Lecture, volunteering, town, monopoly, course change.

Hey!

It's been a long day. Not long as in tiring, but long as in I've had a lot of things to do.

First of all I went to my Introduction to Criminology 2 lecture, which was really good today. We had a guest lecturer that talked about homophobia and how badly the LGBT-community are treated by some people. The guest lecturer were a gay man that works with a programme that gives young people in the LGBT-community the chance to get together in a totally homophobia-free environment, where they can be themselves and get the help and support they need to do whatever they might feel like they need to do, whether it's coming out to friends and family or dealing with homophobic behaviour, whatever it might be. They also help people that has been subjected to hate crimes because of their sexual orientation to report this to the police. The amount of hate crimes that go unreported are ridiculously high, so I think it's brilliant that you can go to this programme to get help and support if you think that reporting such incidents on your own is too difficult.

I think LGBT-rights are an important issue to raise. In the developed world of 2014, are we really that uneducated that we can't see each other for what we are, human beings? If you're straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, pansexual, whatever, you should be able to live your life in a completely normal manner without having to deal with homophobic pricks who think they're just that much better than everyone else. Because I can pretty much guarantee, that the same mens men, the same jocks, the same idiots that go around spreading homophobic bullshit are the same guys who sit at home in their bed at night, watching lesbian porn while jerking off. Tell me I'm wrong, I dare you.

this is why I've decided to start volunteering for this programme that I can not for the life of me remember the name of. This is something I truly care about and it's something that's really important to do something about, so why shouldn't I? At some point during our bachelor degree, we are urged to do volunteer work any way beacuse it looks really good on the CV, so I think that I've hit the jackspot with this!

That was my rant of the day, haha! After the lecture was over, I went into town with Liva to get some stuff. Now I have enough food to last me the rest of the semester and whatever might be left on the 4th of April will be put in the freezer until I return in May. I might actually have bought enough food to not have to buy any in may, but that's probably just as well.

When I came home and had put all my stuff away, I just hung out in my room for a while. I'm one of those people that really need some quiet alone time and I think making sure that I get that hour to myself to do nothing each day is really important. I feel like if I take some time to myself then I'm not that stressed. This might be logical to everyone else, but I've never realised until now that if I get in that one hour each day of just total relaxation, then I can go on like usual the rest of the day. I can stay a yes person if I get in that one hour, and I like being a yes person, I like making people happy, I like helping out and I like the fact that people seem to think that they can come to me if they need something. If one Hannah-hour each day can let me stay that way without my heart deciding that it's suddenly had enough, then that's what I'll do. I mean, I've always enjoyed being alone and I've always made the time to be alone, but I've always done something while alone. I've worked on whatever people have needed me to do. I've kept my phone on in case anyone needs me. I don't do that anymore. Hannah-hour means nobody else but me and it's made a huge difference. I know it sound really cheesy and really lame, but as long as it works, I don't really give a shit.

By the way, I do apologise for the language on this blog. At first I never thought that I would swear in these posts, but then I realised that it's part of who I am, so why not. I'll have a description put in at the top right corner, saying that the blog is rated for language or something, just to be politically correct, though. At some point. (maybe).

After spending some time alone with my thoughts, Sharleen and I went over to flat 28 to play Monopoly with Rhys, Liam, Hannah S and Nye, who we're living with next year. It was the first ever Sparkford Close 20A get together and it was a lot of fun. I think I'm going to enjoy next year a lot!

I also got an email today, saying that I am more than welcome to transfer into the first year of Forensic Studies in September. All I need now is to get the paperwork signed and I'll officially (almost) be a Forensic student! I actually can't wait to get my hands on the case files and equipment that the Forensic people get to use. They actually study real case files with real crime scene photos of real dead people and if that's not freaking awesome, then I don't know what is! I'm really glad I made the choice of changing courses, I think it'll serve me in the long run, even though I have sort of wasted a year doing Criminology. However, it's not completely wasted, I'll still be able to put it on my CV and I'll have somewhat of a unique education when I'm finished, so that's good at least!

 It's now a 3.15am and I have a ton of stuff to get done tomorrow, so I'm going to get to bed! Hope you've all had a good day!

"To the well organised mind...

... death is but the next great adventure." -Albus Dumbledore

I wonder if the person using what sounds like an air pressure drill above my head at 8 in the morning when I have the day off, has an organised mind, because he might soon find death to be his next adventure..

Good morning!

Had to get that off my mind, can't believe they have to do that.. I wouldn't complain if it was 10am or 12pm or something, but at 8am in the morning? I'm sleeping at 8am in the morning and you better have a damned good reason to wake me up at that hour. Especially since the garbage truck made a racket outside my window as well, at 6am. I know I could close the window, but my room gets too warm... There's generally too much noise in my life. Maybe I should make a formal complaint? I might.

Nah, I'm just kidding! At least I get an early start and a lot of daylight today. Staying positive, no matter how little sleep I've had and no matter how loud the children in the nursary outside is yelling... I honestly can't wait to move out of this flat into a more quiet area. I know I sound like I'm 75 years old for saying that, but it's completely true.

Anyway! At the moment, I'm chatting to Camilla, who's at the hospital, getting her third round of chemo therapy. When she's done today, she's halfway through her treatment and we're hoping she's done and her tests look fine this summer. If they do, then Camilla, Kristine I are going on holiday to celebrate! Not that I can afford it at the moment, but damnit, if one of my best friends is finally cancer free, I'll borrow the money from mum and dad if need be.

