New blog adress: http://luskelurk.com/

I have moved my blog to another page
http://luskelurk.com/

Phew!

Friday, I finally finished my pharmacology, 6 months or so overdue. Wonderfull to finally get it off my shoulders! As I went in for the examination i was quite terrified, nobody in my class had had the examinator I was having, and I was completely in the blind on what to expect. Luckily, it all went well and i can now focus on the subjects i neglected for the past weeks in order to stuff my head with pharma.
As the Friday was also the day of of the Norwegian's  "Russefest", the timing to pass an exam couldn't have been better;Sand volleyball games, barbecue, cheap beer, 2 concerts with student-bands,  annoying technomusic designed for 18-year olds about to finish 13 years of more or less compulsory education, perfect, mild weather and a huge bonfire in the late hours.
As the day grew older, the sun gradually sank down behind the mountains, and the mild breeze resulting from it swept across my face, I think i felt a hint of bliss; In 4,5 weeks I'm going home to Norway for the summer, to relax and to enjoy times like this without having to worry about school next week and all the exam-questions I really should be doing instead of indulging. The very special feeling in those early summer nights, when each night still gets a bit longer than the night before really do serve as  good motivator to finnish all the exams as fast as possible, go home and savour the freedom!

sand- volleyball, friends jumping, and the last picture still makes me wonder what i tried to take a picture of.. I see a glass of beer, and part of my jacket, so maybe a combination of the 2 ? Or maybe something completely different?

Not only did I get to celebrate the russefest,I also got to celebrate Anicka's b-day yesterday :) I know she's completely mad about Poodles, moomin and iq-games, and since she already has a poodle, moomins are hard to come by in Slovakistan, i got her an Iq-toy. I felt quite stupid when she opened it, as she seemed to solve it in less than 10 seconds, even though i spent time finding the absolutely most difficult one: Its one of those games made of wooden pieces that are supposed to fit in a wooden box so that you can put the lid on it. Turns out she only solved the one part and forgot about the lid. Hopefully she will spend a little bit longer solving the whole game (i'm guessing 2 mins).

Besides me being there, there were other people there too :P (figures, I know :P), and we all had a great time, all of us. Even though I've had my cam for half a year now, I'm still not used to have one, and such miss a lot of the "kodak-moments", as I did yesterday :P I guess it came from all the people having so much fun and just enjoying themselves. I'm really happy Anicka had a really great time and got to celebrate it the way b-days are supposed to be celebrated. Shame I had to go before the cake (if there was one? )

I said I missed a lot of the kodak-moments, but i still managed to catch some of them :

Dunno what i was trying to illustrate here, but i think it might have been big.. or?

I really love this picture! Often when you order coffe here in Martin, you get nice cookies with it, and last night we did. I, having eaten a whooooole brownie before the party only had coffes. However, i did not settle with only 1, i think I had 4, hence 4 cookies.
As I was still on a sugar high, I passed them on to my friend, and after a while he got a bit to much sugar: he wanted to take his wifes cake too; she didn't want it, but there was no way he was getting either :P

Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin

This just about sums up how I feel, and why I feel the way that i do about pharmacology..

I know I'm not supposed to write anything here, especially since I should be immersed in pharmacological mechanisms of actions, vasodilators, antiepileptics and so on. However, as I had a short break, and was lurking around on the wonderful world wide web, I could not help but to notice that two of my friends both have written posts about friends just recently, and it god me inspired. to write about friendship:) 

I really appreciate my friends, but sometimes I am not very good at telling them that. Sometimes I get too immersed in something I'm doing, and totally forget about the "outside world" including my friends. You might say I take absentmindedness to a new level. Sometimes i forget all about them for just a bit too long, and it goes awkward when i try to recontact them, my excuse being "I was to busy with my head" Sounds like a mental diagnosis, right? And I get the awkwardness, I mean, usually, when people stop speaking to you for 2 months pr so, you assume that there sis something wrong somewhere.
Luckily most of my friends have gotten used to this by now, and just ignore this little fact.
Anyways, I was not planning to write a post about my absentmindedness; I wanted to write something about how much I really appreciate those I have.

When living most of the year in country that isn't yours, away from your "old" social network and family, you do get more dependent on your friends. When I get upset, I cannot just run home to mum to tell the tales of all my  woes; I would take too long, and I would've forgotten and suppressed all the things bothering me :P

(and yes, of course, I have both skype and msn, but one cannot expect ppl to sit in front of skype the whole day

 and wait for you to call).

Of course, having friends have other advantages to, don't think for a moment that the only advantage I see in friendship, is that I have someone to complain to!

