Julebord side effects

http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/tegnehanne/Hva-du-kan-forvente-deg-pa-julebordet-7405444.html#.Uq0HofRDvLk

YOU LEARN

Summer time

Five days in a row!!! Sun, warm weather, no rain!!!
Summer is back in town yeaaaaah!!! Sandals and sunglasses! No raincoat!!!!
Lunch outdoors and for dinner almost exclusively  barbecue!!
Gathering with friends, in the fortress or in the lake or by the river or just at NTNU!
 Engangsgrill, pølse, brød, potetsalat, tomat og øl!!!!

Happy happy times! Big smiles!!

Smiles should always come back on beautiful lips

Something starts and something ends,
and you find it hard even to smile.

Some comfort you need
in those who unconditionally love you.
To empty your head, to fill your heart
with the sun, the heat, the salty sea
with flavors and notes from a different life.
Have them remind you who you are,
Have them decide what to fight for,
where to go.
Let them make you whole again.
Please,
let your hopes be reborn.

Smiles should always come back on beautiful lips.
And your lips are wonderful!

Welcome to Trondheim

Skeet shooting in Jonsvatnet

Social activities with colleagues is a big aspect of norwegian social life in my opinion. Dinners with your work group, salary beer and Friday waffles/cakes, are rather usual.
And my colleagues are simply the best! These people are super fun and I always have so good time! This time the challenge was skeet shooting!

It was definitely a challenge for me but a day before I had watched the movie 'Yes man' so it didn't take me more than three minutes to enroll! Had I tried it before? Nope! Was I a bit scared? Yeap! Excited? Sure! A nice brew of mixed feelings! Was it an excellent evening? 100%

When we arrived all my fears disappeared. The place was in the middle of the forest, and it was full of people. It looked like that skeet shooting is a family activity here! The previous group from us had a little girl around 10 years old that she managed to shoot a couple of targets to my full astonishment and a boy, probably her brother that was incredibly good at shooting!

It proved though that it was easier than I initially thought! My lack of knowledge was not a problem at all. The instructor illustrated everything we needed. How to handle the gun, how to place your body and she even corrected our posture while trying.  I gave her a bit of hard time to explain in english but with the help of my norwegian/ norwegian speaking friends I managed to get everything and she got a big big smile when I succeeded!
Well, it might be because I started cheering and jumping! But seriously, what a moment!!
An orange clay plate was into pieces in its flight up!
Pure unexpected pleasure!!

Definitely a suggestion!


PS: I think I'll stick to the clay pigeons for now and most probably for ever. I have no issues with shooting but killing for pleasure is a very different story. :)

Blogging about Trondheim

Today I discovered a funny blog from, I assume, an Erasmus student in Trondheim!

The posts for snus, Vinmonopolet and H&M are the best!
http://hi-ha-hu.tumblr.com/post/49602913463/when-someone-offers-me-snus

Enjoy! :)

2/5/2013

Mixed feelings
1. Summer working hours... goood
2. Full storm with occasional snowing .... baaaad
3. No luck yet with finding lamb in supermarkets.... baaaad
4. Soon to be Easter ... gooood
5. Me spending Easter away from Greece.... baaad
6. Vacation in one week time.... goood
7. Eventually no traveling plans for those days.... baaad
8. Spending my days reading books, biking and swimming... goood
9. No new job yet.... baaaad

Ice fishing & Friluftsbarnehagen & ! ! ! ! !

A couple of months ago;

My friend: ''...., we went for ice-fishing in Roros! It was so nice!''
Me: ''Oh my God! Ice-fishing?? Really?? You're crazy!!!''

Oh well, as if it was the first time I said it here or the first time that I said it and soon after I tried it myself !! :) I'm so unreliable... :P

So there I was on a frozen lake with great people, lighting a fire on ice (!! yes, to my surprise this is actually possible!!!), opening holes with a drill almost of my height and waiting to fool some fishes!! In total having excellent time!

In greek we have a saying when we want to say that we did nothing useful or important that goes like 'I made a hole on the water'. Since ice-fishing I know first hand why Norwegians would never come up with such a phrase!!! Pretty demanding thing to do!

We caught 4 or 5 fishes but after some point I was too busy skiing that I stopped taking photos!!!
Yes, yes skiing, ME, skiing!! & Did I stress it enough?? ME SKIING!!!  

