I've only been back a week...

...and I'm already sick and tired of going into the kitchen, turning the oven on, only to realize there's smoke coming out whenever someone has used it (and especially after one flat mate has made moussaka which, surprise, surprise, he did today).

We've done all that before, set off the alarm. That means having the alarm howling, in the entire building, for 45 minutes, and sending 157 people out in the cold. Then spending the rest of the evening answering questions from fire fighters and police.

Sometimes I hate living with students...

Dooooaaadooooaaa: part XLVII

Fire alarm. What else is new?

- I'll tell you what else is new. -

Last time the alarm went off I went downstairs, checked where the "fire" was and waited for the firemen to show up. When they did, they waited a bit, then asked - very loudly, and very angrily - "aren't there anyone responsible here?". One guy stepped up and said "I am". I assumed he lived in the apartment where the "fire" started, and that he, for some reason, didn't walk up to the firemen right away, and instead waiting a couple minutes.

The next thing that happened was one of the firemen started yelling at this guy. He was shouting; how could he not tell them right away, what was happening, how were they supposed to know? The person responsible should come right up and tell them. "But I...." was all I heard from the other guy.

I realized by then it was not the time for me to declare that I was the elected representative for the apartment building, that I should be told what's going on. I went back upstairs and after 20 minutes the alarm stopped.


So today, when the alarm went off, I went outside to look for smoke. When I didn't see anything, I went downstairs. I saw the alarm was set off by one of my neighbours and went back upstairs. On my way there, the sad girl in the wheelchair asked what was going on. I told her I was going to check on it. When I got to the door, knocking a few times, a guy I see all the time, who I thought lived on the 3rd or 4th floor came over, telling me he lived there.

I asked if he knew what it was, he said just cooking, with a bit of smoke. I went back downstairs, making sure to tell the girl it was just cooking. The firemen came, I told them what was going on. They asked if I knew for sure (no, I'm just making an educated guess.... which I would be quite qualified to do by now). I told them I'd just talked to the guy who lived in the apartment (which I can't quite understand since I know for a fact that it's another guy (who looks like a lot like this guy) who lives there).

They told us to stay downstairs for a while. Then they tried to stop the alarm, but it kept going for twenty minutes. One fireman came back downstairs and told us we could go back upstairs ("just someone cooking... guess this isn't too uncommon, eh? heheh"). And we all went back to our rooms. Nothing scary. Never anything scary. Except the one time I wasn't home.


Just an ordinary Monday evening. I'm glad it's not like when we first moved in though - this was a three-times-a-week occurrence.

We ain't dead yet.

Summer has come to Bergen, the rain has gone away and there are fires all over the west of the country. Two days of sunshine and 23 degrees was too much and forests, grass, valleys, trees - anything catches fire all of a sudden.

If you've been here before you probably know about my love of fire alarms. They're neat aren't they? Especially when they go off again and again and again...

Today it was around 6:30pm, we went downstairs and came right back up. I went out on the veranda to read in the sunshine, shutting the door to get away from the sound. Or at least that was my plan.

I saw the fire truck, coming over the bridge, flying across, about the speed of a bike with a flat tire. I could have walked faster. Apparently they've realized when the alarm goes off at the student appartments at Gyldenpris, there's no need to rush.

A few minutes and 500 yards later it pulled up downstairs - I've never seen a car go up the hill that slow. The fireman in the back was sitting, patting the side of the truck as they went past, obviously not too concerned about potentionally having to rescue a hundred students from certain death.

Now I'm just hoping someone had called them and told them not to worry. Otherwise I'd be concerned if a serious fire really did start one day - they'd take it less seriously than us.


I wonder if they get annoyed when a false alarm goes off like that. They have to get out in the car and go for a drive but do they see that as a welcome break from what they're busy doing at the station, or is it an annoying interruption?

Just sucks the way they always have to come here when it happens; a false alarm for us simply means moving down four floors, then listening to it for half an hour. For the firemen it means getting their gear, driving across town, then doing their best to reset the damn thing. Not the best way for us to show them how we appreciate the work they do.


The firetrucks are going faster tonight. There are constantly blue lights flashing across the bridge - firetrucks, police cars, ambulances. No false alarms when the woods are burning. The closest one is near an ammuntion depot, the army has been called in and evacuees are having to help - due to the wind we've been having all day the flames are spreading too fast.

I just hope they get to stop it before it reaches any houses.
And that we won't hear a big bang tonight.

