The English version of it all

peek-a-boo

2011-04-10T16:08:00.001+02:00

anybody still there?
It seems I can't improve... do I have to shut down this blog...reallY? Or wait for better days...

A room with a view

2011-02-13T11:44:00.000+01:00

When people come to our apartement, they all comment on the view. Since we moved in, it has been the daaaark times up here in the North, when there is light, we are at work, so when we come home the view is an ocean of darkness, with the green and red neon lights of the supermarket shining like a beacon in the distance, and a lightening passing fast through every half hour or so - the train.We know the view is great, cos we can see all the lights of the city. But guess what, February just came. So did the SUN. The fact is, around here, the sun is up every day. We are not living as far North that the sun is under the horizon parts of the year. Just that.. When the weather was nice, the sun shone 2 hours a day before it got dark again. Then January came, which is supposed to be snowy and cold. But this year it came with RAIN RAIN RAIN instead. We were even hoping for spring come early this year. But no. Hello February, and hello freezing temperatures again. The weird thing is that nice weather in the winter usually means MINUS degrees. This weekend we had minus 10 and below. It resulted in this weather:

This is our view. From the coach, it was too cold to go out on the veranda. Evening, sunset, LIGHT. Cold.

Right now the sun is BEAMING and I'm sitting inside in front of the TV and the fireplace, trying to decide to do something sensible with my Sunday. We all know I suck at that. First I'm going to put down the laptop and give my hard working kindergarten fingers a manicure.
Then... Take more photos of the view?

Have a lovely SUNday everyone!

Keeping up appearances

2011-02-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

I am not an English genious so the headline might not mean what I want it to mean. I WANT it to mean....that Facebook today made me realize something (which you all already know) - it's a f..... pink cloud. Where everyone tries to make everyone else feel smaller, by updating their status. I've done it myself. Everytime I do something good, I get a need to "tell the world". How good it feels with comments comfirming how good you are. How pathetic?

At the same time you sit there yourself, reading about other people's life. How perfect they are/their husbands/wives/their exciting lives/their great careers/beautiful children etc. It can ruin your OWN life. Can't it?

I also put it there, about my great life. I might think it sucks at the moment. But making a status update about it, is out of the question. It's only positive things that come out, although reality at that moment can be quite different. At the same time I think it's pathetic with all the updates about how bad someone is feeling. I mean, "I have a headache, poor meeee" or "I'm so sick and tired of everything" or... something else you think would be best if they kept to theirselves.

Sometimes I just wanna scream it: "Fuck my life!! I hate my job/myself/husband... I feel like the most useless idiot in the world!!" We all feel that, right? But we don't tell anyone, and that's how it should be of course. But why are we so intent on tyring to make the opposite impression? That we are all living a dream life, so that everyone else can be jealous?

Today I got a crazy thought in my head. What would happen if I actually deleted myself from Facebook? Can I? Dare I? How will it feel next time I put on my pc and don't get to see what everyone else is doing or feeling? Hmm.

Bring something new in my life

2011-02-04T20:24:00.000+01:00

This pic is from last Saturday's snowstorm. My orchid had no idea what the weather outside was like.
I got an orchid from a good friend. January 15th. I thought: Oh, shit. I'm gonna kill this nice flower really soon! I kill flowers, that's what I do. It sucks to kill nice flowers somebody gave to me. But hey, it's still alive today!

They have reported wind tomorrow too. Another Saturday inddors on the coach? Please no.
I need to see a human being who isn't my husband. Or someone I work with, although I love them. (I love my husband too, of course!).

I need a change. But I don't want things to change. Although I wanna have more friends around me, I wanna earn more money, I wanna do something more useful each day.

At the same time I like it here, I am comfortable here, I feel at home here. But when I'm 80, will I be happy with spending my life being "comfortable"?

But I haven't been HERE all my life??? I haven't been comfortable all my life. I've been uncomfortable, on the run, insecure, not knowing what happens next 3 months. I have seen crazy new things every day. Now I see the same. I have wanted this A4-life. 2 years ago I looked forward to it. I said: No more Africa every 6 months, no more new job every 6 months. I wanted to settled. Now I am settled and wondering if it is enough for me. Is it?

Bring something new in my life. Just don't know what I really want.

Baby, it's cold outside

2011-01-30T12:02:00.000+01:00

The view from my bed Saturday morning. Blizzard. Long time since I saw that. Kinda cool. The highlight of a crappy weekend filled with vomiting and breaking the window of my sister's car.

February gotta get better.

today

2011-01-15T14:01:00.000+01:00

Today Ghana, D.R. Congo, Afghanistan, Spain and Norway will come to my house. Right now Spain is sleeping on our couch and I don't exactly know whether to wake him or not. We have a lot of food to make! It's finally time for our housewarming party! Will be very nice to gather so many people from different places. We have done it before and it was a success! Hubby is out of town, writing yet another Norwegian exam that will qualify him to study in Norwegian universities. Stupid tests, he knows how to speak the language, it should be up to him to study or not. If he fails it's his problem, right?

But early this morning his best buddy Spain came with the train, and he is here keeping me company and helping me cook. When he wakes up that is. I am seriously sleep deprived myself cos Hubby had to get up at 5.30 and since then I was not really sleeping, just being nervous on his behalf. I was told by Spain to take a siesta, and he was gonna relax on the couch. I went into my bed, laid there for 40 minutes, sleep never came so I got up and drank a RedBull and ate brownies... Now I'm watching the mountain of raw material waiting to be turned into delicious food, by me. Somebody give me strength!

Levanger is lovely these days, a lot of snow, not too cold, white and clear, and the daylight lasts longer and longer. I'm already satisfied with winter and would welcome spring tomorrow if possible. But it's not so let's focus on the bright side - the sun stays up longer every day.

As I see this is becoming a very informative, and not so exciting post, I'm gonna end it here, put on some music (that might "accidentally" wake Spain) and start cooking!

Have a lovely weekend y'all!

Stupid niger slut

2011-01-11T17:58:00.000+01:00

Hell yeah. That's me. Anonymous, you got me!
So you were reading the post I wrote from when me and hubby were in Oslo last spring. And you thought you should write something to offend me?

Guess what, I don't give a f... Even if I wrote a post on it. I still don't care. But thanks, for giving me something to write a few lines about!

Peace out!

Once upon a time

2011-01-07T20:00:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time there was a girl who blogged. She thought it was fun to blog. She used to have long and funny and weird stories from an amazing country where everything was upside down. She could write a whole page just about a taxi ride or a trip to the market. She could blog about something as mundane as dinner or what dress to wear to church. She could blog about funny misunderstandings, frustrating things that could drive her to tears, or joyful things that made her heart dance.

She could always find something cool to take a picture of and blog around it.
She got comments on her blog. People said that she was good at writing, she wrote interesting, funny stories. People complimented her. It gave her motivation and she blogged more.

Then, she went back to the country she really belongs in. The blogging slowed down. Life became SO normal. The things that happened around her didn't catch her attention. Nothing stood out in the crowd of ordinary days. She needed blog projects to even get something down on "paper". Projects that forced her to blog every day. After a few projects, even less motivation. She came to a point where she only blogged once a month or so. Her comments disappeared, obviously. Less motivation.

She doesn't want to stop. She doesn't want to delete the blog. The blog has been her companion through some of the most crazy years of her life. It has travelled far and wide with her. Giving up the blog is like leaving a part of her life behind. She will not delete it. But will she write more? How? About what? How can she learn to be amazed and inspired by the tiny little things that happen in her every day normal life in this NORMAL (for her) country? Writing was one of the things she "HAS". Something she likes, and feels she is good at. She doesn't want to lose it. Sometimes she wishes she could make her living from something like that. She has to start blogging again, about the mundane things.

Maybe it's time? Maybe it's all the other things she has to get done throughout a day? Be an employee? Be a wife? Exercise? Clean the house? Knit baby clothes for a baby not yet concieved? Watch TV? Facebook? Watch her life pass by, without blogging? What is it?

I want to get my blogging mojo back.

It's CHRISTMAS!

2010-11-30T20:59:00.000+01:00

Oh, well. It starts tomorrow. But in the kindergarten Christmas has been on for a long long time already. Christmas music playing, singing carols (we have to practice for a long time so they all learn it in time for the annual Christmas concert), baking...making Christmas presents. Almost get tired of it. But Sunday Christmas started in OUR new apartement. I love it and I love the apartement.

Freezing skies behind our advent star in the window. We have had at least 2 weeks with below 15 minus degrees every single day. COLD.

We have inherited alot of stuff from my parents after they sold the house this spring. I got an old desk, kitchen table and chairs, bowls AND one particular thing I requested - The painting in the pic above. It comes from my grandmother's house, where my parents now live. The painting used to hang in the bedroom I always slept in when I visited my grandmother. When I got older, I decided that THIS painting was gonna hang in my "house". And now it does, and I'm so pleased. Old things make me happy...

It's been a month since I last blogged. Last year I had a blog advent calendar. I doubt it will happen this year.

I miss the days in Ghana when just taking a taxi could be worth blogging about.

One day, in Tema:
Taxi Driver: How old are you?
Me: 25.
Taxi driver: Nooo, you can't be only 25!!!
Me: Yes, I am. How old did you think I was?
Taxi driver: 50!!
Me (horrified): Whaat?? WHY?
Taxi Driver: You are SOOO fat! So very fat. But VERY beautiful.
Me: ..............

Those were the real blogging days! Fingers crossed for Ghana 2011! Unless we decide to get one of these:
My friend made this...

Heloooooo

2010-10-27T20:22:00.001+02:00

WE have moved to a bigger apartement! We have been without internet for 2 weeks. And I haven't really missed it! At all! But now its back and I'm glued to the screen. Blah. :-)

Cake Boss

2010-10-10T19:11:00.001+02:00

On TV there is this programme about this bakery in New York which makes amazing cakes.

So I decided to do the same. :-) My nephew turns 2 tomorrow. Terrible two's they say. I think he is adorable of course, and so smart and talkative and every day he says something new, and I'm just as shocked each time.
He lives on a farm, the father is a farmer, he is a boy and is naturally extremely interested in tractors. He knows the name of all the equipment, and his favorite thing is the machine that ...makes balls out of hay and wraps them in plastic. Hum. I'm sure those are two different machines... ANYway. I had to make a cake for his birthday party.
So I decided to go beyond my abilities. That meant spending 6-7 hours on Saturday night, baking, building, decorating. Building you say?

I'm so proud of myself. My nephew though, said "firetruck" when he saw it. Don't really know how to feel about that... The white marshmallows are supposed to be the hay balls...by the way. He immediately reckognized those though!

Nothing but the truth

2010-10-06T20:13:00.000+02:00

I just re-read an amazing poem my blogging friend Nana Yaw once wrote. It is as true as it can get.
It's about loving somebody.

You have to view them
Like a star on TV.
Do not examine them
Under a microscope.

Examining your lover under the microscope is what we do all the time, Searching for flaws and pointing them out. Trying to change them. How often do I come home from work, exhausted and wet from the rain that keeps pouring down, and see hubby as a STAR? What are the first words that come out of my mouth?

Odo, you are a star ♥
Thanks for dinner :-)

Lucky me!

2010-09-30T21:33:00.000+02:00

I went to a dear friend and colleague last night. For some knitting lessons and some soul food. I am knitting. But I'm not really good at it. But I want to get good. Sissel helps me with that.

She is REALLY good at it! Knitting, sowing... all kinds of handcrafts. She has a whole room full of yarn, fabric, sowing machines, all kinds of scissors, needles, knifes...and a big working table. I'm so jealous of that room!

That room is also constantly full of finished products, that she gives away or sells. Yesterday she just gave away two beautiful things. Just like that. To ME!

