Cold and dark, with squeaky snow

This is Trondheim these days. There are mountains to the southeast and southwest, so even though the forecast says that the sun came up at 09:45 and went down at 14:36, the actual day is shorter. The sun actually never touches the house I live in, I think. So it is dark as night at about 4, making for looong evenings and disturbed sleep patterns. I try to see the sun every day (when it is a clear day), to be able to feel that it was actually day at one point.

Mentioning weather, it has mostly been clear the last week or so, giving temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius. There are lots of people around in their down jackets and with scarves wound around their head so that only the eyes peek out. Have you ever tried hugging someone who is wearing a down jacket? It's so soft - makes for great hugs. The only sad thing is that my cloak, which is my usual winter outerwear, is being repaired, and it is a bit too cold to use it.

But the skies have not been completely clear, we have had some new snow. It came when it was below -5 degrees Celsius, which gives snow with a wonderful sound. Oh, you thought snow was silent? Not exactly. When it is really cold, the snow sort of squeaks and crunches underfoot. I really like the sound cold snow makes underfoot - I know it is really winter when I hear that sound.

I have found out that I prefer steady seasons - summer and winter. I don't really like the changing seasons, spring and fall, because of all the chilly rain and uncertain weather. Sure, the winter is cold, but it is also beautiful, and you know what you wake up to day after day. Winter is actually the season, from my memory at least, when we have the most stable weather. We can often have really cold periods that last for up to two months (and even more!). That happens when a high pressure field moves down from Siberia and settles over parts of Norway. The sky is clear every day, the sky is starry every night, and the air is crisp and cold.

Still, I prefer sitting inside with a good book and a cup of tea looking out at all this, because the cold air really stings my face, and I often start freezing on my fingers and toes when I am outside for too long. Looking out at the moon shining down and the stars and planets shining down, I look forward to being finished with exams and starting my Christmas holiday.

Oh, and by the way, change is still scary. I moved out of my old big locker and into two small new ones, and  it's really weird. Now I have to go a different place every morning and afternoon - I have sort of changed my home base at school. I had my old locker for one and a half years, and I feel kind of sad leaving it. I think about the weirdest things sometimes. Pull yourself together, Julie! It's only a locker!

I think the exam period is starting to drive me just a tiny bit crazy - I'm starting to talk to myself now... I'll just procrastinate a bit more, to see if I can drive it any further (I am still trying to read 50 books this year, but I have 13 to go...).

Okay, I will stop my ramblings now. Have a great advent, and good luck if you are taking exams or the like!

Success!

For those of you who appreciate memes

I did it! I read fifty (yes actually 50) books this year! I planned for this to happen, of course, but I am kind of amazed that it did anyway. I'm not huge on self-confidence, as you can probably guess.

So now that I have read all these books, and I also have a lot of books, I have been thinking about what I should do with all these books. I mean, put them in a bookshelf, obviously, but how? A lot is too relative, so I tell you what, I'm going to count all the books in my bookshelf here (The books that are not notebooks, reference, or school related. Basically the books designed for cover to cover reading) (I have more books, but they're not here). Just hold on for a second...

112. So then I, as the sorting and collecting kind of person that I am, unavoidably start thinking about how to sort and organise all these books. For as long as I can remember owning more than one shelf (80 cm long) full of books, I have been organising them alphabetically by the author's last name, like a library. But there are so many ways to organise books!

My books, sorted by colour. Isn't it pretty?

After I moved here, I decided to try a new way that I had seen on (wait for it...) the internet. I sorted my books into two categories - series and singles - and sorted the singles by colour. Not very systematic, I know, but I don't have that many books, so I can find the book anyway. The series then followed, in the order I preferred relative to the size of the bookshelf and the colour scheme. I am pleased with this sorting, and I also find it aesthetically pleasing (I know - I'm such a girl).

But there are many alternatives to these two ways of sorting books. I could organise them by height, or number of pages, or how well I liked the book, or publication year, or genre, or themes, or any other criteria you could possibly think of. I think the most fun would be to have a system that only you can understand. For example, you could group them according to what they meant to you, whether they (in your head) relate to each other in any way (across the usual boundaries) or just your personal preference.

Advent has just started, and there is snow on the ground and a calendar waiting for me in the corner. So I will go now, and open today's package. I hope your December has been nice so far.

Books read: 50
Pages read: 14616

Homesick

So I'll lose some sales

and my boss won't be happy,

but there's only one thing on my mind.

Searching boxes underneath the counter

on a chance that on a tape I'd find

a song for

someone who needs somewhere

to long for.

Homesick

cause I no longer know

where home is.

from "Homesick" by Kings of Convenience

Nowadays I often wonder what it is that makes a place a home. Is it the memories? The people? The books in the bookshelves? The pictures on the walls? The walls who have heard and seen so much? Or maybe the cheesy one - home is where the heart is?

My childhood home has recently been sold, my grandparents' house will soon be sold and pulled down, and I have moved away. Sometimes, when I think about it, I feel that I don't have a physical anchor in the world. Like a place which I can come back to and which doesn't change too much. But, I guess, that is too much to ask of life. I am a control freak. I don't particularly like change, to put it that way. I usually stick to activities, people and places. But life is always in motion, and change is natural. I'm not saying that the change itself is necessarily natural, but the fact that things change is thoroughly natural.

Geranium bohemicum
Literally grows from tragedy

Today, in the biology lecture, we learnt about succession in nature. The directional change of an area's environment, for example a forest growing back after a fire. Change happens in a certain direction until it reaches a final or equilibrium state. But even then, it fluctuates. So change is extremely normal everywhere. Even disturbances such as flooding or forest fire are normal. If the equivalent happened in our lives, we would say it was a disaster or a catastrophe or tragic, but some organisms rely on these disasters to survive. Maybe I and many others could learn from this. We could choose to focus on the good things that spring from the hard times and tragedies, like the beautiful geranium 'Orchid Blue', which has seeds that only flower after a forest fire (or high temperatures). It literally grows from disaster. So instead of being sad about the recent fire, we can marvel at the beauty that sprouts after tragedy has struck.

Change is inevitable and natural. And as someone once said - it's not about how you are, but about how you take it (it sounds better in Norwegian...I'm not that good at translating). And in a way, all our lives are built around change and changes. We grow up, we become older, we experience new things, we change in response to other people, and other people change in response to us. We live in a dynamic world, but still some of us (for example me) manage to get stuck in a fantasy that stability is the most natural thing and change is something strange and something to be feared. I think a good idea is to meet the change and be proactive when approaching it, instead of hiding in the shadows and wishing it would go away. And oh, how I wish I would follow my own advice.

Books read: 45

Pages read: 13110