Stop Snowing already!!!

Yeah thats right - it wasn't spring yet after all.. snowing AGAIN!
Im Seriously sick and tired of this whole norwegian winter/spring battle going on. Last week I could walk outside in the sun with no jacket and eat icecream. Today it's been snowing all day long. Been at school all day, as planned, studying and discussing with the International Marketing group - I did finish my powerpoint presentation as well (for the english final) and sendt it to my teacher for feedback. I really hope it's allright now so I can make a script and start practising for monday! Stayed at school untill 7, so thats actually 9 hours. Im a bit more motivated to study now that I got some of the things I wanted done. Plan on studying in the library on my own tomorrow and finish the curriculum for the english final.

The first finals closing in

My first final is this monday, then I have 2 days of the next one thursday and friday... guess my first finals are really really close. Im worried about them, but I somehow still cannot make myself 100% motivated to study as much as I feel like I should. Today Im going to force myself to stay at school untill I have finished my presentation for my english oral final at least - possibly longer. I think I just have so much I should do that I don't even know where to start. In International Marketing, the other oral final, we are a group working together so that motivates me to work a bit more. The whole concept of that final creeps me out though, we are 2o people there every time, 5 people are playing a consultant team and have to give a presentation, then the other 15 are board members and need to discuss the case after.. the final lasts for 4 days in total. Ah well blogging won't really help me doing any better I guess so.. back to work!

Annes Birthday

Saturday was my friend Annes 23rd Birthday so she had a pretty nice party. We all met up at her place first, for drinks and homemade muffins among other things. Real nice beforeparty, then we went downtown. Saturday was the day you change the time so that its one hour later, so we didn't have as much time as normal - tons of hooligans everywhere as well, because of the game between Norway and Denmark. We also got split up, so a few of us went to Tempest and the rest to Andys - still a lot of fun, but the beforeparty was easily the best part of the birthday.

Drinking to a good cause

Tonight the student pub at Krinsjå did a charity event called "Let's come together for Japan". They sold beer, some food and they had made tons of origami cranes that were spread out on all of the tables. All of the income will be donated to the rescue work in Japan. I thought this was a really good excuse to go out, drink and meet with friends and a really good cause at the same time, so of course I had to join. We met a few exchange students from Japan and China as well and the Japanese taught us how to make origami cranes - I think I even remember now, after making 3 of them, hehe. Great evening, great initiative. I hope they raised tons of money for Japan.

New look

Decided it was time to change how the blog looks - I wanted it to be more summerish, but then I realised it was actually snowing a bit outside, so changed the header so it shows how I really want it to really be spring now and summer soon, even if it might actually just be another fake spring.. made it all a little lighter and with more colors as well to make it a bit more cheerfull :)

Work alert!!

The summer is closing in and today I got an e-mail from my job - Tusenfryd. Tusenfryd is Norways biggest amusement park by far, and I've worked there 6 summers in a row now. My job the last few years has mainly been at a ride called Sky Coaster - it's acually a pretty sweet ride, like a giant swing sort of. As you can see in the picture safety is obviously a priority here, and for the ride to be able to operate you need a so called Site Controller to be present at all times. Thats where I come in, hehe. To become a Site Controller you actually need to take both a practical test and a theory test, and you also need to retake the theory test every year. I got mine today and it made me realise that next season isn't too far away. April and May will be pretty busy months for me by the looks of it with finals, Tusenfryd and applying once again to the uni in China. Im determined to find time for a social life as well though, as I will be leaving for Shanghai in the end of july. Im sure I can make it work, I just have to follow the japanese 6 hour sleep rule rather than the norwegian 8 hour one :)

Spring?

This is great! 14 degrees in Oslo today - thats awesome considering it was snowing just a few weeks ago! Today I have actually been outside a lot, and it wasnt awfull! Got my Allstar shoes and my leather jacket and had icecream.. outside! Im in shock, did not expect spring to get here this early this year.. it was snowing about two weeks ago and last week was cold as well. As you can see in the lower photos, we still have some snow - BUT! It IS melting and that is awesome.

