Global Dignity Day

 Vijitha (who dragged me into this) telling the teenagers about the day

 And telling her own dignity story

 My class made this massive dignity chart, very proud of them

Håkon, the coordinator, with Vijitha, the head facilitator, after finishing at Breivang

About the day: Global Dignity website, Global Dignity Wiki, Norwegian Global Dignity website

Vijitha (a wonderful Red Cross person) called me last week to ask if I wanted to be a volunteer facilitator at Breivang school on Global Dignity day. I probably wouldn't have volunteered without being asked, but being myself (more about compulsive volunteerism later), I couldn't say no. The concept has seemed a bit wishy-washy to me before, but learning more about it and going through the material with the teenagers today, I really liked it.

It's just a discussion about what Dignity means, but it leads to a whole process of thoughts on how you act towards people, how much your self respect has to do with how you treat other people and how you are treated by them in return, and so on. It's something we'll be working more on in the Red Cross Youth as well: How little effort it takes to make someone else happy, or less lonely, than before.

Thank you, Vijitha!

---

Yes to candles, tea with honey, toddies, woolly socks and a reason to stay inside, even on a lovely day.

No to having a cold. Bleurgh.

Autumn

Look, look, we still have no snow. And we're in mid-October already.

Children

My co-worker's three-and-a-half-year old

Children are so much harder to take nice portrait photos of, but so much better to take good photos of, because even when they act for the camera, they don't understand exactly when the photo is taken, and you get more interesting photos.

(Also, children are adorable and I love them and there will be more photos soon)

Because things

I'm perfectly fascinated by rivers, like this, Målselva, close to where we go to autumn and winter camp. I realise that in this photo it looks very similar to a fjord, maybe especially when you're not used to such things. The river is different in that it's always flowing, and it's smaller, and it's just completely different because you know it leads somewhere - an odd statement perhaps, since the sea can lead you even further. I'm not even really sure of what I'm trying to say, except that I like rivers, as they are different from my daily fjord.

 When I came home from the autumn camp on Sunday,

I wasn't prepared for my sister and niece still being there, happy surprise!

Dina is "reading" The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, which I think is very fitting for a two-and-a-half-year old.

Always surprised by how sophisticated and clever children can be. Today I was photographing the daughter of my workmate, and she was also very well reflected and perfectly aware of everything that was going on, even if she's only one year older than my niece.

Sober October, etc

Being able to pick oranges straight off the trees in Spain, thumbs up for vegetables

So, I said I'd write a bit more about this month, and seeing that we're now a week into it already, I should see to it. I am going to go one month without

• Alcohol
• Meat
• Shaving
• Make-up
• Hair products (excepting shampoo/conditioner)/Blow-dryers/etc

And you are probably wondering why. I have gotten quite a few questions about this, and I have replied with quite a few answers. I have abstained from all these things before, and I've managed it quite easily, which is the main reason I am doing all at once now: I love challenges, and I need to challenge myself more every year. Since 2008, I've had the ongoing challenge of buying only second-hand clothes. After living in England, I've tried giving up different things for Lent. And now, I've found that autumn is the perfect time to give up some things, for different reasons, so why not throw it all into one month of detoxing?

The first two are obvious. Health! Environment (at least the meat)! Getting more out of my weekends! Yes. The last three are more an experiment to see how long I can endure without them, and a way of convincing myself that I do actually look all right without mascara every day.

All five are a way of having something to discuss with people, as well as making myself more aware of the norms of society. Of course I am hoping the side effects will be that I feel and look healthier, and get a better self image. And no matter what, there's always my last reason, the one I tell people when I'm tired of going into detail and they ask me why I'm doing all this:

Why not? I'm enjoying it.

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!

(Hyde Park, London, May 2012)

Once in my life I need to live somewhere without seasons, so I can appreciate the changing of the seasons more. Not in the mood for autumn now.

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)

Harstad, you're looking fine

 Precious is on a boat (I mean ship) and she's happy

 Precious and Siren from Harstad, eager for their pizza

 Chicken! And sweet chili sauce! What every pizza should be like (we had gone hungry for a while at this point)

 Harstad is a lot like Tromsø in many ways, here's their cormorant

(we've got one too (ours is a restaurant) (and we have the proper birds as well))

 Harstad is a lot like England in one way, they have an old English telephone box

And hey, they've got mountains and stuff too.

Precious, Munya and I went to Harstad because it is part of our district (Troms), even if it's three hours away with boat. Or six hours away with cruise ship, which we slept on on our way there. We then wandered straight from the ship on Saturday morning into the hotel, got our hotel rooms ridiculously early, and went to sleep again.

