Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I think I have finally recovered. It took me almost a week, but my body is back to its unaligned-normal state after a week of floating on air after my first ever Norwegian, well actually first ever yoga class!

Marjaana had been asking me to accompany her to the yoga class at the local gym all fall, and finally I got up the courage to do it. I was very impressed! We walked into the studio and there were candles on and nature noises from the sound system. We all grabbed a little rubber mat and found a space on the floor. Then, a very fit, good-looking Norwegian yoga instructor came in and put on her Britney Spears microphone and started our class with an amazingly soothing voice. I kept hearing all these yoga positions in Norwegian over and over "hunden, pust ut, og opp." I never knew Norwegian could be so beautiful! As we were tied up in knots trying to hold ourselves and stretch our muscles and breath out ("pust ut"), she was calmly speaking in the most relaxing Norwegian. The best part was that if I wanted to I could easily block the meaning out and just enjoy the sound. That's one of the greatest parts of living in a country with a foreign language. Of course it's a struggle to understand, but at times, it's great to just sit on the bus, or lay sprawled out at yoga class and not understand anything. happily.

The class was about an hour and a half and it ended with some relaxation on the mat. She was telling us to stretch this way and that and I think I went in between being awake and asleep, unsure exactly what she was saying, but not wanting to open my eyes to see if everyone else was doing something else. I left feeling like I was walking on air, all aligned, stretched, and sore. So great. Unfortunately, the yoga class is over and the beautiful Norwegian is moving to Oslo, but at least I had one chance to be wooed into contentment by a Norwegian.