Happy days

2010-09-24T23:11:00.000+02:00

My blogging has been very down lately. Too much other stuff on my mind, and work feels like it takes over everything and everyday. But I am enjoying it, dont get me wrong. It's just very busy.

Now over to the good news.

We are moving. For those who have read my blog for a while knows me and Hubby have lived in a TINY, crappy, cold apartement for way too long. We have been searching high and low for a perfect apartement for ages. One that is big enough, central enough for two car-less people, and cheap enough for two cheap people :-) And finally we found it. I hope. We wanted to buy but it was too expensive and risky, and when my mom said they rented the apartement I grew up in for 10 years, (and they were in their 30s), I dont feel so un-accomplished for still renting at the age of 27. I feel it's connected with being a student, renting, but who cares... At least it's something we can live with, financially. This apartement has 2 bedrooms, recently renovated, it has a fireplace (WARMTH), electrical appliances..even furniture could the landlord get us if we needed something. And it's close to work, and close to town. Now we live in the MIDDLE of town. I will miss not having the supermarket 20 metres away, miss not having the post office right there, the train station... But where we are gonna move is actually really central, for those in Levanger who lives far from town. I feel good. Can't wait to pack!

Other good news. I have known my husband for 5 long years. On Thursday it was the anniversary for the first time we met. I'm not one of those date-freaks that remember every little detail that has happened through our relationship. The only reason we remember the day we first met, was cos it was on an information day for exchange students at the University of Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania, and I wrote about that in my Norwegian blog back then. Anyway, this is what I came home to on Thursday:

My favorite magazine, and chocolate! He knows me well. I baked him a carrot cake in return... <3
Food = love. Appearently.

Tomorrow a good friend is coming to town, and my 4 best girls will be gathered tomorrow night with red wine and good food I guess! Looking forward to it.
Tonight I had another wonderful friend over for "kveldsmat". Supper maybe is the word in English. The menu was very Norwegian. Rolls, sausage, ham, cheese, jam.. and hot chocolate. Mmm. I love my friends. She has a little bundle of joy in her stomach and I'm so excited fot IT to come out :-)

Anything else positive to write about?

As I said in the last post, it has been a tough September and now I'm writing about all the good stuff to convince my brain I am actually a very lucky and blessed person and I should focus on the good and be happy about it! LML as the teenagers appearently say!

Another thing to be happy about
<--
The world's cutest boy helping auntie bake!

Have a good weekend!

It's been a bad day, please, don't take a picture.

2010-09-18T18:26:00.001+02:00

not a good week.

not a good month.

Sunday morning Sun is Shining

2010-09-05T12:42:00.001+02:00

Guess I need a new project. After the summer my motivation has been at the bottom. Work has taken it's toll on me, I've changed group at the kindergarten, I now work with 12 babies, all born in 2009. That is work! The parents are surprised we are still smiling at the end of the day, taking care of 12, while they only have 1 to "deal with". :-) But they are so adorable and step RIGHT into your heart after a few days of knowing them. They NEED you and that really gives you something.

Well, enough about that. I never wanted my blog to be reciting my daily life. I have to write something with meaning, not just go...: Today I went to bla bla bla, and did bla bla bla. Therefore, I need projects. Give me some.

Today I'm gonna climb a mountain. I need to get something out of my weekends. Last weekend I was sick, the weekend before I was sick, yesterday I was having the worst headache of my life. Today, me and a friend are gonna climb 800 metres in sparkling September sunshine!

This is my nephew. No other reason to put his picture in this post, apart from him being the cutest being ever. ♥

mamma mia

2010-08-31T21:43:00.001+02:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!!

This is my mom. Tomorrow is her birthday. Yay. Here she is cleaning cloud berries my dad went to pick. My mom lives far away. Hope she comes to visit soon! :-) ♥ ♥ ♥

Home, sweet home

2010-08-22T21:31:00.000+02:00

Hey guys.

One week ago I came home from my lovely vacation. The first week of vacation was busy, Oslo, Germany, back to Oslo in one week. The second week was all about being home in my parents house. Although my parents house is my late grandmothers house. They sold THEIR house in April and moved into my grandmothers house, in a beautiful village outside my hometown. I am always awestruck when I come back there. The air, the nature, the tranquility, the smell of the ocean, the beauty. It's just a perfect place, and when the sun shines, it gets even better. It is a place that makes me want to take walks. Im not much of a nature girl, although being Norwegian appearently is being a nature loving tree-hugger. Well, I'm not. Nature is nice, but I don't drop everything to go be with it. But in the village, called Ekkerøy, the freedom out there really does something to me. When I'm there, I get crazy thoughts in my head to move back home ... I don't wanna go live in the North with 10 months winter, and 2 months supposed summer.
It is beautiful to come back.

I thought coming home for the first time to a different place than my childhood home, was gonna be weird. I thought I was gonna miss OUR house. I drove past it once, saw new cars outside it, a new mailbox and other things. It felt weird, wrong. And right there and then, my childhood home was gone for me. I don't think I'll be passing by many more times. I won't be walking down the street I spent my childhood and youth. Home is where the heart is. Home is where my parents are. Home is that beautiful, little white house by the beach in Ekkerøy.

My grandparents who lived in the house

My friends posing in front of the mighty ocean.

Life on my beach.

Wish I could have stayed a month. But that dream life is already a week of reality away....

I am here.

2010-08-11T12:34:00.001+02:00

And here.

And I sleep here. In this house. And in the top window I sit on the computer. And look out at the sea.

If you need your soul to be at peace, come to Ekkerøy.

HOLIDAY!

2010-07-27T01:17:00.000+02:00

I have HOLIDAY! 21 glorious days! Yay me.
The first real holiday day was today. Slept in, long breakfast, went to the banks to check if I can get a loan to buy an apartement (iiih), bought a new wall clock in the second hand shop, found a new (old) coffee table in the second hand shop I'd like to get, visited my very cute, sick nephew and gave him grapes, but he only wanted ice cream, made a nice dinner, tried to do some sensible house chores (tried!!), watched senseless realities, ate ice cream, watched Alice in Wonderland with lovely hubby, and now - geek time for both of us before bed. And another holiDAY containing nothing known so far apart from a meeting with a councelor in the bank (help).

From Friday on, I'll be on the road. To Oslo, Germany and my beloved hometown, mommy and daddy!

Uncle and nephew kicking the ball around. On the beach. Summer!!

Yey for HOLIDAY!!

Our fridge

2010-07-15T19:20:00.001+02:00

In our kitchen is a nice, big fridge. When (if) we move out and buy our own place, I'm gonna miss all the things that come with rented apartements...

I wanted to show off our fridge because: 1) There are alot of meaningful things on it and 2) I don't have anything sensible to blog about.
So there it is. Our fridge.

The newest addition to the fridge.

The gym schedule. Not looking at it much these days...

Work schedule... One more week before 3 weeks off!

A little inspiring piece of "art" made by moi, with pics from Kokrobite, of a friend and an old, drunk lady.

Yeah, I've got a new camera that can zoooom!

An artwork made by my nephew, sister and brother-in-law ♥

Valentine's card from Hubby when we were still separated by distance.

help

2010-07-10T11:50:00.000+02:00

What do you do when you realize you have made a fatal mistake? And correcting the mistake means ruining peoples lives and making mega-changes in your own?

Just wondering, really.

Should you correct the mistake to better your own life, or keep it "wrong" not to ruin others lives?

Adorable

2010-07-09T20:52:00.001+02:00

This is what I get at MY job.

Just gotta love it.

The girl with the crown is me. I am a princess. I have big earrings and a scarf. And glasses of course.
I think my little cat is hiding in the right corner. But it might not be a cat. Never suggest what a 6 year old has drawn. You might end up seriously offending her. "It's not a CAT! Can't you see it's your boyfriend??" Ohhh, yeah, of course, now I see it.

Another portrait of me, still with a crown.

Two girls who are about to take a huge step into their future, by starting school, gave me these drawings the other day. *melt*

The text says: "In the kindergarten, you are the best."

But if I'm gonna pick on their writing skills, it really says: Selma from. In the kindergarten est you are the b. vildYng to.

But I'm not gonna pick on their writing skills. They are so smart and didnt have any help. They have just cracked the code of reading and writing.

I'm gonna miss these two creative, interesting, naughty, lovely girls!!

summer. at last.

2010-07-05T20:24:00.000+02:00

The first time

2010-07-04T06:50:00.002+02:00

One year ago, I did a lot of firsts.

First time I got my hair made into a faaaancy hairdo in a salon.
First time I had my make-up done by a professional.
First time I had fake fingernails.
First time I felt like the absolute most important person in the world.
First time I felt SO pretty.
First time I walked up the church aisle with my father.
First time I danced the first dance.

First time I got married. And last.

This time for Africa!

2010-07-03T09:25:00.001+02:00

Football has never hurt before. Unless it was a ball kicked in my face or something.

Yesterday's Ghana-Uruguay match was torture. I have never put so much feeling into a game before. We all know how it went. I'm not a good Ghanaian loser as Maya and Kajsa are writing about. I keep picturing Gyan missing the penalty.

That poor guy. I hope he rises.

If it was Norway playing, I don't think it would have felt as bad. In my head it wasn't a football game alone. It was Africa getting on top. Africa getting an energy boost they needed. A joy the whole continent would share. Showing that Africa can do what everyone else can do. Africa deserved this.

But as my brother in law writes on facebook; We will be back in 2014.

We will try to forget the pain from yesterday. We are off to the "big city" to celebrate our wedding anniversary. After all, there are more important things in the world than football.

MidsummerWinter

2010-06-21T19:14:00.000+02:00

Oh my Gooood, you guys don't know how badly we need the sun up here in the Central region of Norway. We have had a freezing winter, with long periods with temperatures below -25 degrees celcius. For days on end. Ice on the inside of the door and windows. Hair freezing on your head. Difficulty breathing. Humungous electricity bills. Downer number 1.

Spring finally came. The snow finally melted. And it started raining. It rained and rained and rained and it wasn't hot and it wasn't sunny and it was raining. I travelled to Oslo for a long weekend, hoping for sun. It rained in Oslo almost the whole time. Downer number 2.

The calendar passed June 1st. It IS summer when it is June. At least if you live South of the Polar Circle (which I do, but born North of it). Did anyone see the sun? Have you ever seen the rain? Yes. It rained, rained, rained. The stupid weather sites online kept telling me that "next week we will get summer temperatures", and each week that came and went, the summer stayed wisely away. The weather report said: Neeeext week. It rained. There was FLOOD in our region. The temperatures didn't even rise over 10 degrees. Everyday in the news: Summer has come to OSLO! Swimming in the SEA! Summer this, summer that, summer f.... it. Who cares? We are suffering. We are so weather sick. Living any other place than up North in Norway, Sweden or Finland, makes you unable to understand. We are about to throw ourselves in front of the next train that passes by, it's so depressing. All we want is a bit of SUN!! And not having to wear wool underwear in the end of June. Sun makes happy Norwegians.

I'm so sick of having to let the weather control my mood. But that is how it is to be Norwegian. Unfortunately.

Please SUN, can you visit us soon? And you are welcome to stay as long as you want.

The funniest thing is today is Midsummer, when the Sun turns, and it goes towards darker times and autumn. If the sun went and did a frigging parachute jump, we wouldn't have noticed. So sun, turn as much as you want, travel to Mars for all we care. We won't notice you are gone anyway. You were never here..

Click!

2010-06-17T21:09:00.000+02:00

I am far from an expert in photo editing. In fact I barely know anything about it. I'm dreaming of a big fancy camera, and using my Photoshop to create the most beautiful things. But I have a tiny compact camera, and I have NO idea how to use 99% of the tools in Photoshop. But I try to edit and sometimes I am happy with it.

