Christy Anderson Brekken

A sacred Norwegian tradition is the påskeferie hytta trip–Easter week holiday at the cabin. Many Norwegian families have a hytta in the mountains or fjords that has been passed down through the generations. It’s a great honor to be invited to the family hytta for the holiday, and we were invited to not one but two hyttas during the week!

First we took the train to Røros to Sylvi and Trond’s hytta, about 2.5 hours ride south and east of Trondheim toward the Swedish border. As you move away from the coast, the temperatures get colder and the snow gets heavier. We had -30F overnight and teens to twenties during the day, but with abundant sunshine! And snow almost to the roof line!

The cabin is beautiful, a small building that they recently remodeled to change the orientation of the rooms. There are 3 small bedrooms, enough places to sleep for all of us, a living room, a kitchen/dining room, and a washroom…and an outhouse! They do not have running water because it is very expensive to drill a well. They gather water from the lake for general washing, but it is polluted from hundreds of years of copper mining, so they bring drinking water in jugs. The outhouse is top-notch. A room in a nearby shed with electric heating and decor. However, they still haven’t put up their picture of the king and queen, which is traditional for a hytta uthus. In the old days you would use newspaper as toilet paper, but it was taboo to use any picture of the royalty for that purpose, so they pinned it up on the wall. It’s real hytta liv (cabin life).

On our first day we just hung out and played with the kids. Ted and Anders did some heroic shoveling to clear a path to the patio outside of the kitchen door, along with a place for the tri-pod grill set up and the table and chairs. The snow was so crystalline because it stays so cold and dry. Because it is so dry it doesn’t feel all that cold. Ted took off his coat and hat by the time he was done shoveling.

In addition to general playing in the snow, they had these tiny skier toys that raced down the hill–so cool and a great subject for Anders’ camera skills! They were perfectly balanced and stayed upright all the way down the slope. They even set up little ramps for a jump at the end of the hill.

We set up the grill and had a picnic outside for lunch, overlooking the lake and soaking up the sunshine. Lunch was a Norwegian favorite: pølser. Hotdogs. They taste pretty good hot off the grill when you are out in the cold! I added avocado and onion to mine to make a Chilean completo, mixing up all of the cultural experiences!

         The kids play like puppies in the snow, much to the delight of little Aksel. Make sure that you can find Anders in that picture of Ted by the picnic table! They wrestle, roll around, and sled (usually until someone gets hurt, but not too badly), then sleep well at night.

  Moose in the hood, not in the house!

Anders played his first håndball games this weekend! On Friday, he went to practice and his coaches offered to give him a ride to the Friday night game. It was across town and not possible for us to get there on time by bus. People are generous about offering to give him a ride as needed. He scored 2 goals in his first game and got to talk to the coaches on the ride home about his strategy.

On Saturday we went to his “home” game at Utleriahallen, about a 20 minute walk from home. The coach chatted with me about his successful first outing, saying that after his goal he just kept smiling all the way down to the other side of the court! He scored 1 goal in the 2nd game and had a few more shots that were blocked. The rules about possession are still bewildering to me, but he seems to be getting it down. He is at practice tonight; Ted encouraged him to ask his coaches more about strategy and rules so that he shows his interest and learn a bit more.

Meanwhile, it was Nora’s turn to take care of Monkey this weekend! The kids take turns bringing Monkey home (creative name, right?). They give Monkey fun experiences then write in Monkey’s journal and bring it back to school. Monkey also comes in a backpack with different clothes, but Nora was concerned that Monkey did not have a warm jacket, so I knitted up a quick little Monkey jacket from some leftover yarn. We got to contribute something to the life of the classroom, and she even wrote about it in the journal.

Monkey came with us to Anders’ handball game. Nora and I, along with Monkey, also went to her friend’s ice skating performance on Sunday. Naomi Ayana lives across the hall and her mom is Canadian, so we get to chat a bit about Norway vs. North America. Naomi is a talented little skater! They don’t have family nearby, so we were the cheering section for her.

It’s also been snowing like crazy for the last 2 days! Nora’s class went on another ski day yesterday. They walked about 1 mile from the school to a cross country ski area, so they each had to carry their own lunch and ski boots in their backpacks while carrying their skis and poles. I love that she gets that kid of outdoor experience with people other than us. I have a feeling that she is more cheerful when she is in a gaggle of kids 🙂

All day yesterday I watched out the window as the weather went from big fluffy flakes to clear blue skies to driving snow and wind, changing every 20 minutes. I just kept thinking of her out there with the kids on skis and around the camp fire. It’s a great way to spend a day!

