(Add catchy title here)

Busy, busy, busy. Virtually no time for blogging at all, or doing anything to willingly waste my energy on something not uni-related. It's still kind of like this at the moment, although the intensity of it all has decreased a little at the moment. Most likely due to the fact that I've handed in 2/3 of my essay outlines for the professors to read through and scrutinize as much as they wish. Well, technically I've already handed in all 3, but -- as the neurotic perfectionist that I am -- I figured I'd hand in one of them a second time. To make sure the professor knows perfectly what I intend to write about. I've also started gathering research for one of my papers, but there's one I simply can't find at all at the library. It's supposed to be there, but -- it doesn't seem to be there at all. Uh...? Note to self: Must seek out help tomorrow.

I also figured I'd take a day off to escape my books and essay-writing things for a while and see my cuz and my aunt (from out of town) who are here for a short visit. A short stop at a shop for my cousin to pick up some stuff for an upcoming wedding followed by a hearty sushi dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant and a stroll on Karl Johan was just nothing short of awesome. The Christmas market beside the City Hall downtown is also the perfect place to get into that festive mood. We all just took in the atmosphere of the place: the sights, the sounds, the smell of glühwein and gingerbread cookies... Aaah. Just perfect. The lights there were gorgeous as well. I thought I'd take the opportunity to take some photos of some of the sights to try to capture the mood there -- with various degrees of success. But it was very beautiful indeed. Sitting here, after having nibbled slightly on my German lebkuchen (German near-equivalent of gingerbread), I'm starting to be filled with the Christmas spirit that I so longed for. Seeing my cousin and my aunt again no doubt contributed to that as well. It's been too long since I've seen them.

My cousin and my aunt are two of those people who possess this element of self-irony, they don't take themselves seriously at all. They also have this kind of relationship where they bicker with each other in a tongue-and-cheek fashion. I admire that in them, odd as it may sound. I need more of this stuff in my life. And the raw laugh that always accompanies goofing around or any ironic/sarcastic comments hitting below the belt is nothing short of priceless. Besides, I felt I needed that laugh attack fix right now, too. It was great to see them again. I sincerely hope we'll be able to meet up again soon.

I'm kind of in a thoughtful mood right now, though nothing of interest really comes to mind. I just think back on the gorgeous Christmas lights at the back of the City Hall and the blissful and calm atmosphere of the place. This is just one of those moments where you look back on the day that's just passed and you smile to yourself, thinking "this day was nothing short of awesome". You sort of try to conserve that feeling of serenity and contentedness as much as possible throughout the last remnants of the day before you hit the sack and another day begins with its own set of expectations and challenges. I hope some of this feeling I have inside will be carried on through tomorrow and the rest of the days of this year. At least.

Right. Off to bed now. Even though Sir Noise-A-Lot strikes again. And it's not really the Arabic crossover kind I hear like the last time I wrote about it. It's got more of a beat to it this time. Yarr.

Must. Not. Taint. Christmasy. Feeling.

Ooh, and while I remember it: The strangest thing happened last night in the corridor outside my room. I'd gone off to bed after a fruitful day of studying and strangely enough I couldn't sleep. I was still awake at around 1:30am when I suddenly hear this noise resembling someone trying to lock himself/herself into my room, but not quite. Thank God it was locked. It sure as hell made my heart race a while afterwards, but when I looked through the peephole in my door some seconds after I'd heard the sound, I couldn't see anyone. So I checked the door again to make sure it was locked and went to bed again. The next day, as I was getting myself ready to leave for uni and later on to go downtown to meet said aunt and cousin, I suddenly noticed the tag with the number of my room had been removed from my door. Hence accounting for the strange sound I heard at half 1 in the morning. Humph. I found, however, that my tag had been stuck to another door across the corridor instead. The same thing had happened to the door of one of my other neighbors. Uh... And the point of this was...? Guess this just goes to show that everything gets funny and/or "just makes sense" at 1:30 in the morning.


Signing off (*zzz*),
Elise

*groan*

Ok. Saturday is officially over. And I can't sleep. There's someone in my building who has a somewhat inconsiderate affinity to playing Arabic music loudly after midnight. This usually happens around once a week, so it is tolerable, I suppose (subtle P&P innuendo there). BUT STILL.

I need to get up early(ish) tomorrow to take a shower and head off to church, but there are so many things in my head at the moment that I have to let some of 'em out.

Looking through that previous YT vid again (adorable kid!), I found out something more I'd like to have in a future bf/partner-for-life (note that I didn't write "partner-in-crime" here -- I'm not a criminal (duh)). He has to have a great laugh. I remember I'd gotten for one of my English assignments in Senior High to describe someone in my family, so I chose to describe Dad. I remember describing his laugh like a "high-pitched machine gun laugh". I'd like to have something like that as one of the top features of a future bf/partner-for-life. He has to have a contagious and memorable kind of laugh.

