Ode to Comments

Ok, so I was hoping a few more people would leave comments on the blog. Ahem, Jeff, Mom, Sally...?!?! Dianna is kicking your butt in this area. Pick it up... or no blogs for you!

When I'm Eighty-Six

My Danish friend (and fellow dental student) , Julie, invited me to go sailing with her grandfather last weekend. She had been telling for the past couple weeks that he really wanted to meet me…I thought…why of course:)

We took the train from Aarhus to Vejle, the town where her grandparents live. When we arrived her grandmother had a wonderful Danish meal for us and we proceeded to the fjord for the day.

Julie’s grandfather, Erik, is one the most fascinating people I have ever met and I am grateful I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with him.

Here’s why…

· He just turned 86 yrs. old and has been sailing for over 70 yrs.

· He competes every Thursday and still wins regularly…He proudly showed me all of his sailing competition prizes and his most recent…a pretty nice Helly Hansen jacket.

· Over the summer he and his wife used to sail together for a month and just returned from a three-week trip in August.

· He is the president of his local rotary club and welcomes exchange students from all over the world for a sail on his “Spar ES." When we arrived to the Spar Es he had put a U.S. flag on the boat just for me.

· When we were getting ready to get off the boat (or so I thought) he told me sit down and said, “This is the best part.” He pulled out three orange Fantas along with his favorite candy and proceeded to chat about our lives.

· He was a member of the 40 Club and was kicked out after age 40…so when he turned 41, he and his friends started there own club called the 41 Club….and after 45 yrs., he and the other members still have weekly meetings where they invite interesting people to lecture to them on various topics.

· Before he retired he worked in sales of farm equipment and traveled all over the world…very interesting stories…and I can’t remember all the languages Julie said he speaks fluently!

· Every picture or ornament in his house has a great story to it. (Granddaughter made it, a great uncle who sold umbrellas, uncle who was a bishop and the only Catholic in his family, view from summer home, elephant tail from travels, etc.).

· He competes weekly in bridge and ping-pong…Last week he ranked number with his partner in bridge!

· He and his wife complete a crossword puzzle everyday and in the evening help each other out to solve it.

· Early in the day I noticed a book on the coffee table, which I later found out he purposely left for me to see. It was called “George W. Bush…the Great Accomplishments during his Presidency.” Later during dinner he asked if I voted for Obama, I didn’t know what to say because I thought he was fascinated with W, so I just tried to smile. He started laughing and ran to get the book. He told me to open it…it was all blank white pages!

· He was taking his wife to Oslo this weekend to visit his other granddaughter.

· He showed me pictures of a whale that had committed suicide in the fjord and when the Spar Es sailed right next to her Danish Majesty's Yacht Dannebrog. And after asked me if he knew of anyone else who could show pictures on the television like he just did.

· He is on Facebook.

I could go on…I hope to be so great at 86!

The Norwegian in Me

My grandma is 100% Norwegian, and being Norwegian has always been a part of my family. I have had fun in the last 45 days or so analyzing the culture in order to better explain myself. These are generalizations which are hard to prove as being Norwegian, but are noticeable differences I've only seen here. Whatever the case, I'm going to pretend this explains my quirks.

- They don't walk around smiling all over the place. They have this stoic, no-nonsense unemotional affect. No bogus fake smiles. And they stink at chit-chatting with strangers.

- They get a little or a lot of alcohol in them and then dance like maniacs. They're really aggressive and even the Germans are scared of them. I feel like I need a mouthguard on the dance floor as elbows and foreheads are flying. They'll partner dance and run right into you with full force. No one says "sorry" or "excuse me."

- They love chocolate. No messing around with that hard, bitter garbage called dark chocolate. Its smooth, sweet, and melts instantly on your fingers like butter. The other day, my patient at school told me (completely serious) that Nordic countries have to eat a lot of chocolate in order to stay warm. That's the best excuse I've ever heard - chocolate for physical survival.

- They're not that skinny. However, they're not obese either. No one gawks if you've got a little pudge.

- They love wearing skinny, black running tights in all possible situations. Shopping at the mall, getting some groceries, having dinner... the possibilities are really endless.

- They air dry their laundry on metal racks. (I've been doing this for years.)

- Girls lift free weights in the gym and not 2 and 4 kg weights. They're pumping like 10 kg plus weights. (1 kg = 2.2 lbs) They love squat lifting, too.

- They like modernism and uncluttered decor.

- Girls don't wear a lot of makeup. Enough to accentuate the points of focus, but not pageant style at all. Very natural.