Anders is really coming along with his Norwegian. He says that he can understand a lot of what the teachers say now and is asking me more subtle questions like the difference between “vet” (to know, as in to know a fact or piece of information) and “kjenner” (to know, as in to be familiar with something, like “I know who Anders is.”) I had to ask at work to make sure I understood the differences right. He is starting to correct my Norwegian, so it’s getting good!

Next week we are all off on Easter holiday. We have the special experience of visiting friends at their “hytta,” their cabin. We will take the train to Røros to stay with Trond and Sylvi’s family for a few days. Then we will hop on the train again and go down to the Hallingdal region to stay with our friends Kristine and Tor-Einar’s family. They lived in Corvallis last year and became good friends, but they live way down in Ås, south of Oslo, so we have not seen them in person yet. Can’t wait!

We are midway between school holidays, nestled into regular life for a bit. Ted and I have been going to work most days, now that the set-up errands are complete. It’s darn nice to have a regular bank account, Ted has finally been (mostly) paid, and the rent has been paid. The days are much lighter, but winter is definitely still here. We have had some great new snow this week, but it has been above freezing during the day for the most part.

The kids are enjoying their school days. Anders feels pretty confident that a substitute teacher didn’t realize that he was American, even after having a bit of a conversation, although it’s not clear to me how much Anders really spoke in this conversation, but he did understand what was said. He is enjoying his classmates. Last weekend he went to a birthday party for one of the boys that he is closest friends with. They went to a public ski hill in the evening that has a practice-slalom course. Anders didn’t have alpine skis, but he brought a sled and had a blast flying down the hill and hitting the jumps. He has also been going to handball practice. He and I went to watch his team play a game last weekend and he got his uniform. He will play in his first game on Saturday. It’s quite optional. They use an app for messages and game announcements, and we just respond to say if he is going to play or not. Low pressure.

Nora has been enjoying school too. Although learning Norwegian is not a stated goal for her, it’s clear that she is learning and sometimes accidentally shows it. She said that she spoke some Norwegian today when some boys were yelling at her on the playground, so it might be reserved for social purposes.She also joined a soccer team for the girls in her class and has been going to practice, but that is also low key. They mix various sports and soccer in each practice. They are doing some gymnastics now and she is happy to learn to do a handstand, and likes small soccer matches too.

This week they were going to ice skate on the school rink for soccer practice, but it snowed so much all day that the ice was not clear in the afternoon! Instead, they sledded at the school, where the girls kept trying to make sled trains on the way down. It’s such an awesome sledding hill, and so well used that they have slick tracks that make them go fast. Then they went to her friend’s house for hot chocolate afterward. Anders came for sledding too, and I went to hang out for a bit and talked with the coach (in as much Norwegian as possible!) Anders and Nora played on the crazy merry-go-round thing. Anders is quite intentionally hanging upside down. He was like a toddler, completely rolling in the snow and soaked through by the time we got home.

Both kids have gone out for ski trips at school several times, with more to come next week. If I had realized how much they would be skiing, we would have bought skis in the first week! We have been fortunate to borrow some from other families. The school also has extras that fit Nora, but Anders feet are too big for elementary school sizes. It’s been great to be included in the parent Facebook groups and school messaging apps now because I can put out a request and get ideas and offers. People are very generous and supportive.

This weekend the kids were invited to play with some friends–a brother and sister their same ages! The girl is the one that was paired with Nora on the first day of school, Ronja, so they have been getting along and she likes to speak English. They did everything Nora loves–fake blood makeup to scare the parents (it was convincing) and made up a puppet play. Turns out that Anders gets along with her big brother too (but didn’t realize they were siblings), so he was invited over too–video games and sledding at the neighborhood ski hill. Ted and I brought them over and stayed for coffee, brownies, and hours of political talk. I understand that America is quite an enigma to Norwegians who think differently about government, are the 2nd happiest people in the world this year, and only see America from the outside but feel a kinship. Many Norwegians jokingly recite the fact that there are more Norwegian-Americans in the world than Norwegians now (and we are some of them). It’s hard to explain what’s going on in the country even from an insider’s view. I get the feeling that every Norwegian that we talk to about this stuff is saying, “why not come to live here, it’s great here!” even if they don’t come out an say it. Actually, one of my co-workers who is originally from Russia did come out and say it! I have to explain that America is a big and diverse place, and our home is pretty tough to leave. They were very kind to host us, and we will have to invite them over soon.

