Update

Just came back from a lovely date with Sara. She invited my out for dinner all of a sudden, which I of course did not refuse, its not every day one gets invited out, hehe. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Eindhoven, Sizzeling. Where we had some really nice steaks with curly fries and vegetables. Such a nice evening! Thank you Sara!

There has also happened other things, since I last gave you an update. And as usual I will explain with pictures, hehe.

A few times now, I have been meeting with Julia in the library for learning some German. I know i know, its impolite of me to focus on German rather than Dutch, but I should have learned Dutch already from the first year here, and now I plan to do my internship in Switzerland. So thats the reasoning behind it. It is not a small reason that my girlfriend also speaks German, hehe.

I have gotten the first part of German I would say, and Im improving a little bit every day. And it is very nice to meet Julia for speaking a bit of German and drink coffee. Im also trying out the language program Rosetta Stone, it seems to be really good!

Before I went to the library one day I saw this, just a few hundred meters from my apartment. It is the Marathon of Eindhoven. Which they do every year. It must be really cool to participate, but I know my limits. There were a few of the other Fontys students who participated, in the full marathon and the half one. I really respect that!

And it is really cool that they have live music and people the whole length of the run, it creates a really good atmosphere. This band did so at least!

Another evening this week, me, Sara and Hortensia made sushi at their place.

It was sooo tasty! They even bought extra ginger for me (cant have sushi without!). And I got to learn some of the processes, hehe. I mostly like eating the food, rather than making it. But it was very nice to take turns, talking and having a glass of wine.

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Huub also joined, and he only ate it once before. I think he liked it, but im sure it takes some getting used to. But Huub is Dutch, and we made these sushis with mayonnaise inside, so he should like them!

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I also got to go bouldering once this week. Alexander told me that they had a student offer every Thursday (5euro w/ studentcard), so we had to go. As i have said earlier, Monk is a really cool place to be. Lots of great people and a really great possibility to learn a new sport.

After we had been climbing, Alex offered to pay me a beer and some billiards, (he made me an offer I couldnt refuse). So it was a great evening!

(Strange beer though, hehe).

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Since my training partner decided to disappear for a week to do a nutrition course in Spain, I went to do some hardcore training with Morten. Here he is doing the V-up with a weighted ball, a really heavy exercise for the abdominals! We also experimented a bit with other abdominal exercises. It is really funny to go in there without a real plan once in a while and find new/old exercises to shock the muscles a bit further. Earlier we also done some plyometric exercises and some ring training.

After Im finished with the training plan we have now, me and Bojan will do some ring training again. Thats really cool, and we call it “lord of the rings” training, hehe. I know, we can be quite nerdy!

By the way, this weekend I had a visit from a Norwegian guy that studies physiotherapy in Groningen. I saw him in a Norwegian students association group on facebook, when he was searching for a place to stay in Eindhoven. He just needed something for a night since he was going to a concert with Motorpsycho on Effenar. That was a really cool experience. And a very interesting guy. It also turned out that we had some common friends, hehe, the world is so small sometimes!

To finish of the update, I would like to share a new and secret recipe for a fast and healthy breakfest! What you need: Oats, Milk, M&Ms, Hagelslag and a bowl!

Smakelijk!

My flatmates

So, Ive told you alittle bit about my flatmates before, and that I would introduce them here. And so, here it is!

I live with three people, one girl and two guys. The girl is from France, and the guys are from India and Belgium/Netherlands. They are all wonderful people, and Im really happy that I got to get to know them, and to live with them!

To introduce them a bit further:

Alexander

is originally from Belgium, but has lived the same amount of time in the Netherlands. He does not eat meat, unless it is certain that noone will kill an extra animal for him. He survives on the proteins from eggs, cheese, nuts and milk, and the vitamins from the occational beer.

He tends to think and philosophize a lot when he doesnt study. He also likes to calm things down a bit with meditation once in a while.

