Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Today was one of those days that makes you not want to leave Tromsø. It was pleasant in that it was a fairly normal day, just that everything was great.

I woke up at a decent hour, arrived at the university and spent the morning and afternoon actually producing. I enjoyed a great lunch, good conversation, a few visits with friends on campus, and beautiful northern lights on my way home. Then I ate dinner and talked with Stian, Jostein, and Maaike for two hours in the kitchen while Maaike and I tried to learn how to say fun norwegian words like omskjære and tenk i koffert. After slowly eating and enjoying some conversation with the "family," we all sat downstairs and watched a movie together, Borat at that, which provided even more for discussion. The four of us then took a nice walk to town together and sat at the comfortable and hip Verdensteatre where we enjoyed a glass of wine. Almost all of my good friends were there: Stian, Maaike, Jostein, Marjaana, Hanne Rachel, Fredrik, and Martin. We just enjoyed lively conversation and a fun evening. Then, Maaike and I walked home and enjoyed the second-most amazing northern lights i've seen this year. Somehow the entire sky was covered in a fog-like green and the white northern lights moved within the green northern lights that covered the sky, and it actually lived up to its name, somehow making the city and our walk more light. Upon our arrival home, Maaike and I rehashed the night over a plate of nachos...ok, two plates. Then internet and bed.

I think everyone can feel Christmas coming and our departures sneaking up on us, so maybe I'm recognizing the otherwise common-place, but tonight was great. Normal, but great. And that's a great feeling.

It was great walking home today at 4pm. It was a cold, crisp evening and the stars were shining brightly from the Northern sky. On top of that, the rocks that the city of Tromsø puts on the road to prevent slipping on ice has some kind of shiny rock in them, so when you walk the road glitters with each step. Since the ice has all melted now, it seems that the stars surround us. Not a bad way to walk.

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.

You have to turn the light on your I-pod on to choose a song on your way to catch the noon bus.

I discovered the most densely populated place in Norway: the liquor store in Tromsø at 2:45pm on Saturday December 9th! I headed to town today, a weekly Saturday ritual, with Stian and we took the bus at 2:40pm. Our first stop was the alcohol store which closes at 3pm. We could barely walk in as people filled all the aisles in an amorphous mass of desperate alcohol seekers. We were there to get some alcohol for a Christmas party and I think everyone had the same plans! Stian had to escape and I made a mad dash for the gin aisle, which also doubled as the back of the line for one of the four cashiers. I grabbed the bottle inbetween customers and looked across the store to find the shortest line. I counted the people, 20 in the first line, 17 in my line, 22 in the third line, and 18 in the far line. It was like we were at Disney World waiting for a ride, except there was no "15 min wait from this point" sign. So, I battled the crowd and snuck out with my life in tact. I can't imagine trying to get in at 2:56pm. I'm sure the bodyguards have to come in order to close it down. Off now to enjoy the fruits of my strenous labor. God Jul.

The lights go out. And they did this morning. I woke up a bit early at 8.45am and was sitting at my computer when the lights flickered and died. As goes the power, so goes the internet, so I headed downstairs and enjoyed some yogurt and muslix by candlelight. Life on the frontier. It was actually really cozy and kind of romantic, even though I was alone. The best part was looking across the street at the big stores and seeing a few lighters as people wandered through the dark aisles trying to find their way out. Kind of tough when it's dark outside too!

This got me thinking more of one of the recent observations about Norway: its use of electricity. It seems that everywhere people leave lights on all the time. I don't know if it's because of the darkness or because of Norway's historical excess of electricity supply, a lot of which comes from hydro power, but it seems so contradictory. I mean, we seperate our trash, recycle our cans, use public transportation, and there are always political discussions about the environment, but somehow the use of electricity is seperate from this debate. So, maybe this morning was just a wake up call: remember to shut off your lights!

I just got home from a great show: Thomas Dybdahl! About four years ago my good friend Emily gave me a CD of an artist called Thomas Dybdahl, but it wasn't until a year later that I found out that he was Norwegian (he sings in English). Tonight, the musical connection came full circle as I got to see him in concert in Tromsø. It was a great show complete with sing-a-longs, trumpets, accordians, and a girl playing a Mack beer bottle. What culture. It was great to hear him between songs giving shout outs in Norwegian, and the music was predictably gorgeous. So fun!

Despite Thomas' great show, Rachel and I gave him a run for his money for the best show in Tromsø. Last Thursday we performed at the monthly open mic night called Hugin's Report. (Hugin being the bird of knowledge in Norse mythology if I remember what Silje told me!) After an hour of painfully slow and slightly boring acts, Rachel and I finally got up to bring the house down. We weaved a smooth version of the song "Silver Rider" by Low. It was great! Very beautiful.

Just moments after we finished, I was again called back to the stage where I shocked the audience with a little Caucasian rap! That's right, bringing back the memories of fourth grade, I got up on stage, put on the dog tags, and was ready to drop some phat beats. I had used some geeky computer knowledge to make a back-beat for one of my favorite rap songs that one my freshman roommates, Matt Curry, introduced me to: Reverse Psychology. It's a very witty rap song all talking in reverse psychology with the chorus being "put your hands down." I thoroughly confused the audience, but they all understood the language of the thumping bass and head nods. I had a great time, and even when the music cut out prematurely, Rachel came up and beat boxed and I finished the rap a capella. Good stuff! And even better is that it was video taped!

You can check out the madness known as Hugin's Report here: Rachel and Scott and Caucasian rap.

You can also check out clips from the Thomas Dybdahl concert here: Dybdahl 1, Dybdahl 2, Dybdahl 3, Dybdahl 4, Dybdahl 5

Enjoy the music of Tromsø!