4 days left

Howdy loyal fans!! The countdown is now down to 4 days (my time, its 1:13 a.m. here.) I am currently sitting in one of the sound studios working on my composition with my friend Thor who is on the sound technology line. I got the practicing going and got my group going good. It was kinda scary at first cuz everyone played really loud and didnt count right and it was really quite bad. But now it works and we began recording today after supper (8:00.) I was in there for a half hour before setting up so we could all go to sleep at a decent time but that didnt work for me. We ran into a bunch of technical difficulties and had to record it a million times. At least we managed to split it into 3 parts so we didnt have to do the whole thing again because of one mistake. Between parts I had to run up to the sound studio, listen to it, decide if I like it or not and I didn't like it I had to find what I didnt like and run down and fix it. My musicians were very childish and around 10:00 started complaining about it being too late and how they wanted to sleep. But they were all late, and then when we were working with mic difficulties they were really loud, playing each others instruments and such. That took a lot of time because me and Ilse couldnt communicate well with Thor and Cecilia in the studio. But it is done, we finished the main song around 11:00 and then went up to the studio with my main singer to record her and put her in so we could hear her well. We finished that around 11:30 and are now editing and such, making it a finished piece. At the beginning I did a lot but now I just sit around while Thor does fancy things on the computer with my song and I just have to input my opinion when asked. Yay...*sigh*. At least we get to sleep in tomorrow (if we are willing to sacrifice breakfast for sleep, that is.) *sigh*

So I havent played my bassoon in a week. Arild made a composition using me on clarinet, yvonne singing and sven ove on the congos. Its an awesome song. It's really jazzy and its in norwegian but the lyrics are something like this.......
Monkey went on a walk in the woods. He was in a bad mood and acting like a monkey shouldn't. ANd then he met the Squirrel. Squirrel sat eating an acorn. Monkey said, "You are stupid for eating a stupid acorn"

Monkey Monkey, is it worth all the trouble?
Just to harass a little squirrel?
Monkey monkey, does it make u feel good?
To hurt the squirrel?

And the Squirrel said, "What about bananas? They are stupid"
Monkay grabbed a stick and hit Squirell.
Then I will eat a stupid Squirrel
If I cant eat stupid bannanas.

Monkey Monkey, is it worth all the trouble?
Just to harass a little squirrel?
Monkey monkey, does it make u feel good?
To hurt the squirrel?

Yea.....I don't remember the lyrics exactly but that is the basic idea. I am so much better on the clarinet now. In the past 3 days I have spent 23 hours playing it....we spent 3 hours before supper in the studio and I vcant have chapstick on while playing cuz it gets on the reed and now my lips are really chapped and I kinda find my chapstick so I just borrow marius' and in just the time it took to write this i have borrowed it three times, my lips hurt so much. By the end of my song my clarinettist was starting to hurt as well. Oi, at least christmas is almost here. Our teachers said they would have us backed against a wall with work right until break and they didnt lie. We have our christmas concert tomorrow and then sunday I have a christmas with the wind band I play in. I have a solo in this one!! And it lasts for at least a minute!! Yay!! (well, the only reason I got it is cuz it is a fast part with bassoon and clarinets and our clarienetists are old and their fingers cant handle it so Clive just turned it into a bassoon solo, yay!! I love it, its so fun. I was scared he was gonna have someone else play with me or not do the song but it works now!! Yay!!

Reminder: I arrive in Minnesota wednesday, the 20th at 12:30 a.m. I will be suffering horribly from jetlag because around 3:00p.m. home, I will feel like it is bed time...oi. Yea, I leave school tuesday night with my friend Anette that lives in Bergen and I will spend the night at her house and then my plaine leaves 6:30 wednesday morning. I got to amsterdam and then america. So without the time change I will be traveling for 13 hours....ugh. But I gain 7 hours so it is only 7 hours of travel.....well, it is about 1:45 and Thor needs more of my help (we synthesizing Tuve's voice) so I will have to go, see y'all in 4 days!

Christmas In Norway plus some...

Okay so we had our "culture night" friday and that went pretty good. It was the music line entertaining the others with our own compositions for 2 hours. There were some really good songs and we are in the process of recording them right now.

December as come and for the norwegians that means celebration. By the time the average norwegian turns 72 he/she has spent around 6 years of their life celebrating christmas. They start beginning of december. There are special candle ceremonies and advent calanders being handed out and peppecaker every day. Its insane. And EVERYONE has some way of counting down to christmas. I am recieving advent gifts from my friend mari, everyday i wake up and there is a new gift outside my door. My first one was an old norwegian tradition but i had to have it explained to me cus i thought it was someones idea of a bad kind of joke. But one would think that when they get up and open their door only to find a plastic bag hanging on their doornob and inside the bag was an orange with tons of sticks sticking into it....ok? Well that is an advent calander with 24 sticks in it and u pull out one everyday and it gives the room a smell of orange and christmas....yea.

We had our first community wind band concert today. We played some neat songs and one was a traditional norwegian folk song called "På Vestlanisk Bondestemne" (on the west lands farmstead). A man came in and played the hardanger fiddle along with us, it was quite cool. And during intermission an accordian sextet played. They were pretty neat. Lol, they played Pachabels Kanon in D minor..that was interesting. Its nice, I have become friends with 2 clarinetist, a floutist and a cornet player...all these older ladies but it is nice to talk mature people once a week. Its really cool cuz they speak a lil slower for me and i can go through an entire rehearsal with saying any english. I am getting so much better!

17 days until I am home!! And am there for 2 weeks, until the 4th.