I passed

With top grades, yaay. It wasn't too difficult actually. I had pretty much memorised the presentation, and the conversation part was a joke; the examiner only questioned me for three minutes and then I was sent out of the classroom. The only time I actually got tongue-tied was when that plotbunny jumped up and bit me in the leg. I knew I had to write it down asap, but I didn't have a pen or anything with me in the classroom. I was *this* close to asking the examiner if I could borrow his pen for a minute because j'ai un lapin de plot...

Well, it's not much of a plot yet, it's more an idea. The part of the Agricola I'm referring to is the part where a Roman fleet sails around Britain and confirms that it is an island. Imagine all the fun you could have with a Roman fleet. It'd be incredibly easy to get rid of annoying walk-ins too - you could just toss them overboard, or get a random sea monster to eat them. That big battle in the end is awfully tempting as well, of course (and it has Batavians!), and the bit with that Irish king. I'll do a bit of research this summer and then hopefully have a good plot before November.

I will also try to finish my current novel (well, the first draft anyway). It's getting more and more difficult every day. I have to write the battle of Trier, but the chronological order is all messed up, and as though that isn't enough Geravan has decided to cause trouble again. He actually punched Embric in the face and broke his nose and now they've drawn swords and are about to kill each other (and I need them both, argh!). My characters seem to enjoy doing stupid things like this; it's the second time Geravan has gotten into a fight with Embric and Marcus almost whacked Cerialis around the head with his crutches a while ago. I'm starting to think that they actually want to get themselves killed.

Anyway, today was the last day of school. I got my grades - top grades for everything except phys. ed., and I'll never have social studies again (woohoo!). I won't have ancient history next year either, but the teacher is so annoying that I doubt I'll miss it.
It's time to start thinking about what I want to do after high school, I guess. Eeks.

A bunny

I'm being stalked by a huge, vicious plotbunny, and I can hear it sharpening its little claws for the attack. Listening to the Led Zeppelin song Achilles Last Stand and reading the Agricola at the same time probably wasn't such a good idea (yeah, I'm studying hard for the exam), because if there is one thing I do not need right now, it is a plotbunny ready to jump on me at the next good opportunity. Maybe I can catch it, put it in a box, and leave it there until November, or at least until Tuesday afternoon.
But I have done some practicing for the exam as well - as a matter of fact, I've got a 20 minute presentation (and I'm quite astonished by the fact that I managed to speak French for 20 minutes). It's slightly too long, so I'll have to change it a bit tonight (apparently they're really strict with time limits, ugh).

Ah well, off to cram some more French verbs. I spent a good part of last night speaking French to my wall while listening to Led Zeppelin, eating ice cream and drinking wine. Probably the weirdest exam studying I've ever done.

French!

I was expecting it but it still comes as a shock. French. Oral. French! It's better than chemistry, but I still think they could've had the decency to give me an oral in history (and then the Roman Empire as a topic *drools*). But nooooo... It had to be French. I can't even speak French! Well. Okay. I can speak a little bit (compared to some of the others in my class I'm a native speaker), but still... I have to hold a 15 minute presentation, and then answer questions for another 15 minutes. Luckily the topic is pretty easy; we have to choose an important person in French culture, so I'm going to talk about Victor Hugo. I'm very much looking forward to 11 o'clock on Tuesday when I'll be finished.

Oral exam

Tomorrow I'll finally get to know the subject. The rumours still say it'll be French (and I think so too). However, my history teacher is sure it'll be history, my chemistry teacher thinks it'll be chemistry, my social studies teacher keeps telling us it's likely we'll get an oral in social studies, and so on. Nobody really knows, I guess.
I'm a bit nervous so I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. Just as well, because I have a couple of books to read;) I went to Trondheim today with a friend, so we could forget about the exam for a moment. Well, of course we ended up in the bookshop (actually three bookshops, plus a shop that sold fantasy stuff and had an entire shelf full of Tolkien books *drools*). One of the bookstores was having a bit of a sale (though a weird one, why would you sell books per kg?) so of course I had to buy a few. I also got a deliciously smelling type of tea (Earl Grey and dried cornflower, I think it is), a CD, and a huge Led Zeppelin poster (according to my friend that makes me a geek, lol).

