It snowed a bit last night. I can't be sure, but it could easily be my last Bergen snowfall.
And the trees are still bare, so the mountains are still purple - and I'm used to them that way.
But there are tight little buds on branch and twig.
I think the city's going to explode into Spring while I'm gone.
It's my halfway point in Norway...
March 31, 2012
March 29, 2012
Racism and Hunger Games
The older I get, the more I realize how sheltered I was in West County from sexism, racism, etc. I had such a strict image in my mind of what a 'racist' or a 'sexist' was - and they were always over-the-top, exaggerated, idiots who were either out-in-the-sticks ignorant or old-as-dirt.
An example - a lot of people are tweeting about The Hunger Games, explaining their disillusionment with the decision to cast some of the characters as black. This isn't the simple, "Rue being black threw me off a bit since for some reason I expected her to look more like Prim," or something - which you can tell probably has some sort of borderline racism underneath, but maybe not - it would have thrown me off if Rue had had bright red hair, for example. But just that - it would have struck me as a bit strange in the first scene, but it wouldn't have affected the emotions.
But there are two things about this situation that make it far worse than that -
1.) They shouldn't be so surprised. The author described Rue as having 'dark skin'. And I believe Rue's district was described as being 'black' (not as sure about this, it's been awhile since I read the book.) The country of Panem is based on America, which has black people in it. So it's not like there's suddenly a gratuitous black character in The Last Samurai or Robin Hood. It both fits the world, and it fits what the author wrote about the character.
Actually, if you want to get technical, Rue is just as good of a fit, physically, for what the author wrote as Katniss. I had the idea that Katniss had all sorts of genetic mixing (as was implied in the books), and that she would be quite dark, sort of Mediterranean looking (black hair and olive skin, the book says). Instead they cast the girl from Winter's Bone, who was very pale and blonde in that movie. But guess what? They darkened her hair and skin a bit, and though I still thought she looked a few shades lighter than I expected, it wasn't a problem in the world or the role - also because, in the book, it's a bit strange that Katniss is so dark while her mother and sister are blonde and blue eyed.
2.) The comments are far, far worse than "that's not what I expected."
Examples:
"Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn't as sad. #ihatemyself."
"Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture."
"why does rue have to be black gonna lie kinda ruined the movie."
What is wrong with the world, seriously??
An example - a lot of people are tweeting about The Hunger Games, explaining their disillusionment with the decision to cast some of the characters as black. This isn't the simple, "Rue being black threw me off a bit since for some reason I expected her to look more like Prim," or something - which you can tell probably has some sort of borderline racism underneath, but maybe not - it would have thrown me off if Rue had had bright red hair, for example. But just that - it would have struck me as a bit strange in the first scene, but it wouldn't have affected the emotions.
But there are two things about this situation that make it far worse than that -
1.) They shouldn't be so surprised. The author described Rue as having 'dark skin'. And I believe Rue's district was described as being 'black' (not as sure about this, it's been awhile since I read the book.) The country of Panem is based on America, which has black people in it. So it's not like there's suddenly a gratuitous black character in The Last Samurai or Robin Hood. It both fits the world, and it fits what the author wrote about the character.
Actually, if you want to get technical, Rue is just as good of a fit, physically, for what the author wrote as Katniss. I had the idea that Katniss had all sorts of genetic mixing (as was implied in the books), and that she would be quite dark, sort of Mediterranean looking (black hair and olive skin, the book says). Instead they cast the girl from Winter's Bone, who was very pale and blonde in that movie. But guess what? They darkened her hair and skin a bit, and though I still thought she looked a few shades lighter than I expected, it wasn't a problem in the world or the role - also because, in the book, it's a bit strange that Katniss is so dark while her mother and sister are blonde and blue eyed.
2.) The comments are far, far worse than "that's not what I expected."
Examples:
"Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn't as sad. #ihatemyself."
"Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture."
"why does rue have to be black gonna lie kinda ruined the movie."
What is wrong with the world, seriously??
