Disneyland Nov 23

For anyone that still checks this site, sorry for the delays in posting. Work has been VERY busy including trips to Finland and many long hours at home.

Anyway, I got a nice break last weekend by taking the girls to Disneyland. They are decorated for the Christmas holiday and the photo shows Minnie in a holiday dress.

Ina, Bethany, and Hayley came along and invited Simone to join us for her first ever visit to Disneyland.


The Disney photographers took a picture of Simone with Tinker Bell in her hands.


I don't have time to write all of the details, but we had a fun time. We were able to balance time to go on rides with time to take some pictures. Ina was even brave enough to ride the California Screaming roller coaster with the other girls. It was a big step for her since she was terrified of it. She says that she won't ride it again, but I can tell that she has some pride in conquering her fear of trying it!



It was a lot of fun introducing Simone to Disneyland and giving Ina another chance to see some new parts of the parks (Disneyland and Calfornia Adventure). I have to admit that I am a kid at heart and enjoy the rides and the overall atmosphere too. However, I find that I enjoy watching the kids have fun and paying attention to the decorating details as much as the rides and shows. For example, they have some very creative landscapers which is something that I never noticed when I went to Disneyland as a kid!

Flat Land? Depends on your perspective...

One of Ina's first comments about California was that it is very flat. She is used to rugged fjords and mountains at home.

She is basically correct. We have small mountains in Orange County and bigger mountains to the north near Los Angeles.


This is a picture in the Los Angeles area with mountains in the background. In the Winter, there is often snow towards the top of these mountains. On most Winter days, we can see the mountains in the distance. In the Summer, the haze and smog often hides the mountains from our view.


In Orange County, we have local hills and two mountain peaks. The two peaks look like the saddle on a horse, so together we call the peaks "Saddleback Mountain". We get snow on these peaks maybe two or three times per year.


This is a typical picture from the Orange County area. We have rolling hills and flat lands for houses. Saddleback Mountain is in the background throughout most of Orange County.

So Ina's perspective makes sense. She is used to a rugged landscape and a lot of the area here is flat with mountains and hills in the background.

Last week, we met another exchange student that is new to the area: Simone. She is from Denmark (note: a flat country with no mountains). Ina and Simone spent some time at a local mall to get to know each other better. I picked them up and on the drive home we could see the mountains by Los Angeles in the distance. Simone's comment: It's so nice to have mountains to look at so that everything doesn't look so flat.

A different, but still valid, perspective! Are we flat or not?

By the way, I got the photographs for this post from a nice website from a local blogger. He has a camera that takes panaromic pictures and posts them to his blog. He has a lot of fun California photos there!

The website is: http://geraldsfuller.com/the-panorama-page/

- Rob

A few notes

Sorry that I have not been able to do very regular updates. Life is busier than I expected right now!

Now that Ina has been with us for over 2 months, there are a few things that I have observed.

Mail from Home: Ina LOVES to get mail from home. Whether it is a letter or a package with some goodies, she always has a large smile when something shows up from Norway.

Picking on Bethany: Ina and Bethany delight in picking on each other. They really are like sisters sometimes, but it is in good fun. Like real sisters, it sometimes goes too far and someone gets annoyed. However, neither one seems to stay upset for long. Overall they get along great and seem to have a lot of common interests.

Speaking Norwegian: We have tried to get Ina to teach us some Norwegian words. However, we are not very good at it. We have picked up a few words, but usually we just say them wrong. Ina is very patient with our attempts to speak a few words, but she has to laugh at us sometimes since we have trouble saying things right.

Reliable: Ina has been very reliable. She always gets ready for school on her own. She offers to help with meals and does the chores that we asked her to do without complaints. She is always ready to go when we are leaving somewhere. It has been great to have such a reliable member join our family!

Patient with our Schedule: We have a lot of activities as a family that do not match Ina's interests. She has been a good sport about trying things out with us and patiently joining us for things that are probably boring for her.

Sense of Humor: It has been very important that Ina has a good sense of humor with our family. We like to joke around a lot and Ina has never taken that personally when it is directed at her. She has also said some funny things and can be silly with us. That helps all of us learn how to live together!

There are a lot more things that I can say. However, I wanted to make sure that I got a start and made some notes about some of my thoughts.

For Ina's family at home, thanks for being supportive of her while she is here. It makes it easier for her and us that she has the support and love of her family.

For our friends (especially Hayley and Bethany's friends), thanks for being so accepting of our new family member. You have helped Ina fit in while she lives with all of us for this school year.

For Ina, thanks for being part of our family, for having a great sense of humor, being patient, and continuing to let us know your likes and dislikes.

