so productive

I was gunna spend the entire morning reading for my online BIOSC course but I took a short break to steal my cousin Jed and make him help me film this:


(click >.HERE.< to watch it on youtube, it's better quality. you cant really read the signs here...)

Naturally, i had to make life interesting and do a drive by when i picked him up...with my trusty nerf gun that i keep under my seat for handy occasions.

and i took a break for


and

Katie Keith! aka miss phelps...and miss krasinski, and miss sturges, and miss nadal, and miss pattinson, and miss depp, and, and and...

like my ate whats-her-face who will marry a johnnydepprobertpattinson look-a-like. (kidding, ate emz, i didnt forget your name....this time.)

=] im so focused.

and i rediscovered this in my car. weeeeee.


from when me and some friends took a mini roadtrip to myrtle beach for a concert. leah got a toy with her meal and left it in my car. it spins. speaking of leah, when she first tried to find my house years ago and got incredibly lost, she kept saying she was at "loganberry" street. i've tried for years to find that stupid street. but today i passed a sign that said "londonderry".

how silly of me to assume there was ever such a street in my own neighborhood that i was not aware of. i should've known leah just cant read. =P

dear crystal, no.

i checked my voice mail for the first time today since i got back and there was a message from some girl named crystal who i do not know asking if i was still on for braiding her hair tomorrow morning...um...that amazes me since before she could leave that message she had to listen to: "hey its irene, sorry i missed your call..."

so our flight from Philadelphia got delayed cuz of the weather. not fun. i just wanted to crawl into my bed!! and win the lottery and marry a prince! is that too much to ask for? sheesh

upon arrival home we realized that the AC was broken. it's fixed now, thank the Lord. it was so unbelievably hot last night. felt like a sauna in the house!! which i suppose was a good thing, considering i ate so much while i was in norway. but i went running this afternoon...why do i always feel like im dying when i go running?

today my auntie magda and uncle conrad left us to go back to florida. check out their "retirement car" nice eh?

my uncle ran over part of the garden with it on accident though. it's a beast, it killed this wasp-like creature on the way to church. see?


i love these buttons. so if you dont like whoever's in the passenger's seat, just casually lean over and press passenger airbag OFF. im sure they'd feel safe.

Auntie loves that car and it's yellowness. she says it's so she can find it in the parking lot and not have to wander around like she usually does. that woman cracks me up. in norway she was leaning against the car door on our way somewhere and everytime she fell asleep her arm hit the roll down the window button and she'd wake up and be like ah what's happening? it happened about 4 times. and then when she finally found a good position in which she wasnt accidentally opening the window, uncle conrad in total seriousness said to her: "lock the door, you might fall out." and it may sound sadistic of me but i almost died of laughter, just imagining her falling out the car and down a hill, probably still asleep throughout the entire process. brings tears to my eyes...of sadness of course...

before they left we had watermelon except...it was a crap water melon...so what do we do?

sprinkle the bejesus out of it with crack. and by crack i mean white powder called confectioner's sugar. totally an awesome idea.

they then remarked on our fridge. we get magnets from everywhere we go.

auntie accused me of the catastrophe at the bottom

that is not in fact, where those places are in relation to the world. (watch this if you havent seen "end of the world")

by the way did you know that facebook secretly thinks South Carolina is the moistest?

Richard Simmons says I'm beautiful...

Like he told all the other girls he took pics with i bet haha. (don't know who Richard Simmons is? Click .HERE. )

So I am now in Philadelphia (well rather i started this blog in Philadelphia, it probably won't get published till tomorrow or so). We have a lovely 5 hour wait till our final flight home to Charleston. I was excited to get back to some beach weather or something, but my friend Sally has informed me that God sent a flood to South Carolina. Boo.