I hope payday is soon because I think I spent a bit much...

I was going to write about another ballad today, but with all the bookshops I just didn't get around to it. Maybe next week, after the oral :) I should get some sleep now, but I'm too nervous. I think I'll just spend the night reading about how Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off.

The problem with bookshelves...

For my birthday in April I ordered a few books. They finally arrived last week (took 'em long enough...) and now I have a few small problems. I managed to cram them onto my shelves somehow, but it was very difficult to place them all 'correctly'. I sort my books by size, theme, alphabetically and chronologically, and that made perfect sense once. Now I have too many books for that system to work properly, so my shelves are a real mess.
I have a shelf or two (or bits of one) for each subject, so it should not be too difficult to sort all my books, you'd say. Think again. One of the problems is Arthurian fiction. I have Rosemary Sutcliff's trilogy about Arthur, which I've placed with her other books on my historical fiction shelf. To keep all the Arthur books together a bit I've placed my other books about Arthur next to it. But the shelf is more than full, and some of these Arthur books don't really seem to belong with historical fiction, like Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian Romances for example. That one ended up on a shelf for history books and classical and medieval literature. A part of me feels that it doesn't really make sense to have books about Arthur spread out across the room. They look a bit out of place on their own, and besides, the shelf with medieval lit. is very full already. It's right above my bed, so I'm slightly afraid that it'll fall down on me at night because of all the books on it, lol.
Another problem is my books about mythology. I have a shelf for Norse and Celtic mythology, but the Greek mythology books are still on the shelf above my bed with books about Greek history because they look better there. I have so many books which could be placed on two or even three different shelves. Where on earth am I supposed to put them? Should Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien's translation) be on the Tolkien shelf because he translated it, or on the medieval literature shelf with Chretien de Troyes? What about The Hound of Ulster (by Rosemary Sutcliff)? Should it be on the mythology shelf with my other books about Celtic mythology, or on the historical fiction shelf with Sutcliff's other books? Should Ivanhoe be on the historical fiction shelf or on the shelf with all my other cheap Penguin Popular Classics paperbacks?
I never thought putting books on a shelf could be so difficult ;)

And it's finally summer... I love it; it's the only time of year when I really like living here. It's so beautiful and light. I'm not far enough north to actually have midnight sun, but it doesn't get dark here in June. Just a few hours of twilight. It's beautiful. And everything is so alive in summer. Dandelions by the road, beautiful green ferns, rustling leaves, crying gulls, lilacs...

The midnight sun in Troms.

The weather is still beautiful, so when I don't have to go to work I'm lying in the sun with a book instead of studying hard for my oral exam. Something tells me I'm going to regret this later, but I'm just not motivated enough to do any homework. I've written a bit too. I decided not to write a new novel for SocNoc, but try to get to 190-200 k with my present one. It's not going very well. School is busy, work is busy, and the weather is too nice to be inside typing ;) And, of course, my characters are not cooperating, as usual. For some obscure reason Cerialis wants to speak with Marcus, and Marcus doesn't like him at all and is about to punch him in the face. Wonderful. I think I'll be needing ninjas in the near future.

First day at work...

It wasn't too bad actually. My work uniform looks absolutely dreadful and I'm not too happy about having to cut up bits of dead animal all day, but it's alright. I'm tired though. I had seven hours of school today, and then five hours of work on top of that. Plus it's Friday, and Fridays are always the busiest (or so they say...). And, well, I feel like I kind of wasted an entire day... The weather has been beautiful lately, which doesn't happen very often, and I've been unable to enjoy it.
Never mind. I'm off to bed. I need to be back at the supermarket at 8 tomorrow morning, which means I have to be up around 7... On a Saturday! >.< There should be laws against that, lol.

Just a random picture. Troms, in northern Norway. Luckily I'm not that far north :)