Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I had the most random weekend in Norway; involving a Russian place, staying up til 6 am and then waking up early to watch a snowboarding competition on the Saturday and then, watched Akon performing at the competition! It was SO weird; the Norwegians seem very reserved and polite, there just wasn't any of the shoving and pushing trying to get to the stage that I'm quite used to and was expecting from concerts. All in all a very good weekend; photos to come at some point, when I finally figure out how to download my photos onto this laptop. It was really really good to catch up with my friends there. It was quite weird though, everyone I met that weekend was from a different company to mine, but they were all different generations of geologists from the same uni as me! I tried to get some of them to divulge company secrets to me but to no avail lol! Just booked my tickets to Milan to see Mathilde this weekend; I'm very very broke now, but I figure, when else will I be able to see them right?

So tired this week; been burning the candle at both ends, what with work and hanging out with my coursemates. Last night was good; we had a big girly chat over dinner, but I think some of the boys are feeling slightly put out that they weren't invited. But sometimes, you just need to vent and only other girls will understand. Class social tomorrow, we're going bowling. Not exactly my first choice of activities, but it should be good nonetheless :)

Hope everyone's doing ok!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxo

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I'm going to Norway this weekend! Just dropped an obscene amount of euros for a short weekend trip, but hey when else am I going to see my friends there right? Might be going snowboarding too. I've been procrastinating from studying the whole night; I have a subsurface exam tomorrow but I. Just. Can't. Be. Bothered. Lol! It's really depressing being stuck in a hotel room, eating crappy (and super expensive!!) room service, instead of being out and about with the rest of the guys in the Hague or something. Not that I'm the only one that's stuck indoors presumably, and to be fair I've mostly been on the internet trying to sort out my trip than actually studying so maybe I shouldn't complain? Lol! But anyways, must celebrate end of exam (yes, just the one this week) tomorrow, any excuse for a night out right? :D

Sigh. Guess I really should get back to it. Whoop de do. Roll on petrophysics! But it's such a shame not to utilize my 9 euros a day internet connection. Awu mahal nyamu! But if I didn't have the internet on I think I'd go crazy!

Have a good one guys!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Hello from Rijswijk! Finally have time to sit down with the computer for more than 10 minutes at a time. As you guys can probably guess, the course is hectic; more hectic than I thought it would be! The first weekend in Belgium was incredible; noone on the course got more than 4 hours sleep per night that whole weekend; they just kept us going with different team exercises and projects per day. My first group was like a match made in heaven; everyone just got on so well; and it made the trip from Holland to Belgium that much more fun. Some of the activities we were supposed to do included taking photos with two people in uniforms (done when we took photos with some Belgian policemen); take a hot bath in a swanky hotel (done thanks to the charming nature of our Greek groupmate who persuaded the concierge at a hotel to let us manky people in to use their bath); sleep in a teepee ( We built our own using a shower curtain and some duct tape), amongst others. The whole of Saturday was spent trying to tender virtual contracts and earn virtual money by doing some stunts; our group did abseilling; flying fox and last but definitely not least, the pamperpole. I've never been particularly afraid of heights before but I think that bloody pamperpole exercise has made me develop one! It was the single scariest thing I've done. Basically it was a pole of a certain diameter and there was blocks of wood hammered all around it; and a platform on the very top. The pole's about... 10 m high maybe? And the purpose of the exercise was to climb all the way up to the top, turn around once, and to jump off. All while harnessed obviously. Sounds pretty easy no? I thought so too, except I didn't take into account that the pole would be swaying around while I was climbing it. I was literally pissing myself; the hardest thing was to try and get upright on this platform and keeping your balance at the same time. Click on the link to see photos of how it worked. Our instructors over the course were very cool; there's always something very attractive about rugged, outdoorsy men, I think lol! And, this is quite embarassing to admit, but over the space of that weekend; I only showered maybe twice? Lol! It wasn't a hot weekend thank god, and I honestly felt that my time was better put to use somewhere else rather than in the shower. I was in a team called Sky Pilots the first day and Optimised on the second and I think we did pretty well lol!

We started classes on Tuesday and it's been very packed actually; they're trying to fit many many different topics into 6 hours; it's very reminiscent of my days at Imperial. We had a geology session a couple of days ago and I was very nervous about not getting things right; especially when the non-geologists were placing a lot of hope slash trust on us getting everything correct :P Next week we have an exam and some more exercises to carry out. We've not been getting that much rest after hours either; most nights we're out in a big group just having dinner together and chatting; it's interesting how being forced into extreme situations over the past weekend has kind of forced us to make bonds more quickly than we probably usually would. It's a very multicultural group as well; from the Greek to the Norwegian to the Bruneians.

Spent the weekend with P in Amsterdam. It was my first time there and it's actually a very pretty city. I always expected it to be seedy, and full of just weed and prostitutes, and while it does have those things, it also has some lovely architecture and museums, two different markets, great restaurants and best of all, good shops! We even managed to fit in some karaoke at an Irish pub last night and we managed to mangle some pretty good songs; ever noticed that no matter how good someone is, once they're starting on the karaoke, they sound just as crap as everyone else??

Staying in for the first time since we started the course tonight; I need to rest up and catch up on some work, plus rest up for next week too!

Hope you guys have had a good weekend!

Fxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

It's good to be back. She (and Ka A) came to send me off at the airport, and I also got a sweet farewell present from a friend before I left. The flight over was alright, slept through most of it. Actually, I slept and ate and slept again. Pretty much the whole way lol! . I'd forgotten just how cold it actually gets round this time of the year; I've been freezing my buns off, even with my winter coat on! I'm still pretty jetlagged, yesterday was the first day that I made it past 5pm without falling asleep, although that's probably because I was out and about in Manchester with Nathalie; and couldn't very well fall asleep on her. I was very very cranky though, but some tea and a scone with clotted cream and jam soon sorted me out. Tomorrow I'm meeting N again in Leeds for lunch; I haven't been back there in a while so I'm looking forward to it.

I've mostly been shopping, I pretty much hit the shops as soon as I got off the plane lol. I've got several months of shopping to make up for y'know! Although I may be going slightly overboard, should tone it down before I run out of money before even starting my course! I've just been trying to stock up on work clothes because before I came back after finishing my course last year I was too broke to buy any new work clothes. Thank goodness the sales are still on, but saying that though, I haven't actually found that much. Doesn't help that I've piled on the pounds while I've been back, I've gone up a whole bum size! :( Got some non work things too obviously; scored a handbag and wallet, and must remember to get myself a chocolate fountain set before I come back (I is jealous of hers lol!)

I've still got some prework for the course that needs completing before Friday; its non technical reading and more business-y type things and my brain's finding it hard to wrap itself around the concepts, hence I've been putting it off. I actually cannot be bothered to do any studying lol, it's been a while. Ok, 4 months, but that's long enough! Leaving for Holland on Thursday, I feel like I haven't spent that much time back in the UK to be honest, and I definitely haven't seen P as much as I'd like to, what with him working long hours and all.

Oh and guys, keeps your fingers crossed for my grandmother would you? She was taken into hospital on Sunday, the doctors suspect a gastro bleed. Apparently its very common in elderly people; my mom says she's seems alright now. She's currently under observation in ICU, they're waiting to see if the injection they gave her stopped the bleeding. She hasn't been well lately and she's been refusing to go to the hospital. I hope she gets better soon :(

Next post will probably be from Rijswijk.

Take care everyone!

xoxoxoxoxooxox