h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not in theory... You have to pay for all the books and stuff, of course, but there's no fee for taking the exams and stuff. There is a state-governed funding-thingy, which is supposed to aid all students. Only problem is, even if you get max scholarship and max loan, you still don't have enough to live and breathe in Oslo, where the biggest university is... I lived in Sandefjord for my second year to become a lab-tech., and I recieved 2746 nkr a month, and paid 1900nkr a month in rent... Electricity was about 300nkr a month, so there wasn't much left for food... Luckily, my parents were able to help me out so I managed.

What kind of jobs?

..right, you can either go for design or development or to the more economical side, also product or project management or material science, you can work for all different kinds of industries from cars (what I personally don't want to do) to ships, piping systems or toys, or do something useful like developing devices for people in special needs ...and you can still study something entirely different
No, seriously they are very short of engineers at the moment so you can really choose the job you want.
A friend of mine who also studies mech eng just convinced a guy who was studying arts history to get enrolled for mech eng ...
I actually it's propably quite good to do an apprenticeship first, so you have already got something ...

From arts history to mechanical engineering? That's approaching a quantumleap...

With the danger of prying a bit too much, what is the name that Alison never managed to spell right? (as you may have found out, I'm no good at the name-stuff...)

Steffi, don't ask what it is that Steffi is so difficult to spell.
Boring name, I know, everywhere I go are masses of Steffis, but as my dear brother saved me from be called Barbara, I am alright with Stefanie. My family calls me Stefanie and my friends Steffi, although I was called Axel by most people till I was about 13 or 14.
So what about you then?

*thinks that Stefanie is a beautifull name*
It's pretty unusual up here.
Axel?!?

Me? Here:
http://www.h2g2.com/A505847

I've never heard the name Sohn before...I guess you know what it means in German, would be funny as a female name though
But did you know that in Germany you can actually tell by the way the name Claus or Klaus is pronounced whether the person comes from a catholic or a protestant background?

Axel? Well, all the doctors announced a boy, so my parents prepared a name for a boy called Axel (actually my dad favoured Franz-Joseph, but my mum wouldn't have done that). Anyway, when I was small I always thought that it's easier and nicer to be a boy, you can do so much more fun things and there were always other Stefanies, so that things always got a bit complicated, so I just started telling people my name was Axel . Even some teachers called me Axel.
(quiet happy to be a girl by now btw. )

It means son, right? We don't use it "for the girlies" either. Dunno if you noticed, but my mothers middle name is Bech, while my fathers is Sohn. My sister is a "Bech", while me and my brother are "Sohn"s (can't argue with that, anyway...
Catholic or protestant? what's the difference? (in the pronounciation, I mean) I guess Claus or Klaus is pretty common in Germany though, innit?

I guess you couldn't hold on to it much longer than the age of 12-13 either? I mean, that's the age where one can start to really see who's a girl and who's a boy. Also usually the age when "tomboys" (I'm not saying you were one) discover their feminine side, which is almost always for the better (You see, I like girls that know how to be girls! Just don't get the idea that I'm old-fashioned coz of that, and that I think that a womans place is in the kitchen, coz I don't!!!)

The pronounciation is only slightly different, don't know how to describe it, the catholic au is a bit more open I would say...yes, the name is quite common, although it's not a "fashion-name" anymore.

You know, I've been to this all boys school and one day we had to hold such a discussion about women, I had to claim women belong into the kitchen and one of the boys had to be a feminist, it was very funny
I think one of the worst things that can happen to you are 300% feminists (and their attitude usually hasn't got anything to do with emancipation), my English teacher hated me, partly because I didn't support her claims like we want women on the traffic lights. There are things I just can't be bothered about, so I told her that I always thought the person on the traffic light was an amancipated woman wearing trousers, that was the beginning of the end for us

(btw. I always enjoyed playing with dolls, cooking and doing crafts etc. as a child, I just also wanted to help canging tyres and the stuff that usually the boys can do )

You sound more and more like the woman of my dreams....
Anyhoo! Gotta go! Going the physiotherapist...

