BAD ASS BUSINESS WOMAN

You might recall my previous post about my thoughts about perhaps becoming a teacher. However, while talking to my parents the other day they made some good points. The first thing to think about is the basic questions:

How long an education do I want to take? What kind of salary do I want to end up with? What goals do I have for my career future? And so on…

I already know the answer to these. I want a long and decent education, at least a masters if not more. I want to have an above average salary (who doesn’t right?) and I want to have a job where I can work my way up. I’ve always been a hard-working, decent kid who strives to excell in anything I put my mind to. I’ve been called a nerd and a geek, I spend more time doing homework than being social and I usually do good in whatever I try to complete. I love doing good and impressing people, I’m a sucker for praise and I’m content with myself when others are proud of me. I realized now that I’m a dog. Cool, huh?

So I started to consider some kind of business career. Perhaps marketing or some kind of management. So I was discussing this career choice with my boyfriend yesterday and he made a comment arguing that you have to be “mean” to be good in business. He meant I was too nice, that I had too many manners and that in order to be a good business woman I had to be tough and in some ways mean. This makes sense, but at the same time I believe that you can still be nice, as long as your tough and business oriented. I believe you can think business and not make business personal, without being a cold and mean business woman. However, I’m not a business woman and I do not know anyone who is. So what do I know?

Do you think you have to be cold and hard in order to do good in business? Why/why not?

S.

PLAYTIME

Soo, I’ve been playing around with my new little friend Lucy. I brought her to school today and tried taking some “artistic” photos…

What do you think? Then after a long, full day at school – I went to work. Thankfully it was the LAST day this week. My original plan was to go visit my boyfriend, because finally – after one LOOONG year – he’s done in the army! But there were complications so he won’t be home until tomorrow morning. Meaning I went home after work. Here’s some of the scenery from the drive home this evening…

Have a great weekend everybody!

-S.

MY NEW BABY

Soo, I forgot to mention I have a new, pretty little baby. I actually just got her today, and I didn’t even know I was getting her until recently. I’m naming her Lucy, she’s black and has one big eye. I love her !

We’ve only known each other for a couple of hours, but I can already tell we’re going to be GREAT friends.

I named her Lucy because I keep hearing about people naming things that are precious to them, and she’s already precious to me. I can’t wait to take tons of pictures and share them with you all! Part of the reason I got her now, was because my current camera (I love her too) is a smaller digital camera that does GREAT portraits but not that good landscape and other images. So I was thinking of how much I want to remember my first trip to Rome and take many pictures, well Lucy will help me with this. 15 days!!!

By the way, I’m sorry for my silence on the blog this week. I’ve worked every evening after school, and I’ve done homework after work. So it’s not that easy to slip in some blogging here and there. But I’m trying! I’ll be back soon!

-S.

SUSHI AND THE FUTURE

Tonight, it was just me and my mom for dinner. So on our way home from Hamar we went by this faboulous Sushi place and got tonight’s dinner…

The first time I tried sushi, I obviously tried it at the wrong place. Luckily I didn’t give up at first and tried it again at this new sushi place in the town where I go to school. Now, I’m addicted. I’ve only tried the ones with scampi, salmon or crab, so the next step will be when I try the ones with tuna and scallops and such. But I’ll try that later when it’s not my entire dinner that is at stake!

So I’ve had some serious thoughts lately. For a long time now my plan was to become a veterinarian, but after taking some of the scientific classes I needed to get into vet school (biology, chemistry and scientific math) I realized that those classes bore me like crazy. Certain classes didn’t go as well as I had planned this spring, but when it looked like my grades would not be good enough to get into vet school – I felt relieved, not sad or nervous. My grades luckily turned out better than assumed but I started to realize that locking myself into 6 years of hard vet school for a job I might not even enjoy, it just isn’t worth it.

So right now, I’m blank. I don’t know in which direction to look because I just can’t find any connections in the things that interest me for a potenial study. I love people, I’m social, I’m outgoing, I’m a good leader and I’m organized, I’m smart and creative, I love photography but I also love languages, I love to cook and bake but I also love being a leader and making things better, I enjoy traveling and being crafty, I’m opinionated and determined, I have so many interests and so many traits that I feel lost at ideas for a potenial future. Help me come up with ideas?!

The only idea I’ve had so far is becoming a teacher, because I think I could enjoy it and do well in it. I was thinking English teacher in high school since I already have a good background for it. I could take a 5 year masters program they offer at the University in Oslo for this. That is one thing I am certain of, I want a decent degree. Getting my masters is going to happen one way or another.

