I moved to Trondheim, Norway at the end of January, 2011, to be with my fiance, get married and commence the next adventure in my life. This blog records my adventure.
God jul! Merry Christmas in Norwegian. Pronounced "goo yool". We celebrated a quiet Christmas with Tove's mom, Kitty. We ate a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with pork, lamb, sausages, potatoes, red cabbage, mashed rutabagas, prunes, lingonberries, accompanied with aquavit and Christmas beer. Dessert featured "riskrem", a type of sweet rice pudding with raspberry sauce. After a post-dinner nap we had coffee with Christmas cookies, apple pie (which I baked from scratch!) and vanilla ice cream. We had liquers including our homemade lingonberry liquer that turned out to be delicious.
Yesterday we had leftovers, and since I failed to take photos Christmas Eve, here is pretty much how it looked (less one chair):
Leftovers
Christmas Day Tove and I took our long walk in the hills behind our home. It was a beautiful afternoon. albeit short. It is hard to describe the Winter days here. December 21 was the shortest "day". The sun rose at about 10 a.m. and set at about 2:30 p.m. But the sun never gets high in the sky. It's a sunrise-set! Take a look:
This photo was taken on December 23rd at 12:30 in the afternoon.
Taken the same day and time. That is my shadow in the "noonday sun"
Same day, 3:30 p.m. That is the moon above.
Another tradition we follow is taking Christmas wreathes and candles to place on the graves of loved ones at Christmas time. We did this on Tove's grandmother's and on her father's graves.
I think that most people consider Norway to be a homogeneous land full of blue-eyed, blonde-haired descendants of the Vikings. Reality is more complex. First, most Norwegians are not blonde. Second, particularly in the larger cities, there are many residents with non-Norwegian ethnic backgrounds. Norway's demographics are changing. In Oslo, 26% of the residents are immigrants. Tove and I attended a Christmas party at a friend's home Friday night. The host is from Finland. The hostess is from Chechnya. There were two other couples there. One of the couples are immigrants from Bosnia. The other couple are a Norwegian and his wife from Kosovo. All of the immigrants spoke fluent Norwegian (except for me, but I am getting better).
In other multicultural news, I attended my post-exam party along with my fellow students who took level 3 Norwegian at NTNU this Fall. We held the party at Den Gode Nabo. The photos were taken by a fellow student's spouse.
From Thailand and China
Me n' our Norsklærer
Students from Iran, Germany, Spain, Spain and Germany
Most of the students in our Norwegian class are graduate students at NTNU. Others are married to academic employees of the university. A few of us were admitted because of our strong educational background (There is a waiting list). Last year, I took Norwegian through the city's language program. Other immigrants take classes at the community college. Immigrants coming to Norway after January 2012 must take 550 hours of Norwegian and 50 hours of Norwegian Social Studies. I think that is great.
The last month has been clear, cold and beautiful. It has been much drier than normal for this part of Norway. Since the first week of November it has snowed only twice, and for just an hour or two. The streets have been dry and ice-free. But it has been cold! In the teens and twenties much of the time, although the other night when we drove back from town the thermometer in our car dipped to 1 degree farenheit, which is the coldest I've ever seen here in Trondheim.
I turned in my term paper (coincidentally on adapting to Norwegian weather) and took my final exam (6 hours) and oral exam (15 minutes) in Norwegian at the university. I am fairly certain that I passed, although I doubt that my grade will be very high.
Our experience in the US is that the Christmas Season is launched by the Thanksgiving Holiday. In Norway it is the first Sunday of Advent that gets everyone into the Christmas spirit. We like Advent. Tove and I have a wooden candelabra shaped like an elongated pig. The candelabra supports 4 purple candles. On the first Advent Sunday, one candle is lit. Then on each subsequent Sunday an additional candle is lit until the 4th Sunday, when all 4 candles are illuminated. I'll post a picture when all 4 are lit.
