Sonntag, Februar 26, 2006
Calm Before the Storm
These days, St Andrews is a very very windy place. Storms make the temperature in my room drop to freezing and any walk an adventure.
Maybe the storms have managed to turn my head, but something forces me to alienate from this place at this moment. Or maybe I have lost my way a little. Either way, these spring storms show more than just that what seemed so good before was just the calm before the storm.
Or I should sleep before I post in more depth, after 45 sleepless hours.
And I have realised why it is that I like my sleeping bag so much and sleep in it every night, it is because it is small. A sleeping bag can hug you back...
Current Music: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Will You Smile Again
This picture is from me writing an IR presentation Thursday night, in my sleeping bag, drinking Mate. The small pleasures in life.
Maybe the storms have managed to turn my head, but something forces me to alienate from this place at this moment. Or maybe I have lost my way a little. Either way, these spring storms show more than just that what seemed so good before was just the calm before the storm.
Or I should sleep before I post in more depth, after 45 sleepless hours.
And I have realised why it is that I like my sleeping bag so much and sleep in it every night, it is because it is small. A sleeping bag can hug you back...
Current Music: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Will You Smile Again
This picture is from me writing an IR presentation Thursday night, in my sleeping bag, drinking Mate. The small pleasures in life.
Donnerstag, Februar 23, 2006
Thinking, Hiking, Poking
My day today can really be split up into three events - one involving thinking, one involving hiking, and then one involving poking.
My day started with hearing this before I even left my room: "I was for capital punishment, until I heard how much it costs". I decided to disappear to breakfast and contemplate on which jam to put on my bread rather than to contemplate on ethics.
After my first (and only) lecture of the day, I got ready to go on a hike. One of my neighbours wanted to try out my bagpack and filled it with books, and soon afterwards we set off with another neighbour for a 20km walk. It rained quite a bit on the way and so we didn't manage in time, and I had to turn back early to get to a meeting on time. But it was still incredible. We took Mate along; it can be gorgeous to have some warm drink that strong when you're crossing the shores of eastern Scotland in the rain. The picture shows small St Andrews from a little distance away... Looks so harmless... but then as Bette Milder remarked some time ago, from a distance, the world then also just looks "blue and green"...
And when I got back to my room after the hike and the meeting, I found most of my half of the room covered in post-its (about 50 of them, and an A2 sign), saying mostly just "poke". The A2 sign being on the ceiling, directly above where my head will be once I go to bed... This is an episode of a facebook-poking-war a friend and I had been having, just that it seems to be escalating between her and me slowly (and has already spilled into the non-virtual world in some kind of way...) ;) .
After that there was little excitement, a fairtrade cafe I went to, and drinking lots more Mate. But these three were the events that defined most of my day today in contrast to other days. And maybe that drinking of lots of Mate, which may be a reason for me still having so much energy at this time of night...
Current Music: The Fiery Furnaces - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
My day started with hearing this before I even left my room: "I was for capital punishment, until I heard how much it costs". I decided to disappear to breakfast and contemplate on which jam to put on my bread rather than to contemplate on ethics.
After my first (and only) lecture of the day, I got ready to go on a hike. One of my neighbours wanted to try out my bagpack and filled it with books, and soon afterwards we set off with another neighbour for a 20km walk. It rained quite a bit on the way and so we didn't manage in time, and I had to turn back early to get to a meeting on time. But it was still incredible. We took Mate along; it can be gorgeous to have some warm drink that strong when you're crossing the shores of eastern Scotland in the rain. The picture shows small St Andrews from a little distance away... Looks so harmless... but then as Bette Milder remarked some time ago, from a distance, the world then also just looks "blue and green"...
And when I got back to my room after the hike and the meeting, I found most of my half of the room covered in post-its (about 50 of them, and an A2 sign), saying mostly just "poke". The A2 sign being on the ceiling, directly above where my head will be once I go to bed... This is an episode of a facebook-poking-war a friend and I had been having, just that it seems to be escalating between her and me slowly (and has already spilled into the non-virtual world in some kind of way...) ;) .After that there was little excitement, a fairtrade cafe I went to, and drinking lots more Mate. But these three were the events that defined most of my day today in contrast to other days. And maybe that drinking of lots of Mate, which may be a reason for me still having so much energy at this time of night...
