The Perfect Storm

At least it’s not as bad as Seattle had it last weekend, but we had quite the downpour all day today.  It’s the day before Norway’s biggest holiday of the year – 17^th of May – their Constitution Day – so the mall was completely packed, not just because people were buying food and flowers for tomorrow when all the stores will be closed, but because it was raining and I’m sure there wasn’t much else to do.  Many took off work today and some schools had free - so the mall was insane.  The lines in the grocery store were immense.  I only needed a few things but it took a lot of patience to get them.  Uff.  It’s no way to start the day.

Kory went to a meeting today with Tante Kari and Cousin Kari regarding Tante Ruth.  Ruth has been in the old folk’s home for one year now and it’s customary to meet with her doctor and caregivers to go over her health issues and how things are with her once a year.  She wasn’t present.  Kory said they just told the family her health statistics, her blood pressure and blood count, what meds she’s on and how she’s doing.  It was a bit shocking to find out she’s down to 36 kilos – less than 80 pounds.  At one point she weighed 195 pounds, so she is certainly withering away.  At least she has an appetite now so everyone brought her candy, as she has quite the sweet tooth.  The antibiotics worked to clear up her urine infection so she’s able to sit in a chair again and feeling much better, but still looking like death warmed over.  Uff.

One of our neighbors came by and introduced herself today so we invited her in for a little visit.  Her daughter and grandchildren stayed in our place in March for a few nights.  She’d asked Tante Kari if we would rent it out for the weekend since she didn’t have a place for them and we said we would – so she came to pay up on the rent today.  She was so sweet I hated even charging her for it, but she insisted.  I can’t remember her name but Kory was asking a little about herself and she said she had a “samboer” for 30 years (someone she’s been living with).  She must be in her 80s.  Kory asked her why she wouldn’t just get married after all these years and she said it’s because of Norway’s inheritance laws.  They were both widowed with grown children when they moved in together and by law, if they were married, one third of their estates would go to their spouses and the children would get the other two thirds.  She had much more money than her “samboer” so she didn’t want to have her children miss out on their full inheritance if she remarried.  It’s not allowed in Norway to write a will and overrule that percentage split… so the two of them went to an empty church up on a hill in the Canary Islands and said their vows before God, exchanged rings and pronounced themselves married.  They wanted God in on it but they had to leave the Norwegian government out of it - for money’s sake.  Sad, but sweet.  I guess there are many reasons why people don’t get married around here, that obviously being one of them.

Daniel’s dad, Are (pronounced Ar-ah), came home from the hospital today.  We went over to his house to pray for him again and to bring him and Tina the leftover seafood chowder I made yesterday.  I figured Tina had her hands full taking care of Are, she didn’t need to worry about what was for dinner.  It was a good decision.  I guess that’s not a normal thing to do here in Norway so it was nice to share some American hospitality with them.  They felt blessed. 

Are is looking much better today than on Saturday but he was pretty drugged up since they knew he’d be in pain from all the movement to get home.  He was feeling no pain when we saw him, but that’s because he wasn’t moving.  It only hurts if he moves.  He’s now just supposed to heal at home and the doctor said he should be back at work in 15 days!  I looked on the internet and it said it takes at least 6 weeks to heal those bones and the poor guy can’t even feed himself.  Are said the Norwegian health care system won’t allow anyone to be off work for more than 15 days, no matter what their problem is, so he just has to go back after 15 days and tell them he needs more time off.  That’s just how their system works.  Weird.  But now the stress is on Tina because he needs full time care and she has to go to work, too, so there’s a problem they’ve yet to figure out.  We prayed for quick healing.

This afternoon both Kory and I took a much needed nap as Kaleb went home with Henrik after school and played for a few hours.  Just before dinnertime we were treated to a marching band going down the street in front of our condo that woke us up (see photo below).  The circus is in town!  Right next to our condo is an empty lot where the big tent was erected this morning.  Flyers appeared all over town and just in case someone didn’t see those, the marching band was preceded by kids carrying big posters pointing the way to the circus.  I guess this must be a tradition that goes back to the days before modern communication techniques.  It’s traditional that during Easter and 17^th of May the circus comes to town for a few days so we’ll be having elephants and lions for neighbors, it seems.  I prefer the little old lady that visited us this morning.