Today actually started out pretty lame, with presentation day in my english class. My plan was to not have a script and just remember some key points.. of course when I was actually standing there trying to do this I didn't remember anything and it just became random babbling + what was in the slides, so yeah.. bad plan. Luckily this presentation was just practise for my final, and it doesnt count on the grade. After class I was prepared to just go home sulking about it and possibly work on the slides again, but then both Kaja and Victoria called and wanted to meet up.. sounded like a much better plan, and with the nice weather it really saved my day to walk arround town out in the sun :)

Slow Weekend

So I have been sick - again, bah.. guess I never really got completely well again last time, happens I guess. So yeah, haven't been a lot to blog about, basicly been home studying, watching shows or playing computer games most of last week. I have also been able to contact or at least get info about most of my friends living in Japan, wich is great. Felt a little better friday, so I went to "I am Number Four" with The Shadow Project. It had quite a few good action scenes in it, but the storyline wasn't all that great and some of the lines made me wonder if they made them that bad on purpose or something. Still, I really liked some of the effects and the bad parts are nice to make fun of, so I think the movie is definitely worth seeing.
The rest of the weekend has been rather uneventfull so far, yesterday I didn't even leave the appartment, and today I am actually at school - studying in with my IM/B2B group.. we're not all here yet though so Im not even sure what we're doing right now. Sometimes its nice to have a slow week/weekend, just to reload a bit - I feel a little less sick today and I hope Im getting better for real this time, not just for a few days.

phew ^^

I am going to sound like a broken record, writing about Japan AGAIN - but honstly its the only thing I care about right now. Today I got an e-mail from another friend of mine that lives there - Kyoko, Aoi and Nami are all safe, thank god. They live in Togane as well, so I figured they might be, but its always nice to hear from people all the same. Such a relief, heard from almost all my friends now - at least almost all the ones I have any chance of contacting. Apparently the biggest issues in Togane right now are the power blackouts and lack of trainlines running as normal. The thing that scares me the most right now is the powerplant in Fukushima - if huge amounts of radioactivity reaches Tokyo it will be simply horrible - it's the biggest city I have ever been in.. if you go stand at the very top of Tokyo tower (wich is basicly the eifel tower, only red and 5 meters taller), the only thing you see in all directions is tall buildings. Yokohama is right next to Tokyo and thats a huuge city as well, so obviously tons and tons of people can get hurt. Im trying to stay positive though - as it would kill me if I didn't. There's now 180 people working on the reactors, and apparently they have stopped what they can, according to norwegian media. The rest sort of have to slowly die out, but they still need to work on cooling everything down. The more time that passes - the smaller the chances of a meltdown. Watched a few videos from the most damaged areas, and it really upset me, still I have to say Im impressed by how well the japanese are coping with all of this. They all seem so calm, even a guy riding his motorcycle for 2 days from Tokyo to his hometown to see wether or not his mother is still alive was completely calm while talking to the press - you could still see in his eyes how upset he was though. The japanese also show us how caring and civil they are - sharing what little food and water they got with eachother, and not plundering other peoples homes like locals have done in other areas affected by similar disasters. I have probably said this a million times before - but if there's a people that doesn't deserve this its the japanese. In the spirit of staying positive I won't post a sad picture, but a happy one. This is from my 20th birthday that I celebrated with my friends from Togane and my classmates from Norway - one of the best parties ever.

Finally some more info on next semester

Today I got an e-mail from school with some more info about how my next schoolyear will look like. There's 40 norwegians going to study in Shanghai: from Bergen, Drammen, Kristiansand, Oslo, Trondheim and Stavanger. We will have an info meeting in may, looking forward to it. The language course we can apply for is in august, so as I thought I will have to leave late july or early august. The actual semester starts in early septemper - we will be studying the following subjects our first semester:

• Chinese language
• Marketing Research and Marketing Management in China
• Managerial Communication
• Human Resource Management
• Strategic Management
• Public Relations
• International Business
• Bachelor project

All looks exciting, and most important - I dont see the word economics anywhere, yaaay! The rest of the e-mail was mostly practical info about the tuition fee, ensurance, the student loan thingie and stuff like that. Also I now have the e-mails of all the other students that will be a part of my new class in China. Going to be a good year by the looks of it :)

The Burn addicts

I have found a new distraction - studying! Our group final in International Marketing isn't too far away, so the group plan on meeting up almost every day at 9 AM. Getting up early is definitely not my thing - and even if I overslept Im still extremly tired. When Yong and Frederick decided to buy Burns (energydrinks) I couldn't stick to my decision on not drinking stuff like that - so now we got the pink burn, the black burn and the green burn, we're like a commercial :P
Found a few more of my japanse friends e-mails today and sendt them messages, but my tactic is to try and focus on school this week and just check the news once or twice a day. Im also checking for news from my friends on facebook - the ones that are updating their statuses seem to be doing fine considering the circumstances - but apparently theres still aftershakes.

