The busy days have returned

I'm not too upset that the busy days are back, it keeps me occupied and I don't feel like I'm just wasting my life away doing nothing. Not feeling to well these last two days, got a cold and just trying to get well soon, so that I'll be fresh for paintball on Tuesday. Yee, can't wait!
Goooood news, my mum has decided that she will pay for may airfare to Europe this June, which means I get to go home and experience summer in Norway for the first time in 3 years!! I'm super stoked, and just think that she is the best mum ever and that my brother really is a manipulating bastard. It's sad to feel that way about someone that you look up to and that is your family. I'm not sure if I'll ever get over it, hopefully he will wake up one day and realise that he is wrong to act like a neonazi. My stepdad is applying for Norwegian citicenship now, all the best to him. What is also cool about the trip is that Elisabeth is flying home at the same time, so I will have company almost all the way! It'll be awesome. Now we're planning to stop over a day or two in a city somewhere, maybe Germany or Austria. I have to fly to Europe first anyway so may as well stop over somewhere cool. Italy would be cool as well.. Hmm. I'm longing for Europe, so won't spend my life away from it, I'm afraid. When I finish my education here I want to go either directly to Europe, or just work here for 1 year and then go. I can't see myself settling down in New Zealand, which is funny. For the first time I really feel a sense of belonging, which is awesome, that was the reason why I wanted to study overseas; to try and find out where I belong in the world. And now I know it a bit better, I belong in Europe. Next thing to figure out now is which country.. ;) Think I gotta go to Germany and get a guy.
So, my Easter break is looking rather snug and uneventful. Maybe I'll be getting computer training at work so that I can to day shifts when they need staff, switching to days would be to my liking, as night shifts actually are starting to get me down. It takes up so much extra time, and the pay is actually rather shit, when you think of how much time that is wasted. I've got about 5 hours to myself pr. day when I'm working nights, just because I have to sleep and all. Too much hassle in the long run. So it's official... I'm sick of my job, once again. I guess I'll have to find something that is challenging the mind, when I grow up. Otherwise I won't last long in any profession. Much to think about these days.
I'm loooving German though. Having so much fun with it, reading books and all these days to give my vocabulary a boost. Going to conversation classes with a German intern that is here to ... be an intern? I don't know what these hunks are doing, just hanging around in class, having a sexy accent and being nice to people. A bit sorry that I couldn't find a suitable chinese course, but I'm not dead yet, so there is still time. I don't wanna pay heaps of money for a crash test course that teaches you to say Hello I'm Tina, where is the toilet.. I want MORE.
Ah well, I'm gonna withdraw now to my awesome bed. I got a new mattress in exchange for a sixpack of beer, and it is soooo comfortable. I really have a great bed now. :) Good things are happening. May they keep happening. :)
Peace out.

Could someone please let me out of my head?

A fair question, I'd say... I'm living most of my life in my head at the moment, and rather unvoluntary. Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice exercise to get out of it, we're having a nice st. Patricks day party here in the flat before going out and getting some Irish action on Courtenay and Cuba. Wheee! Can't wait! But first I have to survive work tonight, and sleep a couple of hours, complete my German assignment, pick up my heater and make dinner for Eli. Busy day ahead! Busy days are great, feel like my life is just wasting away in front of the computer and in my head. We had a sendoff for Valerie at Flying Burrito Bros on Wednesday, I must say this place is absolutely awesome! the food was totally amazing. New favourite restaurant.

Back to the dark ages... (like, the 40's?)

This is the new decoration on our toilet door, it's been like this for 3 days now, and it's a bit complicated trying to stay out for the whole day just in case the need should arise...

Been working a lot lately, still haven't gotten into the rythm of uni life, 3rd week starting tomorrow and so far it's all good. I saw theee most cute movie yesterday!! It's called science of sleep, and is about this guy who is having a hard time separating life from dreams.. hehe. ;) Loved it!

It's got sooo many ultra cute animations and things!

Well, as you may understand, I've gone a bit crazy since I figured out how to post youtube on blogger... heheeh

this is what my room looks like :)

My room is tiiidy



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I finally got to the stage where I can truly say that I'm happy with the way the room looks. I'm sure it would look better if I removed the old carpet, but I don't have energy to do that at the moment..

I found it!

