A professional wrestler at Sunnhordland????

We had our Open day at school on saturday. We did different activities for kids and such. I did face painting. This is an article in the local paper. You can see me in a picture. Underneath it it says, " Susanne Skaare Bø (9) was one of many that were painted on their faces by Patrischa Thoreson." (i know, he spelled my name TOTALLY wrong...)

This beginning part is really funny though. One of the activities the guys did was wrestling. In the paper here it says, "Idar Fardal is a professional wrestler, and has competed in 7 countries. But today he went agaisnt the children on Halsnøy." ......Idar is a student here, NOT a professional wrestler. But to make this even funnier, the guy in charge of norways wrestling circuit e-mail the school saying he was suprised to read this in the paper cuz he had never heard of Idar but he would really like it if Idar would contact him so they can work together. LOL!!! This guy was serious!!! We all had a huge laugh about this during dinner today. How the paper got that idar was a professional wrestler, i dont know. But this is sure funny!!

Here is the article...

Fribrytande og open skule

Idar Fardal er profesjonell fribrytar, og har turnert i sju land. Men han fekk brynt seg mot ungane på Halsnøy.

[ Publisert: 30.04.07 kl. 07:30 ]

Wrestling var berre ein av mange populære aktivitetar då Sunnhordland Folkehøgskule opna dørene for publikum laurdag. Idar Fardal og Sigurd Hunstad baud opp til kamp på brytematta, men måtte sjå at ungane heller ville vera med på ekste vasskrig.
Men etter kvart fann vasskrigarane ut at brytarane ikkje var så farlege likevel. Etter ein liten halvtime måtte Fardal og Hunstad be om pause, totalt utslitne.

Susanne Skaare Bø (9) var ei av mange som vart målte i ansiktet av Patrischa Thoreson.

Liten kontakt

Bygging av gapahuk, diverse uteleikar, ansiktsmåling, eventyrstund, barnedans, moderne- og improvisasjonsdans, organisert vasskrig, stikkball, teikne/måle til musikk, potettrykk, ballongmåling med dartpiler, wrestling, rockeverkstad, twister, lydverkstad (lage sprø/morosame lyder), karaoke, innspeling i studio og teaterframsyning for born var noko av det elevane ved folkehøgskulen baud fram til dei som kom. Aktivitetane var primært retta mot skuleborn frå 1. til 10. klasse.
– Me håpar å skapa eit lite lyspunkt. Me gjer dette for innbyggjarane rundt oss, for å visa kva me driv med, men og for å få nyttige innspel, forklarar Ilse Håbjørg frå Trondheim. Ho sit ved påmeldingsskranken og har ikkje fått talt opp enno. Men ho reknar med at minst 60 ungar var med på ulike aktivitetar.

Fribrytar Idar Fardal viste seg å vera ein svært så leiken og populær kar.

Organisert vasskrig

– Me likar oss veldig godt her, men held oss stort sett på skulen og dei fleste av oss har liten kontakt med halsnøybuane. Men no er det vår, og me vil nok verta meir synlege ute blant folk, trur Kine Strøm Braaten frå Kongsberg.
Det var nok flest som deltok på vasskrig. Væpna med vassballongar skulle laga hente flagget som stod på motsett side av fotballbanen.
- Moro, slår Mats Johan Eriksen fast. Han var på open dag i fjor og, og han visste det var kjekt, men likevel var det så vidt han hadde tid til å prioritera å gå.
– Kva er alternativet?
– Spenna fotball, svarar 14-åringen med Solskjær-drakt. Så stappar han i seg ei pølse og er klar for ny krig – mot dei utslitne og mistenkjeleg dårleg trena fribrytarane.

Magne KydlanD
magnesunnhordland.no

Malene Medhus (12) jaktar på Aleksander Koløy (13). Vasskrig var det nok den mest populære aktiviteten under open dag på Sunnhordland Folkehøgskule.

