Sunny Sunday

Today it was absolutely beautiful weather here in Cambridge. To be able to walk around in a tank top and shorts and it’s almost October is totally bizarre, but I LOVE it! (3 degrees and rain in Tromsø.. haha) Karoline and I first rode our bikes down a bit south of town to watch a soccer match where two girls from our class were playing. It was at least 25 degrees and a clear blue sky.. Lovely to lay on the grass relaxing, with a big glass of water and watching the game. After one and a half hour, the game ended 2-2, with one goal scored by Siri (one of the girls we live with) Well done! On our way back home we ran into Kitty, Mathilde and Ingeborg from our class. They were going punting. Since we still hadn’t done that, we decided to join them. Punting is something you have to do while you are in Cambridge! It is kind of like the gondolas in Venice. You sit in this little boat, and you have a guide that tells you all about the city and the sights... We were definitely not the only ones that thought it would be a good idea to go punting on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the river Cam was packed with boats. Alot of people were punting themselves, and that resulted in a few boats bumping into eachother here and there, but luckily no one fell in.. I'll have to try that before I leave! (not falling into the river obviously, but punting on my own! It looks fun)

Well, here are some pictures of our day :-)

A wicked weekend!

Sooo… I had an absolute fantastic couple of days this weekend!
Coldplay was just insanely good! Oh my god! I want to book tickets for a new concert already. We got to Wembley stadium about 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon, got our tickets and since we weren’t that keen on standing waiting 5 hours till Coldplay were gonna go on stage, we went to a restaurant to eat dinner and kill some time. After finishing a big plate of Tandoori chicken, rice, Nan bread and a salad we walked back to the
stadium just in time to find a seat at the back to watch a group called Girls Aloud sing and perform for about 45 minutes (which was long enough for my taste in music). Since we had combined tickets that meant we could stand or sit as we pleased we were more than happy to sit and relax at the back of the stadium. Suddenly it was 19:30 and it was time to hit the floor with 20.000 other people and wait for Jay-Z... MAN it was crowded down there! And the stage was quite low, so when Jay-Z came out on stage, we could hardly see him behind all the tall English people. Well, anyways he preformed for about an hour and he was quite good! Much better than Girls Aloud. (not that it takes that much) After he left the stage there was more waiting for about 40 long minutes, but then we started to hear the familiar tunes of “Life in Technicolor”.....*drumroll* and there they were!! It was quite unreal to see someone so famous and that you have seen on TV and heard on the radio numerous of times, suddenly stand in front of you on a stage. They delivered one heck of a show though!!! And when they started to play “in my place” which is one of my favorite songs it started to absolute poooooring rain! Haha it was so insane! It was just one of those moments you feel so alive. Standing there singing at the top of you lungs together with 70.000 other people while it’s just poring buckets of water. Aaah!

Luckily it stopped raining after a little while, but we were already completely soaking wet with mascara running down our faces, but I couldn’t really care less.. I was at an effin’ COLDPLAY concert!! Then they started to play the song “yellow” and huge yellow balloons were bouncing around the audience as they were singing. And then they asked everybody to take up their mobile phones and create a massive wave throughout the whole arena. It was so cool! It was just insane to see so many people at one concert. 70.000!! That’s more people than it lives in all of Tromsø. I just have to say Coldplay has to be one of the best live bands out there! They are just phenomenal at creating a good show!

Half way through the set we decided to get out of the massive crowd on the floor and go up to the seats on the side so we could get a better view of the stage and everything. They played more of their awesome songs; fix you, the hardest part, viva la vida, violet hill, 42, strawberry swing+++ And then (unluckely) the show started to come to the end, but they had still not played “the scientist” which is my ultimate favorite Coldplay song… I was really hoping they would play it, and when they announced that they only had two more songs to play I was so afraid I wasn’t going to get to hear it live.. But then Chris Martin went over to his piano and started to play some random notes that suddenly turned in to be the familiar tunes of non other song than “the scientist!” I was sooo happy! Gosh! It had to be the highlight of the concert! Karoline and I were singing so loud we were getting hoarse, but that didn’t matter.... They played their last song, thanked everyone for coming, set off some fireworks and left the stage… aaaah! I would have given so much to go back to that day again! It was a night to remember!

