Sunshine

On Monday it was time for Connor to go home to Scotland. However, before I was ready to put him on the plane we went to Drammen and met my grandparents. They are doing construction work on the train lines so we had to get the bus-for-train bus to Skøyen and a train from there, so we were an hour late when we finally arrived at my gran's flat. My gran was in a great mood and she looked fantastic. She gave us a glass of cola each, like my gran always does and we sat and had a chat for a while. My gran gave him her Gran's seal of approval, before we went to a Chinese restaurant where my grandfather was waiting for us. I had a lovely time with my grandfather never stopping to talk like always and a lovely meal. My grandfathers English was flawless, not that I should have expected anything else. Mum and dad picked us up at 5 to drive us to Torp and send Connor home. 

Tor Egil and Silje stayed until Wednesday and after they left I went for a walk in the forest from Sinsen to Grefsenkollen to Linderudkollen and back again. 

On Thursday I met up with Stine at Aker Brygge and had lots of brain coolers and Ice cream. After several hours of bitching and baking in the sun we went home where I went straight into one of the beds on the veranda to sunbathe some more. I really should not have done that because oh damn I got sunburned. My parents can be quite cruel and kept on bullying me for being so pale. Being red instead did not help. 

 Luckily I just look really tanned on this one

I also got a lovely tan line after wearing my black sandals. Because I got so sunburned in the front I decided to only tan me back yesterday. That was a terrible idea. Now I'm just sunburned all over! While tanning, Sandra came over to my house for a few hours. It was great seeing her again and we were lying in the sun for a few hours before I went to Frognerparken to have a BBQ with Dharshika, Stine, Alisha, Aurora and Kaja. It was great to finally meet Alisha and a part of Aurora and Kaja's oxford life, especially since they have seen so much of my Scotland life. Alisha was lovely and really good at Norwegian (even though she mostly said the bad words, since Dharshika is a bad person). 

 My beautiful/retarded cousin and bestfriend

After the BBQ I went to Bohemen with Kaja for a pub quiz. Luckily we didn’t end up with the lowest score this time. We were the second last! Wohoo. I had a great time and after the quiz it was time to go home and watch the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics. The show was fabulous and I enjoyed every second. There must be some weirdoes that arrange it all though. "We’ll have the queen jump out of a helicopter with James Bond and Mr Bean take the piss out of this song and huge towers coming out of the ground and dancing nurses and a hundred Marry Poppins’!". The amazing thing is how it all just came together and worked! 6 out of 6

We see you now

The 22 of July has passed and it's one year since the bomb in Oslo and the shooting at Utøya. There was a beautiful memorial concert in Oslo with many beautiful poems, interviews, songs and photos. Bano's sister was one of the survivors who were interviewed. It was rough to see her. They look so much alike. Lara was really brave and I just could not help the tears filling up. We sat in front of the TV the whole family plus Connor and Tor Egil. It was really good having Connor's arms around me. A lot of songs had been made for this occasion. I liked most of them but the one that stuck out the most for me was Vi ser dere nå (we see you now) from deLillos.

Så mange uskyldige
blir drept i en krig,
for oss så utydelige
i en tall-statistikk.

Vakre og sterke,
vi ser dere nå.
Hver dag kan vi merke
at vi ikke kan forstå

Like a true Norwegian

The last two days I have been showing my boyfriend what it means to be a true Norwegian/torturing him. On Friday we went for a walk in Nordmarka forest. We took the metro to Frognerseteren then walked to Tryvannstua, then to Ullevålseter then finally to Sognsvann and took the metro from there and home. It took us 3 hours and 45 minutes. I love walking in Nordmarka. It's so nice and my parents have dragged me along on their walks there my whole life. When we got home we took a shower and went to Stine and Christer's house for some drinks before going home and getting a few hours sleep so we'd be ready for the next day. 

Dad dragged us out of bed at 6:30 for a two and a half hour long drive to my aunt’s cabin close to Rjukan. When we got there Tobias, Connor and I took the boat out on the wee lake outside the cabin. Victoria and Ingrid were crazy enough to go for a little swim in the 15 degree water. It was quite an isolated cabin so it was really peaceful there. Once we rowed back we had breakfast and got in the car to the foot of Gaustatoppen Mountain. There we met a lovely sheep that I wanted to bring home but dad said no. Connor and I were the last ones to reach the top and were almost dead when we got there. It was quite embarrassing since my great aunt and her boyfriend who have hip and knee problems just raced past us. On the top we got some Cola and food that cured the worst of our pain before we had to go all the way down again. The view from the top is amazing and you can see 60 000 km2 from there. Once we had suffered our way down again we went back to my aunt cabin for some reindeer-stew. My aunt is a fabulous cook and it tasted lovely. She also had two awesome hammocks that I just became one with the moment I laid down on them. There were nine of us that went up to the top: Berit my great aunt and her boyfriend Sigmund; Tobias, Connor, dad and I; My aunt Anne and my cousin Victoria; and my dad’s cousin Ingrid. We got quite a tan on our faces and today it hurts whenever I wrinkle my nose since I’m a bit sunburned. The moment we came home we all had a shower and went straight to bed and slept like babies.

Sognsvann

After meeting up with Nora yesterday we went to Sognsvann with my parents. It was a beautiful day and I got some lovely photos

Mamma Rosa

On Wednesday Connor, Tobias and I went to the Norwegian museum of Science and Technology. Last time I was there I was forced to go with school, so it was brilliant to go by yourself and walk around in your own tempo and do all the fun stuff. My favourite part is still the children’s play area in the basement. I might grow up but I'll never get old 

Then yesterday we met up with Nora for lunch at Mamma Rosa. It's always great to have a catch up session with friends and doing it over pizza can only make things better. 

Back home

Yesterday I woke up with a huge smile on my face, because I was going home to Norway. So after chilling for the whole day time crept up on me and all of a sudden it was an hour until we had to leave to the airport and we had to pack in a hurry. I forgot to bring some cables for my brother’s screen so we had to tell Jack to send them over today. We got a sandwich at the airport and got our asses on the plane. The flight was quick enough and when we finally landed I could throw myself in mum and Tobias arms. There is no place like home and now that we have a new toilet in the basement sleeping there is not so bad. Today Connor has been fixing Tobias' computer and I've been sunbathing and going for a walk with mum and dad. The computer is working just fine now, apart from the screen, but once we get the right cables for that we'll be ready to roll. 

What a feeling

Eva went back home to Slovakia yesterday and took Andrea and my heart with her. I cried all the way to the bus after saying goodbye and luckily I had Connor there to wipe away my tears. Eva's last nigh in Edinburgh was spent at TGI Friday's with Alyssa, Connor, me and Andrea. We had a great time and met up with Martin once he got of work. Alyssa tried to leave twice but the first bus just left her and the second one was only a part route. We figured it was a sign that she had to join us to the pub. The plan was for Eva and Andrea to go home and pack, but once we sat down in a pub and Martin started buying shots to everybody, we just had too good of a time for them to be allowed to leave. I had a brilliant night and I hadn't seen Martin for ages either so it was brilliant getting to catch up with him as well.

Now I only have 4 days left on placement and then I'm going home to Norway with Connor on Monday! Boom =D

Sisters

My lovely roommate Eva is finally here =D since we were more or less sisters for a year it's safe to say that I have been missing here like crazy since we moved away from Scotland two years ago. She brought her friend Andrea over with her and she is really nice! It's so great having Eva back here where she belongs, even if it is just for a little while. I was on placement for the first two days she was here, but jumped on the train both days to go uptown and see her. Tonight we're going out to a pub with Connor and James, maybe also Jack. Such happy days =D