He also likes to try out new things, and experience life. At the sportscentre he has almost gone through the whole list of sports to do. And this summer he had his internship in India, working with Children. It seems like he had a really good time there, and that he got to experience many new things, there was even a guy hitting on him on the beach. Hehe, but he has his limits for trying out new things!

Alexanders catchphrases: “I have a question” and “Would it be okey if..?”

Mathilde

is from France, and probably the most French person I know. She is what I call hypersocial, she doesnt miss a chance to meet a friend, or to organize a dinnerparty. And I think she knows half of Eindhoven!

She usually has a day-plan that is so full, that it would kill a normal person! Which starts with breakfest and studying at 05:00, then some school classes, and a coffeedate with a friend or two, then 1-2hours in the library, then meeting someone for schoolwork, then a couple of hours of sports, then a beer with some friends in town, then home to eat and study, then work, then meet someone, then then then.. I cant even comprehend it all, hehe.

If she gets an idea or someone around her has a good idea, she will most probably realize it within hours. She has such a drive, you would think she were doing caffeine intravenously!

She is now also in the board of All terrain, and was the one who was organizing a lot in the weekend I had in Belgium earlier. And she did a great job!

Mathildes catchphrases: “Come on guy!” and “Yeah, lets go!”.

………………………………………………(and she has a super French accent!)

Manickavasagam (Manickam)

is from India and is already finished with his masters degree and working. He is working in a company in Best, with designing software for a diagnostic medical device.

Mathilde meet him at an Erasmus party, and then we all got to know him. He is really obsessed with training, and had his fare deal of sports at the students sportscentre in Eindhoven. Now he is beefing up in the basement where he works!

He is most of the time quite quiet when he is home, except for the Indian music he is blasting once in a while. He is really hardworking, and he really likes what he does.

He also shows some minor tendencies towards hypochondria from now to then, especially after borrowing my physiology book, hehe. No, he just has this craving for knowledge, and he always has another question about the subjects we speak about.

He does not have a catchphrase, but his favorite word must be: “Why”.

I could have written a whole lot more, but I dont want to share all of them, hehe. Next time I will give you an update about my last week. Its quite busy now, with studying for the exams, so we will see!

See you!

First year photos pt.2

So earlier I added some photos from my first year here in Eindhoven, but I only had time to put out half of them. And now I want to share the rest!

But first I have to appologize for the messy post, the pictures seem to want to go everywhere where they are not suppose to go, so I added some dots and it seemed to help.

Im not exactly sure why we all gathered to eat pizza together that day, it might have been after an exam, but it was really nice! We were like 12-15 people in one of these small student apartment livingrooms, and we ordered one pizza for each person to share it all together.

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Hehe, if you hold your mousepointer over the picture you see what I named it! It was a BBQ with a lot of physio students at fontys. The crazy Serbian-Norwegian minding the grill is Bojan.

This is also the same neighbourhood I lived in the first year.

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Here, me and some Norwegian friends went to the Norwegian church in Rotterdam for the national day, 17th of May. There we eat ice cream and waffels and walk with our flags in a parade around the park, and are just being really Norwegian. There are gathered around 150+ Norwegians every year I think.

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This is the banner in the front of the parade. Its really funny to see the surpriced spectators around the park when we parade, hehe. Its probably a bit strange that there are 150+ Norwegian flags walking by. Here is a link to the main website of the organization: http://www.sjomannskirken.no/english

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Here is a picture of my apartment before I moved in here, when it was still nice and clean, hehe. No, we are not that untidy, but there are periods. This is the diningroom seen from the living room. The open door is to the kitchen, and in the background there is our terrace. The terrace is huge.. Perfect for BBQs!

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Here we are reorganizing some apartments before going out. We had a small pre-party before going to the “farewell party” for the 4th graders. The sofa was so heavy that we took a break in the hallway.