Daniel came over to spend the night tonight.  There is no school tomorrow and Kaleb was bored once he got home, so we went and picked him up and the boys actually played outside for a while once the rain stopped.  I said he could come over if he didn’t bring his Nintendo, so they were in a panic wondering what to do without any electronics.  They managed just fine. 

Kory has been drawing faces all day.  He’s not very good at them so he’s trying to get better.  I sure look old and fat in the one he drew of me.  I think I’m in denial, so he might be better at it than I'd like.

The Day Before THE DAY

We walked across the street this morning to attend Philadelphia Church at 11am. We wondered why we were the only ones there, and then we found out the service has been changed to 11:30 now because there is no bus that comes from downtown Aalesund out our way until after 11am, and many that attend the church, take the bus. Smart move on the church’s part but I think it’s a bit silly the busses don’t start running until after 11 on Sunday mornings.




Just as we were turning around to leave church and go back home for a little while, in came Liv-Hilde, Kory’s cousin’s ex-wife. She lives near Oslo now, but is remarried and attends church when she’s in the area staying in her cabin near here. We were engaged in her house nearly 20 years ago. It was her ex-husband (Kory’s cousin) that “helped” us buy our condo (that’s a whole other story). It was good to see her smiling face, although I know there has been much pain in her life over the years. She and her new husband also had a half hour to kill, so they walked across the street with us to check out what we’ve done to the condo. She initially helped Aunt Ruth pick out the flooring and tiles for the bathroom and kitchen, and she was very involved in the design of our place. She approved of what we’ve done and liked it a lot, so that was nice to hear. She especially loved that the washer and dryer are hidden behind closet doors in the bathroom. It’s more typical they are just sitting out in the open, so she commented on how smart it was to hide them away (I think that was even her idea way back when.)



Kory invited two of his mother’s cousins and their spouses over for dinner this afternoon, so we had to rush home from church and get things going. It was our first big entertaining moment where we had a full house and some relatives here we didn’t really know. Jenny (Kory’s mom) was born on the Solevaag farm. Jenny’s uncle got the farm because he was the oldest son. He had five children and they all live near the farm to this day, and are around Kory’s age. We have had good contact with four of those five children over the years, but one brother, Arnfinn, not so much, for no specific reason, so today was the day we decided to get to know him and his wife a little bit better. They came with his sister, Oddrun, and her husband and grown son. We’ve had many a fine meal at Oddrun’s house over the years so we may never even the score with her, but we thought we’d try anyway. They are all very nice people to be around, but I have a hard time understanding their dialect as they are from the country, and they use a lot of slang I’m not familiar with. At least they understand me when I talk, because none of them speak a word of English. I don’t think they get out much. (See photo taken of them in our living room having dessert.)



I warned them they were eating true American food – Kory put some chicken breasts on the BBQ (a real delicacy here and not often consumed at five dollars per breast), and I put some huge potatoes in the oven to bake. I made a big salad and boiled some carrots. I tried to play it safe and not do too many weird things with the food, as Norwegians like their food pretty bland. I would bet not one of them has ever eaten a chicken breast in their life, and I know for a fact, they had never before eaten a baked potato. They’ve all eaten boiled potatoes probably every day of their lives, but no one ever thought to bake them. I had cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon, scallions, and corn (a Norwegian twist since they put canned corn on everything), sitting on the table for them to fill up their potatoes. They thought it was the most puzzling thing, ever. Arnfinn’s wife asked me how I knew how long to cook the potatoes and at what temperature must they be cooked. They were intrigued by the experience of slicing them open, squeezing them a bit in the middle to make a crater, then adding all those ingredients. They all managed to pull it off just fine and they cleaned their plates. Hardly anyone ate salad, as that is just not the norm here, but the carrots were nearly gone. When I served pecan squares and ice cream for dessert, they all wanted seconds on the ice cream. They complimented me on the Pecan Squares (they’d never tasted a pecan either – I brought those with me from America.) It was a foreign food festival in our house tonight, but no one went home hungry, I’m sure of that.



We are trying to use our BBQ as much as possible, before someone tells us we must get rid of it. Tante Kari informed us it is not allowed here. We thought maybe it was because of it being a fire hazard out on the deck or something, but as it turns out, it’s not allowed because people don’t like the smell of BBQ’d food. I find that so funny. If they all just BBQ’d food like we have in the U.S., they would experience the wonderful aroma of grilled chicken or steak, but when typical nasty Norwegian meats get put on a BBQ, they can really stink up the place, and even the locals don’t want it wafting into their homes. I hope we can use up our tank of propane before we have to give it boot, but then, maybe no one will complain about us because we are only BBQing American style.



