høst klarte jeg å glemme USA da jeg tenkte på hvilke land jeg hadde vært i det året. Det virker så ufattelig lenge sida. Jeg var ikke meg før New York, og ikke helt etter heller. Jeg er meg i New York. Jeg har ikke vært mange steder i verden, men jeg - som så veldig mange andre - veit at New York er Byen for meg. Jeg kommer meg tilbake, jeg må bare ta en omvei innom Lillehammer et års tid. Dette skulle ikke bli om bare New York, men det er dette jeg absolutt sitter sterkest igjen med etter enda et endt år. Det har vært et bra år. Et år uten det og det, men hva så. Jeg fant.

--

I dag er det akkurat ett år sida jeg dro.

Late night irritation

Wtf, Katy Perry is all the things wrong with women reasons men oppress women combined, but she sure knows how to make a catchy pop song.

Blogging og filmer og reiser

Skreiv dette på mobilen 4. august 2008:

Jeg lurer på om jeg kanskje skal gjøre om dette til en slags reiseblogg. Har vært hjemme fra New York i halvannen måned, så har jo ikke noe mer å skrive om det. Bare at jeg savner det sykt. Har tatt mye buss i det siste. Først til København for å være noen dager i sommerhuset mamma hadde leid et stykke utafor byen, var ålreit (jeg la ut noen bilder på min flickr-profil for en del uker sida). Tok båt hjemat med brorsan og mor. Noen dager etter det tok jeg buss tur-retur Lillehammer for å se på høyskolen der som jeg skal begynne på om ei uke. Har hytte rett utafor byen, så sov der. Pappa+1 var der og kjørte meg rundt. Leste ferdig Beatles for andre gang og begynte på nytt på bussturen hjem.

Jeg leste den ikke ferdig den tredje gangen. Begynte å lese Bly for andre gang da jeg kom hjem, men har ikke giddi å lese den ferdig heller. Vil egentlig ikke begynne på den siste boka (Bisettelsen) fordi noen dør (jeg veit vel egentlig hvem, men ikke si det fordetom) og jeg vil ikke at noen av dem skal dø. "Det er jo bare en bok" yada yada.

Jeg er fortsatt i Lillehammer, trives på skolen og folka her er bra. Byen er mindre bra, men nå er jeg vant til det. Vant til at butikken er et kvarter unna på sykkel, at siste bussen går kvart på ett onsdag til fredag, at det aldri er en dritt å finne på bortsett fra quiz noen dager og øl.

Jeg har fortsatt lyst til å ta bacheloren min i New Zealand, ser i skolekatalogene nesten hver kveld etter at jeg har lagt meg. Nerd? Hah. Jeg har det fint. På tirsdag ville jeg for første gang som jeg kan huske se en film som ville få meg til å gråte. Dessverre så vi The Piano på skolen som ikke var gråtemateriale at all. Brukte et kvarter på biblioteket på skolen i dag til å finne en gråtefilm å leie, vi får se om jeg klarte det når jeg ser filmen. Jeg lånte en del andre filmer også.

Magnolia (som forhåpentligvis får meg til å gråte)
Jenter
Vinterkyss (vi så den på skolen i går, men jeg måtte skulke for å jobbe med oppgaveinnlevering, gruer meg egentlig til å se den haha)
Metropolis (fordi den Fritz Lang-filmen vi har på pensum, M, var awesome)
Junebug (den ser søt ut)

Tror ikke jeg gidder å se noen av dem i kveld, er i Scrubs-modus.


Skal til Berlin med noen venner om ikke så lenge, vi skal på Of Montreal-konsert. Glær mæ ææææææ! Og i slutten av november (forhåpentligvis på bursdagen min!) skal klassen på dokumentarfilmfestival i Amsterdam! Og jeg vil ta flere piercinger i øra.

Sånn kan det gå, sa brura og stappa kuken i vepsebolet

Nostalgic

I haven't played any Wombats songs in iTunes since I came back from New York, until now. I was at their concert on the Lower East Side, I think it was in March. I'm so nostalgic these days. Wow.

The toothbrush I bought there needed to be replaced because it's been more than three months since I bought it. I didn't throw it away, maybe that's disgusting but I don't care. It's my Duane Reade toothbrush, I wanna keep it. I'd glue it in my Memory Book, but then I wouldn't be able to close it.

This is so absurd.





Let the love tear us apart, I'll find a cure for a broken heart.