The last few times we have gone shopping we have been entertained by Christmas choirs. My impression is that Norway abounds with amateur choral groups and most are not associated with churches, but rather just formed by people who like to sing. We have several friends and relatives who sing in choirs.
December 13 is Sankta Lucia (St. Lucy) day. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind. Her name is derived from the Latin word for light. Watch this video to see how many in Norway celebrate this day and other Christmas traditions:
The lyrics, translated roughly are:
Darkness brings the
night
Over our stables and
homes.
The sun has gone its
way.
The shadows that loom
Within our darkened
houses
Are brightened with lighted
candles
Santa Lucia, Santa
Lucia!
As the night is dark
and silent.
The silence is
suddenly broken
in all the hushed rooms
by the sound of wings fluttering.
Look who is at the
door
white clad with lights
in her hair
Santa Lucia, Santa
Lucia! "The darkness soon will flee from the world's valleys" She speaks to us these wondrous words. The day shall once again dawn. Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia
The literal translation makes less sense, so this is my attempt at giving meaning to the song.
I reported earlier that we had quite a bit of snow on Halloween. The week following Halloween I flew up to Brønnøysund in Northern Norway to teach Business English to employees of Brønnøysundregistrene. It was my second time teaching up there. This time, however, a storm with gale-force winds swept through the region the first night I was there and the howling winds and hail woke me up several times. I enjoy going up there to teach, though. My next trip to Brønnøysund will be in about two weeks.
I finished my other Fall teaching gig: teaching English to 5 Angolan graduate students who need to pass the IELTS (International English Testing System) exam. The Angolans speak Portuguese as their native language. The students did not have a strong background in English and had already failed the exam once. They took the course seriously, but I am not sure if they have developed sufficient skills to pass. The university (NTNU) paid for them to take the course. NTNU might pay for additional lessons. I hope so!
Last Spring, I registered a business here in Norway called Nunes Business English. It is registered as a sole proprietorship (Enkeltpersonforetak). I have not done any marketing yet, but, notwithstanding, I got my first teaching "gig" under Nunes Business English. I will be teaching 6 accounting professionals at Det Norske Oljeselskapet. I start at the end of November. It is a short course, but if I can teach 10 more short courses like this one, during the course of one year, I will be fully employed.
Skype is keeping Tove and I connected to our grandchildren. What a wonderful system. We tried for years to get my mom to use it. She finally did at her last Christmas the year before she died and she loved it.
Mom "Skyping" with Marc and Irina, Christmas 2009.
We have "Skyped" with Tove's kids with Tove's mom (Kitty) present so that Kitty could enjoy seeing her great-grandkids. I really take delight in seeing Kitty talk to and have fun with her great-grandkids.
We celebrated Kitty's 95th birthday last month. We had a big party. I think we had 14 people here and we had catered food. There was only one problem - Kitty could not make it! She was in the hospital with back-pain and other ailments. But since the food had already been ordered, paid for and prepared, Kitty implored us to have the party in her absence, which we did.
We have been quite busy this autumn helping Tove's older relatives. Tante Gerd and Onkel Einar are really having a tough time. Gerd suffers from Parkinson's and Einar is starting to have short-term memory problems. Lately, Gerd has been in severe pain and has been hospitalized a couple of times without much success in terms of treatment. Her doctor has recommended another hospitalization for a 3-week rehab, but thus far she has not admitted herself. I think she worries about her husband's care should she be in the hospital.
Kitty is back in a convalescent hospital for 3 weeks. It's the same place where she stayed when we went to the States this summer and she really likes it there. It is bright and cheery, with a great staff. She has mentioned that she might be ready to stay there permanently.
Today was picture postcard weather. Clear, blue skies, no wind and 45 degrees. We got Kitty out of the convalescent hospital and took her to Sponhuset for waffles and coffee. I think that she really had a good time.
