Freaking out! :S

I know this might sound more than just a little melodramatic - but Im really freaking out about wether or not I will get accepted to the university in Shanghai. It would be such a great oppertunity for me, and it seems like such a great city, just look at the picture its so modern and awesome! Everyone is talking about next year at school, discussing when to leave, who to live with, what they wrote in their letters of motivation and so on. I even overheard a group reading their applications out loud to eachother this morning.
My parents are talking about coming to visit me in China and how exciting it is, my grandmother wants to knit me a sweater so I can show all the chinese that Im norwegian and everyone just assumes I will get accepted. I should be really happy about that, but somehow it makes me freak out bigtime. That and everyone taking about it all the time, making plans before we know who gets in where. There are several reasons to let me go study in Fudan, but also reason not to, I really dont know what will happen..
I know I have a degree in asian languages and that hopefully a plus, right? I know that my average is a B and thats good also.. but that average doesnt include the two subjects I've failed. I have no idea whats more important, the average of the subjects you have passed or how many subjects you actually have passed. Or well, I guess its the subjects you have passed - must be :( You can have failed 3 subjects and still get to go study abroad though. Some of my classmates think that my credits from the other degree somehow counts as well, I cant see how thats possible, but if they do count thats awesome I guess. Now Im just rambling.. I really need to know about schools before I go insane, cant handle this waiting!
I dont even think getting my second or even third choice would be that bad, my worst fear is not getting in anywhere at all.. I know thats kind of unlikely, but somehow Im affraid that it can happen anyhow.
We wont know who gets accepted to what university untill march either, I really hope I can find a way to not think too much about schools or I will loose my mind. Right now its impossible not to think about next year, with everybody at school constantly discussing it, making plans.. ah well now Im just repeating myself I guess. Its just that I really really want to know what happens!

Yesterday was a pretty awesome girls night out. The evening started at Annes place where we made strawberry daquiris, chatted and took tons of pictures. It was Anne, Victoria, Rebecca, Lene, Karianne and me. Then we took the bus downtown and went to Tempest. The busdriver must have been drunk as well, or just very very bad at driving :P Tempest was pretty quiet at first, but after a while things really picked up and the place got pretty packed. We met some guys that we talked to for a bit, then we did some dancing and eventually headed home. It was tons of fun, no drama, and most important -I did not twist my ancle! :D (Like I always do)
I really love how the nightbus system got that facelift, I only waited for my bus for about 10 minutes - last year I would probably have ended up walking. When I got home I drank tons of water, so today I feel fine. Meeting up with Kaja later on :)

Studying Oo

Cant belive Im actually here at school on a friday. I know that sentence doesnt make sense unless your a student here at BI, but the thing is its really rare to ever have a lecture on a friday if you go here. Theres hardly any people here today, so even if I got to the library kind of late (12ish) I still got my favorite spot by the window, yay me :)
I also brought cofee and brownies so I hopefully wont need to spend money on anything, trying both to be a better student and to be better at saving. And yes I realise blogging isnt studying - and I will get back to consumer behaviour in a sec, just had to tell everyone that Im here studying!
Tonight Im going out with some friends, the plan is a beforeparty at Annes place, then girls night at Fridays. Will be pretty cool I think, I'll blog about it tomorrow :) Anyways I guess I should get back to studying, thats what Im here for after all. Heres the wiew from where Im sitting, got to love it :)

Just another thursday..

I dont really have a whole lot to write about today, but Im bored so I decided to write anyway. The day started with a lecture on practical economics and business management, got to say Im affraid that will be my worst subject this semester.. next time we're going to look into budgets and we have to bring calculators, numbers have never really been my strong side, and I already failed and retook the final in finance and economy - I really hope this subject will be better, I guess I just have to work on it more than the others.
Then I had a lecture on consumer behaviour, much easier subject and Jeanette goes to the lectures on it as well. Today was actually a pretty awesome lecture, we RPed! I was buying a house and Jeanette was selling it, we had to agree on what house I wanted (there was 3) and what price I would pay for it - we got role cards and everything.
After school I was suppose to meet Victoria, but she had to study so I decided to go to the gym instead. Worked out for about an hour before I got too tired, always something I guess. On my way to the gym I picked up a package from eyes lips face - an online makeup store Kaja told me about - I got 2 lipsticks, 7 eyeshadows, 2 eyeliners, a concealer 2 mascaras and a mirror for about 200 NOK. According to Kaja the makeup is really good as well, cant wait to try it all out. If you want to have a look at the webpage yourself you can click here.

