"Cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammer, Cabinets of Wonder, or wonder-rooms) were encyclopedic collections of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined."
(Wikipedia)

Username derived from Camellia Sinensis, which is fancy-speak for the tea plant. I've grown attached to it in my search for a pen name over the years, as my own name isn't something you'd connect to anything but a writer of local history. (Which I'm not.)

A short introduction: female, 19 years old, Tuesday's child (i.e. full of grace - incidentally, my name means grace), Norwegian, former island habitant, student of Japanese. I have two parents and three siblings, which is nicer now that I've moved out, although I miss them when I'm gone. I love crime shows (Criminal Minds, Numb3rs, Supernatural...) and music, although what kind of music is hard to define. I have a passion for languages and reading, and though I love writing, it's sometimes neglected for reading, probably because I find it harder to write. Photoshop and webdesign are some of my hobbies otherwise (though admittedly neglected), and I like cooking. As my username indicates, I like tea very much, and am liable to go on rants of which kinds are best and how they're produced and such.

This is my talk-blog. Nothing exciting here, just day to day life and whatever may occur of mediocre interest. If I ever post some of my written works, they'll be posted in a community or something of the like.

A week without lectures. I'll probably spend my time reading, learning katakana, making food, taking random walks into the city centre because I get bored... Finally get to watch season two of Numb3rs, though. I'm not sure I dare continue with Supernatural season 4 yet. I don't want to finish it, because then I'll have to wait for the season 5 DVD. D:

AND MY GOSH. This is just too angsty-teenage-band-in-garage cute. I can't believe I've never bothered to watch the video before. It's adorable. I'm a sucky fan. <3



In other words? I'm bored, and I don't have anything fancy to say. Ta.

I spontaneously decided to make chocolate scones today. So I did. Never done that before. They weren't too bad. Instant cocoa, too. Mm. Haven't slept for about 30 hours. Not a good idea, but... pshh. Perhaps I'll take a short nap so that my (finally) forming sense of day/night won't be too disturbed.

I figured out that I have way too much leisure time to spend it all on studying or reading, so I'm going to teach myself more cooking. I like cooking.

SPENCER LOOKS SO ADORABLE ASLEEP.

I'm a total sucker for Criminal Minds. But he's just too adorable. Which is why I'm still awake at 1 a.m when I have a lecture tomorrow. Hehee.

I've challenged Tyan to a drabble war. Not sure it was a good idea, but it's bound to be interesting.

Ta.

The Norwegian Eurovision finals have started (Melodi grand prix), so every Saturday we're tortured with crappy songs and ugly costumes. Still. It's tradition. I can't just not watch. Although I only really watched one of them, merely switched through the others...

My favourites this year?
Keep of Kalessin - The Dragontower [x] Hehee. =P
The Diamond - European Girl [x] Not incredible, but lively and nice.

I have to compile a list of Eurovision songs I like. There aren't too many. x)

#01: Helvetesfabel (1991), by Nikolaj Frobenius
#02: Andre steder (2001), by Nikolaj Frobenius
#03: Twilight (2005), by Stephenie Meyer
#04: Teori og praksis, (2004) by Nikolaj Frobenius
#05: Latous katalog (1996), by Nikolaj Frobenius
#06: New Moon (2006), by Stephenie Meyer
#07: Eclipse (2007), by Stephenie Meyer
#08: Watchmen (...), by A. More & D. Gibbons
#09: Of Mice and Men (...), by John Steinbeck
#10: Breaking Dawn, (2008) by Stephenie Meyer
#11: The Book of Lost Things (2006), by John Connolly

Funny, that. The first five were read in January, then three in February, one in March and two in April. (How many were worth reading? Six - number 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 11.) I blame fan fiction for the lack of proper literature. Still, if ficcies counted... I'd have read hundreds, as I keep saying. Bwahaha. As long as I read...?

'Lo there.

After my first Japanese lesson, I can say that I don't regret my choice. (I was considering English, but was afraid of getting bored, which is rather likely, since I've already had 11 years of English classes and read English several hours a day. I love it, but if I were to study it, I'd go for creative writing.)

