Close to Home

Today wasn’t nearly as jam packed as yesterday, but that was by design.  I knew we needed a day to get ready up for our big trip tomorrow to Bergen, so I planned a day to be close to home.  We went out to Langevaag to see if there were any sweaters at the outlet store there that Stuart liked, but no luck.  They were either too small or didn’t zip up all the way.  We drove back home again and hit a few more thrift stores near our house.  I certainly found a few more treasures, and not-surprisingly, Stuart and Judy did, too.  That took up the morning, so we had lunch back at our place and then took a few minutes to get some laundry going and start packing a few things. 

Kory went and picked up Kaleb after school and Kaleb wasn’t the least bit happy about it.  He’d wanted to go right to Andre’s house after school and not join us tonight for dinner, but I insisted we have one last supper with him before we leave him behind for 12 days as we take this trip on the ferry up the coast of Norway and back down again.  He is sure he won’t miss us and can’t understand all the fuss I’m making about it, but we have never been away from him for this long before.  I was already feeling bad about leaving him alone yesterday when we were so far from home, but he seemed to do okay by himself.  I’m sure we suffocate him at times, but still… this is a first - to be gone so long.

So Kaleb had to schlep along with us into downtown this afternoon while we hit a few more stores.  He went to the library while we poked around.  It was raining all day again today so we couldn’t even go up to the lookout above the city, as it was socked in with low clouds and fog.  Everyone is complaining about the bad weather we’ve been having, but it hasn’t really affected us much at all since we don’t need good weather to go shopping.  We even ran into Tante Kari this morning in the elevator and she apologized to our guests for the crummy weather.  Stuart said later, “She has a lot more power than I realized if she’s the one responsible for the weather.”  Funny.

Tonight we were invited out to dinner to our friends, the Rorstad’s.  Acutally, Kolbjorn is Kory’s 3^rd cousin, but if we knew better, Kory would probably be related to half the people we know in this town. 

The stores closed so early we had enough time to drive through a few undersea tunnels and briefly show some of the outer islands to Stu and Judy.  It was hard to appreciate their beauty through foggy car windows though, but if the weather ever clears up they might see some of those places again.

Anne-Grete and Kolbjorn made a wonderful salmon dinner for us and we all had a great time visiting with them – in English!  It was such a treat to have a conversation in English, even if it was a little more difficult for them.  We were all impressed with Anne-Grete’s dessert and both Judy and I insisted on the recipe for it.  It was more than delicious.  And Kolbjorn revealed his love of airplanes tonight by showing us an application he has on his I-pad that tracks absolutely every commercial airplane in the sky around the world.  The map shows little airplanes scattered about and if he touches it, it pops up with what airline it is, where it left from and where it’s going.  It’s all real time data from the control towers around the world and we were all in awe of the concept.  He can look up in the sky over his house and see a plane, and just click on it on his I-pad and know exactly where it’s going.  Simply amazing.

We had a few good laughs with them this evening and wished we could stay longer but I had to get Kaleb delivered over to Andre’s house by ten o’clock (see photo above of Kaleb entertaining himself tonight off in a corner with his Nintendo).  I trust he’ll be OK while I’m gone and I’m sure he’ll do better than I will.

Kory decided to rotate the tires tonight before we take the eight-hour drive down to Bergen tomorrow.  We actually really need new tires before that trip so I’m praying the ones we have hold out for the journey as the tread is showing through.  We just don’t have time right now to get them installed (Kory’s friend has given us a set already), but we will do it the minute we get back.  So many things to do… so little time.   Now I need to go pack up 12 days of entertainment for myself in case there is rain in our future, or maybe I just need to go have a little talk with Tante Kari and see if she can guarantee us some sunshine.

Another Beautiful Day

I feel guilty staying inside to do ANYTHING when the sun is shining so brightly outdoors, but I had things to do, so I can’t complain as I enjoyed the sunshine through the window. Kory, on the other hand, was invited out to go sailing with the husband of one of The Praying Women, so he scored big time today. He had to set aside his to-do list and take part in the rough life on the sea (see photo.) I’m glad he had a good time.




I drove Kaleb to school this morning because he slept in so long he missed the bus. When I drove out to pick him up, I told him he had to come home and do his science homework before he could go play with his friends. “I knew you were going to say that,” he said, “so while the rest of the class was watching ‘Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang,’ I went to the computer room and did my homework there, so now I’m done!” Oh, I love it when he outsmarts me like that. I drove him right up to his friend’s neighborhood and didn’t see him again until dinnertime.



There were only three of us Praying Women this morning at the prayer meeting, but boy-o-boy was it a powerful time in prayer. Kristen, the usual hostess, has had a bad headache for about eight weeks now. She saw the doctor and they ordered up a CAT scan or something, but she must wait several more weeks before her appointment (such is the ways of socialized medicine.) We prayed for her and then spent a good deal of time just thanking God afterwards because her headache was totally gone and she felt infinitely better. Hallelujah! I love to pray with those women.



We invited some friends over for dinner tonight – one of the couples owns the cabin we just borrowed (an old childhood friend of Kory’s), and the man from the other couple is a third cousin to Kory. They are so fun to be around as they have a great sense of humor and they just think we are the cat’s meow. For dinner tonight I made the best seafood chowder I’ve ever tasted in my life and I can only attribute it to the fine dairy products available here in Norway. I’ve made that soup many times before, but never has it tasted so good. They all thought so too, so I was pleased to satisfy their palate. If there weren’t so much cream in that recipe, I’d make it often, but Kory is trying to eat “heart-healthy” so I gave up making that soup a few years ago. When he asked me this morning what I was making for dinner I told him, “Something I hope won’t kill you.” He didn’t appreciate the snicker that followed.



