NY state of mind

This weekend I went to New York as some of you might know. The past work-week was extreme in all aspects, I had dinner at 11 pm THREE times the past week and since it takes me so long time to get home from work I also took a cab three times this week. So on Friday night, after coming home at 11 (again!) I packed my bags and took an early bus to NY on Saturday morning.
I arrived in Jills (Caryns sister) apartment which was this fancy apartment complex right next to Rachel Rays studio. When I told to the doorman that I was going to Jill in 17A and asked which floor it was he looked at me for a long time and said; "Miss, you go into the elevator and press 17", haha, I have never been to the 17th floor before. Anyway, after some relaxing me and The Steinbrechers went to a SPA nearby where I got my first manicure and they got pedicures. My nails have never looked so good before. After that we went to Oyster fest in the financial district. Caryn and Jill tried to explain to me before we went what Oyster fest really was and I didn't get it so I don't know if I'll be able to describe it. They had closed down one whole street and filled it with tents that sold oysters, beer and other foods. I had a lot of oysters, and some beers. We then went to a birthday party for a friend of Caryn from Jersey, I have always asked Caryn if people from Jersey are like the people on Jersey Shore and she has said, that yea, some are. At this party I found out she was right, I tried to take a sneak picture of an original guido so you could see. They even wore "the shirt before the shirt"!! We then went to the East Village (I think, I just tagged along), met some more old college friends of Caryn and went to this club where we danced the night away. On Sunday we had an amazing brunch with coffee, orange juice, crab meat eggs bendict and pancakes with fresh fruit which was followed by some last minute shopping.

When I started writing this post I was on the bus back home which should have taken me home to Boston at around 10.30 Sunday night. However, that did not happen. About midway between NY and Boston the bus broke down. Yeey. Apparently we hit a bump which caused our hydraulics to break down. The bus company had no easy solution to this, the driver couldn't get a hold of them and no one knew what to do. So there we were standing on the side of the highway with no electricity not knowing what to do. This lead to absolute chaos. Everyone ran everywhere asking people what was going on and the driver didn't inform us about anything. It should also be noted that this was a double decker filled with people so I think we were almost 50-60 people on the bus so there were a lot of people running around.Then this other bus stopped in one of the other lanes on the highway and this crazy woman from our bus tried to cross the interstate to go to the other bus. People began to panic and someone called 911. So the police came and opened up a window so we could have enough air and tried to calm everyone.Then someone told us that the driver got hold of a mechanic that would come in an hour. They were also talking about a bus coming from Boston in 3-4 hours to take us back.. At this point I really needed to pee...Well, the mechanic came and led us to this train station, but then, magically the bus had fixed itself by driving over another bump which got the hydraulics back up again. Hahaha. But the cool thing about this bus ride was that I in this chaos met this girl from Taiwan that knew some people that lived in Tromsø, beside Prestvannet. Haha. This guy from the bus were collecting everyone's e-mails so that we could complain to the bus company so today I got an e-mail from this guy who I think wants to sue or something. I don't know what to do.

So, that was me. How was your weekend?

Peace out!



Rachel Ray - gotta love that evoo

Pedicure time!


Andrea is about to eat her first oyster

We love oysters!


Oyster Fest!

An OG, original guido


Brunch buddies Janelle and Yelena

Everyday life, part 2

Since my latest post I have moved, worked and kept myself busy with watching my new favorite show "Mad Men".
I no longer live in Boston but the city of Cambridge. This entails a much longer commute to get to work although my room, roomie and the apartment is very nice.
Harvard University is divided so that Harvard Law and that stuff is located in Cambridge while Harvard Medical and School of Public Health is on the Boston side. Fortunately there is a shuttlebus that goes from Harvard to Harvard. The public transportation system here is nothing to get excited about, the T is always full, has no reception and is not exactly punctual so although the shuttle is always packed its a good alternative. Actually last week I took the T to work and was delayed by 20 min because there was a fire (!) in one of the cars. No more T.

My new grocery shop is a shaw, this is one of the biggest shops I've ever been in! The first time I went there just to get some bread and milk I ended up spending one hour just wandering through all of the aisles looking at all the strange stuff. They have like a 10 meter long aisle of only bread. Crazy. They also have freshly made food so I'm currently eating my way through typical American dishes such as mashed sweet potato and mac n cheese.

Last weekend the hurricane "Earl" was supposed to hit. The news portrayed it like it was supposed to be the next "Katrina" so I was so disappointed when it only rained for an hour and was we Northern-Norwegians would call a light breeze.
On last Saturday I went to dinner with Peder, Danielle and some friends of them at a Vietnamese place. It was so good. I still can't believe how cheap it is to eat out here. For mixed appetizers, a main course and two beers I payed approximately 180 NOK. At this place they also introduced me to my new favorite drink, "bubble tea", this is smoothie (in whatever flavor) with tapioca balls which is kind of chewy berries. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca.

