We all got a decent night’s sleep and we’re back to normal now. Kory was up early to go to his carpenter job today then had to work a little overtime. Kaleb was off to school, then soccer practice (see photo – he’s the one in the light blue shorts and shirt under the red vest). He was beaming again today because he got his “Weekly Test” back and he scored another 100% (27 out of 27). He was also in high spirits because today FOR SCHOOL, he had free reading time in the library AND swimming lessons. He considers both of those incredibly fun leisure activities so he came in laughing about what constitutes “school” here. And as for me, the house is clean, clothes are washed, and dishes all put away. It’s so nice to live in such a small place and have a place for everything to land. There are no side projects – yet --and life is as simple and routine as it gets. I do fear however, that our eating habits will become a bit too routine, as the selection of foods available to purchase here is pretty limited. More than once we’ve had the standard fish-potato-carrot dinner because that food is plentiful and relatively cheap. I guess if I cooked lamb, we could vary the routine a bit, but then I’d have to throw it all up and waste the money spent on buying it. (I refuse to eat cute animals.) Surprisingly, chicken is hard to find here but every type of pig product is in abundance. We try to eat “heart healthy” food, which doesn’t go too well with what you can buy in Norway, aside from fish. Norwegians all eat basically the same kinds of foods and their idea of variety is, “Do I put goat cheese on my piece of bread today like every other day or should I shake things up a bit with a little salami (pølse)?” I’m sure their thinking is, “If there is no bread, it’s not a meal,” but at least the bread here is to die for. Norwegians buy fresh bread each and every day. There are even fresh bakeries inside most of the gas stations here because gas stations are the only thing open on Sundays and heaven help them if they had to eat day old bread.
In class yesterday the teacher gave us the basic Norwegian shopping list: bread, potatoes, fish, goat cheese, eggs, liver pate (the kids here eat it on bread like American kids eat peanut butter), milk, juice, coffee, jam. It would be hard to find a house in Norway that didn’t have every one of those items in it. And they eat jam by the scoop – I guess that’s how they get most of their fruit requirements. The size of the jam jars they sell here are of the “Costco” variety – which really makes them stand out because everything else is so darn small (a mayonnaise jar for instance, is about a third the size of jar of jam). When we’ve stayed with Odd and Turid in the past, I’ve seen them go through a whole jar of jam (about 2-3 cups in volume) in just two days. Norwegians aren’t big on fresh produce (especially salads) but they do eat a lot of carrots, potatoes, rutabagas and cauliflower for dinner and red bell peppers and cucumbers for breakfast or lunch (set slices of one of those veggies over some yummy white cheese on a piece of fresh bread and there you have my favorite Norsk meal.)
We continued our lesson on Norwegian foods in class today. The substitute teacher commented about certain foods and which ones last longer than others. It’s a big concern here and why so many fresh produce items aren’t available – because they won’t survive the trip this far north. She also told us about some foods that become poisonous after a while. Of course she was talking only in Norwegian, and I heard a word that she used the other day when she was talking about families (we had to learn the names of family members that day.) The word that caught my attention was “gift” (pronounced “yift.”) It’s the Norwegian word for “married,” but as we all learned today, it’s also the Norwegian word for “poison.” I brought up the irony of that word being used for both “married” and “poison” and asked her why that would be - and I got her to think a minute, but she was not able to answer my question. There are several Spanish speaking students in our class too, so I also pointed out that the Spanish word “esposa” means “wife,” but it also means “handcuffs.” I’m not liking these associations one little bit, but I must say, it makes them easier to remember – kind of like the word “but” in English is “men” in Norwegian. There are so many things to remember… I do what I can to help the process. But why “child” is called “barn” in Norwegian, I have no idea. I know as a kid, my mom used to ask me if I was “born in a barn” when I left the door open… so maybe there’s something there -- she is full blooded Norwegian, after all. We studied weather words today too, and if it’s cloudy they say here it’s “skyet” (pronounced “she-it”). Here all these years I thought my mom was swearing when she’d say a certain naughty word in a certain way, but as it turns out, it seems, she was just talking about the weather.
In class yesterday the teacher gave us the basic Norwegian shopping list: bread, potatoes, fish, goat cheese, eggs, liver pate (the kids here eat it on bread like American kids eat peanut butter), milk, juice, coffee, jam. It would be hard to find a house in Norway that didn’t have every one of those items in it. And they eat jam by the scoop – I guess that’s how they get most of their fruit requirements. The size of the jam jars they sell here are of the “Costco” variety – which really makes them stand out because everything else is so darn small (a mayonnaise jar for instance, is about a third the size of jar of jam). When we’ve stayed with Odd and Turid in the past, I’ve seen them go through a whole jar of jam (about 2-3 cups in volume) in just two days. Norwegians aren’t big on fresh produce (especially salads) but they do eat a lot of carrots, potatoes, rutabagas and cauliflower for dinner and red bell peppers and cucumbers for breakfast or lunch (set slices of one of those veggies over some yummy white cheese on a piece of fresh bread and there you have my favorite Norsk meal.)
We continued our lesson on Norwegian foods in class today. The substitute teacher commented about certain foods and which ones last longer than others. It’s a big concern here and why so many fresh produce items aren’t available – because they won’t survive the trip this far north. She also told us about some foods that become poisonous after a while. Of course she was talking only in Norwegian, and I heard a word that she used the other day when she was talking about families (we had to learn the names of family members that day.) The word that caught my attention was “gift” (pronounced “yift.”) It’s the Norwegian word for “married,” but as we all learned today, it’s also the Norwegian word for “poison.” I brought up the irony of that word being used for both “married” and “poison” and asked her why that would be - and I got her to think a minute, but she was not able to answer my question. There are several Spanish speaking students in our class too, so I also pointed out that the Spanish word “esposa” means “wife,” but it also means “handcuffs.” I’m not liking these associations one little bit, but I must say, it makes them easier to remember – kind of like the word “but” in English is “men” in Norwegian. There are so many things to remember… I do what I can to help the process. But why “child” is called “barn” in Norwegian, I have no idea. I know as a kid, my mom used to ask me if I was “born in a barn” when I left the door open… so maybe there’s something there -- she is full blooded Norwegian, after all. We studied weather words today too, and if it’s cloudy they say here it’s “skyet” (pronounced “she-it”). Here all these years I thought my mom was swearing when she’d say a certain naughty word in a certain way, but as it turns out, it seems, she was just talking about the weather.