Japanese is very interesting so far, although we've hardly done anything yet. I love messing around with words, learning new ones, building sentences and so on, so I doubt I'll grow tired of it. (I've always had a bit of a thing for secret languages, code languages and stuff, and I suppose a language that doesn't use this alphabet is the closest I get without getting into cryptology - I'm afraid I'm not devoted enough for that.) I think being fond of language and word plays run in the family (my sister is finishing her BA in Russian).

I'm not feeling too well, so I think I'll be going to bed early today. I just want to sleep. I'll probably finish Stormbreaker before that, though.

I bought a CD the same day as Stormbreaker; Move Along, by the All-American Rejects. (People get surprised when they find out I like them. I'm still not sure why. Perhaps it's too teenager-y. I've never been much of a teenager, even if I'm still one.) Anyway, I opened the folder on the inside of the cover: lo and behold, handwriting as bad as my own. For some reason, that made me very happy...

I'll post my 2009 list of read books, too, which is at a staggeringly low level. I read 11 books. D:
I blame fan fiction. If that counted... Yet again, it'd be hundreds of books. 50K words is novel-length, and I've read more than fifty of those, so.

And because I'm bored... (mind that I listen to music on Spotify more regularly than my iPod.)
15 most played songs on my iPod
01. Fear of a Blank Planet (Porcupine Tree) - 32 times
02. Get Off (The Dandy Warhols) - 30 times
03. Casanova (Major Parkinson) - 29 times
04. Wonderland (Asian Kung-Fu Generation) - 25 times
05. Under jordå (Vamp/Rikskringkastingsorkesteret) - 25 times
06. Tant que tu es loin (Da Silva) - 23 times
07. L'indécision (Da Silva) - 23 times
08. Blah blah blah (Postgirobygget) - 23 times
09. Manlig gemenskap (Fint tilsammans) - 22 times
10. Supermassive Black Hole (Muse) - 22 times
11. Gwn mi wn (Gruff Rhys) - 21 times
12. I am Erica (Major Parkinson) - 20 times
13. Dalai Lama (Rammstein) - 20 times
14. Moskau (Rammstein) - 20 times
15. Full Moon (The Black Ghosts) - 19 times
Other songs with 19: Boy's Don't Cry (The Cure), 197 (Major Parkinson)

There. Now I can clear the history...

Fire alarm went off at half past three last night. Brilliant, huh? Someone half-drunk warming frozen pizza, apparently. Saw lots of people in pajamas. Everyone went back to bed after a few minutes. Don't think anyone actually went outside... Lots of crabby students in the morning, I presume.

Today I've been cautiously peeking in my hiragana book (called "Let's Learn Hiragana". Yay imagination,) eaten ice cream and wondered why some people don't get brain freeze. Half my family get them, while the other half doesn't - no matter what. (I'm in the half that doesn't.)

Funny thing is, I found lots of sketchy information about why people get "ice-cream headaches", but I couldn't find anything on why some people don't get them. Someone tried to claim that certain people are more susceptible to headaches, but I get plenty of headaches, and none of them have been ice-cream related. My sister and I actually thought the whole brain-freeze thing was an American myth, until our little brothers claimed to get them. Fancy that - apparently, not everything is a conspiracy.

I've also taken up reading Alex Rider, which was a bit of a positive surprise. I've never been too fond of anything in the vague direction of appearing like James Bond, so it was great to find out that it was actually worth reading. Yay. I have to admit that I'm still in the middle of Stormbreaker, as I'm just starting my first semester of a BA in Japanese and want to get in some relaxation time (and fanfic reading) first, but it'll be great to have something to read for relaxation while I have to read a few thousand pages of factual information whilst learning a completely new system of writing...

On that note, I'll just read a bit more before I go to bed. Night.

It's 1 am, I just made myself some dinner (chicken with a canned tikka masala mixture, with added cream, since I'm a wimp and couldn't be bothered to boil rice) and I'm watching CSI Miami. And I'm drinking milk.

