Today I have done adult things. I've been to the bank and set up a BSU account (house savings account). I've transferred money into another savings account. I changed my account to a student’s account. I've taken a look at life insurance, but I'm not sure about what to choose, so I need to talk to my dad for advice (I'm not that adult). I have sent in my high school diploma to the colleges / universities I've applied to in Norway. I’ve replied to all my emails as well. Apart from feeling old I’ve just been chilling. Sunbathing, eating ice-cream, cleaning my room (not really) and abusing Facebook pretty much sums up my day. The heat has been amazing
Well, I know it's been a while since the last time I blogged (if you ignore the post from yesterday). I'm not going to make up an excuse. This post will be about the graduation dinner with my high school; berg videregående skole. But first I have happy news for all of you. I have officially passed high school. I picked up my diploma today. All my exams. All my subjects. Everything. I'm free, but I can't really feel it yet. It's more or less like any other holiday where I keep on thinking that I'll go back to school. Anyways, back to the graduation dinner. We were at Continental and had dinner with the whole 3rd grade, teachers and parents included. The dinner was nice, but of course they had to include some speeches. I'm not a big fan of speeches. Mostly the annoy me and I feel like sitting there criticising everything they say. I sat there making funny faces at Stine most of the night.
Well, the dinner wasn't really the fun part. The best thing was when we all went to Choice! Cheep beer with my fellow students and my old teachers. I love seeing my teachers drunk. It’s priceless. The best part was when my old Geography teacher started shaking it on the dance floor. I still have nightmares. I got too drunk too fast. So instead of explaining things in detail, I'll show you the photos.
The next day we had a BBQ with just my class. 3STB. It was nice. Too bad I was slightly hangover and had to rush home to organise the house for my Scottish visitors: my boyfriend Connor and his best friend James. We got our Norwegian teacher, Magnus, two bottles of wine and a whip as a present for staying with us for 3 years. No shit. We got him a proper whip from Kondomeriet. It was fun and he actually loved it.
The blog is not dead. It's not in a coma. It just took a break while its owner was having fun with two strangers from Scotland. Updates will come tomorrow. If I can remember..
I'm fed up. I have not been able to start with even making my presentation. I've been staring at the damn screen for 4 days now. I've been reading the same things over and over again. It just goes in one ear and out of the other. Tomorrow it's all over. No more school and no more exams. At least until September when I start uni or college, if I don't fail that is. Henrik Ibsen, Amalie skramm, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland. Shoot me now. I know they were awesome in the 1800's, but bitch please.
Thank god I have a dad that understands my needs in a time like this. Boat ice-cream. Btw, what's up with the boat-is jokes. I don't get them at all.
I need to get back to staring at the screen pretending to do something.
Yesterday I was told what oral exam I got. On the list over subjects I didn’t want to get, Norwegian was on the top. My Norwegian teacher walked to me with a sadistic smile as he handed out the sheets. Norwegian. He could have just punched me in the face instead. That would have hurt less. Then I got my task: Discuss the modern project as expressed in texts of important writers from the Enlightenment through Realism to the present. Ehm, yeah, I don't know. Luckily my teacher explained what I'm supposed to do. The Realists and naturalist wanted to put social problems under debate. Show how, and make a problem that shows if this is happening in today’s cultural image. Ehm, yeah. It didn’t help much, but then he explained some more so now I understand a bit more. Still fucked though. So far I've written the headline: Norwegian Exam. I have a feeling that this is one of those exams where I end up panicking the day before because I realise I haven’t done anything yet.
Staring at the screen is boring so i put on some music and then a nostalgia bomb dropped on my head. Wind of change from the Scorpions came on. So now I’m sitting here screaming along to the lyrics. TAAAKEEEE MEEEE TO THE MAGIC OF THE MOMENT, ON A GLOOOORY NIGHT. Just wish I could whistle as cool as the dude that sings it can.
Today it's been a year since I came home from Scotland. It's hard to think about. I want to go back. I want to go back now. It's weird. The day I left Scotland was weird. It was never going to be the same again. It was probably the best year of my life. I got to do so many things and now have friends all over the world as well. Just trying to explain how great it all was just doesn’t work. I don't think I'm able to formulate what I feel so I'll just show yous photos and summarize my time in Scotland. I can start with the fist week.
The photo is taken on North Bridge the first time I went uptown. I was there with Eva, my roommate from Slovakia. The weather was lovely and Edinburgh was filled with people. It was a good week where we did our best to adjust to a new family and a new country. Then school started
School was cool. I was so excited. In the photo you can see Karianne from Norway, Tanni from Denmark and Nicole from Italy. There we quite a few exchange students at St. David's. It was the three in the photo and then my roommate Eva, Me, Mauricio from Venezuela, and Ludo from Italy joined us after two weeks. My subjects were Math, English, Art, History and Geography. The exchange students quickly became a "gang" and after two weeks in Edinburgh I turned 17.
A photo of Mauricio, Nicole and Eva. My birthday was celebrated on ChinaChina at the omni centre. That later became my favorite resturant. I'm not sure in what order of all the amazing thing I got to do happened. But I'll do my best to keep it chronologial.
The first time I got sick. Oh damn. That was awful. I was knocked out with a 39 in a fever and just felt like shite. I remember calling home and not being able to say anything over all the tears. My host mom didn’t really feel my pain so I was denied to be in the living room. Cheers!
