God Påske (Happy Easter!)

It didn't take Kaleb long to find his Easter Basket this morning.  Our place is small, and the basket was pretty large.  It was the only one I could find (it was designed for plants).  Norway doesn't do Easter baskets... they just give the kids a large cardboard egg on Easter Eve, loaded with candy.  I like the basket idea too much to give it up, even when in Norway.

I was up at the crack of dawn, ticking things off my to-do list for the big Easter dinner we had here this afternoon.  I once again had too much stress over that meal, but it all turned out OK in the end.  I planned to make cauliflower and asparagus, but when I went to the store last Wednesday to buy things (because the stores were closed Thursday and Friday), I realized our frig wouldn’t hold everything I needed, so I thought I’d just pop into the store Saturday morning to get the cauliflower since that’s a huge Norwegian staple and they surely wouldn’t be out of it.  Well, they were.  They were out of nearly every type of produce, since even the delivery truck drivers had the holidays off, too.  It’s so hard to plan a meal around here when certain items are never guaranteed to be available.  So I switched the menu and made carrots instead.  The asparagus I bought, I set in water, knowing it would be a few days before I used it, but most of it had gone bad before today, so I spent nearly $20 on asparagus that ended up in the trash.  I hate when that happens. 

We went to Agape Church this morning, mostly because their service started at 11 and I needed to get home as soon as possible to get dinner going, as company was showing up at one.  Philadelphia Church service didn’t start until 11:30 today because there are no busses that come out our direction before 11, so they changed their start time to accommodate all those who take the bus.  They also had several other congregations join them, with bus loads coming from near and far because so many other churches were closed today.  They provided a big traditional Easter dinner afterwards in the café, and it all sounded way too busy for me.  At Agape, they had about half the normal turnout since most people are still up in the mountains at their cabins, but it was wonderful time, just the same.

I rushed home to get the “ham” in the oven, but as it turned out, it was really just a huge pork roast, so I wasn’t sure how to cook it and I had a lot of stress about whether it was done or not since I’ve never cooked one.  It ended up OK and no one died from food poisoning.  The pineapple/brown sugar glaze saved the day.  The garlic mashed potatoes were a big hit, as was the corn bread.  I actually found cornmeal at the Asian market at the mall.  I couldn’t find creamed corn, which is required for my recipe, but I found a recipe on-line for homemade creamed corn and I took the chance and made it and used that instead.  The corn bread tasted a little different, but it was still good, so I was thankful for that.  The whole meal, actually, turned out better than I hoped as my hopes were dwindling with each minute.  Fortunately, our guests, Tobias and his whole family, are crazy about anything to do with America so I was in good graces to begin with.

At one point, during dinner, the kitchen was pretty hot so I opened up the window and a nice breeze blew in.  I made the comment that it felt like the Holy Spirit was arriving, but I guess my Norwegian isn’t all that great.  It was then that I learned that the words for “Holy Spirit” and “lucky duck” are nearly identical.  My pronunciation was a little off for what I intended to say, so everyone looked at me rather oddly, but Kory knew what I meant and cleared up the confusion.  Funny.

We had a genuine American Easter egg hunt when our guests arrived.  I put each kid in a different room just to make it a little more fair, since the age difference was from 7-18.  They all had a good time looking for the eggs.  In each room I put two eggs with numbers on them so after dinner we opened each egg in order and in it was a little prop along with a Bible verse about what happened to Jesus.  One had coins, and the verse about Judas selling Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver.  One of the twins wanted to know why there weren’t 30 coins.  Smarty pants.  Another had a sponge soaked in vinegar and the verse about Jesus being thirsty and given vinegar.  Another had nails and another a cross, etc.  Everyone took turns reading the scripture that went with the prop.  No one seemed to understand my pronunciation, though.  The last egg of course, was empty, indicating the empty tomb.  After we opened it we all shouted HALLELUJAH!  It was pretty fun to do that with kids who had never done it.  Kaleb’s done the Resurrection Eggs every year so the elements of surprise is a bit lost on him.

After the Bible story, I treated the kids to American egg dyeing.  I was smart to set it up out on our deck because they had a bit too much fun with that process.  Several of the last eggs ended up looking like they were dipped in chocolate, as they moved the eggs from one color to the next. 

We had a wonderful afternoon with the whole family.   We talked a bit about our trip to Turkey next week with them, which sounds all the more appealing after they told me I can get a Turkish bath and massage, a 2 hour pampering, for less than fifty bucks.  I told them we may need to start each day doing that.  Oh la la.

For dessert I made orange flavored cupcakes, used green dye in the frosting and coconut and put jelly beans on the top.  I twisted some pipe cleaners together and inserted them as a little basket handle and they couldn’t have been any cuter.  The kids loved them.  I had a few left over so I took them to Tante Kari and Tante Aslaug and they both squealed in delight upon getting them. 

