Inspiration from Rocknrolla

I love the movies made by Guy Ritchie. He is such a good director. My favorite one at the moment is 'Rocknrolla'. Gina and I have already lost count on how many times we've seen it. Yesterday I bought the soundtrack, and before we went for our morning jog today we were listening to "be my rock n roll queen". And for you who have seen the movie, you might remember when it is played. And as you can see, seeing Marie lying on the floor kind of inspired me. No garbage lids around, I had to use a lamp. But you get the picture.

To much energy anyone?

Good thing we went for a heavy jog today. Pushed ourselves to the limit. It felt really good. It sure is nice having faithful training partners. We have a lot of fun running in the forest. Indeed we do.

The crew

This weekend has been awesome. Marie has blogged about it, so if you want to know more you can check out her blog. I will just say that the crew, well, we know how to celebrate that midterm is done. And we all passed everything. So this has been a weekend with no studying, but with loads of fun. It has been wonderful.

And as you can see from the collage, we have gotten the coolest t-shirts ever. Only thing missing is our german, but she went to germany for the weekend.

I love these people. Don't know what I would do without them really.

PS: The background of the collage is part of peripheral nerveous system.

Welcome to Slovakia...

So yesterday night at about 1am I was going to bed. I turn on my nightlamp, and it goes *poff*. So I figured it was broken, and found another lamp. Turnes at that one didn't work either.

So I put two and two together and figure the plugs aren't working.

I tried all the different plugs around the apartement. None of them worked. They still don't .

Funny thing is, we have electrisity because all lights not plugged in anywhere is working fine.

Typical that this would happen when there is a weekend followed by two days of holiday.

*update an hour later: I fix. I am officially miss fix it!

Warning! This gets personal...

Gina and I just got back from the supermarked three minutes away. We needed some fresh air, study break, and a few things from the store - one of them being o.b. Turnes out they didn't have o.b., not where all the sanitary pads were at least. I gave up hope until I came to the desk. Then I saw the o.b. behind another desk, among all the special liquor, the flamable stuff and so on.

I really needed those o.b. so I just did my best to communicate with the lady behind the desk, speaking slovak as best I could. She stood up, and told me to come with her. She waved me over actually.

Turnes out you have to get behind a huge metal chain (the lady unlocked it for me), and get the o.b. from behind that desk yourself. And then you walk back to the first desk, where all the other people is lined up waiting just for you.

Why not just shout out; "Hi, my name is Tonje, and I have the period"

Fun.

Extensor digiti minimi...

...is a slender muscle of the forearm, placed on the ulnar side of the extensor digitorum communis, with which it is generally connected.

It arises from the common Extensor tendon by a thin tendinous slip, from the intermuscular septae between it and the adjacent muscles.

Its tendon runs through a compartment of the dorsal carpal ligament behind the distal radio-ulnar joint, then divides into two as it crosses the hand, and finally joins the expansion of the extensor digitorum communis tendon on the dorsum og the first phalanx of the little finger.

I think it is a really cute name for a muscle. To remember it I can just think of Mini-me in Austin Powers.

Reason I am writing this is beacuse today we were looking into the mucles of the upper extremities. And when I say look into, I mean look into. I officially had my first meating with the dissection room today.

It answered to my expectations. A steril room in the basement with tiles (fliser) all over the place. Three metal tables, some benches, and on every shelf there was a jar with a body part or organ in it. The jars that facinated me the most was the one with brains in, and the one with heads. On some of the heads the skin of the face was still intact, with eyelashes, wrinkles, and what not. And it stank of whatever it is they use to preserve the bodyparts, it could almost burn away you nosehair. You get used to it after a while, but I can assure you that our labcoates was thrown into the washer as soon as we got home.

But it was fun. Marga said it oh so well: "I like it. I like it! I like it when we can touch it"

I got some good news today as well. Since the only subjects we are done with this semester are biophysics and first aid, those are the only ones we're being examinated in after christmas. Luckily for us the first aid exam is on this side of christmas, so if I'm lucky I can come home on a little vacation after my exam in biophysics. That would be ever so nice. I just have to pass all my credit test first so that I can come home for christmas.