Anyways, being down here, far away from home and the safe surroundings there, being surrounded by the constant stress of studying medicine makes you a bit more dependent on good friends than you otherwise  might be.

So, maybe not very poetic about friendship, but what I want to say is that i really appreciate all of my friends, even though I'm not the best to tell them that, or to keep in touch.

 

Kitty and his plans of world dominion...

Yesterday was a perfect sunny day, as does it look like today will be too..
Kitty took notice of this this morning and woke me up with a loud "MEH" in my ear, trying to tell me that it was breakfast time. Those kinds of awakenings shouldn't be allowed when its a sunday and we usually have to get up at 6:30 during the week days!
Besides, I need my extra sleep when I'm studying for my exams.. Evil creature.
I fed the piece of fur and hoped he would keep his jaws shut.. Alas.. kitty had noticed the beautiful weather outside and was ready for a walk, and not just any walk; it would have to be a walk on the fields..
I tried to ignore the kitty's accusations that he was being mis-treated by us for about 10 mins, but had to give up when he stuck his snout up in my face and intensely miaowed for some 60 seconds.
I found his collar, and he nonchalantly strolled to the door to wait for me to put it on him, eagerly stretched on the door and let out a little "meehp" to tell me he was ready.
Into the car, out of the car. So far so good. Heh.
And the on the fields. Since I studying for my exam in 10 days, I'm naturally a bit stressed and didn't bother going to the normal field, but chose one a bit closer. Kitty was surprised when he noticed this, and did not approve much.
He took a few hesitant jumps out from the car and stopped. Looked at me. Sprinted to hide under the car. He'd heard a thrush..what a wussycat!
Eventually the thrush flew away, and Sparta crawled out. Only to try to run and hide undeer the car every time he'd hear a thrush. Seems like he believes there is a world wide fatwa on him.

Scouting for thrushes

Anyways, after some 10 minutes of back and forth, we had a nice walk in the spring-sun. Kitty even got to chase some imaginary mice and desecrate some abandoned mice-nests, one can only imagine his satisfaction and plans of world dominion when seeing this picture


























Pondering what to do next...

Pharmaexam..

Some time in the winter of 2009 i really thought i could preterm my pharma exam. Then came the stress, and I decided that I didn't want to go though more stress before xamas, and set the date for some time in January.
January came, and I found out that I really didn't manage to study at all. My back was killing me, and I had no concentration left for the books. The result was yet another postponing of my exam date. This semester have been mostly about me trying to negotiate a treatise with my back that would last long enough for me to study enough to take the exams. These days, it seems like we've come to an agreement, and that I'll finally be able to study for my exam, yay!
Me studying for the exam is the reason i haven't been writing much the last week and also the reason why I wont be posting much for the next 2 weeks. After that though, I'll try to pull myself together and start to blog a bit more regular :)

The leaning clocktower of Banska Bystrica

After having spent all of Easter "home" in Martin,on Tuesday we decided to go to Banska Bystrica. We were actually planning on going to Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, but, as I still was deeply comatose at the time we had planned to depart, my boyfriend decided that i needed the sleep more than we needed to go to Bratislava.
I really tried to wake up in time, I did, but, as I couldn't even manage to keep both of my eyes open at the same time, I was grateful when I the option to go to Banska came up instead.
It was raining when we left Martin, but as we crossed the mountains and came down to the valley where Banska lays, weather cleared and we finally had a glimpse of blue sky.

Our first stop was a pan-cakery for a quick breakfast. I quite liked the taste of chicken and mushrooms in a pancake, even though I initially was quite sceptical.
After that, the next stop was the shopping centre Europe, which is absolutely heaven when living in Martin with its scarce range of shops. However, you must not forget that i went there with 2 boys, my boyfriend and Andy; and since democracy has a tendency to influence decisions, our main target ended up being eating at KFC :P ( which btw. tastes quite nice when u only get to eat it 2 or 3 times every year, so i didn't really disagree, I just like to nag :P )
The city of Banska has many sights, such as Churches, museums and even bits of the old castle, but we chose to spend the rest of our stay at a really charming cafe called "Labyrinth".

