thoughts of a teenager

Happy birthday, Norway! Today is the constitution day of the country which I was born into. So yeah, I?m here, celebrating; physically, anyhow. Mentally, I wish I was someplace else.

I never really felt Norwegian. When I was 13 I made up my mind that I was going to live in America. Three years later, at 16-17, I was.  And my best friends were Polish, Colombian, and Brazilian.  I always wanted to visit places like Japan, Fiji, and Africa. Most recently, I want to visit Starbuck Island, for the mere reason that it rises only 5 meters above the ocean and hardly anyone has ever been there. I speak English better than Norwegian half of the time. I was always too international.

Earlier this year, as many of you know, I was in Kenya ? and I fell absolutely, irrevocably in love with the country. I already had a boyfriend who was born and raised there. We?re still together, although we are literally three worlds apart now (Europe being the old world, America being the new world, and Africa being part of the third world). It?s been under a week since we last saw and spoke to each other, and it still seems unreal. It feels like we?re on a break and are going back to school soon. We didn?t talk much on the phone during the breaks either, we texted and Facebooked, and maybe had three-four phone calls in a couple of weeks. It feels like it?s only temporarily that I turn around in bed and hit my hand in the wall when I reach out to touch his chest?

I?m trying to be true to my country today. I?ll be watching the parade on TV (since it?s supposed to be raining), and eat cream cake with my family, wear nice clothes, and I even polished my nails yesterday ? all white apart from the ring fingers, which have Norwegian flags on them. But no matter what, I know that my ship sailed long ago, and my heart already belongs elsewhere.

It?s hot, it?s sunny, it rains in December, and the person I fell completely in love with lives there. And I intend to do so as well, someday, when I finish a degree in something or other.

♥ The Norwegian Teenager

Happy birthday, Norway! Today is the constitution day of the country which I was born into. So yeah, I?m here, celebrating; physically, anyhow. Mentally, I wish I was someplace else.

I never really felt Norwegian. When I was 13 I made up my mind that I was going to live in America. Three years later, at 16-17, I was.  And my best friends were Polish, Colombian, and Brazilian.  I always wanted to visit places like Japan, Fiji, and Africa. Most recently, I want to visit Starbuck Island, for the mere reason that it rises only 5 meters above the ocean and hardly anyone has ever been there. I speak English better than Norwegian half of the time. I was always too international.

Earlier this year, as many of you know, I was in Kenya ? and I fell absolutely, irrevocably in love with the country. I already had a boyfriend who was born and raised there. We?re still together, although we are literally three worlds apart now (Europe being the old world, America being the new world, and Africa being part of the third world). It?s been under a week since we last saw and spoke to each other, and it still seems unreal. It feels like we?re on a break and are going back to school soon. We didn?t talk much on the phone during the breaks either, we texted and Facebooked, and maybe had three-four phone calls in a couple of weeks. It feels like it?s only temporarily that I turn around in bed and hit my hand in the wall when I reach out to touch his chest?

I?m trying to be true to my country today. I?ll be watching the parade on TV (since it?s supposed to be raining), and eat cream cake with my family, wear nice clothes, and I even polished my nails yesterday ? all white apart from the ring fingers, which have Norwegian flags on them. But no matter what, I know that my ship sailed long ago, and my heart already belongs elsewhere.

It?s hot, it?s sunny, it rains in December, and the person I fell completely in love with lives there. And I intend to do so as well, someday, when I finish a degree in something or other.

♥ The Norwegian Teenager

I made a project for myself, to photograph something nearly every day this summer, beginning at graduation on the 10th of May and ending when university starts in August. Some of these photos will only appear on my private Facebook page, while some I'll probably share with you. So here's a little bit from the past few days:

Paper stars made by a friend of mine from China, and a mirror. The grain is on purpose.


Grandma Elephant has been framed (30x40cm) and put on my wall and is still in need of some moisturizer!


If I lay here would you lie with me and just forget the world? @boyfriend


My old teeny tiny camera has made BFFs with my teeny tiny tripod!