Talking about the sun - I have to start studying for my credit test tomorrow. Dovidenia!

Midterm is almost over, just one to go!

I can't believe it. Three weeks of hard work and a lot of stress is almost over. Just credit test in slovak language left. And today we got our results from credit test in latin, and I passed it. I was so shure that I had flunked it, but turned out I didn't. And yesterday we had our last seminar (test) in chemistry for this semester, and altogether we had to have 10,5 points, and I had 12,5. So I am really happy right now. I've actually passed everything. Unbelievable.

At the same time I'm feeling kind of drained at the moment, because it has really been hard work studying for all those tests. My shoulders have been sneaking up underneath my ears these last few weeks.

Yesterday, Marie, Gina and I had to celebrate the fact that midterm was almost over yesterday. So we went for a 52 minute run in the forest. It felt so good to finally get out of the apartement, away from the couch and all the books. Just running around like crazy people.

It was raining dogs, cats, and elephants, but that just made it even better. We had to run across a field, a very muddy field. While we were running on the field suddenly my feet felt extremely heavy, I could bearly lift them. Then I heard Gina laughing and Marie brething quite heavy. I turned around and saw that their shoes had an extra 10 cm sole of heavy mudd on them, and so did mine. No wonder my feet felt heavy.

So Marie learned her lesson. Next time she will bring her keys, identity card and a spoon (to get the mudd off).

Talking about midterm I just wanted to share some pictures with you from the last few days. Even though it has been hard work, we also know how to make it a bit more fun.

I have the best flatmate ever. She cooks the most delightful meals.

Here she is making lasagne, in the middle of the week.

That just makes my day.

We (Gina) made buns the other day.

The dough was forgotten though, because we were studying.

And it grew an it grew...

But the buns were nice.

Welcome to the everyday life at Stokka/Salen.

Late evening; I'm in my PJ's, my "lodder" that my mum knitted for me (love them!),

and my favourite hoodie. Problem is that I am trying to do a lot of different things at once

- getting dressed, skyping, studying, etc. And sometimes I don't get it all right.

This is my little "nurk". Look at her sleeping.

You could just eat her up!

We both have a tendency to just fall asleep in the couch now and then.

Reading is hard work you know.

And especially for you Tarja; my SHOES!

The last few days Gina and I have been thinking about all the weird things it is possible to miss from Norway.

Here are a few of them:

• yeast
• sauce (they don't have that here)
• notebooks
• liverpaté (the one thay have is...well....)
• jam
• vacum cleaner (that does not fall apart)
• coffe machine (that makes coffee in under an hour!)
• correction tape (tabbelakk)
• coffee
• pens
• stuff for cleaning (like a good mop)
• less coins (we are drowning in cents here)
• butter for cooking - or a good oil for cooking (the ones they have here is just torture to use beacuse it is popping all over the place)
• Mackerel filét
• Water (a lot of kalk (don't know what that is in english) in the water here)
• Sun light soap for the dishes
• Public toilets with a key so that you can lock it
• Public toilets with toiletpaper inside the booth, not one role of paper for everyone - outside the booth
• Dust remover for clothes
• smågodt!
• norwegian TV
• dark, FIBROUS bread
• milk

But most of all we miss people back home.

I, of course, miss Espen a lot.

I miss having him here. Coming home and finding him in the couch studying or something made my day. Just him being here really. Luckily it is just 37 days, 6 hours, 07 minutes, and 28 seconds until I come home for christmas.

I am really looking forward to that (If you didn't get that).

I never showed you this picture.

I love it.

Espen bought some new footballshoes when he was here.

He was so exited that he had to wear them INSIDE because they were so awesome.

And just for your information, I have a really happy boyfriend these days,

Chelsea being in the lead of premiere league with their 30 points and all.

And off course because Ålesund won the cup.

The real blogg n'rolla

I have so much to blog about at the moment. I'm producing blogposts as pearls on a string. I hope you are enjoying the sneak-peek you get on my life here in Slovakia.

Today has been a good day. Doing the dishes this morning I felt happy and full of energy, and believe me I haven't felt like that for some time.

I also found out that I passed my medical biology credit test. Really happy about that.