I had a beautiful model last Sunday, a white background, a face full of expressions. And a crappy camera, and no skills in photography. I was disappointed to see my pictures, grey and grainy.

But a little editing here and there made them look a BIT brighter and nicer. Telling me that if I aquire more skills in editing (AND a big, fancy camera..), I can create nice things after all.

Hello, is there anYbody out there?

2010-06-16T19:44:00.000+02:00

My readers, my readers, WHY have you forsaken me?

Am I too boring? Want a new topic? just a comment, how it would brighten my day! :-)

Or are you just all watching the World Cup? Go Black Stars...

Bliss

2010-06-13T13:06:00.000+02:00

Hi, guys. Did I tell you it was summer?

Yeah. It came on Wednesday, and left this morning.

Oh, did we enjoy while it lasted. This is my table on my veranda yesterday. Well, it is my landlord's veranda, and he who has bought the furniture for the veranda, bless his heart.

I read a book, listened to the radio, my skin got a liiiittle less bluewhite colour. I felt refreshed.

Summer is so lovely in a place where you really know how to appreciate it. When it comes in Norway, we ALL do all the summery things we can think of. If the temperature rises above 15 degrees, it's t-shirt, grilling, ice cream, sitting outside in cafees and bars... It's been a great last few days. Specially since my job involves spending time outside all day long, I get to enjoy the summer more than those working in offices, or just buildings in general. I work in a garden, at summer time. Hope for more summer next week. But today it's grey and rainy.

Happy feet!

Rain or sun, we are off to celebrate my birthday in advance with my mother who is visiting (but leaving before my real birthday). She wants to bake cake and celebrate the birth of her favorite daughter, so I gotta let her. Haha. And yeah, the pink roses are from my husband. In case you wondered...

♥♥♥

Look what I made!

2010-06-03T20:02:00.001+02:00

Making things REALLY make me happy!!

P.S. It is supposed to be a cosmetics bag

Sunday, bloody Sunday

2010-05-30T12:12:00.000+02:00

I really hate Sundays. Most of them, anyway. There are some nice ones in between, but usually they are not nice days in my book. I don't know why! In our house, my "Sunday mood" is an established notion. Hubby will ask: Are you in a Sunday mood?
Sunday mood is B-A-D news. On Sundays I just can't think of any fun thing to do. Norwegians use Sundays as a day to take walks, preferably into the bush, far away from civilization. At least, Sunday means outside day. For families. And disgustingly cute couples who walk hand in hand, enjoying a WALK, in the usually not so nice weather. Oh, how fun it is to walk around without a goal. I'm really a negative Norwegian.

I'm not really an outdoor person. That always make me feel like I don't fit in in Norway. Every thing that should be organized, should be outside. "oh, we can have the party outdoors, in the mountains, oh we can go hiking as a team building thing at work, oh, we can have the kids birthday party outside, skiing...etc". And the most shocking for me is when my colleagues at the kindergarten suggest that we should have the summer party outdoors in the garden of the kindergarten... in this wooden hut we have built. With a fireplace inside.
Come on, you guys?! We spend every single day outdoors! Hours on end we are outside, in rain, snow, wind, and occasionally, SUN. And we wear ugly mountaineer clothings. For once, we are gonna have a party, can't we do it indoors, where women can get to put on some nice clothing and make-up and do something we DON'T do everyday? And not freeze? Who says the weather will be nice? When we get home from the party, can the only smoke smell in our clothing be from somebody's sigarette, instead of from a fire outdoors..?
But hey, nobody understands me. I am weird and un-Norwegian! :-)

But the point was Sundays and how boring they make me. I really want to change my Sundays. But what can I do, in a little village, on a Sunday? I get antsy being in the house, but outdoors is of course not tempting me. I could do sensible things like cleaning and cooking and baking. But I don't get around to do it either. The Sunday Mood is a feeling of not wishing to do anything, yet thinking that what you ARE doing (which is nothing), is not what you WANT to be doing.

Ok, I am already regretting sharing this nonsense with you. Don't judge me. I'm not that lazy and boring... Suggestions for fun Sunday activities will be appreciated!

Have a lovely SUNDAY!!

sweet, fat balls of joy

2010-05-28T21:37:00.001+02:00

Ye be di den?
Today I wanna talk about the greasy, sweet, soft, melt-in-your-mouth-crunchy-on-the-outside calorie bombs called .... (I'm on thin ice here) Boflot? Bofroot? What is it called? And what is it really made of?

Boflot is a lardy dumpling...made of flour, sugar and fat. Described in this blog it is a "deep fried ball of bread dough" with a little sugar added to it. They are sold from women and men's heads. They carry them around in boxes on their heads, while shrieking "boooooofrooot nieeee" (Boflot is here). Some more established sales women, just sit next to their coal pot, deep-frying the boflots, and selling them at the spot. And they have regular customers who know where to go. When I lived in Atimatim, Kumasi, there was a boflot lady down the road. She isn't there now. SAD.
When we lived in Tema com. 2, a young boy selling boflot came up to our floor one morning trying to sell us in the rooms boflot. Hubby bought from him that day, and since then, he came almost every morning knocking on our door asking if we were getting any. After a while he even knew our names. Unfortunately for us, the very close access to boflot got tempting, and more often than not we bought from him. Unhealthy? Oh yes.

But nothing can compare to biting into a fresh, warm, crisp boflot early in the morning....

*just a moment, AmaBroni is googling for pics of bofroot/boflot/whatever-ot*

These pictures of boflot in the making, and finished boflot resting on it's newspaper wrapping, I have stolen from a culinary blog full of Ghanaian food, called BetumiBlog, described as: BETUMI: The African Culinary Network (www.betumi.com) connects anyone who delights in African cuisine, foodways, and food history.

Want more food, check that blog out!
I'm working my way down my bottle of white wine that I won at my wonderful job, where I, by the way, have been offered a permanent contract - cos I'm so gooood. Yay me.

Happy weekend!

life is a journey

2010-05-23T21:48:00.002+02:00

I'm back. Although I have been back from our little trip for days, I am now back in bloggville. Should I continue the food stuff? Or anyone wanna suggest another topic? While you think hard about that, I'm gonna share some images from me and Hubby's journey southwards last weekend.
All my family members, on both my mother and my father's side have happened to settle down in the south of Norway. Not so strange since my father comes from the South. But my mother comes from the opposite side of the country, yet most of her cousins and other relatives has settled down south too. It all has to do with choice of spouses I guess. My mother has no siblings, my father has 2 sisters. Both sisters found husbands from the north and of course, my dad too found a northerner. Only my dad was successfully tricked to move to the high, cold, far away north. Since Norway is a long, long country that takes 3 days to cross by car, we don't go visit our aunt for a weekend or something very often. We rarely see each other. This trip had one major goal - to meet family.

After my dad's oldest sister died when I was in Ghana the last time, I decided to try to see my family more. I was able to get home to her funeral. All our family from my dad's side was there. It is so rare we are all together. It felt good, it felt like I belonged to a bigger, extended family. And that feeling I didn't get often when we lived up north, separated from most of our closest relatives. At our wedding last year, the feeling of family was revived yet again. It felt so incredibly good to know you have these people in your life who travel across the country to be there at your big day. And the amount of support and love they showed was just amazing. I yet against realized I need to keep in touch with my family as much as I can. So, this trip included visit at my aunt and uncle's, visit at my only female cousin (and my childhood heroine), and a lovely get together at my other cousin's house, where my other uncle and cousins also were.

Ok, enough sentimental stuff. Have a look.

Looking at gigantic rock carving from ancient times. Where we were standing, in the middle of farm country, used to be a beach before the ice age melted away and the land rose.

A sign board at a fortress we visited - Fredriksten Fortress where the Norwegians were protecting themselves against the horrible Swedes. ;-)
In Oslo, I finally got to take a stroll on the new very white Opera House, that has a roof you can walk on. Cool.

Then 17th of May arrived. The day some brave Norwegian men wrote down our constitution in 1814. It is celebrated this way: Holiday, everybody dresses up, millions of flags, kids parading, shouting hoorray, eating plenty of ice cream and hot dogs, having fun. It's all about the kids really. No military processions like other countries usually have. No display of power. Just kids and happy faces. It's nice. And in Oslo, it's very, very, very crowded!

Can you spot us? Trying to move down the main street in Oslo. Tip: We are under the balloon.
The Royal Palace in the background, where the King and Queen with family stand on the balcony each 17th of May and wave to the crowds.

Lovely lunch at my oldest cousin's house and then, sightseeing, still in our fanciest dress (and national costume) with uncle and cousin.

Lunch break

2010-05-11T17:33:00.000+02:00

I'll be offline for the next 6 days. Hubby and I are finally going somewhere together. Tomorrow after work we travel to Sarpsborg, to visit my aunt and uncle. From there we go to Oslo, Norway's capital, to visit friends and family, AND to celebrate Norway's Constitution Day (cause we celebrate when we got our constitution, not our independence, which, weirdly enough, came after the constitution). More on that later. But that day is a very big deal in Norwegian circles. So celebrating it in Oslo will be cool. I hope I'll catch a glimpse of the king!
Therefore my dear Ghana food lovers and other readers, I'll keep you starving for a while. I hope you will make it through. Here something to chew on while I'm gone...

The Sunday Classic

2010-05-08T22:26:00.002+02:00

It is Saturday night and we have to discuss the Sunday special in many a chop bar throughout Ghana. For those who don't know what a chop bar is, go to Ghana, look for a funny sign board, like "Don't mind your wife Chop Bar", or "In God we trust chop bar" and enter whatever type of building is there. You will find... Ghanaians, a loud radio, a curtain in the doorway made of bottle tops, and fooooood. Chop means to eat, and chop bars serve traditional Ghanaian meals for a bearable sum of Cedis. The food is plenty, tasty and, yes, cheap. Going to a chop bar is a true Ghanaian experience. And believe me, some chop bars do NOT have white people as regualr customers.

A chop bar that used to be my go to place, was a little wooden shed in Adum, Kumasi. It was hidden through som narrow streets, close to the bus station. Me and my fellow exchange student found it on one of our many times spent together in Kumasi town. An old cute lady was making groundnut soup, fufu, banku, rice balls, rice and stew.. We came in our school uniforms one day, sat on the benches inside and said in our purest twi what we wanted. And it was the BEST banku and groundnut soup I have ever tasted. We came back often. Today, it is crazy to think that these days really happened in my life. Being in Norway now, living such a normal, Norwegian life, thinking back to a time when I walked around in Kumasi in a school uniform, speaking Twi, eating in chop bars is almost unreal... I was such a Ghanaian, although I wasn't. It's 10 years ago.

This was the intro. This post is supposed to be about one of my favorite Ghanaian meals.

Nkateenwan and emotuo, or in plain English:

Groundnut/peanut soup and rice balls.

It is so yummy. I have made a photo montage to show how it's made and with what. This is a Ghanaian meal I have perfected! In fact, my husband said that my groundnut soup tastes better than his mother's! Can you get a greater compliment from a man?

How to make it... :

Take some meat (I prefer chicken), steam it with onions and garlic and ginger, after a while, and groundnut paste (peanutbutter or blended peanuts, if you can't get the real thing), cook this together for a while so the chicken takes in the peanut taste. After a while, add water, tomato, tomato paste, pepper, salt.. Cook, taste, add more salt, cook, taste, add more pepper.. cook, cook, cook. Boil rice with extra water for extra long, use a big stick to stir it HARD, mash the rice...into a dough of rice. Shape balls out of the rice. Put the soup in a plate, put the rice ball in the soup, eat with your hands, ENJOY!!

Thanks to Hubby's excellent cooking skills, we enjoy groundnut soup and rice balls in Norway anytime we want. And it tastes almost as good as in Ghana. Highly recommended Ghanaian dish!

