Home (not sick)

I've been home a couple of days now, and oh my god I feel great. Yesterday I had about 10 of my friends over for drinks and talking, and it was so amazing to see them again. I don't think I can even get close to express to them how much I love them (even after the drinks, haha). At the moment it's 6:30, and the damn jetlag has me up already; but fuck the jetlag. I'm up, and I'm blasting music while one of my best friends Henrik has occupied my bed making me sleep on the couch. I love him so much, so I don't care xD Yesterday he tucked me in on the couch and then he whispered "I'm taking your bed," and he gave me that typical Henrik smile. We broke two wine glasses yesterday. My mom didn't mind though, I suspect it's because I just got home, but I'm glad.

I've learned so incredibly much this year, and I've met so many amazing people. I'll remember some of them for the rest of my life. The lessons I've been taught, and the fun I've had; I couldn't appreciate it more. I'm gonna miss America, and all my friends there; but it was my time to go, and it felt more right than it ever did.

Furthermore, I've enjoyed falling back to my Norwegian habits. Especially having friends like I do. I wouldn't trade them for anything; they're the best friends anyone could have. It feels a bit strange being back to my normal time though. I always feel like all my friends should be sleeping 'cause it's day here. I'm starting to feel tired, so I'll end it here. I don't know how long I'll be keeping this blog up, as there aren't really any reasons for me to keep it up now that I'm home again. The journey is finished, now it's time to party and greet summer.

I Come Alive

I just came home from the last stop for The Used's tour, and oh my god I feel good. Concerts are the reason why I live. The people there are just like me, for just one night they wanna give up everything and just feel the music. Whether it be standing still listening, jumping up and down, or going crazy in the pit; it's just the best feeling in the world. I always find friends who I sing with, and dance around with. This one big black dude looked at me and was like "you wanna go up?" I answered "hell yeah," and he got some people and threw me up to crowd surf. I never feel more alive than when I'm at a concert just rocking out. It's like no one can ever take that away from me, and nothing will ever make more sense to me. Music truly is my life.

Furthemore, the Used has some crazy mosh pits haha. And the people were nice, and picked each other up like you should; not assholes who just fucking tries to kill you. They had two walls of death(if you don't know what WoD is, it's when the artist splits the crowd in the middle, and when the music kicks in you just run towards each other with all you've got and hope you don't die). That one punk on the other side of the wall who looked at me smiling like come get me... We ran for each other, and I'm proud to say, we fucked each other up, and it was great. I've lost my hearing temporarily, and it was worth it. Thank you the Used, for being so awesome.

Release the Kraken! 

Utøya

Hello, my name is Nicklas Høilund. I’m from a  relatively small town called Arendal 4 hours south of Oslo. I wanna start with saying that I’m really happy I got this opportunity. I’ve been carrying a lot of sorrow with this, and I think speaking about it will help get it off my heart.  The 22^nd of July 2011 was the day when the freedom of Norway was tested. It was a raining in Norway that day, my mother told me.

At the time of the attack I was in the Netherlands with some friends of mine there. My mom sent me a picture of the damage from the bomb, but I just couldn’t believe her. I was forced to believe when the shooting on utøya started. My eyes were glued to CNN in an apartment in the Netherlands, My eyes started to tear up, and I felt so weak. Being so far away from home during a time like this felt awful. I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. 

The weeks following the attack were full of sorrow. But sorrow was not what stood out to me. What I noticed was the way Norway got together. I’ve never felt as proud of my country as I did when I heard our prime minister give his speech, and the whole nation held hands showing love. I also feel the need to mention the brave people who heard the shots and went out in boats to save people who tried to swim to land. They saved so many lives, and didn’t stop even though they got shot at. In countries like Denmark and Sweden they were giving roses to honor the deceased.  And the whole world stood by our side as we showed Anders Breivik that you can hurt us, and you can bring us to our knees, but you can’t take away our love. Our love for our country, and our love for each and every person living in it. Whether it be a middle eastern man or a Caucasian woman. We all stand together with love, and no one could ever take that away from us.

