Christmas gift

Paul, Jim, my parents, and I had a very nice Christmas Eve where we exchanged gifts. I also received some late birthday presents that my parents had brought from Denmark. Below are a few of them. Thank you all for some wonderful presents.
Nice new goggles from my parents. I can't wait to get back to SLC and try them out.
New mittens from my parents to protect my hands when racing and to avoid freezing.
A gift from my dad - well, I kind of told him to get me it :-)

Got these glasses from my parent as a birthday present - very nice!

New Year in DC – GO REDSKINS.

Change of plans, I am staying in DC for New Years because of two things. First of all I can have New Year with Manuel who is coming here, and there is suppose to be a lot more going on in DC than in Salt Lake. Second of all, Redskins are playing the Cowboys on the 30th, so I better be here and try to get some tickets. Speaking of Redskins, I went to the store at Ballston mall today where I met Derrick, whom I also talk to in August. He could actually remember me, and we talked about how the Redskins better stop Mr. Petersen and beat the Vikings.

Meeting Scott

After dinner with Diana, I went to Georgetown to meet with Scott. Scott was my teacher at LADO when I lived at Jim and Paul’s place during the summer of ’06. Scott and I became good friends and we have stayed in contact even when he moved to Korea where he found his wonderful wife Lana, whom I also met last night. We went to Old Glory and had a few beers. It was nice to catch up and see Scott again, however, someone was missing. This was the first time I went out in DC without having my buddy Javier with me. Javier – you better come here soon and join us, it is not the same without you, and Jill and Ali better also come - I miss you all.

Dinner with Diane, Jim, and Paul.

Yesterday Diana came over for dinner, once again Jim had made a wonderful dinner, and lots of old memories were shared from when Jim worked at the US Embassy in Copenhagen in the ‘60. Diana was, just as we, amazed by how beautiful Paul had decorated the house, just look at the magnificent Christmas tree in the back.

Dinner with Okland

The last night before my parents and I were to DC we had dinner with some of the Okland family. Sandra and Randy took us to the Country Club, and Meghan, Chris and Hailey joined us. We had a nice time, and we went home to Sandra and Randy after dinner, where they gave me a Christmas gift, they got me a Utah Jazz bag with my name on, a basketball, and an Okland watch. Thank you so much Sandra and Randy. Merry Christmas to all Oklands.


After dinner my parents and I went to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights.

Final grades are in!

School is over and the final grades have been posted on the university’s website. I am proud of my grades, which turned out to give me a GPD of 3.7: U.S. Economic history (B+), International Marketing (A-), Human Behavior (A-), Current Economic Problems (A). I would normally not post my grades on the blog, but to be honest; I have worked hard for them and I am very glad, satisfied, and happy.

In DC – True Burgundy and Gold!

My parents and I have now arrived safely in D.C.. However, it looked to be a long journey to get here. Delta called Thursday morning three hours before our flight was to departure and informed us that it was cancelled, and that they had changed our reservation, so that we now had to stop in Phoenix and Cincinnati before coming to DC many hours later than expected! However, when we came to the check-in counter we were told that another flight was leaving for Dulls. (The international airport in DC) It was leaving in 30 minutes and the security line was long. We said we wanted to go for it, and we made 5 minutes before it was to departure.

It is always a pleasure to stay at Jim and Paul’s house and we are looking forward to a nice Christmas with them. There is no snow here, but their house is decorated lovely and there is always some nice classical Christmas music playing.

Redskins are playing on Sunday in a must-win game against the Vikings. My bruise has changed colours and I am now true burgundy and gold as you can see.

Take care everyone.
Marc

Pictures from Park City

Here are som pictures from when my parents, Manuel, and I were in Park City.


There are more pictures in my web-album - please click on the link here: http://picasaweb.google.dk/marcnyeland/ParkCityRace

Time flies when you are having fun. (Meaning finals)

I had my last final last Friday, which was in Current Economic Problems. An exam that went well, I think, the essays was dealing with the cost of war, the huge problems with the underpaid workers in U.S., environmental costs, and sports economics. I am glad that all my courses are over, but I will miss them all. I have learned and acquired valuable knowledge that has not only made me understand the American culture better by widening my perspective and perception of the world, but I now have tools that I will be able too utilize in school, career, and in my personal life.

I was blessed with being in classes where people contributed and with professors that not only were amazing teachers, but also had a theoretical and empirical knowledge that I have never experienced before.