Rain! Can't not mention the rain. Seriously. Rain. All the time.
I had my first nab. I guess it's just another word for hell. I did pass though and I was so happy. Then homesickness punched me in the face again. My brother posted a status on Facebook that made me break down. I even cried in my English class. That was embarrassing. Luckily Nicole was there to comfort me.
Makes me cry up just looking at it.
Then Hell broke loose. My computer broke down. There was no way of fixing it. So I lived without a damn laptop for ages. and ages. and ages. and ages. Luckily my lovely roommate Eva let me borrow hers.
I can't remember when this happened but I can remember that it was still warm outside. The exchange students of St. David's went out to go clubbing. It failed because of Mauricio being late. Again. So we ended up walking around in Edinburgh having a great time.
Then we had the first non uniform day. I don't know why, but I felt like I should wear something awesome. For no reason. Non uniform does not mean prom. I can't remember what I ended up wearing, mostly because it didn’t matter at all and was boring. Here’s a photo of my uniform:
That's right. I ate the penguin. It was getting colder and Eva and I started our late night walks. We walked around in Bonnyrigg just having a wee chat and taking some photos.
I got to take a wee free trip up to Edinburgh castle because of St. Something-twat-something-day or whatever.
This is Ondrej host brother, Ondrej from Slovakia, Eva, Linda from the Czech republic, Ornella from Norway and Me
Then came the moment I had waited ages and ages for. My mom came to visit. It was so wierd and nice and sad and lovely. I just wanted her to stay, but she was only there for the weekend. So once again I had to say goodbye. (she gave me a laptop when she came over)
The weather was shit the whole time she was there and just after she left. It started to snow. Christmas was coming up and with Christmas came Christmas shopping. Oh man I love shopping. The bad thing was that I had to say goodbye to Nicole, Ludovica and Octavie. They were only there for half a year and it was time to say bye.
Christmas was awful. I wanted to go home and even though I had a great time with Eva, that didn’t quite replace Christmas at home. Then Eva left to go home for new years. I went to Margaret, our local coordinator, because the host family was going on a holiday to Tunisia. New Years Eve was spent drunk at the Hogmanay street party.
Yeah. It's all random. Then Eva came "home" again and it was time to go back to the host family. School was about to start. Luckily we got a snow day. That means that there was more or less a centimetre of snow on the ground, so school closed. When school did start, we got a few new exchange students. There was Alexandra from Germany, Charlotte from Belgium and Eduardo from Italy. On Robert Burns day we had haggis for dinner. I actually like haggis. It doesn’t beat pizza, but meh. Then we had our Prelims and they all went to hell. Mauricio, Eva and I went to Portobello beach in the rain and had lunch at a nice and random place.
Then we got the 6th year photo
Then we had a Random day. We bought a bus pass and went on random buses and all together we took 11 buses that day. It was Tanni, Karianne, Eva, Saara and I that had that little adventure.
How can I write a blog post about Scotland without talking about Starbucks. I even got a membership card there. I must have spent half of my stay in Scotland there. So here's to you Starbucks =D
Then Mauricio, Eva and I started our friday lunch thing. It lasted for two weeks. We had fun and ate chicken. that was more or less it.
Then all of a sudden some Norwegian teachers from Nordberg came to St. David's.
Then Eva and I went to the Highlands. We had an amazing time and the nature was absolutely beautiful. We went there with her dad that came over from Slovakia. This is Eva and I hiding from the rain
Right after that I went to Dublin. I loved the city, but Iceland fucked it up so on my way home I had to take a bus, a boat, 5 trains and a bus to get home to Margaret, because my host family had gone on a holiday again.
Then the last day of school came. There was an epic food fight in the cafeteria. Just like in the movies. Epic. I started to hang out with Connor at that time. Then the 17th of May came along. Norway's national day. I spent it with Tanni, Eirin and Karianne. The weather was lovely and life was good.
The departure date was closing up and the days were filled with tears and goodbyes. Tanni's birthday was spent in a lovely park and that day was truly magical. All of a sudden Octavie came back then we went to Portobello where we met Ludo. The next day Nicole came as well. It was so good. But while all of this was happening I had my exams and I had to say goodbye to Alexandra and Charlotte.
Eva, Georgie from Australia, Tanni, Désirée from Switzerland, me and Charlotte. Then came Prom. Everybody looked great and drunken teachers must be the funniest thing ever. The kilts were awesome as well.
The next days were just sad. I didn’t want to go home. Saying goodbye is never easy, but these people became like my family. On the last day I met up with Connor uptown before we went to Iron Mills for goodbye drinks.
I miss Scotland a lot. The exchange year has given me so many good memories. During this year I've been home I went to Milan for Nicole’s 18th party where I met Ludo, Désirée and Octavie again. Then in September Connor came to Norway for my 18th. Then I went back to Scotland for Hogmanay with Alexandra, Tanni, Karianne, Morgan and Eva. In February I went to Copenhagen to see Tanni again and now in just 5 days, Connor and James are coming over to Norway for a wee visit. Then in August I'm going for a holiday to Scotland again and hopefully I'll move back in September.
(not all the memories and all the people are in here simply because I would have spent a whole day just writing about each and every one of you amazing people. All of yous are still close to my heart and all the memories are as well)
