Ja til Gratis Kaffe

Jeg vet at et smil eller et lite hei eller en eller annen vennlig ting noen gjør kan forandre dagen til noen. Jeg visste ikke at det samme var tilfelle med en kopp kaffe. Derfor vil jeg gjerne få takke mannen på Shell på Ekeberg for å ha vært så snill og gjort dagen min betraktelig mye bedre.

Etter å ha slitt meg opp etter en natt nesten uten søvn på grunn av vond hals og dett dese, holdt jeg på å miste trikken som skulle kjøre meg på andre siden av byen for å ha et intervju jeg hadde grudd meg til ganske lenge. Forkjølelsesmedisinen (mirakelkur fra Namibia..) gjorde meg søvnig, og jeg måtte kjøpe billett på trikken - noe som er mye dyrere enn å kjøpe på forhånd. Vel fremme viste det seg at jeg og intervjuobjekt ikke var helt enig om hvilken dag vi hadde avtalt, og dermed måtte jeg snu med uforrettet sak og følte at jeg hadde kastet bort flere dyrebare timer på morgenkvisten, ettersom jeg ikke hadde sittet på bibloteket og surfet og stirret tomt på dataskjermen slik jeg vanligvis gjør. Men pengebevisst som jeg har blitt på mine studentdager, bestemte jeg meg for å spore opp en billett før jeg gikk på trikken tilbake, slik at jeg tross alt ikke skulle tape for mye på denne bomturen. Det enesete butikkaktige jeg fant var en Shellstasjon - som selvfølgelig IKKE solgte sporveisbilletter. Humf. Så jeg fant ut at jeg fikk kjøpe meg en kaffe som forhåpentligvis kunne motvirke noe av bivirkningene fra det namibiske wonderdrugget.. Og når jeg kom fram til disken syntes han i kassa så synd på meg som ikke fikk kjøpt trikkebillett og antakeligvis så en smule stusselig ut, at han ga meg latten helt gratis!! Der og da reddet han noe som virket som en nokså håpløs dag - men som virkelig bare ble bedre og bedre mens jeg vandret to trikkestopp bortover i strålende sol, fast bestemt på å spare nye åtte kroner.

Så, der er den, historien min om hvordan en snill mann på Shell kan redde dagen med en gratis kopp kaffe. Ikke spesielt interesant, og kunne sikkert vært fortalt på en heller enn 16 linjer, men det ville betydd at jeg faktisk måtte skrive noe på oppgaven min. Og det er mye artigere å skrive om kaffe, og ikke minst å skrive på norsk, så alle setningene bare rant ned på papiret. Jeg klarer ikke å si med få ord det jeg kunne ha sagt med mange. Hvorfor kan jeg ikke overføre den samme effektiviteten til oppgaven? Hvorfor?

Frognerparken Sunday

The weather forecast promised us a perfect Sunday, and for once they were actually right!Rachel came from Tromsø for the week-end, and that was great! Sunday we went to Frognerparken with Vibeke to enjoy the sun. We were there for almost two hours, it was so nice and warm and relaxing. I didn't get a sun burn either, which means that the March sun is probably not so strong, but still warm. Just the way I like it!

SOL!

Sangen som jeg har hatt på hjernen helt siden jeg gikk til skolen i morges passer egentlig veldig godt både til det strålende vårværet i hovedstaden, og hva det har gjort med humøret på lesesalen :)

Sol ute, Sol inne,

Sol i hjertet,

Sol i sinnet,

SOL, BARE SOL!

Ha en strålende dag alle sammen :)

Spring!

Finally, it looks like spring has arrived! I always say that winter is my favorite season, and I still believe it is. It's just that when spring comes, I am not so sure anymore. Because I love spring. And then I love summer too. The only season I don't really like that much is fall. Everything's getting darker, it's raining, it's right between football and ski season, vacation's over and it's back to school.. But spring. Spring's great. Every day is getting lighter, and the sun's making everything bright and warm. Every winter I manage to forget the magic of the sun. Which is good I guess, because that just makes it that much more surprising and fantastic every year.

