Getting ready for Christmas

It’s officially December, and my tree is already up! I wanted to decorate as early as possible this year so I could enjoy my own decorations before going home for the holiday. That wasn’t easy though, especially since my boyfriend/roommate is used to the Norwegian tradition of decorating the 23rd of December. However, he was very nice and let me have my way! The result:

Sadly, it’s a plastic tree so the shape isn’t quite right. I’m proud though, in many ways this is our first Christmas tree. Not bad in my opinion, not bad at all…
When do you decorate for Christmas?
Sarah.

TABIBITO

In order to celebrate me and my boyfriend’s 3 year anniversary today, we decided to check out an asian restaurant called Tabibito in the Oslo city center. Definitely worth the visit. The restaurant had a nice and clean but warm atmosphere with burning candles and dimmed lights. Our coats were taken at the door (we’re students, we don’t eat at places where they usually do this…), and we were shown to a small table in the middle of the restaurant. Because of our occasion, we decided to try a five course dinner they had put together and a four glass wine menu to go with it. WOW is all we can say. The food was delicious.

For starters we had sichuan spring rolls and crispy wontons, followed by three different main courses: seafood wok with scampi, scallops, mussels and “seafood balls(?)”, chicken gong bao and fried pork coated with sesame seeds in a spicy sweet and sour sauce. Finally, for dessert, we got tapioca in a creamy coconut milk soup filled with fruit and coconut sorbet. Yes, it really was as exciting as it sounds. Everything tasted great, with tons of flavor! And as if the food wasn’t good enough, the service was excellent. Our waterglasses were never below half empty, we were checked on multiple times by our waitress and she gave us detailed descriptions of what we were served. Definitely a 5 star rating from us!
Have a wonderful week!
Sarah

Long time, no see

I haven’t blogged since September 25th. In the time since then I haven’t been able to think of anything to blog about. I’ve contemplated shutting down my blog, change my angles, shut it down again, start blogging every day, blogging just once a week. I guess we all have those times when we just don’t want to blog, we don’t know what to blog about. I sometimes wish I had something exciting to blog about, like fashion or great recipes. Posts about all the places I’m travelling or about great causes I’m working for. That I took more pictures and shared my “photography”. That this would be the blog people went to for where to travel, where to go when out on the town in Oslo, or how to cook awesome food. However, I have no fashion sense, I rarely follow recipes while making food. I’m a student, so there is no time or money for travelling, I suck about going out on the town and when I do I never bring my camera so all that “photography” is never taken.

We’ve been seeing others lately…

I think to myself: what can I blog about? There is school, but being a student doesn’t have much more excitement than books, lectures and coffee addiction. I have my work (which I have neglected to tell anyone who reads my blog that I’ve gotten) at Lindex which is fun, but again limited as to what I can write about. The new clothing we get? Cool customers I meet? Maybe.. Then there is the living-with-your-boyfriend-for-the-first-time experience which would be fun to write about, but then I think that maybe the simple things that make us laugh are kind of weird and not completely understandable to others…

Then there is those deep thoughts. They’re easy to share, but also so easy to change. I notice myself writing that I want to do this and that, then the next moment I’m writing that I want to do that and this. I’m a month away from 20, I’m going to change my mind a lot in the next years. Maybe it’s ok though? Maybe my blog should simply be a place to air my thoughts, write it out and figure out if it makes sense or not. It’s not like I’m good at writing down my thoughts. I have a diary I’ve had since 2004, and I barely write 2-3 posts a year in that. But I like blogging. It might not be my deepest thoughts and secrets, it might not make any sense, I might write posts as rarely as snow falls in Texas and that are in no way exciting to anyone else but my boyfriend (who better be happy about the fact that I actually finally blogged). But it’s my blog, it makes me happy to write about things in my life and that is probably the only reason I always keep coming back to it.
I love you blog, thanks for being here no matter how long it takes for me to come back.
Sarah

Chronicles of a student

I’ve been inspired lately to try harder at things, especially because I’ve been lacking motivation in pretty much every aspect of my life. So I’ve been trying to change things up a bit. For example, at school! Today I sat for five hours studying, reading and noting and trying to learn.



And what can make a long day of studying just a tiny bit better? A smiling cup of coffee of course!

I’ve also been trying to be better with my health by exercising more and eating better. This has resulted in som pretty good meals!



Trying harder at these things have resulted in me feeling happier and better, which really motivates me to keep it up! Not to mention all the motivational pictures I’m finding on pinterest!!

What motivates you?

Come in for a cup of tea

Again, as I’ve written not long ago at all; I love fall. Absolutely love it. So this weekend, when I had a nice visit from my sister, I bought some fall decor while we were out shopping. In the dark and cold evenings, I feel it just makes everything so cozy and warm!


To top it all off, tea. A nice, big, warm cup of tea can warm the heart like nothing else.

Have a great Sunday evening!

Tomorrow, ‘tis the season of warmth and color.