In other news, while the rest of mah peeps are studying for their semester finals, I've ostracized myself from that level of stress, if you get my drift. I'm not going to have any exams before spring (!), so I'm not really feeling the kind of nerves others of my acquaintance are feeling. Nonetheless, this means that the culmination of my classes will be postponed -- which can also be a bad thing. In addition, we've been given the task of writing 3 essays in the course of the next few months, so there'll probably be a lot of IB tendencies lurking about this Christmas... :-S Vacation is going to be somewhat short for me this year, I believe/fear... The first draft of one of my essays is going to be handed in January 4, so I'd better put the pedal to the metal and get started with it. Ugh. I feel really torn between letting myself work a little this Christmas and concentrating as much as possible on these essay drafts, but I fear that I'll just have to let work take a back seat this Christmas. I must admit I do feel guilty for doing so, but considering the fact that I don't have that much time to write my drafts, I don't think there's much for me to do about it.

Ugh (#2). I feel I'm letting people down by doing this, but ultimately uni has a higher priority than work. Still... The guilt factor is sky high.

This sucks. SUCKS, I tell you. SUCKS.

Meanwhile, besides this semi-killjoy attitude of uni with respect to essay writing (bah, humbug), I'm slowly but surely getting into the Christmas mood. At the soccer stadium they've started decorating the adjacent shopping street (it's really not that long/extravagant) with lights and tiny plastic Christmas trees. Purdy. Real purdy. They've also started decorating on campus, albeit just a little. This week there was this huge crane at the southern end of campus, ready to set up Christmas lights in the trees. You should really see those trees when it's dark outside (or after dark). Nothing short of beautiful!

Bought myself a bag of Christmas marzipan today as well. Lord knows marzipan is one of the best things ever created. I didn't really like it when I was a kid, but it's sorta' grown on me over the years. Just like licorice, mustard, brown cheese and raw/unprocessed tomatoes. (I adored spaghetti sauce with tomatoes and ketchup when I was a kid, but ironically enough I couldn't stand raw tomatoes. In case you didn't know, I was weird back then. Heck, I'm still weird in many ways!)

So what's missing now to make the picture complete is SNOW. That and reading by a lit fireplace snuggled inside a blanket in your jammies and favorite slippers sipping gløgg (approx. the same as mulled wine) while huge cotton-like wads of snow quietly fall to the ground. With the sweet and spicy smell of gløgg gradually filling the air and the sporadic crackling from the fireplace in reach. Oh yeah. Bliss. ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...")

*snaps out of trance* Hokai. Enough for now. I'd better hit the sack and get my beauty sleep. Going to church with dark bags underneath your eyes isn't exactly ideal. Besides, Sir Play-It-Loud seems to have surrendered to the increasing levels of serotonin in his body. Finally. I should do the same.

'Till next time!



Signing off (zzz...),
Elise

There.

After having emigrated (to another flat/room - just down the hall) I feel I can take things a little easier now. Furthermore, my discontent of having accidentally DELETED that endlessly long POST has receded; I've bought most of the course material for the semester (these courses are ridiculous in terms of the number of lectures!); and I've managed to settle in somewhat. Well, I still need to get fully accustomed to this novel territory of mine (cf. new flat/room), but so far so good.

So, what I was aiming to write here before "the Great Delete" (ARGH), was that Christmas was basically more or less same ol' same ol'. Just a nice quiet celebration with heaps of good food that I need to sweat off these next couple of months - and maintain that pace. Besides, Christmas this year had for me an aura of relief. I guess I still had last Christmas in my mind and was so thankful that Mom was physically here this time.

New Year's Eve was also quite nice. Not as quiet this time as in other years, since my cousin (who's now fully established in SVG) paid us a visit. Needless to say, we had an awesome time.

Resolutions? I'm not a really great fan of New Year's resolutions, although after all that food I sense the need to actually make some either way. The most important one being working out - and sticking to it. But in summing up, what's there to say about last year, then?

In summing up 2008, I have...

