Hello everyone!!
This is unbelievable; I`ve been in the United States in 4 weeks - I
leave this fantastic place and the perfect life here TOMORROW!! I cry….
The last weeks has been busy, I want to see as much as I can the last
days, so I`m really sorry for the bad blogging. The days in Miami were so good,
and the days here in New York City are really good too. The city is every girls
dream; they have all the stores you can dream about in every street, so you can
think that the money goes really fast - but I love it, this is may be once in a
lifetime!!
Even if it`s terrible to think about the life in Norway now, I`m looking
forward to see my beautiful friends and family, sleeping in my own bed and eat
Norwegian food (!!) When I write about it now, I know that I cannot wait to
come home when I`m on the airport tomorrow, although I want to be here some
weeks more.

But in my (may be last) post I want to write about an
historical person from the United States. I have always been a fan of Michael
Jackson, so I want to tell you about him. I think that`s interesting too,
because of his death and because he had a little bit hard and abnormal
childhood.
Everybody know who Michael Jackson is (I hope), but if you not; you
really have to read this!!

Michael was an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor and he is
called “King of Pop”. He was born August 29th 1958 in Indiana in
USA, and died June 25th 2009 in Los Angeles in USA. Michael is one
of the most succeeded pop stars in the whole world, and his album “Thriller”,
from 1982 is the best-selling album of all time. The “Thriller” video was a
success too. The single stayed on the charts for 80 weeks, and was the number one
for 37 weeks. The song garnered 12 Grammy Award nominations and won eight of
them. He has sold over 400 million records, only Elvis Presley and The Beatles
has sold more than Michael. His other albums, including Off the Wall, Bad,
Dangerous and HIStory also rank among the world`s best-selling.

Since he was 10 years old, Michael has been in the spotlight, and he has
never had a normal childhood as other children has. He told in an interview
that his father, Joseph, used brutally methods on his sons, so they proceeded as
he wanted. If they don`t sang and played properly, he made fun of them, beat
them, whipped them, and sometimes they was afraid of being killed of their own
dad. In addition to that, he grew up in a poor and big family, Michael had nine
siblings, and the house had two bedrooms.

Michael`s childhood house.
His father made a band called the Jackson Brothers (later The Jackson 5),
and in 1965 Michael had to join the group who included his four brothers. Early in the 1970s Michael started a solo career. And
already in 1972 he got his first single “Got to be there”. In 1979 he made an
album called “Off The Wall”, the album sold over 20 million copies and this was
his big break.
After that break Michael just became more and more famous. He is the
most-warded recording artist in the history of popular music; he has won
hundreds of awards. “Bad” become almost as successful as “Thriller” and the
album had six of seven singles on top 10 in the USA.

In August 1994, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock
icon Elvis Presley. They divorced already in 1996, but later that same year,
Jackson found a new; Debbie Rowe. They got two children, son Michael Joseph
“Prince” Jackson Jr. in 1997, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine Jackson in
1998. Rowe and Jackson divorced short time later in 1999. Michael wanted his
third child and got it with an unknown surrogate. That became a new son, Prince
Michael "Blanket" Jackson II.
After a lot of years as the most popular and famous pop star in the
world he came in the shade in the 2000s. The album “Invincible” from 2001 was
not succeeding. That year most of the attention was on Michael`s plastic
operations and on his lifestyle and behavior.

Michael`s children.
Later, in 2009 Michael decided to do a comeback with 50 (!!) concerts in
London. In 3 hours he sold out all the concerts; 640.000 tickets. Just weeks
before the first “comeback”-concert Michael died.
He died June 25th 2009, only 50 years old. He was found dead
in his house in Los Angeles by his personal physician Conrad Murray. In August 14th
the same year, they found out that Michael died because of an overdose of
propofyl. He had a lot of drugs home, including for depression and anxiety.

Here in Norway, I think that Michael is as big as he was on the 80s
today. He will never be forgotten.
It`s really sad
that this may be is my last post… Actually I will miss it really much. I hope I
can come back to the United States one day, it`s has been the best weeks and
days in my whole life!!
Self-assessment:
Self-assessment:
I have learned a
lot about the United States (of course), and I think I`ve been better to write
English after I wrote this blog. Sometimes I think it has been boring and a
little bit hard, and in addition to that it has taken a lot of time. But all in
all I found this really interesting and much more fun than other things in English.
It was a different, but a fun project!! I hope I get a good mark, because I
have spent much time with every post, and I have tried my best.
Thank you for reading me. Lots of love from Guro.