Christy Anderson Brekken

On Friday the kids had a day off school so we went to Pirabadet, Scandinavia’s largest swimming pool! There were several pools with different depths, water slides, jets, hot tubs in each pool area, rock climbing wall, crazy diving platforms, wave pool, loads of fun. It seemed to be salt water, and pleasantly warm, so it was comfortable and easy to float.

We arrived early to avoid the crowds, and by afternoon it was overrun with bands of teenagers showing off. Fun people watching too. There were many families with babies on up to big kids, with parents in the pools with kids. It was warm enough inside that coming in and out of pools and slides was comfortable.

Nora loved the rock climbing wall, which was a lot of work because it was too deep for her to touch there, so she was swimming/treading water or climbing continuously. She practiced going off the lowest diving board several times then tried to go off the first platform, but she couldn’t get herself to do it. She went up several times and got to the edge and backed out. She really wanted to, but just wasn’t ready yet. I don’t blame her, I wouldn’t do it!

Anders pushed his boundaries again and went of the highest platform–it was hard to watch him do it! See the pictures for perspective, it was higher than one story. He was sore coming out after hitting the water (biggest wedgsticle ever).

In the first picture here, Anders is on the 2nd platform. The 2nd picture gives a perspective of just how high the tallest one is–and he jumped off! They didn’t seem to have many lifeguards or staff around, but they only allowed people to go off the highest platforms with a staff person up there telling people when it was safe to jump. Thank goodness.

They had a restaurant upstairs, but it was nice that they let you bring in your own food. We brought our lunch, as most families did. It was reasonably priced by Norway standards, more expensive than a swimming pool but less expensive than a water park in the US (it was around $60 for all of us all day, if we wanted to stay until closing time. Families got a small discount per person).

The big windows face the fjord, so you can sit in the comfortable water and enjoy the view of the waves and sky outside. Sometimes the sun was shining, and in the picture you can see Munkholm lit up in the sun. It is a small island that was once a Viking execution site, then a monastery (Monk Home), and now you can take a ferry out there in the summer to have a picnic on the beach, sunbathe, and check out the historic buildings.

Throughout the day, the fog rolled in and out, cruise ships and the Hurtigurten came and went. Just sitting in a hot tub in front of the big windows would be a fine way to spend a day. We were all tired and slept well that night!

Anders has been pushing his boundaries this weekend. First up, the “new year’s ball” with his class at school. The teacher told us that the kids would dress up, like nicer than jeans, so we went shopping last weekend. He said “fine” to a shirt and pants, and of course we had to get good shoes too. Shopping is tricky for him now, he is in between boy sizes and men sizes. We found some great deals on small men’s clothes, it’s nice to be in a size that isn’t very in demand for awhile. But look at how dressed up those other kids are! We were surprised by the ties!

They had dinner (pizza and soda), games (they are thinking hard here about some word game), and dancing (he said he just stood around with the boys). Even dressed up, they are still 7th graders.

Mange takk to the parents who organized! I stood around and chatted with some of the parents for a short time (på norsk mostly!)

We are mostly settling into daily life here, but each day still has extra tasks. Maybe that’s true of every week, but once you are settled into a place you can forget about things like taxes for most of the year, or address changes for several years. One interesting thing about going to a new place is getting a feel for how the system really works, and telling Norwegians about it reminds them that it is all a part of their life too, they are just not thinking about it or dealing with it on a regular basis. I’m sure any immigrant to America has as many hoops to hop through and confusing bureaucracies too.

We thought we had everything administrative done, but noticed that we were not getting mail. We got our residency cards via mail, but that’s all, and I thought we would be getting a few more confirmation documents. This is a society that runs on having the right numbers. To use an app that the kids’ school uses for communicating with parents and teachers, we need to sign in with either a MiniID or a BankID system. You can get the secure pin codes that are assigned only to you, but you must order them through a website or by getting a bank account. I tried to order codes through the website, but nothing came. We went to the bank to sign up for an account, but they wanted a confirmation letter that had not arrived in order to verify our identity and address. Basically, without this letter confirming the address that is associated with our person numbers (like a social security number), we were stuck on getting these other special numbers that would unlock the school app and bank account, the next necessary tools of daily life.

