Will play for food

We've been playing for our dinner in Norway.

Jessica and I've been bringing our violins to each dinner for sing alongs with the Rotarians. If we're lucky, there'll be a keyboard/piano or guitar for Bergen, too. As a three-week old band, we prefer to take requests, and our repertoire is now pretty eclectic. Some of our top hits: Auld Lang Syne, She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, You Raise Me Up, Greensleeves, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission, My Favorite Things, and Edelweiss.

Our schedules are open for Chicago bookings in the second week in June.

Here's Jessica fiddlin' around.

In Oppegaard, we finally find a cow bell for Melissa.

Bergen and I cover some Dolly Parton. I had to travel all the way to Norway to discover that not only can Bergen play multiple instruments, she has a beautiful voice.

Norwegian Theatre

On my hunt for new Nordic plays (and general appreciation for Norwegian theatre), I've had the opportunity to meet with several theatres as well as see a handful of productions. Every theatre person I speak with here in Norway says I need to speak with Det Åpne Teater . I just heard from my last host family in Drøbak that they have been able to arrange a meeting. Hooray! Det Åpne Teater produced a storytelling festival last week that I was hoping to see. I made it to see Ben Haggarty (a British storyteller) who is known world-wide.

Another news-worthy theatre company, Brageteater located in Drammen, is the talk of the town for earning a grant from the EU for 2 million Euro. Brageteater, along with 14 other European theatre companies, will develop and exchange theatre for youth. With the help of Kjell and Morten from Lørenskog Rotary Klub, they pulled some strings to get me into a private showing of When the Trains Go By - a one act in English about rape, responsiblity, and when there is no excuse for cruel behavior. Sorry that many of these links are to Norwegian websites. I thought if you can't read Norwegian, it will at least give you an idea of what's going on.

Last night, my Oppegård host mother, Bente, took me to see The Jungle Book at Det Norske Teatret - one of Norway's biggest and best theatres with a focus on NyNorsk. The Jungle Book (Kipling's version) was adapted by a Norwegian and set to hip-hop and rock music. Mowgli, was played by Adil, one of the recent winners of Norway's So You Think You Can Dance. He certainly rocked it. See a trailer for Jungel Boka here. It's pretty rad.

This week I'll see The King is Coming in Fredrikstad, and next week the Norwegian version of Mamma Mia. Can't wait!

Troll sighting

One of my co-workers told me to be on troll watch while in Norway, and I finally found some!

They were a little taller than what I expected and a whole lot cuter.

Meet the Kolbotn Trolls, a team of players in Oppegaard's youth soccer league. (My Norwegian younger brother, Teddy, is in the middle.)

We watched the Trolls obliterate the team from Langhus tonight. And I do mean obliterate; final score: 17-1. A little more suspense might have been nice, but we'll take it!

Manners

BBQ dinner my first night in Oppegaard: poelse (hot dogs) and lompe (potato tortillas). Some spicy mustard, red wine, along with a perfect Norwegian evening and lovely new family = Perfection.

Takk to the Lunds: Christian, Wenche, and Teodor!

(By the way, does anyone know where I can find potato tortillas in Chicago? Please tell me I don't need to bring them back in my suitcase. Trust me, there's no room.)

The very first thing I learned to say in Norwegian was takk. I say thank you a countless number of times a day, and takk always feels too short. Too flippant.

When the Lillestrom Rotary Club took us into Oslo for May 17? Thanks.
When the District Governor and his wife guided us on an amazing trip across Norway and into the mountains surrounding Bergen? Oh, thanks, that was cool.

I've been looking for a new word or phrase to express my appreciation because takk isn't enough. I need more modifiers! I want the Norwegian equivalent of "Thank you so very very much." My host families have suggested tusen takk (translation: a thousand thanks) or even tusen tusen takk to mollify my need for overly-dramatic expression.

I guess that's better. Maybe tusen takk still feels inadequate because I'm thinking too literally, and "a thousand thanks" sounds slightly silly in English. Or maybe it's because the other girls and I will try to one-up each other with million takk (a million thanks) or milliard takk (a billion thanks).

Yeah, it's probably the latter.

One more thing. One of the first words I asked to learn was vaer saa snill (please), but I just noticed that I rarely hear Norwegians use it. I asked Christian about it, and he said that you can be polite in Norway without saying "please" all the time. In fact, when they travel to the United States, they need to remind themselves to say "please" more often.

We are at our 4th homestay now in the town of Kolbotn. We are basically in the suburbs on Olso, but these burbs are different than the ones I am used to. People can live 10 minutes out of the city, on a farm or in town, with the forest in the backyard and a view of the Oslofjord from their balconies. The love for nature runs deep here.

I learned a lot of interesting things about Norway. These are 3 highlights for me.

1) Trip to Bergen. If you ever come to Norway, take the Norway in a Nutshell tour. It's a boat/train/bus tour through the snowy mountains, through the fjords and into Bergen. It is spectacular.






