White christmas in Hawaii

Believe it if you want to, but we had a white christmas in Hawaii. It is without doubt I say that the beautiful, white beaches of Hawaii, counts as "White christmas" just as snow represents a "white christmas". We started of with a great breakfast this morning, with salmon, scrambled eggs, roast beef, tuna salad and home-made "rundstykker"! It was amazing.


Then me and Kane Yoshida, a german friend, went for a jog around Waikiki just to check the christmas status, and I also stepped down on the beach so that I could tell people that I was chilling on the beach on christmas eve. Then it was home for some "porrage"? that Marianne's mom sent us from Norway, and the christmas spirit aroused in all of us! Why shouldn't it? We had a white christmas, christmas tree - no star, but we found a loop that looked neat, and porrage and the turkey was just chilling with some stuffing shoved in his ass - yummie!


As the turkey was ready, the day stepped into its climax! THE FOOD! It was so good, we had a 19 pounds turkey, for 4 people (it's about 8.5 kg) so it was just enough... Hey, I was hungry, ok. And as Kenny (a guy visiting Marianne and Merethe) said when I asked "How do we know the turkey is done?", he answered "It's just as with the ladies, when the turkey legs loosen up and spreads, it is ready." My lesson was learned.


Then we made some ricecream and strawberry sauce with it, it was top notch! And now I am way to tired to write more! Enjoy the pictures - I will upload christmas pictures on both Facebook and on www.picasaweb.com/tollaas ! ENJOY the rest of 2007! Update follows in days as Vegard arrives...

Merry Christmas

Hi, just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all who reads this blog!
And I also wanted to say that I want to call you and wish you a merry christmas, all I need is your phone number - I call from skype, so it's cheap for me. So for everyone who wants a call from Hawaiiboy, just leave your phone number in the comments or send it to my e-mail tollaas@gmail.com - hope you do it!

Vegard is visiting for New Years Eve

The very same guy that left me back in Aalesund when I traveled around the world, is now coming over for a visit, so that I won't be lonely on New Years. He is arriving in Honolulu the 28th of December in the evening and he will be staying for two weeks.

During his stay here, we will probably just relax, which includes: travel around the island of Oahu, surf, hiking in the mountains, walk through the rainforest, surf, scuba diving, bodyboarding, bicycling around the island, surf, and last but not least, just lay on the beach and relax. And of course, I will show him around the different campuses.

As my roommates are getting over two friends from Norway, and Vegard is coming, our apartment will all of a sudden, not be that big anymore, but it is going to be fun, and crowded...

Not too much going on, besides 4 final exams next week, so there is not too much time at the moment to write on my blog, nor is there too much things going on.

But to see in the future, Friday 7th of December, the Swedish Student Association at HPU are having this years biggest party for HPU students. It will be "Svensk julemat", "juleglogg" and some other scandinavian traditions. And after next week, the 14th of Decemeber, me and some other guys, will travel to North Shore and watch this years biggest surf competition: Triplecrown Billabong Pipeline masters. Pictures will be uploaded!

Announcement

I just wanted to say that this blog isn't optimized for uploading pictures and stuff, so I will keep adding a couple of pictures to my blogposts. But I will also post alot of pictures on my other "website" thing, that comes with my e-mail account

The address is: http://www.picasaweb.com/tollaas

I will try to upload most of my pictures there!
There is already some, but they are mostly old

Thanksgiving

Patrik and Tommy

Well, I have had a blog vacation, mostly because of nothing of special interest have happened lately I guess, plus there have been a lot of other stuff keeping me busy - and it is all about priorities. So the first post in a couple of weeks I will tell you about my first thanksgiving celebration ever. The celebration of the Pilgrims coming to America or something something...

One of my Swedish friends, Patrik, have a roommate, and his roommate invited me and Patrik over to his families house to eat with them and have a good time! And who can resist a good time. So Patrik, Tommy and I went to Tommy's aunts house and had the most fantastic turkey I've ever tasted (props goes out to Tommy for making the best food!). It was so good.