Current Music: The Fiery Furnaces - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Montag, Februar 20, 2006
Another Radio Song
I planned to go to bed more than an hour ago. Until I started listening to this song again, and again, and again, and it made sense. Feel free to ignore this post, it is just another one of me trying to find lyrics to say something I'm not sure how to say otherwise.
Bless this tiny alley we have fallen from tall buildings we have fallen through the air
Into a garden sweetly smelling of the softest Sleeping flowers
now they sit under the sidewalk now they’re waiting for the shining of some future sign to show us
It's been a while since many of us left that valley, still hoping to find those sidewalk flowers...
All that is your beauty oh And all that brings you pleasure
I could sigh into your hide and say I hope I’m here forever
But Black Sheep Boy with your lovers
With your list of favourite pillows
with your list of missing children
With the wall where you drew windows
Don't we all draw those windows every day, writing into our blogs, looking at old pictures, hours on msn, reading yearbooks?
Overlooking hidden gardens
Cut apart by jagged mountains
Climbing up into the air and
Crumbling down into a valley
Where the water waits forever like a quiet distant treasure
Maybe I really am too obsessed with the sea.
When you rise up to recover when you leave this tiny alley
When you meet me in the garden with your horns all hung with cedar
Every spirit brushing past me brushing past them in the Ether scream
However you want to describe it...
All this is Window dressing All you are is Flimsy curtains
Watch you flame up with a word from us and won’t know that you’re Burning
Burning
And I pretend and I burn, and maybe hope I had never attempted to rise up to recover from the valley.
Maybe we are all Black Sheep Boys (and girls...)
Current Music: Okkervil River - Another Radio Song
Bless this tiny alley we have fallen from tall buildings we have fallen through the air
Into a garden sweetly smelling of the softest Sleeping flowers
now they sit under the sidewalk now they’re waiting for the shining of some future sign to show us
It's been a while since many of us left that valley, still hoping to find those sidewalk flowers...
All that is your beauty oh And all that brings you pleasure
I could sigh into your hide and say I hope I’m here forever
But Black Sheep Boy with your lovers
With your list of favourite pillows
with your list of missing children
With the wall where you drew windows
Don't we all draw those windows every day, writing into our blogs, looking at old pictures, hours on msn, reading yearbooks?
Overlooking hidden gardens
Cut apart by jagged mountains
Climbing up into the air and
Crumbling down into a valley
Where the water waits forever like a quiet distant treasure
Maybe I really am too obsessed with the sea.
When you rise up to recover when you leave this tiny alley
When you meet me in the garden with your horns all hung with cedar
Every spirit brushing past me brushing past them in the Ether scream
However you want to describe it...
All this is Window dressing All you are is Flimsy curtains
Watch you flame up with a word from us and won’t know that you’re Burning
Burning
And I pretend and I burn, and maybe hope I had never attempted to rise up to recover from the valley.
Maybe we are all Black Sheep Boys (and girls...)
Current Music: Okkervil River - Another Radio Song
Sonntag, Februar 19, 2006
While my roommate gently sleeps...
My roommate is still in bed. I got up more than an hour ago, although I went to bed an hour later than him (he went to bed at 01.30). And this evening he will complain how tired he is. But then again, what is there to do but sleep? Getting up earlier just means having to fight boredom for a little longer for some people...
I'm glad I'm busy. This morning I woke up, and although I "only" have two things I have to go to today, I felt as if there is something to look forward to. And I can always keep myself busy with my reading for classes in the meantime.
At a party yesterday we had a Feuerzangenbowle, a very typical german drink that involves burning a huge cone of sugar soaked in rum. I won't say very much about the whole thing, but I'll post a picture of that cone burning after more rum has just been added here for you all to wonder about ;) .
There were many more things I had wanted to mention, but maybe the impending doom of lunchtime ending have made me lost my thoughts... I'll post them as soon as they return to me :) .
