Yannani

Bunch of walks and bunch of foods!

Yesterday Nathan and I joined my mother on a nice walk around the harbour and then we ended with some delicious food at a restaurant. While today Nathan got to taste crispy burgers in a croissant and experience the Norwegian shopping centres

We started yesterday by taking the tram down to the central station and walking into “Østbanehallen” which used to be a proper station in the olden days. Now it had turned into a place with shops and restaurants. My mum had needed to stop by the pharmacy so Nathan and I decided to check out the sushi place called “YO Sushi” since they had conveyor belt sushi or rotation sushi. Nathan had never seen that before so we decided to sit down and have a couple of bites. After that, we met up with my mum and headed over to the new public library.

The new library was huge and had over 4 floors. They also had so much more than books. There were instruments, a sound studio, 3D printers, sewing machines and a bunch of other things. There is tons of space to both study and read. It has really revolutionised the way we think when it comes to libraries. When we were done at the library when showed Nathan the Oprah house and then we just walked around the harbour.

When we were done with our work we headed home and reset up before we went out for dinner. My parents wanted to take us to this nice Thai restaurant that they had been to many times before. I have also been there a couple of times. At the restaurant, Nathan and I decided to go with duck as our main dish. So we had duck with grapes, pineapple and cherry tomatoes with a lovely sauce. It both looked and tasted delicious.

After everyone had eaten their dish we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Today we decided to take it pretty chill. We went out to a place that sold fried chicken burgers since Nathan wanted to try one where they used a croissant as the bun. The place is called “Fly Chicken” and he really enjoyed his meal. After that, I showed him where I used to work and then we had some frozen yoghurt.

At around 4.30 pm my mum picked us up to go to another shopping centre because she wanted to buy me a new winter jacket. We first tried out the shop that she usually goes to, but they didn’t have anything we liked so we went with another one. I found a nice dark blue one that was fairly thin but also thick enough to keep me warm. Then my mum did some groceries shopping and we just walked around. I went to buy a cable for my dad and then Nathan bought a crab shell to eat later.

When all that was over we just headed home, had dinner and talked for a while in the living room. Tomorrow we are heading home and I must admit that even though it was super nice being with my family again I am looking forward to being back home again. Our last adventure is happing tomorrow so I’ll tell you all about it then.

Showing what Oslo has to offer

Today I showed Nathan different places around Oslo. We visited the food court, the shopping streets and the Norwegian winter wonderland. They were a bunch of beautiful lights everywhere.

We woke up at around 1 pm and got ready to head out. Today was another cold day outside with around -6 degrees. We walked down to the station and took the tram down to where the city kind of started and walked from there. I had already mapped out a route we would walk so that he got to see most of what we had to offer.

It started with Mathallen which is a food court located right before you enter the crowded part of the city. In there you have a bunch of different restaurants from Asian, Mexican, Italian etc, but you also have some places that sell some interesting things. Nathan and I decided to try out a sandwich place since we hadn’t eaten breakfast. He had a spicy cheese chicken sandwich and I had a cheese chicken with spinach wrap. They tasted super good and even had some hotness to them which we both like. Mine came with ALOT of sauce so It was a bit messy to eat xD

After the food court, we walked further into the city until we reached a store called Yummy Heaven. I told Nathan that this was the best candy store in Oslo. Naturally, he was interested so we went inside to take a look and ended up buying a small bag of mixed candy. Then we carried on walking through the walking street past another food court that I wanted to show him but they are temporarily closed because of Covid.

Our next stop was Power aka one of the biggest brands for electronics. Since we had a gift card for 1k NOK aka around € 100 we decided to take a look inside. We had already an idea of what we wanted to buy but it didn’t we decided to take a look around regardless. Unfortunately, they didn’t have what we wanted there so we had to go to another one. There was one close to home that we decided we would stop by.

