"Being told is not the same as knowing"

As I was reading my book the other day, one sentence jumped out at me:

"Being told is not the same as knowing"
from My Favourite Wife by Tony Parsons

It stuck with me, and when I started to think about it I realized it had more than one meaning to me. In the book it is said by a woman who is told that she is beautiful, and I understand her feelings about it. But to me the first thing that struck me about this sentence was that it is a very pedagogical thing to say. It is what we always hear about in class, and lately I've experienced myself how true it is! Like the other day when I sat with the same geometrical problem for eight hours; constantly asking the person next to me to explain, and everytime thinking that I understood this, but then to realize that as soon I tried to look at it on my own I was completely lost again! It is such a frustrating feeling...

The other thing that came to my mind was totally different from the first. At a stressful time in my life, I started to think about how I didn't tell my uncle that I loved him the last time I saw him. I have thought about this more than once before, regretting that I didn't. But when I read that sentence in my book I got to thinking that maybe he knew. Maybe I didn't have to tell him, because I had showed it to him in other ways. I think I learned something that time when I realized what I should have done but hadn't, and when I said goodbye to my aunt resently I told her that I loved her. And even if the sentence says "being told is not the same as knowing" I'm sure that telling her was important and the right thing to do. So maybe this should be something to think about for all of us in the time we're entering now at Christmas. It is a time that we spend together with family and friends, and it is a good time to let the people around us know that we love them and appreciate them. Both tell them and let them know through your actions!

Chocolate Fugde Cake

To remember the sweet times in York Trine and I baked chocolate fudge cake yesterday, like true housewives. The expectations were high; the result looked delicious and made us long even more for Crush bar... Let's just say we're going to ask the Swedish guy for the receipe when we go back in 14 days! :-)


The dough was really good!


And the frosting even more delicious.


Expectations were rising!


The result! (If my home economics teacher were to see this she would have frown at the mess on the plate!)


Guess who ate the biggest piece?!

Back in Bergen

It's been some time since I last updated my blog (summer came and left too fast!) and I wasn't really sure if I was going to keep it up or just leave it to the times spent in England. I'm still not sure I think.. But I've had a couple of complaints; apparently you can't demand an update from another blogger without updating your own.. At the moment it is also so much more tempting to write English than to do arithmetics.

As the heading states; I'm back in Bergen and have started school again. I'm doing mathematics this year; very different from English last year. It seems like it's going to be a lot of work; a real transition from York-life. But it's already picking up so I'm of good cheer at the moment!

An important reason for this is that I've got a really good carrot to look forward to: Trine and I are going to York at the end of September! We bought the tickets yesterday and we are thrilled! I've already started the countdown :) It will be so nice to meet Mari again and see how she's doing at the Norwegian Study Centre. I'm really looking forward to walking through the streets of York again, visiting all those familiar places. It will definitely be different since (almost) all the people we knew there are gone, but like Trine says: We'll have a blast anyway!

I'm posting a couple of pictures from the summer. It's been a summer of mostly work, but I have been able to squeeze in a few hikes in the mountains and a couple of music festivals. It's been good to be home with Mum and Dad, although it took quite some time to settle into the Norwegian way of life again...



My mother and I at the top of Høgsvarden enjoying the taste of dark Norwegian chocolate.



The mountains around the fjord where I live. This was taken in early June so there was still quite a lot of snow on the mountain tops.



One of the highlights of the summer: Valkyrien Allstars at Førde International Folkmusic Festival.

I promised some pictures...

I'm back in Norway now, and although nothing has really happened since I came to Sandane I haven't had time to update my blog...I'm trying to focus on writing my papers (it's not going too well...) and I keep practising playing American Pie. I've actually been working some too, selling a couple of pairs of shoes last week...

Anyways, here are the pictures I promised:



Haven't got hold of the pictures of my first outdoor beer, but here is one of my second (guess that should prove it too)







Eurovision Song Contest Party in Chelsea's room. We watched the semi-finals and obviously we cheered for both Norway and Poland and were very pleased that they made it to the finals. Sadly none of them won... The Americans weren't too enthusiastic about the show, but still Kendall was probably the only one of us who watched the finals. Hope you enjoyed it Kendall! I actually think we made a pretty good deal... ;-)

My first "utepils"

Today I had my first "utepils" - ever! For those who do not speak Norwegian it means a pint outside in the sun, and this is quite a big deal in Norway seeing as we don't have too much sun...

