skype.

Dear Skype,

Thank you for helping me out this year. I like being able to see my family open presents on Christmas, see Katie's sweet swimsuit and pants, have conference calls, have a Q&A session with the Kauffmans, and so on so forth.

love,

S.

sweet Jesus, you make things beautiful.

From a walk on the mountian with Alida two days ago. Basically 4 of the same picture... but I liked the different shadows and the light on the buildings...

changes.

Today, was the first time in my life I wished I had a dog to walk.

half way.

I live half way around the world. While Alida and I were flying to Stavanger we looked at one of those magazines and it had maps! One of them looked like this! Look where Norway is and then look where Alaska is!!! wowsa!

The 5 Days of Christmas

Okay, so here in Norway, although they don't quite get the decoration thing they really do like Christmas. My proof is this.
They make a week out of Christmas, and this is how it goes. (I am directly translating because I think it is funnier that way)
22- Little Bit Christmas
23- LIttle Christmas Eve
24- Christmas Eve (presents and such are celebrated in the evening)
25- First Christmas Day (Holy Day)
26- Second Christmas Day (Holy Day)

and all of these days = Space Christmas
tada

Christmas.

Tusen Takk! to mama, dad, Lars, and the Kauffmans at home. And to Alida and her fam jam for making me feel so at home.
Here is a super strange video telling about my day. BUT I FORGOT TO TELL YOU I MADE COOKIES!!!! and went for a walk and looked in peoples windows at their trees and decor.

A Christmas Report. from Sadie Arneson on Vimeo.

Crayons.

"Give crayons. Adults are disturbingly impoverished of these magical dream sticks."

-Dr. SunWolf

I got a box of crayons in the mail from Lauren.

I am slightly addicted to the pretty things, they brighten up every peice of paper they touch, and you can line them up in a ranbow or close your eyes and pick randomly and they always make something great!

Dear LuLu and Crayola,

You have made my day once again. Thank you.

best sweaters.

Something about Norwegian sweaters really gets me, everytime I see one I get a fuzzy feeling, so I can't even describe the feeling of wearing one. I am nearly positive that I will always think that they are absolutely fantastic.

The occasion for wearing these beauts: LOCAL BARN CONCERT!

This event has done a fanastic thing, combine fabulous music with charm and a touch of Christmas feeling. AND! they did it with out singing Christmas songs! wowsa!

Here is the scoop. There is a concert in an old freezing barn each year with local talents. So you get dressed super warm and go stand in a packed out barn and listen to music. Oh and there was free coffee, gingerbread, and mandarins.

I didn't take pictures cause I just wanted to really enjoy it. :)

Other activities for the day included taking a train, Dinner at Andre's house with Alida, Hanna, and Justen and hanging out with them at the concert.

It was nice to be with people I know well for a while.

After the concert we went to Alida's friend(and now mine), Caroline's house and hung out with some girls. She has a super cute little house that is decorated perfectly, making me finally feel completely Christmas-e. finally, a Christmas filled day, now I am proud to announce I am ready!

Fear of What

Here lay the lyrics I have written for a song by Alida and I called Fear of What.
maybe only you will hear but for now you can grab a cup of tea and read it as poetry.

Fear of What

You keep on stepping twice back,
Push away for fear, for fear of what?
I'll give you time to figure it out,
But time will end to think of yourself.

Being smart can get in the way,
please, go make a mistake,
I shove off the dock and float,
take the risk jump into the lake.

The unknown of the mind,
mysterious but normally
uncomplicated,
but with you, love, it isn't the same,
you weave a thought till it is
intricate.

Push away, push push away,

You keep on shutting your mouth,
Give up and say, just say what you want.
You runaway from far too much,
leaving the chance to fall in too far

Being closed can get in the way,
please, come follow me,
I let go and I'm falling free,
you can too, just look at me.

The unknown of the mind,
mysterious but normally
uncomplicated,
but with you, love, it isn't the same,
you weave a thought till it is
intricate.

Push away,
turn your head away,
Hide your thoughts,
and with it hide your heart.

