this is it..

The final strike, last cut, enough said..

My blogging days are over, and they shoul've been a long time ago. I have to spend time on my education, friends and life away from the computer:)

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Anything at all: kristinstaalesen@gmail.com

freedom

Currently i'm somewhere in Rogaland working as a PA (personal assistent). Yesterday, after reading for hours, i went for a walk. It was amazing!! The wind was really strong, no rain, i was all alone and had such a fantastic, calming and funny time! It was a feeling of freedom that just blew me away!


I didn't really have the shoes for it though, haha:)


After trying to avoid the nice traces left by the cows, i headed towards a top. Not a big one, cause it's quite flat here, but a tiny hill maybe. Standing there in the wind, the sun came out and it was so pretty!! All i could here was the sound of the wind, and i couldn't see anyone else, awww, it was great!!




Let me add the funny part:) Walking back, swept away by freedom and joy, i was more dancing than walking. And I must admit, was kinda singing:) Then, suddenly, without any warning there was a man right behind me!!! I turned into a tomato and just couldn't stop laughing, hahaha:) He just laguhed with me and we strolled together while i was trying to secretly convince him that i was sane and hadn't lost it completely. He, on the other hand, thought it was very qute to see someone dance around looking happy, hahaha:) This will haunt me for quite some time!

wet and windy

Rain, wind through the trees and through the window next to me, even though it's closed, brrrr!! I have to admit, have to face the truth, it's autumn....

I love the summer, and the spring, but to be true i'm not fond of the autumn. What's good about autumn??
You have the easy things, like staying inside drinking hot chocolate, ligthing the fire, watch a film, wear mittens again etc. But the thing is, you can't stay inside all the time. You have to get to uni, to the gym, visit friends, buy stuff and so much more and then you have to go outside. Outsie where it's raining cats and dogs andthe wind get's colder by the day.. nope, no fan of the autumn, especially knowing it'll only get worse.. Cause winter is coming, but i won't start on that one yet, haha:)

Sorry to be sounding negative, if you know me, you also know i'm usually in good spirits:)

If you have any favourite autumn things, please share!

daily temptations

At the University we have the most amazing cafeteria. They have anything that a young and hungry, or not so hungry student would crave for. Smoothies, ice cream, salad bar, bread, fast food, dinners, cakes, cookies, loads of exiting coffees etc. It's such a TEMPTATION!!! The picture shows what I try to eat for lunch, when others are treating themselves to the one delightful dish after the other... I wish I could brag and say i pack a lunch everyday, but no.. But i am and will continue trying to do so! I packed one today, but what good is that when you leave it in the kitchen at home!
But I promise myself I'll be more strict from now on, packed lunch go! go! go!! :)

a new visit from tsiky

If you've read my blog, you know that Tsiky, a friend from Madagascar, is in the area this year:)
On Friday I had the pleasure og having him on another visit. When you're with Tsiky, it's impossible not to have good time:)
Friday evening when he came, we went to a CHRISC (Christian Sports Contact) gathering. And hilariously enough, Tsiky met someone he knew before I did. There was another guy from his's school there:) We had a nive evening!
On Saturday we, or moslty Tsiky, went shopping. There are loads of stuff that are handy to have when you're at a "folehøyskole" (school). A headlight for example:)


But I guess the best part of the day was the music shop where Tsiky could try out all the bass guitars he wanted:)

looking back

I'm sitting and waisting time, waiting to go to work. Started thinking back, again, and was looking at my x-colleague's old blog. So much fun!! Found these pics from August 2005, which is a while ago now. We had been at Madagascar for about two weeks and had the first choir gathering on this date three years ago, wow!
The same week we also started a scout group for the Norwegian children. There had been one many years ago, but it had been dead for a while. We had so much fun in our specialmade uniforms!! :)


Have been missing Madagascar a lot lately, probably because I know it will still be a long time until I'll be able to go back and visit.. I miss the everyday life, going to the market, talking to people in the streets, the Norwegian children, the Malagasy children on the church school, all the laughter and smiles that were so real even though many had so little. We have so much to learn, I have so much to learn. I sit here thinking i'm a poor student!! I really am ashamed of myself, and we all should be!! One of the worst moments in my life was having to leave Madagascar in a hurry at Christmas time. Coming from people who never knew if they would have food for the next day or clothes for the cold nights, to people in big airports with so many bags of stuff that they couldn't even carry it!! It just made me sick and tears were streaming, I felt so lost, so hurt and so ashamed of my own culture.

