I am not alive, and not in some Cyprus hospital after an ill-fated attempt at driving on the wrong left side of the road. Actually I was rather amazed at how civilized the traffic was, well, since my points of comparison were Norwegian, Italian and Greek traffic.

I will not say so much about the holiday, because holiday it was - at least by my standards, sleep late (until 830!), go for a swim in the ocean, have a long an leisurely breakfast. (optional; place mother at the beach) relax (two hours in a bus across the island to have a look at some ancient stones), lunch (eat fast before the bus leaves), home again, (optional - pick up mother from beach) leisurely swim, beer at the balcony, dinner (and football), sleep. The relaxing was done in the Troodos mountains (which I'd love to go walking though in early spring), and two days in North Cyprus; one day in Salamis and Famagusta, one day in Nikosia (where we had the best lunch ever). We would have liked to go to Pafos too, but that would have made the itinary to busy. And then I spent a day trying to get to Larnaca, but forgetting the thing about driving on the left, losing that morning's bus, and decided to take the bus in the opposite direction instead, ending up (via the infamous Agia Napa) in Paralimni, where I had lunch. And one more lunch, before going back.

In other news, I am kind of broke at the moment. Since I have taken four weeks holiday this year(one week in Marrakesh, two weeks now, one week in October), I am not getting much wages this month. And since I went form one contract to another in December I got my holiday money then, instead of in June. And I didn't even think of that. And since I was thinking I'd get 25.000 kroner this month I went ahead and paid my ticket to St. Petersburg. In October the choir is going to St. Petersburg. I have now paid the ticket. And I am currently waiting for yet another house broker to call me and tell if my bid has been accepted. As if I wasn't broke enough already...
(ETA: Bid was rejected. Too low.)

There was something more I was going to say... hmmm... I can't remember, it must have been important.

Phew. All the written exams have been graded, and the students mostly did well. Tomorrow I'm holding the last of the oral exams, and after that it is time to relax. And write those ground breaking articles I have been planning. But before that I'm going to Cyprus, where I have never been before , for a week. With my mother. Brushing up on my Greek (or whatever they speak there), relax, and yes, write postcards.

Some of you are already on my postcard-list, and will receive (or not) a postcard, even if you don't want one. But if have moved since March, or really, really want a postcard, leave your address in the comments. This goes for those of you with book-recommendations too. Not the address, but "leave" and "comment"

Comments are screened.

I am indeed back. And did you know that there is a limit to how many entries you can skip backwards? It's 1000 if you wondered. But hey, I'm back from Morocco, which is, in my experiences, a lush green country with nice people, yoghurt that give you diarrhoea and badly placed street signs that attack you out of the blue (or red since it was Marrakesh) and make your head bleed a lot. Also I get height-sick.

Has anyone gotten any postcards yet? The post-office in the Medina was under refurbishment, so I'm not sure the post box I stuffed my cards into, is actually working...

Sadly, even though I went away, my work didn't, so I've been cooped up in a backlog of administrative trivialities and papers that need to be graded. But pictures of the lush and green country are forthcoming. Eventually.

I just got word that I got a place (and grant) to go to the Faeroe island in June to learn Faeroese! Whee!!
Although I also got word that one of the persons I really can't stand (although they actually likes me) also got a place. Well, bugger!

So now I have to research Faeroese things. And get some Faeroese people on my flist, because I have not been on holiday these last few years without meeting some of my LJfriends!

Just now my summer looks like this:

• 22. May: Last days of exams.
• 1.-3. June: Hardanger with the choir.
• Laundry and packing!
  
• 6.-30. June: Faeroe islands!
• Laundry and packing!
• 3.-8. July: Istanbul Konstantinopolis Miklagard Byzantium The City.
• 9. July - 12. August: Write all the groundbreaking articles I've been postponing all year.
• 13. August: Start of University year.

ETA: I also just got word that I didn't get either of the jobs I applied for as a visiting lecturer. Well, there is always next year. And for now I have a job.

Well, I've packed everything from shorts and t-shirts to woollen underwear (rain gear, fishing rod, a selection of books...) and am ready to go on my annual Easter Eatster-holiday at my family's house. So have a delightful Eatster, Passovereating (which is about now isn't it?), or just some nice food in good company. And hand me the smoked salmon will you?

ETA: And here's a picture of sheep.

Having friends is so difficult. Since forever me and a friend have been planning to take a holiday together, but something has always gone awry, eitehr I have money and she don't - or vice versa, I have a job/important engagement/have to save the world or she has. SO far so good. But then when we manage to find a place and time, both have some money, she keeps dragging in extra friends she wants to bring along, and likewise they don't have time/money/the haircut when we planned on going.