I am, right now, the closest to broke that I've been since the end of November. I have about 150 pounds left and 175 pounds that mum ows me. I'm alright, really, I have a lot of food and no decire to eat it at the moment, so I'm good for a while. I did, however, decide that it was a good idea to empty my bank account because it's easier to manage money when you have it physically in your hand. Not a good idea. Now the funds to pay for spotify premium can't be withdrawn, so that's going to be shut down soon, and I can't buy new plugs from ebay, so when I get to 5mm, I'll have to stop until I get money.. I'm actually amazed at how quickly I've been able to stretch, I'm at 3mm at the moment, and by the end of the week I'll be moving for 3,5mm and later 4mm. I've been looking at some new plugs on ebay, and can't wait to get money again so I can buy them! Actually, what I can't wait for, is to get to 00G (8mm), there's so many cute plugs available for that size and upwards! I've got to say though, I'm anxious to know what my parents are going to say when they see that I've stretched my ear lobes. I might have a tiny faint memory of promising I wouldn't do that. Still, they haven't had any issues with any of my other piercings and has probably figured out that it's just how it's going to be for a few years and that when I feel done with my (very) late act of teen rebellionship, I'll come to my senses and take most of them out. By the way, I hope that's a relief to some of my friends as well, who have voices their concern that I'm sooner or later going to end up with implants to look like a unicorn or something like that. Don't worry, I care far too much about what people think of me to do that. Just give me a year or two to pay people to poke me with needles, and I'll give it all a rest, alright?

YAY! It sounds like the guy with the air pressure drill has taken the hint and left my life for the time being. Time to go back to sleep! Think I fell asleep at 4am this morning, and 4 hours is not nearly enough on a day off, so dream land, here I come!

Have a good day, all of you who are actually doing something productive!

My weekend

Friday started out by waking up on my own, with no need for an alarm. Friday's lecture starts at 3, so there's every posibility of sleeping in, which is fantastic! When my drag of a lecture was finally over, I headed up to Liva's for a bit. We were supposed to go to town to do some shopping, but I couldn't be bothered, so we didn't. I then went back home to change and tidy my room, since we were doing predrinks for Sharleens birthday and just in case anyone came into my room, it needed a bit of a shine. Which was good, because the entire predrinks ended up in my room. Me, Liva, Sharleen, Rhys and Emma (one of Sharleens friends from Reading) sat in my room, drinking, playing drinking games and laughing. Rhys is one of the guys I'm living with next year and friday was the first time I saw him drunk! He doesn't really drink that much, but he was a laugh when he did!

Oh Rhys, haha! 

Me and Liva then went to Alfies when Sharleen, Emma and Rhys went to Southampton. We had a good night, but I have to say, I miss being able to get drunk! I know that sounds stupid and I know I have to look after my health, but I'm a first year uni student for fucks sake, I should be able to drink! 

Saturday, me and, you guessed it, Liva went to town to shop. We went to poundland to get some stuff that we didn't really need or could afford, and I ended up with three black storage boxes to keep makeup and skin/hair products in, making my room look a lot tidyer! Sounds silly buying stuff to decorate the flat a month and a half before I move out, but I guess it's better late than never! Liva also bought a box of the same kind as well as a pink/white polkadot shower curtain that she was more than satisfied with. You should have seen her face when she was finished putting it up! 

We then made tacos and had a two person pre drinks while getting ready before heading back into town to Alfies. I really like that place, because there's so many people (guys) there that we never get the chance of meeting when hanging out at county arms across the street from me, because that's a student pub so we basically already know everyone there. Alfies also play the most random music imaginable, everything from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Wonderwall by Oasis to Circle of life from The Lion King. 

Today I haven't really been doing much. When I woke up, I watched a few episodes of Dexter, which is freaking amazing by the way, before actually being bothered to get out of bed. When I finally did start doing something productive, I realised that I lost the ball of one of my helixes at Alfies last night. I have some spare balls, but putting them back on is a struggle with capital S. Not to make things easier for myself, I also decided to change my nose stud to a ring, which wasn't really that much of a hassle, but when I was done with that, I took out the ring in my rook as well. That's always a pain to put back in and I then payed 45 minutes in front of the mirror to put another one back in. 

One arm over the head to support the ring, the other trying to put the ball back on

(or trying to take a picture, what evs).

I spent 45 minutes in this position. Got to love it! 

Nose ring! 

When I was finally done with that, I had breakfast. Mexican, actually. Norwegian mexican mix with Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese on top. Homesick? Not in the slightest. 

When I was finished, I decided to see if I could stretch my ear lobe just a little. It was 2,5mm and I have some plugs that are 3mm, so I put one in and it turned out to work fine! I then changed the pug to a 3mm eyelet, simply because I like eyelets better than plugs when they're this small. Can't wait to get to 00G, there are so many cool plugs to buy for that size! Anyway. I don't know if I've mentioned this earlier or not, but last time I stretched I ripped the earlobe. I didn't realise that the taper I was using was a 4mm and not a 3mm and without knowing it, I tried to stretch directly from 2,5mm to 4mm, and I can tell you, it HURT! It was bleeding and stuff, not good at all! I learned from it though, so from now on I'm always checking that I'm using the right size before trying to shove anything into my earlobes. I guess that is sort of self explanatory, but some of us are clearly a bit slower than the rest.. 

Right. Now I'm heading down to Cyber Italia, my second home, with Liva. She's revising finance math for her test tomorrow and I'm going to try to finish my weekly wiki on hate crime and start the Police and Police work essay which is due on the 24th. Hopefully, I'll get a lot of stuff done so that I can relax at the end of semester, but knowing myself, I don't have high hopes for it. Like my brother says, "procrastinators unite! ... Tomorrow."

Celebrating Hollies birthday!

I've spent most of today outdoors, which was really nice for a change. It's Hollie's 21st birthday today and me, Line, Liva and Amanda wanted to do something fun with her to celebrate. We took food, sweets, cake and soda and had an outdoors picnic!