It had a really nice view over the town square, and as the curious being we were, we soon found out that the clock tower, which is some 500 years old and at the top of the square, actually was a leaning tower, being 40 cm of the perpendicular at the top. Also, we found out that the plague column in the middle of the square had to be taken down during a visit from Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 because it, as it was a religious symbols, was considered to be embarrassing as a background when he was to hold his speech.
Oh how i love the combination of cafe, WiFi, net books, google and Wikipedia, oh, and of course good coffee and cakes !
This little cafe was not only located quite centrally, but had the most welcoming waiter I've met in a long time.
It took him just about 2 seconds to pick up on that we weren't Slovak, and then offered several languages we could communicate with. He even had time for a little chat while he was taking our orders, and after they were delivered from time to time came by our table to check if we were all good! I love good service. As I am the literal cookie monster, I of course had to have cake with my coffee:

I'm sure the yellow makes it quite cancerous, and the heart wasn't made of gold, but sugar, but all in all, even the cake was good at this place :)

Sparta and the killer thrush

Living next to a bus and train-station has some disadvantages. The main being that its not safe for a little, whimsical cat.
This and the fact, that Sparta, our cat, was stolen (but luckily retrieved) after an afternoon stroll on his own, resulted in some restrictions on his out-time.
He still gets to go outside, but not alone. Mostly he only has to wear a collar. I say mostly because, when he discovered the amount attention he could get by clibing up a tree and staying there for 3-4 hours, he cho0se that as his favourite thing to do whenever we went outside.
So, when we take our walks outside our appartment these days, he's on a leash. He doesn't mind, so it's probably not as bad as I feel it is. At lest he gets to go ouside. Besides, in our hollydays, when we go back to Norway, he gets to stay out as much as he likes to.
Nuf about the leashes:P
As you might understand, kitty is somewhat of a semi-outdoorcat, or would you say semi- indoor?
This means that when he's down here, he has some restrictions on his outdoor-time, and should be using it wisely.

One of the things he enjoys when beeing idoors, is sitting in our various windows, hiting them with his front paws and "meeping" and "mraouing" out death threats to the different birds, just as in the video below.
When in Norway, this has quite funny consequences; kitty doesnt really understand that the birdies from the outside cannot hear him when he's standing on the inside in "killer-mode". So, when he can walk around freely, his hunts are not so successfull. Its kind of a give-away when he lies there, miaowing and telling them to die, instead of sneaking up, keeping quiet and catching them. My "mother in law" swears that the birds laugh at him, and i can't help but to agree. I don't know, maybe something in his upbringing go lost when he lost his free out-door-privileges? Maybe one of the things getting lost, was the ability to hunt birds? Cause he has no notion to keep quiet or to hide when he sees a bird, he just runs towards it and mrrs an miaows , joyfull that he can run after it.


In Slovakia, when indoors, his favourite window is one in our office, with a nice view to a lilac bush and a maple tree; the homes of many a thrush and sparrow. He can spend hours there, telling the birds how he'd love to eat them, poking his paws on the window: Although the birds cannot hear him, they certainly see that there's a cat there.
As spring went on last year we started to notice an an increase in the thrush's chirping whenever we went out. I didnt really care, just assumed that it was some warning to the birds around : "There's a cat here".
After about a week i started to notice that within a few minutes after the thrush would see sparta, not only would the chirping intensify, but there would also be more birds chirping the same thing. "How curious" was my thought, and didnt really care untill one day, out walking Sparta on a small patch of grass some 20 m away from out appartment. Kitty was carefully studying a bug, not caring about the obviously annoyed thrushes. I was sitting, plaing with my camera. And then, all of as sudden, a female thrush made a dive, "weird" i thought; and then saw a cat running with lihgt speed into shelter under the nearby parked cars. I didnt see anything, but ai had the feeling the thrush had been trying to attack the cat. But then again, thrushes trying to kill cats? Plausible?
The next day, when we went out, though not expecting anyhing, i was caefull to keep my eyes on Sparta, and yes; as soon as we got out the chirping started, the number increased, and this time, i got to see it: the thrush actually made a dive for the cat. The poor cat was more shocked than I was, and was laying on his back, paws up , and ears flat..What'd just hit him ?
As the days went by, the thrush's agressiveness increased untill a point where that cat would try to run away every time it heard a thrush chirp; and whenever the thrush saw one of us, he'd start chirping like crazy, preparing for an attack,just waiting to se the cat.

Long time, no see...

...So its been a while.
I had visitors from home, and after that, I've been doing so much else.
My visitors were my mum and my granny, who just turned 80 (my granny, that is).
They stayed for 4 eventful days, and left behind them supplies of Norwegian necessities, such as chocolate, smoked salmon and caviar. Oh joy!

