So I said I wouldn’t write for a while (as usual) but I wrote this bit in my head during church yesterday and figured I’d share it despite it’s lack of shenanigans and such.
And of course I’ve included background music for you:
Sitting in a church that is even older than my home country, listening to the hushed murmur of a thousand foreign voices, and the bells above me began to ring announcing the start of the Christmas Eve service. As much as I love the sound of church bells from afar, hearing them from within the church was a whole new experience entirely. Muffled, although closer than ever, echoing off the walls, making me feel as though the sounds were coming from within my own head. The bells clanged, the voices lowered to just a hum, and the organist began. As the priest began speaking, the sun shone through the antique window landing directly on my face like a blinding stage light. In that moment, I found myself questioning whether there may actually be a “God” and if they were recognizing my current discomfort, my heightened emotions, my lone American-ness, my doubt, and this light was meant to single me out and welcome me personally. It was just a passing thought, and although I remain unconvinced, in the moment I was calmed by the idea.
As brief and relatively uneventful this moment may have been, I’ll remember for quite a while. God jul!
Again, it’s been a long time. Here are your prescribed background tunes:
Since I last wrote, I’ve had some really good times and experienced some old Norwegian traditions.
December 13th was Santa Lucia Day. I’m not really sure why it is celebrated but all the kids get dressed up like angels and sing some songs at their schools. We celebrated in the evening by heading over to our neighbors’ house to make a type of bread/bun specific to the holiday. The buns have saffron in them so they turn out bright yellow. They are SO delicious. Little swirly buns of fluffy yellow heaven with raisins on top. Mmm.
The next day, in Norwegian class (norskkurs), my friend Vasilis thought it’d be a good idea to feed bread to the pigeons from our classroom window during our break. Eventually they started coming up onto the actual window and windowsill to get food. THENNN he decided it’d be a really, really good idea to catch one and bring it in the room! This story has no importance, I was just laughing hysterically for way too long. I’m even snickering just reflecting back on that day. Our class is all sorts of ridiculous.
And the day after that, on the 15th, I celebrated my 1 year anniversary since knee surgery. My new ACL and I are still going steady. The nasty meniscus tries to make my life difficult sometimes, but so far so good. Although it was a majorly busy day, I made time to go on a run, since I figured that was the ultimate way to pay thanks to the modern medicine that made me mobile. (ßtoo many m’s right there? I think not.)
Nothing notable really happened for about a week there.
Then a few days ago, it snowed. That wasn’t too notable in itself, but what blew me away was that the next morning, I wanted to throw a rock at a puddle in the front yard to see if I could break the ice…but I literally could not pry a pebble loose from the ground. It was THAT frozen! I was mighty impressed! I had to resort to using my heel to try to break through the deep little flooded crevasse puddle…epic fail because I then realized it was frozen all the way through. Then I was even more impressed!
The only real story I have to tell within this blog is about yesterday (22 December). It was the shortest day I will likely ever experience in my life. The technical sunrise and sunset times you can find online don’t seem very right because it feels like the sun makes it’s real appearance around 10:15 and set around 3:15. SO SHORT. Anyway, yesterday Cato, Maria-Elena, and I made the trek through the fjords and across the mountains to their small hometown of Kongsberg. The drive actually took longer than the sun shone so it felt like the drive took foreeever…but holy smokes it was beautiful!!! The drive was pitch black for the first two hours and when the sun finally came up it was still foggy and damp…until about halfway across the mountains, when it suddenly cleared. I couldn’t stop saying, “IT’S PERFECT” all throughout the drive. Sorry, Cato and Maria-Elena, for my annoying and repetitive comments. The road was terrifying in a few spots but the sights were crazy cool – along the very top, it was a semi-flat snow-covered plateau so it looked just like the arctic tundra. Also, the wind created the most amazing riffles as it blew loose snow along the top of the snowpack. I wish I were creative enough with words to portray this accurately since my camera also failed to capture worthy photographic documentation.
