There's no place like home

This is my family. I love them.

I got to be with them for Christmas and it was great.

I thought that since I felt pretty at home in Trondheim, I might not feel a strong connection to home, at least not right off the bat. My experience couldn't have been more different. To my surprise and delight I settled easily back into place with family and friends. A year and a half had passed, the familiar had become unfamiliar, but it was as if a part of me knew exactly where I was again (guess it hadn't been too long after all). The best part about going home was being a present part of my family again. I got to be a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and quite possibly best of all, an aunt. These are roles I have missed since coming to Norway, and roles I honestly didn't know if I would fit into again. Haven't asked anyone else, but I think I managed alright.

I'm so thankful for my family, and to have a family at all. I had special joy in celebrating Jesus' birth with them and remembering all he is and all he has done in my life, even bringing me to Norway! There is nothing better than getting to enjoy him together with family.

Christmas with my immediate family:

Attire: Norwegian sweaters, as if there were any other choice!

My special Christmas gift

I was home for 16 days before I came back to Trondheim. Besides several Christmas celebrations my trip was jam-packed with visits and errands. Looking back I probably did a little too much. Maybe I should have just relaxed at home a little more but that's hard to do you've been gone as long as I had. And I was happy to see and spend time with everyone I was able to. But I equally enjoyed the time I spent lounging around the house and getting reacquainted with my parents' endearing peculiarities.

What else did I do?

I went to familiar places like my friends', the Smiths, house. They had set up nativity scenes from many countries around their home, and the one from Norway had a special greeting along with it:

A warm welcome!

Lots of good stories, laughs, and encouragement shared with these guys (as well as a couple greatly needed hot tub sessions):

The Smiths (plus Alex & minus Haley)

Alex & Haley

Downtown with Haley for dinner and a choir concert

Other special people I got to see (and have pictures of):

Jessica, Connie, & Melissa

A couple of my dear cousins, Caroline & Monica

Bekah, Meara, & Paige

I got to reunite with many good friends but wish I could have spent more time with each of them. And I wish I could have seen more friends but at some point I had to choose "quality" over quantity and make tough decisions about how to spend my time. It became more important to me to really catch up and connect with less people in a real way rather than try to see absolutely everyone I would have liked to. Giving the same re-cap story day in and day out gets a little old and you just want things to be somewhat normal.

One thing I focused on was spending as much time as I could with my brother and his family.

David, Jack, Chelsea, & Greta

I played and read with my two-year-old nephew Jack. It was fun to get to know him (now as a toddler), see his personality, and enjoy him at this age. I met my niece Greta for the first time. She is a sweet baby, and I loved seeing the bond Jack is forming with her. It was also good to see David and Chelsea as parents and how they function as a family.

Jack likes to read. Just a little.

Greta likes to smile. A lot!

Being with people was my number one priority, and after that I managed to do a few other things. I went shopping at Fred Meyer and was overwhelmed by the size and selection. I stocked up on necessities like socks, shampoo, and peanut m&m's. Wheat thins, graham crackers, Adam's peanut butter, and Tillamook cheddar cheese were also a significant part of my bounty back to Norway. Somewhere in the mix I managed to apply for life insurance, renew my drivers license at the DMV, and get a haircut.

And I couldn't leave Seattle without having a Dick's Deluxe, fries, and vanilla milkshake.

So good, and so cheap.

As weird as it seems to me, I hardly thought about Norway while I was away. I didn't think about school. I didn't even think about the Norwegian Christmas food I was missing. I told stories and answered questions about Norway, but I didn't find myself missing it. But I guess that's how it is when you're on a much-anticipated trip. And given a little more time I probably would have started to miss it.

It was much more difficult than I anticipated to come back to Norway. A little over two weeks didn't seem long enough and I felt like I was ripped away from the place I belonged. I'd forgotten just how 'home' that home really is. I hope I can get back into life here and not feel like I'm missing out on what's going on at home. I have good friends and plenty to keep me busy here, and it is a good place for me to be. Still, there's no place like home!

Home away from home

In a couple days I'm going home for the first time since I left. Wow, it's been so long that it doesn't feel real, but it is definitely time for a visit. When I arrived almost a year and a half ago, Trondheim was not home. But a lot has happened since then and now it's hard to remember what the place I left is like. It's a great feeling to be able to say that Trondheim is a second home now. I have my everyday life here and I'm in a groove. If/when I say goodbye next summer, it won't be easy.

Here's some things I like about living here:

-People (at least most of the ones I know) prioritize spending time with each other. Egos are not built around schedules and productivity as much as they are in the US. It's possible to call someone up and have dinner together the day of. I don't remember it being quite like that at home. I am blessed to have made great friends and have wonderful relatives who take time together seriously.

-I feel safe. There is very little crime here, at least comparatively, and it's not something I worry about. While I still have to be smart and aware of my surroundings, there isn't an area of town I walk through regularly and think, "I shouldn't be here." Can't say that about Seattle.

