Christy Anderson Brekken

Today we took the bus downtown again to pick up a few items and go to the library. Nora is not impressed by the bones on display in the library entrance. This space was the city hall in centuries past, and when they were excavating to create the library they found these skeletons and it was a graveyard in the 1700s. If I were in those graves, I would be pretty happy to know that I was now in a library as a part of the city’s history.

The self-serve return system is cool, slide the books into a conveyor belt machine that reads the barcode and checks them back in. The check-out system pretty cool too. You use your card to activate the system and stack all of your books on one square, and it reads everything in the stack at once! It happens so fast that I’m not even sure I can catch it on video. They must have chips in the books that the sensor can detect. The kids are finding plenty of books to check out, and Ted found a several books as well. I’m using the kindle that I got for Christmas, so I won’t start looking for books until I’m finished with the one I’ve got checked out. It’s fabulous that we can still use the digital books and audiobooks from the Corvallis library collection.

Going downtown always takes longer than we thought. I had snacks with me, but everyone wants more than a handful of almonds when we’ve been hauling stuff around in the cold. Although Norwegian pizza chains don’t rate high in our experience, the kids were excited to try Peppe’s Pizza, the major pizza chain. It was better than 12 years ago, and still expensive, but a fun treat for the kids. You cut your own pizza with a scissors! As Ted said, you just have to enjoy the experiences and don’t fret too much about the cost.

Back on the bus home to catch the 4:00 sunset skyline and a little grocery shopping before everything closes on Sundays. Both kids video chatted with friends from home before bed. It’s fun to listen to them enjoying their friendships while seeing them reach out to embrace new opportunities.

I saw the headline in Aftenposten, Norway’s main newspaper, that Trump referred to <<drittlander>> and there was a picture of his meeting with the Norwegian prime minister. The real words were translated into “shit countries,” although what was said was much more vulgar. Meanwhile, his short attention span and lack of any knowledge or historical context, accompanied by the constant undercurrent of racism, led him to demand in the immigration meeting with Congressional leaders that we take more immigrants from countries like Norway.

Guess what? All immigrants have a hard time, regardless of their skin color or country of origin. Our ancestors from Norway had it as hard as any other immigrants. They worked in low-wage occupations like farming and logging, struggled to assimilate, and even 2nd generation Norwegians lagged in income compared to the US population and other immigrants of the time. My dad remembers his grandparents speaking Norwegian to neighbors on the phone. “It takes generations, perhaps a long as a century, to catch up to the native population. …on the whole, the immigrants of today look to be on a path similar to that followed by Norwegians and others in their study.”

On the other hand, Norway today has become one of the most prosperous, and happiest, nations on earth because of their careful stewardship of resources and focus on income and gender equality. “Norwegians have it so well today that, … Norwegian-born people today are the third smallest group of resident immigrants in the U.S. in raw-number terms.”

Instead of asking for Norwegians to come to the US where they would face a broken political system and crumbling infrastructure, why not envision a US that carefully manages our resources and is dedicated to income and gender inequality, not in false word but in deed? And remember that Norway takes many refugees from countries that the US is trying to shun. Maybe that’s the Norway-inspired outburst that we need.

For the studies and statistics, because we live in a real world of real facts and history: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/12/trump-wants-more-immigrants-from-norway-theres-a-reason-they-arent-coming/?utm_term=.63b4e2cea987

Today, Ted and I took a walk to our old neighborhood and grocery store while the kids were in school, 20-30 minutes each way. Trondheim has a network of pedestrian/bike/ski routes that cut through neighborhoods off main roads. You occasionally have to cross a road, or there are overpasses or underpasses to cross major thoroughfares. It makes the city totally accessible without a car. There are many people out and about, although I didn’t catch many in photos.

Here on a typical part of a route, the main highway that runs through the country is on the left (E6) and neighborhoods on the right behind the fence. They keep it well graveled because it’s so icy. 

The network of pedestrian/bike/ski paths is clearly marked at crossroads to take you to different neighborhoods. We are coming from Nardo (current neighborhood) going to Moholt (old neighborhood).

