Golf

Mandal Golf Course

I love golf, and it's one of the few ways I get out to a greener scenery. I started playing in 2002, and my first puts happened on Mandal golf course. I got my green card the same year, after a few weeks of practicing. I took my course test (playing on the course and hitting below a certain number for the course) on the rainiest day of the year and it was so rainy and muddy that I could barely see the ball. After an hour out there, 2 balls burried in mud, the instructor called it good and gave me my green card.

I also tried to get some golf in while going to high school in Maine, but the course consisted mainly of non-natural obstacles, and the greens were covered in small branches and leaves. My interest in the game kinda died off after that, but the course at PLU is okay, and I'm able to get some rounds in again.

Wine

I had a period during last J-Term when I wasn't taking any classes, and got a little thing for wines. My roomates at the time, Scott and Eric, were huge winos (def: A wine-drinking alcoholic), and I think I was going through close to a bottle of assorted Merlot's and Cabarnet Sauvignon's a day at one point of time. We tested out close to the entire selection at QFC and albertson, which ended up to be quite pricey at the end. It was fun, but I don't think I could do it again. Don't get me wrong, I stil love a good red wine, but these days it's mostly with a nice steak or some italian food.

Just another reason as to why I love Italy

Drinks

Being in college I've obviously had my share of drinks, but regular beer, and weird combinations of liquors thought up at 2am at parties, I got interested in the lighter side of "mixology". On weekends (and probably a couple days during the week) I usually try to create some good tasting thirst quenchers, which I have highly started to prefer over the regular beer bongs etc. etc.

If I'm feeling lazy, or want someone elses perspective, I usually go to El Gaucho in Tacoma, where they have some of the best drinks in the area, short of going to seattle.

I'm making a mixology section on my forum, and you're welcome to check it out, or add your own favorite drink if you'd like.

The bar at El Gaucho in Tacoma (Flaming Zombie shown)

Sailing

My dad's best friend has a pretty large sailboat, and somehow he managed to trick me into coming with me one time on a "calm day", which proved to be one of the windiest days I had ever been on the ocean. We were doing a regatta, which is like a race with sailboats between checkpoints, and it was pretty except for the whole wind thing. When we were done I decided it wasn't all that bad (which it truly wasn't, I just hadn't really been on a sailboat before), and I kind of joined "the crew" for a period of time. Because we were racing with a sailboat, we always went out when it was windy, and as I get motion sickness very easily at sea, I eventually quit the "regatta crew" and joined the "calm sunday beer crew" instead.

One of the calmer days

Gelato

Gelato, or the plural Gelati, is Italian ice cream made from milk and sugar, combined with other flavorings. The gelato ingredients (after an optional pasteurization) are frozen while stirring to break up ice crystals as they form. Like high-end ice cream, gelato generally has less than 35% air, resulting in a dense and extremely flavourful product.

I tried Gelato on my first trip to Italy, and wow, regular ice cream has not been the same since. The ingredients in this Italian frozen treat are also close to fresh, so the taste is uncompareable to anything you can find on ice (pun intended) at your local grocer.

Take a look at these samples of Gelato and image what they would taste like.

Some of the best looking Gelato I've seen

Soccer

My dad is basically a soccer maniac, and he used to play on the local team when I was groving up, so it's pretty much been around me through my entire childhood. Soccer is a huge thing in Europe, and in one way or the other, you are interested in soccer on some level. I never really played on a team, but I do enjoy a good match once in a while. As I've gotten older I have started to watch some games on TV, and more so in the U.S., as it's pretty rare to watch a good game unless you decide to sit down and watch one.

My favorite soccer team, AC Milan

Traveling

I love to travel, and that's also probably one of the reasons why I tend to spell my name Christian instead of Kristian, it's just more international in my eyes. When I was younger my family used to take a lot of trips around in Europe, and I've probably been to every European country I would be interested in going to. I've also been to 15 U.S. states, and I'm considering taking a road trip to Maine this spring break to see some of my friends over there. Traveling is probably also one of the main reasons as to why I decided to do a study abroad year in high school, and come to PLU after high school.

Blue - Visited, Red - Lived there

Movies

I'm a big fan of audio/video, and therefore I also watch a lot of movies. You could probably categorize my movie taste simply as "guyish". I'm a sucker for mobster movies, Scarface is probably my all time classic, but the Godfather collection is also up there. My favorite actors are Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, Jason Statham and Will Ferrel to mention a few.