The food

We got there, met up with his aunt and his cousin and the rest of the people that was there. Basically we just said grace, ate, ate, ate, talked and watched football (the american one...) I am really glad for the invite I got, because I wanted to see how they celebrate it here, it is such a big and important holiday for some.

The view

As you can see, they had the most beautiful location for the house, right next to the sea and a pool. Because even though it looks beautiful, there is so many sharks in the water there... But mostly just small hammer sharks.

Bad weather

Well, I am sorry to say this, but the weather is at the moment on its worst since I first got her! The rain is poring down, and the wind is massive! Yesterday, when I was on my way home, the transformer for electricity right next to our building, EXPLODED! I was the second closest person to the accident, and the guy in front of me was just shaking and in a trance telling me how insane it was. Like I didn't know, I saw the explosion just as he did. The cops was quick on the scene and closed the area around the transformer, and our building was out of electricity the whole night. It was interesting... It was just like watching a James Bond movie; nice effects!

Halloween is over, but I haven't gotten all the pictures yet, so I will soon post a new post with pictures from Halloween. And I didn't bring my camera, so I weren't able to make any pictures of the explosion. I take some self-criticism for that, I NEED TO BRING MY CAMERA WHEREVER I GO!

Well, I don't know how the weather is in Norway, but my wild guess is; better than here! If I am wrong, I really pity you. I also made my decision clear, I will not come home this christmas. I might even need to take a class in my "vacation". So I need to stay here.

Ciaõ for now

Rollin' Hawaii

Me and Anniken at one of the beaches we visited:
Group picture:

On Sunday morning, 7.30, we all met outside the VIP Transport Car Rentals, everyone was set for an awesome trip around the beautiful island of Oahu. On this trip we was going to visit Kahamea beach, Waiamae beach, Turtle beach, North Shore and "the LOST beach"! This was a blast! We started off driving, our lovely Jana was the driver of the car I was in. We had the map, so we went first. We had some problems with getting on the right roads in the start, but after some wrong turns and stuff, we was on our way, we was on the highway, heading east. We stopped after a some driving at a scenic point, to take some pictures and stuff.

Marilyn Monroe / Anniken Volckmar:

Then we kept on driving until we saw the mystery island, or something.. Not sure what it's called, but it is close to Oahu, and is a small island. Beautiful sight. As always, Hawaii is so unpredictable! One second the sun is shining, and the other second, it looks really bad! So the weather ahead looked really bad! But luckily, we dodged a bullet, and we never experienced any rain. And yet again, some complications with the map reading / communication got us to a military base, which was cool!

Me and Pia:

The weather didn't look good as we were getting closer to North Shore:
Famous monument as seen in the movie "Iwo Jima":

Then it was over to the beach, where we could see the "Chinese hat" - thats the island that really looks like some Chinese hat! Then we arrived at the Waiamae beach, and there was this rock where we jumped from, and it was really fun, even though you got so much salt water in your nose that you could serve salt for a whole dinner-party.

Me handstanding next to the Chinese hat:

Jumped from the cliff:

Yet another group picture:

Then we went to a beach that a local told us we would most likely see Sea turtles! And we did! We even got a really good close look at them, and that was so cool! I didn't enjoy touching it, but it was still cool, just to do it.

Jana touching the sea turtle:

After this, we went on to the trips last stop: The beach were the very popular TV show LOST is being recorded. There was supposed to be houses and effects from the series, but it was getting dark, so we didn't have time to find all that stuff. So we just went to the beach where it is being recorded. We tried to write "LOST" with ourselves, but it didn't work out that well, or it worked out well writing it, it was just hard to get a decent picture of it, since had to take it from a bad angle, when the optimal angle would be over us and down, but that's hard! So we just figured to write LOST in the sand, and get the heck home, as we were all getting tired after a long and adventurous day!

Trying to form LOST w/our bodies:

"Det enkle er ofte det beste":

The last group picture of the day:

The L.A. Lakers game

Well, last Thursday, exactly a week ago from this very day, I was at a Lakers game - for those who doesn't know, Lakers is a NBA basketball team, and they were having a pre-season game vs another NBA team: Golden State Warriors, respectively from San Fransisco. I went with Truls, a Norwegian friend of mine. We took the best seats available, and had to pay freakin 80$ for the ticket. And the tickets was very close to the 35$ tickets, but it doesn't matter, we couldn't know that! And it was an awesome game, so I don't regret it for a second that I payed for the best seats!


