Was it Spring?

And this is why we love spring in Norway. Because it lasts only some days.The first day I mistrustfully look at the sun outside and wear warm scarf and jacket. The second day I leave my hat and gloves at home, take a little walk after work, smell the air and ask: "can it be true? is it spring now?". The third day I wear ballerina shoes and take off my jacket. The fourth day...there is no fourth day. The fourth day is FINITO.

Yesterday I was sitting on the terrace of bakery not far from my home, wearing T-shirt and sunglasses and played a French intellectual. Sitting on the cafe terrace with chai latte and thick book of Roland Barthes "Mythologies". The sun was shining, the streets were full with people, I could hardly read because of all the noise and traffic. Today....it looks like yesterday never existed. The sky is gray, it rains, and wind turns the umbrellas inside out. I am glad that I wear a cap and a long coat (not a denim jacket like I intended), and feel like a one-man expedition to the North pole, struggling my way to the subway through the wind.

Every season is short here, except for winter

My New Inspiration

Today I heard a lecture on Roland Barthes, the French structuralist. He is famous for the book "Mythologies" where he analyzed all kind of cultural objects - Greta Garbos face, Citroen DS, Tour de France, striptease, fashion. As our lecturer said,he was good essayist, but not equally good to create a clear theoretical foundation behind his cases.
So I thought: "why can't I be like him? I am so good to produce all kind of different thoughts about so many things. But maybe not so good to draw clear theoretical line through them all..."
My classmate Tara wrote on a Post-it note: "you are the feminine version of Roland Barthes". And we found out that I was born in the year when he died - so there is an opportunity to interpret this as a reincarnation of some kind :)

Anyway. I have an ambition to produce lots of small neat analysis of Norwegian cultural objects (like Barthes did with the French ones). Hope, I will succeed...

P.S. Doesn't he look lovely on that picture? I would love to have such a lecturer :) Even if I had to tolerate his smoking...

Cheese Slicer

Today I cut my finger with cheese slicer.
I came to school, tired, sick, with a cut finger - in the need of compassion. My classmate Tara started to laugh: "how do you manage to cut yourself with a cheese slicer? This shows really that you are a foreigner!".
Yeah, Norwegians believe that cheese slicer is a Norwegian invention. I wonder: is it some kind of test? if you can use cheese slicer, are you integrated more?
Well, I am not integrated, as we see now...
But who could guess how to use that thing - without a user manual?