But still, spring is not my favorite time of year. And I have good reasons for making that statement. Because spring also means that exams are getting closer. Still a lot to read, too little time to read it, and I catch myself wondering what on earth I was doing all those dark winter days that I should have spent reading. Instead I find myself not looking forward to spring time, because I know it means a lot a of stress, coffee, and week long struggles to meet the dead lines. I don't really look forward to May 17th or to my birthday, because they always have an exam waiting around the corner. I knew that that was the way it was going to be already in 9th grade when my dad woke me up on my birthday (end of May) saying: "Happy Birthday! It's time to get up! You have your first exam today. And by the way it's snowing.." I am mad at exams for ruining the spring experience for me. But next year! No more studies, no more exams or thesis to finish! Just spring. Great.

Do Not try this at Home..

I think the cooking-genes have skipped my generation. So many times I have tasted something really good, and decided to try making it for dinner. So many times, so many dissappointments. And I have just added another unfortunate attempt to the list...

You see, I have found my new favorite coffee. It is a sweet chili coffee, with chocolate saus and chili powder. Only problem is, as far as I know, the closest place I can get this coffee is Jessheim - half an hour away by train. And paying over 70 kr for the train every time I want this coffee is a little inconvenient. But how hard could it be to make it myself? VERY hard apparently! I think the amounts of chili powder and chocolate saus require careful considerations to get right. Apparently, I was a little too generous with the chili part... I took one sip, and then I had to drink one whole liter of milk and several spoons of chocolate saus just to try to stop the fire in my mouth. But it still burns!

So, if anyone knows somewhere I can get sweet chili coffee in Oslo, please let me know! Same aplies to those of you who have any good ideas for how to stop the fire if you've eaten/drunk somethink with a little too much spice in...

Camels

For those of you who didn't know, I am worth 5 camels. Only 5! I'm a little offended. Especially because I am lucky if I get sold for 5 camels, because apparently that requires a desperate and entusiastic camel seller or a market drier than the Sahara. But if I had been a platina blond E-cup who wanted more than 10 children, I would have been worth over 40 camels. It's not fair!

How I know this? Well, see, I have started to take some personality tests on the internet (of course I have, I can't be writing on my thesis for 8 hours straight can I??). What I have also found out is that if I was a desperate housewife, I would be Susan Mayer. I am "pretty urban". My mental age is 28 (only 3 years older than my real age, I'm not too worried..). If I was a candy I would be "søte bjørner". And if I was an element in the periodic system, I would be oxygen.

So there it is. That's me in a nutshell.

Og Jula varer helt til Påske..

Or almost at least...

Today, March 5th 2007, my landlord decided to take down the Christmas tree outside. It's almost a little bit sad.

Sushi

Friday night I went out with some friends to try sushi for the first time. One of the interesting questions of the evening was: can a person who doesn’t like cooked fish actually like raw fish?? Sounds like a mission impossible, but - turns out – it’s not!!

After watching a lot of World Championship skiing from Japan, where NRK very creatively makes almost every Norwegian athlete try sushi for the first time; all the grimaces on their faces should have turned me sceptical. But no, they have only made me more curious, and I figured that now was the perfect time to test…

It turned out to be quite a fun experience. Once we got there the waitress told us that there probably wasn’t a table available, but that she would check. Then she came back and told us that there was one. And guided us all through the room to the back of the restaurant, where she told us that we had to take our shoes off. What?? Yes, take your shoes off, please! Then she opened a door, and it turned out we got the VIP room! And then I understood why we had to take our shoes off – because we were going to sit on pillows on the floor with our legs in something like a hole under the table. And they only gave us chopsticks to eat with… Fortunately we had plenty of time.. :)

Well, the conclusion is: sushi is good stuff, I like it because it doesn’t even taste like fish!