All's well that ends well...

FINALLY! Everything seems to work out in terms of classes! *happy dance* (It seems I'm doing quite a bit of those nowadays... Hm. I'm happy. So there.)

Hm, no comments on my last entry. Too unfathomable for you to handle, eh? ;P *lol* Either way, things appear to be just peachy keen at the moment. Have just finished writing a summary for a 20-odd-paged chapter (took ages to get it done!) so I figured I'd do some serious surfing now. Feel like I deserve that. Still have another 20-odd-paged chapter to go, though... So am relishing in it, but only to some extent.

Anyways, hope that y'all are doing well and that you're enjoying whatever you're up to. I am so far! :D This is just going to be a short one, alas, alack (abbreviation for Alaskan pollock, anyone? Riiight...), but fear not; give me some time and there will be yet another immensely large and nonsensical blog entry! I will not let you down!!!

God bless you all!

Klemmer/hugs/abrazos/(fill in any other word for "hugs" you can think of here),
Elise

So far so good. Almost.

Right. Things are starting to get better now. This has been the past few weeks:

• (Optional) preliminary course at the uni to get a feel of how things work here.
• Fretting about trying to get internet in flat to work, never realizing I had to pay semester fee and sign myself up to classes. Hard-headed moron (i.e. moi).
• Signing up to classes that I already thought I was signed up to in the belief that I was ready to start right away. After all, my purpose here is to study, right? Well, my main purpose, at least...
• Got internet after having paid fee (yey!) and consulting/pleading Samskipnaden i Oslo (SiO) to actually give it to me.
• Eventually realized I had the wrong wire to connect to the internet.
• Rushed over to the IT department to get wire.
• Rushed back to flat to try it out.
• FINALLY got internet (yey! + *happy dance* I've told you this before).
• Relishing in surfing for the very first time in flat.
• Waiting anxiously for results of my signing up for classes.
• Found I'd gotten absolutely none of my preferred group tutoring options, yet schedule seemed fair enough.
• Attended my first classes. All well so far.
• Realized there was ONE group tutoring session missing, no trace of it either on the webpage of session, nor on StudentWeb.
• Fretting exceedingly this time as well.
• Sent mail to study counselor for English to get info on this.
• Got mail back, telling me the time.
• Found out it clashes with another subject.
• Fretting even more this time, on the verge of sheer frustration. Almost.
• Phonetics teacher in British English recommends me to consider taking American English instead, as that is my accent. Actually that group was my first priority on the session application, I explained, and added that I couldn't understand why I didn't get it.
• Consulted counselor again, who told me what to do to switch sessions even though all sessions at this time were overbooked (and still are) and adding that I'd get a reply "in a couple of days".
• Sent in application.
• Am waiting for reply.

Fretting? Poor little innocent me? Never.

Except this once. All this unncessary frustration would be avoidable if I'd gotten all the information I'd need at the very beginning. Here, however, people seem to have a sad tendency of being wishy-washy. Call me high-maintenance if you will, but I'd prefer infinitely more to get the right information, all of the information (and nothing but the information?) right away.

But who am I kidding? There are people whose schedules are far worse than mine, where everything clashes. Or where they just haven't gotten the information they need straight away (like my flatmate). V. bad. V. bad indeed.

Otherwise, things are going quite well here, I dare say. Getting used to live in this place. I'm actually not as homesick as I thought I'd be, which is good, 'cause it gives me the time to focus on the more essential things here. Like for instance getting everything I need to work, i.e. internet and classes.

Anyway, this will be all for now. Don't really want to write anymore at the moment.

Feeling hungry in Oslo,

Elise

Hm.

I guess the last post was yet another perfect example of blogstipation, eh? Oh no! Not again! Make it stop!!!!

I blame the non-existent internet connection in my flat for the past two weeks. I deeply apologize if the last blog entry is too long to read. Just skip it and move on to this one instead if you feel like it!

Regards to all!!!!

Walking on sunshine the rest of the week due to long-awaited internet connection which has finally arrived to my flat (ok, this was a long one),
Elise

*Happy dance lasting half an hour... at least*

FINALLY THE INTERNET IN MY FLAT IS WORKING!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Am sooooo extremely happy you can't even imagine! :-D I've been struggling with this for just about a week and a half trying to find out how to actually get my internet to work to get a chance to pay for my semester fee (which I also btw have to do through the internet), so I ended up paying it all at home last weekend when I was supposed to gather up the rest of my stuff for the flat. Still didn't work. I heard people telling me over and over again that I needed to register myself for the semester and by that also enroll myself to subjects, yet it didn't manage to get through to my thick skull and penetrate into my brain that I actually had to do it. Sometimes I do amaze myself.

