One Hot Month in the Cold - My First Norway Trip

I was right! There are polar bears everywhere on the streets in Norway! The only difference between them and normal polar bears is that they look like humans and are called "Norwegians". But the behavior is the same. :þ

I have found Norwegian people to be of the "rough with a big heart" kind. For my French standards, they're totally rude. They're gruff, unemotional, and have this hard vibe in them. It is in their manners, in their language, in their faces, everywhere. I like it. It is sexy. Lots of very beautiful people there. Behind the icy toughness wall, I have found them to be warm-hearted, genuine and friendly. Those I got to know better revealed themselves as extremely charming, lovely and very funny people. I laughed even more than usually there, and had a lot of fun!

It is a shame. I spent one month in Norway and did not see one single fjord! I stayed only in Oslo and in a town called Seljord that is in a rural area of Vest Telemark. I did not do much sightseeing. I saw mountains in Seljord, but did not climb on any. At least I went for walks in the snow, there was lots of it. But my landscape admiring was very limited. Same when I was in Oslo. I went to see a nice park and climbed on the roof of the opera, but did not have time for the viking ship museum or any other cultural stuff.

The main focus of the trip was clearly people. Of course I spent time with Víkþóri whom I hadn't seen in months, but also met some wonderful new people. Some I already closely knew online or had heard a lot about, so I was happy to meet them in person at last. Others were previously completely unknown to me. I spent most of my time focused on getting to know them better and enjoying their company. There are also people that I would have loved to meet but did not have the opportunity to. I hope to see them next time.

Going to Norway broadened my horizons and pushed me out of my comfort zone in many ways. I did things I had never done before, like juggling, wearing a strap-on during sex, giving Soul Realignment readings in person, writing Norse in runes or hugging several persons at the same time. I also did things that I am totally scared of, for example singing. A lot happened. I met very sexy men, two of which I immediately fell in love with. I was forced to dance salsa, to wrestle, to spy on the naked neighbors, and to watch two and a half Austin Powers movies, which was really hard. I got drunk from drinking half an alcohol free beer. There was an extraordinary connection while dancing with my friend Tarjei, lots and lots of cuddling, hugging and happy loving moments, a spontaneous session of collective cross-dressing, a big heartbreak, hot sex, and some challenging situations. It was awesome.

Unfortunately I didn't learn much Norwegian. But hearing it every day was such a delight! I was happy and fulfilled. I tried to pretend that I was Norwegian when shopping alone, but it never worked. I used all the right words, said "Hei" and "Ja takk" or "Nei takk" when they asked "Blablablapoosa" (which means if I want a bag) and "Hav det godt" when leaving...  but they just heard the weird accent and replied in English. Damn! Tarjei said that I am also way too short to be Norwegian and that my clothes looked too foreign. No Norwegian in their right mind would wear a bonnet with holes in it, he said. Oh well.

I also discovered Swedish when I met a Swede called Michael. I had never heard Swedish before and swooned every time he was speaking it. It is way softer than Norwegian, and very sexy. When he was talking with me in Swedish, I didn't understand a word but just closed my eyes and felt happy. It felt like he was caressing me, when maybe he was talking about doing the laundry? Maybe I just find Swedish so sexy because Michael is such a beautiful and sexy man, I don't know.

This trip definitely was a deeply transformational experience. I feel that I came back as a different person. There just was not enough time. There are so many things that I didn't get to do! Now I am more than ever in love with Norway. I want to go live there as soon as possible.

Even though they don't seem to have much of an ecological consciousness! It was pretty much impossible to find any organic food outside of Oslo, and even in Oslo there wasn't much. I was also shocked when I saw the huge amounts of plastic that they use to package everything they sell, especially fruit and veggies. Every single lettuce comes in a plastic box with a plastic bag around it. And the garbage does not even get properly sorted and recycled. I don't want to know how much waste they produce every year.

And the weather? Oh yeah. Big shock when I arrived. I realized that my "winter coat" is a joke there. So are my other French clothes. Stealing a big woolen pullover from Víkþóri helped. I don't like wearing wool (it's not vegan) (and it itches and scratches) but I was just desperate.

My lungs were hurting because of the cold air. I tried to walk barefoot, that was bearable for ten or fifteen minutes but more was impossible. My feet weren't used to shoes anymore and started to bleed and hurt when I wore some. My lips suffered a lot too. I had to give up on my cold showering habit. As I have discovered, cold water is not equally cold everywhere! The one in Norway is evil. I even went back to sleeping on beds, mattresses and couches instead of on the floor because I was freezing my ass off at night.

