NAME:	John Herman Embretsen
ALIASES:	"hermie" or "Embo"
AGE:	21
SEX:	Male
DATE OF BIRTH:	August 19, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH:	Elverum, Norway
HEIGHT:	196 cm
FAMILY:	Mother, father, brother
PETS:	Cat
LAST KNOWN ADDRESS:	(1) Trondheim, Norway  (2) Våler i Solør, Hedmark, Norway
EDUCATION:	Graduated High School, (Videregående, allmenne fag), June 1999. Currently student at NTNU, The University of Trondheim. [scroll for details]
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	Mugshot: N/A   Field Photo: Taken in Finland, March 2000
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Allright, allright - I'm not that "top-secret" ;o) For those of you who might want to know more about me, all you have to do is read on! Looking for more photos? Check out my photo gallery:

Below, I have categorized my life so far, so that you easily can find what you want to know more about... Just point and click! Besides, I'd be glad if you later would make your entry in my SlamBook, if you haven't allready done so. Thanks for stopping by - you are welcome back any time!

Elverum and Våler, born and raised, in the playground is where I've spent most of my days... Well, not exactly ;) But it is true, I was born in Elverum (), a small city in Hedmark () county, Norway (If you don't know where Norway is, you have an extra homework assignment for tomorrow...). After living there a year or so, my family moved back to Våler, or "Våler i Solør" (Solør is an area in the southern part of Hedmark). OK, first a little geography: Elverum is the nearest city (30 km to the north), and going about 60 km northwest of Våler, we find Hamar. Kongsvinger is 70 km away, but in the opposite direction (south). Oslo, the capital of Norway, is a two hour-drive away by car/bus. About 30 km to the East is the Swedish border, a country in which Norwegians love to shop for cheap meat, tobacco and alcohol... Close to the border is a big wildlife-area called Finnskogen, often visited by german tourists who want to go on "elk-safaries"...
My family's house is located in a rural area, and lots of people there (Våler has about 4200 inhabitants) are farmers or busy with forestry - among other things... If you want to read some local news (in Norwegian, ), visit "Østlendingen", "Glåmdalen" or "Glåmdalsnett".
 
So, I lived in Våler until I graduated High School, but now I live about 400 km further north, in Trondheim. In Våler I have a cat, Tassus, who is beginning to get pretty old now... Some pictures of him, and the "wildcat" who has taken residence there too, are to be found in my photo-gallery.
Sports: In the old days I used to play soccer in Våler, but now I'm just lazy ;)
That's all about my home town for now... Boring? Wait, I DO have a Norwegian essay about Våler on my essay page, probably even more boring... ;o) Anyway, read on for more info --->
 
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I started primary school when I was seven, and the first six years of my education were spent at Hasla Skole in Våler. Then it was time to start at Junior High, which in my case was Våler Ungdomsskole. I then chose "general subjects" (Norwegian: Allmennfag) for my three years in High school, so I attended Åsnes Videregående Skole (ÅVS, ) at Flisa in 1996, and graduated in 1999.
The seniors at a Norwegian High School are called "russ", and spend quite a lot of time and money partying and having fun all spring (in addition to all the exams...). There are a couple of pictures from that period in my photo gallery... Now, on the other hand, I am currently in my 14th year of schooling, or more exactely: My second year at the University. More on that later, but first a little bit about another thing...
 
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Maybe you knew, maybe you didn't - Military service is mandatory for "all" male Norwegians. In that regard, I was assigned to stay one year at an Army Communications camp in Northern Norway... Well, we all got to go home (for good) after "just" 10 months and 3 days - i.e. 10 months of both good and bad experiences, yearning, laughs, despair, freezing and sweating...
 
Army Communications was my third choice, but little did I know that I was to be sent twice as far north as I had ever been before. I started on August 25, 1999, going by plane from Oslo Airport to Bardufoss, Troms county. The military base I was in, is called Heggelia Leir, which lies in Målselv kommune, by the E6 highway. About three weeks of basic training followed (not my cup of tea, that's for sure...), and then we were supposed to get our positions for the rest of the time. My position was relatively uncertain until Christmas (It varied from 12.7 mm machine-gun assistant, to radio-telegraphist), but when a guy in our platoon was transferred, so that I got "promoted", I became the new driver for the platoon commander.
 
For the record, my platoon was a part of the Signal Batalion (Norwegian: Sambandsbataljonen) of the 6th Division (), Troms, Norway. Shortly described, our assignment during exercises was to set up mobile command posts and to make sure that command, control and communications with the units of Div6 was possible. We also had a couple of pure infantry-training exercises - which I really really hated.
 