Next, we visited Oslo’s store for anything anime/manga related. Neo Tokyo was our next stop. Thankfully it wasn’t too far away from the electronic shop plus it was inside a small shopping centre so we could warm ourselves up. In this store, they sold a bunch of different anime related things. They had also expanded which was new for me too. Nathan did not find what he was looking for but still thought the store looked cool. Apparently finding the right merch from the “Fate” franchise isn’t easy.

The last place we went to was the small winter wonderland that Oslo has every Christmas. It isn’t as big as the one in Brussels and it’s way more expensive, but it looked just as beautiful with all the different stands and everything. We did not buy anything here because there wasn’t anything too interesting plus we only brought hand luggage which means we are limited to what we can bring with us home, but we walked around and mingled with the crowd. After we had gotten something to drink we decided to head home. We walked up to the subway station and waited for our subway.

Before we headed all the way home we made sure to make a stop at the electronic store “Power” that was at Storo to use our gift cards. We had decided to both go for one “Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVME SSD 500GB” each. They cost just under 1k NOK which meant that we had used up both of the cards. All we gotta do now is install them on our pc when we get home. These also get screwed straight into the motherboard which makes them super faster with a bit over 3k writing speed which is 7x faster than a regular SSD. I can’t wait to put my games on it such as “The witcher“. After this, we finally went home to relax.

Today we had to take away pizza for dinner since my parents wanted to relax from making all the Christmas food. The food was amazing and tomorrow we are headed out with my family which can go both ways.

As always I hope that you guys have had an amazing day too.

The family Grut meets Nathan

Today we had a family party with my mother’s side of the family. My aunt, uncle, my two older cousins including boyfriends. It was also their first time meeting Nathan.

The party started at 5 pm when the guests arrived. We served them some champagne and everyone got to greet Nathan. Then we sat down by the fireplace and started chatting while my mother finished up the dinner. There were a lot of catching up conversations and the rest of the family were very eager to get to know Nathan better. They asked about his work, where we lived and what I was doing. I told them about my dutch lessons and our experience with the embassy.

When it came to dinner we had made it into some sort of buffet where there was a bit of everything. Some smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, bread, cheese, leftovers from what we had on Christmas eve and a bunch of other stuff. Everything tasted delicious. Nathan got to taste some Norwegian akevitt, which it seemed that he liked. For dessert, we had some English Christmas pudding with vanilla sauce. Nathan couldn’t have any because he is allergic to fruits which is the main ingredient in an English Christmas pudding.

After everyone had eaten it was time for some more presents. I got a new body cream, a dress (which I’m not really sure I’ll use too much) and a wool jumper. They were really nice presents and even if I might not use them a lot it’s the thought that counts. The guests left around 9.30 pm.

The rest of the night Nathan and I just relaxed in our room played some TFT and watched some Netflix before heading to bed. Tomorrow we are planning on heading out into the city to see what’s going on there. Looking forward to that.

Going home for that Norwegian Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful time through these troubling times, This year Nathan and I are spending Christmas eve and a week in Norway.

I started the day with my oral exam in Dutch. The exam was online which meant I could do it from home. It started at 9:15 am and lasted 15 min. We went through the different subjects such as; family, moving, use of present tense and doktor. I was feeling super nervous but in the end, I felt that it went better than expected.

Our next task was to prepare for the flight ahead. We still had to pack and tidy the apartment a bit. The plan was to leave at noon, but we weren’t ready until 12:45. We went to the bus station and waited for the bus. We hoped we would be able to take the train that left at 13:19, but we were just too late when we arrived. Next one left at 13:49 which would give us 40 min to go through everything at the airport. All this made me really stressed.