Skiing..again

So we went skiing in the mountains by Lillehammer today. At the ski place the 1994 Olympics were held. It was...fun. The snow sucked, mostly fake and meting or ice (but i guess that's what u get in April.) It is weird to be skiing next to large patches of bright green grass and trees. In the group was me, Mari, Konstantin, Hege, and Marius (a new Marius.)

I don't think it has ever been so advantageous for me to have my first aid kit with me than today. At the beginning of the day we went all to the top of the mountain. To do that you must take those retarded T-bar lifts. Well, all went well with those this time. We got off and we were standing on opposite sides so we argued over which way to go and finally everyone grouped up on one side. Well up came a retarded T-bar rider that was scared of getting caught in it so they threw the bar to the side. It smacked into Hege and ricocheted off of her helmet, spiraling and into Konstantin. For a moment i thought, wow, we are lucky it hit Hege, who was wearing the helmet, but then i turned and saw a guy holding Konstantin (as he had fallen back) and his face was just covered in blood. I saw that it was a nosebleed and Mari was nagging me about getting my first aid kit out to help him but i needed a towel, not a band aid. I was standing there thinking what i can do, with mari freaking out next to me and Konstantin was looking all sad and bloody. He said he was a little dizzy so the guy that caught him layed him on his back. I jumped right on that and made sure Konstantin sat up and leaned forward (like i was taught in first-aid). Mari was now getting quite pissed that i hadn't done anything yet so i did the best i could and got my emergency wrap out of my jacket and gave that to Konstantin to hold the blood. Its not very absorbent, but it works...i just hope the blood washes out cuz i don't wanna buy a new one... Well all turned out ok, we went down the hill and konstantin rested a while because he was dizzy but that was all.

The other incident happened at he end of the day. Me and Konstantin were getting bored of the normal hills so we were indulging ourselves in the Terrain park. The last time, Marius followed us in but said he was going to ski around things. (He had only been skiing about 4 times ever) I jokingly said, "oh, yur no fun" and proceeded down the row of jumps after Konstantin. We stopped and turned, seeing Marius coming down the jumps, he wasn't graceful, but he made it. I let the boys go first for the next round of jumps and when i came over the last, biggest one, i saw Marius on the ground with his skis every where. Noticing him too late i started to slide on the ice towards him and managed to fling myself off to the side and in the matter of seconds, got my skis off and was leaning over Marius because he was a moaning and a groaning like he was going to die. He had apparently landed on his butt/thigh on the ice and had a cut on his face as well. I started doing all the checks to see if he had a concussion or possible spinal injury. Konstantin called for help and a ski patrol guy came. He took over and had me and konstantin take Marius's skis and poles down the hill to the health center, by where Mari and Hege were waiting, confused as to why it took us so long.

Our day was done then. Marius was carried down and we got him home alright. He is okay but cant stand on his right leg. Mari's dad is a doctor so I think if he says it will be fine, then i guess it will. All I have to say is that this was the most eventful ski day i have ever experienced.

--There was a running man holding a torch cut out in the trees on the mountain across from us. It was out there for the olympics.

Newsflash: American Girl That Was Lost in Norway After Train Breaking Down Has Been Found!!

April 5th, 2007

One, Patrisha Thoreson, a Minnesota native, was staying with some Norwegian friends during her spring break in Norway. She was traveling alone from one friend in Trondheim to another and was planned to arrive in Lillehammer 8:40 the afternoon of April 5th, 2007 via train. She had, previously taken the train from Lillehammer to Trondheim so the trip wasn't new to her.

Suffering from motion sickness, the American 18-year-old slept most of the journey so as to ease the sickness. "I was woken up around 7:30 and was told we all had to get off the train because of electrical issues." States Thoreson, "An announcement was played and said that we had to get on buses to Hamar and then catch another train from there." Or so she thought. The message had been in Norwegian and it is assumed that Thoreson either misheard or mistranslated because what happened was not correct. Thoreson proceeded to follow a group of fellow travelers onto one of the waiting buses. "I found it kind of weird that we drove past the small town that my friend lived in," said Thoreson, "It just didn't make sense to me."