- Seafood is a major part of their diet. *When I was 6 years-old, if you had asked me what my favorite food was, I would tell you crab.

- They eat liver paste regularly (AKA pate). Nummy!

- They use paprika spice on tons of things. (My grandma always has this on the table at meals. When I was little I would call it 'red salt.' Great on cottage cheese.)

- Structured child-rearing but not over-protectiveness. Parents let their 9 year-old son bike across town from soccer practice and their 3 year-old walk on railings over precarious cliffs, but they're strict with other things. For instance, kids are only allowed to have candy and pop on Saturdays. They call it Lordag Godt (Good Saturday). Kids also get a spoonful of cod liver oil every day. Bedtime is always 8 o'clock, except maybe 9:00 if mom and dad have company over. (I can only hope to be like this as a parent.)

- They love Yorkies! They're everywhere. I get really excited to run and pet them.

- They ride mopeds. Seems crazy considering how much it rains here, but they are great in a town with limited parking space and high gas prices.

Cozy in Denmark

"Hyggelig" which translates to "cozy" in English is a quite common phrase used in the Danish language. And my experience for the past three weeks in Aarhus has been just that. Here is a bit.

City of Aarhus

Random things about Norway

1. If a Norwegian agrees with you, he or she will nod and say "yeah" with a sharp inhalation, the same sort of noise we would make if we were startled. It keeps scaring the crap out of me.

2. Some Norwegian words sound like rap words, which is hilarious, because Norwegians aren't very "gangsta". For example, "Ha det", which is a way of saying goodbye, sounds like "Holla". And "boller" are little bread rolls, but whenever I hear it, I automatically sing to myself in my head, "Baller, shot caller, 20 inch blades on the impala..." Yeah, remember that song from a few years ago?

3. A preliminary list of things I already know I will miss when I leave Norway:

-Walter's Mandler. A delicious milk chocolate candy bar with roasted, salted almonds (mandler=almonds) and bits of toffee.

-Paprika potato chips.

-Mountains. For example, jogging sucks, but jogging in the mountains...well, still sucks, but at least you have a fabulous view to distract you.

-Swearing on the radio. You know the new Cee-Lo song? It's on the radio here. Awesome.

-Brown cheese. Aka brunost or geitost, the bizarre yet delicious brown cheese, especially good with waffles. I think you can find this in the US, but it doesn't seem the same.

