Shortie: The King & Queen

So, Hawai'i got a lot of beauty. That's also what it is known for, that and surfing. But what Hawai'i also got a lot of is homeless people. Around Downtown Honolulu where I live, there are quite some homeless people. Some of them walk around with their shopping cart filled with their belongings. But today, I've noticed it before, but I decided to share it with you. I found "the king and queen" of the homeless. Now, I'm not sure if they know it themselves, or if it is official, but I've never seen a homeless person with that many belongings. Now I don't know if all the plastic bags and bags are filled up with air or what, but from the size of it, I'd guess they are the "wealthiest of the homeless"

Lunch with the “elite”

Today was a good day. Today, the Norwegian Consulate General from the Norwegian Embassy visited Hawai’i and HPU. He is in charge of the 13 most western states in the United States, and came mainly to Hawai’i to talk to members of congress and leaders in business & entrepreneurship to promote "Innovation Norway". But he was also kindly enough to visit us at HPU and give the Norwegian students a little informative speech with a Q&A part towards the end of the speech he held.

Before this, me and two other students (Liss Maria Myrvang & Andreas Hetland) were lucky enough to eat lunch with him along with the Vice President for Acadamic Affairs Dr. John Kears, Dr. Cathrine Linnes (the advisor for the Norwegian Student Association) and Dr. Brian Metcalf (advisor for the Psychology Club, and advisor for HPU’s Psi Chi chapter – the psychology honor society) so it was a great lunch. The Consulate General (Sten A. Rosnes) had a lot of questions to the students, how we felt about Hawai’i and how Norway as a nation could advantage from sending students abroad, and also how we are able to use our experiences her to our advantage when we are going back to the Norwegian job-market.

What we all agreed on, is that the greatest thing about studying abroad, and especially Hawai’i and HPU is that it is like you get two educations. One in your major, and one in cultural understanding. As most of you know, Hawai’i is a segway between America and Asia. HPU got students from every state in the US, and from over 100 countries, it is an international school. The small classes are supportive for a “discussion forum” instead of normal lectures. This makes students understand different cultures better as you often enter a classroom and you have students from 10 different countries in one class of 30. It is nothing but amazing. So what did I mean by getting two educations? Well, first of all, we are at an university to get a degree in whatever field of interest you’ve chosen. But at the same time, by meeting and interacting with people from all over the world, you’ll get a perspective you can get nowhere else and you will also be able to understand cross-cultural differences on a whole new level. This is knowledge you can only get by being there first-hand; you may read as much as you want about different cultures, but before you actually experience it hands-on, you don’t really know much. And that is also the reason why Sten A. Rosnes and others are trying to encourage people to study abroad or take their whole education abroad. Because the last ten years the numbers of students abroad have stagnated, and that’s something the Norwegian government don’t want.

For more information visit those two links:
- From HPU.edu's site
- The official site of the Consulate General

Weekend Special

Warning, long post ahead

So the weekend is now officially over; over the seas, Monday is a day off (oh big ol’ Presidents Day); thank you George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for making an extra holiday for me. I’ll pay you guys back somehow.

This weekend was a good one. A lot of fun experiences, and meeting new fantastic people, and that is always a great thing. It’s like discovering a whole new favorite meal; at least almost. Meeting new cool people is at least just as cool as when I discovered that I could use Turkey Burgers as ground beef (or ground turkey, whatever). That made my life so much easier, and also so much cheaper. I’m was a happy man the day I discovered that, and I’m a happy man now. I’m always a happy man so I guess that logic is faulty. Anyways.

