Ramblings From A Compulsive Traveller

Crossing Greenland

2011-01-10T16:50:00.008-05:00

As many of you know, my dear mother who is turning 50 today is going to cross Greenland in April/May. On skis, pulling one of those heavy sleighs. In the freezing cold. And there's probably going to be vicious polar bears, snow storms and all kinds of unpleasant things. I certainly think she's crazy.

The interesting part, however, is that she is not the only crazy person in the family. It might be hard to believe, but there is actually a family member who has successfully crossed Greenland before her...

Stig Gabrielsen Førsvoll posing after the dangerous crossing of Greenland: "It was a tough trip and I am happy everyone made it back without any serious injuries". Photos are taken by an unnamed member of the expedition.

I♥New York

2010-09-23T14:53:00.000-04:00

I miss New York. Terribly.

I miss my life there - its crazy busyness and never ending array of shopping sprees, dinners and social events. I miss the dizzying cultural scene with its constant flow of free, or almost free, concerts, movies by starlight, and theatre performances.

I even miss the less likeable parts, such as the indefinable fumes, the overwhelming humidity and the crowded, decaying subways. Hell, I even miss the oversized rats. Well, almost.

I have however been comforting myself with the general knowledge that New York is supposed to be an incredibly unpleasant place to be in winter. But my mood dropped today when I discovered that the temperature is still in the lovely mid-20s (80 Fahrenheit).

As much as I miss the place I cannot really go back right now though. There is this master degree of mine that is taking up a bit of time, and there is the slight issue of money. And I honestly do not know if the US immigration officers would welcome me back. They seemed slightly suspicious I would refuse to leave the last time I entered.

So, instead of boarding the first plane to New York I am making due with boring everyone about how much I miss/love the city, shouting excitedly every time time I see a scene from New York in a movie/TV show, and loudly sobbing my way through Empire State of Mind – whatever version is playing.

As they say: “You can take the girl out of the city, but you cannot take the city out of the girl”.

Free James Bond screening at Bryant Park.

Intern Newsletter Issue 2

2010-07-16T16:15:00.002-04:00

The second issue of our intern newsletter is out. I should probably clarify that the newsletter is not a part of my work at the UN, it is just something extra we are doing on the side. Ah, the fun I have.

An Afternoon at the Iranian Mission

2010-07-15T14:27:00.004-04:00

Photo with the Iranian diplomats, stolen from the UN intern newsletter.

I went to visit the Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations the other day with a group of interns. A UN mission is sort of like an embassy, just to the UN instead of a country. The visit was pleasant enough, with refreshments and free promotional material, and the Iranians had set aside a lot of time to answer our questions.

The tone of the meeting was set when the opening question from a member of our group was about Iran’s nuclear technology. I loosely quote a part of the answer one of the diplomats gave:

“We all agree that a knife is dangerous, but what is a kitchen without a knife? It is the same with nuclear power. We need it to generate electricity for farming, hospitals and so on… And we need to make our neighbours think we’re dangerous – look where we are positioned on the map”.

And equally uncomfortable questions followed with themes such as divorce, women’s rights, the Iran-United States relationship, and stoning:

“There is no stoning in Iran. And if there is, the stones are a lot smaller than described in western media. Besides, a person should feel harm when he or she betrays his significant other, no?"

I have to give them credit for answering everything though. We asked some pretty sensitive questions that I know were not received as openly at some of the other missions.

Moment of the day: One of the diplomats was solemnly explaining how they were not allowed to go further than 20 miles (or something like that) from the Iranian Mission or they would get in trouble with US immigration, to which one girl blurts “but what if you want to go shopping!?”

UN Intern Newsletter

2010-06-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

I somehow decided it was a good idea to join the intern newsletter committee. And after two weeks of threatening people to write stuff and finding volunteers to pose for pictures, the first issue is now out. Hopefully there will be a second. But then again, there's just so many things to do in New York that no one seems to have time to write about them. Happy read (there's three pages, just click on the arrows at the top).

Key to the City

2010-06-22T23:42:00.006-04:00

I have the key to New York City attached on my key chain, but it is not as great an honour as it might sound. The Key to City is an interactive public art project, where you get a key that actually unlocks various things, such as gates, boxes or secret rooms, around the city’s five boroughs.

We tracked down a few of the places the key unlocked in Manhattan on Sunday, and despite a few disappointments, we did experience some pretty cool stuff. Perhaps more importantly though, was that the mission gave us an incentive to visit places we would not normally have gone to.

This key opens doors, boxes and experiences all over NYC.

St. John's Cathedral, one of the world's largest cathedrals, was one of our first stops.

My key opened this padlock that gave us access to part of the church not open to the other visitors.

My flatmate and his friend enjoying the privilege of being in the "VIP" section.

New York, New York

2010-06-20T22:59:00.000-04:00

My travelling days are over, at least for the summer, as I am doing an internship in New York City. I have been here for nearly three weeks now – and I am loving it. I am of course missing the thrills of being on the road, but NYC is definitely not the worst place to live for a few months.

Here is a recap of May and June:

Finished exams and left Kentucky.
Visited some new states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington.
Survived a 37 hour Amtrak train ride.
Grabbed coffee from the original Starbucks in Seattle.
Popped over the border to Canada to check out Vancouver.
Fell in love with lox and cream-cheese bagels.
Got detained at the Mexican border due to a missing stamp.
Checked out movie stars at Universal Studios, California.
Got my bag “stolen” at the JFK airport.
Gave up my freedom and started an internship at the United Nations.
Now busy saving the saving the world and exploring NYC.

California Summer

2010-05-31T03:12:00.001-04:00

Hege and Sally busy crab hunting at Venice Beach. Summer has finally arrived.

Sunny, Warm California

2010-05-26T01:00:00.001-04:00

17 May in Seattle

2010-05-18T14:15:00.004-04:00

Celebrating Norway's Constitution Day in Ballard, the Scandinavian neighbourhood of Seattle, was a bizarre experience. The place was booming with Norwegians living or visiting Seattle, Americans with Norwegian heritage and other Americans curious to see what it was all about. The dress code varied from the traditional bunad to viking and troll costumes. The scale of the festivities surprised me; there must have been thousands of people there to watch the parade that lasted over two hours.

There were various things going on from about 11am until 8pm. These people are listening to a male choir of Norwegian-Americans singing in Norwegian. The songs were supposed to be traditional , but besides the national anthem, I had not heard a single one of them before.

Usually rainy Seattle surprised everyone with temperatures in the 20s and sun.

There were a lot of Scandinavian, Nordic and Norwegian clubs participating in the parade.

All the local schools participated and we had some great marching band performances.

I met two Swedish and Finnish girls on the train to Seattle, and they decided to join me celebrate.

Norwegian soda. Unfortunately, no one was selling Norwegian sweets.

My very Scandinavian lunch.

Dagfinn Høybråten, a prominent Norwegian politician, was also there to celebrate.

Biking Minneapolis

2010-05-18T01:12:00.003-04:00

Lovely bike trip. Lovely people. Lovely weather. Lovely Minneapolis.

Lake Harriet, one of Minnesota's many lakes. The temperature went from 6 Celsius to well over 20 in mere hours, and the locals knew how to take advantage. People were riding their bikes, tanning, walking, playing ball games and simply enjoying being outdoors after a long winter.

Minneapolis is a very green city. There are several parks and green areas to enjoy.

On my bike trip I saw garage sales everywhere; the locals seemed to take great pleasure in them.

Nordic skiing is not so common outside of Scandinavia, but I saw several pairs of Nordic skis at the various garage sales.

These girls where selling lemonade and homemade chocolate chip cookies, just like in the movies!

Minneapolis, Minnesota

2010-05-14T12:13:00.002-04:00

Minnesota is the land of 10 000 lakes, and I am about to go see if I can locate three of them. I have borrowed a bike, the sun is out and the temperature is expected to hit 20 Celsius. My only concern is to find the bike path.

A lot of Scandinavians settled in this Minnesota, and most people in the region has some Scandinavian blood in them. Maybe moose-in-sunset painting is genetically determined?

Cool Milwaukee

2010-05-12T22:23:00.009-04:00

Milwaukee is a cool city, both in terms of its weather and its vibe.

People: Milwaukeeans are so friendly and polite. “You only need to use internet for a few minutes? Well, I guess I cannot charge you for that” and "Let me help you with your bag mam, you want me to carry it up the stairs?"

Food: Milwaukee is known for beer and cheese, so I obviously ate beer and cheese soup, which was not as bad tasting as it sounds. I guess someone had the brilliant idea of combining their two favourites one day. And I also scoffed down some frozen custard, a local specialty fairly similar to ice cream.

Weather: The locals joke about Milwaukee having a ten-month winter, and it is not very far from the truth. The weather was pretty miserable while I was there – foggy, rainy and cold – but I still found the city worth a visit.

What’s there: Art, museums, theatre, music and beer. Milwaukee has several local beer breweries, and more museums and theaters than I could count. It is a great city to walk in, with manageable distances and some great buildings. I particularly enjoyed some of the suburbs, with their stunning houses from the early 1900s.

Despite the miserable weather, there were definitely promising signs of spring.

Indoor food market with all kinds of yummy stuff.

Wisconsin is the cheese state. Can you spot the greatest cheese of them all in this picture?

The people I stayed with had two beautiful cats. Unfortunately most of my photos with them are saved in the camera memory, meaning I cannot get them off till I find a USB cable that fits.

Chicago: Take Two

2010-05-10T23:07:00.003-04:00

It is cold. And windy. My second trip to Chicago has not been quite as I envisioned it, mainly due to a sudden weather change. I had been planning to stroll the streets of Chicago, wearing flimsy spring clothing, simply enjoying late spring. Unfortunately, strolling had to be replaced by fast walking, bordering on running, to stay warm. And instead of a tan, I have wind burn.

But the food was good. And so was the company. Pauline and I have managed to eat Chinese, Japanese, Greek and Chicagoan cuisine in the few days we have been here. The NKU cafeteria food is just a faint memory by now.

Enjoying famous Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's. While usually quite pricey, they have deep-dish pizzas from approximately 6 dollars between 11-3pm.

Chicago is known as the Windy City. It definitely lives up to its name.

On the Road Again

2010-05-08T20:34:00.007-04:00

First stop Chicago. Then Milwaukee, followed by Minneapolis and a number of small cities in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, before ending in Seattle/Vancouver. I am hoping to use about two weeks on my mission across the Midwest; I have only booked bus tickets as far as Minneapolis, and will be winging it from there.

As I am not returning to Cincinnati, I have to carry stuff with me that I normally would not bring on a trip like this, such as my fairly heavy laptop. On the plus side, this means that there will be more blogging. As long as there is internet access in the Midwest.

Pauline, a French exchange student from NKU, is joining me on the first leg of the trip. We are currently on the bus to Chicago, where a fellow traveller was kind enough to lend me his wireless internet device, as Megabus’ network is down.

College Days

2010-05-03T16:45:00.002-04:00

My American college life is almost over. All that remains is to hand in a few assignments and pack up my room. It has been a fun couple of months, but I am ready to move on. My entire world these past months has been the NKU campus. Besides my trips to Miami and Chicago, I have only left NKU a few times to go the movies or to get my hair cut. Not that I have been in need of anything, the campus really is a small world in itself, but I think if stay here any longer I will go a little crazy.

The NKU campus, with its beautiful gray buildings. Spring definitely improved the rather dull-looking campus though, with its flowers and greenery.

One of NKU's many fine dog sculptures. I think they are a part of a student art project, but I am not completely sure. Some of them are cute, while others are downright creepy.

Creepy: They are placed in various locations around the campus lake, and look real enough to give you a fright after dark.

I am sick of the cafeteria food, which tend to vary greatly in quality. Since I am living in a dorm without a full kitchen, I have to have a meal plan. With my meal plan I can eat 15 meals a week at the college diner. The food was great the day this picture was taken and the theme was "breakfast at night".