The flight to Philadelphia was either exciting or terrifying, depending on how you look at it. For example, I personally found it to be a delightful experience. Auntie Magda on the other hand, may have peed her pants. The plane was experiencing quite a great deal of turbulence because of the thunderstorm we were blissfully flying through. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach on roller coasters when you go down a huge hill? well, that happened a lot on the plane. I had to resist the urge to throw my hands up and yell "weeeee!!!" cuz auntie magda may have been convinced we were going to crash and was praying the rosary beside me. I suppose it would be a tad impolite to simulate a roller coaster ride next her...

Upon landing i couldn't help but laugh when the captain goes "for your safety and the safety of those around you, please remain seated." Made me feel like a nutcase. Also, i became a "you too" victim. Allow me to explain. Some lady in customs said "welcome home (back to the US)." and i said "you too!...er...yea..." example two: my response to "enjoy your flight!" by the lady at the ticket counter was of course, "you too!...uh...if you were goin on a flight..." example three: when i got my food, my response to "enjoy your meal" was "you too!...uh, if you were to have some of my meal...do you...uh want some?"

So yes...I am officially back on US soil and no longer in Norway =/ it was rough leaving.



For pictures see Jed's blog. He's got the snazzy camera now =]


Jed's family took a different travel route than us. So we had to part ways in Oslo after we got past security. It was then that a shark shake was born. witness the video below. (the beginning was cut out. it's basically pound it. shark. high-five)



Yup, me and him gunna bring that back to the states, cousins! ha.


Ya proud?


Miss you guys!

well, it's gettin that time to board the plane soon so I'm actually gunna wrap this up and publish it. I'll leave you with a personal quote from my journal. On the flight here I opened up my journal to write and my bus tickets from oslo fell out.


"So i wondered what i'd take back from this trip to Norway. And i think i've figured out what it is. i refound a part of me. in my family. A piece my heart's been missin and didn't realize. A part of me that so desperately needed to be connected with again. What i feel right now is similar to how i feel after i've watched a really good sunset. The sun is no longer in sight and the night sky creeps in. But i take the memory of the beauty and serenity of the sunset with me. And i'm content to know i will see it again." =)

the homeland of swedish fish. take 2.

"The best part I think about this journey is that you were able to get reconnected with your cousins." - Uncle Jan
>check out my family<


So kuya ray came to rescue me and jed from frederikstad. and where do we go off to?
Sweden for some eats and shopping.

I could see Melanie (my roomie) rocking these rainboots.

yay orange and purple! GO CLEMSON!!!

wanna fanta?
mmm, kebab pizza...yesterday's kebab pizza from Campino's was way better though.
Jed sharking in the grocery store.
Look Kuya Mike! A1 Sauce!
Jed and his lakerol...it's an addiction. the states will be such a letdown.
Enrix gettin ready for "chubby bunny"...silly kids
i prefer to just eat them....
well, that's a wrap...
i'm sad to leave norway. i was just gettin comfortable with my cousins who are hella tight...and hella weird. but hey that's what makes life exciting! das how vera cruz do. i love my cousins. =] and i will miss you guys like whoa. let's not wait 6 years to see each other again!! i promise to keep my blog updated!

i'm glad i got to come along. i almost wasn't gunna go with my parents to norway. that would've been an epic mistake for sure. though it is bittersweet to leave, i suppose im about ready to head back to good ol' chucktown....now that i've been stuck in Fredrikstad for a few days!...ready to be back in hot weather, the beach, downtown, and my friends.
i have missed you guys!!!! what shenanigans shall we be up to upon my return??

i can stay here? puhlease??!?!

Last full day in Norway! Sadness upon sadness and wrapped in more sadness. But here i am trying to be all cool-like like my cousins in oslo =] ...i should've taken more pictures of them.

so on this here blog you will witness the life and times of irene nicole vc mortera. and the many adventures she finds herself in. you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why the heck im so weird.

have fun =]

now enjoy this short story about a flower i plucked from the gardens of oslo that used to be alive and pretty: (pictures of the flowers were taken by john ramos, aka "jed". look at him bein all artistic)


el fin. now off to pack to head back to charleston...