All kinds of Alarms

Yesterday one of my roommates knocked on my door. I opened. «Is there a fire in here?» he asked. I looked around, seeing no sign of a fire he stepped out of the doorway and I saw another guy. He'd come upstairs to the appartment to tell us the fire alarm control cabinet on the first floor said there was something wrong with one of our our fire alarm. Ema and I went downstairs with him and found it making a piercing (although not too loud) sound, a signal called «Pre- warning» glowing, and it said it was the alarm in the living room on the fifth floor, to the north that caused it.

Hoping it wouldn't cause the alarm to go off in the middle of the night, we called the security people telling them about it. The rest of the afternoon people kept coming up to tell us the thing was beeping downstairs, very nice of them but since we already knew, we left a note saying so. And hoped someone would come and stop it. We're not allowed to shut it off ourselves since we wouldn't know how to reset it and then it kinda sucks if a fire did start.


11:50pm

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

I had got the sweater over my head, my pants off, ready to put on my pajamas. I looked up at the alarm, as I always do, hoping for a second it might stop. It didn't. Clothes back on, glasses off, contacts on, then downstairs. I found my three roommates on the first floor, next to the fire alarm control cabinet. Please don't tell me our thing caused this...

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

I think pretty much everyone in the building had gone downstairs this time – when we first moved in the alarm went off on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis and people stopped taking it seriously. But now it's been almost two years, and a lot of the people who lived here back then have moved out, and those living here now seem to do what they're supposed to do.

Luckily it wasn't our alarm that dragged them out of bed or a lover's arms, it was a room on the first floor. The fire department only sent one car and 3 or so guys this time, they stopped the alarm and it was quiet for a minute. Then it started back up. One of my roommates told them about the «Pre-warning» that was still there, and we went back upstairs. I went to bed. Thought the alarm would stop.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

It didn't.

Back out of bed, firemen had been looking at our alarm too, they left and we all sat down. Waiting. The thing with this alarm system is the alarm will stop for a few seconds, it will be perfectly quiet. At least where we're sitting. Then it'll start again on the floor below us. Three dooooaaas later it starts in the hallway. Three more, it's in our rooms. Another three and it reaches the living room Then it stops. And starts over. It does this for anything between 5 and 55 minutes. Last night was a long one.

Quiet sounds good when it's over.
Nobody's dying in this building.

Dinner dooooaaa

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


Oh stop that, I'm making dinner.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


Seriously, I can't leave this right now.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


It sucks when that happens when you're cooking - you never know how little it takes for it to go off and I did think "I hope that wasn't me..." a couple times. It's good to have roommates though. Roommates who check it out and make sure you don't burn to death while you're cooking dinner.

Cuz that would really suck.

"Burn mother@%§#$&, burn."

It's early morning (relatively so). I'm in bed watching biathlon. I've turned my bed upside down (or inside out), all snuggled up in my duvet, hugging my pillow, holding my breath every time the Norwegians stop to shoot. This is important, they've gotta do well this time - they did good last and this is the pursuit. I'm almost sleepy...


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


You have GOT to be kidding me!

Does this mean I have to put clothes on? I'm in bed! I don't want to put clothes on! And the Olympics are on TV!

*weighing biathlon vs. burning to death*


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


*Sigh* is it my fault I'm a so-called responsible grown-up? I get up, I get dressed, I go the bathroom and it stops. It's quiet. It doesn't start again. We're not gonna burn today either.


What a waste. I'm dressed, I'm up and we didn't win.

Midnight Exercise

I like my bed. I love beds. I love rolling around, wrapping myself up in my duvet, I love shaking my pillow so it's fluffy and soft. I love sleeping late in the mornings, I love the feeling of being really sleepy and knowing and I can sleep all night...


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa!!!!!


I do not like fire alarms. I do not like it when they go off in the middle of the night and we have to put our clothes on and go downstairs. I don't like standing down there with everybody else, wondering what's going on and if it's a false alarm again.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


And then the firemen come. They stop their trucks and rush inside, up the stairs and down again. They've got big pants and funny hats. Sometimes they have big tanks of air on their backs. We just look at them and try and stay awake.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


Someone says there had been some sort of fire in one of the appartments for the handicapped. They should all live on the first or second floor, I have no idea why they've placed them up on the fifth - how are they supposed to get out of bed, into their wheelchairs and down four flights of stairs? Someone says it was on the second floor. We go back to our appartments.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


On the fifth floor there's a fireman holding the door open and a girl saying she has to get into a room where she doesn't live. My roommates (the two guys) and I get back to the appartment - Ema dislikes the alarms more than I do and refuses to go downstairs when it goes off.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


So... the firemen came. Put out the fire. Everything's alright. Why is the alarm still on?