I think the staff is a little overworked at the moment. The conveyor belt concept is clearly not working, as the dishes pile up quicker than they can remove it.

Merry Christmas

2010-04-13T16:24:00.001-04:00

Changing countries every six months, or so, has some interesting side effects. One of them is mail situations, with parcels and letters being lost for months before they finally find their way to wherever I am at the time. Like with a Christmas package from South Africa that I think must have travelled the world before it managed to find its way to my local, Australian post office in late May. Needless to say, the contents were inedible by then.

This week I received a Christmas card from my friend Sally. The card was sent to my address in Denmark in early December. It lingered there till February, when someone was kind enough to gather all my mail and send it to my home address in Norway. In Norway the process stagnated, before the card was again travelling at the beginning of April. As Sally lives in California, the card has basically done a nice little loop. Merry Christmas!

On a completely different note, I was amused to see this video clip on VG of a dog, cat and rat on top of each other. As some of you might remember, I have a photo of the same trio from my trip to San Francisco last year.

Go Reds!

2010-04-10T00:02:00.006-04:00

I have a new team – the great and mighty Reds, which is Cincinnati’s baseball team. This evening they played the Chicago Cubs, and I was of course there to support and cheer. Well, at least I was there. I did not really pay too much attention, not until the last two innings (yeah, I picked up some jargon) when I have to admit it did get a bit exciting.

I actually wanted to go to this game, despite most people telling me that baseball was boring. And even though I doubt it will ever become a favourite sport of mine, I am glad I got to see a game. It does of course help that we won. I quite like winning. Go Reds!

Hege the devoted baseball fan.

Yegor and William were ecstatic about winning. At least when posing for the camera.

My new team is apparently not that good, so it was a pleasant surprise that they won. Unless you are a Cubs supporter of course.

Oh Sweet Happiness

2010-04-08T15:54:00.000-04:00

An Easter parcel from my mother arrived today packed with Norwegian sweets, including the popular Freia Easter eggs. However, I am sorry to announce that not all of the eggs made it; there was quite a few causalities and the messy cream filling made it necessary to wash all the other sweets. I am just happy it was cream and not mackerel oil, which was the case with another package. That one had to be treated like toxic waste.

Also a big Hip Hip Hurray for Vasos who is turning 25 today (Friday), and can now rent a car without the extra insurance fee. Road trip?

In addition to a small amount of sweets, I also got an Easter card from Ingrid. Thank you!

They will still be eaten, but I guess I cannot exactly give them to others. Oh well, more for me.

Norwegian Bachelor Farmers

2010-04-07T13:55:00.007-04:00

“It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out on the edge of the prairie."

This is the standard opening words of a weekly feature called News From Lake Wobegon on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. The popular segment features stories and news from the fictitious “little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

The show often parodies the Scandinavian-American communities living on the prairie, with Norwegian bachelor farmers, lutefisk and the Lutheran Church being important ingredients. About 3.4 million Americans tune in each week to get the latest news from Lake Wobegon.

The show is proudly sponsored by the fictitious company Powdermilk Biscuits: "Made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers; so you know they're not only good for you, but also pure ... mostly", which "give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens they're tasty and expeditious.”

Free podcasts can be downloaded from the A Prairie Home Companion website. Or click here to listen to an online Christmas episode.

Easter Feast

2010-04-04T22:55:00.002-04:00

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day spent in great company at Don and his wife’s farm. They had well over 20 students from NKU over for Easter dinner, games and fun, and their grandson even arranged an egg hunt. Not that I managed to find any – he was clearly a highly skilled Easter Bunny.

The weather was amazing and people were running around barefooted playing ball games or chilling on the grass. The smell of barbeque and some sun burnt people added to the perfect summer feeling.

International students from NKU, with the Easter Bunny in the middle.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T12:37:00.004-04:00

Even though my university has no days off for Easter, there is still a a bit of a holiday feel. The dining hall sure did their bit by decorating cup cakes and providing Easter snacks and food. Not that there were many people there to enjoy it - the campus is nearly empty as most people have gone home to celebrate Easter Sunday.

I will be going out to a farm later to join in on a Easter Feast. If the weather holds, it should be good fun. We have been having extraordinary weather the last couple of the days, with the temperatures in the high 20s. Summer is here. At least for now, it actually snowed during the night last week.

The Chicago Bean

2010-03-27T23:06:00.003-04:00

After spending a day of sightseeing the Windy City, it was the Bean in Millennium Park that really managed to get my attention. The enormous sculpture is made of stainless steel and is designed to reflect the city's skyline. Both tourists and locals seemed to have great fun playing with it, me included.

One Dollar Ride to Chicago

2010-03-26T20:32:00.004-04:00

I am on my way to Chicago, on a one dollar ticket. By booking my tickets in early February I managed to secure a return ticket to Chicago with Megabus for $11.50 - a very decent price for a for a six hour bus ride.

Compared to Greyhound, where a significant amount of the passengers were homeless and a little scary looking, riding with Megabus is more like taking a long-distance coach in Europe. It feels safe, it is clean, and you do not have to worry about anyone stealing your sandwich while you are sleeping. The free wireless, which I am taking advantage of at the moment, is also a great plus.

The only major problem with Megabus is that they do not have that many routes yet. If they did, I would have been more than happy to backpack across the States with them. Oh, and cup holders would be nice.

Tickets can only be booked at Megabus.com - it is not possible to purchase a ticket on the bus.

Five Hours in Paradise

2010-03-21T22:32:00.009-04:00

While I was in Miami I had an obsession about going to Key West, so even when I realised I could only do it as a daytrip, I still had to go. The trip included five hours in Key West and a total of seven hours driving to and from the mainland. It was worth it though. The island is like a Disney project with a twist of madness to it.

Key West is the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys, a string of Caribbean-like islands in southeast United States. The Keys are connected to mainland by bridges, the longest being 10 kilometres long. Key West is known for rum drinking, key lime pie, and is said to be the place those who are too weird for Miami go.

Even I, who is quite used to bridges, found it fascinating to take the ocean road to Key West.

Key West is paradise, at least if you are to believe the many signs scattered around the island. However, a little bird told me that the reason the island in such a pristine condition is because of the Mexican and Cuban immigrants who are up at 5am washing away puke and other horrors. Most of these people cannot afford to live in Key West and some of them even commute daily from the mainland. I guess there is no such thing as paradise.

Pelicans are a common sight in both Miami and Key West.

Key West is actually closer to Cuba than it is to Miami. It is only 170 km from Havana and many Cubans have managed to make their way to Florida over the years.

Ernest Hemingway, or "the due with the wives" as an elderly American gentleman called him, had a house at Key West. It is now a museum, and since they had a spring-break special for students I ventured inside. It turned out to be one of the highlights of my Key West experience. The guide was incredibly funny and the house was filled with six-toed cats. More than 30 cats live on the property and are free to do as they like. All of them are descendants from Hemingway's own six-toed cat.

Memories of Miami

2010-03-20T00:23:00.007-04:00

Miami is a beach paradise with upmarket shopping, daiquiri stands on every corner and glamorous, beautiful people doing nothing but tanning and partying. But Miami is also a conservative, Hispanic community with cigar shops, Cuban street art and Haitian food outlets. Throw in a thriving gay community, washed-out hippies and some rednecks, and you are starting to get the feel of the place.

I quite took to Miami. It is quirky, at least if you dare to venture further than South Beach, and I loved the randomness of it all. The city also has a half decent public-transportation system, so it is possible to get just about anywhere. Miami is like most American cities though - spread out - so you need to put in both effort and time to track down the interesting places.

This hammerhead shark was the largest they had caught this season. They often just let them go as they are not suitable for food, but the person who caught this one wanted it brought to shore to take a picture. I do not approve of that decision, but it clearly did not stop me from posing with it once it was there.

Half the point of going to Miami was because it is a generally warm place that has beaches. It was not really warm enough to swim, at least not by my standards, but the beach was a brilliant place for people watching. I do not know who wrote this or what it means, but it sure looked cute.

Red Bull had an art exhibition where local artists could participate. I quite liked the concept.

I went on a daytrip to the Everglades, a swamp-like area that actually is a very slow running river. All kinds of charming creatures live here, including alligators.

Honky Tonkin' in Nashville

2010-03-18T20:09:00.010-04:00

Nashville is the city of country music and people come from all over world to visit the city's honky tonks - bars with live music - and to soak up the history of the place. Since the 1920's anyone who is anything within the country scene is likely to have had some affiliation with Nashville, including Taylor Swift who lived here in her teens. But there is of course more to Nashville than country music. Line dancing, mechanical-bull riding and shopping for tacky cowboy souvenirs are also highly popular activities.

I spent the last weekend of my spring break in Nashville on ANSA USA's annual meeting. It was great fun meeting other Norwegians and to participate in the more political side of ANSA. I am also happy I got to visit Nashville, because the city is like no other place I have been. And that's a good thing.

I spent well over six hours at this honky tonk waiting for my bus to leave. It was not a bad place to wait, and despite being extremely tired, I did not want to leave to head back to Kentucky. The live bands that played were that good. And the only expense was a dollar or two in tips.

Riding in style: the hotel we were supposed to stay at messed up our booking, so they gave us a free limo ride instead.

Elvis recorded a few of his songs in Nashville and the city does not seem too ashamed to be connected to the king of rock.

Dangerous Times

2010-02-19T17:46:00.001-05:00

It is sunny and the snow is melting. A beautiful, yet dangerous combination. A few lucky people just escaped being hit by this load that came thundering down without warning. There were lumps of ice in it, so I guess getting hit in the head would have been rather uncomfortable.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

2010-02-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

It is snowing. Again. So NKU has declared a snow day. Again.

And it is not the only institution that is closed for the day, the weather page I follow lists over 200 closings in the Cincinnati area. I am not too excited about it though, as I have no classes today. It is actually a bit inconvenient, as my beloved Starbucks is closed and the student cafeteria is offering no late night food services. Tomorrow is however a good day for a snow day, so;

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Valentine's

2010-02-14T19:02:00.014-05:00

My RA (Resident Assistant) is of the creative sort and my floor is therefore always nicely decorated. For Valentine's she cut out hearts to stick on everyone's doors. She also cut out names to glue on to the hearts - ten points for effort. I helped by constructively laughing at bad colour combinations.

The little bags have been there for a few days now and they keep on being filled with various sweets. Pity Valentine's is almost over.

Year of the Tiger

2010-02-13T14:34:00.014-05:00

Happy Lunar New Year! The Asian Student Association threw a combined Valentine's and new year’s party on Friday. Most of the evening was spent munching on free food, gathering fortune cookies and, in my case, trying to avoid participating in various games and karaoke singing.

After the party, I managed to get a group of people to join me watching the opening ceremony at the family restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings.

It took some lobbying to convince people to come, but most people seemed to enjoy watching it once we were there. The parade with all the countries was a particular hit, as we had quite a few nationalities represented in our group. Some of the people from the warmer countries even discovered that they also had an athlete, or two, participating in the games.

Preparing for Valentine's

2010-02-11T18:40:00.010-05:00

I am busy decorating cookies, cutting out hearts and writing cute, little notes. Valentine's is serious business in the States and the campus is booming in red and pink. The student diner had cookie decorating and Cupid bow and arrow shooting on the program today. Everyone mocked my cookie-decorating skills, but at least it made a pretty decent picture.

Snow Day

2010-02-09T12:28:00.005-05:00

"Northern Kentucky University is closed on Tuesday, Feb. 9, due to inclement weather. All day and evening classes are cancelled beginning at 9:30 a.m."

It is snowing. The weather forecast says "winter storm" and "snow emergencies", whatever that is. Personally, I think the term storm is used a little loosely. From what I can gather it seems to mean "snow that stays on the ground". I am not complaining though. I think this is the first time I have gotten a weather-related day off, unless you count the time in Hong Kong we got to leave class early because of a tropical cyclone warning.

