Seizing an opportunity to make a difference

A few days ago I decided to sign up to something I’ve been considering to do for quite a while. As soon as I heard of it, I wanted to do it… And now that I’m formally signed up, I’m buzzing with excitement! The summer of 2016 I am going to do volunteer work on two amazing development projects with Futuresense and Challenges Abroad in northern Thailand.

The first part of the challenge will be spent working in an elephant sanctuary. Elephants in Thailand are often abused as working elephants, or as spectacle in shows, where they too often end up disabled, blind, orphaned and hurt. In the elephant sanctuary my team and I will help with care and rehabilitation for the mistreated animals, as well as other support work for the sanctuary.

The second part of the trip goes to a hill-tribe village, where the team will help with improving the lives of those living there in any way we can. Although Thailand is increasingly being seen as a developed country, it still has many problems with both economy and culture as well as social issues. Marginalised groups, particularly hill-tribes, often don’t receive the support they need. This is why our team will lend a hand in improving their educational facilities, teaching English and providing activities for children who would otherwise have a minimum of opportunities for education. We will also help with building projects, and any other contribution we can make to try and make a difference in the community.

So not only will this be a great opportunity to try and make a change, but it’ll also be an incredible adventure for me personally. I went to Thailand with my family when I was 9, and have wanted to go back there ever since. The people there are so generous, the culture interesting, the country is beautiful and the food is amazing. However the last time I went I took part in the abuse of elephants and other animals, unknowing, of course, as I believe many tourists do. I went to animal shows, petted drugged tigers and went for a ride on an elephant. So now that I know about the abuse so many animals experience, and being presented with an opportunity to properly explore and experience the country.

Picture taken from Challenges Abroad website.

The next few months will for me be all about fundraising. It’s still not certain that I can go, I can’t unless I get enough donations to cover my share of the expenses of the work we’re going to do, so this is where you come in. I would be endlessly grateful for any donation that helps towards reaching the fundraising goal, and enables me to provide as much aid and support as I can. Any contribution, of any size, will make a difference!

If you’d like to donate, have a click through to my Virgin Money Giving page. Donations will be quickly processed and passed to the charities. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity’s behalf where the donor is eligible for this. I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

Thanks,
Hanne x

Jesus and Goya – my trip to Museo Nacional Del Prado

The last thing I did during my weekend in Madrid, was to visit the Prado Museum. The building is impressive, there’s more art than you can take in and appreciate even if you stay there the whole day, and I spent more money than I should have in the gift shop. But I found there’s a bit too much of Jesus in there.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t have anything to do with religion, and I respect Christianity as much as any other religion. Also I’m certainly not claiming to know anything about art, but there’s only so many paintings from the 15th and 16th century depicting Jesus and other religious figures I can take. Famous works like Velásquez’ Christ Crucified (oil on canvas, 1632) or Raphael’s Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (oil on panel transferred to canvas, 1514-16) are beautiful works of art that I can appreciate. It doesn’t have to do anything with religion. But when I first have to stand in line for around an hour to get in to the museum, and then spend the first two hours in there walking from room to room and pretty much only find paintings with Jesus and Mary as the motive, it gets a bit dull and disappointing. I could however see lots of people crossing themselves in front of the paintings, and clearly having a deeply moving experience, so “less Jesus in the museum” is not something I’d try to argue. I’m not saying it’s bad art, or pointless to display. It’s certainly there for a reason.

Raphael’s Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary.

Christ Crucified, Diego Velásquez.

Snippets from my notebook (I obviously walked around the museum taking notes and writing the titles of paintings I really liked, as the observant writer I am…):

“This is probably a much better experience for religious people.”

“Really like the pieces that “respond”/belong together. Like the child+puppy and man+dog.”

“Tiziano (known as Titian in English) is good but there’s too much of the same to be truly intrigued.”

“I can see why Velásquez is famous – but why on earth did he paint so many ‘dwarves’?!?!?”

Luckily there was more to the museum than it seemed at first. I managed to find my way to the part of the museum where Francisco de Goya’s paintings are. And now I have a new favourite painter! What I found particularly intriguing was the room full of Goya’s Black Paintings. They are 14 paintings that Goya did in oil directly on to the walls of his house, and were not really meant to be displayed, but they were transferred to a canvas support around 50 years after Goya’s death (which was in 1828), and all of them are now displayed in the Prado Museum. The paintings are called the black paintings because of the dark themes and motives in them, including references to witchcraft and war. Most of the paintings are of grotesque and monstrous faces, as for instance Two old men eating soup (1819-23), where one of the old men really looks more like a skull.

Two Old Men Eating Soup. Doesn’t the man on the right look like a skull?

So my visit to the Prado museum was certainly not disappointing in the end, although I found a majority of the paintings to be too similar and uninteresting. Maybe it says more about me than the art that I prefer the grotesque and disturbing paintings, but I don’t think anyone can argue against them also being the most unique I came across! So if you’re a fan of either Jesus or Goya and find yourself in Madrid, I definitely recommend that you take the time to go by the Museo Del Prado. And if you’re a student like me and bring your student ID, you can even get in for free!