All this of course has been discussed over mail, sicne we all live within 3 kilometres of each other and meet at least once a week. And the emails have become snippier and grumpier, interspersed with text messages when can you go?

Of course someone (not me though) decided that meeting face to face was a good idea, but still the questions keep coming. I just can't stand this, I feel pressured, I've just stopped answering my mail and mobile, and have really contemplated saying "Sorry, I can't go. I can't take all this planning!"

But I really want to go on some kind of holiday...

Yes, this question was posed to me today.

I had a nice Christmas. Although I'm not the most family-loving person in the world, it's nice to have them. Not to mention how nice it is that we are so perfectly normal. Sometimes I think we are more normally happy than most the families I know, perhaps because people with weird, unhappy and dysfunctional families talk about it? That's not meant in the negative "stop whining about your families" way, more a question, people with content (lazy, fat-ass families like mine?), don't talk so much about family. No complaints. I like my family just the way it is thank you! Eating and drinking mostly. Playing TP, quizzes or Playstation with my cousins.

So, I had a nice Christmas. With food, drink and quizzes :)

And now I'm sitting here in my underwear postponing the decision of what to wear for my New Years Eve/birthday party, because, yep, I've put on weight during Christmas. I guess I know what my New Year's resolution should be...

And thank you grapefruitzzz for the wonderful Christmas card!

Takk for the gamle (which - still means "thank you for the old (year)") and see you in the new year!

Nope, still don't know what to wear, and make up? Who needs that, I'm going to a party with social anthropologists!

Waaahhhh! Again, my utter lack of planing ahead ascertains itself, and I've thrown packed and unpacked presents in my suitcase along with a jumble of clothes I hope fits and looks Christmassy enough and am off to celebrate Christmas with my family. Looking forwards to sleeping in and relaxing. And eating of course.

Might check in, but if not happy Christmas - god jul! - to those of you with such an inclination.

About to leave the southeastern shore of Finland and head for teh interior. My course is over, and to recap the last week just to keep you entertained (or tease you) until I have time to write it down properly.

* Trip to the islands, strange people, rowing contests and drunk, drunk finns dancing. Singing for cider.

* Karaoke on Zilton. Which was a weirder experience than this should indicate.

* Writing, writing, writing paper. Presented yesterday. Horrible...

And now, off to civilasation again. And hopefully I can aquire postcards there because in Loviisa there are none!

...in fact the school I'm staying at has computers, and internet and stuff, so I'm not suffering so badly from my internet withdrawal as I feared.

So I am well and the other people on my course are mostly nice (of course I can't like everybody all the time, but I haven't gotten into any fistfights yet, so...). On the other hand I have a theory that the cafeteria staff here suffer form some kind of illusion that we are attending some kind of "Fat Camp" and need to eat every 2 hours. So aside from the breakfast, hot lunch with dessert and dinner there's two or three coffee breaks with some kind of buns or other baked stuff and an evening meal of some kind... I am really worried about my weight since the food is rather tasty and I just can't stay away...

Else we have lectures and excursions every day and by the end of this course we will be thoroughly filled with propaganda of the wonder that is Finland-Swedes. Personally I am more interested in finding the militant Swedish-speaking Finns, but they seems to be mostly absent, something I find a bit curious considering the at times rather heated Norwegian language debate...

Now it's time for some food again...

Not there yet, but soon. My plane leaves in seven hours and I have packed, and have probably forgotten something, but there really isn't room for anything more in my backpack. I have totally forgotten how to pack. If I have ever known... I have kept reminding myself that, no, Finland isn't some far off third world country, so the only things you really need to remember are contact lenses and VISA card, although both may be possible to get even in Finland. It's not a wasteland after all. But there are a couple of things I'd like to bring which I haven't, namely my fishing rod, my yoga mat and my laptop (whiiine), since they all took up too much space and/or weight. Instead I have probably packed way too many clothes, but only one (1 - ONE!) fiction book (plus two dictionaries and a stack of papers and whatnots for the course)(and my written diary. And a new blank diary since the old one is almost full).

But even though I will not drink my dear laptop I guess that I'll be able to connect to the internet a couple of times, since Finland isn't a total technological wasteland (although I can't say anything for sure about the place I'm going too), so I'm putting up my usual postcard poll. You know the drill, name, address and country separated by a |

Poll #777228 Postcard?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

Postcard?

And your address?

Need an extra line?

Right, I'd better get a couple of hours of beauty sleep before leaving.

