Graduating from NTNU

Some weeks ago it was time for our graduating ceremony at NTNU. Finally after five years we had our degree. Though most of us had not submitted our thesis on graduation day, I think everyone felt that they had. The celebration started with a champagne breakfast at uni, and before we had our picture taken at noon many and at least I, were a bit tipsy. Afterwards we had a poster presentation of our thesis before the main program started. A 2 hour long ceremony with speeches and songs. Most of them were good, but then there was this long monotonous speech and I could not wait to get out of there. Just like some lectures. All I could think of was, this is the last time you have to sit still and try to keep awake in this auditorium.
After the ceremony was done we got tapas and champagne. As much champagne as you could drink. They just kept on topping up our glasses. The tipsiness was back after a little down in the auditorium.
Then we had some more to drink outside in the beautiful weather before it was time to change for dinner. The dinner was at Banksalen, a very nice place, but I am a bit disappointed about the food. It is supposed to taste something, right? The wine was good, and that is the main thing;)
Many speches were held, songs were sung and the atmosphere was indescribable cheerful. The party ended at Samfundet where we had hired Klubben for the evening. Awards were given before we started dancing like crazy, rapping, stage diving and anything that makes a good party=) Sadly(or maybe not) there are no pictures from this part of the party.

Champagne breakfast:) It's something about drinking before noon...

My poster presentation

A marching band started the ceremony

We got to see some new sides of our professors when they performed as a choir:)

"Mathematics are important"-as if we haven't been told that enough during our five years at uni...

The toastmaster of the day:)

The fist speech:) If you look closely, you can see she is prepared for the traditional shout: show the boobs!

Nervous?

On a roll:)

Performing a speech just written:)

Who will get an award?

The award e remember the best: Our next couple;)

A couple of weeks after graduation, It was time for me to submit my thesis. After a week with almost no sleep and an extreme amount of coffee all I had to do was push a button. That can be very hard. My palms were sweaty, I was dizzy and a bit shaky. Once I push the button, there is no turning back. After some pressure from the rest of the office and been given a glass of wine, I managed to hand in my thesis. I had to lay down on the floor to calm down and for some time it was impossible to drink with only one hand.
Then it was another celebration. I had bought Bollinger and after one glass I was back to being tipsy me. Even though we were an exhausted bunch of people, we rocked the club and those who had bought the NTH ring(a proof of our degree) wore it well:) My time as a student is officially over, no it is time to explore other possibilities!=)

Motivation nb 1=)

Could life be better?:)

Guys drinking cider, just had to take a photo:)

Addicted to coffee??

It's time for deep conversations

Or? At least we're not old and boring yet!=)

Even more coffee...<3

The Norwegian National Day

On the 17. May we celebrate our National Day. This is the date at which our constitution was first signed. The traditional celebrations is walking in parades after marching bands, eating lots of ice-cream and playing funny games(especially for children). The celebration is mostly devoted to the children in Norway, they have their own parades and this day is about them having fun.

For me, this 17. May meant I finally got to wear my traditional Norwegian costume, bunad. I did not bring it to Sydney, so it had been two years since I last wore it. I really like wearing it even though it is a hassle to iron the shirt the day before and exhausting to wear the whole day. It is also a typical problem to get blisters from the shoes.

Since the day is about celebrating our country, I had to start the day with a run in the forest. The nature in Norway is something really appreciate. It started with perfect running weather, dusk rain, and I could not have got a better start on the day. But just when I got home, it really started pouring down and it did not stop till late in the evening. So it was a wet and cold celebration this year.

Ida joined me on the morning run:) Trondheim looks rather grey..:/

After the run, the next on my program was champagne breakfast with the rowing group. The breakfast lasted quite a while, and I went directly to the parade. It is so much fun to watch the parade in Trondheim because all sort of people walk in the parade and try to entertain the audience. After a while I joined the parade and walked for the rowers and then for EMIL. Part of walking in the parade is shouting hurray, the name of your school or organization or singing songs. This is very true for walking with EMIL; you haven't done a good job, if you don't have a sore throat.

Bagpipes seems to be in every parade I go to:)

Anything to keep dry and warm:)

Men in uniform! Hurray!

It seems not everyone is happy about walking in the parade

drumming nurses, very cool!



Vikings=)

!

!!!

The rowers with oars and blazers for the occasion:)

Walking with EMIL is always nice:) The EMIL oath is written on the back of the "banner": Teach us the joy of simple things, about laughter that doesn't have hurt in mind, forgiveness free of motive and love to all humans underneath the sun

After the parade I was so lucky that a friend and her brother invited my over for dinner(it's impossible to go get a table anywhere on this date, especially when it is raining). To get a homemade meal and traditional dessert out of the blue is luxury for a student! Thank you very much!=)

All in all a good day, although the weather could have been better. Plenty of highlights through the whole day=) Now, it is back to having no life and writing and writing and writing on my thesis. Thank god for daydreaming..:)

Not every day I get a rose so it was highly appreciated even though it was from a random guy(not being a stalker)

EMIL's annual Chistmas party in february

Two years ago a new tradition was started at EMIL (my student organization): The Christmas party!:)
But because of the exam period before Christmas and because there is other events early in the semester, we decided to arrange it in February. The party is for everyone that has participated for the organization in any way.
On the 25th of February we gathered very nicely dressed at the hut of a skiing club outside of Trondheim. The hut was decorated like Christmas and under every plate was a song booklet with Christmas and student songs that was sung during the meal. Also lying under the plate was a note giving everyone a challenge to do during the evening. It was everything from being responsible for the ladies' or the mens' speech to have an aerobic session or always saying yes to what was proposed. Of course this resulted in a hilarious evening and I think everyone had a blast=) Even cleaning up after the party was fun because everyone were in such a good mood:)

Unfortunaltely I had too much fun to remember to take any photoes:/ But when I remembered I took a lot:p

Getting ready for the Justin Bieber challenge

The Justin Biebers soon got company

Aerobic session

Combined partying, dancing and cleaning up...=)

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=)

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:-/