The Perfect Day

After a weekend of quiet reflection time also known as boredom...the week of orientation started on Monday. All that I had to do was pick up an information packet, and it would give me all the info I needed for the rest of orientation week, but more importantly it was giving me my University username and password, so I could set up my internet. Needless to say, this was shaping up to be a big day...

The info packet pick-up went fine, I got it and the coveted username and was ready to get online. After waiting in line at the reception desk of my student village, I finally was able to get my internet turned on...so I hurried back to the room so that I could set it up and be back blogging about the weekend/checking up on the Olympics/emailing/uploading pictures...but it wasnt to be my day. Apparently I had a dumbed down version of Linux (the operating free operating system on my computer, usually the computer geek alternative to Windows or Mac), which was prohibiting me from configuring my computer properly to set up my internet. Not knowing what to do, I found the IT help desk on campus (also known as HOUSTON...as in "Houston we have a problem"...oh the Norwegian sense of humor...) and decided to take up my problem with them. Surely a room full of computer wizards can fix my simple internet problem right? Wrong...it took three people all staring at my little 8.9 inch Eee PC before they could figure out what form of Linux I had...but after figuring that out, none of them could actually do anything to help my internet problem...so they suggested that I leave my computer with them over night and the "Linux guy" could fix it in the morning...perfect.

So without any computer, much less internet, I headed home for another quiet evening of reading and relaxing before my first orientation group meeting started the next morning. At about 10 PM I was getting ready to sleep (note, when you have nothing to do but read and sleep...your sleep starts much sooner), but decided with such a big day coming up I should just give my hair a trim. I had brought along my hair clippers (why pay for a haircut when I can just do it myself?) and a converter my father had given me (the electrical outlets here have an output of 240V, but US appliances take 120V, so you need a converter to pair down the voltage). So I plugged in the clippers with the converter, turned it on...nothing out of the ordinary, OK, time to cut hair. I usually start cutting my hair on the right side of my head, just above the sideburns...which is where I started this time too...for about the first three seconds (enough time to cut about 4 square inches of hair just above my right sideburn and ear) all was fine..at about the 3.5 second mark, the clippers went bezerk. Not just any bezerk, it sounded like I was trying to cut down a forest with a chainsaw...you might have thought that at the 3.5 second mark, my hair turned to metal. It was bad. The converter had gone out (thanks Dad), and so there was no way I could cut any hair with the clippers...which would have been fine, EXCEPT that I had already cut about 4 square inches off. Had the converter gone out right away, I would have been fine with just letting my hair be for the night, in fact I probably would have just let it grow out the entire semester...it wasnt that big of a deal. But becuase the converter waited 3.5 seconds before going ape, and subsequently I had cut some hair off...it became a big deal. And because it was already 10:30 at night there was nowhere for me to go and get a converter or a clippers...and with my Buddy Group meeting at 9:30 the next morning there was no time for me to fix it before that...perfect.

So as my first Monday in Oslo came to a close, with the rain pouring down outside (no, I did not make this part up for dramatic effect), I fell asleep with no computer, 4 square inches of hair missing, and no idea what the next day would bring...perfect.