I am a little puzzled by why they chose to close it as late as 9.30am though, as it was pretty evident that they would end up closing judging from what they normally do during this type of weather. I definitely feel for my flatmate who had an 8am class.

The University owns at least four of these snow ploughs, so it is not like the concept of snow is something new.

Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-07T23:45:00.008-05:00

Colts vs Saints.
60 minutes of game play.
Four of hours of pure entertainment.

Despite being considered one of the most important events on the American calendar, the people around me seemed disappointingly indifferent about today's game. Luckily, the Student Baptist Union was organising an open party where I could join like-minded football enthusiasts. And indulge in an awesome amount of food and snacks.

My team, which I bonded strongly to over the four hours, did unfortunately lose 17-31 to the Saints. It all seemed to be going well until the last quarter when the Saints suddenly picked up the speed. Mimi had on her side problems deciding what team to support, as she always felt strongly for the underdogs.

Kentucky (Fried Chicken) Fun Facts

2010-02-05T19:28:00.006-05:00

Kentucky - the proud birth place of KFC. But what more?

Location: Kentucky is an in-between-state, sometimes referred to as Midwestern and frequently termed Southern. As I live in northern Kentucky right on the Ohio border, I would say my area is more Midwestern, but there are probably a number of people who would disagree.

Climate: Winter is freezing, cold, snowy and miserable. Summer is apparently hot and humid.

History: One of the previous slave states, but Kentucky was largely split during the Civil War. Tobacco and coal mining were, and still are, proud drivers of the economy.

Famous People: President Abraham Lincoln, boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Johnny Depp were born here.

Good to Know: Bourbon got its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the States (Vas keeps on talking about this, so I guess it must be slightly famous). "Happy Birthday to You" was created here in 1893. Most of the world's Post-it notes are produced here. And, uh, did I mention KFC?

Stuff to Do: Play Cornhole - a wonderful game involving tossing small bags filled with corn.

I am where the little red dot is. Click on the picture to see more details.

If the mountain won't come to Muhammad...

2010-02-03T17:32:00.003-05:00

...Muhammad must go to the mountain.

During my first week here I expectantly made my way to Cincinnati, a fairly large city on the Ohio-Kentucky border, in order to do some shopping. After countless hours of searching for "the shopping area" I slowly started to realise that Cincinnati did not actually have one. There were of course a few stores scattered around the place, but the city mainly consisted of businesses.

At least the story of my fruitless wandering is quite a hit with the locals: "You went to Cincinnati for shopping?! I don't think I have ever heard of anyone doing that before". There is of course shopping around here, but since a car is the key to getting to these places, they are pretty inaccessible to me.

But, I did not suffer for long as I soon discovered online shopping. My current crush is amazon.com and not only have I been buying text books, but also a new camera (Canon 450d) has found its way to my mail box.

The newest member of my Lonely Planet guide collection.

As my US geography skills are slightly limited, I bought a big map to help me.

Perfect North Slopes

2010-02-01T13:17:00.000-05:00

As suggested by its name, Perfect North Slopes, was perfect. Well, not really, but it was good value for money - it had some decent slopes and a really fun snow-tubing area. The daytrip was arranged by the international student union, and many of the participants had never been exposed to snow-related activities before. People came in jeans, summer shoes and without jackets and gloves. Luckily it was possible to hire some of the equipment, but a few people still found the climate inside the skiing lodge more appropriate.

The weather was, to everyone's surprise, great. Sun, blue skies and temperatures right above zero. The warmer weather also made the artificial snow less icy, which I think everyone was happy about - particularly the beginners. I stayed on the beginners' hill for the first half hour to offer support and share my vast amount of forced experience, but found it too dangerous to linger longer than necessary, as there were constantly out-of-control skis, snowboards and people to watch out for. As with one poor girl who kept on crashing into the same (padded) pole.

All in all it was a good day. However, a few members of the group claimed they would never want to repeat the experience as it was "too cold, painful and difficult". I was of course shocked to hear such statements.

An afternoon with the Norse

2010-01-25T14:55:00.003-05:00

Exchange student 1: “What happens now, why is everyone leaving?”

Exchange student 2: “I think it might be finished.”
Exchange student 1: “Finished?! But we have only played two rounds, isn’t there normally four?”
Exchange student 2: “I don’t know, but even the brass band is packing up their notes, I am pretty sure it’s finished”.
Exchange student 1: “But wait a minute… Does that mean we lost?"

With only a wage idea about the rules of basketball, and more drawn towards the promise of a free t-shirt, Mimi, Andrei and I made it through an entire basketball game on Saturday. Our university team - the Northern Kentucky Norse - took on the Bellarmine Knights, in a national televised game.

Personally, I was most of the time too distracted by the mascots, brass bands, dance teams, cheerleaders and jumping castles to pay any attention to the actual game. The halftime break with mascot basketball was also a personal favourite.

And as for the confusion around the playing time, professional NBA-style basketball has four quarters, while college basketball has two halves. And our team did unfortunately lose 69-74.

Mimi and Andrei from Romania, posing during the mascot basketball game.

The curse of the yellow - why is my school colour always yellow? Mimi and Hege - commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as "the Danes". I guess that is what we get for exchanging from Aarhus School of Business.

Freezing Budapest

2009-10-23T13:36:00.004-04:00

I have always thought Norway, positioned in the far north at the fringe of the world, was a really cold place. But travelling through central Europe made me realise that there are places that both match, and beat, my home country when it comes to miserable weather.

But even though Budapest was not the best strategic choice weather wise, it was certainly a splendid city with its mix of the historically grand and the trendy new. And the city's many natural thermal springs gave even this frozen Norseman a chance of heating up.

Fun fact: Buda is on the left side of the river and Pest is on the right.

Lost in Bratislava

2009-10-14T15:33:00.000-04:00

I had a short stopover in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, to break up my train ride from Prague to Budapest. It was a cold, windy and rather unpleasant visit where I was lost for most of the time. I wandered around for a few hours, following signs promising me grand places such as "The Historical Centre", but I never found anything quite corresponding to the alluring descriptions.

Fairytale Castle

2009-10-14T14:57:00.006-04:00

The dramatic Prague Castle can be seen from almost everywhere in Prague and is one of the city's main tourist attractions. The massive complex (all the buildings in the picture make up the castle) is protected by stylish guards in uniforms created by the guy that designed the costumes in the movie Amadeus.

Perhaps an idea for how to jazz things up a bit outside the Norwegian Royal Palace?

Time Travelling in Prague

2009-10-12T05:05:00.001-04:00

I am in love with Prague: the magnificent old buildings, the cobbled streets, the fairytale castles and the surprisingly helpful people. Prague is simply a beautiful city to wander and get lost in. In two of the pictures underneath I am at the famous Charles bridge, busy rubbing statues for good luck.

Paniyiri and Birthday Dinner

2009-07-04T23:06:00.007-04:00

Yassou! The annual Greek festival was held this weekend and as usual eating, zorba dancing and more eating was on the program. Vas was working in the food stall for the Cypriot Youth Club, so I was lucky enough to score some discounted food. The weather was good and thousands of people showed up.

Vas somehow felt this green tennis sweatband was an essential part of his Cypriot look.

Birthday Dinner

Tim and I celebrated our birthdays with a joint dinner later that night. I think it is one of the only times we have manged to gather our entire household in one photo. From the bottom left: Danni, Tim, Lyndal, Firby, Hege, Vas, Kate.

Big thanks to Danni who selected this monster of a cake.

Australian Lotto Frenzy

2009-06-30T05:00:00.003-04:00

Australia is going crazy with lotto fever, with 90 million dollars (NOK 470 million) up for grabs in tonight's lotto draw. The jackpot is shattering all existing records and people have been queuing in long lines all over the country in order to secure a ticket. At my local shopping centre there was even a specially fenced-off area at the newsagent for people who wanted to buy a ticket.

The newsagent at my grocery shop was not as busy as the one at the shopping centre, but still had a steady flow of people buying lottery tickets the few minutes I was there.

My housemate Kate is definitely ready.

I caved in too and bought a ticket. I assume this is the winning one. With a 1 in 45 million chance to win, why not?

A Year Older

2009-06-30T01:25:00.013-04:00

I celebrated my 22nd birthday by migrating north towards the warmer temperatures. Vas had a job in Mackay, a mining and harbour town about an hours flight from Brisbane, so we spent two days touring the area. And even though Mackay is usually warmer than Brisbane, it was a pleasant surprise to find that the region was experiencing a bit of a heatwave, with daytime temperatures in the high twenties.

Thanks for all presents, mail and messages!

Det er deilig å være norsk

2009-06-23T03:10:00.006-04:00

- i Danmark*.

Most of you have probably heard it through the grapevine, but just to confirm – I will be spending most of the next two years in Aarhus studying a Master of Corporate Communication. And please do not ask me what that involves, my knowledge of it is pretty vague. At the moment I am searching for a place to live, so if you by any chance have a small apartment in Aarhus for rent…

Also, I am coming home on Friday 31 July and Vas is joining me on Monday 3 August for a week or two in Norway. We have a deep wish to visit the hytte in Tranvag. Is that possible?

*It’s wonderful to be Norwegian in Denmark. It is the slogan of a long running advertising campaign trying to lure Norwegians to spend their next holiday in Denmark.

Once Upon a Time

2009-06-23T01:08:00.008-04:00

I have not updated here in a while, so I will give you a rundown of what I have done in the last couple of weeks.

Norwegians in town

Marie and Ida, who i went to Sandnes Vgs with, were passing through Brisbane on their around-the-world trip. I usually hijack the people I know, or sort of know, passing through, so we had them over for dinner. The picture is taken at Mount Coot-tha lookout, on an unusually cold night in May.

17 May 2009

I paraded through the streets of Brisbane with hundreds of other Norwegians. The weather was great and Vas, Tim, Danni and I had an awesome 17 May breakfast at Yeronga flat with hot rolls, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and chocolate.The festivities at QUT were a bit disappointing compared to earlier years (where was the brunost and melkesjokolade?), so we left early and went to IKEA instead.

Danni, Tim and Vas feeling the 17 May spirit, despite the ungodly hour.

University life

I have finished my bachelor degree, and I all that remains is for the university to hand me my piece of paper. I have had a pretty easy last semester, since I only had three courses due to taking an internship course.

This semester has been the first semester I have felt I have been given my money's worth in terms of facilities, so in that sense it is a bit sad to be leaving. The journalism building has moved from its old, wooden building to a newly renovated, high tech place. And one of my electives, Religion1000, was based in probably the most expensive lecture theatre on campus, stuffed with touch screens and technology.

The University of Queensland is known for its sandstone buildings and historical campus, but their indoor facilities has been a bit lacking compared to the newer universities. They have definitely taken the hint though, and the campus is being constantly improved.

The Cape Byron Lighthouse

Just went on my first trip to Byron Bay, a charming little surfing village a couple of hours south of Brisbane with a picturesque lighthouse.

Happy Confirmation Day Kine!

2009-05-08T22:48:00.004-04:00

I hope you have a wonderful day. I really wish I could be there to share it with you. Can't wait to see pictures of your bunad. Lots of love and all the best from Australia.

P.s. Don't you just love this photo? I think it might be time to take a new one.

International community stepping up to save joey

2009-04-22T07:01:00.007-04:00

I was having dinner when the story of a kangaroo joey rejected by its mother appeared on the evening news. The joey, who had been refused back into the mother's pouch after falling out, is currently receiving great aid from the international community. Special milk is being donated and flown in from Australia, the U.S. and Germany. And zoo keepers from the U.S., Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Belgium are giving special advice to the people caring for it to make sure the joey stays alive.