After school Gina and I wanted to reward ourself. And as you might know I love shoes, so we - Marie, Gina and I- wen't down town to get me some nice winter boots. John Garfield is the brand. I LOVE'em!

Down town there was a big marked or whatever, going on. They were selling lot's of cool stuff, but they also had a little music show. I actually filmed it, so you can see it at the bottom of this blogpost.

Market!

my girls

The man is playing jew's harpe (munnharpe), and you can hear Marie saying: "Ey, its actually possible for him to say something about those few notes that he is playing"

I live in a interesting contry.

Hellooo anatomy of upper limb

With the anatomy of the skull, credit test and all, behind us, we are now ready to dive into the exiting anatomy of the upper and lower limb. Weird and geeky enough, I'm not being ironic when I say that it is exiting. Because this time we will not just learn about the bones, we are also learning about the muscles. That means that next week we will not only need our labcoates, we will also need gloves. Why? Because we are going to dissect!

Actually we should use gloves touching the bones as well, because they are really greasy. You need to wash your hands several times before they feel clean again.

Here are some pictures from todays anatomy practical.

Gina studying the bones of the upper limb

This is the scapula. (shoulderblade)

And here they are, all lined up, the bones of the upper limb.

From the left: scapula (shoulderblade), clavicula (collar bone),

humerus (upper arm), ulna and radius (lower arm).

And just for your information, we have to learn

- not only the bone itself -

but also the names of all the parts of the different bones.

Lucky us.

Deoxyribonucelic acid (DNA): The basis of life

On wednesday I had a credit test in latin. It didn't go that well, but I hope and pray that I will pass it so I don't need to do the retake.

Today it was credit test in medical biology. The two themes was "Chemistry of the molecules of life" and "Molecular basis of proteinsynthesis and DNA replication". Hopefully I passed it, I think I did. I have a better feeling today than I did yesterday at least.

Because yesterday I think both Gina and I felt we were on the verge of crazyness. Once in a while one of us would look up from our books and papers and say something like: "I'm going crazy! It's to much information"

No matter how well prepared you think you are for the amount of work there is at medical study, you will not fully understand before you experience it. And this is just midterm!

Luckily for us we have friends that have been trough this and they tell us that the first semester is the worst. The second semester you just have to get through. And after that it gets better.

But for now we just have to dive into our books. Look over all our papers. Study our ass of really. Just doing our best, and get through this one way or another.

Next week is going to be a bit better though. We only have one credit test, and thats in Slovak language. On tuesday its seminar (test) in chemistry. Talking about seminar in chemistry I just have to mention the chemistry professor we have in those classes, he is kind of scary. He is a really nice man most of the time, but in class he will come up to you, be all in your face (sometimes he even lies down over your desk) and ask you a chemistry question. If you say you don't know he will tell you: "You are a university student. You have to have an opinion" And then he waits untli you get an opinion. After you've said something, he will either say: "No" or he will say "Yes. But WHY!". Takes some time to get used to that type of teaching.

On monday we're having practical in biophysics (like always), but we are having one of the most dreaded professors. If you don't know the answer to one of his questions, or if it takes you to long to give him an answer, he kicks you out of the practical.

I must say I don't really know what to say, or how to feel, about that. Can't do anything about it really, just need to make shure I know what he is going to talk about so that I can answer when he asks me a question.

As you might have understood after reading this, the teaching here is not the same as it is in Norway. But most if the time the teaching is good, especially the practicals. I figure the professors have done this before, and students have passed, so I just need to adapt.

Now its time forme to have anatomy practical.

Talking about romance...

Today I was skyping with Espen, as I do everyday.

But because I have a credit test tomorrow we both knew that we had limited time to talk. So we had to choose our words carefully so that we didn't loose time on anything else than what was really important.

Feeling so in love I didn't want the skyping to end. But when we really had to go I felt like "this is to little time. Miss him so." Thinking that Espen was thinking the exact same thing, with all the love floating around you know, I said: "I missed you a lot today. Did i mention that?". And then I put out my sad little lip, looking so cute you have no idea, just waiting for my dear Espen to say some words of comfort and love.

He said: "You shouldn't do that with your lip. Birds might shit on it."

I've said it before, and I say it again: Romance is for sissies.