The Saturday was the day for the Traffic Light party hosted by two Swedes; Martin and Urban. They did a great job promoting the party, so they filled about 300-400 college students in the club, and people danced and partied the whole night. It was a night of great fun! To the party I took my roommates scooter since he was staying with his girlfriend, and I’m not going to drink anyways. It saves me the $20 it costs for a taxi from Waikiki to my place! And in time of need, I’ll ride that scooter without thinking twice about it. And that hit me hard in the head. It is now 4 am (that’s in the night) and the club closes. I have to get up at 7:30 for a beach soccer tournament, so I’m heading home to sleep. 3 hrs of sleep is better than none. So I go to where I parked the scooter and the scooter won’t start. No chance. And this happens to me EVERYTIME I’m in Waikiki with it. It starts on the first try when I’m in downtown, safe, in my building. But when I’m away from home, trying to get home, that stupid scooter won’t start! At first I get a bit angry (not too angry though) but I shake it off pretty easily. Then when I try to start it some more, the Securitas officer comes over. He thinks I’m trying to steal the scooter. He asks me all those stupid questions, and I don’t really feel like answering him, he got no right to ask me stupid questions. So I just tell him to stop asking ridiculous questions, and look at the keys I’m holding in his hands. But talking sense to a Security guard doesn’t really do the laundry for me. So I have to take out the key, show it to him, put it back in the scooter, turn it around, to show that it works, but all he says is:
”Well, the scooter doesn’t start so why should I believe its the right keys?”
Even though I just took them out, put them back in (it fits) AND turns the key around as of the scooter to start. After a while, going back and forth, I told him I don’t have time for this so if he want to make a big case out of it, get the cops so I can get my ass back home to sleep, because I don’t want his bullshit, I got enough to worry about.

I start walking home. It’s now 4:30. I’m walking there with the scooter, and I’m on my way downtown (that is 3.7 miles = 6km) and dragging a scooter doesn’t make the job easier. You would probably guess I was pretty angry, pissed and upset at this moment. But I actually kept laughing. I just though this was too ridiculous to be true. That I am walking all the way to downtown with this scooter at 4am in the middle of the night. To then, get to Waikiki Beach to play the beach soccer tournament again. I thought I was running out of time. But halfway there, I called Andreas for an after party, I didn’t feel like walking anymore. So I went over to their place which is on the way. When I get there, they are all so drunk they can’t even talk straight, I think its hilarious and I regain some energy. Then, 5 minutes later, they are all asleep. So I turn on the computer and goes on MSN. That’s when I got told that AaFK is playing, and they are streaming it live on smp.no. Awesome; they are down 0-3. At least I got to see the part were Jonatan scored his first goal for AaFK (but quiet frankly I didn’t see the goal, as I was just in the MSN window at that time). Anyways, congratulations if you ever read this blog Jonatan! I was happy and proud. And it was getting close to 6pm. I decided, I could either go to Waikiki again with the scooter, or back home. I’m heading downtown as a zombie. Finally I get home, and I get the call that I need to be ready in 15 minutes to get picked up for the sand soccer, no sleep for this guy. Probably a good idea, seen as I would’ve slept for days if I went to sleep at that time. I chugged half a pack of Oreo’s and 1.5L milk (half a gallon) and one scoop of N.O. Xplode (a energy kind of nutrition thing I got) and boom, I’m ready to go.