That kangaroo steak I was having for dinner just became oh so ironic.
Photo: Srdjan Ilic / Associated Press

Story in LA Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/04/rejected-kangaroo-joey-inspires-international-cooperation.html

Fraser Island Adventure

2009-04-18T23:17:00.012-04:00

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It is a popular holiday destination known for its beauty, fresh water lakes and ancient rainforests. It is located just off the coast of Queensland, only a two and half hour's drive north of Brisbane. I have been wanting to go to this place since I arrived in Australia, but it is an incredibly difficult and expensive place to get to. The only way to get around on Fraser is by 4WD, so you either have to join a tour or rent your own.

This Easter weekend Vas, I and two of his friends from work decided to make the trip. We opted for renting our own 4WD, as it proved to be cheaper than joining a tour, even with the ferry fee and the camping permits. It has been raining pretty heavily in south east Queensland in the last couple of weeks, so we were a bit worried about the weather, but it was fine for most of the time.

And the trip was great. We swam in crystal-clear fresh water lakes. Tanned on stunning white sand. Survived a dingo attack. Chilled in a fresh water stream. Drove on the beach and on bumpy forest roads. Crashed the side of the car into rocks exposed by the rain. Had to pay 250 dollars for the repair. Maybe not so fun. But getting to drive over those rocks certainly was.

It is no joke driving on the beach, even though some people seem to think so. The speed limit is 80 km and there are several dangers along the way. This Saturday, two backpackers lost their lives when their car overturned around the place we were camping. Several others were injured, some of them seriously. Some of the reports say one of the people in the car was Norwegian.

The beach is a highway. It is definitely not the place to put down your towel to tan.

There are dingoes on Fraser Island, Australia's native dog-like creature. They can be dangerous, especially for children. Some of you might recognise the phrase "A dingo took my baby."

When we were at a lake swimming we got closer to dingoes than we would have liked to. This one is trying to steal a bag, but was chased away with sticks. Afterwards it came within two meters of us. It just stood there looking at us for several minutes, while we stood faced towards in it the dingo brace position - arms crossed over the chest. Then it backed off and left.

Waiting to cross one of the rockier spots on the beach. There are certain places on the beach where there are rocks you have to drive over. Some places there are bypasses you can take, but not everywhere. Because of the rain, the rocks were really exposed and there would be cars on every side of them lining up to pass. We drove over different rocks and did fine until we managed to hit the side step of the car, which almost fell of. I guess it could have been worse.

It was raining heavily one night, so we did the cooking in the car. The rain was no drama though. Hege is an involuntarily experienced camper when it comes to rain, so our tent was covered in tarp on the outside - and completely dry on the inside.

A fresh water creek with beautiful water to swim in. The stream is quite strong, so it is perfect to float down.

A proper Aussie Easter Sunday chill.

And Easter Sunday came with sun and blue skies. The water was incredibly warm, but it is not really suitable for swimming. Sharks are common and there are dangerous currents.

Easter

2009-04-14T00:01:00.005-04:00

My mom and grandma sent me tonnes of sweets and decorations for Easter, so the whole house has been enjoying Kvikklunsj, Fox and Twist, almost to a sickening point, in the last couple of days. The sweets are now mostly gone, but the decorations are still brightening up my room. Even though Easter is over there is still a week left of the holidays.

Cardboard eggs are not common in Australia. The most common Easter treat here are hollow chocolate eggs.

Also an uncommon way of decorating. The branches are from the garden - I did not get any snake bites in the process, just a small scare from a massive grasshopper sitting on one of the branches.

Happy Birthday Vasos!

2009-04-08T23:43:00.001-04:00

A Night in the Tally Room

2009-03-22T05:38:00.008-04:00

Labor has won the Queensland election and Anna Bligh is Australia's first elected female premier. For the first time the tally room, where they electronically count the votes and announce the winner of the election, was open to the public. Vas and I went there on a whim, hoping to kill some time before watching a movie, but ended up staying for hours.

Opposition Leader Springborg being attacked by the media mob.

A camera man trying to get an overview of the room before the event is about to kick off.

Opposition Leader Springborg announcing defeat.

Anna Bligh arrives at the tally room as the election winner.

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

2009-03-20T06:57:00.002-04:00

Skippy, Skippy
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy, Skippy
Skippy, our friend ever true.

They are cute and adorable, but kangaroos are also seen as a pest in Australia. It is therefore possible to hunt a small number of the large-sized species, which exist in high numbers. The meat has traditionally been eaten by Aboriginals, but it is only in later years the average Australian supermarket has started to stock it. With only 2 per cent fat it is considered a healthy choice and it is also cheaper than other meats.

Vas and I have eaten Skippy meat twice, first mince and then later a herb and garlic steak.

The mince had a bit of a fishy taste, which was a bit weird, but it was definitely edible. I prefer beef mince though.

The herb and garlic steak was more of a success with no fishy taste and surprisingly tender meat.

The Great Debate

2009-03-15T04:28:00.004-04:00

I was lucky to score a ticket to the 2009 Queensland election debate between the Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh and the Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg. The journalism school is sponsoring the Queensland Media Club, the host of the debate, and therefore had some free tickets to the event.

It was quite interesting observing such a large function with its different players: journalist, camera crews, scruffy photographers, sleek public relation people, politicians and different lobbying groups who had bought tickets in hope of scoring some media attention for their cause.

Queenslanders are hitting the polls this Saturday after a month of enduring the two main parties, Labour and the Liberal National Party, hectic campaigning. Voting is not an option in Australia and people who fail to do so will be fined. It will be interesting to see if Labour manages to be re-elected after 11 years in power. Some people seem to think it is time for a change.
A ticket to the debate was about 130 dollars (600 kr).

The people in yellow t-shirts are a group lobbying for the creation of more jobs. Unfortunately I do not think they got the amount of media attention they had hoped for.
Lady in red - Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was dressed from head to toe in red, including her awesome high heels.

Hege the Fearless Kayaker

2009-03-06T23:54:00.002-05:00

I went kayaking. In a murky river. Got stuck in branches. Got wet. Hurt my wrists. But it was actually kind of fun.

I have wanted to try kayaking since I was in New Zealand and was exposed to their numerous kayaking ads, but it turned out to be an expensive activity with prices as high as 60 dollars (300 kr) an hour. But then I had the bright idea to check if the university had a kayaking club, which it turned out they had.

Their yearly fee is a 100 dollars, which gives unlimited use of their kayaks and participation in club activities. As long as you can prove you can use a kayak you can take one at any time to go paddling in the Brisbane River or even take it to the coast for the weekend.

Vas and I have not actually joined yet, we just went for a free tryout, but I guess we will.

Hege's adventures in the kitchen continues

2009-02-28T07:06:00.004-05:00

I love hotpot and since I have had it at Chang's place in Brisbane I knew, in theory, that it was possible to make it at home. It just looked like a lot of effort and a little too complicated for my liking. But I finally tried it and it turned out to be surprisingly easy:

1. Wait for water to boil
2. Add hot pot sauce/base
3. Add food
4. Wait two-three minutes for food to cook
5. Eat

Of course this dish does require access to a well equipped Asian supermarket where you can buy the hot pot base, Asian vegetables, dumplings, sliced meat and sea food balls. If you have to make the food from scratch it would probably take a bit longer. Or maybe a lot.

Market Day

2009-02-25T06:06:00.006-05:00

Market Day is the highlight of orientation week with its stalls, barbeques, entertainment and giveaways. A great way for new students to familiarise themselves with the university and for returning students to grab freebies such as noodles, Red Bull and pens. This year was crazy though. I have never seen it this busy. I had to wait in line over 45 minutes just to get UQ's free diary and a can of ice tea.

One of the numerous people walking around campus in funny costumes on stilts. Personally I could have managed without them.

The religious student organisations always thrive during O-Week.

Red Bull forced you to go through a maze before they handed you your free drink. Sneaky.

Wildlife on campus. Pus, pus, puuuus.

Pancake Tuesday

2009-02-24T07:47:00.003-05:00

I love tradition and I am always ready to adopt a new one. By coincidence Vas and I stumbled upon Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, which is a commonly celebrated day in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. The day is closely linked to our Fastelavn and is a day you eat food restricted during the fast, such as fat and egg. In Australia people mainly associate the day with fund raising to charities with money made from pancake sales.

Fastelavn

2009-02-23T23:21:00.002-05:00

As in earlier years, Fastelavn was celebrated at Yeronga Flat with home-made buns and festivities. Sadly the feather decoration had to be left out this year, mainly due to lack of materials and general laziness. As usual, the cream turned out to be a problem. It is almost impossible to buy, let alone make cream, in this country. It is either too runny or does not taste like cream. This time I opted for buying something which according to the advertising was particularly suited to "dollop on scones". It turned out to be more like sauce than cream. No one else seemed to think the cream was weird though.

New Zealand

2009-02-18T00:39:00.009-05:00

It's the type of place where you can walk barefooted on the grass. Where it smells of barbecue, sunscreen and saltwater. Where it doesn't get dark till late. It's the type of summer we have in Scandinavia every ten years or so, the ones we hope and long for every year, but seldom get. Just that in this place it feels like it is going to last forever.

Vas and I spent 10 days driving from the north to the south of New Zealand at the end of January. New Zealand is a beautiful, scenic country, which has much to offer tourists. It is quite similar to Norway with its forests, mountains, fiords, lakes and glaciers. Below is a route similar to the one we took.

www.newzealand.com/.../lions-tour-test.cfm

The Waikoto River, the longest river in New Zealand. After the initial excitement of seeing the pretty, blue water we went downstream and found a place calm enough to swim.

Rotorua, a town in the middle of the North Island, is the place to go for thermal activity. It was truly an amazing sight and my favourite part of the trip. The following pictures are from the two thermal parks Hells Gate and Orakei Korako.

The negative thing about Rotorua was that it smelt pretty strongly of sulfur. It didn't seem that bad when we were there, but all the clothes we wore still smell pretty strongly, even after several washes.

There's a sign at the top of this cave saying "No swimming in cave water", which I couldn't quite understand why someone would be tempted to do in the first place. It just seemed a bit creepy. But then I got down there and the water, which is actually quite deep, is crystal blue and it is so warm. Hot bathtub warm. For people coming there in winter it must seem overly tempting.

More hot water. Most of the water was too hot to touch. There's warning signs everywhere.

Steam from boiling water.

This pool was used by the Maori to cook food. It has the correct temperature for cooking and the water does not contain anything that adds bad taste to the food.

Snow-peaked mountain. Vas was quite excited. Me not so. But I did take a picture.

A person bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge on the South Island. This is the world's first commercial bungy site. New Zealand has everything imaginable when it comes to extreme sports and whenever we went into a tourist information or asked people "what there was to do around there" the answers were: "heaps, we got bungy, rafting, zorbing, hang gliding...". Pity I'm not into that kind of thing. Vas took this photo by making the camera shoot continuously. I think it came out pretty cool.

Norwegian road standard? Vas loved this road. He even drove back up so he could drive down it one more time.

Somewhere on the South Island.

New Zealand has incredibly blue water. We never stopped being amazed by that. This is a place aptly called the "Blue Pools".

Endless forest on the South Island.

Franz Josef Glacier on the South Island. We didn't go on to the actual glacier. We just walked up to it, about a one hour hike.

The South Island came with a bit of weather change. I might be smiling, but I am secretly just wanting to go back to the summer on the North Island.

Imsdal - "kilden til et renere liv"

Pictures by Hege and Vasos

Escaping Alcatraz

2009-01-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

The infamous maximum security prison Alcatraz is located on an incredibly scenic island just 2 kilometers offshore. Several prisoners tried to escape from it over the years it was in operation, inspiring numerous Hollywood movies. But because of the extremely cold water and strong currents no one is believed to have actually made it to freedom. The few prisoners that were not found are assumed to have drowned.

Alcatraz closed down in the 1960s because it became to expensive to run. Today it is a part of a national park and a popular tourist destination.