To be adventurous, I tried the tube caviar this week. It’s very common for breakfast and lunch on crisp bread. In general, I’m not in favor of food that comes from a tube, and this isn’t the only tube-food. Ted said “the tube makes it look like something to put on a rash.” Yeah, it does. But it’s not bad. For people who eat sushi, this should not be a big deal. It has some light herbs, and is intensely salty. I ate it on crisp bread with some cucumbers at lunch. I bought the single-serving size, so I don’t have to go back for more. It wasn’t that great.

This week I finished knitting myself a linen top, it’s so satisfying to have something fit! And be finished! More knitting projects on the way: slippers for Nora, socks for Ted and Anders, and I’m sure a few more things. I have no shortage of yarn.

We arrived home from our Nord-Norge Adventure on Friday evening. Then Ted and Anders got up early on Saturday and took off for Oppdal, about 1.5 hours by train, for a skiing weekend. Ted’s department was having a retreat there on Monday, so they could arrive on the weekend for some skiing before the retreat.

Nora and I stayed home on Saturday for a rest, neither of us are big skiers. We joined them on Sunday on the early train, then I brought the kids back home on Sunday evening so that they could go to school on Monday, and Ted stayed in Oppdal for the retreat.

Guest blogger, Anders:

Pappa and I needed to wake up pretty early to catch the train to Oppdal, but the trip was short so it was okay. When we arrived in Oppdal we could not see a cab so we decided to walk, it did not look far. It was far. When we finally arrived at what looked like the main place, we found out that there were not rentals there. So we asked the lady at the front desk to call us a cab. We waited maybe

15 minutes for the car until we decided to walk again. It was a 2 mile walk uphill. when we got to the other lodge we did find the rentals. After some more bad luck, we started skiing. We started off on a blue hill, that was a mistake. I crashed pretty hard but I was fine. The lifts were incredibly slow, we timed it and it took 13 minutes for a green hill. Pappa got a lot of snow in his beard.

The hotel was nice, we ate at a diner. The second day was very snowy. Maybe only a tenth of the people were there that day. We skied the same routes for a while, then pappa found out that you could find little jumps so we did those (at this point there was a lot of Napoleon Dynamite quoting). We got some sick air. I was going off a jump when I hit a padded pole.  I was ok.

Back to Christy:

It started snowing on Saturday night in Trondheim. When Nora and I left the house at 6:30am on Sunday to take the bus to the train station, we were the first ones to walk through several inches of snow! It just kept snowing, and was snowing so much that it was snowing in the train between the cars!

It was snowing just as much when we arrived in Oppdal, so the skiers were happy about the powder, but it was hard to see
your skis or anything in front of you. The boys had been skiing for awhile by the time Nora and I arrived. We got Nora suited up with skis and Ted helped her down the kid hill a few times. I wasn’t feeling comfortable with skiing that day, I like cross country but the conditions and the hill were feeling like too much for me. She has only skied a few times before, so after figuring out the lift and giving it a try, she was pretty proud of herself for slowing going down from the top
of the kid hill with long back and forth paths down. Ted and Anders wanted to go back to the green hills, so I stood down at the bottom and encouraged Nora as she came down on her own.

The snow eventually slowed down and the sky cleared. It was a beautiful day. The lifts closed at 4:00, so we hit the restaurant at the ski facility, then went to Ted’s hotel room for a rest before the train back home.
We got home around 9:30 and had a good night sleep!

Nord-Norge Adventure Part 6: Northern Lights

Guest blogger and photos by Anders:

We were eating dinner when Hans came in and told us he was ready to take us on the Nordlys Tour. We were very fortunate to be the only ones on the tour, which was good for me because I did not want to slow people down. My plan was to take some pictures of the northern lights and also enjoy them. Hans took us outside and first we went down to a frozen river, only a short ways away, to try to see them. We saw them faintly and I got some pictures but I was still not confident with my settings so the pictures were very grainy. We then went to a mountain and tried to see the northern lights. They were stronger up there and I got my best pictures. The northern lights were not quite what I expected, but we did not see a strong display. It was a nice experience overall.

Follow up by Christy:

One reason for coming north was to see the northern lights, and Alta is the perfect place to see them because of the latitude/longitude and weather. It has long been a base for scientific study of the aurora. Ted and I were lucky to see some spectacular lights in Tromsø the last time we lived here, so we were hoping for a little luck again this time. Back then, you just looked up and hoped for the best. Now there are websites and apps that forecast the aurora, but it’s like the weather, not a sure thing. There had not been much activity in the days before we came according to other guests and we did not see any the night before. It had also been cloudy, but the clouds had moved to the south by evening. It was cold, but we were bundled up and there was no wind. I sat on the ground and Nora sat on me, while Ted and Anders worked with the camera.

