Home, sweet home

So, after nine months in England, I'm back in Norway, probably for good (although, who knows?). It's good to be home, but I think I'll wake up tomorrow morning and be really confused.

Everything went well with my journey. Gerry drove me to Gatwick, my bags were 18 and 20 kg, so no problems there, we landed 15 minutes early and I got all of my stuff home.

I think everyone have had the same feelings; looking forward to go home to our families and friends, but hated having to say goodbye yesterday. It really was no fun! I don't think Jule was far off when she wrote on Facebook that we flooded Starbucks. There were aloooot of tears!

I got a text from Desirée at 6am, wishing me to have a safe flight. That was really sweet :) I love that girl. Gonna miss everyone so much!

Goodbye England and thanks for everything!

Testresults and goodbyes...

So, I went to school earlier today to get my testresults, and it went really well. I got 48 of 50 correct, so me and an other girl were the best of everyone leaving (approx. 60 students or so). It was fun, and both Rosie and Mark were really "proud" of me. (Of course, now, I'm really curious about what I got wrong, but whatever.)

After school, we went to have our last cup of coffee together, and it was fun until we were thinking about leaving. Then the fun stopped, and the tears started. I managed to keep myself together for a while, but it got too hard, so I started to cry as well. When I left Starbucks, I went by to say goodbye to my co-workers at the tourist information, and I was really happy to see Karen, Katarina and Paula, cuz they were my favorite people to work with :) The day was always so much easier and quicker when they were around.

I still don't really understand that I'm going home tomorrow and not coming back. It's just too surreal. I bet it will hit me when I'm all alone at the airport tomorrow...

The days are coming to an end...

As I wrote on Wednesday, we went to Day's that night, and here are some pictures from that:

Where are the boys?? (Answer: late as always)

When we leave EF, we have to do a test to see what level we are. We took that test yesterday and I have no idea how it went, but honestly, I don't think I care. In my opinion, the IELTS test counts for so much more. After the test, our class had a quiz, where Christy and I were in the lead for the first three rounds, but lost because of the last round. That really sucked! But both Christy and I, and Desirée and Tomomi, were only two. The two other groups were three :p

Last night, we went up to Andreas flat for the last time. It was really fun and hopefully someone will upload some pictures that I can "borrow", cuz again, I didn't bring my camera... It's sooooooooo strange to think that in exactly 24 hours , I'm on the plane. I can't believe it's been nine months already.

Today, we're going in to school to get our test results, before we're going to Starbucks for the last time. Uff, everything is for the last time now... Not good. It is not going to be fun saying goodbye to everyone. I'm really dreading it!

Since Sunday...

On Sunday we went to the beach, and after a couple hours I figured it was a good idea to go home, cuz I felt a little "flushed" in my face. When I got on the bus my arms started to sting, and I realised that sunscreen had not been a bad way to go. Typical me, I didn't think of it before I went to the beach, so as the day went on I got more and more red. I can finally say that my arms are pretty much back to normal today. At least they don't burn anymore ;) On Sunday night we had a BBQ at the flat and it was with the family and extras. The extras were, of course, Ash and Kevin. When there's good food, they usually surface at some point ;)

Gerry and Daniel

Daniel, Ash (my "ex-husband"), David, Kevin and Ben

Since I was so burnt, I decided to stay in on Monday, until I went to the cinema with Karolina in the evening. We went to see Streetdance 3D and we absolutely LOVED it!! I think we had smiles on our faces during 95% of the film and our feet were rarely still. I recommend it to people who like dancemovies! I really love them and I'm sooo looking forward to seeing Step Up 3D later this summer! :D

Yesterday was spent at school with our class. We had a "pot-luck" lunch, with means that we all brought something to eat and everyone tasted everything. When we were done with eating, we went to the beach for about an hour or so. At night, pretty much everyone went to King & Queen for the last time :( It's really weird knowing we won't go back there anymore. Tonight we'll have our last dinner at Day's. Also very sad : But the good thing is; in less then a week, I'm with my nephews :D

Stina, Maria, me and Karolina =)

Pot-luck lunch, where Mark got a thank-you-cookie from us who are leaving

Felicia and Raquel (had to say goodbye to Raquel and Yamila yesterday :( )

Robin and Eva sing their last karaoke contribution

Stina and me (poor Stina is staying here alone when we leave)

IELTS results

This morning, I got my IELTS result (the exam I did two weeks ago) and I am very happy to say that I got 8.5 as an overall score! :D (Highest mark is 9). I got 7.5 on writing, 8.5 on speaking and listening and 9 on reading (which means I got every answer right). It's safe to say I'm very happy about that :)


Today it is only one week until I go home. In one week from now, I'm back in Norway, hopefully attending a BBQ at my grandparents house ;)

Picture update

Instead of editing the previous post, I will just have one here with a lot of pictures from yesterday. But first a little story of today's happenings.