When we arrived at the airport I tried to move as fast as I could. We were super lucky because there was no line for the security which saved us a ton of time which made me really happy, but little did I know that the plane would end up being 1h delayed anyways xD

It all started with a 30 min delay. Then when everyone had boarded the plane we got an announcement that someone from the previous flight had forgotten their brown hand luggage so the entire staff had to check if it was on the plane which took almost 30 min. After that was resolved they had to resume the process of loading the other luggage into the plane which added another 30 min. So at 4 pm we finally took off and we landed in Norway at around 7:45 pm. Then we had to have the police check our registration form and we thought they would want to see our vaccination pass, but the guy just said “it’s fine I trust you” which made me wonder if he does that with everyone. After that, we stopped by the duty-free to pick up some alcohol before we went to get tested. When EVERYTHING was done we finally found where my sister had parked and headed over. Then we were on our way home.

During the car ride, we talked a bit with my sister since this is the first time anyone in my family has seen Nathan everyone was very curious. When we arrived home we got greeted with both of my parents, a lovely tree and some amazing food. We still had to wait for a bit until dinner was ready which gave my parents some time to get to know Nathan. Then finally at almost 9 pm dinner was ready. We were having a classic Norwegian dinner.

That consists of a bunch of different sorts of meat. The main attraction is the rib steak of pork where the giant challenge is to get the skin the perfect crust with crunch. Then you also have meatballs and small sausages. For the side dishes, you usually have red kale, jam, potatoes and different causes. The entire meal is really delicious but also contains a bunch of fat xD. It came from when Norway was a poor country and Christmas meal was when you finally enjoyed some great food together with your close one.

After dinner, we prepared ourselves for the presents. We went around opening different presents from both friends and family. Nathan and I got each a pair of tall soft socks and a gift card. Then I got a jumper from my sister. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any presents for my parents or my sister which I will have to find during my time here. By the time everything was done it was already midnight and everyone were ready to head to bed.

I hope you guys had an amazing day too or if you celebrate today I wish everyone a very merry Christmas. May you celebrate with either family or friends and with some amazing food. For those who do presents I hope you get something nice 😀

Winter wonderland Brussels

This Saturday I and Nathan went to Winter Wonders in Brussels. It’s basically a giant Christmas market that stretches around different locations within Brussels centrum. It was great fun and I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it.

Our plan was to arrive in Brussels by 3 pm, but we ended up sleeping way longer than expected. The bus was also super late which meant that we had to take the next train and everything, so we didn’t arrive until 5 pm. It was already dark so all the lights looked amazing though.

We started by walking to the “grand palace” where they had put up a giant tree with light and people to place their own ornaments. We got our event bracelets which made sure that we were allowed to buy stuff from the stands. We walked down and everything looks so beautiful. All the light and all the people really gave the perfect holiday vibes. There were tons of stands that sold everything from food, clothing, jewellery & a bunch of other things.

We walked around for around 2 hours before we decided to head home. Since it takes us almost the same amount of time to travel there. On the way home, we met some interesting people. First was the train conductors who made a joke about confiscating the coconut balls that we bought from the market. The second was a drunk guy on the bus who asked the driver if he could stop and wait for him because he had to take a leak. Surprisingly the guy complied xD.

All in all, it was a rad weekend and we are getting closer to Christmas. It’s less than a week left until Nathan and I are heading to Norway to meet my parents. We are staying there for a week so I’ll keep you guys updated. It will be the first time my parents meet Nathan which I’m kind of nervous about…but we will see how it goes. I also have my oral exam that same day so it’s going to be a bunch of nerves xD.

Dutch test & baked potatoes!

Today I had a written test about the subject “Family” from my Dutch lesson. After the test, I met up with Nathan in Antwerp. We went to a new eating place he recommended & to the MediaMarkt.

I had to take public transport rather than the bike since I was going to the city straight after the lesson. I managed to time it correctly and met up 10 min in advance. Before the break, we had a regular lesson where we learned more about things related to apartments. It was quite a stressful part because we kept having to pair up for different exercises and my partner wasn’t really the best when it came to me learning things. So I was surprisingly looking forward to the test so that I could just work individually.

