Trip to Drøbak

In order to escape the stresses of being so close to final exams and also just because it was so nice after so much rain, I took my bike and went to Drøbak, 9.2 km west of where I live.  Drøbak is on the Oslo fjord, and is the one of the many homes of Santa Claus.  I think he also has one in Finland, and the North Pole...and probably alos Geeenland.  Children can write letters to him here, and you can see them on display next to the aquarium.  Anyway, my main goal was to enjoy the weather and walk the coastline a bit, and go to a cafe and read a bit.

On the bike ride there I noticed some new things.  One was the flowers blooming, and I noticed a few species to look up later.  This one is a Ranunculus, part of the group that has buttercups.

These flowers are Anemone species, very common, and notice the anthill behind them.  The ants are very active now--at the end of the summer last year I saw some huge colonies made of pine needles, and now they're building more: 

                                       

I also noticed some signs that give information about the area, such as historical farms, grave sites and old roads.  They were all in Norwegian only, but I was able to glean from them that settlements in the area are very very old, probably dating back 1000 years or more.  Sometime I will have to take my time and really read them, but this time I wanted to go on.  

I also noticed some of the crops are coming up, I'm guessing this is wheat since it's so commonly grown here:

                                      

I really don't like this scale of agriculture.  It reminds me of the corn and soybeans back in Minnesota.  I was learning in my Landscape Ecology class about mixed agriculture from years back, where farmers grew more crop species in one place and many birds and other species could still use it as habitat.  There's some ground nesting birds that were adapted to this old style and now that almost all farmers use big machines those birds are in sharp decline.  There's ways to balance our needs and theirs, I believe.  

I saw a sign for a farm where they make cheese, and my cousin Unni told me they have won prizes in the US for their cheese.  I have been to their store in Ski, but didn't realize the farm was so close!  It's called Den Blinde Ku, or The Blind Cow.

                                   

When I got to Drøbak I went straight for the grassy area near the beach by the fjord, to have some lunch and read.  Here were my books (and my feet):

                                  

I looked up some of the flowers I saw, and I had a book about conservation and capitalism, realted to my thesis and one of the papers I have left.  While I distractedly attempted to read, a woman and her dog walked by me and she stopped and chatted with some other women and their dog, but I could tell the first woman was American by her extremely thick accent.  We have a very hard "r" in American English, which this woman had in abundance.  In Norwegian the "r"s are either rolled (Oslo area, northern parts too?) or hacked like a French "r" ( West coast).  

After lunch I went on to explore and take pictures.  First I climbed the rocky areas to get the best view, and I think I found it.

                                

Here's a "benk" I found in the rock, with a nice view of the fjord.

                               

I prefer to sit on the rock, especially where they were rounded and shaped like a lounge chair.

                               

Very comfy.  It got a bit cold though so I went on.

I have been studying about housing in Norwegian, and recently learned these are called "rekkehus" translated as "townhouse".  They look nice on the coast.

                                 

Had to take a picture of the mermaids, or havfruer--"ocean ladies" literally.  I love literal translations.  I guess "mermaid" is kind of funny sounding too.

                                 

I love to pose with them but was alone so that would have been weird. 

I like this view of Drøbak, near the mermaids:

                                 

I saw many boats, and these two struck me as a juxtaposition of old and new:

                                

Predictably I like the one on the left.

I went to a cafe after and ordered a cafe latte, "dobbelt", and read for a while, sometimes listening to the Greek owner of the cafe talk to customers in Norwegian.  

After that I walked around for a bit more, enjoying the flowers and everything else.

                            

                            

When I got back, my Greek flatmate was making dinner for some people, so I added some bread and cheese to the Greek soup he made.  We were two Greeks, three Americans and two Germans for dinner.  It was a wonderful day all day!  Now back to the grindstone, nose.  

Easter break in Telemark

I stayed at a really nice farm in Telemark and did volunteer work with the WWOOF (Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms) program, where you get free lodging and food for work. Telemark is a beautiful place in Norway, with much cultural heritage. The farm (view of the mountain form the farm above) I stayed at had buildings that were very old, and there had been a farm there at least from the 1700s, and the farm across the valley was from before the black plague in the 1600s. I felt like I was learning about an connecting with the way of life some of my ancestors may have experienced. The farm had no electricity, and our world revolved around this wood stove:

For cooking, cleaning, and warmth. It got down to 10 below degrees Celcius, or 14 degrees F, at night. During the day it got above freezing and some days it was pretty warm, but mostly it was cold. We burned a lot of wood. I sometimes split larger pieces of firewood to fit them into the top right corner door, which is pretty small.

They had other old contraptions, like this hay rake:

And old buildings like this stabbur, or storehouse, where the grain is kept in a building elevated by stones to protect from the snow and moisture, I think.

