April Update - A Neon Colored Life

Another month flew by way too quickly.

The fun has ended. From now on the studies and exams' got the upper hand...

Did you do anything exciting?
This month I've been home for a couple of days to visit friends and family. I even got to go to my good friend Sara's eighteenth birthday. I've also been to a christian youth-camp just outside Bergen together with Simon, Jonas, Ole and Benjamin. The camp was even better than I expected and I got to know lots of new people! I even got to know some girls... What? It might come as a shock for some of you, but I don't only ever talk to guys!

Funniest thing that happened?
This is always the hardest question! Too many great moments to choose from...
But one moment that made me laugh the most was probably during blind man's buff. Simon, Jonas, Benjamin and his brother Tom and myself was visiting a guy named Robert. After playing various childhood TV-games for a while we suddenly decided to be even more childish and play blind man's buff. We turned off all the lights in the entire apartment, removed anything that could easily get broken and turned on some scary "haunted house"-music. One person then got blindfolded and the fun could begin! Let's just say that screaming, laughing, pushing, running and falling quite a lot was all a part of the game. Throwing mattresses at people and turning on vacuum cleaners was perfectly within the rules too. Being the only girl, it was quite a challenge not to reveal my identity too easily, but all in all it was some of the best hours of fun I've had in a while! You aren't fully grown-up until you dare to be childish...

Best Movies you've seen?
Shockingly enough I've actually only seen two movies during all of April. Luckily they were awesome! The first one was The Amazing Spiderman and it was so much better than I expected. The second one was Casino from 1995 (reviewed here), and it was just like watching a masterclass in both acting and moviemaking...

Favorite edible thing?
Again the winner is Zupperia! It's starting to become a favorite restaurant of mine. This time I had deep fried scampi. Even for a person not too fan of seafood this tasted heavenly!





Which songs have you listened to the most?
This month it's definitely been all about punk-rock and other alternative sub-genres. I had a week of walking down memory lane with Panic! before the brilliant and fantastic thing that was FOB's Save Rock And Roll (reviewed here) was released. Now, however, I need some new bands and artist to listen to so I wouldn't go tired of the ones I already love. I also see myself drifting towards the more "quiet" genres of music... I guess it is required to keep up the musical balacne or something? Of Monsters And Men, Ben Howard and Birdy became my saviours...

"The Phoenix" - Fall Out Boy

"cute as a button" "avenue maintain" "mint candy apple"

"Young Volcanoes" - Fall Out Boy
"Life In Color" - OneRepublic
"Little Talks" - Of Monsters And Men
"Trade Mistakes" - Panic! At The Disco
"Miss Missing You" - Fall Out Boy
"Burning Bridges" - OneRepublic

Favorite material thing?
Bright and flashy colors is not usually something that can be connected with me. But this spring I decided to give it a try and bought sweaters in neon-orange and mint-green and bright blue. And nail-polish! (From Essie of course. Where else?)

Something that made you proud?
This blog actually... I've invested quite a few hours designing and improving both the layout and the content, and I actually feel like I've got it just how I wanted it to be in the first place. That's a great feeling!

What did you learn?
That strangers are just friends you haven't gotten to know yet.

What are you looking forward to?
Well... First I have three exams... But after those I get to go to London with my amazing best friend!

Copyright: Bente (thebenteway.blogspot.com)

January Update - Back in Bergen

I recently got inspired to make a "January Update" after watching one of Kalel's videos on Youtube (WonderlandWardrobe). You should totally check her out! I took the liberty of stealing her questions and added some of my own, so here we go...


Did you do anything exciting? 

Well... I'm back in Bergen for my second term at the University. Even though it was a little sad to leave my family and friends after having spent an entire month in Stavanger, it was also kind of refreshing to come back and start all over. For those of you that didn't know, my first semester as a student actually failed miserably .. But I'm definitely both stronger and wiser this time around, so my hopes are up and I'm thinking positive thoughts!

I also feel obliged to mention I recently celebrated my 19th birthday! It was the day before I had to leave Stavanger, so I managed to gather a bunch of my best friends. The result: I had an awesome day!

Funniest thing that happened? 

I share kitchen with no less than seven other people, so when I make dinner I tend to meet one of them at some point. The only problem about this is that I'm terrible at multitasking! It's like my brain can only keep enough information to complete one task at the time. With this in mind I'm sure you can picture what happened when I met some of my flat-mates while making dinner my first couple of days after returning after the holidays? Trying to catch up and keep a conversation while cooking was just an impossibility... So there I was, small-talking to the best of my abilities, and all I did in the meantime was finding knifes and bowls and frying pans and move them around a lot to nurse the illusion of being seemingly busy. It must have looked *so* awkward! 