Before leaving the flat where Line and Hollie lives, we decided that we should do a flower girl theme, so we all borrowed flowery head band thingy's from Hollie and I can safely say it's the first time I've ever walked around in public with anything that even remotely resembles purple flowers on my head. It was really fun though, and here are the pictures that I know you are all just dying to see! 

When we were leaving Queens Road.

Picnic! 

Line and me.

FLOWERPOWER!

Amanda and me! Ignore my face, don't know what I was trying to pull off...

Went to a cosy little pub to have a drink or two after the picnic, which is when this picture and a lot more like it, started being taken. 

My birthday present to Hollie was a home made card with this text in it:

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

You look like a monkey

and you smell like one too! 

I normally wouldn't write stuff like that in a birthday card, but Hollie has a great sense of humour, so I couldn't contain myself. I also gave her some piercings that I'm never going to use and that I thought would come in handy for her. They were obviously never worn and I cleaned them before putting them in zip lock bags, just felt like that should maybe be mentioned. 

Anyway. After I came home, I haven't really been up to much. I hand-knitted an infinity scarf, which was fun, and it actually turned out quite nice as well! I would post a picture, but I've gone to bed and it's way too cold to remove the covers now, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry, I know you're all dying to see what I get up to.. (by the way, I'm often quite sarcastic. Ignore comments like that). It's black, grey and dark blue and took about 45 minutes to make. I won't lie, as I was sitting there, watching the second series of House of Cards and knitting, I couldn't help but wonder if my nan would be proud if she could see me. She would knit 50 pairs of socks each year and were really good at it! I think a lot about family lately. Don't know why, but I do.

I feel like I've been calling home a lot lately as well. I do know the reason for that, though. I'm used to not seeing him that often, but I haven't seen my dad since the 2nd of January. Before that, he was home since just before chrismas, and before that I obviously hadn't seen him since I moved to England. Anyway. I think the reason why I'm calling home so often is that I know I won't see him for a long time still. When I get home for spring break in april, he's at sea. He comes home just after I go back here. I won't see him until late may/start of June. That's 6 months straight without my dad and I can easily say that's the longest I've ever gone without seeing him. It doesn't feel right at all. As I said, I'm used to not seeing him that much during a year, but 6 months straight without seeing my dad when we have as good a relationship as we do, is nothing but hard. Of course, it'll make seeing him in June that much better, and knowing myself, I'm probably going to be trailing him like a dog the first week, just because I miss him. But let's be honest, when a girl hasn't seen the superhero in her life for 6 months, is she not allowed to? I think she is. 

Just so it's been said, I'm not saying that I have it hard, not seeing my dad for 6 months. There's a lot of people who haven't even met one or even both of their parents, who have lost a parent or have a parent in the same situation as me. I'm nothing special, I'm lucky just to have two loving parents who's still together, who work well together, who takes good care of me and gives me whatever I need and want. However, it's still hard not seeing him for ages. The point I'm trying to make is that, no matter how great your life is, no matter how lucky and privileged you are, there's going to be things in your life that's hard, and it's okay to have hard times and you're allowed to miss your dad when you haven't seen him for 6 months, even though you are one of the luckiest children in the world.

Right, got that off my chest! I'm going to sleep now. I have a meeting with Student Services tomorrow and then I have a group meeting thing and then we have a lecture 12-1 and seminar groups 2-3. I think. Busy schedule, but I'm hoping I'll have the time to get some piano playing done in the middle of it all. Haven't played properly for ages and I really miss it! 

I'm probably going to have some trouble sleeping though, seeing as I just went up to 8G on my left earlobe and I have a healing conch piercing in the right ear. Might be a fun night!

Update: Woke up and realised that it wasn't the fact that I went up to 8G that made my ear hurt. It was the fact that I went too fast and managed to rip my earlobe.. Kids, don't rush when stretching!

The Bloods, The Crips, Cyber Italia.

At the moment I'm in Cyber Italia down on campus. It's this pizza restaurant with loads of computers where you can do your course work. It's really convenient, because it's open 24/7, so no matter how much you're procrastinated before starting your essay, you can come down here and actually have to be quiet and do your work. Or write a blog post, what ever.

The essay I'm writing is for the module called Portrayals of Crime and Deviance. It's not that difficult, but the first half is supposed to be a fictional story and since I haven't written a fictional story since year 10, which is four years ago (I feel really old now by the way), it's taking me for ever to write. The story is supposed to incorporate all the things we've learned about in lectures, like for instance the language of crime, the relationship between criminals and law enforcement and depictions of organised crime. In other words, the story has to show how criminals, especially criminals with history of gang crime and other forms of organised crime. I have to show the relationships between the gang members in one gang, the relationships between gang members from different gangs and the relationship between gang members and law enforcement. It's harder than it sounds, but now that I've done a bit of pre work, like writing a background for each character and deciding to use the location, name and criminal history of real gangs to limit the amount of information I actually have to torture my imagination to come up with, it all became a lot easier. Maybe I'll post the story on the blog when I've finished it?

The gangs I've chosen to work with are the San Francisco gangs, The Bloods and The Crips. Apparently, after a quick google search, they are rivals. Which is perfect, because the older brother of Chris, the main character in my story, was killed by a rival gang member. The start of the story is the dialogue between Chris and the police detective that brought him in for questioning after a 16 year old girl had been killed when she tried to run away without paying her drug dealers. So far, so nearly good. Meaning I've already finished that part. Later on, I was thinking I could do a time jump to talk about when Chris' older brother was killed and then go to the conversation between Chris and the gang leader, who hasn't got a name yet, to show the relationship between the gang members of the same gang. The gang leader tells Chris that The Bloods wasn't running any drug deals that night because their shipment didn't come through, so they were out of stock, and go on to say that it must have been a member of the rival gang, The Crips, that was dealing on their turf that night, trying to infringe The Bloods. Don't know how well it'll turn out when I can only use 1250 words, but time will tell!

