Somewhat ironic...

After hundreds of years under first Swedish, Danish and then Swedish rule again, Norway's independence day has been reduced to the following combination of nationalism and nature:

Norwegian flags and birch branches - the most common form of decoration

However, it isn't really so much an independence day as it is the date for when our founding fathers wrote and signed our constitution in 1814. To show everyone how proud we are of our fine, peaceful and democratic nation, we put on national costumes that are the same they were back then and before - differing only from county to county:

The girls in their national dresses - aren't they pretty?

Carina and Kaja in their 'bunad':)

Now, of course these fancy festive occasion-clothes are ridiculusly expensive, so some of us just dress up:

Christer, Geir and Fredrik doing an intertwined toast of cognac.

Obviously this wonderful celebration of the birth of our nation is marked by the coming together of friends and fellow classmates, where one eats good food (see below) and enjoys fine liqeour (see above) as the pictures show, so as to get at least mildly intoxicated.

All the food at Rokken's lunch-gathering
Janne, Turid and Kaja at the info-students' brekkie-gathering

All in all the day consists of eating, eating, drinking, eating, more drinking, parade, and a concert to top it all of. Luckily this year the weather was nice. The sucky part for me was that I had to study:(

Me and my darling Lene C.

Princess gone alternative or just plain old demented?

The princess in official wear

Today the news broke that Princess Märtha Luise (first-born child of our king and queen), has started an alternative school called Astarte Education with a friend. According to the national press agency, the Princess has come forth as a psychic and claims she can communicate with angels.
I'm not quite sure what to think. She's a former horseback-rider and member of the national olympic team for jumping with an education as a physiotherapist from the UK and Holland, and an additional certification in an alternative method dubbed the rose-method from the Holistic Academy.

Norwegian royal family's coat of arms

She married slightly askew author Ari Behn in 2002 and together they have two daughters, Maud Angelica and Leah Isadora (see what I mean about slightly askew father?:P). When they got engaged in 2001, she established her name as a private one (wo)man-company and thus lost her official title as a royal highness and her allowance. She actually has paid taxes like any normal citizen for the past 6 years which I find admirable, especially since she's been quite the business-whiz. She's into folklore and heritage and has done a lot to further publish Norwegian fairytales and such, both in terms of tours and on tv - not to mention her book; "Why kings and queens don't wear a crown on their head".

The lady has been one of our most beloved members of the royal family due to her levelheadedness and due to her adaptation into the taxpaying-part of society, even most of the ones against the monarchy acknowledge her begrudgingly. And now this... She's come forward and is telling the world of her abilities as a psychic! As if the tabloids couldn't find enough outrageous and insane stuff to print.
The princess claims it's probably due to always knowing how people really are on the school's website and tells a gripping story of when she as a child comforted a lady stranger and told her not to worry about her husband, as supposed evidence.
The royal court still hasn't commented upon the statement, that actually broke in one of our tabloids with more than a flimsy reputation for not verifying what they write.

The 3-year long education in "reading, healing and touching" will cost 4900 AUD a year.
To further make my opinion harder to establish she also says this: "- I learned to systemize the expressions from my senses so I could read others and through the horses I learned to communicate with animals on a deeper lever. It was while working with the horses I started contact with the angels. I have later learnt the value of this enormous task and would love to share it with others, maybe you?"

The entire Norwegian royal family in 2006.

It's nice and loving and all that jazz, but it sounds so loopy. And if we're to have a royal family can't they just stick with being slightly eccentric and represent Norway on official occasions and visits abroad? Making yourself out to be a few sandwiches short of a proper pichnic does not bear well for the peoples' general respect of you...or does it? Do we want our royal family to be just as our own? Slightly odd and with traits you really don't need published in the national press?

Conflicting dealings of a young woman's mind...

Another day spent mindlessly doing all kinds of stuff while trying to piece together important stuff for next semester. Weird day - went from loving everything and everyone to paranoid wreck in a span that was frighteningly short:S

Nemi by Lise Myhre explains this feeling so much better than me. Enjoy!




PS: If you like - Metro publishes a new strip every weekday - in English;)

Procrastination generation!

It's been ages since I last updated - my somewhat sincere apologies for that. Life has been chaotic, lazy, stressful, horrendous, wonderful, depressing, awesome, boring, active and so much more since May when I last posted...

To leave you with an impression:

- coffee
- close to cancerous amounts of cigarettes
- jottonia
- applications
- procrastionation on a whole new level
- internship
- Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in higher education
- Bergen
- living at home without my own room
- alcohol/lack of/too much
- surfing (no, not the sporty kind)
- Wolfmother
- missing people far away
- getting to know new people
- writing
- working
- studying and failing at doing it enough
- nerves
- panic attacks
- exams, and then none after all
- Vermont
- London
- summer job
- desperate for new job
- an actual income for two months:D
- broke as hell AGAIN
- concerts
- summersun
- fun times at SIU
- moving AGAIN
- documentary festival
- dates
- bubbly being consumed
- crimes committed:p

And blogging really hasn't been too much of an item on that agenda. However, I plan for that to change now as I've just received an email saying I get grants and loans for Vermont next semester and that means far away from a whole different bunch of people AGAIN.

Mum is going kinda blazê(?) about the whole thing...with an "i know you wanna go back and live in a different country"-attitude going. Dad's the sceptic of them - convinced I'll get royally screwed and don't need to study anymore - or in shorter words...that I'll get into even more debt:p
He's prolly right, but I'm young now and should be able to hack it later on. Hopefully....Anyhoo - I'm off to celebrate!:D

*loves ya!*