Preparing for Christmas

To get in to the right mood before Christmas some of my friends from home got together for a pre-Christmas weekend. We started the weekend with a relaxing evening eating Christmas cookies and a lot of other sweets typical for Christmas and other candy. Yes, we got a sugar high. Except from eating way too much we watched the best feel-good-film ever: Love Actually=) The film makes me feel good and puts me in a Christmas mood. By the end of the evening we were all merry:p

The next day we got together for a pre-Christmas party, one got get enough of them. The night was a huge success. Except from that I tend to get bored whenever I go out in Norway. This time we tried a place called Barmuda. The place is okay, but there is no place to dance or put your clothes. When I got bored and tired of people being rude, I decided to be Australian for the rest of the night. I started saying excuse me and I'm sorry and people became less rude and more polite. I liked it! I especially liked that I managed to fool people even though I know they were drunk.
As a nice ending to the evening we ran in to one of the ministers in the Norwegian Government: Trond Giske. And he invited us along to an afterparty. It was fun seeing him in a different context than what one usually see politicians. Here are some photos from the night. Oh, and I almost forgot. In Norway we make a circle and walk around the Christmas tree and sing carols. Before Christmas there are lots of decorated trees around in the city so of course we had to sing a song, thanks to the people who joined. It was great fun!

Prepartying with only girls means you get help to look the best you can=)

All of us=)

The minister as a DJ=)

To the right is the Norwegian Christmas spirit: Aquavit. Strong, but nice:)

The main building at uni was easy to spot walking home, making me feel bad for taking the day off:/

Having fun in the capital

This week I visited one of my friends in Oslo. Oslo is the closest you get to a city in Norway. It was nice to be back in a city but the atmosphere in Oslo isn't one I like. Although it is not my favorite place it has a lot of the facilities you do not find in a smaller place and I intended to take advantage of it when I was there=) The first evening we went to a show: Ylvis 4. It is two comedian brothers who are very popular in Norway. As I have seen there previous shows I was a bit disappointed. It was not as funny as I hoped although it was good entertainment; more show, less comedy.
I have really missed going out eating food from all over the world and I was superhappy when we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Very spicy and very good:)

The castle in Oslo

Indian dinner with Tanya and Kristin=)

A nice Christmas decorated street, can't wait for the celebration!

"Huking" instead of planking in front of the Christmas tree at the central station:p

Christmas workshop

After finishing my last exam ever at NTNU I was extremely exhausted. After two weeks of intense studying all I managed to do was to sit in front of the tv and watch it, but not what was happening on the screen. After a couple of hours I figured I had to try to at least do something else. So since a committee at uni was arranging a Christmas work shop I went there to see if I could get some more energy. They were of course serving rice porridge with cinnamon and gløgg( a traditional Norwegian Christmas drink, Sort of like hot cordial but more spicy. Some of the same spices that are used in chai are also used in this drink.) I got my self a cup and started chatting with all the nice people that were taking a break from studying. Since I am old and it is mostly younger students who attend these events I was glad to see some familiar faces.
The energy started to come back and I started knitting. The idea about the workshop is to make presents, cards or decorations for Christmas. And to make a model of the main building in ginger bread.
This was a very cosy event and I am sad I have never made it to the event before.

Henrikke is very satisfied with her decorations=)

The building has started

It is cheating to use glue. At home we eat the house after a while and therefore the "glue" has to be eatable.

Cosy=)

It's so easy!

Yesterday was an other exhausting day of reading so I really needed some exercise in the evening. In the exam period I really do not have time to care about how I look and therefore I do not feel really nice when I am outside the apartment. The feeling you get from sitting on your ass the whole day doesn't help either.
Feeling like this I ran into two friends at the gym and one of them says to me "you look really fit". It made my day! I felt so much better, and it is good to know that I do not look the way I feel:p

That was all it took to make my day so much better! Thank you very much Ragnhild=) I know I am not the one who gives the most compliments but I am trying to get better, and I hope to give someone the same experience I had.

Ragnhild, who is always nice, on the 17th of May in Sydney. We should learn from her:)

Exam period = no life

It is time for my last exam period EVER! I can not wait for it to be over with: 3 exams in 5 days. I am almost done preparing, and on Monday I will be finished. I try to keep the motivation up by keeping on telling myself that it is the last exam period: the last time I will be a zombie for 2 weeks, do nothing else but eat, sleep, study and sometimes exercise, the last time I forget how it is like to socialize and loose the knowledge of how to have a conversation.

We got these pills on an event I attended, of course before the exam period. They are called knowledge pills. I wish they could work and that I could get my life back. But until then it is back to my books:(
I do hope everyone else is having more of a life than me at the moment!=)

I'll just post some photos from the event before I start reading again. It was a "conference" about smart grid with a lot of interesting speakers:) For free at uni and afterward sushi and beverages:)

The knowledge pill

Trondheim voices started it all with nice singing.