After our company left, we decided to take a family walk around the neighborhood and ended up down by a lake near our place.  It was a warm evening and many were out “airing themselves” as they say here in Norway.  On the way back we happened by the Sunday store (just recently opened), so I popped in there to see which items are actually available on Sunday.  It was hard to walk through the small little space because about half of it was taken up by the line of people waiting to buy the few things they can’t live without today.  In looking at the prices though, I won’t be shopping there much.  Yikes.  But it’s nice to know in a pinch, as I often have been in, there’s a place that can save the day when company is coming for dinner on a Sunday.  Hallelujah!

(This is a gate to someone's yard down by the lake.)

Easter Eve

As with all good holidays, Norwegians can’t wait to celebrate them, so tonight actually, was the big Easter dinner in many houses in Norway.  Strange, but true.  Tomorrow is pretty much a non-eventful day around these parts, but we’re sticking with American traditions and having ham and asparagus and other such American delicacies, and inviting friends over to share the day with us.

Because we do plan to attend church in the morning, I had to make a lot of the meal today so I have just a minimal amount to do when we get home from church.  The sun was shining so I wasn’t the least bit happy about being in the kitchen, but I had to do what I had to do.

I ran into Tante Kari on the way to the grocery store (it was open only for a few hours this morning).  She wanted to know if I saw the photo of her that her granddaughter posted on Facebook yesterday when she was there for a visit.  I told her I had seen it.  She said her phone’s been ringing off the hook for all the people who saw it and she seemed a bit confused as to who could see it and who couldn’t.  Later, she came over to our place and asked if I would log on and show it to her.  She squealed in delight over each comment people posted under her photo.  She then went next door to her sister’s place and started bragging that she was on Facebook, like it was some nationally broadcast TV program or something.  She was quite proud.  When Tante Kari saw all the “friends” I had on Facebook, and how many of them are here in Norway, she told me I have more friends here than she does, and she’s lived here all her life.  Funny.

I wasn’t about to spend the whole day inside, on the computer or in the kitchen, so I told Kory at 1:30, we were going for a hike, ready or not.  Well, that turned into 2:00 before I could actually wrap up a few things, but nonetheless, it was another gorgeous day and I longed to be out in it.

A few weeks ago we noticed a signpost to a trailhead a few hundred feet from our building, so we thought we’d go for an explore today and see where it led.  We had only 30 minutes to go one way before we had to turn back, because we were invited out to a big traditional Easter dinner at Kory’s cousin, Linda’s house, so we had to be back in time for that.  So off we went, mostly walking down streets, past houses we’ve never seen, and on into the woods.

The good thing about our little explore was to see how many wild blueberry bushes there are in the woods within just minutes of our place.  When we come back again next year I’m sure it will be in August, so we’ll be having plenty of fresh blueberries then. 

We tried to find the main trail to some hilltop lookout, but got totally turned around and ended up on some guy’s farm.  Again, it was nice to know we wouldn’t be yelled at for crossing his field and tromping around on his place, but we never did make it to our intended destination.   At least we have that goal for another day, and we certainly enjoyed some nice views from where we were (see photos above.)

Cousin Linda has one of the nicest houses we’ve been in in Norway (see photos below).  It’s always a pleasure to spend time there.  After the traditional dinner of lamb, cabbage, potatoes, etc…we were treated to a little concert by her two boys – both incredible musicians.  Rasmus played the piano while his younger brother, Henrik, was on the cello. It was a pretty high class evening, but that family rubs elbows with the elite of Norway since Linda’s husband’s uncle used to be Prime Minister of Norway.   They also own a house in Turkey, so they were telling us the places we shouldn’t miss when we go there in ten days.  Fun.

Linda’s husband went and got Tante Ruth out of the old folks home tonight so she could join us for dinner.  She sat by herself in the corner while we ate because she needs help to do anything.  It was pretty sad to see her sitting there – can’t see, can’t hear much and can’t walk.  Uff-da.  After dinner, everyone took turns sitting up next to her, shouting in her ear so she could hear them.  Linda’s teenage daughter, Nina, really got her talking (see photo).  She was asking Ruth about her childhood and what she did during the war.  She asked why she moved to America and what it was like there.  Of course, Ruth had no idea all ears were on her.  I told Nina to ask her if she ever had any boyfriends.  Kory always suspected she had some, but whenever we have asked her about it – she said she never did.  Nina asked her and Ruth just lit up and said, “Oh yes, I had MANY!”  That was news to us and I’m sure she wouldn’t have said that if she could see who all was listening.  She then told her she didn’t marry any of them, even though she had the chance, because she didn’t love them like they loved her.  She even revealed that she was caught naked once by a guy when she forgot to lock the bathroom door.  He proposed on the spot.  That was pretty funny.  She didn’t really want to come tonight, but I think she was glad she did.

