Summer recap

So, it would appear that summer and blogging do not combine very well. In part because I’ve done very little worth blogging about, in part because a few things I’ve done I didn’t feel like blogging about, and in part because I forgot my camera charger back in Trondheim, and what is blogging without photographs? But yes, two weeks from now I’ll be back up north and back in business, but until then this recap of my summer adventures will have to tide you over.

First and foremost, what I did absolutely most of this summer is nothing. I have done a whole lot of nothing and it has been glorious. I started the summer with three weeks of nothing, where I got to read the first three Cassandra Clare books, draw a bit and laze about, which was much needed after the pedagogical ventures of the spring.

After that I’ve been working. First at summer school for a bunch of third-graders, then in a nursing home with mostly nonagenarians. I skipped working with the ages in between. But yes, as you can probably imagine, work has been both fun, tiring, boring, hectic, and everything else that work usually is, but not really much to write home about.

Then, in the middle of all this working came July 22. I had the weekend off and only moved away from the TV screen to get food. A friend was missing, it took a week to confirm him dead. The whole family spent a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter, refreshing every other minute for news that took a long time coming. All in all, it’s not something I would like to repeat. The not knowing was the worst, I’d say.

The week after my sister and I went to his funeral, which was a lovely affair. Near a thousand people showed up to pay their respects, the church was filled to the brim, many had to stand outside. There was a lot of crying, some laughing, and a lot of reminiscing as we followed Håvard to his final resting place.

That weekend we had planned a reunion for all us Norwegians who went to school in Belgium. We usually have one every year, but it was especially nice this year since a lot of us knew Håvard from our time at the Scandinavian School of Brussels. We spent the day out at Nesodden, it was warm and sunny, some people bathed, others tanned, some sought out the shade, we had a barbeque, and together with a slush machine and alcohol it made for a wonderful evening. The bus ride home in the early hours of the morning was less fun, but absolutely worth it.

Since then my sister and I have been home alone while our parents are touring Abu Dhabi, and we’ve basically been living off Pepsi Max and Vampire Diaries. It has been amazing. And in the middle of all this, I’ve even managed to get some reading in for my Master’s. Not a whole lot, admittedly, but a little. Every bit helps!

So yes, add in a week in Oslo with lovely Marianne, random whining on Facebook to Nina, a whole lot of barbequing, visitations to grandparents and whatnot, A Game of Thrones and some internet shopping, and you pretty much have my summer all wrapped up with a neat bow.

Here’s to hoping the autumn will be a good one!