We had a good meeting with Harstad Red Cross Youth, followed by pizza (because this is the Red Cross and this is what we eat).

Because there are no boats back on a Saturday evening, we stayed until Sunday and watched at least three romantic comedies in a row in our hotel room.

Then we went home and slept some more.

Of course, in the middle of all this nice social stuff and food and sleep, there have been problems and issues and discussions on different levels, and while my body came back from Harstad very well-rested, my mind did not. I've had to take some mornings off work to balance myself again, and as you can see, only on Tuesday evening did I have the energy to edit photos and do some blogging. I see this as a very good sign.

Zimbabwe evening

 Precious telling us about Zimbabwe

 Dancing 

Even more dancing

There was also food. And more presentations. And more dancing. And lots of talking to lovely people. I was very tired, but it seems like people had a good time, and that was part of the goal. Then, seeing as it was Friday, after clearing up, Precious, Munya and I went down to the Hurtigrute (Norwegian cruise ship) and found our cabins for going to Harstad for the weekend.

ÆØÅ

I've watched this video at least once a day the past week. And now once more.

Well, no

No editing for me today.

Last week was really stressful, and so is this one. My body has been able to rest, but not my mind. I'm dreaming about the Red Cross every night.

Blogging soon.

Exist

Me and Precious on Zimbabwe evening, Friday 28th

Dancing/swimming/films/Zimbabwe evening/concerts/going to Harstad this weekend... I've had three days of going to work late because I've known I'd work late, but those mornings have been used sitting still, reading books, reading blogs, and not doing a whole lot.

Maybe tomorrow I can edit more of my photos.

From tomorrow I'm starting Sober October, which is slowly turning into Detox month for me. I will write something about this, but in general, for one month (October) I am giving up

alcohol

meat

shaving

make-up

hair-spray and anything related to fixing my appearance

I'm still figuring out why. I do like challenges though...

Energy/relax

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Then, repeat.

Cabin trip

 Walking up mountains

 Writing your names in the mountain book which is on every Norwegian mountain

 Watching the great sea, the big ocean, the North Atlantic from yttersia

 Wearing lots of clothes, scarves as hats etc

And doing silly things for no apparent reason

Except for watching the great sea, the big ocean, the North Atlantic from yttersia, all the activities mentioned above are mandatory on a Norwegian cabin trip. Often combined with consumption of alcohol.

I've had a really lovely weekend at the cabin trip with the student newspaper that I'm volunteering for. There are, as usual, a lot of international students there, and we had lots of good conversations and confused card games (with three sets of rules) and general loveliness. After living in England and being a foreigner, I seem to have acquired a need to communicate with other foreigners and international people. So interesting.

Tonight = candles, tea and watching Pirates of the Caribbean with my mum (that's right!).

Next week is going to be even more busy than this one! 

I'm heeere

Dasha, Precious, me, Munya (photo by Temmy)

Sunday: Meet youth delegates again, then Nesodden + grandmother + dog + wine + food

Monday: Repeat Sunday, just the other way around

Tuesday: Meeting at Red Cross HQ, bring youth delegates to Tromsø in the evening

Wednesday: Fix things for youth delegates, show them around Tromsø, go to cinema with Christine

Thursday: Run back and forth between tax registry and Red Cross all day to fix stuff for youth delegates, crack my tooth in the middle of everything and need a dentist appointment, go swimming, call lots of volunteers for an Amnesty charity thing in October, see Ida, stay out late

Friday: Want to sleep, but work, planning the welcome party for the youth delegates, then cabin trip with the student newspaper all weekend

.....

Doing mostly nice things but
Sleep
Want

Last night

We went to Presis and had tapas to celebrate Karoline's birthday
(photo by Cathrine Hindenes)

Just like we did last year. Those tapas are so good you have to close your eyes and just savour the food for a moment. Amazing.

Now I'm off to Oslo a couple of days!

Party tieeem*

Look, I have matte grey nails, it's amazing. I have also washed my hair.

How did it suddenly become Friday? On Sunday I'm going to Oslo to a) see my grandmother, b) attend a work meeting and c) pick up the youth delegates from Zimbabwe and kidnap them back to Tromsø.

Today I'm going to celebrate Dixie's 26th birthday! My one British friend in Tromsø moved to Hammerfest (further north. Colder and more reindeer, can you imagine?) a few months ago, but is here this weekend to see people and celebrate her upcoming birthday. Congratulations to Miss Dixie Hadfield!

*yes, I can spell. I just choose not to.