next summer

Hi! 

So, I've been thinking about something. This summer I obviously can't do that much since I can't drive. Sure, I could buy a plane ticket and get where I want to be at a fraction of the time, but there's something about driving for hours and hours, listening to loud music and singing at the top of my voice (if I'm alone that is) that just makes me feel free. I know that sounds like a load of hippie crap, but I don't care, I love it. Therefore, I've planned what I'm going to do next summer. When I finally get my beloved drivers license back, I'm going to work my ass off for a month or two so that I can actually pay for it, and then I'm borrowing my mums car and driving anywhere. I'll make a kick ass playlist with all the best songs and I won't book a single hotel room, I'm just going to drive. Maybe north, maybe south, who knows. Maybe I'll go to sweeden, maybe I won't, I haven't planned anything, and I'm not going to. I'm just going to get in the car and drive, all alone, to anywhere. I actually can't wait. 

It will be absolutely glorious. I'll be done with first year BA forensic science, I'll be back in Norway, the sun will (hopefully) be shining and I can picture it already. The luxurious dark green Vauxhall Astra, my blue white and black dress, sun glasses and the playlist from heaven. It'll be amazing! I've actually got myself so worked up about this that I might just steal a car and go right now. 

Right, enough about my futuristic lonesome roadtrip. What have I done today? Nothing. I've watched a season of Dexter, half the second Harry Potter film and eat my weight in skittles. Well, not really, I've had half a bag of skittles, but now my tummy hurts from all the skittles, so it feels like I've eat my weight in skittles, ya feel me? Haha. To be honest, I've been singing a lot. Both Haroon and Sharleen are at home in south London or Reading, and since they are the ones in the rooms next to mine, I can sing (almost) as loud as I like and I love that! Right now it's Avril Lavigne - When you're gone. I have this playlist on spotify with loads of crap that I used to listen to when I was younger, and Avril was a total favourite when I was 10-11! 

I've been talking a bit with my brother lately. Last semester we didn't really talk much, but this semester has been different. He's the most fantastic little guy and I really miss him when I'm in England. However, I'm hoping that he'll be able to come visit me some time next semester, which would be great! Not sure if I'm more scared of him meeting my friends and realize that I'm the weird one in the gang or them meeting him and realizing that they socialize with the wrong sibling, though. Because he is really cool. He's too smart for anyone's good and he's quite cute. Guess he got the jack pot of the gene pool.

Now, time for bed! Lecture at 9AM tomorrow, police and police work! Should be fun. 

Good night! 

A blogpost about everything.

This weekend was a hectic one. Not that it was a lot of stress or anything, but with 2500 words to write, not a lot of time to do it and no clue of how to start, it became quite hectic after all. However, its' done now and I've had today off and I have tomorrow off as well, so the plan is to sleep a lot, hang out with friends and catch up on the tv series that I watch. Granted, tv series should maybe not be a big part of my life, but it is and I don't think that's all that bad. Another thing I will be doing, is keeping myself updated on the conflict going on between Russia and Ukrain.

I obviously don't know if any of my readers have been paying attention to the Russia-Ukrain conflict, but as it has the potential of launching a critical hit to the world economy or in the worst case scenario, a situation of war, I have been keeping myself in the loop. The US and other G8 countries has made threats about sanctioning Russia, stopping the trade market between the countries if Russia doesn't admit defeat. Luckily, Russia and Ukraine has commenced political communication and the situation seems a lot more stabile now than it did yesterday. There's still a chance that it will escalate and that sanctions towards Russia will have to be launched, which will have a massive impact on the economy, driving oil prices, among other things, sky high. Hopefully, though, Moscow will have to realise that the western revolution has reached Ukrain with the downfall of Janukovich and that the majority of the Ukranian people wishes for democracy and a pro-western government, rather than the one Putin poses.

I don't know what it is about these kinds of situations, but they interest me to the moon and back! I don't think I could have ever been a politician myself, the sacrifices you have to make and the game you have to play would have been to much for me, but I like to keep my self informed and to discuss with others. After all, if you don't know what's going on in the world, how can you play a part in changing it for the better? I know that sounded remarkably similar to that of an aspiring politician, but I have no intention of entering either the Norwegian or the UK parliament. I mean, I could, if I wanted to. Probably. Maybe. However, the way that the UK parliament is run, with all the members having practically grown up together, 85% having been in class together at Oxford or Cambridge, I not only doubt that I as a foreign woman would have stood a chance of getting in, but I don't think I would have wanted to. Politics is too much ass kissing and back rubbing for my taste.

Enough politics. It's now past 2am. I should be sleeping, but I'm not. When I should be awake, I'm not. My entire sleeping pattern has been turned up side down and it's down right scary. I have a theory that the most important things I can do to protect my heart is

1. Eat healthier
2. Exersice more
3. Remeber to take the medication
4. Don't drink too much alcohol
5. Get enough sleep.

So far I've been able to do the first four, but keeping a stabile sleeping pattern is, to me, just as easy as breaking into Fort Knox.. I'm able to get up and go to lectures and stuff, I still function even though I don't get the amount of sleep I should on a regular basis and at the correct times, but getting that routine is really hard. I've been thinking of trying to put on an alarm at 10am every day, and actually force myself to not sleep any longer, maybe that would help. It would be nice to get that routine down, haven't had a proper sleeping pattern in about a year..