However, I managed to do all of this eventually, and so far I've also managed to buy the books that were required for each of the subjects. It's really not that many; this semester I've got all of the 3 compulsory subjects and examen facultatum for "language sciences". Not that much, really, but I reckon the uni still has something up their sleeves to make us suffer, i.e. mountains upon mountains of homework, tests, assignments, etc. Ok, that was perhaps a little too cynical! Still, it's easy to start thinking that way once you embark on a new academic voyage.

I just thank God my Mom's here to help me through this; and my aunt and uncle, too, for that matter. I'm so grateful to all of them for supporting me and helping me through these times. After all, they've got the experience, haven't they? Hm, is it just me, or is this paragraph starting to look like some sort of Academy Awards speech? I'll stop here and now before this gets too much out of hand.

Anyways, I've gotten to know quite a few people here. Trying desperately to find some people from Rogaland to try to establish some sort of link to my home, and so far I've been successful. Have met a girl from Stavanger, Sara, who's half-American, half-Swedish, another girl, Else Cathrine, who's from... err... Mysen, if that rings a bell for y'all - and also Eva, a gal from Hamar. Actually all of these people are traveling back and forth from the uni to their homes every single day, and each ride for them takes about 1.5 hours, or so. *sigh* So much for getting friends close to where I live. Ah well, they'll be taking the same courses as myself, so I'll be seeing them anyway. Oh yeah, there's this really fun guy as well, Bård, who's not going to take English language/lit. but lit.studies. A real bookworm, actually - he can discuss themes of books and literary trends for ages! Or so it seems. Might appear to be dull based on what I'm writing here, but he's actually pretty cool.

I also found out that Angelica's at the same uni (not the same faculty, but still)! Yeeey! Further establishing a firmer link to my home! *happy dance* For those who haven't got a clue as to who Angelica is, I'll say that she was confirmated the same year as myself, and we attended the same cathechesis classes together.

Inger Elisabeth's here as well! Weeeheee! *big smile* Strenghtening the link even more now! She's one of the best friends I've got, and has an excellent voice and dedication to the Lord. She's going to spend this year working in a café downtown. Don't quote me on this, but I think this one is kind of unique, as it is designed to assist drug addicts in downtown Oslo. (Correct me if I'm wrong here, Inger!)

So as you may notice, I already have established a kind of firm network of connections all around. This does not only cover people I've gotten to know these past two weeks I've stayed here, but also people from back home who're in the same situation as myself; who are coming to this the capital of Norway to study their brains out. Or work their minds/bodies out, for that matter. What I was fearing in a short fleeting moment was that I'd just isolate myself from the rest of the students and not really create any serious friendships during this time, but it really is amazing how easy it is. I guess this is because there are other students as well, desperately wanting to gain friends and aquaintances during their years here at the uni. I reckon this is proof enough that I'm not alone. By no means whatsoever.

And even if I don't gain as many friends as I think I will, there's one person who will stay with me wherever I may go, and that's the Man upstairs (i.e. GOD, of course)!

And she saw that it still is good.

Elise

Gaaaaah!

I got in to Oslo! Weee! *Happy dance*

I feel I've been walking on sunshine these past couple of days, 'cause I just got an email from someone I haven't heard of in ages! That person and someone else. ;-) (That should ring a bell with at least one of the regular readers of this humble pink blog...) That just adds a little extra to my already happy feeling of getting into my first choice uni. A little delightful extra. Take that as you will.

Nah, well, I guess I feel psyched about going to Oslo to study. I said "I guess", 'cause there's a kind of downside to it as well; I'll be leaving the place that's been my home for the past... err... let's see, I'm 20 now... uh... math skills failing drastically... forgive me... AWW, SCREW IT!... 12 years! There! Got it. Finally. My home for 12 years... Now, where was I...? Yeah, I'll be leaving home for the first time since graduating from ISS (still miss it, btw!) and the infamous gap year, so that's going to be a major transition for me. I can imagine tons of phone calls home with me crying my eyes out and boo-hooing "I'm sick and tired of this place! I wanna go home! Take me home!", or words to that effect. But that's just a phase.

I reckon I'm going to have a blast there. It's just a matter of creating a network of contacts and friends, really. That shouldn't be much of a problem, really. I just have to filter out those who are genuinely serious about their studies and want to do their best from those who take the course just to have something to take.

It isn't long until I'll have to move there. The info meeting is on the 14th and I've signed myself up for a one-week preliminary study course just to get a taste of what uni life is like, meaning I'll probably be outta here within just a few days, really. Dude, time goes so fast it's almost scary...

Elise

PS.: Kirsti is the coolest cuz in the whole wide world! AND the world wide web! I'll stop here before this gets any worse...