Life of Åsmund
A student life
NEW YEAR’S AT KJERRINGØY
Jan 4th
I’m back in Trondheim!
Christmas holidays have been great with my family, good food and time to play guitar, some piano, reading books and playing Fifa with my younger sister. I got several great books for Christmas, a new duve and Trivial Pursuit :)
New year’s was celebrated on Kjerringøy near Bodø in relation with my uncle’s 50th birthday. We stayed at the old minister’s house and it was great, though without water for three of the four days due to ice blocking the water supply. The scenery on and around Kjerringøy was truly mind blowing, it’s easy to understand why tourists love the northern parts of Norway!
As I said, I’m back in Trondheim, now eager to finish my project report!
END OF THE SEMESTER
Dec 20th
Finally I’m on my way home, currently on the train, trying out the Wordpress application for iPhone. One of many cool apps I haven’t had time to try out due to the past 4 weeks of intense working.
The semester is over, but my work isn’t. However, I’m going to have a well deserved Christmas holiday before work continues. My work isn’t over? You say. Well that’s because I wasn’t able to finish my project report due to several delays related to malfunctioning machinery. Most is done, I just need to get in touch with my supervisor, currently in India, and discuss my results with him. This has been harder than expected, thus the delay in handing in the report.
Off-school things: Øystein and I have played Call of Duty: Modern warfare 2 on xbox360. Incredible game! Special ops. two player is a magnificent time spender :D
I’ve also discovered Fast Flip from Google Labs, a neat way of serving news from different sources. It’s really useful on the iPhone! Worth a try!
Merry Christmas to you all!
THE SEARCH FOR CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
Dec 3rd
If you’re a student like me, you know Christmas spirit is hard to come by during December (specially here in Norway, where all the exams are before Christmas). I’m currently drowning in project work, spending nothing but 14-15 hour days at school.
Therefore, as my last post suggested, I’m really not in a Christmas mood. Luckily, I have some fantastic flatmates that help a lot on that front. Specially Ellen entrepeneur when it comes to finding Christmas spirit. (Andreas is like me, very busy at school, so he is benefitting from Ellen’s “Christmas spirit project” as well).
Here’s a list of Ellen’s Christmas spirit strategies, I encourage everyone to try them out – it really works!
1. Christmas decorations! We don’t have many of them, but they are good reminders that Christmas is just around the corner. I doubt that Andreas and I would have taken ourselves time to put them up.
2. Scented candles! Another simple, but really good idea. The smell that welcomes you after a long day at school really boosts my mood, almost inspiring.
3. Ginger-snap! Ellen and Andreas made ginger-snap yesterday! It’s nothing more “Christmasy” than ginger-snap, and we had a great time decorating them while watching Love Actually (the elephant above is mine *proud*).
4. Christmas Calendar! Ellen suggested we should make our own calendar, so we did. Every day, one of us gets to an encouraging gift to open before school. This is also a tradition I’ve had throughout my childhood, so it truly makes Christmas spirit come around!
A SUNDAY LIKE ANY OTHER
Nov 29th
The past week has been very long with working days mostly spanning from eight in the morning until ten o’clock in the evening. Project report, project lab, exams … you name it.
Everything has come a bit “everything at once”, specially the project where suddenly all the machines I need are working (after a month or so not working). Lots to catch up, lots and lots and lots …
This means I’m not in an Advent mood at all, but I’m trying by dimming the lights in my study and look at nice Advent pictures like the one above by powi.
Additionally, I came across this great article by SINTEF Byggforsk (in Norwegian) where the research institute have analysed the building quality of Ginger-snap houses.
Soon, December is here, and a bit later Christmas is over us. I’m truly looking forward to spend more relaxing days with my family!
WHAT DID YOU GET FOR CHRISTMAS?
Dec 28th
I had written that I yesterday helped my cousin Asle with preparing his JULEKKO evening and that it was a great night (even though a bit few people showed up) and that we had a fun night that ended at 8 o’clock.
I had made some cool sentences about how I got up at 15h this afternoon and that the egg and bacon breakfast was superb.
But as you might understand this didn’t happen. Now I’m wondering if I still have the energy to tell you about how much I enjoy Christmas – spending quality time with my family and eating lots of food ..?
Even though I enjoy Christmas because of it’s atmosphere, great food and company I really like the presents part – specially the one where I open a present (Just a note: In the recent years I’ve started enjoying giving presents more and more as well, doubt me not).
Two presents I got this Christmas that I know I will use a lot is a brand new Fjällräven backpack and a Graphic tablet (Trust TB-7300) for drawing on the computer. I haven’t received the Graphic tablet yet, it’s being sent to Toulouse, so I have yet another reason wanting back!
The backpack is one of the best presents I’ve received in many years as the one I have now I’ve been using every single day for a long time. The new one is slightly bigger and has a dark green colour (I couldn’t find a picture with that colour, so you see the dark brown one).
What did you get for Christmas? Please leave a comment!