I follow a general rule of thumb; winter is December, January and February; spring is March, April and May; summer is June, July and August; and last but not least, fall is September, October and November. Tomorrow is the 1st of September, so in my mind then it will officially be fall; and I’m very OK with that.

Fall, or Autumn for those who call it that, is my favorite season. That might not make sense to some, but I love almost everything about it. This season feels so warm, despite the temperatures slowly going down. Nature explodes in reds, oranges and yellow; you start wearing big fluffy sweaters and scarves to keep warm; you start wearing slippers inside, instead of walking around barefoot..

You can drink hot chocolate and tea without going past the point of that comfortable warmth you seek when drinking it (if I drink any of these in the summertime I end up sweating like nobody’s business), evenings become just dark enough that you can light candles for a great atmosphere and you can make delicious, warm and comforting soups..

Though this might sound quite crazy, I don’t mind much catching a cold in the fall either. I don’t like it in the spring, definitely not in the summer, but colds and fall kind of go hand in hand.. And colds aren’t so bad when you can actually do the things above; wear big comfy sweaters, drink a cup of tea and eat yummy soups. Not to mention, fall leads to one of the best Holidays of the year: CHRISTMAS!
Have a great last day of summer!

Campus and a recipe

I have to say, I am really enjoying this new school. The University is so big and new, and quite charming if I may say so myself. Especially when the sun is out and all the student are walking around on campus.





I like being back at school, though I’m not quite there on the transition from high school to University. My head tends to wander off very quickly if I try to study, and I haven’t gotten the hang of study techniques that will be useful for me; but it’s not even September yet. I’ll get the hang of it.
Something I have got the hang of however, is food. Yes, I’m bragging; but that’s only because it’s so good. The other night I made BBQ pulled chicken with a homemade BBQ sauce. I thought I’d share the recipe in case anyone else wants an easy and delicious meal one day. I even took step by step pictures to help!

1/4 – 1/2 Onion
3-4 Garlic cloves
1/2 cup ketchup
3-4 tbsp brown sugar
1-2 tsp liquid smoke
2-3 dashes of hot sauce
1-2 tbsp worchestershire sauce
1-2 tbsp honey
3-4 chicken breasts/filets
I tend to use this as a rough draft recipe because I don’t follow the measurements very well. I add a little of this and a little of that until it tastes good. What I do though, for this wanting to try this recipe: Chop up onion and garlic to a nice size, then put that in a frying pan with a “bigger” dab of margarine. Sauté this at a medium heat and then add the other ingredients.. I don’t follow any order, I just dump it all in there and stir. Bring it to a low bubble. Making this BBQ sauce takes no time, so heat up the oven a little while before. I put it at about 125-150*C because in my mind the longer it takes, the more juicy it will be. When the sauce is made up, pour it over 3-4 chicken breasts in a baking pan and put it in the oven. Depending on your oven, any time after an hour and a half I’d roughly assume, you can take two forks and pull the chicken apart; like so:

Once it’s done, put it between two hamburger buns with some sliced red onion and pickles, and you’ve got yourself one damned good meal.

College kid

Hello again dear blogger (and non-blogger) friends! I’ve now been a University student for little over a week, and I’m lovin’ it! I’ve met so many great people, made some awesome friends and I’ve gotten a little insight as to what I can expect this fall semester.  I’ve been to two lectures already, one today which I found to be very interesting!

Partly because I had smiling coffee, but also because this class takes on social sciences, models of humans and society, scientific explanations and methodology about modern social situations.. it’s basically a study about society and how it is created, controlled and built up.
What studies have you had/do you want to have that are the most interesting to you?

A NEW START NEEDS A NEW DO

This coming Monday is my first day at the University of Oslo. I’m insanely excited, yet somewhat terrified. This will be the first time I’ve ever started at a new school without knowing anybody before the first day. It’s a great opportunity and I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun though. In my mind this new school with no ties to the past is the perfect chance for a new beginning. So to really get the new beginning feel, I got my hair cut and colored yesterday to be the new “Oslo”-Sarah. This is what it looked like before….

And then this much hair later:

And a box of coloring, I feel like a brand new girl!

Have a great weekend!

A SINGLE MOMENT

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the attacks in Oslo and on Utøya that took the life of 77 innocent people. I was in Trondheim when this happen, happily spending a few days there as a vacation with my boyfriend. I didn’t really know any of the victims or survivors, so my life went on as normal; barely affected. It might sound heartless, but there are so many horrible things that happen in the world and life usually has to move on. This year however, on this day, I went downtown Oslo with my camera to get a look as to how this day affected people.
It was powerful.
People left roses everywhere. Every time I watched a young child walk up to the growing pile of roses, leaving a small, single rose; I felt like each rose stuck out even more. Each rose was a thought, a memory, a feeling. All these people took a single moment from their busy lives to leave their mark on how this day affected them. Being there alone, I noticed more of these moments than I usually would; and I wanted to share them here with those interested in the power of moments.



















Have a beautiful day…