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!