So I went to the post office. Speaking only in Norwegian and using the post office address app, we verified that the address we had for our apartment was a mish-mash of our real address and the address to a different location nearby. The postal employee was as confused as I was. Then I realized way to get the answer: ask the neighbors. They said that the zip code for our address had been changed fairly recently, and we were using the old zip code. Now we had a correct address, how to fix it with the powers-that-be?

Ted tried going to the tax office one day but the person helping him seemed to be no help. He filled out a form that she said she wouldn’t file yet, for some reason. We went back together the next day and had a more helpful person, but not a helpful answer: because we are only here for 6 months, they will not update the address that is associated with our person numbers, so we will not be getting that confirmation letter that we need. However, they did change our postal address in another database and we did an address form with the post office. He said that shouldn’t be necessary to get that confirmation letter for the bank account because the banks make their own rules and we should be able to prove who we are and where we live without the official letter. Sure enough, the bank took the documentation that we had and is finishing the bank account process. But it will take 2 more weeks at least! They have to send us account agreement documents, which we will sign and send back, then they will send us cards and codes in the mail. Holy moly! Fingers crossed that the mail will come before we have to depart the country.

This picture is proof that you spent the day with Norwegian administrative tasks. This is a culture that requires you to take a number and wait patiently. In many ways, the keys to this society depend on having the right number on a piece of paper. The maker of these machines must be a millionaire. Three stories:

• Ted and I were meeting at the tax office to deal with getting our correct address in the system. I was there first so I took a number. Suddenly the numbers are moving fast, approaching mine, Ted is on his way but not there yet! My number comes up–but no Ted! What do I do? I don’t want to take another number! I made my way very slowly toward the counter, and he was just coming in the door–disaster averted!
• Only 2 or 3 of us are standing in the bank waiting for numbers to be called, but I’m holding a number that is 8 higher than the one on the screen, so clearly people took numbers but left. We generally know what order we came in. The bank employee is finished with one customer and moves the number up to 590. No one comes forward. Next number, no one. I just want to say “you’re next, right?” to the guy there before us, but no, we all keep looking at our number slips and wait until 592 is displayed and
  

  NTNU building, maximizing light

  the other steps up to be helped, because he is holding number 592.

• Earlier in the week I walked into an office at NTNU to get my badge and office key. I’m the only one there. The woman at the counter says something to me that I didn’t understand. She says it again. I admit to her that I don’t know what she is saying, and she says “queue number?” I was supposed to take a number from the machine out in the hallway. But I AM THE ONLY ONE THERE! Just then another women came in behind me and said “here, you can take my number” and went out to get another number for herself. I could only smile and be grateful, playing the ignorant foreigner.

It was little colder earlier this week, a high of about 17 F (-8 C). Gorgeous day. The cold made the largest frosty ice crystals I have seen up close. I took the extra long route to work that day, putting in over 10,000 steps, about 4 miles.

I’ve noticed that my phone will die in the cold if I take it out for longer than a few moments, like taking multiple pictures or looking at a map. When I told my co-workers, their first question was “is it an iPhone?” Apparently it is not made for northern climates.

Another day I took a slightly different route to work to explore more of the trails and stay off the roads. They were recently groomed for skis, one reason I tried a new route was to avoid the grooming tractor thing. They groom the trails through these fields and along paths beside the fields, so I can walk in the wide open landscape and feel like I’m not in a city at all. And it snowed! The day after the snow it rained a bit, and today it was quite warm and all of the snow is melting and it’s getting very wet, a set up for more ice everywhere. Walking to and from work today was a little slower on the mushy snow and slick ice.

My alternative route took me on a different path through the woods and the color hanging in the trees caught my eye–it’s a tree full of pacifiers (smokk). Norwegians in this area have this sweet way of getting their kids to give up their pacifiers–they tell a kind of fairy tale about the woods and leaving them there, then tie them to a tree. I need to ask Trond to tell me the story again, because we came across these trees in the woods once when we were on a walk with him years ago.

