My Vegetarian Project

This year has been the year of my big vegetarian project. I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian for a few years, or at least trying it out and seeing if it was something that could suit my lifestyle. So, I decided to give it a try. In retrospect, it seems I approached it like a research thesis. For a few months before January 2014, I did my proposal and background research. I looked into different types of vegetarianism (pescetarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, ovo/lact-vegetarian and vegan). I read a lot about the different types, what types of food you leave out and what you must then eat instead, and how to make sure you get all the necessary nutrients you need, especially as I was also training for a half-marathon. I didn’t want this to be a weight-loss thing, I wasn’t interested in vegetarianism because I wanted to lose weight, but because of overall health issues, environmental issues and, most importantly, animal welfare issues. 

On January 1, my data collection started. I became a pescetarian, eating all animal products except meat. It was not a problem at all. I fell in love with chick-peas and kidney beans, and of course ate lots of fish. This phase of my data collection lasted 3 months. On April 1^st, I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian. Which means that you can eat dairy products and eggs, but no meat and no fish or anything with fish-products in them. It was a little bit harder. I love salmon, and I missed it a lot. But I stuck with it ... for a while! 

Then I made a mistake. I decided to join a group of people doing a “Sugar-free May”. I eat too much sugar and wanted to do something about it, but I shouldn’t have done it there and then. It was too much. I fell of the sugar-free and vegetarianism wagon on a sunny Friday afternoon in late May, and got myself a Big Mac! Oh dear god, the joy! Of course, I cannot eat food like that without spiraling out of control and for days and even weeks, I got completely stuck in the sugar jar and in the sugar-induced coma, I started eating everything again. 

The summer that followed, was full of ups and downs. Sometimes I got back to my little project, but mostly I didn’t. On July 1st, I was supposed to remove eggs as well and become a lacto-vegetarian. I did, for a few days. Well, there were many days where I did indeed eat like a lacto-vegetarian. But there were also many days where I didn’t. I became an occasional vegetarian. Then, on October 1^st, my vegan phase of my project was supposed to start. I delayed it until November 1^st because I was in the midst of moving from Norway to New Zealand and the stress of everything was just too much. At least, that is my excuse. Of course I could have stuck with it, but my head just wasn’t in it anymore. Early in November, I tried my best to start the vegan phase, but it didn’t take many days before I realised that I didn’t want to be a vegan. I don’t want to be a vegan! So, I’m not. That is my result after trying it out. And now I know ;) 

In discussing my results, some might say that this project of mine was a failure. I disagree. I think it was a huge success. I educated myself a great deal about nutrition and about healthy eating and healthy living. About the environment and about animal welfare. So even though I may not want to join the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, I will do my best to buy oranic products from farmers that take good care of their animals. 

In my concluding remarks, I would recommend to all of you that are reading this to educate yourself as well about vegetarianism because you just might also learn a great deal!

A Year in Review

The year 2014 has been a year of transformation for me. 

It has both been one of the best years of my life as well as one of the most difficult. I had to make huge decisions. Life changing decisions. And it wasn’t easy. But I have also realised dreams. Worked hard to fulfil them and make them come true. 

So it is a year of mixed emotions: of extreme stress and extreme happiness; of happy memories and sad memories; of hellos and goodbyes. I suppose in a way it has been a perfect year!

I made three very big, life changing decisions this year. One is too private to discuss here, but the other two are not. 

I decided that I would not remain a preschool teacher. I am still within the field of early childhood education and will most certainly be for the rest of my career, but not as a practicing preschool teacher. It was a very big step and a very big decision. I have been working towards it for a few years, but this year it became real and I had to take the plunge. 

But taking the plunge meant leaving my beloved Oslo. And that brings me to my third big decision. Leaving the good live I had made for myself in Oslo. Leaving that great city. And leaving all those wonderful people there. I sometimes can’t believe my luck when I think of all the people I got to know there and all the friends I made. Making friends has never been easy for me, so it was extremely difficult to leave. I am very happy with my decision, and very happy with my new PhD life and all the opportunities it will open up for me, but I still have moments of doubt about whether I made the right decision leaving Oslo and my life there. So to my Oslo (and Drammen and Akershus and Bærum and Nittedal etc.) people, thank you so much for everything and I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, hope I will meet you again. You truly have made my life much richer and happier.

