And nooow

I travel to Setermoen where my sister lives (have a look at the map now), where in winter they have minus thirty, and in summer they have plus thirty (Living away from the sea, that's what you get), and at the moment we (meaning me and my dad) are unsure whether the roads there are wintery or summery (seeing that it snowed yesterday) and we (meaning my very kind dad) have changed back to winter tires. That's right.

I'm going to see my sister and niece and brother-in-law-though-not-in-law-quite-yet-because-they're-not-married, of course, but also to pick up my aunt and family from Germany, who are visiting the North of Norway for the first time in four years. They go to Nesodden, near Oslo, every year, but now they are coming here and we are all very excited and cross our fingers for no snow and lots of midnight sunshine.

Falmouth II

 Met up with Anders, who's also from Tromsø, but studies Press Photography in Fal, and caught up on Tromsø/Falmouth

 Lucy resisted all my photography attempts

 Drying your clothes in the middle of a parking lot? Splendid idea.

Not sure when my interest in gravestones and cemeteries will turn into unhealthy obsession.

Not yet, surely?

Falmouth I

 Caipiroska-deliciousness at Eight Bar

 I know you, Falmouth

 The Princess Pavilion - to watch Freya's Oklahoma!-show

 Children on the grass drawing... the gardens?

 Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth

Man-made shell patterns inside tiny caverns in the Pavilion's garden

Going back to Falmouth was odd. On the way there I was scared I would meet friends I haven't seen in almost a year, and all of a sudden have nothing to talk about. Or not get along. Or this or that or something bad would happen. Instead I had an event-packed weekend, where we went to all our old pub haunts, watched Much Ado About Nothing by my old housemates' old drama society, watched Oklahoma! with my old housemate Freya, went to an engagement meal, went to more pubs, saw the Olympic flame go by (carried by a running 12-year-old), ate toast, drank tea, ate pasties and ice cream and fudge and a pub lunch and discovered break-ups had happened as well as people getting together, and all in all the weekend went too fast - I was suddenly on my way to Brighton. More photos from Falmouth to come first though. Nothing like a bit of nostalgia.

Norway Day, 17th May II

 Peoplewatching people watching the parade.

 Volleyball club

 Amazing nurses

 My mum, dancing with her dance club (wearing my sister's Tromsbunad)

 Tromsø Fire and Rescue

 Just hanging around this old fire...waggon? What ever do you call it?

 I want to be this kid.

 Hellooo Red Cross again

 I don't know why, but there was a tiny pony there and it needed documenting

Caught up with this beautiful person after a whole day of

"yeah, we'll meet there. No, there, ah, well, we'll bump into each other".

So that was Norway day, y'all, until I ran home and got changed and jumped on a plane to Oslo and stayed with Maja and went to England the next day! Photos sooooon.

Norway Day, 17th May I

 Britt Cristine at the Red Cross house, with a more northern bunad

 Tromsø main street, I just noticed my sort-of-godmother Eva in the middle there,

didn't see her when I took the photo or on the day...

 Ingrid and Christine

 Bruno (France), Carlos, Ingrid, Christine and Xiomara (you know my Colombians by now, I'm sure)

 I get to be in the photo as well, happy days.

Ingrid wears the country-Nordlandsbunad (green), while Christine and I have the coast version (blue).

 Now: The Citizen's Parade, where all the local societies show off.

Here it's the Hurtigruta cruise ship I think, with lots of German and English tourists who look confused.

 This is the banner of the gymnastics society (?), probably a very old one as well.

 Theatre for children and young people

People with instruments...

I don't actually know, I just wanted to photograph the man wheeling the massive cello (?).

GPOYing it up

 The day I left (17th May)

The day I came back (28th May)

Top photo is me showing off the beautiful linen shirt that goes under my national costume dress, it makes me wish I lived two hundred years ago and could dawdle about in big white linen shirts/night dresses all summer long. Bottom photo is me showing off lipstick which I never wear, but thanks to Boots at Gatwick I now do, apparently. I have some three hundred photos to look through and edit and choose from (Norway Day! Falmouth! Brighton! London!), so today you will have to do with this.

I am home. I intend to sleep.

LANDAN

I am here, I am well, I am sneaking internet at the Apple Store after days and days of shopping. Back on Monday.

Brighton

This is me, sitting in Kayung and Kyle's back garden in the sunshine (and a bit of wind), drinking tea and taking it very easy.

The past week has been exhiliratingly busy, with Norway Day on Thursday, flying to Oslo on Thursday, flying to London and taking the train to Cornwall on Friday, spending the weekend in Falmouth (not sleeping much), taking the train to London on Sunday and sleeping a few hours at Ina's house before heading to Brighton this morning.

Now I'm chilling with tea and sunshine and lovely Kay who is writing her uni proposal, which suits me good since it gives me an excuse to lazy about and do nothing. I probably won't post much this week, but I wanted you to know I'm alive and happy as a lark.