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I was studying in the Tu/e library before the exams, to have an extra quiet session. Then as it turns out, there is a outdoor party every thursday just a hundred meters away. So I thought a small break wouldnt hurt, hehe, and it didnt!

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The dutch really go crazy with their fotball.. This was one of the matches they played in the World cup in South Africa, and the vuvuzelas were to be heard all over Eindhoven. They had put up a huge TV in Eindhoven city centre, so everybody could share the moment.

They just had a goal against the other team, and the crowd went nuts.. It was a crazy experience. Its probably normal for a fotball fanatic, but I havent even been to a fotball match before, so I didnt know. It was great!

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It was after the last exams and the summer was almost there, so we took a guys night out. Starting with beef, fries and beer, then to play billiards and ended up in the party street of Eindhoven, Stratumseind, with the girls.

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I even got to see the world cup in bouldering before I left for my summer. It was organized by Monk bouldergym in an old Phillips building. It was really exciting to see, and the contenders solved some pretty amazing problems..

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That was it for my first year in Eindhoven! There were a couple of hundred pictures, but I wouldnt have time to upload all of them here. Later on I will share my second year pictures as well, but first I will probably write about my flatmates.

På gjensyn!

All terrain introduction weekend in Belgium

was amazing! We went friday evening with 5 cars towards the Ardennes, Belgium, and 2 of the cars got lost on the way, hehe. I was in one of them. We drove an extra 40min in this big spagetti highwaycrossing outside Liege. It was because we only had the google instructions on how to get there, and there was construction on that highway. It didnt matter, we were having a good time anyway! We even had some fries when we stopped to ask for directions. The funniest thing was on sunday, when the driver found out that he had a map over the area in his glove box compartment!

When we arrived at the camp site, we were told to put up the tents and get ready to walk in the forrest. Because of my knee, i didnt take the chance to walk to far in the forrest so I stayed behind with the board of All Terrain and played some cards, after we had dropped the others off in the middle of nowhere with just a map and a compass. They came back a few hours later, but i was already asleep in the tent, hehe. It was such a cold night.. So the next night i just slept with all my clothes in the sleepingbag.

The next day came early since it was so cold during the night. We had a quick breakfest in the sun, which was starting to shine a lot! Then we went for a mountain bike trip in the areas around the village were we had the camp site (Nadrin). It was a really nice trip! With lots of sun and beautiful landscape, and it was super exhausting, hehe. The lunch spot we came to was a dam with a really nice lake behind it. And after lunch we went kayaking! That was the best part of the trip for me.. It was so peaceful with the autum leaves on the water and nothing put the sounds of nature around. And it was also warm enough to take a quick bath! The water was freezing, but it was the best after a nice mountain bike ride.

After biking and kayaking we had a really nice pasta bolognese at the camp site and started up the campfire. And there we just stayed for hours with beer, whiskey and live music. It was without a doubt the best campfire i have experienced! Hehe, and it got quite late until people went to their tents to rest for the coming day.

On the sunday most of the people went on the orientation run from the camp to the village of Achouffe. In Achouffe there is a brewery making really nice Belgian beer, which they sell also in the Netherlands. And when the running people arrived (or should i say walking people?), there was lunch for them and they could also buy beer from the brewery shop to take back home. And one of the new All Terrain members had found a lot of mushrooms which she made for everybody the day after (today). I dont eat mushrooms, but i would have liked to be there anyway.

I saved the pictures for the end. They are a bit random, and not so many of them are “action”, like our weekend, but you get a better feeling of it at least.

Next post will be the second part of the first year pictures.

See you soon!

Going to Belgium!

Its survival/all terrain weekend in Belgium :) See you on monday!

Here we go!

