Okay, I promise I won’t start this post with “how has October come and gone already, this year is flying by so fast!” but I guess, by saying I won’t, I allowed myself to do it anyway. October’s been a strange and busy month, with lots of traveling, a lot of assignments and uni work and thankfully, some wonderful moments with good friends. The weather has also made it perfectly clear that we’re reaching the last months of the year now, as the winter coat has been dusted off and there are no valid reasons to not put on mittens and a hat before leaving the house. Secretly, I’m really here for it.
October has brought along:
Two trips back and forth between home-home and uni-home
My mum’s birthday and thus a lot of cake, lovely food and family time
Some wonderful bonding time with my little nephew
Oliver’s baptism – which was a fairytale in itself
A lovely trip to the place my sister’s husband is from and getting to know his family better
Learning a new craft! (It’s called Hardangersøm, a type of traditional Norwegian embroidery, and I love it!)
A lot of beautiful concert experiences at The Church Music Festival in the Cathedral
A lot of studying, assignment work and exam revision
Some very productive study sessions with Trine, plus a lovely weekend with her lovely family
Halloween spent binging Netflix-shows and eating all the sweets that no children came to collect
And there goes July. I’ve spent the last two weeks in small French mountain villages, driving along winding forest roads, swimming in a lake and eating more cheese than anyone should eat in a lifetime – let alone a summer (of course this is not true at all, if you find yourself some really good brie there is never a reason to not just eat all of it). There was not a lot of phone reception and even less internet to acquire, and so this post is a bit late. But as Harvey and I are on the train-tram-plane x2-coach journey home now, it seemed like a good time to post the July wrap-up post and video!
July’s been a good one on many accords.
I’ve gotten to:
Get to know, to hold and spend a lot of time with my new nephew!!
Work at the library
“Farm” radishes
Do a lot of baking and cooking
Get to know my sister’s husband’s family better as they came and stayed with us for a week
Fish for crabs again like we did when we were children
Travel to France on my own
Stay a night with a (lovely) family who I didn’t know at all (but who literally saved me), because Harvey’s plane (from England) got cancelled and suddenly I was stuck in Lyon all alone
Go to a beautiful wedding in St Segolene
Eat my own body weight in French brie and baguettes
Know and stay with Harvey’s family, which was lovely
Get a little bit of a tan!
So this has been my July; new nephew, work, food and France. Not a bad month summed up. And Harvey’s come back to Norway with me, and is staying for another 3 weeks, so fingers crossed August will be wonderful too.
It’s February 1st today, and January felt like it lasted a year.
I started this month at home, with Harvey visiting from England. From then and until now, I’ve moved flats and gotten settled, started up a new semester of my BA, found out that I really really enjoy my degree, received marks and got As on all my exams (!!) and with some lovely people, I’ve done a lot of work, both at uni and outside of uni.
Last year I filmed a second everyday, from January throughout July. A lot of stuff happened during those months, and I love to look back on those clips now – to see how much can change in a short amount of time. Watching the days slip by as seconds also really do put things into perspective.
This year, I’m gonna try again, and this time I’ll see if I can do a whole year, now that I’ve proven to myself that I can do six months.
So, without further ado, here’s my January! It may not look all that eventful to you when you watch it, but it’s been a good one.
Hope this first month of 2019 has been kind to you!
New Year’s Resolutions; a lot of people swear to them, a lot of people really don’t. I like to think of New Year’s resolutions as Valentines kisses. There is nothing stopping you from telling people you love them 365 days a year, but it is nice to have a special day where it’s a little bit more focus on it; if you want to change anything with the way you live your life you should do that whenever you want to, but it is nice to have a day like January 1st where you contemplate what you want to change and why, a bit more in-depth than usual.
However, resolutions sound so strict, I like thinking about them as plans for the new year. Not things you can fail at, but small things you can have a go at instead. These are plans I’d like to shape my 2019 after:
–Try again and finish all the Jane Austen novels
I made this a bit of a delayed resolution last year, as I visited the Jane Austen house in Chawton three times in three months, this year. However, I’ve not really gotten through a single one as I keep restarting Pride and Prejudice. I do really like it however, and want to get through them all, because I love how witty and fun the language and the characters are. I guess you could say that bringing an old resolution into the new year is a surefire way to fail, but here’s to trying again and seeing what happens!
–Read for “cosy” and for pleasure + read more Norwegian books
Yes, I’ve already gotten better at that this year, but in 2019 I want to get even better at reading just because I want to! I’ve also generally been reading mostly English books for a very long time, and I’d love to get more into the contemporary Norwegian literary scene this year. There are so many wonderful books waiting!
–Make a savings account for travelling and adventure planning
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time; I miss travelling. I miss booking plane tickets and getting all excited, planning adventures months in advance and being able to dream up the most impossible plans. This year I really hope to be able to go visit Lucie in Czech Republic and Ana in Portugal, and therefore, another goal for 2019 is to start a savings account specifically coined at travelling. Saving on a student budget is never fun, but with some heavy budgeting I’m sure it’ll work out.
-Create a softer everyday
Kiss your everyday, there are more Mondays to Fridays than Saturdays. I started trying to focus on this in 2018, but I’ll try even harder in 2019! Breaks with tea and blankets, candles and soft music shouldn’t just be a thing for the weekends, but also for small moments in between rushing to and from, throughout the week. I’m excited about this one!
There is already so much stress in the world, but we 100% choose how we want to live our life from day to day. Therefore, this year, I’ll try to stop worrying so much about the small stuff. I’ll also remind myself about the importance of jumping at exciting opportunities even if they present themselves as a little bit scary, and to give both myself and the people around me a few more pats on the back every once in a while. What are your thoughts about New Years Resolutions? Have you got any this year? Here’s to 2019 becoming exactly the year we make it. Let’s create the best year yet!
Writings and Musings 