Bergy

Ah! I've been too busy to update and not enough computer acess! However, I've been writing things down and will be updating them all shortly. I managed to add one picture--it's Kathleen and I eating SoftIs in our final destination of Arendal in the south of Norway. This ice cream is unlike anything I've ever had! It's basically pure cream and am planning to gorge myself until my return to the states. Yesterday Kristine, my friend who I'm staying with in Arendal, and I had a picnic on the waterfront in the city center. We had mango banana yogurt with musli (granola), baguettes from a local bakery, and we bought a watermelon and ate it with a spoon. It was very fun! We also bought a Norwegian waffle from a little stand which was also quite ... read more

Staying with the family in Trondheim has been such an amazing experience. Oddney and Ingvar are the sweetest couple. Oddney is crazy with her wedge heels and bright colored clothing--she woke us up this morning by calling up the stairs, "Good moooooorning, my girls!! I tink it is time fo' you to git up!" They were so welcoming to us and even though Ingvar couldn't speak as much English as the rest of the family, he was still cracking jokes and wanting to be a part of every conversation. Their daughter, Janne (yan-nuh) lives right above them with Roar and their daughters. They were also very sweet to us and we went up there as well to sit on the deck and have beverages. They were so surprised when Kathleen and I would ask for ... read more

The Norwegian in front of us on the train to Trondheim has some sort of bacon paste in a tube that she's squeezing onto a cracker and it's about to make Kathleen vomit just thinking about it. Personally, I find it outrageously amusing, yuck!... read more

Yesterday Kathleen and I spent SO long at the grocery store trying to find bottled water! You'd think it would be a very straightforward mission, but it was not! All of the water is sparkling mineral water. ALL of it. Even the bottles that were labeled, "Natural Spring Water." (in Norwegian, ofcourse) had "HydroKarbonat HCO3" in them. We searched and searched, shaking every candidate to test for bubbles, but we only found one bottle we could put our trust in. So I made the purchase, for our final test. This particular choice was called, "Natural," no bubbles, no reported HCO3 in the ingredients, but when the seal was broken, the sound of fizzy bubbles shattered my hopes. No water! Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of sparkling water and normally, I would be happy ... read more

Today in Oslo we met up with Kathleen's 2nd cousin, Elise (pronounced Elisa) and her friend Hilde. That was so fun because they're both 19 and go to a prestigious school of dance, Bardar, here in Oslo. I enjoyed our meeting because they were fun and we became friends fast. We walked around the city and went to Peppe's pizza for dinner. It was great pizza, especially the crust which had cheese baked into it, yum. The combinations were a little strange though--beef, peppers, and pineapple on one of them and the other had canadian bacon, parsley, and red onions. We had a sour cream sauce that we poured on top which was a nice touch. I think we ordered too much pizza, but that made us feel less gluttonous when we overate because there ... read more

We're on the train to Oslo from Jevnaker right now. We left Knut and Inger who were great hosts to us. Yesterday, we went to Hadeland Glassverks and shopped around. At one point, we found a baby outside of a shop that was left in a stroller while it's mom was shopping!! Kathleen and I couldn't believe it. My mom had told me that this was typical in Norway, but I definitely didn't believe her. I was going to buy some handmade Norwegian glassware for my apartment next year, but I decided if someone broke any of it, I'd probably end our friendship immediately so I didn't want to risk it. I'll stick with IKEA plasticware, for now anyways. After our shopping, Knut and Inger (and Reya the dog) all went on an off-roading drive ... read more

The snack on the plane to Copenhagen, Denmark was croutons. It was strange and I didn't quite know what to do with them, it was very confusing. So I just waited and watched everyone else-- they opened them up and ate them. So that's what I did. ... read more