Ugly new Blogger
Yuck, Blogger looks totally different now, and it's definitely for the worse. What is it these days with all the websites going to big, ugly, white boxes? The changes are always so random and negative in my opinion. I Naur Celedril is half a diary for me - and the new layout really takes that feeling away - it's so sterile, empty, and ugly. :( Sometimes I feel like all the website developers make these changes just to show you how powerless you are. And now when I post something I get to see information on how many times each of my posts has been viewed. WHY? I could have accessed that information before, but now it's up in my face - and it's not that kind of blog.
March 23, 2012
Flash Cards and Hyperpolyglots
"At the end of his story, however, he finds a surprise in Mezzofanti’s archive: flashcards. Stacks of them, in Georgian, Hungarian, Arabic, Algonquin and nine other tongues. The world’s most celebrated hyperpolyglot relied on the same tools given to first-year language-learners today. The conclusion? Hyperpolyglots may begin with talent, but they aren’t geniuses. They simply enjoy tasks that are drudgery to normal people. The talent and enjoyment drive a virtuous cycle that pushes them to feats others simply shake their heads at, admiration mixed with no small amount of incomprehension."
- http://www.economist.com/node/21542170
- http://www.economist.com/node/21542170
March 22, 2012
Narrative
We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that's the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.Auster, Paul
March 18, 2012
Wake Up and Study...
Talking to Nadine all the time and playing board games recently, along with realizing I'm almost at the halfway point of my semester here, have all served as wake-up calls that my Norwegian can use some work and that I'm going to have to actually, well, work to get it there! :D So I'm going to start actually writing down words I learn, words I don't know and need to know, etc, and making flash cards out of them. My Norwegian course is teaching me a few words, and reinforcing a lot of the grammar, but I need a serious vocab booster to compensate for the years of learning Norwegian by internet and having an easily-accessed, easily-forgotten dictionary on hand.
But just now, it's sunny and beautiful. First sun longer than five minutes in the last weeks. Weather forecast says it'll be nice for two whole hours, until 12 noon. Lol, and it's the day after St. Patrick's Day. Life is cruel.
But just now, it's sunny and beautiful. First sun longer than five minutes in the last weeks. Weather forecast says it'll be nice for two whole hours, until 12 noon. Lol, and it's the day after St. Patrick's Day. Life is cruel.
March 16, 2012
Win Win Win
Fjordtrip Wednesday was awesome. Nadine and I picked up this French girl, Laure, from Couchsurfing, and then the three of us went down to the docks and caught the boat out to Rosendal. The boat was sparsely filled and we were the only tourists. The fog was so thick at first that we couldnt see anything, passing under the Sotra bridge we could barely see the outline. It started to rise later so we could see a thin line of shore and houses, but still dense grey above and below that. Then later the mist thinned out a bit and we even had a few minutes of sunlight. I took so many pictures that the workers came over and told us that we could actually go out on top (just none of the commuters normally cared to). So up we went and enjoyed the minute of filtered sunlight through the fog. :)
I was surprised when we arrived in Rosendal because I only recognized the church a bit, in the fog I couldn't see any mountains or anything else and it was a bit anticlimactic to arrive. But the trip wasn't that expensive and I hadn't spent hours working up expectations over photos, so I was pretty relaxed and luckily so were the other two girls. We walked up and took some pictures at the church, then followed a path I had read about up the very low mountain next to the town. The fog was thick but very scenic and atmospheric wrapping around the fences and trees and sheep. It all felt very medieval even when it barely felt like Norway, it was still cool! Got some artsy shots of my feet running down the paths, and, at the top, the three of us balancing on the thin wooden boardwalks. Then, realizing we couldn't quite make it up all the way (and that there was no view to make it worth it), we stopped and ate lunch on a rock in the fog before heading back down.
On the way back down the fog started lifting just a bit. No longer did we feel encased by white and grey. Before long we could see a bit of water down below. And, as we came out into the village, we could see a mountain emerge clearly from the mist. And then, we realized that among the clouds, we were looking at patches of snow. There were big, snow covered mountains, right in front of us! The weather continued to clear and for the last half hour in Rosendal, we had glorious sun, blue skies, and mountains!!! Unbelievable! I was so, so, so happy that Nadine got to see some of Norway in decent weather. We looked behind us after a long time and were shocked to see more mountains there! We were surrounded! A real fjord!!!
Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Nadine! It was such a lovely visit, speaking Norwegian and reminiscing about Spain and Germany and chatting about languages and all the rest. :) Just the same a week is a decent amount of time to have someone over, even a great guest like Nadine who happily does the washing up and makes tea! So it's nice to have my tiny room to myself again in some ways!
Then it was time for the ski trip! Subsidized by the university for students, it was quite a good deal although having to rent all the ski stuff made it a deal more expensive. I played with the idea of renting mountain skis from the outdoor club. It would have been 1/4 of the price, but they're not nearly as good for downhill and they don't have my exact size. I'm glad I didn't do it that way in the end.
This was my third time skiing downhill and it was great! I felt like I had the basics down this time and could really enjoy myself from the get-go. Lorna and I spent the day on blue-rated slopes without falling. I played with trying to move faster as the day went on, sometimes I felt like I would fall but I never did, not doing that at least. It was really fun to have the confidence in doing the basic things and be able to test my limits a tiny bit. I know now that I can just go skiing and, at least on the easy-intermediate slopes, give it a go on my own, without falling unless I'm playing around, trying something out. :D And that feels good!
But we did decide to take the chair lift way up to the top, where we should have been able to take blue all the way down. But the fog was really intense and we were quite nervous when we realized how high up into the fog the chairlift went. Then it was hard to follow the markers and even the other people, and with the avalanche risk we were really afraid of accidentally going off-piste. We ended up on a red-rated slope for awhile which was a bit tricky but we actually managed. When we got back to a blue area, the piste was really narrow and that was actually harder for me! No room to turn, and I'm not as good at snow-plowing as Lorna is! So I fell about three times in a row there, my only falls of the day but the first one especially was not nice, the skis didn't come off and I wished they had, my legs were twisted around but once I got the skis off and stood up, they were pretty much okay and I was able to keep skiing the rest of the day.
Awesome! :D
Today I met Magda to work on our presentation for class. She took me to this really cool student 'cafe' hidden away in the University. Couches, board games, books, microwave, tables, really relaxed. You can get some cheap food, coffee, hot chocolate, etc... and for the drinks its not even mandatory to pay, there's just a donation box. I got hot chocolate and paid the suggested donation of 5 crowns. This is so so cheap for Norway. And no problem eating your own food, etc. I almost wished I had to study more often here, the place was so great!! When I have to write my papers after Denmark, I'm going to go there. :D
We had computer problems but in the end we finished the presentation in exactly the perfect time and were able to present without issues. Then we went into groups for the quiz showdown. I was absent Thursday so I couldn't help that much with the first part of the quiz, and anyway both teams did very well and were about evenly matched. Then the last question, for a lot of bonus points, was about the Norwegian national anthem! Which no one knew but me, apparently. :D So we got so many bonus points for that that my team won handily. Yay!
On the way home, I checked my mail. Still no micro curries from Nash (;_;), but I did have a postcard! From my suitemate Elin! It was a picture she took secretly of me during my birthday and sent using a phone application. Super cool. :D
I went home, ate super Norwegian fish-sticks and potatoes for dinner, had a Faroese lesson with Uni, and then joined Emma and Lars for awhile. The two of them have had a very long, hard, but hilarious to hear about week. But we drank a bit and Lars told me all about the three Norwegian national anthems. :D This was his idea actually, so funny after what I'd done earlier in the day. I knew also about one of the older ones but not the 'official stortinget' song. So something new as well. :D Lars kept doing cheers with me when I knew random things about Norway. ^^ They really like to feel appreciated here. We all joined in for rousing renditions of various national songs, I did an awful Star Spangled Banner and we debated what the best national anthem for the States would be. And Emma told me I could have her plants and other things from her room when she moves out. (But I'm so sad that she's leaving.... when I said that Lars said, "oh yeah, that's what I should have said." Apparently, when Emma gave him the offer of something from her room, he just said, "Yeah, I'll take your kitchen tongs." XD)
Downstairs for Club Alrek. I ended up playing a Norwegian game that they told me I couldn't play if I didn't speak Norwegian. I said I did but I realized the game would be quite hard at my level. Still it's a relaxed environment and I decided to give it a go and have fun with it anyway. Basically you get a difficult word/acronym/foreign term, etc, that no one is really expected to know, and you write a definition for it. They put those definitions together with the real one, and read them. You vote for the one you think is right. Then, you get a point for everyone who voted for your answer, and you get a point if you voted for the right answer. At first I did awful, I mean everyone could tell which answers were mine because of the unimaginative vocabulary and the bad grammar at times. :D But still it was fun, and I learned some words. Ffinlo came and joined my Team Foreigner effort. We got a few points from guessing a right answer or two, one decent made up definition, and Lars right before he had to leave randomly, accidentally voting for our answer.
