The Susanne

Celebrations and every-day life in the New Year

Susanne — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:41:41 +0000

A week in, and already 2009 is far exceeding my expectations. I’ve had champagne and cava, celebrated my friend C’s master degree, and today it’s back to every-day life as my own master degree begins. I’m quite annoyed with uni at the moment as I’ve still not gotten the result back from my last exam and my acceptance to the MA depends on my having passed everything last semester. The deadline for the results was yesterday (three weeks after the exam) and still nothing — to be perfectly honest I’m more than annoyed, I’m fuming!

Well, no need to ramble on about it now — here are a few highlights from the past week:

The mussles we had at C’s MA celebratory dinner. Absolutely delicious! And well done, C!

The rosé cava we had innumerable glasses of, with frozen raspberries from mum’s garden. Fantastic!

Reminiscence from my childhood: bacon with potato stew and vegetables. Made with soy milk, of course, but still delicious.

And finally: beautiful January landscape. Makes even me like winter…

Jula varer helt til påske

Susanne — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:31:57 +0000

New years eve tomorrow and I have added a resolution to my list: Drink more champagne! It is inspired by this post from Serious Eats and although I feel I indulge quite enough as it is when it comes to food I cannot say I have ever indulged in champagne. In fact I’ve only tasted champagne once, with my family this Christmas. It was a Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2000 and it was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. About how I imagine nectar from the Heavens to taste. I can’t afford champagne of course so I’m actually drinking the usual cheap stuff tomorrow night - but I’ll be damned if I don’t have at least another glass of the real thing in the coming year!

Christmas at the Library

Susanne — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 11:52:42 +0000

Third day of Christmas and I’m at work at the library and no one is here. I suppose it must be due to the shops opening today and everyone rushing to exchange their awful scarves, sweaters, candlesticks and jewellry — possibly even books but are there awful books? I’ve never wanted to exchange a book I’ve gotten as a present. Until now: my sister got me The Tales Of Beedle the Bard and I already have it, preordered of course. I read it one night during the exam period, it was a fantastic little break from reality sitting there in my huge fluffy pink sofa chair sipping hot tea and reading wizard fairy tales. I suppose I might pass it on to someone else but I quite like the idea of going into a bookstore with no idea what to get and then just stumbling upon a treasure. This happened to me recently, in fact: I was downtown doing some Christmas shopping and fancied going for a coffee somewhere — of course coffee is never as good without the accompaniment of peoplea good book and as I didn’t have a book with me I went into Oslo’s larges bookstore and looked around for the 29kr Penguin editions. I didn’t find them, but I found a shelf of books that looked similar, the same green covers, and I eagerly reached out for one: my hand as it came back was clutching a book the cover of which intrigued me so much I instantly bought it. Human Happiness by Blaise Pascal is, according to the back cover and amazon,

‘Created by the seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever find satisfaction and real joy in life – or whether a belief in God is a wise gamble at best.’

I liked it — it is vastly different from anything else I’ve read and that is refreshing, and although I don’t foresee sitting down to read it all in one sitting it serves as a good ‘change of air’ in between the heaps of novels I’m slowly working my way through this Christmas: I pick it up now and then and savour a tiny paragraph before returning to my other books. Right now I’m reading The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike and I haven’t really made up my mind about it yet. I loved his Rabbit books three-four years ago but this one, well maybe it’s just the subject matter that bugs me. Premenopausal divorced women are just too far out of my own frame of reference, perhaps. Or perhaps I’ll end up loving the book.

All the Christmas food is getting to me — not one day has gone by yet this Christmas that I haven’t experienced intense food-coma after meals. It’s actually quite awful: I don’t over eat at all, yet the heaviness of the food seems to be just too much for my poor little body. I usually pass out on the sofa to wake three hours later feeling bewildered (where am I?) and somewhat resigned (did I pass out again? now how will I sleep tonight?). It is nice, though. To be able to do nothing but relax all day, eat good food and spend time with my family. No worries about Christmas weight yet, that can wait until all the ribbe, medisterkaker, lutefisk and pinnekjøtt is devoured, Christmas is over (after new years?) and life is back to normal and routine is restored. I am excited to start my masters degree (I got the letter last week: I’m IN!) and getting into a new learning environment at uni.