Hans has been taking guests to see the lights for almost 20 years, so he has a lot of experience with photos and a special spot up in the mountains about 20 minutes away from Sorrisniva. We were prepared to be out until midnight if they were active, so we were lucky that it started when we were finishing dinner, actually, if we had been done a little earlier we could have seen more from the river. It also stopped quite definitively at about 9:30, so we got back for a reasonable bedtime. When I got up to use the bathroom after 11, there was no activity.

I just have one complaint, which is really about the human eye. Viewing the aurora in person was not as vivid as the pictures show. With our fancy camera technology (and some post-processing), we can take a long exposure to gather a lot of light and create a picture. However, our eyes can capture the movement and changes that the camera cannot, so the northern lights will live in our memories. The stars are also fantastically crisp and clear up in the mountain away from the light. I was as mesmerized with some incredibly twinkly stars as I was with the aurora. It was a special night.

Hans took some photos as well and emailed them to us. The first two and the last were taken outside of Sorrisniva, so there is extra light from the buildings. He also captured us in one photo by flashing a light at us during the long exposure. The bottom left photo is from the mountain.

Nord-Norge Adventure Part 3: Reindeer Sledding and Sami Culture
(remember, you can click on a picture for a full size version)

We arrived at Sorrisniva, the ice hotel, and immediately got suited up for our Reindeer Sledding and Sami Culture tour. Our guides were clear that they were not tour guides, they are Sami men who spend a week or two in the mountains tending their reindeer herds, and when they rotate out and come back home they take people on this reindeer tour, so we were encouraged to ask questions because they did not have a script prepared. They could speak from their own experience and culture.

They put 2 people in each sleigh, with 1 reindeer in between each. That made for an interesting ride, because if the lead reindeer slowed down, the others didn’t immediately get the hint and came up alongside your sleigh. Nora and I were in the front sleigh, so our guide, Nils, jogged along with his reindeer at the front then hopped in our sleigh when we got going fast enough. The reindeer behind us was the beauty with the big antlers. These are wild animals and don’t want much of anything to do with us, but have been given enough experience with the sleighs to be comfortable. The one behind us sometimes walked beside us, but didn’t give us trouble with the antlers.

However, the reindeer behind Ted and Anders was new to this activity and kept wanting to run faster, so he was constantly beside them and banging into them. At one point he got mixed up in the ropes and Nils had to stop the train to set it right. Ted figured out how to put up an arm to keep him from running into the sleigh.

We sledded along a wooded path for 20-30 minutes and stopped at a Sami lavvo to warm up and have a cup of tea and learn more about Sami culture.

The Sami are indigenous people of the far north, extending from Norway through Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They maintain their own language but have different dialects, so from east to west they can generally understand each other, but not dialects that are north or south of their own. The seat of the Sami Parliment is in Karasjok, where our guides are from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people#Sami_culture

A lavvo is a tipi-like building that the Samis use as shelter when they are herding reindeer and is the traditional family living space. Now, Sami families live in towns where the kids go to school and parents who are not herding reindeer work. They can set up this traditional type of lavvo with wood frames in about 30 minutes, but now they have aluminum-rod versions that can go up and down in about 10 minutes. In the winter, the reindeer stay in the mountains because it is easier to dig down into the snow and find moss to eat, so the Sami that stay near them do not have to move much. In the spring, the reindeer move down toward the coast, so they have to move daily or multiple times per day to stay with them. Men are traditionally the herders, but now there are some women who have learned the skills and also participate. A few will go into the mountains for 2 weeks at a time, then come back home while another 2 go out. Today, they use snowmobiles and a few reindeer have GPS trackers in case the herd goes afield. People can go across the border into Finland or Russia, but the reindeer cannot, so there is extensive fencing at the border and the Sami keep the herd within their country’s borders.

The reindeer are wild, but the Sami families that have herds (some 3,000 if I remember correctly) keep track of them with cuts to their ears that they make when a calf is born, and a good herder knows the cut pattern for all of the other family herds to keep them apart. They do not intentionally breed the herd, but they do castrate some of the males (we didn’t get into the reasons, but likely managing herd size and quality). Every year they sell some to the slaughter facilities to become reindeer meat, which you can only get in Norway because there isn’t enough to satisfy the domestic market. The Sami also slaughter some for their own use, for meat and hides.

They also told us about the traditional Sami clothing, which they do not wear on a regular day of course, but they wear for the tour and special occasions. The color and patterns on the jackets show where you are from and the buttons on the belt show whether you are single or married. They said that they tease a people from a neighboring town whose jackets are “half done” because they are almost all blue, with very little extra color patterns.

