'tis that time of the year again, to sum up my last year. I've written summary posts of every year since 2012, and 2019 was in no way less worthy of getting a summary. I may not have achieved my main goal of building some routine in my life and finding work, but on the other hand, 2019 was probably my wildest and most fun year so far, and looking back at it now, I cannot complain at all. Last year I ditched my month-by-month summary format, but this year I definitely feel like returning to it. Several of the events I'll be mentioning do have entire separate posts about them, or at least in my drafts waiting to be completed and published.
My 2019 started quite slow; I got quite sick shortly before New Year and was sick well into the first week of the year. Just as I was about to get better, my ribcage started giving me some serious pains from all the coughing I'd been doing. Those pains took all of January to heal, so I couldn't do much. I did however use the down time to start this blog!
In February I started to rollerskate and exercise again, and one of my main focuses that month was helping Sverre organise his birthday cruise for the next month, both because he was at work the entire month and because the attendance was blowing up beyond expectations and together with that, the workload. In addition to that, I started to organise something nice for my mum and myself in April.
On the 2nd of March I was featured in the local newspaper with Fredrikstad Roller Derby. I spent a couple of days in Oslo, accompanying Sverre who was there on a course. From the 15th to the 17th Sverre and I took a cruise on the Mariella from Stockholm to Helsinki and back, accompanied by 14 other people, both from his Norwegian friend groups as well as from our mutual ferry-friend group. Being a huge group of vastly different but amazing people, I had high expectations for the cruise but it was wild and fun beyond any imagination, and it seems to have been so for everyone who came. The rest of the month was spent recovering from the cruise; I also had the first volunteer meeting for Tall Ships' Races and did some more organising for April. On the 31st of March I went to Oslo to watch intense roller derby bouts between teams from Oslo, Sundsvall, Copenhagen and Malmö.
In early April, Sverre and I did quite a few trips on our bicycles, since the weather was getting nicer, we had plenty of time and we had both gotten new ones in October. After Sverre left for work, I attended a party hosted by a friend of his. In mid-April I participated in the annual Titanic Voyage role play event, which is something I've done every year since 2013, but I've usually been laying somewhat low and just watching. This year, however, I made friends, got very invested in the roleplaying and had so much fun that it magically sucked up a whole week of my life. At the end of the month it was finally time for my mother to come visit. We flew to Bergen together and spent two amazing days there, among other things - I wrote two posts about it. However, it was during this trip that I found out about the unexpected death of someone I cared about and considered a friend.
The first half of May was quite productive, but in retrospect I was quite emotionally drained for weeks. It wasn't until I attended the very beautiful and emotional funeral service on the 14th that I slowly started to feel better. Just three days later was the 17th of May, the Norwegian Constitution day. I was alone at home with no plans and decided to join the celebration of someone I'd met online just a couple of days prior; a mildly wild thing to do, I suppose, but I figured that the chance of something bad happening is nearly non-existent and it'll probably be enough fun to be worth it. That was probably one of the best decisions I made last year; I had so much fun that the bar for future 17th-of-May-s is probably unattainably high, and I met someone who has over the rest of the year become very close to me. The rest of the month was quite busy with various things happening as well, among them Eurovision where Norway won the public vote; something I'm still bitter about, since I've been against involving juries in Eurovision for as long as I can remember and it would've been great to have Norway win.
By June, Sverre had returned home and we attended the biennial Nor-Shipping maritime fair in Oslo together. We also attended one day in 2017, but this year we were there over three activity-packed days. Sverre was home for a very short time then; we attended a couple of parties and took a short trip to Sandefjord, Strömstad, Gothenburg and Frederikshavn, which ended up being my last ever trip with Bohus of Color Line. After Sverre had left again, I had a friend from Finland visit me for a few days. Together we attended a party and took a trip to Halden.
July was crowned by one big event for me, the Tall Ships Races; Fredrikstad was one of the host cities this year and since I wasn't going to miss out on that, I volunteered as a liaison officer. Whenever I wasn't busy with liaison officer duties, there was always someone in town to hang out with, so for about a week I could barely make the time to sleep and shower. After the event was over, it took me several days of doing absolutely nothing to recover. Towards the end of the month we had about a week of extremely hot weather during which I almost lived at a nearby beach.
In early August, Sverre came home and just a mere day after we left for a very nice trip to Telemark across the Oslofjord, visiting Bø Sommerland and taking a boat down the Telemark canal. In mid-August I attended a couple of parties, and took yet another trip with Sverre with the main goal of sailing on the brand new Color Hybrid. A couple of days later I marched the Fredrikstad Pride parade with Fredrikstad Roller Derby. In late August I celebrated my 23rd birthday and on the last day Sverre and I left for yet another trip, this time heading towards Lillehammer and Gjøvik. It was also not long before my birthday that I found out about the death of my grandfather. I had been mentally prepared for it so it wasn't too much of a shock.
September started with the continuation of the aforementioned trip, consisting of a daytrip from Gjøvik across lake Mjøsa to Hamar and back on board a vintage paddle steamer, and an eventual return home via Oslo. Otherwise, early September was relatively peaceful. At one point, I found out of a possibility that I may be able to accompany Sverre to Miami which resulted in some prolonged suspense, and to my great joy and excitement, that's exactly what happened - we spent three days in Miami in later September. I still somewhat fail to believe that actually happened, especially on such a short notice; we were so busy taking advantage of our short time there that when we returned, I had to spend the rest of the month recovering from the physical and mental exhaustion.
