DON’T WORRY, BE HIPPIE

Dudes… let’s all go back to the good times…

The other day we had a hippie-theme day at school for the russ. Peace and love man, haha. Well it was cool anyways. Not sure I’m going to share pictures of the last theme-party we’re going to have because it’s just too embarrasing and I think way too many people are going to take it a dash too far. It’s pimp-and-hoe… In just 3 months though the russing will start and I’m pretty sure there will be a lot to share with you!

BLOGGER CHALLENGE: I challenge all you readers to post a picture of an previous theme-party costume you’ve used on your blog and leave a link in in my comment box! SHARING IS CARING

-S.

GEOCATCHING POTATOES

I’m a carboholic, a sinner. I love cheese, pasta, rice and potatoes. Honest to God I do. Now I am going to share with you one of my kitchen specialities, which inwards in my family I am famous for (are you starstruck yet?). This is simple, yet so freakin’ yum that you’re going to eat it all the time. Maybe this might even spice up your potato relationships in Norway Megan?

Slice some potatoes into random cubes. They don’t have to look nice or be equal in size, just chop’em up and spread them on a baking sheet. The reason for doing this is if some are at the top and some are at the bottom, the bottom ones will get soggy and soft while the ones on top will be nice and crispy obviously..

Spread some olive oil, or any other oil for that matter (except car oil and such obviously…) and don’t be greedy. If' they’re too dry they won’t tan as nicely.

Did I forget to mention I’m also a garlicaholic? I put a nice portion of garlic pepper and garlic salt on these babies so that they were nice and covered! Pop them in the oven at a high heat and then I usually say they’re done when they’re golden or after tasting one and getting hooked…

I went for a walk with my mom today and found my first Geocache. It was brilliantly hidden and it made me all giddy to find more!

I found out that around the place where I will be living in Oslo, there are around 10 000 geocaches… think I’m excited much?

-S.

CREATING A HOME

Do you remember my new apartment where I will be moving this summer?

It was quite plain and not the least bit personal. Me, being the person I am, I was determined to turn this place into a homey-personal place where I will enjoy living for the next years… So this weekend when I went to Oslo to visit Paul I convinced him to come with me to IKEA, and here is the results:

Can you tell that I like purple? I’ve also bought a new sofa at a bargain price (gotta love those New Year sales)!! This little baby will be entering the apartment as soon as we figure out how to get her down to Oslo:

I love making a house a home, or in this case an apartment a home. The thing is, this will be my first home away from home, and my first home with Paul. It’s exciting because I’ve always been a lot at home with my family and I’ve never lived in a city (of any size, seriously) – but now I will live alone, with my boyfriend, in the capital of Norway. No more buses to school, now it’ll be the subway…

I’m going to miss my family like crazy, yet I can’t seem to feel depressed about moving out. Have you ever felt so excited to begin something that nothing else can bring you down? That’s how I feel. I’ve been with Paul for two years now, and the only thing I hate about our relationship is how stressing it is to be together. It’s like you have to do something before you go here, there or home. It’ll be so nice to just be together, without stressing because the date, day or weekend is almost over.

Then what I am most excited about: a city! I’ve always lived in small places, where everybody knows everything about everyone and groups are formed by who you’ve grown up with, and the style is a certain way so if you stick out you’re pretty much an outcast. I can’t wait to be just a person in a crowd. An individual, who nobody judges because you are just some random passer-by to them. To go to a school and study something together with people who are interested in the same things as you, not who you are stuck with in a obligatory class that you don’t have any real interest for. And to share these interests with people who have no idea of your past, who haven’t heard any rumors about you or has no real reason for prejudice. Sure, people will always have some thoughts about you, but that they haven’t heard it from all those know-it-alls in a small place.

People laugh a little at me and say I get too excited about things that are going to happen later on, but it makes sense though, doesn’t it? This excitement for change? I think so..

-S.

19 YEARS AGO

19 years ago, I was born. Thank goodness for that because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have had as nice a day today as I have had!

It was such a nice day, the sun was shining, school was short and I was in a good mood. First of all, I love my parents. They are wonderful and my day would not have been the same without them! When I was done at school they treated me to one of the best baguettes around here before we went home, all I can say is yum!

I’m not the sturdy type. Usually you shouldn’t let me hold small, fragile things because I have this horrible curse of dropping them totally unintentionally. So when I got myself a cellphone that was tough enough for me a long time ago, I decided to stick with that one because no matter how many times I dropped it – it always kept on working. Well, sadly we all get older and worn out, so unfortunately my strong and wonderful phone was dying slowly causing much stress for me as it randomly would turn off, start blinking, etc… Luckily my parents noticed my distress, so today I got a new friend for my birthday:

A Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830! I love this phone, and it has so many nice features – but I am terrified to drop it. It’s so fragile!

To top the day off, we ate my second favourite food: SUSHI (note when I say sushi I actually mean the faux type with scampi and stuff)

Droooool. And then luckily my mom is the best chef/baker in the world so for dessert (you’re allowed a little treat on special occasions), Oreo Cupcakes!

It was goooood. So good that everyone was almost sick afterwards from scarfin’ it down so fast. Let’s put it this way – one was enough!

Well, now I’m going to bed. Tomorrow will be an exciting day, my grade is going to Lillestrøm (1,5 hour away) for an educational expo where all the different universities and colleges in Norway and the ones that offer studies in other countries have stands and tell you about their school.