After the break at around 11 am we got handed our test. It consisted of 3 parts: one listening, one where we read a text and gather the needed information and the last one where we had to send an e-mail to a friend telling them about a family with the giving information. We got their position in the family (father, mother etc), their age, what did for work and what they liked to do. Overall, I think I did pretty well. Part 1 and 2 weren’t way easier than I expected. I struggled a bit on the 3rd one, but that was about it.

Since I finished the test around noon I got to go earlier which is always nice. I took the tram to the city where I waited for Nathan to show up. We ofc first went to get bubble tea (It’s a tradition now) where I got a Virgin pina colada with mango bubbles. It tasted really good. While drinking our tea we walked towards the restaurant. It’s called “Kumpir Eethuis”. We first thought it was closed because of its terrible lighting until I noticed that people were getting served and we went in. The restaurant specialises in making baked potatoes. The menu looked so interesting and there were a lot of different choices to pick from. I went with the “Doner with garlic sauce” and Nathan went with “Chicken with a cocus and curry sauce”. I managed to almost finish my potato but the potions were really big. My goal was to at least eat up all the meat parts. Nathan didn’t have the space for everything.

After we had left and walked away from the restaurant I suddenly realise that I didn’t have my bag with me which meant I had to go back for it which was kind of awkward. I also managed to walk in circles trying to find the way to MediaMarkt. At the MediaMarkt I was looking for LED strips for my room which I can’t wait to install. We also bought an extension block for all the contacts.

Nathan also told me where the name Antwerpen came from. So hand = hand in dutch and werpen = throwing. They just removed the H and changed the D to a T. There is also a statue in the city close to “groenplaats”

Detail of the statue of Silvius Brabo throwing a hand. The statue is in front of the Antwerp town hall (Flanders, Belgium).

So after a long day, we finally headed home and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. Since we both were really full from the baked potato place we just had a small dinner.

~ Anna

Crazy exciting weekend!

This weekend was filled with a lot’s of fun activities which were so fun. We were outside more than we have ever been since the summer vacation in June.

So this weekend aka 30th and 31st of October Comic-con was being held in Brussels. As soon as I found out I asked Nathan if he would be interested in going there with me and he was happily agreed, so we purchased two standard tickets for Saturday. I was so excited and couldn’t wait. I haven’t been to such an event since around 2016 because of different reasons such as money and friends.

In the days leading up to it, I also went to the hairdressers. If you don’t know I had a birthday stream with different goals where one of them were to dye my hair. I decided to go with black and dark green thinking that the timing would be perfect with Comic-con and Halloween just around the corner. Ended up spending almost 3h at the hairdressers and the result was way more subtle than I expected, but I didn’t mind it too much because it was still a new colour and a fresh cut.

On Saturday we decided that we wanted to be there around 1-2pm. The total travel time was around 1h45min because we first had to get to Antwerp, then take the train to Brussels and then another bus to the area. The trip went pretty smoothly and I really enjoy train trips and seeing new things along the way. As soon as we got to where the event was being held we showed them our ticket and vaccination certificate and then it was onwards into the event.

It was soo big and so many people of different ages from kids to adults. There were also so many amazing costumes and stands. There was clothes, food, action figures etc. My plan for comic con was to find something from the Demon Slayer anime more specifically some Nezuko merch. We walked around for quite a while checking out everything including a small area for games and the food quarter where we ate lunch. I didn’t see anything I wanted which started to make me a bit upset and as soon as I saw a Nezuko figurine it got sold to the person right before me. Thankfully Nathan spotted a box in the background and alerted me. I bought it without hesitation and was so happy. Shortly after we found another figurine and naturally I wanted that one too. I bought way more than I thought I would, but everything was soo worth it.

We also made sure to keep hydrated and eat whenever we were hungry. Our main “meal” was a bowl with chicken curry, rice and salad and Nathan had a giant sandwich with pulled pork and some salad in it. Later on we I got some Onigiri since I was curious about how they tasted and we both had some bubble tea.