Start over

I guess I'm kinda starting over now; with this blog, with life, with everything. I'm living in Lillehammer now, it's a small town in Norway. It's weird, and wonderful, to read my entries from New York. I'll write more later.

Busy bee

Kate Nash
Originally uploaded by rompetaske

I've done a lot of stuff this last week, finally taking advantage of this city more than I have before. I went to Brooklyn a couple of days last weekend, saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and hung out in several parks (the Central one and Prospect Park in Brooklyn). And the whole school went to Ellis Island on Sunday,

and in the evening Mari (a girl from school) and I went to the UCB theater where ASSSSCAT performs each Sunday. It's an improv show with Amy Poehler in the lead. It was hilarious. Jason Sudeikis from SNL was there, and of course Amy too. A guy from 30 Rock was there. And one of the girls from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (the least famous one, haha).

This week I've done some summer shopping, been to a sculpture exhibition opening, had dinner and seen a movie with my philosophy class at the philosophy lecturer's house, had my first mani- and pedicure, been to a Kate Nash concert (picture) and today I'm planning on walking around a bit downtown and then probably end up in the park and read or something.

Tribeca Film Festival started this week, a lot of people from school are volunteers there, but I signed up too late. Anyway, in that occasion, Amy Poehler is speaking at the Apple Store in SoHo tomorrow evening, probably about her new movie Baby Mama which premiered at the film festival. I wanna go.

Spring

Guitar player
Originally uploaded by rompetaske

Spring has arrived, everything is getting greener by the minute and we've had a couple of days with 25 degrees. Celsius, of course. Helle and I had a little picnic in Central Park one day, we ate sushi and sat near this guy with a guitar. It was nice.

I went to Park Slope in Brooklyn yesterday, bought a purse and a wallet and some earrings and met Kristin from my class. We went to Prospect Park where she read and I played on my new Nintendo DS.

Today we sat in Central Park again, a whole bunch of us. Central Park feels like a whole different place than the rest of Manhattan, it's weird and very nice. Yes.

Pigeons

We got our first pigeon egg on the balcony during the Easter vacation. The nest had been there for a while, and the birds, too. Vomiting in each other's beaks and being generally disgusting. Mom told us to remove it and we did. We didn't see them very much the next days.

The week after we saw that they were beginning on another nest in the other corner of our balcony. We removed it and they started again. Earlier this week we saw an egg there. We didn't do anything, we were kinda interested in what was going to happen. Yesterday we saw another egg. And we added one of our (not so good) chocolate easter eggs.

Apparently pigeon eggs hatch after 17 - 19 days and the babies will stay in their nest for two months before they start flying. We were still a little intrigued. I at least would like to see a bird learning how to fly. But we would also get pigeon bugs or mites or whatever, and we would have to listen to the baby bird screaming all day.

So we removed the nest and the eggs and everything.

A nice amount of random

I'm at school, yo. Or the school's library. Just finished writing my American Topics midterm paper. And I'm eating Twix bought from one of the school's many vending machines. Don't tell anyone though, we're not allowed to eat or drink in the library.

It was really weird not going home with my family. I always do that when we're in another country together. But I live here now. I live in New York. Until May 31st. I tried changing my return ticket to June 13th, but I'm missing my e-ticket number, so we'll see how that goes. I sent an e-mail to Kilroy Travels, but I don't know if they can do anything.

I can see the Empire State Building from here, all the lights are white today. No special occasion. I can also see a river, Hudson River?, and New Jersey. I'm hungry. Maybe I should go eat something and go home. My battery is running low soon too.

PEACE OF MIND
FOR YOUR FAMILY
NEW YORK LIFE

It says that on a commercial banner/poster/whatever outside.

This was a nice amount of random. Go check out my flickr pics.

I'm alive!

Empire State Building
Originally uploaded by rompetaske

Long time, no see, eh? I'll make this short. This is the last day of my Easter vacation, mom and my brothers are leaving tonight. We haven't really done a lot of turist-y stuff, like museums and guided bus rides, but my brothers and I went to Top of the Rock, which is the top of the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where this was our view. That's the Empire State Building in the middle.

Other than that we've been shopping and looking around. Five days isn't very much in a city like this. I'm glad I still have a couple of months left.

I uploaded a lot of photos to my flickr account today, and I had to buy a pro account because I have over 200 pictures uploaded. Go check 'em out, yo.