New years resolutions so far: 1) study every day Monday-Friday. (that’s it)

Tonight I’m going to a Christmas Tree party, haven’t been to one of those since I was a kid and am feeling slightly giddy at the thought.

Happy Christmas everyone :)

I am bachelorette of English literature

Susanne — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:43:13 +0000

My last exam is done. I now have (assuming I passed everything) my bachelor degree and a very light heart. I feel quite grown up in spite of my late drunken behaviour (last Saturday’s ‘Julebord‘ (’Christmas table’) which is a Christmas party consisting mainly of a huge meal of traditional Norwegian Christmas food. We were just over 90 and very cramped. I could not really get up from the table without either a) making Jo(back to back behind me) move closer to his table and suck in his stomach or b) climb out of my chair. Guess which I usually chose! I drank a lot of ‘juleøl‘/Christmas beer and cuba libres and even some akevitt. yep. At least I wore my stunning Stockholm dress!) which I frankly do not remember but the fact that I don’t remember it really says it all. Still, no one has told me of any embarrassment I might have caused myself or others so I’m quite prepared to consider myself just about as adult as they come!

At the Frederikke cafeteria at uni they usually serve ‘Exam steak’ around exam time. It usually consists of pathetic thin pieces of beef (that Line apparently compared to a shoe sole the other day), a baked potato and some herb butter. And a dessert. Tonight, after waking from my post-exam four hour nap and after my little visit to Lisbeth to exchange Christmas presents which we of course had to open right away as I at least do not have the patience to wait for Christmas (she gave me a lovely blue woollen shawl/scarf that she’d knitted herself and that I’m already completely in love with, and a book: A spot of bother by Mark Haddon) I was completely famished from a sleepless night followed by a morning exam followed by passing out as soon as I reached home, and headed for the supermarket in search of something to eat. And what did I end up with? Exam steak, of course! A lovely sirloin steak which I cooked the Gordon Ramsay way: with rosemary and garlic and butter. I also made a delicious sauce from vegetables fried in butter and then boiled down twice, then strained and simmered together with some store bought veal stock and some balsamic vinegar and a little splash of Worcestershire sauce, and I roasted a few green beans with olive oil, salt and pepper, and sliced up a couple of radishes to get the vegetable component sorted. Yum. That’s all I can say.

Oh, except: I’m DONE! Hooray! It’s today!

Life changes

Susanne — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:39:42 +0000

Today, I got the result from my Shakespeare final last Tuesday and I’m very happy. The b I achieved means I am guaranteed to get into the MA I applied for as long as I pass my last two exams. Pass! That’s all! I’m ecstatic. Now, the two days I have left to study for my renaissance final on Friday don’t seem so insufficient anymore. And my recent tendency to fall asleep several times a day whilst studying (in fact I fell asleep whilst drinking a triple americano yesterday!) is not such a huge problem either.

Come next Tuesday my BA in English literature will be done, marking a turning point in my life: I will have completed a university degree! I will no longer be able to consider myself a bum or a loser as I’ll actually have achieved something of some substance! It will also mean that I’ll be embarking on a new adventure just after Christmas, as I’ll begin my MA degree!

I’ve been wanting to share some glimpses of what I’ve been up to recently, but as I’m in no mood for writing the story of it all I’ll simply post the photos accompanied with an explanatory line or two:

Getting up hours before dawn in order to get to my exam (yes, Shakespeare, yay!) and watching the snow falling gently from the sky, listening to Christmas music and feeling happy.

Getting drunk at uni on Friday night for almost the last time this year and managing to take a photo of the world just as I saw it at that exact moment.

And then managing to take a photo of the beautiful tree which stands outside the Helga Eng building at uni, all lit up and pretty and very fascinating to my drunken mind.

Watching yet another gorgeous sunset from my window and wondering why there are so many gorgeous sunsets lately

Spending Saturday afternoon home alone, enjoying a glass of wine and a beautiful book that Line gave me for my birthday, very happy that my flatmate was away on a ski trip so I could make lutefisk without offending her.

Yeah, that’s lutefisk, complete with puréed peas, boiled new potatoes and crispy bacon. Yum!