HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO

Today my little brother turns 13 years old. Congratulations kid!

In our house, we’re lucky. If somebody has a birthday that means our mom is going to make something yummy. She’s quite the cook, seriously – everybody who tries her food simply loves it. If you’re interested in checking out some of what’s cooking in her kitchen and the other exciting things going on in her daily life in the forest, check out her blog at Eventyrhus.

Now my brother is a guy, and a simple one at that. When my mom asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, the answer came quickly – burgers.

Yeah, it was pretty good despite that it’s “junkfood”. And don’t worry, I’m going to the gym tomorrow to pay…

Desert however, can be as unhealthy as it would like – I’d still eat a bowl of this anytime. Feast your eyes on our Dirt Desert…

Yummy! It was absolutely delish. Now I’m stuffed, filled and done for the night. Thank goodness I am not going to school tomorrow, you know – cus I’m lucky.. Just kidding, I actually do have free. Hmm.. who knows.. I might think of something very exciting to write about tomorrow since I’ll have so much spare time! Stay tuned…

By the way, I’ve seen that my stats are going up – which I am proud of since this is a new up and coming blog. So to celebrate, I was thinking I’d have a little giveaway when the number reaches 2000 visitors. I’m at 703 now, so keep on dropping by and spread the news!

-S.

Russe revy

If your not Norwegian and you don’t have any relations to Norway, you might be asking yourself – What is russ? Well, here in Norway you usually have 13 years of school. By the time most people are done, we’re about 18/19 years old. In Norway you can drink (except for hard liquor) when you’re 18. I guess somehow from this combination there has formed a tradition for graduating students all over Norway. It’s called the “Russetid” which is a period from the middle of April to the 17th of May (Norways national day) where all the russ go crazy and act stupid. This might not make any sense, right? Well, the point of it is for these graduating students to have a last chance at acting childish and stupid, getting it all out before they go out into the real world to be adults. Now some might think this makes sense, some might not – however it’s been a Norwegian tradition since the 1700s (in a very different way than now).

The russ wear red pants (unless they go to a different type of school, then there can be black/blue/green etc.), and they have red hats. They often form groups for the “Russetid” and buy a van together, which they pimp up and spend most of their time in. They go to BIG parties with russ from all over the country and simply have a fun time before things get serious.

The past three days the russ have had a revy (came up as revue in the dictonary), sort of a show with skits, music and dance to earn money for a good cause. Last night I met three wonderful girls there to see their last performance.

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the show…

The point of this entire revy is to be funny and tons of people usually come to see the show. There was kids, teens, grown ups and elderly – and everyone laughed a lot!

In about a month then, the russ will start and I bet they’ll have fun! Next year it’s my turn, and I can imagine I’ll tell you a whole lot more then!

 

-S.

Workin’ 9 to 5

I though I’d tell you all about my job, the first one I’ve ever had. I know what some people might be thinking.. “She’s 18 and just now started working?!” Well believe me, I wish I started earlier. However, I didn’t get a job when I was younger and now when I’m a little over a year away from moving out on my own – I regret it big time.

But this was not what I was going to share with you. I recently got my very first job at place called Lindex. Now Lindex is a Swedish founded clothing store, that started in the 1950s with lingerie. This was and has been in the past year their biggest market. Later on they’ve expanded their markets, and the store I work at now has a lingerie department, a womens department, childrens department and a cosmetics department.

I enjoy working here. I love working with customer service, and being able to help a customer find what she wants or needs – it makes me feel good. I’m new when it comes to fashion, so sometimes I feel bad because I simply can’t help her.. however it’s so fun when I can come with suggestions and can see my customer leaving with a smile on her face.

Since I started working there, my eyes have opened for how much work goes into keeping a store up and running. As a customer before, I would simply go into a store, look at clothes, try stuff on if I wanted and maybe buy something. Easy peasy, right? However, there are SO many details that are taken care of.

At the store I work at, we clean every hour. That means folding clothing people have messed up, hanging clothes from S to L, putting back clothes that are left in the dressing rooms, clothing that are hung up the wrong way, etc.. That’s just the cleaning. At the cash register you have to learn to take cash, to take cards, to take gift cards and club cards, to return items and to switch items. There is TONS of things there as well. Then you have to refill bags and put alarms on clothing, not to mention refilling shelves with things that have been sold.