But still we were way, way behind. Until we won. This was how -
You get a ton of bonus points if you actually write the correct definition.
- One question was - What does the Latin expression "Quantum scio, non est." mean?
- Another - What do Faroese people mean when they say Mikudager?
"As far as I know, it's not that way." and "Wednesday."
Win Win Win. :D 6 years of Latin education, so much Faroese studying, all so worth it haha.
But yeah, just a few great days, fun times! I love all my roommates and all the other people who live here in Alrek! Great community. <3
I was surprised when we arrived in Rosendal because I only recognized the church a bit, in the fog I couldn't see any mountains or anything else and it was a bit anticlimactic to arrive. But the trip wasn't that expensive and I hadn't spent hours working up expectations over photos, so I was pretty relaxed and luckily so were the other two girls. We walked up and took some pictures at the church, then followed a path I had read about up the very low mountain next to the town. The fog was thick but very scenic and atmospheric wrapping around the fences and trees and sheep. It all felt very medieval even when it barely felt like Norway, it was still cool! Got some artsy shots of my feet running down the paths, and, at the top, the three of us balancing on the thin wooden boardwalks. Then, realizing we couldn't quite make it up all the way (and that there was no view to make it worth it), we stopped and ate lunch on a rock in the fog before heading back down.
On the way back down the fog started lifting just a bit. No longer did we feel encased by white and grey. Before long we could see a bit of water down below. And, as we came out into the village, we could see a mountain emerge clearly from the mist. And then, we realized that among the clouds, we were looking at patches of snow. There were big, snow covered mountains, right in front of us! The weather continued to clear and for the last half hour in Rosendal, we had glorious sun, blue skies, and mountains!!! Unbelievable! I was so, so, so happy that Nadine got to see some of Norway in decent weather. We looked behind us after a long time and were shocked to see more mountains there! We were surrounded! A real fjord!!!
Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Nadine! It was such a lovely visit, speaking Norwegian and reminiscing about Spain and Germany and chatting about languages and all the rest. :) Just the same a week is a decent amount of time to have someone over, even a great guest like Nadine who happily does the washing up and makes tea! So it's nice to have my tiny room to myself again in some ways!
Then it was time for the ski trip! Subsidized by the university for students, it was quite a good deal although having to rent all the ski stuff made it a deal more expensive. I played with the idea of renting mountain skis from the outdoor club. It would have been 1/4 of the price, but they're not nearly as good for downhill and they don't have my exact size. I'm glad I didn't do it that way in the end.
This was my third time skiing downhill and it was great! I felt like I had the basics down this time and could really enjoy myself from the get-go. Lorna and I spent the day on blue-rated slopes without falling. I played with trying to move faster as the day went on, sometimes I felt like I would fall but I never did, not doing that at least. It was really fun to have the confidence in doing the basic things and be able to test my limits a tiny bit. I know now that I can just go skiing and, at least on the easy-intermediate slopes, give it a go on my own, without falling unless I'm playing around, trying something out. :D And that feels good!
But we did decide to take the chair lift way up to the top, where we should have been able to take blue all the way down. But the fog was really intense and we were quite nervous when we realized how high up into the fog the chairlift went. Then it was hard to follow the markers and even the other people, and with the avalanche risk we were really afraid of accidentally going off-piste. We ended up on a red-rated slope for awhile which was a bit tricky but we actually managed. When we got back to a blue area, the piste was really narrow and that was actually harder for me! No room to turn, and I'm not as good at snow-plowing as Lorna is! So I fell about three times in a row there, my only falls of the day but the first one especially was not nice, the skis didn't come off and I wished they had, my legs were twisted around but once I got the skis off and stood up, they were pretty much okay and I was able to keep skiing the rest of the day.
