Way to relax: #1

Pretty much the entire day has been one reading day. 50 pages wiser on feminism and its history, sure that takes the spirit out of me.

If I haven´t decided whether I´m a feminist or not by now I´ve sure not paid attention.

Anyhow today I don´t want to write much about school. I´m pretty much well aware that you all know how that plays out.

Rather I´d like to tell you all about a show I watch, it´s quite the opposite from what I´m studying. When watching I feel relaxed, I feel like I can breathe and let the stress take off.

The Only Way Is Essex is the perfect distraction. I know that it has just begun in Norway, but I´m already way into the third season.

What I do fancy about the show is the unprovocative (even though it market itself in that way) nature, I did think and was almost expecting some kind of Big Brother-tendencies. Glad I was wrong, it´s good to see the ability to make reality shows in nicer manners (I do know it´s scripted).

Talking goes a long way in my world.

The Only Way Is Essex probably won´t contribute solving world problems, let’s be fair.

Still….

I do want to keep watching because it offers characters that I´d grown to like. But hey who would not like Arg or Joey Essex? Or the others for that matter.

Essex is now on my travel wish list.

Pictures belongs to itv.com

 

 

 

 

Food: Yummy in my tummy #1

Discovered GarageBand the previous night. What a fun discovery. I simply didn´t want to go to bed. I recorded a few podcasts both talking and singing.

If my blog had settings that allowed podcasts that would´ve sure been a fun addition. In the meantime before I go all Peyton Sawyer on you, here´s a few pictures in the food category.

As the water in my apartment has been shut off now and then, the landlords gave my roommates and I vouchers. Really a nice gesture and something that I thought was quite the treat.

I do love food, and to try new places that´s something I do welcome and appreciate.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen

Travel: Berlin <3

One of the pages I´ve “Liked” on Facebook is this one. I´ve travelled to the city a couple of times more or less recently. It´s a city that I by chance have fallen for.

The perfect city for a retreat. On my list of have-to-do-before-leaving, this is basically it.

Well the reason for mentioning Berlin is that I´ve posted some pictures on their Facebook page. What I didn´t expect was people liking them, especially since I´m not really a professional photographer. Anyway it´s really fun to see how other people react to the pictures I take.

Especially since I don´t know any of them. So here are the pictures. Both captured in August last year at Schloss Charlottenburg.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen

 

 

Study day: #3 (and a little more)

On school today we had a three-hour long discussion panel about different theories. Liberalism, realism, feminism, critical theory and structuralism.

My group and I covered the last theory. To be short that theory is highly influenced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Lenin was one important figure in developing his mindset using the mentioned  people´s ideological framework.

Think that gives you an idea what structuralism is all about.

Before and after school I took some pictures, just to document everyday life for me. Most days I have in Göteborg are categorized “everyday,” and contains the ordinary structure (in my case: study) – Waking up, get ready, catch the spårvagn, sit in class, go home, read, watch tv, sometimes going for a run and finally get ready for bed.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen

Study day: #2

I absolutely love that I have a packed schedule at the moment. In my case I love that the schedule is filled with school.

I love the fact that every topic I have challenges me in different ways. Like today when my group was going to plan a presentation for tomorrow.

Throughout the process I´ve been very frustrated that I´m not fluent in Swedish. We´ve also worked on a paper together. Don´t think  I´ve ever felt like more of an excess material.

Until today, I walked out of the cafe  we sat in with a smile on face. The reason for this transformation is really simple. Because parts of the presentation I wrote in Swedish, and this part is going to be presented by a Swede. Major accomplishment on my part! Something that felt really rewarding after long hours of not being really helpful.

Guess there´s hope for me after all. Perhaps there´s a spot for me in the international scene, what I know is that I do learn something every day.

My basket of knowledge now contains:  The Westphalian System of States, Bretton Woods, International Monetary Fund, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Some Soviet leaders. Margaret Thatcher. Her political “slogan:” There is No Alternative. Ronald Reagan. And of course much more! I should be able to retell the history of the 20th century by now.

