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.

Fall Break #11: Pismo Beach

We stopped in Pismo Beach to sleep, but before that Manuel and Elin thought we should celebrate our trip, I agreed and we had a really fun night, we went to bed at 5am. I woke up at 0830am and felt fresh. I took a shower and woke the others up. Elin was fine about getting into the car and get moving, but Manuel was not feeling well at all. Before leaving we went to the pier at Pismo Beach, where you can see all the surfers trying to find the perfect wave.
We went on Highway 1 and drove up to Morro Bay.

Fall Break #10: Highway 1

Highway 1 runs a long the west coast. Highway 1 to SF is about 11 hours without stops, if you take the interstate it will only be 5 hours. We used almost 2 days! On the way you drive through many small cities that everyone have heard about including Malibu, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. None of those three was special from what we could see, actually we didn’t even see Malibu beach, because there is NO sign, how STUPID is that!
Anyway – the way (he he) is very beautiful, but not before you reach Pismo beach.
We did leave Highway once to head inland to visit Solvang, which is kind of a Danish city in the middle of America. There were a lot of fun things, but just as in Denmark all the shops closed early. Dam you lukkelov!

Fall Break #9: LA – Kathleen and Brad

Kathleen is the daughter of some of my parent’s friends. She has lived in LA for many years, and lives with Brad who is an actor. (Looking forward to seeing you on Heroes Brad, he he!) They live in Hollywood and we met them for dinner. Kathleen gave me perfect directions and we found it without any problems. They live one block from Hollywood Boulevard. We went to a small restaurant/bar named Birds. We all had something with chicken and it was very nice. After that we went to a small French bar, where we had some drinks. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to see them again.We went down Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard to look at the “stars” and to go see a movie. We missed the movie and went back to bed. We were very disappointed with the “stars” in the pavement. The streets were very dirty and did not even have nice shops.

The next day we went up in the hills in hope of getting a nice picture of the Hollywood sign, but because too many actors and instructors were committing suicide by jumping off it, it is now closed for the public – how ironic! Anyway, we wanted to see how close we could get. When driving up Elin suddenly went crazy, she was screaming and telling me to stop the car. I was immediately sure that I had hit something, but no. What the fuss was about was the fact that Vince Vaughn was standing right next to us. Hmmm, said Manuel and I, and than we drove on.
We reached the end of the road, got out and hiked a little hill. The view of the sign was ok, but we had hoped to get closer. When driving down we also saw the Observatory, but once again no time to go there.

We now wanted to go north on Highway 1, we drove through Beverly hills, where we saw some big house, but Rodeo Drive was not on our way, and I will have to go back and visit Kathleen and Brad again to see the things that I missed.

Fall Break #8: New Car

(The old car - picture of new car will come later)

After a nice sleep in Vegas I went to the airport to change the car, which was pretty easy. We got a Pontiac V6. Is was smaller inside, did not have a satellite radio, small trunk, a little dirty inside, but it had a much bigger engine, wipers that worked, and a much better cruise control system. All in all the trade was ok. I, however, forgot to fill gas on it that cost us $50 in fees!!

Fall Break #7: Las Vegas

We came to Las Vegas through the north end of the strip, which is not the same as coming from the south. Besides the obvious reason of being a different direction, it was as if everything was faced a little bit to the south. We stayed at Travelodge again, they are always located good, good price, and the rooms are prefect for us.
We went to the Cesar Palace buffet. It was once again perfect; however, some of the atmosphere was missing. I assume it was due to the fact that we were there on a Monday, and there were a lot less people compared to when Elin and I was there the last time.

After dinner we went to the Stratosphere, which is bye far the tallest building in Las Vegas – on top of it there are 3 rollercoasters! I tried the Insanity-ride, which is a very fitting name for it. It spins around so fast that the arms that are holding the seats are close to horizontal, and you can look directly down!!!!

After getting settle down after our tour to the top and a beer in the bar we hit the Casino. Elin won some money on the slot machines, while I introduced Manuel to roulette. He quickly got the hang of it, and made some good bets. He started out with 20 dollars, which he made into 40, but some unlucky outcomes took his winning away and he ended up breaking even, which is good for a first time. I took over after him, and started ok, but what had taken Manuel’s winning away took away $40 from me. I have never seen a series of 6 plays where 0 and 00 came up every second time! $40 is a lot for me, so I stopped and we went home to our hotel to get a nice long sleep.

Fall Break #6: Hover Dam

We left Grand Canyon to drive to Las Vegas. Two hours before reaching Las Vegas Strip we came across the Hover Dam. Just like the Grand Canyon it came out of nowhere. Manuel and I can’t really figure out where Megatron was supposed to have been. (hint: Transformers)

Fall Break #5: Grand Canyon

We left the ranch heading south to see Grand Canyon. A long drive while the sun had gone to rest. We unfortunately had to leave at night, and were therefore not able to see the landscape we past, which I think was very nice based on the curved roads. Manuel and Elin fell a sleep and I listen to my iPod while eating miles at a fast pace. We past one huge car accident, it looked like a truck had run over a small car; all that were left was the trunk!
We reach Travelodge in Flagstaff late and went directly to bed. The next morning we went for breakfast next door at a very small dinner/bar. It was very local and everyone knew each other. It was the day after NFL Gameday and there were lot of talk about the results.

