Noosa and Christmas in a foreign country!

20.-22.12.13

My friend Daniel and I took a road trip to Noosa, about an hour and a half drive up the coast. We stayed at a beautiful resort, in an awesome apartment. Best birthday and Christmas gift! We went for a hike in the national park, ate at restaurants and sunbathed at some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. He showed me around at the places he and his family use to come to while they go on vacations there. We made some awesome breakys too.. On Saturday night we went out to the Backpackers Bar not so far from where we were staying and got to speak to some cool backpackers there. It was an awesome night! The next day we drove back to Warner and enjoyed the hot weather by the pool.

One very good self cooked breaky!

At the Noosa National Park

Going out to Noosa Backpackers Bar

23.12.13

We took a road trip up to Kondolilla Falls. Kondolilla means falling water in Aboriginal. Kinda cool, except there was no falling water when we got down to the actual place where it was supposed to be.. It was too hot and dry for there to be enough water for it. Not complaining about 35-40 degrees!! But the woods there were so beautiful and exotic!

One huge tree!!

Lookout point at Kondolilla Falls 

Magical forest

We stopped by a small town called Montville on our way back. Looked in some cool souvenir shops and in an open gallery. And we also stopped by a lookout point by the road where we could see so much of the beautiful area around the Sunshine Coast.

Lookout point near Montville

 And happy birthday to my youngest niece, Solveig, who turned 1 on the 23rd! Love her!

24.-26.12.13

The 24th didn't feel like Christmas Eve at all! It started out with me shopping at a huge mall, buying some Christmas gifts for people back home and some stuff for my self. Then back in Warner I had a short talk to my dad in Norway, they had just started the day, my nephew was eating his third breakfast while the others were waking up and getting ready to celebrate the day with the family. While that was going on early in the morning in Norway, I was about to have my very first Aussie BBQ with the Turner family. Was an awesome dinner, but it didn't feel like it was Christmas. So we went for a drive to look at some Christmas lights that people had put up on their houses. We found a church full of lights, with a huge light angel on the lawn in front of it!

Wouldn't exactly find this in front of a church in Norway..

On the 25th however, I was woken up to a lovely family breakfast with egg and bacon and opening gifts with Daniel, his parents Phil and Vicki and his sister Bianca and her daughters Isabella and Charlotte. I had brought with me some gifts for them, a book about Sørlandet, the southern part of Norway where I have spent most of my life living in many different towns, an other book with the Norwegian folk tales and two beers from Nøgne Ø. I also got some nice presents from them, loving the PJ's! 

Before noon the rest of the extended family with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were arriving with food and gifts for the secret Santa gift arrangement they had. when it was time for eating everyone sat around a long table out on the patio. That's when i felt like it really was Christmas. That's about the same time it took me to feel like it was Christmas when I was in Cameroon too, at the dinner table.

We ate a buffet with mostly cold food, like salads, cold turkey and chicken and hot creamed potatoes. 

The Christmas Day dinner with Daniel's family

I never did celebrate Christmas with other traditions than what I'm used to from Norway, because when I was an exchange student in England I went back home to Norway for the two week holiday. And in Cameroon, we celebrated with the other Norwegian missionary families there. I was really lucky to get the chance to celebrate it with a family like the Turners! Really thankful for being so warmly greeted and included into the celebrations!

The day was also of course spent by the pool as it was still really hot outside! 

Boxing Day was much like Christmas Day, except there were fewer people there and it was a bit more laid back. Phil had told me that they use to have this tradition of playing cricket on Boxing Day, but we mostly spent it in and by the pool, it was too hot to play so nobody thought about it. However when everyone had left Phil remembered that he had told me I would get to try it out he got up and found the old cricket bat and brought Daniel and me out on the lawn to play. It was fun! Especially when I managed to hit the pall with the bat on my first try! Ha, ha.. never thought I'd manage that. Haven't played anything like it since high school! Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia as I understand it. I can't say I understand much of the rules though.. It did make sense when they explained it, but I can't remember anything now.

In the pool on Boxing Day

Daniel showing how it's done

The dog, Max, was great at fetching the ball!

Not so stylish myself..

I hit the red ball! Woo getting the hang of this!

