Let's Talk Food

Hei  hei!  Ok it’s time for some Norwegian culture.  Here the specialty foods are saved for the weekend. Typically during the week I will eat Müsli for breakfast (an oats, raisins, corn flakes type cereal— with yogurt) for lunch I will bring a brød skive to school (an open face sandwich with salami, cheese or something of the sort) and dinner varies from fish to kjøttkaker (directly translated to meat cakes) or pasta, and potatoes are always served as a side. There are other typical dinners such as thin pancakes, eaten with jam, and tomato soup on the side. I have been told that during Christmas each meal is really special, and it is the time of year where everyone eats way too much. During the weekdays Norwegians seldom have dessert. They will maybe have a bowl of chocolate out in the house but nothing more. It isn’t until the weekend that ice cream, waffles, bøller, cake, risgrøt, or some type of dessert is served following dinner. And let me say the Norwegians know how to make their dessert. Risgrøt is rice cooked with milk and cream, often served with fruit flavored syrup or cinnamon and sugar, a definite new favorite dessert for me. Breakfast on the weekends is always a huge assortment of just about everything.  There will be a variety of different types of bread, all very delicious. There will be butter, patte, cheese, jam, honey, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other toppings to go with the bread. In addition to that there will be Müsli and also hardboiled eggs. Breakfast on the weekends is always something to enjoy. Since the breakfast is so big and usually eaten around nine or ten in the morning, the next meal won’t be until three or four and they call that middag, which is dinner. It is an early dinner but Norwegians believe that no one should go to bed on a full stomach so if you do get hungry again later in the night, one might eat a slice of bread just to satisfy the stomach. Since I have been here I would have to say Norwegian bread is by far the best there is.  Before I thought bread was just plain and boring, that all changed once I entered this magical land.  The bread here is always fresh and not presliced. A lot of families make their own bread too, which is so good.  Bread is a huge part of Norwegian culture. It can sometimes be eaten with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They also have knekkebrød, hard bread, which is a typical side with dinner or lunch.

Norwegian Breakfast

Müsli

Risgrøt

Waffles served with jam and sour cream

Knekkebrød with Brunost (a sweet creamy cheese that all Norwegians love)

Bøller, sweet buns sometimes with chocolate (eaten about as often as cookies in the US)

A very typical dinner of fish, potatoes with sauce, and greens

The Norwegians are all really healthy and outdoorsy people. Recently I went backpacking with my sports class. Every student was honestly professional at backpacking. They had the perfect gear, for cooking, the snow, and sleeping. And they all enjoyed being out in the 3 degree Celsius, snowy weather, which was really fun to see. Even those girls who you wouldn’t assume to be interested in backpacking, those who normally come to school more fancily dressed, were true backpackers. Every child grows up surrounded by the backpacking skiing culture and ultimately they all know how to really survive in the great outdoors, which has been really fun for me to experience. We traveled about forty minutes from where I go to school to a place called Totenåsen. It’s a big-forested area with a lot of hiking trails. It was already ice and snow covered, and while we were there it began snowing a little. In winter it is a common place for cross-country skiing. Deep into the forest there are a few cabins, which housed some of Norway’s military during WWII. They are these tiny cabins, about the size of a dorm room, which held anywhere from 10-20 people. They were however successful in keeping away from the Germans because they were never found during the war.

Backpacking in Totenåsen

Recent Events:

Rotary District Conference for Norway districts Hedmark and Oppland

Haddeland Bakery- very delicious

Sanner Hotel, where we stayed for the District Conference

The sister churches beside our hotel

International Week

After the language camp I had an additional week off for fall break. During the break I hung out with friends and began preparing for the cold winter weather by buying warm clothes. I took a little road trip out to Hamar with my friends Melissa and Marte. Hamar is a city of about 30,000 people and it is located on the opposite side of Lake Mjøsa. The weather has been very cold lately. It has been around 25 degrees Fahrenheit on a daily basis so we are preparing ourselves for an early winter.

I also visited the Alf Prøysen museum with my host parents. It is located in Rudshøgda, Norway where Prøysen lived. The museum is located about a kilometer from the house that Prøysen himself grew up in. Alf Prøysen is Norway’s most famous children’s author. He wrote songs and short stories about everyday life in rural Norway.

I saw my first moose the other day while I was with my host dad at his Health club meeting and I managed to snap a picture of it. I stood about 50 meters from it!

This week at school we have been having a lot of presentations on the current conditions in Rwanda and what it is that we can do to help. It is our international week so we have also been celebrating and recognizing all the different ethnicities of the school. A lot of families throughout Middle Eastern Europe have moved to Norway in hopes of a better life for their children. In being the only exchange student here I was asked to present about where I come from. I gave my first Norwegian presentation to the school on the differences between American and Norwegian high schools in addition to talking about exchange programs. It was a little difficult but it was a lot of fun telling the students about school spirit and all the events that are a part of American high school. On next Thursday everyone at the school is taking part in a project called “Operasjon Dagsverk.” All the students and staff are required to go out in the community and raise 400 Norwegian kroner, which is the equivalence of around 80 US dollars. My friends and I are planning to run a booth where we will be making and selling waffles, a very popular food here. The money we raise will all be sent to Rwanda to help get a better education for the kids and teachers.

Here I am giving the school a presentation on american schools and excahnge programs.

Here we are making african food to celebrate international week. We made cous cous salad with chicken, and it was tasty!

Kinsarvik Språkkurs

It was one packed week. We left Sunday for the west coast of Norway. All the rotary exchange students of Norway met together for the language course. There were exchange students from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, Taiwan, and the US. We spent the week at a nice resort right on Norway’s most beautiful fjord, the Hardanger.