This blog entry is titled "Beat for beat". I got sidetracked. I planned on focusing on our Friday nights, here in Trondheim. In the Fall, we like to eat a simple dinner, often in front of the TV. We hardly watch any TV, but on Friday nights we watch three shows: Beat for beat, Nytt på nytt and Skavlan. Beat for beat is a musical game show. Nytt på nytt is a comedic review of news show and Skavlan is a talk show.
The show consists of two teams of two members (occasionally three or four), each with their own piano and pianist. The teams are then given clues and have to figure out what song the host is alluding to, in order to score points. The team with the most points in the end are the winners. The pianists, Trond Nagell Dahl and Gisle Børge Styve, have also been with the show since the start. .......
While the competitors are usually singers or musical artists, there have been several instances where the teams are made up of other Norwegian celebrities, such as comedians or TV personalities."
What I like about the show is that half the songs are in English. I found some YouTube videos to give you an idea about the show. I am amazed by how many talented singers there are in this little country of 5 million. This first is by singer Reidun Sæther:
OK, I've got to complete the tale of our summer trip before I entirely forget what happened. I'm going to focus on family rather than nature, even though the trip up the NorCal and Oregon coasts was beautiful. If you have not made that trip, I highly recommend it.
We took two days to get from Napa to Salem. My brother, John, lives in a licensed (by the state of Oregon) board and care home in Dallas, Oregon. Dallas is in the heart of the Oregon wine country. Oregon produces some excellent wines from the pinot grape, the vaunted varietal that is used in the Burgundy region of France and featured in "Sideways". The area around the small town of Dallas, Oregon, is comprised of rolling hills, stone fruit and nut orchards, grapes and dairies.
We picked John up and spent some days in Salem shopping for things John needed, watching family movies that I converted from 8mm to digital, reminiscing and visiting our mother's grave in Silverton. John is afflicted by the terrible disease of paranoid schizophrenia. He has not had hallucinations for over 20 years, but, in my opinion, the years of hallucinations, psychotropic medications, both appropriate and inappropriate, have dulled his brain. In contrast to his behavior in his 20s and 30s, when he was angry and verbally abusive to everyone around him, John has become a gentle, loving and kind man. And it's genuine; not like Jack Nicholson after the lobotomy in "One Flew over".
My brother John and I in Salem
I enjoyed spending time with John.
After we took John back to the group home, we visited my uncle Bob and his wife Pat at their lovely home in Salem for lunch. My aunt Karen and her husband Roger joined us, as did Bob's daughter Stephanie and her kids Olivia and Joe. The weather was perfect. It was an enjoyable afternoon.
Bob, Olivia, Stephanie, Pat, Karen Roger and Frank. Tove took the pic.
Roger retired this year and he is really enjoying retirement. He got a beautiful Camaro Super Sport with more horsepower than a freight-train locomotive. Olivia presented the vehicle to the admiring crowd.
Roger had to give the young-uns a ride through the neighborhood.
Behind the car are Tove, Frank, Stephanie, Karen and Bob.
The Monsons are a good-looking clan, aren't they?
Life is tough. 70 is the new 50.
The next day we headed back down toward California. Alice's brother Ed and his wife Cindy live in Monterey. They invited us to stay on their boat in Monterey Harbor. A note to my Norwegian friends: if you visit California, you must spend some time on the Monterey Peninsula. It is one of the most beautiful spots in California.
Ed and his gallery in Carmel.
Ed and Cindy.
Ed's vintage Chris Craft cabin cruiser is named Trixie.
Ed has done a wonderful job of restoring the vintage boat
We took a little tour of the harbor in the dinghy "Flo". I used the electric outboard motor to propel us.....
.....while Tove preferred to use the oars.
You can rent kayaks and take kayak lessons.
Pelicans are my favorite bird. There are hundreds of them in Monterey.
Trixie's cabin. We stayed here two nights. It was great.