Alcatraz can be seen from most places in San Francisco.

With the city only 2 kilometers away several prisoners tried to swim to freedom. No one is believed to have made it.

There is an audio tour guiding you around the prison with previous prisoners and wardens talking and explaining.

San Francisco

2009-01-18T23:45:00.000-05:00

It is cold. Or at least colder. The hour long plane ride North defiantly came with a temperature change. But I was expecting it, at least in theory, and despite the cooler weather I am truly enjoying this city. San Francisco has a bit of a European feel to it, with an actual city centre, old buildings and decent bread(!).

We spent today touring some of the main tourist attractions such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Warf and Ghirardelli Square. San Francisco has in comparison to LA a wonderful public transport system, so getting around was easy.

San Francisco is famous for its crab sandwiches. I had one for lunch and I totally see why.

Sea lions at Fisherman's Warf. They just rocked up and took over the harbour about 20 years ago and no one managed to chase them away. Today they are considered a tourist attraction.

Janelle, Lesley, Hege and Hana. Ghirardelli's famous ice cream shop. We walked for quite a while to get to this place, uphill, and when we got there we had to wait in line for nearly 20 minutes. But the ice cream was good. Especially the fudge.

The Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco is filled with various street performers and beggars. This was one of the more creative attempts. A dog, a cat and the little white thing on the top of the cat is actually a rat. I do not know how he managed to get them to stay like that, but people were quite intrigued by it.

Everybody wants to go to Hollywood

2009-01-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

- including me. But for a place associated with so much glitter and glamour it was fairly dull and filled with an array of somewhat shady characters. Besides the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre there was not much to do there. Even the famous Hollywood sign was pretty hard to get a glimpse of.

The only place we could see the sign from was from the third floor of a shopping centre.

The hand and footprints of California's current governor/actor outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

The Harry Potter stars.

I guess this is the closest I'll ever get to Johnny Depp.

How cool would it be to attend Hollywood High School?

We watched Boyz II Men at night in downtown LA. I have never heard of the group, but apparently they very pretty big in the 90s.

The Chou family: Helen, Lesley, Henry and Michael posing at eight am in the morning. Lesley and I flew into San Francisco this morning where Lesley goes to school.

The Place Where Dreams Come True

2009-01-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

Its the happiest place on earth - at least according to the advertising. Lesley, Karen (a girl that used to live on my floor in Hong Kong during the first semester) and I spent a busy day in Disneyland and its neighbouring park: Disney's California Adventure. While Disney is known for its never ending ques for just about everything, we hardly had to wait at all, speeding through the two parks at minimum effort. It was very visually pretty and some of the rides were absolutely amazing.

One of the rides had an option where you could email a picture taken while you where on the ride - for free! Needless to say I was at this very moment fighting off evil aliens.

It is the details that makes the park stand out from the other theme parks I have been to.

Hege and Karen feeling the happiness.

It is even prettier at night. The Disney castle is the pinkish thing at the back.

Sally, Hege, Lesley and Karen. Sally met us for dinner in what they call "downtown Disney". It is a bunch of restaurants and shops right outside the park.

California Dreaming

2009-01-13T00:47:00.001-05:00

It's sunny, warm and there's a lemon tree in the garden - I am in the city of dreams, or at least pretty close to it, visiting some of my friends from Hong Kong. At the moment I am staying with my previous room mate Lesley and her family in charming little city called Cerritos.

We spent today touring Cerritos and its nearby attractions such as an amazing library, Walmart (my wish) and a shopping centre. We also dined at In-n-Out Burger which according to my guidebook is Los Angeles' best burger chain – it even has a secret menu.

In-n-Out Burgers

Cerritos Libraray - the children's section

Walmart - a true American institution

Hong Kong Christmas

2008-12-07T07:20:00.000-05:00

Christmas has reached Hong Kong and all the major shopping centres are trying to outdo each other with their decorations.

Christmas tree outside Window of the World in Shenzhen, China.

Hege playing in the pretty snow in Window of the World.

Another pretty, pretty tree.

Holiday spirit in Shenzhen.

The small shopping centres are decorating too of course - with varying results.

Me and my roomie made a ginger bread house. Most of the girls on my floor didn't know what it was and thought it was a rather weird tradition. They all enjoyed eating it though.

Christmas flowers (julestjerne), lots and lots of them.

Artsy Christmas exhibition at Times Square.

The IFC with its Christmas Ferries Wheel.

Chop that Pig!

2008-11-29T09:55:00.000-05:00

The exam period is getting close so my hall organised a Super Pass dinner to encourage everyone to pass with good grades. Pig chopping was a central part of the program. The tradition suggests that the pig is sacrificed to ward off evil spirits in return for personal success.

Pig waiting to be chopped.

The first chop.

You are meant to cut right through the pig in one chop, so a bit of force in necessary. The chopping and eating continues until the whole pig is gone.

Chloe was so worried about her eight(!) exams that she found a new pig to chop once we were finished with the first.

Kitman doing her part of the chopping.

Me and my roommate Soya. Notice that I am not wearing the official hall jumper. I am actually surprised I got away with it.

Hege and Xi Wen posing in front of beautiful golden dragon. Same spot as last semester.

Profile Story on Henriette Hansen

2008-11-21T02:36:00.000-05:00

I am experiencing some problems with my blog. I am not able to upload pictures at the moment. So instead of a post on South Korea I have uploaded a profile story I wrote for my Feature Writing class.

One chilly winter morning in Norway, 15-year-old Henriette Hansen announced to her classmates that she aspired to become a process technician. “A process technician,” she vaguely explained, “is someone who works in the oil industry and makes pretty good money”.

Henriette's declaration was made at the time when she and her peers had to decide where and what type of upper secondary school to attend, so announcements of this character were not uncommon. However, Henriette’s choice surprised her friends. “But, you don’t even like maths,” one exclaimed. “Or physics, or chemistry,” another added.

On the contrary Henriette had always been the one who loved drawing and painting, receiving great praise and top marks for her art projects. Because of this her friends did not take her announcement too seriously. They thought she would soon change her mind.

Henriette was not particularly affected by the lack of support from her classmates. She had for some time been uncertain about what career direction to take, feeling the more creative alternatives held uncertain job prospects. The oil industry seemed like a safe option with a lot of opportunities. “And maybe”, she told herself, “I’ll even end up really liking it”.

Today Henriette has just turned 21, a birthday she celebrated while working night shifts on an oil rig in the North Sea. She has been employed as a process technician by the oil giant BP for three years, including two as a paid part of her training.

“A process technician,” she explains confidently, “is a person who monitors a process. At the Valhall oil field we observe, control and regulate the production of oil and gas. Maintaining an economic and safe production is one of our main objectives”.

Henriette easily got work after the completion of her studies at Stavanger Offshore Technical School. Because qualified people, and especially women, are in high demand in the oil industry, Henriette had a job before she had even turned 18, the legal age to work offshore. “I was receiving my first pay check before I had even been to work,” she laughingly recalls.

The offshore oil industry is mainly dominated by men. In Henriette’s section, only six out of 48 are women, most of them younger than 30. “It would have been nice to have a girl I could confide in and talk to on my shifts. I cannot explain everything to the guys”.

Women are often worried that working offshore will conflict with family life. This is despite the greater benefits Norwegian oil workers receive compared to peers in other oil-producing countries. Norwegian offshore oil workers spend two weeks at work followed by four weeks of holidays, in theory only working for four months of the year.

This work rotation is one of Henriette’s favourite parts of the job. Together with her generous pay check, it gives her the time and economic freedom to pursue her love of traveling.

But she also emphasises that too much free time can be tough to handle. She has therefore chosen to use two of her four weeks off to pursue further studies in her field at a technical college. “I always wanted to study more and at least it gives me something to do when I am at home.”

Some people envy Henriette her large pay checks and long holidays, but working offshore is not always as breezy as it might sound. The two weeks she is at the oil rig she works 12- hour shifts for all 14 days, half on the night shift. Often she also works during major holidays and other important dates. Last year she was in the control room monitoring the Valhall oil field on Christmas and New Year’s, and just recently, her 21st birthday was celebrated in the same fashion.

“It’s not fun to be somewhere in the North Sea when you know everyone at home is having a great time with celebrations and festivities, but I guess that’s a downside of this job you just have to deal with.”

Her work can also be downright scary. She particularly recalls one night when there was a hurricane. The waves were extremely high and a warning signal had been issued. If the waves became half a meter higher the rig would have to have been evacuated. The hotel rooms onshore were already booked and the helicopters were on standby, ready to leave.

“I was lying in my bed when I woke up from a powerful thump. The whole rig was lifted up and then it leaned over heavily to one side, before bouncing back and leaning towards the other side,” she says, shuddering from the memory. “I was sure it was going to tilt.”

Henriette did not sleep much that night, feeling every wave that hit the usually rigid rig. “I was stiff from fear. I didn’t dare to move”.

The next morning Henriette got to see the enormous damages. She recalls how there was a hole in the deck where people could have fallen to the sea. But even more serious was that one of the lifeboats had been shattered. “There wouldn’t have been enough seats for everyone if there had been an emergency situation.”

The management changed its evacuation practice after that. The threshold is today much lower for when to evacuate. Henriette is therefore hoping she will never have to endure anything similar again.

“I had many nightmares after this where I dreamt the rig was going to tilt. Even though everyone got help to work through their feelings, some people ended up taking sick leave. One person didn’t return before after a year”.

Henriette still has these nightmares from time to time, but she does not regret her career choice. She loves her challenging work and the lifestyle it brings with it.

Few people would have predicted this outcome when she made her announcement that chilly winter morning five years ago. And even today some friends have a hard time recognizing that the girl in the inflammable overalls wearing the bright orange safety helmet is Henriette.

“I love my work. Of course I missed out on certain things by making the choice I did, but that’s just the way it is,” she says. “You have to let go of some dreams in order obtain others”.

02.11.2008 Hege Gabrielsen Forsvoll

For Those Missing My Voice

2008-10-27T09:28:00.000-04:00

This is a part of a recording for my Mandarin class.
Can anyone guess what I am saying?

And here is the intriguing translation:
Good morning!
Good morning! The weather is really fine.
Really nice, neither cold nor hot.
Shall we go together?
Yes.

Hello!
Hello!
The weather's really cold!
Really cold, are you busy?
We're all very busy. What about you?
We're also quite busy.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.

Are you busy today?
Quite busy today.
Were you busy yesterday?
Quite busy yesterday.
What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow will also be busy.
Is being busy good?
Being busy is good, too busy is not good.

Made in Taiwan

2008-10-16T08:45:00.000-04:00

The Republic of China, better known as Taiwan, is an island just off the southeast coast of China. Despite Taiwan's somewhat strained relationship with its much larger neighbour, the country is one of the most industrialized and developed in Asia with a strong economy comparable to Singapore's and Hong Kong's.

Taiwan is probably best known in the West for its export of electronic devices such as computers, games and DVD players. However, it is also famous for its many snacks and foods, a variety of creative drinks, natural hot springs and being the home of Taipei 101 - the world's tallest building.

Xi Wen, Angela and I spent four days in Taiwan. We made our way from the southern city of Kaohsiung to Taipei by high speed train, with a scenic stopover in the middle of the country. Foreigners were not a very common sight in Kaohsiung, so I got quite a few glances and curious looks. Xi Wen could tell me that one kid jumped up, pointed and excitedly exclaimed "foreigner" by the sight of me. His mother apparently told him off.

Camera street. All these shops are camera shops. This is only a small section of the street.

Taiwan had some amazing book stores. Six floors filled with books, magazines and selected shopping and dining facilities. There were also desks and comfortable chairs provided. You could go there just to read, no buying required. Oh, and did I mentioned they were open 24 hours?

Since we were all wearing pink I found it natural to ask for a photo. These kinds of shop assistants were quite a common sight. A lot of makeup and some kind of bizarre, cute outfit seemed to be the key to selling any type of beauty products.

