Mentions of random occurrences

Got my homemade (collaboration between my parents) table + mittens (only my mum) the other day

What have I done the past few weeks that I haven't mentioned?

• I got beer spilled all over me when I went for a meal with my work. And I'm doing Sober October, fun times. I got a free brownie dessert + a free (alcohol free) drink to make up for it though (it was the waitress' fault).
• I thought, hey, it's been a long time since I had any bruises/accidents, then promptly fell down a hill and scratched my knee, bum and elbow all at once.
• I bought a massive woolly jumper last Saturday. And a big, though not massive, woolly jumper this Saturday.
• I'm currently writing the essay for my philosophy course, which accounts for half the grade. Me being as bad at oral exams as I am, this essay better be good.
• I have half a plan about what to do after Christmas. Which I need to think more about.
• I have remembered that I know five - 5- five! people with birthdays in the first half of November, and I better get them something nice.
• I have decided to not give English people Christmas gifts. Unless they live in Norway. Which they don't. You may get a card, but sending something from Norway is going to cost twice the amount of the gift...

Food, again

Finnbiff, reheated for the second time, this time it became soup

The past two weeks I've been eating a lot of leftovers. Yummy ones though, so I don't mind. My mum sent with me a mountain of finnbiff (reindeer + mashed potatoes + cream + spices = awesomeness), and even with the help of Ingrid I couldn't finish it in one go. Mum also gave me leftover paella, and this week I've had leftover Colombian rice pudding, which I heated, removed the raisins (why raisins, why?) and turned into Norwegian rice porridge, twice.

This whole leftover food thing has me eating better than when I cook for myself.

Colombian night

 Kiira (Finnish), one of the lovely ladies by my table

 Elena (Russian), another one

 Jon Einar and Brynjar, I think (Norwegian), representing the male sex at our table

 And last (of the people I managed to photograph) Darina (German), who made this a difficult job by always twisting around

Xiomara (you know by now, I'm sure: Colombian). 

Carlos was as difficult a subject as ever, so he doesn't get to be in the photo.

Carlos and Xiomara had prepared so much food. It was incredible. They also had a short presentation about themselves, the Colombian Red Cross, and Colombia in general, trying to entice us all to go there. No need to win me over, I've been wanting to go to Colombia the past four years at least, with the Red Cross Youth Delegate program they're a part of.

The food would be reason enough to go there anyway. I had two full, massive plates of arepas, Colombian rice pudding, meat, paella, and more arepas. Om nom indeed.

This was on Monday. I only just got the photos off my camera and onto my laptop... My Red Cross weeks seem to come in waves, this was a very heavy one. It ended with the quiz on Friday though, where my team won! Which means we get to go and have pizza at Yonas, a local pizzeria, on Tuesday. The Red Cross seems to be feeding me lately...

All the tea in the world

London, December 2009, I think

I have to remind myself not to complain about the cold weather. Cold is much better than wet, especially when you're outside all day. Cold or wet, every day when I come home I remove my socks, get my newspaper, make a cup of tea, and curl up in my bed. Happy days. Even if I have to leave the house again in thirty minutes, I try to do this.

Time? Hah.

This week has me red crossing all over the place.
Monday: Colombian party (I am today finishing some left over Colombian rice pudding om nom)
Tuesday: Day off (= exercise + ex.phil. reading)
Wednesday: IHL (International Humanitarian Law) meeting where we had an American woman who's worked with the UN and several NGOs talk to us
Thursday (today): Korspåhalsen workshop: Kors på halsen is a Norwegian Red Cross site/phone number where young people can call in and talk to adults about anything. "Kors på halsen" would be the equivalent of "cross my heart", etc.
Friday: Red Cross Quiz night: Youth against "adults".

I've got some photos from Colombian night, they're still on my camera, waiting for me to have an afternoon and some energy to upload and edit photos. Coming soon.

One year ago

25th Oct 2010 - happy internet day

One of the best things about blogging is being able to see where you were one year ago - almost to the day. Last year, my housemates and I had lived in Tregenver Road 21 only a few weeks before we got internet. I was so happy I took this jumping photo as a way of showing it. Then Jemma and Tony came to visit, and had to endure all of us just sat in front of our laptops in the living room, being very bad hosts.

Two years ago I was pissed off at Talk Talk, and rightfully so - since that year, we spent about six months without internet, constantly waiting and getting new dates for when it would be in place.

Three years ago (to the day!) I was contemplating cutting my hair short. Just like I'm doing now. Fun.

Mozart vs Mujuice

My mum is one of the ladies in red, the one to the right. Hallo mamma.