There are also nice stretches with open space. Here you can see the bit of path on the far left and it continues up the slope. You can see the cross country ski tracks on the side. There are apartments off to the left, and houses behind.

It seems like every path passes a daycare (barnehagen). This one had frozen colored gloves in the trees! The kids were outside playing on the playground. It’s common to see a kid in a tree. The Norsk philosophy is that if they can get up, they can get down.

One big slope up, these are not stairs! The sign says “snarvei” which means shortcut. We could hike up without a problem, but on the way down it was slippery enough to send you on your butt, so we gripped the handrail all the way down.

The trail here is all about the ski paths, no gravel. The snow leaves enough grip for walking.

We took walks through this cemetery 12 years ago, looking at names. It’s mostly the same, probably a little fuller.

An underpass on the route. Almost the same graffiti as 12 years ago too.

Our old little hobbit hut on Frodo Rinnans vei! This is Anders’ first home. They called this little complex “the baby factory” because it’s couples housing. I’m pleased that they still have the sod roof, neatly trimmed for winter.

Our place is on the right here, and the bigger apartments on the left are new. That was a grassy area before, and an old sport store has been torn down.

Rema 1000 in Moholt, our usual grocery store from 12 years ago, has been transformed. It’s much shinier now. This one is very large for a grocery store here. Some are small and packed so tightly and disorganized it’s hard to find anything. This one is mid-range; there are some that are fancier and higher priced.

It’s very common to find a wide selection of wool underwear at most grocery stores, along with tights and long underwear.

And they still carry yarn and knitting needles! I haven’t found another grocery store that carries yarn, and I thought they probably dropped it with their big remodel. Our 2 other nearest grocery stores have yarn stores in the same shopping area though, but I bet it’s fancier yarn. They are only about $3 each, pure Norwegian wool. More slippers on the way!

The kids love the snow and it’s really not so cold, usually 20s to 30s F. It’s much drier overall than Corvallis, so we are adjusting with hand lotion! It’s also so darn icy outside. They put down gravel on the walking paths nearly every day. Ted said that yesterday he was slipping as he walked home, while some Norwegian guy nearby in pointy dress shoes was striding along without a problem. Some kind of supernatural harmony with the natural environment going on, apparently. I’ve also seen women in some inadvisable shoes, but I’m loving my warm boots. It would be nice to get more snow.

I picked up Nora after school because Anders was sick. Suddenly she burst out: “OH. MY. GOD. We have a zip line!” Yet another perk at Steindal Skolen!

This morning we met with the kids’ teachers for an hour, and they are great. There are kids from 40 countries at their school! So the teachers are used to kids who are getting up to speed in Norwegian, but most of those kids do not also speak English. We agreed that they can push Anders with Norwegian by not using English with him much, so that he will get used to it faster. The other kids his age speak English quite well now, and some of them are not afraid of trying, so they are talking to him in English and not Norwegian. He is doing some extra workbooks from school to learn more Norwegian on his own. The teacher pairs up kids into learning buddies which change periodically (they pick names from a hat, I think). So he will get experience working with different kids.

Tomorrow in Anders’ class, the kids get to pick an activity: arts and crafts, band (rock band!), or gym. For gym, they are going to the nearby ski hill in walking distance for downhill skiing. They think they have equipment in the right size for him to borrow. Some of the kids his age go there after school just for fun, so maybe he will try to pick that up. He is also interested in playing handball, and the teacher told me the place where he might be able to play. They are also having a “ball” for the 7th graders this month (more like a party), and everyone hopes that Anders will go! He has asked about it, so I’m sure that he will be there.

Walking past the school on the way to the grocery store, I saw Nora and friends working together to get back up the icy hill. Then they sat together like a train and went down again!

We also agreed that the teacher could just speak Norwegian to Nora because she is used to that immersion environment at Garfield with Spanish. The kids in fourth grade are not speaking as much English yet so they are forcing her to work on Norwegian too. They paired her with a girl who is really interested in learning English, so that’s sweet.

