"If you feel homesick, get a new home."

Ooops, I lied, here's another blog about normal life! The music will make it better. Really.

There’s something so American about cooking with whiskey… Much of today has been spent cooking in preparation for tomorrow – we are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner (a couple days late, clearly, but Thanksgiving nonetheless)! Never have I ever cooked for Thanksgiving, so to do so for my first time whilst in Norway is something I’ll definitely remember forever. I’m pretty excited – everything is turning out okay so far.  Not only is this my first time cooking all of these dishes, but many of the ingredients are either improvised, slightly different, or also made from scratch themselves. I’ve been having quite a hard time at the grocery stores recently – many things that seem so basic to me are either totally unheard of or not commonly used enough to be carried in the stores. Such as cornmeal, Italian sausage, and canned broth. Pardon my French but sometimes shit’s rrrrough trying to cook foods that I’m familiar with from back in the good ole States.

Speaking of the Land of the Free, I’ve been listening to a lot of country lately. Not like home is much of a country sort of place, but it makes me nostalgic for the USA and rafting. By the way, KAT Country Radio does NOT let me listen online. Nor does Pandora.  People, please keep me posted on new music over yonder! Oh, and speaking of country, there is actually line dancing on Monday nights at the school on this island….as terrible as I am at any sort of grooving and/or staying in a line, I greatly look forward to experiencing Norwegian country line dancing sometime soon!

As I mentioned, today was mostly spent in preparation for tomorrow, but we also went and saw a very traditional Norwegian children’s Christmas play called Putti Plutti Pott. Of course I only understood a few words here and there so I was relatively lost throughout the whole thing, but there was this one part toward the end that included a very traditional Norwegian song accompanied by very, very traditional dance – fascinating! That was wildly entertaining for me. Also, this past week I got to see Solfrid’s bunad, which is the traditional dress worn for special occasions such as their big national holidays. Google “bunad.” They’re so pretty and interesting because they vary by region and are often handed down through generations. I love them.

Other notable highlights of the past week have included my 1-month anniversary of living here! Whoaaaa, time is flying. Real Thanksgiving was uneventful but made me realize that people on Facebook rrrreally annoy me…so many posts about being with family and eating a ton of food and watching football and yadda yadda and it just sorta irritated me to the core because maybe I wanted in on that? But at the same time, I can’t really complain, my life is pretty good right now. Then all the Black Friday posts?? Shhh. I get it, you were crazy enough to stand in huge lines and you got stuff for super cheap. Cool, bros. Not that I wanted in on any of THAT action, I think Black Friday is ludicrous. Actually, I went shopping on Black Friday, too, and it was pretty great. But here there aren’t even lines…or sales for that matter, but I’d prefer there be no insanity and no sales than insanity and sales. I ended up only spending 99Kr (like $17) for a sweet, bright pink, long underwear set. Which girl has two thumbs and isn’t going to freeze to death? This girl.

One other very notable moment in my week was trying caviar!!!! AHH. Did that really happen!!?!?! Yes. I was perusing the fish market with a girl from my Norwegian class and while she was befriending a fellow native Spanish speaker (she’s from Buenos Aires), I was gawking at the abundance of caviars at a particular booth. The sales guy asked me if I wanted to try some and I said “WHEN IN ROME!” I didn’t really say that, it was more of like a squeak and an “ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh errrrrrghhhjhgg….k.” At that moment, I was thinking about how much I really wanted to puke at the idea…yet knowing that it’s something I should probably experience while I’m here. So I was expecting like a cracker or something to put it on but no no noooono, he told me to stick out my hand then smeared that ish (actually the most expensive kind, I felt rather fancy) right on the back of my hand. I just about diiied. Hesitated for a few awkward moments. Then I just went for it. Didn’t even chase it with any beverage of sorts. Just boom. And you know what? Not even bad! It definitely wasn’t any taste I was used to – it was super salty with the essence of fish and embryos or something unidentifiable, but I didn’t pass out or anything. Victory!

So I’m settling in, life is beginning to establish a normalcy that is quite enjoyable because by building the base of my life here, I will feel more confident in branching out and developing a social life, or experiencing new adventures, and etc. I probably don’t make much sense….basically, in the beginning, I didn’t want to stretch myself too thin, I didn’t want to take any risks, or have my mind on too many things – but now that this is feeling more like home, I’m ready to get the rest of my life going. Maybe that cleared it up a bit?

Lastly, I made this mental list recently. I feel like I didn’t pack quite right for here…

Things I’m very glad I brought (the small list): lots of warm socks (no explanation needed) and my mini drybags (they provide me peace of mind for my phone and camera in the case of unexpected downpours).

Things I’m frustrated with myself for not bringing (the long list): warm scarves (my light cotton ones just don’t make sense here, I need some scarves with substance!), bright colors (whenever I went shopping this past summer, my sole focus was to buy bright colors…I thought I did…but apparently I didn’t pack ANY. I dress so boring.), feminine clothes (apparently I forgot all of those, too??? Every day when I get dressed, I take note that on most days, all of my clothes could be appropriately spotted on both guys and girls….which is totally fine sometimes, but I miss dressing like a girl! I clearly didn’t know how to shop for warmth while maintaining femininity.), and the last thing I’m pretty disappointed at myself for not bringing is the card with Matt’s picture on it from his memorial. I’ve had one of those on me since then, yet I managed to somehow not bring one to Norway?? Sorry for getting all sentimental, but November’s the hardest month – two years and just a couple says ago was the last time I saw him alive. I miss him. And I like to think that he would be proud of my decision to take on the challenge of living abroad, like he did. I know I don’t talk about emotional stuff very often, but Matt was a huge inspiration to me while he was alive, and perhaps even more so after his death. Chewball was just so dang cooool. I believe that he lived his life right. I feel the same about Brendo, too. Honestly, I didn’t know him as well as I knew Matt, but their similarities are striking. They both lived their lives so fully and were such genuine, good people. It’s so…frustrating? tragic? unfair?...that they both died so young yet I can take solace in knowing that they made excellent use of the time they were given here. On that note, keep your loved ones close…if not physically, at least emotionally.