In the start, we didn't sit at our own seats, because we had seats EE row 18 seat 15 & 16. But we sat at E row 18 seat 15/16 the first quarter of the game. But after a while the owners of that seat came, and we had to look for our own seat.

And of course, how could I not tell; the Lakers girls. They entertained us in every time-out and every pause between the four different quarters. It wasn't the most amazing show, but they were all pretty decent looking, so there is nothing wrong about enjoying their lame entertainment.

As the game was closing in, we went to the courtside, and sat on the 4th row or something, the last quarter or something. This was cool, and we got a close look at Lakers' coach - Phil Jackson, a legendary Basketball coach, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (old school Michael Jordan?) He is now the assistant coach of Lakers, I think. He is the NBA player with the highest total points together in all time! And of course, this times Michael Jordan: Kobe Bryant! He is at the moment the worlds best player, and it was AWESOME! I actually was so lucky, that I got a video of a 360 slam-dunk of him, which I will try to post in this blog!

I Find My Way Around

So far, so good. Everything is still all good here in paradise. Lately I've been surfing a lot, and as mid-terms are coming up and on-going (had my math mid-term today) there is not that much of interest that is happening except from me having a really good time. Both socially, actively and school-wise. The last few days I've gotten back a lot of graded homework, projects and quizzes. And I am sad to say, I got my first B. And that in COM 1000, the one course I actually find interesting, and the one I do most in. Well, I guess it's bad luck or lets blame the test! But even though I got my first B, I also got back four more A's, and my first essay is due on Thursday, so I guess that will be my second "not-A-grade". Don't feel to confident about it, even though it is a well-told story about an dynamite-accident; my grammar sucks, big time!

Anyways, the last week I've been surfing 4 times or something, and it is AWESOME! As I am getting better, it just gets more and more fun and exciting. So this weekend I will go to Ewa Beach and a spot which is called "Barbers point" to surf. It is supposed to be much better than Waikiki, both for starters and advanced surfers, because Waikiki isn't really that good at all for surfing. So on Saturday morning I will be surfing Waikiki, and on Sunday morning I will take the bus over to Ewa Beach, and I am going to try "Boogieboard" for my first time. I got this girl in my math class, she promised me to teach me how to boogieboard, so I am relying on her to make this a fun experience.

As this past week has been boring and nothing much have happened. This week we're in right now is so full of stuff to do. Today I had my Math mid-term as I mentioned earlier. Tomorrow I need to see a tutor as a part of my essay assignment and do a extra credit assignment in math. On Thursday my essay is due, so I really have to work on it tomorrow.

Need a new paragraph for this one: Thursday night is L.A. Lakers night! The L.A. Lakers and the Golden State Warriors will have a pre-NBA-season show-off match here on Hawaii next to University of Hawaii (not HPU, which is my university). Me and Truls (a fellow norwegian student) will go to that match. So we will see "the new jordan": Kobe Bryant - in action! Pictures of this will be uploaded as soon as I get a hold of them.

That's all for now folks, or something; I'm off for the gym

P-P-Police and P-P-Poker

Lately nothing major have taken place. This week have been some quizzes and stuff, just the usual. Only gotten A's so far, so school is going fine I guess. This weekend I mostly just chilled and worked on some big project for my computer science class. But on Friday I took some time off to play poker with some guys down at "The Ohia" - that's the student dorm on Waikiki.



Other than that there is not to much to write about, except from today, a couple of hours ago there was a weaponed action with the police hitting a probably huge drug catch or something. Because there were six police cars, about 20 police officers and a couple of guys was handcuffed. They were still searching the car when I was passing by. I was on my way back from the gym. And it is so frustrating, right before I went to the gym I thought; "Should I bring my camera?" - I usually thinks that before I go to the gym, and most often I end up with leaving it at home. Same as for today, left it at home, so I didn't get any close "mug shots" though... To bad, huh? But since it was on our avenue, I got some ok picture from our Lanai which I will add. And I've learned my lesson; always bring the camera, wherever I go, even if it's just to the gym or convenience store.

