Since coming here five days ago I’ve been all over Molde: boating to Heart Island in the fjords, exploring the troll woods, going for a joy ride and to Norwegian high school, hiking in the mountains, baking boller and eating lots of Norwegian food.
I also played Norwegian catch phrase with Marte’s friends (extremely difficult if you don’t know Norwegian), went to an aerobics class, and went to a church youth group (Marte translated everything for me). Except for the whole language thing, I’m living exactly like a Norwegian and it’s fabulous. The best part about it has been staying with my friends because it’s like being with family. I feel like I have three sisters again, only their names are different: Marte, Frida and Synne (Andreas is their older brother, but he’s studying in Trondeheim right now).
I’m guessing you’ve heard of Oslo, but I doubt you’ve heard of Molde (pronounced Molda). It’s an hour’s flight northwest of Oslo and is located amongst the fjords and mountains. (The Molde panorama consists of 222 peaks.) During World War II, Molde was almost entirely destroyed and for a while the King of Norway hid in Molde. Nobel Prize winner, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, was raised in Molde. 
It is known as the “Town of Roses” and is home to the internationally famous Molde Jazz Festival which takes place during the summer. Soccer and handball are the most popular sports (in the PE class I went to they were only just learning how to play basketball). Kroners are the currency and it’s about 6 kroners to the dollar, or 8 kroners to the euro, which you’d think would improve one’s purchasing power. But unfortunately things are really expensive. The cheapest ice cream was 10 kroners while the best was 45 kroners (about 7 dollars). Also famous is the ananasbrus, a special pineapple soda produced only in Molde. 
Norwegian breakfast, lunch and snack food consists of open faced sandwiches and as in France, bread is all important. Grocery stores have bread slicing machines, so cool! Different combination toppings for bread include: cucumbers and margarine; cheese and grapes; caviar and mayonnaise; brown cheese with or without jam; liver paste and cucmbers; cream cheese and turkey; cloud berry jam, etc. Cloud Berries are these orange raspberry-ish berries that you have to hunt for high in the mountains at the end of summer. When people locate a cloud berry spot they keep it secret because these berries are so rare. 
Yesterday Synne and I (with Hilde’s help) made boller (pronounced bola) which are sweet rolls. They’re not really that difficult to make, the only tricky part is the yeast. I also figured out that cardamom is what gives boller its distinct smell and flavor. For the recipe, you mix a bunch of melted butter and milk with sugar, flour, cardamom and yeast. Then stir and let the dough rest. Afterwards separate the dough, roll it into balls, brush it with egg white and stick it in the oven and let the smell waft through the air. Afterwards you can eat them plain or with frosting or cheese or jam or whipped cream or butter. I hadn’t had one in years and it was delicious! 
The traditional dress is the bunad. These outfits are worn for special occasions like baptisms and the 17th of May celebration, though Marte tells me that no one would bat an eye if someone wearing a bunad just walked into their store. For weddings everyone, except the bride, wears them since it’s like wearing your finest. The detailed embroidery and colors are remarkable and also distinguish which part of Norway you come from. 
Ha det!Heidi
P.S. The quote at the top is a very fitting Norwegian saying.
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