A temple in the middle of the country.

Ornaments with names written on them hanging in a temple. You make a donation and then write the name of family members or friends on the ornament.
It is always nice to learn about indiginous culture. After rushing through some sort of indignous village in a car, we took some photos wearing the traditional custume. Our pose is very indiginous.

Food stall at the night market.

Games and fun at night market. The aim is to shoot down the ping pong balls floating on the air stream.

Have you ever thought the usual airport gates look a bit boring? Well, at the Taipei airport they have certainly addressed that particular problem. What can possibly be more fun than a Hello Kitty themed gate?

Lady Ho Tung Hall Song

2008-10-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

This is a recording from our first high table dinner this semester. The girls are singing our cheerful hall song. I have also provided the text in case someone feels like singing along.

Secret message=)

Hall Song

Look you can see here's LHT,

With her girls all so happy and so free.
Look you can see here's LHT,

With her girls all so faithful as can be.

Her girls have will as strong as steel

and hearts sincere and true.

The unity we have so real

will gain thee victory in every field.

LHT see, We defend thee,

Trying bravely,

Working heartily.

We will bring thee,

Lasting glory,

and always win thee victory.

Moon Festival

2008-09-14T11:47:00.000-04:00

It is 34 degrees and the humidity is high. Still thousands of people have found their way to Victoria Park to celebrate the Moon Festival. The park is filled with colourful lit-up figures and light displays. Children and adults alike are carrying lanterns with burning candles or light bulbs inside them. The more modern glow sticks are also heavily present. Next to the park families have gathered on a large lawn, burning incense and eating the traditional moon cakes. They are all admiring the full moon which looks even more magical through the polluted haze hovering over the city.

The Moon Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. It is mainly celebrated by eating moon cakes and fruit, carrying lit lanterns, fire dragon dancing and burning incense. It is celebrated every year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The moon cake is particularly central in the festivities. It is a popular gift to family and friends and it is must-eat in the days around the festival. The cakes have whole egg yolks inside them representing the moon. The cake is said to have an acquired taste, so it is not a particular favourite among foreigners. However, you can also find the more modern ice-cream and chocolate versions of the moon cake.

There are several legends surrounding the festival. One of them tells how the earth once had ten suns circling around it, taking turns being on the sky. However, one day all the ten suns went out together, making it unbearably hot on earth. An archer saved the earth by shooting down nine of the ten suns. To celebrate he brought home some pills that would make them feel happy and light at heart. His wife saw the pills and found them so good that she ate them all. The pills made her so light that she flew all the way to the moon with her rabbit that she was holding. That's why the Chinese say you can see a woman holding a rabbit in the moon.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger. Some of the displays were absolutely stunning.

The Gong Fight

2008-09-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

It might sound like the title of a bad movie, but the "Gong Fight" is actually a 40-year-old tradition between Lady Ho Tung Hall and Ricci Hall. The gong is one of the most treasured items of Lady Ho Tung Hall. It was used to summon the girls for meals when LHT still had a canteen providing food for its residents. One day some of the cheeky Ricci boys decided to steal the gong to use it in their own canteen. The gong was quickly returned to LHT, but this was the beginning of the somewhat special tradition.

Every year around 15 Ricci boys try to steal the gong from Lady Ho Tung. The gong is tied to a rope high above the ground and the goal is for the Ricci boys to take it back to their hall. This is not an easy task as the Lady Ho Tung's freshmen have prepared thousands of water bombs in order to protect it.

The girls started making the water bombs around 10am and stopped at 7.30pm. This picture is taken around 1pm. A lot of work went into this.

The precious gong.

The first video clip shows the beginning of the gong fight. The second video clip is from about 30 minutes later when the Ricci boys are given a break to provide them with a chance of actually getting the gong down.

Needless to say there was quite a bit to clean up afterwards. Luckily that was the responsibility of the first years. Ah, you just gotta love tradition.

Back in Hong Kong

2008-09-07T10:24:00.000-04:00

I am back in Hong Kong after a short holidays of three and half months. Some of you might remember how I was complaining about the freezing temperatures last semester, well, let me just say that it is definitely not cold now. It so hot and humid that being outside during the day is not only uncomfortable, but almost unbearable. However, all the guidebooks keep on promising that the middle of September till the end of November is the best time to visit Hong Kong weather-wise, so better times should be close.

Scared of wrinkles, sunburn or skin cancer? Then this sunscreen, sporting a SPF of 130, might be for you.

Picture from lookout over Hong Kong.

Umbrella-weather; I originally brought the umbrella because it looked like it would rain (which it later also did; in buckets), but it became more useful to shade me from the sun. Got quite a few envious looks.

SuperPass Dinner

2008-04-20T06:01:00.000-04:00

My hall had a dinner to encourage everyone to "super pass". A super pass is to get a grade average at or over 3.0 (the highest is 4.0). The dinner is something they do every year and there are many traditions attached to it. All in all it was a fun and chilled night with lots of food.

They usually serve pork for the super pass dinner. A whole pig is placed on each table and then the idea is to cut it in half in one go. This year we had hotpot instead. The girls at my table could tell me that the reason was that a few people got a bit too eager at last year's dinner. Apparently quite a few table got ruined in the pursuit for the perfect chop.

Some of the girls on my floor eating hotpot.

Alt kler den smukke - muligens med unntag av denne t-skjortå. Hege and Xi-Wen posing in front of beautiful golden bird.

Hege the Giant and Justine under some sort of wise words.

They gave us little red envelopes with 1 dollar 30 cents in them at the end of the dinner. Apparently 1.30 sounds something like 3.0 when you say it Chinese - therefore it means luck. At the dinner there was also some sort of instruction about eating vegetables with a spoon because spoon or vegetables or maybe the combination sounds like super pass - ergo it means good luck to do so.

Beijing

2008-04-14T21:55:00.000-04:00

I just came back from a hectic long-weekend in Beijing. It is a really impressive city, especially compared to the southern Chinese cities I have visited.

The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is an impressive sight with its massive "gardens" and fancy buildings. The area is huge and the five hours we spent there was not enough time. It used to be the playground for the emperor and his family. I would hate to be one of the "commoners" that funded this project back in the day.

Pretty flower tree in the Summer Palace.
Empress Hege

Empress Lesley, Empress Sally, Emperor Andrew, Empress Hege

Peking Duck

We had Peking Duck at a very famous restaurant that has been around for nearly 150 years. Peking Duck is THE food Beijing is known for. The duck's skin is separated from its body by pumping air into it before it is roasted in an oven. This makes the skin particularly crispy. The duck is then eaten with some sort of pancake-bread and onion. I do not really like duck that much, but it was a good thing to have tried.

The Beijing Olympics

We made time to see some of the Olympic structures. The building in the background is the "bird's nest". It looks absolutely amazing.

The five Olympic mascots. There are shops selling Olympic souvenirs all over Beijing. We found these shops so fascinating that we visited them every single night we were there.

The Great Wall

The wall was pretty fun too. There were a lot of people there though, but I guess that is what you get when you visit the part closest to Beijing. From time to time since I came to Asia there has been people, especially from Chinese cities that do not get a lot of foreigners, that want their photo taken with me. This was also the case in Beijing, especially at the Wall. At one stage it got somewhat crazy and I literary had to flee the masses. I guess it is not everyday they get to see a Viking.

It was actually a bit of effort climbing the wall. It was horribly steep at times and there were all these tour groups consisting of old, pushy little women trying to make their way to the top in the least amount of time.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was the palace of the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It is absolutely massive. The guy in the picture is Mao.

Random Pictures

2008-04-05T12:04:00.000-04:00

After continuous threats from my mom I decided to get my act together and make another blog entry. This is pretty much just random pictures from Hong Kong and Macau.

Dim sum brunch in a fancy Hong Kong restaurant. Dim sum is pretty much just many small dishes. The waiters walk around with trolleys and you just point to what you want. The dish closest to the camera is something like rice pancake with shrimp inside. It is one of my favourites.

The IFC tower is the tallest building in Hong Kong. It has 88 floors (8 is a really good number in Cantonese, because the word for eight sounds very similar to the word for money). It is also interesting to note that they have skipped a few floors that have numbers with bad connotations attached to them. For example there are no 14 and 44, because the words for the number 14 sounds almost like "definitely fatal" and 24 like "easily fatal".

Went on a day trip to Macau during my Easter break. Macau is a special administrative province of China that was under Portuguese rule for over 400 years. It was handed back to China in 1999. I love Macau. It has such a European feel to it.

The great church of Macau, or the wall that is left of it. It is a pretty impressive sight.

The church wall from a different angle.

Macau is also infamous for its many casinos. Gambling is more or less illegal in mainland China, so the Chinese flock to Macau to get some action.

I kind of like all the blinking lights. Artificial perhaps, but pretty in its own way=) It takes about an hour by ferry to get to Macau and you have to go through immigration and get your passport stamped to get in. If it wasn't for this (and the rather expensive ferry tickets) I would go there all the time.

The Travelator is the world's longest escalator. It consists of of three moving walkways and 20 escalators. It can be reversed, and runs down in the morning and up in the afternoon, so people that live at the top of the hill can get down to work in the morning and back up again in the evening. Around 50 000 (almost the population of Sandnes!) people make this 20 min trip every day. You can walk on and off at several points along the route. I have never had the patience to take it all the way to the top.

Hong Kong just had a bad case of flu and all the primary schools shut down for a week. All of a sudden these masks mysteriously started popping up everywhere.

Funky people handing out free Coke.

Hong Kong Light Show

2008-03-18T11:13:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to watch the Hong Kong light show - one of the main tourists attractions here. The ten minutes show is on every night at eight and can be watched from various points around the Victoria Harbour. The show is called "a Symphony of Lights" and includes 44 buildings with laser beams and searchlights blinking to synchronised music. The whole thing is meant to tell a story, but there were too many people around us to really hear what was going on.

This truly is Hong Kong in a nutshell. Enjoy.

By the way, Hege and Lesley really, really want the purple Easter egg thingies!

A Week in Vietnam

2008-03-16T07:13:00.000-04:00

The second part of my mid-semester break was spent in Vietnam. Once again I met up with Kine, Hanna and Annelin - my backpacking friends. They were doing a kite-surfing course in Muine, a charming little town on the coast, so that is were I spent most of my time.

The best part about being in Muine was that it was such a great contrast to the busy city life of Hong Kong. It was nice to be able to see grass, stars and have open space around me again.
I pretty much just chilled on the beach while the others were kiting. Also used a day to explore the areas around Muine with Hanna on rented bicycles.

People getting ready to go home after a hard day of kite-surfing.

One of the scenic places Hanna and I saw on our little bicycle trip.

Fishing is what people most people in Muine live off.

After a few days in Muine we took the bus to Dalat, a mountain village. It was raining and pretty cold when we got there, so I think we all just wanted to go back to the beach again. But, being tough Vikings, we decided to rough it and stay.

We did a tour on our second day in Dalat of the local attractions. The most fascinating part of the tour was a waterfall. It was not anything special in itself, even though tourists from other parts of Vietnam seemed to think so, but the whole setup around it was quite amusing. You could for example chose whether you wanted to walk the fifteen minutes to the waterfall OR you could take the bobsleigh (bob-bane) down to it. You could also bobsleigh back, so no walking was required unless you really wanted to. Techno music was also booming from speakers skillfully hidden in the trees and there were people dressed up as bears and cowboys wandering around the place.

The tour also took us to the Valley of Love - a park filled with mostly plastic statues of hearts, giraffes and other romantic things. With classic love songs playing on dodgy speakers in background it was true bliss.

The great and mighty waterfall of Dalat.

In the Valley of Love - Hege, Hanna, Kine and Annelin.

