Late evenings, student life and the radio

After two days of not being home all day, today will be yet another, although not quite as extreme as the previous two. And today I started the day with a workout! I was at the gym at 08.15!!! Yes I know, I'm so good. No need for flattery, people!

Oh well... Exams are, as I've mentioned, approaching, and the level of stress and reading intensity is on the rise. Yet again. Some times it feels like being a student is about self-punishing. I mean, you do have a freedom that you don't have when you work - for instance, the world did not come to an end simply because I overslept and missed the lecture yesterday; the nuisance of the consequences was mine alone. A missed lecture is missed knowledge, but fortunately they'd moved into things I'd already studied in another course, so I guess I was kind of lucky after all. But, digressions aside, back to my point. The so-called freedom of being a student is (in my opinion) tainted by the fact that whenever exams are coming up, and really through the rest of the year as well, one is never really finished with one's work for the day. One can always do more, and this is my eternal challenge.

Another constant challenge is getting to bed in time. I never do! And I honestly and sincerely try to, my intentions to do so are the very best, but I hardly ever succeed. Which yesterday morning's occurrence proves. After staying up very late every evening since last Thursday, and still managing to get up in good time, it caught up with me yesterday. My alarm clock was set for 08.20 (not exactly overwhelmingly early), as I had a lecture at 10.15. I do remember making good use of the snooze function on both the alarm clock and my cell phone. (I use both as alarms, to be sure to get up. Fat lot of good that did me...) The problem is that the cell phone alarm is quite easily turned off, and the alarm clock stops ringing after half an hour of snoozing... End of story is that I wake up with a start at 11 o'clock, jumping out of bed the second it strikes me what time it is, realizing that I've missed that day's lecture. I tell you, it's a nasty way to start the day, not to mention the week!

However, I did have a fun weekend, so in a way, I guess it was worth it... Spent the weekend with friends, from Friday night, at a birthday party and sleeping over at my cousin's, having a nice long morning with her on Saturday, and then going to church in the evening. Then we went to this girl's place, with some people we didn't know, and socialized well into the late hours of the night (or early hours of the morning, depending on how you look at it). Sunday morning I went to church, and afterwards I hung out with my friend Anette. We watched the Shakespeare comedy "Much Ado About Nothing", (highly recommended, btw), and made svele - a Norwegian thing. They most closely resemble American pancakes, but they are bigger, and fluffier, and are usually eaten with the afternoon coffee which is such a nice part of the Norwegian food tradition. We had them with blueberries Anette had gotten from her boyfriend's mother, and lovely cups of steaming coffee. Yummmmm!
Then later in the afternoon I met up with a couple of friends to have dinner at Egon, (a restaurant), and afterwards we went home to one of them to watch the soccer match between Bergen's team Brann (GO BRANN) and Trondheim's team Rosenborg. Unfortunately and very sadly, Rosenborg won 3-1, and this most probably lost Brann the first place of the cup this year. Incredibly annoying, but there you go. Nothing more to do about it but to hope for better things next year...

Yesterday I went straight from school to dinner with Anette at Brød og Vin (like last Monday), and then on to church at six thirty. From 8 o'clock to 9 we were answering the phones for the radio show the church broadcasts every Monday evening, receiving the requests for songs, and greetings to be read on the radio, and then passing them on to the radio host. It was great fun - I'd never done it before, but Anette asked me to help her out - so I hope to get the chance to do it again. I felt very business-like, very secretaryish. "Radio Gnisten, you are speaking with Elisabeth".

All righty, radio shows aside... My reading of James Ferguson's articles on the Copperbelt towns of Zambia, previously Northern Rhodesia, is being neglected, and I should go fulfill my duties as a mature and responsible student. Or at least pretend to do so.
Have a good one, all!
PT