After spending a few months in the Netherlands, I finally got me a mobil phone with a camera. And I hadn’t taken any pictures of my life here until then, but I got into a photofrenzy afterwards, hehe. Most pictures are taken “in the moment”, but there are some staged ones there as well. I like to take fast pictures here and there when things are happening, and I like it if the person(s) doesn’t notice when I take them, so there is a more authentic feeling to it. I’m not saying that I’m a professional.. Far from it, hehe. But when I went to highschool in Norway, we could choose a course of “Photo documentation”, and it was really cool. Sometimes I wish I had a proper camera, so the pictures would actually be good, but then it wouldn’t be as fast as with my phone.

Okey, enough babbling! Here are some of the moments of my first year in Eindhoven.

This is me and Sara in a small park outside our neighborhood. We lived in the same apartment complex with 7-8 other schoolmates. And this is the first couples picture of us. We had lunch outside since the spring was just around the corner, and it was getting warmer.

 

In our neighborhood we also had an insanely big bouldering hall. Which is a more technical type of climbing. It was actually there I got to try climbing for the first time. And Monk bouldergym is one of Europe’s biggest indoor bouldering places. They could build it in an old Phillips building. Since Phillips was a huge part of Eindhoven, and still is. There is also one of the biggest indoor skateparks in Europe right next to Monk, its called Area 51 Skatepark. Also in an old Phillips building. Sometimes I go there to watch the skaterboarder. Some of them are so incredible good at it, and they are not even 14 years of age..

These are some of my buddies from school on karneval in Germany. That is some crazy tradition.. They (Germans) get ready to leave the house at 10 o’clock in the morning with a crate of beer and in full costume! Then they do this for one whole week.. As you can see from this imagestamp the time is just over 10 o’clock. Im almost glad I was there only for the first day, hehe.

Another picture of the madness. On this picture we finally found a warm and cosy bar to be in. It was getting really cold out there.

It was a funny experience to be there with all those Germans, hehe. And the best thing was that when we felt that we were done for the night, we took the bus and got home and were going to bed, and we realized that it was only 8 o’clock in the evening..

Right after the karneval in Germany I went to Italy with Sara and some of our school friends. It was my first trip to Saras hometown, and it was very special. The two Norwegians to the right in the picture didnt believe their eyes I think, hehe. There were some amazing skiing possibilities..

Here, me and a friend tried to make a traditional Norwegian dish for Sara. It was actually pretty good, but the sauce was not like my grandmothers.. We made Norwegian meatballs with brownsauce and cranberry jam (homemade from my grandmother). We still didn’t try it again, hehe.

 

Here is a good documentation of the Austrian helpfullness and strength! We had a nice dinnerparty at the Norwegian community, where Bojan made lasagna for 17 people. It was a really nice evening, with a lot of laughter (and wine).

 

 

In the end of a workshop we students can get a bit (over)tired and silly, and this is how it goes when there are skeletons involved. But I should have waited 5 more minutes with taking this picture..

 

 

Not every picture needs a lot of explaination, hehe. Anyways, this is how my desk is one week before the exams. And as you can see, I was eating really healthy while being a good student. Sometimes it can be hard to balance with using time for food or for studying, hehe.

 

This is the same park as in the first picture, but now you see the old Phillips buildings in the background. And just over the railway you have Area 51 skatepark and Monk bouldergym. Me and Kristoffer went slacklining a couple of times that year. That is a sport that was new to me before I came to the Netherlands. Its a quite demanding sport if you want to learn it, but once you got it, it sticks. There are also plenty of tricks that you can do, but Im not that extreme (as Kristoffer).

 

 

So, that was the first half of the pictures I selected from my first year here. I hope you enjoyed them! And here is one last one of Morten and his skeletons, hehe.

 

Im back!

Hey again, sorry I couldnt write earlier! I have been quite busy, studying, traveling and trying to get my clinical affiliations (internship) in order. I decided I want to try to take one of my last clinicals in Switzerland instead of both in Norway. In the forthyear of school we have two clinical affiliations of 15weeks, where we show and test our knowlegde, and learn even more. Its a good setup by Fontys (my school or University if you like. Mostly we just say school in Norway). Hehe, anyway, we had three clinicals already of two months, and I had all of them in different places in Norway. This time I think it would be cool if I would get to see something completely different.

