Back in Urbana

Blog by Thomas Fredriksen Saturday October 12th we arrived (my mom and I) to Urbana (Champaign). We were very tired as we had been traveling for over 20 hours, but due to time differences it was half past seven in the evening (here in Urbana). The next day we went to a restuarant called LePeep with  a friend for breakfast that she had recommended. I got pancakes with chocolate chip. And since I was so hungry, I ordered 3 pieces, but these American pancakes are not like those pancakes that we are used to in Norway. Instead of being thin and rolled around, they are thick and flat, just like "lapper" in Norway. The whole week I didn't have school, except on friday. Not because I didn't want to go, but because they had do test my skills, which took them quiet some time to arrange. So the first week we bought all the supplies we could need, such as: HDMI screen, bike, food, drink, dining plates and the basic tools for whats needed in the kitchen, since we didnt't have so much in our apartment. 

My first day of school was on a friday, and my goal was to get to know someone as fast I could, so I would have someone to talk to and sit with in the cafeteria in the lunch. Here in America the students get warm food, such as hamburgers and pizza. Not the most healthy food, but it works for me. 

I was lucky enough to meet some studens in the science class (first class), so I got a good start. But there is also another big difference in the schools here in America: You have the same classes everyday. This means for me that I will have science everyday,  physical education everyday and etc. And the only free time you would have was the lunch brakes, where people had their own tabels and seats. So I had to be careful with where I would sit. It was also in the cafeteria I recognized some of the people I was friends with back in middle school (my first visit to Urbana). It was a bit difficult to see if I knew some of them from the previous time I was in Urbana, because if they would get eyecontact back, it would just be strange and become a weird situation. A bad second attempt to make a good first impression. 

I survived, and I am glad for that. Cause in the two last classes (which were after lunch) I got to meet those who I met in my science class. 

Springfield

Today it was very warm outside, so we had to wear shorts, T-shirts and sun glasses. We stood up early, took with us our camera, and on the way to Isabel’s and Anthony’s (our friends) apartment we saw a ground squirrel. We tried to take a picture of it, it just disappeared like the wind in the air. We did not understand anything and we went to the place where it was gone. And then we saw its hole in the ground.


When we were outside the Isabel’s and Anthony’s apartment, they came out and we were all packed up and were ready to leave to Springfield. With my necessary stuff (phone with games, film and music) we in the back seat could hold ourselves in company. After 1 hour and 15 minutes we were in Springfield, but may be not in the Simpson’s town (there are 47 other Springfield’s in the USA).


Isabel drove her car in the parking building and we walked from there to the Lincoln museum. When there, we bought the arm bracelets (paper tickets) and could go through the gate and enter Lincoln’s life. There were 2-3 shows there about him with his opinions as the president and how he lived as a kid, from his childhood to adulthood, and assassination death. And those shows about him were incredible: one in 4D and one with holograms (ghosts at the Presidential Library).


We went out for a lunch, and after we had some sandwich we found a popcorn shop! As you might know, popcorn is my fuel so I had to go in this shop. Here they had all kinds of popcorn with different flavours: cheddar, chocolate, strawberry… and whatever you call it! But I was after the original type – without butter (people here overdo the amounts of butter).

Can't wait to come back

My time here is running away. We only have 10 days left and I am looking forward to come back to Norway. I am looking forward to my “old school” where school days are shorter and I will have time to speak to my friends. At Urbana Middle School summer holiday begins at June 7-th this year, and some years even earlier if they had not used up their “snow days”. It means that when there is snow on the roads, may be just 2 cm. the school is closed, and then they have to go to school one extra day before the summer. I think they had four “snow days” this winter.

Summer is coming and even more animals are coming out from their “houses”. We got some good pictures today with the new camera I bought five days ago. It is very sharp and quick so we could get closer to the different creatures. For example this creature!


We thought it was a chipmunk, but when we checked at Google (pictures) we found out that it was a Ground Squirrel. That explains the holes in the ground just outside our apartment!


The first time we saw this red bird we thought that it was a very rare one. But after we saw this bird we understood that is wasn’t so rare after all. We saw the same pictures of the same bird on the t-shirts of one American football team. That is how we learned the name of the bird: Cardinal.

May 17-th – like a normal day…

On May16-th we made a Norwegian flag. It took long time to finish. It was dark when we went out to look for a flagstaff (a stick).


Nobody here celebrates May 17-th here :( I went to school today, like on normal day. The weather was bad. It was raining and I got so wet when a big water pond splashed on me when I was going on rollerblades to the school. We didn’t just get wet, but also late for the school. The teacher was not so happy but said: “So good, so far!” So, this May 17-th was a bit different from other days here after all.

Gym and parks

I have gym every day in second hour. We do different things all the time: We warm up and do fun activities such as dodge-ball, basketball, a game with small board with wheels, and other activites… Dodge-ball is a ball game where about seven balls are in the middle of the gym. There are two teams against each other and both of them start behind a green line. Between the students and the balls there are three pins in a line. When the teacher blows in his whistle, each team runs to get their balls and try to shot down the pins. The winning team is the one who shots all three pins before the other team.


In gym some students use the school gym-clothes that have the school logo with a tiger. Tiger is the schools mascot: http://www.usd116.org/ums/. I have bought clothes like that.

We sometimes have PE (Physical Education) outside. There are large, green soccer fields (soccer is what we call football in Europe) outside the school. There is also a running track close to the school building.


Not far away from the Urbana High School there is a park with the statue of Lincoln. I think he is very popular here because he was from Illinois.


There are many other nice parks in Urbana and Champaign. Another of them is the Japanese garden. It is very nice because is 100% Japanese and it feels like it took ten minutes to get to Japan, instead of travelling one day by plane.

Easier than you think

Once we were at the Meijer, we saw some tennis rackets, much cheaper than in Norway. We did not buy them then, but some days later, we did. We did not know exactly where the tennis court was, so we trained outside our house. Here is a picture from the parking lot outside our house.


On her way home from the university, Biljana saw many tennis courts where we could play for free. We still play on the parking lot if we just want to train a little bit and don’t want to go all the way to the courts.


The first day I started at the Urbana Middle School there was a test in Math. Since they had learned something that I did not learn in Norway, it didn’t go so well with me… I got a F :( But it is going better and better now. I am doing well in classes - I even got some “A+” in the subject “consumer foods”, and regular “A’s” in: Homework Connections, PE (gym), English, Math Literacy, Consumer Foods, Science, Math and Social Studies.

There is a very good food for lunch in the cafeteria, such as: pizza, cheese- /hamburger, pasta, French fries and you can choose between chocolate milk and regular milk. They call “beverage” what you want to drink.

Spitting on us

Here are some films from our trip to Chicago: One from our rollerblade-ride by the lake, and one from The Millenium Park where you can see a large digital water sculpture in action.