Waiting for the cable guy

Hollaaaa! Haven't updated in a while because not much has happened. I have been way too busy doing school work or thinking about school work or feeling guilty for not doing school work. I have turned in two papers since last time, one in philosophy and one in human rights. It's nice to be done. We'll get our American Topics paper assignment on Thursday, which we will have two weeks to write. Easter vacation in between.

Mom and my brother arrives in a week, I'm looking forward to seeing them. One and a half month is the longest I have been away from mommy ever. It's been really nice, but it'll be nice to seem her again too.

I'm at home waiting for the cable guy or girl now. I am almost finished with my Dunkin' Donuts coffee, it's getting cold. Starbucks is ten blocks away which is too far when I'm not planning on sitting there. Dunkin' Donuts is just two blocks away.

I was at the Barnes&Noble at Union Square yesterday, and apparently Jon friggin' Stewart was there on Saturday. Oh mannnnn.
I was supposed to find a photo album for my polaroid pictures, and I did. But I also bought some gifts and three books for myself. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, which I've started reading some in and it's awwwwesome. And America (The Book) by Jon Stewart, which I've also started reading some in and it's not as awesome, but still cool. And a street art book from NYC and Barcelona, I've always wanted one of those books, but they're so expensive in Norway.

Besides doing laundry, I might go into Central Park and take some pictures to put in my album. I have to buy more polaroid film, they're going out of production, which is ssssooo lame. Æ må hamstre!

Have a nice day/afternoon/evening!

Shopping spree

I needed a new skirt so I bought three.

Went shopping today, bought a lotttt. Today's shopping goals were:
A cardigan, maybe two.
Sweatpants.
Skirt.
Maybe jeans.
Stockings.
Bra?

What I ended up with:
Three cardigans.
Three skirts.
Sweatpants.
Three pairs of stockings.
One top.
Pens and paper for school.
Polaroid instant film.

I'm looking forward to getting the polaroid camera I bought from ebay.

Went to the Fred Armisen show at Knitting Factory last night, it was awwwwesome. I couldn't believe I actually saw him live. Aaa he's awesome. His girlfriend, Petra Haden, was there with her acappella(?) choir, that was not so awesome. They did covers of some cool songs though.
Uncle Eddie from Grounded For Life was there, woo.

We might be going to a launch party today, if my hungover roomies are up for it.

Let's dance to Joy Division and celebrate the irony!

Concerts!

So apparently I have some readers, sweet. Thought I should update about what has happened since last time.

Last Sunday the four girls from this apartment and a friend from school went to catch a movie. We went to Union Square and decided to see Juno, it started at like 10:30 pm or something, but hey, we're in New York, sleeping is for losers. It was really good, I loved it. We got home at around 1am and two of us had school at 10 the next day. We managed though.

We had our first Human right classes, with our very pregnant (and adorable!) teacher. It was more interesting than expected. We talked a lot about genocide and on Tuesday our class went to a debate at NYU School of Law about genocide and media. My mind flew elsewhere, but what I caught was edumacating.

On Wednesday the whole school went to see The Color Purple on Broadway. We read the book for American Topics. The musical was great, I really enjoyed it. But I'm a sucker for musicals, so. Wish I had the money to go to some more. Maybe I'll get mom to pay when they get here, haw. I think I saw Jerry Springer outside the theater, it certainly looked a lot like him. My first celebrity sighting, haha.

We eat a lot of peanut butter. Ok-tasting cheese is "expensive", and that's kinda all the "pålegg" they have here. Nothing here is expensive for us though, but you probably get what I mean anyway. I love the low dollar rate, it's my favorite thing in the world.

Another thing I also love is when people ask me for directions. Maybe I don't look as lost as I really am. Nah, I'm not always lost. Today I wasn't.

Today I went to Lower East Side or East Village to find this concert place to get my ticket for the The Wombats concert that I ordered yesterday, but it was closed. No hurries, the concert isn't until April I think.
I went to the same neighborhood yesterday evening to catch a concert with three tiny bands. These bands to be exact:
Aviation Orange (http://www.myspace.com/theaviationorange)
With Impurity (http://www.myspace.com/withimpurity)
Rattling Cages (http://www.myspace.com/rattlingcages)

The bass player from the last band told me about it in an IRC channel. The first band was awesome and they're playing around there again while I'm here, so I'll catch them again. The second band was crap, as metal is. The third band was cool enough. I'm not too fond of screaming in music, but it's cool sometimes. The vocalist had a mustache that I grew a love/hate relationship to. But then he spoke some kind of East European language and that sorta won me over.