Ghana's WORST eat

2010-05-05T21:34:00.000+02:00

The first period I lived in Ghana, I was an exchange student in High School. I was 18, lived in a Ghanaian family for a year. Alone. Gosh, it was scary. And wonderful.
One of my greatest challenges in the Boamah family was the food. First of all, I was always served my food alone. There was a plastic table outside my room, and my hostmom always came with my dinner on a plate, she knocked my door, I opened, she said "Your food!", dumped the plate on the table and left me to eat alone.

For a Norwegian this goes against everything I've learned. Here, eating dinner together is a social institution. That's one of the few arenas the family meets during a hectic day, where everyone sit down to eat, and TALK, together.
Appearantly, we did it differently in Atimatim, Kumasi, Ghana. I felt so lonely and abandoned eating alone at this table. Luckily I had lots of "siblings", little kids who I asked to join me at the table with their food. If the older siblings or parents saw them eat at my table, they wanted to chase them away, but I assured them I wanted them there. The kids were also free enough to talk to me while they were eating. In Ghana, at least according to Hubby, when you eat, you dont talk. Cause your mouth is busy chewing!

Of course, I realized my family didn't hate me, and therefore placed me alone. They did it out of respect and caring and all nice things, thinking that the best they could do for me was to let me eat in peace. While I just wanted to eat with someone. They all ate by themselves, in different locations around the house. Sometimes I took my food with me to my host brother's room and ate with him. My mother was so harsh and short with her words because she didn't speak much English and was shy of me. I learned Twi, I learned the culture, I learned that the Boamah family was gonna be my family nr. 2, and Mrs. B was really a mother to me.

This post became long. And the title doesn't correlate with the text. Until NOW.
The point was, I was served my food outside my room. The food was often delicious. Sometimes it was the opposite. For my Norwegian taste buds, anyway. The worst I can get in Ghana is something I like to refer to as Crushed Fish Stew, and boiled plaintain on the side. I dont know where to start. Ghanaians love their fish, and the bones within it. Why? It makes it so uncomfortable to eat when your mouth is full of tiny bones! Sometimes the fish is served whole so you can pick the meat from the bones. But when my mama served Crushed Fish Stew, it was fish, in the sauce, crushed into pieces, together with the delicious bones, together with green leafes (I think spinach), and it tasted...fish with bones. My food was always one plate, and that was the food we had that night. It's not like I could go to the fridge and make myself a sandwich. So most times I tried to force it in me. If Crushed Fish Stew is served with boiled plaintain in addition, you can count me out. I probably sound like a spoilt brat. But I'm not. I just can't teach my mouth to like it. Never. Ever.

So, sometimes it was a good thing to eat in solitude. At least no one would know I didn't finish my dinner.

Seriously, guys, what IS it with the bones?

pic. Me and my mother no. 2

Que...bab!

2010-05-04T20:35:00.002+02:00

In Europe we think of shredded meat from a big roll of meat being cooked in a street kitchen, served in pita bread with garlic sauce, jalapeños and salad. In Norway, a traditional after-closing-hours-on-Saturday-night-meal, and very important for hungover days as well. In e.g. Germany Döner Kebab has almost become the national dish.
But hey, kebab isn't shredded meat in a bread, now, is it?
Oh, no, the real kebab is meat on a stick!

In Ghana this means chunks of BEEF, chicken, or sliced giant sausages, grilled and drenched in pepper, served in news paper wrappings by a nice guy at the street corner, often referred to as Lambert, or the kebab guy.

The kebab guys where I have stayed in Ghana, have been lovely life savers, super friendly guys, one called LAMBert which we found quite hilarious, the go-to guys if we had a party, or just wanted to enjoy these delicious, hot lollipops of meat. I miss kebab! Or the feeling we had in Community 1 when we lived in a room with a mattress and no money to waste, but decided to buy kebab and coke one night, just to enjoy it. Or when we, in Community 2, desperately needed to spice up our good old rice and stew with some extra meat and bought kebab, carefully removing the pieces from the sticks and put them in our bowl. Always making sure we had an equal number of meat pieces each. I'm getting hungry as I write...

Me and Hubby had a nice division of labor when we had a kebab night. I usually felt shy of going out at night to the kebab stand, cos it is usually placed next to a bar, with lots of people, looking at the obroni all of a sudden emerging from the dark to buy kebab. My job was therefore to go to the nearest shop to buy drinks. In the shop the people knew me, cos I would always come there for other things during the days. Hubby went to do the man job, buy the kebab and hanging around outside the bar. Worked like a charm, but many times Hubby mysteriously ended up doing both tasks. Don't ask me how that happened.
But, I have bought kebab myself. Just so you know it.

I have got to find a way to make kebab the way it is made in Ghana. Should be easy enought, some meat, some sticks, a grill, and red pepper that we have straight from Ghana. But my experience is that no matter how similar the ingredients are, the food we make never really get the true taste of Ghana.

And in Ghana, the kebab guy is never far away...

Pic. 1: Kebab lying on its wrapping paper, ready to be chopped (eaten). The red powder to the left is red pepper. Dip it, if you dare!
Pic. 2: Me, with a cold beer and lovely kebabs in front of me.
Pic. 3: Our room in Comm. 1, with the famous mattress. You'd feel like eating kebab too, if you were to be in this room, right?

Rice and Stew Very Plenty

2010-04-29T20:19:00.000+02:00

Today we are gonna enjoy a nice dinner. Something like waakye. The way you can make it in Norway, in Levanger, at least. Hubby is preparing a nice stew, with boiled eggs, and totally free of wele.

Waakye is rice and red beans cooked together. Hubby tells me that waakye is a word in Hausa, meaning beans. But it has become the name for the mix of rice and beans, served with stew, shito, meat, fish, vegetables, pasta, gari. Back in Community 2, where we lived when I stayed in Ghana, waakye was Sunday food.
We woke up at 6 to go to the 6.30am Mass. At 8.30 we closed, and Hubby often went out to buy waakye, FULL of pepper usually, and the good times - fried COW meat. Mmmmm. We put all the food in a bowl, and ate it together with Ghanaian gospel booming in the background, and our neighbors making noise as usual. Yum.

Of course, considering the contents, it's a heavy meal. Like most Ghanaian meals. And, as tradition, every Sunday, a few hours later, fufu waited in my in-law's house. Sunday in Community 2 is eating day.

<-- Waakye, Norway style

Today we enjoyed our waakye, celebrating that Hubby has survived a whole year in this country so different from his homeland. Tomorrow it will be exactly a year since I drove the looong way to the airport, shaking, so nervous to go pick him up at the airport, in NORWAY. It was unreal. Now having him here seems like the most natural thing in the world. We should have celebrated tomorrow, but I am (hopefully) travelling to Norway's smallest city, with 2 good friends, to visit good friend number 3 from African Studies. Will be FUN!

Have a smashing May 1st weekend!

I just love my cow skin well cooked

2010-04-27T21:24:00.004+02:00

Ok, I do dig my own grave alot of times. Like when I ask my readers to suggest blog projects, as I did in the post below. This time a loyal reader, and lovely blogger, Nana Yaw, suggested I'd blog about Ghanaian food. For a whole week! Awurade, boa me.
Let's see what I can do. I can't let Nana Yaw down.

Ghanaian food no. 1.

Wele. That is, in English words, cow hide (skin).
Mmm. Yummy. Or?
I have never seen the joy of eating cow hide. But Ghanaians, they just love this curled, chewy thing. I had to do some research beyond my own head for this, and found much information on GhanaWeb. A whole article actually.

"Some “Wele” are hard and others soft, however it is a common delicacy in almost every meal-particularly cooked rice, “wakye”, ground-nut and palm nut soup."

Soft? Hard? Chewy is more like it.

“Lots of Ghanaians consume “Wele” because they see it as fun when chewing it"

Oh, how fun to chew on a piece of skin that you can never bite through. Mmm. Ok, so I'm not wele's best friend.

Here is worst case scenario for me, and wele. I am in Ghana, someone has gone to buy rice, or waakye for me from a street vender. Waakye is rice and beans cooked together, will go further into it's phenomenon on a later stage. Back to the meal awaiting. I have asked the buyer to get some MEAT with the food, not fish. When you buy rice or waakye or something from the street in Ghana, there is always several protein sources to choose from. You get your rice, your sauce, and then pick: an egg, fried fish, fried meat, salad, pasta, beans, gari (one day...), and..... WELE. I would ask for fried meat. I get my food in a bag, opens, put in a plate, digs out the meat and... OH NOOOO! The highlight of the meal is the meat. Imagine my disappointment when I find WELE. A curled up, chewy, light brown, hairy?, piece of cow skin. You can't chew it a) because it's chewy b) because the thought of what it is is ewwwie..

I say: "But... I asked for meat."
Ghanaian friend/husband etc: "It is meat. It is wele!" Followed by a big grin, and watery teeth, looking at the wele in my plate.
An alternative answer could be: They didn't have meat.

And you think WELE is a good subsitute? You might as well give me a plate full of lizard tails. (Maybe that's good?)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging Ghanaians for enjoying their wele, hell no, I am in awe of their ability to enjoy the WHOLE part of every animal, how they find fish bones as good as the fish itself, chicken bones, WELE etc. It's just me. And the texture of the food, more than the taste. I eat animal skin. Our Norwegian traditional Christmas dinner is all about getting the skin of the pork crispy. But that's the keyword. Crispy. Not chewy.

That's it. All I can say about wele. Appearently, according to GhanaWeb, it's cancerous cos of the way it's being processed. Finally I have a better excuse not to like this lovely delicacy.

Picture and info borrowed from GhanaWeb.

dream big

2010-04-26T19:39:00.000+02:00

Write, write, write.

I don't understand why a person who dreams of being a journalist or creative writer, can't think of topics to blog on? I want I want I want to do a journalism course. But maybe I should be an author instead. How fun won't it be to write a book? Hmm. What would it be about? Biography? I am such a famous person, people would just storm to the stores to buy my story, right? Even if it was so, I have such a bad memory, I wouldn't remember all the things that has happened in my life.

I'm 27 soon. I want to have a dream to follow, yet at the same time a steady income. Oh, fellow blogger, NY, inspire me to write! I have stories in my head, but they don't come through my fingers. Yet.

Challenge for bloggers. What book would YOU like to read? What should it be about? Give me a topic. Maybe it can be my new blog project. Who knows. I need something to excite me. Life is getting to normal!

2010-04-24T11:10:00.002+02:00

hello.

Up in smoke

2010-04-17T01:33:00.000+02:00

Europe is in trouble'oooh!

We find ourselves in an absurd situation. A volcano is stopping huge parts of air traffic in Europe. Norways airspace has been paralyzed since Thursday morning. And many other countries, including the UK is also shut down.

It's fascinating and a bit scary actually, to see how powerless we really are now. We can't do anything about this volcano erruption, we just have to obey by it's rules. We are all of a sudden unable to control our own ways, we are controlled by nature. It's been alot of talk about a bigger volcano in Iceland, Katla, which might errupt too, and it will have catastrophical consequences. Not only for air traffic, but also weather conditions all over the world, pollution, floods etc.

In a country like Norway, stranded planes are very serious. Not just for the passanger planes, but rescue helicopters and ambulance planes. Norway is a super-long country. The distances are vast. From the north to the south its over 2500 kilometres. It takes 1-2 days to drive, if you drive more or less non-stop. In my county, the nearest hospital is 2,5 hours away. Let's say you are giving birth, it would take 10 minutes in the air to get to a proper maternity ward. Now it will take ... 2,5 hours. Nobody knows if people are gonna die as a cause of this, but no matter what, we can't do anything about it. One of the main newspapers in the country has opened their own "hitchhiking central" where people either search for rides here and there, or offer rides. And it's amazing how many people are now reaching out to give strangers a ride. Lovely for our cold natured people! But some people has of course seen how they can make money out of this and offer seats here and there for lots of money.

