I just made a bid for a house - well a flat to be precise. It's really scary.
But I am totally fed up with sharing a flat, so it is about time.

In other news, Monday next week I'm going to Marrakesh with three of my friends, two of those I was in Konstantinopolis Byzantium Istanbul Miklagard The City with, and another friend of us.
So, if you think there is anything I must see and do there, this is the time to tell me. Also, if you really long to tell me about the book I ought to bring, no time better than the present.

ETA: Urk, if the seller/broker calls me one more time now, urging me to raise my bid I will scream. Don't they learn in broker school that some people don't like aggressive sellers and reacts negatively when wheedled, urged, - pressed - into decision? I suck at this house buying business.

After a day of horrible, gruelling Christmas-shopping I came home to find two things for me in the mail which instantly lifted my spirits - so , niora! Thank you for the wonderful Muumimamma-book!
And gylfinir! Thank you for the lovely card! Again! I am astonished about all the work you put into these cards.

I needed that, because Christmas-shopping is evil. And everybody gets socks this year too. Except my mother. She gets a toaster.

And I? Haven't checked my work-mails for days (I bet they are filled with complaints about the exam results), and am building a tower of books next to my reading chair where I intend to spend a fair amount of time the next week.

I've tidied a bit in my bookshelves, or to be precise, the bookstacks on the floor *sneezes* and pulled out some books I don't want any more. Some of these are duplicates (Bujold and Neale), some are books that I have no idea where comes from, because I really hope I have better judgement than buying that, and some yeah, they accumulate.

So, I know that both niora (here) and silentreverie (somewhere in the past) has done this, namely put up a list of books that are up for trade, so if you want one of these and have something suitable for exchange, make your wish known! If not I'll have to try and breathe life into the Bergen chapter of Bookcrossing.com again...

Books in English:

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Warriors Apprentice (The second Miles-book.)
Niall Williams: Four letters of love
Anne Rice: Pandora. Vittorio.
Stephen Fry: The Liar taken by niora
Dan Simmons:Ilium

Books in Norwegian:

Carol Shields: Kjærlighetens republikk
J. E. Neale: Dronning Elisabeth
Einar O. Risa: Casanovas siste erobring
Candace Bushnell: Sex og singelliv
Fay Weldon: Rhode Island blues
Isabel Allende: En lykkens datter

In Swedish:
All are by Henning Mankell:
Den femte kvinnan
Villospor
Pyramiden
Innan frosten
Danslärerens återkomst
Den vita lejoninannan
Mannen som log
Mördare utan ansikte taken by niora
Brandvägg
Hundarna i Riga

Order soon and get a dust-bunny for free!

Since I seem to have better time this semester, and that I constantly am wondering why nobody updates whatever part of internet I'm perusing I want you to broaden my horizon (horizons?)(Can one see more than one horizon?)

Poll #911162 Un-bore me!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Have you polled?

Recommend a book!

Recommend a LJ!

Pimp you newest passion!

Or I could tidy my room. Nah.

Earlier today niora linked to these emperors over on youtube. I've had the same video as the start-page on my browser for a couple of days, because a laugh is a great way to start the day.

And now, the question, mostly for the Norwegians or with enough knowledge of Norwegian music (in Norwegian). I'm making a selection of Norwegian music of my Norwegian class and I'd like some ideas what to present. It has to be Norwegian music, and if it has lyrics, those has to be in Norwegian too. So, pimp your favourite Norwegian song/music (all genres).

And I promised niora that'd I'd write on my paper until it was time to go to yoga-class, but really it was so booooring! Gender in Antigone? Blah.

I had to brush up on the story of Samson and Delilah today, and those little verse-numbers kept throwing me off, I see a small superscript number in the text and I start looking for the footnote - been reading to much theory lately.

In other news, in three and a half week I'm going to Vienna with the choir to participate in the Schubert Choir competition. We're occasionally practising, one of the pieces - the Schubert one - is just so not us. I always feel the urge to put on a a valkyrie-costume when singing it. Romantic composers are so cliché! ("Flieg auf zu Gott" in broken, rising chords - and canon between the voices - so very clichéd). Anyhow, more important than the fact that I really don't know my own parts well enough, and certainly not the soli-parts which I'm singing in Russian(!) - no the thing that I worry about is Which book shall I bring?

Now this is usually the thing I worry most about whenever I'm travelling anywhere.

Which book shall I bring?
These are my criteria
- It must be thick, or dense or something, since usually I read fast.
- I have never read it before
- It must be entertaining, gripping or something - remember I'm on holiday I can't just go find another book in my bookshelves if I'm bored.
- It must make me look good. Or nerdy. Or weird. So Barbara Cartland is not an option.

When I planned my trip to Finland my friend Marit (who works in a bookshop) made me a list of potential travelmates. Wonder where I have that list.
Does any of you have some good, hot book-tips for me?