My perhaps worst experience was such an exercise in january (which means cold weather and lots of snow up there)... it was windy and pretty cold. First, we walked on "skis" (Norwegian: Les: NATO-plank), up in the mountains, had a few lessons on how to survive outside in the winter, and when the night came, most of us slept in snow-caves one night, and in a cold, wet and crowded button-tent (7-duker) another night. It was windy and snowing, and it almost seemed like everything was transforming into ice.But the worst feeling was on the way back, when we were supposed to be "extracted" by helicopters. Well, it was looking good, the first two platoons got their helicopter-rides, but my platoon had to walk back on the lousy skis, with heavy backpacks, because the flights were suddenly cancelled due to snowy weather. REALLY annoying! (and it wasn't really snowing that much...) So we had to brace ourselves and take the hard way back. That wasn't very fun; I had no water, so I started to eat snow (with a taste of diesel from my gloves) on the way down... Needless to say, I was extremely tired when we returned to the barracks ;o)
 
Well, it could be tough for a guy like me, but we also had some good times. At least, it could definitely have been worse... Although we spent a few nights in tents (with a multifuel-oven) when it was less than -30 °C outside (-22 °F), I had an automobile to keep in operative condition (uhm... keep it warm ;) ), so I managed. I was responsible for "my own" vehicle (it was often shortended MB, for Mercedes Benz), and was driving a lot during the big exercises. Once, I drove more than 1200 km in five days, and getting enough sleep was impossible. And in case you wondered: Many of the officers/sergeants acted like jerks most of the time, but some were ok too ;)
 
During the relatively big international (NATO) exercise "Joint Winter 2000" there was an accident at one of the stationary command posts. I was driving a couple of officers up to the building that was used for that purpose. Then, a couple of hours later, we learned that the building had collapsed because it couldn't take the pressure from all the snow on the roof. Three officers died, and the exercise was redused, but not discontinued. ---> Mer bakgrunnsstoff om ulykken på Rustahøgda 11. mars 2000 her.
 
All in all, I had a lot of new experiences, and I guess that is a positive thing. And I got some new friends, which is quite nice. What was most fun, though, was going to the city of Tromsø some of the weekends. A great city! Not very big, but "cosy", and it has a good atmosphere (not to mention quite a few good-looking girls ;) ) Darkness in winter, midnight-sun in the summer... You can read more about Tromsø here. I also went to North Cape, and Rovaniemi, Finland (the Santa Claus city), so I got to see a lot of "lappland" on the way.
 
More photos from my military service in my photo gallery!  
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[Norwegian only] Tenkte jeg bare skulle si et par ord på norsk... Er du en ung nordmann som "venter" på å bli innkalt i militæret? (Oddsen er vel stor for det nå til dags...) I så fall, ta med deg følgende sannheter:
 
- Det norske Forsvaret er de facto Norges største barnehage
- Kun et fåtall av befal i tjeneste er etter min oppfatning ålreite folk
- 50% av din IQ går i dvale i løpet av førstegangstjenesten. Det tar minst 6 måneder å vekke den til live igjen...
- Ordet "sivil" blir som gull i dine ører (hvis du er noenlunde normal)
- I Forsvaret skal alt gjøres på mest mulig tungvinn og ineffektiv måte (Alle skal gjøre alt samtidig), dvs:
- Før du har vært i Forsvaret vet du ikke hva det vil si å stå i KØ....................
- "Behagelig", "fornuftig" og "lettvint" er ikke-eksisterende ord (med mindre man er ironisk)
- Utstyr fra 1950 er slettes ikke uvanlig
- Å gjøre den samme teite tingen flere ganger uten noen spesiell grunn blir etterhvert en vane...
- Et solid lager av sjokolade på øvelse kommer alltid godt med... Kan evt. selges dyrt videre ;o)
- ...og man vet aldri når man får bruk for penger...
- Har du mulighet til å velge stilling (og du ikke har lyst til å slite deg helt ut, fysisk), er ord i kombinasjon med "stab" som regel noe å satse på.
 
Skulle det ellers være noen spørsmål eller kommentarer, er det bare å sende en mail... Jeg er i hvert fall glad jeg forlot tanken på å prøve meg på befalsskolen ;o) Er du imidlertid blant dem som vurderer dette (for pengenes skyld, kanskje?), les et eksempel på hvordan det kan være i aspirantperioden her. Overkommelig, men du bør vite hva du vil...
 