Trying to keep distracted

The number of dead in Japan is now up at 10 000, and 590 000 japanese have had to flee from their homes. In the area arround Sendai the stores are running out of food and theres stories in the media about parents loosing their children and cities lying in ruin. Some of the nuclear powerplants are still in the dangerzone and are now being cooled down by seawater in lack of anything else. There are also touching stories about survivors though, like Hiromitsu Shinkawa - 60 years old, rescued 15 km from land after two days, the guy survived on his own rooftop. He was even in good shape when they found him apparently. I got to say this guy is a hero, surviving in the situation he was in - impossible for me to understand how he did it, as his house was swept out to sea by the tsunami. Theres a video of them saving him in this article here, the article is in norwegian, but the movie is at the very top. :)
Stories like that are so awesome in the middle of all the terrible ones. The rescue work is really hard apparenttly because of broken roads and general chaos. They have to work on 3 main issues: the damages from the earthwquake and the afterquakes, the damages from the tsunami and also the power plants. If anyone can do it its the japanese though. I wish this never happened to them, but I belive the deaths would have been multiplied by hundreds in any other country.
After wathcing the news all night friday I decided there was nothing more I could really do and decided to try and do other things, to try and feel at least a little less depressed. I had already planned a trip to my friend Idas place in Hamar, and even if it feels unfair and selfish to have fun while this is going on I went there in order to try and feel a little better. It was really awesome to see Ida again, we studied together in Togane back in 2007, but as she moved to Hamar we havent met a lot the last few years. We went to a party and then out for drinks, distracted me a bit to be arround friends and do fun things. Today we were all really tired so we basicly just slacked in front of the TV untill I had to catch my train back to Oslo. Now Im back home again and Im reading up on the disaster - have been able to contact most of the people I have contact information on, but theres tons of nice people I used to hang out with I dont have any chance of reaching - it's very conforting to know that everyone living in Togane are safe at the university though, I just hope everyone still lives in that area. I was also really reliefed to see that my friend that used to live in Yokohama moved to Thailand, and my friend that studied in Akita has now moved back to Okinawa. Allthough I try not to Im still worried sick about the ones I cant reach and the ones that did not respond yet, I really hope they are alive - most likely they are, but it would be so much better to know for sure..

Earthquake in Japan

This morning the 5th most powerfull earthquake registrered since 1905 hit Japan. It's magnitude was up at 8,8 - in comparison the earthquake that caused the tsunami in Thailand a few years ago was a 9. The earthquake unleashed a massive tsunami that hit Japans east coast, taking cars, buses and even buildings with it. Fires startes as well, as a result of the massive wave. The government count at least 30 dead - a number that is likely to increase and they fear thousands of deaths. While this is a terrible tragidy for the country, my first concern was my friends living in Japan. Luckily the ones I have talked to seem to be allright. The people in Togane, where I went to study 4 years ago, were evacuated to the university.While they don't have electricity (and no heating) so their rather cold and their phones don't work, at least their safe and they survived the tsunami. My friend living in Kansai wrote this on his facebook page:

Unbelievable Big earthquake struck to Japan and Tsunami caused by it.

I am safe.Me and my family,my house,my town,everything no damage at all because here Sanda city is 900 km far from Sendai,a place of this point of Earthquake.

But many disaster in Sendai and near cities.
...I feel for,worry, to many people who living in these cities.....

Obviously this is a tragedy for Japan, and Im really worried about everyone I havent talked to yet.