Looking back at it now, the worst thing is that shortly after returning home for good, i slipped straight back into old habits.. If only we were as good at doing good acts as talking about them....

Somewhere to breathe

Being a student is something that can be very stressful! Being a new student is worse. Even though I've been to UiA (University of Agder) for lunch a few times before, i haven't had any lectures there. There are so many things to fix the first week. So much information that it feels like your brain just melts and stops functioning. So after what felt like and info overload, i luckily had a half day off on Thursday. So took a book, some nibbles, sunglasses and walked for about ten minutes. This is where i ended up!! Pretty ehh? :)

I cycle through this place to get to uni, such a brilliant start of the day! I think I'll be spending quite a lot of time by this little lake, I'm SO happy it's close by.

here we go!

The first week of uni is over, i've survived! I've had chemistry, met SO many people, had a lot of coffee, bought books, gotten myself a nurse uniform, spent way too much money in the fantastic cafeteria, started in CHRISC again, made new friends, had lunch with old friends+++
Even though it's just been five days, i really feel like i'm in the right place! What they teach us is exiting! It's gonna be a fab year!!
:)

TSIKY!!!


This weekend is gonna be so good!! A friend of mine from Madagascar is coming to me on saturday! On Sunday I will go with him to Birkeland Folkehøyskole (A school) where he's gonna study this year:) It's gonna be so cool to have him in Norway this year. He's a really funny guy and lives up to his name, which means smile:)

See you soon Tsiky!

Tadaaa!!

I should show you some pictures from my new home in Kristiansand, but i don't have any. So you'll have to settle with this weird one instead:p

Let me tell you about my new home, pics will have to come later. I'm gonna live about 10 min cyckle from uni, with two other girls, Mari and Sarah. Mari I've gotten to know a bit and she's great! Haven' t met Sarah yet, but we're already facebook buddies:) We (or Mari) have one child, Adrian! He's a grey and white kitten who just melts your heart. Mari, Sarah, Adrian and me live in a cozy little red house, with a garage and pattio. It's gonna be a fantastic year!

On saturday me and my dad loaded up the car and set off to start making my room mine:) I stayed until sunday and by the time i left, my stuff was everywhere and it started to feel like home.

I'm so exited about moving in! It happens on saturday, four days to go! Yaaay!!

.......Well, i better was a few more shelves now:)

wow!

Struck in awe by the fact that there have been people in here, I give in, the blog is back on!! :) However I must warn you that there will be times when it must rest.. I'm going to be a serious student from now on, and I'll have to study hard. Because if you ever end up in the hospital, you would like if Nurse Staalesen knew how to take care of you;)

do i dare..

Seeing i've restarted this blog about a thousand times, i am now very much in doubt wether it would be worth trying it out one more time.... I don't think anyone checks it anymore, so it wouldn't be as much for other people as for myself.
I've looked briefly at some of my oldest posts, and it's so funny!! It has a nice picture "diaryish" feel and I find it very amuzing to read it again:)

Since I'll be going back to uni. in two weeks time, i think it would be good to have somewhere to let out steam and just babble on about serious, but mostly unserious stuff. I will reconsider wether it is best to "leave and let die" or if I should wipe the dust of my "bubble" yet another time.
If you, whomever you might be, have anything to say about it, please let me know! You'll probably be the only one, hehe:)

daydreams

Just to show

you what i think about while sitting here in my break:) Ipanema beach where i was for about a week in January, the hostel only 3 min away..

