Flanders Day 2: Mystery of the Mystic Lamb

Day 2 was just as busy as the first. We got an early start and took off for the 2010 Ghent Floralies (sorry I’m going to leave you with a cliff hanger and explain that in the next post.) After the Floralies, Rik and I climbed the Ghent belfry which was like a mini, vertical museum. Each level had something different: There was a collection of the old bells that were once used as well as the original dragon from the top of the spire, the watchmens’ room and the clock mechanism which looks like a gigantic music box. At the top was a magnificent view of the city. I learned that work was first started on the belfry in 1313 and that it uses 54 bells to chime out the time every fifteen minutes.

Afterwards we walked to the Gravensteen, or Ghent castle. Inside the donjon were a bunch of weapons and a torture chamber with devices like thumbscrews, brands, a stretcher and spiked collars. Very gruesome. The actual chateau was constructed in 1180 by Philippe of Alsace, but the first fortifications were started in the 9th century.
Rita met us for lunch and I got my first taste of Belgian fries. Did you know French fries actually originated in Belgium? Well, they do and naturally the originals are better. Hands down.

Following lunch I met Rik and Rita’s neighbor Hilde for her guided tour of Ghent. She told us (the French tourists and I) that at one point, the castle keep was taken over by University students in protest of the rising price of beer. One of the French guys joked that that was a worthy cause if there ever was one. We passed the old Poissonerie which definitely doesn’t look like a fish market with its statue of Neptune and the Boucherie (Butchery) with fake ham hanging from the ceiling and a colonnade with Napoleon’s eagle. Next was the impressive St Bavo’s cathedral. Inside was a painting by Peter Paul Reubens and the triptych “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by Jan Van Eyck.

The triptych, painted in 1432, was wayyy larger than I thought and incredibly detailed. It also features prominently in Nazi conspiracy theory. Bought by the King of Prussia in the early 1800s, it was exhibited in Germany until the Germans had to give it back to Belgium as part of the World War I war reparations. Apparently the Germans greatly resented this because in 1942, Hitler ordered that the altarpiece be taken back to Germany. It was stolen by the SS and stored in a salt mine until recovered by the Americans who gave it back to Belgium in a special ceremony. (No French officials were invited to the ceremony because Belgium was still mad at France for allowing the painting to be taken.) But before it became a German hostage there was an earlier attempt to steal the altarpiece that was partially successful. In 1934, one of the panels “Just Judges” was stolen and it has never been recovered. (Forget Detective Poirot, where’s Indiana Jones?) And that is the true mystery of the mystic lamb.

The last item on our agenda was a canal ride accompanied by coffee and biscuits. I’ve always loved boat rides and this one was so very relaxing. I enjoyed looking at the colorful buildings on either side of the canal and the chess players on the quay.

Right after getting back from the tour, the Verbeke’s and I went to meet Rik's sister, Nicole, and her husband, Hugo, who live maybe 15 minutes away. Hugo is a sculptor and he showed me his workshop, his gallery, the different sculpting tools, and even explained the difference between stone and marble (marble is far more difficult to work with because it’s more crystallized). It was SO cool. I’d never seen anything like it and the smoothness of the stone compared to what it was like before being sculpted was unbelievable.

For dinner we went to the Flemish castle of Ooidonk and ate in the carriage house next door, but not before seeing the Lys river. Dinner was magnificent: filet mignon with mushrooms accompanied with a white wine. And the conversation was even better. What an unforgettable day!

Tot ziens!

Heidi

P.S. The Treaty of Ghent between the US and Great Britain for the War of 1812 happened here. And there’s a LEGAL graffiti wall.

Flanders Day 1: Ghent

Ghent is Amazing (notice the capital “A”). The city is located in the heart of Flanders which is the north part of Belgium and includes cities like Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp. Some of the most famous Flemish painters are Peter Paul Reubens, Jan Van Eyck and both Breughels. I really had no idea what to expect, but right from the bat things went well. First, it was lovely having trains that went where they were supposed to, when they were supposed to. Secondly, I was again visiting some close friends, Rik and Rita Verbeke, and it was wonderful going somewhere I already knew people. (The Verbeke’s daughter and granddaughter live right next door to me back home so I’ve met them multiple times in the US.)

It was go, go, go from the minute I arrived (very necessary in order to fit everything in to my slightly shortened stay.) Rik met me at the train station in the late evening and we walked the ten minutes back to his and Rita’s apartment.
After dinner Rik dropped Anne, Astrid and me off in centre-ville (Anne is their granddaughter and she studies at the University in Ghent. Astrid is Anne’s friend) so we could meet up with their university friends. The sun was just setting as we walked past an old church onto a bridge spanning the canal. Hordes of students were just hanging out on the river. I couldn’t believe how magical everything looked as night drew nearer. More incredible was the liveliness of this ancient city—both sides of the river were full of people just enjoying the nice weather. When it got colder we found a bar nearby and upstairs there were these old history buffs who had taken up half the room with a reenactment of a battle in the American Civil War. (I should have asked them why the American Civil War of all things, but unfortunately, I don’t speak Flemish.) It was a long day of traveling, but I will never forget the beauty of the canals at night.

Catch ya later, alligator,

Heidi

P.S. The Verbekes were just in the States and my parents gave them some Skippy and Jif peanut butter to give to me! I think I’m in heaven.

P.S.S. I'm a bit behind with posting so these next few dates won't actually match when I was in Belgium.

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

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Last night we grilled hot dogs outside! It was pretty cold but with our heat lamp, blankets, layers and wood burning fire the whole thing was very koselig (cozy and nice and comfortable, pronounced coosh-li). We had two types of dogs, the regular ones and then these fatty ones with cheese inside (ostegrill). We wrapped them in lompe (this pita type bread made from potatoes). Also roasted marshmallows and made s’mores with these cookies that already have chocolate on them. And we bought these special Easter eggs with vanilla inside and melted them too.

Today I went to the MFK (Molde Football Klub) game. I met Kine there since Marte had a huge test she needed to study for. The game was really exciting! Molde won 3-2 and I got to cheer along with everyone and sit in the nice stadium out of the rain and wind under Kine’s koselig blanket. It was definitely more fun than the game I saw in France.

The big news of the day is the eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier. It’s responsible for shutting down almost all European airports (24 in France, including CDG). This is what an article on yahoo said, “The agency said Britain had not halted all flights in its space in living memory, although many were grounded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.” Over 4,000 flights have been cancelled and they have no idea how long this will last. Experts have said this could take days to clear up which would be pretty unfortunate for me since I’m supposed to fly back to France (although it wouldn’t be bad staying in Norway, it’s just I want to go to Belgium too.)

Anyway it’s a huge disturbance. A bunch of world leaders were going to attend the funeral for the Polish president and it’s the Queen of Denmark’s 70th birthday so some of her royal pals were going to visit her, but can’t now, not to mention the fact that all my friends are traveling, or trying to travel, right now and can’t get to where they need to go what with the train strikes and volcanoes. What can I say? It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Heidi

P.S. I bought my very own Norwegian brunosthøvel (brown cheese slicer). And it’s the cheese that’s brown, not the slicer.