I love the grass roofs with the little trees growing out of them.

Here is a view from the top of the hill to the really old farm on the other side:

And the view from the bottom of the hill to the farm I stayed at above:

I walked down and then up this every day, mostly because it was beautiful, but also it's great exercise. Not that I didn't get a work out enough 3 times a day from feeding these gals:

Among the other animals. These are Viking sheep, whose long hairs were used in making the sails of viking ships so they could sail even in the rain, a friend told me.

I also fed the horse, whose name is "Hesten" and means literally "the horse". Also a Norwegian breed. I remember riding one like him in Minnesota for a class trip.

I also fed the goats, who were really sweet:

One of them, hoping for some of the good stuff (barley!) and ignoring the perfectly good hay below.

And finally, I let out the chickens at noon and fed them in the evenings. I found between 1 and 4 eggs per day, and a few days that was our lunch.

Seemed appropriate, as it is the Easter break right now. We put up an "Easter tree", which is willow branches that flower yellow, and the family I stayed with decorated it very nicely.

It's colder now than it was, but I still see crocuses and other flowers around, even in Telemark they were coming up in the gardens.

I'm really glad I had this experience. My host had even lived in Aurland for a while, so she knew where I was talking about for my mom's side of the Norwegian heritage. The past felt very present during this week, and I felt humbled by the raw nature and hard work put into the farm and wondered how people could ever live their whole lives like this. Even without electricity we were spoiled by the treats from the nearby town. It was a hard life but maybe there were things about it that I don't know that made it satisfying.

Tomorrow I will celebrate a bit with an Easter tree of my own, and a small chocolate-covered egg-shaped marzipan treat. And maybe watch some Norwegian television about the meaning of Easter, which they had some of on TV today. And I have to work on many papers...but it should be a fun day!

Flowers and Knitting

It's really spring now! So many flowers, and so little ability to choose just one or two to take a picture of and post on the blog!

I meant to look up what they all are, but I at least know a few. We have crocuses, or croci?

And in more than just white and purple:

So fancy. And then this yellow one on campus:

And these purple ones that greet me when I walk back to my apartment:

I went for a long walk yesterday and found the first actual wild flowers in the forest and in the sunny patches in between. First there's a woodland anenome, similar to some species in Minnesota:

I thought these were like dandelions, but after looking at my Norwegian flower book called "Blomster", these are not even the same genus as dandelions, and they're called "hestehov" or "horse hooves". They sort of look like that, but since they grow in disturbed soil they are often on horse trails. Here they are in two angles:

And then I saw this rock in the woodland, and it looks like quartz coming out of it at the bottom:

And I found this moss that looked really cool--looks like it's about to flower:

Borel forest is so nice to lay down and roll around in (when not wet!) because of all the moss.

AND NOW...HOW TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENT TREES FROM QUITE A LONG WAY AWAY.

NO. 1: THE LARCH. THE LARCH.

AND NOW...

I have learned a basic knitting stitch from one of my German friends! I'm making a wrap-around scarf:

This is how it started, and now it's like this:

But I will need another ball of yarn. Preferably of the same kind, otherwise that would be a bit weird. I bought it in a big mall far away, but I think I might be able to go to Ski to get more.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Telemark to volunteer on a small organic farm, with goats, sheep and cows. I will probably bake bread, do more knitting, help on some building projects around, maybe help with the kids a bit. It's a family of a Norwegian husband, American wife, their kids, and another volunteer from Italy. It will hopefully be an interesting and fun experience for the spring break! Plus there's a National Park nearby. I will blog about it when I get back!

Kan du gå på ski i Ski?

The weather here has become unseasonably warm, like it has been all over the world this spring, and I can really feel the positive energy surge in everyone around me. My German friend Sophie and I went to the next town of Ski, that is a bit bigger than Ås (where I live) if only because of their big mall, the Storsenter:

Yes, there is a McDonalds. Not even Socialism can shield Norway from big American (or European, or Canadian, etc.) chains. Aside: I had a professor say in class the other day "Socialism is good, my friends." after he finished describing how much money students get for their master's and PhD work. I tend to agree, at least so far.

Before we went to the Storsenter, we decided to tour around the smaller shops nearby to see what else Ski has to offer. We walked into a very festive square filled with music and people, a lot of kids, and saw that there was a kid's ski race going on. A ski race in Ski you say?? Unheard of. But there it was:

The snow on the track was undoubtedly trucked in, as most of the snow had melted by this time. It's completely gone now, except in well-shaded valleys. My guess is this is an annual event, scheduled for a time of year there is usually snow...except not this year. But the kids looked great--they say that Norwegians are born wearing skis, and some of the little ones here were clearly better skiers than me.

A shot of the man-made snow track that is melting:

They even had entertainment--poor souls (probably well-paid though) in cartoony suits!

