Sky Castle

Random Note: Cross country skiing is one of the most heavy things I've ever done... But it's awesome!

If anyone of you still doesn't believe our ozone layer is going to hell and the earth is heating up, they should come and visit me in Norway. It's February. FEBRUARY!!! And this midday temperatures of +15°C in the sun where reached. That's absurd and should not be happening. It really makes you think things over... In this time of year, it should be snowing like hell, and the temperature shouldn't go up above a few degrees above 0 around here... And yet we haven't had snow for over two weeks, and I'm starting to develop quite a tan. In the middle of winter. In Norway of all places. Yup, our climate is pretty fucked up indeed.

Anyway, I went cross country skiing today. I did so last weekend too (saturday last week was my first time) and I really am improving! I still think getting as good as a Norwegian four-year-old is a very good goal and slightly unattainable, but it was fun nontheless. The way there was extremely heavy because the tracks where very icy, but I actually manage to get on the top of hills now and that's quite an improvement compared to last week. We skied for 13 km all in all and it was pretty awesome. The downhill parts where kind of scary here and there because of the ice, but on the way back, which was mostly downhill, I had an instructor all for my own almost the whole way. It was pretty cool; he was really nice and I think I learned a lot from it. (we where with two or three on one instructor, but we kind of lost the rest of our group to another group...). He congratulated me on how tough I was... I'll just take it as a compliment, though it was because even though I kept felling, I got up every time without whining and complaining and apparently he thought that was pretty good... Go me! :P (would've been better if I didn't fall at all obviously, but hey, got to take what you can get :P) He was really sweet about it, kept telling me I was doing really good and whenever I fell he went on about how falling was good, because when you wouldn't learn without falling. Someone about pushing your limits if you fall, and without doing that you'll never get better. Well, I'll have to get lots and lots better than, because I fell a lot and I'm totally exhausted by now.
I have to admit though, the more you learn, the more fun it becomes. While in the beginning I rather doubted that I'd like it, today I had a great time (even though I fell a lot... After you land with your face in the snow for the tenth time, all you can do is laugh about it, right?).

If anyone ever thinks that cross-country skiing is an old-mans sport and stupid, they've never done it properly!

Random Note: Norway is eating my money faster than Goku on an all-you-can-eat-buffet after 3 days of hunger.

I guess living on your own for the first time, in a new country and with barely anyone you know from home there, is bound to teach you a bit about yourself. It's only natural right?
For one, I'm pretty opposite of myself; going by my behavior you'd say I was a total extrovert... now I've always known I'm by far not as extroverted as people think me to be; I never show anyone the back of my tongue unless I trust them completely and there are very few people on that list. But I can confidently say that I've always been a very social person. I'm good with people, get along with just about anyone and when I set my mind to it make friends very easily (when I don't set my mind to it, I do, too, actually...). I also know I'm not very judgemental and pretty open-minded.
Yet I've found that I'm not half as eager to make friends with the other International Students as I'd thought I'd be. Basically, I also found out just how precious my alone time is to me. Last week was so busy and I had so very little time for myself between the several introductions/social thingies and falling into bed exhausted and just wanting to sleep. This week, all I really seem to be interested in is being in my room, sleeping the whole thing off and messing around a little on the net. Oh and swimming. I've done quite some swimming too.
Sure, there's some people I really like, among whom Malin, who is
ulvarmarson
's best friend and Norwegian (oh but I wasn't allowed to say that, because she's from the city of Bergen and people from Bergen are not Norwegian), Nadia, a Canadian girl, a guy from the Netherlands (studies in Utrecht of all places) and Normann, who's German and generally just very sweet.
As for the rest of them? They're really nice and probably fun to hang around with but I simply don't care as much...
Another something that I'd never expected to bother me (that I'd never expected to be an issue actually) is that I'm so much younger than the rest of them. Now this isn't much of a problem as most of my better friends are actually older than me, but among this group I feel young. They're all about half-way their twenties while I'm not even in my twenties yet. I don't think it matters much but I can still notice it in the little things and sometimes and it kind of bothers me because I feel like a little kid compared to them.

Also, I don't know if it has something to do with living in the same city where you study, Norwegian people being party-animals or international students being party-animals, but goddamn there's a lot of party's going on, and I found out that really? I don't feel like going to any of them. I have the hardest time saying no to invitations, specially for no better reason than 'I don't feel like it', but once the time for the party comes around I just... Don't. What's the point in going to some party where everyone's at least halfway a stranger? Drinking? Not my thing. I like going to a pub, but I always go with a few close friends.

Also, I don't like sharing the kitchen in the way I have to now. I still feel like a guest every time I walk in there, and like I'm invading someone else's property. As a consequence of both that and the fact that the place is FAR from clean, I've barely cooked for myself in the one and a half week I've been there now. Exception is the one time I cooked myself some rice. Once. The rice wasn't even good. -_-
(And before you ask, yes I can cook, pretty good actually. I'm no cheff but I have no problems cooking myself up something).
Oh! Oh! But I did cook spaghetti just now! *is brave*


Hmmm This did turn out quite whiny didn't it? But really, I love it. Doing this, experiencing this, meeting new people and doing new things. My whole life, I've read and dreamed about adventures, but they where always things that other people had (sadly), and now I have one of my very own!
Also, I really like living on my own. I guess I really was ready for it. Oh, and I'm starting yoga classes next Tuesday! And have already been swimming two times this week! And Oslo is a beautiful city (pics can be found here) and the university is really great. I met some pretty cool people and have a lot of fun! :D

Random Note: Norwegian key-boards are scary! You can talk alien with them! Like this: ØÆÅøØåæææÆØæøÅæøØÆøææÆÅøøÅååø (ok so maybe that's just norwegian but it's still scary!)

