Sneakier than a Sneaky Thing that Sneaks Around

That's me, super sneaky! We're about to leave the house, and Kevin thinks we're going to my friend Heather's wedding in Nore. Today is Kevin's 35th birthday, and I have actually bought tickets for us to go to Dublin this weekend. A couple friends from the U.S. and a couple of friends from Norway are meeting us there. I can never keep secrets, and the fact that I haven't blurted something out yet is pretty incredible...I just have to keep my mouth shut for about another hour!

Not Quite as Pretty as Wildflowers

This morning, I awoke to my cell phone ringing at 8:00. (Yes, now that my norskkurs is done until August, I have been a lazy, lazy sloth. Sleeping in, reading out in the yard with a cold drink, rough life, right?) Anyway, it was Kevin on the phone, informing me that men with a dumptruck and a backhoe were on their way over to dig up our oil tank and replace it with a new one. I was not pleased with the timing--friends from the U.S. are coming here on Monday, and I really felt that they would have enjoyed our freshly mown lawn and field of wildflowers a bit more than the muddy pit and mound of dirt which presently dominate our yard. Oh well, that big orange backhoe is rather fetching, don't you think?

Maybe I Love My Camera Too Much?

I love, love, love my digital camera. It's a Canon, and Kevin gave it to me for our 5th anniversary. I take it with me everywhere I go and I take way too many random photos (but the beauty of a digital camera is that every stupid, random shot I take can be erased with the click of a button).

Last Saturday, during our rain filled mountain trip, we drove over to Slettefjell. We were above the treeline for much of the drive, and there were even several large patches of snow left. The dogs absolutely love snow, so even though it was a soggy, rainy day, we decided to let them have some wintery fun sliding down a snowy hill. Kevin walked them up to the top of the hill while I stood at the bottom, trying to capture their excitement with my trusty camera. I wanted to get the right angle, so without looking behind me, I took a step backward, tripped over a rock, and landed flat on my back in a huge, icy cold puddle. (I'm guessing it was a lovely slurry of freshly melted snow and lemming pee.) Even as I fell, all I could think about was my camera, and as my whole body splashed into the puddle, my right arm reached skyward, holding my camera out of harm's way. I wallowed my way out of the puddle, soaking and freezing, but feeling very triumphant about saving my camera. Kevin found the whole incident hilarious...luckily he also had a spare change of clothes in the car, so I was able to forgive his laughter once I was wearing dry pants again.

(Oh, one other sign pointing to the fact that I might love my camera too much? I actually took a picture of the stupid puddle!)

Water, Water Everywhere

I was concerned that maybe our Beitostolen hytte would be rustic with no indoor plumbing--I shouldn't have worried! There were actually 2 bathrooms and a full kitchen, cable TV, a big fireplace, comfy beds...it was so nice! The first picture is of the hytte and the second is of our view from the hytte balcony. The rest of the photos are from our hikes around the area. I was so worried that there would be no running water in our hytte, but in fact, the whole weekend I was surrounded by running water. It poured Friday, Saturday and Sunday--I have never been so cold and soaked, but I really did have a great time. The mountains around Beitostolen are gorgeous, full of waterfalls and lovely vistas. Even though the sun never showed itself, all the mist and clouds were beautiful in their own spooky way.

Some Really Old Churches

We were in no hurry to get to Beitostolen, so we decided to take any interesting detours we came across en route. We saw a sign labeled "Kirkeruin", or church ruins, so we drove down to see the ruins at Mo. The church is from the 1200's and is the smallest medieval stone church in Norway. We were unable to drive to the church, as it is in a farmer's pasture, so we left the car at the road and walked in the rain down to see the ruins. Some trees have been planted around the church, and there is a small sign giving a bit of information, but it would be very easy to miss this tiny piece of Norwegian history--I'm really glad we didn't!

Photos 3-5 are of stave churches in the Beitostolen area. The first is in Lomen, the second is in Høre, and the third is in Hegge. All of these stave churches have free standing bell towers which can be seen in the pictures. We got to tour the last church in Hegge, but unfortunately were not allowed to take interior photos. At least I did get a picture of the ornately carved doorway.

All of these churches were in a very small area, less than an hour's drive apart from each other. Norway is just full of little treasures everywhere you look--road trips in this country are fascinating. (Although very time consuming, at least if you're driving with me! I want to stop at every waterfall, every stave church, every random goat by the side of the road!)