We finally made it to Kongsberg by about 4:30ish and we were all so tired. BUT, the 22nd of December marks a very old tradition within this town, called Drekkedagsnatta. The translation is technically “drinking day night” and it’s a tradition dating back to the 1600s. The silver miners of Kongsberg would begin their short Christmas breaks starting on December 22nd, and they would head down from the mines in the mountains carrying torches as they walked to the city center. They also received their salaries when they joined the rest of the townspeople in the city for the Christmas parade…so then they would celebrate! The tradition has evolved to all of the townspeople (“all” is an overstatement, mainly the younger generations with some rad older folk) head into the mountains near the mines and start lots and lots of bonfires, then groups of friends sit around, get drunk, sing Kongsberg songs, socialize, and have an excellent time. Also, many of the guys dress in traditional Kongsberg skiing attire which includes a very old style sweatshirt, capri-length poofy mounain pants (just found out they are called knikkers), and old looking socks knitted in very classic Norwegian prints. I really can’t describe this accurately….nor could I find a single picture combining all aspects of the guys’ outfits. Use your imagination, I guess.
Anyway, Maria-Elena brought me along, seeing as this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She introduced me to a big group of her friends and it was sø gøy!...So fun. I met so many incredibly nice people. Not to mention, Norwegian guys are wildly handsome. Whewwww, really though.…..moving on….so towards the end of the night, I managed to sit down next to the one person within the group who was not fluent in English…and since I’m terrible at Norwegian, you can imagine our hilarious attempt to converse. Despite the huge language barrier, we managed to talk for about 45 minutes! It was soo entertaining, we were both struggling but having a good time anyway. Norwegians may be rather reserved in day-to-day life, but they are FUN partiers.
So, my new plan in life: eventually, I want to marry a Kongsberg engineer (lots of engineers in this town) and live here. I love this place. Cato’s mom, Bjorg, has agreed to go in on a cookie bakery business with me. Set Town – population: me.
Some other news in my life: my mom is coming to visit in May! I’m kiiinda excited. The plan, as of now, is to meet some family in Italy, explore the Dolomites a little bit, then head back to Bergen to celebrate the 17th of May, thennn go on a long cruise through the fjords. Yesss. Also, a dear friend of mine will be visiting me in March! I can’t wait!!! He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m planning on making him hike Troll’s Tongue with me. I think he’ll be game for it though…
And Christmas Eve is tomorrow! Christmas Eve in Norway is basically like our Christmas day in the US…kind of. We will have a big dinner then “Santa” will come and deliver the gifts, which are opened that night. Seems kinda weird to someone who has experienced a lifetime of Santa coming at night to deliver the gifts for Christmas morning. But this year, Santa will be making a legitimate guest appearance, and yes, I’m pretty sure we booked the REAL Santa for tomorrow’s visit. Anyway, I’m going to miss my family and our traditions, but this will be a good experience that I’ll always remember.
God Jul and I’ll probably write again after I return from New Year’s in Berlin with Lauren Magill! Wooooo life is good.
Here I sit, late at night, ready to reflect on the past two weeks. It’s been a long time since I last blogged and things have been great.
Listen while reading, please:
Really though, things have been great. That Thanksgiving meal I was on the verge of making when we last talked….that went pretty dang well, if I do say so m’self. Not perfect, but considering I’ve never made any of those dishes before, I’m proud of myself. It’s safe to say Paula Deen would have been proud, too! And the turkey was possibly the best I’ve ever had (Sorry, Ma). I can’t wait to cook every Thanksgiving for the rest of my life and look back and say, “I remember the first time I cooked Thanksgiving…I was living in Norway….what a year….”
My Norwegian class has become wildly fun. Everyone is so unique and interesting and we all have a lot of fun together. I’m really happy to have the chance to meet so many people from so many corners of the globe. We are all so ridiculous together. This past Wednesday, for no clear reason, we started talking about wolves. Wolf is ‘ulv’ and howl is just ‘ul,’ so naturally I’d bust out an “ULLLLLLLLLL” every few minutes, just because. I can’t help myself sometimes.
I recently taught Emil how to play War, the card game. As my family may recall, back in the good ole days, I was quite the avid Warrior during vacations to the Brown Cabin in Arnold. He was quick to catch on, despite having no verbal explanation, and he is a whiz with numbers. For a few days there, he wanted to play allllll theeee tiiiime. And even though War takes no actual skill or strategy, he has won every game. I mean, I let him cheat a little bit and he insists on ALWAYS possessing the Ace of Clubs, but still, he’s been a lucky sonofagun so far.