Fun passtime activity 

A Christmas trip worth remembering! Thank you so much to everyone that made it so, I am truly grateful for all the hospitality!

Johanne Teresie

Australia! My 22nd birthday and Couch Surfing

So I finally got to fulfil one of my biggest dreams ever. I got to go to AUSTRALIA!!!
So, so, so happy about it!
I decided to go, finally after looking randomly at flight prices for the last five years or so.. Hah! I didn't even know what I was going to do there when I bought it! I just saw some cheap flight and thought I really want to go, like now, why wait anymore?
I have the money for the flight now, the rest I can manage to save up in what was it, like three months or something..?

And I did, I bought the ticket, applied for a visa, and new credit cards just to be safe, which was the most clever thing I did as I was so stupid while travelling to actually lose two cards while I was out..I blame it on the wallet I had clumsily sewn for my exams.. I have bought a new one now so it won't happen again.. I'm clumsy.. I know!

Anyway..I did buy the ticket and finished all exams at uni by the 6th of December. My flight was leaving Kjevik airport on the 12th. I had packed and repacked my backpack several times. Knew that I didn't really have the money to buy too much clothes there so I had to bring most of it. And it's hard to pack, when you don't really know what you might do! Go rock climbing, swimming, fancy restaurants,  clubbing, couch surfing etc.

Not my cubes but you get the drift!

I found this tip somewhere about packing in so called "packing cubes" or compressing bags so you get more space and organising in your backpack. They are the best invention ever! My stuff was organised in my backpack while using them and didn't wrinkle. Awesome!


12.-14.12.2013

Travelled for a total of 34 hours approximately, and met a Norwegian guy at the airport in Amsterdam who was going the same way I was, we sat next to each other on the flight, and if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't have slept at all for the 11-12 hours we were on that plane! It was so painful at times!
On the next flight from South Korea I got a window seat and no one next to me for 10 hours! Slept for 6 or so, so good compared to the other flight..
I felt like I looked like a troll when I arrived at the airport in Brisbane at 6.40am local time. I was wondering what to do with all the chocolate and some caviar I had brought with me for the couch surfing hosts and my friends and their families… Turned out I didn't need to declare anything, which was great!

My friend Daniel, who I met while travelling to Split last summer with Helene, picked me up at the airport in Brisbane and drove me to his house where I met his family and got to finally take a shower, which was long longed for! I started to feel a bit funny to my stomach, but thought it was just that I hadn't really eaten anything since 4/5am. Though it turned out that I had caught some bug or something on the plane. Just to say, it wasn't very pleasant and it was quite embarrassing to be rushing to the toilet to throw up, when you just met the folks you're staying with. Though this doesn't top my most embarrassing first impression…
I didn't get to taste what looked like a really delicious Aussie BBQ, which they had planned for me, talk about feeling sorry for not wanting to waist good food!


15.-17.12.2013

Since I was feeling a bit better, Daniel took me on a short road trip to Cedar Creek not far from where he lives. We parked by the road and walked for a bit to get to a good spot to go swimming. It was really beautiful, reminded me a bit of some places in Norway in summer, but the nature was so much more exotic.

Was so wonderful to get some warm sun again!

Later that night I went to stay with my first couch surfing host, Skye and her family. She had stayed with my brother in Stavanger many years ago and looked forward to meeting me. They were very hospitable and lent me their house key and told me that I could eat and feel at home while they went for work during the day.

I spent the next days looking around in Brisbane, doing some sight seeing, going up in the wheel of Brisbane, shopping for an Aussie sim-card and chilling at South Bank, there is an artificial beach by the Brisbane river there. South Bank is overlooking one of the campuses of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the university I really wanted to make an exchange to when I read about it last time I attended UiA three years ago. I also attended some Christmas/Santa party with Skye and her family so that her son Jaden could get a gift from Santa.

QUT campus, seen from South Bank

South Bank Parkland's river promenade

Brisbane wheel at South Bank

On the 17th of December I changed hosts. I went to live with Vanessa and her housemates at Rocklea for three nights. I had the first day where I felt I could eat anything without getting sick so it was a great day, with drinks at a South Bank restaurant and delicious homemade vegan enchiladas for dinner. The hosts, Vanessa her boyfriend at the time and her little sister Martina were so great to be with!


