Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Yesterday was Sunday in Norway which of course means...you go hiking in the mountains! The mountains are sort of an outdoor cathedral for Norwegians, and yesterday it was a beautiful, so I joined Line and Stian for a hike into the mountains across the bridge on mainland Norway. We had a great hike, reaching the top in an hour and a half and even finding snow on the top! Line brought pancakes and coffee and I had cold pasta (not exactly Norwegian) and a Hershey's chocolate bar that First Lutheran Church had sent me.

I thought it was appropriate to eat it on a Sunday during a mountain top experience in Norway. Line and Stian also enjoyed it and commented on how sugary it was!



Friday I had a more traditional religious experience. It was the choir concert for the community choir I sing in: Ultima Thule! It is a mixed choir of 24 voices and we put on a great show. We had a small crowd of maybe 70 people, but we got to sing in the Ishavskatedral (the Ice Cathedral), which is a triangular church made to look like the mountains. It is a landmark in Tromsø, and it has great acoustics! According to our program directly translated from Norwegian: "Ultima Thule is plucking the prettiest flowers from their repertoire." We went with the spring theme and had mostly sacred music (a la Luther College), finally ending with appropriately enough "Våren" (spring) by Grieg. My other favorites were the traditional Norwegian song: "Jeg Lagde Meg Så Silde" and two Rachmaninoff songs "Ave Maria" and "Hexapsalmos."



For any music lovers, I'm listing the program so you can see what the prettiest flowers in Tromsø look like.

"Graduale. (Locus iste)" - Anton Bruckner
"Komm Süsser Tod" - H.S. Bach/ K. Nystedt
"Kyrie" - Johs. Røde
"Sanctus" - Jan Sandström
"Ave Maria" - Rachmaninoff
"Hexapsalmos" Rachmaninoff
"Ave Maria" - Francesco Paolo Neglia
"Ave Maria" - Verdi (we had a lot of singing to Mary)
"Ave Maris Stella" Trond Kverno
"Jeg Lagde Meg Så Silde" - Folktune
"Frühlingsrauschen" - Chr. Sinding (A piano solo that was incredible)
"Ave Verum Corpus" - Mozart
"Cantique de Jean Racine" - Fauré
"Worthy is the Lamb - Amen" - Händel
"Våren" - Grieg