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!

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!

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!

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.

A properly built Ginger-snap house (Photo: SINTEF)

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!

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!

After meeting Susanne I took the plane to Bergen with my mother, it was almost Christmas on the plane. The sun was setting and gave a perfect mood (the only bad thing was a really strick flight attendant – she told me not to read my book since I was sitting next to an emergency exit – wtf?).

So I arrived in Bergen on “little Christmas eve” (that’s what the 23rd is called in Norway). I’ve been trying to get my mood into Christmas mood in warp speed, but I’m still quite not there. Christmas seems to be coming one day too early this year.

I’m having a fast sit down in between the working assignments of picking up my grandmother, peeling the potaoes, ironing my shirt, helping out with the food etc. etc. Even though I said my Christmas mood isn’t here quite yet I really think I’ll get it by the end of the afternoon!

I’m really looking forward to a great meal of “pinnekjøtt” with “kålrabi” and all the dishes that MUST be a part of the Christmas meal!

I’ve got to run!

Christmas is a time for happiness and joy, but not everyone is that fortunate. Remember that when you celebrate with your family and loved ones. Merry Christmas to you all!

Åsmund

This evening Petter, Mats and Andreas went out for a pizza and some catching up chatting. It was nice, but it’s sad I’m only staying in Skien until the 23rd. But I’ll try to meet as many people as possible before I leave.

We’re going to celebrate Christmas in Bergen with friends and family. I’m of course looking forward to seeing them again as well!

Now I’m going to relax a bit in front of the television before I go to bed. Happy pre Christmas everyone!