Critters

We're back from our weekend in the mountains safe and sound, although a bit damp and chilly! I have tons of photos to go through, but for now, I'll leave you with some cute farm animals we met along the way. We took lots of winding, scenic, back country roads and were greeted by many curious beasts. Several of them felt no need to move out of our way--while I was grateful for all the photo opportunities, the poor dogs in the back of the car were going nuts, barking and banging their snouts against the rear window. Luckily, a juicy carrot will make even the most stubborn cow budge a bit, so we were able to drive on before the crazed canines had given themselves concussions!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

I'm trying to pack for our weekend in Beitostolen...it's not going so well. It is pouring rain and really cold at our house, and I checked the weather in Beitostolen--today's high will be 9 degrees Celsius, with a low of 2! It is officially summer but it looks like I'm going to have to pack jeans and sweaters and raincoats. I really wish I had checked the weather before I started packing, as right now my suitcase is full of sandals and shorts and swimming suits. I guess they'll be going back to the closet. We have to bring our own pillows, sheets, towels and blankets, plus our own shampoo and soap to the hytte. Luckily, it seems that I'm married to Ross from "Friends" (remember the episode where he took all the apples and pinecones from the bowl at the front desk?) Kevin stays in lots of hotels and he ransacks each and every one of them for the little bottles of lotion and shower gel. We even have a little collection of shower caps and shoe shine cloths because if it's not bolted down in the hotel room, he will take it! I checked our massive cabinet o' tiny toiletries and found a bunch of bottles of lavender scented shower gel and shampoo--woo hoo! Even if I'm soaking wet and freezing all weekend, I'm going to smell like a meadow!

Greedy

This photo was taken at midnight by Lake Mjøsa--it was still light enough out to read (although maybe a little squinting would have been required). Today will be the longest day of the year, and I must admit I'm kind of sad about that. I have been loving all this daylight and I'm really going to miss it as it fades away. Obviously the days will become shorter very gradually, and I still have a few weeks of midnight twilights ahead, but I am already dreading the darkness of fall and winter. I guess I'm greedy--I don't care if the southern hemisphere is gray and gloomy, I want to keep the sun right here!

Norwegian Puffin Dogs

I came across this article during my puffin research: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=743
I was incredibly excited about the possiblity of seeing a puffin while on the west coast, but now I really want to see a puffin dog! Norway is chock full of rare, fascinating animals...puffins, puffin dogs, hedgehogs, muskoxen, polar bears...sometimes I feel like I'm searching for the elusive snuffleupagus!

A Quick Fix

Last week I wrote about how homesick I was...I feel better now. Shallow as I am, the Dunkin Donuts coffee and stack of People magazines that Kevin brought back with him from New York really helped! (I suppose the fact that he himself is also back from New York didn't hurt, either!) Plus, we have lots of fun plans for summer to anticipate. Kevin's company owns a hytte up in Beitostolen, and every weekend they have a company-wide lottery for its use. We won, so on Friday we will pack up the dogs for a weekend in the mountains. I'm not sure how rustic the hytte is, so everybody pray for indoor plumbing with me, okay? Friends from the U.S. are visiting us during the first week of July and I think we'll try to see the Geiranger fjord and the art nouveau architecture of Ålesund (and hopefully a puffin or two on the surrounding islands). We are going to the U.S. for the second week of July (Kevin has a trade show in Las Vegas and I'm going to New York to see my mom and friends). The last two weeks of July, Kevin's dad and stepmom will come to see us. We're planning to drive all the way up to the north of Norway, past Dovrefjell and the muskoxen, through Trondheim, up to Tromsø and then over to Svalbard to see the polar bears. Who has time for homesickness? Not me!

Maihaugen Stave Church

Our field trip on Thursday included a tour of the Garmo stave church at Maihaugen in Lillehammer. The church was built in the late 1100's, but many of the interior decorations are from the 1600's. This was the first stave church that I have been to where interior photographs were permitted, so I thought I'd share a couple. I don't know if I'll ever get over that feeling of awe that I always experience whenever I step through the door of a building this old!

Rabbit Ears

Norwegian students go on lots of field trips during the month of June. After the long winter, the teachers feel that it is important to get the kids out of the classroom and into nature. Luckily for all of us "Norwegian for Immigrants" students, our teachers also feel that June field trips are necessary. In the past couple of weeks, we have had a field day outside, playing volleyball, bocce ball and soccer (or fotball, as it is called here) and a trip up to a hytte in the hills to plant pine trees and walk through the forest. Today, we went to Lillehammer to see the Olympic ski jumps and ride the chair lifts, and then on to the Maihaugen open air museum to learn about Norway's agricultural traditions.