Haha, this is one of my absolute fav. commercials. :D

Back to uni

2500-3500words in 3 weeks, getting new bus passes, selling old books, buying new ones, updating my student ID, sorting out insurance stuff, checking that my degree is in order, Deciding to do Masters of Tourism Management, signing up for the rec-centre to use the gym and go to pilates sessions, signing up for tutorials, drowining in new students that are running ard like headless chucks, Meeting up with ppl from last year, getting new password for my scs account, agreed to be class rep for tourism class, got emailed about being a tutor for tour101... Madness. Was it always like this? I like my new professor for German, he's got the idea that we all should try to talk German in class (he's a genious...) which I actually prefer. Mixing English and German is still a bit hard to my brain. Tour 301 is going to be good, it's not an exciting topic but the professor is 100% aware of that, so it's all good. :) N my job at the YHA is going to be one of my classes, so to speak, so that's all good too. Fridays freee! :) And I know that just as soon as I get used to this routine, it'll already be end of the trimester.. :D

HUGE party coming up this weekend though. I guess about 150 ppl are invited *shivers*. could potentially be quite scary, but most likely reeeally fun.

All work and no play makes Tina a mean, lean, shopping machine...

good grief, sometimes it is weird to take a step back and look at oneself from an outside angle... I've been shopping whayy too much the last few days, just as a way of getting back to the day-world.. But good things have happened lately. :) I've been catching up with Anette, Elisabeth, Joanne, Geeta, Alena... It's good to realise that even though a fair amount of people have left there are still quite a few of them left. I have no doubt that this is going to be an awesome year, same as the last two. Same old same old, I'll continue to swoon in the presence of hot Germans, school will be hard but interesting, I'll have tonnes of plans that won't be realised... As long as I can realise a few of them, I'm gonna have a total blast. Gonna sign up for the rec-centre on Monday, and sign up for a few of those group things. It'll be good to have a time shedule to follow when it comes to excercise as well, cuz otherwise I'll be roaming the streets after midnight like last year, which is no good when living so close to the botanical garden (which everyone I know will characterise as a dangerous place after dark, but I just can't see why..). This weekend is Cuba st carnival, there's lots of free concerts, stalls, food, shopping opportunities (gulp) and other fun stuff going on. I'm working both tonight and tomorrow night, but will catch some of the action before heading off to work tomorrow. It'll be sweet as. My fears of becoming broke will probably be realised quite quickly unless I stop this madness, I spent half a fortune on bodyshop products alone today. At least I'll be a nice-smelling broke person..

Dyed my hair brown yesterday, getting used to it now. It looks nice, I look a bit less extreme, which could be good for some purposes. We'll see. One thing is for sure: Monday is the official kickoff of this university year!

HEISSE MARONI

These last two weeks I've pretty much been working, going to Hamilton, and then working again. I went to Hamilton for 5 days to visit Travis and his family. Days were usually spent taking small excursions here and there, evening chillin' with the fam at home. Hamilton is a nice enough city, it's almost like a huge suburb that just goes on and on and on. I quite enjoyed visiting Hamilton Gardens, and one day we went to Mt. Maungatautari, a forest reserve. They had the tallest tree ferns that I've seen so far.. Other highlights include a visit to the Zoo (where I got the coolest hat ever, that will haunt my garden and beaches ard Welli this year, hehehe) and cooking a fabulous meal out of Trav's recipe book. Well back in Welli, and after a horrid weekend at work with hundreds of binge-drinking teenagers, I'm now gonna enjoy a few days in the sun before going back to my cave in the dark night. It's the last weekend I'm working 4 nights though, from now on, I hope I'll be working Thursday and Friday night. Fingers crossed! :)

I'm back! Back from beautiful Germany and Warm and nice Singapore. I am back in little ol' Welli, and finding it quite ok, although I wish I was travelling more, I quite love life on the road. Singapore was nice and refreshing, a perfect end to my shopping spree that has been going on since I got back to Norway in december. Hopefully I still have money to pay for uni... lol ;). I was really in paradise in Singapore. One week of chillin' with Regi and Feli (although it was far from chilly). Eating to my heart's (and belly's) content, shopping, chatting, sightseeing on the river (really corny and touristy but nice all the same), figuring out the bus system of singapore... and of course getting my specs fixed + aquiring an additional 2 pairs. Next purchase will be an extra set of eyes, I think. Bought heaps of pig-accessories, I just love them. :) I'm soo gonna miss all the nice food there...

