Typhoon Trouble

Or maybe lack of it. All night the wind was howling and I had to get up at 3 a.m. to get the laundry that I had forgot out on the balcony. But really there was no action. Yet we all hoped that Thursday's classes would be cancelled.

To my horror, the sun was shining when my mezamashidokee woke me up. So I swore and got dressed, and then had my breakfast and started doing some last minute desperate reading for a quiz we were having first period.

Then Cat called and said that all classes was cancelled until third period at 13.40. Because then the typhoon would be over. A little wierd considering people coming from outta town still have to leave their homes earlier to get to school in time. Anyway, I was pretty grumpy, being all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Later, on our way to the train station, Wictoria got a call from one of our teachers who said all classes today are cancelled and that the trains had stopped running. In order to do something productive we went to Kasumi to buy some hairspray.

Look scared!

After parking our bikes it didn't take long before...

There's a typhoon and you guys still want ice cream??

Poor birdy croaked.

FCup? Fuck Up?

Haha, Benedicte bought these cookies for her friend in Norway. They were found in the pharmacy area at the supermarket, and they're supposed to give you bigger breast. Where was this product when I was 12?

I just googled the product and they're supposedly very popular in Thailand, even tough they still are illegal there, since they're not approved by the government. I seriously doubt these will give any effect - will Asian people buy anything? Though, these people even buy "Slim Soap", so I guess - yeah. Besides, can you picture a petite Japanese girl with a F cup? In Norwegian bra sizes that would be inzanely big.

I'm very amused and fascinated by advertisement, seeing how differently products from big and small brands are being advertised, two suit the needs and appeal to people in different countries.

Any product in Thailand will sell as long as it has "whitening" written on it. In the same time you won't be able to find any of the self-tanning products that Norwegians love so dearly.

In Japan, everything has to be so freakin' kawaii ("cute"), and the products from cosmetic companies that are big all over the world are made to look cute and pretty - which to a somewhat quality oriented Norwegian might make the products seem low quality and tacky.

Even big companies like Maybelline and Loreal seem to give their products stupid names that would appeal to a non-English speaking Japanese, but most likely be rediculed in a western country. Some of the packaging of popular cosmetic brands are sparkly and colourful, fronted by anime characters - to me it looks like the cheap play makeup I got my mother to buy me as a kid.

Oh, well - God knows I'm still getting affected by this kawaii-ness. I think we're even going to Hello Kitty Land in Tokyo this weekend. Tsk, tsk.

Benedicte's pink cotton balls. They have them in black too,
so men still can feel masculine when cleaning their ears

Marie-kjeks sjokolade!

Benedicte loves that I'm constantly taking pictures of everything



Blogging from my ofuro?

Who runs around like a bunch of headless chicken?

Togane Fire Brigade.




Wednesday afternoon we all gathered at Cat's place to enjoy her cooking. Rumours are (well, the weather forcast and the news is telling us that), typhoon Melor is on the way (weeell, has already hit Japan), and we're all hoping that classes will be cancelled. A bunch of refreshingly enthusiastic Norwegian students, you say? Why, yes we are.

Anyway, back in my own crib I nestled in for some good ol' studying. Who am I kidding. I was searching for botfly videos on YouTube, to the extent of almost having the pleasure of having Cat's dinner twice. That's just some of the things I do when you're not around.

Coincidentally I noticed this faint, consistent sound coming from outside. It was barely audible, and therefore I immediately recognized it as the pathetic excuse of a fire alarm at our building.

You see, apparently around here it's more important that your neighbors across the street and everyone outside are able to hear the fire alarm. Not the tenants sleeping inside their apartments. I've experienced the fire alarm once before, right after I moved in. It went off at 03.40 in the morning, and I barely woke up - and I'll wake up from the sound of a pin dropping. It was this annoying sound, like a faint car alarm that wouldn't stop, so I popped my head out on the balcony were it was clearly audible. When I opened my front door the sound was ear deafening. Only a handful of my Japanese neighbors were standing outside - most of my fellow Norwegians remained sound asleep and completely unaware.

That's nice.

When it went off today people were still up and went out to see what all of the commotion was about. What bothered me the most is that there's a god damn fire alarm control panel outside, so these morons easily turn off the whole thing by convenience. Annoying sound, you know.

Back home in Oslo I used to live at a place were the fire alam constantly went off. First of all the sound was unignorable. Even lazy people went out just because of the horrible sound. There was a direct link to the local fire department, and they would come every time - and they were the only one's to turn the alarm off. Of course, if you'd accidentally set of the fire alarm while cooking, there was a button in the kitchen that you could push to stop it within a certain amount of time - that is, if you had managed to remove the source causing the alarm to go off in the first place.

I would always go out when the fire alarm went off - there's 11 floors and so many clutzes living there. There was always a reason for the alarm going of. Big or small. What frustrated me was the countless times I passed some of my stupid (usually Norwegian) neighbors on my way out, trying to turn off the alarm by pushing the button in our shared kitchen. Even tough the alarm wasn't set off at our floor at all. Hellooo.. There might be a fire in our building and you want to (and even think you can) shut off the alarm? Yah, let's not warn our neighbors, shall we. After all, it's an annoying sound.

Idiots.

Today a small group of my Japanese neighbors quickly gathered in front of the fire alarm control panel, to push the "false alarm" button every time the alarm started to ring again. Oh, yah - nice to know that when I'm lying in my bed, suffocating from a gas leak in my kitchen, I can trust you to turn off the alarm. It's probably just a false alarm anyway.

I hate how my language skills come up so short. I can't neither say what I want, yell at who I want nor ask what I want to know. A few of us Norwegians ended up standing around like a bunch of confused cows.

After 15 minutes of the alarm going on and off, silenced by our neighbors pressing the "false alarm" button over and over, we finally got to know that someone had called after a fire brigade. We didn't notice anything that could be causing the alarm.

Suddenly five fire trucks showed up at once and a bunch of stressed fire men came running. As I've already implied, they were running around like headless chicken, apparently without any routine - trying to figure out where the alarm was being set off. The method? They rang people's doorbells. (Hello, might there by any chance be a fire in you apartment? - Sorry I can't answer the door, I've already suffocating in my bed, remember).

After running around for a while they concluded that the alarm must be defected. I think I've understood that they have turned it off for it to be fixed tomorrow.

Screw the typhoon, we all will die in a fire.

Paranoid much.. Me?