Waterfalls, Mexicans and peed pants!!!

It has been almost a month since my last post. i have not kept up with it as much as I would have like to, but this is the way i see it: I was going to write about my travels. I don't see it as traveling anymore. I see it as living here now. I can say that Norway is also my home, as well as in San Diego.
I;m pretty sure that no one is interested in my daily schedule! At what time I wake up, how I dress Sebastian up, then breakfast and so on!
But I will update you on some trips and fun things that have happened!
As some of you may know I have a Norwegian boyfriend, Alek, he lives on the island of Askøy which is a few minutes ride from Bergen. About two weeks ago he took me on a tour of the island! It was breathtaking! The fjords and the water and the clear blue sky were great! It was a bit windy but other than that it was a beautiful day!
Here are a few pictures.





This past weekend i went on another driving tour, this time with Stig, Sebastian and Aleksander. We drove a few hours east of Bergen where we saw waterfalls, fjords and beautiful views! One certain waterfall, Fossatun waterfall was really pretty! We first went into the souvenir shop where Stig bought me a hat and all of us got ice cream! Now the waterfall, there is a path there that takes you up under the waterfall and up to the pool at the top. You can also get out on the rocks at the bottom of the falls. But we didnt do either of those, one because they had it closed off and two, because I don't think anyone wanted to be wet in the car!
After this we headed further inland to a place called Skarsvatnet, or Goldfish Lake. Someone had released some Koi Carp into the lake in the early 1900's and they had bred to make this place a popular attraction.








Afterward we went to Voss, where Stig is from, to visit his parents. There we had lunch and Sebastian got to play with his cousin.
We got back home at around 17:00(5pm) and Aleksander and me got ready to go to a party that we were invited to.
The party was a birthday party for a woman I had met on facebook, I hadn't even met her yet, but we became friends after finding each other on "Mexicanos en Bergen" group and she invited me and Alek. There were a lot of people and Mexican music to dance to! I met many new latin friends and had a blast that night. I totally missed dancing and hearing the music. I mean I have that same music on my computer, but it's not the same hearing it with headphones as opposed to it blaring through the speakers and with 30 ppl forming a congo line! So it was an amazing day altogether!

Things at home here are great as always. Sebastian is starting to learn how to go to the bathroom and not pee in his diaper! He's doing really good and we hope that he'll be potty trained by the end of the week! So let's keep our fingers crossed for him, and us...who have to wash all the peed pants and socks!
well I have two and a half weeks left in Norway and I'm glad that I'm not that sad. I said THAT sad. I'm not that sad because I'm coming back! In September I will come back to work with another family here in Bergen again! But I am a bit sad because I'll not be with the Fretheim's anymore and because I'll also leave Alek for 3 months.
I also can't wait to get to San Diego to see my family! I do miss them!
Oh and the first thing I will eat is a chorizo and egg burrito with salsa verde, sour cream and limon and a big horchata!! Oh yes a mouth watering fat ass, artery clogging, makes your stomach hurt oh so good afterward BURRITO!!!!
I don't know if I've mentioned that this summer I will be working in Costa Rica for 3 months as a Outward Bounds Program intern! I'll be teaching surf camps, underwater explorations camps, and service project camps! I'll only be in San Diego for 5 days before flying to Costa Rica, and then in August when I come back I'll be in San Diego for about a week and a half and then I come back to Norway. So my time zones ar all messed up this year and I'll have been in the United States for a total of maybe 1 month for the year of 2010!!!
That's pretty much it for now! I hope to get at least one more blog in before I go back to San Diego! I hope to have time in Costa Rica to write and keep up with this blog but it will be a bit weird since this is titled "Away to the beautiful cold". But until then!! HADET!

Blame it on the ash!!