The last couple of days before they arrived were spent trying to clean up our appartment, as, well, I wanted to show my mother that I actually can keep things tidy.
Its not as much the joy of a clean house as the pride of the clean house that made me into an obsessive compulsive dust hunter those last 2 days. Absolutely everything had to be perfect. This was my chance to show that I managed to well, manage a household, and that I was doing well and had done some grown up down here in far-away-land :P
(of course, this all has its roots in my astonishing ability to make my room back at my parents house look like its just been some kind of raid or something. I always blame the size of my room (which is barely 8m^2,I swear), and then say that I always keep it clean and tidy down here :P)
Ridiculous thoughts, of course; first of all, I'm not the only one living in this apartment, so i cant take more than 50% of the glory. I would actually think that my boyfriend deserves 80% of the credit :P Second, I'm way to absent-minded to really be able to keep it clean and tidy for more than a couple of hours without the help of my beloved.
And thirdly, and maybe most important, mum knows me, and knows that I'm about the messiest person living on this planet, so I really don't know why I was putting on this show of "perfect apartment syndrome".
Anyways, it turned out quite nice, and has actually stayed that way since, too :)


The visit itself was just perfect. We had just about enough time to see the things we wanted to see, and enough time to relax a bit too :)
We drove around for a bit and got to see Slovakia through the eyes of a tourist, and not a student :) One of our trips took us to the neighbouring city, Banská Bystrica, a very beautiful city which arose some 800 years ago. The main street is impressive, and we found a nice café where we could sit and admire this nice city for a little while :)

The 5th morning my visitors left for Norway, which meant it was time for me to start studying for my pharmacology exam. After a few days, I found that i had to abandon that project, as my back did not comply with sitting in a chair studying for more than 2 hours at a time.
This means that I still have an exam hanging over my head, worrying me, yay! :S
I still study though, just at a slower pace, so I hope to be ready for it in end April :)

Now, its 2 in the night and I cannot sleep because I'm having what surely is the most annoying cough in the world, which wakes me up every 30 mins :(
The cough medicine doesn't really seem to work, so I'm trying my own treatment; I'm simply going to stay awake untill i get so tired I'll wont wake up from the coughing!

The other day, I came across this wonderful movie clip. It was sent to my boyfriend from his mother, who was just thinking it was cute. Little did she know that this was also based on the true story of how we are awoken avery mornging.

We have 3 alarmclocks. Every morning at 6 am, when the first of them tolls, kitty-cat comes purring and fluffy into the bed ( I actually think he spends time fluffing his fur to look extra cuddly and heart-melting).
First the purrinng and cuddling is quite friendly, after 10 minutes, when the secon alarm goes off, he commences the next step; he starts "stomping", first the duvet, then the face, and lastly, my throat.
Now, you must remember that every morning, when I "wake up",Im a zombie, my body is present, my mind is not.
By the time the 3rd alarm pierces my eardrums, Im already fast asleep againg, returing to zombieland, and this is when the ting, furry monster starts to nibble my face ( Im sure, if he could wield a baseball-bat, he would) or my toes. Or he starts experimenting how he would do as a scarf.
Finally, for "some reason", my boyfriend grows tired of this and wakes up to feed the little parasite.

5 minutes later, when Im starting to return to the lands of the living, and regain parts of my concience, kitty is back to tell me the terrible woes of being a cat in out household, he is actually not being fed!
At this point the miaowing starts; the sore, scorn sound of a cat "experiencing" starvation, absolutely able to make one's spinal cord twist.
This is when, at about 6:20, I finally get up and, "Miaowzers" lets out a sigh of relief.
I go to the bathroom to to take my daily shower,he stand staring outside the showers.
I go back to the bedroom to get dressed, he sits on the bed staring "remember me?"
I go bak to the bedroom to fix my hair, he's there too "Feed me!"

Finally, I enter "the kindom of pleasure", the kitchen, and he lets out miaows of pleasure and relief "finally, 2nd breakfast" (Kind of gives me an idea of where J.R.R. Tolkien got his idea for the hobbits and their multiple meals from).

He quickly finished the 2nd breakfast, and gets ready to lurk around to see if he can manage to loot some leftovers from out breakfast.

At this stage, I've completely returned to become fully human again, and now, I want something back for the torture.
Not a chance, the kitty schedule clearly states "Sleep", and "Do not disturb sleeping Kitty"

Isn't it wonderfull having a cat in the mornings?

Brainwash ?

Last week i had a test. That of course meant that the day before was spent trying to find excuses not to study, - or activities that would leave you feeling less guilty for not studying. Don't get me wrong; I DO study for tests, its just that, somehow, all my motivation takes a vacation the day before a test, and im left trying to study and hunting for my motivation.
One of these activities for me, is watching documentaries. I mean, its entertaining, and at the same time educational (nevermind the fact that its not related to the subject i was having a test in).
The documentary of choice was a one investigating the gender differences. It was lead by a norwegian commedian, who is trying to actually be serious. After all, at some stage he actually obtained a degree in sociology.
My expectations were quite high, as, well, i have a tendency to assume that funny people are smart, and that he was probably up to something mischievious anyways.
I must say, I was not dissapointed at all, although the mischieveous parts were toned down a bit.

