Cadair Idris

Sunday I went with the hiking club to Cadair Idris. We weren't many going this time, only enough to fill one minibus, and we were only five on the hard group, with me as the only girl (woho, girl power).
 

 I think Cadair Idris must have been the most beautiful hike I've been on! The name means "the chair of Idris", with Idris being commonly believed to be a gigant who would use the mountain as an armchair to watch the stars.

The hardcore group! The picture is taken by Aaron Labdon.

This was one of the few hikes with (almost) no fog, and we had a beautiful view over Snowdonia. It was worth the steep climbs.

At the top, there was a nice shelter with windows and benches, so we sat inside during the fifteen minutes of fog. I got to taste sloe berries on our way down, which tastes like sour grapes, and leave your mouth dry as sand. It's apparantly good to mix with gin.

Monday I went to the Fun Fair. We bought doughnuts, which were more simmilar to a thick Norwegian version than the American donuts.

If they hadn't been too small, I would have bought one.

Holly and Harriet forced Ruairidh (p: Rory) and me to go on a ride, and I got the chance to practice my cursing and screaming. I tried to throw darts to win a stuffed Michelangelo (the turtle, not the artist), but I lost and got to pick a small price instead. Among the small toys, there was a huge snake, which someone had spilled a bit of coffee on, so I picked him. His name is now Patrick the Party Snake, and he's officially my new pillow.

Today we went to Pembrokshire on a field trip in Marine Biology, and we got to see the sun set over the hills where I went on my first hike in Wales.

Stop the bus, I have to quiz!!!

What do you get when you place a Norwegian who likes her alone time in what is probably the most social school ever? A headace. I'm not complaining, but to finally have an evening by myself is just what I need right now. That doesn't mean I haven't had a great week, though! Saturday I slept over at Emily's, and we spent the whole evening and night eating candy and watching Ouran High School Host Club. Yesterday I went with Christian to Castle Hotel for a charity quiz together with his friends from the Glee club. It was Christan that came up with the team name, which is also the title above. And would you belive it, we actually won!

But I do feel the autumn taking its toll on me. It had been the same every October and November since I started uni. It's still dark when I awake, and the sun sets early. It's not exactly sunny in Aber, and I savor the hours of blue sky I can get. The semester is closing to an end, so the exams are right around the corner, and with them, the guilt of not having studied enough.
  This was never really a problem back home in Alvdal, when there was a promise of snow and its reflected light before Christmas Eve. You could feel it in the air, sharp as ice with every cold breath.
  The chance of getting snow here is even smaller than in Ås. There's still leaves on the trees and there's some blooming roses still holding on to their petals. It's not a bad thing, but I do miss snow. Even in Alvdal the snow is always too late for my liking, but at least you know it will arrive sooner or later.
  Autumn is a slow season. Even the sun is tired. I start snoozing; one minute, five minutes, fifteen... My thoughts feel like syrup and it's diffuclt to keep up my concentration. I wish for school to be over, for my bachelor to be finished and for the long hours of trying to study to end. Sometimes the time speeds up, I might work on a drawing, a story, a project. I want to cuddle up underneath my duvey and drink hot coco and warm my feet on the pipes that stretches along the wall. This is the season when I should eat healthy and keep fit, since it would help me mentally as well, but the only thing I want to do is to go skiing and listen to the sound of the snow being crushed by my weight as I slide over it. I want to feel the sweat run down my spine and the cold air sting in my lungs. If I can't do that, then I want to hibernate in my bed.
 
At some point, the sun will awaken, the light will come back, and as spring returns, so does my cheerfuless. But until then, I'll keep working my way through the syrup, waiting for the snow that will never fall.

Dr. Ross Piper and a quarter life crisis

I've been social for 26 hours (except at night), and in the end, I tried to fall asleep inside Adam's cardboard knight helmet at The Cambrian. "Why on earth?" do you say. "Because," I answer, "because sometimes life hands you oranges. And we all know I love 'em oranges."