Kaleb came home tonight from his big ski trip.  He had a good time but in the last hour of skiing, hurt his foot during a fall on the slopes.  The snow yesterday was perfect powder, but today, after a day of hot weather, it got pretty slushy and miserable for skiing.  Kaleb said he sat on his butt to get down off the top of the mountain because it was straight down and he was a little bit scared.  When he got to the bottom he had to go over a jump and then he landed wrong and hurt his foot.  Once again, he’s big-dealing it for us, but I’m sure he’s fine.  At least the swelling in his gum went down so he’s not whining about that now.

He got his feelings hurt a little last night, he said, when they were all playing Monopoly with different rules than he’s used to.  The other boys formed alliances and cooperated together, but there wasn’t anyone for him to join up with so he felt they were all out to get him.  Such is life, but he teared up when telling me about it.  He’s really into playing fair, so it hurt his feelings a little.  I think it’s good for him.

Kory went to a special Easter eve service at Philadelphia Church tonight while I helped Kaleb decompress from his trip and get him to bed.  I also needed to do a few more things for dinner tomorrow and get all the Easter eggs ready to hide.  Hunting for Easter Eggs is NOT a Norwegian tradition, so I brought some plastic eggs with me from America so the kids tomorrow can have a little American culture along with their American meal.  I made up some Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, so I’m hoping that will be a good tool in helping them all understand a little better the reason we should all be shouting HALLELUJAH!

Kjøretur (Car trip)

This was the first day since we’ve arrived in Norway that nothing was on the calendar.  It helped that it was Good Friday, and everything is closed, so the day was full of possibilities.  And to top it off, the sun was out and it was warm today!  Woo hoo!

We were invited up to a cabin about a three hour drive from our place, but neither one of wanted to make such a long trip –even on a sunny day, so we decided to take a road trip close to home, but to an area neither of us have ever been.  The journey was the destination.  We loaded up a backpack with Norwegian road food and much coffee, and we were off!

This entire coastline is dotted with little islands, many of which are accessible by ferry, so we looked at a map and found several areas just north of us that we’d never seen.  We took all the “roads less traveled” to get to the ferry landing, which provided me with ample photo opportunities along the way and several kinda scary moments.  The roads are very narrow, only wide enough for one car, but they are two way roads.  Encountering another car requires someone to backup to the closest wide spot in the road.  Many roads have no guardrails, but certain death if the car goes over the edge.  This is Norway at it’s best.  We took it slow and stopped a lot – which suited us both just fine.

When we got to the ferry landing we saw they were on a Sunday schedule since it’s a holiday here, so we had almost two hours to kill.  We drove on all the roads around that peninsula just to see what we could see, and we weren’t disappointed.  The sun was out so everyone who was home, was out on their decks, sunning themselves. 

One thing I love about Norway is there really is no such thing as “private property.”  Everyone is allowed to access everyone else’s land – especially down by the water.  So it’s possible to park right in someone’s driveway and walk across their lawn to get to the beach or up into the mountains.  We weren’t that crass of course, but it was a lot less stress to know we could pull off anywhere we wanted and head down to a dock or beach and no one would yell at us to get off their land.  It’s just the way Norway is – socialized to the max.  So we found several unoccupied places to pull over and just sit and enjoy the sun, or walk the beach and pick up rocks and shells (another one of my weird obsessions – at least they are free!)

Once on the ferry, neither of us saw the sign that said, “crew only” so we ended up in the captains quarters watching him steer the boat!  He didn’t mind.  He let us out on his balcony to take photos.  I’m sure he knew we weren’t locals.

There are three islands just north of us that are hooked together by bridges but as a community, only accessible by ferry on either end, so that was were we spent the bulk of the day – on the island of Otrøy.  Once the ferry dropped us off, there wasn’t another one to take us back for four and half hours, so it was perfect timing.  We drove all the perimeter roads and were next to the water the whole time.  From end to end is about 30 kilometers (18 miles).  We ended up only ten kilometers away from where Kory was born, but we would have had to take another ferry to get there, so we just admired it from across the fjord. 

I took a total of 333 photos today – most of which are keepers.  I’m still having trouble figuring out this fancy new camera I bought, but it was fun to wear out the battery in just one day.  We stopped a lot for “coffee” so Kory could relax and enjoy the view.  Driving the smaller roads is not exactly relaxing and he couldn’t take his eyes off them for one second, so he didn’t nearly see what I saw.  Good thing I took so many photos so he knows what he missed.