While grocery shopping, Ted pointed out the diaper packages and baby-stuff packages–on the Norwegian brand, many of them have men in the pictures. When men are pushing the baby carriages around here and the diaper advertisers recognize men as a target market, you know a culture shift is real. When I’ve been around the kids’ school for any event, the dads are also very involved with volunteering, equal with the moms. It’s a good thing for society.

Saturday was another day for downtown errands. It was a sunny day and we set out on the bus in the morning with the rest of the population to do some essential shopping and go to the library. On the wall along the spiral staircase: “What the treasure is, you decide. Where the treasure is, we will gladly tell you.” It was a nice day for people watching and strolling through the public square.

Anders’s class has a “new years ball” next week and the teacher clued him in (because I asked) that kids would dress a little nicer than Nike athletic pants and sweatshirts (which is the only clothes he wanted to bring), even nicer than jeans. Thus, one prime errand was to set him up with dress pants, shirt, and shoes. Although he totally agreed that he wanted those items, shopping is not his cup of tea. He is also between the largest boy sizes and smallest man sizes. But we lucked out and found some great XS men’s stuff on sale! It didn’t take long before he said “fine” to the clothes. The kids found “Say Yes to the Dress” on TV and have been obsessed, so we watched this spoof to get him ready to shop.

Every downtown trip must also include the library. Books to return, new books to check out. Nora and I spent about an hour there in the small “teen” alcove with the graffiti art that says “young” on the wall. Meanwhile, the boys went to look for a guitar for Ted. He can’t go 6 months without one. He found his new baby, and if he decides it’s not a long-term relationship he can sell it before we return to the US. He also got a piece of hardware that lets him play through headphones instead of an amp.

We also brought in the kids’ ice skates to be sharpened, which was a fiasco last week. This time the sharpening expert was on site, but not allowed to do the sharpening on Saturday in case other customers came in. Even though no other customers were in the store. Ted will go back on Tuesday to pick them up. We also got a microwave for our apartment (to be reimbursed by NTNU because we will leave it here). Now all of those cups of cold tea can be reheated.

We visited the famous Ravnkloa fish market for lunch, which seems like a lunch spot for tourists but not locals. So be it, we were the only ones eating lunch while others were in buying fish, and as we were leaving another English-speaking person came in for lunch.

There were 4 menu items, of which we ordered 3: shrimp, fish chowder, and bacaloa. The fish chowder was creamy with huge chunks of salmon. The bacaloa is a semi-spicy Portuguese stew that is now home in Norway because the old time fisherman traders would bring salted dried fish to Portugal, then brought home the recipe and other ingredients for the fish stew. Both were excellent.

When the shrimp came, the kids were not prepared for the reality (and we didn’t warn them). The shrimp are cooked whole, heads, legs, roe, and all. Nora was not pleased at all, she wouldn’t even eat ones that I peeled for her. Anders was a good sport and tried peeling his own, but after taking off the head he had to put them away from his plate so that they wouldn’t look at him.

I am the biggest fan of the bacalao, so I had the privilege of eating most of that myself while the others shared the soup, bread, and shrimp. Ted ended up with most of the shrimp, with the heads of his prey piled high on his plate. He wasn’t complaining!

Ok, this is it for the day. It’s bedtime here. Friday night homemade pizza and our first game of Pandemic Legacy, Season 2. The perfect game to buy abroad, play out, then destroy! Nothing to bring home!

I stopped by the store on the way home and grabbed pizza fixings. The dough was refrigerated, just roll it out on the pan. It’s not fantastic, but an easy Friday night meal. A little something for everyone on there too. I cut it with a scissors as we did at the pizza restaurant, and remembered that my mom always cut a sheet-pan pizza with a scissors growing up. It’s come full circle.

