Sarah

 

 

T : The first T must be for the Troubles and sticky situations I have been in this year. For example when my phone got stolen in Buenos Aires, when I had to run after a taxi driver that had taken my bag in Nicaragua, when me and Ida missed the bus for the airplane in Norway making us taking a taxi for 1000 nok or when I booked flying tickets from the wrong airport in Kuala Lumpur. All these situations made me react in different ways, all from crying my eyes out in a cafe til laughing so hard until there was water in my eyes.

W : This is an easy one. The W in twothousand13 stands for the World. Never before have I visited the same amount of countries that I have this year. From Nicaragua in January to Germany in November giving me a total of 12 different countries in different parts of the world visited in twothousand13.

O : O is Octopuses! Because they are the coolest living thing I have seen since I saw a lynx at the zoo when I was 11 years old. Octopuses (wait, is it one Octopus and two Octopussies?) are moving really slow with parts everywhere and no matter how big they are they can make themselves so small just folding in their tentacles. But the most awesome thing about them is that they can change colour! Noone ever told me that when I was eating calamares (fried squid rings) in Greece during my youth! So Octopuses, being as cool as they are, are something I would never have seen unless I had started diving, which I also did in twothousand13. In Honduras I went from beginner to an advanced certified diver and after a liveaboard in Thailand I could proudly write about my 25th dive in my logbook. When people told me that diving is a drug I doubted them. I dont do that any longer. I finish twothousand13 with 25 dives and hope to increase that number with twice as much during 2014.

T : Training. Cause it has this last few years never stopped being a big part of me. It made me jump on huge truck wheels in an underground boxing club in Nicaragua, sweat like a maniac on spinning sessions in Mexico, getting hit back into shape in my old kickboxing club in Oslo and trying out a new sport, Rugby. Training have meant so much to me that I even spent two months away in Thailand, learing thaiboxing and everything around it.

H : I will put Horses here. I am not a big Horse-fan what so ever. But when I meet a horse I straight away remember the journey I have taken with them. From my first encounter, very young on my friend Fridas birthday party, when everyone at the party was allowed to ride on a horse. I did and when I did so the saddle started sliding to one of the sides, scaring me into thinking I would fall off. Also scaring me enough to never go horsebackriding again. Or at least until it was 2012 and Ida got the idea to go on horses among Inca ruins in Peru. Not until after we had booked and paid for the tour I remembered that I was afraid of horses. And that horsebackriding, with a horse doing whatever he wanted, did not ease my fear. Insted that happened in twothousand13, where group pressure (well not really, they told me I could do whatever I wanted but still) made me get back up in the saddle on a huge horse on a vulcanic island called Omotepe. We gallopped on the beach overlooking the water and beautiful surroundings. And somewhere there I stopped being afraid. This moment, when I realised I wasnt scared any longer, made me decide on something that still (and will keep on) colours me anywhere I go. I will never let fear stop me from doing anything.

O : I am gonna put Oversleeping here. It is not a good one (or if it is a real word) but still, never have I ever overslept as much as I have done during twothousand13. A salsanight gone mad and made me wake up one hour after I was supposed to start working. A birthdaycelebration finishing off a crazy week in south of Norway made me & Ida miss the bus that would take us to the airport. We overslept almost two hours. A interesting night in Thailand didnt make me sleep too long but nevertheless I still missed the transport I was supposed to take to the airport.

 

U : Under the influence of alcohol. Well, this in itself is not typical for twothousand13. Years before I have shouted "No Tomorrow!" to my friends holding up a shot of Mintuu. But some (or maybe most) of the stories I tell when I talk about this year have happened Under the influence of alcohol. I have really discovered tequila, with all tequila brings with it. It started already in 2011 or 2012, but it wasnt until I had been with Keely in Mexico in a jazzbar serving us tequila after tequila, that I realised I actually liked the flavour. Just not always what it does to you. I have drunkenly misplaced things like never before. During the year I have lost a number of VISAcards, jackets, one iPhone, shoes and a dress under the influence of alcohol. Just this week I lost my driving license. 