Bye bye Manuel, bye bye Germany

Germany has been a blast, with lots of visits to castles, churches, bars, a concert and so on. by and by I will put up some photos, just not that easy on the move. I actually quite liked practising my German, which is in dire need of improvement. And of course, I was surrounded by Germans +Swoon+ and the Bavarian dialect is particulary sweet to my ears. I like it. The family was awesome, and not surprisingly, his dad laughs just as loud as Manu himself. Really hostpitable people, gonna miss the atmosphere there. My last days with Manuelchen are now over, and it's sad as hell. This random German, who has been like a brother to me for almost a year... +SIGH+ Damn this curse! It's the curse of the international student, doomed to meat lots of great ppl, only to leave them after 6 months or 1 year. I wonder who the next ppl will b. We've shared many good times, Manu. I'll miss you like hell. :'(

Now that i have left beautiful Germany I am looking forward to some steaming hot days here in Singapore. Damn, it's hot here! I arrived early this morning half dead, as my sleep has been minimal the last days. So, today's itinerary has been rather slack:
05:30 am - arrival at Changi airport
06:55 am - arrival at Regi's quarters
08:00 am to 15:45 - Sleep
17:00 - 19:00 - shopping!
19:30 - dinner yumm yumm
20:00-> - chillin' at Regi's place

Good for a first day. Both my friends are working, so I'll b exploring on my own tomorrow. Gonna go to fix my glasses and to see artworks at the Singapore art museum. Wait for poor Regi who has to workworkwork. Thank goodness for Weekends.

Why can't we have an IKEA in New Zealand!!!?

Happy New Year/Germany

Happy New Year everyone! After spending three weeks being fattened up by parents, I am now on the move again, heading ever so slowly for summer and Wellington. Xmas was nice, with all the food that I have missed, good prezzies and family and friends. No internet at home has made me a rather slow blogger, though.

I am now in Germany, visiting Manuel in Großstadt Polling. It's a small place, close to a bigger place called Mühldorf. Germany is nice, there's a lot of history to be seen here; castles, lots of old churches, old houses... and so on and so forth. I quite like it. It was a bit hard for my brain to follow all the German gibberish at first, but now it's a lot more like a language to me. :) I must sayy, Bavarian German is not exactly book-german. But it's a cool dialect. Time has gone by so quickly here, and already in a few days I'm flying off again. Unbelievable. I suspect that staying here for a while would to wonders for my learning.. something to think about.
So, these days I've spent travelling around Bavaria with Manu, I've been to München, Salzburg, Regensburg, Burghausen - where they have the longes castle in Europe -, Mühldorf... I think that's all for now? Hm. And tomorrow I am not sure what's up yet. Maybe opera in München, maybe a castle somewhere. We'll see. Elisabeth is coming here tomorrow, so we'll be a small Welli-gang here in Mühldorf.. :) Will be nice to see her again, won't have the chance to do that in Welli now. Gonna be a crazy night tomorrow! Wuhu!

Home again

Home at last, after a looong trip. I quite enjoyed Amsterdam this time, spent a day there cruising on the canals and visiting shopping streets and the Van Gogh museum, which was good. :) Had a good trip although I didn't converse much with the ppl sitting next to me, i was sick and actually managed to sleep for the first time ever! I give my new neck-pillow all the credit for that. I never knew that these simple inventions would be so useful. mmmm :)
Now I am home and do nothing but play playstation, watch tv and eat a lot.. I'm gonna get really huuge I fear if I don't exercise some. Oh well, it's only the 2nd day home and I suppose I should get well before I start freaking out about such things. today: SHOPPING!! Finding nice stuff and having parents pay... :) I like b-days. Whee!
Shout out to my Norwegians: Give me a call!

Update

It's been a little while, I suppose it's time for a small update along with some photos..

Lately I've been working more than usual, just to fill my vacation with something.

My birthday was spent bbqing for the first time ever.. usually the only outdoor activities that can be undertaken on my bday is skiing, ice skating etc. So it was really cool. We even had some nice weather. After my birthday Elisabeth stayed with me for a week, so we were 3 ppl sharing bedroom. Actually that's a real holiday feeling, ppl staying over. :) Manuel has been living with me since 29th of November, and is leaving after I leave. It's only 4 days till I leave now! whoa... this last week I've been working and partying on alternate days, it's been pretty full on but with much fun. :) Weird to think that at home it's cold.. it's gonna be real nice to get home now. Spend some time slacking and eating well. Still lots of adventures to come! Thought I'd throw in a picture of the cold as house where I live now.