18.12.13 = My BIRTHDAY! Woo! 

I woke up and went out of my room to be greeted by Vanessa and Martina who greeted me with birthday wishes and a cute card. Made the start of my birthday truly great! During the day I went to the Museum and Art Gallery in Brisbane and to the Science Museum. Saw some works by Pissarro and Picasso which made me a bit starstruck again like I was in Copenhagen. I learnt that in Queensland they have a cockroach the size of a big hamster which  weighs the same as two house mice !! Would NOT like to see that beast in real life!

That night we went out for dinner and drinks with some of  Vanessas friends, Amilia and Josh at a Lebanese at West End and then we went to some clubs at Fortitude Valley, or as the locals called it "the Valley". We spent most of the night at  The Beat, a gay bar with performing drag queens and jelly wrestling. I payed for the taxi home for me and Vanessa and was surprised by how cheap it was, as we drove for quite a while, about 33 AUD which makes about 182 Norwegian kroners, which is less than what I pay to get home from a night out in Arendal, Norway. The day was so much fun! Haven't had that much fun on my birthday in years, thanks to all the great people that were with me.

Amilia, Vanessa and me

Amilia, me and Josh

19.-20.12.13

I spent the next day at the house in Rocklea, took a long walk and jog with the two dogs of my hosts, Rocky and Punk. Was really lovely to do some ordinary stuff like going for a dog walk, missed Stipe a lot at that moment. The next day Martina gave me a lift into the Central Station and I took a train to meet Daniel somewhere near Warner to go with him on a trip up the coast to Noosa.

Johanne Teresie

København / Copenhagen September 2013!

In the end of September the classes at the Art and crafts course at the University of Agder went on a study-trip to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

I travelled together with a beautiful girl named Marte, who I go to uni with. Ever since the first day we met in class we have been inseparable. We stayed at a hostel right in the outskirts of the city centre together, where we spent our nights sitting and talking in the common room, bonding over some good candy and sodas! It was so great to get to know her some more! And I'm looking forward to get to know her even more during the next few years together throughout the bachelor program!

Marte at the exhibition of art by Yoko Ono

We had some free time the first night we were there and we went in to the part of the city were the law is not that strongly followed so to say.. Christiania is a place where cameras are not allowed and the art of graffiti is widely used to decorate the streets. There are approximately 900 people living there and many more visit the place daily.
The streets in there reminded me of the streets of Ngaoudéré, with stands and shops looking out into the gravelled streets and fires crackling in big barrels to warm the visitors in the small cafés and restaurants.

The trip lasted 5 days and we were all obliged to attend. However the trip was quite fun! And we got to see a lot of cool sculptures, paintings, performance pieces and alternative art there.
We visited several museums and there we got to see sculptures,pictures and paintings done by several well known artists like Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Edvard Munch!

A painting at an exhibition at Rådhuset

Lis Nogel, Gennembrydning

Idyllic garden by one of the museums

One cool sculpture!

Frida Kahlo by Frida Kahlo

Classmates at the museum

Glass with Lemon Slice, Pablo Picasso

Statens Museum for Kunst

It was a great trip!

Johanne Teresie

Long time no see.. 2013

This year I was asked by my aunt Eva to accompany my 83 year old grandma to the wedding of my cousin which took place in Albania! It was awesome!
I got the whole trip as a gift for taking her and arranging everything for her at the airports so that it would be possible for her to get assistance to get from gate to gate at the airports we were traveling through. I have never in my life traveled that comfortably to be honest. On the way over there we were joined by my aunt and uncle, the mother and father of the groom, and on the way back we got to go strait through the passport control without standing in line for it for 40 minutes!

When we were in Albania, which was only for a weekend really, we got to see some of Tirana and to travel up on a gondola up to one of the mountains looking over the city. It was amazing!

My mothers siblings, the father of the groom and the bride

However I got to join in on an Albanian wedding! It was so cool and very stylish. My cousin Torgeir met his Alda when they were both studying their doctors degrees in Melbourne, Australia.  He moved there ten years ago, and has been living there ever since. I would really like to visit them there one time if I get the chance to travel around in Australia a bit.