Also, does any of you ever stand in front of your bookshelves, crying out in desperation I have nothing to read!?

...or where have I gone?

Hello! I'm back in Norway, well I've been back a couple of days now, but have been busy cultivating solitude (after three + weeks of people all around me I needed it).

First of all, niora Thanks for letting me stay, I had a great fun time! And if you don't want to wait until I get around to write about it, here is her tale about my stay.

Also a huge thank you to teap for entertainment in Helsinki!

But more about that later, and more about me now.

1) I had my last day at the cemetery. I was supposed to work for another 3 weeks, but due to 2) I I quit my job.

2) I got the position as a teacher at the University! Whee!! Until the end of the year for now. Not a full position though, about 80% I think. Sadly, since I am the youngest and most junior teacher- and have no children, all my classes are in the afternoon and evening. Scared! Worried about everything from lack of faith in my abilities as a Norwegian teacher to whether my clothes are teachery enough...

Now well, this just to keep you entertained while I locate my life.

At last my trip to Finland is in order and next month at this time I am *peering at the plan* discussing the day's lecture in a group it seems. Anyhow, For those interested, I arrive in Helsinki Tuesday 25th at 1210 and am almost instantly whisked away to Pernå. After two weeks of ice cream, beer and sauna lectures and studying I arrive in Helsinki again Wednesday 9th of August around noon. The plane back to Bergen is leaving Friday evening. During that time I plan a trip to Joensuu where niora has offered me the use of her couch, but aside from that I have no specific plans, feel free to nudge me if happen to be somewhere in the vicinity at that time. Or tell me about the things I must not miss when I'm there.

Else my life is rather quiet, there's work and more work. I have started doing some consultant work at a second-hand bookshop; All the books written dead languages and with funny alphabets are set aside for me to look through and decide what they are about. Lots of strange stuff, one thing is the lurid copies of the normal classics - after all if the poetry is in Greek or Latin naked people are not porn it's art. One of the owners had felt inspired to make his own pen-drawings, with a pertinent quote underneath. Art. Really... And then there are the collections from the more religiously inclined. One million Bibles from the 1700s and a gazillion commentaries from the 1800s. So far my absolute favourite is a edition of Wulfila's Bible translation into Gothic, or particularly Paul's letter to the Romans. On one page there's the Gothic text with a pronunciation guide underneath and a direct translation (into Latin of course) underneath on one page. On the opposite page there's the established Greek and Latin text to the lines on the other side. And lots and lots of commentaries in Latin underneath. How have I lived all my life without the knowledge of this book? It's a fun job, and I have encountered a couple of ancient writers I have never even heard of before. Exciting! Well, not the writers, but the books.

And since we are in the literary world, these last weeks I have gotten more spam than usual, and almost all these emails have a paragraph from The Hobbit tacked at the end, kind of amusing actually. But it makes me wonder - how can anybody actually be fooled by spam? If someone offers you V 1 A G R 4 and a quote from The Hobbit, my first thought is Huh? not Must buy!. I much prefer the Russian girls who writes me telling me that they're sorry they haven't written me before, but they've had an unfortunate computer crash, but I can contact them at www.somephoneywebsite.com.

Just got the oddest idea into my head and decided to run with it.

Since I didn't write any Christmas cards last year I suffer from card-withdrawal. I want to write postcards! Since I'm not going on a holiday I don't have anything touristy and postcardy to write about. So if you give me a theme, a line what you want me to write about I will write you a postcard from Bergen, about just that. I have no idea how this turns out, but it will be something to do in between translating musical treatises about counterpoint in the 14. and 15. century.

Poll #655070 Strange postcard poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

So. Postcard?

What do you want me to write about?

Need another line?

May I have your address (and name if I don't know it). I have gotten things returned. LJbubbleheads aren't good enough for the mailman... Indicate new line with |

You know, I don't know anyone from my own home town on LJ?

In the beginning this was kind of a half-conscious policy from my side, even though having an open journal was part of my policy, I was a bit anxious to write for someone who could run into me while I was downing beers at Garage or buying chocolate and tampons on Mega. I have occasionally browsed the journals of people living in Bergen, but I have done nothing more or initiated contact; being ignored by a person who you actually could meet was, and is, a daunting aspect. And then I got friends from everywhere strange and elsewhere and I never thought much about it.

But after travelling around, meeting LJers in strange countries fellow LJers in my own home town doesn't seem so dangerous. After all I wasn't abducted, raped and left for dead when I met eitherbellisa, lilacsinmarch, ijon, gaal or arnulf. Quite the contrary, I was thoroughly entertained, fed delicious food and enjoyed myself immensely. Not to mention that I get a tiny bit jealous when I read about how LJers meet and have fun. I want to go tubewalking (as discovered in ultraruby's journal) or go to pubs and concerts with new, fun people! Or have a group like ijon's homer2004 seminary (wish I could have been there...) or ...

I think I just want to have an excuse for meeting new people.

