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.

Chicago - again

This weekend we visited Chicago. We took a buss from Urbana after the school on Friday. It took about 2,5 hours and some minutes with cab. We borrowed an apartment from one professor and stayed there to Sunday – when we again took the bus back to Urbana.



The buildings in Chicago were much, much higher than the largest buildings in Norway. We could see them from the balcony … and we could also see the lake from there. The Michigan lake was so large that you absolutely could not see over it!


There were large waves on the lake when we went for a rollerblade –ride on the Saturday evening. The bike-road tilted to the side where the lake was, so that the water could flow back to the lake and we would not drown.

On the Sunday we went to The Millenium Park and The Art Museum.

At The Art Museum we saw paintings made by very famous painters like Van Gogh, Monet and Matisse…


… and original sculptures of Ganesha and Vishnu.

Hearts

Every morning in the school is the same: find the locker, leave your backpack, take your binder, find your classroom, stand up with your hand on your heart, and say the same poem to show that you appreciate your country (USA). I haven’t learned it jet, but when I come to Norway I will at least be able to say the half of it :)


The rules are very strict at the school. In the hallways you have to walk on the right side of the line. In the cafeteria, the guards are very suspicious about the students. They walk around and watch the students to see if anyone does something against the rules. But I don’t know all the rules jet! I tried to throw my apple in the garbage can. But one student, sitting at the same table like me, warned me not to do it. He said that I would get two days of suspension from school - for that little thing!

Today in the science lesson (Thank god it was after the lunch!) I came in the door and heard my teacher say: “Take on your overcoats, plastic glasses and gloves!” We all did so. She carried four boxes in her hands. She picked out four groups and took each of the boxes on their working tables. In the boxes there was one big pig heart for the three of the groups, and one frog for the one group. It was very clear that were just going to see and do something disgusting.

I found some pictures about what I saw with my own eyes …
Recommended age / anbefalt aldersgrense = 10+ If you are younger, you might never eat meat again!
Pig heart: http://nette93.blogg.no/1236698361_vil_du_se_noe_ekkelt.html
Dead frog: http://www.bio.ntnu.no/users/toralm/tekst/zo2050/anatomi.htm

Way to victory

At UMS (Urbana Middle School), we have two types of math: regular math and “math literacy”. What we learn in seventh grade is probably what I will learn at high school in Norway. For example “ y = -2x + 6 “. Today (on Sunday!) I have been working on my homework because if you have something you want to get a good grade for, you have to work for it! And if you are lucky you might become a student of the month - like my friend Anthony was a few months ago!



I am doing well at school – I can now find almost all of the classrooms and I know almost all of the names of my teachers. We have the same schedule every day, but sometimes we may be have a trip outside the school. Last Wednesday my team called Journey, visited the planetarium in Hassel park with a school bus. It was amaizing, they showed us how planets look like in the sky at night – Did you actually know that you can see Mars? It is a red, round spot. And also we learned about the North Star. See more here: http://www2.parkland.edu/planetarium/index.html

Urbana’s Animals

Wherever we go around in Urbana we hear and see animals running by. People here do not like them as much as we do because some weird things have happened to them: Anthony’s mother told us that her car stopped one spring. She opened the engine door and saw a nest that squirrel had made so it could be warm during the night. To make a nest, birds use sticks and twigs, but instead of the sticks the squirrel used wires from the car :0

Birds sometimes also make nest at weird places … like this, where none can reach them.

Some animals like to keep themselves clean, and when they visit a free swimming pool they can bring whoever they want… as long as they hold a law profile…

But when they get busted, they have to find another place to have a bath!

Today there was marathon run close to our house. They run so fast that they looked like they were in competition with rabbits. This rabbit had time to take a rest on the parking lot.