But this one sweet guy says this: The ride is of course free since I'm going there myself anyway!

Volcano, please don't blow out ashes for weeks, I want us to go to Oslo in May...

Picture borrowed from: VG,no

Morning glory

2010-04-16T08:54:00.002+02:00

It is Friday morning. The best day of the week. And I start work at 9.30! Yes, that means I close at 5pm, but it's not the worst working hours. We are quite spoilt here in Norway. Yesterday I went to the gym for a 90 minute spinning class - yay for me! Unfortunately I had plans with my lovely friend to go for the morning class today, at 6.45am... Yes, it's early, but oh Lord, how good it is afterwards. And the main reason for going, is that after the shower, the gym gives us breakfast, and when we both start late, we can sit and talk for a looong time while enjoying our healthy cereal and coffee.. A nice start of the day, and you go into the weekend feeling that you are allowed to eat GOOD stuff cos you have worked out. Blah blah blah. ANYWAY... This morning my legs were really tired. My phone went beep:

05.50am
Friend: Oh shit..
Me: I know...
Friend: Are you up?
Me: My eyes are up..
Friend: I'm lying still.
Me (trying to fool myself and being her inspiration as usual): Rise and shine!!
I get up, go to the bathroom, and then.... beep.
Friend: I can't do it. Shit. It is snowing..

(Pic from last Sundays bike ride around the area: a flower! SPRING!! Or..?)

Thoughts inside my head: %&¤%&¤"%#!¤"#/&!#(/#)(/"!"%¤#¤!#"¤¤"!#"¤!#"¤%!#"%¤!#""!¤#"!%&!"
Why the H.... is it snowing now??

Me: Ok, sleep tight.

I slept till 7.30 and dragged myself up. It is now 8.30, I have eaten and I'm dressed but I need make-up, clean up a bit..., brush my teeth and be on my bike in 50 minutes. Doable? Yes I can. But, I have something really really dangerous on my lap. A lap TOP. I need to get rid of it.

So. You got a morning report from my life, enjoying the fact that I got this lovely morning all to myself, but right now I need more hours. Luckily the snow melted as fast as it landed, but something tells me that this wetness that has just landed, is gonna make the kids overly muddy, yet again. Oh, how fun sand and water and mud can be! I'm glad I'm not taking the clothes, and the kids with me home.

Have a lovely Friday and weekend!!

Dishes

2010-04-14T19:25:00.000+02:00

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned.
It's been 10 days since my last post.

I have dishes to do but I don't wanna do them.
How come dishes are so hard to do? It is such a boring task.
Give me rather a floor to wash, even a toilet is better than dishes.

Tomorrow is the application deadline for school. I have filled in my application, but I can still add more to it.
I am playing with the thought of a study in journalism. Unfortunately I have to pack up and move far from what I now call home, to do it. It's not exactly what I want. I have grown old and I wish to settle somewhere. I have travelled so much back and forth the last few years, I have changed towns and jobs and what I was gonna do the next 6 months, was always the question. I am satisfied with being in one place. But this particular place doesn't offer a journalism course. I'm gonna apply for more work where I already work. And take a journalism course on the side, online through a renowned school in Norway. Good idea? Yes.

I have applied for creative things. And children things. Anyhew. No matter what I choose, I'd still have to do dishes.

Here are the main reasons not to move from here...

This little cutie pie, and his parents ♥♥♥

This little amazing princess and her mother and father ♥♥♥

When I was just a little girl..

2010-04-05T22:03:00.000+02:00

I asked my mama "what shall I be"? And I am still asking, going on 27 I still don't know my place in the world. And I am tired now of "Que sera, sera". It is about time it turns into something graspable (word, NanaY?).
My problem is that I suffer from severe indecisiveness.

When I was 20 my sister said: Hey, I found the perfect study for you. African Studies. Oh yes, so exciting, different, interesting, I'm gonna end up working in an aid organization, a orphanage in Africa, do great, adventurous (??) stuff blah blah blah. Did that happen? No. Did the studies totally break down all my stupid illusions? Yes. Did I gain the best friends ever, great experiences AND a husband indirectly through it? Oh yes.

So it's not all bad. It is just me who dont know how to put my education into use. In a village in Norway.
Now I am working in a kindergarten, that is all I have done since I completed my bachelor. And of course, travelled. I travelled back and forth to Ghana the 3 years after my degree, to be with hubby ♥
I spent time in Norway in between, working in different kindergartens, cos that's where I got work. Short term contracts, living at home with my parents, going back to Ghana... That was what life was about for a while, and I forgot about everything else. What will become of me? The goal was hubby to come here, and to get him here, I had to work, again. Being a student would not bring in the cash I needed to prove I had to get him here. I looked for work, now in another town. But it was still kindergarten I got. And I do love it, don't get me wrong. Working in kindergarten is very rewarding and meaningful and it gives me alot. But. I am not trained to work with children so my salary is low low low. I am not trained to work with kids so my responsibilities are less than what I think I am capable of. I want more challenges, I want more responsibility, I want more money.

This August the chance to go back to school is so very present. Hubby is here, I don't need to work for anything but for the fact that making my own money is so much better than living on a student loan... April 15th I must have submitted my applications. And I can't make a choice.

I feel so guilty cause I have all the opportunities in the world. I am so priviliged. I can get into anything I'd like (except those physics, medicine, science mathematics stuff that I hate anyway). I can be whatever I like.

JUST SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT I LIKE!

Ok, I'll make a list:

I like to be creative. No, I LOVE it. I would LOVE to make a living just...creating SOMETHING, anything.
I like the way we work in the kindergarten, all colleagues, together. Not in your own office, alone.
I like to plan, organize, fix, write lists (but I am a control freak and having a job like that would make me take all the work home, and worry about work in my free time..).
I like kids.
Languages.

I took two tests online that were gonna show me what job I am suited for. One said bartender. The other said I should work with in the field of health and social work. Anyone wanna pick for me?

I just wanna create. And make money. Unfortunately they don't always match so well. The schools are few, and/or private, meaning it costs my shirt to go to school there. The jobs are few. And the schools are far away from where we kind of wanna stay. 10 days. Clock is ticking. :-S

The pictures above is from my two jobs I ever held in Ghana. The first: unpaid nursery teacher in a public nursery. My plight there can be read of HERE.
The other pic is from my only real, paid job. As towel folder (and shop keeper) at Una Agencies Ltd. at Airport, Accra.

I liked selling, the only problem was that everyone thought I was a customer there, so all the real customers approached my colleagues rather than me when they had a question. But when they allowed me to make beautiful gift baskets, with towels, soaps and candles, I was, again, happy. And creative... If I dont end this post now, it will never end. So consider it ended!

I made this... :-) Talent, huh??

pasqua

2010-04-02T11:56:00.003+02:00

This is how it looks in our apartement for Easter. I just love the colors. No furry chicken in this house, table cloths with chicken or bunnies. They are safely hidden in a drawer (sorry mamma, who gave them to me). The eggs on the tree I have painted, the candy and lily my mom gave me, and the Easter egg I bought myself, but it's currently empty. The sun is shining, nothing scheduled, just enjoying playing with Photoscape, a free photo editing program, and dreaming of a mirror reflex camera...

In the last post I mentioned Hubby's birthday on April Fool's day, also known as yesterday. If you can't read Norwegian, you would still get a pretty good idea of what happened on his birthday by checking out the video on my Norwegian blog.

holidays

2010-03-31T01:16:00.004+02:00

Easter vacation is the best. It comes in the middle of Christmas and summer, at a time when you really need it. The holidays never end up falling only on weekends so you miss out on any of them, like what happens during Christmas when 25th and 26th is Saturday and Sunday, as it will be in 2010 :-(

But Easter, Easter never disappoints. It's always a Thursday on Holy Thursday, it's always Friday on Holy Friday. And in Norway we work till noon on the Wedenesday, and we also have the Monday after Easter off. It is the longest vacation we have actually. And I'm liking it more and more each year. Empty days, nice weather, in my case, no pressure to travel into the mountains and stay in a cabin with a hole for a toilet and a freezing bucket of water as a shower, to ski all day. Just bliss.

I got my vacation today. I worked Monday and Tuesday but almost all the staff got to use their overtime hours to take the days off because out of 57 kids only 13 came to the kindergarten. But now I am gonna enjoy my 6 blank days, and fill them with ... nothing. As little as possible. And maybe finish a book and watch a movie or 5. And celebrate Hubby's birthday on the 1st. And decide what to do with my life. And decide what to do with 5 days in a row holiday that we are blessed with in May thanks to Ascencion and our National Day.

And..... sleep.

Wedding bellZ

2010-03-28T00:56:00.000+01:00

Z is a difficult letter too, but not as hard as X. Lucky for me I have a nice song I want to share with you. Zulu Wedding by Hugh Masekela. Unfortunately I can't find a video on YouTube with this song alone, so I found one with two songs by him; Send me and Zulu Wedding. So, you can either listen to both songs, OR fast forward to about 6 minutes. I want to have if not a Zulu Wedding, then a Ghanaian wedding one day too....

Yesterday

2010-03-28T00:39:00.000+01:00

Let's face it. I don't have a song on X. So, I'm gonna jump straight to Y. I just wanna get through this music stuff, so I can start blogging about something else. Dear readers, any thoughts, ideas, wishes? Topics? :-)

I am giving you and OLD classic, today. Although today is already turning into Yesterday. And in one hour, yesterday will be two hours away because we are setting the time to summertime and turning the clock one hour forwards. Tomorrow will come one hour earlier than it did yesterday.

Enjoy Paul and the rest. Yesterday.

Wicked games

2010-03-24T19:30:00.000+01:00

Hello. I am back home, hoorrahh!

Oslo was fun. And busy. The feel of the big city (big city being a city with about 500 000 people) is great. But the feeling of always being in line, having people front and back, left and right, crowds everywhere you wanna go, made me think a crazy thought: I am happy I live in little Levanger. Wow. It is a revelation. I like to live here in this small farmer town. Cos you can breathe freely and the lines in cafes and shops are not so long that you wanna kill the slow-mo's before you.

Our gang

10 ladies spent the weekend shopping, eating, laughing at stand-up show, drinking, and the lady writing this was asked to go out and get some fresh air at around 1.am Sunday night. Yes, the angel when it comes to alcohol consumption, the calm and collected girl who sat properly on her seat in the bar, with a glass of water (trying to sober up before bedtime...), was asked by a Swedish bouncer if I would bother myself to go outside to have some fresh air. I did not have a black-out, it's not that I was so drunk I didn't know I needed air. NO. I was NOT in need of air. But, oh so friendly Swedish guy said: If you go and take some fresh air, I won't say anything. A silent threat, no? I went out, with my friend being asked by Swedish to accompany me. This particular friend had been drinking since 3 o'clock and had several bottles of bubbly behind her. AND a glass of beer in her hand. End of story.

Laura, here is Wicked Game. Unfortunately with Chris Isaac, not your friends' version.

forever friends

2010-03-15T23:03:00.001+01:00

I am off to Oslo on Thursday morning, to have a girls weekend with my friends from High School. We have spread all over the country but still keep in touch. We were a very close group of friends, and meet every time we go home for Christmas and other holidays. But, we are growing up, and working so we can't always come home all the time as before. Therefore we have started a new tradition I hope will last for YEARS. It's called Gang Meet-up. We called us the Gang (in Norwegian of course), and we were quite a solid group of girls. Now we have decided to meet somewhere in Norway each year. In a big city that it is easy to get to, and where some members of our gang live who are able to host some, if not all of us.

