One of my favorite singers, the amazing Utada Hikaru is currently on tour in the US, and I am so jealous of everyone who had the chance to go. I know she has a concert in London later on as well, but it was sold out before I even knew about it, and as far as I’ve heard, it’s her only show in Europe this time around. *checks her official page* She just added a second show in London, on february the 11th. Too short a notice for me, which sucks. I can’t travel all the way from Norway to London on a weeks notice, not on a students economy. Well, hopefully I’ll get the chance to see her live sometime later on, and hopefully she’ll add more european locations and dates as well..I mean, only two concerts in all of Europe? You need to work on that, Utada’s management!
I haven’t blogged seriously for a while now. School was kind of crazy last school-year, and I’ve been realy exhausted ever since, and christmas also left me completely drained. Thus I haven’t felt much like writing anything lately. But I’ll keep trying. I’m about to start a five week internship in a kindergarten soon, and I have a feeling I will probably need the blog to keep me sane among all the assignments, stress and looooong days.
Anyway….
During christmas I saw Avatar. I abselutely loved it! The story was beatiful, the effects extremely well done, and the cast was great! I only regret not being able to see it in 3D, as the local cinema didn’t offer that choice. Hopefully the DVD release will include the 3D version as well.
So, what would you readers out there like me to blog about? Leve me a comment, and let me know 
To start: Happy 2010!! Another year gone, and a new one begun.
Yes, I realize I haven’t blogged much lately…Bad me. I just realy haven’t felt like it with the stress of school and stuffs like that.
During the past month not much that I want to put in a blog has happened. After my exams in the begining of December I went home to celebrate christmas and New Years with my family, and only just got back to my dorm today. And, just typically, I had turned down the heat of my room before I left almost a month ago…It’s bloody freeeeeeezing in there!I think it’s at least – 20 degrees Celcius outside. I wore two pairs of thick wool socks, a wool sweater, wool leggings,and covered myself in a blanket….And I was still ice cold. In the end I had to go ask one of my friends who also live in the same bulding if I could stay in her room for a while. *sigh* I like winter and the cold, but NOT when I can’t even stay in my own room because of it.
Also, I, yet again, have a new obsession…or more like a continuing of a old one: I’ve discovered A Very Potter Musical! And it’s TOTALY AWSOME!!!( a reference to a song in the musical for those of you who haven’t seen it )
You can find the entire show at http://www.youtube.com/starkidpotter It lasts a long time, but it abselutely worth it!
One of the things we were realy looking forwards to was to celebrate Halloween in Dublin. In Norway, Halloween isn’t realy celebrated much, so we were all quite curious. When the day finaly came, I dressed up a a witch, Katja and Katrine in different witchy costumes they had bought. We couldn find a costume for Eirik, so in the end we bought a long black wig, an earring, and two tiny clip-on braids…and voila-we had a Captain Jack Sparrow! It was awsome! He got compliments all nigth, and as we were walking along the street, we heard some passers-by say ” See, I told you Jack Sparrow was real!” It was awsome! And once we got to the club we had decided to check out, we saw a bunch of great costumes! Borat(funny, yet slightly disturbing), Beetlejuice, the guy from the Up Your Viva commercial, Kat Von D, some pirates and cowboys…And on our way home we saw Pacman! Loads of fun!
I also saw two movies during the week in Dublin: The Vampire’s Assistant and Tim Burton’s 9.
The Vampire’s Assistant was okay, I guess. I haven’t read the books, so I can’t compare, but I liked it.
Tim Burton’s 9 was amazing, and is now one of my favorites. It’s about this little ragdoll-like creature named 9, who wakes up in an post-apocalyptic world. Humans have relied too much on machines, and the robots and other machines have taken over. Along with other rag-doll like creatures, all numbered, he sets out to save the world from the machines. Not a very good description of the movie, I know, but it’s the basics. It’s deffinitly a must-see for any Tim Burton fan!
Dublin in one word: Expencive.
But still worth it. It’s a very pretty city, and abselutely a great place to go.
We stayed at the Avondale Bed and Breakfast.
When we got there, our first impression of the B&B was rather dissapointing. We had booked two rooms with two single beds in each. What we got was one bed slightly larger that average, with only one duvet..Not very practical when we were two people sharing a room…Oh well. We got used to it though, and I at least didn’thave a problem with the b&b other than the fact that I had to walk up what felt like an ndless amout of stairs to get to the room. The service there was exelent, and I would’t mind staying there the next time I’m in Dublin.
Most of the time there we just walked around town, shopping a bit, looking at the buildings and things.
We did make sure we saw the Moly Malone statue though, as we’d played the song quite a few times on the trip
We also went to St. Stephens Green, a beautiful park in the middle of the town. I loved it there!
