Meeting new people and getting my own room

School has started. I've had classes in ethology, marine biology and understanding biological research. During these couple of days, I've shook hands with a handful of new people.

At the first lecture, me and Line were discussing where to sit. In Norwegian, I said "Should I sit next to that person? In Norway, I'd never sit right next to a stranger. That would be really weird!"
Then the girl turned to me, and asked in Norwegian "What do you study?"

I also met Beth and Tom, who will be on the same seminar group as me in UBR. Since I was the least shy of us all, the rest decided I'd be group leader.



I went to my first social of the Creative Writing society tonight. But I was so tired and Salt was so noisy, that I didn't really "meet" anyone.

Then I went home, and met Miss Twisted Ankle, who'd just twisted her ankle during basketball practice. I followed her to her room (which is in the same hallway as mine), and I borrowed some frozen vegetables form Sara for her to use.

During my seach for water bottles to freeze down, I met a Danish guy who lives one floor down.

So, yeah, a lot of new people. Not to mention all the new teachers! My teacher in ethology is a really good lecturer. The female teacher in marine biology talks really fast, but she has this aura that made me respect her from the very first minute. And the lecturer in UBR seems really nice. Tomorrow, I'll have my first class in Advanced Invertebrate Zoology.

Next topic: getting my own room. Sara was offered a single room, so I'm all alone now. I got a mail from the accomodation office, where they offered me to make my twin room into a single room. I don't have to move, but I'll pay 200 £ more. So if any of you girls manage to get a boy home, your roommate can crash here ;)

The good, the bad and the ugly.

We'll do ugly first. KFC chicken and chips all over the common room, and unwashed dishes all over our tiny kitchen.

The bad. The firealarm went off for the fourth time this week, this time at 5 in the morning.

But now; the good!
Went along with the Hiking Club to Pembrokeshire. We set off at 8 and went from Newport to Fishguard in three groups; easy, medium and hard. I went on the hard ride, but it wasn't very hard at all. It was very warm, though, 'cause I wore wollen leggings and a wollen shirt. I removed them as soon as I could. We went up to the hills and tracked across them back down to the coast. We got to pet some horses, and had a great time. Except for when I fell and landed in an Ulex (Gulltorn in Norwegian). I've still got some thorns in my palms.  The coastal trail is one of UK's most beautiful walks! The medium group actually saw seals! We got to see cormorants Phalacrocoracidae (skarv). We ended the walk a a cozy pub in Fishguard.The entire walk was 16 km long, and it took about 7 hours.

Great view over the hills!

Even though they hurt, the gorse really beautify the landscape.

Lunch!

No wonder this is the most beautiful walk in UK!

The cormorants are drying off.

We rest for a bit at the old Fishguard fort.

The shoes got some spa treatment as well when they got home.

The slooow days...

Thursday I went to the Hiking Club's first social, and signed up for two upcoming trips. Sunday I'll go to Pembrokeshire and next week, we'll go to Snowdonia :D I can't wait. I've bought food to make lunch, a new sit mat ('cause I forgot mine at home) and a membership in the Sports Club.

And yesterday I went to IBERS' BBQ, where I met up with the other Norwegians at the department. We ate a HUGE hamburger and answered a quiz, which I think we were very far from winning.

Tonight, I'll go out to eat dinner with whoever wants to come along.

The day of the bureauCRAZY!

Everyone hates being waked up by the fire alarm at 3 in the morning, and especially after an evening of pubbing! I was rather tired in the morning, and I got even more tired at registration. Thank god I have a nice councelor! Rupert and I sat for about half an hour to pick out modules I could take that wouldn't collide. I ended ut with Understandig Biological Research, Ethology (Animal Behaviour), Marine Biology and Advanced Invertebrate Zoology! I'm happy, as I really wanted Invertebrate Zoology and Ethology. After picking out the modules, I had to stand in line for twenty minutes to get them registrated. Then I had to stand in an other line for twenty more minutes to get it approved by the International Office.

After registration I went with Milla to the Societies Fair. There were even more people there today than at the Sports Fair yesterday! And damn, there's so many societies I want to join! The Creative Writing Society and the Nature Society are both so tempting!

After the fair, I met up with the other exchange students at IBERS to go with Rupert and a Canadian teacher named Kyle to a red kite feeding centre! The red kite (Milvus milvus), or "glente" as it is called in Norway, was endangered not long ago. You wouldn't think that if you came with us today, 'cause we saw a LOT of them! It was a wonderful sight. Afterwards we drank coco, tea and coffee, before heading back to the school.