Personally, I have been convinced that its mostly the enviroment that creates the differences we experience when it comes to gender differences. My mother, for example, was very concious about giving me both dolls and cars, as to be sure not to force me into any gender sterotype. Although i often chose to play with the dolls, I had no problems playing with cars of any of the boy things either. She never forced me to wear dresses, I wanted to. She never taught me to wear make-up, not that she forbid me to wear it, but she left me completely to my own choice. The result, today, is that i might have a more masculine field of interest than other girls, I like cars and computers; I love to play computergames, and I dont really mind getting oil on my fingers. However, I love to dress up, and I do love to wear makeup, I like pink stuff and don't mind romantic commedies.
I always attributed this to my upbringing, and this seems to be the view of quite a few norwegian scientists. They mean that even the action of giving boy babies blue blankets and girls pink blankets are part of making the gender differences.
Some disagree with them, especially a guy from Cambridge (Sasha Baron Cohen's cousin) who had done research on fresh-out-of-the-womb babies. He and his research team had held up figures of faces and mechanical stuff, and found that the boy babies stared at the mechanical devices the longest and that the girls stared at the faces the longest. From that the research team concluded that there was differences in our fields of interest even from when we were born.

One central question was that Norway is announced to be the most equal country in the world, yet 90% of all norwegian nurses are female. How is it that when women are so equal, women still choose traditional professions?
Personally, I always thought is was the enviroment that affected us, I mean, what your friends do and such. Also, I would imagine that it'd be somewhat "scaring" for a male to enter a nursing programme, when he'd be the only boy. Not that he'd be scared of being with all the girls, but rather that he'd be scared of what his guy-friends would think of him for choosing such a "feminine" profession?
For my part, I always found it amusing and slightly sad, that ppl couldn't imagine me as an engineering student (I did engineering for 2 years), but rather automatically assumed that i was studying for preschool-teacher or nurse..
When they however managed to find out that I did engineering, they automatically assumed it must be chemistry, and they were right.

For my part, though, I never really thought about any of this, I just chose what i wanted to, regardless of any stereotypes. Maybe this is what they speak of when they feel that they can conclude that its not only our enviroment that affects our fields of interests?

Football and neon colours

I'm not really one for football. Its not that i hate the game . I just don't see why it should occupy so much time on TV, or take up so much space in the news papers. Its just a ball for god's sake! It's grown up men running after a ball.
It's grown men, being paid to run after a ball. Maybe, every now and then, a goal is scored, and when that happens, it seems to me like its pure coincidence; either the keeper is asleep, or the guy who scored the goal didn't actually even aim for the goal.
Again, I don't hate the game, and I don't mind playing for fun on nice summer days.
I just don't see how it somehow has gotten a status as the world's national sport.
Despite my doubts of the value of professional football, on Wednesday, I attended my first football game ever.
Of course there was a special reason; Norway was playing against Slovakia in our neighbouring city, Zilina.
I didn't come up with the idea to go there myself, our local "student organisation" Klamydia (gotta love the name) arranged everything :)
I was supposed to go there with the rest of the students in a bus, but ended up having to drive, as the infusion therapy at the hospital never seemed to end. I didn't mind the drive, Slovakia has a beautiful nature, and the road to Zilina winds by the river Vah in a valley where 2 mountain ranges meet.
Although beautiful, this stretch of road was earlier (dunno if it still is) one of the most accident prone in Slovakia, as the road only has 2 lanes, Slovaks seem to have a taste for overtaking that makes me shiver inside, and the fact that big rocks tended to fall down onto the road (and sometimes cars :().
When finally in the outskirts of Zilina, we started to notice ques and policemen. I didn't really give this any extra thoughts as neither policemen or ques are unusual on Friday afternoons (the fact that it was actually Wednesday didn't even cross my mind).


As we approached the stadium, we started to notice that cars were parked along the highway, and glum thoughts of not getting to see the match started to enter my mind.
As expected, after having tried to find a place to park for an hour, we ended up parking by the highway, having to walk quite a while to get to the stadium.
I feared that we'd have problems finding the other students, but as we were to be supporters, many had cleverly dressed up in Norwegian red and blue high-school-graduation dresses. Some had even brought a huge Norwegian flag, and the best, i think, was the huge bass drum one of the 6th-years had brought.
Songs and slogans were sun and shouted loudly, steadily accompanied by the dump sound of the bass drum.
I think that, although making up only 1/8th of the stadium, we made more sound than all the Slovaks:) As this was my first professional football match ever, I spent a lot of time being fascinated at the fact that the field seems a lot smaller that it does on TV, and the fact that we seemed to be "caged", as nets and high fences seemed to surround our section of the tribune.
Needless to say, Norway won 1-0. In my opinion, we were the best, and i think it was because we were there. Or they might just be a quite good team. Or they might suck, and just have been lucky. I honestly don't know. One thing i know for certain, though,is that the atmosphere was the best, filled with high spirited students and the fresh taste of victory.