Of course Norway would have a bear, but a monkey? Who cares! They did some cute dances to Norwegian kid's songs.

After a bit of shopping, Sophie and I stopped at a nice little cafe, with some nice Norwegians who took our picture for us.

It was good coffee, and strong! I like it strong, but I forget that the normal Americano is more than enough here and ordered a "dobbelt" or double, and proceeded to talk Sophie's ear off about bison and a range of other subjects.

De har veldig god kaffe i Norge!

Insert pun about March and marching...

I was going to say "spring has sprung!" in my next entry, so soon after the winter wonderland post I just did, but...after a week and a half of very spring-like warm days, it has turned into winter again! Turns out Norway can be like Minnesota, where it never just gradually becomes spring again. Winter and spring like to spar with each other here too. It snowed all day today, and sideways! I actually biked in it, because in order to get all the way from campus to town where my Norwegian class is, from another class that always ends about five minutes late, I need my bike. It's a lovely bike I got for free, which I always try to say only positive things about in its presence because it's actually quite the opposite of "lovely". At least the tires are good for snow! There wasn't much snow on the ground though, just difficult to bike through when it blows right into your face.

I have been extra busy this semester, and I'm still debating whether I should drop a class. It's a lot to have 5 classes plus trying to prepare for my master's thesis, which may or may not be in Tanzania. And now I am on the International Student Union Board, which takes up some time that I didn't want to give away...but there was a need so I volunteered. We have fun campus events to try to integrate Norwegians and Internationals, so far with mixed success.

New this semester we have two Danish guys who moved into the vacant rooms in our flat. I call them our Danish Invasion. DI for short? Anyway, I was surprised that they can speak Danish to my Norwegian flatmates who in turn respond in Norwegian, and it works as long as they are patient and speak more slowly. I knew that about Swedish and Norwegian, but I thought Danish was more different. In writing it is more similar to Norwegian. It is really interesting to watch, but I never get to do it for long because they switch to English quickly when I'm around.

They are great guys. Really funny and not so shy like some Norwegians I've met. I tried making their type of rye bread, with not much success...but I will try again. They also sell the Danish kind of pickled herring at the store, made with a yellow curry. Very odd, and the only indigenously Danish aspect of that is the crazy idea to combine curry spices into pickled herring. It's actually really tasty, on crackers or the Danish rye bread.

I haven't taken any pictures lately, sadly. Once the weather gets nice I hope to rectify that, but I should also go somewhere more interesting than here.

That's all for now--hopefully more before two months pass!

Vinter Vonderland!

The first word in the title is actual Norwegian. The second is me having fun. Apologies to Norwegian readers!

Yay snow! Fresh powdery snow! How can I study when you're around?? *Jumps out window*

*Thump!* Just kidding. I walked out of the door like a normal person. So anyway, we were blessed with snow yesterday, and today was the perfect time to enjoy it. I went for a walk in the Nordskogen on campus, my favorite place since I got here. With the new snow, it was a whole new forest to explore. I even found a new path, since I was having fun following the only two other set of foot prints (one dog, one human) through the wild blueberries.

All those little plants the path is going through are Norwegian wild blueberries, or just "blåbær" in Norwegian. They're small, but very sweet when dried--I haven't tried them fresh yet since I got here just past their season.

Here's a closeup of them:

I also saw some cool fungus on the way:

Reminds me of this scene in Fern Gully. These are just the temperate climate winter version!

After following the small path back to the main trail, I went to the lookout spot I always visit on my walk.

Yep, it's winter now. And this is the light we have at 1:30 PM.

It usually doesn't look like almost sunset if there are no clouds, but the sun is very low all day, just traveling along the horizon to the Southeast to the horizon Southwest. We get pretty nice sunsets sometimes over the student housing buildings, not-so-aptly named "Pentagon".

Not THE Pentagon, just Pentagon, its bizarro Norwegian twin. If you're curious, it's just because there used to be 5 buildings here in a pentagon shape. Not very exciting.

And walking back I had to take yet another picture of the lone oak in the hay field.

I meant to post this earlier, but better late than never.

I saw these in the market and didn't buy one, but my roommate Ingrid did, and before she left for Christmas she said I could have it. They were kind of expensive for something they just taped a stensil on...or however they did it. Cute but kind of disturbing. Is this a new variety of apple?? That must be what they get up to in the mysterious Biotech building on campus.

My main goals for January are:

1. Find topics and possible sites for my master's thesis

2. Study Norwegian with two new books and watch Norwegian TV shows--I'm starting to find a few good ones--reality TV, for instance, is usually really simple (read: dumbed down) that I hate in English but in Norwegian is easy to follow and fun!

3. Go for walks in the forest--big check for that one today!