As for movies goes, some of my top picks are: Boondock Saints, Scarface, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Heat, Gladiator, Hamilton, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, A Night At The Roxbury, Carlito's Way, Goodfellas, Lord Of War, Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Snatch, Sin City, and the Transporter movies.

Formula One

One of my favorite sports to watch on TV is probably F1. It's a much bigger thing in Europe than NASCAR ever will be, and also more interesting when people can actually make right turns as well as left ones. The car manufacturer's are also much higher end than the ones participating in NASCAR, and so are the cars. I didn't use to enjoy watching F1 on TV, but I've gotten into it the last couple semesters, as I don't get as much of it as I did in Europe.

That is one expensive pile up

Paintball

In Maine there wasn't a lot of stuff to do, but because of the large areas of forest, the place was ideal for outdoor sports that require a decently sized area to play them properly. My friends took me along for paintballing one day, which was one of the more accelerating activities I did in Maine. My friend had a couple headquarters, blockades, and objectives set up on a piece of land they owned, and we would usually play scenario games there once a week. It was a lot of fun, and it's been a really long time since I've gotten to play as I don't know a lot of people around here that play.

A usual saturday afternoon for me 4 years ago

Fast Boats

I tend to get very motion sick when I'm on water and it's going slow, at least I used to when I was younger. As long as the boat is going pretty fast through waves I'm pretty much OK, but as soon as it starts to slow down and I can feel the waves, I start to get queezy. Norway is surrounded by water almost, and where I live there are a lot of cabins and such where you usually take a boat. I started to ride more in faster boats with larger engines, and it's pretty fun to cruise around the coast in one.

Our boat back home

Snowboarding

I've always been a horrible down hill skier, and because my family and friends back home in Norway go to the mountains a lot in the winter, I usually just sat in the cabins when they would go hit the tracks. In 2000 or so I picked up snowboarding and found it to be much easier and satisfying than skiing. I found that keeping both legs on one piece of wood was easier to control for me, personally, and I could finally start going with the rest of the people to hit the slopes. When I lived in Maine I also got a free season pass to the local slope because the owners had hosted an exchange student the year before, and wanted me to hang out at the local slope. In the off-season I also watch a lot of snowboarding movies, or play some games to get myself geared up. I've been snowboarding in Norway, Colorado, Maine, Vermont, and Utah.

One of my favorite snowboarders, Travis Parker

Exotic Cars

As said before, I really like cars, and I love Italian super cars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Zonda. One thing that I would like to do one day is to open an exotic car rental business, or start a specialty dealership somewhere. If I was to move to Italy I would also like to try to get a job with one of these manufacturers. If that falls through, I'll at least start saving up some money when I graduate college so I can own one of these beauties myself.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster - about $400,000

Italy

Italy is definately my favorite country in the world. From the first time I went there I have been hooked on almost all aspects of the Italian culture. The food is great, the cars are fast, the wines are delicious, and the clothing looks amazing. Italy is one of the few countries besides the U.S. I would actually consider living in, or possibly retire to on some Italian vineyard someday. I've traveled through much of the country, but a place I have yet to visit is Siciliy, which I would really love to.

I have to take a study abroad class next J-Term and I'm strongly considering going back to Italy, and see if I can do some networking while I'm there, in case I decide to move there after college.

Venezia at night (it smells awful during summer due to people dumping their trash into the canals)

Poker

While living in Maine I got together with a couple of guys from school and played some poker tournaments at his house where he had a small casino set up. The bets weren't much, but it got me interested in poker (especially texas hold'em - no limit) and I played quite a few tournaments there. One tournament we had with a $200 1st prize pot went on from 10pm to about 6am. I was the chip leader by far, but was so tired at one point that I started making several stupid bets in a row and ended up at 2nd place. When I left Maine, I got a special novelty t-shirt that said "Uncle Jon's Casino", which was the nickname for the hangout upstairs.

Dead Man's Hand

German Cars

Due to universally high car prices in Norway, there are a lot of German cars on the roads there, and I've always had a thing for the German cars such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, and VW. In contrast to American car manufacturers they manage to get a large amount of horsepower out of a small engine, such as the BMW M3's inline 6 cylinder engine, which will beat most American V8 powered cars. Only thing better than a German car, would of course be an Italian super car...

Porsche GT2