Nora has been diligent about doing homework, a reasonable amount in each subject throughout the week. They have small textbooks and notebooks to write answers in. As she did homework, she looked up dreamily and said: “I like doing homework from books. I like this…yes, I like this.” Her teacher also said that Nora expressed pleasant surprise at getting to work out of real books. She will also get norsk homework each week that is at their level.

Funny thing happened last night: Our apartment phone rang (I didn’t know that it did that!) Ted picked up the phone and it was kids asking for Nora. They were downstairs calling from the call box–2 boys who asked to be her friends at school, Henrik and Sharif. They came up and colored with her for awhile, we could hear them chatting, making themselves understood in English and Norwegian. They even got Nora speaking Norwegian some. We told her teacher and she just laughed (“those two!”), and said that she sees that Nora is always with other kids and that they will teach her more quickly than anyone else, which is certainly true for Nora. Next week her class is going to do ice skating for gym all week, and they have extra skates and helmets to borrow. She will love that.

With the kids going to school, we will settle into regular life. Ted also started teaching this week and it seems to be going well. All of the Norwegian professors and PhD students sit together and eat lunch every day, so he enjoyed seeing some familiar faces.

Everyone came home happy from school again. Nora made 4 new friends–in 4th grade kids still come up to you and say “will you be my friend?” She seems to enjoy having the power to accept, and was uncertain about Henrik in particular. Now she has 5 friends, 2 boys and 3 girls, and she knows 3 of their names (not prerequisite for being a friend, apparently).

Anders appreciates that 7th graders are still “kids” here, not too cool to put on their snowpants and play outside. It was his first time playing hockey, and apparently he shoots left-handed (like Ted). He also learned more of his friends’ names yesterday. He is the only Anders in the class, while there is another Nora in Nora’s class and one in Anders’ class. But Anders is missing the warm lunch day, because he is home sick. Seems like just a bad cold, but he might have had a low fever last night so we kept him home.

Yesterday I took a walk in the sunshine to get some groceries. When I got home, I realized that I bought 3 packages of lutefisk!  For goodness sakes, I shoulda known better. I was looking for torsk (cod) and was only focused on the look of the fish, not the name. I was also seduced by the seemingly low price (which I misread). I bought 6 portions of lutefisk, worth ~$40. I also don’t think of lutefisk looking like this or prepared this way. None of it added up in the moment. It was only after getting home and looking at the receipt that I had realized what I had done. When your brain is overwhelmed by navigating so many new things, you can lose sight of some important details.

This was not a mistake I was willing to eat (pun intended). I returned it, in Norwegian. They accepted my broken Norwegian and took it back. Instead, I bought 1 piece of fresh pollock (on sale) for dinner and 1 piece of frozen cod for later for less than $10. That was a good exchange. It was worth the potential embarrassment of trying to return something to the grocery store. All’s well that ends well in an edible meal, and only $5 worth of fresh fish! I even asked the lady at the fish counter how to prepare it, and understood that I should fry it in a pan. I made roasted potatoes and carrots on the side. Fresh fish and fruits and veggies are quite reasonably priced. All fruit is actually 30% off this week, so I will be back to the grocery store soon!

Anders og Nora går på skolen!

We brought the kids to school for the first day this morning, in the dark, of course. Anders was excited and Nora was anxious. Their faces in the picture say it all. Everyone was so sweet and the school is beautiful.

Nora was a little weepy and very nervous. Her teacher focused on her and they sat down together on a bench in the hall to have a little talk. She said, “I understand that this is difficult for you, but everyone is happy that you are here” and walked her to the coat room to show her how to put her things away. They will call their teachers by their first names, this is Vilde. They had everything ready for her.  She took her into the classroom and sat her with another girl who is good in English who was ready to be her helper Anders’ teacher did the same, I’m sure, but he was ready to go off  without his parents in tow, so we didn’t follow him.