Cambodia

2008-03-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

The Trip from Bangkok to Cambodia

Just had a week of holidays, so I spent the time travelling in Cambodia and Vietnam. One of the biggest hassles were figuring out how to get to Cambodia. It is not the easiest country to access, but we ended up flying to Bangkok to make our way from there. The route from Bangkok to Siem reap in Cambodia is somewhat infamous for its bad roads, many scams, numerous vehicle break downs and somewhat tedious boarder crossings. Via buses, tuk-tuks and taxis we made it in about 11 hours, which is not too bad. Actually, besides getting forced to pay more at the boarder for our Cambodian visas (we stayed there for over two hours trying to haggle the price down), the trip was rather uneventful. You have to pay for the visa in American dollars, so my personal theory is that they wanted more money because the dollar is rather weak at the moment.

Patrick posing with our taxi driver just across the boarder. Ah, beautiful Cambodia...

Angkor Wat

Our main reason for going to Cambodia was to see the temples of Angkor. The temples are over 900 years old and pretty amazing. The temples make you realise how rich this region, both culturally and money-wise, once was. Weird to think about in today's poor, war-thorn Cambodia.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Floating village

I also visited a floating village in Siem Reap. Pretty much just boats, houses or sometimes a combination of the two, on a big fresh water lake. Met some really nice, local people here.

Post on Vietnam coming soon.

Weekend trip to China

2008-02-25T06:01:00.000-05:00

I went to Guangzhou in China from Saturday till Sunday to see Chang, a guy I know from Brisbane. Even though Guangzhou is only a two hour train trip away you can definitely notice a difference; it is more crowded, less high tech, has plenty of bicycles, things are cheaper, people speak no English and the pollution is even worse than in Hong Kong. We went to museums and temples, eat lots and spent some lovely hours in spa where one of the activities included sticking your feet into a pool of small fishes. The fish would then eat the dead skin of your feet. Yummy.

Dragon in a park - all the leaves are dead as China has had an unusually cold winter. The coldest winter in 50 years to be exact.

Hege posing Asian-style. The monster thing on the door is designed to keep the evil spirits out.

Hege and Chang in front of year of the rat decoration.

Guangzhou is all about eating. What about some deep fried shrimps with cake sprinkle on them?

Traditional Guangzhou breakfast. Tastes better than it looks=)

"Wanna try some snake heads? It's good for you" - the Chinese thinks almost everything is edible and have some sort of health benefit. The next photos are from a sea food market next to a restaurant we ate at.

These worms are probably healthy too.

Not quite sure what this is, but it is probably good for you.

You can pick the one you like and they'll cook it for you in the restaurant next door.

Turtles... Mmm...

Or what about some alligator?

Tian Tan Buddha

2008-02-17T08:35:00.000-05:00

Lesley and I spent most of Sunday visiting the Tian Tan Buddha. It is the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. Since it is located on the top of a mountain, quite far away from houses and people, I was expecting to find some sort of quiet, noncommercial religious place. Well, my image was wrong. When we got off at the end of the 30 minutes cable car ride we were met by the welcoming signs of Starbucks and Seven Eleven. I should have learnt by now that everything in Hong Kong is like a big circus. The whole area was filled with places to shop and dine.

The weather was unfortunately not the best when we were there. It was quite foggy, so the view was not as great as it could have been. However, the Buddha was still impressive and we managed to get at least a few decent photos.

On our way to the top in a cable car. The view was better than the impression the picture gives.

There's a Buddhist temple close to the Big Buddha. I didn't see any monks though. Maybe they were all in Starbucks.

If the Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen) or Kjerag was in Hong Kong it would have one of these.

Posing in front of the mighty Buddha.

Some people were praying, but most people seemed to be tourists like us.

Two videoes from Bangkok

2008-02-16T01:27:00.000-05:00

Just click on the picture and then the play symbol to watch the videoes.

This is an artwork from a park in Bangkok. The stone, who weighs several hundred kilos, is moved by the water underneath it. Apparently the artwork was inspired by the way the glaciers formed the fjords. Fascinating or what?

People doing aerobics in the same park. Notice the woman at the end of the movie.

Five days in Bangkok

2008-02-13T06:49:00.001-05:00

I spent my Chinese New Year's holidays in Bangkok. Met up with Kine, an old class mate from Sandnes Vgs, and three of her friends. When I arrived on Thursday night one of the girls was sick with food poisoning. When we woke up Friday morning yet another girl was sick, so Kine and I took her to the hospital. As the doctor was examining the girl, Kine also started to get sick. At the end of the day three out of the four girls I was supposed to play with were admitted to hospital. They had to stay there for two nights.

The girl that didn't get sick and I also camped out on the couches in their rooms. The hospital in itself was pretty decent, so it was not the worst place to be. I tried to phone two of my other friends that also were in Bangkok at the time to see I if I could join them instead, but it turned out they were in hospital as well as one of them had contracted - guess what - food poisoning! It also belongs to story that I was sick with food poisoning the week before I went to Bangkok. So, I have had enough of food poisoning for a while.

Annelin and Kine

The nurses wanted a picture when we left, so we also used the opportunity to get one=)

Luckily I also got to do a bit of sightseeing. The healthy girl and I went to a very popular, upmarket shopping district one of the days. Also visited a sports park where you could use all the equipment for free and they had aerobics classes. When the others were well again we went and found a place to stay close to the famous backpacker street. Did heaps of cheap shopping at the markets. Bought seven dresses, sun glasses, a bikini, comfy pants and some decorative stuff for 700 kr=)

Safe power lines in Bangkok - fire hazard? Nah...

People using one of the many pieces of sports equipment in the park, it might look like they are playing, but these people are really exercising. They stayed on there for ages.

On Monday three of us went on an organised tour. We did elephant riding, bamboo rafting and walking on a famous bridge that captured soldiers under World War 2 built, but the highlight of the day was definatly a visit to a tiger temple. The Buddhist monks who run the temple took in two wounded tiger cubs in 1998, and have kept on taking in tigers since then. Some of the tigers are eventually returned to the wild. To me the whole thing seemed a little bit cruel to the animals - there were too many people and too much noise and attention for it to be a “recreational place” - but I have admit it was fun petting tigers. All the tigers, except one, were free. They were not chained or restricted in anyway.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-07T02:16:00.000-05:00

We are now in the year of the rat. The Lunar New Year celebration is very important in Hong Kong and there are several public holidays over the next couple of days. My university organized a traditional New Year Dinner for the exchange students on Monday. We also made couplets (little red notes to hang around the house for good luck) and went to the flower market. The dinner, which is usually partaken on New Year's Eve, was held in a restaurant and consisted of many small meals. When people in Hong Kong are celebrating or just having a family dinner they usually go to a restaurant. Most people simply do not have room in their on apartments for that kind of activities.

The flower market was an experience in itself. When one of the French exchange students said "so where is this flower market?" - while standing right in the middle of it - he pretty much summed it up. Circus is probably a more accurate description than flower market, even though there were flowers there too - in-between all the balloons, t-shirts, food stalls, sellers and thousands of people.

I am leaving for Bangkok today. Going to meet some friends from Sandnes that are backpacking. Will be back in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Funky flowers

High Table Dinner

2008-02-04T02:41:00.000-05:00

My Hall, Lady Ho Tung, had its monthly formal dinner last Tuesday. The first dinner of the year is called Reunion dinner as former "successful" LHT hall girls are invited. The guests were mainly rich people that had donated money to the hall, earlier wardens and tutors and a prominent Hong Kong politician. The night pretty much consisted of speeches, eating, socializing and a performance by the LHT choir. Since LHT hall is one of the older and more traditional halls the "outfit" for the high table dinners are green gowns, white shirts and black skirts. Most of the other halls only require their students to wear some sort of dress or suit.

Stock market and hall life

2008-01-24T01:09:00.000-05:00

As you probably know the stock market has taken a massive plunge. Two of the girls in my residential hall therefore decided to decorate their door and room with red notes with writing on them symbolising wealth and money. Apparently it is the thing to do if you want to get rich. Could be worth a try. Decorating is in general quite a big thing in the halls. People are especially big on beautifying their doors. Each floor also competes against the other floors about having the best decorations.

Hall life is pretty good and I am so far enjoying it. However, I am glad I am not a local student, as they are required to participate in all kinds of very time-consuming activities in order to be able to live in the hall. It is not uncommon for a sport team, the choir or something similar to meet several times a week for many hours at a time. If you do not participate in enough activities you will be given a warning and if you do not improve you could eventually get kicked out of the hall.

Pictures: two doors on my floor. The first one has the "getting rich" notes on it.

Hong Kong

2008-01-21T00:22:00.000-05:00

Today I spent an hour and a half learning my phone number - in Cantonese. I am taking a Cantonese language class designed for exchange students and so far it has been pretty fun. However, Cantonese is a relatively hard language to learn because of its six tones. This means that a change of tone could change the meaning of the word completely. The word "si" therefore has six different meanings depending on how you say it.

The last week and a half has been pretty hectic. Besides completing the tedious registration process with all its paperwork, my time has been spent exploring the island. The university organised two tours this weekend which among other things included a visit to the bird and flower markets, a boat trip in a "Sampan" (a wooden, small boat), beach exploring and a traditional Hong Kong breakfast.

Most people in Hong Kong, except the extremely rich, live in small apartments and it is therefore difficult to raise a pet. Birds are a very popular alternative and this bird market is one of the places to go shopping for one.

On the Sampan. The fishermen use them to get around the harbour. They are not designed for going out to sea.

A part of a nunnery. It is fascinating that you can find a place like this in a big city like Hong Kong. Very calm, quiet and peaceful, but note the high rise buildings in the background.

On Saturday night my buddy, assigned to me from the university, took us out for hotpot. The hotpot is in the middle of the table and the ingredients are placed into the simmering water and cooked at the table. You choose what you want to put in it yourself. We had meatballs, lamb, chicken, beef, vegetables, fish, rice nodules and many other things in ours. I really love this stuff.

From the bottom left: Xi En (on exchange from Melbourne, Lesley (my room mate, on exchange from California) and me. Top left: Cindy (Me and Xi En's buddy) and Michal (Cindy's boyfriend).

The absolutely best dessert place. It has mango as its main ingredients. Does all these fruit drinks and dishes.

* I have gotten all the photos from Lesley. My camera is not quite working at the moment.

Newyears in Sydney

2008-01-17T01:59:00.000-05:00

Vas and I escaped Brisbane on New Years eve by catching a plane to Sydney. I am using the word "escaped" because it was pouring down and quite windy in Brisbane. Some of the surrounding cities even had to cancel their fireworks because of the weather. Sydney on the other hand was sunny and warm.

We headed into the CBD to see the fireworks around 9pm. The city was packed and it was hard to get a spot where you could could actually get a glimpse of the Harbour bridge. People had been there since early morning, the most dedicated had even stayed the night, in order to secure a spot. But after a while we found a place where we could see the bridge in between to ferries. I was really jet-lagged and started to get tired around this time, especially when I realised we were going to have to stand up for two hours. After I while I abandoned my dignity and sat down, and soon other people around me followed.

The fireworks was good, but I think the atmosphere was even better. We stayed in the city till 2pm eating ice cream and looking at the life. The streets were packed.

The rest of the days in Sydney were spent going to the beach and on a day-trip to the Blue Mountains.

The best photo my camera could get of the bridge in the dark

Tired of standing up

People leaving the area after the fireworks

Somewhere in the blue mountains

Litt av kvert

2007-10-18T00:08:00.000-04:00

Det australske valget e i gang, og de to stusste partiene e i full krig. I motsetning te hjemma, der mye av valgkampen går ud på utdeling av roser og vaffler, foregår den australske valgkampen fusst og fremst gjennom skittkasting i TV reklamer.