The coming weekend it's time for the third meet-up, and the first I'm able to attend! Yippie! 10 out of 12 are attending and it's gonna be a great weekend in Oslo. It's been ages since I spent time in the BIG city of Norway (with 500 000 inhabitants...haha). Just that big city feeling.... Shopping, good food, stand-up, a party, good times with friends who REALLY know you, from kindergarten. It's so relaxing. You don't have to explain anything from before, you can just start the conversation in the moment, cause you are so updated about their life up to now. We might not talk so much during the year, but when we meet we are connected right away. I love them!! I love it, and I hope when we are 40 we will still have our yearly meet-ups.

But, before I go, there are 2 more work days, BUSY work days. The art exhibit is coming up fast, and it means a bit extra work, and overtime. Today I was at work from 6.30am to 9pm... Not just because of the exhibit though. Tomorrow it means overtime, and Wedensday it means overtime. SO. I am writing this post to say: Hi, I'll be really busy and then going to Oslo so I don't think there will be more posts this week. Sorryyyy....I am sure you are all very sad right now. Anyway, I'll come back stronger and better!

Tribute to Sweden

2010-03-14T21:36:00.000+01:00

Hello.. I'm in bed, waiting for my hubby to get in so I can sleep. But he ain't coming. What to do? Blog.
Today we have come to the letter V. I knew we would need a Scandinavian song for this letter, and I landed on the lovely "Vill ha dig" by Drømhus (trans. "I want you" by Dream House). They are Swedish, they are late 90's? They were big and when I saw the video in YouTube right now, I really remembered the dancers in the white outfits... Ok, we are back in my youngster years, but you couldn't expect more of me on a Sunday night.
Good night!

U guessed it

2010-03-12T18:08:00.001+01:00

eeey...eeeey..eey .. Under my umbrella, ey ey ey.. and so on. I'm gonna give you Rihanna's Umbrella for the letter U. But not her own version. I couldn't help falling for the Baseballs who have transformed lots of pop music into real 60's swing music. It's very funny. And well done.

Here you go! I've kicked Hubby out and spending the night with a girl friend and Mexican food! ♥

promises

2010-03-11T18:27:00.000+01:00

Ok. I admit this "singing our way through the alphabet" is taking looong. Not as exciting as I had hoped for. Gotta get through it fast! Another Tracy Chapman song gets the honor today. It's a song that has been with me for a long, long time. And has been a very appropriate song when I have been missing my boyfriend when we were far, far away from eachother. The Promise. Love it.

Somewhere over the rainbow

2010-03-10T22:31:00.001+01:00

Things take time in my world. All of a sudden Wedenesday is about to end. This week is gonna run fast. It has been running fast at work, cause we are really busy implementing a plan I had: Having an art exhibition at the kindergarten for the parents to come and see. It was my little, little idea which has now grown in to a biiig project, and we are gonna have a fancy vernissage, with canapes and sparkling drinks, classical live music and a lot of beautiful (and less beautiful) art works made by the kids. Yippie! So the days are flying by with Yngvild covered in paint, glue, glitter and plaster, and the evenings just disappear into nothing and all of a sudden I find myself tucked in and ready to sleep...

But I'm gonna share with you a song today. A very beautiful song from The Wizard of Oz, here sung by a young Norwegian talent, Nora Foss Al-Jabri. Just love her version and her voice. And I let myself be impressed by children with amazing talent. Somewhere over the rainbow.

Pimp my blog

2010-03-07T22:56:00.000+01:00

Im playing with blogspot. HTML and stuff like that. Im not good. Anybody wanna teach me something?? I wanna pimp my blog...

Ghanaaa'ohh, Ghana!

2010-03-06T18:57:00.002+01:00

GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND, GHANA, AND MAKE OUR NATION PROUD AND STRONG!!

To all you Ghanaians out there, I congratulate you on your 53rd year of Independence.
The day will be celebrated in this house with emotuo and nkateenkwan (groundnut soup&rice balls), ice cream, Manchester United winning their game, and wifey overcoming her hungover from yesterdays lovely girls night/birthday party!

I've spent the day in bed... Lovely. Only interrupted by a walk downstairs to the supermarket (oh, how I love living next door to it) to get fried chicken for hubby cos he asked so nicely since it was Independence Day and all, ice cream as a substitute for not finding fresh fried chicken, only cellophane wrapped chicken. Now the room is being filled with smells of garlic, ginger and groundnuts, and when its half time, hubby will start making the rice balls. I'm one lucky gal!

I'm sharing with you today a new song I've been digging lately, along with many others I guess.
Russian Roulette with Rihanna. Can there BE more R's in that sentence? Cool girl. Cool song. Cool sound.

Happy Independence Day!

Childhood dreams

2010-03-02T21:01:00.004+01:00

Hey guys, you are quiet these days. I dont have much to say either.
I'm crying my brave tears over my childhood home, which at this very moment can be viewed here.

My dear house is put out for sale. My parents are planning to move to my late grandmother's house, in the village where my mom grew up. A sensible thing to do of course, since they are only two people alone in a big house, and both daughters live far away and are not planning to move back home any time soon. But... all the memories of my childhood are from this house. I lived there from I was 6 till I moved out at 20. It's a quite significant amount of time. All the important things happened here, if you don't count the first steps, first words, first day without diaper etc.

Gosh I'm gonna miss it. Next time I go to my hometown, I don't have a home to go to. The only thing to hope for now, is that they get ALOT of money for it!! :-)

Since we are in the spirit of reminiscing, I'm posting a song today that will remind me of my early teenage years, when we were digging these hot guys! It's (drumroll!) the BACKSTREET BOYS, with Quit playing games with my heart.

torch night

2010-02-28T00:46:00.001+01:00

Do you hate her 'cause she's pieces of you?

2010-02-27T05:40:00.000+01:00

This is a good song, you guys! Yet another one of my singing ladies, Jewel. But this song really has a message. Just listen, and listen well. Take care and enjoy your weekend!

A night of a thousand torches

2010-02-26T16:37:00.005+01:00

Wooops, and there goes another week!
I am sorry. Again I have sinned. But I think I have been boring you guys as well. I'm already thinking about a new plan if I ever get through the alphabet with these songs.

Today it is ONE year exactly since I got a letter in the mail saying that my now husband was given a residence and work permit in Norway. I was standing outside by the mailbox screaming and crying. I didn't even enter the house, I called my mom first. It was a crazy day. The day happen to fall on the day of a special night in Levanger called Torch Night. It is part of a 4 day long festival/fair in town. The Torch Night is special. Everyone in town is asked to turn off all electrical light, and people gather on the town square, everyone carrying torches, and then a march through town begins. Thousands of people walk through the city, and along the road sides there are small shows - music bands, drama, artwork, dance, all kinds of cultural small shows. In the dark, only lit by thousands of torches. Magical. I hope my hubby will be impressed, considering he is only joining me cos of heavy convincing from my side.

In the mean time, enjoy Ohene. It's a Ghanaian Gospel, by No Tribe. I love this gospel. Usually, Ghanaian gospel songs are very upbeat and jolly, but I fell in love with this one cos it is so somber and ... majestetic. When we started planning the music for our wedding, I knew I wanted this song played in the background during the communion. How I wish I could be there and hear this song live...

Happy weekend!

Diallo, Diallo...

2010-02-20T09:54:00.003+01:00

Ok, today I'm gonna cheat you. I'm gonna show you a clip from the Nobel Peace Prize concert last year. When Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, poor guy. Maybe not fun to win it when you, and half of the world don't think you deserved it at all. I don't really know where I stand on the subject. And I'm not gonna discuss it here. All I know is that it isn't HIS fault he won it, so don't beat him up over it.

Back to the CONCERT, which always is great, no matter who wins. This year I realized Wyclef Jean is so cool. He is cool, I know. But he is SO cool. Specially during the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. That's why I'm gonna share a clip from that concert, that on youtube has the name Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009. Starts with an N, right? Watch and enjoy. And happy weekend!
And that PRINCESS is the princess of Norway'ooo...

_______________________________________________________________________________

What's up with the video though, why is it so huge? Anyone with blog knowledge can tell me how not to make it go into the right border...? Uuuh. What up with my english?

then appears someone who wanna tear you down

2010-02-18T21:24:00.003+01:00

Today, although I'm feeling good and happy, I'm gonna share with you my heartache song.
At least it was long, long time ago when my heart was broken. I listened to this song on repeat and pitied my poor self. Now it is embarrassing to picture the teenager in her bedroom, feeling like the world was about to end. But the song isn't for teenagers. It is still great. Sung by another Norwegian singing lady, Lene Marlin. The song starts great. "You think you've made it, everything is going fine." That's how it usually feels, right before something will go wrong. Wether it's your heart being broken, or ...let's say... its getting FREEZING outside again, after a few days with some less cold days.

Anyway, ENJOY Maybe I'll go.

LoveLoveLove

2010-02-15T22:32:00.002+01:00

Lalalalalalalallalalalaaaaa....
Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. In Norway it was also Mother's day yesterday, + fattening Sunday, meaning the day before you start the fasting. The tradition left behind from this biblical happening, is baking a type of sweet bread, small round balls of wheat and sugar and milk and stuff. Then you split them in half and put whipped cream in between.
We didn't celebrate that. Or Mother's day, since my mother lives far away. But before Hubby went to church yesterday morning, he dropped a bar of chocolate on my pillow. I took it as a Valentine's day gift. :-) I'm not really a fan of Valentine, cos it's just another tradition adopted from the U.S. in the recent decade. Like Halloween. I think it's really stupid, but now Norwegian kids also go trick or treating.

Well, I'm getting myself lost here. You need a song. On L.
So, I give you another of my favorite singing ladies, Pink. And her Love Song. In the spirit of Valentine's Day and all the other 364 days of the year you should tell your darling you love him/her.

Norway moment

2010-02-12T21:11:00.002+01:00

Today I'm gonna Norwegianize you!
I'm gonna let you hear a song of a great band.
They took Norwegian folk songs.
And turned them into rock.
With a singer whose voice is magical.
And a dialect to mesmerize you.
Their music draws you into the olden days, into the mountains, with the mountain lords and trolls.

Here is Gåte. With Kara tu omna.

Do you want to be a millionaire?

2010-02-09T21:39:00.003+01:00

Some movies are of those kinds that ALL have to watch. One of them is Slumdog Millionaire. Yes, it was hyped, yes, maybe it was a bit commercial, maybe the stories about how some of the actors in the movie were sent back to the slum after finished the recording, are immoral and questionable. But before all that, I went to the movies with a good friend and saw a movie with a remarkable, exciting story. Great soundtrack. Amazing pictures. Adorable kids. It just gripped me. It was one of those good movie experiences. One of those you felt it was worth seeing in the cinema. I really enjoyed the movie, and I enjoyed the soundtrack even more. So much that I bought the CD.

Here is Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire.

But here is a NICER video...

In God's hands

2010-02-05T20:36:00.002+01:00

Okay, sorry about last post. So negative. Not good.

I have decided, for many reasons, to try and live by the "accept the things I can't change"-philosophy. I let too many things bug me, while I know I can't change them. So, if you hear me complain again, ask me if it is something that cant be changed.

A new and better week will hopefully start on Monday. I think the antibiotics I'm on are finally kicking in. Last night I kept hubby up all night, coughing my brains out, so it can only get better. The weather is good, only -0,2 degrees right now. Love it love it love it! It means no ice on the windows, and not a freezing bathroom.
And that also means going to the gym again. I have been sinning the last couple of weeks, feeling crappy, eating crap and visiting my beloved gym only a few times. A good gym friend of mine has left me though, I want to complain about it even if I can't change it! :-) She has travelled to Argentina, and I have to do our regular Tuesday and Thursday gym dates SOLO. And it's really boring. So, Silje, come back!!