In the classroom, ALL of the girls had their eyes on Nora. The boys didn’t seem to care much, although we will learn later that they are just as curious as the girls. All of the 4th graders are in one big room here, half of them (22) in this part of the room with Vilde and the other half on the other side of the cubbies. They will alternate going to other parts of the school for different classes (gym, etc.) so all 44 aren’t in the open space together all day.

The 7th graders are in this big open space. Anders is in the bright blue sweatshirt in the center of the picture. They are divided into 3 groups (looks like about 15 in their group). They will move between different parts of the space and the school as well.

The kids take off their boots when they come into the building and most just spend the day in socks! Even for gym! In Anders’ class, many of the kids have slides, so we will pick some up for him to wear around school. Nora is thrilled about the socks-only policy. Everyone brings their own “matpakke” (packed lunch) and they eat at their desks. In Anders class, the big excitement is that they can bring a cup of noodles on day per week to have a warm lunch at school, or they can toast some bread with their lunch.

Utetid (outside time, aka recess) is the best part of the day, and it seems like the kids are always outside! In the room for outdoor clothes (which is almost as big as a classroom), each child has a space for everything.

Then there is this extra space just for hanging boots that are wet. If you look at the detail in that picture, there is a pretty cute pictogram of a “potty dance” on that bathroom door 🙂 And get this–a drying room! If the kids come back in with wet stuff, they have a special room accessed from this area that has warm air blowing to dry things off. There are hooks for coats and snowpants, racks for gloves…they’ve got it all. This room is only for the 4th and 5th graders, I think. They seem to have a room with all of these features for 2 grades each, serving approximately 80 kids (my best guess).

The school playground has equipment up around the top ridge and sledding down into the bowl, with an ice rink down at the bottom to the left. The kids do a lot of sledding, even if they don’t have sleds. They have worn down icy paths in the hill so that they can slide right down. There are ice skates available to go on the ice. Anders was invited to play hockey at recess one day. On most days they get 1 hour for outside time and lunch, plus a little more outside time in the afternoon. It only takes a few minutes to get from our apartment to the playground.

After bringing the kids to school for the first day, I went downtown for some errands, and when I came back the kids were out on the playground. As I went by, my eye caught the familiar colors of Nora, right in the center of the pack of kids (pink hat with the puff). At first I thought they were just in line for the slide, but they were clearly interacting with each other. It must be going ok!

After school, Anders came in the door and I greeted him, but Nora wasn’t there! He went back out to look for her and I followed. He didn’t realize that they were walking home together (even though he had the key). AND he was walking home with his FRIENDS! Nora also came home smiling and talking.

They both had good reports after school. Kids are friendly. Anders says he impressed everyone with his throwing arm. They have a piece of equipment on the playground that is a board with holes through it, for throwing snowballs through (OMG, allowing snowballs on a playground, but redirected! Genius!) He said that no one was throwing snowballs at him on the way home from school, but they were throwing at each other. He has done the math work already, so that was easy. He also has homework: reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid in norsk and writing a summary in norsk.

Nora likes her table-mate and even got her phone number. Math was easy because she had done it before (which is a nice boost for Nora who normally is not up to speed in math. She rocked English class too ) She knows another girl wants to make friends because the girl kept smiling at her, and she smiled back.

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Det snør! (It is snowing!)

I had contacted the youth band in this area before we came (it’s not a school class like in the US), and they told us that they were having a “seminar” this weekend and that Anders could join in if he wanted to. He went Saturday and had a warm welcome. He got a new trombone, backpack, stand, and music. When he went into the low brass section room, there was a chorus of “OH MY GOD!” from the girls! Everyone noticed. Everyone is so nice! He stayed and worked with that section from 10am-12pm, there were about 5 kids and the conductor in their group.

Then we took a walk to another library in our old neighborhood to pick up a Harry Potter book for Nora. It was snowing when we set out, but cleared up along the way. It took us about 45 minutes to get there, with a lot of pauses to look at the view or manage something for the kids. Trondheim as a wonderful network of pedestrian/bike/ski routes throughout the city so that you can move from one area to another without being on major streets. There are some crossings, and many crossings have overpasses or underpasses that avoid traffic altogether. It’s a wonderful system.

