Time to be Norwegian

While in Norway over New Years, Connor and I went up to my aunts cabbin in Saupeset. It was so lovely up there with plenty of space and almost all my family there. I really had a fantastic time! Connor went cross-country skiing for the very first time and I for the first time on 8 years. It actually went a lot better than expected!

Such good times <3
Now we're both back in Scotland and I am about to head off to night shift on the Orthopedic ward in forth valley royal! I am very excited to go back there and this time as a semester 8 student (help!). Only 2 semesters left then I'll be a fully qualified nurse and I cannot even begin to describe how exciting/terrifying this is.

It's a McGuinness kind of Christmas

Unfortunately I only took one photo during Christmas dinner with the McGuinness family and it didn't turn out that nice, but here we go!

Lee made the most amazing dinner and I got such wonderful gifts! At the moment Connor and I are in Norway, so I'll update yous about that once I get home =)

Lana's bithday(s)

So not only did I go out for Lana's birthday on the 17th in Stirling. I also went out for her birthday on the 22nd in Edinburgh. So here are some photos of her Edinburgh night out

Christmas with the McGuinness family

This year Connor and I are spending Christmas with his family here in Musselburgh. It's very strange being away from my family at a time like this, even though Christmas isn't that big of a deal in my family. Not only that it's, the 24th and I have to wait an extra day to open my presents! What kind of vicious sadistic country even is this! Hmpf.
I'm really struggling to get that christmas feeling. It's not really shocking, I almost always find christmas to be an anticlimax when it finally arrives. Maybe I'd feel more "Christmasy" if there was actually snow and not rain outside. Connor's mum (aka the Christmas Nazi) is doing a fantastic job around the house though. We have not only one:

Not only two:

But three Christmas trees:

So it's definitely not for the lack of trying that I'm not feeling the holiday spirit. Maybe it will appear tomorrow when the British celebrate it. I am definitely looking forward to that!
God Jul!

Uni work will be the death of me

I have a presentation in two days and of course I'm sitting here doing anything but what I'm supposed to! Time to get a grip and get on with it

Some family photos

These were taken at my cousin Cathrine's 30th birthday party the 6th of September this year (in Norway).

Me, Tobias and Silje getting ready

A picture of 10 out of the 14 grandchildren on my mothers side. It was so good seeing them all again.

Silje, Tobias and I. Sibling love <3

Cathrine and her husband Henning

As time goes by

Time goes by fast. Since the last time I updated my blog I have turned 21 and moved up to my 3rd year of nursing. My days have been spent being busy on placement, trying to get all my paperwork sorted and being hungover. The Thursday after I finished my semester 6 placement was spent at Fee's new flat trashing the place and screaming at spiders. It was truly so much fun and a complete riot. Such an amazing night. The Friday I could hardly move out of bed I was so hungover, but oh my it was worth it. I do feel slightly bad for Fee having to clean up the mess I made though.
On Saturday, Jack and Lee came up and spent the afternoon with us catching up. It was great having them here and once they left James arrived and we went out to Rana's (an Indian restaurant). After that we went to Lana's flat for pre-pre drinks for my birthday night out. The plan was to go out to the pub and then a night club, but we never made it to the pub. We had far too much fun in the flat and by the time we were supposed to go to the pub it was completely packed. So we ended up staying at the flat until we we're supposed to go to the club.

The broken table is kind of my fault. Uuupsiiie. Turns out dancing on the table is not such a good idea. When we got to the club even more of my friends were there and the night ended up being a hundred times better than I ever imagined it to be! Such fun.

I really needed to add this picture of Lana the retarded seal.
I have just finished my first week of placement as a 3rd year student and I am loving it! The responsibility is getting to me a bit as it is clearly A LOT of it, but it feels good knowing I only have one year left to go.
Now I'm sitting here with my bag packed ready to spend a weekend home in Norway.

Eminem

Yesterday was the day I've been waiting for since the 29th of January; the Eminem concert! It was Lorraine, Melanie, Stevie and I who got the train down together. Once there we met up with Emily and Anna. Stephanie was there as well, but the crowd was too big and there was no point in starting to even try to find each other. Eminem was amazing (as expected). He sung a huge variation from every album and really pulled me back to the days when I was hanging out at Sinsen Klubben and was feeling extremely cool. I even almost cried at some of the songs. Ten out of ten from me. On the train home I even bumped into Erin and Joanne. The concert was in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. Oh what a night <3

Getting older

On Saturday I went to Lucille's birthday party. It's over 3 years since I left high school here in Scotland and it was very good seeing so many people who I've not seen since then. It is very strange hearing what everybody has been up to, who's dating who and how everybody is doing. The strangest part must be that I was there with out all my exchange student buddies. It made me realize once again how much I actually miss them

Festive festival

My first week of placement is finally over. Two 13.5 hour shifts that really killed my feet, back and will to live. OK fine, so maybe not the will to live. I love placement and I always get excited before I start one, but the 5am alarm really kills the majority of that motivation. I'm having a great time there as the staff is helpful and knowledgeable so they can always answer any questions I might have. I started on Monday and had Tuesday and Wednesday to cool off before being back on it Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday Connor and I went through to the Fringe festival in Edinburgh to see two shows. One of them was À Point's 'Transit' that Magnus (an old friend of mine and my sisters that worked at Tusenfryd with us) was part of. After the show we ended up having a few drinks with him down in the bar afterwards. It was great catching up with him, and hopefully we'll have time to meet again before the festival is over. After that we met up with Jack and James and wandered over to Assembly and watched a show by Rich Hall. It was so much fun and I really recommend to go and see both shows!