This weekend have been quiet, today I went to ICA, The Institute of Contemporary Art, which was very nice and then me and Scott went on a Taco Bell expedition so that I could have my first Taco Bell meal. There is no Taco Bell in downtown Boston so we had to take the T to this mall outside of town, not only was the Taco Bell meal amazing, but I got to catch up with my ex-roomie that is approaching the Diamond league in Starcraft!! Congrats Scott! Although my new roomie, Jen, is very nice I miss Caryn. I'm planning to visit her in Jersey soon and in two weeks me and Caryn are planning to visit Janelle in NY, I'm looking forward to that!

My camera has been without batteries for some time so I haven't taken that my pictures but here are some.

That was a quick update on my latest movements. I love you all!





This is what I look like now!

Skoleveien min, eller dvs, veien til T-banen

Cute commercial for The New England Aquarium (dedikert til Karoline)

Late night snack, avocado-smoothie with bubbles and sweet potato chips

ICA

View of downtown Boston from the south side

As time goes by..

Time is passing by so fast! In one way so much has happened, in another way it doesn't seem like anything have changed.
Quick resume of the past week events:

Dinner with Ida and her friend at the Prudential Center (the tallest building in Boston) with a great skyline view last Saturday. Not only did we have delicious food and great service we also witnessed a marriage proposal which was successful! The skybar was very elegant with a jazzband playing, dimmed lights and poshy old women sipping martinis. I bet Frank Sinatra would have loved it, so as you probably can understand I fitted right in.

Sunday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts after a quicky in the lab. I came right before they closed and skipped through all the boring history and went straight to beautiful exhibition on a fashion photographer for Vogue in the 50s and 60s, I really wanted the catalog but it was very expensive so I settled on a pin showing Audrey Hepburns eye. Very chic. Haha.

The rest of the week so filled with work. Nothing more to say if you're not really into molecular biology.

On Friday Janelle joined us from NY to go to Caryns friends birthday party. Janelle is the girl who also joined us on the duck tour and she is a lot of fun. Me, Caryn, Janelle, Daniella (Caryns other amazing friend, she has a lot of them) and Jen (the Black-Irish) went to this club called Sanctuary where this birthday girl had reserved a table. Here they had, like I've seen some other places, sugar-shots served in reagent tubes which you can buy to get that extra sugar-kick going on top of your drunkenness. We met this guy from Brazil which bought us 15 of those. Cool stuff.

On Saturday I met up with this girl I'm going to live with, because after a lot of weird and strange e-mails I have finally managed to get myself a new room/apartment. Its a little outside town and its going to take me much longer to get to work, but she is nice and I think it will work out good. In the evening I celebrated Idas birthday with her and her roommate by having a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant downtown. Later in the evening I met up with Janelle and Caryn and we went to the Donkey Show which is this crazy club/musical/theater/show based on clubs in the 70's. Its like a club with these crazy actors dressed as different characters from Studio 54 which after a while starts singing hits from the 70s. It was so FUN. I tried to take some pictures of it, but they were a bit dark but maybe you'll get a feel of it. The name the donkey show comes from a popular show in Tijuana which involves a donkey and, well, not a 70's musical to put it that way. Haha.

That was a quick summary of what I've been up to for the last week. Send me a summary of your week/weekends!
I miss you!

xxxo

One of the great views from the Prudential CenterAnother view, you can almost see my house!"Will you marry me?"
"Yes, I will!!Janelle and Daniella, not looking into the camera

Janelle, Caryn again avoiding the camera while Jen, the Black-Irish doesn't mind her picture taken
Ida and her free birthday cake!

Donkey show!

The courtyard behind my work

Hola!

I'm sorry for being sooo slow on updating my blog. I'm obviously not a hardcore-blogger. I've started working a lot more, its so fun so I don't mind working late. Also we have had cake four out of five days. Keep in mind that these people study diabetes!! Ironic or what. Anyway, I love ma pastries and have found a new favorite in the cake/cupcake red velvet, its red chocolate cake with carrotcake frosting (and a LOT of it), so good.
Everyone in the lab is really nice and there is a lot of people which makes it easier to ask every one of them stupid questions and not bothering one person.

Last weekend me and Caryn went to her friend Ronaldos MIT fraternity house, I'm posting some pictures of it here. It was exactly like in the movies. After that we went to this club called the Good Life which had some kind of break dance or old school night or something. Anyway, most of the people there looked like they came straight outta Fresh Prince in Bel Air, I mean, you people working at "Stress" trying to dress hip-hoppy, you haven't seen nuthin. I will try to post a video of one of the girls break dancing here, I also have a picture of the circle, try to notice the yo-hipsters in the background. Fun.

