Snow Likely

Is your journey necessary? 

Guess what I saw when I shuffled into the kitchen this morning. Snow. And it was coming down hard – still is, actually. It’s a few centimeters of snow out there, and already trains are closing down. I know I have complained about delayed trains in Norway many a time, but I take it all back. At least those trains were running.

I’m not in the need of a train for the day though, so to me the whole thing is quite entertaining at the moment. I know a few others who aren’t so lucky however. Ah well, the charm of England.

Yesterday on the other hand, the girls from my flat and I went on a day trip to London, and while that was definitely one of the coldest experiences of the year, it at least wasn’t snowing so we got home safely. 

Despite the cold (we all agreed we need to go on a warm day next) we did have fun. We went to Camden Market, and it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! 

It’s basically just a gigantic market, but when I say gigantic I really mean gigantic. There were so many stalls and so many cool and wondrous things to look at. It’s a web of narrow, winding pathways and stalls with all kinds of goods to draw your attention and make you never want to leave. 

  

I thought I’d go home broke, but instead there was so much to look at I couldn’t decide what to get and hardly bought anything. What I did buy though was an antique style pocket watch to 5 pounds, and three little bags of water orbs, 1 pound each. They’re tiny beads you put in water, and then they grow as they absorb it. You put them in plants to keep them hydrated. I only bought it because I thought they looked awesome, though.  

 

But the funniest thing of the day must have been when we drove in to London (one of my flat mate’s boyfriend drove us since he had to go to London anyway), and a big sign said “Snow Likely. Is your journey necessary?” Oh, the cute, little English people.

Crash And Burn

Mayday in studio one.

I don’t know what happened, I honestly don’t. One moment I was flying through the air; the next something hit my head, and sharp, abrupt pain spread like a spider’s legs through my mouth. Severely disoriented, it took me several moments to realise my front flip from the trampett had gone horribly wrong.

After reviewing what of my memory is tangible, I have managed to gather the key points of the horrific accident. I was turning in the air – as I was supposed to, but I must have rotated too slowly, because I hit the ground with the back of my neck, my momentum pressing the rest of my body down onto me, instead of continuing the rotation so I’d end up on my back. Imagine my body basically breaking at the middle, legs crashing with my head. 

Thick pain throbbed heavily through my left thigh, the leg rendered in such a bad state I needed two people to support me to the toilets. Rinsing my mouth with cool water, red liquid and slime splashed into a white sink to the sound of a disgusted groan.

….I’m making this sound really dramatic, aren’t I? It wasn’t actually. Well, yeah, I landed wrongly, got a bump on my thigh and three small “holes” in tongue from biting it, but that’s also all. I didn’t hurt my neck at all, which is quite surprising and quite lucky, I suppose. We were practicing fall-techniques, “falling” in different ways and landing in a secure manner on our backs. It gave me quite a shock, but that’s also all. 

I just felt like being a Drama Queen. Have a lovely weekend.

The Picture Of Desperation

A very creative picture though, I must say. 

So the thing is, we have Aikido tomorrow (Monday), and last term we passed our grading. That means we are no longer white belts, but yellow belts, as I told you all before Christmas. That also means that last Monday, the teacher told us that if we didn’t have a yellow belt by next Monday (tomorrow), then we wouldn’t be allowed in to the lesson. And if we aren’t allowed in, we get an absence mark. And if we get three such marks, we fail the entire year. 

Long story short, it’s Sunday and I and two others in my class weren’t able to get a hold of a belt. ...So we got creative.... with yellow food colouring and our white belts…  

Red Fingers

or at least I have the definite opposite of green fingers.

My plant seems to be distressed. Or dying. Possibly both. But no matter what is wrong with it, it is shedding leaves like there’s no tomorrow. And before you say it’s because I left it alone through the whole Christmas break, let me just say I made sure it stayed hydrated. I filled this fancy glass-thing with water, and it basically allows the plant to drink at its own pace until it’s empty. 

Anyhow, what I was actually going to write about is that I have now been in England for a week, and so far, everything’s good. I didn’t say much in my last post, more or less because I was too busy doing other things, but yeah, Christmas was good. For one, I got this:

Look at that beauty! I haven’t been able to part with it since I got it out of the package. And really funny coincidence; I came back to halls, only to find that my closest friend over here got a mini iPad for Christmas as well. We both agree it’s the coolest, little device ever. 

Other than that, we (my class) spent two hours on Friday hitting each other with chairs. In the picture you see us all on a line because we were doing some synchronized beating.  

I have also managed to do twice now what I spent the entirety of last term telling myself to do: I made oatmeal porridge. Twice. It’s not half-bad, though I’m not able to make it like my grandmother did. She, without doubt, made the best oatmeal porridge ever to be simmering in a pot. But unfortunately I have no clue how she did it, for I was too young at the time, and in a child’s carefreeness I never thought to ask before it was too late. And I suppose it is like this that little tricks are lost with through generations. 

Apart from making porridge, I have spent most of my Saturday listening to audiobooks and drawing on my bathroom door. Not because I don’t have any homework, but rather the opposite. 

And as finish touch to this here update, let me share this with you (for you not so savvy with Youtube, click the little toothed wheel down to the right on video-square to change the quality):

(I am, at the moment, heavily in love with the movie adaption of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. If you’ve seen it, isn’t it amazing? And if you haven’t, you’re seriously missing out. This is one of my favourite scenes, though on that note it’s not a musical in any way.)

Home, Sweet

…wait, what? 

More than once, during these two and a half weeks in Norway, people have caught me out on saying

“I’m going back home on the 5^th.” 

And their response would almost be the same: “home?” To which I would stare a little nonplussed and then laugh. Well, that’s just how it is I suppose, a place is home before you know it. Though even before this, my friends and I in England would at times remark with slight wonder and lopsided smiles how quickly we’ve titled this place as home. Things like, 

“I’m going home” or “see you home” or “are you home?” became normal phrases before we even realised it.  You might counter and say that there’s no other proper word to use for the place you live, to which I will reply that in the beginning I did actually say “I’m going back to campus”, and so on and so forth. 

So now I’m back in England, after an amazing and really relaxed Christmas (just how I like it). I’m really tired and haven’t really gone food shopping yet – I did go and buy bread and ham, just to have something to survive on for the day, but the great “glean” doesn’t start until tomorrow (technically today, 6^th of Jan.).

Lastly, my cat’s newest stowaway attempt: