Russia (Kirovsk) II

 Grey grey grey BLUE grey grey GREEN, this is Russia in my mind

 I like to photograph sinks, ok?

 Hello between-starter-and-main-course-soup

 Some kind of city hall, very nice and new

 Russia looking like it ought to

Lovely Xiomara and Temmy, first day in Russia

So, I've been to Russia before. Five years ago. I've been to this specific small town. Yet I think this visit was good to remember what I learnt last time: Russia is not Norway. Sounds obvious, but we don't really think about it as being anything but a neighbouring country, which puts it on a level with Finland and Sweden, countries which are very similar to Norway in culture, history, nature and wealth. Russia, not so much. My favourite thing about Russia is that it looks the way I imagine it, the way you see it on film - I can't explain it properly, other than that the same thing happened to me when I went to the USA: I tried to put away my prejudice from film and tv-series before going, then I arrived and everything was exactly what my prejudice predicted.

If any of you have been to Norway, think of it like this. You arrive, and all you see is the wooden houses, and the tall, handsome people, and the houses are warm and beer is expensive and everyone seems to be doing well. Yet I know that Norway has a lot of modern and old brick buildings, short, handsome people, tall, ugly people, old and cold houses, high wages that make beer normal priced, and I can point out the local alcoholics and drug addicts and homeless people.

When I go to Russia I see the grey buildings and the sudden bursts of colour, I see snow and scantily clad women in heels, I see men with funny hats and all the women wear the same types of coats, I see the statues of Lenin and the cheap vodka and old Ladas. And I love this idea of Russia because it is what I expected and it exists, to some degree.

Yet having been there twice, I can already tell that there are demurely dressed women who go out to dance to have fun, that the vodka isn't cheap if you work for the lowest wage, that one out of ten men wear funny hats and maybe 50% of the women wear the same type of coat. I've also realised I only go to the far north, which is sparsely populated, they rarely build new here because there are not more people coming anytime soon, I only go to the old industrial areas. And a lot of people have new cars, but I want to see, and I focus on the old Ladas because we had lots of Lada jokes in our joke books when we were young and we never really understood them because they were old jokes from our parents' time.

More to come, hopefully less text-heavy!

Russia (Kirovsk) I

 A quiet game of Murder during our seminars - this goes on all day.

 Teenager games of talking about good and bad characteristics

 Xiomara, having realised there's a place with more snow than Tromsø

 Hello, starter before soup before main course for lunch every day

 Some kind of first aid/medicine car?

 Lada Sputnik, all the things a Russian car should be in my mind

More grey apartment blocks with BAM COLOUR here and there.

I love that the Russians love to play Mafia at night, just like we did when we were ten, fifteen, sixteen, at camps and always way way too late into the night. Another good thing is the Murder game, which is basically everyone drawing little pieces of paper from a hat, one of which says KILLER. This person can now go up to anyone and whisper "you're killed" - and the victim will wait five, ten, fifteen minutes, before they write their name on the sheet of paper, maybe accompanied by a hint about where they were killed. This happens all day long, inbetween and during our seminars, and we have to figure out who the killer is before night falls. Great game. I didn't dare walk anywhere alone, lest I got killed.

Russia (Kirovsk) 2007

 GOOD LUCK TO YOU

 Green building, "something governmental"

 Lada, if I'm not mistaken

 Even the old buildings look good at sunset. Everything does.

 They have nice new stadiums as well, though

 A lot of Russians want to go back to living in a communist state

 Awesome man singing. 

 Grey, grey, grey, grey, COLOUR, grey, grey

 View (soon to come in updated, wintry version)

Cecille with Lenin, BFFs

I went to Russia for the first time at the age of 18, and I was utterly shocked and confused by this wonderfully different country. I was lucky enough to have Cecille with me (as well as other Red Cross Youth members) to explore and ask our Russian friends and discover and discuss. When I went back in April - same small town, even - I almost cried from all the memories and from missing my dear friend and wishing she could be there with me. There were other wonderful people with me though, more to come the following days!

May Day, Labour Day, etc

 Fabulous flea market of my childhood, way too many people

 Snow! This is not normal. Ok, it's not unheard of, but it's not normal, even for Tromsø.

 Being sat inside with my parents and grandmother, drinking tea and eating waffles made it all so much better.

Mor Ninna (grandmother) and pappa

Stop snowing now, please. I feel like I'm back in Cornwall with all these weather changes - except it's colder and includes snow. Rain, sleet, snow and sunshine - repeat in random order as you wish.

Fingers crossed it will be gone by Norway Day.

