The 12 Days of Christmas

Exams are over and my first semester of grad school is in the books. I've come out of the library where I've lived for the past month, and am making my way back into society. It feels so good to have a little break after studying so hard. I'm staying in Norway for Christmas and I have about three weeks until school starts again. I traveled south from Trondheim to Jevnaker yesterday to stay with Norwegian family for the first part of my break. Then I'll be going to Oslo and Stavanger to visit others. While I'd love to be home for Christmas, I'm very happy to be staying here and spending time with Norwegian friends and family.

This blog has been barren lately, but since I should have more free time to write during this break, my goal is to post something every day for the next 12 days. Can I do it? Probably not. But I'm going to try. I will at least shoot for 12 posts before school starts again. There are a lot of random things to share with you from the past five months, so now is as good a time as any to try to get caught up.

My news for Day 1 is that I tried lutefisk for the first time. I'd like to thank Ingrid and Jon for the opportunity to taste this Norwegian speciality. I was a little nervous to eat it because of its terrible reputation in the USA. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I refer you to this video tribute to the unique fish dish:

I'd only ever heard awful things about lutefisk, except from real Norwegians. Why they still eat fish that's been soaked in lye instead of eating it fresh, I don't know. But some really do love it and its tradition, I guess. Lutefisk certainly has an acquired texture and taste, the former being like jello, and the latter, I'm still trying to decipher. It's eaten at Christmas time, and usually with bacon on top. I expected not to like lutefisk, but it wasn't bad, though the bacon probably only helped my impression. I'm glad to have finally tried it for myself, but now I'm even more unsure what to think. Oh, lutefisk!