Week Schedule

7:00 Breakfast

8:00 Class

10:30 Break

11:00 Class

1:00 Lunch

2:00 Sight seeing

5:00 Class

6:00 dinner

And more activities

We all got very little sleep this week but it was a lot of fun, and we are one big family now.  Most days we would take hikes up in the mountains. Every hike was utterly breath taking. We went rock climbing our second to last day, which was the scariest and best thing I have ever done.  Once we made it to the top, we had this incredible view of the fjord and the surrounding area. Some nights we even went swimming in the fjord, which was super cold. On the last day we had our district rotary conference where we performed for all the Rotarians. We sang songs, acted out some Norwegian fairytales in addition to doing dance routines.

Now I have a week off for vacation from school, what the Norwegians call høstferie. Winter is supposedly arriving really soon this year, possibly in the next two weeks. Currently here all the trees are changing colors and it is a beautiful time of year.

Jeg elsker Norge :)

Things are staying consistent for me in Norway. Last week we had a thing called “faguke” which literally translates to subject week. Each day we had one specific class where we worked and took tests from 8 until 3 in the afternoon. 

I am getting more involved with the sports clubs now that I have settled in. I tried out Håndbal for a week, I wasn't the best but it was cool to try something new. We have this training physility not too far from the school were they hold a lot of exercise classes. I have taken part in some Zumba exercise classes which have been super fun! My sport class with the school is three days a week for 80 minutes each of those days. We do a lot of different types of exercising. In preperation for winter and the snow we have been recently running up hills with ski poles to get ready for cross country skiing, now that is one tiring workout. We also have days were we are given a map with which we must run and navigate our way all through the forest and town, not easy stuff. At least once a week we will have a day dedicated to soccer, definitely a popular sport here. As of now I am trying to join the tennis team in Gjøvik, and I hope it works out.

My host parents had their grandkids here last week for a visit, and that was a lot of fun. They stayed with us for about five days. They live on the west coast of Norway so we drove them to Sogndalen, halfway between Oslo and the West Coast of Norway, for the parents to come and pick them up. The drive was utterly breathtaking and the fjords were all so beautiful.

Niklas on the ferry to Sogndalen

I traveled to Oslo recently and was lucky enough to see the sun. My friend, Maria Norum, took me around the city. I got to see Vigeland Sculpture Park in addition to Karl Johan’s Gate. It was really fun to see Norway’s capital.

Stortinget

Karl Johans Gate

 Karl Johans Castle

Maria and I at the Vigeland Sculpture Park

Coming up this Sunday, the 25^th of September, I will be traveling to a place called Kinsarvik, on the Hardanger fjord on the West Coast. There I will meet with the other exchange students of the district and we will all take part in a weeklong language course along with some sight seeing. Following that week the schools have a week off. It is in the first week of October, otherwise known as høstferie, or fall break. 

Fun Fact: 

People in Norway, that live near Sweden’s border, often travel there to buy groceries, cars, clothes, you name it. The prices in Norway are among the highest in the world and in Sweden they are much more affordable. The Swedish folk often have trouble with finding jobs near them so they come to Norway. The low unemployment rate and the high availability of jobs really attract a lot of Swedes. Another plus for the Swedes is that the Norwegian kroner is of higher value, so when they travel back to Sweden they will have acquired more money.

Rain Rain Rain

It has been constantly raining here in Norway. Flooding has occurred all over and especially in Southern, Norway. It is the most rain Norway has gotten in 111 years.


 I am now beginning to really grasp the Norwegian language. I have attended school for almost a month. My head often hurts with all the new words and information but I have progressed. I constantly refer to my Norwegian English wordbook, without it I would definitely be lost.

Each student is provided with a school laptop so all of our documents are done digitally, which is a big change from high school. I have become close to a group of girls who traveled to the US last year on exchange. I am going to be living with one of the girls, Mathilda Tosterud, for my second host family. They are a family of five kids that live walking distance from the school. The teachers here are all very kind and they have been really helpful with all of my schoolwork and assignments. I do have to say that English is my favorite class, in addition to social anthropology.

Currently the Norwegian Valg (election) has been going on. This coming Monday, the 12th of September, schools are closed due to voting. The Arbeidpartiet (Labor Party) has received high praise for Jens Stoltenberg’s actions following the attacks on Utøya. Their popularity due to recent events has risen. It is unclear which party edges above the rest but soon enough there one will be chosen. The spectrum from right to left in Norway involves the Arbeidpartiet, Frp, Høyre, Krf, Senterpartiet, SV, and Venstre.

We traveled to Lillehammer to see the famous ski jump.

Lillehammer’s Maihaugen Museum

Downtown Lillehammer

Oslo, Norway

Here I am at my very first opera. This is Oslo's new opera house that has been remodeled--following the architecture of the opera house in Sydney, Australia.

Later on this month my rotary district is holding a weeklong language course on the west coast of Norway. There I will meet all other exchange students throughout the southern half of Norway. We will be staying in Kinsarvik, which is a place on the Hardanger fjord. It isn't too far from Bergen.

Fun Fact: Here is a picture of when Norway was in a union with Sweden. After Denmark sold Norway to Sweden, in 1814, the Norwegian flag was allowed to be flown, however the swedish colors had to be displayed in the upper right hand corner. Most Norwegians disliked the Union flag which they sarcastically called, "herring salad". On June 1905 Norway broke free of its union with Sweden. After nearly 400 years of foreign rule they had become an independent nation again. Prince Carl of Denmark was elected King of Norway under the name of Haakon VII.