The rest of the weekend I worked, until Josse, my long lost Rognan friend came to visit us on Sunday. He had been in Peder and Danielles wedding and is going to tour the US and Canada. I haven't seen him in 8 years and it was so much fun. Of course on his last night we took him to Border Cafe, the margherita place, where Josse had his first "cocktail", then we went to Middlesex where there were some house-dj playing. Matt, my smoking neighbor, also came and we had a great night.

Yesterday, mr mongo and mr bongo (Niklas and Bea) broke into my Spotify account and made the worst playlist ever. They said they had sent it to all of my friends, so if you have received Margrethes all time best, I'm sorry, they're kids, don't go to hard on them.

New words I've learned lately:

WASH = White trash
Guidos = Italian Americans, the jersey shore type, just google image guido, you'll see what I mean
T = Too (can be used on everything; "its so T" like its too much.)

I had my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich the other day and I immediately fell in love with it. Scott however, felt that this wasn't the right kind of peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me and gave me some more "synthethic" ones. They were good although extremely synthetic. A pre made sandwich which you just thaw...its nothing natural about that, but who cares.

This weekend I'm home alone!! Yeey! No, its kind of sad actually, Caryn is in NY celebrating her friends birthday and Scott is going home to Cali soon. I have a date with Ida, my fellow Norwegian and I think I will work a little. I've begun to read the daily horoscope in the NY post, Anna Anka once said that this horoscope was the most correct one and its true!!! My horoscope this weekend said that I would be wise to relax this weekend because I would need all my strength for next week. So maybe I'll do that. Or maybe not...?

Song of the weekend: Big Boi - Shutterbug, I loved it for weeks now, I still love t, the album is amazing as well.


Peace out!

Loser in 3D

A few months ago my dear friend Benedicte taught me a new joke. It went like this; Benedicte: What's this? (showing the loser sign on her forehead using three fingers),
Me: Loser?
Benedicte: No, loser in 3D.

I thought it was hilarious and apparently I was the only one. Out of the 20 people at home I told this joke to, only 10% (that is 2 people) thought it was funny, I was therefore nervous when I set out to introduce it to the US, however, I soon realized that it wasn't me there was anything wrong with as it became an instant hit. It maybe the most international joke ever. I'm thinking of copyrighting it and distributing it worldwide. Unfortunately, I didn't make up the joke and I don't know where it originated, Benedicte told me she heard it from someone else, so Benedicte if you're reading this; please help me out so that we can find this genious and share our fame and fortune with him/her?

Friday night I was at Daniellas 22nd birthday party! I was the oldest one there. As some of you may know I'm having a 25 year old crisis with death lurking around every corner and it got even more apparent when I was there. But as the night progressed I forgot all about the crisis and just went with the flow. I had a great time and I think Daniella had too, thank you for inviting me:)

On Sunday, me, Caryn and Caryns friend Janelle went on a Duck Tour. A Duck Tour is a touristy sightseeing tour which involves you getting in a painted car/van/boat/machinery and being driven around the city told fun facts about the history of Boston. At the end of the tour the car/van/boat/machinery goes into the water and is transformed into a real boat! It was incredibly fun! Caryn, Janelle and me all got these duck bills that made a duck noise when you blew into them!! SO FUNNY! We used ours actively and started communicating by these instead of talking. It should be noted that it was only us and an 8 year old boy who had this...Anyway, we also go to steer the boat, I had to manouver the boat through a bridge, this is not an easy task I tell you, I also got to drive for a long time compared to the others, I think it was because I was foreign.
Afterwords we went to brunch, I ordered the crispy calamari without knowing that crispy equals FRIED.

I am struggling to find another place to live from the 1st of September, it takes a lot of time and energy to write e-mails and check adds but I'm hoping it will pay off soon.
At work my new cells are looking splendid, I know I might sound nerdy but it made me so happy to see them on Sunday doubling away. Hopefully I can do things with them soon.

That's it for now. Please schedule me for skype-sessions!

Thank you Karoline for learning me about blogging, you're the best! I loved the picture from both wedding parties! I have another question for you: How do you get the Blog text (the blogspot text) another color?

Hugs, kiss and best wishes

Turkey business and new crappy phone

Since my last post evoke such amusement for Caryn, her sister Jill and Scott I will continue to post in English.The past couple of days have been characterized by work, party and sleep. On Saturday I went shopping with Ida, Jørgens friend from elementary school which is in Boston in connection with her PhD at Prudential Center. Ida is very nice, so thank you Jørgen for providing me with her. She was looking for a dress to use at a wedding in Norway and we ended upon a champagne colored dress from Sue Wong (Don't know who it is, just thought it sounded fancy). After our shopping we had lunch at this arty place in South Boston. Looking out over the sea while eating delicious seafood was definitely something to recommend.

