Recently in Misc Category

This is just a quick update (sorry, but it's pretty late, and there's a lot going on tomorrow). Some of the parties tonight have just gotten a bit wilder, as Norway just won the Eurovision contest.

Here is the winning song:

With the holiday halfway over, I've been feeling more rested, and was interested in doing something a little different today. The weather was really nice, and a coworker had previously suggested that I come with her to an animal shelter, and today we made it up there.

The shelter is called FOD, and it's sort of on the southern edge of the city, about a 20 minute bus ride from the main bus terminal followed by a 15 minute walk more or less into the woods.

Once there, we got to take a couple of dogs out for a walk. They were very well behaved and were pros at begging for treats. After taking the dogs for a walk, we were introduced into some very cute puppies. All in all, it was a nice and relaxing afternoon, and walking the dogs was a nice change from going to the gym.

The Easter holidays start on Thursday.  Actually, for many Norwegians, the holiday started last Friday.  While around 90% of Norwegians technically belong to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Norway, this is not an overly religious country.  For many Norwegians in Oslo, this long weekend is a chance for them to go skiing one last time before spring really arrives.  Plus, the holidays related to Easter guarantee a minimum number of days off.

In Norway, you only get a day off for a public holiday if you are normally scheduled to work on the day it falls.  This means that since Norway's Constitution Day (May 17) falls on a Sunday this year, it's not a real holiday to me - I have to be at work the Friday before and the Monday after.  It seems strange to me.  So this year, even though there are 10 public holidays, only 8 of them are actually days off for me, and it looks like next year will be even worse - 3 of the days fall on the weekend, as does January 1, 2011.  Darn.

For those of you who are curious, here are the public holidays for 2009:

1 Jan New Year's Day. 
9 Apr Holy Thursday. 
10 Apr Good Friday.
13 Apr Easter Monday.
1 May May Day.
17 May Constitution Day.
21 May Ascension. 
1 Jun Whit Monday. 
25-26 Dec Christmas.

There is something of a tradition in the eastern part of Norway to travel to Sweden on occasion to buy stuff, especially alcohol and tobacco, where it is generally much cheaper.  From Oslo, it takes around 1 1/2 to 2 hours each way to get to a town in Sweden where you can get your shopping done.  I was invited to go with some people on Saturday, and it was amazing just how many people were out there getting their shopping done.  Obviously there are some limitations - on alcohol and tobacco at least, there are limits on how much you can bring back into Norway without having to pay customs - it's around 2 liters of wine, 1 liter of spirits, and some amount of beer - I think 2 liters, but I'm not sure.

This trip is called a "Harrytur", or at least it has been for the past few years - since around 2002 when a politician named Lars Sponheim said the practice was "Harry".  "Harry" is a derogatory term that has been around since the beginning of the 20th century and suggests that something is low-class or in bad taste.  Still, the Harrytur is popular, especially when 100 Swedish Kroners are only worth around 80 Norwegian Kroners.

Of course, as an American, I looked at this as a road trip, another great tradition!

Every year on December 11, the Nobel Peace Prize committee hosts a concert to celebrate the winner.  This year the winner was Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, and apparently a skilled peace negotiator (he's brokered peace agreements on three continents).

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the concert.  It may not have been the best seat possible, but it seems to have been one of the best seats you could get by buying the ticket online.  I found much of the concert to be quite good, although there were a few acts I was not a big fan of.

From Swedish pop artist Robyn, to Jason Mraz, to Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä (playing a Stradivarius, no less), it was a concert with almost every type of music.  I felt Mraz, Vähälä, and Il Devo were the highlights of the evening, but a coworker who also went was a big fan of Robyn's performance.  Sean Kuti's African rythms and Dierks Bentley's American country music were not that great, but then again, those aren't my types of music.

If you have the opportunity to attend the concert in the future, I would definitely recommend it.  Don't get me wrong, it's not always the greatest music (this year Diana Ross was the headliner, and I just wasn't impressed by her performance at all), but at the same time, how often do you get to go to a concert attended by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, not to mention Norwegian royalty?