I think that's enough procrastination for now, hopefully I'll get this done tonight. Deadline is on monday, and I can't be bothered doing an all nighter tomorrow..

My days with Kristine!

I know I haven't been writing a whole lot lately, but I don't have that many readers anyway, so I hope not too many people have been upset.

Anyway! the last few days has been a lot of fun. Kristine and I went to Southampton to shop, we went out drinking (she and Liva drank while I watched haha) and we've been out to eat, a lot. As I've already said (I think), we went to Southampton to shop on wednesday, which were a lot of fun, I think we probably cleared out about a quarter of all the clothes in Primark, haha! We went to Nando's for dinner that day, and if you read this, Sharleen, you are right, Nando's is heaven on earth!

In Southampton I also had my Conch pierced (I think I might have mentioned  this before), but because my phone has decided to act like an idiot, I can't show you a picture, unfortunately.. Some day, when I get a phone that works properly, though!

Wednesday night, we had a quiet night in my room with some girl talk, facials and other stuff. Lots of fun and the sort of thing I wish we had the time to do a bit more often, just hanging out looking horrible together! 

Thursday, we went to my lecture. It was fairly interesting, to be honest. It was about female criminals and how they are treated very differently to male criminals. The bad thing about the lecture was the fact that the lecture room was so hot you could fry an egg on the chairs in there.. Anyway. Afterwards we went home to mine to get ready and go to the pub. Kristine got to meet some of the very, very special people that hang around in there sometimes as well as some of my closest friends. All in all, a good night, I think!

Me and my ginger before hitting the pub! 

We also went to Southampton saturday night for a night out. We started at the Hobbit, a bar that's inspired by the Lord of the Rings. They have 8 pint sized drinks named after characters and such from the movies and it seemed like a really fun place to hang out! I had a Gollum, which was really good! I'll write down the recipe for it in the end of the blog post. We then went wandering around looking for a couple of places that Live had been reccommended, but we couldn't find it and ended up getting the bus to the train station and then we went home to Winchester. Finally back, we headed down to Alfies, one of my favourite pubs in the whole world! We had a lot of fun and I love that Liva, who's one of my best friends in England and Kristine, who is one of my best friends in Norway, went along with each other so well! I love them both to bits and being able to hang out with both at the same time was amazing!

At Alfies, you can buy these wristbands (the pink one was for last semester, the blue one is for this semester) that gives you a lot of great discounts if you show then to the bartender when ordering drinks! I'm collecting them, haha!

From saturday when we went out in Southampton. 

This is the dress I was wearing! Got it at Primark in Southampton, 

think it was £7 or something. 

Yesterday we didn't really do much. We ordered some food for breakfast and then we slept for another 2-3 hours. I was really tired since we had been up all night and Kristine was really hungover, so it took a while before we were able to function properly. However, when we finally did, we went down to Queens to ask Liva if she wanted to hang out and then we went to Wetherspoons to have dinner. They have the most amazing double bacon cheese burger and I know that I'm supposed to be eating healthy and all, but I really needed that! When we finished dinner, we went down to Alfies again just to hang out and wait for the coach that Kristine was getting to Gatwick to get there.

All in all I've had some really great days with some of my favourite people, so I'm very happy at the moment! Really looking forward to visiting Kristine for a few days in Oslo before going home for easter, we are going to see Oslo Ess live at Rockefeller, it's going to be AMAZING! We've been to see them once before and they have jsut come out with a new record, so that's going to be one fantastic night!

Today I've been trying to be a bit productive. I've cleaned my room since two girls in a single room creates a lot of mess. I started taking all my clothes out of my closet to fold them so that they'll be easier to find in there when Liva sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to Cyber Italia with her around half 5-6. I then abandoned the clothes on the floor and went to make dinner. I thought I'd post the recipe for this amazing little dish on here, so that you guys can try it out for yourself, because this is simply too good to keep to myself!

Looks amazing, right? It was! 

Chicken stirfry with mango chutney sause

What you need (2 portions):

Stirfry

1 pack instant noodles, chicken flavour
4-500 g chicken filet
300 g oriental stirfry mix (peppers, onion, sweet corn, bean sprout, sweet peas)

Mango chutney sause

2-3 tbs mango chutney
4 tbs soy sause
2 cloves of garlic
1/5 lime
rosemary
ground cumin

What you do:

• Put on the noodles like it says on the package.
• Dice the chicken filet. When you're done with this, the noodles should be done (especially if meat knife is as dull as mine..)
• Cut up the garlic and mix with mango chutney, soy sause, the juice from the lime and spices in a bowl. Put the vegetables into the bowl as well and mix it all.
• Fry the chicken in two batches in a frying pan until it's brown and crispy. when the chicken is done, put it in a pot.
• Put the vegetable mix and noodles together in the frying pan to mix it and heat it up a bit. When you've done this, if your frying pan is big enough, put the pieces of chicken back into the frying pan to mix with the sause and vegetables. If your frying pan is the same size as mine (too small, that is), put the vegetable/noodle mix into the pot with the chicken to mix it.
• Serve! 

If you want to serve it with a really cool drink, here's how you make a Gollum! 

This is what you need:

Bols blue

Orange juice

Sprite or lemonade

Ice

Here's what you do:

• Put ice in a big glass (pint)
• Pour 2 oz (or as much as you want really) of bols blue into the glass.
• Throw in some orange juice until the drink has a lovely green colour.
• Top it all with lemonade or sprite.
• enjoy! 

