Somehow it always works out

School started on Monday. I thought I had my schedule/timetable worked out, but turned out I didn't. So, as they do in America, I had to start crashing classes. First time I heard of it, I thought it was ridiculous and embarrassing. I still think it is, but now I'm getting the hang of it. You get there early, participate in class discussions and talk (or more correct; sell yourself) to the teacher after. Then you wait.
This week I've had a double timetable because of all the crashing, but in the end it all worked out, and just the way I wanted it too.

I dropped Physiology which turned out to be exactly the same as I took in my first year. On first day of school, I was made aware that I was mission one class to do the cooking class. I actually never thought I would work this hard to get into a cooking class, but I've seriously been running around the whole week trying to get into an English class, which I need to get into the cooking class. It turned out I was missing another English class to do this English class...Ok, I'm losing track of this now, but bottom line is; today, Friday, at lunch time, everything worked out the way I wanted it to.

The uniform

I am taking a food/cooking class which include serving at a 5 star restaurant and cooking in a lab, family crisis, English, nutrition assessment in the community (which probably has the best professor ever) and sex and relationships...Don't even ask about the last one.  

Other than school, we have also had time to socialise and meet new people. I've also gotten new house mates; Pascal from Germany and Thomas from Sweden. New rommies = housewarming.

Pascal and the drunken dill

Me, Shannon and Eric

The Scandinavians

Ida

Reality check

School starts again on Monday and I want more holidays. This has been the first proper holiday I've had in very many years. By proper I mean no work and no school for weeks.

After Lise left I kind of felt into an isolation bubble. Which has been amazing. I've read some books,  manipulated photos, been on facebook, thought of writing letters and e-mails, I've been shopping, cooked for fun, watched all seasons of gossip girl again, slept, stayed up to date with the Norwegian news, had three days of open house, found new roomies....I thought about bloging too, but this is all that has happened, so I did get a tiny bit depressed when I started writing and had to stop after one sentence.

After these three weeks in isolation from the outside world, I am finally ready to start school. Personally, I think I've made an excellent choice with my courses this semester. I'll be taking Physiology which is just a basic one. One course is about family crises with eating disorders and drug problems. We have to attend one AA, OA NA or something like that - meeting, and write a report about it. Should be interesting. Another course I'm taking turned out to be a cooking class! Cooking is not my strongest side, but maybe my new skills I developed in my isolation bubble will pay out now. We have to be in a lab and the school kitchen every second week...so people will actually have to eat this food. Obviously I have no idea on how I will pass this class. The last one I will be taking is nutrition assessment. Since the professor is so slow publishing the course outline/syllabus I don't know what we will be doing.

It's raining here now by the way. Just thought you should know. And it's cold.

In between the weekends

Christmas day - December 25

After a long and good breakfast we had to get to our bus which was taking us to our next destination: Los Angeles and Hollywood. We arrived our hostel (Hollywood Hostel) on Hollywood Blv late at night. We stepped outside this busy street to look around. Hollywood Blv is the site of the Hollywood Stars, Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Madame Tussauds and much more. In other words...heaps of tourists.

Boxing Day - December 26

The day of the universal studios. Everyone has always told me you have to have a car in LA. That is not true, you just need to plan a little bit more, but you somehow always get around. Getting to the universal studios was no problem at all: Direct train line!

December 27

The Beetle day. Turned out to be a pretty busy day at the car rental this day, so we got a free upgrade. And when you get a free upgrade to a VW Beetle, you don't say "no thanks".

It took a while to get the car, but when we finally got it we hit the road to San Diego and a steady 20+ degrees C (75 F). We stayed at a Inn for two days there. Lise was especially happy, since she figured that hostels are not her thing. Princess!

December 28

The next morning we were suppose to go to the Zoo. It turned out Lise have never really been to a proper zoo, if you exclude Polar Zoo. When we got there it seems like the whole South California had the same idea that day. Parking was impossible so we decided to walk around Balboa Park instead.

On the way home from San Diego we stopped by La Jolla and Santa Monica. It turned out Lise hadn't seen a beach either before. It's a very good thing, and about time, she made it outside the walls of Norway.

Ida