This weekend I went to a friend of mine in Germany. Jonas is a old friend from Fontys, in his forth year now. He does his clinicals around Düsseldorf and Köln. I have been visiting him a few times now, and its always really cool! Last year we saw Deep Purple together with his father in Essen, Germany. Such a good band! And this time we went to see a Led Zeppelin cover band, called Mad Zeppelin. It was really great! If you would close your eyes it would be exactly like the real deal. They played for three hours! And they played almost all of my favorites. So it is a must-see for all Led Zeppelin fans! I also got to see Jonas’ band practise when I arrived. They have some really nice songs there, and the newer songs are even better.

It wasnt difficult to get there either, just took a train from Eindhoven to Venlo and they had some good connections to Germany. I really like that you have such a freedom here with the trains, you can go everywhere and almost at any time.

During the weekend we also went to a birthdayparty in Neuss, and meet some old friends there as well. And had awesome German breakfest every morning, hehe. That means lots and lots of salty meats with mustard and lots of different kinds of bread. Im not sure if this is the standard all over Germany, but I thought it was special at least. Usually I eat oatmeal or some slices of bread with jam in the morning, and wash it down with a good glass of cold milk. Again, im not certain if all Norwegians do that, but I like it, hehe.

I thought I should just put out a few pictures from the weekend in the end, so you have a better impression.

Hehe, I really liked this advertisement. The picture is a bit unclear, but it was impossible to get a good photo on the highway, “Auto bahn”. It is Don Corleone from “The Godfather”, with the famous quote in German.

This one is from “Mad Zeppelin” playing “Going to California” and afterwards “Strider” and “Since I’ve been loving you”. They did it perfectly also.. It was a beautiful concert! And if you dont know the songs you should check them out on YouTube.

Here we went to a Italian icecream and coffee bar. It was such a nice weather this weekend, so we had to do something about it.

So that was my weekend! And from now, I will update the blog a bit faster. There is no reason for you to wait around then, hehe.

I have collected some photos from the first year I was here, and I thought that I have to do this right, so I sent a request to all the people in the pictures if I had their premission to post them. It takes a bit of time, but then nobody feels bad about it. Luckily most just told me not to ask them again, and just post it.

And just so you know it already, I will not be around next weekend either. Then we (the All Terrain group) from the sportcenter will have our annual introduction weekend in Belgium. Dont worry, I will tell you all about them when the time comes!

See you soon!

My weekend

Im back! And I had a wonderful time with my friend from Norway. He even got to participate in some pretty crazy introgames the students organize every year for the first graders. Here is a picture of one of the posts they had to go through. Im not going into detail about what they had to do, but it usually involved a bit of alcohol and a lot of laughing, hehe.

We were mostly in Eindhoven when he was here, and we had a really good time. It felt a bit like seeing it for the first time again. And we found some new stores I havent been to before. And of course, we had to do some typical Dutch things, like biking wherever we go, eating a lot of Dutch cheese and even eating mayonnaise with fries. That right, mayonnaise with fries.. Thats how much mayo they put on it, hehe. My friend was really fascinated about the underground bike parking lots and about the good solutions the Dutch have on things. We got to see the World Press Photos 2011 at the Technical University. There were some macabre pictures, but interesting as well, when you read the story behind them!

Alexander, my flatmate, had his birthday this weekend. So I thought I could share a picture of his dinnerparty. He made us a delicious vegetarian dinner! First course was onion soup with wine, second was roasted tofu with spinach, mangos and sweet sauce. And my girlfriend made lemon sorbetto for dessert. It was a feast! And he got some pretty interesting presents, hehe. From us he got a one year subscription for any magazine that he wanted.

Another thing I just had to share, is this picture.. Thats actually what Eindhoven looks like when there is a fotball match, haha. There is police everywhere. I was scared when I first saw it, I was thinking that there must be something bad going on.. Well, Im glad they take the fotball “threat” seriously at least.