Wednesday Dr. Ross Piper came to our Advanced Invertebrate Zoology class as a guest lecturer. At first I didn't really notice him, because Dr. Roger Santer, Dr. David Wilcockson and Dr. Helen Marshall were all there, and I was sure we'd get yelled at for not being interactive enough in class (I'm one of the few to raise my hand, despite my not-too-perfect English). Honestly, my pulse speeded when Roger walked up to me, Emily and Tom, but he just sat down right behind us.
  Turned out they had just come to listen to Ross. He told us not to focus solemnly on the fluffy vertebrates, but to appreciate the rest of the animal kingdom as well. Now, this ain't new for me, as I've had two entomology modules back home in Norway, and have come to love insects and chelicerates (spiderlike animals). I enjoyed the lecture and especially the part when he told us about his trip to Burma/Myanmar in corporation with BBC and The Smithsonian Institution. After all, I love to travel, and it got me thinking about the insects and gigant jumping spiders we saw in Tanzania.

The next morning I had a look through my inbox. This is often a dreaded duty, as I'm on the mailing list of approximately 10 societies, and have to go through even more mails every day. First, I had gotten a mail from the International Office. It was about a travel magazine called Exploration, who were looking for people to write for them. I swallowed the bait the moment I realized that this meant I could get the opportunity to follow my dreams; writing and showing people the wonders out in the world. The last was the reason I got into photographing to begin with, I wanted to take pictures of those small things people often overlook. The mail felt like sent from heaven, as I'm going through my quarter life crisis and trying to figure out what on earth to do with my life.

But further down, I had gotten a mail from David and Roger. They asked me if I wanted to help doing an interview with Ross, which would be taped and used to promote the zoology scheme and the invertebrates module.
  At first I though "Okey, they've gotten the wrong person. Come on, they want someone who's British. They don't even know who I am. Well, okey, so they probably do because of that time I talked a bit too loud to Tom about my huge, but lovely, butt during a practical, and David overheared it, and that I'm always raising my hand in ethology, which seems to make Roger happy." But as it turned out, they did want me!
  So I freaked out a bit. I mean, come on, two great mails in one day, who wouldn't freak out.
  And then I decided that the review in Understanding Biological Research would have to wait, and started researching. Turns out Ross has his own blog, which was really interesting. I also realized that I had actually watched Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom. I remembered Truls (one of my house mates back home, and huge entomology fan) and me eating dinner in front of the TV, watching one of the episodes. I also borrowed his book "Animal Earth. The Amazing Diversity of Living Creatures" from the Hugh Owen library (Mum, can you write this on my wishlist, next "Den Store Mumiboka" and a new music stand?)
  In the evening I once again got to listen to a lecture of Ross, as he was telling NatureSoc about his trip to Burma. The room was stuffed with interested students, some of them who had come to the same lecture last year. (I'm using the word lecture here, as I can't really come up with a better English word for it). Afterwards, we all left for The Cambrian, included Ross. I tagged along, thinking this would be a great opportunity to get more relaxed around him before the interview the following morning. Sometimes you need a reminder that even authors and teachers are human (which I should know by now, as my parents are/were teachers). Even the great Zorro joined us, though it turned out that underneath the mask, there was just another nature loving student.

I woke up the following morning feeling more like being one with my bed than getting up. No, I was not hangover, I've actually never had a hangover in my life (thank you Ole André Sivertsen, author of the book "Bakrus - en røff guide til dagen derpå"). But after I started uni I have often struggled with restless nights.
  Then I bought myself a huge coffee, which made me rather shaky, but awake, before walking up to David's office.
  And then it was on.
  Have you ever tried sitting next to a well know biologist, high on coffee and low on sleep, trying to read aloud a series of questions in a language which is not your mother language, while being taped.
  Well, I have.
  And it's a kick.
But despite me shaking and whispering more than talking, it all worked out! The questions were all great, composed out of questions from the students and some David himself had written down, and Ross answered them all in great depth and with a lot more confidence and humor than myself.

Thanks, David, for the picture!