To our great disappointment the sun disappeared just after we sat down and it was actually rather cold (but I guess that is how the year's first "utepils" is supposed to be..?) but I did enjoy my half pint of Fosters anyway! :-)

(the picture will come later when I've got it from Susanne...It will probably look as bad as any other picture of me, but I'm guessing people need to see it to be able to believe that Anne-Marte is actually drinking beer!)

Other than that today has been a day for pampering ourselves. Me and Mari started the day at the hairdressers before we went shopping. It is not doing my ancles any good, they hurt pretty badly right now, but I got quite a lot of shopping done (probably too much - packing my suitcase in a couple of days could get interesting...) so I'm pleased! Now we are off to watch the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest together with Ola and a bunch of Americans. It is going to be great fun!!! :-)

Goodbye John and Ryan!

It's sunny but quiet in Lord Mayor's Walk today; the big American group left this morning (not quietly though, there was some loud singing this morning at 6am...) It's a weird feeling since we've spent so much time together! And it makes us think about the fact that we're soon leaving too... We've had a great time together here in York; we'll miss it! On behalf of the rest of the Norwegian gang in Block G and B; Safe journey, Calvin-people! "Miss you already John and Ryan. Vi sees!"

Let's eat too much cake - Skinny Bitch's victory

This has happened: Monday I found the best quote to describe my feelings about Sunday night when I had a chocolate-cake-eating-contest with myself:

After eating Irish stew (far from as good as the one we got in Ireland, but still ok) at O'neills we continued our Sunday feast; I ordered a apple cinnamon toffee pie and Susanne and Trine ordered a hot chocolate fudge cake. My cake was really good and I did actually not regret my choice of cake, but when the others couldn't finish theirs (Susanne's piece was a bit big) I said: "I would definetely have been able to finish it if it had been my cake." What started as a joke became a challenge, and since I don't give up when I've decided to do something I finished both Susanne's and Trine's cake...Oops..



You could say I was quite full when I finished...



But oh, so satisfied with myself! ;-)



And, to my defence: I've started running since then! John and I have been up 7am twice this week to run. Oh boy, it feels great!!! :-)

Quote of today

- Jeg gidder ikke leve et pietistisk liv. Får jeg en kake, så spiser jeg den. (Morten Harket)

To be continued...

Just another Tuesday

No dancing today either! The performance is next week and I'm guessing it is going to be just as bad as the show that we cancelled two weeks ago. I'm in a bad mood right now...

Apart from this unconvenient cancellation of the dance lesson (which really wasn't that bad since I've got a cold and would probably have had to watch the others anyway) the day has been pretty good! I've written quite a lot on my Ireland and America essay and am hoping I'll be able to finish it tomorrow so that I can start my next essay! For those who doesn't keep up with what is happening here at the moment (I'm sorry there has been few post lately, but we're actually quite busy at the moment, doing school work) we are about to finish our lectures and have just got three essays to finish before our stay in York is over. It feels really strange, time has passed so fast! It is going to be weird leaving York, I'm going to miss the city and the people here so much! To be honest I would have preferred to stay longer...

Anyways, some plans for the summer is starting to fall into place, so I guess it is going to be OK spending the summer at home! And I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody again! :-)

Celebrity alarm

We saw Derek Fowlds at the train station today!!!

Fantastic Ireland

After having a quiet one and a half week in Sandane I decided to end my spring break with a little more action and travelling than I normally get. First I went to Bergen for a York reunion with fiskebollar and concert when John and Ryan came to visit Trine. We had a nice weekend, quite relaxing, and I got to see new parts of the city too.



From Bergen I left for Oslo where I again met Trine, Mari and Lisa and we together set off for a week in beautiful Ireland. We arrived in Dublin, a lovely city where we had a good time just walking the streets, looking at different monuments of well-known people and events. We also went to the writers museum and an Irish history museum which were both actually very good. The nights in Dublin were spent at the pub drinking Irish coffee and listening to Irish music. It was all really great!!






My new sweetheart! :-)

After two days we set off for Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. On the way we stopped in Limerick, a place I had really been looking forward to see since I'm reading Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and writing a paper on it. However, I wasn't very impressed with the city. It was just another grey city with the same shops as everywhere else, and we didn't really have the time to experience the more interesting (?) parts of it. But at least I can say that I've been there!