Sports Fair and Constitution Hill

Today I visited the Sports Fair up at the Union. I can't believe how many sports societies they have here! Wow! I wanted to join the Kickboxing team, but actually, the Tae Kwon-Do guys seemed to be more my kind of people. Not to mention, I can combine Tae Kwon-Do with hiking trips with the Hiking Club! A great opportunity to see more of Wales and it's beautiful nature. I've brought my mountain gear from Norway, and it would be a shame not to use it. The female rugby team, the climbers and the basketball team were also really nice.

I met up with Milla from Finland, and we went on top of Constitution Hill. We thought it would take a while, but we only used 40 minutes from Pantycelyn to the top!

If you don't feel like walking, you can take the train.

The view from the top.

Tonight I'll join the Erasmus Society at Rummers Wine Bar. If I'm gonna keep up this drinking, I'll have to reconsider my budget and diet!

Meeting IBERS

I'll be writing in English from now on. My councelor mentioned something about them trying to find international students to blog about their time here at Aber, and that he maybe would like a link to this blog. So I'll have to apologize to my dad, the English teacher, and to my boyfriend, the English Language Grammar Nazi (which is OK, because I'm a total grammar nazi myself when it comes to Norwegian). There might be some errors in the future.

Today I met up with the other international students at IBERS (Institute of Biological, Ecological and Rural Sciences). It turns out we're only a few Norwegians, all from NMBU (Norwegian University of Life Sciences). The rest of the students are from Brazil, and there's quite a lot of them! It was my councelor, Rupert Marshall, who showed us around today. He's really nice and funny, and very helpful! We were shown all around the institute, and afterwards Rupert helpt me and Line with picking out our modules. It turns out I probably won't be able to take Parasitology after all :( Too bad, I really wanted to. At the moment, it looks like I'll be taking Conservation Genetics, Ethology (Animal behaviour) and Climate Change. I was looking at the books in Rupert's office, when I found a book about Zoo Science, and he told me that they run that course in the spring semester. Damn! Lucky students! I'd really like to get a job in a zoo after I graduate, but it's really difficult, and I'm not sure if I'm taking the right education for it. I'll definitely borrow that book from the library!
 
After meeting Rupert and IBERS, I headed up to the Union for a Traide Fair. There were shops from town and different organization having stands, giving out freebies and pamphlets. I got some chocolate and cookies, and these bisquits:

They taste kind of like "lefse", because they have this taste of "hornsalt" (Ammonium bicarbonate), but they contain raisins <3 I also signed up for a local doctor.

At 17:30 I went back to the Union for an International Students Meet and Greet. We placed a sticker on a map to show what country we were from and wrote down some Norwegian phrases on a poster. They thought only ten or so would show up, like last year, but we were about 50! Since there wasn't enough pizza to go around, a few of us went to the Union's bar and had a few beers and a pizza. I tasted Ginger Grouse, which is a really good ginger ale.

Tomorrow I'll meet up with the girls from tonight, and walk up Constipation- uhm- Constitution Hill :P

Helg nummer 1!

Ifølge Marius burde jeg skrive en blogg, så folk kunne følge med på hva jeg driver med mens jeg er på utveksling til Wales. Så, ja, skal vi begynne da?

Etter et år med planlegging, googeling, signeringer, og mailer, stod alt endelig klart for avreise. Marius fulgte meg og min tunge ryggsekk og bag til toget. Det var vel på toget at alt gikk opp for meg, at jeg skulle til et helt annet land, at jeg skulle være borte i fire måneder, at jeg hadde en lang tid foran meg med info, dokumenter og nye mennesker. Jeg var svært nøye med å høre på veldig glad musikk, og mannet kvinnet meg opp. På hotellet på Gardermoen la jeg meg langflat ut på senga med datamaskina og en stor pose sjokolade. Jeg prøvde å komme meg i seng klokka ti, siden jeg skulle opp klokka 3, men det var lettere sagt en gjort, og jeg var passe tung i hodet da vekkerklokka ringte.

Men skulle du sett, alt ved innsjekkingsmaskinene møtte jeg første vennlige fjes, nemlig Line som også kommer fra NMBU og skulle til samme universitet som meg! Vi ledet hverandre gjennom Gardermoen og flyplassen i København, og helt fram til Meet and Greet-bussen. Vi var borti 30 utveksklingsstudenter på bussen, og jeg møtte mange andre som skulle bo samme sted som meg.