Awesome! :D
Today I met Magda to work on our presentation for class. She took me to this really cool student 'cafe' hidden away in the University. Couches, board games, books, microwave, tables, really relaxed. You can get some cheap food, coffee, hot chocolate, etc... and for the drinks its not even mandatory to pay, there's just a donation box. I got hot chocolate and paid the suggested donation of 5 crowns. This is so so cheap for Norway. And no problem eating your own food, etc. I almost wished I had to study more often here, the place was so great!! When I have to write my papers after Denmark, I'm going to go there. :D
We had computer problems but in the end we finished the presentation in exactly the perfect time and were able to present without issues. Then we went into groups for the quiz showdown. I was absent Thursday so I couldn't help that much with the first part of the quiz, and anyway both teams did very well and were about evenly matched. Then the last question, for a lot of bonus points, was about the Norwegian national anthem! Which no one knew but me, apparently. :D So we got so many bonus points for that that my team won handily. Yay!
On the way home, I checked my mail. Still no micro curries from Nash (;_;), but I did have a postcard! From my suitemate Elin! It was a picture she took secretly of me during my birthday and sent using a phone application. Super cool. :D
I went home, ate super Norwegian fish-sticks and potatoes for dinner, had a Faroese lesson with Uni, and then joined Emma and Lars for awhile. The two of them have had a very long, hard, but hilarious to hear about week. But we drank a bit and Lars told me all about the three Norwegian national anthems. :D This was his idea actually, so funny after what I'd done earlier in the day. I knew also about one of the older ones but not the 'official stortinget' song. So something new as well. :D Lars kept doing cheers with me when I knew random things about Norway. ^^ They really like to feel appreciated here. We all joined in for rousing renditions of various national songs, I did an awful Star Spangled Banner and we debated what the best national anthem for the States would be. And Emma told me I could have her plants and other things from her room when she moves out. (But I'm so sad that she's leaving.... when I said that Lars said, "oh yeah, that's what I should have said." Apparently, when Emma gave him the offer of something from her room, he just said, "Yeah, I'll take your kitchen tongs." XD)
Downstairs for Club Alrek. I ended up playing a Norwegian game that they told me I couldn't play if I didn't speak Norwegian. I said I did but I realized the game would be quite hard at my level. Still it's a relaxed environment and I decided to give it a go and have fun with it anyway. Basically you get a difficult word/acronym/foreign term, etc, that no one is really expected to know, and you write a definition for it. They put those definitions together with the real one, and read them. You vote for the one you think is right. Then, you get a point for everyone who voted for your answer, and you get a point if you voted for the right answer. At first I did awful, I mean everyone could tell which answers were mine because of the unimaginative vocabulary and the bad grammar at times. :D But still it was fun, and I learned some words. Ffinlo came and joined my Team Foreigner effort. We got a few points from guessing a right answer or two, one decent made up definition, and Lars right before he had to leave randomly, accidentally voting for our answer.
But still we were way, way behind. Until we won. This was how -
You get a ton of bonus points if you actually write the correct definition.
- One question was - What does the Latin expression "Quantum scio, non est." mean?
- Another - What do Faroese people mean when they say Mikudager?
"As far as I know, it's not that way." and "Wednesday."
Win Win Win. :D 6 years of Latin education, so much Faroese studying, all so worth it haha.
But yeah, just a few great days, fun times! I love all my roommates and all the other people who live here in Alrek! Great community. <3
March 12, 2012
Nadine's Visit
Spring and Bergen are both finally living up to their reputations.
There's nothing but rain and fog everywhere!
I wouldn't mind so much - after all, I've had a lovely Norwegian winter and I'm looking forward to the summer - but Nadine's only here for this week and it would be great if she could see a bit of the Bergen I love.
Oh well. We've had fun anyway, making quesadillas, pizza, chocolate chip cookies, bacon-mushroom pasta and all that jazz...