A few days ago Iceland had a volcano erupt! I'm sure everyone or mostly everyone heard about it on the news. Well the ash from the eruption has covered and spread almost all throughout Europe. I find it amusing how everything is blamed on the ash. People stress out because it causes bad weather, flights are canceled, trips ruined. And it's true. But its gone to the extent where we now joke about. Anything bad that happens; blame it on the ash. If its going to snow tomorrow, its because of the ash. Zoylas professor even sent an email about how he would post the assignment late because of the ash! Pretty funny!
So I now have an excuse as to why I have not been keeping up with this blog. It's because of the ash. Now I know some of you can come up with the legit response of "well you weren't writing before the volcano erupted", and i tell you "I don't care, it was the ash".
Last week we had beautiful weather....right now i look out the window and I see clouds and gray skies....theres actually still light out now and its 8:40pm. The sun doesnt set until after 9pm now. Not like in January where the sun didnt rise until 10am and set at 4:30pm. Now theres light at 5:30am and light after 10pm!
But as I was saying; beautiful weather!
On Tuesday, my day off, I met with my friend Marion who is also an au pair here from Uganda and afterwards with Aleksander, my boyfriend.
I started the day off by running up the mountain by my house. I showered and went to the center where I met Marion. We went to the library where I got my library card and checked out a few movies. We then sat by the lake and just sat there taking the sun in. I was able to take my shoes off, jacket off and roll my pants up. The birds were flying and singing and there was a man playing music nearby, it was a perfect day. I didnt have to worry about double jacket and a scarf or gloves and rain boots! Nothing!
Afterwards Aleksander met me after he got off of work and we went to his house, watched a movie and had food!!
It was the best day off ever!!!



Until later!!!! hadet!!!

Velkommen til Oslo!

Oslo is amazing!! Yes it is considered one of the most expensive cities in the world...but maybe that's why it's so cool!
I left Bergen one Friday morning and took a looong train ride to Oslo. There at the Oslo train station I had to catch another train to reach the place where I would be staying at. A friend of Stig's was kind enough to let me stay at his house while him and his family left for vacation. Very kind family, and I had a companion in the house too! His name was Tiger! A tabby cat that likes to drink out of the bathtub!
Anyways so I arrived to my final destination at around 6:30pm. I had pizza dinner with the family, watched some Norsk Talenter (Norwegian version of Americas got talent) and went to sleep.
Saturday morning I didnt leave for Oslo until noon. I didnt have a plan as to what I was going to do or what I was going to see. The best thing to do is to just wing it.
I stepped out of the train and walked out into Oslo center. I was surprised at how many people there were I haven't seen this amount of people at one time in a long time. I can actually say that the streets were crowded. Something that I can't say about Bergen right now. Plus, there were A LOT of Middle Easterns!
I walked around the center and walked into different shops and walked along many streets. I walk with purpose, so as not to seem like a big time tourist, because if you're a tourist then shop vendors attack you!
I walked into the main mall of Oslo, called Oslo City. It was PACKED!!!!
I bought myself some rain boots because I really needed them back in Bergen and some tall black heeled boots. They were relatively cheap. In the US they would be expensive but here they were at a good price! The rain boots were $50 and the black boots were approx. $75. So good prices!!
Later that night I went out to party! I met these fun Spanish guys that were also just visiting Oslo and we went bar hopping, but since the hour changed that night we lost an hour and the bars closed earlier.
Sunday morning I went back into Oslo and toured around the whole city. I was by myself but I still had a good time. I was able to go at my own pace and do whatever I wanted. My favorite place was Vigeland park where there are 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. Here are some pictures!









And yes I did go to the Embassy but I obviously wouldnt have been allowed in. So I just snapped this picture and ran! haha
All in all, I would like to go back to Oslo but with someone else. Not that I didnt have a good time, I did. But snapping pictures of yourself just looks conceited!
So Monday morning I headed back to Bergen. I was sick, I had gotten a cold while in Oslo and by the time I reached home I felt horrible. I layed on the couch and fell asleep.
And that concludes my trip to Oslo.
Apart from that easter weekend I went to Geilo, a 3 hour train ride from Bergen, where there is still lots of snow! Stig's company rents a cabin there so I went up to meet up with the Fretheim's and another family that was staying with them! It was a nice weekend and Sunday morning we had a nice Easter breakfast with colored hard boiled eggs and cinnamon rolls and more!
I apologize for not keeping up with the blog! Its been almost a month now. Sorry! Ill try and keep up with it more often! Until next time!!! Hadet!!