The Cliffs of Moher was most definitely the highlight of our trip! Doolin was such a cozy small town and the hostel we stayed at was really nice. Even though we as Norwegians are quite experienced hikers we were a bit afraid that the walk from the hostel to the Cliffs would be too long (understanding the transition from miles to kilometers isn't always that easy...) so we took the bus to the visitor centre. We expected the walk back to take several hours and were therefore very much surprised when Doolin showed up behind a hill just after we had gone down from the "main road" to the cliffs and admired the view. It was a spectacular scenery, we were very impressed by the way the waves hit the cliffs and the shores and the weather was so good that day! The evening was spent in a local pub eating Irish stew (at least some did...), chocolate fudge cake (for some reason we always seem to end up with that dessert..), drinking Irish Coffee and listening to Irish music. In other words, a really Irish day!




We ended our trip in Belfast in an awful hostel. It was quite a big change from beautiful Doolin! I guess we didn't get the best impression since our first meeting with the locals ended with two of them throwing soda at a poor, drunk 15 year old girl that was trying to pick a fight in McDonald's... Belfast didn't really feel safe at all, and it was far from as nice as Dublin, it just felt like any other big city. So we ended up spending most of the two days in cafes or shopping. However, we went on a Black Taxi Tour to the areas were there has been a lot of trouble and this was really interesting as it gave us some insight into the conflicts that has been in Belfast for many years.


This guy points his gun at you whereever you turn! (Try watching the screen from different angles)

Going back to Leeds on the plane we were quite tired after a week of carrying quite heavy backpacks. It was therefore very nice to come "home" to York and get into "my own" bed. After a week in hostels the mattress actually didn't feel bad at all!! And it was so nice to see everybody again! "Borte bra,men "hjemme" best!?" Even so; "vi var alle einige om at det hadde vore ein flott tur!"

Easter

Then Easter was over and it's back to "striskjorta og havrelefsa"! At least for most people...I've got almost two more weeks of :-)

This year I have had a really Norwegian Easter consisting of the following ingredients:

- Snowing
- Skiing (with the obligatory screaming and following fall...)
- Sun (at least enough to make the freckles pop up)
- Oranges
- "Kvikk lunsj" :-) (Norwegian chocolate is the best! I had almost forgotten how
good it tastes!)
- Lamb
- Criminals
- Reading
- Needlework
- Card games, including kabal (watch out E-block! I've learned a couple of new ones -
they're really addictive...)
- Family gatherings
- Playing with Austrheim in Gimle for "Palmedans"

It's been a quiet, but nice holiday! Relaxing... Today I had my lunch outside in the sun, reading a good book and eating a sandwich from the local bakery. Septimus kept me company and it was just lovely in the sunshine! What else can I say? This must be the good life!!!

Back in Norway!

Leaving York Friday morning felt really strange...I would actually have liked to stay during Easter, it seemed like we had only just arrived here...However, the reason why I felt strange could also be the fact that I was up at 6am after only 2hours sleep the night before...

The first leg of the journey was actually quite nice because I had company! Both Trine, Susanne and Chelsea were on the same plane. Susanne's parents picked us up at the airport (Thank you so much for the cute and tasty chocolate bunny, Susanne's mum!) and drove me to my place where I met Ruth-Marie and delivered the key to her. Somehow I had twice as much baggage when I left Nattlandsveien as when I came, and luckily Ruth-Marie was able to help me carry it to the bus station. I did catch my bus that went all the way home, I even had some extra minutes!

The second leg was far from as enjoyable as the first...! It felt like the bus ride took forever, and I was so restless because I didn't have anyone to talk to! I think I've become used to having people around me all the time...It was therefore really nice to come home to mum and dad and Septimus! I got a decent, Norwegian supper before I went to sleep in my own, lovely bed! :-)

Once upon a time...

...we went to Fountains Abbey together with the Calvin group. It has been such a long time and so many exting (?) things have happened since that I really can't remember when it was. Even so, it was a really nice trip!

We started off quite early, leaving St John at 9.30. Some people (read Ryan) were just up and a bit late, others (read me, Mari and Trine) had already been to the bakery in Goodramsgate and bought sandwiches for a picnic. It's a really nice bakery by the bye; the people there were very friendly and it seemed like everybody knew each other, and the sandwiches turned out to be incredibly good too! Worth a visit if you ever come to York!

When we came to the Abbey it was actually quite windy, not particulary nice weather for a picnic eventhough the sun was shining...But the place was really beautiful! We had a guide that showed us around the Abbey, talking about and explaining really well how the monks had lived there centuries ago. I found the fact that they only had one room where they could talk to each other really fascinating. I seriously don't know how they could manage to walk around all day without saying a word to each other...! I am also quite sure that I would have freezed to death if I were to live in such a place with only one room with a fire!