Then we took the bus to visit Trond and Sylvi. I didn’t take any pictures but it was great to see them and the kids! We enjoyed tacos for dinner and their company. Anders and Aksel (age 5) played a silly “do you eat” game in Norwegian for a laugh. (Do you eat turtles? Do you eat spiders? Do you eat cats? etc.)

Trond had an extra TV he offered to lend us–it’s big! The rule is that we can only watch Norwegian TV, which Ted quickly rescinded when he realized that Mythbusters is still in syndication. Right back to 12 years ago–Ted is holding the yarn while I wind it, while watching Mythbusters.

On Sunday, Anders happily went back to all-day band practice today. The kids in the band mostly range from age 10 to 12, with a few older kids (maybe to round out the sections). We all went to their small concert this afternoon, while Anders joined in. They are preparing for a competition in early February. The band director talked to me after the concert and said that he would also get a uniform in a few weeks. He will go to band practice once per week. I still haven’t heard back on individual lessons, although I don’t mind if the lessons don’t happen. One of the band parents said that it can be hard to get a teacher and his son has gone without or has worked with the people in this band. It’s great that they wanted him to jump right in, and he was cheerfully willing to give it a go!

I planned on going shopping today, but grocery stores nearby are all closed on Sunday. That was typical when we were here before, but there are always a few stores that have limited hours on Sunday. It was also very windy and snowy today, and walking to Anders’ concert just 2 minutes away was a bit of a challenge! The wind was right in our faces! Nora was not pleased.

The kids will have their first day of school tomorrow starting at 8:30 am. Then Ted and I will go downtown and finally open that bank account. Ted will then go to work and I will come home to work and wait for the kids. It will be good to settle into daily life.

Nidaros Cathedral

Today we took our first trip to the city center on the bus for the necessities: immigration, bus cards, phone cards, winter coat, housewares, game store, and the library. We did it all!

It was one of those days, but it all turned out ok. It was fun to ride the bus and see many familiar places from when we lived here 12 years ago. It’s a very easy bus ride from our apartment to downtown. Not much has changed, but there are a few updates and I realize that I need to re-orient a few landmarks in my mind to navigate. We walked past Nidaros cathedral and other sights along the way downtown, but we didn’t take time to explore them now. We will have a lot of time in the spring and summer in the sunshine, but we should try to hit the main attractions before the tourist season begins.

Our “waiting for our names to be called” posture.

The Norwegian bureaucracy was better than before and also completely as expected. Turns out we were supposed to make 4 separate appointments, 1 for each of us, at the police station to get our registration cards. I was holding my breath because I expected them to tell us to make new appointments for the kids next week, but after a light scolding they processed us all at the same time. However, then we had to take a number for the tax desk and filled out more forms, so we couldn’t avoid the “take a number” routine that you find everywhere. We are mostly done, I think. Just waiting for verification to come in the mail.

3 of us lost and found our mittens along the way. I bought myself a new pair in the process, along with my warmer winter coat.

The library is a must-have for us. We were hoping to find Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in English for Nora, who was reading the book when we left. It’s so big that we decided to just get it at the library instead of hauling it with us. The library still had my account information in the computer from 12 years ago! I just had to change the address and get a fancy new card for their self-serve system. Can you believe

Leaving the library at 3:20pm and it’s so dark!

that Nora found those fairy books here, in English? Anders convinced her that they each need to get a simple book in Norwegian too. I found Pippi Longstockings for Nora. But no Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, they were all checked out from this location. There is a copy at the Moholt location, in our old neighborhood, so we will go there tomorrow to check it out.

We stopped at a coffee shop that we remembered for a much-needed snack and paid about $45 for a wrap, salad, piece of cheesecake, yogurt parfait, hot chocolate, and cup of tea. It’s like living in an airport! We could have planned better, I suppose. But when in Norway, enjoy everything and don’t think too much about the prices, or you’ll miss all of the fun.

4:20pm and it is dark, but the city center is lit up beautifully.