-S.

FROZEN

It was cold the other evening when I went out to try the new macro lens my mom got for Christmas…

But that’s not what I was going to tell you guys about now! This morning my parents were all excited about finding some world-wide treasure hunting game called Geo Caching (read about it HERE), which happens to be tons of hidden treasures (I think they’re logbooks or something) all over the world. Turned out there was 500 and something geo caches just here in the area we live, so they were ready to go hunting! I joined them and we brought a couple of the dogs, and shortly into our walk I realized that it was a good idea if I brought my camera..

In my biology class we’re having a project to make an object collection (a collection of pressed plants, excrement or pictures containin plants/animals/etc) and I sort of forgot about that until the snow came and all plants were dead and animals were hiding. So in a stress to get some examples for my collection I figured the best thing was to bring my camera, hence the piece of paper with my name on it. What you see above is the footprints of a hare.

Footprints of a deer (we saw so much of this it got boring)..

Not sure yet what this is. It looks somewhat like deer prints, but as if the deer tip-toed instead of putting his whole foot down.. Oh well.. It was a really nice walk and such a beautiful day..

The sun was shining and the cold gave me some nice pinkish cheeks..

I had a really nice walk and I think my walking buddy Nanna had a fun time too..

Do you have snow where you live?

Is there animal prints in it?

-S.

FED UP AND DEALING WITH IT

As usual around the turning of a new year, I made my little exercise and health plans with ideas in the back of my head as to how I could cheat sometimes and so on.. The way we all think around the 31st of December..

January 1st, I got on the weight scale just so I could jot down a number. Carelessly expecting the samme weight I’ve kept for a few years I looked down as the number stopped, and my jaw dropped. Note that I’ve never been heavier than 75 kg (165lbs(?)), but I’ve always felt that is way too heavy since I’m 1.73 and that weight ain’t just muscles. The weightscale said 83 kg (183lbs(?)). That’s almost 10 kg(22lbs).

That gave me quite an awakening. I started thinking, realizing how not only did I actually weight this much, but I’m exhausted and I have no energy for the time being. I’ve been mistreating my body, and at the age of almost 19 – I should actually be in my prime right now. My mom said that when she was my age, she barely slept because she had so much energy. I see all my friends who are out doing things, going, going and going. I realized that this is really bad.

So now my old’fashioned-gonna-sort-of-do-some-of-it plan has become my ultimate goal. I don’t think I’ve ever been this focused and set to change my life, and hopefully that will be enough.

I’m taking it one month at the time, with pictures and everything. Unfortunately I’m not showing you guys yet because just too many people I know read my blog. On the otherhand I will share with you food I make and the exercise I do. Today’s special: Turkey and broccoli omelette!

2 eggs

2 tbs water

1/4 tsp salt

1/4tsp garlic/pepper mix

Handful of broccoli (cut into small trees)

Small handful of turkey meat from New Years dinner’s leftovers

Chopped onion

Small drizzle of grated cheese (don’t be greedy with the cheesy)

I honestly kind of wing it with the amounts I put in. I focused on a lot of greens and some meat to make it extra filling. I just ate it now, for lunch at school. It was extremely good and quite pleasing! Pretty sure I can hear my stomach thanking me for the delicious lunch.

Sorry for the text-heavy post! Just wanted to share my problems and ideas with you guys!

-S.

TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE

Happy New Year fellow bloggers and blogreaders! I took myself a little unannounced free time from the blogging world this holiday to spend time with friends, family and dear old Lindex (Yeah, I worked a lot). Let me sum up my week:

Sunday 25th; I made my first attempt at going out with friends (You can go out to certain pubs/bars when 18 in Norway and some allow 18 year olds in only for the holidays). Now I’ve been 18 for almost a year and I’m turning 19 in 17 days, so I’m kind of slow on the whole going out thing. I guess I’ve never been much of a party animal… Anyhoot, first attempt at going out – me and my friend Matilde stood in line until we literally we’re first in line, when the bouncer goes: “Sorry guys, it’s full inside.” Seriously? We stood in line for another hour thinking they’ll have to let someone in soon. But after an hour I said screw it, and went home. So I still haven’t ever been out.

Monday 26th; Had a relaxing day with my boyfriend while eating crap and having a good ol’ time.

Tuesday 27th; Got up at 5am in order to be at work a little before 7am so that I could spend 2 hours pricing every single piece of clothing which was ment for sale with 50% stickers. Then I spent another 4 hours helping customers and sorting through our tights-wall. When done at one o’clock, I went to Hamar and spent more money than I should have on after-Christmas sales. FUN! Among the stuff I bought was these babies…

For a bargain price of 400Kr ($67) when they actually cost 1000Kr ($167)!!

Wednesday 28th; I worked, again…

Thursday 29th; FREE! Woohoo! I ate wonderful homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, went to the movies with my family to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie and finished that awesome evening with SUSHI! Yum!

Friday 30th; I worked, again.. but I had a very nice evening after that with cardgames and boardgames played with my siblings and Paul.

Saturday 31st; The last day of 2011! I slept long, ate a delicious breakfast. Packed my bags and then drove Paul home before I myself went to my friend Matilde. There, we ate, got ready and went to a new years party!

Yours truly played around with fake eyelashes and thought that would be a fun add to the party-look, until I realized that the glue really hurt when it was dry so I said skipped that idea…

Happy New Year everybody!

-S.