London Calling!

Tomorrow Karoline and I am packing our bags and heading for London!! Cause we are seeing Coldplay on Saturday!! yey! Can't wait! Their one of my favorite bands and I've heard that they are really good live, so bring it on! And their warm-up band are non other than the famous rapper Jay-Z! So that should be good. + Girls Aloud and another band called White Lies... we are taking the bus early tomorrow to London and then spending some time there,(shopping, shopping, shopping!) haha.. no I have already spent waaay to much money since I came to England so thats actuallt not such a good idea, but what else can you do in Oxford Street?? well anyways.. The concert starts at 17:00, but coldplay doesn't get on stage before like 21:00 (!!) and we have standing tickets... Oh well! Will be dead tired by then, but it will be sooo worth it! Sunday we are meating the rest of our class in London+ our English teacher, and we're gonna walk around Camden marked and stuff like that... So should be a fun weekend! Can't wait!

A day of starvation..

So.... Yesterday I went a whole day without drinking or eating ANYTHING... Why you might wonder? No I’m not dieting and I’m defiantly not anorexic... Eating is actually one of my favourite hobbies! I eat all the time! Haha... Well here’s the thing.. The host family I’m living with are Muslims, and for the past 4 weeks they have been fasting. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking; from dawn until sunset…... How my host family (and any Muslims for that matter) can do it I have no Idea….Come to think of it, I haven’t said much about the family I am now living with! So let me just say a little bit about them and I will come back to my day of hungriness.

Well, a good friend of mine from my high school class, Karoline, and I decided to live together here in Cambridge, and we got a great family that lives very close to the school. The family consists of Selina, her husband Adnan, and their two kids Isa and Safa. Apart from them there are two really cool girls from Oslo also living here this school year (Siri and Palina). We are really happy with where we have ended up. Selina and Adnan are awesome and their kids are super cute! So anyways,… Siri (one of the Oslo-girls) and I suddenly decided that we would try fasting for a day and see how is was like. Selina and Adnan were very doubtful that we could do it, but at least we would try! Gosh I was quite nervous, and had no idea if I could do it.. I usually don’t go more than 4 hours without eating and defiantly not without drinking water, so this would be quite the challenge. And I surely was!!! Selina and Adnan usually get up at 3.30 AM to eat breakfast (since they have to eat before the sun comes up) And they were supposed to wake us up then, but when they knocked on our door we were sound asleep and didn’t hear anything... so the day went along and we were STARVED! Since we hadn’t even eaten the early breakfast it was torture watching everyone at school eating lunch in the canteen. I even had to write “don’t eat” and “don’t drink” on my hands just to be sure that I wouldn’t forget about the fasting and eat or drink something… And MAN I was hungry! Oh well it was my choice, so I shouldn’t really complain.. It was actually not as bad as I would have expected it to be.. But it got worse about 4 o’clock when I was sitting at home writing my chemistry rapport on my laptop and my hands were shaking and I started to get a headache. So Karoline and I decided to ride our bikes to town just to get out of the house and not think about food. Karoline was not fasting, but needed some school supplies, so she came along. So we walked around town for about two hours and then it was finally seven o’clock, and the fasting would officially be over in 17 minutes, so we got our bikes and started peddling home as fast as we could. (It didn’t really go fast…I didn’t have much energy left…) But exactly 19.17 we walked in the door to the sound of a Muslim song which indicated that the fasting for that day was over, and even better: the smell of food!! Selina had prepared a big plate of rice and chicken, and I tell you, food hasn’t tasted that good in like forever! Gosj! Selina was really proud of us and that we actually went through with it.. and I was quite proud myself! 21 hours without food or water… and the result of that was a great dinner that consisted of a huge plate of rice and chicken, 2 bowls of cornflakes, 2 slices of toast + 3 glasses of water..:-) I was very happy and full when I finally went to bed. I’m gonna be sooo much more appreciative of food after this. So what have I learned?

Well it was a good experience seeing what so many Muslims all over the world go through every year.. But could I go through with a whole Ramadan for over 4 weeks? .........NO CHANCE! !!