You keep on stepping twice back,
Push away from fear, from fear of what?

Lutefisk

I ate lutefisk.
direct translation- lye fish.
lye is a strongly alkaline solution, isn't alkaline batteries of something!
lye also is a soap ingredient.
this poor fish, probably cod, was soaked in lye.
then it got bowled and put on the table.
it is a traditional Norwegian meal from the Northern tribal people.
but I did want to try it. so I did, it was pretty gross. :)
lucky for me it is served with delicious sides, like potatoes, sausage, and pea soup.

now I will take my bow and say yes to anyone who asks me if I have tried the famed lutefisk.

for more information please google Lutefisk.

be inspired.

I think over the last weeks I have been learning a lot about being inspired.

inspired |inˈspīrd|

adjective

1 of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse

• (of a person) exhibiting such a creative impulse in the activity specified

2 (of air or another substance) that is breathed in

My latest inspiration is Imogen Heap, she is a musical genius of electronica/experimental. I watched her documentary on the making of her third album. Watch it if you can, very good and INSPIRING!

that is her! ----->

I love that anything can be inspiring! A little kid, a simple story, a color... it is a breathing in of some thing fabulous and then breathing out something creative! What a fabulous mind picture.

Today I need to make some Christmas letters, BIG JOB!

And then we will go to the beach and enjoy feeling small next to the vast North Sea.

merry christmas.

tis the season

"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.” ~Harlan Miller

Stavanger

Currently I am with Alida at her home in Stavanger, eating well, sleeping in and feeling free as a stellar jay.

So far we have visited her some of her lovely, funny friends.

We went for a walk on a little mountain it was so lovely, typical Europe feeling with the rollie pollie ground, a mix between grass and rocks, then you come across a rock wall. The ground was frozen and frosty, really all I need was a old dress and I could have been in Pride and Prejudice.

We also went to the beach which was fabulous! It was really great to see the open ocean again. I know I live in a gorgeous fjord but when I saw the sea wide and far I felt very much at home and wanted to give it a great big hug.

sing along.

meaning...Christmas Part-AAAY!

Okay, So Christmas Party... as you can see I couldn't decide which pictures were the bestest.

A couple fun things we did were, eat the traditional lamb meal, sing around the Christmas tree in both Norwegian and English, and watch different people sing and jam.

Later in the night, some of us had a dance party and then we made a fake fire in the dinning room and sat around and sang badly with a guitar. It was a good time.

it happens to be Christmas

I eat the world.

I eat the world for breakfast,

each and everyday.

I eat the pieces that I like,

then throw the rest away.

Five minutes spent on Celiene Dion's twins,

Two on flu shots for my own kids.

Barbie has a web cam! What an outrage!

Haiti has problems, I'll eat that another day.

Consume, Consume, Consume,

I need the world to affirm me.

Give me something to talk about.

Give me a quick snack.

Give me entertainment.

Tell me what to wear, what to say, how to act.

I am desensitized to what I need to hear,

I am captured and pushed by fear.

What is going on?

All these things are disconnected.

What ever happened to the miners in New Zealand? How are they doing now?

Tell me a story with a beginning and an end.

Is the world bigger than my neighborhood?

There is so much to digest. Seven different stories making me depressed.

This is too much for me to swallow.

I eat the world for breakfast each and everyday.

I eat the pieces that I like then through the rest away.

This is a dramatic reading that I wrote with Wendi, Caroline, Aubrey, and Alida. They eat a paper world while I read this "dramatic reading". This assignment was given to groups on Thursday durning teaching. We were to make a piece of art in groups about the media and what we see in the news. I wish I had it on video because it turned out really well. believe it or not...

I adapted it into a really sassy song... maybe you will hear it sometime!! :D

Have a lovely day, it is the holidays! woot woot.

holiday buzz.

I live in a busy, busy place!