 ♥ The Norwegian Teenager

Ever seen the movie Life in a Day? It is A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010 (imdb). Sounds like a very interesting movie, but sadly, I have yet to see it. However, the project A Day took place this day, May 15th, 2012. It was a big thing in the photographic world, where people all over the Planet Earth participate by documenting their day, with the photo skills you have, may they be advanced or unexisting, and sending them in to aday.org. There will be made a book, an exhibition, a calendar, pics will be posted online, and they will be used for scientific purposes in the future.

My contribution was minimal, since I forgot my camera parts of the day, but I have (in reversed order) photographed going to bed, hanging up a photo of an elephant in desperate need of moisturizer on my wall, dinner, me working at my desk while watching TV series' on my laptop, lunch, coffee, morning rutines, and my work out session this very morning. Which, if I may say, better be goddamn working, because I can hardly walk!

A few weeks, maybe a couple of months ago, I read a blog whose writer recommended a work out DVD called the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels, whom you might know from the TV show The Biggest Loser. It consists of three 20 minutes work outs of abs, cardio and strength. So far, it's my legs that are feeling the worst part of it. A little bit my arms and back, but my abs are doing fine. I guess those muscles were trained a bit from before (although I am far faaar away from having any visible muscles anywhere!) - most probably due to the laughing I do so much. And when this girl who recommended this DVD, who is far more fit than me to begin with, had troubles walking the first couple of days, imagine what I'm in for the upcoming 28! =/

Aanywho, I'm off to edit some photos and go to bed, so goodnight y'all!

♥ The Norwegian Teenager 

I need to stop letting people saying things that really shouldn't matter get to me. Yes. I post things on Facebook. Yes. I do know that nobody cares what I do with my day. I do it because I am bored. I don't like my home town. Not because I didn't have a nice childhood in a big house with a lovely family, because I've had all of that. I didn't have many friends here, and I've experienced many bad things emotionally here. 

I've always been a Facebooker. I really got addicted throughout the year I spent in America, where I had unlimited texting and could update my status by sending a text message. When I came home that summer, I had some real fights with ex school mates about spamming - on Facebook, of course. I thought that was past, but events have shown that it's not. Let me ask a question though: If my text are pointless and boring, why do you read them? And then comment? That is pointless. If you don't like what I write, unfriend me, see if I give a fuck. But I'm not going to waste my time trying to please people who I can only keep in contact with on Facebook now. I'm not going to waste my time deleting people who might not want to read my posts. I've said it before and I say it again: If what I write on my status on Facebook is bothering you, that's your problem and not mine. 

I know who my real friends are.

When we were writing in the yearbooks back at school, one girl wrote to me:
[...] And keep posting and liking on Facebook, no matter what :) 
"Because that's who you are, you know," she said to me.

I was sitting in the sun on the porch just a few minutes ago, thinking of how to formulate this blog post, and I asked myself: What Would Boyfriend Say? And it dawned on me:
"You need to stop caring about other people and just do what's right for you. You are who you are, and that's the girl I love. I don't want you to change that."

Thank you for being the voice in my head :*

And to quote Mika's My Interpretation:

I don't care if I ever talk to you again
This is not about emotion
I don't need a reason not to care what you say 

 







(Also, I might have had more than my share of coffee today.....)

♥ The Norwegian Teenager 

The other day I came across a blog where the writer wrote about a contest she was participating in. I checked out the contest, and thought I'd make an entry about it! If you want to read about it and/or participate, you find the host of the contest here! You can have 1-2 pictures, and you choose the theme yourself. 

I chose the topic light and chose these two photos from my Africa trip earlier this year.

- The first photo is from Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya.

 The second photo is from Maasai Mara National Reserve, also in Kenya.

 -  Both are taken when the sun is setting, between 6 and 7 in the evening. When I look at the metadata now, in fact, I see that both are taken at 18.26! The first at 18:26:25 on the 31st of January, the second at 18:26:27 on the 3rd of February!

