Mini-vacation with Ida

So after cleaning out of our flat in Trondheim, me and Ida (my wonderful girlfriend) took a couple of days vacation together before we leave for Seoul and Singapore. What better place to do so than in a cabin in the forest? To get a real dosage of "Norwegian Nature" TM, we first took the trip to Sandvika Storsenter, the biggest mall in Norway (Actually also in Scandinavia according to Wikipedia). Here Ida bought a new lens for her canon DSLR, giving it a new dawn for her. She haven't used her Canon for some time, and has been feeling kinda guilty about it. The lens was a cheap, plastic 50mm f/1.8 lens. Its an excellent value at 800 kr, (aprox 150,000 Korean Won). Here is a photo of her picking up tomatos, since we were also present-minded enough to remember to get food in all the excitement of buying a new toy.

They were some very tasty Tomatos. After all the excitement of the magnificent mall, we got in the car towards the cabin in the woods. Only stopping when the opportunity of "Nowegian Safari" TM arose. 

Here in its natural and ridiculously idyllic habitat is the truly majestic cow, viewed from a distance by our trip photographer. I of course spent my time photographing our trip photographer.

Then I decided I would like to get closer to this fascinating creature, and touch its nose, as one does in these situations of interspecies greeting. We got safely through the intense safari, and to the cabin. Once there, we started painting to give something back to the cabin while we were there. Painting stuff is actually really relaxing. You don't have to do a whole lot of thinking. You just apply colour to stuff and listen to radio. I think the listening to radio part is actually an important part of painting. Painting might work without the radio, but I have never tried, and I am not planning on finding out anytime soon. I only remembered to document us working at the very end our of painting session.

So here is a photo of Ida finishing of the last wall of that day. Sexy new coat of pain on that cabin right? Oh and Ida is quite cute too. So after several hours of our time not being documented at all, we went down to the water to take some pictures in good lighting.

 We were originally planning to do portraits, since thats whats Ida's new lens is made for. As this stunning photo of me and my camera proves, it's also good for photographing cameras.

Here is the photo i took at the same time by the way. Those two photos together illustrates the difference between a 50mm lens and a 16mm(wide angle) lens. You can also see the photo of me has a far narrower field of depth, that creates a sensation of even crispier focus on whats actually in focus. Thats good for portraits especially, and thats what Ida's new lens do so well. Being in Norway tho, it didn't take long before ducs arrived to be photographed.

They arrived really right after we got down there, and it's not until now that i actually realize we did not go down there to photograph ducks. We went down to take portraits to test the new lens, and then some  interesting photogenic targets just materialised for us to shoot. So this is one of like 500 pictures we took between us. I picked it for its entertainment value, since a lot of them were just of ducks sitting in the water. If you are really interested in duck pictures, I can probably hook you up with a big load of them. Just post in the comments, and I got your back. 

The next day we got a full day of rain, hindering any more painting for that day, and shutting us in to do cabin-stuff like drinking hot chocolate, baking bread, taking photos and running out in the cold rain to swim in the lake. We both got a reignited interest in photography with Ida's new lens, and exchanged  tips and information, and we both ended up learning a lot. The next day we finished painting and headed back home. We stopped by Ida's Granddad and his wife for dinner-  lunch. They have a really nice garden and Ida took some sweet photos of flowers and stuff. I figured I could let her share them, since she is planning to start a Photo-blog herself, and that could give her something to start with.

Anyways, it was a great big, small adventure. We got really relaxed, and it was good to see so much of each other while we still can. Right now I have three days left in Oslo, and one of them is slowly passing by as I am writing this blog. Better start trotting along to catch up. Until next time.

Hans

So now it's a week until I arrive in Seoul. I am really exited. As the trip approaches it feels like the days are speeding up. Its been like that for a while now. It almost seems like the observed time of each day is proportional to the time left until i leave. Quite opposite of how waiting for christmas as a child felt like. It is probably just the universe saving up observed time from my quota, to push it all in when I arrive. All the new smells, tastes and impressions often make days seem like an eternity. I remember friendships i got while backpacking in Australia. People i met only a few days ago seemed like i had known them forever. 

This feeling of sitting on this rampart train called time waiting for it to go around another bend is quite exiting, but it is also frustrating. I have so many great people I leave here in Norway, whom I would love to spend some more time with before I leave. Luckily I am not going for more than half a year at the time, so it won't be that long until i see them again. 

Right now I'm on a plane from Trondheim to Oslo. I have cleaned out of my apartment, throwing away things i don't want to pack and don't need, and packing the rest. Its been a couple of days with non stop work, but I find I rather like doing projects like these. Listening to music, smell of the soap, a little sweat from scrubbing. Luckily for me it was really dirty everywhere so cleaning felt extra rewarding. Now the place looks smashing and I kinda wanted to stay for a bit to enjoy it. I would probably just manage to make it dirty again.

Anyways, time is moving fast, so I have to catch up and make as much as possible out of my last days here. No time for blogging!

Hello there! Welcome to "a Norwegian in Korea".

My name is Hans, and I am going to Korea for a year as an Exchange student at Seoul National University. When i was looking in to going, I could not find much info out there on studying abroad in Korea, so I figured that i should document my impressions, and experiences during this year. This way other people may use the blog to find out if studying in Korea is something for them.

I would like to give you a bit of context before i begin blogging about Korea, as I am still in Norway. I am on my fourth out of five years of an electronics engineering master at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. I am born and raised in Oslo, Norway. My last big adventure like this was backpacking in Austrailia for 7 months. Back home I leave my mom, dad, older sister, and a lot of good friends in Trondheim. My girlfriend, Ida, is going to Singapore for a year, and some of my Trondheim friends are going abroad for a year in Europe. I am lucky enough to be traveling with three friends from University, so you will probably see them around on this blog, i will introduce them when they appear.

Right now, I am sitting inside enjoying a typical Norwegian summers day. That includes a rapid change in weather, waiting for the time where you can run out and tan while its hot. I am looking for a homestay in Korea online, enjoying the funny results of google-translate visible in some profiles. Seeing really bad English on a profiles actually makes me want to live there even more, as I really want to be forced to try to speak Korean, even tho it will limit our topics of conversation to food, hello, age and pointing at random things and stating its name.


Signing out for now, you will hear more from me in the beginning of august, when I will have a trip to write about.

-Hans