Climbing up Sandviksfjellet for a brilliant night-time view and wandering around the Stavkirke in a mysterious, sinister fog.
And Wednesday, we're planning a tiny little fjord trip. :)
There's nothing but rain and fog everywhere!
I wouldn't mind so much - after all, I've had a lovely Norwegian winter and I'm looking forward to the summer - but Nadine's only here for this week and it would be great if she could see a bit of the Bergen I love.
Oh well. We've had fun anyway, making quesadillas, pizza, chocolate chip cookies, bacon-mushroom pasta and all that jazz...
Climbing up Sandviksfjellet for a brilliant night-time view and wandering around the Stavkirke in a mysterious, sinister fog.
And Wednesday, we're planning a tiny little fjord trip. :)
March 07, 2012
Fun times in Bergen
Yesterday I successfully hijacked my Norwegian class for the final 45 minutes so that we could talk about bad words to call men and women. This was inspired by my trying to describe what happened with Rush Limabaugh with my unimaginative Norwegian vocabulary. "He called her a bad woman!" Yep.
One word had my teacher trying to explain it as "an older woman, who gossips, and who..." and she did this certain gesture of pulling her elbows in and moving her hands towards her chest as if trying to shrink her boobs or something.
First I nodded as if this made sense. Then my brain caught up.
"Excuse me, she does what?"
"She does..." And then the teacher laughed and laughed at herself.
It was a good day.
Afterwards I picked up a couchsurfer from the train station, told him what to do downtown and went to Lehmkuhlhallen to go climbing. Unfortunately the hall was already full! I didn't know that could happen!
But the silver lining was that Yinon (the couchsurfer) was quite grateful to have a tour guide. We walked around Bryggen and to the old fortress for a bit of a view. Then, this morning, we went back downtown, he found out about his fjord options, and we walked up Mt. Fløyen. You could just barely make out the view in the rain and fog. But up at the top it was snowing a bit, and that helped make it worth it. We wandered through the troll forest and Yinon did his souvenir shopping. The shop on top of Floyen is actually reasonably priced, for Norway. Then I sent him off to another host for tonight, since I need to get ready for Nadine and my birthday. But first he gave me a Jerusalem magnet and a big package of Dead Sea Mud.
Definitely the coolest present I've gotten from a Couchsurfer! Ballin'!
Couchsurfing is truly a win-win. It's obvious that Yinon got a free place to stay, a free breakfast, and a free tour. Meanwhile I got a good excuse to get out of the house on my boring day of the week, some information about modern-day Israel, a free kebab dinner and hot chocolate up on the mountain, and a package of mud. :)
One word had my teacher trying to explain it as "an older woman, who gossips, and who..." and she did this certain gesture of pulling her elbows in and moving her hands towards her chest as if trying to shrink her boobs or something.
First I nodded as if this made sense. Then my brain caught up.
"Excuse me, she does what?"
"She does..." And then the teacher laughed and laughed at herself.
It was a good day.
Afterwards I picked up a couchsurfer from the train station, told him what to do downtown and went to Lehmkuhlhallen to go climbing. Unfortunately the hall was already full! I didn't know that could happen!
But the silver lining was that Yinon (the couchsurfer) was quite grateful to have a tour guide. We walked around Bryggen and to the old fortress for a bit of a view. Then, this morning, we went back downtown, he found out about his fjord options, and we walked up Mt. Fløyen. You could just barely make out the view in the rain and fog. But up at the top it was snowing a bit, and that helped make it worth it. We wandered through the troll forest and Yinon did his souvenir shopping. The shop on top of Floyen is actually reasonably priced, for Norway. Then I sent him off to another host for tonight, since I need to get ready for Nadine and my birthday. But first he gave me a Jerusalem magnet and a big package of Dead Sea Mud.
Definitely the coolest present I've gotten from a Couchsurfer! Ballin'!
Couchsurfing is truly a win-win. It's obvious that Yinon got a free place to stay, a free breakfast, and a free tour. Meanwhile I got a good excuse to get out of the house on my boring day of the week, some information about modern-day Israel, a free kebab dinner and hot chocolate up on the mountain, and a package of mud. :)
March 05, 2012
Lucky
I've covered this topic before, but here's yet another, subtly different, spin on it.