Bridge The Gap

Today was the annual “bridge the gap” charity walk in Cambridge. It’s the eight year running, and the idea is that many of the colleges in town are open to the public this day. So you pay a £ 14 fee which goes to a local charity, and you can walk a 4,5 mile route throughout the city. Karoline and I decided to join in on this charity event. It’s for a good cause+ we get a great chance to see all the colleges around Cambridge. And there are A LOT of them! We visited about 9 of the over 20 colleges in Cambridge. Quite amazing walking through buildings that are over 600 years old and where so many wise and famous people have studied. Last year there were over 2500 charity walkers, and I’m sure there was at least that many this year too. There were people walking with orange and blue balloons everywhere! The walk took about 3 hours and we were quite tired when we finally crossed the finish line. Bought ourselves some well deserved chocolate and cream crepes and sat in the park listening to some weird band playing the same song over and over again. haha..Well, here are some pictures of our day :-)


...And we're ready to go!

Kings College

Emmanuel College

Bridge of sighs

St. Johns College

Finished!

The first week at school

Sooo… The first week at Cambridge Regional College is over, and I have to say I’m quite looking forward to going here for.. lets see.. What is it? 9 months or something… The school is very nice! quite big though! Gosh, 4000 pupils go to the school all together.. My school in Tromsø was like 500, so that will be quite the experience. And finding the right classroom is a little adventure itself. So many buildings and hallways! I’ve gotten lost so many times, but I’m starting to get the hang of it, so I figure in a weeks time, I’ll probably know my way around the place. We haven’t really done that much yet. Met some of our teachers, gone for a little walk around some of the colleges in town with our English teacher, gotten our timetables…. And that’s it really… Next week I guess will be when school starts for “real”. With homework and everything. Then all the English students come back from their summer vacations, so the canteen and hallways should be quite packed with people. Should be fun! Well… have to start getting ready now.. Going out with some friends to eat dinner out on the town. See ya!

Picnic in the park

(I’m posting yesterdays blog since we didn’t get internet before today :-) )

I <3 Cambridge!!
After sleeping for about one hour, then driving to the airport, saying good bye to my mom and dad, sitting on the plane for 3 and a half hour and then a 2 hour bus ride, we FINNALY arrived in Cambridge! The bus parked at our new school where our host families were waiting. The tension on the bus was quite high when a lady came on and started calling our names one after another. Of course Karoline (my roommate) and I were at the very bottom of the list so we were quite nervous after watching all our friends get their “new family”. Finally she called our names, but our host family hadn’t arrived yet so we had to wait for another 10 minutes. My heart was beating quite fast I tell you while we were sitting there waiting. But finally a red car turned in the parking lot and out came a lady, smiling and saying that she was Selina and that we would be living with her. The house was only a 2 minute drive from the school, so it will be good to live so close to the school for once. The house was really nice! Typical “English”, very small, but very cozy. But our room was quite big, so we were happy with that. Sunday our class met in one of the many parks here in Cambridge where we had a little picnic and after that we were free to look around the city and do some shopping! Hurray! There are sooo many more stores here then in Tromsø! So, so far so good! I’m really happy with both my host family and the city, so I think this year will be awesome!!

Last day in Tromsø!

Wow! Can’t belive the day is finally here. I’ve been waiting for such a long time and now the day has finally come. I’m actually moving to the UK! It doesent seem that long ago I was writing my application, and now my bags are packed and I'm ready to go! The past week has been really
hectic. Been running back and forth saying good bye to all my friends, getting last minute stuff and trying to find out what to bring with me. And I bought my very first digital single lens reflex Camera ( or what ever you call it on English) on Tuesday! A Olympus E-620. I’m absolutely in love with it! Taking pictures is so much more fun when you have a good quality camera. Well, anyways.. It took a while to get all my stuff into my two suitcases but I think I’m pretty much done ... should get some sleep now, gonna be a long day tomorrow! So next time I’m blogging I will be living in England:D now how cool is that! I’m really going to miss my family and friends in Tromsø and and of course my dog, but even so, I can’t wait to get to Cambridge! I’ve been waiting for this for 3 years now and finally It’s my turn to go!

Soo.. Good bye Tromsø

Hello Cambridge!