- The Copyright watermark is because I've become slightly paranoid after my grandfather said he was certain he'd seen my friend's elephant photo used somewhere without her permission...




 ♥  The Norwegian Teenager
 

These past two weeks have been a huge mess consisting of packing, tears, food, sleep, trips, welcomes, and goodbyes. Yesterday we got our diplomas, and when we were singing a song which title translates to Butterfly in Winterland, it really hit me that we were leaving; my butterfly was leaving the winterland, returning to the summer and heat in Kenya, Africa, after spending the past 8 months and 8 days in Norway, the Winter Wonderland.

I know exactly the feeling of going home after a year in a foireign country on a foreign continent, where the people are all foreigners who speak another language. I know exactly what my boyfriend went through this day, and what he'll go through the upcoming couple. I've been there. I've done it. With the one exception that I wasn't leaving my boyfriend/girlfrien - that feeling I got to experience today as well. On June 22nd, 2010, I left Lake Stevens, WA, USA, and the following day I arrived back home. I know the feeling. The culture shock you get from returning to your own country, even though you thouhgt nothing had changed, and it in fact hasn't changed all that much, but you have.

I started writing a blog about it, because I had no one else to talk to. Well, of course I had friends to talk to, but I always felt it was easier to write. I hope my darling dear will talk and write to me about how it was to return to Kenya, seeing as I was there more recent than him, fell in love with the country he's from, and intend to return at my first opportunity.

My Lovely One,

These past couple of weeks have not been the best of the time we've spent together. We've both been stressed, sad, and angry, and it has caused us to quarrel from time to time. But that's what couples do, right? A wise man once said that if couples don't have disputes, they don't really love each other, and they probably never will.

The best of times I had in Soltun were times spent with you. We've been together almost every day since October, and that's only a month after you arrived at school. I consider myself the luckiest 19-year-old in Norway, having gotten to spend these moments with you. They have changed the course of my life, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I wasn't looking for someone to change my relationship status. I was looking for someone to change my life, and me, for the better. And you bring out the best in me.

I think I must be in some kind of shock at the time being; I have almost not cried today. Only a couple of tears at school, a little during a couple of sad songs on a CD we played in the car, and when I arrived at home and I realized that this time I'm going to unpack my bags because I'm not going back in a week or three. Within the next few days it will probably hit me, though, what seems next to impossible right now: That you're somewhere high above the ground in north-eastern Africa, and will be landing in Nairobi in a couple of hours.

Tonight will be the coldest night in a long time, as I will be sleeping in a small bed and alone. I'm so used to spending my nights with you now, I'll probably end up turning around expecting to touch your chest or see your face when I open my eyes. We both know that these first nights will be sad and lonely. But as they say, it has to get worse before it can get better. We'll get used to it, somewhat. And sooner than we know it, we'll be together again, one way or other, somewhere. Suddenly!

You mean the world to me, and I don't ever want to lose you. It feels like I've been waiting a long time for you to come around, and I won't let you go now. I'll fight for you, because I know it will be worth it. You are worth fighting for.

All of my love, with all of my heart, and sincerely yours



♥ The Norwegian Teenager

The word simba means lion in Kiswahili. No wonder we were driving around saying "Wheeeere is simba??" the first two days in Maasai Mara Game Reserve when we didn't see any! However, at long last, we did, finally, find them. And not only one. Not only in one place. We found many! Have a look at some of them!

♥ The Norwegian Teenager
 

I found this picture-quote by Coco Chanel on a website today, and was inspired to make some more for you. Enjoy!

Heehe, sorry, honey!;)























































♥ The Norwegian Teenager







 

I watched the movie "Enchanted" yesterday; been having a lot of free time, so yesterday I watched a lot of movies... And there's one song there I really enjoy, so I wanted to share it with you all. And boys: Listen to the lyrics. That's how to show a girl you love her!

♥ The Norwegian Teenager