This is the storage room at my work place. There is a complicated sorting system here, that you have to learn quickly. All clothing has a special registration number, and then the type of clothing has it’s own code, and so it goes on…

I hope that didn’t come across as negative, I really don’t mind it all. I actually enjoy it, I was just startled at all this stuff I didn’t know. I like my job a lot and until I become a vet – I really wouldn’t mind working in Lindex.

I also have very nice colleagues. Lucky me eh? Last night I was actually invited to come to the store in the evening and help decorate it for a internal decorating competition between the stores at the mall where my Lindex is. To put it short, there was 200 ballons and a lot of explosions.

But the result was pretty OK right? I guess we’ll see who wins! But now you all know where I work!

By the way, I’d like to thank everyone that stops by my blog! I’ve seen on the live feed map that there are people from all over, California – New Hampshire – Greece – South Africa.. so on and so on. It’s so fun! Hope you enjoy what you read here!

Have a nice day/evening/night everybody!

-S.

Girls night !

 

I’m, again, so sorry for taking forever to blogg! You see, Sunday we went for a two hour long walk on the ice – followed by me being a good girl and cleaning my room. Then I was a good girl again on Monday and worked out for two hours… and.. well, you get the point. But here I am to tell you about the great girls night I had on Saturday!

Me and two other girlfriends (one who is actually an American exchange student) went to our friend Matilde - yes you’ve seen her in the past posts – when the sun began to set. There we were treated with really good homemade quesadillas and a yummy salad…

Then we basically spent the entire rest of the evening laughing our butts off in the couch! I have to say, I simply love it when you have friends that you don’t have to make an effort to have fun with. I love how naturally it comes instead!

Now let me tell you about my friend Berit…

She was, to say it mildly, quirky from the moment we met her. She’s an extremely outgoing, humorous and such an incredibly nice girl from Ely, Minnesota (pronounce it El-E, not El-y or she might just hurt you) who I think caught the heart of both me and the two other girls there that night, if not everybody at school. We’ll all miss her dearly when she goes back to the US, but man what a great year it has been!

I love making new friends, and I hate losing old ones. I recently lost one of my best friends, I guess simply because we went in seperate directions with our lives. However, it’s always sad to end something that was good on a sour note.

So I’m curious, what is one of the most exciting friends you’ve ever made?

-S.

World Sled Dog Championship

 

What a day! After a nice and relaxing morning me and my family headed to Hamar, where we went to see the World Sled Dog Championship. We were just going to take a peek, just let our dogs Nanna and Jenny socialize a little and then go. However, we ended up spending almost one and a half hour there because it was just so cool!

The sky was a radiant blue, the sun was shining and tons of people and dogs were together at this place. There were dogs barking like crazy with energy, ready to run fast as lightning. Very impressive!

Hahaha I just love the expressions on their faces! You could really tell that they loved what they were doing. Jenny, my Australian Shepherd girl, seemed to REALLY want to join them. So we had to throw her favorite toy, a ball, for her so that her attention would be elsewhere a little.

She is a funny girl, and I think she got a lot of good socializing by being there. There were a lot of people, from all over the world. We heard Germans, Italians, Americans, all kinds of people! And everybody was just so happy to be there at this event on such a beautiful day!

Then after being there for a while, we all got ice cream from the worlds nicest mommy. Lucky eh?

All in all, a very nice day! Now I’m off to meet some friends for a girlsnight, so there’ll probably be another picture post tomorrow!

Stay tuned!

 

-S.

TGIF

I’m sorry for being so slow about blogging, the charger to my computer has been dying a slow and painful death – so I didn’t have much possibility to write an entire blogpost…

So that leads me to some very good news. Considering my computer was getting old, I didn’t want to risk wasting money on a new charger when the computer itself might as well die not long after. So today I went to Hamar and bought a new computer.

Isn’t she lovely? It’s a Packard Bell, for those of you who speak computer-language. Oh but this isn’t the only thing that made this a very good Friday.

I got a ride to Hamar with a friend of mine and we ate some yummy Tandoori Baguettes for lunch.

Here you see her, it’s Matilde – my biology buddy!

Just so it’s said, for those of you who visit Norway – or even those of you who live here but just haven’t tried it – go to La Baguette and try the Tandoori Baguette. It’s SO good, it will definitely put a smile on your face!

Now I was as lucky as to get a ride back to Brumunddal as well, and there I went to Ixat (the gym I go to) to work out until mommy was done so I could catch another ride home. Now I have to say I felt proud today, I pushed myself a nudge harder in everything I’ve been doing lately (running program, strength exercises, etc) so that I hopefully will improve in it all. Just wait, some day you guys will find a post here where I’ll proudly tell you all how well I’ve done – but for now I’ll keep all numbers and measurements to myself.

