Time

The concept of time is very relevant. In different countries, a certain time means very different things. My Swedish friend and I will always be at the very least on time for everything, while our South American room mates feel like a time given to meet is anything within fifteen minutes of the decided time.

Regardless of how your culture views time, there's a very special outlook of it at a place like this. I think it's partly because everything is so close, and everyone is so close, but somehow time here is a moving thing, something which can go in many directions and at different speeds. Our Chemistry teacher compares being on time for anything with going by a train. If you're not there at the time the train is supposed to leave, it will leave without you. It's true for those classes, but in other occasions... Mostly, people leave their room, or kantina, or wherever they happen to be, at the time they're supposed to be someplace else. Everyone does it, or mostly everyone, so it never makes you late, it just makes everything later.

Then there's the fact that time flies. We've been here for three months now, and I sometimes still feel like the girl in April who went on an interview and felt as if the world would end if she didn't get in, or the girl in August whose stomach had constant butterflies, or the girl two years ago, who found out about this and thought it was the best thing she'd ever heard about. In many ways, three months is nothing. In other ways, three months is a whole lifetime. In three months, we have gotten to know people from 97 countries, learnt swears in way too many languages, heard stories about war and love and friendship and we have been bored, and we have been happier than ever before. Three months here is full of experience, and sadness and joy in a mixture so tightly tied together that it's sometimes hard to distinguish the difference between the two.

It's melancholy as well, we all know our time is short. Three months down.

Do you believe in snow? 2.0

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Brazilian friend, who doesn't believe in snow, or rather, who didn't believe in snow, because this morning, we woke up and the grass was covered in white, cold powder. She later told me that she thought we had placed it there to trick her. An hour or so later, however, when we sat in our first class, we could see the snow falling and though some of us (mainly nordics) weren't that impressed, many people had never seen snow before and you can imagine the look in their faces as they looked out the windows!

Snowball fight! Probably the nicest one I've ever partaken in, but hilarious none the less

A new perspective on how beautiful it is here - the view from our bathroom

November Break, back to school and flying pigs

Physics lab called Flying Pig... somehow writing the lab report wasn't as fun as doing the experiment

It's been ages since I wrote something, but it's been november break and last week I didn't really find the time. Anyhow, I'm back now!

Being home was incredibly nice but also very weird. It didn't feel like I'd been away at all, yet it had been more than two months. I loved meeting everyone I'd miss, as well as enjoy Stockholm as much as I could. Things I previously wasn't too found of, like going by the metro or cooking, suddenly seemed so much better. On top of that, I didn't have much homework and so could get some sleep. Not that this has kept me from being tired again by now... sleeping properly (meaning more than max seven hours per night) just isn't possible at a place like this, especially with the IB.

Coming back was great, too. When I got to the airplane in Copenhagen, where I was transferring, I met lots of people from the school and talked to them through the flight as well as once we came to Bergen, since the ferry to the school didn't leave until a few hours later. Travelling from the airport to the school involves two bus rides, an almost three hours ferry trip and a 3 km walk. I left home at 8.30, and finally reached the school about twelve hours later, together with around twenty five other people who had been travelling in Europe or gone home over the break. I had a (stupid) plan to go to bed early, but decided on staying up and catching up with my roomies and friends instead. I hade cake twice as well as shared some typically Swedish candy.

This week as been sexuality week at the school. One of the EACs (Extra-Academic Commitments), GAS (Gender and Sexuality) put it together and it included presentations, gender-blind dates, discussions and "ask-a-gay"-session. On top of that, they had also put together a magazine with information about sexuality and gender. I really enjoyed it, and found that I widened my perspective quite a lot.

Friday and Saturday night we were lucky enough to have Alan Drop performing for us and the auditorium was full with people laughing and enjoying something out of the ordinairy. He also took the opportunity to try and embarrass his son, one of the students.

Next week will be busier than ever, since not only is school work starting to pile up but on Saturday it's European Day, with a bazaar and a show, among other things. I forsee little sleep in the future as well...