I had to shop a bit for all the ingredients today and it was then that I realized why I don’t need a pantry or large freezer – everything is nearly at my fingertips with the mall attached to our building and all. Of course, it’s not open as often as I’d like, but still, it’s pretty darn handy. Tante Kari says she just keeps her groceries in the cart, puts the cart in the elevator and wheels it right on into her kitchen to unload the groceries, then takes the cart back later. Talk about the ultimate convenience.



One thing that’s different here from America is that many things are sold in standard packaging sizes. Take sour cream, for instance. Every company that makes sour cream sells it in the exact same size container. Sour cream sits on the table for nearly every meal here in Norway, so many other companies make a very fancy wooden container that conceals the standard sized plastic container purchased from the store. That way, the table looks fancy and formal, without the hassle of taking out the sour cream and putting it in its own dish (like they do for jam and many other things.)



Ice cream has that same feature. It comes in a plastic box with a nice fitting lid, (which is often used like Tupperware afterwards) but the container itself fits inside a decorative wooden box purchased elsewhere. When ice cream is served in the living room, sitting around the coffee table after dinner, it looks very nice and all the ingredient information and bar coding is hidden away. Often those decorative boxes are carved or painted with Norwegian patterns. Norwegians like things to look nice, which I appreciate, but having been raised in a trailer court, I can’t fully adjust to. I just put things on the table as they come from the store. There is a constant battle raging inside me between the Norwegian half, and the Ozark Mountain Hillybilly/Trailer trash half.  It's not clear just yet who is winning.

Formalities

My Pal Vestina was back in school today so the morning just flew by. Just hearing her voice makes me laugh, but she laughs at me when I get one of the problems wrong. She thinks I make mistakes on purpose just to make her laugh. Oh, how wrong she is. The class is so different now and I don’t really like it with all the new students and bouncing around different subjects, but with Vestina there, I’m happy to ride it out until the bitter end.

The last couple of days the waters that surround us have turned from a crystal clear blue to a murky emerald green, almost turquoise color. It’s the most amazing sight. It happens every year when the algae blooms. We had some blue skies yesterday and it almost looked like a freak of nature to have blue skies and green seas. This morning the skies were grey and the seas were still that murky green color. I noticed this afternoon however, there were just patches of green and by tonight, all the color was back to normal (see photo). I was bummed because Kory and I went for a walk so I could take a picture of the weird color, but it just disappeared as fast as it came. Turid said in a few days there will be a scum on the water and this algae bloom will release more carbon dioxide in the air than all the cars in Norway. So much for controlling global warming.

These last few weeks of school are just fun and games for Kaleb. I guess they want them to end on an up-note. Today they went on a bicycle field trip. Everyone in Norway has a bike, so the teachers just brought theirs to school. Kaleb’s class went over to Sula today, not far from where Kory’s mom was born. I was thankful it didn’t rain on them. Tomorrow they take a bus into the city to go to a museum, a church and a park. Thursday they have a big BBQ at the beach. Kaleb has hardly any homework this week too, so he’s liking that as he has more free time to play with his friends.

I walked over to Turid’s to find out about the plans for this weekend. Her daughter, Hege, has her Confirmation on Saturday and I’m sure, from the looks of it, a wedding has less preparation. I guess the whole Confirmation thing could be looked at like some kind of “Coming out” party or “Right of passage” thing that many countries have. People travel from all over the country, and often from outside Norway, just to attend the Confirmation – it’s such a big deal. In preparation for the big day, Turid has enlarged several photos of Hege at many different ages and will hang them up around the hall for decorations. There will be a Powerpoint presentation, custom made songs and poems, speeches and lots of food. When I was there today Hege was making a “How well do you know Hege?” test to give to all the guests. Just family and three friends are invited but that adds up to over 60 people in attendance. I offered to help make some of the food so I needed to find out just what it is I’m making. I’m thrilled we are invited and I’m happy to help out, but what I’m doing is a drop in the bucket compared to what Turid has on her plate. It’s a VERY big deal.

There are four times in a Norwegian’s life that call for this kind of huge event – baptism, confirmation, marriage and death. Each one of these events has been, for hundreds of years, a highly religious and formal celebration. The State church has been an integral part of them and beginning in the 1600s the Church kept meticulous records on all these things (which makes it pretty easy to trace Norwegian roots because of all the excellent documentation). I find it interesting now though, that these events are being “mimicked” by the Humanist movement here in Norway. The Humanists are a very fast growing “club” that take God out of everything, but because they are Norwegians, and traditions run deep, they just copy all the events and call them something else. Instead of “baptism” they have a “baby naming” ceremony complete with gifts and party. Then they have the Humanist Confirmation which celebrates the teenager becoming an adult. Weddings are done by judges and not in churches, and even funerals are handled by third party businesses that make no reference to God or the afterlife and are definitely NOT held in a church. What I find most interesting about all this is that it is just like in the early days of Christianity when all the pagan holidays and traditions were going on, the Christians decided to pick a day to celebrate the birth of Christ right near the Winter Solstice so the Christians wouldn’t feel like they were missing out on anything. It’s the same thing now, but in reverse with “pagans” copying Christian traditions. It’s come full circle. And I can also say, these four events are the only time I’m aware of that Norwegians send thank-you notes. They don’t send notes for birthday or Christmas gifts, being invited over for dinner… none of those things we are accustomed to, but they do send them out after these events. And the best Thank You of all is from a dead person. The way they do it is, in the obituary or on the headstone, they write “Takk for alt,” which means, “Thanks for everything.” Even in death, they can’t do away with that formality and no other time in a person's life can those words be said.