My parents are now with me here in Salt Lake. I enjoy having them here and showing them around. Right now they arte taking a nap before we are going to dinner.

Yesterday we, my parents, Manuel, and I went to Park City where I was competing in a Slalom race. It was beautiful weather in Park City and I am glad that my parents got to meet Manuel. The race it self did not go well, I just can not find my rhythm, but hopefully I will find it in January when I return to SnowBird (Ski resort 35 minutes from SLC) Racing Club. I have made some good friends in the race Club, especially Ryan better known as Pearl. I will be skiing with him in January, hanging out with him, and most likely getting yelled ad when he is instructing me.

We still have a lot of things we need to do before going to Washington D.C. I will soon be back.

Ciao Marc

Second time at the ER!

I really like the people at the ER, so when playing soccer on concrete I choose to trip over the ball and fall on my hip to have an excuse to go there and watch some TV.
I was thinking about a good headline for this post, other options were, Marc 0 vs. Concrete 1, don’t try to land only on your hip, if you don’t have a TV than you should just…, don’t have enough paint to paint your body red for a Utes came – go fall at the field house!
Anyway – I have a Hematoma, which is caused by damaging the small blood vessels around the hip, which have made the blood leak into the tissues.
I will be skiing tomorrow, with the help from the doctors that gave me some nice painkillers (acetaminophen-hydrocodone). I have three finals next week and than I am done with school – jubii.

I will back soon again. In the mean time – don’t try and do what I am doing, even though I am having the time of my life, he he.

Ciao - Marc

The snow came - going skiing

Finaly the snow came, and as you can see on the pictures it made campus so beautiful. I went skiing yesterday with Conner and his friend at Brighton ski resort. It was nice being out on the skis again.

The next two weeks are going to be the most busy ones with school, including: A big paper, final presentation and frour exams. I will try to post, but might not have time before my parrents arrives on the 16th, but stay tunes, you never know if I find a couple of minutes a day to write about the snow, bowling - ohh, I got 156 the other day, and 149 yesterday. Nice.

Anyway - take care.

An idol, a father, a leader – Sean Taylor – has past away!

I have just read the news that Sean Taylor, age 24, did not survived the gun short he received from intruders in his house yesterday. This is not only the lost of maybe one of the best NFL players, but also a man who have become a leader among friends, and most important a father. After his baby girl was born he changed, and became a man, and his baby girls was one of the most important things for him. Nobody knows, but the police report says for now, that Sean was protecting his family when he was shot. My thoughts and prayers go to Sean’s family and friends. What a tragedy and totally unnecessary crime.

Hail to Sean Taylor – a true Redskin.

Marc

25 on the 25th!

Yes, today I turn 25. At around 11PM Danish time on the 25 of November 25 years ago in 1982 I was born, and I can not be thankful enough for my fortunes and experiences. More will follow.

Marc

With the Oklands to St. George in privat jet!

I went to St. George with the Okland family from Friday to Saturday.
More info will follow.
Marc

Thanksgiving dinner at the Salt Lake City Country Club

Today is Thanksgiving and Sandra and Randy have once again been so friendly to invite me. The food was nice and I got to meet some more of the family, including more of Sandra’s family. It was a very nice dinner. Thank you very much Sandra and Randy.

Do I speak Danish?

I was contacted by Professor Dan Christiansen of the University of Utah through the international office here. He is going to Denmark in two weeks and wanted to start his speech with a paragraph in Danish, so we met Wednesday and I taught him some Danish. It was very interesting for me. I was writing some of the speech in Danish, when I with out knowing suddenly was writing in English but thinking in Danish. Anyway, it went really well and I hope he will ask me again later to help him.

Winter is coming

Monday this week, I was walking around in shorts and a sweater. Tuesday we were down to 38F, which means big jackets (around 3,33C). I love it since that increases the chance of snow, and I love to wear my big jacket that my parents gave me a couple of years ago. Now we just need the snow.

Jazz won 102-75

The Jazz totally destroyed New Jersey Nets, and I had one of the best seats to see it. Meghan and Cries pick Elin and me up, and their daughter Haley was not glad to see us, she is still too young to talk, but based on her wet eyes and crying; I must have had a very bad hair day!
Devin was also at the game, he was sitting on the second row on the floor, with a great view of the game. He tried to take a picture of me in the box, but as you can see it is hard to see me. I am sitting in the second box from the left in a white polo shirt. (A polo shirt I got from Lasse just before I left Denmark, Thanks Lasse I love it).