Gah, it makes no sense having to pick these things when you’re 18. Nobody knows 100% what they want to do the rest of their lives at this age. Do any of you have advice for this future-stressed young lady? I’d be forever grateful!

-S.

FIELD TRIP

Today my biology class went to “Stavsjøen” (Pole/Stick-lake, gah I don’t know) to do some testing of the water and look for critters around the lake in order to study an ecosystem.

Wanna know something cool? In the winter it gets so cold here that this lake freezes and they make an “ice road”. Yes, I’ve driven on it.

My group didn’t have much luck catching anything, but we were able to catch a leech (yes EW) and this “little” guy…

Freaky fact: this guy was going to turn into a dragonfly. Yep, it’s a dragonfly nymph.

We took turns (group-wise) going out in this boat to take tests of the water at different depths. Afterwards we went back to school to look at what we found and write notes for a rapport.

I’m pretty good at my work, huh? The orange is forest, the green is farmer’s fields, the blue is buildings, etc etc….

Ah the exciting life of a student….

-S.

PAINTING A PICTURE

Sorry for being so serious in my last post. I hope I didn’t scare any of you away, I just get opinionated sometimes and I need to speak my mind! Where better to do something like that than on a blog?

Anyways, today’s post is a lot more mellow. I felt tired today so I brought Nanna (our 3 year old leonberger) out for a walk and I took some pictures along the way…

I love noticing how everything is slowly changing. Despite how small the changes are, it’s still quite obvious that fall is on it’s way. I love this part of year, in some ways (to put it poetically) it’s like watching a painting slowly come together. There are splotches of color showing up here and there…

Even on the dark, brown forrest floor an eyecatcher shows up in different places…

Even the slightest speck of yellow, orange or red can be found around any corner…

And this years harvest has turned to it’s seasonal shade of gold…

How can one NOT love such a beautiful season? Despite going towards the cold, the colors are turning warmer than ever…

Oh how I love autumn! Don’t worry, the complete change pictures are guaranteed a spot on my little blog!

-S.

IMPORTANT THOUGHTS

Today is a sad day in US history. I have seen numerous facebook statuses with remembrances of 9/11, blog posts and news articles. Today, we are all Americans.

However, this is not going to be a remembrance post. I would istead like to mention something that is important for me, especially during a day like this.

One news article that caught my attention more than others was one titled ¨”American muslim about the terrorism: Felt like a punch in the face”. I continued to read about what I already knew. After 9/11, the world would never be the same for a muslim. I believe that on that day ten years ago, a large part of the world made a bad mistake, a horrible prejudice. Many people chose to say “muslims did it”, instead of “Al-Qaida did it”. Of course, not everybody started to think this way – but I believe many people found it easy to blame Islam and muslims. I see it to this very day here in Norway. Muslims are not always greeted warmly because a large part of society has developed some form of prejudice against Islam.

I especially noticed this on July 22 here in Norway. When we experienced the worst terrorist act in our history, many people believed at first that muslims had done it. This was before anybody knew, and the point where everybody just made assumptions. I was almost a bit shocked at how quick people were to point the finger as muslims. This just goes to prove the impact one horrible act can have on the entire world.

In the article I read about the story of some muslim children in the US, who’s lives have changed because of 9/11. How they are bullied and pushed away because of the religion they are raised with. There were several muslim victims of 9/11 as well, can you imagine how their loved ones left behind feel every time they get a dirty look just because they’re a muslim? You probably can’t.

My entire point with this is that I think it’s important to remember that 9/11 was Al-Qaida’s fault, NOT muslims. People have to start realizing how stupid and hurtfull their prejudice is. It’s been 10 years, it’s time to open your eyes. Today, we are all Americans – all of us.

-S.

HOME

They say home is where the heart is, and I believe this to be true. I think no matter where in the world I move to, home will always be where my family is. No matter what house, what country – family is my home.

Nowadays, my home is here on Helgøya (direct translation: weekend island)where I live with my parents, two siblings and millions of animals.

When we bought the house 4 years ago, it was announced as “The fairytale house” in it’s add. It’s place in the middle of the forest, on a small island in the middle of Norway’s biggest lake.

I like it, it’s a beautiful house and it suits my family’s personality. From here it’s about a 25 min drive to my school, 40 min drive to Hamar city, and about 2 hours to drive to Oslo.

One of my favourite things about this house is around Christmas time, when we decorate it with tons of hanging lights.. The feeling you get when standing out in –4 Fahrenheit (Yes it gets that cold here in the winter), glistening white snow all around you with a clear starry sky and the twinkling lights of our fairytale house. It’s awesome.