I'm a bit antsy about starting classes again. Tried to sleep for hours last night. Couldn't. Ended up alternately reading 146 pages of Stormbreaker, which I bought Tuesday, and jotting down 11-or-so A6 pages of random ideas I got. Yay me.

This is the coldest winter I can remember for more than ten years. (Apparently it was very cold in '94, too, but I was three years old most of that year.) I think they said that it was about five or ten centigrades colder than normal. And -10°C (14° F, I think), which it was most of the time where I come from, might not sound very cold, but I live by the sea where Norway starts to get narrower, and there's always wind. Even if it's just a draft. Add wind, and -10 feels like -20. Ick.

I'm in Bergen, now. Just being outside feels like smoking. Apparently, it's the most polluted city in Europe at the moment. Bergen is often called the city "between seven mountains", which means that when there's hardly any wind, like now, there's little air circulation with the surroundings. When it gets dark, you can actually see the smog floating past the streetlights. (Well, to be fair, you can see the smog shifting, as it won't go away. D:)

Oh, by the way: one of the guys who explored the Mariana Trench was called Picard. ("To boldly go where no man has gone before..." xP)

I just had a bit of a hilarious moment. See, I'm supposed to be reading for my exam tomorrow (language and comunication on a relatively basic level), but suddenly I find myself writing 500 words for a story called "Escapism". I'd actually jotted down a few notes a long time ago for that one. I just suddenly noticed the title and that I was just (and still am) procrastinating. x)

I was just watching a TV show on the environment (the sea, mostly) on National Geographic, and kept thinking, "Gosh, that voice really reminds me of Edward Norton". And it was. x)
He has a nice voice.

I've had a bad feeling about today. No idea why, I just feel like I've had a bad day, even though I haven't. Perhaps it's tea abstinence. I've only had half a cup today...

Bought Numb3rs season 2, even though I haven't finished watching season 1. My neighbour borrowed season 1 before I was finished, so I figured, hey, I'm gonna buy it later on anyway, so I just bought it.

I'm going home for Christmas in a week. Same day as I have my last exam. Yay.

My sister and I watched a Russian/Mongolian movie yesterday, which was great, and now I can't get the melody of Hills of Manchuria (Na zopkah Manczhurii) out of my head.

Had a presentation today. Kinda froze up. Felt really bad about it, too, since the guys I had the presentation with did most of the talking. But hey, at least I don't shake like a leaf anymore, which is improvement.

I'm on season four of Supernatural! Yay me. I think I've paid... 1300 NOK for four seasons, which is... well. A bit of money. Huge discount on the two first seasons, so I was lucky. A friend of mine paid two or three times the amount I did, poor thing.

Now, to figure out what series DVD I can buy next... though I might get a TV soon. Hmm.

Gosh. Long time no post.

The weather has actually been nice for about a week. Well, that is to say, mostly gray, but little-to-no rain. I just can't see how the ground is still wet when it hasn't rained for days. Must be a rain OD, or something. It looks like it's just rained. The autumn is kinda washed out, here. Not like back home. Nooo. There it's... crispy. xD

I really should go to bed now. I've just been to school, but I had an assignment to finish... again... so I slept for about half an hour this morning. (I could have made an insider-documentary about procrastination - and hopefully, make a sequel about how to overcome it.)

Last weekend I was visited by people from back home, which was really nice, even though I spent about half my monthly budget in three days. Being the accumulator that I am, I've somehow hoarded enough meat and stuff that it'll last me for more than two weeks if I eat a homemade dinner every day, which I don't. So, yeah, what can I say? I like discounts, and I tend to take the opportunity to spend a little less money. Technically, I only have to buy non-food related stuff and mushrooms, onions, stuff like that. Small thingies that don't cost too much. Yay for having plenty to eat without blowing the roof of my budget.

I have to remember olive oil the next time I go to the store...

