Home for the Holidays

'Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.' - George Burns

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m spending the Christmas holidays with some of my distant relatives in a town called Skarnes, about an hour train ride outside of Oslo. I’ll be staying with Karsten (my mom’s second cousin- or something like that), his wife Hilde Kristin, and their sons Halvor (20), Bjarne (18) and Gjermond (16). I’ve decided to make it easier on myself and I’ll be writing something each night I’m here (or at least try to). So enjoy my Christmas experience…

Day 1- Dec. 22^nd: I left this morning at about 11.15 and arrived in Skarnes at about 3 o’clock. I was greeted at the train station by Karsten, Hilde Kristin, Halvor, Gjermund and Carolina- a cousin to the boys. After some introductions we went straight to their grandmother’s house, Ruth (my Grandma’s cousin- right Grandma?). We had a midday lunch of open face sandwiches and some tea. Soon Bjarne joined us from work. We stayed and talked, well I mostly listened and tried to figure out what they were saying, until about 5.30. After that I went with all of the boys and Carolina to visit her Grandfather in his nursing home. We were there for about 30 minutes and then came back to their farm house. I get the pleasure of staying in a beautiful, huge farm house which was built in the 1870’s. So incredible! Karsten showed me a photo album of my Uncle Kirk’s trip to Norway when he was around my age and then of his own trip to Wisconsin to see my grandparents, Uncle and Mom. I enjoyed laughing at how different they looked. After that I helped Hilde Kristin make a salad and then we enjoyed a delicious fish supper. After supper, I went with the boys next door to the elementary school where they are helping build/ maintain and ice rink. So we scraped off the snow and then used water from the school to put a fresh layer down. Halvor and Gjermund showed me around the school and then we headed back home. The rest of the night was spent chatting and then it was off to bed!

Day 2- Dec. 23^rd: This morning Henning, a relative whom I’ve heard a lot about, and his friend, Hanna, came to have breakfast and meet me. Henning doesn’t speak any English so we relied on others to translate for us and I realized I really don’t know that much Norwegian. It was really nice to meet him though and put a face to a name I’ve heard so much about and he was a very sweet man. After that, Karsten, Hilde Kristin, and Bjarne took me to a fortress in a neighboring town. The fortress was built in the 1680’s. After looking around there, we went into some of the local shops. There were very interesting because most of the things inside were made from local artists. We came back home then and Karsten showed me the goats that live here on the farm- there are about 11 of them and then we had a quick snack. Afterwards, Halvor, Gjermund, his friend Andreas and I dressed up as ‘nisse’ to go and scare their cousins. Nisse are similar to our Santa and they bring the gifts on Christmas Eve. They are little fat men that wear lots of wool, have white beards, high red socks and a Santa hat on. It’s tradition in their family (started by their Aunt Marit) for ‘nisse’ to knock on the windows of the house the night before Christmas Eve to check and see if the kids are behaving. One other difference is that the nisse or Santa brings the presents during the day of Christmas Eve. So after supper the presents have already been delivered. In so to please the nisse, they leave out some of their rice porridge at lunch time. After playing ‘nisse’ for two houses we went back to Marit’s house and I was able to meet her and her husband, as well as some friends that were visiting them. After a nice little visit, we traveled to some other neighbors’ houses to deliver some Christmas gifts. We then had some nice moose meat for supper and I helped decorate the Christmas tree a little. We finished the night by watching a Christmas special that was on TV with lots of singing and cooking on the show. Happy Christmas Eve eve!