This year has also been the year of making dreams come true. It is not easy working on your dreams. And it is not luck when they do come true. It is hard work fulfilling your dreams and turning them into goals that you can reach. 

My first dream/goal was to run a half marathon. I did that. I even ran two of them. OMG, what a feeling crossing the finish line in the Reykjavik Marathon in August. It was runner’s high on steroids. The feeling of accomplishment almost overwhelmed me. And I was not running fast or beautifully. I was a turtle. Or a snail. I don’t know. But I made it. I ran a half marathon. With a painful knee. And then I did it again in the Oslo Marathon in September. Madness, I tell you, but it was also such a great feeling and a great sense of accomplishment. I proved to myself that I can do whatever I decide I can do. It is all in the mind. The problem is, now I want to run a full marathon. But it will be fine, because I have decided that I can run a marathon, and so I will run a marathon. Whether it will be in 2015, remains to be seen. Keep tuned in for news on that front!

Another dream/goal was to get published in a peer-reviewed academic journal. And I managed that. After a very long time of waiting and re-writing and waiting and re-writing and waiting some more. My first peer-reviewed article was published in the International Journal of Early Years Education in October. That was a fantastic feeling and great experience.

My primary goal (and a long-term dream) was to start my PhD. I agonized over this for months and months. I knew that I would eventually get into a PhD programme. I wanted to stay in Oslo and study there, but that wasn’t happening. So I started to look elsewhere. New Zealand had been a possibility for a few years, but I had always discarded that idea because it is just so far away from Iceland. But something happened this year and I realised that doing a PhD in New Zealand was actually right for me. It was meant to be! I had that feeling when I applied. I had doubts and many sleepless nights; evenings when I would over eat from stress; many a times I would shut myself away from friends because the stress of it all was just too much; but that feeling was always there. And when I finally was here in Hamilton and began my programme at The University of Waikato, I just knew that I had made the right decision. This university, my supervisors, my colleagues and friends and everybody I’ve met here, prove that to me every day. That is a great comfort when I’m feeling down because I’m missing my old life. 

So, this has been my year. A year I will always remember. I hope you all have had a good year, filled with ups and downs and happiness and even sadness. Having those experiences is what having a rich life is all about, enjoying the good ones and overcoming, and learning from, the bad ones. So I just hope that 2015 will also be a wonderful year and I wish you merry Christmas and a happy new year. May all your dreams and goals come true and good luck on working hard to fulfill them :)

I miss my cat!

Isn't she cute!!!!!

Kia ora

So, I’m in New Zealand. I almost have to pinch myself when I wake up to believe that this is real. The haze of confusion is slowly lifting and I’m starting to understand how things work here. Still don’t have internet at home, which is causing me too feel quite disconnected from the world. Even if I do have mobile internet in my phone, it is just not the same. Anyway, I hope my building supervisor will fix it soon so I can start Skyping and calling people.

My first impressions of New Zealand is that it is very beautiful here. On my way from the airport in Auckland, all I saw were beautiful green rolling hills, and I was seriously half expecting Hobbits to appear (or Teletubbies!). The nature here is lovely. Hamilton is also very green and beautiful, but very different from Oslo. It reminds me both of the suburb where I lived in Augusta, Georgia, and Iceland. Things are flat here (that part does not look like Iceland at all!) and everything is spread out. It is not very pedestrian friendly, you almost need to have a car. There are buses but, I don’t know, the public transport system doesn’t seem to have the same convenience as it does in Oslo. I walked to the supermarket yesterday, about a 40minute walk/3km (similar from Eyrin to Bónus, for my Isafjordur dwelling readers). It is doable, at least if I take the bus back home like I did. I’ll just have to put my grocery shopping on my work out plan.