 

S : The biggest thing happening on the letter S is, undoubtfully, the Surprise party I got on the 4th of May, twothousand13. My sister took me away thinking that we would simply drop off our parents and buy some candies for the evening when we would watch some movies. I went a little bit crazy with the swedish sweets and bought maybe one thing too many. Once we got back to the house and out of the car I just looked up to see a bunch of people standing on the porch screaming "SURPRICE!". I was speechless. My first thoughts were "Who are these people?" "Does Hannah know about this? Now we cant watch movie!" "Okey, I dont want anyone to see exactly how much candies I had bought for myself..." It was all just... Wonderful, amazing and awesome. I will never forget that day and night. Just thinking about it still makes me speechless. I just dont know how to ever be able to give back to these wonderful people. Maybe 2014 will be the year of many surprise parties.

 

A : This one tells us about all the Apartments I have been living this year. Because I havent only been travelling in twothousand13. During five months I was actually living and working in one place here in Scandinavia. During the summer I started out with living two weeks in the French Connection, or as I also like to call it, my french family. They were too generous and I dont feel that my thank you-dinner was really enough to actually thank them for letting me crash there for 14 nights. But when those nights were over I moved in with my sister in a teenytiny studentapartment. We havent lived together for 9 years and yes, I was feeling quite nervous. But now we are closer than ever before. When the summer came to its end we had to give up the apartment, she went back to Sweden and I went to my other extra family, Eun and Thomas, where I got my own room for ten days. They were the cutest. I owe them so much. Also, a big happening during twothousand13 is that my parents sold the wonderful house in Laholm and bought an apartment in Halmstad. It is crazy. I cant really get a grip around what has happened. I finish twothousand13 in Halmstad but living in an apartment in Oslo together with two other swedish girls, My and Pernilla, that I cant wait to get to know properly.

 

N : N will represents all the Nights of twothousand13. The nights I spent lying on a tin roof watching the stars. The nights I spent trying to sleep in hostels or rooms with people snoring loudly. The nights I spent not sleeping at all but instead rumbling streets and bars and friends apartments and boxing rings catching the first sunlight before falling asleep. The nights I have been couchsurfing on friends couches. The nights I stayed awake watching a movie, a documentary or waiting for a message instead of sleeping and be well-rested the next day at work. The nights I crossed off things of my bucket list that would never been able to do during the day. The nights when the sun never set. The nights we stayed up dancing and swimming in the sea. The nights with late night discussions about destiny, life and beyond. 

 

D : Decisions. Every year you have to take decisions. Every day, almost every hour you make some kind of decision. But these are not the decisions I aim for here. Not the daily nor the monthly ones. No, twothousand13 has been a year full of bigger decisions, and all the nervousness and anxiety that comes along. I have, for the first time in years, been without work or living arrangements or travel plans. Leaving the door maybe too open for me to handle. I have freaked out over all the possibilities and opportunities that have layed in front of me. And it is impossible to say if I did the right ones but if I had to do it all again there are few decisions that would have been different.

 

1 : The number one stands for my very first godson!! THIS my friends is really crazy. Eun and Thomas got a wonderful son named Sebastian in November and they asked me to be one of his godmothers. I was touched when she told me in 2012, I was crying on skype in February/March when Eun told me she was pregnant and I was completely speechless when I got the first picture of Sebastian sitting in a hostel in Thailand in November. He is adorable. I never understood people aaaw-ing and ooooh-ing in the baby clothes sections in stores before. Now I do. He is about six weeks old and I have already bought him three crazy outfits; a leprechaun, a gingerbreadman and thaiboxing shorts. I hope my taste in clothes wont make them change their mind about me being a godmother.

 

3 : I have eaten three kinds of bugs during this year. In twothousand13 I could finally cross off eating a fried bug in a foreign country. Of course Thailand had both cochroach, cricket and maggots to offer, something that me and my partner-in-crime in Thailand Amanda, couldnt miss out on. I will also let the number three represent all the other wierd food dishes I tried during the year like fried cactus, alligator balls, chicken heart and some other kind of fried intestines.