We also were grateful to hear Johann joik for his father and brother-in-law. Nils was clearly more comfortable speaking English, but he said that just like some people can sing and some can’t, some people can joik and some can’t. He can’t joik, but Johann can. Each person has their own joik that they get from their family, which reflects their personality, and no two joiks are the same. You joik to remember or honor a family member when you are away or after they have died.

When we were done, we hopped back into the sleighs for a ride back to the hotel, where the kids found a “spark” (kick sled) and we had a warm meal of fish soup and wild meat and veggie stew.

Nord-Norge Adventure Part 2: Holmen Husky

Our Arctic Adventure continued on Wednesday night at Holmen Husky, a dog sled outfitter and small lodge. They provided all transportation; they picked us up at a hotel in downtown Alta and took us about 20 minutes to the lodge. We arrived with other people traveling in groups (Americans, Germans, Brits, and one Norwegian couple), so there were about 18 of us that went out on a dog sled tour, 2 to a sled except for our family.

They dressed us all up in snowmobile suits and gave a 10-minute orientation to dog sledding, which really amounts to choosing which brake to stand on to slow down the dogs at the appropriate times. The dogs want to pull and the guides told us that if we fall off the sled, the dogs will continue back to the camp with or without us. The passengers have a snow anchor to throw if the driver is knocked off but the sled is still upright!

That was it, off we went! Ted “drove” first with the 3 of us riding, then the guides signaled a stop part way through and I took over. The leaders took Anders up to their sled and gave him a chance to drive (even though kids aren’t supposed to drive!) He actually switched from sitting to sanding on the back in the driver position while moving! I am thankful that we were right behind the guides, because they had to stop us once to untangle two of our dogs that ended up switching places and pulling more to one side. The trail was very narrow through woods for most of the way, and the dogs would favor one side or the other as they grabbed bits of snow for a drink while running, so sometimes we were pulled very close to the trees and branches. Driving also involved a lot of ducking to avoid branches your face. Because we were out at night, we couldn’t see too far in front of ourselves with the headlamps and moving fast, so I was very glad to be behind the guides to take cues from them. At one point they started telling “brake! brake!” then they dropped down a steep but small hill. If I hadn’t hit the brake and slowed down, that would have been a painful drop. Some of the others behind us said that they weren’t expecting the hill and were surprised! Anders also got a special insight riding with the guides. On a tight curve at the end they looked back at us, and after we came around the corner said, “oh good, another family tipped the sled on that turn this morning.” We did it!

The kids were a little nervous when we were starting out, but quickly turned to giggles because one of the dogs right in front of the sled was gassy! That dog was having digestive problems. It was also constantly squat-running for the first while to poop while running. It was quickly nicknamed “Dingle” and led to a lot of silliness. The other back dog was nicknamed “Lumpy,” the kids say it was a little chubby. The next morning we heard the guides discussing what time to feed the dogs, based on digestive timing. Maybe we just caught Dingle at a bad time of day. And to be fair, Dingle wasn’t the only one that pooped while running, but was very prolific. The Brits also had a gassy dog, so it wasn’t just Dingle’s problem either.

After we returned to camp, we had time to snuggle the dogs and take some pictures. They were much more calm after their run. When they were hooked up and getting ready to go, they are going crazy! Pulling at the harnesses, barking, etc. They were all very friendly with us, although would nip and fight with each other in close proximity sometimes.

After the ride we all went into a main building, built like a Sami lavvo with an additional entryway. There was a fire in the center, and hot cider and cookies for everyone as the guides told us more about the dogs and answered questions. Then we went back to take off our gear and the guides showed us the dining room, restrooms, sauna, and took us to our rooms. We had a family cabin that was built like a yurt but divided into 2 separate rooms, each with a wood-burning stove for heat. We fired them up and got our things settled. Anders was inspired to take some pictures.We had dinner of local moose and vegetables with the other guests, we were at a table with a Norwegian couple and a British couple. There were other Americans and some Germans at another table as well. The dinner was simple and delicious, just what we needed after dog sledding. But we had been up since 4:30am, so we were ready to get back to the yurt for some sleep. Thankfully no one had to get up to use the bathroom during the night, because it was a long, cold walk to the main buildings.

The accommodations were rustic but comfortable. We had this yurt-like building for a family. There were a few other larger rooms for groups, the guide took us to the wrong one first and said something about a honeymoon suite that wasn’t quite ready yet, and in the picture there is a geodesic-dome structure. Most of the other structures are the lavvo-type (tipi-style), big enough for 2 people with full windows on one side. They get fogged up on the inside by morning, so there is a level of privacy. They asked us not to use the outhouses near the sleeping quarters because they are frozen now, unpleasant for users and for the person who has to clean them!