Party with the IM class

This evening there was a party for all of us going to study abroad next semester. I've never really been to any of the parties with BI untill today, as I didn't really know anyone, etc etc. Today I went there with Iman Irene and Yong though, and it was tons of fun.
We met a few people going to China and Singapore (where Yong is going) and they all semed nice. The students from Singapore sort of invited us to go to Bali with them for their get to know eachother week, but we sort of already made plans to go to Hainan - wich is the Hawai of China, so we'll see. Everyone seem really excited about next year. There was some Beerpong matches as well, country against country. Of course it was China vs Singapore, and of course Singapore won - won't hear the end of it.. but hey at least I actually managed to hit once ^^ (you need to throw a ping pong ball into the other teams beerglasses) It was actually really nice to meet some more of my classmates, most of my prejudices against business school kids are gone.

Annikas birthday

So yeah, I was sick :(
The day before yesterday was awfull - feber and random tiredness, yesterday I took a looong nap to see if that could maybe help a little, and hey it actually did! The feber was more or less gone, and the random tiredness might have actually just been normal tiredness, who knows.
Yesterday was also Annikas birthday, shes a friend from UiO. I decided to go to the party, as I felt a lot better and I hadn't seen Annika in ages. It was a really nice birthdayparty with cake and pizza and basicly everything. I didn't know a lot of people there, but they all seemed nice so it wasn't an issue. I took it kind of easy because I had been sick and all, so today I feel fine as well - off to the lecture in Practical Economics and Business Management - yaaaaaaay! :P

Failday

Today I had tons of things I wanted to do or at least felt as if I should do, work out, study, etc.. As it turned out it was simply impossible to get them all done, I dont know if Im just tired after the weeekend or if Im actually starting to get ill - but the result is the same: I got absolutely nothing done all day! :(
The first plan, working out before class, failed miserably as I simply didn't get up in time for it.. I really felt that I should work out after a weekend of unhealthy food and alcohol at the cabin, but that didn't happen so I guess all I can do is try to go there tomorrow.
The second plan, to meet up with my study group and start on the international marketing case for real, definitely failed as well. Nobody was motivated or focused enough to do anything at all and we basicly just sat there and talked the entire time.. (except Yong that actually wrote something) at least we made it to the lecture on what should be in a presentation, so now we more or less know what we should get done by april 15th (the day of our presentation and 40% of our grade).
After failing to work out before class I told myself I should go there after class instead, I failed again and ended up watching TV all evening.. I was exhausted after doing more or less nothing at school somehow. Nothing really helped - tried cola, tea, food.. everything :( Now its only 23.00 and Im seriously considering to just go to sleep, as I don't think I will be able to do anything productive with this day anyhow.. who knows, maybe I can get up early tomorrow and finish the stuff I wanted to do today. I really hope Im not sick, I don't really have the time, as our first finals will be in the start of april.. ah well, hopefully it's a one day thing. Peace out.

Weekend trip to Beitostølen

This weekend it was time for the annual trip up to the mountains with my friends. Or well, it is an annual trip, but it was only the second time I joined it. Anyhow, this year we went to Beitostølen and it was a rememberable weekend for sure. We drove up to the cabins friday, as it was a 3-4 hours drive we didnt go skiing, but we had a pretty nice party in the evening, with taco and drinks. Saturday a few of us went to check out the skiing centres - as theres two of them and the keycard works both places. We wanted to try the place with the steepest slopes, but when we got there it was pretty dead, only one of the elevators working and no other people.. after Leif had tried to talk to the guy working at the broken elevator we eventually went back up to the family centre. We had a few good go's in the slopes and grabbed lunch as well before we had a slightly dramatic turn of events. Leif took a pretty nasty fall in one of the elevators and he couldnt get up again on his own.. the people working at the centre, helped by PM, had to take him down to the doctor. Eventually they decided to send him to Geilo for an x-ray exam and Leif said he didnt need us to go there with him.. even if we were all pretty worried about how he was doing we decided there wasn't really anything we could do other than make sure his car and skis were safe and hope for the best. We went out to eat at Peppes Pizza (yes there was a pizzastore, a wine monopoly and several stores at the skiing centre) and then we played some drinking games at the cabin. After a few hours Leif returned to Beitostølen by taxi, feeling a little better at least - looks like he will be allright again :)
Today (sunday) we basicly just cleaned out the two cabins we rented and then drove home. On our way to Oslo we listened to the 5 mile on the radio, the last contest in Ski VM Oslo to pass the time. The norwegian skiers did great and came in 1st, 3rd and 4th. Everybody texted the one swedish guy in the group, Niklas, congratiulating him on Sweden winning 7th place, hehe. A great trip up to the mountains. Here's a video from the last night we spendt up there, we're playing a game called 21 - we count to 21, and each time we get there the person saying 21 gets to substitute a number with a rule. We did 10 instead of 11 and 13,14,15 instead of 9 among other things. Tons of fun!