Mientras tanto

"El Hobbit" - maravilloso

I am reading all the London blogs I can, to find strange places to go and eat, planning Falmouth, trying to remember Brighton in the middle of everything, reading Fellowship of the Ring + Mark Reads Fellowship of the Ring, listening to Coffee Break Spanish and Show Time Spanish podcasts made by Scottish people, watching Todo Sobre mi Madre and reading/translating El Hobbit - all in a big muddle of English and Spanish and video and sound and text and dictionaries and rot13. Oh, and it's the Norwegian national day on Thursday, which means I'll be busy waving flags and stuffing myself all day long before flying down to Oslo in the evening. Happy days indeed.

Nordlandsbunad

 Beautiful shirt which I wish I could wear daily

 Flowers, not sure whether we have these flowers in the north, but oh well

Little odd purse that fits almost nothing, but it's pretty and full of embroidery and silver

Finally got my bunad to my flat - this will be the first year I attempt to put it on without my mother around, and I'm scared I'll get it wrong. There are all sorts of silver brooches to be put on, and since this is a traditional national costume, there are different versions with different clasps in different places, and I can never seem to get it a) right and b) logical and c) nice-looking. Will try.

Mine is a Nordlandsbunad, meaning it's from Nordland, the county south of Troms (yes, it means north-land, and no, it makes no sense that it's south of the two northern-most counties). There is a Tromsbunad as well, but it's very recent, and a lot of Troms/Tromsø inhabitants use the Nordland - on Norway Day in Tromsø I will blend in like an American wearing stars-and-stripes-clothes on July 4th. I also have the blue, which is supposed to be the coast version, while my friend Ingrid has the green inland version.

I love my national costume. My mother got married in hers (which is Follo, which is near Oslo, and very different). I got mine for my confirmation, which is very common. I never took it to England because it's worth way too much, so this will be the first time I wear it on Norway Day since 2007. Looking forward to it!

Weekend, weekend

 Started The Lord of the Rings, realised I haven't read this in at least three years, probably four...

 Went to parents, helped wash the car, watched The Holy Grail, had wine and brie with syrup

 Went to two art installationy things for the student newspaper, will edit photos soon,

introduction out in the SNOW (zoom in (that is not rain, that is snow))

Met Ida, had wine, looked at art

I also went to a photography talk at a photo fair with my dad, went to Hella for a walk with Christine and her neighbour's dog Zenta, went out with Dixie and ran into my latin-americans and also my cousin, did lots of laundry (the day after, of course), planned London, and went for a walk with Viktoria. And still I managed to slump around catching up on Mark Reads LOTR (only the chapters I've read), drinking hot teas and toddies and generally doing as little as possible.

England soon

is all I can think of at the moment. England, that is, not rubbish.

Family

Brother, Sister and Niece a few weeks ago.

That's all.

ENGLAND PLZ

Planning London with mum, accompanied by tea in floral crockery, as should be

I leave in one week today! Thought I would put my itinerary here, because I'll actually be travelling a little once I'm first in England:

• May 18th: Oslo - London - FALMOUTH TOWN where Maja and I will be landing at 5:06 p.m., if all goes well, and we shall be watching Much Ado About Nothing by FECCLES, sat next to lovely people we went to uni with
• May 19th/20th: Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth meet up with everyone we know, hopefully
• May 20th: Maja stays while I whizz up to LONDON with the afternoon train, terminating in Londinium at 11:30 pm
• May 21st: London - BRIGHTON to see (stay with) Kayung and her boyfriend Kyle, both very lovely people who studied photography with me
• May 23rd: Brighton - LONDON to pick up my mum and sister and sleep at our Travelodge
• May 24th-27th: London London London go to flower markets, vintage markets, all the markets and some shops and see some Lions and Witches and Wardrobes in Kensington
• May 28th: London - Oslo - Tromsø, sleep.
  
  

Flowers and Snow

 Mormor? Var det noe lignende vi bortførte til Olavsvei?

 We don't have that many spring flowers in the North,

but the ones we do have are pretty tough, out of necessity

 And my favourite, colt's foot, is definitely one of them.

Random photo of Dixie for human interest,

and because she managed to look less suspicious than usual in a photo

As said, we've had very varying weather lately. These photos were taken on Friday and Saturday, when we had clear, blue skies and all the sunshine you can imagine. Then of course Sunday was a stay-inside-day with snow, snow, and a bit more snow. The only reason I believe in spring is the flowers. Flowers exist, therefore it is spring, no matter how much snow is piled around the flowers. 

Today is the international Red Cross Day. Why? Because this brilliant person, Henri Dunant, was born on the 8th of May 1828.

Without Dunant, the Red Cross wouldn't exist. Please think about this. You're right, a lot of the tasks they fulfil today would have been picked up by other NGO's (also, I've learned the RC is not technically an NGO nor governmentally bound, rather something in the middle, but blah technical terms), and that's correct when you think about the humanitarian aid which the Red Cross is probably most known for.

Yet the main reason Henry (my love) started this organisation, was to protect wounded soldiers, and the First Geneva Convention was signed in 1864. The four Geneva Conventions are part of what is called International Humanitarian Law, which regulates (or tries it best to regulate) war, and is extremely important.

