looking4mikey

[looking4mikey]

19/5/2025

Did I not log in to this account till nearly the end of my exam season? Yeah. Am I still gonna post? Yeah. Oh my Godddd.

I have hopes for at least a triple B this year, no under. But CCEA is evil and gave us a pre-examined poem that we didn't learn in class for our Unit 1 Section 1 exam. Love Poem by Jennings. They paired it with The Whitsun Weddings by Larkin???? Horrendous. But besides that, everything's been fiiiine.

Did my History Unit 2 today, which went well enough (spent 2hrs prior sitting in the library and shaking like a leaf from anxiety and a Monster. The notes got more unintelligible as I went on). And my final exam is on Friday, which is my Frankenstein essay. Praying it goes well.

Good luck to everyone else doing exams <333

[looking4mikey]

Coming up to Easter break and then my AS exams :/ I'm scared as shit, so I'm trying ti get my head down.

Not to mention that my exams are on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 23rd. My media exam is first and 2hrs 30mins long :(((

[looking4mikey]

[looking4mikey]

Forgot to mention this but I got a B in this Media Studies essay I did a few weeks ago, which is my aim! Yay!

[looking4mikey]

history :p

[looking4mikey]

[looking4mikey]

Update — 25.02.2025

I forgot my login details for a few months. (Un?)fortunately, conveniently over mocks time so I couldn't post that, though my grades were not that great so I need to get my head down and work on that. Also, it was my birthday in December, also conveniently while I wasn't on this blog.

On the plus side, I'm motivating myself a little bit more. English Lit is fine, though I'm a little nervous to get my first Streetcar essay back.

History's tricky because all my teacher does it read off powerpoints and let us just work on textbook stuff while everyone talks loudly about unrelated stuff, so I struggle to focus. I might make some flashcards though and take stuff from the CCEA revision book or something.

Media Studies has been difficult lately because of coursework and my teacher being a pain to deal with. I'm just gonna cope through it and memorise the key terms and theorists and stuff (any tips?)

I did finish reading A Streetcar Named Desire, which I loved and am still working on in class, and I just finished Diary of an Oxygen Thief today, which I hated.

I've fallen behind on my language learning, though, besides bits and pieces of French snd German. Norwegian has been slightly abandoned, at least for the moment, but I've taken the opportunity to familiarise myself with Russian a little bit because of my history work.

[looking4mikey]

I forgot my login info oh my god 😭

[looking4mikey]

21.11.2024

I borrowed The Bell Jar from the college library yesterday because I've been meaning to read it for so long. I've also been listening to the audiobook because I find it difficult to motivate myself to properly read. It's good so far! I'm only on Ch3 though.

[looking4mikey]

[looking4mikey]

Norwegian cold & flu vocab list

Because I have a cold and I’m grumpy about it.

forkjølelse (en) - cold influensa (en) - flu infeksjon (en) - infection virus (et) - virus smittemåte (en) - route of infection smittsom - contagious

symptom (et) - symptom feber (en) - fever vondt i halsen - a sore throat rennende nese (en/ei) - a runny nose hodepine (en/ei) - headache tørrhoste (en) - dry cough slim (et) - mucus tap av appetitt - loss of appetite ømme muskler (en øm muskel) - sore/tender/aching muscles muskelsmerter (en muskelsmerte) - muscle pain frysninger (en/ei frysning) - chills

sliten - tired grinete - grumpy sur - sour/annoyed/upset/mad lei - fed up blek - pale

å bli (være) forkjølet - to get (have) a cold å bli (være) syk - to get (be) sick/to fall (be) ill å smitte - to infect å vare - to last å nyse - to sneeze å hoste - to cough å lindre - to relieve å miste stemmen - to lose one’s voice

jeg vil legge meg - I want to go to bed jeg vil sove - I want to sleep jeg orker ikke - I don’t have the energy/I don’t want to/I can’t be bothered jeg er så lei av å være syk - I’m so fed up of being ill jeg føler meg kvalm - I feel sick du ser litt blek ut - you look a bit pale du ser jævlig ut - you look terrible/you look like shit

[looking4mikey]

Podcasts for intermediate/advanced Norwegian listening practice

Finding Norwegian podcasts has always been a bit daunting for me, because I don't listen to a lot of podcasts in general, but over the past weeks I've discovered some that I really enjoy!

1. Lær norsk nå!

This podcast (norsknivå B1 – B2) cover all sorts of interesting social, cultural and political topics - coffee, the Cold War, right-wing populism in Norway, feminism, Sámi history, etc - as well as aspects of the Norwegian language 🔡 You can listen to all the episodes and find transcripts for them (starting with episode 5) here. The host, Marius, is originally from Nærbø (in Rogaland, near Stavanger), and speaks in both his dialect and also standard østnorsk depending on the episode.

2. Relax With Slow Norwegian

I'm a tinglehead (someone who loves listening to ASMR ✨), so I was super excited to find this podcast and Lene's YouTube channel! She speaks bergensk and has lots of great episodes and videos dedicated to learning Norwegian centered around a specific topic.

3. Norskpodden

An awesome podcast (norsknivå B1 – B2) with episodes ranging from grammar to salary negotiation to the the history of queer rights in Norway. Episodes and transcripts can be found here. I find the transcripts helpful, because the host Camila speaks at a quite natural pace (so it gives me a huge confidence boost whenever I can understand most of an episode without the transcripts 😎).