Thunderbird airshow

I was supposed to tell about this last week, since it was last week it happened, but anyways; there was this AWESOME show on Waikiki beach last week with five Thunderbird F-16. Have you ever seen Top Gun? Multiply it with 10 and add another 30 and thats how many times better it was than Top Gun. They did all these amazing stunts and awesome tricks. Of course I brought my camera, but to take good pictures of F-16 going 1200km/h or whatever they do, I have no idea... Probably even faster. Anyways, I got some photos worth showing, but the picture don't really show how amazing it really was, and thats to bad. I did take some videos too, but you need to see it with your own eyes to know how good it really was. To describe how cool and awesome it was, I almost got tears in my eyes, I had to struggle to hold it back. Why? I am so sad that I didn't choose to be a F-16 pilot. Of course it is never to late, but I rather head the way I am heading now, than to be a F-16 pilot. Enjoy the pictures!

Still Alive

My bad alibi
Due to some internet problems I haven't been able to write blog lately. My internet connection is now stable (as we got our own internet at home; finally!) So as some might wished for, I am still alive, and for all you whom wished the opposite; I am sorry to disappoint you... Well, since my last post "Tryout for the Sea Warriors" a lot of things have happened, some boring stuff, which I will avoid sharing with you, but also a lot of cool / fun / exciting things have been taken place the last few weeks and I will share it with you.

My soccer tryout ends
Let's start with the shortest tryout ever. I was at one practice with the HPU Sea Warriors, a good team, with a lot of good players (better than I thought), but as I came to practice, the team was already full (23 players), so I guess Scott - the coach - just wanted to see if I was some kind of superman or something, but since I am not, he told me that I could practice with them from time to time to keep the skill where it's at and play for them next season. Another thing I found out was that the season in America is only from the start of August to mid December. The team also had to captains, which was funny - last year they had four captains - playing at the same time... I will also add a picture of the soccer practice area on campus.



The same day as the tryout was also the first day of school, but since it is school, nothing interesting happens, so I won't say anything about it except that it was all good, and I actually enjoys it.

Despite all the school - there's a lot! - I also have some spare time, which I usually uses to workout at the local gym, chill at the beach. I've been looking for some guys to play beach volleyball with, and now, finally, I got to know some players, so we will start playing a couple times a week. And tomorrow I will meet up with this guy from Florida who've been living on Hawaii for a couple of years and works at a surf shop. He will let me lend some boards and try out to find the perfect board. He also knew some stores who sells surfboards really cheap, so I can't wait to start surfing - with my own board! :)

Met my first celebrity
Since I no longer watch LOST on television, I didn't know who he was. But my roommates Merethe and Marianne recognized him at once. "Oh! Look Marianne! It's the psycho from Lost" Merethe said. And since they aren't that comfortable with talking to strangers, I walked over and had a little chat with him. Despite him being a psycho in LOST, he was a really down to earth and decent guy. And when he finally asked if I was a fan of the show, it was kind of embarrassing to tell him that I don't watch it. But I also put a white lie in their, saying that the show haven't aired in Norway yet - he bought it. Well, here he is, the "LOST-PSYCHO" Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) with one fan and one confused Mads - but still excited - although I don't know him, he is probably the most famous person I have ever had a conversation with.

Pictures of the beautiful campus : - )
I will also add some pictures from the campus on HPU (downtown campus and Windward campus; HPU got two different campuses). And some other random pictures I have taken lately.
Enjoy!

Tryout for the Sea Warriors

As the new guy in town, I finally got in touch with HPU's coach of the soccer team and after some chitchat I got my first practice as a tryout. Tuesday 4th of September, the same start as school, I will also attend my first soccer practice in four years? I am a bit nervous and really really excited. Really hope to match the level and get a secure spot in the first 11 man lineup. So if anyone got some good tips for a real defense-rookie - give me asap!

Since the team are in need of a defender, I will be tried as a defender, but I guess this is the rise of the new John Arne Riise - the golden lefty. If things doesn't turn my way, I at least had a decent shot at making it.