-I think I'm growing, and hopefully maturing, in ways I wouldn't have at home. There's just something about moving that far away that will do that to you.

That being said, there are some things I really miss because I'm here. The first is family and friends. It's hard to not be a part of my family as much as I'd like to be. I wish I could have it all: live life fully here and also be able to develop the relationships back home more. But I wouldn't have the good relationships I have here if I was always Skyping with those at home. By choosing one place, I'm automatically not choosing another. It's difficult, but I'm trying to live in the present and invest my time wisely here. Anything else would be wasting an amazing opportunity.

I'm really looking forward to time to dedicate to just being with my family and good friends. I've been wondering a lot lately, who knows me better? The people who've known me since I've been here, or the people who've known me before I came? It's gonna be interesting...

Other reasons I'm excited to go home :
-Seattle. It's a beautiful place, and I miss having a big city nearby.
-Eating. My mom's cooking, going out for real Mexican food, sandwiches with two slices of bread.
-Driving. I walk most places here and that is great. I can take the bus if I need to and I don't need a car here in my everyday life, but I miss driving. 
-Daylight. I'm sure it's pretty dark there right now, but not as dark as here!

So, as I am kind of partially Norwegian now, you'll have to be patient with me on a few things. Like thinking in the Fahrenheit scale and US dollars again. And please don't laugh too hard when I can't think of the English word for something (happens often now)... I'm sure I'll be back to normal by the end of my trip, just in time to go "home" again.

Adventures in Language: The Wacky World of Norwegian Dialects

I've been learning Norwegian for a couple years now. To recap, I took a few basic courses before I moved, but nothing my first year in Norway. Instead I learned a lot (and still do) by listening and speaking as much as possible. But as a student here I'm allowed to take Norwegian for Foreigners classes at the university without any extra fee, so in June I took a placement exam and this semester I am taking level 3 (out of 4).

The class has been pretty fun and a good balance to my master thesis work. We write a lot and I'm learning way more grammar than ever before. And my teacher says I don't speak with an American accent, which is a huge compliment. Not completely true, but still very nice to hear. With a passing grade in this class I am allowed to take university courses in Norwegian, should I ever want to. It's also a fairly nationally recognized stamp of approval, more or less saying "You can speak Norwegian." So that's nice!

I just finished the big assignment for my class, a 5-page paper with references written in Norwegian. We could write about basically whatever we wanted as long as the topic was somewhat academic. I chose to write about Norwegian dialects because they fascinate me. There's a lot of dialects here, and they can be very different from each other. That can be really frustrating for some people, but I find dialects really fun to listen to and try to figure out. When you first learn Norwegian as a Foreigner you learn the written language, bokmål, and you learn to speak like bokmål. The problem is, and this can be a pain at first, is that almost no Norwegians speak like bokmål. Instead, there are what seems like a million dialects that are used by everyday people in everyday life. 

I felt like this post needed some pictures, 

so I'm including a few from this fall even though

they have nothing to do with anything...

Norwegian dialects developed way back when in small remote areas, at the end of fjords or down in the valleys, where there was little contact with those outside the area. That's why they can be so different from each other. Every dialect falls into one of the main dialect groups, and a given dialect is probably similar to what’s spoken in nearby places, but it almost certainly has some special characteristics in terms of intonation, pronunciation, and/or vocabulary. And of course the dialects are more alike than not, but how many ways do you suppose there are to say the word “I” in Norwegian? Five? Maybe ten? I submit to you that there are no less than 12. It's ridiculous, but also pretty cool. Here they are: jeg, je, eg, jæ, jæi, e, æ, æg, æi, æig, i, and ig.

Do you know how many people live in Norway today? About five million. Think about that for a second. Five million people and 12 different ways to say "I." I didn't know it was possible to have that much variety in such a small country. As you can imagine, sometimes Norwegians have to change the way the speak (a little or a lot) so they can be more easily understood by others. I have friends in Trondheim who speak very differently here than they do at home because the differences are that big.

What gets me is when Norwegians from different places can't understand each other at all. Some dialects are so different, so unique, that they can hardly be called the same language. The language situation here is so different than in the US. Even though the US is much bigger, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone speaking American English that I can't understand.

Because there is so much variation and dialects represent distinct places, dialects mean a lot to people. You can tell where someone is from by the way the speak, sometimes down to which side of town they grew up on. So it makes sense that people can be pretty proud of their dialect because it separates them from others. Others might be embarrassed about their dialect and not want to associate with the place it comes from. As you can imagine, Norwegians from different areas like to poke fun at each other, and everyone (even me) has their own opinion about which dialect is the prettiest/hardest/ugliest/etc.