The main speaker: Mozhi Habibi, Strategy Manager at IBM Global Energy & Utilities Strategy & Solutions

The programming/ control part of smart grid -interesting:)

Christmas table, dinner or party

Every year the ones who have sat in the board of the student union, EMIL, get together for a christmas table as we call it in Norwegian. This is something every working place and lots of other unions do too before Christmas. The idea is to eat a lot of food and drink a lot, have a good party and do embarrassing things. Of course we start the day with pre-drinking before going to the restaurant. This year, as every year, we visited an Italian restaurant Frati. The dinner was good, but the wine not so much. Since I am allergic to milk it is always exciting to see whether they have anything to give me or not. What I get is usually not nearly as good what others get, but what can I do? How hard can it be to buy a couple of soy products? Anyway it was the same this time, except from the potatoes. The cream au gratin potatoes were extremely salty. I suspect they tried to make us more thirsty so that we would drink more. This year we were lucky to have one of the first members of the boards at the dinner. He took part in starting the union so it was pretty cool to meet him even though we're still a young union.

Pretty nice=)

Lucy and Mari

An important ingredient

=)

The lead singer! Being a student union we have to sing student songs at most events=)

To the left: The face of someone who realizes he's been rude and taken the dessert before someone that is older.
To the right: The offended

The new one thanked the old ones for inviting them=) It was nice of them to join the part:)

"the oldest" held a speech about how it was when the union had just started up=)

I should also mention that a normal Christmas table involves the guys taking there tie and have it around their head instead. But since we are students and the exams are coming up we didn't get that far this year:-/

Family

This weekend I was lucky to have both my sister and brother visiting me. Norway is a tiny country, but it is long and therefore there might be long distances to travel to get to the people closest to you. My family live only 3 hours away so they can come visit me any time or I can go home whenever uni is to tough or I just feel like getting spoiled.
I was suppose to help my sister with her schoolwork, but since we hadn't seen each other for a while we mostly just enjoyed the weekend; baking, cooking, watching tv, playing board games and eating candy:) I love these kind of visits!
It was more of the same when my brother came. He's training for the skiing season and just stopped by on his way back from the mountains. Because of his training he is always hungry and I made a huge dinner for us. And then we had coffee. Of course I ended up feeling guilty after all the food I had eaten during the weekend while he can just eat as much as he want to and it is good for him! Not fair!

Here are some photoes of the happy family:)

My big kitchen... It's just big enough for baking something simple:)

My sister relaxes while I put all the good things on the table=)

Cosy:)

Yes, We got full after a while:p

Not snow yet, but frost. Really icy..:S

Idun with the uni the background. She calls it a castle while we call it the Harry Potter building=)

Note on the ticket machine: "If the ticket doesn't print, hit carefully above the ticket flap"
The National Railway in a nutshell..

My little brother Tarjei who eats a lot!

And who likes to play with my facebook...:/

Courseday and Lohn

In order for us to get money from the faculty when we're traveling to Argentina on our class excursion, we have to arrange 4 days with academic contents. Since it has been difficult to arrange for us to visit companies in Argentina we had to have one of the days in Norway before we leave. I helped planing and arranging it. The first part of the day the class split in 3 and visited a company each. I went to Siemens and learned about what they do. It was really interesting and all of them were really committed to their work.But once again I was made aware of that I am going to work in a male dominated business. Out of the 9 speakers one were a woman and she worked in the HR department:p

The second part of the day we met back at uni where Statnett gave us a presentation. This presentation was really good and motivating. Since I am in my year, many of the people i knew at uni before I left for Australia has started working, but they all seem to come back when their company comes to Trondheim to recruit students. This time it was Pål I got to see again. It is always interesting to hear how it is like to start working, especially from someone you know:)

Statnett was also so kind that they hired some Spanish speaking to teach us something about both Argentina and the language. It was really helpful, but I've also realized I might have to spend the Christmas holiday studying Spanish.

After the academic part of the day was finished some of us went to Samfundet to listen to Lohn's concert. For every time I listen to their music I like it more=) The lyrics are in Norwegian and they have actual meaning and I think that is part of why I like it so much. Here's a link to some of their songs if you want to listen to it:
Lohn

We have all got our sponsor t-shirt on:)

Pål

Spanish, Argentinian, Argentinian=)

Lohn:)

EMIL's annual meeting

Since I was away last year I haven't had the opportunity to act old and bitter at the student union's, EMIL, annual meeting. That is the role the persons who have been in the board earlier have to play to make sure decisions are not made hasty and without consideration.
At the annual meeting new rules are made for the union, we look at the economy and the most important thing: Election of the new board!! It was so much fun to see that there were so many wanting to be in the board. It must mean that the union has done a good job welcoming the new students=)

Of course the meeting made me nostalgic, this is my last year at uni and I remember how much fun it was to be in the board. But been there, done that! Now new things have to be explored=)

After the meeting the new and old board and us that are old and bitter meet to celebrate. We start at our "office" and then we head for a pub, Naboen, where they have too much good beer. Unfortunately I couldn't go this year, but I think it was for the best. I might have ended up being sentimental after some beers:S
Luckily we're having a Christmas party for the old, present and new ones next week=) I can't wait!

This years leader

The ones running for leader

It is important with pizza in a long meeting=)

The ones running for the board with six seats:p

Celebration=)=)=)