I’ve been hanging out quite a bit with a new friend, Maria-Elena. Our first night of shenanigans, we were suckered into a sweet deal at the movie rental store – 3 for the price of 2 for an entire week! Only like 130Kr (like $20ish). We ended up with Bridesmaids, Harry Potter 7 Pt 2, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I cried like a baby in HP7PT2, again. Sorry I’m not sorry, that movie is so sad. We also went to one of the 40000 kebab shops in Bergen on our way home…which resulted in me accidentally inhaling a chunk of meat….not cool, it hurt. Speaking of graceful moments, I’ve had quite a few recently….slipping all over the mall, sliding down a muddy slope on my butt while out for a stroll by myself, waving a parking pass card all over the sensor like an idiot while a line of cars waited behind me (gave up after like 20 solid seconds of flailing, just ended up paying for the day), being stuck outside the grocery store during the biggest storm because I couldn’t seem to trigger the automatic doors (had to wait for the next person to come out like 2 minutes later), and lots of other stupid things. I feel so “American,” if ya know what I mean.
Anyway, in true Norwegian fashion, I must discuss the weather. The past two weeks have felt like one big storm. I’ve never before experienced such powerful wind, pelting rain, and trembling thunder. The rain and hail seem to come at you from all sides and the wind knocks you around pretty good, therefore umbrellas don’t stand a chance. I tried once, for about 3 minutes, then put my umbrella away for good. One night, the thunder/lightning storm was right outside my window. I stayed up from about 3 AM til 4 AM, just watching and recording videos. This storm is biiig even by Norwegian standards. The nearby lake even flooded over the top of the very old dam, THAT is how much water there has been.
We had our first real snow on December 6th. I’ve experienced snowstorms before, but I never had the chance to drive in one. Since I’m living, not vacationing, in Norway, driving in snow is unavoidable. Without any introduction or lessons, I just took to the streets. Learn by doing - making Poly proud. Welp, that was the most stressful driving experience of my life. I just needed to go to the grocery store and it turned into an almost 3 hour ordeal of cement trucks putting on chains in the middle of our one-lane street, a truck repeatedly climbing up then sliding back down a small slope on the main road to the grocery store, followed by one icy turn that lodged two busses and a car into uncomfortable and seemingly inescapable positions. 3 hours of traffic, the inability to safely turn around and head home, no possible detours, running very low on gas, sliding on icy turns, and 6 or so attempts to make it up one icy slope in the neighborhood….what a fun day! A good learning experience nonetheless.
The following day was the most beautiful day of my life, I kid you not. The snow is different here. The dramatic Norwegian landscapes, even just alongside the freeway and the nearby roads, accentuated by a perfect layer of powdered sugar and mist are mind-blowingly gorgeous. Multiple times during my drive to school and back, I had mental malfunctions because I could not mentally grasp so much beauty. Picture a perfect winter wonderland, a snowy Audubon picture, and a mythical land…roll that together and you’ve got yourself Norway. That night the kids skied around the front yard and I made a snow angel or two. Best day yet, for sure.
Then it rained, the snow melted, and left us with ice. NOT OKAY WITH ME. I thought it was a good idea to wear top-siders today because they’re generally quite traction-y and it wasn’t very cold (it was like 2.5-3 degrees Celsius)…yeah, I couldn’t even make it from a store, across the street, and to the bus stop….I had to go back to the car and just drive directly to the store in the city as to avoid all walking. I never tried ice-skating for a reason – I don’t like ice. I swear the locals can just stroll on over it, no problemo. Not this girl though. Old people often were little clamp-on spikes on their shoes – I’mma get me some of those ‘cause I just can’t hang.
The last of my updates for the past two weeks, is the spur of the moment decision to spend Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland!!! One day it was just and idea, the next day the flight was purchased. Also, I might add, as I was about to book the flight, Solfrid purchased it for me as an early Christmas present from her and Cato….I literally rolled on the floor for a little bit, laughing in disbelief….THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ahhhhh I cannot wait!!!
I’m a very lucky girl and I am very thankful for this life.
And big congratulations to Kristin Ciralli, Amanda Pellicani, and all my other friends who will be graduating from college today.