After a while of bitching around about the weather, I surrendered. Fortunately, I had taken my big hiking shoes with me. I bought a few pairs of really warm socks to go with them, wore pants and a long skirt one above the other and adopted the stolen pullover as my daily companion. Wearing hiking shoes together with a gothic skirt definitely offends my sense of style, but I didn't care.

In the end I got used to the cold. I even loved it! Cold, gray, wet weather has always been my absolute favorite anyway. I very much enjoyed taking walks in the snow. I love snow, skies of steel and this biting cold when the temperatures go down to  -10 or -15°c. The last week, I was disappointed when it was only -8°c. I even loved the four little hours of real daylight and the fact that it's completely dark at 3:30pm. It's cozy. This way the evening lasts for many hours. I like evenings.

Now the plan is to focus on completing my Soul Realignment course, then start my business as a practitioner, and as soon as I can afford it, emigrate!

Banning Warm Water

Some weeks ago I switched the warm water off in my house. I now shower cold, and more generally wash myself only with cold water. Here's why.

I think that we humans, especially in the western culture, have gotten way too soft and weak. We hide in heated houses, use cars instead of walking, cover ourselves in huge amounts of clothes, whine around and swallow pills as soon as something hurts a tiny little bit, and get a cold or a flu each time we have the opportunity to. What a shame. We're such wimps.

Even though I don't get sick anymore since I went raw, I have decided to toughen up. To begin with, I want to get used to cold. I can already deal with high temperatures, even if I hate them, but when it gets too cold I think I'm going to die. This is intolerable!

So the first obvious step is to ban warm water from my house, which is what I did. Doing the dishes with cold water is no problem on a raw diet, since you don't have any greasy pots and pans to wash. Showering cold also is no problem. We don't need warm water to get clean. Green clay or organic shower gels together with cold water are enough. Particularly on a raw diet you're less dirty and don't need any warm water & loads of soap in order not to stink obnoxiously.

On a practical note, moving from South France, which is damn fucking hot for my taste, to Norway, which I imagine to be damn fucking cold, will probably be quite a shock! Getting used to tolerating more cold already now is a good preparation. Especially since my intention is to make it through the Norwegian winter barefoot. I love walking barefoot so much, I'd hate to have to wear shoes again.

I'm also thinking about the environmental impact. Heating all this water costs lots of energy. How unnecessary. Using less water and less energy to heat it seems to be a respectful thing to do to me. Warm showers are a luxury that I can easily live without.

Actually, I don't consider warm showers to be a luxury anymore. How can something unhealthy be called a luxury?

We're just not meant to use warm water. Except for very few places on Earth, there's none naturally available to us out there. Especially our skin isn't made for dealing with it. I've known for a long time now that warm water harms my skin. I have a very sensitive skin, and obviously it's much better off when it doesn't get in contact with warm water.

When I was eating mostly cooked foods, my legs used to hurt, probably because of invisible varices. This always was much worse after showering (warm) and a bit better after putting some cold water on my legs. Since I switched to raw food, my legs don't hurt anymore. However, I have learned from it that cold water is better for my blood circulation.

Showering cold betters the skin, boosts the blood circulation and strengthens the immune system. It's just healthier!

I had to get used to it. It was quite a shock when I switched. At first I was screaming, laughing hysterically and cursing under the shower (French is such a great language to curse in!).  But adapting was doable.

Last week I showered warm a few times. I was having PMS, and I thought "Come on, let's have a nice warm shower as a way of "taking special care of myself" during PMS...". Well, after two or three nice warm showers, I naturally went back to showering cold, 'cause that just felt so much better! From now on, "taking special care of myself" involves showering cold.

What do you think?

Sleeping on the Floor

<- This is my bed. For several months now I've been sleeping on the floor. I love it!

I had already been sleeping without a pillow for a couple years. Then, during my polyphasic sleep experiment in spring, I avoided sleeping in my bed. I was afraid I would fail to wake up in time if I took my naps in a bed. So I slept, with my clothes on, on the carpet in the living room. I loved it so much! It felt great. After the polyphasic sleep experiment had failed (I did fail to wake up in time, with or without a bed), I went back to sleeping in my bed. But I remembered how great the carpet was.