I feel this is a messy post. Today you will get a song from my favorite artist. I guess. It is the wonderful, talented Nelly Furtado. Although she is my favorite, her last commercial pop album disappointed me, cos it was the special, original tunes that made her catch my eye (or ear). But I guess everyone needs to make money. I just know a couple of people who love Nelly, and the rest think she is weird. But the pop album is like "...oh yeah, I like Nelly Furtado..", since she now sounds like Beyoncè or whoever.

Aaaaaanyway. I will still share a song from her newest album, "Loose". It's a beautiful and touching song. And with this I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Head over feet

2010-02-03T19:17:00.002+01:00

What song do you guys want?
I'm still sick.
And I have pulled a wisdom tooth out.
And I am paying the price and I just complain and seek sympathy.
So better make this fast and painless.

I'll share with you one of my teenage years heroines. When I was in my teens, I was sooo into singing ladies. All kinds of singing ladies. And Alanis was one of my favorites.
Here is her Head over feet. Hearing her songs puts me right back to my blue room in my childhood home which is about to be sold, reading the lyrics and singing. Loud.

About goodbyes

2010-01-31T20:30:00.002+01:00

I met my husband when we were both doing an exchange at the University of Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania in 2005. I heard rumours that there would be Ghanaian exchange students at campus and I was eager to meet them. I had lived in Ghana before, spoke Twi, and felt I knew the country. Coming to Tanzania was like coming to something similar to Ghana. Something I knew well. I wrote in my diary: It looks like Ghana, it feels like Ghana, it smells like Ghana - BUT I DONT UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE! I was frustrated cos I felt I knew how to do an African country - somehow. But no matter what I knew, I was just as much a mzungu/obroni/white person as the others I travelled with.
Hearing about these Ghanaian students made me feel like something from home was coming my way. Something I knew and could relate to. The day came when all the international studens were gonna have an information day on campus, and I saw 5 black people amongst the rest of us white European and American students. And forced myself to go up to the only girl in the flock and said: Are you from Ghana? She said yes. And so I started speaking Twi with her, I was immediately accepted into their group, I was brought over to the 4 boys, one of them was gonna be my husband... They were all quite extatic about this obroni speaking Twi like that, I sat next to future hubby during the information and I was immediately interested. I realized he laughed at the same things as me (cos the people having the orientation were very funny, although they weren't trying to be), and he was sarcastic and making jokes I would make.
The next day I went to their hostel for a superdelicious rice and stew, the best food I had tasted since I got to Tanzania. I soon realized it was future hubby's work. Impressed. Somehow it was him who ended up hanging out with me. He used to come to our hostel and hang out in my and my roomates room. We talked and listened to music and I guess flirted for a looong month before something happened. At first I wasn't sure how this was gonna end. I mean, I was leaving in a few months, he was staying in Tanzania and later returning to Ghana. What future did this relationship have? Was it just a fling, some fun?

It soon became obvious that this was more than a fling. I have never felt like this about someone before. But after about 3-4 months of flirting and relationship came D-day, the day I had to go home. I was assuring him I would come to Ghana when I finished my bachelor, in about 6 months. These were some looong 6 months, with insecurity, longing, fighting, bad communication over bad phone lines and what not. But, an opportunity came my way and 7 months... after we saw eachother last I came to Ghana, with a JOB, and we spent more time together, and solidified (a word??) our relationship. I left and came and left again many times before he finally came to Norway last year. But that is another story.

I have given you this story because the song for today, was a song I heard right after coming back from Tanzania. It felt like a song about us. About me. If you just remove the "I'd be the father of your child"-part, and change it with "mother", it is about us. The way it felt to leave. And say goodbye. Although James Blunt's goodbye sounds much more final in this song, and ours was supposed to be a temporary one, this song really touched me.

So, on a late Sunday Eve, I serve you: Goodbye, my lover.

Odo, me pe w'asem!

Fuck you

2010-01-30T16:38:00.002+01:00

Hi.

I know I haven't been doing a good job lately with blogging. I'm sorry. I have been sick for days, but only yetsterday did I stay home from work cos of it. The last week has been crap, health wise, work wise, crappy apartement wise. Today we discovered a big crack in one of our windows. Through the last cold period we had problems with ice freezing on the inside of the windows. It is alot of humidity in the apartement and steam gathers on the windows and roof, cos they are cold. The landlord blames us, but I and my father and everyone I talk to blames poor ventilation in the building. I'm worried cos all the steam causes alot of water on the woodwork around the windows that can lead to rotten wood, mould, fungus... I don't want to be blamed at the end, so I tell the landlord. And he tells me the same thing over and over: It is becuase you are two people, shower, drying clothes... I dont think he wants to face that his building has some serious constructional problems. Fingers crossed that we get more money in our hands soon, and can afford to move to a better place.

We have gotten to the letter F in my little game, and because my mood is ROTTEN as our windows today, you get a song that might be offensive to some. But right now, that is what I'm saying to the landlord, my sore throat, my wisdom tooth and the world - FUCK YOU - with Lily Allen. Quite catchy really.

Emmanuella

2010-01-25T20:44:00.002+01:00

Today's song comes from one of MY favorite artists from Ghana. While Kajsa digs Kojo Antwi, Ofori Amponsah's catchy tunes have always gotten my attention. Specially I like Otoolege and Broken heart, and another song that I don't know the name of and just call it "the nice song".

But today I have chosen Emmanuella, which was the first song I knew was of Ofori Amponsah. Get up and dance!

Dagane

2010-01-23T17:45:00.002+01:00

Though we didn't play Beyoncè's Crazy in love at our party yesterday, it turned out very successful after all. I had invited 4 girls who are not directly connected, some know eachother a bit, but that's all. Then hubby invited 4 friends of his, from his language class. And we all brought them together in our tiny flat. How will this go? Thinking Norwegians are a bit reserved and dont talk much to strangers, I had my thoughts before hand.

It went very well. 3 continents represented, 5 nationalities, 9 human beings in all, had a fun evening together, sharing thoughts, ideas, jokes, music - and learned some language. I learned how to tell an Afghan boy that his daddy is soon coming to pick him (at kindergarten), I got to practice my Spanish, and Norwegian was being practiced on a high level. Red wine was of course spilled on the carpet I thought about removing before the guests came, in case someone would spill red wine on it. But thanks to a magic stain remover I bought, carpet is good as new! Music was played, dancing was done in our kitchen. It was a very nice evening!

Of course, now I have a headache but I guess it is worth it.

The song on D I'm gonna share with you today, also a live performance, is called
Dagane by Odd Nordstoga.
A Norwegian artist with a wonderful voice and characteristic dialect. I just love him. In the clip he is performing together with one of Norway's most famous singers, Sissel Kyrkjebø. The song means "The Days".

Crazy in love

2010-01-22T10:46:00.000+01:00

I wanted you guys to start off the Friday with some real party music, and since I'm having a party at our house tonight (yippiee), I have been searching high and low for the right song. Unfortunately my music folder is not full off too much party party music cos I dont party as often as I should. I guess.

I give you Beyoncè and Jay-Z's Crazy in love...

Behind the wall

2010-01-21T18:32:00.002+01:00

Today I'll share with you one of my favorite artists, and it wont be the last time I'll use her.
Tracy Chapman and her song Behind the wall.
It's an incredibly strong song, although its short nature. It says what needs to be said, and nothing more. It is a clear message, about domestic violence, and our fear to interfere when we know someone we dont know is struggling.

All this time

2010-01-20T20:38:00.001+01:00

I start my new ambitious project with Maria Mena's "All this time". Maria Mena is a Norwegian young artist who have had great success with her music, and has titles that really hit home. Specially this one and this girl (me). Enjoy.

29 Musical days

2010-01-19T20:04:00.004+01:00

Ey. I have an idea, maybe. What about singing myself through the alphabet?

I start with A and pick a song I like that start with A. And find it on youtube and post the link and then you can all listen, and y'all will know my music taste inside out!

Thoughts?

lalalallallalallalallallaaaaaaaa....

(And by 29 I mean I will try to include some Norwegian songs, starting with the Norwegian letters Æ, Ø and Å!)

Words. Don't come easy.

2010-01-18T09:56:00.002+01:00

During my time as a research assistant for a Norwegian student in Ghana, we were in an office in some ministry, dont remember if it was Health or Youth...somethingsomething, but anyway, THIS wonderful writing was on the wall.

Just gotta love it. I think I have to make a post about all the lovely things I have found on walls in Ghana.

I dreamt death came the other night
And Heaven's gates swung open wide
With kindly grace, an angel ushered me inside
And there to my astonishment
Stood folks I'd known on Earth
Some I'd labeled and judged
Unfit or of little worth
Indignant words rose to my lips
But never were set free
For every face showed stunned suprise
No one expected me.

blablabla

2010-01-17T21:40:00.003+01:00

ok.

I am back to old sins. I'm not blogging.

And I haven't even thought about a new blogging project.

Somebody have some extra blog self dicipline to sell?

While I'm thinking, I'm giving you all the privilige of resting your eyes on the happy couple in front of the Christmas Tree the last day of last year.

Brain freeze

2010-01-08T21:07:00.003+01:00

Ok, for those of you who read news about Europe, you might have noticed the cold spell that has been affecting alot of countries. In the UK everything is standing still thanks to some few degrees below zero and some centimetres of snow. But I understand them. They are not used to it.
Just as I am not used to 25 degrees below zero. Cos that have been the temperatures the last week. The whole week we have been inside in the kindergarten, which results in wild kids, who are used to 2-3 hours of fresh air and physical activity every day. They are about 4 days behind on their activity level. Lucky me was the last person at work today, closing at 5. Cos of the extreme cold we have turned off the ventilation system there. Resulting in no oxygen which results in headache. And the wild kids with their paper planes, and energy levels on overload. I am so happy I'm in bed now, in front of my TV. Waiting for the temperature in the room to get over 20 degrees. +.
We live in a crappy apartement, very very badly insulated. That means that cold air streams into the room all the time, while the hot air that I am paying a fortune for coming out of the heaters, get wasted cos of the poor insulated house. The ventilation in the house is also crap, so air doesn't get out unless I open the windows. You cant do that in -25. That results in humidity in the room. The hot air lands on cold flates in the room, like the windows and roof. This results in (or used to result in) dew on the window and small drops of water forming in the roof. BAD cos that causes mould in the end. Anyway, thanks to the cold and the poorly insulated roof and windows, not the dew FREEZES on the windows and in the roof. I actually have small frozen droplets of ice in the roof in the bathroom. And my windows are frozen and I have to defrost them with a hair dryer every day. (If anyone wants to know, our landlord doesnt care, and blames it all on us).
How many times have I written "results" in this post?

I haven't had inspiration for starting to blog again. But I'm open for new suggestions for projects. :-)

I leave you with a picture (very bad one) of the ice on my window.
Have a lovely warm weekend!!

twothousandandten

2010-01-01T22:04:00.003+01:00

One advice....

Don't drink and fly.

And don't go home at 4am from a New Year's Party when you are gonna sit in a plane for 5 hours the next day, up and down, up and down, up and down along the loooong coast of Norway in a little propellar plane.

But what a SPLENDID New Year's Eve it was!

Hope ALL your dreams come through this year,

and if they don't, remember it's normal for most of us.

:-)

It came upon a midnight clear

2009-12-24T12:32:00.002+01:00

The day is finally here. The end of my advents calendar. It's Christmas Eve in our House, and the snow is falling heavily. It's actually perfect. I mean, snow on Christmas Eve? We usually have snow but the last years it hasn't been so much. But today it started pouring down. If you can say that about snow. We do our usual Norwegian Christmas stuff. My husband is watching all the racket in amazement. What's up with these people? What's all the fuzz.. It's just traditions that is burned into our Norwegian souls.

