Below are a few snippets from some emails I sent to some friends and family. Since I have been so lazy about blogging, I have cut and pasted a few tales from the North...
I am checking my e-mail. It has snowed so much today. We had friends over for dinner and in the three hours they were here we had 3-4 inches of fresh snow on their car...and it continues. It started Thursday night and is supposed to snow all week...and so it begins!
We ate more whale tonight. We thought we were going to have a friend over last Monday for dinner so we thawed some whale...the friend couldn't make it...so we had whale everyday this week, and then we had promised the friends today whale also...and there are left overs! We have had whale steak, whale pizza, whale fajitas, whale sweet and sour...and maybe whale salads tomorrow night. This country is so weird...I just keep trying to make it be my normal. (What is normal?????)
The good news is that we have 4 minutes more of sunlight each day...JH noted on Friday it was not completely dark when we left the office at 3:30...just dark. With the Norwegian national ski competition up the mountain from our house we have seen a lot of new birds around our neighborhood and the moose are prowling around...I think the crowds, the lights and the loud speakers have the animals freaked out.
Norway is Norway...cold, snowy, dark and expensive. Although I noticed this week in Gjovik and on Thursday when I window shopped in Oslo after my meeting that the prices of consumer goods seem to be falling...trying to get people to spend money I guess.
I head to DC in one week. Thank God for Business Class...I hate the trip flying back and forth. Especially for less than 72 hours on the ground in the US...meetings and then back out. I hope to hit a store...even a Walgreens or such to buy a few things like Tylenol (I forgot at Christmas), cough drops and a few other items. I would love to get to a grocery store for a few things too.
The weekend after I get back we are going to a ski resort with friends who have a ski out cabin. NK and JH are excited...if the weather is nice I hope to SHOP...of course window shop...this is Norway. There are great trails for walking...and our friends are good cooks....so it should be a cozy, fun weekend. Staying busy sure helps winter seem not so terrible. We just keep inviting people over for dinner or drinks...we get invited to their homes or cabins...helps NK too since most of the people have kids...or they are even parents of kids at NK's school. It forces me to try to integrate...I resent it sometime...I feel like I am being fake...like I am begging to "belong"...like I am trying too hard...but it beats crying my eyes out like I did every day last winter...and I am meeting new people.
I still hate this place...but not as much....which is a BIG improvement.
JH is exercising to try to get in "shape" before we go to Tenerife in February...I think I am gaining weight...oh well...a bunch of naked Europeans frolicking on a beach off the coast of Africa...who cares??????? He is making a great effort though...and NK is trying to get "muscles", I suppose I need to apply myself to some sort of fitness program. I keep looking at the websites for low cost lipo in Bulgaria. Sounds easier than exercise.
Here is another e-mail cut and pasted...
The sun came over the horizon at about 9 a.m. It just started peeking over the mountain and into this valley where we work. It is a long skinny valley between two very long skinny deep lakes...one called a fjord. One lake is a few hundred meters deep and 60 or so miles long. The valleys twist and wind into wider valleys where there are potato and wheat fields. Yesterday the sun disappeared at 2 p.m. The last direct sunlight in this valley disappeared at almost 2 p.m. exactly.
I have been buying candles by the hundreds. We bought a new lamp for our kitchen. Our sunlamp in the house goes on from 7-8 a.m. and then it goes on as soon as NK gets home from school until about 6 p.m. Even Forrest lays by the sunlamp. Last night my friend Eva came over and confirmed that cats in Norway go a little batty at this time of year. People do too, thus the reason for the sunlamp and lots of lighting. I have noticed the darker it gets outside the louder the volume on my TV, I wonder if there truly is a correlation.
The roads are so slippery - sheets of ice. The metal studded tires are on and still we slide backwards down streets. We have a can a sticky spray to spray on the tires when we can't get up the streets. Sideways slides are scary too...of course NK loves it..."Mom, we are drifting". Sliding backwards down a mountain is not my idea of fun. We have our shoe spikes out - especially for NK on his nearly 1/2 - 3/4 mile hike to school.
Sitting in my office looking out right now is it looks like a wonderland...huge pine forests, snow, and a bronze moose statue...little yellow breasted birds hanging out in the tree outside my window...kjøtt maiz...I think that is what they are called...meat corn. It doesn't sound right...maybe I have the name wrong. With my Norwegian anything is possible.
And here is another repeat from an email -
Last night we were driving home from spending the weekend with our friends at their cabin in the high mountains about 2 hours from here. The roads were snow packed and covered with a nice layer of ice. JH was driving and we were in a slight incline climbing along a fjord when we saw three moose standing on the road and another in the ditch. All of them had antlers and the two in the middle were smaller than the others. The first moose jumped the railing and into deep snow, the two smaller moose stood and watched as JH tried to get the car stopped without hitting them. We came to a stop just a few feet from them and they looked at us and then jumped the railing. The last moose turned around and ran back into the forest. Amazing to see them so close and in a group of four. I wish I had my camera...but it all happened so fast.
Mother's Day was last Sunday in Norway. I think it is STRANGE to have Mother's Day and St. Valentine's Day so close together. But, this is Norway...so alas, strange takes new dimensions in Norway.
Our friend took these photos on his mobile phone and sent them to me. What a nice surprise for Mother's Day! In the first photo NK practices the fine art of balancing stemware on his face. A proud moment for me to watch my son hone his circus talents.
Snuggling with NK is a great way to spend an evening.
