Some green, some blue, hippies and food

St. Patrick's Day celebrated in the most classy manner:

The costume is important...

Sweet Linn waiting for the slowest Jesus and Tykjen.

I found myself a sleeping maaaan.

And a boy with identical glasses.

Emilia, on the other hand, found a really sexy guy.

norSK Pub also happened.....

And a random party

Where a random guy suddenly came in and asked for Emilia (it was actually Emily), but weird anyways...Nice guy though, too bad he didn't have time to stay.

Kia and Millie

Layla, Mike and Silje

Sara, me and Layla

It hasn't been raining, but Cecilie has made us a first class dinner. Really hope round two is close.

Cecilie

Janicke and myself in a deep concentration

Ida

Patriotic in red, white and blue

G'day,

It's 9pm and I'm about to pass out. AND all my body parts are hurting. We've had a wild weekend in Byron!

Just realised I forgot to publish a few posts, so here they are.

A few weekends ago we were a big group who went to Byron Bay. I've been there once before, and there is nothing you cant like about the place. Perfect beach, nice, little, relaxed town, nice people and a chilled atmosphere all over. The days were spent on the beach and in the surf (hence bruises everywhere) and the night was spend at cheeky monkeys (bar/club where dancing on the tables are encouraged).

Ida

I do not like water

First week of Semester 1, 2011 is over, three assignments are finished and two started. Rowan has also been here for a few days. I've been waking up at 6am every day. Thursday night we got flooded again. And last night we decided to party. Its been a really busy week, again! And I don't mind at all.

Thursday morning I was once again a good girl and got up at 6am with no problems at all and made it to uni on time (8am). I got lost and went to a wrong lecture, but made it home safely and tired at midday. But in the Princhester there is no time for relaxing and sleeping. Rowan had decided we were going shopping. After many hours he got what he needed and we could finally go home. But still no time for relaxing. He made dinner for Millie, and I did assignments. Then people started coming over because we were going to the Norwegian quizzzz. And this is when it all got interesting. The others left and me, Rowan and Asso stayed home. They don't speak very good Norwegian, so no point of going to a Norwegian quiz. The plan was to meet them after the quiz and go out with them. Anyways, it started raining, and not a little bit, but A LOT! We were sitting in the sofa and suddenly our feet were wet. SO once again we tried to clean the drains, off with the electricity and just wait for the water to go down.

It was far from as bad as last time, but just as annoying. The day after Ron, our landlord, came over and blocked the whole front door with sand bags.

We have also had a few drinks

Dressed up in togas and been to a toga party.

Been to the beach, Surfers Paradise.

And been hanging out at train stations.

Ida

Nature lives its own life

Our livingroom filled with water and me trying to save the essentials.

So, where can I start? We haven't even unpacked everything, gotten organized in the new house nor managed the insurance papers from the big Brisbane flood before we get flooded again.

Last night when we where all relaxing and doing nothing, Iben (Danish roomie) came running and screaming out of her room which was filled with water. From underneath the main entrance the water was pushed in like from a high pressure hose. It took a few minutes and our living room and rooms were covered in 30 cm of dirty water.

We tried to cover the opening under the door with towels, but

realised pretty soon that was hopeless. All we could do was to save our stuff, call our landlord and wait. Lucky we had the upstairs area that was dry.

Andrew and Pooya trying to unblock the drain.

After an hour or so the water went back and we could look at the damages and start cleaning. Oh lord, what a mess! All the floors were covered in mud, leaves and what else that should normally be outside.

The floors on our rooms were floating and the smell...well, I guess you all know the smell of sewage.

It took us a few hours and at least the mud was gone, but now we are just hoping for new floors. It seems like the standard here, or the lack of standard, is much, much, much lower than Scandinavian countries.

The "flood victims".

A few days later:

But as a "plaster paa saaret" our landlord gave us a nice card and four bottles of wine today. He is the best landlord so far.

Today we finally "moved" into the rooms for the second time. It's still a bit messy, but its good to move out of the suitcase.

Take care,

Ida

Back in Business

Seems to always be long breaks between my posts. Reason?! I am lazy.

Since my last post there has definitely been some "dramas". After Christmas Queensland got flooded. To start with it was only in North Queensland, but moved fast south, and hit Brisbane eventually. There was heaps of confusing messages going between Norway and Australia at the time. The more coming, the more nervous I got. In the end our house started taking in water, and then my flat mates had to evacuate.

It turned out everything went fine in the end. None of them were hurt, and the house only got minimal damages.

The flood in our neighbour's back yard.

Shortly after it turned out everyone got the message of eviction, and had to leave. We started panicking a tiny bit. Suddenly we were homeless and on the other side of the world. Lucky for me I had Millie, who had made it back to Norway, to look for a new house. After only a few days we had arranged a new house in West End.

In the middle of all the mess three lovely Australians had decided to visit Norway. Stupid, if you ask me. Who wants to leave summer in Aussie land for negative 20 degrees, snow storms, darkness and more snow?

The first week they were there I had to work a lot. But we made it to Tromose the first weekend. It was a relaxing weekend where we went out the first night and stayed with Boerge, had a look around on Saturday, and stayed with Elise on Saturday.