We ended up staying almost until the event was done and left around 6.30 pm. Our trip back home was not as smoothly because we took a train which had more stops and we also had a delay which made the train have to wait 20 min at a station. We weren’t home until 9 pm. So we were both pretty exhausted and just chilled for the rest of the evening.

The next day aka Sunday was Halloween. Belgium doesn’t celebrate it the same way that I was used to in Norway with small children dressing up in costumes going “trick or treating”. So for us, it was just a normal Sunday, but I did decide to have a small stream for the occasion where I played the new update of Phasmophobia with friends and a new game called SOMA which is about robots in short terms. The stream was way more amazing than I thought it would. We had so much fun with Marbles on stream and some of the amazing people from my community gifted multiple subs. At the end of the stream, we had gotten 30 gifted subs and 325 bits. We also drew a winner of the giveaway and revealed our next emotes. You guys are so incredibly generous and a tiny bit crazy, but I really do appreciate all the love and support.

So this weekend has been the most fun I have had in a long time and it’s thanks to all of you guys. I hope you also have had a lot’s of fun.

Double October Fest!

It’s now October, the month where all the spooky, scare things happening because of Halloween! Both me and my boyfriend have our birthday in this month so we decide to celebrate.

A Gen Z’s birthday!

My birthday was first up on 8th of October. Unfortunately Nathan was still recovering from his hospital visit. We decided to just have a quite small celebration. I therefor decided to host a “Birthday stream” event with goals and fun activates. I had everything prepared and ready to go live without knowing that I would regret it later (in a funny way xD).

These were my goals and my plan was that for every gifted sub it would add to a counter, but thanks to amazing friends we reached them within the first 2h of stream. My friend wanted me to do a 24h run and since she has been so generous towards my streams lately I decided to agree. The evening was amazing and I had a lot of fun and some wonderful people I haven’t spoken to in a while stopping by and giving me their wishes.

Played some “Dead by daylight”, “League of legends” and even starter my first play through of “Life is strange”

My top highlight from that day was all the amazing wishes, subs and bits plus the “Spicy Ramen” goal even though it gave me a super upset stomach for the rest of the evening.

A millennial’s birthday!

The second one was happened on the 19th one. This time Nathan was feeling way better and was had gotten his energy level back to normal. We decided to go into town since it has been a long while since we were there. As always was our plan to get Bubble tea and some delicious ramen.

I also wanted to go into a store called “4geeks” to see if they had any “Demon Slayer” merch specifically Nezuko stuff, but they unfortunately didn’t. We tried going to another similar store, but no luck there either. So we decided to just continue with our plan. This time I went with a “Frozen coconut with nutella” and Nathan went with “Oreo-shake” with apple bubbles. Both of them tasted amazing although this time I decided to not pick any bubbles.

When it came to the food we went to our favorite place and ordered our self a bowl of ramen each. I went with the “Spicy tempura scampi ramen” and boyfriend and something with fried chicken and scampi too. After everything I felt so full that I couldn’t possible eat anything else.

At the end of the day we just went home, played some games and relaxed for the remaining of the day since I also had my Dutch exam (another post)

So that was our birthday’s this year. It was an amazing time and I’m glad that I got to spend with both my friends and my partner since this was the first time without my family it really meant a lot to me that they were there.

Language school and vaccination

It’s been a while since my last post so here comes a small update on how everything is going. A lot of new things have happened and I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it.

News number one is that I started language school, because I feel it’s important to learn the language if I want to have a better chance of getting a job here. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 am to 12 pm I go to learn some Dutch. According to my mentor I am currently taking A1 which are just the basics. Some of the stuff I have learning I already knew from Duolingo, but some things are new which is nice. It’s also back to having homework which is alright. My school last until the 28th of October. I will then take an exam/test to check if I move on the next level. Getting to the school have been a bit complicated since the public transport here isn’t that reliable. All in all it’s still a fun and exciting experience and one that will help my move better.