The pictures below illustrates well the kind of items I´m buried in at the moment.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen

When I´m bored

Since I´ve lived in a basement for many months I do have moments when I need to stretch and do something else. Having just a couple of small windows makes it hard to concentrate on studying for long.

Some days I see little of the sun.

That´s why I play around with the settings on my camera, my personal favorite the timed option.  That often leads to both clear and unclear pictures, anyway why not post them.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen (rights belong to her )

Study day: #1

Right before going to bed last night I enjoyed the new season of “Two and a Half Men,” despite Ashton Kutcher´s messy private life at the moment, I loved his character.

Walden Schmidt is the perfect substitute for Charlie Harper. But then again I guess I´m far from objective, Ashton Kutcher is (how I´m going to put it) my teenage-fantasy. Ever since “The Butterfly Effect” and “Punk´d” I´ve pretty much lived in Ashton-land (take notice of the humorous tone )

Over to something else.

Today I have a day off school. Went to the library to borrow a book on the course literature list. Excited to learn more about the history of development. It will be interesting to see if we are as developed as we want to portray. Or if people of ancient times indeed were developed in areas people in the modern times only can dream of.

I for one is very amazed at how technological advanced people were back in the days. The reason for saying this is evident in many building projects (pyramids etc.) that took place.

Either way, I think every decade or century comes with special areas of development.

 

A few of the topics I learn about

Playing with my Mac while reading

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen (modeling herself)

Short story: Room for Naive

Room for Naive

Kajsa Josephine Andersen

October 23. 2011

I know when I walked into this room that something was going to change. For the bigger part of my life there´s been so much darkness, fear and lack of hope. A tiny, fragmented light was all I needed to get passed this dark and empty hole inside.

A hole that had dug so deep into the black soul. Nevermore. There it was, the calming echo that knocked on the brown door.

Here I was tucked in a bed. Reminiscing on why, and when. Trying to figure out when I´d reached the point. The point pleasant.

Questions swirled around inside a moist brain, trying to answer why it took so long? So long to understand that beneath all this madness, that lily underneath the snow would soon arise. Blossom into something unique.

That was of course something that would have to wait. Until Spring. Oh, how I awaited spring. A season that bore promises of warmth, of new encounters and clean slates. Just thinking about a spring that gave into summer.

Yes I knew that everything would be okay from the moment I set my foot inside this room. This room made for waiting and creating.

Here I was. Thinking that a lifetime of misery, soon would turn the wheel and drive on. Into the desert plains.

There it was a car, a horizon and a stranger.

It was here this so-called happiness was, it was this I´d waited for.

You would probably describe this story as naive, but I guess there´s nothing wrong with being naive.

That´s why I´d name this longing, Naive.

This is for you.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen (modeling herself)

Some publicity I got this week

On Wednesday this week a woman, Mari Gisvold, who I met during Senior High asked me to participate in an Interview-section she manages.

The site she´s working with is “Studenttorget,” both an informative and article-based site especially for students. She manages the weekly column (if that´s a right word to use) asking international students about how it is studying abroad.

In my case I do live just a few hours south of the Norwegian border ,but it was nice to describe/point out the good things about having an abroad experience yet being able to travel home frequently.

If you want to read it here´s the place to find it, I know it´s Norwegian, but I´ve heard google translate is a great tool

Next week I´ll try to post some pictures of both my campus and other things to make the blog even more interesting.

Thanks Mari again for asking To return the request here´s a blog featuring her photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Göteborg part three: a living space

For the past year or so I´ve had a pretty unique living arrangement. I´ve lived in a 50-year-old or so Norwegian Seaman´s Church. Not in the chapel of course, but in their basement.

Nonetheless I´ve taken good care of the chapel, here I´ve sung and played the church piano, not during services though.

Now that the Norwegian Seaman´s Church has closed down their base in Göteborg has there been lots of renovation going on. There´s literally no time during the day that I´m alone here, either a worker or someone else.

What adds an even more unique touch to the living arrangements is the Norwegian consulate on the first floor. It truly feels like I  haven´t moved at all. My home is a small Norwegian society in Göteborg.

Photography by: Kajsa Josephine Andersen