How To Get Friends

The university secret.

Say hello to my ultimate weapon of friends-making! (…for those of you who can’t see it, it’s a doorstop with an owl on it).

This sweet little thing cost me 8.49£ from a rather “expensive” store called Homebase. This thing was cost quite a lot more than the other things I have bought so far though, but considering what great use it’ll be, I decided I could afford it with ease. Because, you see, this cute thing is what’s gonna make sure I get tons of friends right away.

Here are the easy steps on how:

1.       Arrive at campus

2.       As soon as you’ve entered your room, pop the owl doorstop on the floor next to the door, keeping it open.

3.       Watch the magic happen.

When this holds open my door, it will make my room a lot more inviting to my other flat mates. Instead of the door being closed, giving of a distinct “frag off, I wanna be alone!”-vibe, they can look right into my little nest and say hi, which should then inspire to further conversation, such as “Oh my, what a lovely room you have!” “I know, right? Lemme see yours!” “Yes, right this way.” “Wow, this is nice.” “Thank you.” “We should like be friends forever.” “Totally. Let’s never let go of each other’s hands.”

And, instead of being just a block of fabric and something heavy in the bottom keeping the door open, this thing got a cute owl on it; it’s fail-resistant!

So there you go, my ultimate secret of how to get friends.

Sweets

Every clothing store has them.

And I'm not joking. So far, every clothing store I've entered has them.

I think it’s part of a conspiracy to make us buy more clothes and consequently make them richer. It works like this: We go shopping for clothes à we get a little peckish à our blood sugar levels crave quick and easy energyà we see sweets by the counter  à we buy sweets à we eat sweets and put on weight à we need to buy new clothes ‘cause the old ones don’t fit anymore à we get peckish à

See? It’s a carefully executed plan.

(At the moment though, despite my demanding sweet tooth, I have been able to resist the siren calls. We’ll have to see how long that lasts…)

«Abonnenten har slått av telefonen

Eller er ikke tilgjengelig for øyeblikket. Prøv igjen senere. The subscriber has turned off the phone or is not available at the moment. Please try again later.”

That’s what you’ll hear if you try to reach me on my good old Norwegian mobile number (yea, I did call myself to make sure I got it right). Getting a sparkling new English number was both painfully easy and annoyingly problematic at the same time. It’s safe to say the relationship between the sim card and me is complicated, but we have been through counseling and there is still hope.
This happened:

I went to a store called “Phones 4 you”. They were very kind, and after popping a “trial sim” into my phone and my phone didn’t spit it right back out, I got a permanent sim with Vodafone as my phone network. I paid 10£ and now I have 100 min, 300 texts and 50MB web access for 30 days. All good and well so far.

Then I left the store, turned my phone off and on and discovered I had no pin code. Hmh. Alright. Turn off and on again, same result. Return to the shop, the guy who sold me the sim was busy, so a blond guy spoke to me. He insisted that the pin code (and subsequently the PUK code as well) was part of the phone’s workings and had nothing to do with the sim card, and that with a new sim card the phone would have reverted to its original PIN code. No matter what I said he kept firm on this, and in the end I left.

So, out on the street, I popped in my Norwegian sim. Hmh. Pin code came back into action. I switched sim again, and this time I had to punch in a pin to access my phone with the English one as well. However, the PIN that works with my Norwegian sim in didn’t work with the English one. But hey, hold on, this means the pin follows the sim, doesn’t it? And now I needed the PUK code after entering wrong PIN three times.

Deciding against return to the shop for a third time, I took matters into my own hands. After calling home to look for instructions in the manuals that came with the phone, just in case the PUK code followed the phone (like Mr.whosenameIdon’tknow from Phones 4 you claimed), call my Norwegian mobile network to see if they knew if there is some monumental difference between a Norwegian and English phone setup, I was none the wiser.

So I’ll have to buy an English phone then? Now that’ll be a waste of money.

Returning to the guest house, I got a last idea. Once on internet on my laptop, I typed in www.vodafone.co.uk. Like DNB (my bank), they had a nifty little function; namely a chat, so I could get right in touch with them without calling or sending an email.

After two minutes, the guy on the other end (after taking my name and phone number) had equipped me with my PIN and PUK. I punched the PUK into my phone, and it unlocked like a dream.

So, Mr.whosenameIdon’tknow, the PIN and PUK follows the phone and not the sim, does it?

Frenemies

The shower is a girl’s best friend.

Yeah, right. This thing didn't seem to want to cooperate. --> 

This is basically what turns the shower off and on. Now, at first glance, one might think the bottom turny-dial-button-thing controls the temperature and the one at the top regulates the force of the water. That’s what I thought too. But apparently, the shower didn’t agree:

Low and medium setting made no difference whatsoever. At least the bottom turny-button did change the water heat, but when the water had a comfortable temperature, the force would barely be enough to rinse soap off your hands – let alone shampoo out your hair. However, if I turned the heat down, the force increased. The only downside to this, was that when the water finally had an acceptable force, it was freezing cold.