Maybe I should buy a boat. People say that dog owners choose dogs that sort of look like them. Does this apply to boats?
. . . Halloween! I promise to return to our trip to the States, but I had to show these photos looking out our windows last weekend. It had been crisp, clear and cool through most of October. Then WHAM! a front caused by low pressure over the Arctic dumped snow on us for two days. Sunday was beautiful but cold. Today, Monday, mostly the same. It is unusual to have so much snow so soon.
Heavy and wet snow on the bushes
That's a centigrade thermometer. To convert to farenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32. Or do what I do: double it, subtract 10% of the total and add 32. So that's negative -6 centrigrade times 2 equals negative 12 less 10 percent of 12 equals negative 11 (rounded off) plus 32 equals +21 farenheit.
We left Jim and Richard in Modesto and headed toward Napa, where we planned to visit some of the people who were exchange students from California in Bergen, Norway in 1973-74. Two of them live in the Napa Valley (Allison and Diane) and one lives in Sonoma County (Scott). Bruce lives just south of San Francisco near Half Moon Bay.
We decided to drive through the Sacramento Delta to get to Napa. I'm glad we did. It brought back nice memories of when I was a kid and we had a boat that we kept on the Delta.
I think that's Mt Diablo in the distance
There are lots of pretty sloughs throughout the Delta region.
We got to Allison's home in the early afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and Alli has a nice back yard in which to enjoy good weather.
Clockwise, Tove, Bruce, Alli's friends (don't remember their names), Diane's husband, Norm, Diane, Alli's son Erik, Scott, his wife, Jane, Alli's samboer, David, and Alli.
Erik has lived and worked in Trondheim. He speaks fluent Norwegian.
Jane and David appear to be engaged in serious conversation, but I think it was just a split-second image that could be misleading. I love the pic, though.
Napa Valley
Although the stay was all too short, we had a good time reminiscing with old friends. Tove had not seen Bruce or Scott since 1974, so it was especially fun for her. The next day we ambled up the Cal North Coast and spent the night in Eureka. Then we drove the Oregon Coast all the way to Newport, Oregon. Then it was on to Salem and more family get-togethers.
The video below depicts my brother John's first birthday in June 1951.
The kids in the film are my cousins Diane, Ellen, Stephanie, Paul and Jim, and, of course, the birthday boy. Although Paul visited me once in the late 70's and we met Ellen once at my Aunt Lorraine's house in Carmichael, I had no other contact with these cousins since my dad's funeral in 1968, at least, not that I can recall.
That all serendipitously changed this Summer when we visited Jim in Modesto. The serendipity occurred when I was on Ancestry.com doing research for a Norwegian friend who was trying to get a death certificate of an ancestor. While on the site I decide to see if anyone had done an ancestral tree for the family. I found a tree done by my cousin Jim.
I sent him a message through the website and he responded very positively, to say the least. It was truly wonderful. We made plans to visit Jim and his spouse Richard while we were in California. Jim invited his sister Stephanie to join us. We had such a good time catching up and reminiscing and eating Portuguese food prepared by Stephanie and Jim. We ended up spending the night in Jim and Richard's huge, nice motor home. We look forward to more visits. We've invited them to visit us in Norway.
Frank, Stephanie, Richard and Jim.
Their beautiful garden in Modesto. Richard has the green thumb I'm told.
Jim owned and ran a Cafe for years. He is a master barista (He makes a delicious cafe latte).
I used the remote on my camera for this shot.
Jim sent me family photos! I love them.
Back Row: Mary, Emily, Stella, Ludvina and Merc. Front Row: Louis, My Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother, and August.
I don't know everyone in this picture, but in front are, from the left, my dad, my grandfather, the girls could be my dad's twin sisters, Yvonne and Lorraine. I think that the woman in the center is my dad's aunt. The guy on the far right is August. Way in the back waving at us is Uncle Elan, Merc's husband. It could be Stella behind Dad.
