Girls night out in the city!

Micheal Jackson lunchtime

Life is still good in Berkeley. I have neglected my blogg a little, but will try to keep it going.

The last weeks have been busy. School has started and is giving me a hard time. Statistics is difficult and unfortunately my motivation is below zero. My statistic class is a small one, we are about 15 people, so you can`t hide..The professor is nice but he demands a lot. I have weekly assignments and exercises. We have both lectures and labsessions. So it`s pretty intense. I have difficulties in understanding the subject. Kind of depressing. But I will make it somehow. I have to.

The other day I went to a phoneshop to get my phone fixed. I thought it was a small thing to do but it turned out to be a bigger affair. However, the clerk who helped me was really funny and we started talking about all the world and his brother. He had to call the phonecompany and tell them my phone number a hundred times. Well, to sum up: He ended up knowing my number off pat..haha! So he said, we should hang out some day. So we did all day. I had so much fun! He looks like Micheal Jackson when he was five. I got myself an american friend. Finally. I learned all this ghettoslang. Times ripe to improve my english. I have mostly spoken norwegian due to the fact that i hang a lot with norwegians.

I wouldn`t wanna miss this though. I have made some good friends here and am gratefull to have them. But most of them are leaving after christmas and i will be stuck here on my own. I`ll better get some more american friends. Maybe I should get my mac fixed as well.

Walking through the streets of Berkeley makes me happy. I love the american way of life and the spirit of Berkeley. It is still sunny and warm. Though it gets chilli in the evening. My spanish roommate is freezing, so she keeps the heeter running. Spain seems to have warmer summer.

I hit the gym today. It was about time. Tried body shape. Well, I thougt I was in a good condition but obviously I am not. The instructor made us cordbouncing while screeming: move your arms, burn calories, burn calories! Haha. I laughed it off. Never again. I stick to spinning.

Veslemøy and Håkon are coming back from Africa on thursday. It`ll be nice to meet them again. I spent the labour weekend with them in Santa Cruz and ate the best food of my life there. Waiting for some more.

After midterms I am going to spent a weekend in San Diego with some norwegian friends. Looking forward to that!

I am not missing Norway, but I miss my friends though. So I am blogging for you! And I miss Kaviar.

Gunn and me having lunch in San Francisco

It`s getting serious!

Today our classes start. I`ll have my first class at 11 PM. We have to visit severel classes we are interested in for the next couple of days. After that we apply for those we like. I`d wish this period was over already. I am afraid of missing something or doing something wrong. But it`ll work out.

The last days have been amazing. It has been HOT! They said on the news that it had been the hottest day in San Francisco since 1959! I spent one day in San Francisco with Gunn. We walked all over town in the heat. But it was fun. It is an interesting town. Seems so colorful. But there were lots of weird poeple. Gun brought her Lonely planet and we used the map to find our way. We had lunch and she signed the NO GO places in her map. Somehow we walked through three of these No Go places..haha. But it was at daytime so no danger. I was scared anyway.

For dinner we went to peruian place to eat ceviche. I havent eaten it since i was in Peru in 2001. The food took me back all the way to Peru. I had a nice day with Gunn and I am happy to know her. She is fun!

Tuesday was even hotter than monday and I went to swim in one of the pools that are located on Campus. That gave me a really californian feeling. Blue sky, hot and a pool. I love it.

In the evening Statoil had invited us for a barbeque. The food was good but the party was so boring. All the Statoil men had put on lightblue shirts and tehy walked around and talked to the students. I had managed to escape from one man and I went to the bar to get myself a beer. And suddenly the next lightblueshirtman caught me and I had to talk to him in 30 minutes. I thought I had to die. Plus, it was so hot that the beer I drank runned right to my had. I was giggeling inside. Haha, at that time I missed my norwegian friends so much. Somebody who would have found this situation as funny as I did.

By the way, I managed to get myself a job at Statoil. I wonder if the man who gave me the deal just wanted to get ridd of me..haha.

After the barbeque was over we went to a bar. Fun.

I started to talk to some homeless people. Sad. One of them was 21 and had been living on the streets since he was 12. Earning money by selling drugs and sleeping outside.

