English studies

Whenever people ask me "What are you studying?", I simply reply  "English". I normally get two reactions on this: People who know me nod in recognition and say "Of course...", and people who don't know me that well ask: "What are you going to do with that? Are you going into teaching?" The truth is I don't really know. I might become a teacher. But for now, I just chose to study English for a year because it was always my favorite subject in school.

But what does actually it mean to study English? I want to explain it to you, because it is quite different from what I've been used to up until this point. The course is built up of six units. This semester we are doing American Studies, Phonetics and pronunciation, and English grammar and practical usage.

American Studies focuses on American literature, and also the American history and culture. It is a heavy subject because we always have a lot to read, but it is also interesting. Occasionally.
Phonetics and pronunciation is the study of the sounds of the language. We learn about pronunciation of words, about stress and intonation... and we have learnt the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) so that we are able to transcribe texts. This is handy because we are now able to learn the pronunciation of words in any language. I find this unit very interesting, but it is also very demanding at times.
English grammar and practical usage is probably what is most similar to what I have done in school before - however, the grammar is on a much higher level, and to be honest I find it difficult. It is very detailed. The "practical usage-part", however, is very useful (obviously), but having lived a year in England I think I have picked up a lot of the things we learn while I was there without noticing it.

Next semester we will continue the Grammar-unit, and we will be doing British Studies and a subject of our own choice. I have chosen to do Contemporary British Fiction. I have a lot of reading to look forward to...

The two modernist novels we have read this semester; "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

And just to add some nerdy humour:

Busy days

The last two-three weeks have been busy, but good. Attending university is indeed very different from school, because you need a lot of self-discipline in order to get things done. So far, so good - but I'm not ready for the exams yet. Luckily, I've got another one and a half month to go.

But, I do try to take some time to do some other things as well (I can't have my nose in a book all the time), so in addition to studying I am also working once or twice a week, and I have started taking driving lessons. One Thursday I went on a moonlight trip to Holmenkollen with the NMS U-group. We had a lovely time there, and got some new friends. Saturday-Sunday I went to Barnegospelfestivalen in Kragerø (a children's gospel festival) with the choir. It was fun, but very tiring. This Saturday, after work, I went to Mishell's house to celebrate her birthday. It was great fun; we talked, listened to music, had dinner that Mishell had prepared (it was delicious), and Henriette and I learnt how to dance (very basic) salsa. I think we did terrible (and I don't think Henriette would disagree with me on that), but it was fun anyway.

A couple of pictures:

Moonlight trip

International friends

Barnegospelfestivalen

Two very tired leaders (Henriette and I)

Mishell's birthday party

Feliz cumple, Mishell

Lewis' Christening

In September I was back in England for a weekend, to attend my "little brother's" Christening. It was wonderful to get to meet all the family again, if not only for a short time, and also to see a couple of friends. Also, I loved being back in the church I used to go to every Sunday while I lived there... - and it was very nice to find that a lot of people did in fact remember me, even though I haven't had any contact with them.

The service was, like it usually is, very nice and very different from what I am used to in Norway, e.g. with the flags. And the celebration afterwards was lovely. Nice people, good food (bring&share) - all in all a very good day. Congratulations again, Lewis! Also, all the norwegian students (minus one) came back that weekend, so we decided to sing a song. You can see it in a video clip at the bottom. Thanks to John who recorded it :)

One big happy family

All the norwegian girls and our English dad

Here we are singing the norwegian song "Lykkeliten", and a self-written personalized verse for Lewis in English. I'm playing the guitar:

Georgia and I (and Une) shopping in Bedford 

Family visit from the US

In January I started e-mailing with my third cousin Sam who lives in New Jersey, USA. We had never met before, let alone heard of each other, but we just clicked and got along really well. By now we could probably have written a book of all our e-mails - I don't even know how many we have sent... In a way it's weird calling her my third cousin because it sounds so distant - we're more like cousins.

After 8 months of constant e-mailing she came to Norway to visit, and we had such a great time together. It was like we had known each other forever - and she just blended in with the family as if she was one of the sisters (seriously!).

Celebrating my 19th birthday with my nearest and dearest

Egeland-sisters and our cousin Sammy

Sammy and Ingvild enjoying their ice-cream at Fiskebrygga

Sightseeing in Kristiansand

Last day together - on our way back from a visit in Søgne

A trip to the Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen)

When I was living in England I sometimes missed Norway so much, especially the nature. I told myself that when I came back home, I was going to spend more time outside, go for more walks in the beautiful landscape (not in parks), and also that I would try to visit more norwegian tourist attractions -

This weekend my family and I went to the south west of Norway. The first day we went hiking to the Pulpit Rock, then to Sandnes to eat, before in the evening we arrived at the farm we were going to stay. This was a place we found using the website airbnb.com. We had a lovely time there. Thanks for the hospitality! The second day we went to Stavanger to go shopping, and the third and last day of our trip we went home. On the way back we made a stop in Farsund to visit some of our family friends on their cabin by the sea. What a nice place!

Pictures from the Pulpit Rock: 

The path up to the Pulpit Rock was very rocky and steep. It took us about 2 hours to walk up there, and a bit less to walk down. We were very lucky with the weather - not too hot, not too cold, and the fog didn't come until we were on our way down, about 3.30 pm. When I was there I obviously had to sit with my feet off the edge - 600 meters straight down. I guess you could say my parents weren't too excited about that..

Havglimt

This weekend I was a leader on a christian summer camp in a place called Havglimt. It is run by the Norwegian Mission Society (NMS). This was a camp for pupils in years 5 to 7. The weather was lovely, though quite windy (just look at the flags below)... And we had a lot of fun in this beautiful place in the archipelago:

Lately...

The past month has gone by so fast, I can't believe it. So much have happened - my sister has had her confirmation, we've celebrated Norway's constitution day, I've hung out with friends a lot, I've been busy at school (with 4 exams) and I have now finished High School! And just to mention it, in January I started e-mailing with my third cousin in the US, and we've been writing to each other constantly since then, and in August she's coming to Norway.

Here are a couple of pics summing up what has happened in my life lately. I've had a blast (obviously not with the exam stress, but with everything else..)

My sister's cake for her confirmation 

I celebrated Norway's constitution day as "russ"

Lunch with my friends

Entertainment at Hald day, 2nd of June

With my dear friends at Hald day - Kennedy, me, Katrine and Nelson

Waiting to be told about the oral exam - in the end I had to do Norwegian, and it went very well.