Dooooaaadooooaaa...


It stopped. That's ok then, I don't mind it so much when there's actually a fire - better tired than dead. My roommate, the new one, asks if this happens a lot. He's relieved he didn't live here when we'd just moved in and this was a weekly event. Time to go to bed. Night night!


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaaadooooaaa


"Oh by the way" I explain to the new roommate, "it usually stops here for a minute, starts on the next floor, stops there, it's still on in the hallway, then it starts in your room and stops when it goes off in the living room...". He looks tired and says "ahh".


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa


It may keep us from dying but a few improvements would be welcome.

Sleep. Now. Lights. Out. Contact. Lenses. In. Eyes. Zzzzzz.....

Fire alarm

Dooooaaadooooaaadoooaaaa

Yes, there is a party but this has to stop.
Go to the bathroom.
It stops.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Oh come on....
It stops.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Ok...
It stops.


Dooooaaadooooaaa

I get it now, this is just to annoy us.
It stops.


Dooooaaadooooaaa

&£$€@!!!
It stops.


Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

!!!
It stops.


Dooooaaa

?
It stops.


Dare I dream?

My week

Monday
Got back to Bergen yesterday. First day of University, starting Development Studies. Since we were new, we were divided into groups lead by older students. They would be taking us around the city this week, starting out with a tour of the buildings where we'll be having our lectures and seminars. In the evening we went to two of the guys' place. Most people left to go to a concert, not having bought a ticket I stayed behind with another girl and three guys. After a while we headed down to the club aswell, losing sight of everyone we knew, I spent most of the evening walking around with this girl who kept wanting to go out for a cigarette. On the way back to my place around 2am I saw a hedgehog on its way across the bridge, probably on a way to a late party.

Tuesday
Woke up at 8:30am, sat up, thought 'No way!' and went back to sleep. The official opening of the Uni year was at 10, I hear it was fun... At 2pm I met the others in my group, sat around for a while before going to a bbq behind a club. It took so long for anything to happen, I decided to run some errands and get back home. Realized I'd forgotten the charger for my phone, called my dad to get him to send it. Early night.

Wednesday
9:15am, meeting for those doing Development Studies. Afterwards we all signed up for our subjects and for exams. Those who didn't have Uni email accounts sorted that out.

Thursday
Quick info meeting about a subject I'm taking, then at 15:30 we all met up, having been told we were going to solve riddles all around town. Not having a clue what was happening, we were lead into a club were we were told we were going to sing karaoke. Never done that before and so Danish band Aqua's infamous Barbie Girl was performed by the 11 of us. Next up, a pizza restaurant. There we picked a song, got each our balloon filled with helium and sang the best we could in squeaky voices. The next so-called riddle involved throwing soaking wet sponges on the older students following us around; points awarded when you hit the head or the ass... I don't know who won the whole contest but I know it wasn't my group. Some of the others went to go sit in a park, I went home before I joined them at a club later in the evening.

As for what really happened that evening, I'm not quite sure. I managed to lose my bag and my beloved shawl which I bought at a flee market a year ago. Some guys were talking to me, when the lights were turned on and the beer taps turned off, I went out with one of them. I'm not sure what happened. I'm not sure I want to remember everything. I talked too much about something I shouldn't talk about, he wanted to have a glass of wine and 'have fun'. I told him politely he'd have to find another girl for that. He said no, he would just go home. He seemed nice though. I went back to the appartment alone.

Friday
The superintendent came with a key for me, I called my phone and was told it was at the police station. Not feeling my very best, slept for a while. Never going out again.

Saturday
Went to the police station, was told it was closed during the weekends, come back Monday. Went to the shop looking for noodles but they were out. Not having eaten in 48 hours I still wasn't hungry but was starting to feel rather light headed, realized it would be a good idea to have dinner. Watched Analyze This again.

Sunday
4:45am. Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa. Fire alarm. Out of bed, out the door, wait for roommates, down the stairs. When we get to the first floor there are lots of people standing by the exit, most in pj's, some still dressed. When we moved in last year, the fire alarm went off all the time. They didn't hook it up to the fire station system until August 1st this year. After 5-10 minutes there are blue lights outside. A firetruck pulls by the door on the floor below us. Then another one. Two firemen in smoke diving gear rush through the door, another with 'ordinary' fireman clothes. They stop on the ground floor for a while before one guy comes up the stairs. Ten minutes later someone comes saying "527... 527!". Two women with a bunch of keys comes through the door.