The second news is that since I’m going to school I got told that I could get vaccinated for free. All I had to do was meet up at the place that was mentioned and bring my ID (which in my case is my passport). So I headed over to the location this Tuesday (21st September) and there were quite a lot of people to no ones surprise since it was a free vaccination shot. The queue time tok around 20 min so it wasn’t so bad. When I got in the front the were a couple of staff that asked if I was feeling ill and they also took my temperature. Then the guy at the desk took my passport and registered me for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

For those who doesn’t know that vaccine you only take one shot off so no second dose needed. It is meant for people who for example are homeless and hard reach to get to meet up for a second dose. It has an efficacy of 66.9% against symptomatic moderate and severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. There are a lot more detailed information, but I am just happy that I’m fully vaccinated. According to the people working there I will get an email once everything is finalised and completed. After taking the vaccination my arm has been a bit stiff for the past days. My side effects so far has been: Pain, a bit of swelling in the arm and muscle pain, chills, nausea throughout the rest of my body, but nothing too serious which I’m happy for.

My boyfriend on the other hand is still I’ll from his second vaccination shot. It’s been almost 6 weeks and his glands are still pretty big, but at least he seems to get his taste buds back to normal. He does miss going to work which is understandable so hopefully he will recover soon and be able to go back to work.

So that was just a small updated on what has been happening with me these past weeks. There are still a lot of things to be done before I’m can considered being fully moved. My next plan now is to get try to get an appointment at the Norwegian embassy in Brussels to help out with making my official address set here in Belgium. All in due time. For now we just got to wait and hope for the best.

Halloween is coming up and I do have some plans when it comes to games I am planning to play on stream. So whiteout spoiling too much all I’ll say if you’re like horror games or watch someone who never usually plays them try them out then definitely feel free to stop by my stream during the next anytime the next month especially on Halloween. My schedule is every Monday, Wednesday at 2 pm cest over at https://www.twitch.tv/yannani and I hope to see you guys there :D.

hope you guys have had a lovely week and stay safe ❤

My move from Norway to Belgium

I have finally moved from Norway to Belgium to live with my current boyfriend. I am excited about how this will all turn out, but what I know for sure is that it will be one hell of an adventure.

The week leading up to the move I talked to a bunch of people to be sure I didn’t forget to do something important before I left. I talked to my mentor in the government and to my boss plus a couple of other important people. Thankfully the requirements I had to do wasn’t that long. I basically just had to report the move into the state department and the postal service and that was basically it. I packed all of my clothes plus some other items down and sent it away through the mail. My pc-case was going into a suitcase with me on the plane so I had to make sure that it was safe and secure with both bubble wrap and clothing. Then i also packed a small suitcase as a hand luggage so that I had some cloths if need be.

On my last day in Norway I met with my boss for lunch and we just had a nice chat about my work in their company, life in general and the road forward. She wished me good luck in Belgium and said that if anything should happen and I would have to come back to Norway I could always hit them up if I need some work. That made me feel a bit safer just in case this move doesn’t work out. The rest of the day spent mostly traveling towards the airport, going through the steps to get on and off the plane and more public transport to Nathan’s apartment.

The move was a being kept as a surprise from Nathan. He thought I would be arriving today, but I was able to change the flight without extra cost so I did and decided to keep it as a surprise for him. It wasn’t easy because I just wanted to tell him that I was moving in earlier. I had also told a couple of friend which made me worried that they might accidently reveal it, but all of them managed to keep it a secret.

When I showed up at his front door he got so happy and gave me a BIG hug. Since he is still ill our days are mostly spent sitting in the sofa. I have so far tried to make some appointments that will help me get a job here since I have 6 months so get a job to be eligible to stay in the country. I can’t wait until I have settled in properly with a job and everything only then will I be able to finally relax.

I hope you guys have had an amazing start of September and I wish you all to stay safe