The official written letter

Today we got to go pick up our official (written on paper) offer for schools next year. Everybody got an e-mail about it during the lecture, saying we could go get the letter today instead of waiting for BI to send it. I was really excited about getting my offer in writing as I hoped for some more information on when the semester will begin and stuff like that. We all made our way up to the International Office to pick up the letters. When we got there it wasnt just students from International Marketing picking up their letters, but basicly everyone going to study abroad next year. Pretty long line, but I wanted to see what was in the letter. The lady at the counter went to get us our letters, and I was thinking "yay, this is it this is my letter about my school in Shanghai!"... then I opened the envelope only to find that within it was one single page. The page had even less info on it than the e-mail I got last week, but we have to fill out a form at the bottom and return it to confirm that we want to study at the school their offering to nominate us for. I guess we will get more info when we actually accept the offer. I still have good news about next year though - I found some room mates: Cathrine and Irene from my group in International Marketing and Business to Buisness :) We have already started to look at some appartments. Theres also a facebook group for all the students going to Shanghai next year so we can get to know eachother (the IM class is way too big for us to know everyone)... looks like a cool group, 19 guys and 7 girls in it so far though, haha. Ah well less girls should equal less drama right? I can't stop thinking about next year, Shanghai looks like such a great place to study :) So many things to do, and the prices are real low. I want to do some traveling within Asia as well while Im living in China, Japan is a must, and I would love to see South Korea and Hong Kong as well. We have friends going to Singapore as well, so we want to visit them too.. I just want to go there right away, haha ^^

My favorite music!

Time to be really really random and tell you about my favorite songs! I listen to almost anything, depending on my mood and the situation, but heres a few of my alltime favorite songs.
Some of them are really old, some of them noone even likes except me, but I thought it would be fun to make a list anyhow(the links are for the youtube videos)

My favorite song when..

• Im happy: Owl City - The Bird and The Worm
• Im heartbroken: Bowling for Soup - Me with no you
• Im trying to stay awake: Perfume - Night Flight
• I need to relax: Feather Theme (from the Forest Gump Soundtrack)
• its summer: Postgirobygget - Bohemen leve
• its winter: Nightwish feat. Jonsu from Indica - Erämaan viimeinen (Jonsu is so much better than Anette!)
• Im drinking: Bowling for Soup (again) - Hooray for Beer
• Im working out: Glee Casts version of Push it
• I feel alone: Arne Schau - Gal av lengsel
• I need to feel a little more confident: Taylor Swift - Mean
• Im down and I need to feel better: Five - Keep on Movin' (yeah I know its an old boyband and its kind of silly, but I really liked them when I was a kid ^^)
• Im dancing (something I dont do a lot, but hey it does happen): Lady Gaga /Beyonce - Telephone
• I want to annoy my brother: Lordi - Hard Rock Halleluja (as they won eurovision after I voted for them partly just because he didnt like them ^^)
• I travel: Will.i.am - Alex on the spot
• it comes to Disney: Something There (from Beauty and the Beast)
• Im angry: Nine Inch Nails - Only
• Im sick of guys (not that Im sick of guys all the time, but sometimes I am) Northern State - Girl for all Seasons
• I want to be a little nationalistic: Gåte - Bendik og Årolilja
  
• Im in dissing swedes mode: Jaa9 & OnklP - Partysvenske
• Im hyperactive: Dr Bombay - Holabaloo
• it comes to bands/songs I've seen live: Ogre you Asshole - Coin Laundry
• I think about my best friends and my family: I Fight Dragons - With You (I know its probably about some old married couple or something, but to me the people that have been there for me the most are my friends and family)
  

Thats a few of my favorite songs, of course theres tons of other ones as well, but these I really like :D