Right. 2.30. Maybe I should try to get some sleep. Tomorrow (today, depending on how you look at it), we're celebrating Hollie's birthday! If I have the time, I'm also going into town to et some yarn (yes mum, you heard me), I've seen this great youtube film about how to knit your own scarf, so I'm going to try that, maybe I can finally get the scarf that I've been looking for for years! But mainly, we're celebrating Hollie's birthday. I'll try to take some pictures and post them on the blog tomorrow night!

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!

My days with mum! And some other stuff.

I know I haven't been blogging this weekend, but I really feel like I have a good excuse! As I said last time I posted on here, my mum's been visiting this weekend. We've had a lot of fun and I thought I'd tell you a bit about it!

Yesterday I met her at the trainstation at about 11. We went back to my flat, where I showed here around for a bit and then we went to County Arms to have lunch! That's just one great thing about having parents visit, you don't have to pay for food! I mean, the best part of her visiting is obviously that I get to see my mum and have her all to myself for a couple of days just to talk and catch up on everything that's been going on here and at home, but free food is definitely a great perk!

Anyway.. I showed her around basically everywhere. Campus, the neighborhood I'm moving to before 2nd year, city center and everything in between. It was nice telling stories and showing her a bit of "my world" (as cheesy as it sounds). We had dinner in town and then we went back to my flat where we just talked about everything that's been going on both here and at home to catch each other up on everything that's been going on since I went back to England a month ago.

Today, we did basically the same thing. Went to town, did some more shopping and then we went to see the Winchester Cathedral. I've never been inside before and I regret that! It's really beautiful and it's so rich in local and not-so-local history! Hoping to go back, preferrably with a camera, to check it out again!

When we came back from the cathedral, we sat in my room talking for a few hours before I was going to walk her to the B&B where she's staying. When we were almost there, we met about half of my friends and decided to go to the pub with them! It was a bit awkward but a lot of fun and I got to show my mum that I have friends, haha! She also got to meet some of the "originals" of Winchester, which I hope didn't scare her too much! Hopefully, she's had a good time here, even though the reason for her coming over weren't all that great.

My mum! :D

We ordered chocolate cake for dessert after dinner today 

and it was every bit as delicious as it looks! 

This is from yesterday! Cocoa and coffee at Costa in town :)

Over to something else, then! I just finished todays part of the 30 day challenge. Obviously, since I'm supposed to rest every four days, I didn't have a work out yesterday, but todays was a pain. The cardio and push ups are still fine, but the abs are getting harder to do and the squat challenge is a real pain! However, I can already feel a change in the muscles in my legs and (I might be imagining it) I think it's a bit easier to walk up the hill from campus to my flat, which is definitely a motivation! The progression in the programs are hard, but hopefully I'll be able to see it through! 

This was todays programme:

Cardio

60 high knees

40 climbers

Abs

30 sit ups

12 crunches

12 leg lifters

20 sec plank

Squats

70

Push ups

5

I was expecting to feel a difference when doing the work out programme now that I'm on beta blockers, but I didn't notice anything. I'm quite glad I didn't, because if they made it harder to work out, I would have to will my self that much more to do it.. Anyway, thought I'd try to explain how beta blockers work (as far as I've understoof). Since I'm going to be on them for a while, they'll probably be mentioned on here sometimes.

The hypothalamus in the brain sends signals to the thyroid to produce hormones. The hormones then gets released into your blood flow and attach themselves to receptors where they cause reactions. The beta-blockers take the hormones place on the receptors around the heart so that the hormones can't create a reaction. This way, since my condition is stress triggered, the hormones cause signs of stress in the rest of my body butu because the hormone receptors around the heart are unavailable, the heart won't react to the stress. Somewhere in there are also the explanation to why the beta blockers slow down the heart rythm, but I haven't quite figured out that bit yet, I just know how they stop the heart from speeding up due to stress, so I'll get back to you on that one. Anyway. I think the reason why I can't drink too much on these pills are because the heart rate isn't at it's normal speed. Since the heart isn't beating as fast as it usually does, the blood flow is slower and the cells get's less oxygen thereby slowing down metabolism. Since the uptake of alcohol in the digestive system is the same, I'll get drunk as fast but I'll get sober slower. Therefore, if I drink as much and at the same speed that I used to, I'll get drunker faster. However, I don't know if the beta blockers can cause me to have some sort of reaction if I drink too much, so I'm not planning on pushing the limits where my drinking is concerned. 

I guess there were some use in taking biology after all, haha! 

Before going to bed, I want to say one more thing. Today, actually for 56 whole minutes this far, it's my best friends birthday! She turns 20 and are now allowed to buy alcohol above 22% in Norway! So, happy birthday to the most awesome girl in the world, I love and miss you like crazy! 

She's coming to visit in just over a week, so I have a feeling her picture will be on here sooner or later, but here she is anyway, the birthday girl! 

I love you, hope you have a fantastic day! <3