9:40 p.m, an hour past the time she should have arrived in Lillehammer, Thoreson ended up in Hamar, an hour north of her intended destination. "I noticed there was only a train to Trondheim and a train to Oslo, I figured it wouldn't make sense to go back the way i came so i got on the Oslo train and asked a fellow passenger, just to be sure, if this would get me to Lillehammer because I was starting to get skeptical." The other passenger revealed to Thoreson that she had gotten on the wrong bus as this would only take people to Oslo.

With a sense of doom in her stomach, Thoreson got off the train and proceeded to the train station to see if she could find some help. Being it is Easter season, everything is closed and Thoreson had no luck in finding any personnel in the offices. Without a phone or even phone numbers, Thoreson had nothing else to do but go back to the train and find help. That help came in the form of a Railway official, clearing the train to leave. He was kind to Thoreson, noticing the fact that she was a "tourist" and arranged for a taxi to take her to Lillehammer, courtesy of the train station.

Thoreson arrived in Lillehammer at 11:00 p.m, almost 2 1/2 hours after her designated arrival time. "I didn't expect to see my friend still waiting for me, but I looked anyway."

Her friend, one, Mari Anette Jørgensen, had waited an hour for her foreign friend but, finding no one, she called home in a panic and was consulted to return as she couldn't do anything about it there.

While Thoreson roamed the streets of Lillehammer looking for a phone book and pay phone to try and make contact with her friend, Jørgensens father drove to Hamar looking for her and, not finding her, phoned the police in Hamar, Lillehammer, and the small town that the train-bus shift had occurred. "We were all so worried about her," says Jørgensen, "We couldn't even imagine the fright of being lost in a foreign country with no way to contact anyone."

Meanwhile, having no luck in contacting anyone, Thoreson returned to the Train station, prepared to spend the night there until morning when there would be people there that could help her. "I found a comfy looking bench and sat reading my book, just passing the time."

Thoreson did not have to spend the night in the train station, however. Around 12:30 a.m. two police officers came and, after confirming that she was the lost American in their reports, they told her that a man was coming to get her. 1:00 a.m., Thoreson was picked up from the train station by Jørgensens father, almost 4 1/2 hours after she was originally going to be picked up.

"It was definitely an adventure," states Thoreson, "I am just scared of how my family is going to use this against me in jokes for ages now."

Written by Patrisha L. Thoreson

Blogging Press, Norway

Bassoon Symposium

So a lot has happened and i have been lazy, so i am not even going to try to catch you all up on EVERYTHING. The thing on my mind now is the bassoon symposium i went to this weekend. (before this our music line went on tour and then i had a fun winter break in Drammen, e-mail me about it if you really want to hear about it, i dont feel like telling now.)

So the symposium...IT ROCKED!! There were about 40 bassoonists, many of them professionals, many in the process of getting doctrites and masters degrees and it was me and 2 others from another folk school that were the youngest there. I tell, it was a very stimulating/scary environment. On Friday morning, we started with a welcome concert where Per Hannevold (Principal bassoon of bergen philharmonic) and John Miller (principal bassoon of Minnesota Orchestra and bassoon teacher at MSU...what a coincidence!) played the 4 pieces that fridays master class was on and then with some students from the grieg academy they played a quartet.

After that was the master class, i didnt play anything for this one, just watched an learned.

After the master class we had lunch and then bassoon band rehearsal. I really wish you guys could have bee here, i tell ya, it was cool. Imagine about 23 bassoons (not everyone could be at the concert) playing in a (mainly) 4 part ensemble. WIcked, eh? We played hits such as Watermelon Fag (based on a popular jazz tune), In the Hall of The Montain King (so fitting), Oh Danny Boy, Cantina from Star Wars (possibly my favorite, it was SOOOO cool!!!!!), and the that one song where the singer goes "FIGARO!! FIGARO FIGARO FI-GA-ROOOO!!" We played it and it was cool, the melody traded nicely between all parts. We playe many other songs as weel but i forget what they were.