Later this summer after spending most of my time working at the kiosk Narvesen at the Arena centre in Arendal,  I went on a well deserved trip to Croatia for 9 days. This time I traveled with my best friend Helene Ellingsen.
We spent our holiday:
- In Split, on a bar crawl with other tourists from America, France, Australia and Sweden.
- With a day on the beach Bacvice in Split.
- Partying on Carpe Diem Beach on a small private island outside of the town of Hvar.
- Eating loads of pizza and spaghetti!
- 7 hour bustrip during the night to Rijeka where we stayed with Marta at her apartment.
- Seeing old friends and showing Drenova to Helene, with all the small places I spent my childhood in.

Marta, Me, Barbara, Natalija and Helene

Other significant things that have happened to me this year is that my 89 year old grandpa Terje died on the 4th of May after being sick for several years with cancer. The last month or so he was in and out of the hospital. I loved him so much. I miss him. So much. Hvil i fred Bestefar!

And some weeks ago our family dog of ten years got sick with the boreliosis decease and even though he got antibiotics for it he didn't recover and had to be put down so he wouldn't suffer anymore. I miss him too. It is so quiet at my parents house without him. No overjoyed furry little friend greeting me when I come over, no little nudges under our elbows after dinner saying "now it's my turn for dinner", and no jumping up and down when the running shoes and the jackets are put on..

But time heals wounds, and the thought of them being in a better place now without suffering and sorrow makes it easier to think of the great memories that I shared with them!

- Johanne Teresie

Summer holidays, warm nights, late night sun and the Adriatic sea! Summer 2012

I booked a ticket in February thinking that it would be fun to go visit my childhood home and friends. I had spent the weekend after Hald visiting my parents in Vanse. Then my travels took me to the east to the capital of Norway with a pit stop at Elin Cecilie's house before my flight from Gardemoen to Zagreb the next morning.

The first day in Zagreb was awesome, I met with Petra at the bus station before we went home to her cosy little flat in the outskirts of the city. There we talked and talked for ages as if it was just some months and not years since we met last time. I really appreciate the friendships that can conquer any distance and time!
That night we went to a football game Spain vs. Croatia! It was fun being together with so many people watching a big screen outside in the warmth of a Croatian summer night. I had missed the warm climate after Africa and coming to Croatia with 38 degrees was good after a cold (in my opinion) spring in Norway.

Petra and me watching the football match

The next days we went to the zoo in Zagreb and memories from the last time I was there with my school from Rijeka came flooding back! It was really fun and Petra and I went back home and ate Ćevapčići which I haven't eaten in such a long time. We also went out clubbing and shopping and I found some wonderful stuff in some second-hand shops there.
I really had a wonderful time with her in Zagreb! But since I really wanted to go to Rijeka, and come "home", I decided that I wanted to leave for the seaside with the bus instead of waiting for some friends to pick me up.

In Rijeka I bumped into my parents and Anne Malene who also had traveled to Croatia at the same time as me, just not together. I took a flight to Zagreb, my sister to Pula, and my parents drove the whole way with their new car. Talk about good organising, right?
We ate dinner together in my favourite cosy restaurant in Rijeka before they gave me a lift to Ana's place where I would be staying for a week or so.

The family gathered again in Rijeka

Ana and her friends had planned to take a trip to Baška on Krk that Friday to hang out on the beach all day. We were three cars that went, we had a really good time there. The sun was dead hot, but there was a strong breeze and therefore all of us ended up being so sunburned after a while!
One of the boys came into an accident after diving in a nearby pool so we had to rush back to the hospital in Rijeka! He was ok in the end though, thankfully.

Ana at the beach in Baska

The weekend went by quite fast, I hung out with Marta and Ada and their friends. It was so good being back home and feeling quite free for once. I met some old friends from school the week after as well and planned to go to Natalija's hairdressing salon for a well needed haircut.

Out grilling in the woods with Ada and her friends

After being in Croatia for almost two weeks I was expecting Gregory and Andreas coming from Norway to join me in Rijeka before our travels lead us to Selce for the youth camp we were joining as a Norwegian team from NMS, The Norwegian Mission Society.
For the first time I was able to show a good friend where I had had my childhood and show him where so many of my good memories had taken place! It was really wonderful and it meant a lot to me that they were eager to see what I wanted to show them. Drenova, Rijeka, Trsat, Opatija, Pećine, Crikvenica, and Selce.