Ciaõ for now!

Prepared for school

Well, as I put day after day behind me on Waikiki, Honolulu, the school is about to start. Tuesday 4th of September is the magic day when I am finally a part of the Hawaii Pacific University as an active student. This is good and I can't wait to get it all going - except from me getting no psychology courses the first semester - thanks to the American Education System which makes the Freshman year a "Generel Education" year - much like the third year in norwegian high schools, most international students don't need these courses because they are only transfer students for 1 or 2 semesters, but as I am a degree seeking student at HPU, I need these general education courses.



What is the point of me taking Elementary Algebra? I asked them - and they told me that psychology is a lot of statistics and graphic-reading - that's ok, I might understand that. But what what about the course "American Political System", what are the connections between psychology and the american political system I told myself; and it all got clear to me, the american political system is partly guilty for america having a really high unemployment rate, and that might be partly guilty in turning depression and similar psychic afflictions into todays peopledisease like cancer.


Well, that's it for now, the apartment is great and we are really getting along with each other so that's great! Soon, I guess, we will get our own internet so we don't need to steal internet from free hotspots around in Waikiki. Got some new nice pictures of the apartment that you will see in this post and I will also get up some pictures of the YMCA where I stayed last week.

Its fun to stay at the YMCA

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.

They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...

------

I never understood the lyrics of the most gay song ever created, always wondering what kind of gay club "the Y.M.C.A" was or something like that. Years went by, I forgot the lyrics, found a cheap place to stay, called the "YMCA Central Branch, Honolulu" and I totally went for it, though I thought that name was kind of gay, especially when I saw other YMCA branches whom stated "men only"; anyways this branch is for both men and women... But where is the women? I've only seen men so far. And everyone is extremely nice, you kind of just talk to everyone around and have a nice little chat there and there, it's all good.

10 minutes ago I realized I had time to write some blog posts, so I hooked up with YouTube and searched for the YMCA video of Village People and the lyrics just to see how it's like. And they are actually talking about the kind of YMCA "hotel" I am staying at, they had the same logo.. Scary.. It doesn't seem gay at all, it's more like a Christian place or something... Gays and Christianity ain't going to well together I guess, so I'm safe for now. And I am just staying here 'till tuesday, because then we will be moving in in our apartment down at Waikiki beach, 50meters to the beach, it's AWESOME! The pictures you see is both from the apartment which I am to move in and the room I stay in at the moment, you will easily distinct them from each other.

I will also let recommend to see the video that I am posting with this post, just to get the spirit up! (and remember to bring your jeans from the 70's):

There you go

Good Night!

My first day in Paradise

My first day in Waikiki, Hawaii is closing in, and it's been a great, yet expensive day! I woke up and by my watch it was 10.20, so I went up and down along the world known "Waikiki beach" to look for an electronic store where I could buy some poweradapters for my laptop, cellphone, iPod charger and camera charger. After that I hooked up with a taxi to get to the Hawaii Pacific University (later referred to as HPU) campus to see what Honolulu downtown is like... It was awesome! A lot of cool architecture downtown! But of course, my cameras battery was tired and got some sleep before I got it recharged when I got home. So pictures from the campus and Honolulu downtown will arrive shortly! At HPU I met with some dudes and gals who helped me around and told me where things happens. When everything was cleared, I went to the department of off-campus housing office and didn't get any help, besides what I already knew, so I kept searching for a permanent place, can't stay in a hotel the whole year (or maybe.. dad, what you think about that?). I made a couple phone calls and some e-mails, with no luck.



When leaving campus I took the bus back to Waikiki, went into a fitness shop and got some nutrition (it's hard to find real food that ain't junk here!) and then I signed up for a deal with 24fitness which is the local gym - and HPU had a great deal there. After that I went home, found some respectable gym clothes and went to the gym, and by the time I was done, the sun was setting, so I didn't enjoy the sun my first day in Hawaii, what a bummer!