Best movies you’ve seen?
I actually haven't seen a lot of movies this month... There are quite a couple currently playing at the cinemas I wish I'd seen (such as Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi and Les Miserables) but I've seen some older dvd's. The first I have to mention is an old film noir in black and white named "Double Indemnity". A friend recommended it for me, and I'm glad he did! Even though it was from 1944 it was really exciting and had brilliant actors. Totally worth watching for movie-lovers!

Yesterday I finally got around watching "Braveheart". It's been on my list for quite a while, and when I got it for Christmas it was only a matter of making time for a three-hour-movie. I knew I'd like it, as some of my all-time favorites include "The Gladiator", "Robin Hood" and "Troy", but I was quite surprised by how good it actually turned out to be! When it managed to bring me to tears only ten minutes in, I knew I was up for a rare treat...

Favorite edible thing?
Asian food. I'm obsessed. And we're *not* talking about fast-food or something... Homemade all the way! With good guidance from my cook-books I have managed to conjure dish after dish using stuff like soy-souce, rice, chicken, beef, sherry and rice-wine. Hungry anyone?

Which songs have you listened to the most?
I actually bought a lot of albums these past couple of weeks. However, the one I was most excited about was no doubt "Night Visions", Imagine Dragons' first album. I'll write a separate blog-post for that little piece of wonder. All I'll say for now is that it did *not* disappoint!

Top tracks:

"Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons

"Siste Dans" - Kaizers Orchestra

"Burn It Down" - Linkin Park

"Hall of Fame" - The Script

"Miss Atomic Bomb" - The Killers

Favorite material things? 

I got new headphones for Christmas... enough said!

Something that made you proud?
I have successfully managed to set up a budget for the entire spring! I've also accounted for all the money I've spent in January so far. I hate math, so this was quite a feat for me!

What did you learn?
To cook! And also not to "steal" money from my food-budget to buy other stuff. I tended to do that a little too often in the past...

What are you looking forward to?

A lot! My best friend and I actually booked our summer-vacation recently, so in a couple of months I'm officially headed to London for the first time! But I won't have to wait until then to do something fun, 'couse the Oscars are soon upon us and I'll of course be watching the entire broadcast live together with my sister! I'm actually so pathetic/awesome I'll throw myself on a plane to Stavanger to be able to keep our Oscar-night-tradition <3 I was also very happy to find out she'll be visiting me here in Bergen right after that. 

But before all of this comes an event I've been awiting for half a year... In less than two weeks I'm going to Stavanger to see Kaizers Orchestra live in the new concert-hall! They'll be joined by Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, so I'm not overestimating when I say this will be epic!

New home, new school, new town and new people

It's been a while.
But, I think it's fair to say I have kept busy :)

I've promised myself I'll never apologize or explain myself... so I won't. Not because I don't have good and sometimes exciting explanations, just because it'd be way too boring for you to listen to (read)!

Well... First thing first: I do not live in Stavanger any more. As I have briefly mentioned to those bothering to read the "This is me"-section, I am now a citizen of the beautiful, cold and wet city of Bergen.

There was also a reason behind the moving: I'm now officially a student at Bergen University! Monday 13th of August was the first day of my time as a student in Media Science. (I don't really know if that's the correct translation from the Norwegian word, but it basically means I study everything concerning the media in general... at least I think that's what I am about to study?)

Since it'd probably be a tiny little bit problematic studying in Bergen while still living in Stavanger, I therefore got myself an apartment. Basically it's just a room, since I share kitchen and two bathrooms with seven other people... But still, to me it's become my own little house <3

It's still far from finished, but it's getting there... My housemates, who live in the other seven rooms, seems nice, so I recon I'll like it here :)

Nobody told me how much work it actually takes to move from one house to another!

(Taken before I'd had the time to make it all messy...)

In addition to moving and starting to study I've also been traveling A LOT! Lucky for me I'm not afraid of airplanes. You see, last week my best friend and I went to Barcelona! Yepp, right in the middle of everything I somehow managed to find the time to go on vacation. It was fantastic, and really hot and sunny, just as Spain should be. Some pictures may appear later...

I'll try to make a new update within a couple of days, although not yet having internet in my apartment is a mayor problem for the time being. However it's being handled with recent trips to the library... :)

Tomorrow I probably have to get started on the miniature mountain of school-books that has to be finished before Christmas. (Tidying my exceedingly messy room, drinking tea, eating a lot of chocolate, and watching some more of my latest addiction: "Game of Thrones" will probably also be on tomorrow's schedule...)