From the top Barbara, Gregory, Natalija and Andreas, one fun night!

At the youth camp we were assigned some tasks where we were responsible for some of the workshops that took place in the morning and afternoon, between swimming and dinner, as it is too warm for the kids to stay in the sun all day midday. Andreas and me were in charge of the drama workshop where we played different games and assigned the groups a task to make a sketch out of a story in the bible. These sketches were shown on the last evening after a presentation of Norway.

Marta and her boyfriend came to say goodbye to me in Selce, and it meant a lot that she travelled so far to meet me one last time before I headed back home for the rest of the summer in Norway!
As I had a ticket a day earlier than the rest of the "Norwegian" team I travelled back to Zagreb by myself. I ended up at Gardermoen, the airport in Oslo all by myself that night because the flight arrived after the last shuttle buses and trains, so I was sleeping in a chair in Starbucks and on a crdboardbox underneath the stairs together with other travellers that were stuck at the airport.
The next morning I took the first bus home at 05:30 and got safely home to Arendal where I spent the rest of my summer hanging out with friends and family.

Johanne Teresie

Springterm at Hald!

Since we came back from our internship places we have been spending the last 8 weeks together at Hald.
It has been a great time with allot of humour, hugs, excitement, information work, and interesting classes in the Big Hall.

The first week back we had alone with the Norwegian Focus and Connect students, it was a great debriefing week. I remember I was so glad to come to Hald as I was not so prepared to be home at my parents' house for the first weekend. The second week the internationals came back and we got some time before the Act Nowers came back as well.
The time left at Hald this spring was spent preparing for the different theme nights: Asian and Serbian night, South American night and African night. And also the Hald-day had to be planned carefully.One weekend in the beginning of the course we had a weekend together with just the Connectors, and it really brought us closer to each other and I'm really grateful to them for making it an amazing weekend!
We also had allot of time off to spend together. So we played cards and watched films and series on the big screens in the Big Hall. Me and Gregory, the one year volunteer from Brazil, decided that it was time to renew the boardgames at Hald so we went down town in Mandal one afternoon and searched, and came back with a Ticket to Ride game and a Settlers game. And it was a hit! Everybody were playing them all the time after that! And I love the games!

On 17th of May there was allot of activity at Hald. There were many girls with bunad - Norwegian national clothes, and all the boys were suited up. We watched the childrens parade, ate allot of ice cream and ate hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We had activities around the school which involved dancing, throwing balls on cans, running with potatoes, and jumping in bags races! It was really fun! We also joined "Folketoget"- commoners parade, where we danced, drove the Strømme Stiftelsen car (a sheep) and played drums. We won the first place with a prise of 1500 kr!! That was amazing!

When the information week started the students spread all around Norway. As we did not leave until the Saturday I spent some hours watching "How I met your mother" with Gregory in the Big Hall while we ate some ice cream from 17th of May. I went to visit Sara-Jeanette in Asker together with JP, Sophie and Henry on the Saturday. There we did some information work about Cameroon with presentations in the schools which her sisters attend. We also had a Cameroon night with some of my friends in Arendal and enjoyed a weekend of summer there.

The two and a half weeks of school after that went by so fast, first we had preparation for the Hald-day then we had the African night, where we all went to the beach where we sat on the sand and all the Africans (Norwegians and international) had made food and prepared a role play for all the others. It was a great night! I had allot of fun!

On the 9th of June many of the students went into Kristiansand and had a stunt there with outfits and placards to get the people aware of the different people in the world and that we should all see each other and care about each other. There were many people who stopped and cared and thanked us for the job we were doing.

On the 13th of June it was time for the Graduation party and the last night we had together. We had a nice dinner together and Åsmund and Namphueng were leading the night with entertainment, speeches and coffee and cakes breaks. It was a wonderful ending to a fabulous year! I will never forget it!



This has truthfully been the best year of my life! I will carry it with me for  the rest of my life.
Johanne Teresie

The last weeks in Cameroon as a Hald Student

The last few weeks in Cameroon went by so fast, that I did not prioritise sitting on the computer and writing on the blog, but now I have got some time again!