During the game, I was fascinated at the Norwegian team's keeper choice of colours. Not that I plan on making this a fashion blog, but his shirt and shorts were bright neon yellow. In my mind, it seems like a very bad idea; if i was a keeper, I'd choose camouflage colours or something that'd make me as invisible as possible, so that the opponent would spot me :P
Apparently, my way of thinking isn't the right when it comes to football. Keepers often get to choose their outfit, and often, these bright, almost blinding colours (ahh,, new theory), are the colours of choice.
The bright colours distracts the players and makes them aim at the keeper instead of the places were the keeper is not and often gives the keepers markedly higher chances of catching the ball. (Or so I'm told)
To confirm this idea, I was told the tales of a guy playing in English football, Van der Saar, who wore colours like the Norwegian keeper, and apparently didn't let in a goal for 3,5 month (which is supposedly some kind of record)

Proliferation and cement

So, 2 things..
1. It has been mentioned that I am an overactive blogger, or as a friend mentioned, that i was very "proliferative" (hehe..I don't really need to mention that he too is a med student?).
It's true though, but what else can you really spend your days on when you're confined to bed rest.
Of course, I know, I could study a lot, and, yeah, I do that too, but at some point you need a break too.
Again, when confined to bed rest, your range of choices is quite limited, and usually involves, yup, you guessed right; laying in bed!

The trick though, is to manage to still have stuff to write about, as, well, you do run out of stuff to write about when ur chained to your bed; but hey; i could always just whine a bit more:P

2. Yesterday a wrote about a majority of Slovak buildings being made by "cement, concrete and other grey stuff". Also, I mentioned that Slovaks can be percieved as slightly grumpy people by people like me (med studens been here for 3,5 years and still barely have the language skills of a 2year old).

In hindsight, I realise that some might find that offensive, howevermuch i try to explain that that is not my intension. Therefore, I have decided to post some pictures of the city I live in here in Slovakia.

Also, I'd like to say that the grumpyness most likely is related to my lack of language skill, and it must be so annoying listening to my attempts; as grammatical errors and pronounciation mistakes might leave me saying "At dinner I pissed in the book", while actually meaning to say "Last night I read a book".

In spite of my language skills, I had quite a nice conversation with another patient at the hospital yesterday. ( Yup, although not being admitted, I still have to come back to get IV-treatment for 2hrs every day for the nest 5 days).
She was a former nurse at the hospital, and seemed quite used to speaking with foreign students. After the conversation i noticed that I actually understood more than I probably would've done a week ago. I find it quite encouraging, and wouldn't mind meeting her again, so I could get some more slovak practice:)

Old stories are still funny

Today is my good friend Charlotte's birthday. She turns 22, and has start complaining that she gets older :|.. Now what does that make me !??!
Speaking of old stories..
Another old one, is my friend Renatusjka and my friendship. We have known each other since last year of 2ndary school.She has an amazing sense of humour.
Renatusjka studies russian, and, as part of her degree, sometimes get horrible homework, such as "Translate and discuss the influence of production of light bulbs in Uzbekistan on the wood-pecker population in the suburbs of St.Petersburg.
In stead of getting bitter and quitting the studies, she grits her teeth, and politely (and not so slightly satirical) asks the question "Are russian teachers also human beings"? I couldn't help it and had to answer her (of course politically incorrect):

Russian teachers are not like us, they are from Russia, and they are teachers. As we all know, everything in Russia is made from cement and mud. Logically this must also count for the living creatures too; and on that basis, I'd say that Russian teachers aren't as human as us, if not not at all, but rather some type of Golem...

When it comes to russian teachers of non-Russian origin, I'm also doubtful. Something must have driven them to the point where they wish to drown already overworked students with complex and intricate grammatical structures and articles like the above mentioned. I'm imagining that the reason must be a heart of stone, and that brings us to the topic of trolls? I'd say that trolls are more like vampires, as both vampires and trolls tolerate sun-light particularly bad..
Hence, i feel that the conclusion must be that neither russian teachers nor Russian teachers are human, but rather distantly related, corrupted and mutated beings.