Now that I have a new and better computer, I’ll try to be real good about blogging. I have some fun things going on this weekend so wait and see, there will be much to read!

-S.

Biology

One of the classes I am taking this year, and that I will be building on to next year, is biology. I think it's one of the most exciting classes I've ever had. Sure enough, some people would say it's gross to dissect pigs eyes and cow kidneys an so on, however - I find it quite interesting and helpful considering I am going to become a vet.

The biology room itself is interesting with all the stuffed animals in different stages of life, bone structures and all. There are insects and plants on display, and models of the human body.

To top this class off we have a great teacher. Now, I would call him special, but at the same time he is funny, nice and very interesting to listen too. He's an easy going teacher who has understood the fact that it's our own problem if we don't do our schoolwork (something we in my grade are old enough to take responsibility for ourselves at this point). Now in Norwegian schools, at least in my grade level, most of the schoolwork is done on computers. There is consequences with this though. Most people don't actually do what they are supposed to...

Meet my friend, Matilde. She is one of these people. However, so am I too some degree - so I can't complain. But this Monday in biology she was checking prices on cameras....

When my teacher (who you actually can see in the picture above) came walking up behind her and saw this he sort of huffed and told her something like that she always did this and should try working more. Eventually he was going to have to do something one day when he came up behind her and saw her not doing schoolwork again.

Now this was a joke, so nobody take it too seriously. He said he was going to give her one of those bumps on the head that Bugs Bunny and Wylie Coyote usually gets. Good to know he keeps in easy and humorous instead of getting mad. Now don't misunderstand, we're good students - really we are... Just look - evidence!

Don't worry... we'll graduate, I'm quite sure of it. Everyone has to rebel a little now and then right? Better now than in a job situation where we could actually get fired right? As long as the work is done!


Have a nice week!

-S.

Sunday, Sunday people

Sometimes it's nice to just take it real easy after a long and busy week. Even yesterday was a busy day, I worked from 8am until 4pm - so after all that I fell asleep pretty quickly.


Then there was Sunday. As most Sundays, I spent the first part of it simply staying in bed until my stomach growled at me to feed it. Then I got up and made myself the only things that sounded good on this fine Sunday morning.

Yes, I know it might look like a lot. I had two slices of some rustic spelt looking bread my mom had bought with scrambles eggs and chopped salad on top, a fruit-cup with apples, pears and cantaloupe, then water and cranberry juice. Breakfast is supposed to be the biggest meal of the day, right?


Then, throughout the day I played around with my camera. Both pets and plants were more than willing to be models. 

Ah... those lazy, hazy Sundays... It's OK to have a simple day now and then, however - I really hate being bored. I often feel more stressed and restless if I don't have anything to do than if I do. Doesn't matter much now though, tomorrow starts a new and busy week and so it goes on. 

Will look for something exciting to write about later this week in hopes of thrilling you readers. Again, feel free to comment anytime! In Norwegian or English, whatever you'd like!

-S.

Master-chef says nomnomnom

Usually on Friday's I have English class from 8.30-10.00, then I'm done. Luckily for me, we're working on an in-depth study and my teacher was nice enough to let us work from home. So all day I've had off! Isn't life great sometimes?


So I've done a bunch of little things throughout the day, but the one I've chosen to share with you is better than all the other things I did. I made something yummy, something chewy, something sweet and delicious. I made S'mores granola bars!

Yes, I tasted it - and yes it was DELICIOUS. So I thought I'd be nice and share this recipe with you all.


4 tbs unsalted butter
1/4-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 cups granola (plain)
1 cup rice krispie cereal
2 tbs graham cracker crumbs (digestive cookies if you live in Norway)
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips (chopped Dronningsjokolade)


Combine honey + butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar when butter starts to melt. Bring mixture to a boil then lower heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and then add granola, rice krispies and graham crackers and fold until evenly coated. Gently fold in marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then I simply spread it into a lightly greased pan that seemed to fit and let it sit until it was firm. Yum eh?


Yes, you're welcome. And yes it was yummy. Enjoy.


Now I've seen on my statistics that multiple people are dropping by, however the comments aren't coming. I'm curious as to what you guys think about the things I write, so don't hesitate to write something if you either liked it or didn't. And for those of you who are Norwegian and might not want to write in English, I really don't mind comments in Norwegian either. Just sayin', I'd really appreciate it! 

-S.

