Once upon a time, in a country definitely much warmer than Norway is, there was less pressure on getting that great education. Okay, okay. Lousy introduction. But, you know, in a time when people lived in an ignorant bliss – completely unaware of the many catastrophes, events, celebrities and places to visit in the world around them.

Before people knew a cellphone, an email or a text was. While the internet was pretty much fiction. Much before everyone got obsessed with the media and technology. When it was still much too common to not finish any kind of high school at all! In fact, when a lot of young men left home shortly after secondary school to become sailors, and the females were much more embarrassed to discuss any kind of behind-closed-doors activities to their girlfriends. When you could still have basically no education at all and still not be doomed to work in a seriously low-wage, awful job for the rest of your way too long and boring life.

Back then you could actually become somebody, even if you didn’t have both a BA and an MA both finished at expensive prestige universities. Or at least a BA. Nowadays, you can hardly even get that permanent job as a check out girl without having finished high school.

The days very days my grandpa and dad keep whining about. Everything that proves to me, is of course that they’re both getting old.

All honest, I think the education is fantastic. I have just no clue of what’s supposed to be so incredibly good about a world without easy self-publishing, the internet, cell phones, an overload on information and easy access to education. I’m just a bit angry at myself for not having good enough grades. I completely messed up my last year in high school and now I probably won’t get accepted into SOAS – the School of Oriental and African Studies (in London!). Their Chinese BA requires AAB, and the way I understand it, my grades are unfortunately more like ABB. I seriously hope I’ve got it all wrong.

But no, I haven’t quite given up on studying in England yet. I want to Chinese in England, even though I have a Plan B in Norway ready just in case. I’m still the dreamy kind. And dreaming is still free, even though school fees might not be.

For a few days now, I’ve started thinking I want to move to London. I mean, I’ve lived in Shanghai for quite a while, London would be fun this time.

There’s just something about the city. Every time I’ve been there, which is quite a few now, I’ve felt overwhelmed by all of it. In a good way. In a “I wanna live there!” way. There’s so much to see, so much to do, just like in most major cities and very much unlike my home town, where I’m currently staying.

But there’s quite a few things stopping me at the moment. One of them is that I need to work for a year to get money, a second is that I’m not sure what I’d be studying there – although probably photography, another is that for photography you don’t get a scholarship for the first year since it’s -technically- not a part of the three year bachelor, and then there’s the thing about me lacking a proper photography portfolio since the old one is way outdated. And what about everything else I also want to do?

In other words, I either need to start working, both with my photography and a proper job, or just drop the entire thing. Don’t really feel like doing anything. It’s still to comfortable to just be at home and relax.