Work, work and worked.

Dear blog readers, I am alive and well!  My absence is due to school finally kicking in and kicking my tosh.  In a good way.  While I’ve never spent so many hours in the computer lab at any school, I’ve also never been so interested and stimulated by studying and learning.  I’ve now calculated the remaining oil shelf life for Norway (somewhere around 20 years), run optimization models for the oil refining process, written on the electricity involved in water processing, transporting and heating in CA (and, by the way- this accounts for 20 percent of the states electricity use and 30 percent of natural gas use..  wowza), looked into the effectiveness of green certificates, and learned to snakker (speak) me some Norsk. 

I feel fortunate to have some great new friends from around the world.  Makes spending hours upon hours in the lab much more enjoyable and conversation around the dinner table (or wandering home from the bar) rich and diverse.

I’m currently sitting on the floor in ‘klubben,’ the on campus club/bar. (yes, the infamous ‘computer lab’ I refer to above and am sure I will continue to reference is 3 floors above me).  Bless the Norwegians, studying and drinking beer all in the same facility.  Very efficient.  So why I am I sitting on a beer covered floor?  We are queuing, (fancy way of saying waiting in line my American friends!).  This Friday evening is elections for the school council and, apparently, the party of the year (I feel like they say this about all parties).  Some of my friends and I decided we would finally queue for a ticket to one of these so called ‘best’ parties of the year.  Our reward for all the lab time. 

As mentioned, the recent weeks have been filled with school-work.  But, below are a few highlights non school related… 

Dad visited!  So great to have him see my ‘life’ in Bergen.  Though, it rained the whole time (I suppose he did get to see the ‘real’ Bergen)

Sharing some Rommegrot in the school cantine

MEBA, the council representing the International Masters student programs put together a social even for us on the coast, 'Snacks by the Sea' (ps. I was elected to the MEBA council as the Communication and IT chair)

With Bea and Vale

MatFest!  A weekend long food fest along Bryggen.