Oh, by the way, people often ask why Alfred Nobel, a Swede, decreed that the Peace Prize should be chosen by a committee appointed by the Norwegian government and presented in Oslo, rather than in Stockholm like the other prizes.  It's not a question anyone can answer with certainty, but it kind of makes sense.  When Nobel died, Norway was in a union with Sweden, and the Norwegian parliament was only responsible for internal matters.  It's widely believed that Nobel felt that a committee chosen by the Norwegian government would be much less succeptible to outside pressures as opposed to a committee chosen by Sweden.  Oh, and Norwegians like to believe that Nobel thought they were less warlike than the Swedes, however true that may or may not be!

It's been six months, and I finally decided it's time to sign up for Norwegian classes.  So, starting January 6, I'll be attending two classes a week for six weeks.  We'll see how things go from there, but the school I'm going through, the Folkeuniversitetet, offers seven classes.  Norway requires 300 hours of classes (a combination of language and cultural classes, apparently) for people who will be applying for permanent residency or citizenship.  --I'm not planning on doing either of these, certainly not any time soon, but learning the language will be good no matter what.

I'll try to post more information about the classes as I take them.  And maybe even start posting something in Norwegian on occasion.

Still working on getting back to a normal posting schedule - ideally I'd like to have a new post up at least every 5 days, but for some reason I still seem to be having trouble doing that.

Anyway, I've been looking for some things that I just cannot find in Norway, or are hard to find.  I'll add more to this list as I think of them.

• Pie pans (strange, I know, but I've been to at least 10 stores, including IKEA, and nobody has pie pans)
• Butterscotch chips (luckily I had a way to order some)

Things that have been hard to find:

• Baking soda

And finally, things that have been surprisingly easy to find:

• Karo corn syrup
• Canned pumpkin, and Libby's pumpkin pie mix (hard to use without the pie pans, though)

And amazingly, Deli De Luca has apparently started stocking Kraft Mac 'n Cheese!

Well, the election is over, and I've managed to pull myself away from Fallout 3 long enough for a quick post.

Back on October 29, Oslo had a snow day!  It really was quite beautiful, as you can see from the picture below.  Since then it's ranged from quite warm to a bit chilly, but nothing too bad.  This morning was extremely wet, though.  I'm really hoping to see more snow later this winter (hopefully sooner rather than later).

From what I can tell - we'll see if I still believe this in a couple of months - if you can survive a Chicago winter, you can survive winter in Oslo.  The biggest difference is the days are shorter over here.

Last night I was invited to Sunday dinner to try fårikål, Norway's national dish.  It is not something I would likely have tried on my own since you won't find it in many restaurants.

Fårikål translates to 'sheep in cabbage', and is just that.  Sheep and cabbage stewed with whole black pepper for several hours and served with boiled potatoes.  It is traditionally served around this time of year, as this was the time of the year when they would slaughter young lambs.

I'm told it's actually best on the third day, once the sheep, cabbage, and pepper flavors have had a chance to fully meld, but I found it to be pretty good even on the first day.

Would I make fårikål myself?  I'm not sure.  --Not because it isn't good, but because I don't think I could resist the urge to dress it up, even though it doesn't really need it.  If nothing else, it does make make me want to cook up a big batch of stew, and I really am glad I got a chance to try it! 


Photo credit: Alf Børjesson

I have a post about the American Embassy thought out and I now have pictures to go along with it, and I expect to have it up by Wednesday.  I have a photo for a post about the city hall, but I have some research to do before it gets written, so hopefully I can have it ready by Sunday or Monday.  Oh, and since my trials and tribulations regarding my DSL line are over, I need to write up something about that as well.

But, for anyone reading this, is there anything you'd like to hear about?  About Oslo, or even London or Europe in general?  Or should I come back to U.S. politics at some point (ok, with the elections two months away, I'm sure I'll post something political).  I am going to try and start reading up more on Norwegian politics - the pension scandal around former members of the government, including a former Prime Minister might be a bit interesting, and Americans probably haven't heard much about it.

Please, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.