But, alright, no need to panic just yet, right? Just turn the water back to where it was comfortably warm and turn the top turny-thing to high, no worries, don’t freak out.

Oh, if only it was that simple. Now the water was scalding hot. And it didn’t help no matter how much I turned the temperature-button. The water force did grow when turned back toward the blue area, but the temperature didn’t change one degree.

So to rinse out the shampoo from my hair, I was stuck with keeping the temperature-button on the edge of the blue dots, and switching the other turny-button from medium to high continuously.

Well, at the very least I did manage to clean up. Only time (and some more experimenting with the unstable shower) will show whether my annoyance is justified, or if this shower (like the food stores – which I found several of today) as some magical trick to it that only English people understand.

Time Table

All the times I threw a look at the time throughout the day.

03.33 – woke up
04.20 – drove away from home
05.35 – Arrived at Rygge airport
06.21 – Freaked out discovering the gate closes at 06.35 and the queue to get through the security check was not moving.
06.29 – Reached gate.
06.41 – Slightly frustrated, ‘cause there was still a long cue to board and the gate was very much not closed.
06.50 – boarded.
07.05 – Take off.
07.36 – looked at the clouds.
08.21 – Bored.
08.35 – Seatbelt sign switched on due to turbulence.
09.01 – The plane’s wheels hit English ground.
09.08 – Set my watch back one hour.
08.28 – Found the bus that would take me to Southend.
09.00 – x30 (the bus) left the airport. Busfare 15 pounds.
10.42 – Found a taxi in Southend.
10.54 – Reached Pleasant Court Guest House. Taxi fare 4 pounds.
11-ish – Fell asleep.
15.26 – Woke up.
15.38 – Left to explore Southend.

16.16 – Saw a Starbucks sign! A welcome sight for sore eyes.

16.30 – Another Starbucks!

17.11 – Ate a Big Mac. 'Cause McDonals was next to me when I was so hungry I couldn't take a step further, and I felt like being unhealthy.

18.05 – Back at the guest house. Only roughly two and a half hours exploring, but I was completely spent. I felt like slag and looked like pit. (And only one person will know why I used to those words to describe myself.) 

This is what came home with me:

Great finds: Starbucks, 1 pound shop, post office, Arts and craft store.

Missed: A food store. I found something called Tesco Express, though it was more like a large-ish petrol station (minus the petrol) than a proper food store. For all my walking and looking around I couldn’t find the smallest trace of a decent food store. Either the English hide them away real well, or they have a really smart food-system-store-thing that’s efficient I couldn’t even see it.

What I will do now: See if Google can point out a food store for me. Relax. Sleep.

                                                Pleasant Court Guest House.

Esc Home

                                                              (Photo: Marcel Dekker)

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes ‘til I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
(Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson)

Doesn’t get much cheesier than that. Nevertheless, this is the song I’m listening to as I do the last of my packing and zip close the suitcase. And I’ll be listening to it tomorrow when I board the plane that will carry me the 2 hour trip to Stansted Airport in London.

Melodramatic much? Oh yeah. But who doesn’t love that throbbing thing your heart does when some song fits so perfectly to your situation it’s silly? The throbbing and that giddy feeling that sometimes comes along as well. I know I’ll riding this sensation all the way there, anyway, all teenage emotional, cheesy melodrama be damned.

(Nah, I’m mostly joking. For some unfathomable reason “I can’t decide” by Scissor Sisters is what I’m listening to at the moment. It has nothing, whatsoever, to do with moving away. I guarantee it’s the most… special... song you’ve heard in a while. )

Stowaway

Everything Comes

to those who wait.

Venter

Venter

Venter

21 dager til skolen starter.

18 dager til jeg flytter inn på campus.

12 dager til jeg sitter på flyet til London.

Innen de forskjellige dagene telt opp tikker sin vei skal jeg ha gjort hjemmeleksa skolen sendte, pakket en koffert jeg ikke har hentet ned fra loftet ennå, si farvel til en bestemt gruppe mennesker, kjøpe inn alt fra listen i forrige post, fullføre pre-registrations, skjønne hvilke fresher's pass jeg trenger og ikke trenger, bestille nevnt pass, få en bestemt person til å levere tilbake en stor stabel bøker han har lånt, strikke en liten due til en viktig person, plus en og mange andre ting jeg ikke kommer på i forbifarten.

21, 18 og 12 dager igjen. Jeg kan huske den dagen jeg telte opp dagene og noterte det var hele 95 dager til siste skoledag på videregående i midten av Mars. Og de 6 månedene som var igjen til skolestart på universitetet i starten av April. England var en evighet borte i April. Nå er det 12, 18 og 21 dager igjen.   

3. oktober kommer til å rulle rundt hjørnet før jeg får tid til å blunke.