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The amazing digital art of Vyacheslav Safronov

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From the parade:

Bunads:

Other music groups (Photos 1,2); Visitors to Oslo (3); Russ outfit and cap (4); Doll on a stick (5)

Syttende Mai Part II [Image Heavy] From the parade: Bunads: Other music groups (Photos 1,2); Visitors to Oslo (3); Russ outfit and cap (4); Doll on a stick (5)

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Syttende Mai

Gratulerer med dagen! Today is Norway’s Constitution Day. Like in the US, there’s a big parade, lots of partying and drinking, and everyone shows their national pride. Oslo is decked out in red, white, and blue for the occasion. However, that’s about where the similarities end. The parade, known as barnetoget, features all the various elementary schools. For Oslo, there’s over 100. Seeing one’s…

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Hey friends and family!

I apologize for not updating sooner, and I promise I haven’t keeled over. The semester is almost over, and I only have one exam left. This weekend, though, I’m visiting Fredrikstad and Kristiansand, two cities close to Oslo by train. Also, 17 May (Syttende mai) is next week celebrating the signing of Norway’s own constitution. Posts and pictures will follow.

Spring has sort of sprung in Scandinavia. Today and yesterday, I got to experience snow in May. A few snowfalls in April are typical here, but snow after a week of gorgeous weather was a less than pleasant surprise. However, when the weather is nice, everyone in Norway goes outside. Warm, sunny days are precious. Strawberry tarts (jordbærtarte) are a summer treat, and the bakery in Frederikshavn uses particularly fresh strawberries. At university, I enjoy having lunch outside, but, so does everyone else. A hungry sparrow had his eyes on my lunch and was determined enough to almost let me hand feed him. He brought some friends over as well who were happy to try and eat what was left of my lunch despite them being much shyer. Feeding birds is fairly commonplace here.

In March, Mark and I went to Aalborg to visit their maritime museum, Springeren. The highlight was the submarine Springeren and a torpedo boat Søbjørnen. At 5’5″, I’m an ideal height for working on a submarine. There is a height limit for working on submarines and for good reason. Someone as tall as Mark really doesn’t fit. The museum also included a miniature version of the old city and a wide range of models featuring Danish ships including København, a ship that mysteriously disappeared in 1928. Also, there was a simulator using a type of ship Mark is familiar with. I didn’t crash the boat, but the zigzagging was more reminiscent of paddling a whitewater kayak. Needless to say, there are some advantages to having sailed the simulator ship in real life.

Despite coming from America, I still am not used to Danish-level patriotism. The Danish flag (Dannebrog) is a common sight at any celebration, and they will try to turn everything red and white if it’ll stay still long enough. Even a walk through Frederikshavn after a night of partying reveals tiny Danish flags on the sidewalks and roads. And yes, they even painted their flag on a naval mine.

Norway is not without their own sense of patriotism particularly as their national holiday approaches. It’s one event I’m particularly looking forward to especially the morning parade featuring all the elementary schools in Oslo. I may not be Norwegian, but I still intend to get in the spirit of things. The traditional dress is called a bunad and varies from region to region. For most Norwegians, the exact colors and style is a way to honor their roots. It’s still quite controversial over whether or not foreigners should be allowed to wear a bunad, but everyone is in agreement that it’s important to dress nicely. I’ll be showing my Norwegian spirit with a ribbon bearing the royal coat of arms pinned to my shirt.

If you’re interested in hearing more Norwegian and need a new tv series to watch, I highly recommend Occupied (Norwegian title: Okkupert). It’s available on Netflix with English subtitles. The premise is that Russia, in alliance with the EU, has invaded Norway in order to control oil production. It’s a political thriller created by Jo Nesbø, a famous Norwegian author. The trailer is available here. Season 2 is set to release later this year.

Until next time,

Vi ses!

Long Overdue… Hey friends and family! I apologize for not updating sooner, and I promise I haven't keeled over.