Life's little reminders

A woman once lost some of the people that were closest to her, four of them. She came to a point in her life were she felt so alone, that she took her own life. At her funeral, the church was so full of people that many of them had to stand outside the entrance. 
Think about that when you feel alone. 


This was just one of the stories we were told today while listening to a campaign the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has been holding at high schools all around the country. A woman was at my school to talk about speaking up while riding with someone who drives like an idiot. She told us another sad story about a girl who had been at a party, when she noticed that it was 45 minutes past her curfew. She ran outside but couldn't find her friends anywhere. However, there was a guy there with a car who said he had some buddies who were going to the same area she was and that she could get a ride. (In Norway this is TO SOME DEGREE safer than in America). She ended up sitting in the back seat between two guys, and as they came to a dark and curvy forest road the speed had increased so much that she was scared to death.


She didn't say anything.


They then ended up crashing and she fainted. When she woke up, it was pitch black and silent. The only sound was a tire that was still spinning. She was stuck, and sat between four dead bodies for two hours before anyone found them. 

It's stories like this that people have to hear, in order to really think. This entire campaign was trying to make us speak up. It also wanted to make us think twice about when we as drivers had passengers, or when we in general were the drivers. She then told us how once a girl was driving with her mother as a passenger. Her cellphone was lying beneath the stereo (the place were most drivers keep their phone), and all of a sudden the phone rang. For only a couple seconds her eyes went down to the phone as she picked it up and answered it, then she hit a semi-trailer. On the phone was her boyfriend, who heard it all. When he got to where they had crashed the police had to hold him down and cuff him because he was completely hysterical. The girl died, her mother survived. 


It only takes a second for life to change, or end. During that session, pretty much everybody seemed to get it, to understand and want to be careful. The sad thing is however, I have a strong doubt that most of them will actually stick to it. I, myself recently got my drivers license and I believe I am one of the few who will actually stay careful. Things like this make me think, make me remember how important it is to be careful with the life we have and with the life of others. 

Isn't it scarier to be dead, than to say slow down? Isn't it worse to be dead, than to put on a safety belt in front of friends? Isn't it worse to be dead, than to call somebody back later?


Be careful out there on the road guys. You matter to someone, and someone matters to somebody else. Remember that. 

-S.

"An awesome deal" is in motion!

For a while I've been feeling sort of bummed out about my health. I don't enjoy huffing and puffing when I do activities with my friends, I don't enjoy having my health pull me down in gym. I really don't enjoy when I get dressed in the morning and don't feel that I look my best and nor do I like it when I try on new pants at a store and I need to wear 2 sizes bigger than I usually wore. 


Now I know I'm not fat, however - I am big. I am 1.72 (5 foot 8) in height, and according to BMI calculators I am on the verge of becoming "overweight". Now I don't care much about the numbers I see on the weight scale, however when it affects the way I feel about myself - it's time to do something!


For my birthday I got a membership at a very nice local gym, and I've started using that a lot. To make the entire better-health thing even better, me and a friend made "an awesome deal" - where our goal is to work hard until Easter Break (which starts around the 15th of April) to see if we really can achieve any progress.


I've been really good. I don't feel I've ever been this good with sticking to the health thing before - and I am proud! I've been going to the gym Mondays and Wednesdays, working out for two hours each of those days. In that time I do weight lifting and use different machines they have at the gym, as well as a cardio program one of the instructors there gave me. It's called 4x4 and I am then supposed to run for 4 minutes at an incline of 3-5 and keep a pulse which is about 80% of my max pulse, and then walk for a minute at lower speed. Then I alternate running and walking until I've ran for 4 minutes 4 times. 

I must admit, I love running. It makes me feel good and even though it's sometimes hard to keep it up when I feel tired, I love the accomplishment of being able to do that 4x4 program. 


Besides this workout on my own, I've found a class I really enjoy. It's called BodyBalance and it's a mix of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates. It is hard, to some degree. I barely have any muscles so when we do the Pilates, I struggle. However I enjoy the parts where we work on stretching and balance. I do this class for one hour every week as well as the other work-outs I mentioned above.

This Thursday I am going to try out a new class called BodyCombat, which is basically a lot of punching the air and kicking and such stuff. Should be exciting! 


So here is my workout plan for the next 6 weeks, who knows - maybe it inspires someone?
If anyone is interested, I could eventually make a post about my favorite running songs. I feel I have a few personal favorites that work like magic when you're feeling unmotivated! I guess we'll see. 

-S.