Oh dear... (wanna talk to that English teacher of mine , she usually told me things like "I feel so sorry for your brother to have a sister like you", and she was serious about that...)

I was thinking about this name thing, is it the common thing that you get the same middle names in a family, and is your brother also called Sohn? Here people sometimes get their parents or grand- or godparents first name as a middle one.

To the physiotherapist? Anything hurting?

Oh dear! What a b**ch! You send her to me, and I'll have a word or two with her...

Nah, doesn't hurt, not much anyway. It's the ancle I sprained four months ago. (Dunno if you remember, but I kept coming in to the cafè on crutches. I was gone for about 3 weeks.) It totally refuses to get well...
Right, the name thing!
Yep, it's common to get the same middlename, and my brother is also called Sohn.

I was wondering if you could translate a thing for me. You see, a friend of mine got this SMS on her mobile phone, but she doesn't understand a word German, and my German is too say the least, very rusty...
"Habe dich geliebt und warte nur dass du mich liebe soll. Aber ich weiss jetzt dass du nie nie kommst."

Just came back from the meeting I've attended since 8:30 this morning.

Poor you, what did you do with your ancle?

The person who wrote the SMS definitely isn't German, right? But as far as I understand it, he/she wanted to say:
I've loved you, and I only waited for you to love me. But now I know that you'll never never come.
Does that make any sense to you?

Just noticed, that there is no music anymore...what about Live - Throwing copper album?

Sorry 'bout not replying earlier, but I've had some serious difficulties getting in.

Yeah, that makes sense and yes, Live is perfectly allright with me

This might seem really pathetic and maybe even offensive, but I can't help wondering what you look like?

Oh, yeah, the ancle!
Played handball with the company sportsteam... not recommended. I.. what's it called... when you put your foot down so that it inverts...anyway, I ran after a bad pass, stopped, picked up the ball and turned in motion so that I was standing kinda sideways opposed to the direction in which I was running. So all my weight was on the right foot, which decided to stop before the rest of the leg, resulting in the foot inverting with about 110°... that hurt REAL bad...

I know that problem.

Alright I'll try to gather some facts about myself:
born: Nov 25th 1978
let me think, tiny bit smaller than you, well almost 30 cm, a bit more than a little extra everywhere . eyes: green/blue, depending a little on my mood hair: somewhere between light brown and dark blond, about chin long, glasses
can really get worked up about things and shows that
smells are something really comforting (that's the worst things about colds, you feel teribble and can't even smell anything)
is more introverted and shy than she appears to some people
likes to be with people, but really really needs some time on herself then and again
would like to say some more but definitely has to leave now as the youth group she's leading is on tonight...

Right! You'll just have to continue it some other time then!
Actually, that was just about what I'd imagined

Was it ?

That story about your ancle sounds really painful . Poor you! I always knew that handball is a dangerous sport .
You know in Germany you can do community service instead of miltary service, but you have to write a paper reasoning it. And I know that they didn't accept the paper of one guy I know because he had stated that he was playing handball and they said that that is such a violent sport. In the end he had to come for an interview and they let him do the community service anyway...

Yeah, I'd imagined you about 1.65-1.70, green eyes and brown hair down to the chin. So I wasn't that far off!

Thanks for the sympathy

I really hope you weren't offended or anything, or now think of me as this pathetic person, 'cause of me wondering how you looked...?

You can do that in Norway too, all you have to do is say that you really don't like shooting people... The drawback is that you have to do service 4 months longer. A friend of mine is doing that now, we call it "sivil service", and he's loosing a helluva lot of money. (Came from a steady, well-paid job which he liked, earning about 20000 nkr a month, to sivil service at an old-folks-home (what's the word?) and 4000 nkr a month...)