4. Nylig Norsk

This is a fun little podcast created by students at the University of Bergen. They speak a lot slower than the other podcasts here, which sounds a bit unnatural, but that makes it quite easy to understand (norsknivå A2-B1). The topics are engaging and there's transcripts here for each episode. I like the "city-trip"/regional episodes, and it felt really cool having been to some of the places they talked about! ✈️

5. Språktalk

This podcast isn't aimed at people learning Norwegian, which is good practice for listening to natural-sounding dialogue. The episodes are all about languages and linguistic topics, so if that's your cup of tea I highly suggest giving it a listen. They had a German guest for one episode who spoke Norwegian sooooo well, it gave me hope for myself 😂

6. Forklart

Forklart, another podcast that isn't aimed at people learning Norwegian, takes a topic from the news (sometimes domestic news, but more often international news) and breaks it down into a compact 15-minute episode 🗞 There is one episode every day, so if you're interested in keeping up with current political events in Norwegian, this is a great podcast to listen to! Although keep in mind that the podcast is run by Aftenposten (as is Språktalk), which has historically been a centre-right newspaper.

[looking4mikey]

Colors (Norwegian)

Patreon

[looking4mikey]

how to start reading again

from someone who was a voracious reader until high school and is now getting back into it in her twenties.

start with an old favourite. even though it felt a little silly, i re-read the harry potter series one christmas and it wiped away my worry that i wasn't capable of reading anymore. they are long books, but i was still able to get completely immersed and to read just as fast as i had years and years ago.

don't be afraid of "easier" books. before high school i was reading the french existentialists, but when getting back into reading, i picked up lucinda riley and sally rooney. not my favourite authors by far, but easier to read while not being totally terrible. i needed to remind myself that only choosing classics would not make me a better or smarter person. if a book requires a slower pace of reading to be understood, it's easier to just drop it, which is exactly what i wanted to avoid at first.

go for essays and short stories. no need to explain this one: the shorter the whole, the less daunting it is. i definitely avoided all books over 350 pages at first and stuck to essay collections until i suddenly devoured donna tartt's goldfinch.

remember it's okay not to finish. i was one of those people who finished every book they started, but not anymore! if i pick up a book at the library and after a few chapters realise i'd rather not read it, i just return it. (another good reason to use your local library! no money spent on books you might end up disliking.)

analyse — or don't. some people enjoy reading more when they take notes or really stop to think about the contents. for me, at first, it was more important to build the habit of reading, and the thought of analysing what i read felt daunting. once i let go of that expectation, i realised i naturally analyse and process what i read anyway.

read when you would usually use your phone. just as i did when i was a child, i try to read when eating, in the bathroom, on public transport, right before sleeping. i even read when i walk, because that's normally a time i stare at my screen anyway. those few pages you read when you brush your teeth and wait for a friend very quickly stack up.

finish the chapter. if you have time, try to finish the part you're reading before closing the book. usually i find i actually don't want to stop reading once i get to the end of a chapter — and if i do, it feels like a good place to pick up again later.

try different languages. i was quickly approaching a reading slump towards the end of my exchange year, until i realised i had only had access to books in english and that, despite my fluency, i was tired of the language. so as soon as i got back home i started picking up books in my native tongue, which made reading feel much easier and more fun again! after some nine months, i'm starting to read in english again without it feeling like a huge task.

forget what's popular. i thought social media would be a fun way to find interesting books to read, but i quickly grew frustrated after hating every single book i picked up on some influencer's recommendation. it's certainly more time-consuming to find new books on your own, but this way i don't despise every novel i pick up.

remember it isn't about quantity. the online book community's endless posts about reading 150 books each year or 6 books in a single day easily make us feel like we're slow, bad readers, but here's the thing: it does not matter at all how many books you read or what your reading pace is. we all lead different lives, just be proud of yourself for reading at all!

stop stressing about it. we all know why reading is important, and since the pandemic reading has become an even more popular hobby than it was before (which is wonderful!). however, there's no need to force yourself to be "a reader". pick up a book every now and then and keep reading if you enjoy it, but not reading regularly doesn't make you any less of a good person. i find the pressure to become "a person who reads" or to rediscover my inner bookworm only distances me from the very act of reading.

[looking4mikey]

weekly goals (week one):

Finish The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (and remember to return it to the library)

Finish Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Do the questions of the Frankenstein chapters 17 to 20 reading for English Lit class and finish reading the article on the Bride and representation of women in the novel

Do the PPT on the music video for Media Studies class

Do my 4 hours in study hall at college

Do 10 minute per day on each language

Continue writing short story

[looking4mikey]

welcome to my studyblr ✩𖦹°‧₊ ⊹

I'm Mikey (if you can't tell from the totally discreet Looking For Alaska reference in my username) and this is my studyblr!

What I'm studying (A-Levels):

English Lit (next exam: Unit 2 Prose (Frankenstein))

History (finished exams)

Media Studies (finished exam)

Languages I'm learning:

French

German

Languages I want to learn:

Latin

Ukrainian

Dutch

Finnish

Norwegian

Books I've read this year (2025):

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (I know it's a play, but I read it, so...)

Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous

This Story Is A Lie by Benjamin Dean

The Outsider by Albert Camus

Books I'm currently reading:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Fun facts about me:

I write poetry and short stories! I also write fanfiction on AO3 (Cybernetica)

I'm from Northern Ireland

I want to be a writer and filmmaker

I created this blog to improve my productivity and focus on studying, so I really hope it helps!