Karolína, Desirée, Felicia and I met at Old Steine to have a milkshake date. We've been to ShakeAway a few times now, and this is why:

There are so many flavours, so it's really hard to choose. We sat down in the park to enjoy them, but then we got wet on our behinds, so we decided to go to Old Steine park to try to get a bench. After about 5 minutes, we regretted doing that, because behind us (LUCKILY) there was a girl giving a guy a very good time, if you know what I mean. I'm not going to put out a picture of it (Felicia took it as proof), cuz I'm having a hard time getting it out of my brain. Don't want to cause you any trauma. The worst thing about it was that there were a lot of children around. After about 15-20(!) minutes, we started to feel reaaly uncomfortable, so we left. When Desirée took the bus past the park 10 minutes later she saw the girl talking to a police officer and it seemed like she got a ticket. Haha! Serves you right!

Me and Felicia enjoying our milkshakes :)

The fountain in Old Steine park

Now to more trivial things :) Pictures from our graduation yesterday :)

Ready to graduate!

GRADUATED!! =D

MEHT Class of 2010 =)

Me and my girl Karo =) Gonna miss her sooo much!!

Desirée, Melanie, Raquel, me and Yamila (and the sun :D )

Stina, me and Desirée

Mark lasted for 10 seconds or something

Robin and Mark battle

Me and Karo

Eva, Robin and me

Mar, Stina, Eva, me and Karolina =)

Andrea, Karolína, Adam (activities office) and Robin

I'm really going to miss Robin! (Despite the fact that he's an Arsenal supporter)

Update and graduation!!

Yesterday we finally graduated! :) After nine months we are now at the finish line, and it is a very strange feeling. It is reaaly hitting all of us now, that we're leaving in 8 days and it makes us all a bit sad. Not just a bit either. Pretty much full-on! However, we are all looking forward to seeing our families and friends, so I think it's better to think about that now.

Part of the graduating classes

We had our graduation at Babylon Lounge (the club where EF students get in for free every Thursday). There were some stands from various countries we could look at, we could ride the bull, do some sumo-wrestling and two other things I don't know how to explain, so hopefully someone took pictures of it so I can copy :p

My favorite teacher, Gerry, as a child (the teacher's stand)

Christy (classmate) and me

At five, the BBQ started (although we stood in line for 40-50 minutes, cuz people don't know how to cue!!) and when we were done eating, we went home to relax a bit and change before going back to Babylon at 11 to have our final Babylon party. It was actually a good Babylon night and I have to admit that something that made it even better, was that my first teacher at EF, James, came out of nowhere! He was my teacher for the first two weeks here, but then he moved to EF London. I had given up on him coming back to visit, and then all of the sudden he was there :) It was really nice, although he was a bit drunk. But that's life :p

Karolina and I left when her headache got worse and things were still fun, so I got back home around two. It was really good to go to bed after a long, but very good graduation :D

Since I have been very bad at taking pictures, I decided to "borrow" some from Felicia. (I will add more pictures once I get them ;) )

Felicia and me "celebrating" 17th May

Oops...

Okey, so I just found out that I really suck at history! (And I got a 5/B on my history exam.. Sorry, Gjerde! (My history teacher)...) So to clear up (like Elise did with me): we got our constitution 17th May, but weren't directly freed. Just a little bit free, and it was from Denmark, not Sweden. But we got our own law, so maybe that's what we're celebrating? Elise? What do you have to say? Maybe you should write my blog... Makes it a whole lot easier :p Or maybe I should stick to writing about things I know ;) Not a bad idea that either...

