Christmas begins

Happy first day of advent.  The snow is falling lightly and I figured out how to light my wood stove with some store bought fire starters.  Yes, this is contrary to the man on the youtube video who explained how to light wood stoves, but he had identical perfectly shaped kindling and paper spiraled into little balls (seriously).  Fire starters or Tennbrikketer should be considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

Yesterday, we had a little visit back to our Folke Museum for some holiday events.  One of the most enjoyable parts for me was the Norwegian fiddling.  Young people playing by a fire is very inspirational.

The best part for the girls was the gulerotkaker (Carrot cake topped with thick cream cheese frosting...mmm).  Also some lovely thierbolute music, for those of you who recognize the instrument on our wall in the pink room at hoom.  The instrument actually can be played.  If you can ignore the background talking, the music is quite beautiful. 

Maybe I will ask Melita to do some sound editing on it.  She has been actively playing with sound editing lately and making funny sound effects for her video career.  She recently informed me that you get $1.50 for every 1000 views on you tube and seems inspired. If your video becomes an internet phenom, you can make some serious cash. 

I also met a very festive family, the "Nesset" family up on the farm.  I was their only visitor at the time and they fed me Norwegian pancakes and coffee baked over the fire.  As turn of the century farmers, they asked me whether the streets of America were paved with gold.  I told them of course and platinum too.  They have a cousin in Wisconsin, but had heard of the Boston Tea Party ;-)  When asked why I came to Norway, I said I had decided to change careers and become an Olympic skiier.  They sat stunned for a moment and then one came back and said in Norwegian "maybe the special Olympics."....we all had a good laugh.

Fun with the locals

I leave you with some photos of friends from the weekend.

Erlend and Luiza for some turkey leftovers and lots of wine

Rebekah and Oskar at the Folke Museum

 

Are we sham Americans?

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am back from my whirlwind tour of the U.S. and visits with many of you.  My numerous work obligations went well, including the graduation of another student, Kelley, who presented her masters thesis research beautifully.  Night out in Mystic with Christophe, Amelie, Craig.  The Gourmet Goddesses (14 luscious ladies) celebrated my birthday at Jane's  on 11/11/11 with a German Feast. And, I got to see Christina, Peter, Max, and Aaron in NYC for a festive night out on the town.  Christina even made a homemade "puffer" cake.  In Texas, I stayed with Molly and we presented our many compelling results on marine camouflage to the Navy and are hoping for continued funding and some more nights out dancing to live music with rockin' "Team B." Whew!  Thanks to Brad for taking care of the girls in Trondheim during my absence -- they had a blast I'm told.

Back in lovely Trondheim, we are celebrating a quiet Thanksgiving together.  I'm cooking up a storm, only now realizing that my "American" girls have never tried pumpkin pie before.  I feel like sham Americans at best.  They normally opt for the many more compelling options at Heidi and Dan's pie fest (like chocolate bavarian cream) or Teddy's knockout pecan pie.  I brought back some pumpkin filling, ground ginger and cinammon in my enormous bags and a big and small pumpkin pie are now bubbling away in the oven.  I took a leap that "Viking melk" is in fact evaporated milk and that cardamom can mimic cloves.  Keep your fingers crossed because I plan to bring the big pie to work with me tomorrow, as well as the cranberry relish and leftover turkey and stuffing to share with my Norwegian friends at lunch.

The days are becoming shorter, but filled with colors.   The sunrise starts at 8:40 am and it takes over an hour to rise above the hills.  Just lovely.  It is nearly dark when the girls get out of school.  The photo below shows our house and the girls making toast after school in the twilight.  Think of us  this Thanksgiving up in our cozy house high up in the hills of Trondheim.  We are thankful for the opportunity to be here, make new friends, experience a new culture, and share some of our culture with the people here.  And, maybe even try pumpkin pie for the first time :-)    



The view from office in the morning!

Schooling in Norway

I met with the girl's teachers at school this week and it was eye opening.  The girls are both failing every subject, except English, and are very disruptive in class with their loud outbursts.   haha... They both scored well beyond their age in the British Assessment tests and seem to like their classmates and teachers.  The only request from both teachers was that they raise their hands and contribute more in class.  Someday they will overcome the shyness gene -- just maybe. 

Norwegian schools are quite different in atmosphere from American schools.  The kids are louder and the classes are much less strict.  Annaliese said:  "If kids did what they did today in D and T at home, they would have been sent to the principals. They were running down the hall splashing paint on each other."  I'm told that Birralee International School is more strict than the average Norwegian primary school where the kids call their teachers by first name. Also, public schools get out at a different time everyday and two days a week at 12:30 pm, whereas Birralee gets out at 2:30 pm everyday. 

The curriculum is a bit different here and they seem to foster more creativity and personal expression.  D and T stands for Design and Technology.  Yes, Ikea and the growth of Scandinavian design is not a mere coincidence.   The kids learn how to design from an early age.  Melita's class is working on making scale drawings and how to design an ergnomic kitchen. Annaliese recently built a bridge with paper triangles.  They also have religion class.  Melita's class is currently learning about Hinduism (one girl is Hindu) and Annaliese's class about  Islamism (four kids are Islamic).

Annaliese's favorite subject so far has been social studies when she learned about the Vikings.  She learned such facts as: "Karls or jarls met regularly in a Thing to settle disputes, make laws, and punish crime. All Viking ships had square sails and a steering oar in the back." Annaliese also likes science where they recently built and launched a hot air balloon that burned in flight.  Nice!  There aren't many museums with Viking artifacts here in Trondheim which focus on the later "Christianized" Norway (remember St. Olav and the Stav churches), but maybe we will try to visit some Viking museums in Denmark.  I remember visiting the Vikingeskibsmuseet in Roskilde when I was a girl and enjoyed seeing the old Viking ships.

Melita also likes science and recently finished a science fair project on worms.  "I'm writing this as a victim of wormophobia.  Worms scare me, but my science project is actually interesting.  I'm trying to figure out if the rings on a worm have anything  to do with the length of a worm. "  She  collected data where she actually had to count rings on worms and made a regression plot of length versus rings.  No significance testing on her data though -- maybe next year.  She admits that she could have been more accurate in her counting, but I'm just impressed she touched a worm.

They also have Norwegian classes and learned to say "twenty seven," which is "tjuesyv."  I can't even say it with or without spitting, but Melita's accent is very good.  The kids are mostly trilingual in class with first languages ranging from Indonesian to Russian. 

From recent party at our house with 21 people

They had a Harvest Festival here last month which resembles Thanksgiving.  Melita wrote the following poem, which she read for the school assembly.

Be thankful for the food we eat
Not everyone can afford a treat
Some people live in poverty
because of business robbery.
Even if you're depressed,
you still have the very best.
Be grateful for what you're given
because to some that would make life worth living
On Harvest Day we celebrate
the food and goodness we appreciate.