After about 25 minutes the alarm stopped and we started going back to our appartments. 527 being three doors down the hallway from us, the smell of something burnt was heavy in the air as we walked back to our rooms. Going back to sleep took quite a while, that alarm stays in your ears for a while. Apparently I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. We still don't know what happened, just that a girl in a wheelchair moved in there a few days ago. We've been wondering for a year who came up with the brilliant idea of placing handicapped people in wheelchairs on the top floor, unable to move on their own, not allowed to use the elevator in case of a fire. The rest of the day has been spent finding exam dates, schedules for lectures and which books to buy tomorrow.

What a week...

Oh no, not again

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

It's bloody 2:30 in the morning and someone is smoking in their room.
Either that or they've decided to test the alarm.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

What if there's a fire? Should I go outside?
I can hear the doooos in my left ear and the aaas in my right ear.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

This is painful.

The alarm and the lady

You know what happened at 10:15 this morning? Something really annoying? Something that really shouldn't happen on a Saturday morning, especially when it happened last night as well?

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadoooaaa

That's right. The fire alarm. I was half awake and it sounded weird. Then it stopped a little bit, it's funny how it does that, there's no sound in your room but you hear it from the hallway outside and from the other floors. It kept going and then it got quiet in here. I thought it had stopped because I couldn't here anything from the hallway or our kitchen either but then I heard a gentle doooaaadoooaaa from some other part of the building.

I gave up sleeping and wondered if I should go outside... Got dressed, put in contacts, brushed teeth. Alarm still going. Not gonna stop is it? I figured I'd go to the shop to buy something for breakfast, couldn't even hear myself think in here and maybe it would have stopped by the time I came back.

So out I went. Beautiful day, it's been snowing and the sun was shining on the mountains on the other side of the city. The sky was blue, the air was clear... I love being up early in the mornings, especially when the weather is like this, it just happens way too rarely (both getting up early and the weather being good). When I was halfway there (takes about 3 mins), an old lady stopped me. She asked me "isn't it wonderful when the sun shines?" (didn't shine on us, have to go to the other side of the bridge for that). We started talking a little, something Norwegians never don't do with people they just meet on the road (road is more correct than street in this case).

She asked if I was going to the store, and she said that was a good idea because there aren't so many people in the mornings. I said the fire alarm had gone off so I just needed to go out a little bit, and we started talking about the houses in the area, and the rent. She told me she had lived in the same house for 53 years, she pays less rent for a whole apartment than I do for my one room. She was 80 years old, but she didn't look 80, didn't sound like it either, not compared to my grandparents who are 80 and 81, and can't lead a conversation, much less walk to the store. She said I couldn't be too old, was I 18?

She was nice. I liked her. I generally like old people, unless they act old. Isn't that how it's supposed to be though; we don't like old people and sick people? I love how old people tell stories, and it's totally cool when old people talk about sex. My grandparents are the other kind of old, they don't tell stories, and they most certainly don't talk about sex (thank goodness for that). They don't walk either and they just sit there when we go to visit them. I just hope they're happy though, that's all that matters. But it's hard for me to imagine that they are...

I hope I'm fun-old and not boring-old in 50 years from now.

I just kept smiling after I met that woman. Sometimes that happens, when I talk to someone and it's a beautiful day, I just smile. Then I keep smiling for hours and people look at me like I'm a little funny. But so what? It's a beautiful day and it's good to be alive.

Now I have to clean my room...
*smile*
see, not even THAT can get this silly grin off my face

Fire alarms

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Have you met my fire alarm? They all went off a couple of minutes after midnight. They used to do that when we all first moved in here in August, but they set it up and it's worked like it should (meaning not going off) ever since.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

My roommates and I wondered whether to go out, two of us ended up going to find out what was happening. We didn't get outside because the door was locked. If there had been a fire in the corridor we had to walk through instead, we'd have been in trouble. They emergency exit door was locked. And our keys didn't fit.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

When we got down to the first floor, it stopped. People started going back up so we did the same.

Silence.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

Now what?? If there was a fire, the alarm shouldn't start and stop like this! And if there is no fire then it shouldn't go off in the first place!

Oh. It stopped. Wonder what's on TV...

Dooooaaadooooaaadoooaaadooooaaa

Again?? That's the third time!! What if people are sleeping? This better stop soon...

I think it stopped. Oh no, don't say stopped, I'll jinx it.