Environmental Activist - or something like that.

Ungdommens Gulating. Undomg= Youth, Gulating - an ancient meeting place where important decisions were reached through a democratic process.
This venue, was host for Climate Conference yesterday.
More info can be found here:http://www.ungdommensgulating.com/

I guess it had the potential to be good, but in many ways I feel it was over advertised as the greatest thing ever. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING new came up. It was the same thing we've heard a million times. The humans have caused Global Warming and you, the youth, (we red.), are the ones who has the power to prevent the "biggest threat in human history".

So yeah, I spoke to a few people who liked it, but I wonder how much educational value they actually got out of it. I mean, personally I thought the music was very nice, but yeah - as I said, this conference has not made me an Environmental Activist.
I've got no immediate plans of going out with banner and yelling and screaming.

As one man put it "I am preaching to the choir" - well yes true indeed.

However as so often before, the image of the whole thing was very good, we even made it to the Norwegian Television.
Here you can see what it looked like in the news.

Anyways, today have been a great day so far. When the weather is good, this place is astonishing. Completely unbelievable. I love it.
The fjord, the mountains, the birds, the quite atmosphere, everything. Amazing.
And all the first years are in Bergen so the campus consist of quiet 2nd years. Very nice.

I wish in many ways, that I had the opportunity to stay here for a month or two, during summer time, without always having to think of exams and homework. This place is such a wonderful place, and has so many opportunities - but due to rules, restrictions and the lack of time, due to studying - we too seldom take advantage of all the opportunities.

As for me now - all I think of is studying, studying and studying. But again - I do have week of hell coming up very soon....I better get back to my books....

...

Last day of School (DK)

In Danish:
In order not to forget my mother tongue I've decided to write some of my blogs in Danish, and for me to remember which ones i've written in Danish I've decided to mark them with a (DK) in the end. How sensible....


Sidste skoledag! Er det ikke utroligt. Aldrig mere skal jeg gå til en dansk time, aldrig mere skal jeg have kemi. Dette er i sandhed en vidunderlig dag. (Bortset fra at det er mega gårvejr).

Anyways, Hvor herligt! Så ja, nu er der bare eksamenerne tilbage. Har planer om at begrave mig et eller andet fornuftigt sted, og så mere eller mindre bo der. Synes selv det lyder, som en vældig god idé.

I dag er der præcis en måned tilbage før alt er overstået. Det føles på mange måder meget mærkeligt. Men sådan er det nu engang. Jeg sidder i øjeblikket og tænker tilbage på, at det nu var ca. 3 år siden jeg gik ud af folkeskolen. Mystisk. Men ja, tiden løber af sted.



Vedr. Min Fremtid. Jo mere jeg tænker over det, jo mere glæder jeg mig til at tage til Canada. Jeg tror jeg får det rigtigt rart, og tror faktisk at skolen passer godt til mig.

Så ja, hvis bare lige der ville komme lidt solskin, ville alting være rart.

2 Days Left and a trip to Canada

2 Days more. Then I'm done with high school. Or well, not really. I still have the exams.
Tuesday is last day of classes for 2nd years. The rest of the time is reading time, which means; me locking myself into a classroom with 10 liters of coffee.

A strange feeling. I'm planing on taking a gap year - so in theory tuesday will be my last day of school for a very very long time. Feels good.

Ohh and I got into a University in Canada. Simon Fraser University. www.sfu.ca.
They offered me a full scholarship, and the place seems really nice, so I couldn't really reject:-)

I guess I'll talk more about that in the future. Now I have to study for my exams.

I think I mentioned something about me also getting accepted to Middlebury. True indeed I did. But they asked for 20.000 USD pr. year. Quite a lot of money, for a Danish middleclass family, which haven't made any savings for university.

A strange Week

It's been quite for a while. But this past week has just been crazy.
Of good news I can begin with the weather. In opposition to the normal evening news, which usually ends with a session dedicated to the meteorologists, I will start with this session.

As you recall, I came back from Easter break facing snow and rain. Yesterday and the day before however I spent most of the day tanning in the sun, while trying to read a few pages in my chemistry book. So yeah, no complaints from my side.

