Blogge, sa du?

Ble ikke så mye blogging likevel, fant jeg ut.. Men slår no tell. Siden sist har jeg fullført, levert, presentert og forsvart masteroppgaven, søkt x antall stillinger uten det store hellet, fortsatt i Ark, og snart fullført et deltidsstudie i konfliktbegrensning og håndtering. Veldig interessant faktisk. Avventer et tlf intervju fra ambassadeseksjonen i Bujumbura, veldig spent på det, men litt skeptisk siden mine franskkunnskaper er tilnærmet lik null. Men jeg har bestilt meg fransk på 15 min og har store planer om å lære nå:)

Ellers er jeg veldig inn i bokverden om dagen, og Shantaram har brent seg fast i midt minne. Den boken er helt fantastisk! Derfor skal jeg ære Gregory David Roberts med noen utdrag fra boken som jeg finner uimotståelige.

"There is a truth that is deeper than experience. It is beyond what we see, or even what we feel. It is an order of truth that separates the proofound from the merely clever , and the reality from the perception. We are helpless, usually, in the face of it; and the cost of knowing it, like the cost of knowing love, is sometimes greater than any heart would pay. It does not always help to love the world, but it does prevent us from hating the world. And the only way to know the truth, is to share it, from heart to heart".

Dåååån.

"If fate does not make you laugh then you just do not get the joke".

I tillegg har jeg tatt en titt i en flott inspirasjonskalender skrevet av en drammenser (har som kjent blitt skikkelig boknerd), og jeg velger å gjengi noen av goòrdene her:

"Å leve et konsekvent liv, ville noe i verden, ville det med alvor-det koster". Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.

"Pessimistene er dog de reneste tåper-de tror på det motsatte av det de håper. Nei, de optimister som livet beror på, er dem som tør håpe på noe de tror på". Piet Hein.



Og.. har forresten påstartet den etterlengtede boka, men det var litt hardere enn jeg trodde... Så det får nesten vente litt til. Men den er i tankene, og er på vei:)



"Å leve er ikke nok. Solskinn, frihet og en liten blomst må man ha". H.C. Andersen

Nå skal jeg også blogge!

Ja, har blitt en god del tankevirksomhet i det siste. Uheldigvis er den relatert til veldig mye annet enn master. Rart det der, men hjernen fungerer på mystiske vis, som Ellen sier. Spesielt når den prøver å flykte fra noe. I stad tok jeg meg i å lese en usakelig debatt av en som var FOR FrP på en fb side som er MOT Frp. Mannen var selvsagt åndssvak og mente at dersom Stoltenberg-regjeringen får fortsette, har folket en lovfestet rett til å kaste han i fengsel. Mannen er nemlig skydlig i diverse mord, voldekter og svindel begått av 'våre nye landsmenn' som han har sluppet inn i landet. Fornuftig argumentasjon vil jeg påstå. Uansett, der og da fant jeg ut at nok må være nok og logget meg av. Men da fikk jeg en morsom link til en side med en masse bilder på msn. Der fant jeg bildet øvserst i innlegget, som jeg synes passer veldig bra i dag, dog kun til motivasjon for å kose meg gjennom natten med retting herfra og til helvete.

