The sun has finally found Norway. After a ridiculously warm winter with something like 18 hours of sun total from January 1st to the end of February, March has brought the sun back to us. Especially these last two weeks - and the forecast says sun, sun, sun with a bit more sun. It's still ice cold in the mornings, though, with temperatures down to minus 5 degrees Celsius, but the sun is really warm. I love it. I'm sitting behind huge windows at school, enjoying the heat with sunglasses on and Stuff You Missed In History Class podcasts in my ears.
Sitting here in the sun really makes it feel like spring is finally here, and with thoughts of spring comes thoughts of summer. Summer! It's my absolute favorite season, and not just because my birthday is in June and I love birthdays. I have great memories of birthday celebrations, summer vacations spent hanging out with friends growing up, going on vacations with family - and, as I've grown older, with friends. Still, summer is my favorite season because it's just so happy. The days are longer and brighter, the warmth from the sun surrounds you and makes it totally okay to eat a popsicle to cool down - or to escape inside for a little while. The barbecue comes out, and we gather the extended family around for great food and many laughs. Summer makes people happier. It makes me happier. The gloomy winter months let go of me and I'm finally able to really smile, feel great - I'm almost bubbly when the sun starts heating things up, and those who know me, know that I'm not typically a bubbly person. Summer changes me for the better.
The sun just makes things different. The light is different. Warmer. Everything looks better. Outlooks are better. This year, I've even managed to secure a summer job at the beautiful Blaafarveværket, which is a tourist attraction very close to where I live (a 10-minute car ride, to be exact). It'll probably get hectic, but I think it'll be a nice break nonetheless. The hours are totally okay, the pay is good enough, and it'll fund my basic expenses and bills through June and July, since there's no student loans payouts in those months.
June. June'll be the greatest month this year, and I'm not saying that just because of my birthday or because the final exam in MRI theory is due June 6th, which marks the end of this school year. I'm saying that because of this:
That's right. June 10th, at 9 AM, Norwegian flight DY1740 leaves Oslo Airport with Irene and me on board. We're headed to Barcelona, as you might've guessed, for 15 days of awesomeness. Yeah, we've been planning this trip for a couple of years now, to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in the city that brought us together.
Even though I've had car troubles for a little while now that have pretty much drained my Barcelona savings (prompting me to start this FundRazr campaign), we're dead set on making this the best trip ever. I don't even care what life throws at us between now and June 10th, we are going, and it will be the vacation of a lifetime. I've been planning this for so long now, and everything's paid for. Nothing can ruin this for us. Nothing at all.
Sitting here enjoying the sun my thoughts are automatically drawn towards Barcelona - sitting in the Spanish sun, maybe eating a nice picnic lunch in Parc de la Ciutadella, touring around the city on the Bus Turístic, seeing many of the things we've seen before and quite a few new ones (hopefully we'll get to do a day trip to Montserrat, which would be awesome).. and just enjoying life. I'm going to start working on our itinerary now - 15 days to fill with adventures!
I simply can't wait for June to roll around, because I'm pretty sure it'll be the best June so far in my life.
