Hyttetur and More..

Well, here I am, still in Norway, still having a blast!  I've encountered a few difficulties in the past week, I lost my camera and bus pass, and the charger to my laptop stopped working (I've been sharing), but it's hard to be too disappointed when I have a beautiful view out the window and new experiences to look forward to!  Yesterday some of the members of our group decided to figure out what to do with our long weekends for February and March.   We found pretty reasonable transportation and lodging, so I'll be going to Stockholm in a week and a half, and probably London at the end of March! 

Last Wednesday all of the international students were invited to the home of one of the Norwegian buddies who show us internationals around.  The point of the gathering was to get to know each other a bit better, see a traditional Norwegian home (her home was hundreds of years old and has a grass roof!), and try some traditional Norwegian food/drink--vafler and gløgg.  Vafler is waffles, and gløgg is a traditional Christmas-y drink, it's warm spiced wine.  I thought the vafler were delicious--especially with a very small slice of the goat chesse (brunost) that was there too.  We also had jam (syltetøy) and yogurt (yoghurt) to put on top.  No syrup, which was okay by me!  We did see some in the grocery store once, but a small bottle that was probably about half the size of the typical syrup bottle was really expensive.  I like vafler, but gløgg is another story.  The first sip was okay, but after that it was just too sweet and was super thick and sticky-like.  I really liked Kelly's description, she said that it tasted like what she imagined warm jam would be.  It was interesting to have the Norwegians there to present their traditions to us, and explain a little bit about what they were.  Martin, another of the buddies, claimed that ALL Norwegians like brunost, but I'm not so sure.  I haven't noticed it on a lot of sandwiches in the cafeteria where we eat, although it is available in single serving packages like the other cheeses.  

Thursday was a pretty uneventful day, and then Friday we left for the Hyttetur (cabin trip) with the rest of the international students.  There were about 50 of us altogether, as the group from Lillehammer was joined by the international students and buddies from the college in Gjøvik, since their group is pretty small and doesn't do a lot of the big activities on their own.  At about 16 we got on a tour bus and headed to Fagerhøi leirskole, a lodge and school (I think, although we didn't really see any evidence of a school) up in the mountains.  To get there we drove through lots of twisty roads with beautiful views, we passed a ski area that was used in the 94 Olympics, and saw where they had cut down trees in one area on a mountain to make the shape of their Olympic logo.  We didn't get to the lodge until it was dark, partly because we came upon a large truck that had gone off the road and we had to wait for about an hour while the emergency workers worked to move it.  I was a little impatient waiting while knowing there was a fun trip and dinner waiting for me! 

The first evening there was fairly uneventful, except I saw the Nothern Lights very faintly!  I had been looking forward to the opporutnity to see them sometime on my trip, but we had been told there probably wouldn't be any where we were.  They were beautiful even though they were really faint.  I had gone outside with a few people to look at the stars, and everyone but Emma and I went inside while we decided to walk up the road a little bit and see what we could see.  As we passed one of the buildings, they came into sight, and we watched them for awhile.  We went inside to find the others and get hats, but when we got outside they were gone :(. 

It was really amazing to wake up Saturday and finally really see the view from where we were.  It was amazing!  Everything was snow-covered, it was flat around where we were, but we could see tall mountains in the distance.  We spent a lot of Saturday outside doing different activities including grilling our lunch.  We had hotdogs, but they were a bit different than American hot dogs because they were wrapped in lefse-type bread instead of buns.  It was pretty good.  I talked to one of the buddies, Jeanette, who has studied in the US before (she was actually only a few miles away from some of us, over at NDSU), about the differences in food, particularly hot dogs between the US and Norway.  She said she had tried our hot dogs, the cheap Oscar Meyer type, and couldn't believe that we would even give our kids that kind of food--I agree, but they like it and it's easy, so there yah go.  I eat about 50 a summer at camp, probably. 

On our cabin trip, we talked a bit about the culture of Norway from the buddies' perspective, and about missing home and talking about the things we would change, either about home or about Norway.  It was interesting to think about  what I miss from home, and what I would bring from Norway to home.  There haven't really been a lot of things I miss from home, except my big fluffy pillow and towel, since the ones we were provided here at the flat are lacking a bit of stuffing.  Also, I'm not really a big fan of the teaching/class style here in Norway.  Especially in our Norwegian class, I think I could learn a lot better with a different style.  BUT, I think I am going to do a nerdy, education-major type post about our classes, the things that we are learning, and such sometime soon.  In addition to those things, I would also love to have my family and friends here with me, of course :).  As far as things that I really like about Norway, there are lots!  I love having real bread, not large, square, sliced loaves.  While I miss some of the typical fried, junky foods from home, I haven't missed them as much as I thought I would.  Those types of food just aren't as popular here, and I think that's very good health-wise, although I probably make up for not eating fatty foods by eating soo much bread.  I also really appreciate the public transportation system here in Lillehammer, I can get where I need to go pretty quickly and without having to walk a lot, which is nice now in the winter. Also, I would import the lack of importance of Valentine's Day to Amerika as well.  Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and the only way that I knew it was the status posts from my amerikansk friends on facebook and the heart-shaped cuts of meat on the sandwiches in the cafeteria.  There weren't all kinds of valentines in the grocery stores or anything.  It was a bit refreshing. 

On our cabin trip, I stayed in a 5 person room with three girls from Holland and a girl from the Basque country of Spain.  They were really interesting and it was fun to live with people I wasn't so familiar with, even though I had met them before.  We got to talking about friends, and I was talking about how several of the people I know at Concordia and other people my age are engaged or married, and how weird it felt to me that I am old enought that that is something I could potentially do.  The other girls said that there are very few people their age who are engaged or in a relationship where they would have kids and settle down, since it isn't really common or socially required in Holland to get married young or before you have kids.  They asked me why I think that the US is that way, and I struggled to answer them.  I said that maybe it was just because that was the way we see women, that even as women are working more, that we still feel pressure to be the typical woman with kids and family, but I don't really know how much of that is true, of the girls I know who are engaged, it doesn't really seem that they feel getting married is an obligation, or something they feel society thinks they have to do, they just feel that it is something they and their fiancee want to do and is a natural step.  The Dutch girls didn't understand this, and I don't either.  I think life is much more fun without kids to take care of and worry about.  At least for now anyway ;).  This struggle to define myself and my country or way of life is something that I've encountered more and more while being here.  I had to explain my Cobber class ring to one of the guys from France the other day, and as I hear myself explaining it, it just sounded really stupid, even though I am glad that I have it and I think that the tradition of a Cobber ring is pretty cool.  I hope that as I spend more time here, learn more about Norway, and learn more about myself, I become better at explaining myself, or at owning up to when something I/the US have or do is a bit ridiculous.

I just asked the others what I should blog about, and they said I should tell you all that the Luther students on the trip are amazing, and they are, so there you go!! Also, today we discovered that our program owns cross two sparks, which are kind a mini version of dogsledding tobaggans that you have to push yourself, and cross country skis.  I'm excited to soon have a chance to return to my skiing days, and see if I remember anything!  Also, readers, please cross your fingers/pray/hope, etc. that I find my camera!  I miss it, and you won't get to see any more of fabulous Norge if it doesn't turn up!!