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All right, people - here it is... Just a few weeks after I returned from the Army, I moved myself and most of my stuff about 400 km north of Våler, where my parents live (that is more than 1000 km south of Heggelia, Bardufoss, where I was stationed), to a city called Trondheim. Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway, and the number of students there is about 25 000. So, as you might have guessed, I am a full-time student in Trondheim, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. Here is a picture of a part of NTNU:

 
I am studying Communication Technology, to become an engineer (Norwegian: Sivilingeniør innen Kommunikasjonsteknologi (komtek)). It is a 5-year study program, and will most likely take up most of my time until the summer of 2005. There are about 140 students in my class, and you can see who they are at the Mimir homepage (). The first semester was pretty tough, especially since I had to get my brain-activity back to normal after 10 months in the Army ;o). We are supposed to take four courses each semester, but since I took the exam for "Examen Philosophicum" while in the military, I got away with only six subjects in total the first year. It's no picninc any more, though, since my debut year is over and done with. Well, here's what I've been studying lately:
 
First semester (aug2000-des2000):
- Calculus 1 (Matematikk 1 - SIF5003)
- Information Technology, Introduction (Informasjonsteknologi, Grunnkurs - SIF8001)
- Electric Circuits 1 (Kretsteknikk 1 - SIE4002)
 
Second semester (jan2001-may2001):
- Programming (Java) (Programmering - SIF8005)
- Calculus 3 (Matematikk 3 - SIF5010)
- Discrete Mathematics (Diskret Matematikk - SIF5015)
 
Third semester (aug2001-des2001):
- Digital Design and Computer Fundamentals (Digitalteknikk og datamaskiner - SIE4005)
- Algorithms and Datastructures (Algoritmer og datastrukturer - SIF8010)
- Statistics (Statistikk - SIF5060)
- Physics (Fysikk - SIF4006/SIF4009)
 
Fourth semester (jan2002-may2002):
- Information and Signal Theory (Informasjons- og signalteori - SIE2010)
- Communication - Services and Networks (Kommunikasjon - Tjenester og nett - SIE5003)
- Data Modelling, Databases and Database Management Systems (Datamodellering og databasesystemer - SIF8020)
- Software Engineering (Systemutvikling - SIF8018)
 
Most of last summer, I was working in a bank, Sparebanken Hedmark, in Våler; a quite ok job.
 
: En av mine tidligere "studasser" (eldre studenter som assisterer oss i øvingstimer) har en oversiktlig side der du kan lese mer om gangen i studiet. [klikk her]
Poenggrensene for år 2000 ved opptak til siv.ing./siv.ark. studiene ved NTNU finner du via denne linken.
Forresten, her er et morsomt lite Grunnkurs i Trøndersk!
 
Other than that, I have to say that Trondheim is a nice city in which to be studying. The fraternities (studentforeningene) I'm a member of, Omega and Abakus, arrange lots of activities, parties, trips and so on, and there are plenty of other places to find interesting things to do when studying get too boring... By the way, Omega and Abakus had some bizarre assignments for those of us who wanted to pledge those organizations... I can tell you that it involved screaming electric shocks and running around in the city center doing crazy assignments in just our underwear and a piece of paper... A strange sight, believe me! At the moment I live alone in a small apartment close to the city center, so I often use my bike or take a walk to some friends or to a cinema. If only I had some more spare time - and money ;o) That is a problem of being a full-time student, but I like it nevertheless! You have a great deal of freedom when you're a student, and so far, I really like studying in Trondheim! It's a good part of my life, I think :)
 
Here's a glimpse of what Trondheim looks like:

 
As for the future, I'm not quite sure... (who is?) I'm thinking about studying a year abroad, preferably in the United States, but I haven't decided yet. I have always wanted to go there - and I will, some way or another... Other than that, I just hope I will continue to meet interesting people, and have a happy and enjoyable life... Yeah, that sounds good :o)
 
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Well, I don't know how boring or interesting you thought this was, but you are very welcome to tell me what you think! Or you can say hello, or give me some advice, or almost whatever you like, by sending an E-mail to this address: johnemb@bigfoot.com. You can also visit my Contact Page for other ways to get in touch with me. I'll answer you as soon as I can! And: If you haven't already signed my SlamBook, please do so before you continue your quest for happiness on the net. Thank you for spending time visiting my homepage!

JHE, February 2002