2 years back

In my coffe break today i checked my blog going two years back, to see wether i'd written something on this day. Two years ago on the 27th of march it was Sunday, and we were singing with the Normal gospel choir in a local church in Antsirabè, where i lived. Seeing the pictures I really don't understand that it's been two years! That's a long time!
Oh how i miss it some days, the wonderful country Madagascar! Especially when it's been days and days with no sun, you feel like going to a marked or to chat to people that don't mind dropping a few lines with strangers. I miss the fantastic norwegian kids that i got to know, and the malagasy children who taught me how to appreciate life and the power of a smile.
Thinking back makes me feel a bit down, because there are so many people i'd love to see more often, but it's impossible. Moving around this much means getting to know a lot of people, but it also means leaving some. But most of all, i'm deeply thankful for everything that i've been through. I will never regret doing what i did, living abroad, getting to know other cultures and meeting so many wonderfull people:)
It's been two years since i sang with the choir in that little crowded church, but wow, some years!!!

back to work

It's 20 minutes left until i can walk out of the factory. The thing is, today i'd like to stay! When i look out of the windom, it looks as though there is a thick fog, but no! It's snow... And i know that i will have to drive home in the snow, where i bet they haven't dug up the road yet... Well, i'll take it nice and slow, it'll be allright!
Every monday or tuesday the last weeks i've been reading a blog in one of the newspapers. It's so funny! I like the way he plays with words and describes everdaysituoations in a way that makes you see them different.
Everytime i read i think that i want to write too! But when i s start forming words and putting them together, i tend to give up.. It never comes out the way i want it to anyway, hahaha:) Luckily for me i don't have to pass a blogexam or anything, sad for you guys though!
Anyway, this is really just to do something while i wait to go home:)
Ok, better go change:)

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight
in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with
singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Still in touch

This is me and Anne Lise out walking in the "mountains" of Lyngdal, where i live now with my parents. I was lucky to have her over last week for a few days. We met when both of us worked at Madagascar, she for the Peace corpse and me for NMS. After returning to Norway we have kept in touch and then all the fantastic memories from the island in our hearts come alive again:)
When we meet up we try to go for a walk and get some fresh air. So, even though the rain was pouring and the wind led the rain in all directions, we got dressed and went out.
It feels great to be outside when the weather is bad, as long as you have good shoes and don't get wet. We walked quite quickly for almost two hours, it was great! We only met two other people, it almost felt like we were in the middle of a beautiful nowhere for a while:)

When being outdoors, i always think of this passage:

"When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are
mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?"

Blessings

More and more often i sit back and think of how lucky i am! I have a family that love me, friends i trust and love and i have been so lucky to travel to many of the places that i dreamt of as a child. But still, i find myself forgetting this way too often, because as most other people, i tend to focus on the things i don't have. Things that i foolishly believe will make me happier and cooler, even though only for a moment.. But what makes me scream of joy and bubble inside, is to have a day in the sun with my supercool nephew and niece, Benedikte and Adrian:)

These pictures were taken on sunday, when my sister and i drove to grimstad to visit our brother, sister-in law, nephew and niece. We went for a walk along the ocean and it was such a fantastic day!!! In this season where we stay indoor most of the time because of the rain, a day in the sun is like a taste of heaven. The temperature was quite good, the sun gave us a taste of it's warmth and all the people we met were smiling, a glorious day:)

What's out there?

It's the third of february, and it's been months since my last little article. But that was a choice i made because the world was spinning so fast i had to focus on holding on tight! It all went allright, and i'm now a lot more chilled and have decided to keep on writing. This is more of an egotrip than keeping people up to date, i just feel like writing. I don't even know if anyone checks this blog anymore:)

I've beem thinking a lot about the future these days, and that's because i really don't know what to do with myself. I don't have a goal, exept heaven though. Around me lots of my friends are graduating, getting married, having children and blahblahblah.. The thing is, i don't even know what to study!! But when this dark cloud of depressive thoughts start covering me, i always end up thinking that i'm really content with my life so far, and the cloud reveals the sun:)
Recently I moved back with my parents (a HUGE step), i've finised 30 points of Communication and Worldview studies which was fantastic and i've just come back from a month of backpacking in South America!! Yeah, i'm happy! I've also lived in two other countries since my a-levels/high school graduation. It would be quite boring if i had already figured out everything already though, it's important to add some exitement.

My plan now is to get an occupation, "become something". It has to be a "people" thing, where i can chat, help and at least sometimes feel that i make a difference for someone. So, even though i was sure i was gonna do a socialworkerish thing, i'm now back on the nurse thing (that was my old plan, two years ago). But, i really don't have to decide yet:)

I know some people hate long articles, and say that a blog is not a diary, but i don't care! This is MY blog and i can do whatever i want, HAHAHA!!!
Oh, by the way, i don't have a camera, but will try to borrow my dad's:)