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Challenges of Learning a New Language

Challenges of Learning a New Language

Hey friends and family! Winter is well underway with, until recently, several inches of snow. Enough snow that it sometimes got into my boots if I strayed too far from the gravel path, and a good portion of Oslofjord was white. And I nearly froze my boot stepping onto what turned out to be part of a stream with not-very-thick ice over it. Otherwise, the school semester is in full swing, and I’ve…

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Hey friends and family!

Classes have started for the spring semester. Luckily, Oslo is far enough south that there is at least a few hours of sunlight everyday. It’s nice to hear Norwegian again after over a month of Danish. Being in northern Jutland has been quite the experience, but the most important part of being in Denmark was experiencing the pastries. Just across the street from where my boyfriend lives is a slightly expensive, but very high quality bakery, Centerbageriet.

Fastelavnsboller

Thebirkes

Forlorenhare

Rosenbrød

Norsk Klejne, Julehjerte

Berliner

There are of course way more pastries in Denmark than this, but there wasn’t nearly enough time to try everything. Also, the names of pastries in Frederikshavn are slightly different than in other parts of the country, and Centerbageriet didn’t always include labels. A few times, pastries were purchased on the basis of “that one and that one”. One of my favorite pastries that isn’t on here are kanelboller or kanelsnegle. They come in slightly different shapes from the almost Celtic knot looking ones that I buy in Norway to more of a snail shell shape. Sometimes they come with icing, other times not. But one thing is always for certain, there’s no better start to the day than a fresh baked pastry or two.

Forlorenhare isn’t a pastry. There’s no direct English translation, but the closest is a bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Mark was nice enough to make it from scratch, and it is certainly something I’d like to have more often. I was also introduced to frikadeller which are like large meatballs and served with brun sovs. They go well with most things including boiled potatoes or fries. On the subject of fries, remoulade is the best condiment I have had. It’s better than ketchup and tarter sauce. It looks a bit like a mix between tarter sauce and mustard, and describing the taste is nearly impossible. The worst thing about it is that it’s only available in Denmark. There aren’t even stores in Norway that carry it. I’ve decided that I don’t want to live without it, and I will find some way to bring a few bottles back to the US.

And now for something completely different.

Striking a nail into a stump of wood is tradition in northern Jutland. It is exactly what it sounds like. So far, the only answer I’ve gotten as to the game’s purpose is a way to extract a round of drinks or two. The goal is to hit the nail completely into the stump of wood with a hammer in a single hit. This is much easier said than done. In the event that no one manages to hit it in on the first try, the winner is then the first person to sink the nail into the wood. There isn’t much in the way of strategy, and I honestly think it’s something people do when they’re bored after having too much to drink. It’s also something that is only in northern Jutland and nowhere else.

My personal suspicion is that this is some kind of strange mating competition between males. Instead of arm wrestling or boxing, the Danes have turned to showing strength over a stump of wood. But, simply weightlifting the biggest tree stump wouldn’t do. These Danes are gentlemen and of course, the only way to solve a dispute particularly where a female is involved is to pound things into the stump of wood. In this way, Danish men in northern Jutland have evolved to using a more civilized way of showing off to the ladies.

Until next time,

Vi ses!

The Pastry Test Hey friends and family! Classes have started for the spring semester. Luckily, Oslo is far enough south that there is at least a few hours of sunlight everyday.

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Hey friends and family!

With 2016 behind us, it’s time to welcome in the new year. I had a wonderful time celebrating with Mark and some of his friends in Denmark.

Like any Danish celebration, there was plenty of alcohol involved. Champagne is a New Year’s Eve tradition, and this year proved to be no different. I was quite impressed with the presentation where each champagne flute had a large strawberry floating in it. Also, the Danes are generally fond of licorice, and that extends to their alcohol. Even after a few licorice shots, I can’t say that I share the Danes’ love for it.