At this stage, u might think me evil, some kind of racist or "anti-eastern-blockist" or even "anti-former-sovjetist".
And, yeah, evil, foul, rotten, I think i can be one of those; but I actually do live in one of the former eastern-block countries, Slovakia (and, believe it or not, i chose to live here), and, well, the vast majority of structures here is made from cement, concrete and other grey stuff.
Also, the workload related to studies is tremendous (at least compared to when I studied in Norway). This have lead to a down-prioritising learning the Slovak language (not too clever) and problems with getting really close with the locals.
I think that is one of the reasons why we often perceive them as a cold, grumpy, and slightly annoyed people. Of course, when u get to know them, they're (probably :P) just as me and you. Until I'm able to have fun with them, I'll settle with making fun of them instead :P

Earthquakes and conspiracies addition..

I just realised something..
My theory about USA and CIA being the bad guys here, might not be as far fetched as i initially imagined ;)
This whole chain of "earthquakes" is brought on by the financial crisis and USA's construction industry.
They arrange for loads of buildings to be torn down (as a quake of 8,8 would tend to do), as to be able to offer loads of cheap premade houses.
As construction industry would start bringing in money, the banks would be able to lend out money again ( I think, I'm a med student, not an economist) and in that way strengthen the dollar.
Consequently, USA will not only be richer, but also "own" loads of countries.

Initially, the plan really was Cuba, as most american politicians have been aching to take control of it for at least the past 20 years or so.
However,a badly written 7 was turned into a 1 and they hit Haiti instead.
Didn't anybody notice how fast they were in offering their "services" ?
The plan is to make these quakes until they hit Cuba.

Part of the reasons for the misses aren't just bad number, but also because it's based on technology stolen from China last year, which really was developed by the mafia in Hong Kong to presicion- demolish opponent's buildings..

Earthquakes and conspiracies

I have been slightly too preoccupied with feeling sorry for myself the last couple of days, and I didn't realise that another of nature's sinister inventions unfortunately has taken places. I am of course talking about the earthquake i Chile and the subsequent danger of tsunamis in the whole pacific.
This far, it seems that the tsunamis have been confined to forceful waves of not to extreme height.
Even though lack of tsunamis, the extent of this disaster is humongous, and my thoughts go to those affected..

Not to be bizarre, but 2 earthquakes of this size, so close in time and place could give rise to quite a few conspiracy theories.
For example, I bet that there are those out there who swear that this is brought on by the USA as a step in their evil plan to gain world dominion. Of course this task was carried out by the CIA, as to make everyone think it was just nature playing trick again.
Others, I'm sure, will take this as a sign that the end is nigh and that these are all signs that world will go under. Or maybe that the multiple tsunamis are just a foretaste of "The great flood". I wonder what they make of the abundant tsunami-warnings?
I stick to the boring scientific theory, that there're some movements in the crust, and that stuff like this happens whether we like it or not.
Still, i think its fun to play with theories of conspiracy theories.
Here's a favourite:



On other news, I was finally let out of the hospital this evening. Of course, it had to happen, as nobody brought me those easter eggs. Apparently my wellbeing isn't really important for anyone :P
Its a wonderful feeling, knowing that I wont wake up to get injections in my back, have to get infusions and new cannulas. Im just savouring every moment and really hope that i won't have to go back.


I realise now, that in addition to being sad because of the pain, what annoyed me the most must be the "room-mates".
I was allowed going outside for a couple of hours today too, and really enjoyed it. My good friend Anniken came and picked me up from the ward, and we had coffee for 3 good hrs. (Luckily it was decaf).
Later, i realised that my canula had to come out, as the whole area around it had turned blue and was quite tender.
When I got back to the ward, the "roomies" discovered my missing canula at once, and also made sure to inform the nurse that i hadn't got my injections for the evening. Neither had i been eating as they could observe, so the list of their report to the nurse was LONG :P
It was at that point i decided that I had to go home. I know, being a med student, I know, I should be the first one to realise the importance of finishing a hospital stay the right way.
However, I don't feel like i have done something, the doctor was nice and said yes to my request to go home without much ado. Only thing was that i had to promise to go see the neurologist tomorrow morning, and I have no problems doing that :)

Good night!

Easter eggs and blackmail..

As mentioned in my last post, I really don't feel comfortable being hospitalised, and have tried begging everyone worth begging to get out (yup, feel like a prisoner.).
I have even contemplated an escape worthy of Houdini.
This morning I found a solution to it all:
Easter is coming up, and with it loads of commercial products, such as the wonderful easter eggs.


If i don't get eggs I'll escape and run away! Muahahaha.
If i get eggs, I'll stay, and start behaving like a good patient! Promise.

You might think me crazed, but try it yourself, sleeping in a 5person room that's too hot, not falling asleep untill 2, being woken up at 5 in the morning, on a Sunday.

Sice my last post not too long ago (Not much to do in a hospital), one of my friends, Kjetil made a banner for my blog. I like it very much, and pretty much sums up how it is to be a med-student down here.