I feel guilty sometimes, we are the most unreligious people, yet we celebrate Christmas much harder than people who really celebrate what we are supposed to celebrate. But then again, before Christianity arrived in Norway, we had a big party at this time of year, celebrating the return of the sun. We live in the dark country, and up north we dont have sun above the horizon between November and January. The pic in the post below is taken almost at the days brightest hour. It could have been a bit brighter out, but thanks to all the clouds with all the lovely snow, it's daaaark. And lovely. All the Christmas lights really come to their right in this part of the world. Now we are about to have lunch, later I go to church with my dad and Hubby. I think that is the most important part of the Christmas Eve traditions in our house, even if it's usually just me and my dad. My mom is cooking usually. When we get home from church, we eat, and then...open presents. We have SO many presents this year. Another thing that is not usual. We are 7 people at dinner this year. We have been 5 at the maximum, usually only 3 or 4. Therefore all the presents. We have a baby here too, and he will get most of the presents in the above pic.

Presents or no presents, sun or snow - it's Christmas! Thank you all for following the blog calendar, it has been fun and challenging!

I wish you ALL a Merry Christmas and a fruitful new blogging yearP.S.:

P.S.: The quiz on the December 1st post, anyone? It was (drum roll) --------

A DROP OF PAINT!

All I want for Christmas is an idea for a new blog project

I almost forgot... 24 presents on the 24th of December!

Frozen river, the Santa Clause pic and our back yard TODAY!

2009-12-24T11:59:00.003+01:00

Little Christmas Eve

2009-12-23T20:35:00.002+01:00

I had such a good plan with today. I had this lovely picture of a bunch of my mother's little santa clause figures (She has ALOT). They were all neatly lined up in the coach and I took a nice photo. Later of course realizing they were only 21.

I have learned alot through my 2 latest blog projects.

1. I don't know the alphabet and 2. I can't count.

Because I didn't have the motivation to line all the santas up again, AND considering the presence of my 1 year old nephew who wants everything he can't have and nothing of what he can have, there were no new santa pic. Instead I am making you jealous by showing a picture of the marzipan (?) candy my sister has made, coated with chocolate. Very yummy, I can tell you. But eating one means you have to jog for like 20 minutes or so... Christmas came at a bad time this year, I was on the roll losing weight and eating well. And so comes the season to be jolly and gain weight. But not to worry, I haven't become a health freak and I will enjoy Christmas as I always have. And go for long walks in the SNOW. Love it. I love spending Christmas in the north. Such a shame it's so far away from everything. On Monday I left work at 1.30, walked to the trainstation. Took the train to the airport at 2, and arrived home at 1am..On Tuesday. And we were on schedule.

Anyway, today is the night before the night here in Norway. We celebrate most tomorrow, with good food, church and presents. So tonight is decoration, preparation, and watching Christmassy things on TV.

So today I have served you 23 candies on the 23rd of December.

dotdotdotdot

2009-12-22T23:26:00.003+01:00

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

sorry guys. i'm just too tired. 22nd December.

Threads of many colors

2009-12-21T11:27:00.001+01:00

I went to a shop with my friend one day. I didn't know these kinds of shops existed anymore. It was FULL of sowing equipment and nitting equipment and needles and pins and buttons. It was heaven for my blog advent calendar cos there were so many similar things next to each other.

Like these threads. What do you call them, a roll of thread? Whatever it is called, they were many and nice colors and beautiful and I sneaked a picture of them. I had to crop it seriously. It was a lovely shop with SO much organization! :-)

21 threads on the 21st of December.

I am going home to my mama today!! Leave at 5pm and will hopefully arrive home at 00.45am... Pray there wont be any snowstorms tonight!

hands up

2009-12-20T04:52:00.000+01:00

So I am arranging pictures again.
Yesterday I visited my cutest friend. She has the cutest chubby little fingers. And she has 10 of them. I also have 10. So, it was obvious. She was gonna have her debut as a HAND model.

Didn't she do well??

20 fingers on the 20th of December!

These shoes were made for walking

2009-12-19T17:14:00.005+01:00

My lovely header photo! I like it so so so much.
I took it at the nursery I worked in back in Ghana in 2007. Every day after having lunch, the kids went to take their nap. Before that, some of the oldest kids were given the job to put all the shoes in rows outside the room.

And they did it ever so neatly.

The kids were sleeping, the teachers were sleeping, and the obroni was wondering what to do with her time. And the shoes were shouting: Snap me, snap me! :-)

There should be 19 PAIRS of shoes here, on the 19th of December!

The table is set

2009-12-18T08:26:00.001+01:00

More on my creative side.
My sister got married this year, and as the artistic member of the family, I took the responsibility for the decorations. Mostly I took it, cos my sister is of the type that thinks everything works out in the end... But since I had gotten married only a month before her, I KNEW that for a wedding things don't just work out by themselves.

So I made the invitations and decorated the table, and almost burned down the house where we had the party cos I decorated some candles with something flammable... woops! I know the table looks very simple and maybe plain, but that's what the bride wanted.

18 places by the table, on the 18th of December.

SikaHelaMoney

2009-12-17T18:24:00.002+01:00

Hey guys!

One more week. I really appreciate all your comments! I hope you are gonna come with great ideas for the next week...after Thursday. I can't believe it's almost Christmas. I have never gone home as late as the 21st December before... I've always been a student or doing nothing, so I have had a lot of time home before Christmas. But now I'm a working class hero and I'm lucky enough to get the whole Christmas week off! Thanks to my lovely work and lovlier boss.

The ideas for pictures are getting few. I carry my camera all the time but the problem is that when I go to work it's dark and when I go home from work it's dark, so I can't really snap anything on the way. I can't post pictures from work, that's not allowed. So. Today you get to enjooy the picture of 17 Norwegian Kroner. It's a 10 and 7 1s.

About what is left in my wallet after the Christmas presents shopping. :-)

17 Kroner on the 17th of December.

And for those interested, we didn't get -23 degrees today. Only -14,5...
Now I'm just waiting to feel like wanting to clean. Got it?

in the footsteps of yesterday

2009-12-16T10:16:00.000+01:00

Ok, follow up from yesterday.

Here are the gingerbread cookies in full. Full of yummy nonstops... So sorry they are not in MY house. But they will be. On the 22nd. Me and hubby will definitely be baking the compulsory gingerbread cookies, in my mother's kitchen. Home sweet home....

16 gingerbread cookies on the 16th of December.

They have reported 23 degrees below zero tomorrow. Centigrades, not Fahrenheit. - 23!

snow snow nonstop (xmas wish)

2009-12-15T10:15:00.000+01:00

The inspirator of my blog advent calendar has been forced to contribute with a picture.

This will be a short post. Christmas is coming too fast, I think there is something I have to do that I haven't done before I travel home on Monday, but I can't put my finger on it...

Anyway, this is an excerpt (?) of Guros gingerbread house. We decorate with icing sugar and nonstop. Nonstops are color coated chocolate chips. Compulsory for gingerbread decoration....

15 nonstops on the 15th of December.

Buttons up!

2009-12-14T11:40:00.000+01:00

So I found all these buttons in a shop in Trondheim. Love Trondheim. I'm quite indifferent to buttons, but they were cool, and together and many.

Today we are lighting the Christmas Tree in the Kindergarten after work. It's a gathering for the kids and parents. Hot dogs, Santa Claus is visiting, lottery, christmas carols... and they have reported R-A-I-N!

Ugly ugly ugly rain. We want snow. We live almost at the North Pole. Give us snow, damn it!

Ok. I will relax. 14 buttons on the 14th of December.

Everyone is an expert

2009-12-13T11:22:00.000+01:00

When my parents visited me and my husband in Ghana two years ago, we took them round. Of course we visited my "hometown" Kumasi.
On the way back from the Garden City, we got a ride with hubby's sister's work car. We thought this was gonna make us get back to Accra faster than the dreaded Slow Transport Company (STC). We were wrong.

First of all, all the ladies had to do an hours shopping in Ejisu. They left the bus, were gone for an hour, and came back with half of Ejisu's plantain population. My parents watched in awe as they stuffed the bus beyond full with plantain and other tubers. There were no ways in or out of the bus anymore.

Not to our suprise, along the way the tyre exploded. Heavy load? Anyway.
The equipment used to fix tyres and such things hadn't been used forever and had rusted into the car - it was stuck. So what happens? Yes, the "Everyone is an expert" phenomenon hits all the guys. But that didnt help. What helped was a truck from Mali with two REAL men inside, that had equipment and skills, and heart. Bless them for stopping, my mom was about to boil away. It was noon.

So in the picture there should be 13 experts on the 13th of December. Can you spot them all?

Confused

2009-12-12T19:37:00.001+01:00

Nobody wants to tell me that I posted two posts on the 9th of December, cos nobody wants to tell me what a moron I am :-) Sorry for being so unprofessional, I'll straighten myself up!!

On the 12th day of Christmas...

2009-12-12T09:41:00.000+01:00

12 cute kids from the nursery I worked in in Tema in 2007.

They are actually lining up here to sing the national anthem and recite the Lord's prayer.

But who cares when there is a weird obroni there with a camera?

Let's look at teacher Ama instead!

Lovely, wild kids.

12 is the number, on the 12th of December!

Go go go HIGH!

2009-12-11T08:22:00.000+01:00

"Just put a picture of a football team", hubby says when I'm worrying about how to find a picture with 11 things in it. I don't feel like going out looking for a football team, so I look at my external harddisk.

And what do I find? Ghana vs. Morocco in the African Cup of Nations in 2008. We were there, at Ohene Djan magnificent stadium, after waiting, wondering, pushing in the Post Office to get a ticket to the game. Weee, I was so happy. And it was SO exciting. And we won! Yay!!

On the field there are 11 people, Morrocans, Ghanaians and the referee, on the 11th of December.

Yum, yum, give me some!

2009-12-10T09:44:00.002+01:00

Yummy! This is Christmas in Norway. Klementiner. What is that in English? My husband calls them tangerines. Whatever it's called, they are small oranges and taste like Christmas cos for some reason, we buy these in excess in Christmas.

I guess they are in season somewhere during this time of year, and that's why they happened to be a December phenomenon here in the North. It's not like we grow them here exactly.

I buy bunches of them. I love them and they are cheap AND healthy! 3 in 1! <3

Here are 10 of them on the 10th of December.

A star is shining tonight

2009-12-09T21:25:00.004+01:00

This is the holiest hour
Heaven is now in sight
Listen to bells that are chiming
Christmas has come tonight

Sweet are the voices high above
Singing of peace and of love
All of the world is filled with light
A star is shining tonight

Now he is resting among us
On Bethlehem's golden straw
Night giving way as we stand here
Watching this child with awe

This is one of my favorite Christmas carols, translated into English from Norwegian. If you wanna hear the Norrwegian version, click here. And, if you wanna hear my husband's choir back in Ghana sing the song in Norwegian, click here!! (He is gonna kill me now...)

Anyway, a star is shining tonight, and 9 candles are shining on my red IKEA plate on the 9th of December.

Marry me!

2009-12-09T09:50:00.000+01:00

Wow. This project of mine is getting harder and harder each day of December that passes. It might have to do with the fact that the numers are increasing fast! Until now I have found pictures that I have already taken that fit with the numbers, but I might have to start arranging pictures.. Or take my camera everywhere and take pictures of numerous things. I see all the kids everyday and think: Oh, how easy it would be to take pictures from work, but of course it's not something I would do!

Today the choice fell on wedding invitations. These are my sister's wedding invitations, that I made for her wedding in August this year. I was very content with them. Simple yet classy and beautiful. Me like. She also liked them, luckily. :-)

9 invitations on the 9th of December.