The owner was very happy, since his Cardinals had beaten the Steelers. Our waitress was a Broncos fan, she was not happy; they were destroyed by LT and the Chargers, whom finally find a rhythm. After having the biggest pan-cakes ever, (I could not eat all three – has never happen before to me!!) we went of to Grand Canyon. We drove for two hours, got out of the car, walked 100 meters/yards, and there is was – a view that has stunned so many millions including the three of us. There are 16 miles a cross the canyon. I will upload more on the online photo album soon.

Fall break – MUST READ

Below are 4 posts that will tell you about how unbelievable great our fall break already has been. REMEMBER to read them in the right order.

Fall Break #4: Case 12 - Car vs. owl

On the way back from dinner, an owl hit the car while we were driving 55 miles per hour. After turning around we found it sitting on the road. Our front light cover was broken, but the light was still working. After 20 minutes the owl took off, leaving us without evidence for the police officer whom was on his way. We are glad that we got the insurance from Avis, but we still don’t know what will happen.

Next time I write will be about, Grand Canyon, Hover Dam, Las Vegas, and what happen to the car!

FALL BREAK #3: Speed and Bullets!

ATV (four wheals), Motorcycle, Buggy, Horse Riding, Swimming, Shooting.
The ranch has lots of land, which we have explored on the ATVs, motorcycle, and the Buggy. See all the photos for the different rides.

We also went shooting. I was actually really good at clay shooting, hitting 5 in a row. We tried a shotgun, an 8 mm police gun, and a semiautomatic riffle similar to the ones being used by the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. It was scary with the gun and the riffle, but a lot of fun with the clay shooting.

FALL BREAK #2: Mike, Jordi, and George from Clear Creek Ranch

Mike is in Manuel’s class, and he is married to Jordi. Jordi’s dad, George, has a ranch, Clear Creek Ranch, which is right outside Zion National Park. It is an unbelievable place. I finally understand why people want to have a second house (I think they are a group of families who owns the ranch). This place is beautiful, and there is so much to do. George taught me how to ride a motorbike, took us shooting, bought us real cowboy hats, took us horseback riding. He, Mike, and Jordi have been the best hosts ever, and we can never thank them enough for being so nice, showing us everything and gave us some incredible memories that we will never forget.

THANK YOU

FALL BREAK #1: The drive and the car:

I had to pick up the car at the airport, to get there I had called Tom (Lucile’s nephew) to get a ride. We met at Trolley square, and it turned out that Lucile was going there with some other family members, so we all had a small lunch together.
Tom drove me to the airport where I went to Budget’s front desk, and than all the trouble came!! I had rented the car on orbitz.com and called both them and Budget to assure that everything was ok, like that we could get all the insurances and it was ok that I was only 24. When I came they knew nothing about the cheap insurance and when I told them I was 24 they said we could not rent a car!! They transferred us to AVIS, whom match the rate. A lot of trouble with the insurance that we were supposed to have through orbitz.com ended up not being an option, so we got it through AVIS, which was more expensive, but it turned out to be a good idea.

Our first stop was at a ranch in south Utah next to Zion National Park. Manuel was invited to come to a ranch by his classmate Mike. I will tell more about Mike, his wife and her dad. The drive was about 4.5 hours, and half an hour of that was in heavy rain and a little bit of snow. We are going to stay at the Clear Creek Ranch for two nights.

Fall Break is here!

It has been two really busy weeks since I was in Las Vegas; several tests and midterms, which went fine. I had a small quiz yesterday in OB, and I did badly on that. I really don’t like the multiple choice tests, but this one I should have done better on. I am still waiting for my grade in US Economic History, which I have a good feeling about, but you never know, so that will be exiting to see if it gets posted before we leave today.

We will leave today at 5 PM, but before than I have to; return a backpack, do the last laundry, go to the chiropractor, pick up the rental car, go to bestbuy to pick up our GPS system (to rent one of those for a week is between $75 and $125, but was not possible with the car we rented, however a GPS locater with software was $100, so vi bought that), have lunch with Tom, shop at Smith’s marketplace, pack my bags, and, well, I think that was everything.

There are a lot of clouds outside my window, and it looks like it is going to rain heavily today, and it is suppose to snow tomorrow!

Anyway, I better get started on my to-do list.

I will try to blog while being on the road.

Take care everyone

Rugby vs. Football (Video for fall-break)

What is my favorite??

My very good friend Tomas from Copenhagen Business School, was the first to point out that I used the sentence, ”It is the world best…”, ridicules often. But, what if the things that I have are the best, hmm, I will probably never agree with everyone, but if you want to know what my favourite it, scroll down, and find a selection of my favourites under the nice picture of me in the pink/white stripe shirt. You might agree or disagree that is all up to you and only you.

I will ad more, when I have come upon true knowledge of what is my favorite!

Take Care

Fall Break Road Trip - 1532 miles in a week!

• 1532 miles in a week.
• Four States, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California.
• Three major cities, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
• Two major parks, Zion National Park, and Grand Canyon.
• Estimated 500 photos.
• Infinite amount of memories.

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