Kidnapped by Austrians part 2

Sorry its taken me forever to finish this. Let's see where did we leave off on? Oh yes! ambulance!
So after the half an hour drive to the hospital they rolled me into the ER and just left me there. There were about 6 other people in wheelchairs or sitting down waiting. Several of them were obviously injured on the slopes too because they either still had their ski/snowboard shoes on and/or snow gear.
Now I don't know what all the requirements are in Austria to be an EMT, but I am quite sure that one of them is that you have to be tall and handsome (dark really isn't an option here in Europe). It was as if I had walked...I'm sorry, rolled into heaven.
Finally after a few minutes a nurse took me into a room and they asked me if it hurt here and if it hurt there, she moved my knee around, pushed on it, touched it, made it hurt some more, and then said I needed to have x-rays done. So off to x-rays it was! It only lasted a few minutes. Once I got out, the ambulance gods were there ready to take me back to my house.
They drove me back to Bad Gastein where they rolled me all the way to the front door of the house I was staying at.
And there ends my kidnapping. I wish I had taken some pictures of them but I am sure that would have been quite creepy!
That night I took the longest warmest shower ever, and slept the most painful night ever. But it was a pretty cool experience. Not many can say they ate shit on the alps and was kidnapped to an Austrian hospital!
The next day we took a two hour drive to Salzburg. We first stopped at the zoo and that was fun. Sebastian's zoo map got snatched by a goat, which was actually pretty funny.


Afterwards we went to the city center and toured around. Ranveig and I went shopping and touring around taking pictures. We climbed up to the castle where the view of the whole town was amazing. We got lost several times but eventually we found the group and had dinner together at this little seafood deli right next to Mozart's house!





The rest of the trip was fun. Minus the fact that I had a busted knee and had to limp everywhere. But I really enjoyed the trip a lot! At night when the kids were asleep the rest of us would stay up and play Gin Rummy! It got intense but it was a lot of fun!
Bad Gastein is a cute town and I definitely recommend going there if you like to snowboard/ski or just want to see a beautiful small Austrian town... I was going to say German haha. A lot of the times i would forget we were in Austria and keep thinking that we were in Germany. Stig said that that was what Hitler thought as well. HAHA!!
But now its been almost a month since Austria and well to quickly catch you up on whats happened and what is happening. I finished my Norwegian class. I am officially graduated from Norwegian 2nd grade!! Wish I could take another course but I will learn on my own if I have to! I went to go see Alice in Wonderland with my friend Natalia. The movie was amazing, and the theater was HUGE! It fit 200 people easy! In that one room. Who knows how many other rooms they had.
This past weekend I hung out with friends an made more friends! It was both Deyan's and his mom's birthday and they had a nice dinner at his house.
This Friday however I am going to Oslo! By myself but I'll still have fun!
Once again thanks to all who keep up with my blog and thanks for the emails!
Hadet!!!

Kidnapped by Austrians! Part 1

So this past week I went to Bad Gastein, Austria!!! AMAZING!!
But let me first say that this blog will be very long with lots of pictures and details! Ill do a day by day play by play!
Friday, we left at around 11:30ish am to the airport. There we met up with Ranveig, Stig's cousin, and the other family that we were going with. Rune, Fanny, and their two kids, Andrea, 3, and Johan, 2. We were a total of 9! Funny/Ironic thing is that Rune and Stig are both from the city of Voss, and Fanny and Zoyla are both from Caracas, Venezuela! So we were a tri-lingual mess to begin with, Norwegian, Spanish and English.