I've become a lot better at flea market shopping since my childhood - this time I didn't buy anything at all, because I figured I didn't need old weird clothes that didn't fit me. Have you any idea how much of a victory this is for me? When I was 5, 6, 7, I would have twenty crowns to shop for, and all the ladies thought I was such a sweet little child that they would take hardly any money for anything, and I always bought bags full of old toys and books (surprise) and clothes and stuff I absolutely didn't need. Ah well. I am now a grown up and will save my buying-of-random-things until I'm in Brick Lane in London in three weeks.

Man, I have a lot to say

1. I haven't done In This Month I'm Not Buying since February, because actually, in March and April, I have not been buying anything that hasn't been food or gifts (or travel) - I've not been able to not buy anything because I haven't bought anything, and the whole idea is for me to give up something. Since I don't have a job, I'm really not spending that much money.
2. I have Russia photos, I promise.
3. We have snow.
4. No seriously, we have more snow now. It's snowing in May.
5. I have snow photos, I promise.
6. I am going to Falmouth, Brighton, London, ENGLAND in two weeks and a bit, and this is where I'll spend what little money I have left.
7. Dominique tells me Johannesburg, South Africa is having a "cold front" with 15 degrees. Hello, average summer day in Tromsø.
8. I promise I had more on my mind when I started this post.

GPOY

Good things: Stinky mug, hot lemon drink, Murmansk Red Cross tshirt

This was supposed to be posted yesterday but then I thought blog post overload might shock you after so many weeks of little to no posts.

Yesterday I went to a mad mad gym class where we did all the regular jumping and running and pushups and balance, but on a wobbly board. I will now become superstrong and amazing.

I then finished my application for the whole youth delegate business and sent it off with fingers crossed.

I subsequently celebrated having finished the application (oh, and being in one of the local newspapers with the Red Cross) by drinking tea while reading one chapter of American Gods (do not read that plotline, if anything ever was awash with spoilers, that one is) at a time and enjoying one Mark Reads American Gods Review at a time. I've been avoiding this for ages, because Mark has a tendency to draw me in, but now I can and I will.

Today: other things, mainly Red Cross (what a surprise) and interviewing a lady for the student newspaper. She is making an art installation from milk caps and it's weirdly interesting.

Happy Birthday Cecille

Summer 2005, appropriately awkward teenagers

I keep having to say this, to make sure she knows, and everyone knows, how amazing a person Cecille is. We didn't really get along when we first met, but taking the same bus to school every day from we were thirteen, being in the same year group and being two of the three people who stuck out, of course we became friends. Don't worry, we were and are friends with the third girl too. This is about Cecille though, I don't think any person has helped me realise who I am (I first wrote "shaped me" but this is wrong because I have too much stubbornness and free will to be shaped by anyone) as much as her. She was even the one to introduce me to the Red Cross Youth, which is such a big part of my life now.

I could write here for hours, but I wrote something similar last year, and the most important words are Happy Birthday, and I Love You. Even if you live in Denmark.

YBTC IV

 One of the last days we got some time to go down to the sea front

 Much to the happiness of Precious, who had never seen the sea before.

 Tora revealed some tattoos

And everyone took one million photos or thereabouts

That should be all, now to Russia photos and stories... I hope I'll keep in touch with all these lovely people. 

So, today is Labour Day, the day when we fight for our rights as workers and labourers. I don't know about England, but in Norway it's traditionally meant to celebrate the workers, as well as be a chance for the people to go in parades and yes, really fight for what they think ought to be changed. I've never been in these parades. I don't feel the need to. And for me, the first of May signifies the spring flea market at the village hall of my parents' tiny village. This is where I'm going today, to eat waffles and lapskaus and have awkward meetings with people I haven't seen since I was five.

My efforts today will include digging out the car (we had lots of snow last night) and driving my grandmother to the flea market.

How lucky am I? I don't have to fight for anything, because workers have done so the last 120-130 years. Norway now has 7,5 hr standard working days, with excellent wages, many weeks of holiday, and so on, and I have yet to lift a finger for this privelege. Others have done it for me. Thank you.

YBTC III

 Cecilia, Magnhild, Anita and Marte listening to some presentation

 Dinesh, Matilde, Yashoda, Precious and Julie

 Dinesh and Cathrine dancing a Nepali dance

 Our fantastic new delegates who will go to Tromsø: Precious and Munya

 Zimbabwean presentation, complete with national anthem

I learned so much this week. It's two weeks since I left, but it feels simultaneously as if it's been a year, and it's been two days. I am now in the process of writing the application for the youth delegate job, and it is incredibly difficult to put all my thoughts into words without making it ten pages long.

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.