Guests Upon Guests

2 May 2013

Today was a day I wasn’t sure I’d get through without the help of God, Kory and Kaleb.  I had invited Kory’s cousin Axel and his wife Kari and their youngest daughter Roda and her fiancé, Greg and Axel’s mom, Tante Aslaug for dinner.  That part would have been no problem, but today was the only day they could do it so there was no changing that date.  Then last week I invited over a few friends for lunch from Agape Church and as it turned out with them, today was the only day it worked for all of them, too.  Back to back guests for lunch and dinner was truly a challenge, even for me.

I made the bulk of the food yesterday for the lunch guests, but it still took me nearly 90 minutes to set the table with all the do-dads that have to be set out in order to pull off a truly Norwegian meal.  Everything has to be put in a serving dish and the table needs to be set just so with the candles burning when the guests arrive.  Whew.  I thought I’d have time this morning to make some cookies or something before they got here, but the minutes just ticked away and I was done about 7 minutes before they arrived, smack on time, as all Norwegians do.  And as tradition goes, there is very little chit-chat before everyone sits down to eat, as most invitations to an event will start right when the food is done, so there are never appetizers or time to linger, it’s like company shows up and you sit down to eat immediately.  At least I was prepared for that today.

Kory and Kaleb disappeared for a few hours down to Tante Kari’s condo after the ladies arrive, so Kaleb could do some school work and we didn’t have to listen to his non-stop coughing and nose blowing.  It also freed up the airspace, so we could talk about whatever we wanted.  As it turned out, we talked a lot about adjusting to Norwegian life, as one of the other women that came has just been here for five months and only married three weeks ago.  She talked about the daily depression she has to fight in order to stay here, which is something I’ve heard repeatedly from others that married Norwegians and live in this dark, rainy, cold land.  She also talked about the coldness of the people, which even Norwegians will agree to.  It’s not so easy to make friends here with the locals, but being in a church environment really takes care of that problem, as many are friendlier than non-church folks.

So we listened to each other’s stories of how God has brought us through tough times, some told of miracles and prophesies they’ve had and we all felt better having been together for a few hours – plus they loved the food I made, which was a bonus.  I made a pasta salad with no recipe, just threw stuff together that Kory could also eat, and it turned out pretty good.

When they left at three o’clock, Kory, Kaleb and I kicked into hyper mode to help me clean up the living room and kitchen, get a load of dishes going in the dishwasher and start preparing for the next meal.  Kaleb peeled carrots while Kory cut up potatoes and I prepared the fish.  I’ve been baking Torsk in parchment paper lately for company, as it’s easy to do and there’s no added fat for Kory and it tastes downright yummy… so we were operating at super speed and by the time the next wave of guests arrived, dinner was in the oven and minutes from being served, right on schedule.  Whew again.

We had a lovely evening with the Wikanes family (above), talking mostly about travels we’ve all had to different places around the world.  Roda and Greg (from England) are quiet the travelers and also very adventurous with the foods they eat and experiences they’ve had – like skydiving in New Zealand, eating puffer fish in China and running naked on the beach in Vietnam.  They have been together almost four years and have only worked in order to save money for their next big adventure, but now they are getting married in August and will probably settle down a bit.  Greg’s not sure of the life he’ll now have here in Norway, but he’s a man in love, so it shouldn’t be too bad. 

I asked Greg what his biggest observation is about life in Norway, versus life in England and he said, “they don’t put the top piece of bread on their sandwiches,” which I thought was funny since the Earl of Sandwich is from England and he is credited with inventing that top piece of bread for ease of travel.

Kory so kindly cleaned up the dinner mess after everyone left.  I’ve been limited in my washing duties since my finger is still healing and it’s very sensitive to touch things.  At least all the dead skin is off now so it doesn’t look so horrible, but I’ll have one terrific scar to remind me of my stubbornness for not getting stitches. 

The snow/hail/rain and sunshine continued today.  We woke up to white on the ground and it was snowing during dinner.  Kaleb, at one point, yelled outside, “Would you just make up your mind?” as about every fifteen minutes, it was something different.  We did have a peak at the sun as it was setting tonight (top photo), so that was a treat, and we saw that all the mountains around us are now covered in a thicker layer of snow, so I’m not sure I’ll be climbing up any those anytime soon. 

I hate to complain about the weather, especially since Seattle is getting quite the stretch of sunshine in the next week, as our life is so blessed in so many other ways, but it does seem a bit ironic that they had nothing but sunshine all winter here, and now that we show up, the rain has returned.  Funny, God, really funny.