Later, when I started developing my intuition, I naturally began to walk barefoot, and about at the same time I also began to sleep on the floor again. I sleep on the same carpet, which is now in the bedroom. I couldn't get completely rid of the bed since I am house-sitting, but as you can see on the picture I found a way to manage. I don't sleep with my clothes on anymore though. I sleep naked, with a sheet between the carpet and me, because of my sensitive skin. Sometimes I also just sleep on some blanket somewhere else.

The first night, it did hurt like hell. When you're used to sleeping on your front, and you have cup size F, sleeping on a thin carpet is a pain in the ass boobs. It was only the boobs though, my back didn't hurt. The second night, either I had found another sleep position, or my boobs had gotten used to it -  either way, it didn't hurt anymore. And since then, I've never had any problem with it.

I totally love it! It feels completely natural to me now. I have a hard time imagining how I could not sleep on the floor. It's much, much more pleasant than to sleep in a bed. And my back loves it too. When I sleep at someone else's place, and they give me a bed or a mattress on the floor to sleep on, I clearly notice the difference. Yuck. I always get back pain from it. I'm convinced that sleeping on the floor is hugely beneficial for our back and overall health.

The next step is that I actually want to sleep outside. I already sleep with open windows, but it's just not the same.

Walking Barefoot

A few weeks ago I switched to walking barefoot, all the time and everywhere.

I didn't consciously decide to make it a new habit. It just happened. When I started developing my intuition, getting rid of my shoes followed as a natural consequence.

Why do I do it? I cannot really explain it. I just feel so much better when I walk barefoot! I feel safer, more grounded. I also feel wonderfully free! It makes me happy.

It did hurt a lot at first and I got a few blisters. But after some training the skin under my feet got thicker. Now there still are surfaces that I have a hard time walking on - especially hot asphalt - but it's getting easier and easier. I can even walk over small pieces of broken glass without cutting myself. In a few months I'll probably be trained enough to walk just everywhere.

Actually I have gotten used to it so much that my feet protest when I wear shoes now, even my super-comfortable walking shoes. The feet start hurting internally after a while, probably because they're not free to move in a natural way with the shoes on. It's like wearing some stiff gloves that would immobilize your hands all day long.

Don't Go to the Gym!

I've found the ultimate exercise: gardening. That's what I'm doing daily at the moment, my mother is late with her garden and needs some help.

Gardening is fantastic! It's a versatile activity, you have to perform many different tasks, walking, pushing, pulling, pecking, bending down, stretching, carrying heavy things... You train all muscle groups, I can tell! I'm permanently having sore muscles just everywhere, from the neck to the feet, even in places I didn't think I had muscles... including in my fingers! Have you ever felt the muscles in your fingers at the gym?

Gardening also trains coordination, you have to manipulate things more subtly than you do with a few dumbbells. And it'll increase your stamina. After a while of cleaning your garden, you'll feel your heart work seriously, I assure you. So it's an all-round training, encompassing cardio, muscle building and coordination.

Another benefit: you get sunlight and fresh air. That's much better than to be caged in a room with artificial light and conditioned air smelling like plastic. We need sunlight and fresh air, just like we need to move. It's vital.

Not to forget the greatest benefit: you nourish yourself with your work. You get to eat the delicious organic things you have grown yourself.

I find it really strange and a bit funny to drive to the gym with a car, do some exercise there, come back with the car, and then buy some fruit and veggies, maybe even expensive organic things because they're healthier or more ethical. You pay to exercise, then you pay to eat. Why not exercise in your garden and eat the result of your exercise? You'd save the money for the gym, and the money for the food.

As for the energy, isn't it a big waste to use a lot of gas and pollute the environment with your car in order to go spend a lot of time and energy on some machines with no other purpose and no other result than to do so for its own sake... and then to need someone else to provide you with food?

If I were a gym owner, I'd use all these machines to at least produce some electricity. Imagine all these people in all these gyms all over the country, pushing, pulling and lifting all day long, imagine how much energy gets just wasted this way! No really, what a pity.

Gardening not only is a reasonable, ethical and healthy way to exercise, it's also a fun activity. I never get bored when I'm in the garden! I'd love to have my own and to grow lots of greens and berries in it.

Gardening also strengthens our connection to Nature, that many of us have unfortunately lost.

It can even have a meditative aspect. I always use it as an excellent opportunity to practice present moment awareness, focus on what I'm doing and let go of all thoughts. I feel very peaceful when I'm gardening.

And when you get hungry while working out, you can just eat the next right thing in front of you. Can you eat your dumbbells?