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.

In October, I'm not buying

This lovely mascara. I've tried it before, and it makes my lashes look amazing. I always planned to buy a new mascara when I moved home, since my last one was bought at Penryn ASDA with Dominique in September 2008. I wear makeup (which to me means: mascara, and maybe some eyeshadow if I'm going to a party and feel like going to extremes) maybe once a week. It's not a significant sacrifice. That's Singer's point though: We buy so much (and I would have bought this) that doesn't mean that much to us. I found it on this site for NOK (Norwegian Crowns) 229. Google tells me this is the equivalent of 25 GBP.

Instead, I bought this, helping the Horn of Africa.

Charity, etc

A few weeks back, for my philosophy seminar, we had to read and discuss this article by Peter Singer. Read it, go on. Some of you university graduates might already have been through this kind of stuff, but bear with me.
Here are some responses I found online, some fairly well written, some fairly angrily written (the badly written, I left out, you can find those for yourselves if you wish):
Greg Schaefer
Victor Khaze
Ryan Deschain

Basically. Singer is a utilitarianist (?) who thinks that as long as we can help others without sacrificing our own necessities, we should. In his article, he takes it much longer, by saying that we should give away most of our income, and only keep what we need to stay alive/keep our house, etc - i.e. relative necessities. He doesn't (as many of his critics seem to think) say that we must give away everything we own until we have nothing left. What he does ask us to, is to not buy new, expensive luxuries, while what we have is good enough. He also says, that, even though he'd like everyone to give away the money they would spend on this, he's impressed with those who give away as much (or little) as 10% of their income. Singer himself apparently donates 25% of his own salaries to charities.

The article isn't perfect in any way. It's a guilt trip more than anything. The extremes he takes it to means that many readers will probably shrug and never do anything. It doesn't take into account that the money we spend buying our luxuries might help someone keep their job by reaching their sales target. Some money has to be spent in the system we have now.

Yet I think he has a point. I've always given to charities, collected for charities, and worked for charities (mainly Red Cross but also others). When I think about what I've actually given the past few years though, it's hardly anything.

I've come up with a solution (for me). Every month from now on, I will decide to not buy something I want. I will then give the amount of money this object would cost, to a specific cause or organisation. My donations will mainly go to the Red Cross, because I know and trust them. I know the money will go directly to what I donate to. I just picked this information off Norwegian Red Cross' website today:

"This is what your donations go to: 90.2% to the cause, 4.5% to administration, 5.4% to collecting more donations"

I know that my friend Immanuel would say my donation isn't a moral action, because I enjoy giving. I also want other people to know that I give, partly because it makes me feel good about myself, and partly because it might inspire others to give some. I'm aware it might also seem provocative to some, but you know what, I don't really care. And as stated before: I don't care why people help others. Surely, the large corporations that donate to Red Nose Day or the Norwegian TV-aksjonen, do it partly because they get media coverage. And? The people who receive the charity couldn't care less.

What do you think?

Bread rolls and tea

 Nom nom. I got tons of bread rolls from my grandmother this week. I ate all these for breakfast on Saturday.

 Christine, Ida and I had tea.

 

Me showing Morten how not to use flash and manual focus.

After yummy Saturday breakfast, I went to town and met Ida and Christine. I got my degree certificate, bought a cardigan at The Green Market, carrots at the Farmer's Market, and chaaai at Verdensteatret Café. We felt like ten-year-olds as the three of us sat down at the bar and ordered the same kind of tea as each other, then ran over to the side of the counter and filled our tea with honey and sugar.

Later on I went and taught Morten Nesse what not to do with a DSLR, since he's shooting an advert on his Canon 7D sometime next week. We also talked about freelancing, jobs, and how I'm so happy I get to drive a van when I'm distributing post - his girlfriend Amalie was a bicycle post-lady this summer, which sounds amazing in good weather, and awful in this kind of autumnal rainy, windy weather.

Sunday

Going to my parent's again. Nom nom.

Look at me, all smug with my degree certificate

I also look weird and slightly bulky. Ah well. I'm a graduate!