Vigeland's park, Oslo

 Starts out with pretty, standard trees

 Continues with naked men kicking babies, much to the entertainment of the foreign youth delegates

 Most amazing part, a fountain with pictures from the circle of life, apparently.

In Norway this means babies playing with wolves...

 Standing on skeletons (of what kind of animal?)...

 and of course your big, beardy Thor-type of man kicking a wolf.

 Random lady fighting a lizard-type-thing.

All in a very beautiful setting.

Man, Vigelandsparken. I love it. I was there when I was little, but all I can remember is running around in the fountain. I was there in 2009 with Maja, Emma and Freya, and only then did I realise how amazing it actually is. All the statues are of real people, the way people look and act and are together. Poor youth delegates seemed unaccustomed to all this nudity, but once you get over that, it is just so beautiful and real. And slightly uncanny and odd, which makes me all the happier.

Flowers and moustaches

Ida and I are going to a party dressed like prim floral dress ladies, not bringing the moustaches. Happy days.

YBTC II

Bam, look, it's me in the photo that will be connected with me when it comes to this program and I look like a silly sod.

So, I need to actually edit the photos from the YBTC. Fail, massively. I've been editing Russia photos, but I want to do this chronologically to make my head less confused. Soon more photos, I promise.

Also just remembered how bad I am at writing articles now I'm trying to write one about Russia for the Red Cross newspaper, because it can't be as informal as I'm used to writing here, for example, and I don't want it to be as dry as my dissertation had to be, and I seem to have forgotten all other formats of writing. 

Slow updates, YBTC I

 New youth delegate from Zimbabwe, going to Tromsø: Munya

 Nepal, going to Kristiansand: Dinesh

 Nepal, going to Kristiansand: Yashoda

 Zimbabwe, going to Tromsø: Precious

 Colombia, going to Akershus: Jenni

Colombia, going to Akershus: Elisa

When I was home 16 hours between the YBTC and the Leader Seminar in Russia, I just chucked all my photos onto my laptop and went to bed. Now you'll be getting some very belated updates about pretty much all of April - once I get through editing both trips. At the moment I am also helping out with the biannual (?) Red Cross newspaper of Troms, writing my application for the youth delegate job and eating a lot of food (Russia has good food, but small portions). Oh, and tomorrow I am going to a seminar about social media and a concert with one of my favourite bands, Kaizers Orchestra. Excite. Not sure how people have time for jobs.

Left to right: Temmy, Kristina, Polina, Sunniva (me), Carlos and Thomas (lacking Xiomara)


I'm back, I'm back, and I have no brain capacity to write long things on my blog. I came back yesterday and went straight to my parents house for food and rest and relaxation and all the sleep I haven't had the past week. Today I've been a proper couch potato, editing photos, reading one book and watching Life of Brian. Tomorrow I start doing productive things again.

Also, Blogger has changed its layout and I'm still figuring out how it works. 

Been away, going away

Me, in front of Tromsø Street, in Oslo. Precious and Yashoda to my right.

Been to Oslo. Experienced everything. Met all the nice people. Been all kinds of sick/ill. Am home for 16 hrs to eat, sleep, wash and repack before Russia tomorrow. Good times. Photos later.

SRS BSNSS

So, hi, I'm leaving for Oslo today! I will be back in Tromsø about 18 hrs next Saturday, before I scoot off to Russia (fingers crossed, visa etc).

I am going on a YBTC-course : Youth Basic Training Course (I'm pretty sure that's what it stands for). I've taken a 20hr online WORC-course (World of Red Cross and Red Crescent). I went to Spain for two-three weeks, as you know, and I'm constantly working on my incredibly low level of Spanish - which is at least better than it was before.

I am taking the YBTC with 11 other Norwegians. If we all pass the course, six out of twelve will be chosen as youth delegates for 2012-2013. Have I mentioned I'm nervous?

We're also there with the to-be delegates from Colombia, Zimbabwe and Nepal, and it will probably be very educational, quite hard at times, lots of fun and I'm expecting to make a lot of friends during this week. I'm starting off with picking up the Nepal and Zimbabwe delegates at Oslo airport on Saturday, then Sunday some of the other girls on the course and I are going to show them around Oslo and maybe have a barbeque (while Tromsø is disappearing in snow).

Anyway. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm happy that I'm doing something tangible, and that I'll be nerding it up with fellow Red Cross geeks in an entire week. And I'm leaving tonight, wish me luck!

More family

 Dina is very good at hiding in visible places while announcing, very loudly, that she is hiding.

 We made a Duplo tower of awesomeness.

All of us slightly tired, I think.

My brother and I went to see our sister these two days, and drove there and back again through white landscapes on white roads with white snow blowing/falling down. Not always fun when you're not quite sure where the road ends at your right side, but we managed (brother doesn't drive yet, so it was all up to me and my brain is now a big mush).

Anyway, we had a good sibling-y time together, before I rush off to Oslo tomorrow. More information to come when I can cope with writing more than two paragraphs.

Birthday times (again, again)

 Flags and bunting, courtesy of Maja

 Moustache-Ingrid looks amazing

 Clever stuff that makes me happy.

 Viktoria making a great effort

Christine looking lovely as always, even with fake facial hair.

Saturday was absolutely grand, partly because there were moustaches everywhere, and partly because I have wonderful friends and I love birthdays and I had chocolate and chocolate cake. That's all.

Hello Jonas

 Look how close I am. Again, only proving how tiny Norway is.

All the people talking to him, and me just going eeeh I'll run away.

Last week, I went to the university (I'm seriously spending more time there now I'm not studying than I did last autumn) to attend a talk about the UN. Partly because I'm interested in NGO's and IGO's and big organisations and aid work and all that jazz, and partly because most of the talk was being held by Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Every time I hear him talk (live or on radio or tv) I think: I need to stay neutral and listen to what he says with a critical ear (you know I have fangirl tendencies). And I do. I really do. It just so happens that he always says clever things. Mostly. He used to be Secretary General  of the Norwegian Red Cross, and I can tell - I can hear the Red Cross principle of neutrality in everything he says. It is the idea that if we want to help everyone/be friends with everyone, we can't afford to offend anyone. Last week, he managed to be in Tromsø, which is incredibly pro-Palestine and, more importantly, anti-Israel, and he managed to stay completely neutral when questioned, and give a good explanation of why the Norwegian government is not taking sides.  He also managed to balance between what's grand about the UN and what ought to be changed, but probably won't. Impressed, me.

Also, if I were to make a list of people I'm (platonically, I just want to hug them and be bffs with them) fangirling, it would look something like this:

Mark Reads
Neil Gaiman

Jonas Gahr Støre

NERDTIME

That's right, I'm wearing the Evenstar. Got it when I was 15 - my only excuse.

Going to Ingrid tonight to watch Mark's liveblog of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I haven't watched the entire film since probably four or five years ago, and I realised yesterday, I haven't read the books since three or four years ago either. Anyway. HIGH STANDARD GEEKERY TONIGHT with my favourite co-geek, Ingrid. And with one of the top five on the list of people I'm fangirling: Mark.