So anyway, I'm sorry for the airsilence the last several days. They promised me internet in my room. I didn't get it (Yet). So now I finally do have access to the computers at uni, which is really nice.
Anyway, All concidered things are really, really good (except for the internet thing anyway). People around here are really, really nice and I met so many new people these last few days, from all over the world!
From Japan and Korea to Australia, the US, Canada, Argentina, all over Europe, Turky, Koerdistan, well you get the idea...
Things are going good for me actually, we're kept very busy and stuff but it's ok. I just feel kind of missereble right now, because I have a headache and my shoes can't withstand the power of melting snow and are wet trough. (it's raining outside! In Norway! So unfair, it's supposed to be snowing, not raining! :S) and I still have lots to do so a little alone/relaxing time isn't in it anytime soon.
But anyway, mostly everything is good. Appearently I missed a LOT. I coppied everything I was really interested in to a wordsfile and I ended up having 220 friggin pages of fanfiction to catch up with. Oh well, I'll take it to my room, put it on my laptop and when I read something, I'll type up a reaction (since that was my new years resolution and stuff) and post those when I get back.

Oh well, tonight we're going ice skating and I know a group of people are going to go to a pub somewhere but I think I'll just go home after the scating and sleep. I need it.

At least I know I won't be bored, plans for the weekend are being made (watching a movie, going on a ski-trip, going on a bus trip trough Oslo, going to the ikea maybe...) and I've been invited to my first party.

Oh! And I'm so happy I know Dutch because I can actually understand a lot of words! :D
A crash-course in Norwegian-Dutch-English:
Takk = Bedankt = Thanks
Trekk = Trekken = Pull
Stasjon = Station = Station
Neste = Volgende = Next
Universitetet = Universiteit = University
Beispiel = Indrinken = Eh... When you drink at someones home before going to a party/pub?
And a lot of other random words XD

Random Note: Yay! :D

For starters: Welcome everyone who just got here trough the friending-meme, awesome to see you! :D

So... <lj user=lillypuff> gave me an idea; since I have so many new people friended, I'm going to play a little game... You guys get to ask me any question and I'll answer as best as I can. This can be anything really... But when I answer, I get to ask one back and you need to answer that one! ^-^ It's not limited to one question btw, and of course older friends are welcome to ask as well!

As I see a lot of rambling about that in your futures, I'll explain; I live in the Netherlands right now. Come friday, I'm moving to Norway to study there for half a year... All that's pretty awesome of course and I'm seriously looking forward to it and also seriously nervous about it. So there :P

Random Note: ...

Just now, I started cleaning out my room. I can honestly say that it's one of the most curious experiences I've ever had. A lot stranger than when I packed up to move here a few years ago... After all, than it was just a matter of throwing everything in boxes, my family was coming and my old friends only one and a half hour away. Now...
Now I have to choose what to take and what to leave here. And I know everything I leave will still be here when I come back but... I'm an emotional sod and I have to stop myself every time from throwing in all those little memoirs I keep. Now I'm so very glad that I bought that - seemingly waaaay too huge - suitcase because, well, yeah. I need it. There's so much I want to and need to take.
I started in my closets because... Well, it's a week (and a day) before I leave and I want to keep my room my room as long as possible. For the first time, though, I'm starting to really realize that yes, I'm leaving a lot of things behind... And for a very long time.


The traveler 

Pack up your things,
Leave everything behind,
No memories to weigh you down,
In the new world you’re about to find.

Take your bag,
You can’t fit everything in,
So leave behind the memories,
Of where you’ve been.
 
Look what’s necessary,
For you to survive,
Without some things,
You can’t stay alive.
 
Leave everything,
You don’t need it anyway,
You need to travel light,
It’s that or stay.
 
Pack your things,
Leave everything behind,
No memories to weight you down,
Because they’re always in your mind.

Just wrote that... It's what I felt like when I was packing up the first of my things, leaving anything non-functional safely tugged away in my closets.

Random Note: Nothing like being seriously hyper, stressed out of your mind, near a nervous breakdown, beyond tired and dealing with bureaucracy  to give yourself a tension-headache

In 28 days, 28 hours and 56 minutes, I'll arrive at the airport in Oslo, Norway!

Yes I'm driving myself crazy. I can't help it, on one hand, I can't friggin' wait. It promises to be SUCH an awesome country and such an amazing experience! I found the weblog of a girl who's also from the Netherlands and also studies psychology, just like me, and she's in Norway at the moment, almost going home, and I've read all her entries up till now and it's just so friggin awesome. I keep feeling extremely jealous before I think of the fact that while for her it's almost over, I have all this to look forward too. I was really bold and left a reaction asking her if I could email her with a few questions.
On the other hand, I'm so nervous I'm just about running around screaming and going mad. Is everything taken into account now? Do I have all the information I need to? Will my housing be ok? Will I have a house when I arrive or will everything go wrong like I keep expecting? Did I pick the right subjects? Will I have friends over there? Will I manage living on my own alright? Did I buy the right things? Will I manage money-wise? Won't I get homesick? And so on (and on and on and on and on and on and on...).
Also the bureaucratic part of leaving is killing me death. I spend today calling people that knew nothing, people that didn't understand what I wanted, filling out forms, racing to the postal office trough the streaming rain, finding out that I actually knew more than the receptionist there (you work at a bank but don't know how to handle the internet-banking page? What the hell?) cycling back trough said streaming rain, filling out more forms, finding out that some services apparently close by 3 in the midday, calling more people, finally finding out what to put on the forms, posting them and hoping like all hell that I did everything right and didn't mess everything up. It gets rather annoying and stressy.

Oh well, I keep telling myself it's more than worth it, and that in a month, I'll be in Norway and the big adventure will start for real!

God damn I'm gonna miss everyone at home though...