I did get lost on my way there, the location was one block away from the subway stop, I of course went to opposite direction for four blocks. I almost went in to a bar that showed the Oscars because Jon Stewart was the host and I wanted to see it. But I went back to the subway station instead, 'cause they had a map. And this time I found it, phew. Too late to catch all the songs of the first band, but I caught an okay amount. I already knew I'd like them because of their myspace page.

On Friday the other girls here went to a concert at Apollo in Harlem, I was home alone, that was nice. Didn't really do anything special, but it's nice to be alone sometimes. On Saturday evening we went to Brooklyn with a friend that lives there, we ate and hung out at some bars. Danced and had fun.

Sometimes when I'm walking around alone, I suddenly realize where the hell I am and I just grin and grin.

I have bought two concert tickets besides the one I was going to pick up today. Kate Nash(!!!!!!!!!!) who's playing in April, and Fred Armisen who is playing this Thursday! Wooo!

Oh oh oh! On Friday I went downtown by myself and went to Rockefeller Plaza and the NBC Experience Store. I bought a Dick in a Box t shirt (HEART) and some NBC pens. Aaaah NBC. And I finally got around to sending some post cards, but not all. Let me know if you want one.

And I did buy new shoes! Brown and blue vans. The second time I wore new shoes, and the second time someone random asks me about them because they like them. I have good shoe taste.
I also have some new pictures on my flickr account: flickr.com/rompetaske

My week and whatnot

Second Saturday in New York. It's going well. School started on Monday, had philosophy (exphil) Monday and Wednesday, and American Topic Thursday. Human rights starts this coming Monday. American Topics seems very interesting, the main lecturer is very cool. It's about American culture in every meaning of the word. Immigration, music, sports, everything. Exphil is kinda boring so far, but I didn't really expect otherwise. We've talked about Sokrates and Platon.

Human rights seems kinda dry too, I'm not really interested in that kind of subject. But maybe it's okay, we'll see. We have to write an expectation letter for our human rights lecturers by Monday and we've gotten two big assignments that are due March 5 and 10, in exphil and human rights. We haven't even started with the curriculum for the assignments. I feel like this was a bad idea. Coming here for school. I don't like school. I'll probably manage alright, it's just boring and I'm not really motivated.

Besides school, everything is grrrreat. The first couple of days, our school had some arrangements for us. Not the very first day, then we got to settle down a bit in our new apartment and we found a Mexican place nearby where we ate. That was last Wednesday. On Thursday we had to register at school, then we went on a bus guide. It was cold, we sat on the roof of the bus. It was very cool though. Drove downtown and uptown of Manhattan. Saw the NBC building and other important buildings and Harlem and we stopped at a New York museum, wasn't very interesting, but it was warm. Afterwards we ate hamburgers and soup. I ate soup. And theeeen we had the rest of the day off, we probably went a little shopping, I don't remember.

Or maybe that was on Friday. Whatever. We had a welcome seminar at school one day, where the head master told us useful information and whatnot.
On Saturday we had a "rebus" sorta. Ended up at Sjømannskirken where they had waffles and grøt, mmm. Then we went on a boat trip around Manhattan with a grumpy guide. We saw the Statue of Liberty up close and Jersey City, and of course Manhattan. After that we took another bus guide, during night. Another crazyass guide, aiiiiight. We stopped in Brooklyn, right by the Brooklyn bridge and saw the famous New York Skyline at night, it was beautiful. I tried to take some photos, but I'm not a very good photo taker so all the pictures came out too blurry.

I, the three girls I live with and two other girls we've befriended went to eat in Chinatown one of those days. It was okay, probably not the best restaurant there, but we got rid of our hunger.

Last Sunday we had all day off, I went shopping with two girls. We walked all the way from Central Park north to downtown. We walk a lot. It's okay.

I've bought a pair of shoes, a hoodie, two t-shirts, a top, socks and underwear. Not on the same day, but yeah. And a phone! All of us have gotten American phones 'cause they are much cheaper to use than our Norwegian ones.

On schooldays after school, we haven't really done anything special. Walked around a bit, shopped some, seen new places. We're good at making our own dinner at home, cheaper that way.

