Fiskesuppe

Kaleb woke his friends up early this morning so they could finish up whatever electronic game they were playing last night when Kory told them to quit and go to bed.  I don’t think his friend’s were too happy with their early wake up call, based on the sour faces I encountered at the breakfast table.  I made fresh scones for breakfast, and yet again, faced the “acquired taste” problem and neither Daniel or Andre would eat one, after tasting just a nibble – even covered with strawberry jam.  At least I tried.  Kaleb appreciated them anyway.  I think Andre might lose weight when he’s with us for three weeks this summer.  I keep telling him he has to learn to try American food, but he just smiles and says, “Taco Bell,” like that’s all he’s going to eat when he’s in the U.S..  Maybe it will be.  I know I find great delight in fresh bread and white cheese when I’m here, so I can’t really fault him if he finds something he likes and sticks with it.

We had a big discussion about which church to attend today because we have yet to go to Philadelphia, where both Daniel and Andre attend, but they didn’t want to go to church at all.  Kaleb wanted to take them to Agape since he gets extra points for bringing a friend and he was looking forward to a little prize today if he brought two friends, but we couldn’t get them to agree to go there, either.  Finally I called Daniel’s mom to say we’d bring him home before church but she said he needed to go, so she was the one that decided for us all.  We went to Philadelphia.  The boys sat up in the loft and we didn’t hear a peep out of them so I’m sure there were some electronics involved in their Christian teaching today.  Hmm.

Kory stayed after church for the café hour, but I had to get home and start making dinner for his mom’s two cousins and their wives who we invited over tonight.  They are always having us over, so it’s nice now we can repay the hospitality.  I made seafood chowder and it was deeeee-licous!  I’m so glad we have leftovers.  It took me all afternoon to make dinner because I also made some biscuits, salad, blueberry cobbler and a twice baked potato to go with it, in case they didn’t like the soup.  Good thing Kory helped a little or I’d have never made it on time. 

It rained like the dickens all afternoon so Kory took the boys over to Andre’s house where they watched a movie together.  Kaleb had to ride his bike home and was soaked to the core by the time he made it to our place.  After we’d all eaten dinner and were visiting in the living room, he curled up with a book in his room and promptly fell asleep about 7:30, so I know he didn’t sleep much last night.  I kept telling him to go down to Tante Kari’s and practice the piano, but he kept putting it off.  How convenient.

We had a lot of good laughs with our guests tonight, as one of the couples are the parents to Bjørn, our host in Turkey, so they are grandparents to those crazy twins.  I showed them some of the videos and photos I’d taken while we were with Bjørn’s family and everyone just roared with laughter, as that Markus belted out a few rounds of Hallelujah!  He’s a funny kid, even if one isn’t related to him.

The ladies tried not to eat too much food tonight as the 17^th of May is in just two days and everyone is worried about fitting in to their bunads (traditional Norwegian dresses).  I guess that’s as good of motivation as it gets to keep one’s weight in check year after year.  One night last week at Bible study, the women must have spent the first 15 minutes just talking about the pressure of fitting into that dress every year.  It’s designed to “expand”, but if they don’t try it on early enough and have enough time to do the sewing to expand it, they are stuck wearing it like a corset where they can barely breathe the whole day, or opting to just buy a nice black dress to wear instead.  It’s pretty comical to hear the discussion around this tradition.  One woman told of a time she was totally humiliated when she realized the entire day she’d had her blouse on inside out – and no one said anything.  Such is the politeness of the Norwegians.  So if any of them didn’t like my fish soup or twice baked potatoes tonight, I’ll never know.

(The sunset tonight, around 11pm, provided quite the dramatic sky, as seen from our balcony in today’s photos.)

Sprucing Up

We have been shopping and shopping, trying to find some kind of wall unit/storage system/closet for Kaleb’s room. It’s the only place he’ll have to put his clothes, books and toys, so it needs to fit with the dimensions of wall that will hopefully soon be built. Today, ready or not, we bought a portable closet because it was a screaming deal for a little under a hundred dollars, brand new. I’m sure it was a mismarked item because even the receipt showed a price of double what we paid, but the tag on the display said it was 595 kroner, so that’s what they charged us. I couldn’t be more pleased. Now Kory just has to put it together, but he really does need something to do with his time. He fusses with things way too long if there aren’t enough projects stacked up for him to do. And now it seems he’ll be making some custom book shelves to go next to this closet because the remaining available space along that wall is anything but standard. I’m sure it will all work out just fine. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that TV has entered our lives, this whole process would have been a slam dunk, but we have to make room for a TV in Kaleb’s room now so that’s what’s made this project so challenging. (The photo today is of our condo “blokk” – we are on the top floor, second balcony from the right.)



Every week in the paper, at least one local company puts an ad in the “Wanting to Rent” column, asking for a short term rental of a furnished apartment in good condition. They pay a high premium for that but the cheapest hotel around here is over three hundred dollars a night, so renting an apartment for a few weeks or months is still a bargain when they have business meetings or training seminars that last a while. Cousin Rune knows a guy that rented out his furnished apartment for two months to some Japanese business men who were here doing a study on the fishing industry. He got 60,000 kroner for two months – an unheard of amount (about $10,000). There is such a demand for that kind of rental that Kory and I are leaning in that direction as to what to do with our condo when we leave. We don’t care about making a lot of money, we would just like the basic expenses to be covered while it sits empty nine months a year, so even just a few months of business rentals could cover that – and hopefully keep the wear and tear to a minimum. I’m currently keeping a list of all the companies that are advertising, and when we install a dishwasher and get Kaleb’s bedroom all set up, I’m going to contact the companies and let them come take a look and see if we can get some regular customers established. It seems to be the best fit, since our location is totally primo. The only thing lacking at this point, is internet access, but I can order that once I know we are on the right path.



