Of Ice and (Snow)Men

A lot has happened since I last wrote, but long story short is my flight to Paris was cancelled BUT thanks to the Brunvolls I managed to get a direct flight to Belgium just two days after my original flight. During my last days in Norway I did koselig things like grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and even driving! In Norway! That’s one thing I definitely didn’t think I’d get to do in Europe, but I got to take Frida to swim practice. I forgot how freeing it is to be able to drive. Food shopping is extremely interesting in different countries because the products are so different. Sometimes it’s more fun to walk into a super market than visit another cathedral or museum. In one of the Norwegian grocery stores there was an aisle dedicated to Americans: Skippy peanut butter, Hershey’s syrup, marshmallow fluff and Macaroni & Cheese.

On one of the days it snowed! In April! Marte and I weren’t about to let that bog us down so we threw on some warm clothes and went outside to have a snowball fight, make snow angles and build a snowman. Our snowman turned out a little creepy, but it was “the doing” and creativity that mattered. Afterwards we ate porridge, nachos, guacamole, hot chocolate and popsicles (but not at the same time). A couple days later all the snow melted in the warmth of the sun.

Here are some random observations:

>In Norwegian schools, they call their teachers by their first names.

>For lunch they eat open faced sandwiches and they don’t take brown paper bags to school with them. They wrap the sandwiches in wax paper and put pieces of wax paper between each slice of bread and topping.

>You’re not supposed to mix the cinnamon, sugar, butter and raisins in porridge like you would oatmeal, though it’s permissible.

>In Norway most second year high schoolers study abroad to improve their language skills. (For example, Frida will be staying with my family and attend my old high school in the fall.) I wish there was more of this in the US because studying abroad vastly expands one’s world view and encourages one to get out of one’s comfort zone and speak another language.

>TV shows and movies are NOT dubbed (unless it’s a cartoon film like Ice Age, Shrek or Disney). There’s simply Norwegian subtitles which is excellent for improving one’s language skills.

>In my very humble opinion, the Molde panorama is at its best during sunrise or sunset because of the pink glow the sun casts across the snow caps. But it looks good at all times, except when there’s fog or a snowstorm—then you can’t see anything.

>Norwegian sounds more like Chinese or Japanese than it does German.

>“Takk” means “thank you,” “nie” is “no,” “ja” is “yes,” "Norge" is " Norway," “melde” is “milk,” “ost” is “cheese,” “sjokolade” is “chocolate,” “hei” or “hallo” is “hi” and “ha det” or “ha det bra” is “goodbye” (even though you’re actually saying “Have it” or “Have it good”).

>There is only one verb construction for pronouns. So instead of saying “I am,” You are,” and “She is,” you say “I is,” “You is,” and “She is.” This makes grammar a heck of a lot easier to learn.

>The Troll Forests are named so because the rocks and trees drip with moss and lichen. They aren’t in a particular place, it’s just what the forests are called. I count myself lucky not to have come across any trolls.

>The back page of the Molde newspaper prints a sort of gossip column where inhabitants can argue about all sorts of things: whether cats should be put on leashes, complaints about hikers on ski trails and skiers on hiking trails (what happened to sharing?), and lost M & Ms.

>It’s hard to avoid knowing something about basketball if you live in the US, but most people have never played basketball or know what it is. During P.E. class they were just learning how to do to lay-ups. Teachers are very chill here so I got to play too and after a couple lay-ups the teacher turned to the other girls waiting in line and “She’s done that before.” When I found out what she said I started cracking up because I’m absolutely horrible at basketball and lay-ups especially.

Saying goodbye was strange. I’d been living in Norway for about two weeks and it really came to feel like home. I’m so glad I got to spend as much time there as I did. I can’t wait to visit again in the summertime! But on to Belgium.

Tally ho!
Heidi

Russ

Last night I went to a Russ pants decorating party at Siri’s house. The Russ (roose) are graduating Norwegian high schoolers and instead of running around in caps and gowns, they create mayhem in overalls. For 17 days (May 1 -17), the Russ are on the loose. The Russ time is one enormous party all throughout Norway during which the Russ do all these crazy things since this as seen as the last time for acting undignified and childish. Red overalls are the dominant color, but there are also blue, white, green, and black overalls (each color corresponds to what you're studying in school).

Each person is given a nickname by their friends for their Russ cap and for every activity completed they get a knot or token for the black string on their cap. Some of the more harmless activities involve swimming in the ocean before May 1st, putting a “For Sale” sign on a police car, spending a school day crawling on your hands and knees, sleeping in a tree, etc, but many "tasks" involve a lot of drinking (the legal drinking age is 18 over here). Fifty crazy things earn you a silver tassel and 70 gets you a gold one.

The Russ also ride around on red bikes or in these red cars or vans that are painted with people’s names and group names. They hand out Russ cards (mock business cards with funny pictures and sayings) and kids collect them like Pokemon cards. The festivities end on May 17th which is the Norwegian National Day. On this day everyone turns out in their bunads and there are tons of parades in which the Russ feature prominently. (On the 17th of May, it's also a rule that parents can't tell their kids to stop eating ice cream so you can eat as much ice cream as you want.)

Anyway Marte and her friends needed to get their pants all decorated so we had an arts & crafts party with Norwegian waffles on the side. I got to be an honorary Russ and decorated a red shirt for the occasion. The girls got a kick out of my coat of arms--the crossed osthøvels.

Heidi

“There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing”

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.

Spring Break 2010

So you know how I had train problems last week? Well this week the trains decided to go on strike (or rather the people did and that meant that my trains were also on strike). This was unfortunate since I needed to get to Charles De Gaulles airport for my flight to Oslo and then Molde (pronounce mold-a), Norway. Long story short, I had some very narrow misses with getting on the trains because basically I had to just hop on any train going where I wanted to go at the time I wanted to leave at. But I made it to CDG and then got to sleep for a couple hours.

I made it to Oslo which I've decided is my favorite airport of all time. It's actually pretty. Its very well designed, easy to get around, kinda homey, and there's English everywhere. Oh and the employees get from A to B via scooters...how cool is that?!

Slept another couple hours and then finally arrived in Molde around 8:30pm (it was a longg day since I'd gotten up around 5:30am).

I'm staying with some very good friends of mine, the Brunvolls. They moved back here when I was in 7th grade and I've only gotten to see them every other year or so. Anyway Norway is beautiful and they've got an amazing view, just look and see!

But more on Norway later.

Ciao,

Heidi

P.S. I'll be here for nine days and then I go to visit my friends in Belgium!