It's been two months since I moved to Bergen today. That means that I've finished off almost 90 tea bags. In two months. (That's excluding the loose weight tea I've had, or the tea I've bought outside of my humble abode.) I've learned my lesson on not to drink 2 liters of tea in one day, though. Especially not when I'm supposed to sleep.

In short, it's raining on and off and on and off. Mostly on. (As if that's a new thing.) About five days without rain in two months, I'd say. The sun pokes its way through every now and then, but usually not for long, and it's cold and wet and rainy most of the time. There was this one day where the sun shone most of the day and it was really warm, but then there was a thunderstorm in the evening, so. Yeah. That's coastal Norway, folks.

Ah. I'm meeting my sister down in the city in a little hour. I think I'm gonna go for wearing my boots. And rain jacket. The wind hasn't been very cooperative today, so umbrella might be useless, but we'll see.

I really have to clean my room again. *sigh*

So. I watched nine episodes of Supernatural last night, wrapped up in my duvet. (Should have seen me. Hid my eyes halfway behind my hands/pillow/something every time something yucky showed up.) I'd be fine if I wasn't alone. And if it wasn't in the middle of the dark, dark night. And if the sounds weren't so friggin scary...

Anyway, when I'd done that, I slept for two hours. Then I got out of bed and went to a lecture at university. Urk. And while I was there, a bug crawled over my book when I'd put it on the floor for just a moment. And I just  watched the bug-eats-people episode last night. Eep. Not enough that MacGyver traumatised me with man-eating ants when I was little, was it? (Americans. Psh.) And now I constantly feel as if there are insects crawling in my hair, or over my arm and stuff, and there's nothing there. I get really annoyed with myself, sometimes. It's a bit like phantom pains - see someone get hurt, and it kinda hurts. See lots of bugs - feel the crawling! (All right, no buggies, let's speak about something else before I run off to take a shower... or, well, no. There could be spiders... Jump in the sea... or wait... damn... Supernatural will be the ruin of my rehabilitated fright of... everything. And I still love it. xP )

Now I have... roughly two hours to kill before my next class. I should probably be working, but I really don't feel like it. I think I'm gonna bury me in ficcies for a little while and shut out scary thingies.

The neighbour house is burning. Well, I don't know if it's still burning, but there's a lot of fire trucks... There's so much smoke that you can smell it, even though no windows have been open or anything, and the sky is grey. I think the fire alarm is going to go off during the night. So much for going to sleep early tonight...

Called my mum a while ago. Was nice. My sister and I are going to do something this weekend. I have a presentation tomorrow. Have to get up early to do some more work on it. Gonna go to bed before midnight, for once. I don't think I've gone to bed any earlier than three a.m. for a while. Stupid, I know. But I'm starting to get settled. Finally. I've grown used to handling groceries, toilet paper, books, classes, making food, washing dishes right after using them. I'm keeping something quite like a ledger, I've made calendars, I've written down all my classes till Christmas in my almanac. It's even colour coded.

I is at school. Well, on campus. And I'm really, really bored. Especially since I have a lecture from noon till two, and then a class from four to six. Yuck. And then the Internet wrecked my Firefox windows. Urk. I'll have to scour through tons of master lists to find the not-read ficcies...

There's going to be a festival for electronic music and art here soon. Sounds interesting.

It hasn't rained since the day before yesterday! Yay. <3
I've still seen more broken umbrellas since I moved to Bergen than in the rest of my life. And though there wasn't a cloud in sight yesterday, it's rather... well, murky today. Chilly, if not cold.

I don't really have a lot to say. I haven't had the chance to watch any Supernatural yet. When I have time, I don't feel like it, and when I feel like it, I don't have time. Life's such a hardship, innit? x)

Still one hour left before class. *sigh*
I better do some homework, then. Hopefully, it won't kill me.

I'm one of those people who find it perfectly logical to clean when I get enough of the dust.

Even if it's midnight.

So now I've cleaned and washed for two hours instead of reading ficcies, books or watching Supernatural. I'm a bit impressed with myself.

Still sneezing, though.