This week has been fantastic. Sue was an excellent teacher. Her teaching style + my learning style = perfect match! On Friday, we had Creative Friday (as we do on every Friday) it was pretty chill, I wrote a script!!! woot woot... I am not quite sure how to execute all the elements of it, a lot depends on my casting but write now, it looks all professional. Title page and near perfect formatting, it is a lovely thing to behold. I will be filming it in May, so I have a lot of time to mill over it and change things. It will be 4 to 6 minutes depending on how I edit it. My short film has a deliciously long name! ready to hear it?! (drum roll please!!)

Holding the Hand of Imagination

A Tribute to the Presumably Odd

Now you can imagine all the things that long title could mean! yeah!

Okay, but later on in the day of Friday, we had Norwegian porridge and flat bread with the sausage that may or may not have been horse... it was up to debate among the Norwegians and their was no packaging to check. haha.

After eating my foreign foods, I hoped in the van to go to the ART EXHIBITION!!!! Our lovely artist transformed their old church attic studio into a gallery. It was amazing, I took a bunch of film so maybe in a couple months after my break you will see some footage. :) I could probably but up stills too, and much sooner.

And today we deep cleaned the whole base from the proverbial head to toe. (Mom! does that sentence make sense??! I have no idea...) So yeah, I cleaned the kitchen with some others for somewhere around 4 hours. And tonight we have the CHRISTMAS PARTY! yeah! Everyone is dressing really fancy and we have good Christmas food, entertainment, and so on so forth.

huggle

Here is a nice big itchy Norwegian sweater hug from me to you. :)

I hope you are smelling cinnamon, drinking eggnog, getting holiday drinks at Kaladis, watching Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Home Alone, sledding, and looking at Christmas in a new wonderful way this year. I certainly am. :)

mucho loves.

Arts to the World

We are learning about "Communicating God's Love to the World Through the Arts" by Sue Rinaldi. She is a professional songwriter from London, her voice is super great to listen to (soft with a nice accent) and she is poetic. What a splendid combination.

Some questions I am left pondering...

What boxes do I put myself in? What boxes do I put others in?

What are some things that rob my creativity? Where do I find the sweet moments with God and find creativity? Am I diligent in seeking this?

What are the "festival" times in my spiritual walk?

And of course many other splendid things...

Ephesians 3:20

"The people to feel the saddest for are those who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or became numb to the sensation of wonder." - Douglas Coupland

myself.

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to be born with: that I am nobody but myself.

-Ralph Ellison "Invisible Man"

week...

Last week was creative week like I said. We were script writing and it started off kinda meh meh but I learned a lot. A really quick explanation so you can learn a little what I learned.

Ground story: often when creating a short film you have a big idea of the film but to make sure your story is clear it is important to create a ground story. This is the plot in two sentences from the beginning to the end. From there you can create the artist sides of it, add comedy, irony, create interest characters, decide if you want to start at the end and then switch to the end, the possibilities are endless.

Message: it is important to know a specific message you are trying to convey

Audience: You must know the culture, age, and personality of the specific crowd you are making your movie for. Not that others can't watch it but this helps you hit your target.

I have been craving home lately, so I really wanted to have a fantastic weekend! guess what!! I did. On Friday night I went to a youth meeting that we help out at and Alida spent the night in my room. Saturday, I went for a blizzard run and did abs with Lyndsay, walked to the Post Office to get a splendid package from the LuLu, Molly, and Moggs, hosted a tea party for Wendi, Katie, and Alida, and went to a small group sleep over at Gabby's cute little apartment. Today (Sunday) I woke up and made banana pancakes and eggs with the small group, did face masks, and had a jolly time, then I went sledding for a couple hours with Øystine and Josh (it was super nice out), and tonight we are suposed to make Christmas cards and watch Home Alone.

So it has been a jam packed weekend and I will probably be exhausted but it was way worth it.

Next week we have teaching!

moon.

A slightly blurry picture of a fanastic sight in a not so great morning.

Thank you Andre for interupting my grumpy dishes day and showing me something so much bigger than myself.

Dance Teaser

Dance Teaser from Sadie Arneson on Vimeo.