We also made sure to check out the famous Temple Bar district. I loved the cobbles streets there We didn’t go the the Temple Bar itself though, as it looked packed most of the time. We did go to the Porterhouse though, and quite liked it.
Another pub we went to was ODonoghues. It’s the pub where amongst others the Dubliners were formed. They have their own corners where only musicians can sit. So anyo
ne who brings an instrument can sit there and play. Which can lead to some interesting music. We were realy lucky, and the guys playing the night we were there were great, and very nice. And we realized that the world is quite small. The people sitting at the table across from ours were norwegians as well! Just to make the night even more perfect, I FINALY got to hear The Wild Rover live in Ireland! It was awsome!
One of the last days in Dublin, I decided to play Tourist, and went sightseeing by myself.
I went to the Dublin Castle, where I also met a very sweet kitty in the gardens
I went to the Christchurch chappel as well, which was STUNNING!
And lastly, I went to Trinitly College, and as the book-lover I am I hoped to see the library there. Well. I got there, and it cost a fortune to get into the library itself , so I elegantly skipped it.
Aaaaaaand…here are some other pictures from the week in Dublin
Yes, I know this post is seriously late. By now, I’ve been back home in Norway for a month. I just haven’t felt like writing anything yet. No inspiration what so ever.
Well, our last week in Portstewart was calm and quiet, realy. We usualy just relaxed , watched tv and did some shopping in Coleraine. Katja and Katrine had their hair cut, and they both look amazing now 
One night we got all dressed up and fancy to go out for dinner. Once we got out though, it was so late that most of the pubs and bars had stopped serving food. We ended up eating burgers at a fast food place instead. *sighs* Well, the burgers were pretty good at least.
Oh and I mentioned in my previous post that I won a dinner for 2…Well…Turns out that it was more of a lunch. It was apparently only available on Sundays from 12-14. I found that out when I called the restaurant at 14.30 to make reservations. *sigh* Thankfully I got to chose a meal for the same value though. The dinner was okay, I suppose, though fish and potatoe mush don’t realy go together in my opinion…And it got expencive! Even with a 31 pound discount, it cost us more than 70 pounds in the end. Kind of disapointing concidering that two of us originaly were supposed to eat for free. Oh, well…That’s just my luck I suppose.
One our our last nights in Portstewartwe went out and as we were halfway planning to go home, we spotted a bunch of people in costumes standing outside one of the clubs. One of them was in a epic viking costume!*grins* We got to talking to him and his sister and ended up at their place for an afterparty. It was awsome!
The morning we were leaving for Dublin, I decided to get up early to take a walk down the beach. I hade been there right before dark the night before and it was stunning! When I got back to the house again, I didn’t want to leave! I just wanted to stay in Portstewart!
Beautiful, huh? I loved it!!!
On our way to Dublin, we stopped at the Giants Causeway, which was pretty awsome!
Next post: Impressions from Dublin!
Week 2 here in lovely Ireland is now over! We’re done with our internship now, and today we said goodbye to Mill Strand Primary School. I’ve realy loved it there! The kids are great, and the teachers have really accepted us and been very inviting and friendly.
On monday, the school had some visitors: the Mwamba childrens choir from Uganda. They were unbelievably talented! The youngest soloist was only 9 years old, and was performing like a pro! I was seriously impressed. I’m just regretting leaving my camera!
On tuesday I started my art project with the year 3 kids.(6 and 7-year olds). I had originally planned to make masks out of plaster with them, but then we couldn’t find any plaster anywhere, so I ended up doing paper mache instead. Which was very interesting, because I haven’t worked with paper mache since I was about 4 years old, and the school didn’t have the right kind of glue. Oh well, it all worked out fine. They glued newspaper on balloons and I planned on cutting them into mask-shapes once it dried. The masks got a little thin though, and there was no time to do more layers, so I didn’t dare start cutting them up, in case the balloon inside would burst. In the end, they ended up making puppet-like things with cloaks. It took three days! One day to do the paper-macheing, then another day to do the painting and wait for it to dry, than another day to make the cloaks and get then stuck on the balloons. It was messy, noisy and sticky, but a lot of fun as well. I’ll post some photos later on.
On thursday, Eirik had his music project with the kids. He sang Tir’na Noir (a norwegian song) and had the kids join him when he sang Molly Malone. He also composed a song with them, using autumn sounds they suggested. It turned out pretty good, and the children loved it!
I’m realy going to miss the kids-they’re so sweet! One of the boys gave me a marble when I left so I would remember them, and I got a whole bunch of hugs! I just did not want to leave at the end of the day!
Yesterday, friday, we were invited to the teachers and parents Halloween party. It was held at a club in Portrush called Kelly’s. The headmaster was the DJ! It was alot of fun! We got free glowsticks, the music was entertaining, people were buying us drinks, and I even won a 5-course dinner for two! I never win anything, and now I get the main prize!! All in all it was amazing evening!