After rehearsal we had supper and then a reed class, which helped me a lot, i took many notes. That is the end of friday.

Saturday, we had band and then a concert at a huge shopping center in Bergen, many people enjoyed hearing, it was cool.

Then it was lunch, then a seminar on the contra bassoon. It was pretty wicked

But I am not going to finish telling u the schedule because you probably dont care and i am feeling really lazy. All in all it rocked and I want to do it again...enough said.

Drunken Story That Has To Be Told

This story needs to be told, it is so....interesting?
First of all, a pictureAs you can see, we have the buildings where the party was, the road, the atlantic ocean (which is quite deep even this close to land,) and a steep pile of rocks protected by a fence.

No that you know where I was, to the story...

Saturday night there was a huge party at the..uh.."community center" (Samfunn Hus) in town and everyone was there. This was the first time you could bring your own drinks and I had origionally not planned on going but a couple people backed out and had already bought alcohol and since we cant keep alcohol at school they literally Gave it to me to "get rid of." So I went out with Linn, Yvonne, Marius K and Marius B. We had a crap load of beer and a bottle of spicy mixed vodka, needless to say we got pretty tipsey, but no one as much as Linn and Yvonne, our resident alcoholics.

Around 3 a.m. it closed and they kicked us all out, me and yvonne and linn had to pee but they wouldnt let us use the bathrooms no matter how much we pleaded because it was now closed. Well, we saw all of these guys standing around peeing so we took the hint and went behind a parked car. Then we went back and finished the rest of the vodka. Linn, Yvonne and I were screaming and running about crazily, singing at the top of our lungs.
Next, Linn and Yvonne decided it would be really cool/fun to crawl on the other side of the wall and walk along the rocks, remember now, they are totally wasted. Well, protective lil me made myself stop having fun and sober up a lil as i realized the danger that entailed.....when the ocean starts ther is some rockes under and then a drop off and the water is 10 feet deep.

Anyway, i run over and try stopping Yvonne and pulling her back but as soon as i turn my back she is back over there, getting quite pissed at me cuz it would be fun and I was ruining it for her.
Well, marius gets a hold of her and linn starts running over there
i thought i had her stopped and i turned to grab yvonne because she was about to fall and when i turn around linn is on the other side of the wall, i run over there yelling at her to get back and she refuses then all of a sudden she screams and dissapears from view
i freak out and crawl to the other side of the wall and see her hanging there laughing
i grab a hold of her and try pushing her back but she doesnt want my help and starts asking where her purse is, i see a few feet below and go to grab it just as she swings her arm back and pushes me down, sven ove is up helping her and screams out my name as i slip and fall down into the water scarping my arms and legs on the way down. I manage to get out and i was like dripping blood
ugh i was so pissed
u should see me, i am all scratched up

And in recent news...Skiing!!!

Okay, recent news!!!
Yesterday we went to Røldal Ski Senter like a 3 hour drive from here in the mountains. I have never been to a ski place like it. First of all, the lift tickets rock!! They are small and hard and u put em in yur pocket and to get in line for the lift you have to go through an electric scanner and it senses yur card and opens the gate in front of you, so there are no workers anywhere. We were on the top of the mountains so there were NO trees what-so-ever. There was one regular lift that took u 6 minutes up and then front there were three other "lifts" that took you even farther up. These other "lifts" consisted of metal T-bars that as 2 people stand waiting they swing behind you and you grab it and put your side behind your butt and it push/pulls you up the hill. No one explained this to me, Mari and Thor went in front of me together and so I had to go alone, I had no idea what to do with these contraptions and ended up falling and had to grab one 3 bars back cuz i couldn't get it. And i didn't have a chance to see anyone get off so that was interesting....the bar got caught in between my legs...i felt so stupid. Anyway, about the slopes. When at the top of the lift, there were no trees, so you had your own choice of how to go down, it was all white wherever you looked and you could go down anywhere you wanted. There were a couple of groomed paths otherwise it was just normal fluffy snow that you could cut through. It was really cool that you can go wherever you want to down.