Ellers har jeg som sagt tenkt endel på framtiden og ting og tang, alt fra shopping til mer eksistensielle spørsmål som; hva i svarte gjør jeg nå (altså når jeg er ferdig med en master i internasjonale miljøstudier), hvor vil jeg bo, hva vil jeg gjøre osv osv.. Her kommer uansett en gladnyhet: Mia Vanessa Henriksen har bestemt seg for å skrive bok. Ja, det stemmer. Jeg skal skrive bok. Jeg lurer på om jeg skal starte på den allerede i sommer. Da blir det eventuelt en roman. Jeg har veldig lyst til å skrive en bok som hører til i samfunnshylla på Ark også.. Men jeg føler at jeg må ha litt mer å skrive om først. Kanskje jeg for nå skal skrive en litt fin blanding. En roman med undertone a`la Gert Nygårdshaug må det bli. Ja, det har jeg nå full tro på.Bortsett fra det ønsker jeg meg en traineestilling, ekke så kravtstor, trenger ikke mye lønn, men jeg vil ha erfaring!! Så skal jeg møte Jonas, og når han spør meg hva jeg vil bli, skal jeg svare 'Jeg vil bli som deg!'. Og så skal han ta meg under sine vinger og la meg bli norsk diplomat til.. tja la oss si Russland, eller kanskje Uganda. Litt usikker på detaljene enda. Vil jo lære meg russisk uansett. Akkurat sånn som han gjorde med ho jenta fra Dagbladet idag. 21 år og diplomat til Afganistan. Jenta er derfra, har levd et tøft liv med løsrivelse fra normer og skikker og dermed familien og hele pakka. Med fare for å lyde kynisk synes jeg det er litt urettferdig at hun har all denne bagasjen, som karrieremessig ikke taler til annet enn hennes egen fordel. Hmf.Jeg skal nok klare det allikevel.

Change in plans

I am postponing my master thesis for approximately one month. The plan is now to hand it in on June 18... That means that I will be living in Ås in June as well, and not start my summerjob June 2 as planned.
Yesterday, I was in an iterview for a trainee position in something called ForestFutureTrainee. The interview went good, but unfortunately, I did not get the position. Too bad, because I really wanted to. So now the hunt for a job continues.

The spring, or should I say summer, has come to Ås for real now. Everything is green and the sun is shining, and I simply love it. Spring is the best time of the year.

Just master, or master of disaster?

I am now in the finishing period of my master thesis. Correction: I am supposed to be in the finishing period of my master thesis. My emotions are acting like a rollercoaster these days, and some days I`m feeling good about the whole thing, and think that it is manageble to get it done by the deadline, and other days I can`t understand how it is going to work.

But I am trying to stick to the good feelings, and to convince myself that it will be just fine!

As my emotions are up and down, so is my mind about what I am going to do in the nearest future. On my way home from work the other day, it came to me that I am going to work (either as a volunteer or as an employee) in Uganda or another developing country. Most likely Uganda, because I know the country and I love it there. But then again, last week I had decided that I would stay in Norway during the autumn and work (unknown with what), because I want to go to New Jersey/New York in January and work as a trainee. (Unkown how likely that is, but I will definetly try my best to get there).
So- this is me in a very confusing period of my life. Being done with a master is a good thing, but it is at the same time very scary, and I am not sure if I am ready to take part in the reality just yet.

My trip to Geneva was unfortunately canselled. Oh, and by the way, I would love to be taken as a trainee in the WTO as well, but it is very hard to get it..

Summer plans: Work my ass off, and have 10 days in Croatia as holiday, I am really looking forward to that!

A new year

This is me writing from my very own desk from where I am going to create a master thesis. My paper will be about a political process, more specifically the conflict between USA/WTO and the EU/Cartagena Protocol. I have started, and I am planning on having a real kick off soon.
I even have my own drawer with my very own key that goes in it. It feels kind of like a office in 1m2:0)
But it feels good to finally have a place where i can put my things and feel that this is qhere I am going to work for the next 4 months.

I have also moved back to Ås. I was having an inner conflict about moving to Ås or Oslo, but finally I decided Ås to be more close to school. Seems like a good idea.

Travel plans:

Geneva, Switzerland to interview some people about my thesis
Munich, Germany HOPEFULLY see the Killers there in March...