We tried to set up a bank account, but the bank closes at 3:30 on Friday. Because OF COURSE it does.

I conducted several, but not all, transactions in Norwegian. Anders tried one too.

The kids slept for about 12 hours last night, so I think we will mostly be adjusted now. Tonight should go fine because we are all tired!

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It’s Day 2, and we are working on the jet lag. We had started shifting our wake-up and bedtimes before we left so we had a jump on it, but a 9-hour difference is a lot! We managed to stay awake until 9pm last night. Ted was up in the middle of the night; I made myself go back to sleep several times. The kids were up at 4:30 (although awake at 3:00, they say). I had to drag myself out of heavy sleep at 9am and get up to force the jet lag adjustment.

The kids were ready to sled and were suited up when I got up. Note that it is 9:15am in the pics and the sky is starting to lighten. The pics are the view from our patio (we are on the 2nd floor). I kept worrying that they were disturbing other people, but reminding myself that the world is awake! And our patio doors do a good job of keeping the sound and cold out.

There are a few other pictures of our apartment. We unpacked everything and stored the suitcases (much quicker than packing!) and rearranged things a bit. It is a comfortable size, not much smaller than our house. We have all of the basic furniture and linens, most of the kitchen things that we need, but we will find out what we are missing as we need it. Then it’s time to get creative. Our apartment didn’t come with towels. I picked up 2 bath towels yesterday, but we will need a few  more.

In the afternoon, Ted went in for a work meeting about the class he starts to teach next week. The kids and I went to the nearest shopping center to get more groceries and see what else is there. They used their ski scooter to and from for fun. As is usual in Norway, we just left it outside of the store when we went in. I pointed out that all of the other bikes and the “spark” (kick sled) that was at the bike rack were not locked up either. It’s Norway!

I emailed the school today and they are expecting the kids on Monday. Anders and I spoke Norwegian in the grocery store and he tried to pick up on other people’s conversations, so he is nervous. Nora insisted on speaking Spanish to me in the grocery store (sigh). At dinner she gave Anders the helpful advice to just cheerfully ask the teacher “what?” if you don’t understand what they say. She has experience with not understanding in school. They will be fine!

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Leaving home, we packed and re-packed our four suitcases to meet the standard 50-pound weight limit. Moving for 6 months, this is packing pretty light, but we could buy anything that we really need when we arrive. We also knew that the kids might have particular desires once they got to school and see what the other kids have, so no sense dragging things across the globe if we aren’t going to use them. Icelandair gives you one free checked bag each, and kids get a discount! We are saving our money on this end, knowing that we will spend it (and then some) on the other side of the journey.

We flew direct from Portland to Reykjavik, had a short layover where we went through the immigration line, then on the plane from Reykjavik to Trondheim with a short stop in Bergen to let passengers on and off. It was as quick as you can get from Portland to Trondheim, 13.5 hours, all on time and as comfortable as economy can be.

We got a reasonable amount of sleep and disembarked on to the tarmack in Trondheim with the sun shining, around 1:30 pm, which is 4:30 am back home. Because our bodies felt like it was morning, even on little sleep, we had the energy to get settled in.

Our good friend Trond picked us up from the airport and took us to our apartment to drop things off, then to a shopping center to convert our phones, get groceries and some winter gear. Turns out we were starving too! The kids and I had a snack at a cafe, where we spent over $20 for some pizza, a sandwich, and 2 cups of tea (the meal was mostly bread and water, I actually ate some sandwich toppings and brought the bread home in a napkin).

Then we got busy with all of our shopping. I love these rolling shopping baskets! They are everywhere! Bigger than the hand-held ones so they carry more, but smaller than shopping carts so they are easier to get around the store. The kids got everything they need, including the “sno pirate” sled and a snow scooter.

We headed back to our apartment and the kids could not resist taking a sled down the hill immediately! Then we got settled in for the evening. Our apartment is sparse but comfortable, in a little university housing village surrounded by playgrounds, sledding hills, and schools. We will try to stay awake for a few more hours to get adjusted to the time zone.

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