There are also some very special traditions in Denmark for New Year’s Eve. The queen, Margrethe II, gives a speech every year to the people of Denmark. It’s broadcast at 6pm and an integral part to any Danish New Year’s Eve celebration. As an American, it’s sometimes hard to understand the deep admiration and respect Danes have for their queen. Officially, she’s not allowed to give political statements, though after listening to her speech, I would say that it comes very close to being political without ever crossing the line. An English translation is available, though I could follow along rather well with just Danish subtitles. And as someone who has had to give oral presentations in the past, I was most impressed to hear that Queen Margrethe II gives her speech unrehearsed. While several decades must certainly have given her a good deal of practice, I still doubt that giving a speech to all of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands is without a few nerves. The other big tradition is watching Dinner for One (The 90th Birthday). In particular, the phrase “the same procedure as every year!” perfectly captures Danish tradition. Some things are done because that’s how they’ve always been done.

Fireworks are present the world around to celebrate the new year, but the Danes brought it to a level I was not prepared for. I’m used to seeing fireworks from a distance being fired over water and handled by people who know what they’re doing. I was in for a shock when I saw people setting off fireworks in the streets in residential areas. If lighting candles on dead pine trees for Christmas wasn’t enough of a fire hazard, then surely drunk people setting off fireworks in the streets next to cars and houses must be. Mark and his friends were fairly safe with handling rockets using safety glasses and launching fireworks in an empty parking lot. Watching a group of drunk people light a wooden box with enough fireworks for a three minute show reminded me just how dangerous these things can be when a charge set fire to a few roof tiles on someone’s house. If it wasn’t raining, the outcome might have been worse. In Copenhagen, the sky is lit as bright as day with the number of fireworks going off. The glow can be seen for kilometers. Fredrikshavn is tame by comparison.

Dinner for One

Happy New Year and smell the gunpowder!

Godt nytt år! Hey friends and family! With 2016 behind us, it's time to welcome in the new year. I had a wonderful time celebrating with Mark and some of his friends in Denmark.

[alishahr]

Hey friends and family!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas celebration. Though I’m thousands of miles from home, I was still able to celebrate Christmas with my boyfriend and learn about Danish Christmas traditions. There’s the familiarity of being with family and eating tons of food.

In Denmark, the Christmas (Jul) season starts on the first of December. There are two traditions that mark the countdown to Christmas. Julekalender (Christmas calendar) is a tv show that airs and episode everyday until Christmas. Typically, it has a Christmas theme. Adventskalender (Advent calendar) is a tradition where children receive a small gift each day before Christmas. The gifts tend to be small and inconsequential such as a small ornament for a Christmas tree or a few candles. It’s similar to the Christmas calendars in the US with chocolate or small toys. In fact, it’s even possible to buy the chocolate calendars in Denmark and Norway, though I’ve been told that the chocolate isn’t very good.

Also, light is a very important part of the Christmas season. The winters are long and dark in Scandinavia with about six hours of sunlight and even less further north. Candles and festive lights are a staple part of the holiday season. There are even special Christmas candles with numbers 1-24 on them. Light the candle and let it burn for awhile each day on the countdown to Christmas. The reigning cat in the apartment has yet to learn that fire is dangerous and sports a few singed whiskers and hairs. Hopefully he learns not to walk too close to candles by next year. In the cities, streets are festooned with lights and decorations including small Christmas trees lining streets and brightly lit trees where ever there’s enough room and an extension cord long enough.

In private homes, real Christmas trees are the only way to go. Denmark has Christmas tree plantations and exports them to other countries. While visiting Fredrikshavn, I even got a glimpse of several large trucks loaded with Christmas trees bound for Norway.

After waiting in anticipation and excitement, Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve. That’s when most of the big celebrating happens. Presents are packed under the tree, and candles are lit on the tree. Though it sounds like a firefighter’s nightmare–a dry pine tree with lit candles–Danes have been doing this tradition for ages. A bucket of water is safe to have around, and I still consider it a Christmas miracle that more homes don’t burn down. Mark’s family plays things a little more dangerous by having sparklers on the tree. Thankfully, those stayed unlit.