Growing up in Norway, I’ve been taught that you should share what you have of wealth, and that you should do to others what you want them to do to you. I’ve been taught that violence should never be the answer. Even our police officers don’t carry around guns when patrolling. Because of all this, it was so incredibly hard to understand that a Norwegian man could do this. Especially to his own people. I think I speak on behalf of my fellow countrymen when I say that it felt like a giant dagger to the back.

He tried to kill the next generation of our labor party, to stop helping immigrants, and to stop liberal democracy to the extent we have in Norway. I’m happy to say that he failed, and that all he did was to bring more love for diversity and stronger opinions for liberal democracy. In April this year, about 40.000 people gathered at Oslo Tinghus to sing “children of the rainbow.” Which is a beautiful song about living together in peace. This was to prove a point. The point that what we stand for, can’t be changed by hate. Our answer to hate will always be love. I’d like to end this with a quote from our prime ministers speech about Utøya, that he gave two days after the incident.

"We are a small country, but we are a proud people.

Vi er et lite land, men vi er et stolt folk."

He said

And I think that’s never been more true than it is now

Thank you

Funny Or Die

There are now 13 days until I'm going home; it's time to count down. The closer I get, the more at peace with it I feel. Since the beginning I've loved this place so much, but it's always been clear to me that this is nowhere near being as good as home. Sorry America, but your politics and preps are too much for me to handle, I prefer Norwegian politics and sosser xD Anyways, I want to share some parts of what I wrote in my notebook the first days here in Portland, Oregon.

Day 1 30th of August 2011
I've been here in Portland for less than three hours, and I already feel like its home. I must admit that during the 29 hour long travel I've had my share of remorse and negative thoughts, but after coming here they were all swiped away. I'm veyr tired so I'm gonna sleep any minute. I can't wait for tomorrow, it's gonna be great living here.

Day 2 31st of August 2011
Today I woke up too early; about 6am, so I packed out properly. Now I'm waiting because I'm gonna shower, and I don't wanna wake everyone up. I think I'm gonna study a bit. I'll write more later today.

So it's now 5:15pm, and we've been quite around. We went to the school where I'll be attending. I'm gonna have guitar as a subject, epic!

I don't wanna write more of it, I hate writing something handwritten into the computer xD It's so funny how young I seem to myself, reading this. Anyways, I decided I'm gonna write my final grades on here. And before I do that I have to say, Wilson is a pretty good school, it's not like the shitty schools in other places. The reason for that is that I live in the whitest preppiest place in Portland it seems xD Our history teacher told us back in the day you weren't allowed to live here if you were black. My point is that people here strive for their grades, which meant that so did I have to.

I ended up with a B in history because I never had time to back up everything I said, because I didn't have any motivation as the grade in the end wouldn't matter.

In English I don't even know yet, as the teacher, Bob, never gives us our grades directly; not even now that I'm finished xD

In Spanish I got a B as I lacked some homework and only did okay on tests we had about the mayas and the  movies we've watched. My spanish has improved a lot though.

In guitar class I got an easy A. 95%!

In math I ended up with a B. Thank you Mr. Dorsey xD

My worst grade was a C, which is what I got in Chemistry as I turned in too little homework and too few labs. On the tests and quizes I got Bs and As though xD

So I ended up with decent grades I think. I could have gotten better, but the year didn't matter, so why would I. I think that was the hardest part, to find motivation when I knew it wouldn't matter anyways. I leave you with the funniest memes I saw yesterday.

"Fly along with me, I can't quite make it alone. Try to make this life my own."

This one is the best one XD It's fucking hilarious. Poor dog. I think the middle part is from Taken, but I'm not sure. 

XD His look...

This creeps me the fuck out, but at the same time it's fucking funny as hell xD