GO Jazz

Tonight I will be cheering for Utah Jazz against New Jersey Nets (http://www.nba.com/games/20071119/NJNUTA/preview.html?nav=scoreboardhome)
I am going to the game with the Okland family and Elin. I guess that I will buy a Jazz t-shirt to ad to my enormous collection of t-shirts that I have gathered during my stay here in America

GO JAZZ

Who is visiting my blog? Test scores. 50-0. Big Bang!

If you want to know, you need to go all the way to the bottom of my blog where there is a map you can click on, and see where in the world people are reading my blog.

I got some test scores back, which were really good. I scored in Organizational Behavior 95%, Current Economic Problems 93.5%, and in International Marketing I scored 98%. It is looking good, and I will continue to study hard to see if I also can finish strong.

50-0 – that is what the Utes do to teams who guaranties wins over them. Wyoming’s coach guaranteed a win over us, big mistake – the Utes won 50-0 and we were yelling: Guarantee – Guarantee – Guarantee!!

Most of you know that I love TV-shows, just ask Kritte my Scrubs buddy, and now I have found another show that is very funny. It is called the Big Bang Theory, and it is free to see on joost.com (joost.com is a legal TV site made by the founders of Skype). Go see it and you will know why grasshoppers are good for men!

No snow yet, but I got an Ipod Shuffle!

The winter has not really arrived yet and it will most likely be another week or two before all the resorts are opening.
I went to a company event with Elin yesterday and while bowling they had some drawings for prizes. Well, apparently I did not use all of my luck in Las Vegas – I won a Ipos Shuffle, which is perfect for skiing and biking.

Election in Denmark – 86%

Being in another country and reading about Denmark makes me extremely proud. I wrote earlier about Clinton talking about Denmark, but this time it is the citizens that I am proud of. Even though I do not agree with what people vote, I am proud of the amount that votes. 86%. Of the possible voters did their duty and voted. GO DENMARK

Indoor Soccer

I have joined a team to play indoor soccer, and it looks like this team might be able to go all the way as One Love, maybe even wining the final. We won the first game 14-8.

One Love to the big dance!

Our flag football team made it to the final, but semifinals and finals were played on the same day. Our opponent in the final did not play their semifinal before the final since their opponent forfeited, leaving them rested and ready to beet us. They won, and they are without a doubt the best team together with us, but the game was never close since we were too tired, and the referees let them play physically.
We have had a lot of fun, but we would have linked to win, I hate loosing!!!!
In the semifinals I was tackled by Sean Taylor and Laron Landry known as Area 51 of the Redskins! Well, maybe not those two guys, but while returning an interception, the opposing team had no other way to stop me from returning it for a touchdown to tackle me violent. One guy took me legs, while the other hit me hard in the ribs with his shoulder and gave me a hit to the face with his fist! I was deeply disappointed with these people - that they did not have more self-control. They did not even say sorry, and the penalty was 2 minutes on the sideline – how about kick the immature kid out of the league!!!
My ribs have hurt for two weeks, but the pain is almost gone now. Elin (who is a nurse) said that I might have had a small fracture in the ribs. I don’t think so, but I will play cool and say that she is the expert, what do I know!!

I will soon write!

I am sorry that the there has been few updates on how life is in SLC, but a lot of midterms are taking away my time to sit down and write about what I am experiencing, but this weekend I will write and the topics are going to be: Cracked ribs, intramural sports, 50-0, ski season, midterm results, and the big bang theory!

So, comeback to stay updated on my fantastic stay in Salt Lake City.

Marc

Do your job and vote!

If you live in Salt Lake City your response to the title of this post might be: "hmm, the election is over and I did vote!"
If you are a Danish citizen, you better vote. There is election for parliament on November the 13th.
But no matter whom you are or where you are, you must vote on this site. In the right column I have made a small poll, please indicate your favorite post.

Thank you.

Check out the map at the bottom of the page where you can see from where my visitors come from! (It is all the way at the bottom of this page)

To the answer why I am not posting more often: I have midterms and quizzes every week!!! And those who know me well know that I will not settle for second best without a fight!

I talked to Bill Clinton!!