And I want to see the rest of the world too, of course.Especially Asia. If someone knows of a good job where I get to travel, let me know. It`s all I`m asking for. That`s not too much, is it?
:P

Barcelona

Espen and I decided to take a trip to the north east coast of Spain. We got to be really good tourists, and we now know all about Antonio Gaudi.
We had great fun, and got to see a lot of nice things. And of course, a bit of shopping too. The most interesting shopping experience was the local market, where they sold all kinds of things. The best buy: A gift for my sister, chinese coups and plates (well, I am not too sure if it actually is chinese, but it looks like it, it looks nice and I like it), and shoes for 3 euros:)

But the real reason I am writing this, and what really made me pissed, was that on our first day in the city, someone, some really bad members of the human beings decided to make my visit to Barcelona a little less nice than I had planned. These or this person, I do not know how many there was, somehow justified for themselves that they were more entitled to my belongings than I was. So, as magicians, they managed to open my purse (with a zipper on it), take my cell phone, open my wallet and completely emty it for money and my kreditcard, only to nicely close the wallet, place it back in the purse and close it with the zipper. All without neither me nor Espen noticing. Was I angry when I found out? YES.

However, for unknown reasons they decided not to take the whole wallet, or the whole bag for that matter, so that I still had my Visa card and all the other stuff left in my wallet. How nice of them!

The next morning, I paid a rather interesting visit to the policestation, and got to be interviewed by a young, spanish man, speaking English as good as he could. He gave me a document in spanish telling what was stolen, and I intend to give this to my insurance company.
And then I hope that I will get my money back, and money for the new phone I had to by. What else do I pay insurance for??

Back to.. reality?

We spend two days at the orphanage, which was to be found 1.5 hours outside Kampala, in Masaka Road, south east in Uganda. I cannot find words to describe what it was like yet. Richard, the director needed to get the files which contained information of each child (about 500) organized, so that was my job while being there. I hope it will be of help in the future. The surroundings were beautiful, and you could actually see the Lake Victoria from there. The children who are living there have been taken from the streets of Kampala, but they may be from up north or even Rwanda before they ended up in Kampala. The reason for ending up on the streets are various, but the most common reasons are that the parents are dead or not capable of taking care of their children. This includes child abuse. I heard a couple of stories,where the childs mother died, the father found himself a new wife,who was not fond of the child and thereby beat her up and kicked her out of the house. Another girl had actually killed her own mother,
We were taken to meet some of the youngest children at the orphanage, and they started singing and dancing with us,that was really great!
It was a very emotional experience, but at the same time, it is good to see that someone are working to help these children. The director is worried that if noone acts now to get the children from the streets, Kampala may within ten years become somewhat like Nairobi, with huge criminal problems among streetchildren that have become older and developed high scale criminal gangs.

We spend one last evening in Kampala, and of course we had to visit Bubbles one last time as well! There was supposed to be a live music evening, as it also was, but it was good when it ended, because it was not very.. nice to listen to. However, it was a very nice evening and we met up with people we just met as well as people we had met before.
We went to have dinner at Mamba Point, Italian restaurant, and once again, too bad we didnt visit it before. The food was soooooo good! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! And they knew the true meaning of the service consept!
It was a long night, which resulted in Mia not getting up as early as planned the next morning. Ellen and I went to do some last minute shopping, and I got myself an extra suitcase, since I had to much stuff to be brought home. The rest of the day was spent on packing everything, and then Kaja came with us to the airport when the time had come to head back.
The flight was good, I ate, slept, ate and went off the plane in Brussels. Nice city! It was freezing cold (at least for two Mzungus without winterclothes and used to nice warm weather!) so I had to buy myself a scarf and some gloves.
And of corse I had to do a bit of shopping as well:)
We met up with two of Ellens friends whome used to be her colleagues in India.
Then we went back to the airport and flew home.
Espen met me at the airport, and we went directly to Kongsberg.
The first meal I had in Norway for three months was.. a cheeseburger, but damn it was good!!! Farris Bris, and salty liqorice. Mmmm.
Some of the things I am noticing that I no longer have to worry about is that there is no sand in the food I am eating, there is no mosqitoes that I have to worry about, nor any other sticking animals. There IS a toilet, and it is clean and not about to fall apart anytime soon. And there is HOT water...
Norway is cold. It is strange to be back, and I have to admit that I think I miss Africa already. However, I still have not met any of my familiy or friends, so I am really looking forward to that!
And to get started with the master thesis and to get myself organized as I am right now actually homeless!

FOR NOW, THANK YOU AFRICA!