• Laughed more than I've cried (I think I only cried once this year; with no other apparent reason than the mere acting like a stress reliever)
• Gained friends
• Recovered acquaintances
• Been really bad at keeping in touch with people abroad (my fault - I try, but ultimately I suck at this)
• Worked hard
• Earned pretty good grades
• Missed doing yoga
• Been melancholic
• Been neurotic (oh yes...)
• Traveled
• Stressed out (there's no way out of this one)
• Taken responsibility for own actions
• Breathed (you usually don't realize this, but breathing is not only one of the most essential things you do as a human being (!), but also is one of the quickest ways of functioning as a stress reliever... In my case, that and crying! *lol*)
• Argued against people
• Been proven wrong
• Been proven right
• Eaten good food
• Worked out (note to self: Continue doing this!)
• Gone to church
• Traveled
• Practiced Spanish (should do a little more of this this year)
• Drunk Spanish hot chocolate (once you've tried it, there's no way back!)
• Gotten hooked on ginger candies (*swoon*)
• Been consulted on various matters
• Been in need of consultation on various matters
• Been weak
• Been strong
• Used circumlocutions too much (often leading in others looking at me bewilderedly, muttering the occasional "Huh?" and/or them thinking that "she could have said it so much easier!" Who needs Occam's razor, eh?)
• Stated my opinion
• Wondered
• Learnt
• Taught (not exceedingly much, but still)
• Given
• Taken
• Been too honest at times
• Been vain (sadly)
• Concentrated on more things than needed
• Multitasked (with varying degrees of success *lol*)
• Had quiet moments with God
• Meditated
• Felt at one with everything
• Wanted to keep a pet in my flat (oh well, I'll just have to save that 'till later)
• Felt annoyed (Little Drummer Boy, anyone?)
• Felt frustrated
• Felt happy
• Felt energetic
• Felt relieved
• Felt content
• Felt utterly shallow and "Kinder egg"-like (you have to compensate for the deep part of your personality, don't you?)
• Given me time to myself
• Visited people
• Participated in heated discussions about various topics
• Started and completed projects
• Enjoyed the silence when the snow fell outside
• Enjoyed a good book (actually many good books)
• Expanded my vocabulary (especially in Spanish)
• Seized the opportunity
• Cut my hair
• Lived

Ok. So generally speaking, this is roughly what the year turned out to be. Pretty good compared to last year, I have to say. An excellent year's progress. All the best for 2009 to all!

Starting off the new year, here's a gem of a vid:



And in addition, another vid (which cannot be embedded... *tear*):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MatUG_xTMg


Signing off,

Elise

Christmas time is here again!

That was a tribute to all you Beatle fans out there who might be reading this humble blog.

Aaah. At home at last. And I haven't been able to update until now as I've been busy with work and stuff. Stuff as in shopping Christmas gifts and sleeping. I haven't had proper time to rest since I got home as I voluntarily jumped on the bandwagon of vacant evening shifts at work. I'm done for now, but I've let them know that I'm available for other vacancies should they need more workers.

Anyway, tomorrow's the Day with a capital "D". All gifts have been bought, cards have been sent (albeit only one - and kinda late at that...) and I can't wait to put my feet up for some days and just relax.

Grades have gone as expected for now, but I still lack the results for SFG. Frankly I'm a little concerned. I mean, conventionally, we should get our grades before Christmas, right? For all I know it could just be that our teacher hasn't gotten the grading done before vacation, but still... I can't help but feel a little (i.e. slightly) distressed. Nevertheless, all that can be done is just to wait.

Meanwhile, I also need to get done my application to my pedagogy year next fall. I kinda wanna apply to more than this uni, as it only has 360 vacancies reserved for students outside the profession study program. I just want to make sure that I can complete it next year and not have to postpone it more than need be. Ideally, what I want to do is apply to various unis across the country and see if I get in anywhere else. Just to have something to fall back on in case things in Oslo go completely awry.

Anyway, academics aside, I haven't gotten the chance to see all of my friends yet, but I hope to do so as much as possible within the coming days. Seeing my best friend again was really nice. Obviously she's looking forward to her Big Day (i.e. the one after Christmas), although she appears to take it all with an air of ease. A good sign, I think. Besides, it won't be a big one either. They aren't exactly the people who like to have big and lavish parties in the first place. I still can't wait, though! :-D

Another thing I can't wait for is resting this vacation and really absorb the Christmas spirit. Me, Mom and a friend of hers went to a concert yesterday at Bjergsted (you know, the one with Bettan and Rein Alexander) and although it was almost straight after work and I was utterly knackered, it was still a really nice way of getting into the spirit. When it comes to Christmas songs, these guys can really evoke that warm, fuzzy feeling inside that you used to have as a child during Christmas - or at least a slight tinge of it. They even did Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's "The Prayer". As in most cases, it doesn't beat the original, but it was still quite good, though. Not much of the vocal acrobatics from her side as in the original (not that I care for too much of it in a song, mind you), but it was still good.

So, without further ado, I round off for now with this Christmas greeting from the Beatles and a slightly tweaked Christmas classic - just to set you all in the right spirit. Or at least close to the right spirit... ;-)





Signing off (*bells jingling*),
Elise

A little exam prep relaxation.

It's almost Christmas, so it's high time that I post a Christmas vid here. Found this treasure just now. And yes, it's with Scottish sock puppets.



I'll let this vid speak for itself, as I am too tired to elaborate on it. :-)


Signing off (*zzz*),
Elise