Day 3, 4 & 5- Dec. 24^th, 25^th & 26^th: So I’ve been pretty busy with so many wonderful things! I’ll start with Christmas Eve. It was nice to be able to sleep in pretty late. The main festivities didn’t start until the night, but some traditions started early- like their lunch meal. On Christmas Eve for lunch, they always a special meal of rice porridge. They also hide an almond sliver one of the bowls of porridge and whoever gets it, gets a present, which is usually a marzipan pig,  but this time it was a box of chocolates. Hilde Kristin got it this time around. It is also tradition to put a bowl of the porridge out for the ‘nisse’ in the barn. So after lunch Bjarne took me out and showed me around all of their different buildings and we put the porridge out. Afterwards, he gave me a ride in the tractor and even taught me how to drive a little! We then went and visited their neighbors/cousins for a little bit. After coming back we got dressed up and ready for our big Christmas Eve dinner. Gulbrand (Karsten’s brother) and his girlfriend- Devi- and their new baby- Christian (only 1 ½ months old!), Ruth (Karsten’s mother and my Grandma’s cousin), Marit (Karsten’s sister) and her husband Helge all came for dinner. We had their traditional dinner called ‘ribe’ which is pork ribs cooked in a very special way. There were also sausages, moose meatballs, sauerkraut, and potatoes. For dessert we had rice cream, which is made from the leftover rice porridge and you add cream to it and then some raspberry sauce. Everything was so delicious! To drink we had some homemade Christmas beer- which is pretty common, because every house I went to served us homemade Christmas beer. After supper, it is an old traditional Norwegian costume to sing a few Christmas songs around the Christmas tree. We then opened up our gifts. I was so lucky and my parents had sent me a package, so I was able to open up some presents from my parents, but I was even more lucky because my Norwegian family had gotten me some gifts as well- some jewelry, a Norwegian cookbook and some wonderful wool slippers, along with some other things. After presents we finished the night with some coffee/tea and some Christmas cookies. On Christmas Day, I discovered I must have been a very good girl this year, because I woke up to a stocking on my door! Santa even found me way over here in Norway! Thanks Santa! We all headed to church later that morning. I was surprised at how empty the church was, but it was still nice to be able to go to church on Christmas. Afterwards I went with the boys and Carolina to visit their cousin, Torstien, his wife and their children. They have 2 boys- Olav is 5 and is Halvor’s godson and Martin is 1 ½ and is Bjarne’s godson. Olav was teaching us how to play his new Mario game on Wii and it was so funny how concentrated he was. When we came home, we had a quick lunch and then went over to the school and the boys taught me how to skate/play hockey. Let’s just say I’m not planning on joining the NHL anytime soon. But it was so nice because the boys were so patient with me and invited me to play in their game, but to save myself from much embarrassment, I let them play against each other. Andreas, one of their neighbors, had come so the teams were even. And after watching them play, I definitely made the right decision of sitting out- they were way too good. After a couple games we came back home for dinner, which was rokfisk. It’s raw trout fish that you put on lefse with some vegetables and sour cream. After supper I had the opportunity to skype with my family back home. I was able to introduce my mom, my dad (I still can’t believe you have a beard!!), Grandma, Papa, Kevin and Erik to all of Karsten’s family. It was really nice to be able to see them on Christmas. The boys, Andreas, and I finished the night with a game of Monopoly- European edition, and I was declared the winner, or at least that was what I was told when we decided to stop (because who really can sit that long to finish an entire game of monopoly?). On the 26^th, I got up early and they taught me how to cross country ski. Before this I had only been skiing once before (When Angela came to visit me in Olso), so let’s just say I was not nearly as coordinated as they were. And after falling twice, I learned I cannot talk and ski at the same time. I started the trip with Hilde Krisin, Gjermund, and their family dog- Sara, and about half way through we ran into Halvor and a teammate from his ski team and Bjarne and his friend. We had a short break with some nice snacks and a hot drink. Then Gjermund joined the rest of the boys and I finished with Hilde Kristin. The boys have a ski competition tomorrow, so they had to train up a little bit and I was going way too slow for Gjermund! We came back home and had a small snack and then showered up and got changed. At around 2 o’clock we headed over to Marit and Helge’s house for dinner. There I met Ragnhild and two of her daughters- Cecelia and Kristine and we were also joined by Carolina and her brother Christopher and their parents, Ruth and all of us. For supper we had so many different types of fish salads to put on top of bread along with many different types of potatoes and other things. For dessert we had some more cookies, another type of rice cream and a caramel pudding/ crème brule type thing. Again I ate way too much. It was really nice to talk with Cecilia and Kristin, Cecilia is 21 and Kristin is 14 (I think). I was able to stay at Marit’s most of the night and talk with them and we watched Alice in Wonderland on TV, while the boys went home to prepare their skis for their competition. At around 11.30, they dropped me off back at the house and then I headed to bed! Here’s a picture of some of the people who were there tonight!