Waiting..

Hello again people! Im sitting here waiting for my friend, he got a bit lost with the trains from Amsterdam, hehe. It happens! The train connections are really great here in the Netherlands, but sometimes one can get a bit confused with the languages and signs.

Well, since im already writing, I might as well give a quick update about my day. 

We didnt have any classes today, so it was perfect day to do some early training. We did the second day in our new training plan. It seems to be working good!

Here is a picture from after the training, with Kristoffer balancing a tall fence. Some people are just full of energy!

I also got to spend some time in the library today, it was good to start up the physiology! Its a really interesting subject, but can be quite time consuming. But I must be honest, I left a bit earlier than I should. I was invited by my flatmates to the park, so we could enjoy the nice weather before the winter comes. I think it is a good excuse, hehe.

One thing I have noticed a lot in the Netherlands are all the hot air balloons in the sky. They seem to put up at least 10 of them every time the weather is nice! It looks really cool, but Im not sure if I would feel so cool after some meters.. Yes, Im quite afraid of heights.

So, here are two of my flatmates, Mathilde and Alexander, there is also a third guy, but I will tell you more about them later on.

It was a really nice day untill now. And Im sure it will stay nice. I just dont hope my friend’s train comes to late.. Then we will be tired for school tomorrow.

Well, that was at least a small update for you.

See you around! :)

Starting up

Hi, my name is Axel Hedman. Im a Norwegian guy studying in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. I have studied here for 2 years now, and thought I should share my experiences with you guys. If you want to know more about me, you can click the “About me” menu under the main picture.

So, I just got back a few weeks ago, and Im trying to get back into “schoolmodus” again. It is going great so far, I have been to the library a few times already. I just hope the material “sticks”, hehe. And there is still a lot to read through.. Oh, yes, I forgot to say that I study physiotherapy. It is in English luckily, because I didnt understand anything of Dutch when I started here! We are also really international in the course, we have people from all kinds of countries. I really like that you can get a good degree at the same time as you get friends from all over the world.

Even though Im trying to get back to “normal” I still am living a bit in my summer holidays. And I had a great summer! First of all we could take our summer holiday a bit earlier, or holiday.. We had 1 month of internship before we could really start the holidays. So I did my physiotherapy internship in a Norwegian rehabilitation center called Landaasen rehabiliteringssenter, and it was great! I got to participate in rehabilitation of lung/heart patients, cancer patients, orthopedic patients and much more. I especially liked to work with amputee patients. It was really interesting to see how they have to get used to wearing the new prosthesis, how we could help them, and to start training up the walking pattern again. It is a lot of work, but it really pays off!

The second part of the summer I was home with my family in Vennesla, Norway. It was so nice to see them again! I stayed for a month there as well. We swam and hiked and really enjoyed the good weather when it was there, hehe. I also got to see my friends, and one of them had even built himself a house! It was a fantastic time.

After my two months in Norway, I couldnt stay away from my girlfriend any more, hehe. It had been to long already. So I travelled to Südtirol in the north of Italy, and I got to stay there a month! It was in a small valley quite close to Innsbruck in Austria. They actually speak three languages there; Italian, German and Ladin. You must be thinking “What a chaos!”, but it actually works quite well. And luckily for me, they also speak English, or at least most of them, hehe. It was a month of great fun, I got to see and experience so much new! And it was great to see my girlfriend and her family, and see how they live in Italy.

But now enough of other countries, hehe. Im back and I love it! And in just a day I get a visitor from Norway. I am really looking forward to it.. Then I get to show the country and also experience more myself. I have had some friends visit me before, but you can always see or experience something new with everyone that visits. There will probably be some pictures and stories from it later on.

So this was my first blog post (ever), I hope it was at least a bit interesting. You can always ask me questions if there is something you wonder about.

Groeten, Axel :)