Sebastian, Andrea and Johan
We flew from Bergen to Amsterdam where we caught another plane to Munich. There in Munich we rented a van and drove the two hours to Bad Gastein, Austria.
We arrived at House Binder at around 11pm ish, tired and ready to sleep. We were greeted by Hella Binder...yes Californians, her name is Hella. For those of you who dont understand the irony here, let me explain. In California, we use the word hella as a sort of "hell of a lot". For example, "I'm hella tired" or "she's hella stupid".
So I thought it was cute that here name was Hella...Hella was hella nice though.
Anyways, so the next morning we woke up, had breakfast and got ready to go skiing!

This is the house we stayed at!

A sign in front of the house! i loved it so much that I had to share it with you all.

Isn't it amazing. And no this picture was not edited. This is it.

Lengrennski!!!! Jeg kan go paa ski.

Sebastian skiing. 2 years old and he's got it. Its the Norwegian in him.
That night Ranveig and I went to Felsentherme. A spa in Bad Gastein. It cost 15,50 Euros for full access to all the pools and saunas.
Here are some pictures from the internet. i didnt take my camera into the pool area, obviously.





Now the bonus part of this was that there is a nudist area there. Yup, you guessed it, I did it. No bathing suit allowed, only a towel or nothing at all. And funny thing is, that's where Ranveig and I spent most of the night. We went into the saunas, swam in the pool, more sauna and then we went outside. It was soooo cold, but we swam in the outdoor pool.
During our whole visit there were these two younger guys, we werent quite sure what they were, Finnish, German, Austrian, who knows, but we kept bumping into each other but you can tell that we were all trying to act mature and not look and act as if it were the most normal thing in the world....but come on! Well we saw the guys in the outdoor area again, they had just come out of this cave. So I asked them what was inside, they answered "very hot". So we went inside, and sure enough it was "very hot". There were several other people in there, but there was this one naked Finnish guy performing some sort of ritual fanning exhibition with his towel, passing the heat around the whole room and fanning hot air into each persons face...mind you he was naked, but it was relaxing.
Afterwards we went to Christl Bar where we had pizza, Ranveig had beer and I had Irish coffee, and rum and coke.

Ranveig

Meg (me in norwegian)
Sunday, Ranveig and I stayed at home while Rune and Stig went skiing and the moms and the kids went to Felsentherme.
She had to study and I had an online test to finish. We finished at around noon and decided to join the moms and kids at the pool and went back to Felsentherme.
Monday we rented a snowboard for me and I went snowboarding with Ranveig. Now I know how to snowboard...in California, but in the alps? CRAZY! Instead of the straight shot down there are trails that you snowboard down, trails that are only a few feet wide and where they curve and where you cant get near the sides because if you fall you'll go flying 20 feet down. Well I was not used to that and I looked like a rag doll plummeting down the alps.
I was sooo sore that night, my ass, and knees and wrists hurt. But we rented the boards for two days so I knew I had to suck it up and knew that I was going to go for it the next day.
Sure enough on Tuesday we were at the ski resort at 10am and I was on that lift by 10:15am. The snow that day was ice hard, so every fall hurt ten times more. i felt bad that Ranveig had to keep waiting so I finally convinced her to go without me. So she finally did and I kept going at it until at one point this ski-er skied right over my board causing me to fall forward straight on my knee. I stayed down for a bit in pain from the impact but got back up again and went for it again, but my knee all of a sudden just gave out and I fell again. I kept trying and trying but it was as if my leg had fallen asleep and would not hold me up. A ski instructor saw me and asked if I was ok. I thought I was and said yes. "Well let's see you get up" she said to me. I tried again and no luck. Much to my dismay she called ski patrol. I kept telling her no, but she said I should have them take me down the mountain. Fine. So ski patrol came and lied me down on the ski bed and skied me down the mountain. Once there they said that they called an ambulance and that it would be there any minute. Horrified I said no, i didnt want to go to the hospital, but they kept saying "Yes, it's important and better to get your knee looked at by doctor. Could get worse". "Well can I at least tell the family that I'm with that your taking me?" "You can call them from the hospital, the ambulance is here", "But I can go find them, theyre not far" "It is better for you, ok ambulance is here bye". So there I go half an hour away to the hospital.....I will end this blog now, since it has gotten a bit lengthy and I am tired. I will continue later this week...so stay tuned to find out what else happened. Hadet og god natt!