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
I'm glad I'm busy. This morning I woke up, and although I "only" have two things I have to go to today, I felt as if there is something to look forward to. And I can always keep myself busy with my reading for classes in the meantime.
At a party yesterday we had a Feuerzangenbowle, a very typical german drink that involves burning a huge cone of sugar soaked in rum. I won't say very much about the whole thing, but I'll post a picture of that cone burning after more rum has just been added here for you all to wonder about ;) .
There were many more things I had wanted to mention, but maybe the impending doom of lunchtime ending have made me lost my thoughts... I'll post them as soon as they return to me :) .
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Donnerstag, Februar 16, 2006
Thought for the Day
Walking from lecture to lecture, humming songs from the new Dresden Dolls album to myself (I've become rather fond of humming ever since my iPod broke down), I feel ever so strangely detached from this place.
Doodling in my planner shortly afterwards, "This Diary Will Change Your Life", I found a quote to nicely corroborate such thought and thought I would share it with you.
Slightly nihilistic hugs to all of you out there :)
Current Music: The Dresden Dolls - Mandy Goes to Med School
Doodling in my planner shortly afterwards, "This Diary Will Change Your Life", I found a quote to nicely corroborate such thought and thought I would share it with you.
What is life but a breath of fresh air in the rotting heap of leaves in the garden of our evolutionary duties
-Benrik
-Benrik
Slightly nihilistic hugs to all of you out there :)
Current Music: The Dresden Dolls - Mandy Goes to Med School
Sonntag, Februar 12, 2006
Re-live
It's been too long since I've last posted. Many things have happened. I've travelled and met lovely people, which I will write more about at a later point. I've started reading fiction books again. I've listened to more music. I've spent hardly any time in my room after coming back, and it's been very nice. I've been very busy with the One World Society, and in a way still am. It's good to have something to work towards outside school, and if it is only to give my life marginally more meaning than that of the people living around me, who stare into space half the day and count the number of people looking straight ahead on this poster that Kate gave me as a present and which is up on my wall now.
I think being away from here travelling has affected me more than many other things since I've left Norway. And brought me back to it more. When I was walking back to hall today wearing my green coat and listening to November Rain by Guns'n'Roses, I wished for one of two things: Someone to shout at, or someone to hug... Being back in my room a little later, I'm just glad some people have disappeared for a while so that my annoyance over them could hide the other two emotions.
And lastly, in a weird sort of way, I miss German. Really, I miss some kind of atmosphere in which I feel comfortable and in which I can be with people who are somewhat interesting to be with. And outside Flekke, those people would be people I would speak German with. I've listened to a band called Welle Erdball that Sanna introduced me to way back in my first months in Flekke, which does some pretty tough electronic music with German lyrics. Isn't it funny how all these circles always close themselves?
On an ultimate note: I've just remembered what the last thing was that had me laugh out really loud, naturally. It was reading "høhø" in a chat, and especially the usage of the ø in the German word "Kørper". Looking at it still makes me chuckle. Maybe it really is the small things in life...
Current Music: Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Mysteries
I think being away from here travelling has affected me more than many other things since I've left Norway. And brought me back to it more. When I was walking back to hall today wearing my green coat and listening to November Rain by Guns'n'Roses, I wished for one of two things: Someone to shout at, or someone to hug... Being back in my room a little later, I'm just glad some people have disappeared for a while so that my annoyance over them could hide the other two emotions.
And lastly, in a weird sort of way, I miss German. Really, I miss some kind of atmosphere in which I feel comfortable and in which I can be with people who are somewhat interesting to be with. And outside Flekke, those people would be people I would speak German with. I've listened to a band called Welle Erdball that Sanna introduced me to way back in my first months in Flekke, which does some pretty tough electronic music with German lyrics. Isn't it funny how all these circles always close themselves?
On an ultimate note: I've just remembered what the last thing was that had me laugh out really loud, naturally. It was reading "høhø" in a chat, and especially the usage of the ø in the German word "Kørper". Looking at it still makes me chuckle. Maybe it really is the small things in life...
Current Music: Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Mysteries