October was probably the most peaceful month of the year, not seeing more than a couple of nights out, and a 90's themed party cruise on the Stena Saga I attended together with Sverre's friends.
November started with Sverre's return home again and a fun Day of the Dead party with some of his friends. This year was also the first time I chose to embrace the inevitability of Christmas starting immediately after Halloween is over, and started unapologetically churning out industrial amounts of gingerbread, which is something I've done every year since 2012.
December started off with a last minute trip to Germany. We took the ferry to Kiel from Gothenburg, spending the first day and night in Hamburg, visiting among others Miniatur Wunderland, and before taking the ferry back the following day, I got to spend a few hours in Lübeck enjoying their infinite Christmas market and stocking up on their world famous marzipan. I had been to Lübeck once before, in 2016, when serving as a deck trainee for the first time. Lübeck was my first chance to go ashore, but I couldn't get my hands on any marzipan there and then. No problem, I thought, we'll be back soon, but then we were sent to Spain and I didn't get to come back until this time. Right after the trip Sverre left for work and I got to preparing for Christmas, which I spent with his family across the Oslofjord. I welcomed 2020 in Sarpsborg with a group of friends.
All in all, I've had quite the year; I got to do a lot of fun and interesting things, have more fun than ever before, meet many new people and travel to many places I'd been dreaming of; on the other hand, I also had my first close encounters with death. Last year I wrote that my Norwegian had gone from A1 to B1 and mentioned that a similar leap to C1 in a year would be amazing. I dare to say I'm now B2, which is more than fine because the higher the level of language competence, the longer it takes to acquire. As I write this, I'm still yet to use anything other than Duolingo combined with daily use and exposure, but I'm waiting on a set of grammar books (made specially for those who are already well familiar with the language but would like to learn more about grammar, rules and structure) arrive very soon and look forward to practicing with them, and additionally I can now borrow books from the local library.
As of the new year and new decade, may it bring fulfillment and happiness to all of you reading this!
January
 |
| Last January had snow, this January doesn't seem to so far. |
February
 |
| Mid-February had some amazing weather. |
March
 |
| Birthday boy and just a small fraction of the celebrating group; while plenty of photos were taken, I'm not even going to try to acquire everyone's consent to publish less flattering photos with more people in them. |
April
May
 |
| A beautiful 17th of May picture from Fredrikstad, before I left the city to join the celebrations in Sarpsborg and Moss. |
June
 |
| Me and a Drew Marine merchandise mug I got at the fair |
July
July was crowned by one big event for me, the Tall Ships Races; Fredrikstad was one of the host cities this year and since I wasn't going to miss out on that, I volunteered as a liaison officer. Whenever I wasn't busy with liaison officer duties, there was always someone in town to hang out with, so for about a week I could barely make the time to sleep and shower. After the event was over, it took me several days of doing absolutely nothing to recover. Towards the end of the month we had about a week of extremely hot weather during which I almost lived at a nearby beach.
August
In early August, Sverre came home and just a mere day after we left for a very nice trip to Telemark across the Oslofjord, visiting Bø Sommerland and taking a boat down the Telemark canal. In mid-August I attended a couple of parties, and took yet another trip with Sverre with the main goal of sailing on the brand new Color Hybrid. A couple of days later I marched the Fredrikstad Pride parade with Fredrikstad Roller Derby. In late August I celebrated my 23rd birthday and on the last day Sverre and I left for yet another trip, this time heading towards Lillehammer and Gjøvik. It was also not long before my birthday that I found out about the death of my grandfather. I had been mentally prepared for it so it wasn't too much of a shock.
September
 |
| Lincoln Road, Miami Beach |
October
 |
| Go'vakker Elen, the newest river ferry in Fredrikstad, running entirely on electricity, finally entered service in October. |
November
November started with Sverre's return home again and a fun Day of the Dead party with some of his friends. This year was also the first time I chose to embrace the inevitability of Christmas starting immediately after Halloween is over, and started unapologetically churning out industrial amounts of gingerbread, which is something I've done every year since 2012.
December
December started off with a last minute trip to Germany. We took the ferry to Kiel from Gothenburg, spending the first day and night in Hamburg, visiting among others Miniatur Wunderland, and before taking the ferry back the following day, I got to spend a few hours in Lübeck enjoying their infinite Christmas market and stocking up on their world famous marzipan. I had been to Lübeck once before, in 2016, when serving as a deck trainee for the first time. Lübeck was my first chance to go ashore, but I couldn't get my hands on any marzipan there and then. No problem, I thought, we'll be back soon, but then we were sent to Spain and I didn't get to come back until this time. Right after the trip Sverre left for work and I got to preparing for Christmas, which I spent with his family across the Oslofjord. I welcomed 2020 in Sarpsborg with a group of friends.
All in all, I've had quite the year; I got to do a lot of fun and interesting things, have more fun than ever before, meet many new people and travel to many places I'd been dreaming of; on the other hand, I also had my first close encounters with death. Last year I wrote that my Norwegian had gone from A1 to B1 and mentioned that a similar leap to C1 in a year would be amazing. I dare to say I'm now B2, which is more than fine because the higher the level of language competence, the longer it takes to acquire. As I write this, I'm still yet to use anything other than Duolingo combined with daily use and exposure, but I'm waiting on a set of grammar books (made specially for those who are already well familiar with the language but would like to learn more about grammar, rules and structure) arrive very soon and look forward to practicing with them, and additionally I can now borrow books from the local library.
As of the new year and new decade, may it bring fulfillment and happiness to all of you reading this!
