jenta i norge

I came back yesterday morning from a lovely 3-day escapade to Elverum to visit Eirik. I’ve still got all those images and words in my head; it was short but really wonderful. Good to escape this city for a while and see friends that I see way too rarely…weird to think that soon we won’t be living in the same country anymore; that everything changes, that people move forward, backward, they stand on the sidelines and watch, or pack their bags and go…

so, apparently girl got an iPhone. And she is apparently more or less able to use it. In fact, since her dear and beloved computer died, she can only rely on evil Apple in order to check mail and such. It’s really quite terrifying. Anyway, yesterday and today were spent helping two, yes TWO, people pack. Ese and Tristan, who ended up being both on the same flight. (obviously not because he’d missed his flight this morning. Nonono..) Anyway, the air is fresher around here, I have a new musical obsession (Brad Hamers) and I’m dying to see Eirik next week. I’m really hoping it works out. And being in the middle of nowhere around the time of the annual meteor shower is perfect:)

When prompted to make lists about what I miss in Vienna and what I will miss in Bergen, I came up with (off the top of my head):

Vienna
my cat
my mom
singles’ club meetings with raffi
crossing the river in the morning
the concerts
iced white moccaccino with soy milk and extra espresso shot from Coffeeshop

Bergen
Ana
the smell of the sea
not having to take public transport
the academy
the public library
the rain
T

I had more, but really I can’t remember now. I could make a life-long list of things, though. the countdown has started; in 22 days and 23 hours I will be at the Vienna airport with a lot of sadness and memories. and most probably carrying my world globe lamp like one big retard - but I love it too much to leave it behind. Slight problem being materialistic when you love moving..

Other news include a really lovely weekend, the aftertaste of which is pretty much gone after a disastrous morning - I burned my coffee, my computer is REALLY going crazy, I don’t have the heart to answer all the emails that are piling up in various inboxes, online-banking is off the server, I forgot my norwegian account’s login password, I found some of panda’s letters and stupidly decided to read through them so I am teary-eyed because I really really really miss him and at the same time know that what bring me closest to him takes me further away from here, and I still have my awkward nightmare in the back of my head. Ana is sick like hell, she looks miserable and has an awful sore throat and spent half of yesterday evening making concoctions with herbs and honey and milk and she still went to work today.
Anyway, let’s try to get through this day no more scarred than we already are, shall we.

well, it has come.
the first lightning I saw a few minutes before Ana went to bed; we stared at the sky for a bit, waiting for the thunder that never came. the clouds were orange from the lights of the city, some were white like snow and the others dark silhouettes against the light sky. A black bird flew right under Venus, before the planet got hidden by a mass of clouds.
I stood on the balcony waiting for the thunder and lightning to be more and more close to each other, until finally the raindrops started falling. I grabbed my keys, a sweater, quickly put on my shoes, and ran outside. I walked up my street until I got to the point where it looks like the city ends; from there you can see the sea, the fortress, and the bridge that looks like the golden gate, shining like neon. the purple sky was glowing all over and my trousers stuck to my legs and the headlights of cars flashing past lit up my soaked back and everything felt surreal. The surface of the water looked perfectly smooth, like a huge lake of ice, and the city was silent.
It was like I want to imagine the apocalypse. I walked home barefoot holding my shoes in one hand and my heart in the other.

again not a cloud in the sky today. the days are slow and summer-y; maria eats a lot of ice-cream and I’ve broken my personal melon-eating record. I was never a big fan of melon (or, rather, cantaloupe) so this is a huge deal! I’m heading to the library in a few minutes, after dropping by school for the secret panda project…shhhhhhh.
I’m reading a lot about space and rogue waves and I am excited about the solar eclipse on friday. like W H O A

today’s soundtrack is Nada Surf and the Buzzcocks. more or less.

I’m hanging out in parks a lot - usually with Ese to bitch about people’s horrible fashion style (aka BitchFest) but sometimes also to have iced coffee and a nap under a tree.

Under a tree

she is not an alcoholic

springrolls

Yesterday was Ana’s day off, so we went for a walk through the city, stopped to listen to street musicians (a wind quartet from Russia and a country-folk singer with his daughter on the double bass), bought salad and headed towards Nordnes. such a lovely and cute day.

street graffiti

When we got back, we made gaspacho and guacamole.

gaspacho - it looks like a bloody mary. kind of

avocado is the new black!

I was totally sleepy. a cold shower didn’t help at all :(

Other favorite activities include: music talks with T, arguing with dodo about fat people (I’m for and he’s against), running away from policemen that were going to stop me for drinking beer on the street, falling asleep on the balcony, getting woken up on a wednesday night at 3:50am by assholey, celine-dion-loving, drunk neighbours resulting in maria angrily shouting at them and me having to fall asleep with earplugs after an hour-long and unsuccessful attempt to go back to sleep.

I hate earplugs.

plain chocolate cookies, from last night

a little experiment I made this morning: vanilla sablés

Ana’s apron makes me feel sexy

Maria’s blueberry and cookie-crumble cake from last week

..and I was really doubting my ability to get over something big and overwhelming, so at 10PM last night Ana and I went to the store to buy dark chocolate to make some CHOCOLATE COOKIES. I actually wanted to make something that would need more concentration and more time, but I settled for that instead. The cookie dough was prepared in ten minutes, and fifteen minutes later the cookies were pulled out of the oven, warm and inviting. I spent the following 40 minutes on a lovely strawberry risotto which I think we’ll be eating for the next three days..
Maria got her paycheck so yesterday she merrily went food-shopping and bought masses of coffee, cookies, ice-cream and OMG MOZZARELLA PIZZA!
I love our house. We are wild and awkward girls who only think about food, ha.

Oh; yesterday morning our flat was full of a Metallica soundcheck. the venue of their open air concert at night is probably 200m away from our house, so we got to hear the music for free - which would have been lovely if I would have been in a Metallica mood, but sadly I was neck-deep into my Carissa’s Wierd and Ólafur Arnalds obsession so I just got annoyed. To get around all the noise, I put on my headphones and spent the evening in the kitchen, making lemon pie. I am right now working on the crust part, which I’ll bake later and fill up with all of its lemon goodness. I love pie.

On monday morning, we set off with a rental car towards a more or less unknown destination. We just wanted to drive through the fjords and Ana wanted to really make the best out of her two days off work this week. So we decided to head towards Sognefjord..

It was foggy and surreal. We were listening to the Autumn Mix I made for Mario earlier this semester, Coco Rosie and the Appleseed Cast and Band of Horses and Basia Bulat - not really the perfect music for a wild girly roadtrip. The whole landscape around us looked huge and gigantically melancholic.

first stop to eat some yummy queso y jamón!

we were entertaining some kids at the table near ours.

After our break and driving for a bit, we stopped in Undredal. I met a cat on a caravan. we said hello.

cuteness!

the girls had some disgusting coffee; Ana and I stuck to packaged iced mocca.

Aurlandsfjorden

Leo and Marta

we met horses on the road.

We decided to stop in Gudvangen for the night. We reconsidered the idea of camping without tents and/or sleeping in the car (a tiny Opel) and instead found a hytte with four bunk beds and enough space to eat dinner in the middle.
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