2) Oslo Opera House. It's built of Italian marble and looks like a glacier. It is stunning inside and out.



3) Canoeing in the forests outside of Oslo. Norwegians are so serious about the environment that they allow you to canoe in their fresh water reserves and as well as camp for free anywhere along the water. No one litters and the Rotarians even chopped more wood for the next group. Is this heaven?

Fit to Be Outdoors

It's official. I'm having withdrawal from Mexican food after two weeks of fish, potatoes, and cake. Get me a burrito, stat.

In other news, all I had heard about Norwegians and their love of the outdoors before this trip has proven to be true. I just got back from a walk with my new host parents in Oppegard. Marianne (laced up in MBT shoes....husband Bjorn in MBTs too) said it would probably be a "short walk because our backs might hurt from the shoes". An hour and fifteen minutes later, we arrived home.

Everyone has a path into the forest behind their homes. In Lorenskog I asked their environmental staff what environmental issues the citizens in their community care about. Their answer was having forest to walk in nearby, parks, and green space. In the U.S. everyone is concerned about the INSIDE of their house....decorating it, having sufficient storage space and closets, getting new furniture, etc. People want a yard, but it's not natural, just a small monoculture of grass. The Norwegian houses I've stayed in are beautiful (wood everywhere!) but perhaps a bit small by American standards. The decks are often comparable in size to the surface footprint of the house. In Lorenskog, Jarle and Sissel's deck wrapped all the way around their house.....you can only see a part of it in this photo from our delicious lunch the other day:



I've had some great runs in Norway. In Valer I ran in the forest and on a dirt road behind my hosts the Bergstroms' house. I wish I would have brought my camera to document my personal Valer 5K. This photo, taken nearby their house, doesn't do it justice:



This past Saturday we went canoeing with a few of our hosts from Lorenskog. Although Bergen, Kimberly, and I could not canoe in a straight line, we were champs at getting the canoe in and out of the water and the day-long trip was absolutely wonderful. Although I love Chicago, it is going to be difficult to return home and not have such opportunities to enjoy nature up close.

More about Bergen...the city

Our Norway in a Nutshell Tour started with a train. Then we had another train, a boat, a bus, and one more train...then we were in Bergen.

On the second train, we stopped for a few photo ops at this waterfall:


The boat ride took us through a gorgeous fjord:



In Bergen, we took a walking tour of the old part of town:





Of course I tried to take as many pictures with my name in them as possible:





I know that all of us had an amazing time exploring the city. It's a pretty special place, and not just because I share its name.

Lillestrøm and Lørenskog Rotary Clubs

Last week we had the pleasure of joining a joint Rotary meeting with Lørenskog and Lillestrøm Rotary Clubs. There was plenty of cake and coffee to go around. They were very impressed with our Norwegian... so much so that the rest of the meeting was conducted in said language. After our presentation, we heard from a Norwegian man who was involved in the development of Resusci - Annie. The newest model fits in a box and can be taken home by anyone. Fun for the whole family. When was the last time you brushed up on mouth to mouth?

Here is some proof:



Thanks to Lillestrøm for the fabulous visit. We're sure that our time with Lørenskog will be just as wonderful!

Working Lunch

While in Bergen, we rode a funicular cable car up to Floeyen and grabbed lunch.

Bergen ordered Norwegian prawns. The rest of us ordered the exact same thing.

And if Bergen ever decided to jump off a cliff, we would all jump, too.

Anyways, here's the before:

Four bowls full of peachy-orange prawns arrived, and we got to work tugging, shucking, and twisting the shells off of our lunch.

It was delicious.

And from the perspective of a Norwegian prawn, completely woeful and tragic.


Heard later while heading back down into Bergen...

B: Guys, I think there's some shrimp underneath my fingernail.
M: Save it for a snack later.

I Heart Bergen

Bergen is beautiful.

The town isn't half bad either.


Early Tuesday morning, we set off on the Norway in a Nutshell tour with District 2260 Governor Aage Bjor and his wife, Astrid. It was an incredible journey: in a single day, we traveled across Norway by two trains, one boat, one bus, and yet another train.

We could devote an entire blog to praising the Norwegian landscape, but it defies description. I will even go so far as to say that I have yet to see a single photograph -- professional or not -- that does it justice. Still, what's the fun of being in the most beautiful place in the world if you can't rub it in with a few pictures from time to time?


And everything we heard about Bergen is true. It is an altogether charming town. With its buildings painted in various pastel hues, winding streets, and fisherman's wharf, it reminded all of us of a different American city.

Tusen takk, Governor Bjor, for a fantastic trip.

Beans vs Farmers Part II

Today Melissa learned that in addition to bønner (beans) and bønder (farmers - pronounced almost identically to beans), the Norwegian word for "prayers" is bønner. Yes, that's right. The exact same spelling as beans. Pronounced exactly the same.

Also, I just realized that in my previous post, I used the Swedish ö instead of the Norwegian ø. Please forgive me.