Global Warming believers need to get their butts to Norway and SHUT THE HELL UP!

Bergen has not had this much snow in many many years. I will not state a number because I will probably be wrong. This past week it had stopped snowing, the roads were finally dry and rid of the icy sheets of death. The sun would peek out from time to time. No more slushy snow seeping into your shoes anymore because you could actually walk correctly on the sidewalks now. No more tense back and testing every step before you actually took it. People, including myself, looked like they were doing a sort of dance march. Tap, test, step. Tap the floor, put some pressure on your foot to test whether or not you can step there, and if so then you take that step. I call it the T.T.S syndrome. Although I may be an unusual case to the TTS syndrome because I find that the bearers of this diagnosis are usually within the ages of either 5-13 or 45-72. Im obviously in neither of the two. Everyone else walks as if they were Jesus on water, with great simplicity and speed. They never slip or trip. I dont know how they do it. But I shall work on it.
Now I apologize again for taking a week in updating this. Again I have had people ask me "Are you ok, you didn't update your blog." Again, I am fine!!! I've just been busy!!! But I shall update you now!...actually pause, bad news first. I lost my passport and wallet. I must have lost it on the bus when I was going back home from school. I don't know what's going to happen....I have no idea what's going to happen when my mom finds out...that I'm just kidding! hahaha. Love you mom!!
Ok, so last Monday I went hiking up Mt. Floyen. Yes. Mariana went hiking. Go mark that in your calendars as an international holiday. It's up there with Christmas and Easter. No, but really, those who know me, know that Mariana and hiking just dont get along. Well thats back in the States, where all there is to see is dirt....dirt...rocks. more dirt and rocks. Rocks and dirt. The hiking trails back home arent that great. Its not interesting if you can see your final destination from the parking lot. Here however it was amazing and Im going to do it again. It was an interesting hike. I went with 3 guys. Fernando who is from my norwegian class, Deyan (pronounced Ian)who I met at a dinner at Fernandos house, and Leo, a friend of Deyans. We met at Floybanen at noon, a skyline station that takes you up the mountain, and started hiking from there. It was beautiful but difficult, or rather than difficult I'd prefer to say interesting. the trail was all snow and ice.




It took us about 1.5 hrs to get up. We took pictures along the way and stopped for water and snacks. One thing that was clever and hilarious was finding icicles and having that as our water supply. You just hike and suck, and as wrong as that sounds, it was a pretty genius idea! Now if the hike up was interesting then the hike down was epic. I'm sorry, I should correct myself. The hike up was interesting and the slide down was epic...and painful. At one point we decided to skip one of the switchbacks and just cheat and slide down. Bad idea. Fernando went first, Deyan followed and I unwillingly slipped and followed right behind him. It all happened fairly quickly but this is what happened: Fernando disappeared, Deyan disappeared and then that is when I realized "Oh shit, there's a drop off". Before I could decide what to do I had fallen on top of Deyan and Fernando, a few seconds later we hear "oooohhhh nooooo" and Leo falls on Deyan's hand. Both Fernando and Leo were fine, I had hurt my bad wrist and twisted my ankle and Deyan's knee was messed up. Nothing too serious, and nothing we couldn't handle. So finally after sliding and running down that mountain we reached the bottom at around 3:20ish pm and ended what was a productive afternnon! I plan to do that hike again, but since it snowed a good 6 inches within the last 2 seconds, I think I'll wait a few more weeks. Let me just mention that when I first started speaking to Zoyla and Stig back in August and September, they mentioned that it barely snows here in Bergen. "No, Mariana, it mostly rains here. But snow? Maybe a week or two, that's it". Lies!Haha. It's been a month! But I, think it looks amazing! I love the winter wonderland look, and I prefer snow over rain any day!
Well this past weekend was interesting, met with new friends, had make-your-own pizza movie night, tried new foods, and had interesting conversations over coffee. I also went to Deyan's on Sunday where I had brunch with him and his mom. His mom is so sweet and has the best name in the world! Beautiful name. She spells it like this: M-A-R-I-A-N-A. Yup! Mariana. Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Next week its off to Austria my friends! So pack your ear muffs, snow boots, and snowboards or skiis! Becasue next Friday we will be in Badgastein, Austria!! Thanks for keeping up with me!
Hadet!!