Recently it happened to me  my mouth to spell 'the magic' words; 

'What? You applied for friluftsbarnehagen?? You're are crazy!!' 

Definition of friluftsbarnehagen; An open air preschool!! Tobbles spending almost the whole day outdoors in a place that the mean winter temperature is -10C or even less! Yes,to everyone's surprise  that thing exists in Norway!! It's popular, too!!!

Well, well....
My poor future kids, I have news for you!
First of all I'm sorry but I'm very afraid you most probably are going to attend one!!!!!!! Good luck with that!!

PS: Punctuation allowed in this blog is basically exclamation marks, with ''the more, the merrier'' as the main principle. A budge of dots and maybe a couple of question marks are permitted only when absolutely necessary. 

'Five exclamation marks, the sure sigh of an insane mind' Terry Pratchett 

Cheers to that!! :D

Seriously?

Harlem Shake Norwegian army

Even if I find it hilarious, it feels absurd.

Norwegian songs of my heart

The order is random, it's how they come to my mind;

• Theodor 

Jeg elskede sjøen ifra jeg var ung

og svømmede om som en sei

faderiorei.

En dag da jeg badet min velskapte kropp,

kun bagenden ragede op,

faderiorei.

:/: Folk ropte: "Der svømmer en aligator!"

Så var det (bank bank) til Theodor. :/:

The absolute No1 song when you work at NTNU! It accompanies every single party, julebord ect!

• Sivert Høyem & Ane Brun - Lift me

Singing it at a dawn with the man I was in love! Priceless!

• Postgirobygget -En Solskinndag

Because it makes me smile every time I hear it! Summer is lovely in Norway even if it lasts a little!

• Ane Brun - Du gråter så store tåra

Well to be fair I should add many more of her songs but ok I'll stick to this which is simply beautiful.

• Vår beste dag 

A beautiful song by Erik Bye which suits so incredibly the sensitivity of her voice.

• And last but not least a song I have mentioned before.

Lykkeliten by Nora Brockstedt which I am learning to sing it to my future son! :)

• Additional track! Trondheimsnatt by Åge Aleksandersen

Shame on me!! Well because it's like an anthem of Trondheim and signals so many memories; 17th of Mays, football matches, Saturday morning concerts under the rain in Torget...

''Running To The Sea''

I love this song. It is absolutely wonderful. The music, her voice, part of the lyrics wake up some very deep emotions. And from what I saw in youtube comments many people share this feeling.

So far, I have no clue what is the actual meaning of the lyrics. Usually, I pick up the lines I like, I make a story on my mind that fits them and the melody, and I live happily ever after with it. Well, until someone points out the actual meaning. I have to admit this way many dear songs have been ruined.  Reality sucks! Sometimes it's the artist himself, sometimes a friend. Katie Melua, I'm afraid, has done that a couple of times in her interviews.

There is always a risk listening the artists discussing their art. Any art. It can be, for sure, enlightening and reveal meanings you would never imagine, it can give a new perspective and deepen your understanding but it can also be disappointing and leave you with the empty feeling that something was stolen from you. In a way it is. It's the sensation you had about it. The memories or the feelings of yours that had finally tuned their expression with it and now are hanging teased and naked. Despite this risk I actually seek to find out what inspired the artist or how other people feel/think about it. I'm listening to the interviews or reading an essay about a paining or a poem and my heart bits a little bit faster with agony if I got it correctly, if my perception will remain intact. And it happened to me with pieces that I really loved/love, to get this frustration. I managed to overcome it somehow, at least partly, as they had already become so personal that it was impossible to restore their actual meaning. 

So to come back to this excellent song; 

My dearest Susanne, Svein and Torbjørn,

I really really love your song! As a great addicted fan of it I need a favour. When you speak about this song, please, please say something among others about potential in closet, about powerful youth that fears it'll end up wasted, about big exciting, yet, far from realized dreams.
Please don't talk only about anger which is my second not the favourite interpretation of your song...
I really love it, please don't ruin it.

...or say something, something which would lead in a different dimention, something that would force me to love this song even more.

Yours sincerely,
Maraki

And for the record, the least expecting explanation I found searching in the web was that this song talks about oil!