Back home

I came back home to Scotland on Wednesday. Well, is it home? it certainly feels like it. But I call Norway home as well. Is it truly possible to have two homes? I hope so. I never want to give up either one of them.
My last days in Oslo were just as amazing as the rest of my stay there. I truly love that city. I managed to squeeze in a trip out clubbing with my sister, some bathing, quite a bit of shopping and plenty of family time. Tomorrow I start placement in the acute stroke ward and I am very excited! I also found out I passed my written exam from 4 weeks ago. I even got a really decent mark. Oh boy I am happy!

Sister love

After a quick we night out on Thursday, Silje arrived early in the morning on Friday. I have missed her tons and it was so good seeing her again. Dad and I picked her up at the airport and dropped us straight off at the local mall StorO. At StorO we bought new bikinis and had a great laugh before hurrying home for a family lunch. It was all of my uncle Reidar's children: Kaja, Celine, Christine, Torbjørn and Torbjørn's girlfriend Sara. It was so much fun and we got all the gossip from Celine and Cristine's concert experience from the night before (they had been to see Rihanna's Diamonds Tour). After work Reidar came over and joined us. Christine and I went for a nap and were woken up by Silje who decided that jumping up and down in bed was a great way of waking us up. Have I mentioned Silje is turning 25 this year? When I finally got out of bed Silje, Tobias, Mum and I put our swimwear on and drove up to Steinbruvann for a quick swim.

When we got home we all had a quick shower before getting ready for the pub. At Bohemen in Oslo they have a quiz night every Friday so this day Sara, Torbjørn, Silje, Mum, Dad and a friend of dad was on our team.We actually did quite well (for once).

On the way home we had a quick wander around Oslo

Right now I'm waiting for some neighbors coming over for lunch

Let's go to the beach

Dad woke me up today asking if I wanted to go to the beach. All I wanted to do was to stay at home and die, nurse my hangover and eat junk food. However a day at the beach sounded too good to miss out on. So we got in the car and drove to Ingierstrand beach. The beach was packed with people and the mood was as good as it gets! We went bathing and suddenly my brother and I turned 5 years old again, pushing each other underwater. It was so much fun and I laughed until my stomach hurt or Tobias pushed me under water again. It was one of those days that I could have gone on forever. I am truly happy when I'm with my family.

Watermelon ROCKS!

Father daughter day

Yesterday dad and I spent the day together. It was truly a father daughter date day. We started the day by walking down to Sofienberg, where we sat down at a restaurant and had dinner. Once again the hear was really intense and I was worried about vaporizing into nothing on the way down.

My amazing father!
After breakfast we went to the national gallery to look at the Edvard Munch exhibition. We were just in time for a guided tour that ended up being fantastic! The lady we had was so passionate about what she was talking about and had a good balance between talking about the meaning of the painting, the technique and how it fitted into art history.

After the exhibition we wandered over to Aker Brygge and sat down at Lektern for a few afternoon pints. The heat was actually bearable down by the sea so we ended up having about three beers each.

At around 4 we walked over to mums work and wandered up to a pub and sat down for another beer. When we were done with that we bough sushi (I bought a kebab) and took the bus home.
After chilling at home for a bit Sandra sent me a message asking me to come out clubbing with her and some friends. I got ready in a hurry and headed down to Blue Note where Sandra and her friends were waiting for me with beer and wine. It was such a good night!

Sporty family

On Tuesday, mum, dad and I went for a walk in Nordmarka forest. We walked from Frognerseteren to Ullevålseter to Sognavann. It was a lovely walk with mostly down hill (my favorite type of hill). The weather was lovely and luckily we escaped the frying heat in the forest.

Look at the stunning view. I truly love Oslo!

We met a viper in the forest! Luckily dad tipped it into some bushes with his shoe. My hero! 

Two sporty ladies if I may say so myself. The walk was 11 kilometers (6.8 miles).

Feel the heat

The weather has been so lovely while I have been home in Norway. On Monday it was actually too hot for me to lie outside to sunbathe. Just look at my tomato face. Sunbathing and hiding from the sun was what I was doing most of Monday morning.

 Monday afternoon I went down to Elkjøp and picked up my new tablet. I actually managed to convince Connor to let me buy one! Wohoo. I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. So far I am very happy with it. After picking it up mum came down with her car to pick me up/use me as an excuse for looking through the shops. In one of the shops I met Ornella who was one of the exchange students I traveled to Scotland with when I moved there as an exchange student. It was so good seeing her again after all this time. I have not seen her since Christmas 2009. It's crazy how fast time flies! We managed to have a very quick catch up and hopefully we'll have time to meet up before I go home on the 31st. When mum and I got home I had a quick shower and then mum, dad and I got in the car and drove to my aunt Inger's house. Inger, her husband Tom and my cousin Hilde was there. I have not seen either of them for years, so it was so incredibly good seeing them all again! We had a lovely dinner at their veranda in the sun and spent forever talking about what has been going on over the last few years. It was simply perfect. Once again I completely forgot to take photos. Minus another two blogger points. When we got home I packed my bad and went down to Aurora's flat for a sleepover. Unfortunately I arrived quite late and we had to get up quite early, but the little time we spent together truly was quality time. Some quick catch up and gossip, some watermelon, some sweets and then bedtime. Having to get up at 9 because Aurora had plans really hurt deeply. I wanted to tell her to just go and never leave the bed. But, I had to go for a walk in the forest with mum and dad so I dragged my ass out of bed. I left my will to live in the bed though!