Bunad

Here's a tiny piece of culture for you guys:
This here is me in my national costume (bunad). Well, it's actually my mum's, but I'm inheriting it from her (women inherit the costume from their mother's hometown/village/county, and men inherit the costume from their father's hometown/village/county). So this costume has its origin in Voss, a town about 1 hour north of Bergen. This costume is a girls-costume, when I marry I'll have to alter it and wear a different belt, and get a new skirt with new embroidery on it. Which will cost me a fortune... so I better marry rich! ha ha (this costume that I'm wearing is worth about 6000 bucks, silver included. And the bead embroidery and belt were made by my great aunt, so they're kinda irreplacible to me).

Might be boring for you guys, but for me it's pretty special. Part of my identity.
Thought I'd share.
:)

Trondheim

Nidarosdomen - stone church from the 1200s in Trondheim

Train station in Hell

Rock carvings in Hell

I'm finally back from Trondheim and Bergen, have had an awesome time!!

I left for Trondheim on the 14th, and got seriously delayed as the departure that I was supposed to travel on got cancelled due to technical problems. The next flight didn't depart till 8pm - 10 hours later!! So I changed my return, and stayed a week rather than just 5 days. No regrets there! I stayed at my Grandma's, and I feel that I got to re-establish the connection between us like I wanted to, I've talked to her as much as I've never talked before. :) She told me heaps of cool things about what it was like to live in Norway during the war, stuff about my family that I never knew, and updated me on relatives and so on. I also learned heaps about her. Man, she's cool. She'll be 95 years old in May, and is still going strong! She won't have one of those walker-thingies, because she's afraid of her back getting all crooked, so she goes out every day and just brings a staff with her. She believes in kinda new age stuff as well, which is a bit surprising, he he. Only 1 thing was nice about leaving: I finally got to sleep in a separate bedroom again, lol. Her apartment is really small because she claims not to need a big one (ok, fair enough) and my family's always been very.... (insert proper word here). If anyone is visiting and decides to stay in a hotel while there's a spot free on the floor in someone's house - that's seen as a defeat. At least she had replaced the crappy old couch with a new bed, so I was very comfortable.

I also got to catch up with my friend from Welli, Anette. One of the days we went to Hell - something that I've been wanting to do for some time. I've been through Hell every time I've visited my Grandma, and I really wanted to stop and have a look around but never really had the time. We got real surprised when we discovered that some of the most known rock carvings in Scandinavia are there! We went up to the forest and had a look (not much else to do in Hell, really) and took some pictures, I was kinda amazed to think that maybe 6500 years ago someone was standing at the same spot, drawing raindeer on the mountain shelf. amazing... After that we went to Hell mall, and had lunch, before walking around a bit and taking extremely dorky pictures. he he

I also finally finished upgrading my teeth at the dentist's when I got to Bergen on Wednesday. WHEEE!!! Thursday I was so scared that I near fell apart in the waiting room, but the dentist managed to get through to me and calm me down, and I finished everything without nerve-calming medicines. Man, I was so proud of myself that you wouldn't even know! When I finished I was walking through the street as if I was a queen, ha ha. Friday I had my two wisdom teeth pulled out, so now I'm kinda swollen and sore, but very happy that I finally have no more dentist appoinments, and my teeth are happy and healthy again. :)

Not much else to report, really. I guess it's all a bit distant to you guys, I know that some ppl (that's YOU, Manu!) don't even have the stamina to read these emails. Oh well

Only a bit more than 2 weeks till I go travelling now! wheee!

Happy New Year

It's now a whole new year! Exciting - the last year of being a broke student! I guess I really have to make the most of it. :)
For NYears I ended up at my friends' place in the middle of nowhere, we were about 10 ppl there and it was awesome. Went out around midnight and sent up some fireworks... I must say that it was much quieter than previous years, as they just banned fireworks with a steering stick (those that have a wooden stick strapped onto the little rocket thingy). That's allright though.. we had a clear sky, and there were a billion stars out! Even saw a real shooting star. :)

The last three days I've spent in Bergen, shopping, spending some quality time with my friend and watching movies every night. Went to a party on Saturday, packed full of ppl, was really cool except that I was sick and kinda fatigued. Still met some really nice ppl and had a good time, it must be about 5 years since I went to a really big party here in Norway. It struck me that Norwegians aren't as interesting as foreigners. I had no edge! Being Norwegian in Norway is okay, but it's just awesome outside Norway. lol
I'm also starting the year by going to the dentist and fixing my teeth up so that they'll keep until they fall out. It'll cost me a fortune... or, it'll cost my poor parents a fortune - every now and then I'm grateful that I'm their only child who is still studying/poor at times. The estimate is absolutely devastating though - It'll cost $2400, I got a $500 student discount, so yeah... Gotta pull out two wisdom teeth, fix the fillings that I had done in Welli cuz the dentist there did such bad work that I now have even larger problems than I went there, and take care of 2 small holes. I'm sure this is a very fascinating read.. hehe. ;D Anyway: Stay away from Symes de Silva dentists!!! That's my advice. I felt kinda proud of myself for making it today in spite of being shit scared, but I got some drugs so I didn't feel that afraid. Weird huh... I didn't feel knocked out like last time, just ... unafraid. Perhaps it was just a placebo?.. He's a specialist in treating ppl with fear of dentists and says that he wants to get rid of my anxiety, so after today we'll be drilling without 'mental sedation'. ok.. if he can do that, then he's a f'in genious. But I have faith after today.

Now I'm in the process of finalising my plans for travelling in February. I'm going to London for two days, then to Singapore for three days (Feli and Regi: arriving on the 13th which is a Friday, staying over the weekend, yayy!), Malaysia for a quickie (Jo: I'll be arriving on the 16th and staying the night in KL, my flight to Cambodia is at 7am on the 17th!! But will be in KL in the afternoon on the 16th.), then Cambodia for another 4 days and then Thailand before returning to Singapore and flying back to good ole Welli. Yayy!! Bali was a bit too expensive, so I'm gonna travel from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh on a river boat and see the capitol of Cambodia instead. Probably just as nice to get to see more of Camb than to be stressing my ass off trying to get to a beach to relax... I'd survive 3 hours on the beach before getting bored. Also going up to Trondheim soon - my other fav city in Norway just after Bergen. Wheee! Holidays ruuule!