In the evening we went to Peder and Danielles apartment and then went out to the "Enormous Room" (very misleading name as it isn't enormous at all) and then we went to Middlesex. We had to wait for an hour at Middlesex to get in, one whole hour...it was very fun when we finally did get in, but it sure felt like a waste of time. Next weekend some of Peders friends from Norway or Rognan to be more specific will arrive, and as Peder said; "Do you think Boston is ready for this? Do you think we have enough beer?" Haha. I'm looking forward to it.

Over to another recurrent theme:
Plastic cups. I don't get it. Even when you're out you get your drinks in plastic cups!! Can they stop with the plastic cups?? I also got my olive tapenade (this is meshed olives, namnam, I was very excited when I saw it because I haven't been able to get a hold of it back home) in a plastic glass....

I saw the wild turkeys again on Sunday. I've told everyone about them and everyone, or the majority of people have heard about them, but no one has actually seen them. I saw them walking on the sidewalk close to the cars gobbling around for some turkey-business. To prove that I'm not crazy and that they actually exists I hereby provide photo-documentation.

On Sunday I also bought a new phone to use here. Its really crap. Its even more crap than the phone Kristin bought in India. Its like a toy phone and once in a while it just starts showing commercials (wtf?), very annoying when you're trying to sleep. But I can text and call and that's the most important things. I don't think any of you back home can call me so we would have to use skype. I really wanted a Blackberry since it is a big thing here and they are really cute but it felt like a waste to use so much money on a phone I probably can't use at home anyway. You see my phone doesn't have a SIM card, I asked the guy what was there instead and he just mumbled something so I think its magic. I bought this subscription which gives you unlimited texting and calling for a month for 40 dollars, this seemed like a real bargain at the time but it turns out to be the most retarded thing I've done in a long time. So far I have only got three contacts and no one is texting me, way to spend 40 dollars, haha. Scott actually sent me a sympathy text yesterday so that I would feel better.

Until we meet again!

Btw, Bea, Congratulations on your collaboration with Tomkrist! That's great! Your music career is really going somewhere now. Haha. Just wait till the end of September when Margrethe&Niklas bully-blogg will be up and running.

Everyday life

Yes, I know my room is messy.

Happy people: Sølve and Caryn

Scott!

New NY watch

Since I might have some English-speaking readers I've now changed to English for this post. On Tuesday we (me, Caryn, Scott and Sølve) went out for dinner at this mexican place called Borders up in Harvard Square. We ate there with the aussies as well and the food is amazing! However, so is also the margaritas...Caryn seems to be blessed with some remarkable liver enzymes compared to me considering that I was half-dead the next day while she felt fine. Either way, we had a great time out, first we went to this indie-hipster place at Central Square, it was cool, but it was kind of not our crowd...hint: I learned a new word there; tranny, so we went to this other place across the street and had so much fun.

Apart from going out for dinner and getting hung over life is moving along great. Yesterday we watched my new reality-hit-show "The Real World - New Orleans" and for those of you who thought that "The Hills" was stupid, think again. Me, being the realityshow-lover numero uno used the opportunity to treat myself with a "small" cake from our local pastry shop. Happy times. Yesterday I also amazed Scott with my superior screwdriver (?) skills, I managed to undo a screw on his broken playstation which he had been working on for a long time. The joy was temporary since I didn't manage to open the other screws, so I guess he'll just have to buy a new one...Another bad thing is that the vending machine also seems to be working again, as Scott would out it; Big sad face!

At work I have started in the lab, I have not done much yet, but its fun to do something real and not only read papers and analyze things. I have also taken a number of courses which you have to have to get a permanent ID here. Everything that goes on here is regulated, and then I mean EVERYTHING. It is very strict compared to Norway, but I guess its good, the safety routines are definitely in place.

This Saturday I'm going to a small party at Peder and Danielles place and then we're going out, I am very excited! Also, to you Norwegians, I actually had a breakthrough in my Americanization the other day; I actually used the expression "have a good one". It felt kinda weird, but I guess I'll get used to it. I have also learned the how-are-you-business, usually I just answer "good, how are you?" although I'm not good, but it works, you could also say "not to bad" but I don't think I'm completely there yet.

Here are some pictures of my beloved roomies, the school and me and my new watch!! Hope you all are doing good, I really enjoy reading your e-mails. I miss you all!
Btw, does anybody know how to get the pictures under the text? HELP.