Day 6- Dec. 27^th (My birthday!): Today I was awoken with a wonderful surprise- breakfast in bed! My first time ever being woken up with breakfast in bed and it was wonderful. At around 8.30 there was a knock on my bedroom door and in came Karsten, Hilde Kristin, Bjarne and Gjermund all singing happy birthday to me, with a nice tray of breakfast food and a few more presents for me from my parents and from them. Halvor had already left for their competition, so I was not able to say goodbye to him, but he was nice enough to call me later to say goodbye. Karsten was taking Bjarne and Germund to their ski competition, so I had to say goodbye to them at that time. I then spent the rest of the morning packing up and relaxing. At around noon Hilde Kristin and I took their dog Sara for a walk down to the lake right in their back yard. The sun was shining and there was frost all on the trees, so it looked so beautiful outside. We then headed back over to Marit and Helge’s for a nice lunch. We were joined by Ragnhild, Cecelia and Krisitn, Ruth, Per, Gulbrand and Devi and their baby Christian and Gulbrand’s sons Julian (8), as well as Kristine (a cousin to the boys) and her daughter Isabel (9) and son William (6). Before we ate, they all sung happy birthday to me in Norwegian and Swedish, even gave me a couple of presents, which was so sweet. We then spend the next couple of hours eating and talking. Too soon it was time for me Hilde Kristin to take me to the train station and I had to say goodbye to everyone. It was hard to leave Skarnes because they were all so wonderful to me and took such good care of me. I felt like I was back at home, especially because the 3 boys reminded me of being with my own brothers, but it was also easy because I know when my mom comes to visit in the spring, we’ll be back to see them all again!

So now, I’m on the train back to Bø for the night to unpack and repack because I leave for next adventure to Sweden and Finland tomorrow afternoon. Not a very exciting way to celebrate my 21^st birthday, but I figured I’d leave that celebration for when I’m back home in the States when it is a bigger deal that I am 21. Here, it doesn’t really matter. I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Christmas and holidays with your family. And since I won’t be back in Bø until very late on the 6^th (actually very early on the 7^th) I hope your New Years is also safe and happy!

As always, I’m sending all my love back home to you all!

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” ― Samuel Johnson

Alright now for the tales of my last amazing adventure- London, England.(If you haven't looked on here for a while, I just posted another blog post about my trip to Oslo earlier this morning, so scroll down and read that one first if you have the time!)

 Let’s start by saying I absolutely loved it. As of now if I could move anywhere in the world- hands down it would be London. It’s incredible. But the start of my trip was pretty rocky…I don’t think any of my trips have run 100% smoothly yet, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to roll with the punches. So here we go!