But today all fun is over and real life begins. It feels kind of hard thinking about all the work that has to be done in future. It will be little bit of fun as well I hope. The library is amazing and I hope it will inspire me to study even harder!

We have internet now. So I am avalaible to skype. Would be nice to talk to you.

The last two days have been amazing according to the weather. We are up in 100 Fahrenheit! I like it. Today I went to the pool placed in the middle of campus. That was californian feeling!

Statoil has invited all the norwegian students to a barbecue so I am about to leave for that. Will update my blogg tomorrow.

Uncle E, nice to have you as my follower. You should definetly come visit and bring Aunt A.

Talk to you later.

Today has been a sunny day in Berkeley and I visited my first spinning class. Wow the facilities here are so different compared to Norway! The locker rooms were huge. You get towels for free, lockers for free and they even have a little machine that washes your swimsuite. Well, I always get fascinated about such details. The spinning class itself was not as good as expected. The instructor was funny..haha. And I didn`t really understand what he was saying. But I will give it another try.

Campus is filling up. All the american students are coming with their parents. Funny to watch. And there are so many asian students here.

Haakon and Veslemøy came this afternoon and brought me lots of nice things for our apartement. Now we have TV, coffemachine and a plant. It is getting kind of cosy. After that they took me out for lunch. I am a lucky girl knowing them!

Yesterday Anna and I were sitting on our balcony (yes, we have one!) and suddenly Anna said: look! we have a view to the Golden Gate Bridge. I haden noticed. So, we have a nice view but we also saw a rat in the backyard. And really weird neighbours. We have counted 6 different people living in the strange house. And tehy all look really weird. We will find out more about them.

Tomorrow I will go and visit Trond Pedersen the professor here. He will help Magnar and me finding courses that match with courses in Oslo. I am looking forward to start school for real.

Endre, a norwegian student is staying at our place for a while until he can move in at his place. It is nice to have company so we will hang out tonight.

Talk to you soon!

I love Berkeley!

It is saturday morning and i am sitting at cafe Milano with my roommate Ana. We dont have internet at hour house yet, so we have to go out to be connected to the world. This is a really nice cafe. A big coffee for 2 dollars and classical music is being played. Haha. This is so romantic.

Yesterday i had my first day at school. It was a oriantation day where we were told how to aply for classes, how to behave, how to stay safe. Haha. There was a police officer coming to tell us how to stay safe. He scared me. They say that Berkeley is a safe place, just not as safe as Norway. So dont walk alone at night, dont walk with your Ipod on..he said especially in the south areas and he mentioned some street names. And he mentioned Dwight street. Thats where I live. So I have been scared all day. But I talked to some americans and they said I shouldnt worry. I trust them. Haha. UC Berkeley offers something that is called Bearwalk. You can call a number and an officer will come and pick you up and walk you home. All night long.

Our neighbours are smoking marihuana constantly. I watched them this morning while I had breakfast. I will work something out. I am a secret agent.

At the oriantation day I also met all the other norwegians. And there are lots of them! Almost hundred. So we got to know each other and there are lots of nice people. In the evening we went to a bar or pub. That was fun. I talked to two american boys. They looked like they were thirty but they were 21. Haha. Anyway, they are taking me to a football game.

Americans are nice. Everybody is really friendly and I hope i will get to know some more. I will upload some pictures as soon as we get internet at home.

And i bought myself entrance for the sports activities. That is crazy how much they offer and how big it is. I will attend my first spinning class tomorrow.

Veslemøy and Haakon will come tomorrow and bring me stuff for my place. They have been so nice to me. When I first moved in, Veslemøy said I couldnt live like that. So they took me to Ikea and we bought lamps and other things. She took notes about everything i needed. Tomorrow they will bring me a coffemachine and all the other things she noted. I dont know what i would do without them. It is nice to be surrounded by people who care. They also took me sightseeing on thursday. I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and then we went to a little place nearby to have icecream. It was about 30 degrees, nice sunny day and i felt like I was on holiday. California really fits me. I like it when you can count on the weather.

On thursday classes start and Berkeley is getting more crowded day by day. The american students are coming back. That is exciting!

So far I think i am going to have a great time here. It is just very expensiv adventure. But it is worth it!

Once again, come and visit! You will love it! And I would love having you here.