It's absolutely freezing, and it's summer!!! Gosh. I am really not sure how long I'll be staying in this house. The people are nice but a bit sensitive to noise, and the walls are thin as paper. hmm... In any case I'm not moving till summer is gone. I'm a bit lazy. Gonna go rest a bit now. More pictures later, k? tired. Hope u all are enjoying summer/winter, work/holiday/studies, looking forward to Christmas/CNY/some other obscure holiday, and so on.

My Back... grrr

It's so much stress moving into a new place!!! I've bought so much furniture and stuff. Getting the bed was heaps of hassle, and it's hard as hell so my back is hurting.. grrrrr. I'm going to sell it, first chance I get. hopefully I can live with it for a while...
Other than that, i'm kinda settled in my new place now. Will post a picture soon. We haven't got internet at home yet, something that I really miss, I kinda feel cut off from the world now. was getting really excited about myspace music, it is possible to find almost anything there! Hopefully we'll get the account up and running soon...

Happy Birthday Jojo!

Joanne is turning 21 today. I wish u a wonderful magical day, with lots of fun and games and prezzies. :) Too bad I can't be there to celebrate with you...
Gonna miss living with Jo next year. We'll have to be good at keeping in touch, have lunches and dinners together!

HUGS and Love

My Job

The before and after shots:

BEFORE:

Even after I have cleared away one load, it looks like a bomb has hit the laundry. Lately this has been the rule, I leave it nice and tidy, only to find it back in WW2 state after 16 hours. I suppose it's quite demotivating... The only motivation given by the housekeeper is that sometimes she doesn't complain about small things like placing the bathmats in the wrong place or mixing the coulours of the bath towels... This person must have a very exciting life.


AFTER:

After I've spent 8 hours washing, drying and folding this is what the laundry looks like.






And this is what the linen cupboard looks like:

A brother's love

After 4 years of not talking to my mother, my brother showed up at my grandmother's funeral. I don't know how much to write about this... I was really disappointed when my mother told me how he behaved, and even now he won't talk to her much, it's all cold and he still treats her as though she's stupid and second rank. I just get so angry.. I haven't talked to him for a long while, and now I don't know what I would say if he called. Which he will on my birthday, so I had better come up with something. Most likely it won't be nice though, I really do not know what to say! I've been extremely patient with him these years, but after going to a FUNERAL and behaving like a first class ASSHOLE I'm not sure whether I should consequently call him my half brother. Some bad genes must have come from somewhere. And the whole situation is hopeless, it doesn't help for me to be shouting or to stop talking to him, I've been trying to be diplomatic and solve the issue, but he's really not nice about it.

My mother really is better off without him, she doesn't need someone screaming and shouting that she is stupid every time she needs help with something. I think the only reason why she is trying is because of the grandchildren. But if they're going to grow up being as block headed as their father, what good are they to the world.

Myspace

I got a myspace page. It's kinda cool, there is so much one can do with it! So to check out some music that I'm listening to or whateva, go THERE !

http://www.myspace.com/tina_si_nte_heimesia

rain

Soundtrack: Anneli Drecker - All I know

I must admit, with so many people gone I feel quite lonely, even though I am spending time with the people that are here. I think I handle leaving much better than being left. Today I've been dining out with Anette and Marita, it was quite nice to be in all Norwegian party again, chattering on about food, alcohol quotas, dialects and so on... :) After that I've been stuck here in Stafford, mostly glued to the screen. Living with Loïc is quite different from my previous flatmates. I quite understand it though, it takes time to get out of a routine where one only need think of one self, into having to be considerate to flatmates. It'll work itself out, I'm just pmsing and don't want to do additional shopping or dishwashing. Probably spoilt by pampering flatmates and stuck in old routines.. I want to move out. Into the new flat, away from the ghosts of Stafford. Move on.

Freak accident - not for the faint hearted

I have a friend at home that always manages to get hurt in really weird ways, that shouldn't really be possible. Now, I have the deepest sympathy for her...
Yesterday when I got home, about right after I wrote the last post, I was a bit wobbly on my feet so I fell down, and as I was trying to lessen my fall my grabbing on to the bookshelf my right arm was pierced by a knitting needle... It was kinda groce.. It was going more or less right through the upper part of my arm (thankfully it cleared the bone so it just pierced the muscle), and you could see the other end sticking out under the skin on the other side.. Pulling it out was a not so pleasant experience. I have drawn wisdom from this incident.
1: Drink less
2: Never leave knitting for ages without finishing.
Joanne, when you return next year your scarf will be waiting for you. At last.