Pandemic Legacy Season 2 promises to be fun and challenging. This game assumes that the world is ravaged by disease after Season 1 (which we actually beat at the “disaster averted” level, so I will assume that we are cleaning up someone else’s mess :). We are survivors who are rebuilding supplies for remaining population centers and “rediscovering” areas of the world that have fallen. Same basic mechanics, interesting new story line. We even got to name our characters: TorBjørn, Loki Ulven, and Xåkø, among others.

Anders likes to play, Nora does not. She listened to audiobooks, colored, and hung clothes to dry when asked. We have a small washing machine and a drying rack from Ikea, actually the same model that we have at home. The clothes completely dry overnight.

Today I gave a 30-minute seminar about my work for my colleagues (ok, it was more like 45 minutes with questions). It was very well received. We have many opportunities for future collaboration!

After the Friday seminar, we have cake and coffee every week. They go up and down the hall ringing a little cow bell to call everyone together, then we shared pieces of a large pastry (which I would call a Danish, but is probably not the appropriate local term) and coffee.

During cake and coffee time, there is a lottery for a bottle of wine. It is 5 kroner to enter (about 60 cents). You get a ticket with a number on it for each entry. Then one person takes out the winning slip, but hides it. They pass the bowl with the other numbers around the tables. Each person takes 2 slips and reads them aloud–those are not the winner, so the person with that number groans and destroys that ticket. We keep going around calling numbers until they are all gone–which reveals the one person with a ticket left! The winner is then verified with the hidden winning number. I was afraid that I would miss something and be left with a ticket without winning, but I kept up.

But I was a winner today in another way: I had an entire lunch conversation in Norwegian! I’m getting better! I’m a better speaker than listener at this point, but I’m making progress. I’m good at saying “can you repeat?” I’m thankful for patient conversation partners!

Walking to work is one of the highlights of my day. It takes me about 35 minutes there with a big climb to the top of the local ski hill, faster on the way home. It’s faster, more direct, gives me exercise (about 3 miles, 7,500 steps round trip), saves money (a one-way bus ride costs almost $5 with my pre-paid bus card, about $7.50 if paid by cash).

On my 2nd day of walking, I chose to wear my hiking shoes and the studded shoe covers for the ice. There are plenty of hills and we haven’t had any new snow for awhile, so it is very icy in some places and the snow is very packed. This made walking much easier and more secure. I swear people must be able to tell I’m not Norwegian because I’m walking so carefully. Other people just cruise along with dress shoes or tennis shoes. There is some kind of mountain-goat experience going on here.

Ted came with me on the first day. First we can go out the back-side of our apartment area through this little wood to a street on the other side. After crossing the street, we go through another housing area then start climbing up and up along a path with a rope rail and lots of gravel. There are sand bins on the top and the bottom for the sanding crews.

Then we reach the top of the local ski hill! Anders and his class came to ski here during school one day (although he only had cross country skis, but the hill doesn’t look like fun downhill until we get more snow anyway).

The view of the whole city is breathtaking. We can see the fjord and the mountains beyond. The panoramic is nice, but doesn’t quite do it justice. I took this one in the afternoon light at 2:30 when the sun was illuminating everything.

It feels like an origami city somehow. We are in the center of 160,000 people, yet we have these secluded wooded paths that hop us from one part of town to another by foot, like snowy icy wormholes. It is phenomenal.

Next we cross another street and go down a residential street, on the sidewalk with regular bus and car traffic, but very quiet because it comes to a dead end with a bus turn-around. The horsehead-on-a-podium startled me the first time because it was hidden from me until I passed the fence on the right of me, then it popped into my peripheral vision! This seems a little ostentatious for the Norwegian sensibility.

We cross again and go through a fence and past a neighborhood swing set into a tidy neighborhood with smaller houses that are closer together. You can see one car parked at a house, but there are rows of garages in the low building on the left side of the picture. People don’t have their own attached “airlock” garage that takes you from your car to your house without acknowledging the outside world. These are not through-streets, only for the neighborhood cars and for walkers, bikers, and skiers to access the paths beyond.

The paths beyond are a respite from the city. There is a main path that is wide and groomed for cross country skis. On one day I came upon kids about Anders’ age skiing in groups; it must have been a school outing but I didn’t see any teachers. The kids were moving in well-spaced groups, as smooth and expert as can be.