Both Thursday and Saturday I had this multi-musical experience. I went to the church first, where my mum (and a massive choir and a little orchestra) was rehearsing Mozart's Krönungsmesse (Coronation Mass) for the church's 150 year anniversary. Even when they were rehearsing, and constantly interrupted, it was absolutely beautiful.

Then I went on to the Insomnia festival to listen to hard electronic music. Awesome.

This is also a hello to my mum, who's combining a work trip with going to Germany to visit her parents (hello family in Germany too. Love you). I promised I would post every single day in case she got homesick.

One more thing: I'm reading a lot of books about Tromsø at the moment, and there's a couple with lots of photos of people and happenings back in the day. Today I found a photo of a male choir in the church, taken from about this point of view, with the exact same background, only about 80 years ago.

Insomnia (festival)

 Light! On the floor! Moving! - I get excited easily.

 Solar Bears

 The Amplifetes

Bernt Simen Lund Commission, or Skulbru/NASRA/Østgård/Horne/Lund

After I moved back to Tromsø, I've met acquaintances who have lived here a while, and as I exclaim how much stuff is happening in Tromsø, they look at me in wonder. When I lived here, I didn't realise either. There's a festival every other month or so, dedicated to all kinds of music, film, and other cultural experiences. There's even ¡No Siesta, Fiesta! : Tromsø Latinfestival. In addition to this, there's always concerts, talks and other happenings, and I'm loving getting into it all.

This weekend however we had Insomnia, a festival for electronic music. And I volunteered (more about my addiction to voluntary work later). It was great fun. I met lots of random people I might never see again. I also met people I already know slightly, and got to know them better. More importantly though, I worked as a driver, and for the first time in my life, I had to drive a car with an automatic gear system. Yes. So sure it would be difficult, but it was amazing and simple, and I'm completely sold.

Culture

 Aftenposten's culture part. Love.

 Solbær/blackcurrant-toddy.

The beginning of my cultured Friday breakfast.

When I told the government and the Norwegian Mail online that I was moving (i.e. had moved, two months before), I got tons of offers on "cheap" and "free" stuff. The only one worth having was a three week free subscription to one of Norway's largest newspapers, Aftenposten. This happens to be the only newspaper worth reading (i.e. not tabloid) on a national level. Their journalists seem to really care about language. One of the places I want to work when I grow up, is Aftenposten. Happy days.

Then: Emma's letters have a tendency to get here on a (often wet) Thursday night. It's happened twice now. Fridays are my late morning breakfast days (I can sleep until 8:30! Joy! Happiness!), so I make sure to save her letters for that. I sit there with my tea, orange juice, yoghurt, and toast, and read her letter as if I was some Austen heroine. I've told her to make sure she, or someone we both know, elopes, or loses all her/their money, or at least that she comes up with something that can make me choke on my toast, upset my tea cup, and run outside for a long windswept walk (the latter was Emmas suggestion).

Fantastic.

Frost

After a week or two of rainy rain weather, today the sky is clear, the sun is bright, and there is frost on the ground.

Today I'm catching up on my emails, looking for available jobs, editing photos, listening to music, and general internet stuff updating. Busy days.

Dude, snow

This is going to be my snow-marking post.
Let it be writ that, in 2011, Tromsø had snow on Saturday, October 8th, but that it melted before it hit the ground. On Friday, October 14th, it snowed enough to halt our philosophy tutor in his talk, and it stayed on the ground for about two hours.

Now... I will check this again, six months from now (April 2012), and I can almost assure you we will still have snow.

... Still getting used to living up north.

Couchsurfing, again

Awesome American Couchsurfer. Awkward photo smiles.

CS continues to be great fun. I've met a French guy too, who might be staying for a while. I'm trying to get photos of everyone I meet, so in the end I'll make a little CS album of awkward photos.

Jonas Bendiksen/photography

 Private view-lady enjoying her champagne

Quick shot of 1.5 of Jonas Bendiksen's photos from the project Satellites.

Thursday was the opening night of Polar Fokus, with Jonas Bendiksen's two projects; Satellites, and The Places We Live. Go, read about them. I saw Jonas Bendiksen talk about these projects in London last November, and I absolutely love both of them. I prefer Satellites, visually, but they're both really inspiring. Friday I went to an event at Verdensteatret where Polar Fokus had organised for four different photographers to come and talk about their work. I mostly went for Jonas Bendiksen... Sadly, he was the last one, and I had to be picked up by my sister to go to our parents' house. The other photographers were all right. Jonas Bendiksen though, he makes me want to do something. 

I've talked to so many people this weekend about how I need to sit down and sort out what I'm doing. Start a project, or start trying to get my work published, or just do something related to photography. I really do need to do that.

Dinamor, family weekend

 On Friday night I went home to my parents', to spend the weekend there with my sister and my niece.