I'm off to our house in the country to spend a couple of days with my family - although not my mother, since she have to work. So I'll be having a nice couple of days; hiking and eating Kvikklunsj and oranges on the top of the mountain, eating huge family meals with my family, visit old aunts and eat, fish and eat, eat and eat, eat and play games... I guess it should have been called Eatster :p

Right, while you keep guessing which book starts quoting Siegfried Sassoon's declaration against the war I will talk about Finland. Finland, Finland, Finland.

As I said I was strongly encouraged to apply for a course in Finnish-Swedish language and culture. In a letter dated the same day I applied I got approved, fast work, eh? The reason I haven't said anything is that I needed to be sure I didn't get the job in Greece, but I didn't (unless the guy who got offered the job first is kidnapped by an UFO), so from the 25th of July until August 8th I'll be attending a course in The language and literature of the Finland-Swedes,at Östra Nylands folkhögskola in Kuggom, somewhere in Finland, on the south-east coast if I'm not mistaken, kindly paid for by the Nordic Council.

At last! Again I will drink Finnish Estonian beer (Saku!) in the lovely Nordic summer nights, after a visit in the sauna, humming a tango... swearing at the cursed mosquitoes.

Of course I need to talk with the guys at the cemetery, since I have said I can work until the end of August, but I just can't say no to Finland, the home of the Moomins!

Death by chocolate
Despite the cheerful opening I kind of really, really queasy just now. Of course, that is entirely my own fault since I've been force feeding myself with chocolate all day. Why am I forcing chocolate down my throat you may ask. Well, today is the last day of my Easter holiday and also the last day of the self-given moratorium on my diet (14 kilos down since August -go me!), so I have to eat all the chocolate I've acquired this Easter before going to bed, because I can't give it away - or even worse - throw it away! So death by chocolate it is.

Easter
Aside too much chocolate from that I've had a nice Easter, spent most of it at the country house, and most of that time I spent outdoors, walking around in the woods (which you can see wonderfully crappy pictures of in my gallery, aptly names Easter pictures), discovering new paths. We found the heller (not a cave, just a sort of small cave-in with overhanging stone) where my grand uncle practises outdoors-life before he's off hunting in the autumn, and luckily for us we also found his fireplace and after some hunting, the kettle and secret stash of coffee. Outdoors life can be fun! And even better when there's food waiting for us when we come home. And quiet evenings with books, quizzes and murder mysteries on the telly.

Seasonal vocabulary
The weather has been lovely, after a rather cold start of March these last days have been lovely, clear blue sky and sunshine. Norwegians, as usual, run outside, throw off their clothes and stand an hour in line for the first ice cream of the year. Yesterday I saw two young men walking around in shorts and t-shirts, it may be sun, but it's only 10°C! Once you step out of the sun it's suddenly not that warm anymore, and knowing the nature of the local weather we may still have some snow. It's not so much spring as it's pre-spring, forvår.

This is a word I have gotten from sovevuni who told me about the Polish word przedwiosnie. I though it odd that we don't have a word like that in Norwegian, after all we start talking about "spring" in February, but we can't be sure that it's just toying with us until early May. We have words for early summer, Midsummer, late summer, late autumn and late winter, but for spring we only have one word - vår - and whenever we dare to utter that word it starts snowing or sleeting. So, from this moment forvår means the period of the year when we all want it to be spring, but it's not - it's only sleet with hope.

All in all I feel pretty happy: Nice weather, Operation New friends (which I will tell more about later) is going along fine, sun's shining (well, it was until it went down), , love (or flirting at least) is in the air and I have almost finished all the chocolate in the house. But I'd really like something salt and savoury now...

Hmfr. LJ ate my entry.
Off to the country now, hopefully I'll can hook up on my uncle's broadband, if not - well, there's always books.

The amazing thing has happened, and it seems like Bergen is going to have a white Christmas this year (Look!. More often than not it's horisontal sleet and darkness, but now I can see light blue sky over a white and sparkling city.

A big thank you to bellisa, grapefruitzzz, niora and nasasie for their lovely Christmas cards!And flying_jonhijke; I got the stroopkoeken and stroopwaffles (you're right, those were really yummy), thank you! (from my flatmates too).
My cards and stuff are in the mail, but according to rumours there has been the usual Christmas Crash on the mail central here, so you can expect them around Easter as per usual :)

I'm off to celebrate Chistmas with my mother and uncle, so have a happy Christmas wherever you are.

If you were wondering, I took some time off work and went to visit my uncle. Eating, lounging, eating, cathing up on the family gossip, eating, reading, eating, lounging and gossiping...

I'll be back to my regular internet addiction tomorrow...