Right! I'm heading down to Cyber Italia with Liva in a little while, so I'm going to put my face (mu make up) on and then go do some real work. 

Southampton with Kristine!

Kristine is my favourite ginger in the whole entire world. We went to school together for three years and know a lot of the same people and I'm really grateful that we've been able to keep in touch as well as we have, even though I've moved to England and she's moved to Oslo. Yesterday evening, she came to visit and she's staying until monday morning, and I think we're going to have a lot of fun! 

Today, we've spent the day in Southampton, shopping. Love shopping. Can't really afford it, but who gives a shit, I can starve for a month or so, no problem! I think the thing I'm definitely most pleased about is the dress I got. It's black, blue and white and I would post a picture but it's in my dresser and I can't be bothered getting out of bed, haha. Also got this pyjamathingy, look how cute!

Yes, the camera on my phone makes everything look green... I'm having it fixed in june, though, so hang in there! 

Kristine got a penguin onesie, and looks hella cute, wouldn't you say?

I also got my conch pierced today! Haven't taken a picture yet, because getting a new piercing has kind of stopped being that big a deal, to be honest. Not that I'm not freaked with exitement over it, because I am, but it's a usual thing by now, if that makes any sense. 

When we came back to Winchester and had put all our stuff away, we changed and did our makeup and then headed down to the pub. I think it's some kind of curse or something, but the people I have had visiting me have had to meet the weirdest people that Winchester has to offer.. I mean, the originals give the place a bit of charm, but it's a bit too much charm in one go, by my opinion. 

Tomorrow we're going to my (favourite) lecture and then we're going into town so that Kristine can see the beautiful place that Winchester really is. She came yesterday evening and today we've been to Southampton, so she hasn't really seen that much yet. 

After a day of walking around Southampton, we're both really tired, so I don't think it will be that long until we turn off the lights and say goodnight. 

A long day that turned out not to be so long after all.

That might have been the blog post title of the year, haha!

I was finally able to sleep around half 5 last night. I had to get up at 8 to get ready for lectures.. 2,5 hours of sleep should be enough, right? I put on the baggiest pair of sweats I own, a big jumper and a scarf, put some makeup on random places on my face and concidered myself ready for 6 hours of lectures.

On my way to the first lecture, I stopped by the italian cafè on campus to buy their entire stock of energy drinks and realised that my visa card was in my other purse. I had enough coins for one energy drink and so I bought that and went to the first lecture.

When I had downed half the energy drink, my heart started beating like crazy and I realised that in the lack og sleep and motivation this morning, I forgot to take my heart medication. Fleeting images of me lying on the floor with students and lecturers and paramedics all around came floating to the surface of my brain and I could definitely feel the stress level rising. However, midway through the first lecture, half the class started laughing and talking and it turned out that the professor in the second lecture was feeling sick so the lecture had been cancelled! the lecture I was in finished at 11, so I walked with another Norwegian girl back up to my flat to get the medication. I'll tell you, that hill has never ever been that hard to walk!

Later on, we're doing a flat dinner with this girl that used to live here last semester. She's Norwegian as well and it'll be nice to see her again!

By the way, people reading this who understand Norwegian! Oslo Ess has just released a new record, check it out on Spotify or Wimp. It's called 'Alle hjerter deler seg' and is really worth your time!

Going out into the storm

The weather outside is really bad. It's a lot like it is at home sometimes, which isn't exactly normal over here. The trees are bending in the wind and the rain is coming down in buckets, and what do we do on nights like these? We shove aside the fact that we have a cold and should stay in bed, and go out! I know I should probably stay in bed with a cup of tea tonight, but going out with friends, having a good time is a lot more tempting, so that's the plan!

Yesterday, I started the process of changing uni courses. I really enjoy studying Criminology and I wihs I could continue with it, but I'm scared I won't be able to get the job that I want with a BA in Criminology and an MA in forensic science, so in september I'm either transferring to 2nd year Forensics or I'm starting over to do a full BA in foresics. I'm really excited about it because forensic science is something that has fascinated me for years, and I hope that when I've made the change, I'll be happy with it and that with a lot of hard work towards my degree to get the best grade possible, I'll be able to get the job that I want. I'm not quite sure where I'm aspiring to end up yet, if I want to stay in the UK and work for New Scotland Yard or if I want to go back to Norway and work for Kripos, but there's a lot of time left to decide that.

A few days ago, I spontaneously ordered a stretcher set on Ebay. I'm not going big, just a few millimeters, but I'm really excited about it! I got the set today and was really surprised that I could go straing to the 2mm taper without having to put in the 1,6mm for a few days first, like you usually do. However, the labrets I've beeen using for a while is 1,5mm, so I guess I wouldn't have been that surprised if I'd given it some thought. What annoys me, though, is that I also bought some plugs to use between stretching periods, and they are 1,6mm, 2mm and 3mm and since the 1,6mm taper is too small, I won't be able to use the 1,6mm plugs at all.. I also bought a really cool marble taper, but that's 1,6mm as well... Oh well, first world problems, eh?

The 30 day challenge is giving me issues at this point. The sets yesterday were really tough and especially the squats and abs challenges are getting a bit much to handle and I sort of wish I had done them one at a time. Still though, I can handle it. We're talking about devoting 15-20 minutes each day to be in a bit of pain to get stronger, and that's not that bad. After all, I've only been at it for 10 days, giving up now would be nothing short of embarassing. It's all about will power, and there's no lack of will power in my mind.

I'm off to take a shower and then I'm going out with a bunch of Norwegian people! The weather will be a challenge, but at least I won't be drunk and make stupid decisions, so that's good at least! Maybe I'll put a picture or two on here from tonight, when I blog tomorrow :)

My mum is in England!