In the chappel after morning prayer

After the last blog post we did sleep at the orphanage and there we got some couscous and some sauce I had never tasted before but it was ok. After this we played cards with the kids and joined in on the activities they had. It was a nice evening. We slept together with the girls in their dormitory and got one bed to sleep in. The morning after we joined the kids on the morning prayer in their small chapel. There they sing and pray every morning before breakfast and school. We were invited up to the Korean missionaries for breakfast and sat there together with Samson, one of the other workers at the orphanage. 

Rebecca and Blanche playing Ligretto! "It's fun!"

Yves and Mossa enjoying the easter holiday

The weekend after, 23.-25. March, we went on a trip to Garoua with the Gospel Singer. That was an amazing weekend! It started out with a meeting at College Protestant for preparations before we were going away with the bus, and also a last fast prayer for the trip. We desided in the last minute to drive a car up there instead of taking a local bus. 

Simplice, me, Kristian, Bassané and Sara-Jeanette

So together with two others from the choir we squeezed into the Aasens car and drove the 4 hour long drive up there. That is something I have gotten used to when we have been in Africa; we fill up everything, church benches, cars, motor taxies, and car taxies and so on. But when we arrived and got settled in inside the buildings connected to the Sion church in Garoua we finally got some food before the choir had a concert in the church.
As we did not know all the songs we were told (at the last minute) that we would join the audience instead of singing with them. The performance was very nice and there were allot of people watching. But as the Saturday was the big day for them they hoped that the audience would be bigger the day after, when the big concert was going to be. 

Unpacking the bus outside the Sion Church in Garoua

The Saturday started out with a good breakfast, some classes and before dinner we went to the concert place. After they were finished practicing we took a motor taxi together with one guy from the choir each to Medoubass’ aunt and ate couscous there.
Sadly there were only a few people who came to the concert that evening due to too little PR. But therefore we got to join in on the last few songs! And it was very fun! 

Gospel Singers concert on Saturday 24th of March 2012

After the concert we went back to the church, and as I was really hungry after not eating for several hours I joined Kristian, Abbou and Bassané in walking down to a fish bar close by. But unfortunately we came there right after closing time, so we had to get into town to get some fish. So therefore for the third time that day I broke the rules (!) and took a motor taxi. We ate fish from a stand on the side of the mane road, and sat down at a bar where we bought big sodas for each of us.
The fish was really great! It was definitely one of the best fish meals I have ever had, it may be because I was so hungry, but I do not want to admit that... We joined some of the other choir members at another bar where we sat and talked for a while before we went back by motor taxi to the church. So during that one weekend I managed to break the rules four times...oops?
The day after we sang with the choir on two sermons in the Sion church, and then we got couscous with gombo sauce, which is one of the greatest couscous meals I have ever tasted!
We travelled back to Ngaoundéré, and had a short stop in Ngong, where the rest stopped to sing for the inhabitants in the village, but as we cannot drive during the night we had to continue. 

Abbou and Martial

On Monday 26^th of March we were invited to celebrate the graduation of Martial, a band member in the choir. We ate and sang and listened to some speeches that his friends and family had planned for him. As all other events in Cameroon it lasted for a long time, and after 3 hours the real party began. They had put all their chairs and sofas outside, and moved a big loudspeaker into their living room where the guests started dancing. And as we were there, many of the boys came to ask us to dance, it was fun, but we went home quite early I think, because we heard they had kept going until 5 in the morning!

The two last weeks we spent with the kids at the orphanage, our friends at the mission station, walking around the area we lived in and enjoying our last time in Cameroon as Hald students.
And we actually managed to experience the first real rain before we went back! It was so good to feel it and see it. And with the rain, the mangoes were finally ripe. So I got to climb in a mango tree and pick my own fresh mango! Amos, our contact person, arranged a diner with Foumgbami and the next years Hald students from Cameroon and some old Hald student, at the norwegian missionaries house together with some of our friends, both norwegian and cameroonian. We also learnt how to make makkala right before we went back to Norway.

Good bye diner, f.l. Helene, Kristian, me, Simplice

Together with the next years Hald students

Learning how to cook makkala

Last biblegroup meeting the evening before we travelled back

I really miss it now, the people, the country, the food, our parrot Aco, the fruits, the jobs. Basically everything, and that means that I have to go back sometime!

Johanne Teresie