I guess thats everything Ive done today more or less so far. Now to make some brownies, the plan is to study at school tomorrow and catch up a bit on the curriculum in some of my subjects - I think browies will make it a little less awfull :)

(a little later)
And here are the brownies! :) Got to love my birthday present:

Dinner with an old friend :)

Today I finally had the oppertunity to catch up with my friend from high school, Victoria. She brought her baby girl, Sol as well - one of the sweetest little things ever. I tried out a recipe from Kajas blogg and made some pesto rolls for us, they tasted really great and were easy to make :) You can find the recipe here if you know norwegian. Victoria brought me an awesome birthday present as well - a special brownies cake tin, I have to try and make some brownies this weekend :)
After Victoria and Sol had left, I tried once more to finish my letter of motivation.. it all seemed a lot easier today somehow, and I got a complete page now giving good reasons why I should get to go to Shanghai. I will have my family look at it and then go over it again tomorrow and hopefully hand it in along with my application, feels like a huge weight has been lifted of my shoulders :)

Bored..

Standing in the coffee line, its not really moving forward at all:-S so decided to try out cellphone blogging.. Here is a picture of my school:-P Been here from 10 am at a 4 hours Business to Business lecture, really interesting - but Im just not good enough at going to sleep early to stay awake without cofee.. oh now the like moved superquick:-o even got 2 stamps on my coffee card. Back to business to business marketing.

Meh

So Ive been trying to fill a page with reasons why I want to go to Shanghai, as I have to write this letter of motivation for my application for next year.. and I still havent managed. Its been a couple of hours, and Im just running out of good reasons to put there. I told them I think China is the best idea because their the fastest growing economy in the world, that their an important business partner to Norway. I told them I have always loved East Asia and that I have a degree in Japanese and Chinese, I even wrote some random stuff about why Fudan University is such a good school - how can this not be more than half a page? And its not that I dont want to study in Shanghai, cause I really really do. The first time I looked into it was like.. at least 3 years ago. Going to study in China was probably the main reason I decided on taking a degree in International Marketing to begin with, that and trying to get a job. Its just really hard to explain why, and even harder when you know its 50/50 grades and that letter of motivation they look at when they decide who gets in where next year - so it needs to be filled with really really good reasonable reasons! I went to the information meeting about studying in China today as well, now I want to go there even more. Judging by what the lady talking to us said some of the rules that apply in China are kind of weird, like you need to let the police know where you live - or they can take you down to the station and fine you. Oh and we need to get a tourist visa, and then make Fudan help us get a student visa.. cause if we apply for a student visa in Norway it might get declined, weird. All in all she told us more about the challenges we will be facing when living there, more than the good parts about it. Wish she had given us more reasons to go there, so I could have used them for my letter of motivation - but I guess I will try to sleep on it and have another look tomorrow.

Snowblading

Today me and my brother, Ludvig went to Tryvann winterpark. The weather was more or less perfect, pretty mild (3 degrees) and sunny. To begin with we had the slopes more or less to ourselves, but after a few hours the place got pretty crowded sadly. Today we decided to go check out the longest slope at Tryvann, as it turned out it was also the best one :) Not as many people there, and it was just steep enough without being too steep. There was a small café at the bottom as well that was way less crowded than the one by all the other slopes. Later on I went to my parents place for some homemade pizza, all in all a very nice day.

New blog

So this is it, my new blog!
This is hopefully going to be a blog about my super awesome life as an exchange student, I just have to get accepted to Fudan University in Shanghai first. The main reason I want to start blogging is to give my friends back home a way to see how Im doing when Im away, but I decided to start a bit earlier and write about applying to schools and all that as well.
As you might have noticed, this blog is in english - thats because some of my friends dont speak norwegian, and also because I want to keep using english so I dont forget how to. So today I finally decided once and for all what schools Im going for next year. Studying one year abroad is a part of the degree Im taking here in Oslo at BI Norwegian School of Management - International marketing. We can go study in several different countries in Europe, America and East Asia. I decided against Canada and USA, because the student loan arrangement in Norway wouldnt have covered all the school money. New York did sound pretty awesome, but it would have ment working all summer when I really want to spend this summer saying goodbye to everyone before I leave.
We have to apply to 5 different schools in 5 different countries - I eventually decided Shanghai should be my first choice - because China is a pretty interesting country, and the economy there is growing at the rate it is. Then I went for Barcelona because.. well its a nice city :)
Then Signapore, then Leeds and finally Mannheim. Now I have to write a so called letter of motivation and make an english CV - I guess translating my norwegian one should work. The letter of motivation is the hard part, its supposed to be one page, I got like.. not even half a page, and Im not sure what to mention as I didnt really write a letter of motivation before :/ Ah well I guess I'll just have to figure it out tomorrow.
Now to make some dinner, Luna is coming over :)