My yearly post..God is amazing!!

I've concidered deleting my blog several times now since I never end up writing any blog entries. But today I felt like writing about God's greatness! He knows us better than anyone else and even though we can't feel his presence all the time, He is present all the time. After almost two years of not having felt God's touch in my everyday life I can yet again feel that I am with him (because I know he has always been with me).
I've just been overwhelmed by His love and grace lately. He fills my heart with so much joy that I feel like bursting out into laughter all the time. And when I see people who have not known Him before turning to Him, it moves my heart even more. God loves me and I feel like a child again experiencing a father's love.

Procrastination

Here I am again. Infront of the computer procrastinating. There are heaps of things to do. Assignments to write, muscles to memorise, techniques to practice and presentations to make. Yet, I find myself doing everything and anything that keeps me from doing something constructive. But maybe constructing these sentences is constructive? At least I'm writing something. Even thought it is not what I'm supposed to be engaging myself with right now.

Old friends, older friends and new ones

It's almost a year since my last update. Time flies. Things happen. Life goes on. Life stands still. And you meet people. For every place you live you make new best friends because you have to, it's a way of making life good. It always hurts to say goodbye to friends, but sometimes opportunities come up that make it possible to meet again.

A week ago I went to copenhagen to see astrid. I love that girl and if it hadn't been for her, my year in Kristiansand wouldn't have been as amazing as it was. She's volunteering in Copenhagen. And coincidentally, andrew is studying in the same city this year, so I could go and visit both. As always it was great to see astrid, but also seeing andrew was really nice. I would never have imagined to see him in copenhagen. Over three years have passed since our class graduated from UWC, which feels like a long time, and those years have been filled to the limit, at least for me, yet, three years feels like nothing when you see eachother again.

Kamilla is also studying in the city, and we were able to meet up for a delicious brunch. It's when you see people and talk with and about people that you realise that you miss them.

So the whole weekend/week was about meeting up with old friends and even older friends, and it was awesome. Also, realising that in my heart I really am scandinavian, was quite interesting. Walking around the city, I felt more at home there than in the UK. It's hard to pinpoint what it is, but it is something different with the two cultures. I miss norway.

The visit was ended with an awesome halloween party. All the volunteers that are there through the same organisation astrid is with had arranged a party, and it was a lot of fun.


Another thing I realised that I miss is a more diverse environment. There are a lot of great people at my school, but in general it is quite a homogenous group of people. I miss the diversity you get from living with people from all parts of the world and from different layers of society.

It's about time for a new post. the reason why I haven't written for a while is because i don't know what to write about. there's nothing special going on in my life. i'm still a student, like it, but everything that once was new and exciting becomes routine. so here i am on a saturday afternoon, listening to lifehouse and found that maybe it's time to post a blog. i've been listening a lot to lifehouse lately, and they just get better and better the more i listen to them.

since i'm a norwegian, snow has always been a natural part of winter. and i do miss it when i'm in places that don't have it. but this year it was good to have a white christmas at home and it was nice to come back to england where the ground was bare. but this week the country has been turned upside down. it's been snowing. the heavies snowfall in 18 years. meaning 20cm in london and 2cm at max in bournemouth. this has created complete chaos. for a northerner like myself it seems rather rediculous, but i guess when you're not prepared for snow it comes as a shock. i took the bus the other night at 9pm, which isn't that late, but i got on the last bus. or so i was told by the driver. because they didn't dare to drive anymore because of slippery roads. and it was 1cm of snow. well, i guess i will never completely understand the minds of the brits.

oh, miss traveling. i miss meeting new cultures that are so different to my own that a culture shock is expected. i love it when it's expected, because you never experience culture shock then. it's when i meet cultures that are supposed to be like my own that i get problems, because you don't expect the differences. with other cultures you have an open mind in a totally different way, and you keep yourself from prejudice. traveling is really what i miss the most. maybe i should have become an anthropologist in stead. when i'm done with my studies i will take a year off to travel. i have never been to africa, but i would rather go back to south america and freshen up my spanish, or i'd go to nepal and india. but till then...

Life is short

They say it takes a minute

to find a special person,

an hour to appreciate them

a day to love them,

but then an entire life to forget them.

Bosvegas, AECC and life in general

After six weeks in Bournemouth, more spesifically Boscombe (apparantly the more dodgy place in town), it might be an idea to indulge people in my life here.
It is kind of surreal to picture myself here for five years. But at the same time it's a very good place to find yourself for such a long time (and time flies!). It feels as if I have known the people here forever at the same time as it feels as I only arrived yesterday.

So what has been going on since I got here?

The first week we were just settling into the house, Thomas, Ida, Hanne, Ane and I. The first days were spent cleaning the house, because it was dirty! But it was nice team-work:) And I couldn't have got better housemates!

During freshers week we had parties, we went to the beach and did a lot of fun stuff inbetween the classes and sleeping. Bournemouth has such nice beaches, they go on kilometer by kilometer. I have even been swimming in the sea, and it wasn't too cold!




Here are two of my housemates (three if you count Thomas' head).


Other things I have done:
- I have found a church - citygate church - where I will join a cell group, and I've already made some good friends there, Basia and Sophie:)
- I have joined a roing/boat club (!) and if I'll stick to it we're going on competition the 22nd November.
- Learnt all the bones in the body and actually find anatomy very interesting:)

something new

It's been over two months now. Sometimes you are able to be greatful for all the things you have got, but other times you cannot leave the feeling of overwhelming grief. Before the summer started I was planning on writing this blog thanking all the people I've met throughout the year and thanking them for having made this year what it became. I think I still will write this post, but for the moment I just need things to be, because He has set the right time for everything.
I bought a new CD of hymns that our crownprincess has put together and one of them is called 'the sorrow and happiness', how they follow eachother. they really do. now, I am leaving to start something new, something I have been looking forward to since May when I was accepted to AECC. In 9 days I will be moving to Bournemouth, which for some time seemed, not scary, but sad. I wasn't sad about going there, but I was sad about leaving Kristiansand. but now I am very ready to get started. Two months at home working in the same place as the three previous summers and not seeing many people your age can make you feel trapped. Now I'll face life again with all its challenges and joys.