About the strange week.

The week started out with two students being expelled, for a mixture of excessive abuse of alcohol and sexual harassment. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the baseline fact is that two 2nd year students got expelled, Monday afternoon and ultimately left Wednesday. The atmosphere was all but pleasant, and the situation didn't improve when rumors of a 3rd expulsion started circulating.

Apparently a 1st year student is, or will be expelled for having too many absences. This would in most circumstances seem fair enough, if just things had been handled in a proper manor. But they were not. After conversing with the student, and researching into the issue, it turns out that he indeed has a big absence record, but that there are other people that has more absence than him. Far more.

So the interesting question arises? Why was he kicked out and not the other?
In my almost two years at this place, only two people has been expelled (and that took place last Monday) and now suddenly one more?

If we are to take things more into perspective many complaints have come from the administration about the students lack of attendance for classes.
It seems the expulsion of this particular students, has served to statuate and example for the others. He is more like a scapegoat than anything else.

If he really does have so many absences, it can not have come as a surprise. Why expel him 3 days after two other students were expelled. Why not wait until summer, so he could say goodbye to the people he care for. Many interesting question arises. And I am sure I will know more tomorrow.


Enough about out internal tragedy.

Here's a picture of Thursday night's sunset, enjoy!

Snow in April

I made it back to Norway safely (believe it or not), just to acknowledge that the Norwegian winter last longer that I had expected. The two last weeks of march offered sunny days and medium-warm weather, and know I am faced with temperatures just above the freezing point, with precipitation in form of snow and slush.
Sun is nice, snow is acceptable, rain is depressing, but slush is just a pain in the ass.
At least when it rains the water flows off the road. But when you have slush the water and the snow decides to form an alliance ON the road, meaning that unless I wear gumboots I get soaked everywhere I go. blash. If I ever said anything good about the weather at this place I take it back.

I haven't yet heard anything from Dartmouth about my eventual "waitlisting" and I'm am still uncertain if my future lies with Middlebury. They haven't given me any information concerning financial aid, so I honestly don't know if they are intending to support my studies there. I guess I'll have to call them tomorrow to check whats going on.

My first exams are going to take place in less than a month. It feels very strange. I can't believe it. After that it'll all be over. How peculiar...

News from the Hidden Pearl of Prague

Or Praha, as they call it down here.

So my Easter break just started. In Prague. We left Norway Saturday morning, and spend Saturday evening and night in Amsterdam. I travelled with 3 schoolmates who had never seen Amsterdam before so to them it was a big thing. They really liked it, even though they were a bit shocked over the red light district. We made it safely to Prague Sunday morning, where we went straight to bed in our hostel after a long night in Amsterdam. We are a total of 9 people from the school, a very good mix of nationalities, and 1st/2nd years, so it is very nice.
Prague is more than wonderful. It is completely amazing, and I encourage every soul to pack his/hers bags and go right away.
Forget Paris or Berlin. Prague is the place. Everything is stupidly cheap, and they city is SO pretty. If you've ever heard rumors of soviet block, and uncivilized. Forget about it. People here are extremely friendly and helpful and the city itself is the calmest and most authentic place in the planet. Its as beautiful as Paris, yet 10 times cheaper. (I bought half a liter beer for 1 dollar/6Dkr, in a bar last night). And then is doesn't have the arrogance of Paris. Furthermore the city is very clean and organised, in opposition to my prejudices.

The old town is gorgeous, and this place in general is a true heaven. I'm already planing on taking a study option here for half a year or so.

Oh yeah. I forgot. I got reply from university this Saturday. I got 4 rejections Thursday and Friday, plus one "incomplete" which turned out to be a bummer from the universities side. (I had sent them all my material twice, and yet they messed it up). Anyways.
I got a letter of acceptance from Middlebury College this Saturday. I'm very happy. It looks like an amazing place. I don't know what the situation is when it comes to financial Aid. But hopefully ill know soon enough. check out their homepage www.middlebury.edu.

So yeah. I'm happy in Prague. I've gotten a spot at a good university. and the beer down here is cheap. Several things that suit me very well.