General Life

SCHOOL:

I have finalized my classes here at NTNU and I think it is going to be a fun semester where I will learn a lot!  I am taking a course on Graphical User Interfaces, which means the part of a program that the user sees.  We learn how to make it logical, attractive, easy to use, generally good I guess. We have a group of five people that we will work with for the whole semester on projects.  The first assignment was to find some product that people use (vending machine, train ticket machines, water fountains, coffee machines...) and study how people use it, if they struggle at all and if people struggle with the same problems.  Then we had to redesign the product to be easier to use and present it in a poster.  We studied a coffee machine and people struggled a lot with it.  My group is a bunch of really nice Norwegians!  Its been pretty fun.  We had the only hand-made poster.  We also gave a really good presentation.  It seemed like the class liked it.  We acted out the problems people had:

The place where they got the coffee was too low.

People had no idea where to get the cups - the machine spits them out when you choose your coffee and then fills it. 

The buttons were unclear.  

It took one kid fifteen minutes.  He went to look elsewhere for a cup.  

I am also taking a class called Norwegian Society.  We will learn about politics and the way of life in Norway.  It seems pretty interesting so far.  We learned that you are supposed to bring pies to parties and meet your neighbors before it gets too cold because if you meet them in the winter, they either have to keep the door open and let the heat out, or let you inside their home.  Apparently it is a really big deal to let you inside their home.  So we are supposed to meet our neighbors now, while it is still warm out.  Very informative!

My last class is Artificial Intelligence Programming.  I have to learn a new language, LISP.  It is going well so far.  The final goal is to create a smart computer poker player.  I have done my first assignment, a probability calculator of sorts and it all worked so things are good so far!  I have a great professor.  He is actually from Ohio.  He told me that he was excited to have a girl in the class.  There aren't many.

TRANSPORTATION:

I have a bus pass because I live pretty far from town and the campus I go to most, Gløshagen. The two buses I ride mostly are 5 an 52.

I am getting pretty good at the buses.

LIVING:

I live in Steinen Studentby. It is the newest student village and is quite nice.  Here is the view from my window.

AROUND TOWN:

Sam, Emily and I recently found a cafe that stays open late and gives you blankets.  Its our new hangout.  We went and studied there tonight.  It is very cozy inside too!  

This is the main building of the Gløshagen campus.  We call it the Harry Potter Building because it looks as though it belongs at Hogwarts, both inside and out. 

Here is the view looking out from the Harry Potter Building

We went to a professional soccer - or football - game.  It was my first so it was pretty cool to see!  It poured for the first part of the game but then the sun came out.  The fans were loud and had lots of chants though they were not really fighting chants.  The tunes were to Kumbaya and Michael Row your boat ashore.  They were really lullaby cheers.  Everything in Norway seems to be nice, and I guess their fight songs are no different.  

Emily and Basti