When I was just a little girl..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!