Saying that New Zealanders are friendly, is like the understatement of the century. Very friendly people, indeed. Everybody is so helpful and nice and willing to help with everything. And it doesn’t seem fake, people seem to be genuinely interested in helping. It definitely helps with settling in. I have just finished all the enrollment paperwork and just got my student ID card, tomorrow I will get my office space and Wednesday I’ll have my first meeting with my supervisors to finish all the details with the supervision agreement and then ... fulltime PhD student I’ll be! They seem to take very good care of their postgraduate students here. There are writing retreats and workshops and other events to both bring people together but also to assist you with issues you might be having. I’m so looking forward to the next 3 years.

I will try to keep this blog active and interesting for you, I haven’t quite decided what kind of a blog it will be, academic, personal, marathon training, or a combination of all three. We will see. I hope you are all well.

The last day ...

Tomorrow will be a big day. A day of changes. A day of goodbyes and a day of new beginnings. My last day as a practicing preschool teacher! It sounds strange to me, that I will no longer be a preschool teacher. Well, I think I will always be a preschool teacher at heart. It has defined me in so many ways in the last 5 years, and the 7 years before that while I was working in a preschool while not yet a qualified teacher. 12 years of preschool, playschool, kindergarten, or what you want to call the settings I’ve been fortunate to work at. 

Solborg in my hometown is always going to be “my” preschool, the place where I found my calling and got such fantastic experiences, made friends and got to be a part of the lives of all those amazing children. I still miss it. The staff there, the surroundings, the building, the pedagogy, the brake-room, the cook! And of course the children and the history I have there. Here in Oslo, I have worked as a preschool teacher in two very different kindergartens in two very different parts of Oslo (plus a few more in the last few weeks). I feel so fortunate to have worked with some lovely people who touched my life in different ways, and got to teach and care for groups of amazing children, children I will always remember and keep in my heart.

I will miss it, being so close to children and having a direct influence on their lives and experiences. I will miss experiencing the world through their eyes, observing and guiding their learning. I will miss all the cuddles and hugs they gave me, their smiles when I came to work and their love. And I will miss not having a group of children to cuddle and hug, to smile at and to love. I believe strongly that it is a preschool teacher’s greatest duty to love the children he/she is working with. It is not parent-child love, or family-love, or whatever meaning people may associate with the word love. It is “educational-love”. It is care. It is a genuine interest in the child’s well-being and learning. How can you work with children if you don’t have that, I only ask? I don’t think you can, and I most certainly don’t think you should!

My new life will be very different from my old one. I will still be deeply involved in the preschool, early childhood education and care, but in such a different way. Trying to make a difference in children’ lives, from a desk in an office. I have never really worked in an office before. I don’t think the call-centre I worked at many, many years ago, counts. It will be interesting. Sitting all day, reading, writing, researching. I really look forward to it while at the same time I’m dreading it. Thankfully, I will also be training for a marathon, so there will be a lot of running as well as sitting. A few more days and there I’ll be, a PhD student, with high hopes and big dreams. I can hardly wait!

Now what?

This is me super excited about finishing my second half marathon in Oslo 20th September. I was sooooooo happy to finish. The last two kilometers were very difficult but I did enjoy the run. The route was very nice although there were some difficult hills. My form wasn't so good and my time was 6 minutes slower than my first half marathon 4 weeks earlier, but in general I'm happy with the race and very proud to have done it.

Now I'm thinking about my next goals. I'm still planning to run a full marathon next year, in the autumn (well, spring for me down under!) ;) And I want to do something fun, exciting and challenging on my 40th birthday next July. Running 40km would be one heck of a celebration. Whether I will run those km in one race or spread them through a few days, we will see, but it most certainly tickles my fancy to do something so extreme. Mostly because then I will have no choice but to train for it!!!

I know I'm not the most active blogger, but I'm trying and the plan is to become much more active as I start my next phase in my live down in New Zealand. Here's to positive thinking ;)