It is time for beach soccer. Wee. Never really played too much of that, all I know is that I’m not usually the technical kind of player, and I thought that’s the ideal in playing sand soccer. My realization was what it didn’t seem too many of the other guys understood; I’ll come to that later. I meet up with my team, I knew a couple of the guys before, but some new faces, good people, we had a great time. Not too much to be said; it was the biggest sand soccer tournament in Hawaii; and the winning ceremony is held by Miss Hawaii, so I wanted to be a part of that. I was at this time regaining some energy, good team spirit, a lot of water to get hydrated got me going. I don’t want to say too much about this; but we won our first game 7-0, and it really got my confidence going. I scored 3 of the goals as a defender, playing half the game. I was as stoked as I could be; but the bad news was that our next game was 2 hours from now and I was getting tired. I got some food, and it helped a lot, but I never got back that insane energy level I was at during the first game. But when the 2nd game started, the adrenaline kicked in and I became the guy who knows what’s up and I did what I had to do. We tied, 4-4; being up by 4-1. Was a horrible match, the team we played were younger than us, but they played dirty and for a guy who never had a bruise had about 3-4 bruises after this match versus kids that were younger and twice my sight. I didn’t let it get to me though; I just whispered to this one kid, if you don’t get your shit together, I’ll loose my shit, and you don’t want that. I said what was needed to be said. But we still tied. We got our way to the final as one team dropped out, and we were playing a Brazilian team. The Brazilians plays together in the Hawaii Premier League as well, so I was sure we were going to loose this game, and I saw some of their games, they were good; they ruled the field versus every team. Good, enjoyable Samba Soccer, as they are well known for. Obviously they’ve played more beach soccer then us. But the game started, I was stoked, the adrenaline was pumping, and the time was 5pm. I’ve been up for about 36 hours at this time, I don’t know what’s keeping me up, but I’m up. I got an early goal, so we got the lead, I cheered so loud for myself that the referee had to give me a warning (well, part of my cheering was mocking the Brazilians over how easy it was, and I’m going to do it again); I kept my promise. I did it again. Pretty much the same kind of goal. So long suckers. We were up 3-0, and I felt we had this in our hands. I subbed, because I was so sun-burnt and my wrist was in pain (super sunburned) so I decided to stay out. All of a sudden one of the guys on our team does 3 handballs (in not too much time) and they were all within the penalty area. So that leads to 3-3. 3 goals on penalty (from their goalie) at this time I’m mocking them about how their goalie is their top scorer, and how embarrassing that must be for them. I’m just too much in the moment, but its fun, it gets them laughing, and it gets my team laughing, we need a good spirit. When I say mocking I mean jokingly mocking of course; as I know most of the guys on the Brazilian team, because I practice with some of them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Anyways, we lost; 3-4. I didn’t care too much, we did our best; we played better and got further than what I believed we would, so I’m happy about that! We got our silver-medals handed out by Miss Hawaii, and we took a team picture with here; “weeee, big deal” I didn’t really care. I just wanted home to sleep. Got home. Slept for 12 hours, sweet Moses it felt good as my head hit the pillow. I put on an episode of Seinfeld when I went to sleep, but I didn’t even get through his opening act, before I fell asleep.

But the trick, I realized, in sand soccer is easy; be a bit ego. I know what I’m about to do, so I settle my feet for it and I won’t get surprised by my own moves – that’s common sense. So why not use that to your advantage? The defender on the other hand, is clueless about what you are going to do, he got some ideas of your possibilities, but he is not certain. And on sand, that is crucial. By tipping him off, he will be on his ass, it is so easy to fall in the sand. It is “slippery” it is no stable ground, like grass. Also making passes is often hard and unpredictable. So by being a bit ego at times, I became the top scorer in the tournament. Even though I’m not technical, I’m not good on small grounds, and I’m not good at scoring goals. Somehow, by this easy realization, my possibilities were endless, and I didn’t misuse my chances. And no mistakes were made by doing so.

Today, my day “off”, I got up at 9 and I went in to Waikiki for my first surf of 2009. It was a lot of fun. I went with Diana and Frank, that made for some funny mental pictures. After that we ate and got a beautiful view of the ocean from Duke’s Bar & Grill. Then I went to play beach volleyball, so I played for about a good hour and I left for home. I needed some food, and relaxation, it was my day off. I hit up the gym to do my routine there, and after I watch GoodFellas. An old movie from 1990, and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet. It was a great movie, and just as I felt after watching the Godfather, I had NO idea to why I haven’t seen it before! So now, Scarface is next on the list.

Well, goodnight, and enjoy the pictures!

Hiking Manoa Falls

So, we decided to do a hike Sunday morning. I got up at 7 o’clock just to do this. We were planning to go to Maunawili Falls. The other wanted to go to Diamond Head, but I told them it was a lame hike, and Maunawili Falls was much more fun. They were convinced, so we headed towards the waterfall. I put Diana in charge to find out where we had to take the bus etc. so we ended up totally stranded on the hike to Manoa Falls. Whatever; it is still a hike I haven’t done yet, so not a total waste of time.

Great people, great fun. We had a really good time walking/jogging up the steep hills to Manoa Falls and the Manoa Cliff. Also, no one brough any food, only water so after a while we all got so hungry we couldn’t risk continue “to the end” since we had no idea where the end were at, so we turned around, lost in space. We had a good time, and decided to rather go to Maunawili Falls the next weekend instead; good idea!

So here are some pictures from a great adventure. That’s also the argument I used to get the people we were with to go further; “Come on.. We are explorers and adventurous! You are too right?” – “So let’s go then”

Good times!