Until next time x

Travel-stress-happiness

Hey all,
I know the silence here has been way too long. But believe me – it feels like it’s been longer. I’ve had some of the busiest weeks I can remember, and so much has happened. University has started again, and second year definitely takes a lot more than first… I’m already snowed under by things to do. This year I’m doing Playwriting, Screenwriting, Short story writing and Internatinal Cinemas. In other words a lot of writing! However that’s not the most challenging part of my course this year. In order to be allowed to do International Cinemas, which is really a Film module and not one of the options for students doing Creative Writing, I had to do a lot of arguing with the people high up. But I got it in the end (in exchange for Advanced Poetry), and it looks promising so far – but also like a lot of work, and I’m a bit scared because all the others doing that course are film students. But I’m exited to learn more about the technical and historical aspects of film, and I’m hoping it will benefit me as a screenwriter.

I’m just about as excited as this little guy was about my camera.

Next, I’ve got a new job and already worked a few shifts, and I’ve spent a weekend in Madrid! It’s been a bit crazy. And because this summer consisted of many slow and lazy (and boring!) months, now having so much to do and so many things on my schedule makes me super stressed! But I know as soon as I’ve become more accustomed to combining work and uni, it’ll be better. It’s just a little much right now. So that’s my (not so?) bad excuse for the blog silence. I promise I’ll be better.

Anyway – let’s talk about Madrid. What a city! The people, the architecture, the parks, the museums, the tapas! I’ve once again fallen in big city love. The feeling of walking down a big and bustling street in a city you’ve never been to before, looking at the people and the shops and listening to a language you don’t understand more than a few words of… I love it! And since I went there to spend some time with my family, we also went to the Zoo, which despite being a concept I don’t fully support, was a lovely family excursion. But one of the highlights was probably the good food we had. I’ve become a huuuuge fan of tapas. Picking at stuffed olives, honey-glazed aubergine, fried calamari, garlic marinated scampi, you name it – it’s all delicious. So many different tastes, small bites of everything, and still being satisfied by the end of it. Yum!

Beautiful, amazing Madrid. (Yes, I risked my life and ran out in the middle of the road to take this picture.)

I have a few things things I’d like to write about planned, so as soon as I’ve got time there will be more. Just bear with me, guys.

Sorry, I had to. (Half of the pictures on my camera are of these bears, they were so photogenic!)

Until next time x

From home to second home

My suitcases are packed to breaking point, definitely overweight, and not containing half the things I wish I could put in them. Tomorrow I’m heading back to London. My second home, I’ve come to think of it as.

My home town, Bergen (Norway) last night.

I’m looking forward to another year at university, hopefully soon with a job on the side, as well as involvement in several university societies. I’m planning on forcing my extroverted side more through than I did last year, and hope it’ll result in new friendships and opportunities. And of course, there’ll be lots and lots of writing. For one I need to finish my screenplay. There’s been a lot going on the last few weeks, many things I’ve been stressed out of my mind about, and it’s simply made writing as much as I was supposed to do impossible. But I’ve made progress, I got out of my mid-point-crisis, and I’m going to finish it, just not by the time I had planned on.

Partly because of the stress I’ve mentioned I find it hard to look as much forward to going back as I should. There’s been trouble with where I’m going to live, and not everything is resolved yet, though I think everything will be all right once I’ve moved in. And then there’s the going back in itself. I can’t say I’m looking forward to battling my way through London on trains and possibly the tube in order to get to my house – that is, if I can even move in tomorrow. I actually don’t know. It’s stressful. But at least I’ve got several good friends who’ve offered me their couch in case of any further problems. I can’t do anything but see how everything turns out tomorrow.

Beautiful London, of course. Both pictures in this post taken by me.

Apart from the whole house-situation it’ll be good to get back to London, and good to see my friends again. I’ve had a nice summer at home, but it’s time to get back to London. Struggles, stress and all.

Until next time x

Unexpected pleasures

I am a ‘collector’ of good quotes, whether they are quotes by famous people or from books or movies. If I need inspiration I’ll write down a nice quote on a post-it note and place it on my desk, my bathroom mirror – you name it. Alternatively I write it down in a little notebook I keep solely for quotes. Some of these quotes are only nicely worded sentences I enjoyed reading, some can help me through a rough day, and some of them stay with me for a long time.

A quote that’s been one my favourites for around two years, is from the wonderful book The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: “The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.” This has been my ‘bio’ on twitter and instagram for a while, and recently it has proved over and over again to be true. When you least expect someone to be nice to you, is when you appreciate the most that they are.

I’ve encountered a lot of these ‘unexpected pleasures’ lately. People I wouldn’t expect to care about me have randomly messaged me to ask how my day is going, and shown me that they want to be my friends although circumstances have made those friendships complicated. I’ve also seen so much kindness in complete strangers. When spending a few days in Rome alone last week, I was for instance given two glasses of free prosecco when having dinner alone, and the next day my dinner was paid for by a stranger. When I was having lunch in a smoothie bar, one of the employees came over to me with a cute little lemon cake and almond biscotti. “For you, bella.” I certainly wasn’t feeling ‘bella’ at the time, but all these nice things put extra smiles on my face – whether it was done out of pity for me being there alone, or simply as nice gestures.

Another great quote I used to have on my pin-board.

After experiencing how nice someone’s surprising kindness can be, I’ve decided I want to try even harder to be one of those people who perhaps makes someone else’s day a little better too. I don’t have the money to buy a stranger dinner, and where I work there aren’t cakes I can give to the customers. But I’ll try in my own way, even if I’m having a bad day at work, to be friendly and helpful to everyone I meet, and whenever I see an opportunity to do something nice for someone, I will.

It’s overused, but “do to others as you wish they’d do to you”, or whichever variation you prefer, is after all a good quote.

Until next time x