Aloha, Aloha International airport

Finally, after a trip exceeding 40 hours, I was finally standing on Hawaiian ground! With "Nattbussen" from Ålesund to Oslo (9hrs) which wasn't bad at all. I was actually checking out prices on the flights from Vigra to Gardermoen, and the cheapest I found was 750 NOK, which is a good price, but since one of my best friends, Sigurd, was also planning on taking the same bus as I planned, I decided to take the bus. On the bus we met Veronica Hjertvik and Hanne Rensvik whom was going to Gran Canaria for a week. Sigurd was by the way on his way to Sessvollmoen - a military base - to "dimme". On the bus me and Sigurd planned our plans for the summer of 2008 - route 66 - crossing the states with a old school 68 Ford Mustang (or something like that!!:D).

After some good times on the bus, we parted our ways, or they left and I was still waiting 3hrs for my plane to take off. Luckily I fell asleep on the bus from Ålesund to Oslo for a couple of hours (Kvam - Lillehammer) because on the plane to London, Heathrow I couldn't sleep for a second (I'm actually abit afraid of flying - because I have no control over what happends, and if a situation was present, theres nothing I could do except sitting and waiting for Death to pick me up at 30.000ft under the sea). Anyways, same thing happened from Heathrow to L.A. couldn't sleep for more than the last hour (btw. had to run to catch the plane, 2hrs at Heathrow may seem like a lot of time, but it's not!).

When arriving in L.A. there was a lot of american paranoidity at the airport with all different security controls and forms and sh*t. The guy in the first security control got me really nervous, started of with yelling at me because I had my headset on my head (with no music of course, but he didn't care about that) and I was also carrying my laptop in my hands, and he told me to put it away, and I left it on his desk, then he yelled again and told me to put it on the floor, then he turned all mr.nice guy. So it was all good, until he asked me where I'm going to, and when I answered Honolulu, he said the worst thing a flightphobic can imagine: "So, your still flying to Honolulu even though the hurricane still isn't over?" Like I wasn't nervous enough before he started all this stuff; I really didn't need this. More running to catch the plane to Honolulu; and with some help from an airport volunteer (which I had to pay 10$ for some charity stuff - that I didn't know!). Yet another time, I didn't get any sleep because of the hurricane thing I guess, because I was dying for some sleep, but I finally made it the last hour, and with no hurricane at all in Honolulu, we landed safely and from there I took some airport shuttle to the hotel where I'm staying. Got some food, and got to sleep! Finally, I'm standing on Hawaiian ground, which I probably will be for the next years!!

I'm sad to say that Vegard departs

As I mentioned earlier, my travel companion is my best friend Vegard Flatøy, now it seems like he will not be joining me on my travel to Hawai'i. The reason for that are many, he needs some extra courses from High School - physics, chemistry and biology, and he wants to get some better results on some of his exams from NTNU. He also got a girlfriend in Norway, and they've been seeing each other for about one and a half year, so his decision to stay in Norway for another year, and then reconsidering the opportunity to take his 3+2 Engineering at Hawai'i Pacific University.

My sweet 32hrs travel

My plane ticket is ordered and everything is set for my trip to Hawai'i! I will leave Ålesund tuesday night, taking the bus from Ålesund to Oslo. From Oslo my plane leaves Wednesday 11.50 and my route includes London, Los Angeles and last but not least, Honolulu, HI! 23.00 on Wednesday I will set my feets on Hawaiian ground for the second time, but this time, I will stay 'abit' longer.

Why I chosed english in this blog? I got to practice, because my english, as you may see, is no good.

Good night, sleep tight and always do right!

Accepted (Officially)

Today I finally received the officially acceptance package from Hawaii Pacific University! I'm so damn excited! Can't wait until I'm going to Hawaii and catch the perfect wave etc. In the acceptance package I received a diploma for my acceptance into the Bachelor of Art in Psychology and a lot of other important information for international students and for the course which I am taking.

chao chao! That's all for now folks

Aloha baby!

It looks like me and my bestfriend Vegard, are moving to Honolulu, Hawaii in the fall. It will be the greatest two years of my life, theres no doubt about it! So depressing to know that it's still 3 more months till we move down there! So this blog will probably be used mostly for bragging about my good times at Hawaii, just for my self and for making you guys home in good old cold Norway super-jealous : - )