Det var en laaang busstur fra Birmingham til Aberystwyth. Været var grått og sauene hvite. Først lignet alt litt på Danmark. Det var jorder og små murhus overalt. Men plutselig dukket det opp en høy ås og vi var inne i høylandet.

Grunnet veiarbeid kom vi ikke fram til Aberystwyth før klokka var halv fem, og da var alle passe slitne og trøtte. Jeg ble sluppet av på Pantycelyn (uttales Pantykelyn), hvor jeg skal bo de neste fire månedene. Det er et langt, gammelt mushus, og rommet mitt ligger heeelt i enden i trappeoppgangen. Huset er egentlig for walisiskspråkelige, men siden det ikke er så mange av dem, er det også her vi som står nederst på lista havner. Med andre ord, her bor det folk som kan walisisk, og folk som ikke kan et ord av det! Jeg bor sammen med Sara fra Spania, og rett over gangen bor venninna hennes sammen med ei kinesisk jente (Ushin???). Rommet er fullt møblert, inkludert vegg-til-vegg-teppe og en veldig bråkete vask. En stor boks fra Click2Campus ventet meg med dyne og pute og masse kjøkkenutstyr. Jeg trodde jeg bare hadde fått det mest nødvendige av kjøkkenutstyr, men det inkluderer visst også et brett til å lage chips på, 10 par spisepinner, en potetmoser og fem forskjellige sleiver.

Senga mi er nærmest døra, mens Sara bor ved vinduet.

Vasken vår er gjemt inne i skapet O.o

Utsikten fra rommet vårt.

Badet er ganske rart. Det har en kodelås (jeg har skrevet opp koden på armen), men ikke vask :S I stedet er det en dispenser med antibac, så jeg må vaske hendene på rommet mitt etterpå. Nede er det ei kantine hvor jeg kan spise ett måltid om dagen. I skrivende stund har jeg 466 pund på kortet mitt, som skal rekke ut studieperioden, altså ca. 5 pund om dagen. Kantina er stengt i helgene, men vi har et bittelite kjøkken med hybelovner, en mikro, tre kjøleskap og to små frysere.

Jeg bor helt i enden!

Vi har veldig fin utsikt utover byen.

Instituttet mitt heter Institue of Biological, Ecological and Rural Sciences (IBERS), og ligger bare fem minutters gange fra Pantycelyn. Arts Center, Sports Center, biblioteket og studentsamskipsnaden ligger 10 minutter unna, så jeg bor veldig fint til!

På kvelden fredag gikk alle utvekslingsstudentene på pub. Vi gikk til The Scholar, en koselig, typisk britisk pub. Etterpå gikk jeg og Erika fra Tyskland på KFC for å få oss litt mat før vi gikk hjem og i seng.

Lørdag var det bruktsalg hvor vi kunne kjøpe bokser og kjøkkenutstyr, så jeg fikk kjøpt noen bokser til skapet mitt. Etterpå dro noen av oss jentene ned i byen og fikk kjøpt puter, kleshengere og mat. I dag (søndag) var vi på en velkomstseremoni på Arts Centeret. Vi fikk pamfletter fra forskjellige banker og info om hvordan vi kunne åpne en britisk bankkonto. Så gikk vi inn i kinosalen for å høre på taler og info fra skula. Jeg møtte Dolores fra Irland, som også hadde på seg en Harry Potter-tskjorte i dag. Rektoren vår er veldig morsom og hyggelig! Han fikk oss til å rope opp hvor vi kom ifra og hvor lang tid vi hadde brukt på å komme oss hit. Kristian (?) fra Høgskula i Volda hadde også brukt lang tid, og ble spurt om han hadde svømt. Enkelte hadde brukt borti halvannet døgn på å komme hit, til og med europeere!
 
Egentlig skulle jeg være med på quiz på samfunnet, men etter å ha stått i kø i en halvtime med ei veldig hyggelig finne, viste det seg at jeg trengte ID og penger for å komme inn. Siden jeg hadde lagt att lommeboka, tok jeg i stedet en tur ned til byen for å ta noen bilder til bloggen. Det var utrolig fint vær i dag, og det måtte nesten utnyttes.

Stranda i Aber og Constitution Hill i bakgrunnen.

Enkelte nyter strandlivet i større grad enn andre.

Byens spillehall.

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