On another day, we came across a daycare group (barnehagen) of mostly 2-3 year olds and 3 teachers. They were just trouping along, who knows how far from their daycare, all decked out in their full body snow gear, happy as can be. It’s so good for the little kids and so good for the caregivers! If I were taking care of a gaggle of small people, I would be thrilled to be outside for a good part of every day.

After the wider ski path we turn on to a smaller footpath bordered by trees. It’s a sweet little path that will be delightful in the spring and summer.

The path ends at this street and I noticed the solar panels, which we have not seen very often here. They aren’t so productive in the winter, but great in the summer!

Following along the road is this wide open view, looking back toward the path that we took through the woods and the neighborhood beyond.

After a walk through a parking lot, which I did not photograph because it’s just a half-full parking lot full of Saabs, Volvos and Volkswagens, there is one final path to my building on the Dragvoll campus. We are on the 4th floor, upstairs from the campus gym.

I have an office! I have been working at home, but it’s sure nice to have a sunny cheerful place to sit with a desk, larger screen and keyboard, and a door. Best of all is having other people around to talk with, practice some Norwegian, learn from, and share ideas! I’ll come in to work here a few days per week.

Of course, Ted also has an office in his department but he hasn’t taken pictures. Maybe we can share that another time. He has been teaching a class for 2 weeks now and it is going well.

Ti-tusen takk til Kristine Lien Skog for connecting me with Ruralis–the Norwegian Institute for Rural and Regional Research. Heidi helped to set up an office for me and introduce me to everyone. I look forward to learning about all of the work that they do. There are many researchers and PhD students that work on natural resource issues such as agriculture and forestry economies, local and regional food, wildlife interactions with agriculture, climate change, and other topics. They have so many publications on the website that I haven’t been able to get up to speed, but I can see that we have a lot in common.

I am the “new Lillian” because I’m borrowing the office of another researcher who is abroad until the summer. All of the offices are basically the same. I like that space age chair, it’s good for my posture. Outside of my window on the first day there were all of these skiers playing games that looked like capture the flag and tag, looked exhausting! Our offices are above the gym, so there must have been some extra activities organized outside that day.

Everyone is amazing, welcoming, and kind. I’m “sporty” because I agreed to give a 1/2 hour seminar on my work tomorrow, followed by cake (regularly scheduled cake with the seminar, not just for me). Anders was also sporty when he went to band on his first weekend here. It’s a good use of the word!

We have this kitchen commons area that is across from my office. Everyone has a labelled space in the fridge, and they have everything–a dishwasher, a super fancy coffee machine that puts out espresso and hot chocolate, a regular coffee pot and tea pot, and a few snacks to share.

Everyone sits together and eats lunch every day, so I get to practice a little norsk. We can’t all fit in this kitchen area, so we go to a bigger room on the same floor that has long tables. Everyone from Ruralis makes space to sit together to eat and chat for about half an hour per day. It is a very friendly environment. There is one other American there who was happy to meet me because now she has more excuses to speak English, but she is married to a Norwegian so she has plenty of time to practice if she wants to!

A Norwegian Folk Dance institute is on the same floor of this building. The first time I came in, I followed some footsteps printed on the floor and it took me to their area first. They have these charming old photos of dance on the walls and hold classes.

I have about a 1/2 hour walk to work, which is very beautiful. I will post some pictures of that next.

Sleds were first-day purchases, now we went for the ice skates. The school’s little rink is pretty darn nice and the kids are picking up their skating skills quickly. And they love it!

Next time we will take some pictures in the daylight. It’s just that we don’t have a lot of that for long after school! We were out at about 5pm here (although it’s dark around 4:00). It’s great that they have lights on so that the rink can be used in the late afternoon and evening.

The helmets are great for winter sports. They have warm padding that totally covers their ears as well as their heads, so they don’t have to fit an extra hat under it. The kids can skate at recess at school, and Nora’s class is doing skating as a phy ed activity on Friday. The school does have skates to borrow, but we realized that we would get plenty of use out of them and they aren’t very expensive now, both the skates and helmets were on sale. We can just donate the skates to the school when we leave.

