*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