- Rob

Preparing for Halloween

Halloween is coming at the end of this month. We have a lot of decorations that we have collected over the years. When I got home last weekend, it was time to take them down from the attic and prepare for the holiday. Celeste and the girls bought some pumpkins for decoration while I was out. After last Halloween, Celeste bought some decorations at special sale prices that we are using for the first time this year. In the picture below, Ina is helping open up some of the new decorations.

The girls spent a lot of time trying to decide what to wear for their costumes for Halloween. Ina tried to convince Bethany to dress as a prince with Ina as the princess. However, they changed and now Ina will dress as Marilyn Monroe and Bethany will be a ladybug. Hayley told me what her costume would be, but I can't remember.

Rachel (who helped us paint Ina's room last August) is having a birthday party on Halloween night. The older girls will go to that party, while we find something else fun to do with Hayley. We have to make sure that Ina gets to go Trick or Treating to get candy while walking from house to house.

- Rob

Don't mess with her chocolate!

I traded places with Ina for the last two weeks. While she was in California, I was in the Nordic region (Finland to be exact). I have been to Sweden twice in the last year and now Finland once (with two more trips planned before the year ends).

Whenever possible, I try to bring home some sort of small gifts for the family. This is my way of thanking them for taking care of things at home while I am away. On my first trip to Sweden (December 2007), I picked up some bars of chocolate to bring home.

These chocolate bars were a big hit! When my customer from Sweden visited California in March 2008, they kindly brought some chocolate bars with them. Now when I go to the area, this is a common request from the family.

When Ina arrived, she brought the family some very nice gifts. This included similar chocolate bars from Norway that were also a big hit. Ina received a care package from home with similar chocolate too. She shared a piece with me one day with crunchy bits in it, so I knew that she liked that.

On my trip to Finland that just ended, I picked up some chocolate to bring home. Bethany and Hayley each got the same bars as I brought before. Ina got a chocolate bar with the crunchy bits in it. However, I got a different brand of chocolate for Celeste that was a little smaller (Karl Fazer).

It turns out that Celeste likes the chocolate bar with crunchy bits too. She has not tried the Karl Fazer bar and I'm sure that she will enjoy it. However, she looked at Ina's bar and said that she would be sharing it. :-)

I have seen videos of mother bears or mother lions guarding their young. Ina had the same look about her chocolate bar. She quickly retreated to her room for the first taste of her new prize and to find a suitable spot to guard it.

Of course it was all in good fun. No one is really worried about sharing chocolate. There is plenty for all!

- Rob

Senior Paper

At our high school, the students have to write a "Senior Paper" in their Civics or Economics class. The intention is to prove that they can use critical thinking to analyze some information and draw conclusions. Another intention is to make sure that our High School graduates can actually read and write!

Ina is taking Economics right now and is working on her Senior Paper. I think it is valid to make sure that she is capable of critical thinking and can draw conclusions, but I also think it is fair for me to help her in several ways.

First, English is not her native language. While a goal of this year is for her English to improve, I feel that it is fair to help her with her grammar and the words that she chooses.

Secondly, she has not grown up around our political system like most of the Seniors at the school. Therefore, I feel that it is fair to help her understand the basics of our political system and guide her with the research that she needs to do.

Beyond that, the assignment is hers. I gave her suggestions on what to research, but she is doing the research (although I am doing the research in paralle with her). She is then doing the writing. I am reviewing what she writes and making the grammar and wording suggestions. I am not planning on changing her conclusions -- those are hers and not mine.

The assignment calls for her to analyze the economics of 5 proposals from each of the main Presidential candidates: Barack Obama and John McCain. That is a LOT of work! By doing this, she will actually be more informed about the candidates than a majority of Americans!

The other fact that I have to admit is that I am becoming a more informed voter by helping Ina with this paper. I have had to review the candidate's web sites, review articles about their positions, try to help Ina find out how they will pay for their proposed policies, and similar research that takes a lot of time. It's easy to make a choice without really understanding the details of the choice. I am learning more details about the choice than I ever have before!

I don't intend for this to be a political blog, so I will not comment on the choices. However, I am sending a big "Thank You" to Ina for helping me do a better job of using my right to vote.

- Rob

Diet Pepsi

It's amazing what we take for granted here. Having someone with a fresh point of view helps us think about things again.

We found out that Ina really likes Diet Pepsi. In Norway, they serve watered down sodas and you pay for every one you get. Here in the US, it's hard to find a place where you do not get free refills of soda.

We realized how special this was when we asked Ina her preference for a restaurant one day. Her reply was anyplace that had free refills!

- Rob