This past weekend I traveled to London with my friend Angela and then two of my friends from the States I made here in Bø- Katie and Kimberly. Katie and Kimberly were both leaving to go back home after their time in London, so they had decided to bring their stuff with them to leave in Oslo, so they wouldn’t have to come all the way back to Bø to get them. So one Thursday we hopped on the 8.30 train to Oslo and from there I took the train to Rygge. (We were flying out of the Rygge airport this time, not Oslo) and they took their luggage to Ǻshild’s (a friend in Oslo). I got into Rygge train station at midnight. We had made plans for me to wait for them there and then we’d take the bus together to the airport. Well, as I was getting off of the train, I learned from a guy that the airport bus doesn’t run after a certain time. He was then nice enough to give me directions on how to walk there and his phone number encase we got lost. The Rygge train station is very small and when first getting there, all I saw were some outdoor booths to sit in. So I picked one and huddled in the corner trying to stay warm. That worked for about 15 minutes and then I knew I needed to walk around to try and stay warm. As I was walking I saw a light on on the other side of the tracks and when I went to check it out I discovered it was a waiting room. I was so thankful and it was so warm- a very small success. I lie down and fell asleep. When I woke up, that’s when everything started to go wrong. It was 12.53 and the train was supposed to have gotten there at 12.51. Two minutes may not seem like a lot of time, but in my experience- trains in Norway are never late. So I head outside thinking that maybe I just didn’t wake up to it and Katie and Kimberly were outside waiting for me. Looking around, I saw them nowhere. So I start freaking out. And looking all around the platform, the monitors didn’t say anything about a delay or anything about the train not coming. Then I started thinking maybe they missed the train or maybe they left for the airport without me when they couldn’t find me. So I decide to just wait and see if they are on the next train and if not, I’ll just head to the airport. So I walk back to the waiting room to warm up… only the door wouldn’t open. It had automatically locked me out. Not even joking, I looked at the sign closer and deciphered that the room would close from 1 until 4.30 and I looked at my watch and it was 1.03. It would have been fine if I just had to sit in the cold until Katie and Kimberly came, I could have handled that. But the real problem was our bags (mine and Katie’s) were now locked inside of the room. That meant all of our clothes, passports, etc. were there. At that point I thought I’d be clever and sneak in through a window or side door, of course no windows or side doors were open. Then I thought I’d be clever and call someone to let us in, of course there was no number posted. So I sat and waited, thinking this is going to be a long 3 ½ hours of waiting until the doors reopen to get our stuff. On top of that I still had no idea where Katie and Kimberly were. Luckily I had my phone on me, but since I only use the phone for emergencies and never really understood how to work it, I only had one number programed into the phone and it was neither Katie nor Kimberly’s. I called the number (my friend Hallie) hoping she would have Kimberly’s number, only she didn’t answer at all. So I was left outside, with no contact, marching to keep warm, singing camp songs to keep from freaking out, literally inches away from warmth.

Finally at about 1.40 my phone buzzes and it’s Kimberly. She tells me that their train had suffered some security problems and that they were now stopped and waiting in line for a taxi to where I was. I tried to explain what had happened on my end of the deal but she didn’t exactly understand. So once they arrived to the Rygge train station I was able to show them and explain what happened. So together we were stuck waiting, outside, marching to keep warm. Finally around about 2.30 or 2.45 a police man came to do his nightly rounds, we were able to explain to him what happened and finally get our stuff, get a taxi and head to the airport.

Once at the airport, we found a nice spot of benches and tried to rest a little. At 5 o’clock I woke up and was too cold to sleep anymore so we decided to go and check in. I was bending down and packing up my stuff when I hear Kimberly go, “Oh no. That’s not good.” I look up and see Katie outside puking. A lot. Kimberly goes out to bring her water and brings me back in Katie’s passport and boarding pass covered in puke to clean off. We all end up in the bathroom cleaning and washing everything off in the sinks. We end up getting Katie all cleaned up and checked in and on the plane without a hitch after that. But by the time we land in London she is not feeling so well. We guessed that it was just stress and overtiredness that did her in. We find Angela and end up taking a nice long bus ride into the city where all of us sleep, and later I find out Katie was sick again on the ride. After some navigation we end up finding our hostel and Katie decided to stay there for the rest of the evening so Kimberly, Angela and I headed off for our first afternoon and night in London.

Our first mission- fish and chips! Accomplished this quite easily and had a delicious and much needed meal.