I’ve been in Portstewart for a week now, and I’m really liking it!
On saturday the 10th(a little more than a week ago) we spent the entire night playing pool(Yes, the house we rented has a pool table!!!) and listening to music. It was a blast, and will definitely be repeated. We’ve been exploring the town a bit, and it’s really pretty and picturesque. We live very close to the beach, and Katja and Katrine went for a walk there a few days ago and said it was amazing. I was exhausted then, but I’ll definitely join them next time.
One of the local Portstewart churches
A local convent
The first week working at the school here went fine. The people working there are friendly and welcoming, and the kids are soooo unbelievably adorable and sweet! We’ve been kind of tossed around between the classes though, and so far we’ve been through the entire primary school except year 4 and 6. We’ll be in year 3 all next week though, preparing for our “project”( aka our assignment from HINT). I’ll be making paper-mache masks with the kids, and teaching them a little bit about the history of Halloween.( for those of you who don’t know, Halloween started out as a festival of the dead in Britain. The Celts had the festival of Samhain on the same day, where they celebrated their dead relatives with games and bonfires. When the Romans came to Britain the festival was adapted to Christianity and renamed All Hallows Eve-now shortened to Halloween).
I took a couple of pictures around the nearest town, Coleraine, when we went there to see if we could find something interesting to do on our days off.
Coleraine
A church in Coleraine.
I love the buildings here! None of them are the same. If the buildings in an area has the same architecture, then there are so many details that makes them completely unique. I think all the houses in Norway pretty much look the exactly the same, so it’s fun seeing something different.
We’ve been exploring the shopping area in Coleraine as well, and I’ve officially fallen in love with the Waterstone’s bookshop there. It’s fantastic! I bought Marked, the first book in the House of Night series, Dr. Darcy, Vampire, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
One of the first things we were asked when we came here was if things here are cheaper than back home in Norway. At the time we’d only been to a pub to eat, not in any real shop, so we said that it was a bit cheaper, but pretty much the same. Well…I can tell you now that it’s definitely cheaper here, especially the food.
I’ll be blogging more later on. I’m doing my paper mache project tomorrow, so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Ooh, and Katja found a really pretty, very strange butterfly. It just sat on her hand, and wouldn’t fly no matter what she did.
The pretty, pretty butterfly
Day 1
So I’m finaly here! Northern Ireland!! We spend all day yesterday travelling. First we took the plane from Oslo to Copenhagen, only to wait there for allmost six hours. I have to say though…Copenhagen Airport has to be one of the nicest ones I’ve been too. It was huge, but not too huge, and it had a gigantic tax free shop..The main shopping area outside the tax free made me feel kind of out of place though…Hermes, Burberry, Gucci….I was practically drooling outside the Burberry store.
We were all pretty tired from the bussdrive down to Oslo, so we spent most of the time in Copenhagen ust relaxing at a cafe. We almost fell asleep at the table (one of us, Katrine, actualy did *grins*)
So, after Copenhagen, we got on our flight to Dublin! Once we got there, we rented a car, and were on our way to Coleraine, Northern Ireland! It was dark when we drove, so unfortunately we didn’t see much of the country, but what we did see was stunning. I loved this medieval-looking town called Armagh. Loads of small allies and stone houses 
Of course we managed to take a few wrong turns, but at least we didn’t crash the car. It all went pretty well concidering that we were driving on the oposite side of the road from what we’re used too.
When we got to our house (Yes, we’ve rented a house! Or..Our contact down here has rented it for us) we got a pleasant suprise! It was awsome! We all have our own bedrooms with queen-sized beds, and we have a pooltable and everything!
On to day two:
Today we’ve pretty much just relaxed and tried to figure out where thing are around town. We found a grocery store pretty close by, and a great pub/restaurant, and now we’re back at the house, watching Top Gear We’re planning a night in front of the tv or Eirik’s computer.*grins* And on monday, it’ll be our first day working here! I’m quite nervous though…I have no idea what to expect! But I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Anywho…I’ll post some pictures soon,and keep blogging about my experiences here.
So, right now I’m blogging from the night-buss on my way to Oslo (gotta love low-priced buss companies that has a free wireless network*grins*), and tomorrow morning I’m be on the plane to Dublin! It’s s surreal! I have no real feeling of actually going anywhere yet…a few butterflies fluttering around in my stomack, that’s it. Usually I’m way too stressed out when traveling, but now I’m almost eerily relaxed.
I don’t know if I’ll have web-access when I’m there, but I’ll try to keep you guys updatedon everything that’s happening if I can, and post a lot of pictures, naturaly!