Anders also got a hockey stick and puck and is loving it. His friends will go out to play hockey at school sometimes and they will also play after school or on the weekends, so he will get a lot of use out of them, along with social time and exercise!

We took an epic trip to downtown to buy the skates then walked all over to several different sports shops to get them sharpened. Apparently there is a skate-sharpening convention out of town this week, or there is only one person who sharpens skates for every store and s/he is out sick. Luckily they were sharp enough out of the box for a first outing.

We also found one more grocery store that is actually closest to us, just on the other side of our little housing area along a wooded foot path. It’s a Bunnpris (Bottom Price). It’s smaller than the others but seems to carry more “ethnic” foods. It is the first place that I found beans and lentils! The only dried beans were garbanzos (super high top shelf) and the rest are in tetrapak containers, and were kind of expensive. Bizzaro world! Now I will know what to look for at other stores too, instead of dried beans.

Visiting with old friends and making new ones is the best part of travel. Yesterday we played with Trond, Sylvi, Aksel, and Julie at our apartment. We spent a lot of time out in the snow, sledding and trying out the two playgrounds (lekeplasser) that are outside our building. This place is made for kids!

Anders and Nora enjoy Aksel and Julie, and the feeling is mutual. They love to run and laugh, they can speak silly simple Norwegian together and they are all on the same page. Julie let Anders push her on the swing for a long time, and they all loved throwing snow at Anders and tackling him. He’s such a good sport. Nora joined in the fun too, because there’s nothing better than throwing snow at your brother!

Trond and Ted has some quiet time inside while Sylvi and I went out with the kids. We spoke a little in Norwegian, but Sylvi is so skilled in English that she makes it too easy to switch! We will keep practicing på norsk, she is a patient teacher. They also brought us a beautiful orchid to brighten up our apartment, which is so sweet. Now I have to keep it alive!

We had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch because that’s the classic meal after playing in the snow from my childhood. Everyone was ready for lunch after all of that time outside.

Anders has also been getting to know friends from school. On Friday, he went to Jonas’s house to eat gingerbread and watch a movie and handball match. He was so happy to be invited! After he took off I realized that I didn’t even have the phone number or address for the friend’s house, but our responsible boy called from their house to give us the number and plan for when he would return. On Sunday, Jonas texted again and they met in the afternoon for sledding and video games. I responded to the text as Anders in Norwegian, which forced Anders to keep it up!

Jonas invited him to go to soccer practice this week, but he doesn’t have shin guards and hasn’t played organized soccer in years. He was up for is, but he would actually prefer to play handball. I contacted the nearby organization that has a handball team and they invited him to a practice, so he will try that this week. There is a girl in his class that plays on a girl’s team in the same facility, but he doesn’t know of any boys that play.

This weekend we also met our neighbors across the hall, they are a family of 4 just returning from 6 months in Canada AND they have a girl in Nora’s class and a 6th grade boy! She is Dutch-Canadian, he is Norwegian, and they own their apartment. Nora walked home with their daughter today after school. I asked if they had anything in common, and she said “well, she speaks English.” Yes, that is helpful. Nora got some simple norsk workbooks and homework from school today, which she things is so easy. That’s good news! We will work through the workbook and get the next one!

Anders is speaking more Norwegian all the time and is speaking it at home to practice too. He had shop class today and said that the teacher didn’t do anything special to tell him what to do, just gave him the same instructions along with the rest of the class. I guess the honeymoon is over and he’s just one of the kids.

There are a lot of buildings like ours in this area, which are a mix of owner-occupied and leased out to visitors like us at NTNU or other institutions, so it’s cool to be in a neighborhood of long term residents. The apartments are all joined in long rows, but each entrance serves 6 apartments, 2 on each of 3 floors. It feels cozy while getting a lot of people into one place. One favorite thing that our neighbor mentioned about these apartments: the building is warm and there is plenty of very hot water. We agree.

[click on pictures for a larger view]