Dont stand near the buildings.

I know I havent posted anything in a about a week, and I apologize. I've even gotten emails/messages saying: What's up? How come you havent updated? Are you ok?
Yes I'm ok! Just been too busy to sit down and write and upload pictures. I had school and this past week we had 4 guest nights. One last weekend with one of Zoyla's venezuelan friends and her boyfriend who were going to take Stig skiisailing course. We had an Iranian family come on Monday, and we celebrated Zoyla's birthday a week late.
One of Stig's friends who also fixed some problems on my computer and installed my computer with this massive lego building software. I'm scared to open it for fear that my ADHD will emerge and take over and then before you know it Mariana will have made a replica of the Taj Mahal on this lego software. Im capable of it.
And then more guests right now as Im writing this. One of Zoyla's colleagues and her boyfriend and one of Stig's friend and his dog Sheila. So Im finally in a house where the majority are Norwegians! I find myself understanding a good 35%-40% of the words theyre saying, which allows me to understand a good 70% of the whole conversation.

So this past week I came to learn that I hate snowmen. I have failed in snowman building! I want the secret as to how it works. I mean it seems logical to think: well you just make one big sphere shape that will act as the base, a second one that will serve as the middle and the top one to be the head and ta-da, a snowman! But NO!So instead I knocked it down and made a tunnel for Sebastian, that took me an hour to make and I also made my first official snow angel.

My snow angel!


Sebastian and the best snow tunnel in the world!!!

Now orange faced equestrian riders. Haha, I apologize to anyone who is reading this and falls under this category. But orange faced equestrian riders pertain to the young girls here in Bergen. It seems to be that its the "thing" to get fake tans, wear high black boots, pearl earrings and a cute coat. The coats are cute, the boots are cute and the pearl earring are too. But altogether they look like equestrian riders.
Sitting at the bus stop yesterday I saw 6 girls who looked like they were trying to match.

Anyways I went to the aquarium again this past week and I saw the scariest fish ever. I tried to research what kind it was since I forgot to look at the sign at the aquarium but I found nothing. But this is the picture I took of it.
That's just creepy! It was approximately 6ft long! Well whatever kind of fish it was it was still ugly and scary. I would not want to find that swimming underneath me.

Sebastian and me at the aquarium!

Im pretty sure I mentioned before that Bergen hasnt had this much snow in many years. Usually it lasts a week or two. This year it has lasted for almost 2 months. 2 months of snow is a lot, and where does snow fall on? Streets, cars,..and building roofs. What happens as the days get hotter? The snow starts melting. What happens when an idiot like me stands near a building? The snow falls on her. I had a hug snow pile fall straight on me this past Tuesday. Luckily it wasnt an icicle but it did hurt. But if I see anyone standing near a building i will not warn them, since no one warned me. And after snow smashes on someone elses head I will not ask if they are ok either. I think I would have preferred laughter or snickering but not even that. Nothing.

I want to add that I feel so lucky to have the Fretheim's as my host family. They have really made me feel like I'm part of their family and I get along really well with all of them. Just the other day Zoyla, Sebastian and I were dancing in the living room for a good hour, and that same night Zoyla and me were trying to imitate youtube dance routines!

Now for a little treat for all my lady readers. Let me introduce you to my new obsession: Alexander Rybak! Just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8JRtGMBUz0

And the background dancers are dancing a modern style of folkemusik dance!

Well I promise that my next entry will be a lot better than this one. This one was a catching up so that friends and family dont worry about me! Until next time! Hadet!