I have really enjoyed these breaks from the normal school day, as my brain is beginning to feel a bit sated after 5 1/2 months of intensive Norwegian. I know I have learned so much, but I get frustrated with myself too. When I was little, we were the last house in the neighborhood to not have cable TV. We could get PBS fairly clearly, but it took some effort to view the other major networks. I would fiddle with the rabbit ears on top of the TV, and when it seemed like the reception was clear, I would very slowly release them and gently back away from the TV. Sometimes that would work, sometimes as soon as I took one step back, the static reappeared. I kind of feel like speaking and understanding Norwegian involves a similar process. Sometimes I can have a really decent conversation--I understand the other person, he can understand me, I can even crack a joke or two. Other times, I have to ask the person to please repeat himself (or even resort to English), and I am unable to string more than a few words together without making a stupid mistake. I don't know why my Norwegian "reception" is so inconsistent--my mathematical abilities, although poor, are very consistent from day to day, as are my English grammer skills. I'm a little scared to move or even breathe too deeply when I'm immersed in a Norwegian conversation that is going smoothly--if I take one step to the right, maybe the reception will become fuzzy and I'll suddenly blurt out a string of nonsensical "Norwenglish". I'm not sure what to do about this problem, other than to continue to plug away at this difficult language, and maybe put some tinfoil on my head!

Homesick

The sun is shining, there's a gentle breeze, and our yard is full of gorgeous and fragrant flowers (pictured are lupines, ball-blomst, not sure what the magenta ones are called, and lilacs.) Everyone told me that I would love Norway in the summer, and I can't argue, it is really beautiful. Except that I am ridiculously homesick. I sat down to lunch in the school cantina today, and got a little depressed as I looked at my umpteenth thousandth slice of bread and cheese. I desperately wanted a honey grain bagel with honey walnut cream cheese from Bruegger's, with a tall iced latte on the side. It's not just my favorite foods that I miss, I miss my friends, I miss being able to speak easily with everyone I meet instead of racking my brain for the correct words and still making stupid grammatical mistakes, I miss helping out at the animal shelter...I guess I miss some big things and so many little things, and today it just feels overwhelming. I know this feeling wasn't actually brought on by a bagel. It was my American friend Heather's last day in Gjøvik...her husband is done with school here and they will now live on their farm 3 hours away full time. She was a connection to home, she understood all of my American pop-culture references, plus she kept me supplied with Life Savers--cherry, mint and wildberry flavors! I know the sadness will pass and I'll soon be excited and fawning over a cute pony or puppy again, but right now I'm wallowing in all the good-byes I have had to say over this past year. This sadness isn't about which country is better, the U.S. or Norway. They are both wonderful and amazing, and they are both maddening and frustrating. It's just that right now, only one of them feels like home to me, and it's not Norway.

A Bunch Of Really Cute Dogs

Kevin and I went to a canine agility competition in Gjøvik yesterday. I had the best time--so many adorable and incredibly talented dogs in one place! I knew that border collies were fantastic at agility, but I couldn't believe the wide variety of breeds competing. There was a tiny long haired chihuahua who was amazingly quick--I had no idea that a chihuahua could do an obstacle course like that! I was also surprised to see a very independent shiba inu competing--he did the course, but in his own good time! Poodles, shepherds, collies, spaniels, terriers...they were all so well behaved and all seemed to be having so much fun. I started toying with the idea of getting Honey and Kermit involved in agility training. I was swiftly brought back to reality when we returned home and I told the dogs to "sit"--Kermit gave me his paw to shake and Honey flipped over on her back for a belly rub. I think they still have some work to do...

A Day in the Numedal Valley

Yesterday, we had a fantastic time in the Numedal Valley. We drove down from Gjovik through the mountains on some very scenic, very twisty roads. (Thank goodness for Dramamine, I wouldn't be able to survive Norway without it!) First, we visited my friend Heather and her husband Ove. They have a gorgeous farm outside of Nore (top photo) and it kind of made me want to twirl around and burst into "The Hills Are Alive"--but I managed to restrain myself. We then drove to a stave church in Nore, and luckily for us it was open for tours. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, which is too bad because the interior was incredible. All the walls and ceiling had intricate paintings, and even the pews were carved. Back in the day, people had to bring their own pews, so the richest people were able to afford very detailed carvings on their pews (not to mention a prime location close to the pulpit) while the poorer families had to sit in the rafters with plain pews.

The highlight of the day for me was our dresine ride. Dresines are tricycles that roll along railroad tracks. We rented one at Veggli Vertshus: http://www.veggli-vertshus.no/default.aspx?MenuID=9313

The views were amazing, and it was really neat (and incredibly cold) to go through the old railroad tunnels. Who knew exercising could be so much fun!