After lunch, Ross held yet another lecture for us, this time focusing it on scientific writing. Now, I've done creative writing for one year at Buskerud Folkehøgskule, and the word scientific writing sometimes gives me a slight shutter. But this lecture made me think of it in a whole new way. Scientific writing ain't only lab reports, written half hearted and graded, it can be a lot more. He showed us a page on National Geographic, called Phenomena, were there are scientists and some just interested people, who blog about nature and new discoveries.
  This was more mind blowing for me than you'd expect.Honestly, I've never really thought much about this aspect of scientific writing.

I was more or less asleep during dinner, but my brain was working hard. I must have looked very weird, eating my stuffed bell pepper and seemingly glaring at it.
  Ida's head:
"There are people writing out there . Not all of them are writing prosa, but not all those who don't write boring text books. Some write really interesting stuff, doing the exact thing I want to do: making people appreciate the world around them. Some write about travelling, like in Exploration. Some write about being outside, like in Harvest. Some write about the new discoveries in science, like in Phenomena. I don't need a master in Natural Based Tourism back home, taking a bunch of economy classes I won't like, in order to show people the wonders of nature. I can, but I don't need to. Perhaps I can do the thing I love, writing? Maybe I should try to get into the Writer's School in Bø next year after all?"
 
It has been a couple of very social days, going to the pub with NatureSoc and Tae Kwon-Do, drinking tea with Jo and eating dinner with Chris. Tonight I'm going to Emily to watch Ouran High School Host Club. But right now I'm all alone in my room, doing one of the things I love; writing.

I suppose it's about time I write in this book, which I got from a colleague at States Vegvesen this summer to help me figure out what to do with my life.

Marius :)

My boyfriend came to visit, which is why I haven't written anything the past two weeks. He slept here in my room the first three days, then we both stayed at Queensbridge the following week. We didn't do a whole lot, so there's not a lot to say, but we had a great time watching movies, eating good food and walking on top of Constitution Hill for a sandwich dinner

My mother shall NEVER have any normal pictures of us :D

But I am a student, and I still had to attend my lectures and practicals and write my reports. Marius was very understanding, though, sitting next to me while playing Rollercoaster Tycoon XD

We left for Birmingham Friday morning. Birmingham was... wet. Very wet. Very, very wet. BUT we found some amazing homemade burgers at Handmade Burger Co. We even got a really good student discount. I like eating out with Marius. He went to a cooking high school, so eating with Marius is not like eating with anyone else. The food might be slaughtered, or praised for heaven!

As Saturday morning arrived, Marius had to get on his plane back to Norway. But I'll see him again soon, Christmas is just right around the corner ;)

Other than that, Halloween was great! Marius stayed at home, while I went pub crawling with the Tae Kwon-Do club, dressed up as Megamind! Sadly, no one had watched that movie, so they all thought I was some kind of punk vampire. Even though I had my amazing Dehydration gun! I made it out of a water bottle, some cardboard, silver duct tape painted with a golden pen and a blue glow stick :)

Until next time
-Ida

Litt norsk innimella.

På mårrån sitter jeg med føten på varmtvannsrørene som går langs veggen. De er plassert med perfekt avstand fra hverandre, akkurat ei vrist høy, så jeg kan varme både over- og undersia på samma tid. Røra er kalde fram til klokka åtte, når jentene står opp for å gjøre seg klare til ni-timen og hopper i dusjen. Da blir også radiatoren ved senga glovarm, og om jeg mot all formodning ennå sover, så våkner jeg fort om foten kjem borti. Resten av dagen er røra kalde, med noen fem- til timinutters dusjer innimella. Jeg elsker de røra. De minner meg om heme i Alvdal, hvor vi har oljefyr og det også var noen deilige varmtvannsrør rett bak skrivebordet. Åkken trenger ullsokker og hemestrikka trøfler når’n har varmtvannsrør? Men så blir røra sakte kaldere og kaldere, ettersom jentene har fått dusjen sin, og det er bare noen få etternølere att utover formiddagen. Da må jeg lukke vinduet, få på meg no anna enn pysj, og begynne å jobbe. Så er liksom mårrån over for meg, og en ny studiedag har begynt.