I was walking around downtown by myself one day and thought I'd stop by the library to check my e-mail, but they were just closing so I didn't. I tried to find the toilet, but that wasn't easy and some guy thought I looked lost (which was very much correct) and helped me find it. He asked if I wanted to do anything afterwards and told me he'd wait. And he did. I said I just wanted to go home, and he asked where I lived and whatnot. It was kinda creepy, but he was just being nice and helpful really. He showed me some drawings he'd made, of naked women, and he gave me his number on a queen of spades card he said he had found. Told me to call him whenever I wanted to party. I said "yeah, maybe" and he said he liked the way I said that. He walked me to Times Square, just a couple of blocks away from the library and showed me what train to take home to where he thinks I live. He told me he thought I was attractive and luckily didn't join me into the station.

I didn't go home, I went to Brooklyn. To a Target there, to find a polaroid camera. But they were sold out.

On Thursday some of the girls at school had arranged a Valentine's Party. We went, it was very nice. I had a great time. Some of us got a little too drunk. Oh well.

I have every Friday off, wooo. One of the girls I live with who takes the same courses as me and another girl who also does, and I, went shopping in Harlem yesterday. We wanted to get a little more familiar with the surroundings here. I wasn't really in a shopping mood, so I didn't buy anything, but they did. And I got to see Harlem so it was nice anyway. Afterwards we joined the "another girl" mentioned above for taco at her place with the people she lives with and the people I live with and some other girls who also goes to our school. Ack, so many people to hold track off. After dinner, we hung out a bit there, then the rest of my apartment went home. I stayed a bit longer to watch a movie, we saw Shawshank Redemption. Then I went home. These people live like four blocks away from us, so I didn't have to go far. One of the other girls who was there lives in Brooklyn, she spent an hour getting home and she had to go alone. She got home safely, it just took a while.

I wanted to go to the the Kooks concert on Tuesday, but it was sold out. All of those I hang out with have tickets for a the Roots concert in Apollo Theater. I don't want to go. That's next Friday, I think. I'll manage.

Oh, speaking of Apollo Theater. We went to their weekly Amateur Night on Wednesday, where amateurs can sing or play or dance or do whatever and the audience decide who goes on to the next round. You clap or boo. It was very cool, we'll definitely go again. One of them step danced, that was awesome, he was so good.

Today's plans are probably including school work. I don't know what else. We talked about catching a movie at a theater last night, but didn't do it, maybe we'll do it today. And I want new shoes. Yes, another pair. We'll see, no hurry.

Home

Just thought I'd write a little sumthin'-sumthin' here. I'm hearing barking and loud voices out in the hallway. All three of my roommates just went to bed, I'm still up and not really rushing to get ready for sleep. Dunno why. I'm tired. Just wanted to sit here for a little while, like I always do at home. Home. I guess this is Home for the next couple of months. Very surreal, very fantastic. We went on a tour bus guide yesterday, through almost all of Manhattan. That was interesting. This guy was our guide.
I took some pictures, will upload them later. Should do it as fast as possible in case I lose my camera. I'll try to remember it tomorrow morning.

We had a welcome seminar thing at school today, where the teachers talked about safety and classes and different kind of info we need. I'm not really looking forward to the reading and writing assignments, I'm still sick of school. But we'll see, maybe it won't be so bad.

Everything is great here. We saw a dude sleeping on the subway on our way home from school and some shopping, which is not at all a weird sighting here, not even for us, but this guy! This guy was snoring so loudly and he had two spilled beer cans around him. That might not be a very weird sighting either, but for us it was interesting. We laughed. It was cool. We're in New York.

Our apartment is big, it's close to Central Park and it has a balcony. We're pleased. Today we cleaned a lot and put our stuff into the closets. Home.

Hundred dollar bill

I met dad for the last time in about four months today. He gave me a hundred dollar bill. My first dollars. It made this whole thing a little more real.

Stress

So. Twelve days away. I'm freaking out inside. And I freaked out outside a couple of days ago. I was so stressed, I felt like I have nothing ready when in reality all that's undone is the packing more or less. I've done some small things I needed to do before I go these last few days. Like buy travel adapters and... that's about it. No, I got some of my skirts fixed, puh. Our washing machine is broken and have been for almost two weeks, that's kinda stressing me too. I have so much clothes that needs to be washed asdgfg.

I have so very painful blisters from my new winter boots, but they look awesome. The shoes, not the blisters.

I still can't believe I'm actually going to New York. And staying there for almost four months. Un-friggin'-believable. These last days will probably go too fast, I am so slow with everything that's practical and needs to be done.