Advertisement
Published: October 11th 2009
Edit Blog Post
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
Today is Sunday, one of my favorite days to just relax at home and have time for myself. But with the sun beckoning me, I had to go out and see it even though the ground was an icy mess and the destination was a good 25 minute walk from here and there was a pile of Norwegian homework calling my name. And as I walked across the rocks down by the bay (or MorkvedButka), I thought of everything that has happened this week. In two days, it will be two months since I've been here. That is crazy. It's going by fast. And as fall really sets in and the trees start to lose their leaves and the landscape around us is becoming very barren, it seems that I'm one of few that isn't being entirely affected by the weather. I haven't suffered from S.A.D. yet. I haven't felt the need to surround
Photo by Helen Hillevi Ruud, copyright protected by her.
The ambassador lunch with (left to right: Destinee, me, Lars, Stephanie, and Monica) The other 4 lunch participants were gone by then. myself with bright colors or limit my caffeine intake which are both good things to do to mitigate the effects of S.A.D. It has been quite a week though.
On Monday, Destinee and I had lunch with the ambassadors from the Oslo Embassy. We were surprised to find that one of them was from Idaho just by where I grew up. And after a nice chat with them and some other BUC people, I went downtown to cash my check. It was a nice day and nice just walking around and I was feeling very excited. I cashed my check, bought my train ticket to Trondheim in a couple weeks, then came back to my little room to study. That afternoon, I ended up getting a bad email from the most prominent paleontologist in the U.S. telling me that I was unqualified and should consider a different field in graduate school. I guess that was coming! Then most of the night and into the early hours of Tuesday were spent studying for my fish physiology exam. And everyone at Hoglimyra was excited to see the thick snow falling from the sky. Sadly though, Tuesday was bad as I didn't
do very well on my exam. Later that night though, there was a knock on our door and Anya invited us to go play cards. So we went down to Anna's and met Nastya and Yulia and played Mafia and Fool Man, drank tea, ate pancakes, and watched some comedian on youtube for a bit. Then when I went back to my room around 1a.m., I had a really nice email from a professor at OSU that gave me some hope with my graduate school search. It was a nice end to a rollercoaster day!
Wednesday was just spent going to class, going to international coffee hour to plan International week, and trying to figure out what is authentically American. What is really American? We decided to make apple pie and sweet tea, but still need to figure out what else is authentically American. Then that night, more graduate schools, homework, and studying for the GRE. Thursday was a little uneventful but I got a lot of modules done, did some laundry, and then Destinee, Anya, Anna, Nastya, Yulia, and I all went rock climbing down at MorkedHallen. I was a little nervous but it was so much fun!
I even made it to the top -- twice. I learned how to break too though and I think I pulled a muscle in my left arm. Ah well, it was so much fun!! Then Friday finally came and after my lab, it was relaxing a bit for the party that night. We got invited over to Nastya's for a little pre-party and it was such a blast. Then we headed down to Samfunnet and danced into the early morning hours. And Saturday was just spent relaxing, resting, and more graduate schools...go figure. And I learned that my name is Norse in origin and means, "curly hair or gust of wind." Interesting...
And today, today is a day of contemplation. I came to the realization that what you only ever truly own that is entirely yours...is your story. And you have to make the most of your story since you never really know where the next page might take you. And that is why I travel, why I have wandered. And maybe one day, I'll find my place and stop wandering, but for now...I'll just follow Mark Twain's advice and catch the wind in my sails, even if it
chills my ears!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0678s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb