St Aidan's is an army...!

Like I mentioned yesterday so was it time for the first fancy dress formal for the term last night, (Again, neither 'fancy dress' or 'formal' should be confused with any kind of formality at all, it's more of a nice and fun costume party dinner) and the theme was "A is for Aidan's". So me and my table comrades dressed up as an army (as many others too unfortunately). Since fancy dress parties is a very common thing here are there many stores who sell costumes of different kinds, even a specialized store for it. Me, Phil and Bibo bought matching camouflage tank tops, and I also found a plastic helmet and a toy automatic rifle, bought cheap green cargo pants at the Salvation Army (fittingly), and borrowed walking boots from a friend. The last touch was the camo paint in the face. However, while the others just painted a few stripes on the cheeks I did like I was used to do in the army and covered the whole face. Don't know if the dress and the paint set off a Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome or something, but I got a bit over-excitedand and rolled on the floor and stuff. After the dinner the party continued as usually in the bar, where the themed continued as the Fab Four took the kareoke stage and ripped off "Seven Nation Army" before a wild crowd. The night finished off at Studio down town for some crazy dancing to a great mix of hip-hop. I think that almost two hours of dancing in a sweaty night club, especially in big boots, is at minimum equal to a heavy work-out in the gym, cause I was exhausted afterwards, but it was a real fun night! This morning was not as fun though, I can count the hours I slept on one hand, as I had to go up at 7:50am for a nine o'clock lecture. I was so tired, but at least I was there and took some notes. Not like Bibo, who overslept and missed his train and flight to France for the weekend early this morning. There was no one who slammed the door open at 6am and yelled 'good morning' like in the real Swedish army.

Two Angels, Apple computers, and an Agent
There's nothing fun about being in the army
I'm gonna fight 'em off, a seven nation army couldn't hold me back!

Back on track!

This morning I had a meeting with my Erasmus coordinator at the Department of Geography about my work load. We agreed on the solution to drop the Hazard and Risk module. I mean, I'm from Sweden, we barely have no natural Hazards, just Hurricane Per (yup, I'm dangerous!) and a few other things. But seriously, it's feels really nice to be able to focus more on the other modules. I also have been in contact with other lecturers who have been very helpful, so I got the motivation back and actually a real hunger for studies. Geography is really interesting! Well, tonight there's also a bit of fun, as it's the first formal for the term, themed 'A for Aidan's'. Not gonna tell what I'm gonna dress up as, but I can say like this; if the kiddos don't start with Corporal before talking to me they will regret they were born. Attention!

Corporal 314 Norberg

Stress

Got pretty much school work to do right now, and it just stresses me out totally. Don't really know where to start with everything. However, gonna have a meeting tomorrow with my tutor, and then talk to some of my teachers, so after that some things hopefully been sorted out a bit and I can move on.
Here's two, bit differently, hip-hop classics on the theme:

Organized Konfusion - "Stress"

A Tribe Called Quest - "Stressed Out"

Water polo

Pretty busy writing my summative essays right now, but I still try to do some fun stuff to not totally go under. Yesterday me and Bibo finally got the chance to go and see Felix playing a match of water polo. He practice a lot every week with the university team and has to come out later than the rest of us when we go out, so it was fun to see what the fuzz was about and get to see the first water polo match in my life. So we went there as real supporters with our own home made Felix-flag. It was quite an easy sport to follow, even though we didn't really know all of the rules. A bit like handball to me, but in water. I was quite surprised about how fast the sport is; they swum back in forth all the time and crossed the "field" in justa few seconds sometimes, and pretty physical too (although they look like little babies in their hats). Durham had the lead with 2-0 against Lancaster when the Dutch Devil himself stepped in and comfortably put the ball in the right corner of the goal, and basically put the match to an end. He didn't let us down at all, and had us cheering again a few minutes later with his second goal for the night. Amazing performance! Think I will try to go and see at least one more of his matches sometimes.

Felix "The Cat" Kraneveld

A day in Darlington

One of my New Year's resolution is to be more effective with my studies, another one is (hopefully it will be a result of the effectiveness) to see a bit more of England. So today after lunch I went with Bibo, Valentina and Felix on an afternoon journey to Darlington, which is just about 15 min south on the train from here. I had never really heard about the city, and thought it would be even smaller than Durham and didn't know what there was to see or do there, but apparently the city has almost a population of 100 000 so it's not that small. It's mostly famous for being one of the stops on the first passanger train journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, although we didn't go to the Railway Museum. The city looks very English with long lanes of brick houses, not much to see, and they have almost exactly the same stores as in Durham. However, in Durham we only have Poundland (where everything costs £1), but in Darlington they have Poundworld, and of course 'world' is better than 'land'. I found two paintings of Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash, and a mug with Elvis Presley on it, so now I have a bit more stuff up on my wall and a better mug to drink tea in. Even though it was a short trip, it was cool to see something new and other than Durham, and to get a bit of fresh air and have fun with friends.

First Friday

Today has been my first Friday back in Durham, so also the end of the first school week for this term. It's strange how things quickly get back to normal, which mostly is a good thing though. One of my few New Year's resolution (didn't really give any, but kind of) was to be more effective with my studies, and I think I've actually been, believe it or not. I have been to the library everyday and reading and writing. Sometimes I get into a bit of a flow, sometimes I get into a writers' block, but all in all I get stuff done, and that's of course good. I even skipped two nights out to get up early to study, and since I worked in the bar again last night I fortunately for my health have served a lot more beer and drinks than I had myself. I'm really liking the bar job, and I know all the drinks now and when I'm serving a beer with some music pumping I feel like a real bartender! Well, tonight I will be back in front of the bar, as it is Planet of Sound at the Union. Have a good Friday!

Word of the day IV

Jag köpte med mig lite smått och gott från Sverige på flygplatsen, bl a pepparkakor som jag gav bort i present. På förpackningen så var det en bild på kakorna och några kryddnejlikor bredvid. Bibo visste bara vad de heter på franska och undrade vad de heter engelska, vilket inte jag heller visste. Så kollade upp det på nätet, och kunde sedan lägga till ännu ett användbart(?) ord till mitt vokabulär!

• Clove: Kryddnejlika