After seeing the Abbey us three Norwegian girls walked off alone. We went to have our sandwiches on a bench in the sun and to walk along the small paths around the garden. We imagined ourselves to be in the time of Pride and Prejudice, walking in Mr Darcy's garden in those amazing dresses. How thrilling it must have been to live at that time!

To warm ourselves a bit we went to the cafeteria for a hot chocolate and a cake before the bus left. We also had a look at the souvenirs. It's interresting how well the English are able to display and promote their tourist attractions, I think Norway could learn a lot from them...! Everything here seems very clean and modern...

We arrived back in York in the early afternoon and everybody agreed that it had been a "gild" trip!

Trying to do something sensible....

As I was doing the reading for my next essay yesterday, an essay in International Varieties on Norwegian language and immigrants, I found these nice lines in between the description of the situation in Norway and I just had to take a minute to write them down:

The smile in the eye
is the light in the window
that tells that
the heart is at home

I guess I'm in a poetic mood at the moment...I thought this was really beautiful...

An eventful weekend

The last couple of days I am proud to say that we have actually been studying!!! An we've been really efficient and well structured (planning our days around the meals as usual of course...)

However, I was still writing my assignments late last night (Monday) and when I went to bed around 1am Mari and Trine were still typing away... This morning they told me they had been up til 5am, getting half and two and a half hours of sleep...! I admire them for their persistence! Today we're therefore taking the day of spoiling ourselves with shopping and social activities :-)

We did take a break from writing the other day, going to the pub for drinks with Susanne, John, Ryan, Steve and Kendall. We've discovered that Americans and Norwegians have the same sense of humour and we spend a lot of time together laughing!

As others asked their boyfriends to marry them on this day in the leap year of 2008 (29 February), CONGRATULATIONS to those by the way! ;-) I found myself the man of my dreams this evening... :-) Let me introduce you to him:

His name is Arthur James and he is a genuine Englishman! He works as a horse-race-driver at a court near York, and after Easter we are going together with the Americans to see him compete. I am really looking forward to that day! He is actually also a polo player and he has the most charming upper-class accent.

We really hit it off in the pub the other day, I actually think this could be the ONE!

:-) :-)

Dinner time!

My first attempt at making my own "home-made" dinner here in York didn't go very well....

After trying to calm Susanne down with comments like "It's going to be alright, it always splashes a bit when you make soup in the microwave", I must I admit I was a little bit shocked to see my pasta over-flown and almost making itself its' way out through the door of the microwave...

At least what was left of it tasted OK when it was finally finished...Not sure I'm going to try this again though...

Trip to Cambridge

Saturday we went on a day trip to Cambridge. It was a really nice city, not very different in size from York. It is famous for its' colleges, and especially King's Chapel is a well known image from this town.

To get a really good view of the colleges I decided to go punting on the river with three other international students. We chose to go with a guide, which I was really happy about after seeing how people struggled to navigate their boats. We passed several amateurs that continuously bumped into the side of the river or into other boats. We actually bumped into one of these fools going under a bridge, and had it not been for our highly talented punter I could easily have had my head chopped off. Luckily my head is still with me!

After getting of the boat after this traumatic experience we tried to get into a couple of the colleges but it said private everywhere, and since we looked a bit tourist-like we didn't manage to blend in with the students at these upper-class colleges...

Still, we had a very nice day and it was worth the trip although the journey from York was a bit long, starting at 7am and without my breakfast coffee...

Just another day of studying...

As usual we got up (quite) early and met in the Crush Bar for coffee and planning of the day. We decided to be very efficient and work for 1 1/2 (!) hour before lunch. ( And look what I'm doing right now...) We normally plan our days around the meals, because we eat in the cafeteria and they are only open at certain times. Next on our plan after lunch will therefore be to go shopping in the city, and be back in time for dinner. Sounds like I'm going to get a lot of work done today....

This picture is from my room. It is not very big, but it is quite OK! As you can see the radiator is really small so it has been freezing cold this week because we have had really cold and damp weather. But today the temperature has gone up, it's a bit windy, but it looks promising for our trip to Cambridge tomorrow!

Welcome to my really good life!!

Hello from York! Life is really good at the moment, lots of laughter and coffee all the time!