After his impressive speech, former President Clinton walked a long the stage as a rock star. Everyone wanted to shake his hand, take pictures and have him sign his book. But that was not what I wanted. During his speech he mentioned Denmark, my country, as a great example and a country to follow, because of our increase in wealth, but decrease in inequality, no increase in consumption of energy, and 25 % of the energy in Denmark comes from windmills. I have never been as proud of being a Dane than when he said: “In tiny Denmark..”. Therefore what I wanted was to talk to the President about that. I got in line and shock his hand, but he could not hear that I said I was from Denmark. But you should never give up without doing everything you can, so I got in line again further down the fence, and this time he could hear me. We talked for what seam to be 5 minutes, but was probably only 1 or 2. It was amazing standing there talking with him, well he did most of the talking, but wow it was cool.



SÅDAN DANMARK!!

Listen to the part of his speech about sustainability and Denmark on the video below. (approximately 2 minutes)

See his entire speach on the following link:

http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4833893&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

I will meet former President Clinton!

I have just bought a ticket for a dinner being held at the Union Building here on campus, where former President Clinton will speak. I hope to see him, and maybe shake his hand.

Basketball

I have just attended the first basketball game of the preseason with Elin and Manuel. It was cool, and I am looking forward to more games. (We won 82-40, I think)

Winter ski pass

There are so many nice ski resorts right next to Salt Lake City: Park City, SnowBird, Alta, The Canyons, Deer Valley, and Solitude. I therefore had trouble figure out where to have my season pass, but after talking to Jason, good friend from football, I decided on SnowBird and I am looking forward to testing the snow on my new skies.

http://www.snowbird.com/

Flag Football with One Love

We won last Monday, and we are now in the semifinals (I think it is the semi) where we will meet a team that we met before, hopefully I can do the same as last time, with some INT, TD, and good tackles.

Halloween

The end of October means Halloween, which we unfortunately did not have a lot of time to enjoy, but I did borrow some things from Sandra, which in the end made me Brian Johnson’s (QB for the Utes) cousin from Japan, whom plays soccer for the Danish national team, but is a afraid of getting the ball in his eyes!

Park City Tour with Randy and Brett Okland

I previously talked about my new host family here, Sandra and Randy. Randy is together with several family members running the successful Okland Constructions, which his grandfather, John Okland, founded in 1918. Randy and his son Brett who also works for Okland Construction took me on a tour last Friday to see some of their construction sights. It was very interesting, especially a hotel that was being build in the Deer Valey ski resort, which is where the pictures below are from. Brett, Randy, and I with the construction of the hotel in the background.

Midterms

I am back, and you than might ask yourself; “from what”. The answer would than be: My first two of four midterms! Second round of midterms are under its way, and it is demanding, since I will continue to see how well I can do.
Had a midterm in Human Behavior last week and scored 91,25%, which is really good. This week I had a midterm in Current Economic Problems, which was very interesting, but I have not received my grade yet. Next week is Marketing, which will be extremely hard, I will study a lot tomorrow and over the weekend, but as you can read in other posts; I will also meet former President Clinton. The week after the Marketing midterm, I have another midterm in Human Behavior.

The world’s longest dinner!

I went to the Heritage Center to have dinner with Elin. It was raining a little bit when we walk the 20 meters to the HC dinning room. But when we came out, everything was covered by snow – did we have dinner for a month or what??
This is how the weather has been this week:
- Tuesday: 10 degrees C, half rain and half snow.
- Wednesday: 20 degrees C
- Thursday: 18 degrees C
- Friday: 23 degrees C, and a lot of sunshine – very nice.
- Saturday: 4 degrees C – and snow!

It is hard to dress appropriately when you never know how the weather will turn out. I do hope that we will get some warmer weather for the next couple of weeks until the football season is over. I don’t mind, but it is so hard for our quarterback to throw when it is so cold.

I have a midterm next week in OB (Organizational Behavior), which is very important. I have been studying the entire day today, and will use most of my time during next week to continue. The test is on Thursday.

The final in Formula 1 is tomorrow Sunday, I hope that Kimi R. can surprise everyone and win the World Championship.

Redskins – yes, I am going to skybox again at 11 to watch my Redskins hopefully beat the …. out of Arizona.