In the middle of the day, Henrik’s mom sent me a photo on my phone, showing Kaleb and his buddies up in the mountains, surrounded by snow.  She said it was 72 degrees up there – so he was having a wonderful day, too.  I’m so thankful he has such good friends here.

On the ferry ride back home we ran into two couples we know from church.  They were all out on different islands and they highly recommended we take a trip out to those, also, but with bikes, since they are flat and easy to get around.  Sounds like plans for our next sunny day when nothing is on the calendar.  I hope that day comes soon.

Hyttatur (Cabin trip)

I was up before the sun this morning (well, it seemed like it never did come up), making waffles for Kaleb to take up to the mountains for his few days of skiing with friends.  I’m so excited for him to have such a ‘typisk norsk’ experience.  I hope they make lots of memories!

Kory and I drove him and his friend Andre across the fjord and up into the mountains.  (See photos of the view from the car.) The ferry rides always provide a nice coffee break, so Kory didn’t leave the house without a thermos of coffee with him.  There are some things about this Norwegian life that really agree with him.

I never did talk with Henrik’s mom, Torhild, directly, about this whole weekend thing – we’ve just sent messages on our phone and email so I wasn’t totally clued in to all the details.  I didn’t realize, until we got up to the ski center where she said to meet her, that her cabin is not accessible by car.  When we arrived, Toban, Henrik and Torhild arrived by cross country skis.  I wondered why Andre was wearing ski pants and ski boots when we picked him up.  I’m a little slow.  (See photo)

Kaleb put his ski pants on over his jeans, got on his ski shoes and hooked up his skis.  Had I known they had over a kilometer to get to the cabin, I would have packed his stuff in a backpack.  Oops.  We divided up his stuff into smaller bags so each kid could take something, as it was all uphill to get to the cabin.  Yikes.  Fortunately, Torhild brought a big backpack so the waffles I made fit in there. 

Kory and I watched the boys for a long time, making their way up the hillside.  (Look closely at the above photo – there are three boys on the left, heading uphill.  Toban is ahead of them and Torhild is lagging behind, carrying much stuff.) Toban looked like an Olympic skier, so comfortable and fast, jetting way ahead of the other kids.  I was glad Kaleb wasn’t the last one up the hill.  Both Kory and I were smiles from ear to ear, just thinking about this opportunity he has to be with his friends for a few days and experience the Norwegian cabin life – especially during the Easter break.  How fun.  I sent along a camera and told him to be sure and take some pictures.  I don’t was to miss out on anything!  I took my new camera with me because I knew the drive over there is spectacular, but I found my photos to be a bit lacking since the camera isn’t nearly as easy to manipulate as my trusty little quick shot Cannon.  Dear me.  The landscape here doesn’t really require a fancy camera, it’s just so gorgeous, no matter what.

Weather wise, it was the kind of dark and dreary day that never cleared up and we needed all the lights in the house turned on, just to see.  When we got back home, I put on some sweats and a sweatshirt just to feel cozy and glad to be indoors.  I laid down on the couch to take a little nap right after twelve o’clock and woke up at five!  I couldn’t believe I slept for nearly five hours!  I was sure the clock was broken when I woke up.  Kory sat and drew a picture of tulips the whole time, so he was quiet as a mouse.   I guess I needed some sleep.

Odd and Turid invited us over tonight for dinner.  It was so good to be back there, hanging out with them in their living room – like old times.  Turid seems mortified we have so many guests coming to us in America for such long periods of time, but it’s no longer than we used to stay with them when we came here.  She said, “That’s different.”  I don’t think it is.  We still have a long way to go to pay them back for all their hospitality.  Their bedroom that Kory helped remodel a few years ago still isn’t complete – it needs trim around the windows, doors, floor and ceiling, so Kory said he’d be happy to finish up the job for them as another payback.  We may not live long enough to repay all the things they’ve done for us during the years Turid took care of our condo, did our taxes for us, and paid our bills– plus hosted us every year for at least three weeks at a time when we came to Norway, but we’ll try.

We had a good dinner and very long visit with them, we didn’t get home til nearly 2am.  The funniest part of the evening was that after dinner Odd told me about a website where it’s possible to find old photos taken in Aalesund from 1904-1912.  They are all categorized by name and free for uploading – over 40,000 of them.  He logged on to the website via his i-phone to show me.  I then got out my laptop to check on some of Kory’s relatives; Turid got on her laptop to see about her relatives and Kory got out his i-pad to see for himself.  We were all sitting around the dining room table using electronic devices for at least an hour (see photo).  It was like when Kaleb and his buddies, just sit for hours, glued to their screens.  I guess I shouldn’t be so hard on Kaleb.