Like back home, one of the highlights of Christmas is the dinner. Mark’s mother made a very traditional Danish Christmas dinner featuring a 4 kg duck. A regular part of any Scandinavian diet is potatoes. We had regular boiled potatoes and sukkerkartoffler, small caramelized potatoes. There was also rødkål, red cabbage. To top it all off was brun sovs, thick brown sauce. It has a similar consistency to gravy and is made in a similar way with duck giblets instead of turkey. As if that wasn’t enough food, there was also a plate of chips–regular potato chips and papører, soft puffy chips similar in texture to Cheeto Puffs without the cheese. They taste great dipped in brun sovs even though potato chips and gravy doesn’t sound like the best combination. Another regular part of the Christmas culinary repertoire is sweets. Caramels of various flavors, licorice, fudge, honninghjerte, a heart-shaped pastry that tastes of cinnamon and honey coated in chocolate with an (inedible) paper Santa stuck to the center. Then there are the cookies, brunkager, pebernødder, jødekager, finskbrød, klejner. It’s hard to explain them all individually, but homemade is definitely the way to go. Needless to say, Mark’s mother is a fantastic baker and chef. I have yet to be disappointed by a meal.

As a main meat dish besides duck, the Danes are extremely fond of flæskesteg, the back cut of the pig with the skin still on. The skin is salted and cooked to a crisp. Brun sovs gives the meat even more flavor, though the crisp skin is the real highlight of the dish. Never get between a Dane and his flæskesteg unless asking to see Viking wrath. No matter how full he is, there is always room for flæskesteg. On the flip side, giving someone your flæskesteg counts as a priceless gift and is met with equal gratitude.

For dessert, there is Ris a la mande, rice porridge (Risengrød) that’s chilled with vanilla, almonds, sugar, and cream. Finish it with a lukewarm cherry sauce. I’ve developed quite a fondness for it and will certainly miss having it during the year. Mark doesn’t like it nearly as much as me, but I have no objection to eating his portion. As a Christmas tradition, a whole shelled almond is hidden in a bowl of ris a la mande. Everyone races to find the almond first, and the winner receives a small gift. Should the almond be swallowed by accident, no one wins the gift. The whole almond must be presented to the entire table. This year, I found the almond after a fierce battle for possession of the bowl of ris a la mande and then guarding it from my boyfriend. Sifting through the dessert with a spoon isn’t a very effective strategy, and almond pieces cannot be pieced together into a whole almond.

After everyone has digested enough to walk and stand, it’s time to burn off a few calories by dancing and singing around the Christmas tree. Yes, the candles are lit, and there are presents piled up underneath. Unplugging the electric lights does little to minimize tripping hazards. The more people the better, and even someone with two left feet has to be careful to not crash into the tree, the presents, or his fellows. Danes take caroling to a new level. They aren’t merely content to sit around and sing but sing in Danish and dance at the same time. As an American, the tunes are mostly familiar, and English Christmas carols are popular, but the Danes have created their own lyrics to classic melodies. Things started off relatively easy with Glade Jul, the Danish version of Silent Night. Afterwards, I found myself more than lost trying to keep up with more lively songs such as Højt for træets grønne top and juletræet med sin pynt.

With all that done, it’s finally time to open presents. Growing up with a large family, a small Christmas is quite the change of pace. Though I miss the near chaotic atmosphere of Christmas Eve with the Fennewalds, I don’t mind the more personal and homely setting. Everyone gets several gifts, and it’s possible to see what everyone else got. Opening up gifts individually reminds me of being with the Ponders, and it’s comforting to know that some traditions span across the Atlantic.

Midnight fast approaching, the night still isn’t done. The last activity before bed is unwinding with a board game. Though Settlers of Catan was the pick for the night, Ludo is the family favorite. In America, it’s better known as Parcheesi. Competition on Catan was stiff, and the robbers never had a moment’s rest. In the end, Mark cinched a decisive win, and I blame the dice for an unimpressive performance.

