Autumn Camp 2012

 Russian banners, German instructor on a Norwegian course translated into English - normal

 Seminars! Discussions! Elizabeth telling us how English police officers call you "darling" to disarm you

 Silje learning all about the Red Cross Youth

 Anton telling us all about Russian police officers (this became a theme, I don't know why)

 Munya photographing the ladies from Zimbabwe

The ladies from Zimbabwe being photographed by me

This weekend has been the end of a very, very long week. It was good, I met a lot of interesting people, got to talk more to the interesting people I already know, and ate a lot of nice vegetarian food. There were, however, also a few discussions and tears and issues (external, internal etc), and I'm very tired now.

Trying to take tomorrow off. Sleepy times.

But before that: Downton Abbey S0302!

Look what I've got

Five Russians, one of them Tromsø resident, and one Norwegian (spot the Norweg)

This weekend is the annual Red Cross Youth Autumn Camp, the past few years meaning that the Russians come to stay with us and do activities with us in Haraldvollen. We also have a fantastically diverse youth group in Tromsø at the moment, with our youth delegates from Zimbabwe, two girls that mostly speak Spanish and one or two words in Norweg/English, and several other nationalities and languages all mixed together.

This time is always very confusing, with a lot of people together and no truly common language, but I love it. I love trying to learn all the words in Russian and only remembering how to say please, I love learning about the Red Cross in different countries, and I love learning how to dance from the youth delegates. Nothing is perfect, everything is lost in translation, but you learn so much from it. Here's hoping it's a good weekend (I will sleep on Monday. I will sleep on Monday. I will sleep on Monday)

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.