A tiny bit of footage. :)

Shooting Dancin'

I realized today that I forgot to tell you about our shoot last weekend! We shot the dance video!!! On Friday, we went to our location which was an old farm right on the coast. But the dancers froze there butts off and we didn't even get a whole take of the dance. So we scrapped that plan and went home, deciding to make due with shooting in a church.

lucky for us, this church has an emphasis in youth ministries and has a skate park basement complete with graffiti. SUPER!

It was a good experience, I got to practice framing, communication, and how exhausting it can be. The hard part about film is even if you have everything right, the viewers often only see the people on film therefore the film crew is completely dependent on others' performances. The dancers did a really good job and were super fun but they only had the dance for a week so we had to do a lot of takes and didn't get to do all the artistic shots we were hoping for. None the less this will be FANTASTIC, pretty sure. :)

The clips look really pretty on the screen, the colors are excellent but we haven't started editing. I will show you when it is done.

Cher directed and I was the camera girl. But Cher and I flip flopped rolls a lot... I think that is good when you can work together. :)

Very interesting.

1) little ice rings on rocks

2) Leif doing the moon walk on the ice, the easiest place to start.

3)If you click on this picture and wait a bit for it to load full size, you will be able to see the islands fading into the sea and the lighthouse greeting the visiting ship.

4) Ocean puke is prettier than people puke.

Location Scout.

 

 

 

 

The film track went location scouting yesterday, which basically means we pile into a car and look around, stopping at different places we think might work and then taking pictures.
We stopped at this abandon house, it is amazing! Even though it is broken and there is trash, it has charm. Also, as I looked closer for some cool pictures and potential shots I found odd beauty along side the nasty. Like a rose tree next to a toilet paper bush, a red chair in a much of dead brown grass, and a pair of black shoes waiting at the end of a used to be beautiful sofa. Amazing!

pahaha.

I can look at my "stats" for this blog, see where people are linked from to get to it, see how many views I get a day, a month, or all time, and a lot of other things. So I was looking to see if anybody other than my mom reads this, to my relief, there are more. :)
But I came across a list of countries that read it, it actually is kinda wrong because I have 47 views from Russia... now unless I have a stocker in Russia, I think it actually is counting someone in Alaska as being from Russia! haha.
I just find this hilarious...hope you do too. :) However, if you aren't from Alaska, don't worry about it.

script

So I am writing a script for my final project, which I won´t be filming till this spring but we are starting to work on it. It isn´t going too well. I really don´t want cheesy and I think I am so concerned with this that I am throwing out ideas before they are fully developed.
The assignment is to make a 4 to 6 minute video that tells a story (introduction, climax, and some falling action). Not exactly my style, I like stop motion, event videos, and short films that don´t tie up the ends. My first script was actually pretty good but we have no professional actors and I just don´t really want to risk my whole project on some random person´s performance. Also, I needed a dad and old man which is hard because most people around here have accents. I think maybe I will make a Norwegian cast and go with a foreign film if an idea fits, that would be kinda fun! So while pondering what, what, what I should do, to avoid starring at a blank screen I started searching vimeo for some inspiration. It really didn´t help... BUT I FOUND A SWEET VID!!!

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Thanks Giving

Thanksgiving wasn't what I am used to but that doesn't mean it was void of friends who might as well be family, food, lots of fun, or even football.

We had a normal day till about 4. We all dressed up and acted out the Thanksgiving story (preschool version). I was in charge of entertainment with Aubrey and Gareth...

We colored pictures of Indians and answered Turkey trivia, then ate the meal (unfortunately we had ham instead of turkey...), then we made "Macy's parade" floats out of cardboard and anything we could find.

And had some FABULOUS desserts and actually caught a football game live around 9 PM. :)

pictures:

1 one big crazy happy family (half of them experiencing their first Thanksgiving)

2 Ken Robin eating Caroline the Turkey (she stuffed her stomach and her legs so she had "drumsticks"! so hilarious)

3 Andre and Hanna the Piligrim couple

4 Lyndsay she was supposed to look like a piligrim but I thought she looked like a perfect little wife

Lyndsay has been a really specail blessing in my life this week, on Thursday we stole brownies before dessert time, we went for a run and after laughed durning abs for 45 mins, she is soooo joyful.

blessing blessng blessings.

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