Christmas is a three day affair filled with lots of good food and time spent with family. The 26th marks the final day of Christmas festivities, and I’ve been told that there will be Snaps (Schnapps) and Akvavit.

Christ is born!

God Jul! Hey friends and family! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas celebration. Though I'm thousands of miles from home, I was still able to celebrate Christmas with my boyfriend and learn about Danish Christmas traditions.

[alishahr]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey friends and family! In Norway, today is just another day, and it’s my first time not spending Thanksgiving with those I love. Aside from missing out on turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread rolls, and cranberry ice, I can still take a few moments to be thankful for how lucky I am to be in Norway and to have such wonderful friends and family, old and new. I’m especially thankful to my parents…

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Hey friends and family!

I apologize sincerely for the long absence. A lot has been going on, and the next few posts will be getting caught up. However, I’ve been wanting to post pictures, and my laptop thoroughly disagreed with that idea in the form of crashing repeatedly every time I tried to upload something.

Perhaps the biggest news of late is that I have a boyfriend. He’s Danish and currently living in Denmark. Despite the odds, I couldn’t ask to be with anyone else. But, dating a non-American still comes with its own challenges as we navigate differences in language and culture.

In English, there’s a gender distinction in the terms boyfriend and girlfriend. The gender neutral term, significant other, is unwieldy as best and sounds a bit impersonal. In Danish and Norwegian, there’s only one word–kæreste or kjæreste respectively. It’s a word reserved only for romantic partners and has similarities to the word for love, kærlighed/kjærlighet.

The way to say ‘I love you’ in Norwegian is ‘Jeg elsker deg’. However, it’s best reserved for romantic partners like a kjæreste. I wouldn’t say ‘Jeg elsker deg’ to my parents, and I had better mean it before I say ‘Jeg elsker pizza’. Though some people will say it as often as Americans can say ‘I love you’, I choose to keep it a bit more special. Still, hardly a week goes by without me saying those three words, and it’s not something I say lightly.

Cohabitation of non-married couples is normal in Scandinavia. They even have a special word for it–samboer. In Denmark and Norway, it’s acceptable for couples to not marry and still raise a family. They even have almost all the same rights as married couples and don’t have to go through divorce proceedings if they choose to separate. Same sex marriage is legal in Denmark and Norway as well. Heterosexual couples can choose to be samboer, and it’s not unusual to know someone in that sort of relationship. They’re just as stable as married couples.

The hardest part about being in a relationship with someone from a different country is the distance. While I’m lucky that it’s only a ferry trip from Oslo to Denmark, the days that we don’t see each other can be rough. The knowledge that I’ll have to go back to the US also hangs over the relationship, but it’s something we’re determined to work through together. On the plus side, we’re great at communicating with one another and text and call almost daily. We still have our own separate lives and can focus on class and spending time with friends.

My boyfriend, or kjæresten min as I call him, is Mark. He was born and raised in Denmark. We were first introduced in May by a mutual online acquaintance and met in person in October. We’re both interested in sailing and history. Also, we’re both outdoorsy types with a love for hiking and camping, and Norway is great for both. He stands a foot taller than me and looks typically Scandinavian. All in all, I can’t ask for anyone better to be a part of my life. While I’m going to miss seeing my family this Christmas, I’m also really looking forward to experiencing Danish Christmas with Mark and his family.

Pictures taken in Ålesund, Norway.

Vi ses!

Viking Love Hey friends and family! I apologize sincerely for the long absence. A lot has been going on, and the next few posts will be getting caught up.

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Church Family

Hey friends and family! After over a month of searching, I have finally found a church I can call home. It was a great relief to hear familiar tones and to enter a holy place where I didn’t feel out of place. Even though I think I’ve been doing a good job at adapting to life in Norway, it was a wonderful feeling to go through regular motions feeling confident of what I was doing. As with any…