Tomorrow (technically today) at 11.05 my mum is going to be at Winchester train station! I haven't thought about how much I miss my family, since it's only been four weeks and I know I won't get to see them for another 8, but now that there's only 8 hours left until I get to spend an entire weekend with my mum, I'm buzzing with excitement! I'm not too happy about the fact that she wouldn't be coming if it wasn't for the fact that you're not allowed to send medication in the mail, but I'll take what I can get.

I can't wait to show her around in Winchester. Last time we were here together was the first time I had ever been here, and to think that we walked past so many places that day that I have come to love so much is nothing but surreal. Like when we walked down the high street, past all the shops and pubs that I've spent so much time in since I moved here! Or the fact that we had dinner at County Arms, not knowing how many hours I would spend there, starting just a few months later! I'm really looking forward to going to all of those places again and being able to tell her stories and show her what my life is like here. I'm also hoping she'll be able to meet all my friends so that she can see that I'm doing okay, that I have people around me that love me and that I love. Not that she thinks I'm a loner, but introducing her to all the great people I've met here will be really fun!

My mum! 

Today I haven't really been up to much. I had a lecture at 3pm so I got to sleep late and then I went home to change, because I had a date! But then it turned out that someone had jumped in front of a train so all the trains were cancelled, so we had to reschedule. Not that that's the saddest thing about that whole situation, I mean, someone took their own life just a few minutes walk from where I live, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I wasn't planning on thinking too much about that, however harsh that might seem.

Right now I've just finished doing the last bit of cleaning before tomorrow. My mum is coming by the flat, so I thought it might be nice if she didn't have to think that her daughter lives in a pig sty! Anyway. Before cleaning, I did todays part of the 30 day challenge. I think it's going well, but I'm definitely a bit sore from yesterday! Weirdly, tho, I'm not sore where I thought I would be. My arms, abs and legs are fine, but my back is killing me! However, that means that I'm strenghtening the muscles in my back, so I'm not too worried about that.

Todays set looked like this:

Cardio
20 high knees
60 climbers
Abs
25 sit ups
10 crunches
10 leg raises
15 sec plank
Squats
60
Push ups
5

The squats were really hard today. As I said, my back is really sore from yesterday already so I'm really glad I have tomorrow off! The push ups weren't too bad, but I expect that will change in a while. The abs work out are definitely getting worse, tho. Leg raises has never been my favourite exersise, and I really felt the 10 I had to do today, but I'm trying to think positive and came to the conclusion that even though they feel horrible now, and even though they probably will throughout this whole challenge, at least I'm doing them and at least I'm giving it my best!

Right, it's half four and I'm still wide awake. Getting up at 10, so I guess I should go to bed!

It's raining, did you know?

When I told people back home that I was moving to England, almost everyone said "are you mental, rain is all you get over there!" When I went back for christmas, I told them that they were wrong, that England isn't half as bad as they said it was, because last semester the weather over here was really nice! Now on the other hand, I'm starting to think that there's a reason why people say taht it rains a lot in England. It's raining all day every day, it's really windy, it's freezing cold and all my converse has holes in them.. I know that doesn't technically have anything to do with the weather, even though my feet does get soaking wet every time I leave the house at this point, but I thought since I was already moaning, I might as well mention the thing that's annoying me the most!

The slightly depressing view from my room! 

That was really English of me, wasn't it? Both moaning and talking about the weather at the same time, I think I'm getting the hang of this! 

Anyway, I've just finished the second day in the 30 day challenges, and I think it's going well, so far! Todays sets looked like this:

Cardio

60 high knees

40 climbers

Abs

20 sit ups

8 crunches

8 leg raises

15 sec plank

Squats

55 

Push ups

4

I definitely think the squats were the hardest today. Yesterday I divided the set of 50 reps into 2x25 and that was no problem, but today I followed the rules and did 55 concecutive reps and my legs are killing me. However, all in all it is going great and I actually think I can do this! 

Quadruple 30 day challenge!

I might be in over my head on this one, but I'm going to give it a shot! Today I start my quadruple 30 day challenge. There are two rules where these challenges are concerned:

1. The reps are to be done continously without brakes. (I started the squat challenge with a brake in the middle of the set to get an easy start, but counting tomorrow, I'm following the rules)
2. Rest every 4 days.

I'm doing cardio, squats, abs and push ups (for beginners, haha)! The reason is that by doing squats, abs and pushups I'll work on the biggest muscle groups and thereby get a lot higher metabolism. Cardio is also a great way to burn calories, in addition to the fact that I have the lung capasity of a four year old and really need to do something about it! 

// Made with Photo Grid for Android //

This is some of what I have to look forward to for the next 30 days! 

The great thing about doing more than one challenge at a time is that you essentially end up with a full work out, pre planned for 30 days. If you're then able to stick to the plan you'll get in shape quickly, especially if you haven't been working out a lot previous to the challenge and that makes it easier to keep going after the first 30 days are up! 

Today's workout wasn't all that big, but that'll change quickly enough! 

Cardio

40 high knees

20 climbers

Abs

15 sit ups

5 crunches

5 leg raises

10 sec plank

Squats

50

I did 2x25 to get an easy start

Push ups

3 push ups

The total work out took me all of 15 minutes and I think that's another thing that's so great about these challenges, that you get a small work out (a little is a lot better than nothing) that's easy to fit into a busy schedule. Obviously, as the days progress the workout gets bigger and takes up more time, but since the first few days are so small, it's easy to get a good start, and as soon as the first week is over, it shouldn't be that hard to keep going (I hope)! By the way, don't judge me based on how very few push ups I'm able to do, it'll get better! 

