various and sundry.... quite a week

Ohlala I'm behind on things I've been wanting to share.  This last week was quite full and wrapped up with a weekend of sunshine.  I feel like a new woman!  Just what I needed!

Wednesday was quite a day and rather unexpected.

A Norwegian friend of mine, Egil, invited me to attend a 'meet-up' of BMUG: Business Model User Group workshop on Wednesday night.  It's a entrepreneurial oriented group and a mix of business people and IT app programmers.  We had some presentations about facebook and apps to begin... in Norwegian of course!  But, the best part was I actually understood a fair amount of the first presentation.  Yea!  The women spoke at a good pace and had a rather straight dialect which is helpful.  The second presenter had a pretty heavy dialect so I was outta luck.  It's all good.  Then we were presented with a business plan template, a new app idea, split into groups and set off for 30 minutes or so.  We reconvened and present our plan ideas.  I was chosen to present for our group ... somehow I always get roped into that :P  And, as I've mentioned before, Norwegians speak very good English so it was no problem to be involved.  I really appreciate this because it's been a great way to meet new people.  Overall it was a great night and I hope to take part in their future events.

Previous to the BMUG meet-up, I happened upon a royal spotting.  I was coming home from school, there was some commotion around Bryggen and I had heard Prince Charles and Camilla were in town.  I had a little time to linger and no sooner had I walked up than they walked out of a store front.  I kid you not.  Maybe 20 feet away... one of the perks of living in a town of 200,000.  Wild!  And, they were accompanied by King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway. 

Prince Charles and Queen Sonja
source: Bergens Tidende

Thus, quite a day on Wednesday and the week finished out strong.

I was fortunate to be invited to dinner on my friend Marius's boat with Trine, Christine and Kenneth on Thursday.  Good fun laughing and sharing stories.  And, Friday was sunset beers at 'the boathouse'. Always good company at the boathouse.  The photo below was taken from the deck there the weekend before.  I post it to show you the fantastic location and my good fortune that the 3 guys that live there have extended me an open invitation.  Ah yes, and, Sunday waffles in the sun with this view= la vida.  Jealous yet?  Just remember this sight is rare, most of the time it's overcast and rainy.  My flatmate put it well- if Bergen had this weather consistently, it would be the San Diego of Norway. True!

Pictures from my sunny weekend this weekend coming soon....

riding on my sunshine high,

lisa liv 

no joke

overcast, rain, overcast, rain..... that's life in Bergen for the past month. Oh yes, with one day of amazing sun about 2 weeks ago.  Who's ready for hibernation?!  Meeeeeeee.  Here's the forecast for the next week:

seriously seeking sunshine,

lisa liv

parlay

Parlay, I like how that word rolls off the tongue.  Random, I know. 

Last semester I was invited to be one of the 4 inaugural 'bloggers' on the NHH student blog.  So, I parlayed my experience from my personal blog into a slightly more professional blogging gig.  Fancy.  The blog just went live last week so I'll be blogging from there on and off before I complete my studies in June.  Click on the image below to check out the new NHH student blog:

Update:  there were NO northern lights last Friday.  Bummer!  It was still fun to think about.  The quest continues.

Last weekend kicked off 'Uken' at NHH which is a 3 week long festival of music concerts and events.  As you can imagine, there's a fair amount of beverage consumption involved but it's also quite a school spirit and community oriented event. 

There is a 'actors' group of 10 NHH economics students who write, stage and put on a show which is a collection of sketches as one of the Uken events.  It's a competitive audition process and a big time commitment for the semester.  My flatmate from last semester, Knut Anders, was selected as an actor so we all went to support him and enjoy the show last Saturday evening.  Yes, it was in Norwegian, but I got the gist and was VERY impressed with the performance level.  And, there was plenty of singing and dancing for this ol' musical theater gal to be loving it.  There's a whole crew of student volunteers doing all the behind-the-scenes work and the show was quite professional.  This is a super fun memory I will have from my NHH days.  Here's a few photos to give you an idea of the show (note- I only wish I skills and camera enough to take these photos!).

I'm hoping we shake the rain soon.  It's been overcast and drizzling for weeks!

raindrops keep falling on my head,

lisa liv

northern lights....

... there's a chance there will be some tonight in Bergen.  Sooooo excited!!  I'm not holding my breath, but some chance is better than no chance. 

My friend, Marius, lives on a boat just off gamle Bergen (old Bergen) and is having me and a couple of other people over for dinner tonight.  I know, I'm pinching myself.  Salmon dinner on a boat on the west coast of Norway with the potential of seeing northern lights?!  Thank you, thank you, thank you to the powers of the universe, you are so good to me.

fingers crossed,

lisa liv

KONY 2012

I'm bursting with pride right now. 

A little trip down memory lane.... I was very involved in musical theater growing up, and back in high school I was in Christian Youth Theater's (CYT) San Diego central production of 'Beauty and the Beast'.  The show was great fun in large part to a stellar and jovial cast, crew and leadership.  The director of the show was Jason Russell.  Jason and I both ended up at USC where I was studying business/marketing/cinema-tv and he was studying film making.  We were both in the Greek system so our paths crossed here and there and it was fun to joke about old times, etc.

Jason and two other young film makers fresh out of USC ended up on a film making adventure to Africa.  While there they stumbled upon child soldiers in Joseph Kony's child army in Uganda as well as the children that walk far distances to 'safe houses' every night so they are not abducted in their sleep and forced into this rebel army.  The filmmakers were beyond shocked and made a moving piece, Invisible Children.'  They also felt called to launch a movement to spread the word about the injustice. The movement quickly grew and has now spread around the world.

I can truly say this as I sit in my room in Bergen, Norway and my Norwegian friend, Marius, facebooks me the link to the latest Invisible Children film, KONY2012, saying it's worth every minute of watching.  Woah!   

I couldn't be more proud of and happy for my friends from San Diego, CA who have started a movement which is now buzzing around the world.  Bravo Jason and Invisible Children supporters!!

KONY2012 is the next installment and I encourage you to watch it here.  Check out the movement and get involved.

www.KONY2012.com

buzzing and feeling inspired,

lisa liv

love me some ocean power

If you know me, you know I'm a surfer girl.  If you don't know me, nice to meet you and check back to my posts from last summer ... you can read all about my summer as a surf instructor and my unfortunate run in with a sting ray.

Sooo, it's probably no surprise that I love the notion of energy from the ocean.  Maybe because I've had my fair share of feeling the wrath of seemingly little waves?  Let me assure you, there's some power in those things!  In any event, I've always been a little perplexed we don't hear more about ocean systems, wave or tidal, to capture energy.  I understand, ocean conditions are rough and tough on machinery, etc.  So, it was neat to read this from the Department of Energy (click here for the full story):

As part of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project, 30 turbines are being installed along the strait that connects the Long Island Sound with the Atlantic Ocean in the New York Harbor. The project, led by Verdant Power, Inc., is the first ever commercially licensed tidal energy project in the United States..... the turbines will create enough energy to power 9,500 homes.   

dreaming of waves,

lisa liv

ps. thank you facebook friends of Southern California for insisting on posting photos of the insane 80 degree weather yesterday.  I was just happy it wasn't raining in Bergen but you had to go and rub it in, didn't you? ;) love, me