John Howard, sittande statsminister, begynte med ein reklame der han rakkte ner på Labour sin arbeidspolitikk. Kevin Rudd, forhåpentligvis den nye statsministeren, svarte med å laga ein reklame der han ser John Howard sin reklame på TV og svare på den me å sei atte de arbeidslovene Howard-regjeringen innførte isje e bra for "Australia's working families". John Howard lagte så ein nye reklame der han ser på TV at Kevin Rudd ser på hans reklame på TV, for å så kalla Kevin Rudd barnslig.

Mesteparten av tiå går me på skittkasting mot motparten, og de velge de styggaste og mest ugheldige bildene av motkandidaten, gjerna der han seie någe dumt eller stotre litt, eller någe i den duren. Personangrep e goe greier. Fint lide av tiå går med te å faktisk fortella ka de og partie står for. Dette e valgkampanjen i et nøtteskall.

Komme hjem te jul. Glede meg masse te det. Regne me alle har fått det med seg nå. Forlate Australia om cirka tri uger, og har eksamener om to, så dette e ganske stressa periode. Eller går det litt i jobbing, har jobd for universitete sin "engelsk for fremmedsspråklige" avdeling, der de har kurs av varierande lengde for lerare og folk fra andre land så vil lera engelsk. Går for det mesta ud på å sitta å snakka me folk. Imårå ska eg på tur og lunsj me ei gruppa fra Japan, så det blir sikkert kos.

Gralla me dagen te Jone så fylle 7 år på lørdag!

Ekka tid

2007-08-26T00:41:00.000-04:00

Fra 9 te 18 August va det Ekka tid igjen. The Ekka starta som et landbrugshow i 1876 og har holdt kogen itte det. E nå ein sære blanding av kuer, gresskar, shopping, mad, tivoli, show og diverse konkurranser. Sist år va eg innom på ein lørdag, og der va bare heilt sygt me folk. Så i år valgte eg fornuftig nok fredag formiddag, mens flesteparten va folket va på skole og jobb.

Influensan har herja i Australia og mange holdt seg vekke fra the Ekka på grunn av det. Syns nå det virka litt hysterisk å isje gå på grunn for smittefare, de delte tross alt ud våtservietter og ansiktsmasker te de så ville ha det. Kan sje akkurat sei eg såg någen så vaste rundt med de ansiktsmaskene, men men...

Brisbane har ein offentlig fridag i forbindelse med Ekka, så me bestemte oss for å dra te det Sunshine Coast (så e et kystområde nord for Brisbane) og ha piknikk på ei strand der. Plukte jordbær på et "sjølplukk" jorde på vei opp og det heila kunne blitt rektigt så idyllisk visst det isje hadde vist seg å bli årets kaldaste dag. Der regnte og blåste - og poenge her e at der regne ALDRI. Absolutt ALDRI. Der e tørke. Der regne sje. Sånn e det bare. Men der regnte altså på denne onsdagen, og der har forsatt å dryppa siden. Dammane har visstnok fått såpass mye regn at de tror de kan utsetta vannrestriksjoner på level 6 med tri måneder. Jej!

Back to uni

2007-07-24T04:29:00.000-04:00

Uni started again this week after a month of holidays. Quite pleased with my subjects this semester, but I am not too happy about one of my lectures being held at 8am Monday morning. I can see myself going to many of those, especially since it's a one-hour lecture and the only thing of the day.

Anyway, didn't do much over the holidays. Queensland has had one of the coldest winters anyone can remember with temperatures hitting the extreme low mid-day temperature of 16 C. I must admit it was two rough weeks. Luckily it wasn't like that all the time, and I tanned quite a few times on my balcony. Also did some day trips to scenic places, read Harry Potter and I don't know how many movies I've watched over the last month (did I mention that going to the movies here is about 5 dollars - 30 kr - a pretty affordable activity).

Visited a Medieval festival in the middle of July. It was pretty good stuff with people in costumes, sword fighting and Turkish oil wrestling. They also had markets with clothing, jewelry swords and armours, but the most popular (and also very dangerous) they sold were wooden swords. I think every kid in that place had one and they were all running around, fighting each other. I had to jump out of the way more than once to avoid these little monsters.

Vas had his graduation seremony the week before uni started. It was pretty amazing stuff with the funky academic dress, hat and the pompus seremony. Never seen uni dish up so much free food or drinks either=)

Happy birthday to me!

2007-06-27T01:37:00.000-04:00

Tuuusen takk for alle presangane, kortå og pengane eg fikk! Regna og va kaldt, så me holdt oss inne. Eg leste norske blad og såg Øygradsrevyen. Eg ler ennå av mobiltelefonnummere.

Hadde Pavlovakaga på kvelden så Liam lagte. Viste seg å bli litt av et prosjekt siden me isje har elektriske visp. Stakkar. Kagå va i hvertfall veldig goe.

Ellers dukkte Vas uventa opp i syvtiå. Han va på jobbtur og sko ver vekke heile ugå, men så regna der sånn at kullminå der an va stoppte produksjonen, så då va der sje så mye å gjør der, så an fly hjem tirsdag ittemiddag (uden å fortella dette te meg). Någen så bankte på dørå udfor romme mitt i syvtiå og når eg åbna låg der pakker overstrødd me roseblader. Og plutselig va Vas der.

Oppdateringer

2007-06-16T02:32:00.000-04:00

Cairns - looking for Nemo

Va i Cairns någen dager for to uger siden. Det e nord i Australia, langs kysten. Rundt to timers flytur fra Brisbane. Tim og Blake sko der me jobben, så meg og Vas fikk tag i någen billige flybilletter og blei med. Cairns e ein kjente turistdestinasjon, mest på grunn av det Great Barrier Reef.

Va på ein dagstur ud te the reef. Ganske hektiske bølger på den to timer lange bådturen ud te revet og mange så va skikkelig sjøsyge. Vas, så hadde vært i båd ude på sjøen ein gang før og vært sjøsyge, tog reisesygetabeletter men va temmeligt bleike og lide snakksalige heile turen. Ude på revet snorkla me. Dødskult. Va rundt 25 grader i vannet, men me brukte våtdrakter for det va litt for kaldt te å ver ude i vannet i flerre timer uden. Va på to forskjellige plasser og va i vannet te samen rundt 4 timer.

Leida itte Nemo, men fant an desverre isje. Såg mange av vennene hans då, pluss svære havskilpadder så me "mada" unna vann med tang. Mada og fiskane me brød. Glupske små beist. Mista litt lysten på det itte den eine beid meg i fingen. Ellers va revet i seg sjøl kjempefint med masse fine farger.

Skrapte meg forsåvidt ganske godt opp på armen på någen koraller. På veien hjem kunne de så ville prøva "boomnetting", så gikk ud på at de hang et nett itte båden så folk kunne henga fast i for å så kjøra på full guffe. Kjempekjet, svelgte masse vann og fikk masse fine skraber.

Bilde 1: Sexy me våtdrakt, eller?
Bilde 2: De mørke områdene e revet.

Melbourne - "cold, wet and rain"
Det va værmeldingen for de dagna me va i Melbourne. Vas va på kurs med jobben der i slutten av mai, så eg blei me og lekte turist i fira dager. Men eg hadde sje heilt tatt i betraktning at det å fly i to timer sør innebar ein temperaturforskjell på rundt 13 grader. Va 16 grader på dagen når me va der. Frøys masse! Hadde isje de rette klenå te å ver der, men det va ein veldig fine by med Europeisk preg. Og veldig godt terettelagt for turister med blant anet gratis trikk inne i byen og gratis busser te diverse turistattraksjoner.

Der va forresten ein liden Buddha festival i Melbourne der du blant aent kunne skriva "ønsker" på papirblader de plasserte udøve et område. Eg syns denne va litt sjønne: I wish it would rain again so we can have lots of water. Rebecca 9. Ellers må¨det jo seis at alle e veldig begeistra kver gang det regne, for damlevlene synke stadigt. Merke eg e gankse fikserte på å spara vann for når eg såg "georgia rules" på kino va eg heilt i sjokk på kossen den eine hovedpersonen bare lod vannkranå renna i flerre minutter.

Besøgte akvariume den eine dagen, någen Melbourne e kjent for. Likte spesielt denne tunnelen der du hadde fisk øve og rundt deg.

17. mai

17.mai blei selvfølgeligt feira samen me andre nordmenn i Brisbane. Gikk i tog, spiste vaffler med brunost og sang norske sanger.

Han fyren te venstre for meg fant eg seinare ud hadde gått på Buøy skole. Trodde an nesten sje. Lille Buøy skole, løye.

Buddha Birth Day Festival

2007-05-07T02:09:00.000-04:00

Buddha's birthday was celebrated at South Bank in Brisbane this weekend. Think dragon dancing, Asian food, fireworks and religious rituals. I went there on Sunday afternoon and Vas joined me a couple of hours later. I think half of Brisbane must have been there, at least it felt like it at times - especially when trying to find a park.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was to do the different sacrificing activities. I gave the Buddha a bath by pouring water on his shoulder three times. That was supposed to cleanse my soul. I also put a incense-stick in a pot filled with dirt while I tried to think wise thoughts. And by plinging a bell I got a wish. I also got a little card or a note with some wise words on after each sacrifice. You were supposed to give a small donation at every activity to raise money for the temple.

I watched the dragon dancing and some other performances. The selection of food was awesome, and I ate lots. I also tried out this weird type of ice cream, just have a look at the photo. At the end of the festival there was fireworks.

Today, Monday 6 May, is a public holiday. Queensland's Labour Day always falls on the first Monday in May.

Bjellå eg plingte i for å få et ønske.Her blir Buddha bada.Kjempegode "kuleis".

Anzac Day

2007-04-25T07:51:00.000-04:00

Offentlig helligdag i dag. Wikipedia gir denne forklaringen:

Australia and New Zealand commemorate the ANZAC Day holiday on 25 April every year to remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps(ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War 1.

Va någe paradegreier i byen, men gikk sje og såg på det. Derimot lagte eg, Vas og Liam Anzac biscuits, ein kjeks mødrene sendte te soldatsønnane i utlande. De va visstnok redde for at maden isje va næringsrige nok for de kjære badnå, så omtrent det einaste så holdt seg lenge nok te å frakta med båd va denne type kjeks. Se, så huslige eg e! Og nei, eg har isje klipt håre... Det e bare i hestehale. Kjeksene va forresten kjempegoe.

Påske og sånn

2007-04-12T03:27:00.000-04:00

Har hatt påskeferie denne ugå, altså ugå itte dokker hjemma. Har hatt någen temmelig norske dager, me Kristine og Anette fra Buøy på besøg fra onsdag te mandag. De e på backpacking i Australia og øvenatta hos meg någen av dagene de va i Brisbane. På lørdag kom Pål så gikk i klassen min på videregående. Han studere nå i New Zealand og tar påskeferien sin i Brisbane hos meg.

Lørdag va me på rebusløp me ANSA, någe så va ganske greit. Hadde litt problemer med den fysste posten me sko finna og me vaste rundt på måfå i Brisbane i nærmere ein time. Itte flerre runder med hint fra de så styrte det fant me fram då og de neste postane gikk greit.

Kristine, Vas, Hege, Anette og Pål

Tirsdag tog me turen te Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, någe så va store greier. Kjempemange søde, små dyr. Åååå...

Back to Uni

2007-02-26T04:41:00.000-05:00

First day of the semester. I have bought a bike(!) and I'm now riding to Uni. It is purple and has pretty flowery stickers on it. With my speed it takes about 20-25 min to get there, but I don't exactly exhaust myself. The downside of this (I know I'm vain), is "helmet hair". It is illegal to ride a bike in Australia without a helmet, so I guess I'll just have to live with it.

My subjects this year are:
1. Reporting
2. Australian Political Institutions
3. Introduction to Media Studies
4. Personal and Social Identities

This gives me a total of 12 hours contact per week, which is pretty good.

The best house mates anyone could want!

2007-02-18T04:07:00.001-05:00

I can't believe how cool my housemates are. James, Barry, Liam and Tim are awesome