Take care - Marc

My host family

At the orientation meeting when I came to the U, we could fill out forms to meet a local family, and learn about the culture and daily life in Salt Lake City. Tonight was the official meeting between students and families. My host family is Sandra and Randy Okland. Randy’s grandfather immigrated to America from Norway. I will have dinner with them on Sunday, and I am looking very much forward to getting to know them and their family.
It will be a nice break on Sunday to go there and have dinner, because this week and the next two will be full of academic work. I will have tests and assignments, and I will have to work.

The weather is getting colder and I can see snow on top of some of the mountains behind campus. There is still a lot of uncertainty about what I will do with the skiing season, but I will continue to explore the possibility of joining a ski club for a short period and do some competition racing.

More than 300 different IP addresses have now been on my blog, but as some (especially IT) people would know – that is not same as 300 different people, but it is a lot of people, and I am glad that so many are following me and are reading about the experiences that I have here.

Take care.

Marc

A good reason for doing sports!

Redskins lost!

They had their opportunities, but didn’t make the plays. I do, however, feel good about the team - they only have to improve 1 or 2 % and than they will be one of the teams to beat!

Redskins??

It is now time for me to study and get ready for tomorrow when my Redskins will try to beat Favre and the Packers. I will go to Skybox again to see the game and have a nice salad. GO REDSKINS!

Back to school and Utes winning.

I have a lot of assignments and tests coming up, and I am behind in reading. I really have to manage my time well the next two weeks to make sure that I am up-to-date and that I will do well on my tests.

I went to the Utes game today against San Diego State, we won, which was nice, but I never really got exited about the game, probably because Redskins is the team that I really care for.

Fall Break summary:

• We drove 1600 miles in 7 days. (approx. 2500 KM)
• We drove through 4 states.
• It took two cars to make the trip, because of an owl!
• We started out with three cameras – only one survived. (My Sony, which I used for my rainy 10K run in SF)
• Ran 10 kilometers (6,25 miles) in rainy San Francisco.
• I bought 7 t-shirts from different locations.
• 1600 photos and videos.
• $$$ - cost a lot of money, but the memories are priceless.
• Thank you Elin and Manuel for a great trip, which I will never forget.

Fall Break #14: Getting back

Our flight back with jetBlue was three hours weather delayed. I have heard a lot about Jetblue, and that they are supposed to have a sublime customer service – I can only agree. They were very informative about the delay, the captain informed us during the flight, there was plenty of legs space no matter where you where sitting, everyone had there own TV with DirectTV with 40 different channels, and most important all the crew onboard was very nice.

We took a taxi back to the University from the airport. The taxi driver was a man from Kuwait, who came to hte U.S. to give his kids a change to live in a free and open minded world. He was an artist and interior architecture, educated at the University of Egypt. He now works as a taxi driver to pay for his kid’s education. I think it is beautiful how much he is sacrificing for his kids, but at the same time it is also horribly sad that no one here can use his talent. He had a gallery downtown Salt Lake City for 5 years, but the market was not there for it. I hope that someone will discover his abilities and used them.

Fall Break #13: San Francisco

We came to San Francisco Thursday night late. We stayed at Travelodge again. We talked about some different things we wanted to see, and after Manuel and Elin fell a sleep I made a route that would go bye all the mot important sights. We would have to run the route, because it was 10K (6.25 miles) and we had to be at the airport with the car at 1PM.

When we woke up it was raining heavily. I told the others about my route, but they where not up for it. I pack my Camel back with water, a map, and my camera. On the first picture from google earth you can see the route; the yellow pins are where I went.

Fall Break #12: Morro Beach, Hearst Castle, Elephant sea lions, and Raegged Point

Morro Bay is where we should have stayed over for the night. It was a bigger town with a lot more eating options, which was lacking in Pismo B. From Morro Bay it was possible to go on sea tours to watch whales, but once again time was what we were missing. Morro Bay is famous for its huge volcanic cliff that is part of the bay and it is home to a lot of big birds.
It was here that my next trip came to my mind – sailing down the coast on a sailing boat from Seattle to San Diego!
With out time to stay longer we continued to Hearst Castle, which is a huge private made castle in the hills next to the sea. You have to take a bus tour to get up there, and with no time it was not an option.
We went on the road again, and found something we had time for; looking at Elephant sea lions, who were sunbathing on the beach. We continued up the coast to Raegged Point where we had lunch/dinner. I had a seafood salad, which was very delicious.
From there on the landscape was even more beautiful and the road became more and more like the small ones in the Alps.