We have been to many different cabins, skiing, tried snow mobiles, played in the snow, seen the ice hotel in Sweden, seen rein deers, sledding, seen the Nordic lights and much more. Think they enjoyed their time at the top of the world.

The Artic Lights over Narvik City

Ellie and Rowan being attacked by rein deers

Beautiful Narvik Mountain on the first day of sun, 2011

View over Narvik City and the Fjord

Last Wednesday it was time for my return to Oz. Stayed two nights in Oslo with Merethe and Onkel Rune before departure. Ellie, Rowan and myself walked the Oslo Marathon these two days. Had a look at Oslo's main street "Karl Johan", Majorstuen, Wigerlands Parken, shops and the new Opera House.

At the airport I met up with Millie and we flew back to Brisbane together. We got to the new house early Friday, but had no time to relax. After a shower we emptied our suitcases and went straight to the old house to start packing our stuff over there. After two days, five trips back and forth with stuff and a massive clean-up of the rooms, we could finally take a trip to the beach for some lazy time.

So, this is where I'm at now; a bit sunburnt and extremely jet lagged. The new room is kind of on its way to become organized. We just realised we have WAAAAAAY too much stuff. Its also very hot here now, so when possible I'm sitting in front of my amazing fan.

Hoo Roo for now,

Ida

Christmas on the North Pole

I can't believe I've been home for four weeks already. It's been the quickest December in a long, long time.

Christmas Eve was celebrated in Grovfjord at my grandparents' place.

The few days we were there were absurd. Grandma kept going on about:

1. Finish all the food now. I don't want left-overs. Come on; theres one spoon of rice porridge left, who wants it? No one?! Ok, I'll eat it. One potato left. Here, you look hungry.
2. Do not flush the toilet paper down the toilet. Throw it in the bin next to. (Everyone is standing there as question marks). It can get closed up. - Yes, Grandma, after 40 years of flushing down the toiletpaper IN the toilet, it will probably break down now.
3. Eat the apples now. I told you to only buy what you'll eat. So now, EAT!

My mum, aunt and grandma made the traditional Norwegian christmas dinner (pinnekjott). I've never liked it, still don't like it and never will I guess. My family never gets it, and think it's just as surprising every year that I don't eat that greezy meet. I've always been very happy with my rice porridge. BUT, this year they couldn't accept that I only ate porridge on Christmas Eve, who does that? So me and my Grandpa got fish.

Opening the presents always takes forever with us. And it did too this year. Grandpa got two presents. As he got the second one he looked at it and said "no". It looked exactly like the bottle of something he had tried before. Once the nurse was there they tried to give him an energy drink. It came straight from the fridge and was very cold. As he swallowed it he got cold all the way down to his stomach. He also said his head got cold and then his arms dropped. He was quick, he said, and saved my grandma by drinking her drink so they wouldn't die both of them. When he saw the present he asked for a rope and a big rock so he could throw it to the sea and never see it again. After a while we managed to convince he it was only a deodorant and safe to open.

Grandpa is one funny man. Just before we left he had to wear his winter shoes inside. The slippers were hard as rocks and couldn't be worn. Once again he wished he had some rope and a rock, and could throw them far to sea.

Of coursewe had to take the traditional x-mas pictures before we left. Me and my sister had some fury beanies on. My grandpa recognized them at once and ran to the hall to get his on. Then we were all ready for the photo shoot.

The newest member of the Johnsen family came over on Christmas Day. I dare say we became the bestest friends. After a whole day of playing with everyone he felt asleep on my lap.

Christmas in Grovjord never gets boring....

The journey begins....

1 month ago I figured out summer school is a vast of time, and an extra semester is easier. That means I have no school this summer/Christmas. Mamma and pappa were quite happy, because now I had no excuse for NOT coming home.

Therefore, Tuesday morning, 10.30 I left 12 Vulture St, and started my journey to Norway.

My first stop was in Sydney, where I thought I was late for my plane, hence ran to the one end of the airport to be told that wasn't my flight. Ran back to the other side again, but for no reason at all....we were two hours delayed.

Finally on the plane, I had decided to try something new. Since I can never sleep on planes I decided to hit the free wine. And, it helps!

In Bangkok we just got off and on the plane again, and started the longest flight towards London. I sat next to a Norwegian girl which was really nice. When we landed we had 30 minutes to get to terminal 5 (from 3) to catch the next flight to Oslo. Nothing to do but to start running. We got there 5 minutes too late, and they had already booked us over to the next flight...5 hours later!

Two Norwegian ladies I met had a solution; food, cards and wine. 5 hours later we had to run to the gate after emptying 3 bottles of wine. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Safe in Norway and at Gardermoen, I had to wait another 4 hours. I've never been so tired my whole life before.

Mum and dad picked me up at Evenes. It was so so good to see them again after almost a year.

I woke Thea up. The most confused person I've seen in a very long time. She turned around three times before she realized it wasn't mum waking her up. "Det gaar ikke ann" (It's not possible) came out of her several times before I finally got a hug and a smile. I love surprising people.

Ida