 Sister and I went shopping on Saturday, I bought this pretty but blah-tasting cupcake.

 Our grandmother came round, wearing a very fashionable (but too low cut, she thought) top.

 Dina got new boots. I'm not sure whether she cares about shoes in general, 

but boots are the most amazing things you can wear, according to her.

 "Dina...can I have a hug?" ".... JA!" And she runs over and hugs me. Heart: melted.

Ok. She does like other shoes as well, then.

I also went to a photography talk, went for dinner with my work colleagues, and met the American couchsurfer again, but mainly it's been a family weekend. All the food you can imagine. Still full. Still more food to come...

Curly curly

I've been too busy meeting more couchsurfers, going to photography exhibitions and talks, red crossing, and playing with my lovely niece to post anything on here. But anyway. Here's my rag curled hair from the other day. Shame I'm cutting it off soon.

What's this? MORE BOOKS?

 ... Yes.

 They belong to the library, though. Justification, right there.

I wish this was a book about Hüsker Dü. It's not.

I'm trying to educate myself a bit more about my hometown, Tromsø. Happily, these books actually seem quite interesting, with lots of old photos and stories about the Pomor (Russian) trade - and the Husker Du? (Can You Remember?) book is just a pamphlet of interviews with people who remember Tromsø in 1898 (when we got electricity) and 1905 (when Norway's union with Sweden ended), and it's full of amazing stories from way back when.

Also, aren't the Tromsø books in the middle photo amazing? The reindeer on the front is our municipal... Not sure what to call it. It's like a coat of arms, but for our little region. Here's an overview of all the municipalities in Norway and their corresponding "coats of arms". I just love the simplicity of putting that on the cover, and nothing else.

Saturday nights (becoming a theme already)

A bad quality shot of some very lovely 50s DJs at Bastard Bar.

Saturday (after stroking the backs of my new books lovingly) I went out to Verdensteatret to meet Bick, an American couchsurfer. Apparently he'd wanted to go somewhere, googled "Nice places to go in October" and ended up with Tromsø. Amazing. It was great fun, I hope this streak of meeting nice people continues! I sat and talked with him and his friend Kristin for a while, then Morten came and joined us, and we went on a little tour of Tromsø nightlife... We went to Amundsen to ogle at the drunk, dancing people (been one of them myself before, ahem), to BlåRock to sit down and chat and talk about music, and then went into Bastard, mostly to show our American how tiny it was. Randomly, they were having a 50s evening with lots of people dancing swing, so we stayed there and watched them and listened to music and tried dancing once or twice ourselves.

And on the way home, I saw some of my first Northern Lights of the season.

Still managing Sober October! Just need to be with interesting people and do interesting things so I don't fall onto eating everything in sight.

Autumn food

Om nom Norwegian Porridge & homemade blackcurrant saft (cordial)

Lately I've automatically just made warm, hearty food or soups without even thinking about it. All my planned meals become noodle soup, porridge, red lentil soup, vegetable stew, etc. As the winter winds set in...

Books by the dozen (book swap)

 Loved the cover, didn't take it home

 Same same. Didn't have the faintest inclination to read it, I'd only want to look at the cover from time to time.

 I think I managed a good mix of read-before, never-read, read-another-book-of-same-author,

 childhood memories, photo book, Norwegian, classics, other cultures, etc.

Nom nom books. *giggles*.

I brought 13 books to the book swap, where I was given 13 book tickets to pick up whichever books I liked. I gave one to Ida, one to my mum, and I left with eleven books. I then went to Fretex, the Salvation Army charity shop, and bought two more books to make up for it. Happy now. Books in order of the last photo:

1. Jean M Auel: The Clan of The Cave Bear (I've read this yearly(ish) since I was ten, and thought I had a copy at home, but haven't been able to find it in a while).

2. Nils Vogel: De to første menneskene på Jorden var Hans og Grete (The first two people on Earth were Hänsel and Gretel) (A collection of quotes from children's school tests)
3. Karen Blixen: Babettes gjestebud (Babette's Feast)

4. The Idea Book (some Swedish concept book that's supposed to make you better at coming up with clever ideas)

5. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (much more frightening than you'd think)

6. Are Kalvø: Nød (Suffering/Need) (A book about charity written by a Norwegian comedian)

7. Hannah Green: I never promised you a rose garden (about a girl in a mental institution)

8. Paul Auster: Man in the Dark (Paul Auster = slightly meta/surreal, etc)

9. Astrid Lindgren: Alle vi barna i Bakkebygrenda (The Six Bullerby Children/The Children of Noisy Village)

10. Heinrich Böll: Som en klovn ser det (Ansichten eines Clowns/ The Clown) (Mostly got because my family in Germany live in Heinrich Böll-street.)

11. Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood (duh)

12. Milan Kundera: Tilværelsens uutholdelige letthet (Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí/ The Unbearable Lightness of Being) 

13. Taras Kuščynskyj: Women (My version is untitled, but Amazon tells me it's called women. It's also worth about 60 USD, so, score.)

My heart warms when I look over at my window sill and see all those books lying there, waiting to be read... Books make me so happy.

Would you believe we had snow today?

 Café with mum, nice tea and even better cupcakes.

 Café with Ida and Dixie, answering trivia questions from the newspaper.

 This taken about one hour before there was snow in the air (that melted before it hit the ground)

 I love going into the immigrant shops, feeling like a noisy ignorant touristy Norwegian. "Ooh, it looks different, I'll have it".

 Lemon cordial in my new glass bottle.

And a candlestick holder (?) my mum got me at a charity shop

Good Saturday so far. I've spent lots of money on food, a little money on books, and gotten so many free books from a book swap I went to (more about those tomorrow) that I might just be sorted until Christmas when it comes to reading material.

Now to make lovely stir fry dinner, then head out to meet another CS-person. All Saturdays should be like this. Maybe minus the random snowfall in the middle of the day.

Couchsurfing, again

Maria looking slightly sceptical as I push my camera into her face

I'm getting more and more into Couchsurfing. And I'm just staying in my hometown. Not letting anyone sleep on my non-existent sofa. Just meeting people for coffee or tea, which is one of the options you can put on your profile. Suits me very well.

Tonight I met Maria from Finland (a Swedish Finn though, so we could both speak our native language) for tea at Perez, where we spent a few hours talking about our respective countries' drinking cultures (similar: bad), haircuts, and jobs.

If you're sat at home now, slightly bored in front of your laptop... Try it!

STHAVDTD (praise of my parents)

I haven't taken one photo this week... This, most recent, from Sunday 2nd. I went to my parents' again, was stuffed with homemade baked goods, watched The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (with Toby Stephens), drank all the tea in the world (just about), and played Scrabble with my mum. Perfect Sunday.

While, this week, my dad has been here three out of four days to fix my wardrobe doors. They are now fixed, but I have no photo of it. Thanks anyway.

What would I do without parents? I'd be a miserable, skinny (they also provided me with bread for the past week and a half) person without a desk, chair, wardrobe or tea. Love you both.

One Generic Norwegian Girl, At Your Service

 Note the tired look in my eyes, please.

 Then: notice the jeans, long, tangled blonde hair, and windbreaker.

Added bonus: My Postal shirt. In XL or something ridiculous, since I only get leftover uniform clothes. 

There's a reason I wear my own jeans...

There's no time of the week I feel more average than on Thursdays and Fridays, when I go to uni before work. Since I need to wear something that can turn into work clothes, I end up with the same uniform as every other girl on campus: jeans, a windbreaker, and tangled long hair (especially today. I'd set my alarm one hour late, thereby proving my hair colour is genuine). I find it entertaining that this outfit would have separated me from the crowd at Falmouth uni - there's too much practicality in it, and not enough frills, earthy colours or dreads. Although my hair did its best to create dreads today, after I forgot my hair bands at home when I leapt out of bed, crammed some Wasa down my throat and ran down to the bus stop. You wouldn't know it, but for a postlady, hair bands are an absolute necessity.

Sober October, just for fun

After going to the Red Cross camp the other weekend, I realised I would have gone two weeks without drinking (Norwegians only drink (and then, a lot) at weekends) this weekend. And I thought, I can do better than that. I'll do Sober October! Not only because it rhymes. It definitely doesn't rhyme in Norwegian. Edru Oktober.

I like challenges.

I'll save some money.

I'll definitely gain some weight, as experienced last weekend, when everyone was drinking, and I was busy nomming up all the snack food since I didn't have a drink.

Oh well. Should be an experience.

Saturday nights

 Ellen (Netherlands)

 Nikolai (Canada?)

Wendy (USA)

I went to a party at Gabriela's house - Gaby being the girl I met through Couchsurfing in August. She's gotten to know an impressive amount of people since she came, and invited everyone to her home. There was so much food. Empanadas, veggie lasagne, pancakes, brownies (oh, I ate so much), cheese doodles, saltsticks, carrots (which I had to bring out to not die from sugar overload from the brownies), chocolate cake, food, food, food. And a lot of amazing people from all over the world.

I've also started Sober October (more on that later), so I was drinking Fanta and having a genuinely sugar-filled evening. Om nom. I could hardly walk when we went into town later... But I had a great time, and I met some people I used to go to school with, some new people, and some of the people from earlier that evening. Good times.