Occupy Wall Street and Fall Days

I've been paying a lot of attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. I think the best coverage has been by Democracy Now!, which is a well-rounded news source in general but they have really been great on this movement. I was asked in class, as the only American, how I felt and thought about it. I am very happy that people are finally voicing the frustrations that have been building up, and also it's finally about systemic change rather than just one or two smaller problems. I heard from another German friend of mine that there was going to be a similar protest in Oslo today in solidarity with the U.S. and other demonstrations around the world. The demonstration was small, just over a hundred people, man of whom voiced their concerns and many planned to camp in the park in front of the parliament building. I watched the news story about it and I and my German friend Theresa were caught on camera in a blink-and-you-missed it clip. You can see it here between the time 2.48 and 3.54 and I appear on the left of the screen for a second at 3.32 next to Theresa in the red jacket. We really didn't do much besides practice our Norwegian listening skills, try to chant along, and pick up some fliers. I think that there were fewer people at this demonstration than in most countries because Norway is richer and better at distributing wealth than other countries, so most people are generally happy. Even with the small numbers it made the news. I liked the Robin Hood costumes people wore, and remembered that I had said to someone recently that we need a modern Robin Hood in this financial crisis. Some others clearly had the same idea!

Aside from all that, it's fall in Norway and quickly now becoming winter. This semester is going to get crazy busy with three term papers due at almost the same time, the Latin Dance class, getting involved with the International Food Festival planning committee, Norwegian class, and laughing at my roommate JB's antics. Like calling aces in the card deck "asses". And pretending to be a monkey during a pop song that said "Ooh ooh ooh" in it. Good times. I went to Oslo last weekend too, another beautiful fall day.


On the same day I passed this amusing store sign, which usually doesn't happen in Norway because they have such good English.




They seemed to have a lot of Norwegian sweaters in the window, but I don't think they have many tractors in there. I could be wrong though!

The wheat harvest is in, and the grass for hay has been cut a final time it seems, since it has now begun to frost over in the morning. I should take a picture of that but it's so much a part of my daily surroundings that I haven't thought of it until now. I've started wearing my winter jacket, which seems a bit early but I guess this isn't Minnesota anymore. I'm getting better at Norwegian I think, but it seems to be moving slower than Japanese because I'm hanging out with the French and the Germans and the other internationals more than the Norwegians lately. The most Norwegian I speak is when I teach the other international students, but I wish I had someone to correct me. I think it's just a matter of time, like for many things in this world.

Wild Harvest and Latin Dance Night

With the heavy rain these past few weeks there has been an abundance of mushrooms growing in the forests here in Ås. I have been lucky enough to have a roommate who knows which ones are edible, and we have harvested porcini, pied de mutton (lamb's feet) and chantrelles, among other varieties, but these were the most abundant. JB, short for Jean-Baptiste, is pictured above holding what I think is called a golden chantrelle. Last week we picked the last of the year's good mushrooms, a more brown-looking variety of chantrelle:



I had it in my casserole/stirfry I always make nowadays: chantrelles, carrots, onions, broccoli and garlic with jasmine rice, and salt and pepper. For my choice of protein I like it with egg and/or cheese, or mackerel, or smoked salmon, or deli slices of pork that are so good here. The chantrelles taste great, with the added bonus of higher than average potassium.

My other successful culinary experiment this week was a giant apple pie:


It's an oven pan with higher than normal sides. I did a wheat crust, used "Summer Red" apples that are ripe in Norway now, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Summer Red are some of the best tasting apples I've ever had in my life, no exaggeration. They are tangy enough for pies too, and though I was worried about attempting a pie of this size (9 apples!) it turned out wonderful. I told my roommates, who devoured it, that it was the taste of fall in Minnesota. The apples were from the campus orchard, one of the perks of going to an agricultural school. So I guess not really a "wild" harvest in this case, but a great harvest nonetheless. I also got to learn some spices in Norwegian in the process. For some reason they don't use the English names! Nutmeg is muskatnøtt, ginger is ingefær, and cinnamon is like the French word, kanel.

Last Tuesday was our first Latin dance lesson for the year. I hope it catches on! We had a great showing to start--40 plus people, but you never know if they will all stick with it. I help teach it with 4 other people either form Spain, Mexico or Colombia. Makes me wish I spoke Spanish but they are patient with my American egotistical ways. We have fun anyway.


Look at those smiling faces! We really had a good first lesson, but I was exhausted afterward. As if I had taught everyone by myself or something. I hope that eventually when people get pretty good we can have a Latin dance social event. That's what I'm leading up to in my mind anyway. We will try it out this semester and see how it goes--most of the other teachers except for me and the guy from Columbia are leaving after that anyway since their plan was to be here only one semester. And the class itself is mostly international students, many of whom won't be here that long either. Latin dancing is popular enough that I think it will be sustained by incoming students. Someone already ripped down the poster I put up advertising it, but that's just drunk Norwegian kids. They did that to all the posters. And apparently their wont is to throw their compost garbage off the balcony on the street. I know it's not all Norwegians, but some of them are really giving me a bad impression. And some of them are giving me a wonderful impression, so that shows how much you can really generalize about people.