Currently, to get an internet signal, I discovered I can sit outside on the walkway in front of our neighbor’s condo. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than sitting in the parking lot down below, right outside the library. I still need to bundle up, and sit in a lawn chair. If the sun isn’t shining, I don’t stay long because the wind has been rather cold and brisk in the shade lately. If the sun is shining, there is such a glare on the screen, I can’t see anything anyway, so I don’t stay long then either. I can’t believe how restricted my life is without internet, and I’m sure if this condo is being used by business people, they won’t take kindly to my cheapo method of getting a wi-fi signal from the library down below.



I thought My Pal Vestina and I were going to go on a hike today, so I kept myself busy doing little tasks around the house, waiting for her to wake up and call me. It was another gorgeous day and a hike would have been just the ticket, but instead I continued the sprucing up of our deck, washing windows and dishes, hanging things on the walls and running around shopping for different things. She never called. All the while Kaleb was still over at Tobias’ house. So Kory and I were home alone, wondering what to do with ourselves. I finally called Vestina, who had a friend unexpectedly come to town, so our hike got postponed to another day. It was a little disappointing, but not too terribly much since I got so much done otherwise.



Our deck now is looking pretty spiffy, with flowers in every pot. It was hard to pay over $40 for a small little Rhododendron, but I want a few plants that might last more than this season. I hope my plan works, and they survive, so I don’t have to spend over a hundred dollars on flowers again next year. Our place is looking more and more “typisk Norsk” by the day. The only thing NOT typically Norwegian is that nothing is very new. Norwegians like to throw everything out every few years and have all new stuff inside and out. I’m not that wasteful so I’ll probably still have all this same stuff twenty years from now. Once I like something, I keep it. That little trait of mine often works to Kory’s advantage. I like him just fine.

BBQ Season Has Begun!

The holiday weekend has begun. The city was all abuzz today with street sweepers and pressure washers. Every business in town was washing away winter’s sand dumped on roads when the ice was here. It seems like so long ago now that the lilacs are blooming. Today the air was filled with the smell of scotch broom and lilacs and fresh cut grass. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day and I’m sure those that could, took off early to get home and use as much time as possible sprucing up their yards. Every house I passed today as I walked around had people out in the yard trimming bushes and hedges, washing off patios and cutting grass. It was like some big collective work party day with perfect weather for added effect. Just as all the Norwegians leave home for Easter week, they all STAY home for 17th of May week (Norway’s Independence Day from Sweden). No one goes to a cabin or out of town, they all stick close by there home and attend the local parades. And there is probably no other time of year everyone’s houses and yards will look better.

I went to class today and had a reading test the first hour. One of the things we read was the rules they have in Norway for leaving a dog in the car on a hot day. Basically, it’s not allowed. What is allowed, however, is breaking the window of the car to get the dog out and taking it to the nearest police station. I thought that was kinda funny. So I guess, knowing your window can be legally broken might be a good deterrent to anyone actually leaving their dog in the car. After our test we went on a guided tour of the local Art Nuevo museum. The man giving the tour was instructed to talk slowly and simply, and because of that, I understood everything he said. It was such a thrill. I’ve been to that museum before but it was fun to have a tour. Our school tries hard to expand our horizons. And The Good Teacher Inga invited any and all to join her after the tour at a café. I was the only one that took her up on her offer, so we had a nice long chat over cappuccino and carrot cake. I loved having her to myself and we shared stories about living in another country as she too took her family to Ireland for a year because she’s married to an Irish Man. She had all the same reasons I did for moving and all the same problems with housing and her boy’s attitudes toward it, so it was fun to compare notes. (Both she and Odd said it was a “sign from God we must stay another year” because I couldn’t buy tickets home yesterday!) We had a “lovely” chat, as she would say, for a few hours, and then I had to go. I took the big leap and drove myself into town this morning and the parking meter was about to expire. There is absolutely NO where to park for free in the city as every street is zoned for permit parking only for the residences there, so it’s mandatory to use pay parking lots when going into town. The parking fee (10 dollars) for the day was still cheaper than taking the bus (14 dollars). Strange.

The comments in the newspaper about Kory’s work of art on the bus stop yesterday just don’t quit. A lot of young people are angry because some of them have had to pay a thousand dollar fine for “tagging” as it’s called here, but mostly, people love the new look. Kory has spent the day admiring his handy work and gloating over all the attention he’s getting for it. One guy wrote in to the paper that it was indeed tagging, but his punishment should be to do fifty more just like it all over the city. Funny. I just hope the police don’t show up at our door. I’m sure the neighbors won’t squeal as they are all so happy with the outcome. It will be interesting on Sunday when the parade passes by our house, to see if anyone takes a picture of it. I know I will.

Kory spent the afternoon over at Odd’s putting up some of the siding on the newly built wall outside his bedroom. He invited Odd and Turid over for a BBQ tonight so we sat out on our little deck and watched the sun go down as the weather was just perfect. (See photo of Kory serving Odd his famous BBQ potato chips – and the bus stop with the flag is visible in the background.) We ate a yummy dinner of BBQd salmon, potatoes and BBQ vegetables (Kory actually grilled up some whale meat for him as he’s going to miss it when we are back home). I love that it’s BBQ season again. Kaleb spent the whole afternoon up at Skåtthaugen playing with his school friends. I finally called him home at 7.30 for dinner but he wasn’t too happy to leave. He should probably just pitch a tent up there or move in with someone.

I spent a few boring hours at home alone, then went for a walk to the store for some groceries. I think I improved my tan a little today, but other than that, the afternoon was lost on me. I should have planned something, but sometimes I get tired of having so many plans. A nap would have been good. It’s going to be a long weekend.