At church this morning they mentioned several times that today is “the day before THE DAY.” Tomorrow is the most important holiday in Norway and the only one of two non-religious one – their Independence Day from Sweden. There’s nothing more important to a Norwegian, that to celebrate that they are no longer Swedes.

Mission (Almost) Impossible

Against Kaleb’s wishes, we went for a hike up in the mountains today. It was the day Kory has thought about more than any other, as our destination was Verpesdalen - the mountain farm he visited a few times as a child. When Kory was a boy, the only way to get to that farm, was to take a boat across the fjord, park it right up next to a sheer mountain side, get out and start climbing. He said there was some kind of pulley system for bringing up supplies, but he remembers so well having to hike straight up the mountain with a million switch backs to get up to the valley where the farm was located (he’s pointing to it in the photo with the fjord in the background). I was a little worried about Kory’s heart and that hike up, so we considered hiring a helicopter to get us up there but Kory thought the journey would be half the fun. We delayed visiting that farm until now because just recently we found out a road was built in 2003 from the backside of the mountain which took care of most of the elevation gain, and from there, a trail was in place to reach the farm via another route. Because the weather was so incredible, we decided today was the day to try and reach it.

I found the name and phone number of a guy that posted photos of that farm on the internet so Kory called him to find out about getting there. He told Kory the steepest trail in from the backside was blocked from a big rock slide so he didn’t know the best way to go. He gave Kory another number to call, but Kory thought he’d just find out for himself how to get there. So off we went driving over an hour east from our home, where we took a ferry and crossed the fjord to the other side, then drove up a long valley and off on a side road that took us up to the top of the backside of the mountain. We found the trailhead marker sign so we parked and began our journey. It was in the 70s today and just beautiful so even if it weren’t a sentimental trip, it was worth the effort nonetheless. The scenery everywhere was just spectacular and I think I took about 500 photos. Little mountain cabins with grass roofs and rock foundations, nestled together at the end of a lake, birch trees and blueberry bushes popping out from the rocky landscape. Much of the hike was through mountain meadow marshes where it was like walking on sponges as water squirted up with each step. We did lose the trail at one point and went a long way out of our way before we found it again, but we were so mesmerized by the view we had from our misadventure we didn’t care. We ended up on a rim overlooking the farm! Kory recognized it right away from the lay of the land, where the buildings sat and it’s proximity to the lake. It was a good spot for lunch. But the problem was, we were on the rim, and the farm was down at the bottom of a very steep valley. All along the valley’s edge were just sheer mountain cliffs and we couldn’t see any possible way down. We hiked even higher to see if we could spot the trail and we reached a radio tower but no clear indication where to go. That hike up nearly killed me. I had to crawl on hands and knees, something like rock climbing but without the security of harnesses and ropes, and then when we realized it might just be a lookout trail, we turned around and I slid half way down on my butt. It wasn’t pleasant. It was at that point we realized we might have taken a wrong turn so we headed back to the car. Kaleb was ecstatic as he’d spent quite a bit of energy whining and complaining that we were taking him away from his friends from school. We told him there wouldn’t be time for a playdate today anyway and he just lost it. I was not kind as I was pretty fed up with all his whining, especially when we explained time and time again how important this was for Kory to share the adventure with him. Now he’ll get another chance to do it all over again because we didn’t reach our goal. After four hours of hiking, we made it back to the car and drove to the end of the road to see what was there. There was a large farm just hanging off the side of the mountain and the owners were home so Kory asked them about how to get to Verpesdalen. The guy was very helpful and told him to use the trail coming off his property and he even offered to let us park our car there when we come back. So at least we feel a bit more knowledgeable and it doesn’t seem like that other trail is too steep for Kory’s heart, so we’re anxious to give it another try next weekend if the weather is good.

After we got back down to sea level and crossed the fjord, we headed east again for a few minutes and ended up in the town where Tante Kari is getting her rehab. I told Kaleb we were going into Vardal to visit Tante Kari and he said, “Man, how many Tante Kari’s do we have? We have the one that lives at Moa and now we have one all the way out here?” I guess somewhere along the line he missed the story about her breaking her hip. She was thrilled to see us so we had a nice visit with her. I was thinking I might move in with her because after today’s hike, I’m pretty sure I could use some rehab myself. Uff da, I’m sore.