About Me

Riverside - Mandal, Norway

I'm 21 years old, I was born and raised in Norway, and I lived there for about 16 years, and I'm the oldest of 4. My parents' names are Anne Margrete and Svein Eric. My siblings' names are Andreas (10) Tiril Elizabeth (15) and Henrik (18).

I grew up in the small town of Mandal, Norway, which is the southernmost town in Norway, and has a population of approximately 14,000 and a area of 220,0 km2. The town is built on both sides of the "Mandalselva" river mouth. Mandal salmon was a 17th century delicacy, but vanished from the river for many years, due to pollution and acid rain. As a result of liming and cultivation, it has now returned.

Mandal is a lively south coast town, with a country park of over 100 hectares and 2 km of sandy beaches. The most famous beach, and Norway's longest,"Sjøsanden", is a short walk from the town centre. You can also find Norway's largest wooden church on the outskirts of the town centre. Mandal is a lively commercial centre, with plenty of interesting shops.

The town is also known for it's beautiful summers. During the summer the town experience a lot of tourists coming from the western parts of the country, as well as Germany. The beach is a popular place to go during the summer, and is usually packed on sunny days.

I attended kindergarten, elementary, high school, and "Videregaaende Skole" (which is like a university preporatory school) all in Mandal. I traveled a lot through Europed with my family, and after a while I started to grow really tired of living in such a small town. I wanted to see the world, and I decided to study abroad in the U.S. for a year after a family trip to Florida. I chose to live in the north-east, but instead of going to a place like a New York suburb, or a metropolitan area, I somehow ended up in a town even smaller than Mandal. Good deal.

I came back from the U.S. a little disappointed, and finished up the univerity preporatory program at the "videregaaende skole". At the end of my last year I hadn't really applied for any Norwegian universities, and by chance I was handed a folder for Pacific Lutheran Univeristy (PLU) earlier in the year, and it ended up being the only school I applied to (luckily I got accepted, yay)

Nowdays I'm studying for my bachelor degree in Business Administration at PLU in Tacoma, Washington. This year (2007/2008) I'm a senior and should have been graduating. I'm also taking a Global Business concentration as well as a minor in communication, so it is highly likely that I will be here an extra year to finish up my studies. After I'm done I'm considering also taking my master's degree here, but I might want to head south to California.

Exchange Student

Aerial photo of Farmington, Maine

During upper secondary school in Norway, I decided to study abroad for a year, in the U.S. All the American teen movies that were released during this time probably had some effect on me, and what I got was far from what I had expected.

I stayed in the small town of Farmington, Maine. I thought Mandal was a small place, but Farmington with it's approximately 5000 citizens is probably the smallest place I have ever stayed for an extended period of time. Needless to say, it was not at all what I had expected from living in America, and gong to an American high school, but it was a good experience, and I'm glad I went

Pacific Lutheran Univeristy

The PLU Campus from above

These days I'm going to PLU, which is a liberal arts university in Tacoma, Washington. The campus itself is pretty much beautiful from Spring until the end of Fall, but if you ask me, the administration puts way too much money into landscaping. The area around the PLU campus is nothing less than sketchy. Yes I said it, sketchy. The Parkland area (yes I know, it sounds nice, believe me, it's not) the campus is surrounded by seems to be one of the worst parts of Tacoma. Actually, it's probably up there on the list of "worst neighborhoods in America".

Anyways, back to PLU.

I used to live on upper campus in a hall called Hong International Hall. Hong is probably the most boring hall on campus, and most people there seems to be in bed by 11pm. I think it's even written in the Residential Life brochure, that Hong is the hall for you if you want a quiet place to study. I don't know about you, but I didn't come to college to study. Another big minus of living in Hong was that I was required to have the awful meal plan, provided by your awesome local University Commons. The food was probably good (because I wasn't used to be able to live on fried food 5 out of 7 days in the week) for about a month, after which it tasted like wet cardboard, and dining became a chore, rather than something I looked forward to.

Three semesters ago I was fed up with the crap in Hong and upper campus when 80% of the people I liked in Hong moved out (connor, we need another beer bong in the bathroom of Hong), and I moved into South Hall, which is on lower campus. South Hall has a pretty relaxed atmosphere, and you can generally get away with more noise and people here than you could in a regular dorm. Oh and also, there is no visitation policy, so you don't have to hang out with only guys after 1am.

I'm having a good time in South Hall and I'm probably going to stay here until I graduate.

Friends playing RockBand in my apartment @ 3:45am