Happy Constitution Day, Norway :D

17 th May 1814: Norway were finally free from Swedens reign. We were now an independent nation and it is not fun to be in England today. Last year I was actually in France, so I haven't been celebrating 17 May since I was russ (senior) two years ago.

Me and Felicia decided to wear red, white and blue today to show our love for our country. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me today, but I will post a picture of the flag instead. Better than nothing, right?




I wish I was back in Norway today, to see either my two nephews or my cousin, celebrate. However, I can now say "I'm going home next week". NEXT WEEK! It's crazy! It feels very surreal, but I am looking forward to it :) And in two weeks I will also see my nephew for the first time. Exiting :D

What a day!

Got to the lecture at school at 10.20 this morning, only to be told that we didn't need to be there (not everyone of course, but people in my class). We don't need to be there next week either, because both lectures have the same topic (bookreports and portfolio) and it's not relevant to us, because we're leaving soon :) So, we sat in the cafeteria and went to Lidl. Very useful morning. When we got to our normal lessons we found out that our last day in school is technically next Wednesday. This is because we have our seremony, where we get our certificates with attendence, on Thursday. When we have gotten that there's no reason for us to be in school, cuz we won't be marked absent anyway :) Mark understands this and has therefore decided that from Tuesday next week until Friday 28th (our actual last day) we'll just be doing fun (or fun-ish) activities. My friends and I are very happy about this, cuz it means we only have six(-ish) days left in school ;D

When I got home my mom called to say that I had gotten the answer to my BI (a school in Norway) application. I have applied to Reiselivsledelse, which in English is something like Tourism-managment. When she opened it she was happy to tell me that I got in :D This means three more years in school and I'm moving to Oslo (with my brother). When I wrote that on Facebook, my bestfriend asked me if I was joking, cuz if I was, it would have been extremely mean. Hehe... Typical Marte... :p

IELTS

On Saturday, me and three of my friends are taking an IELTS exam. IELTS is short for International English Language Testing System, so in other words: we are going to take a test to see how our English level is. The test consists of four parts; reading, writing, listening and speaking and you are graded for each part. Then the four results are put together and you get one grade on a scale from 1 to 9, 9 being the highest.

To prepare for the exam, David, our former IELTS teacher, put together a mock exam for us. We did the reading and writing parts yesterday, and the listening and speaking parts today. The reading did not go so well. I got 6.5 and I'm not too happy about that. We haven't got out writing tasks back yet, so I don't know how that went, but probably somewhere around the same area. Today was a little bit better. I got 8.5 on the listening (39 correct of 40) and Rosie gave me an 7/7.5 on the speaking. If I get a combined result of 7.5 I will be pretty happy. My problem is that I'm not formal enough. I don't have a complex vocabulary when it comes to tests. I usually know a lot of high level vocabulary, but when I'm doing a test I normally go for the easy version. (Det enkleste er ofte the beste, as the ad says).

All I know is that I am going to be very happy when I'm finished with this test.

Finally!

A couple of hours after I wrote about Portsmouth, I got the text I had been waiting for the entire day: my nephew and godson, Jakob, had finally arrived! My dad sent me a picture, and he looks absolutely beautiful! Everything is well with both him and my sister and I am really looking forward to seeing all of them, but especially him, in four weeks time :)

Portsmouth & hospital

Strange headline, I know, but nothing to worry about regarding the hospital part (as far as I know, at least). This morning I went to Portsmouth with seven of my friends. While we were on the train towards Portmouth I got a text from my mom, saying that my sister was on her way to the hospital. She is pregnant and her water broke this morning, so she may give birth today :) She has gone 8 days over her due-date, and she is very ready to get him out, so hopefully I'll get a text during the evening, saying I'm an aunt again, but this time, also a godmother :) It is, however, a little bit scary, because it means that I have much more responsibility this time. But I wouldn't have said yes if I didn't think I could handle it, so bring it on! ;)

The reason for the trip to Portsmouth was shopping, which is why it is hilarious that only £15 is "missing" from my wallet :p I don't think I've ever gone shopping without actually buying something (except something to eat and drink). We went to two shopping centres and Victoria Park. There was a playground there, so we went there twice :) First time we were there, we played (Robin and Karolina got hurt), second time we just sat there, because there were a lot of kids playing. I didn't take any pictures, but I'm going to get Melanie's, so I'll put them in here when I get them.