Next we had the opportunity to live out every child of our generation’s lifelong dream- we went to Hogwarts. Really we went to the Warner Brother’s set and studio where they filmed Harry Potter and got to have a tour, but really it felt like Hogwarts. We were able to see a bunch of sets like the Great Hall and the Gryffindor common room and a bunch of the props and costumes and learned a lot of interesting facts. Like did you know that Hagrid’s face is really a mask and that when first filming they tried to hang real candles from the top of the Great Hall but they melted too quickly and fell all over the actors, so they had to switch them? We drank butterbeer and took countless pictures, so here are a bunch for you to enjoy….

That night we then headed to the Soho district and Piccadilly’s Circus and got a nice look at their Christmas lights and hand some more food to eat.

The next morning Angela and I got up and went on a walking tour of the city. We were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Buckingham Palace and the ending of the changing of the guards, St. James’s Palace, Trafalgar Square, Churchill’s war rooms, Horse Guard’s Parade, 10 Downing St., Westminster Abby, Big Ben and finally the House of Parliament.

Next after a nice lunch of sausages and mash, we went to the East India Tea Company and then to Harrods. Harrods was crazy but absolutely beautiful. The outside window displays were decorated with different Disney Princesses.

We ended the night with a night Jack the Ripper tour. We were taken around the east side of London and learned all about the Jack the Ripper murders and other calamities and deaths of London- like different hangings and beheadings and the Plague.

Sunday morning Angela and I got up extra early and looked at the London and Tower Bridges. We even took our chances and sung ‘London Bridge is falling down...falling down…” while walking across the London Bridge. Thankfully, it didn’t actually fall down. We then completely the morning with a tour of the Tower of London from the famous Beefeaters and got to see the crown jewels.

We met up with the others and took a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe and got some nice food at Borough Market.

We completed the night with a quick tour of the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone, a visit to King’s Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4, and finally we were able to meet up with a friend from London, Emma, who studied with us in Norway for the semester.

Monday morning Angela and I headed for a tour of St. Peter’s Cathedral. It’s the Cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. After that we headed for a tour of Kensington Palace (the home of Kate and Will- Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and then it was off to Abbey Road. Which is surprisingly hard to find and actually very difficult to get a picture on because so many cars are driving over it.

We then headed to the London Eye and got some really nice pictures of the sun setting over the Thames River. We got some nice ostrich burgers at a Christmas market right at the bottom of the Eye and then Angela had to head off to catch her flight. I finished the night by walking around the market a little bit more and then headed back to the hostel.

The next morning I got up nice and early and headed off to the parks. I bought a croissant on the way and sat at the Round Pond outside of the Kensington Palace, eating and reading my book for about an hour. I was amazed at the number of people who stopped to take pictures of the ducks and especially the squirrels there. I spent the day slowly making my way through the Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, St. James’s Park and Victoria Park, looking at all of the memorials (Prince Albert and Princess Diana) and other statues. I got another look at Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria memorial. I walked through a couple of markets and over the Millennium Bridge (the one in Harry Potter 7) and final off to the train station to head to the airport.

My only major problem with the trip was that my bed at my hostel had bed bugs, so I now have quite the collection of bites all over- including one on my face that looks like a giant zit, but itches like crazy. I’m just hoping I didn't bring any back with me!

Well tomorrow morning I leave to meet some of my relatives living in Skarnes, and I’ll be spending Christmas with them. I’ll be back in Bø for the night of the 27^th (my birthday!) to unpack and repack and get ready to fly out to Sweden on the 28^th. I’m meeting a friend from Sugar Creek Bible Camp (the camp I work at during the past 2 summers), to spend New Years in Stockholm and then head to Helsinki, Finland for a few days. I’ll finally be back in Bø at midnight on January 6^th, because classes start the next day!

So there probably won’t be any posts until the 2^nd week in January or so. But until then, Merry Christmas my dear family and friends, and a Happy New Year as well! I wish I could be home celebrating with you all, but that will have to wait until next year! I hope you all stay safe and have a happy and healthy holiday season! God bless us, everyone!

Lots of love sent to each of you!