Youngblog

Important film: Food, Inc.

Do yourself a favor and watch this movie:

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

This really brought home to me how dangerous and corrupt our food supply chain has become. Responsible people everywhere really need to take charge of their own eating habits, because if you go with the easiest option, you are really taking your life into your hands.

Caroling for candy

Christmas in Norway

On Thursday, December 10th, the company put together a great Christmas party for all employees and their families. They set up a large sealed pavilion for everyone to mingle in, and provided "gløgg,"

a drink kind of like wassail (the name reminds me of "grog" in English), beer, fruit juice, soda and other beverages, along with "pepperkaker,"

gingerbread cookies. Seems like gløgg and gingerbread cookies accompany almost every holiday gathering here. On the cookie you can read the way Norwegians say "Merry Christmas" to each other. It sounds kind of like "Go Yule." Here is one of my colleagues at Tandberg, Rune Schumann, enjoying himself at the party.

They also provided live music and other activities.

I have really been surprised by how big of a deal Christmas is here in Norway. I expected them to celebrate it, but I almost think they celebrate it more than we do. Pretty much everyone here has advent candles burning at dinner time, and they all get dressed up in Sunday best on Christmas Eve, go to church, and dance around the Christmas tree while singing songs, among other things. Besides department stores, they even play Christmas music on the bus, where I happened to hear an especially cheesy rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" the other day. It really has been fun to see how excited everyone is for the holiday. I will be spending Christmas this year in Bergen with a dear friend from high school and his family. I'm really going to miss Kami and the kids, but it has helped to be able to do video chats with each other on Skype.

Today I am in Bergen for "Lillejulaften," which is the word they use for Christmas Eve Eve. Christmas Eve is called Julaften, so it literally means "little Christmas Eve."

Norwegian Bluegrass

Today, as I was getting some last-minute Christmas shopping done, I saw an excellent bluegrass band playing on Karl Johans Gate in Oslo. The Salvation Army frequently brings top-notch musicians in during Christmas to play for people and encourage donations.

It was so cold that it was difficult to hold my camera up for the duration of the song. It must have been really hard to play in that weather.

High-tech eggs

I got a kick out of this. Every Norwegian egg has a serial number on it with the batch number and facility where it was harvested.

Strange coincidence

Coincidentally, and for the first time since I got here, two people asked me for directions on my way to work today. I was able to manage enough Norwegian to apologize for not being able to help them.

I have a short walk at the end of my commute to work after arriving at Lysaker station. Right now, due to some construction, there is a detour that takes me through a residential area. I've taken pictures of some of the homes I walk by. Norwegians use a lot of wood in their homes, and they usually paint them with bright colors. Olve, one of my coworkers, mentioned that there is a certain degree of social pressure to keep your house looking neat and well-maintained, among other societal duties. Although it's not usually this extreme, there is a concept articulated by Norwegian/Danish author Aksel Sandemose describing this tendency called Janteloven ("The Jante Law"):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law

Although the author described this tendency negatively, there are also plenty of benefits to this custom. Without at least some of this, communities can't hold together. 

     

Click here to download:

Strange_coincidence_tag_norway.zip (4412 KB)

Train station musicians

At the Lysaker station where I get off each morning on my way to work there are often street musicians playing music and trying to earn a little cash. The two guys I've seen playing so far are pretty good. Here are a couple videos.

There's no such thing as bad weather

After meeting the ward members, I was invited to have dinner with Christian and Elisabet Karlsson, a family in the ward who just recently moved back to Norway after getting an MBA at BYU. They have three strapping boys, Mats, Mikkel, and Magnus. I had a great time getting to know them and seeing their house in Slemmestad, hoping that we might be able to find a place of similar size when the family moves over to join me.

I noticed, as Elisabet was giving me a tour of the house, that they had no heaters upstairs, and I asked them how they kept warm. She said they bundle the kids well, and that, actually, she sleeps with the window open, as do many other Norwegians! I got a kick out of the idea. It just goes right along with the viking toughness that they are known for. It also kind of makes sense. I've been sleeping under a down comforter like most of them do, and it is just so darn hot that it's sometimes hard to go to sleep, so I can see why it might be easier to sleep under a thick warm blanket and lower the room temperature.

First sacrament meeting in Oslo

Well, not exactly Oslo. The LDS ward we'll probably be attending is in Sandvika (pronounced SAHN-vee-kah), which is just a little west of Oslo, so I took the train out there today and tried to find the chapel. The address was somewhat difficult, and nobody that I asked knew where it was, so it took me about an hour to find it. I thought I was going to arrive early but ended up arriving with just enough time to catch the tail end of sacrament meeting. The info I had looked up online said that meetings began at 12:50, but it turned out this was just for the final meeting; the schedule actually begin at 11am. So it was a good thing I arrived when I did, or I might have missed it altogether.

The chapel looked similar to others I've seen, but had a distinctive Nordic style to it, with plenty of exposed wood. They had wreaths up for Christmastime.

   

Click here to download:

First_sacrament_meeting_in_Nor.zip (57 KB)

The members were very kind to me, and excited to see another family potentially moving into the ward. Knowing that we hadn't figured out exactly where we were going to live yet, they all did their best to encourage us to decide to move there. Here are a couple of kind sisters I met there, Ågot Amundsen and Solveig Wyssenbach:

One of the members of the bishopric works as an appraiser and knows a lot about property values. He recommended an area called Slemmestad as a good location that is close enough to Oslo but relatively less expensive than the surrounding areas. A few families with kids our age live there too. So I'll definitely be investigating that area for potential places to live.

Managing expectations

OK, so it's been a little while since I updated everyone on my experiences here in Norway. A couple weeks ago I wrote about my trip to Oslo and some of the adventures of my first week. The weeks following have been no less eventful.

First, something amusing. I'm still surprised by the differences in expectations about how much space is required for certain activities in the States vs. here. Tandberg has three main buildings at its headquarters in Lysaker, a municipality just west of Oslo. I'm working in a large building that says "Software Innovation" on the outside. It's mostly occupied by Tandberg employees, but apparently the "Software Innovation" building itself was built by a consultancy of the same name. Overall, the building is quite modern and comfortable. However, there are probably over 100 employees on the 3rd floor west wing where I work, and all the male employees share two tiny bathrooms like this.