Endless climb 2

A week or so ago, a friend in the dorm provided me with information about an outdoor recreation club. After looking at the short summary of an upcoming weekend hiking trip, I decided I had to do it, even though it seemed hard-core. The informational meeting eased my fears when I saw everyone appeared average-looking, and that there weren't any hippy or triathlon types. At the time, I misjudged one girl wearing giant fake pearl earrings and trendy H&M clothes to be an inexperienced camper. I thought to myself, "Yeah, I got this," so I signed the 'at your own risk' sheet and went home for the potluck. Friday afternoon, we loaded the rental cars and hit the road. I was happy one of the German guys was driving since the car was a manual and the roads were one lane (for both directions). He was shifting constantly, and we were struggling to figure out where we were. We missed the turn and got trapped on the wrong fjord. Two hours later, we were back on track, but were way behind the others. The sun was setting, and we began the two hour hike to the first DNT* cabin in a rather somber mood. In total darkness, we made it to the first cabin and devoured the leftover dinner (we all shared dinners, but brought our own breakfast and lunch). To save some kroner, I decided to sleep in the tent outside. Not realizing that a sleeping mat prevents the earth from sucking your heat away, I shivered in my sleeping bag until the sun started coming up. I went into the cabin and slept on the bare wood floor for two wonderful hours. I woke up and realized I was 26 years old! Yay! During breakfast, everyone lined up one-by-one and gave me a hug or hand-shake and congratulated me (literally). It was actually turning out to be okay to spend my birthday with strangers. Ankles wrapped and blisters bandaged, we loaded our gear on our backs and began the hike. It's hard to explain the hike, but it was one of the physically hardest days I've ever experienced. We hiked for over 10 hours in extremely rugged terrain on the leftover mess of a glacier from long ago. We went up steep trails way above the tree line and down a billion boulders... about a hundred times. The weather was incredible. It was sunny and maybe 60 degrees F in the middle of the day. I couldn't believe I was able to wear a tank top. We made stops every now and again to let the stragglers catch up (usually 2 Peruvian girls and a few others). I started off a little slow, but this weird thing happened where my stamina seemed to increase as the day went on. The Norwegian girl, Johanna (with the pearl earrings), was always first and way ahead of the German guys. Toward the end I was right up there with her. I wasn't sure if it was the Norwegian in me, or if my build was made for this. Before Jeff and I dated, he'd told his parents he wanted a girl with backpack-carrying legs. Well, I guess I proved that on this trip! Hehe! But the last hour was absolute hell. It felt like the Baton Death March, and I wanted my birthday to be over ASAP. The sun was beginning to set, and we still had a lot of ground to cover. When we finally got to the next cabin, it was full of other hikers. Being we were "kids," the people in the cabins weren't very willing to share space with us. So we had to change out of our sweaty clothes for dry while standing in the freezing cold. We then cooked some pasta and onion over an outdoor flame-thingy in the pitch dark. When I found out that two cartons of cream were going into the pasta, I was disgusted and shocked. Having worked in a restaurant for a number of years, I couldn't fathom the idea of eating dairy products that hadn't been in a refrigerator for two days. After an interesting lecture about sour milk from the rest of the campers, I learned that warm milk turns into yogurt and doesn't make you sick. Apparently bad milk has mold and good bacteria, but not really a lot of bad bacteria. After dinner everyone was wiped out and heading off to bed. Without a mat, I once again had to deal with finding a place to sleep without freezing. I basically had to beg the grumpy, old Norwegian hikers to let me sleep on the floor in the tiny entryway of the cabin. On the bare floor, I tried to sleep while my body twitched like crazy from being overworked. I woke up in the morning with a ton of energy (must be that mountain air) and we hiked for another 6.5 hours. We stopped to take some pretty sweet pictures at this rock formation called Trolltunga (Troll Tongue). It was definitely easier than the day before, although the last two hours were a mega balance test. It was very steep as we descended from the rocky glacial terrain into the tree zone. I kept apologizing to my poor knees. I finished the trip second to an American guy from Boston, and we obnoxiously chanted, "U-S-A, U-S-A..." We had a great laugh about that. Then, with two other European girls, we quickly threw our bikinis on and jumped in the lake. The numbing effect of the water felt so good. We had a nice trip home, especially after stopping at the gas station. I devoured a giant bag of chips, a cheeseburger, and a Coke and then rode along quietly thinking about the trip. I thought of all the amazing things I had done over the weekend, which were things I would never have done without a group like this. A few days later all fourteen of us got together and exchanged pictures. Here are a few of them. Wish you all could have been there with me to enjoy the adventure.

*The DNT cabins are an amazing accommodation provided by the Norwegian Trekking Association. You can find the cabins all over rural Norway, and they are so adorable and practical. Inside the cabin, you'll find bunk beds, a table, stove, cooking unit, and a wood-burning fireplace. There is a small fee to use the cabins, and you pay on the honor system. If you're a member of the association, you pay even less. They're first come, first serve and are open to everyone.

Norway in a nutshell

We've been a little lazy with the blog lately. Let's see, what have we missed...

Last weekend, we took a mini Norway in a Nutshell tour with a day trip up to Flåm. Following Rick Steves advice, we got off the train half way there to enjoy the scenery at slower pace. We had an amazing hike- good old Rick Steves knows what's up. We had the path mostly to ourselves, we ran into some friendly goats along the way and fed them some oats (totes). We hopped a wall and climbed through thorny bushes where Ashley developed some hives, all to scrounge for a few measly wild raspberries...then found a man selling a giant bag of them down the road for a few kroner. We got to see the Sognefjord, which was beautiful, but after all our travelling that day, we were a little fjorded out on the 5 hour boat ride home.

We had a lovely potluck dinner last week with our kitchen mates and a few other friends. Ashley made homemade macaroni and cheese for everyone, since many people here had never had it, but had only heard about it on tv. Others brought swedish pancakes, a peach crumble with some german streusel, some norwegian smoked salmon rolls, and lots of other yummy things- it was quite an international affair. We also celebrated Ashley's birthday a little early that night, since she went on a crazy hike this past weekend, which I'm sure she will tell you about soon.

I attended my first "Super Friday" this past weekend in the bar in the basement of our dorm. This happens when the Norwegian students get their checks from the government, and they celebrate with cheap 10 kroner beer, which is an unheard of price here.

And finally, we also started school, which has been a challenge with all the charting being in Norwegian, and not knowing who anyone is or where anything is, and all that fun stuff. But we will get the hang of it, and I think we will have a lovely semester. Looking forward to this Friday, when there will be a back-to-school party at the dental school, and we can get properly introduced to all our new classmates.