Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

In Norway they typically eat a breakfast of cold open sandwiches when they first wake up, more sandwiches at around noon, and then the big meal, called middag, is served around 4.30pm. Although I rarely follow this schedule, it's great on days like today when I sleep in and eat breakfast at noon. That allows me the opportunity to eat again late afternoon when I'm hungry and claim that it's a "cultural experience." So, today it's a cultural day. Off to eat Cheerios!

I'm excited to say I'm moved into my new room on the top floor of the Peace House! (see pics below) I decided to move upstair for a little more space and a great view of the mountains. Plus, Stian will also be moving to the room across from me so we will have our own little bachelor pad corner of the house. And, the list of exciting things goes on. Our housemate Igor, who is known for getting drunk and destoying things, hanging up racist posters, and rarely leaving his room, will not be coming back next year! To make things even better, the constant pounding and explosions outside our house as they rebuild the street will be finished by the time we get back. It will be quite a place next fall!

On a totally different tangent, I read the most interesting article today about the Nukak people in eastern Colombia. They are an Amazonian Indian group that has had virtually no contact with the outside world. Apparently in March, 80 of them walked out of the forest and declared themselves ready to join the modern world. A fascinating story (accompanied with a photoslide show and audio commentary) in the New York Times for anyone interested in anthropology or politics.

Off to write about globalization and use my new fascination with the Nukak as a case study in my paper.

Room Pics:

The bed with collage of randomness...hopefully photos will be added soon.


The huge desk. Notice the border around the ceiling of Barcelona pics and my bookshelf strategically shown in the mirror.


The great view out my window. Notice the hole to China they are digging in front of our drive way.

I just got home after seeing Mission Impossible III. It was the first time in months that I've gone to a movie, let alone a high action, "American" film. It was a great mindless break from all this peace thinking! The best part however, is that after seeing Tom Cruise jump off buildings, crawl through elevator shafts, and save beautiful women I felt like my mundane tasks that have felt impossible were suddenly possible. I cam home and took out the trash. Mission Possible! I carried some boards outside to the shed. Mission Possible! Tonight I am the epitome of a domestic super hero. I guess I should go to action movies more often.

Today was the police auction in Tromsø! It is the time when they sell all the stuff (mostly bikes) that have been found. It was quite an event. We were in a small garage and they would quickly hold up an item and start the bidding. They even had mystery items like a black bag that supposedly contained a GPS system, mp3 player, digital camera, and "gold stuff." Not sure how good the items were, but it excited the crowd.

I went with Line and Stian to the auction and Stian was ready to buy himself a cheap bike. After a few bikes were sold, he starting getting the auction itch to just buy something. With a little pressure from me, he threw in his hat on an older looking bike. We figured that it would be cheap, but also functional. At 500 kroner we almost had it. Then someone else put it up to 550kr. At that point I was done encouraging Stian, but he shot up his hand and shouted "700!" Well, the crowd looked at him and there was silence. The bike was his!

Stian picked up the bike (after borrowing the majority of the money from Line and I) and brought the "Intruder" as it was called to the back of the garage. We started checking it out and suddenly realized: it didn't have any brakes!! What a rip off! Well, we tried to look at the brightside...that of course being that the Intruder had a sticker on the side of it that said "Fuck Off!" Oh what a find.

Well, at this point I had to go to the city, but I came home 3 hours later to find Stian and Line on the front lawn with two dismantled bikes. Apparently, Stian had bought a braking system for 500 kroner (almost as much as the bike) and Line had at the same time found a new bike on sale that you put together yourself for 500 kroner. So, the construction/reconstruction began at our house, Line with her brand new bike and Stian with his brown, rusted Intruder telling the world and apparently the braking system to fuck off.

We did our best to add the brakes. It felt like the ultimate battle between man and machine. We nearly won too. After combining the efforts of Line, Stian, Kjersti, and I we were able to almost get the brakes and tires fixed. (How many masters students does it take to fix a bike?) We have some tightening to do, but I think there is hope for a second life for the Intruder. Just remember the lesson we learned today: you can't trust the police.

The sun is out and we are savoring every second. Another beautiful day today that inspired a run, a walk, a picnic on our veranda, and a beer while watching people walk by. Good stuff. (Don't be blinded by the picture, it's just the Caucasians emerging from hibernation)

I even managed to put a new shelf up in my new room. OK, well, Kjersti actually did it after I failed, but I helped!

Enjoy Spring!

Yesterday was everyone's favorite holiday: Labor Day! Many nations celebrate May 1st as Labor Day, the anniversary of the Haymarket Riots in Chicago, and I was almost going to say that the US was one of the few that doesn't (apparently because of a strong anti-communist history), but I guess I can't say that after reading about the demonstrations held yesterday in the US.

Well, in Norway, Labor Day is celebrated in two ways. People who are on the left go the city center and join in a demonstration for a wide variety of causes. It's interesting because it is like a parade, except instead of watching, people join in the march behind whatever banner they support. Not one to miss a cultural event or demonstration, I headed downtown and joined the ATTAC banner, which protests against tax havens the power of financial institutions under the slogan "The World is Not For Sale." Yesterday we were specifically protesting an EU law that allows EU nations to employ workers with the same pay and benefits as in their home country. This thus allows businesses in Denmark, for example, to hire foreigners and pay them significantly less and avoid giving them the health benefits that are supposed to be guarenteed by Danish and EU law. So, we marched with flags to the rhythm of a small marching band, and it was great to see so many people out to demonstrate. There were a lot of pro Palestinean and anti-Iraq war demonstrators as well as demonstrators marching for gay rights in the church, the rights of unions in Norway, and against the privatization of electricity. It was a very colorful affair that ended with speeches and nice sense of democratic power.

People on the right side of the political spectrum celebrate Labor Day a little differently, usually doing yard and house work as kind of a spring cleaning day. Well, not to show favoritism, I also did some spontaneous spring cleaning. I was moving a mattress from Berit's old room upstairs when I realized: wow, this room is so much better than mine! With a big window towards the mountains, a little more space, and a lot quieter place in the house, I was suddenly struck with an idea. I should switch rooms. So that's what I did! Stian and I started moving furniture, taking it out to the deck and around the house to the shed. And of course when I got to the shed it was a bit messy, so I cleaned that and in the process realized I needed to clean our inside storage room. So, three hours later and three trash bags later, the shed, storage room, and my new room were all clean. I moved my bedding and clothes upstairs and already slept there last night. It should be a great spot next year because Stian is moving across the hall and Marijaana is down the hall, so the three stalwarts can hold court on the top floor. I'm not sure how Marjaana feels about having her bathroom change into a boys room, but we'll do our best to be clean!

Another beautiful day today. We're going to celebrate with an evening of grilling and eating root beer floats made from my home-made root beer. It turned out edible...not 1919 quality, but good when you need a fix.

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