Student Life

I'm about to finish up with my second week of classes and I'm certain I made the right decision returning to school for a master's degree. Yes, I've been a bit skeptical ever since I got accepted into the CoMEM program, not because I was uncertain about the program, but rather that I lacked the motivation and drive to actually complete a master's. Plus, writing a thesis has always intimidated me (still does). However, now that I'm back in the swing of things (it's crazy how easy it has been to fall back into student life) I'm finally excited for the opportunities the next two years will open up for me! The past two weeks have not been without their doubts, mainly when I realized how much I've "forgotten" since school, but thanks to khanacademy.org (seriously awesome website, wish it had been around when I was in high school physics) I've been able to resurrect some of that lost knowledge.
The one thing that makes me the most nervous about this semester is the fact that while we have "exercises" due every week and we have to pass 70% of them to be allowed to take the final exam, the whole grade for the class is determined purely by the final. I don't like that, I've never thought of myself as a good test taker and come end of November, I might be freaking out slightly.
So you're all probably looking for some pictures or maybe some stories about cool events but besides my jump off a wooden tower into the freezing fjord, I got nothing. I know I put it on Facebook but I really love this picture. I'm thankful to the stranger who took the picture then found me to ask if I wanted him to email me a copy:

The jump was for an art film of some sort, they wanted people to jump into the water with their clothes on followed by other people jumping into the water bare-butt (what is art without some nudity). You can use this swimming area all year round, and I am told there are some Norwegians that Polar Bear Club it up, but like most things it costs some money so I'm thankful I got to use it for free.

I suppose I turned 28 last week too. Crazy. The other students in CoMEM made me a card which was extremely thoughtful and I did go out and have a couple beers. I actually participated in a sort of scavenger/go around the city and do silly things event put on by one of the Engineering student groups. The below photo was taken as we tried to get strangers to help us make a pyramid (the only stranger was the elderly fellow, the others were a part of my group).....silly but pretty fun. Oh! and I won the challenge for tying a bowline knot the fastest! Thank you GLDD!

Maybe I was too cool to participate back in the day but I do not remember having as many "getting to know people" programs/games back when I started college. Norwegians love this stuff! In fact there are just so many groups in general that a student can join here that I find it pretty inspiring. A lot of stuff is run/taken care of by the students (cabins, the student society which hosts a lot of parties, the sports groups/facilities). Again, I don't remember there being so much when I started school at UT but I think I just knew I was going to play lacrosse and didn't look around so much at anything else.  Speaking of lacrosse, there's a team here that plays other Norwegian teams and I believe travels to some European tournaments. It's a young team, only three years old and most people have played only one or two years. I'm a bit on the fence about joining mainly for that reason (it might be like high school all over again) but I know they want me because of my experience. We'll see, there are "Try Outs" tomorrow so it'll give me a chance to check things out and besides, it'll be nice to do something besides school that involves exercise.  

This weekend I'm going away for some sightseeing so hopefully my next post will have more scenic pictures and involve more actual traveling!