You might be wondering, is it hard to understand and keep up with different dialects? My answer is mostly no, but a little bit yes. Most dialects I'm exposed to just take a little getting used to and then I understand what people were saying. But other dialects are more difficult and take more concentration, and you would need to live in a place for a while before you really got everything. I still speak basically like bokmål, even though I'm surrounded by lots of different dialects. But it’s fun to learn new words in specific dialect that you can use when you are in a certain place. I think it means a lot to people for them to be able to speak like they normally would, so as much as possible I make an effort to understand each new dialect and person I come into contact with.

For me, Norwegian is both easy and hard. Lots of Norwegians and foreigners think it's difficult to learn but I pick most of it up fairly quickly. Probably because I'm highly motivated and maybe because it's in my genes? At the same time there are always challenges. Dialects are one, grammar is another. But learning is fun, and as long as dialects are around I will have a lot to learn, and Norwegians will always have something to talk about.

En stor suksess: Min første hyttetur

The hytte (cabin in the wilderness) is a staple of modern Norwegian life, as I finally found out for myself this past weekend. Many Norwegian families own or otherwise have access to a hytte somewhere in the country. These hyttene (plural, definite form of hytte; look at you, learning Norwegian!) are a popular place to spend the weekend or a longer vacation, and they help fulfill the inherent Norwegian need to be away from people and close to nature. They are also popular among students, and the university here has several in the region that they rent out. Why I hadn't been to a hytte before now beats me, but there's a first time for everything, and the firsts in Norway keep on coming!

I got to stay at a hytte with a group of good friends, old and new, mainly from a student ministry group called Quest (not to be confused with A Tribe Called Quest). Some hytter (plural, indefinite) are remote and rustic, and don't have electricity or running water. I was pleasantly surprised to find both at our destination, my friend Line's family cabin. From Trondheim we drove a couple hours south to Kvikne, settled in, and began making dinner-- homemade pizza.

In the entryway of the main cabin there was a supply of wool mittens, slippers, and even sweaters, all knitted by Line's grandma and free to use during our visit.

Line has spent a lot of time here with her family,

and made sure we knew:

"It's weird to be here with all of you."

Haha, likewise!

Adhering to the strict hytte dress code

Knitting is a good hytte activity...
someone has to keep those sweaters coming!

On Saturday we were fortunate to have good hiking weather (a mix of sun and clouds and just a little rain), so we bundled up and enjoyed a crisp fall day together.

 Ready to explore!

Look, Ma, we're exploring!

My favorite part of the hike was good conversations along the way. For a little while I chatted with the other American on the trip, who I'd just met. She is learning Norwegian and commented how it was sometimes difficult to get Norwegians to speak Norwegian with her. I can sympathize so I obliged (even though I'm a poor substitute for the real deal) and we spoke in Norwegian to each other the rest of way, very fun!

 Lunch break:
I sat in some berries by accident. Typisk.

WARNING: The following picture is
EXTREMELY NORWEGIAN!

Be advised and proceed with caution, if you think you can handle it.

Marius sweaters, Kvik Lunsj chocolate, and Solo orange pop.

Pay attention, people, it doesn't get much more Norwegian than this.

Sitting and eating is half the fun of hiking

We walked on until we came to a plateau with a ton of reindeer moss, a soft, spongy plant that looks a lot like sea coral and is very forgiving after a long afternoon:

Actually, a few of us stumbled upon the amazing softness when we fell down in protest at the back of the group. We wanted to stop there, enjoy the surroundings, and then turn around... it worked and we convinced the others to join us. Here's us making our big discovery:

The landscape was clearly very special. I felt like I was on another planet, since I'd never seen anything quite like reindeer moss blanketing the whole ground. Definitely otherworldly... and when I had a runny nose but no tissue I found reindeer moss both highly absorbent and surprisingly gentle on the skin.

I imagine Håkon is thinking,
"Reindeer eat it, I wonder if it tastes good?"

Great hike, now let's go back and get warm!
FYI: temperatures are already dropping
below freezing here during the night.

Tilbake på hytta:

Hyggelige nordmenn, med varm middag og fin utsikt

Sorry, sometimes the Norwegian comes out and I can't help it.

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which were a hit. Chocolate chips exist very scarcely and expensively in Norway, so I use the ones my mom has sent me to make some of my favorite cookies. I think this might be a big reason why Norwegians have kept me around as long as they have ;)

And this has to be one of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

The only running water was in the kitchen,

making it a popular spot to hang out.

Almost as soon as we came, it was time to go again. But what great weekend of nature, getting to know people, worshipping and seeking Jesus together, and being met by Him. I'm thankful for the opportunity and very pleased with my first hytte experience, sure hope it won't be the last. The hytte is a great place to go to get away without going too far, and a good way to catch a glimpse into Norwegian life.

Line asked me to write about our trip

in the guest book for everyone to sign.

I was honored to do so!

I thought about writing in Norwegian, but we

didn't have that much time so I settled for

English. Lame. Oh well, next time :)

Tusen takk for turen, alle sammen!