Unfortunately, pictures do this scene no justice. The real thing is amazing. I have to admit, looking at this pictures makes me look forward to Christmas! But at the same time, I’m also hoping for a nice long and warm (!!!) or at least sunny fall.

Have a great weekend everybody!

-S.

HOW RUDE…

At work we have to note down in a folder if and when we find ripped off tags, alarms or such. We then use this folder to keep a statistics about how much people steal and where in the store they steal from – in order to build ways to prevent it.

Today, while at work, I was walking around cleaning and folding clothes. I picked up a messed up pair of jeans and started to fold it when these fell out:

These tags are the type we have on accessories, and these jeans were not close to the accessories department. I went to the cash register and skanned them in. It was a belt and two pieces of jewelry. So then I had to note it down and put it in the folder with the rest of the found tags…

I am completely against stealing, however I can understand it in desperate times. If you’re starving and you steal a loaf of bread, or you’re close to freezing to death and you steal a sweater to keep warm – it’s not right but it’s survival. I would like to know when people started to need belts and jewelry to survive. Not that I think thieves read my blog, but if any happen to pop by: Seriously, you are stupid. Grow up and stop stealing.

Hope nobody takes this personally! Maybe this is the combination of a long day and my opinions! Have a nice evening!

-S.

TIME FOR “KOS”

In Norway we kos ourselves a lot. If you know Norwegians or you live in Norway, you’ll notice this. We kos ourselves with a movie, we kos ourselves with snacks, we kos ourselves on the weekends and we kos ourselves all around. If you haven’t gotten it by now, to kos ourselves means to cozy ourselves. Sounds strange in English, I know, but we do and it’s kos!

Like I told you in my previous post that fall is coming real fast here, and the weather has been crappy. It’s raining and windy, leaves are flying around everywhere and it’s cold!!

So this evening, since my mom has gotten the flu and I’m almost done with it, she wanted for us to kos ourselves. She then proceeded to make white and dark chocolate chunk cookies.

To top this off, I made a nice cup (the first this fall!) of hot chocolate ♥

Oh yeah, if I didn’t work at Lindex I could have worked at a café. I’ve kosed myself and now I’m ready to hit the sack! I’ve got two full days coming up with school first, followed by work until 7.30pm (AKA I won’t be home before 8 and then I have homework) so you probably won’t hear from me until Friday! Gotta love’em weekends eh?

-S.

DID YOU EVER STOP AND WONDER?

Who the first person was to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"

or

Who the first person was that said, "See that chicken there, I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta it's bum?"

or

Why Doctors call what they do "practice"?

or

Who tastes dog food when it has a "new & improved" flavor?

or

Why they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

or

Why sheep don't shrink when it rains?

or even

Whose idea was it to put an "s" in the word "lisp"?

Have a great day everybody! It’s the weekend!!

-S.

FALL IS EARLY

Yesterday, the 1st of September, my sister and I went for a walk with the dogs and we started to notice how quickly fall is starting. The weather was looking dangerous, it was blowing and tons of leaves were flying in the air. Amazing that August barely finished before fall started here.. and the weather isn’t the only way to tell. The temperature is also getting cold. I sleep with my window open (because I seriously can’t sleep in a warm room) and getting out of a warm blanket at 6am into a freezing cold room was not wonderful..

Haha I thought of something I could tell you guys about me that is somewhat related to this.. I have two blankets. Yes, two. The reason for this is that I like to alternate how many I use depending on the temperature when I go to bed, and because it’s nice to have an extra when Paul stay’s over. I also have 5 pillows but I think that’s just the American in me.. most of my friends, including my boyfriend sleeps with just one pillow. My head would never agree with that…

This is me, right now. I have put on some really soft pants and my teddyfleece jacket. I partly did this because of the temperature but also because I’m exhausted, sick and tired – so I wanted to be comfy. Gotta love that fall-flu…..

Don’t I look like Shrek here? Gotta love being bored AND blog-creative at the same time.. My lips are so dry from going out into the cold, then into a warm room, in and out, again and again. In some ways though, I don’t really mind.. it’s sort of just a fall tradition. The same with me having the flu. I’ll deal with it, because it just means fall is coming.

I love fall, it’s my favourite season. I just adore how even though things are getting colder – the colors just get warmer! Oh, and maple trees! Have you ever seen maple trees in the fall? My only girly fantasy about my future wedding is to get married in the fall under maple trees. They turn red, yellow, orange and pretty much every shade in between! I LOVE IT!

What is your favourite season and why?

-S.