Some people, I saw, had these skis, apparently called Telemark Skis. (Telemark is an area in northern norway, they came from there) Now these Telemark Skis...they are weird. They are built just like normal carving skis but the heel is detached like in cross-country skis. You can attach it but most like it detached. Apparently it makes for easier jumps and w going down a big mountain you can easier maneuver and jump side to side with the freedom they give you. I have never seen these before and I definitely wanna try em some time!!

So Skiing was a blast, basically.

Im Still Alive!!

Wow, so I haven't updated folk on my life for a while now...not since before christmas. Anywho, here is a summary...

I went home for christmas, it was fun, I hung out with friends, partied, went to a casino for an entire night and finished it off with IHOP at 6:00 a.m. I skied with Scott, I worked, it was fun, and i ate, slept, went to the toilet and all other normal things that one does when they are home.

I came home the 3rd and was back at school th 4th. It took me about 2-2 1/2 weeks to get over my jet lag consisting of falling asleep in class, falling asleep after dinner, falling asleep before dinner, and all that jazz.

I started new classes. I now have oral training for the first 30 minutes of monday, tuesday, thursday. I still have music anatomy monday before lunch and theory after lunch. I got bumped up to the advanced theory class but i am still taking extra theory tuesday nights to catch up on anything i might have missed. I am in musical theatre tuesdays and thursdays (we find and arrange songs from musicals and perform them.) I am currently working on America from West Side Story and The Ballad of Sweeney Todd. It's fun. Fridays is Classical/Jazz studies, we have a concert on Valentines day at the old monastery...so cute! Wednesdays is still random themes that they decided to teach us, same as saurdays. Monday nights I have Pilates. Wednesdays I still have Jazz Dance but now we are actually JAZZ dancing (to All That Jazz from Chicago,) its fun. Thursdays I still have wind band but before that I have belly dance....yay, it rocks my socks off.

So yes, there has been snow here for a while, we have gone sledding and such. It keeps switching between snow and rain so it is really icy and when one is late for class and tries to run down the steep hill to the music building....well lets just say their butt gets cold. Thats it for now, I will fill you all in on more recent news in a day or so, PEACE OUT!!

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.

It's a No-Go for playing at the christmas concert :(

Okay, so, update on the composition(sorry, I know that is all I talk about but that kinda is my life at the moment.) I just found out that I will not be able to play it at the christmas concert. Me and Elin (the song teacher) sat and talked about it and we decided that it wasn't written for a small ansemble but practically a mini chamber orchestra and that it was way to hard if I wanted to play it....so I will be conducting it instead!! (had you goin there, didnt i?) 13 people playing together is kinda hard to stay together especially when the piece is contemporary and features many canons. So i found an art student that can play clarinet and she will take my place (i am kinda sad about this cuz i was really looking forward to playing and performing the clarinet) and i get to stand in front cunducting...it is sooo fun! I had never done much of it before (ok, so I DID sit in my room conducting the orchestras on the radio and such...a lot) but i never volunteered for it in band cuz i was scared i wouldnt be able to do it right and would just look fumbly and stupid but when i handed out the music and tried rehearsing after like 2 minutes i was like, "this isnt working" and i put down my clarinet and conducted,, just like that. I felt so nice and natural, standing up there directing my peers while they play MY music. I loved it. I think this is really going to push me into being a music teacher now that i know how it feels. Yea, sorry for ranting, i just wanted to tell y'all that.