The picture was taken early in the morning, on my birthday, after a credit-test in stomatology. I was dead tired and the coffee just about kept me alive.
There're some not too flattering shadows under my eyes, and I was wondering if they should magically vanish or if they should stay. For now, I think I will let them stay there. Life of a medical student in Slovakia is hard, there's a lot of stuff to read and study, and most of the time, not enough hours in the day (or the night for that sake).

Last night I got some valuable information, as I was starting to suspect that I was being poisoned (or something worse) by the increasingly painful intramuscular shots, I tried to refuse the last shots.
The nurse asked me why, and I told her that the shot at this point actually caused me more pain than the herniation itself. She replied in a "as a matter of fact*" - tone that "ohh, you should massage it" and that it is actually quite a painful shot if you don't do this.
I massaged the injection site and now it almost doesn't hurt :)
Oh the joy of not speaking Slovak too good!
Thanks for letting me know after 4 injection and many pain complaints!

Today is Sunday, and as such, we get "special breakfast"- braided bun bread.
Tastes a bit sweet. And the bread spread is butter mixed with fat tasting of meat.. apparently.. didn't taste as my fear of atherosclerosis overcame my hunger.


However, not all is bad, after breakfast and my infusion, I get to go to the outside world; a friend is coming to take me out for coffees and freedom..

The beginning..

I've thought of starting a blog for ages now, but i guess that not really unique. I probably wouldn't have started one for the next heap of ages either, if i hadn't been trapped in the neurological department. As one might figure, there's not much you can do when admitted to a neurological department. Usually the reason for the admission is reason enought for those limitations.
In my case, I have a lumbar herniation, which probably has been there for quite some time, and all of a sudden decided to act up..Thank you lumbar disk!
I shouldn't complain, really. The staff is excellent, my bed is nice and clean, the food is not as bad as one might imagine. I get medications that take away the neural pain. Only the pain from the injections themselves remain :P

Still, i hate it here. It's worst during the night time. I just want to go home to my boyfriend and my cat, and my bed.
Don't know what makes it so bad, I think it might be partly due to the loss of privacy one experiences once one share room with four other women. Sencond, I think its because I'm in Slovakia, and keep comparing everything to how it would've been back home in Norway.
Last, I think its because I'm scared and hate the feeling being in a hospital gives you.

At least when you don't really feel sick. I mean, I actually feel quite OK, which makes it even worse. My "room mates" seem quite well too, although, I don't know. They don't speak english, at least not with me, so engaging in a conversation with them is quite a struggle as slovak is quite a difficult language, at least to my brain.

I think today is better than yesterday. Yesterday was the day of my admission. I was able to attend part of a psychiatry practical about misconceptions of reality. Quite interesting. Then, midways in the practical, I had to leave for the scheduled admission.
After waiting for 4 hours, i finally got admitted. I was not due to lazyness I had to wait for 4 hrs. It was because my Norwegian birth number has one number more than what Slovaks have (as far as i could understand), and they didn't know what to do with the number too much.
I tried to tell them that i have a Slovak number too, or at least an equivalent, that I got when I applied for the long term residence permit, but that was out of the question.
I finally got my bed, a cool bed with electrical controls (woohoo) and a power outlet by the bed.
I even figured out how to get internet on my phone. So far, so good.
The canula wasn't even as bad as I had expected; I had some problems persuading them that i wanted a canula and just a needle in my arm for the infusions, but i eventually got my canula.
Not even the intramuscular injections were bad (not until later that night).
Nothing was really horrible until i met my "roomies"
Nice, middle aged women.. Oh.. I forgot to add CURIOUS. No.. curious.. that's not the right word..Nosy is more like it.
Hovering around me, calling the nurses for every complaint i might have, spying on my web-cam-chats, asking me questions.

While I'm sure they meant it all good, I was annoyed beyond imagination.
Partly because I'm Norwegian, and as such suffer from "The Norwegian stiffness syndrome", and partly because i was very tired from previous pain.

Later that night, i discovered how painful intramuscular injections can really be, and at that point, I just wanted to escape home.

This evening is much better though. I had 6 wonderful hrs outside the hospital. I had to be picked up by my boyfriend <3, otherwise, the nurses wouldn't let me out.
Together we had lunch with one of my best friends, Andrew, at the city's local "gourmet" restaurant, and I even had chocolate fondant for dessert.

Later i headed over to another couple of good friends to wail about being hospitalised and to have coffee.. YAY!

After that, I just about had time to go home to enjoy home and to disturb Martin in studying :P

All in all, a nice day after all :)

So.. this was my first ever blog entry, how do you like it?
Any suggestions?

Luske