I get annoyed by all these awesome travel bloggers and nomads telling people, "I'm not lucky, stop saying I'm lucky, anyone can have my life! I just work hard!"
Come on. Some people are working way harder than you just to put a roof over their heads or food in their children's mouths.
At the same time, part of me relates to the way the bloggers are annoyed by friends, family, and total strangers about living such a charmed (and, the insinuation is, easy) life.
Here's the deal, folks.
World travellers are very, very lucky.
And they work. Sort of hard.
They do make sacrifices. They do encounter discomfort. They do not spend every day wandering through a fog of happy-happy joy-joy.
But if being able to follow a life entirely of your choosing, with an almost absolute freedom beyond what 99.99% of the world's population could ever dream of, is not luck... I don't know what is.
I get annoyed by all these awesome travel bloggers and nomads telling people, "I'm not lucky, stop saying I'm lucky, anyone can have my life! I just work hard!"
Come on. Some people are working way harder than you just to put a roof over their heads or food in their children's mouths.
At the same time, part of me relates to the way the bloggers are annoyed by friends, family, and total strangers about living such a charmed (and, the insinuation is, easy) life.
Here's the deal, folks.
World travellers are very, very lucky.
And they work. Sort of hard.
They do make sacrifices. They do encounter discomfort. They do not spend every day wandering through a fog of happy-happy joy-joy.
But if being able to follow a life entirely of your choosing, with an almost absolute freedom beyond what 99.99% of the world's population could ever dream of, is not luck... I don't know what is.
March 03, 2012
Spring Happy!
It's spring in Bergen!!
Yesterday I walked up Sandviksfjellet for the first time! It was challenging but awesomely efficient to go up the world's steepest race track, Stoltzekleiven, as a brisk walking pace and suddenly pop up with a brilliant view of sea, sea, sea sparkling in brilliant sunlight! I'll never get sick of mountains! Even though I could easily see Rundemanen, Fløyen, Ulriken, and Løvstakken (all mountains I've done before), from Sandvik, and although it wasn't close to the highest, I still got a fresh and lovely thrill from the new angle and the new season of sunshine, and, at least for a few brief minutes in bright sunshine and following strenuous activity, t-shirt weather! Never would have dreamed the climate would be THIS mild in Bergen!
Today I think I'm going to Sotra, this island closing Bergen from the open sea, with my friend Emma! I Google imaged and streetviewed it and it looks lovely! That's a super underrated tool I used for Northern Lights hunting as well. A big Erasmus group from Fantoft apparently dropped about $50 each to go to some island on a commuter ferry, sight-unseen. They were really disappointed. I google image and street viewed it, and no wonder! Looks like the most boring place in Norway. Sotra on the other hand looks way better. Squee!
I've been waking up earlier and happier lately! Life is so amazing!
Yesterday I walked up Sandviksfjellet for the first time! It was challenging but awesomely efficient to go up the world's steepest race track, Stoltzekleiven, as a brisk walking pace and suddenly pop up with a brilliant view of sea, sea, sea sparkling in brilliant sunlight! I'll never get sick of mountains! Even though I could easily see Rundemanen, Fløyen, Ulriken, and Løvstakken (all mountains I've done before), from Sandvik, and although it wasn't close to the highest, I still got a fresh and lovely thrill from the new angle and the new season of sunshine, and, at least for a few brief minutes in bright sunshine and following strenuous activity, t-shirt weather! Never would have dreamed the climate would be THIS mild in Bergen!
Today I think I'm going to Sotra, this island closing Bergen from the open sea, with my friend Emma! I Google imaged and streetviewed it and it looks lovely! That's a super underrated tool I used for Northern Lights hunting as well. A big Erasmus group from Fantoft apparently dropped about $50 each to go to some island on a commuter ferry, sight-unseen. They were really disappointed. I google image and street viewed it, and no wonder! Looks like the most boring place in Norway. Sotra on the other hand looks way better. Squee!
I've been waking up earlier and happier lately! Life is so amazing!
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