So, in an attempt to postpone preparing for Greek class tomorrow (adjectives - easy to explain, easy to understand, damn difficult to get straight) I once again browsed the LJers in Bergen. And they seemed to have multiplied since the last time I looked on that page - 217 Bergensere, that's like one LJer per thousand Bergenser. All right, many of them are ten, fifteen years younger than me, but there were a couple of interesting journals I might add to my list (whereupon they'll read this entry and worry.)

And I found nemi_feed!

Thank you!
First of all a big thank you to nasasie for the lovely Moominmama keyring! Now I will never leave home without my work-keys.

Also a big thank you to rinnia for my Moominmama-cook icon.

This is actually the first icon I have that is not made by the old crop and resize 100x100 method. yay. Also I have no excuse any more not to write lots of food-porny posts.

Help?
The story is like this. As I teach Greek I get one course for free at my community college, and for some reason (unknown to everyone including me) I signed up on a class in storytelling. Not only am I the youngest one, I am also the only one who don't plan on working with children, since most of the others seems to be newly minted grandparents. Anyway.

So far it has been ok, we've been working on improvising and stuff. The teacher has given us an object; a button, a empty chocolate wrapper or some words like "frog" and "high mountain", and we have to tell a story using those as a starting point. My biggest problem is that I tend to be very brief when I describe something, after all since I can see the pictures in my head, why describe them? (I have the same problem when writing academic stuff, after all why argue for something on page upon page when I can summarize in two sentences and draw a conclusion?)

Now well, next week we're going to start working on a written down story. Mainly I think the teacher thinks fairy tale or something, and almost expects me to tell a Greek myth, but I just can't think of a story.

So, does anyone have a story, idea or some resources for me? It has to be short since I have max 15 minutes of presentation time. It doesn't have to be Greek, fairy tale or specifically for children - actually I'd like a story for grown ups.

Yup, I'm alive and rather well. Spent Friday at my doctor's office trying to convince him that the tonsils must go! (and got some heavy duty pills to take away any infection before further tests). And yesterday trying to localise my backpack, which arrived midday. Someone had been looking through it (after the Israeli security hordes), because my someone had helped themselves to my back-up money (250NOK and 20 euro), the gift I bought to my mother and for reasons unknown - my membership card in UgleZ, the university GLB society.

Now well, the trip? I shall not bore you with rewriting the 45 pages I wrote during the trip. But is lengthy, over 3000 words, that is the problem with being away too much to say!

( I arrived in Tel Aviv in the middle of the night )

( The Wall must fall )

( NGOs, people with to many passports and a party with no water )

( Bethlehem )

( Jerusalem )

( The bathing nymph / the big white whale )

( Last day in Ramallah )

( To Tel Aviv, meeting LJers )

( Strip please! )

And that was the lengthy tale of my trip, although I might write some summary thoughts at a later date.

Oh, yes I have sent cards, but I'm not quite sure they'll arrive, since the box I put them in might quite possibly be a trash can. Also forgive me for the slightly dated selection of cards, but Ramallah doesn't seem to have had many card-writing tourists.

And tomorrow it's back to work.

I can't pack! Of course this is not news to anyone. After all you really need fifteen pairs of shoes on a ten day trip (all right, it's just six), not to mention Hilde told me to pack at least one long skirt. Do I even own a long skirt? I own at least seven short ones and one long with splits to the navel - I guess that doesn't count. I wish I was rich and could have one of those neat wardrobe-suitcases they have in films from the 50s.

Now well, anyone who want a postcard should fill in this poll:
Poll #307243 The postcard poll II
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

Adress please! Indicate new line with | and remember the country!

Anything else you want to tell me?

Of course the regular disclaimer applies; I'm not responsible for lost postcards, I might be to lazy to write anything (nah), I may use postcard-money to buy beer or ice cream instead, I may write a card but not manage to send it until I return to Norway (very possible).

1. For Britons (and people with the relevant knowledge):
I'm applying for a job in Britain. Along with the covering letter and my CV they want my salary details. But what are my salary details? Is it how much I want to earn? How much do one ask for with 6+ years of university education and 2+ years of (not always relevant) experience? Where should I put this? In the application?
(In Norway minimum wage for my experience is 260.000kr / £21.500.)

2. For Nomad-owners:
Do you use the music-playing/file transferring-programme that came with the player (Creative Something-or-another). Am I the only one finding it rather confusing?

3. For Tel-Avivians:
Is there anything to see in Tel Aviv? (=is it worth spending time and money there? My flight is leaving in the middle of the night, I thought to spend some of the day looking around if possible.)

4. For everyone:
So, what should I make for dinner?

Since I have nothing better to do (or am not willing to do something better) I've been fiddling around with different fonts on the Thesis. It's the only thing I get to choose myself (I don't get to choose where to number the pages). Usually I end up with Garamond (12 pt and 10pt on poems), but I am kind of bored with that one now, soooo any ideas?