I really hope that I'll be able to finish this, and to help me keep going when it gets tough, I've decided that I'm not allowed to get another piercing until I've completed this. Those who know me, or follow me on instagram or twitter knows that piercings are a big thing in my life. I have 20 at the moment and I have a few more planned, but for the next 30 days, my skin stays needle free! Also, I have 30 days to save up the money for it, because last semester I got 6 new piercings and that was a big reason why I had to go through 10 days where I didn't have enough money to eat properly. In other words, a win-win situation! 

Now I'm going to have a shower before my whole flat comes home from BOP, a weekly party at the Student Scene. Love being home alone, because that means I can listen to music as loud as I want while showering, without annoying Sharleen (who lives in the next room) to death! I was supposed to go to pre drinks and BOP with the criminology class, but I'm tired and I've been out a lot lately, so I dropped it. Kind of wish I hadn't, because I want to get to know my class better, but hopefully there'll be another chance some other time! And we're going to study together for 2,5 more years, so I somehow have a feeling that we'll get to know each other some where along the way. 

Productive day today!

I don't know about you, but I had an amazing day today. I was not nearly as hungover as I thought I would be, so it turned out to be quite the productive day!

I started out by cleaning my room, which went quite well, all I need to do is hoover and take out the trash and then it's all ready for my mum's visit next weekend! The sad thing is though, even though I cleaned the whole room to the point where my mum would actually be quite impressed (and sligthly surprised), I can't find my key to the flat, meaning I'll have to spend £25 on a new one and I'm willing to bet quite a lot that as soon as I've bought the new key, I'm going to find the old one just lying on my desk or something..

After finishing cleaning my room, I went down to Liva's flat and then we went to the flat where we had predrinks yesterday, so that I could get my phone charger, since I forgot it there. In their kitchen we also found the bottle of vodka I was drinking yesterday and I was really surprised to see how much I'd actually drunk! About 3/4 of the bottle were gone and I can NOT remember drinking that much. We also met most of the people that we went out with, and everyone were asking if I were okay and laughing at me for my condition last night.. Apparently, I was reeeally happy all night, and I told almost everyone I know that "we should be best friends for ever, all the time". Safe to say, that's not a statement I'll make in any other condition than the one I was in last night. I can hardly remember anything, but if my friends are to be believed, I had a pretty good night, so I guess it's not all that important! I also found out why my ancle is hurting. I tripped on the edge of the sidewalk and fell out into the road and then I lay there moaning for a while until Eric came to help me up and supported me until we got up to the pub!

Oh well, enough about my drunken mistakes.

After having my whole night replayed by 15 different people, Liva and I walked into town. She was going to a house viewing for next year and then I had my date! I wasn't too sure how I felt about him before I met him, so I wasn't all that nervous or anything, and I think that was a good thing, because it made it easy to be myself and talk like I usually do, straight off. We spent about 3-4 hours together, just talking about anything and everything and by the time we were walking back to the train station, he had me quite conviced of my feelings! He's really nice, very polite and we seem to have a lot in common. We have basically the same humour and I think we get along very well. It was nice meeting someone who wasn't stuck up and awkward, but quite laid back and easy to talk to. He also made me laugh quite a lot, which obviously is a good sign!

Afterwards, I went back to Liva's where we attempted to finish off the rest of the vodka from last night and then we went to the pub, which was surprisingly packed to be sunday night. We quickly deduced that superbowl is tonight, so that explained a lot, and we ended up going home at about 12.

Right now I should be sleeping. I have a lecture at 9AM tomorrow morning, so I'll have to get up no later than 8, and that's 6 hours away and I'm still sitting on my bed, fully dressed, singing 80's and 90's karaoke and blogging.

Riiiight, this is me at the moment, even though I should really be sleeping.. Wasn't supposed to upload this picture, but my computer had a seizure and the image uploader thingy wouldn't work, so this extremely pretty picture of me will have to do for now! 

I'm thinking about doing some yoga, maybe that'll put me in a sleepy mood when I'm done! There's some really good videos on youtube, well worth checking out! :) 

Rough morning

Hey!

So, I'm having a rough morning. My mum is coming to visit next weekend to bring me the heart medication my GP in Norway prescribed, because you're not allowed to send medication in the mail. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to drink while I'm on them, I just know that they'll slow down my heart beat, so I have a feeling that I can't. Anyway, since that's happening next weekend and I'll probably be on those mediactions for a while, I thought I might as well go all out this weekend, and so I did.

Me and Liva (the Norwegian girl I hang out with basically every day) went into town to buy alcohol and a present for Rodyna, since we were celebrating her birthday yesterday. We got her a 1D lunchbox and water bottle, and she was really happy with it! Anyway, Liva and I got ready in her flat before heading down to the flat where Rodyna, Hollie and Line (another Norwegian) lives. We had predrinks in their kitchen while Hollie and Line got ready, which was quite fun! When we finally decided that it was time to go (about 10.30), I was so drunk I was having issues finishing sentences and I suppose theres no need to mention that I was drunkest of us all. We went to County Arms, which is the pub right across the road from my accomodations,  before heading into town, which was a good idea, because I didn't get any further. Not that I got sick or anything, but I felt like I was too drunk to go into town because that meant that I would get more to drink and I probably would end up on the floor in a bathroom, hugging the toilet and I would ruin Rodynas night because she and the rest would have to take care of me. So, good girl right there! I went home to my flat, fell down on the bed and checked the time. 11.50.... I was flat out drunk and it wasn't even midnight!

Today I woke up at 5.30, more dehydrated than the sahara desert, drank about two pints of coke and tried to go to sleep, but it was impossible. Watched two episodes of Game of Thrones but I have no idea of what they were about.. It's a good series, tho!