For me personally, the Red Cross has been a place to grow up, to find friends, to learn so much about myself and the world and history, to flirt and play and get work experience and cry and create some kind of meaning in my life. Sometimes though, it really strikes me how massive this organisation is, how much they we do and how much this one person has changed the world.

I could go on about the Red Cross principles (there are seven) and how I think this organisation is on a much higher level than many, but let's save that for a rainy day, shall we? Before this post turns into a TL;DR, if it hasn't already.

The Notebook (not the silly film)

Ignore my tired face, look at the nice notebook instead

To get some kind of closure on Russia, let me share with you some words from my notebook. If we had a dull presentation, or some kind of thought slipped into my head, I would just write it down in capital letters on a separate sheet in my notebook, so here's a random jumble of things I thought in English and Norwegian during the week of little sleep, little food and many emotions due to the two previous variables. Oh, and I'll be shouting it in capitals here too, even the friendly stuff.

Originals:

1. HUSK Å INKLUDERE ALLE OGSÅ DE FÅMÆLTE

2. RUSSERNE STARTER DAGEN MED Å VÆRE SKUFFET

3. DU MÅ IKKE TRO DU BARE HAR DRØMT

4. SI AKKURAT DETTE/GJØR I DISSE SITUASJONENE - LÆRE UNGDOMMER ORD FOR ORD HVORDAN DE SKAL OPPFØRE SEG *enseñar juventud/jovenes palabra por palabra porque/come ellos deberian comportarsen
5. NEVER USE 'in this dictionary, this word has this definition' TECHNIQUE PEOPLE CAN READ DICTIONARIES WHENEVER THEY WANT

6. FORSTYRRE FOLK SOM ØVER SEG I Å HOLDE PRESENTASJONER
7. I WANT TO SIT DOWN AND GIVE ADVICE TO FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRLS
8. MERKELIG Å VENTE PÅ DE SOM ER FORSINKET, DA STRAFFER MAN BARE DE SOM ER I TIDE
9. KONSEPTET CONCERT MAN

Translated:
1. REMEMBER TO INCLUDE EVERYONE ALSO THE SILENT ONES

2. THE RUSSIANS START THEIR DAY BY BEING DISAPPOINTED
3. YOU MUSTN'T BELIEVE IT WAS ONLY A DREAM (from this poem, not sure why I wrote this)
4. SAY EXACTLY THIS/DO IN THESE SITUATIONS - TEACH TEENAGERS WORD BY WORD HOW TO ACT *Spanish translation by Xiomara who happened to be sat next to me
5. ALDRI BRUK "I denne ordboken har dette ordet denne definisjonen" TEKNIKKEN FOLK KAN LESE ORDBØKER NÅR DE SELV ØNSKER DET
6. DISTURBING PEOPLE WHO ARE PRACTISING HAVING PRESENTATIONS
7. JEG VIL SETTE MEG NED OG GI RÅD TIL FJORTENÅRIGE JENTER
8. ODD WAITING FOR THOSE WHO ARE LATE, THIS MEANS YOU JUST PUNISH THE ONES THAT ARE ON TIME
9. THE CONCEPT CONCERT MAN

Ok, I'm tired from all this shouting now. I hope this made some sense, but not too much.

Russia (Kirovsk) III

 Look, they have new houses too, I promise

 Our leader, most amazing, methinks

 Two of our wonderful translators, Nina and Masha (Maria)

 Marvelous bus from Kirovsk to Murmansk, a tiger above the window and a wolf below

(of which sadly there is no picture)

 Orthodox church win

 View from my hotel room in Murmansk

Nikel, I think, where they extract stuff you can be allergic to (guess what)

So. That's it for photos. What about the course I was on? Truth be told, it was a bit of a Bombay Mix - some bits were good, some less good, but I want more and I couldn't stop and go to sleep even when I was allowed to. Also I was constantly slightly hungry.

It was a course mainly directed at teenagers looking to become leaders (hence: Leader Course) in the Murmansk Red Cross Youth. Because Russians have a very different education system than us, the course varied between being incredibly simple and tiringly challenging.

In school, they sit and listen to the teacher, and sit at their desks and solve exercises, and never have any of the group work and presentations we have so much of in the Norwegian schools. Therefore, they find it difficult to discuss in groups without shouting, which doesn't work that well when we foreigners are waiting for the poor translators to get a word in so we can actually participate. They also need lessons on presentation which seem basic to me, at least. Yet, they are used to working hard, to solving tasks, to doing what they are told and continue looking for a solution because there must be one and usually, in many people's lives, a lot depend on this ability to soldier on. And weak Norwegians like us are used to having fun and playing games and following time tables and Health and Safety telling us we must give the course participants at least eight hours of rest - we were definitely not up to Russian standards of working hard. And I feel bad for that. Norwegians are so lucky, so pampered, so incredibly spoilt. Yet again, Russians work themselves too hard, because they have had to, and it is culture, although it is not healthy at all.

One of the reasons we have this exchange with Russia is so there will be a culture exchange, not just learning and teaching games and methods and planning strategies. Hopefully with time we can take something of their perseverance and drive and zeal, and give them some of our time table following abilites and relaxedness and the mixture of joy with learning. Swap, swap.