Rodyna, Line and Hollie before we went out! 

I hate outfit blog posts, but this is what I was wearing! 

Necklace from H&M, dress from Primark, leather jacket from Cubus, Converse

At the moment I'm trying to track down the people I went out with yesterday to find out why my ancle hurts. I can't move it too much and it's a bit swollen, but I can't remember falling or tripping.. When I can manage, I'm hoping to get a bit further in cleaning my room, I've spent a week on it already and it still doesn't look half way good enough to invite people in. Getting there, tho! At 4 I'm  heading over to the train station because I have a date today! I have no idea of what to wear or what to do with my hair, the only thing I know for sure is that this girl is NOT having any alcohol today. I'm really excited tho, he seems nice! 

Right, going to stop using the blog to procrastinate and actually get some stuff done!

Harry Potter Drinking Game!

Hey!

So, yesterday was fun! I finally managed to get myself back to the flat without drowning in the rain, and when I got there, me an Sharleen (she lives in the room next to mine in our flat), decided to do the Harry Potter Drinkng Game. The rules are fairly simple, you put on any Harry Potter movie, and then you drink according to the following rules until you are either too drunk or you've watched the whole movie:

1 drink if:

• Anyone is awarded house points
• Hagrid talks about a magical creature
• Harry is mistreated by the Dursley's
• Someone casts a spell
• Madame Hooch is on screen
• A flame of any sorts is in the shot
• Draco sneers at anyone

2 drinks if: 

• House points are taken away
• Neville does or says anything stupid
• A character's pet is mentioned by name
• Professon Flitwich is on screen
• Professor McGonagall says "Potter"
• Crabbe and/or Goyle are on screen
• Draco says "mudblood"
• Harry is on a broom

3 drinks if:

• Hagrid says "I shouldn't have told you that"
• Professor Snape looks down his nose at someone
• Hermione raises her hand in class
• Hermione says "Hogwarts... A history" 
• Professor Sprout is on screen
• A painting talks
• An owl makes a delivery

4 drinks if:

• Fred and George say a sentence in unison
• Professor Dumbledore shares a knowing glance with Harry
• Harry mentions his parents
• Harry mentions Sirius
• Someone says "Voldemort"
• Harry faints around a Dementor
• Ron says "Bloody hell!"
• Ron is jealous of Harry
• You see a house elf
• Harry cries

Chug your drink if:

• Harry saves the day
• Harry catches the snitch
• Voldemort is on screen

In other words, you need a lot of alcohol and you need to be really into Harry Potter, neither of which is a big issue for me. We only did the first movie and the first two sets of rules, and that's a good thing, because we were giggling before they had started the sorting at Hogwarts.. 

This is Sharleen yesterday, about half way through the movie. Packed into her raindeer onesie, drinking raspberry vodka and coke! We had been giggling for quite a while when I took that photo, haha! 

This is the first time I've ever done the HP drinking game, and I think (hope) that I'll be able to do it again, it's a fun way to get really drunk, haha! 

I've been a Harry Potter fan for ages. 11 years I think it's been, actually, since I first started reading the books. I have absolutely no idea of how many times I've read the books or seen the movies, but they never get boring! 

All crazy fangirls needs some proof of her insanity that she can easily carry around with her where ever she goes. This is mine. I'm probably adding to this tattoo later, putting in a crown with a W inside it, because "Weasley is our king" and all that. 

I'll do a post at some other time, with pictures of my other tattoos and piercings when I get around to it! Don't know if that's at all interesting to anyone else but me, but that sucks for you, doesn't it? :)

-Hannah

Are you kidding?

I was walking to lectures, and for some reason, the skies decided that I needed a combined shower and blowdry.
I had my umbrella, but I swear to Thor (I'm not christian, so norse mythology will have to do), I might as well have been carrying an open water bottle up side down over my head.
The umbrella broke from the wind, so I put it in my bag. Not the best idea I've had, seeing as it was dripping wet and I had all my stuff for the lecture in that bag, so when I got to my lecture, my clothes were wet, my bag was wet, the inside of my bag was wet and so on, you get the point.
Aaaanyway, the lecture is quite interesting, we're talking about crime and corruption in the global south. Did you know that over 50% of Afghanistan's BNP comes from illicit drug trafficing?
Hopefully, the weather will have calmed down when I'm walking back to the flat later, or I'm scared I might drown..
-Hannah

TGIF!

Hi!

It's friday, it's nearly weekend and it's a good day. Not that I'm really that desperate to have the weekend off, I only have lectures mondays, thursdays and fridays, so I can't complain, really.

Todays lecture is Key thinkers and themes in conceptualicing Crime (or something like that). It's a fascinating lecture, but they all pretty much are, so I'm lucky in that sence. When I went to VGS in Norway ( the last three years of school you go through before being shipped off to uni), we had classes all day, every day. Some classes were a bit interesting, so those were worth going to, but take for instance the teacher we had in Norwegian. She loved hearing her own voice so much that she once spent 20 minutes explaining that she "didn't talk that much, really" I think we agreed after a while that the most likely explanation was that she had a broken fuse or something, but I can tell you this: Norwegian class made the week seem three times as long as it actually was.

Anyway. It's nearly 1pm, which probably means it's about time that I get out of bed and make some breakfast, my stomach has started making noises.

This is my favourite breakfast in the whole entire world!

1 Banana
1 Apple
1/2 Mango
10 Grapes
6-7 Strawberries
3-4 tbs low fat vanilla youghurt

Cut the fruit into pieces, put it in a bowl, cover in vanilla youghurt and pour yourself a glass of orange juice. That's more than your 5 a day covered in one meal!

Right. Time to put on some clothes, splash some makeup on my face and start the day!

- Hannah