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.Comments [4]
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Since I had just arrived in Norway, I wasn't able to return home for Christmas. Fortunately, my good friend Øystein and his family were kind enough to welcome me into their home in Bergen for the holidays. He was there, along with his sister Åshild, and his parents, Magnar and Vigdis. His brother, Vidar, stopped in to visit just after I had left.
In many ways this was a special opportunity, because future Christmases will be spent with my own family, where we will no doubt continue many of our American Christmas traditions. But this was a chance to see how Norwegians celebrate Christmas. Magnar and Vigdis have a great little guest apartment attached to the garage where one or two people can stay. I like how Norwegian interiors often leave the natural wood exposed. While I was in Bergen, I also had a chance to visit Svein, the guy I met on the plane to Norway. I got to meet his wonderful wife, Zuzana, as well as his son and grandson. Norway has a national broadcasting company (NRK) that manages the programming for three TV stations and quite a few radio stations. Until about 20 years ago, all they had was a single TV channel. New channels have been added in recent years, but NRK still has a strong influence on what Norwegians see and hear. One example of this is a show that always plays every year on Christmas Eve Eve (lille julaften), called Dinner for One. Legend has it that one year they put this on and ever since then it has been demanded by viewers. The famous line in the show, "same procedure as last year," has become a common phrase that people say here (in English) when making a joke about anything that is an annual tradition, especially the tradition of watching this program. It's a jolly little skit. Take a look. Most of the celebration takes place on Christmas eve (julaften) which is the day that people usually trim the tree, dress up, go to church, sing songs and open presents. Families with younger children often receive a visit from Julenissen (Father Christmas), who usually looks suspiciously like Dad. We went to their local Church of Norway congregation, which has quite an interesting interior design, as you can see in the photo. It was also interesting to see the organist playing from a high loft, which is something I'm not used to seeing in our own chapels. I enjoyed what little of the sermon I could understand. If memory serves, it was about a little girl dreaming of what Christmas night might be like for other children less fortunate than her. Overall, even though I missed Kami and the kids, I was really cheered by Øystein's family and felt right at home with them. They also fed me very well, sharing some traditional Norwegian dishes with me, like Lutefisk, which was actually pretty good.Comments [0]
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."
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I was fortunate to get one of the last tickets on a daytime train to Bergen for the Christmas holiday. The day is over around 3-4pm during winter, so if you take an afternoon train you don't get to see much. It's interesting how much the weather changes as you pass over the mountain range dividing the western coast from the rest of Norway.
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Let me apologize for the incredible delay in my blogging. After the Christmas holiday I was extremely busy finishing up the post-production video editing work for RubyConf 2009. Little by little, life here in Norway has gotten busier and things have been crowding out my blogging efforts. But I've recommitted to doing a better job of things and trying to catch up on the things I've been documenting since my hiatus.
These are some pictures of our LDS Ward Christmas Dinner, which took place the Sunday before Christmas in Sandvika. LDS meetinghouses have to adapt to a wide spectrum of events, each one with a different level of solemnity. Right next to the chapel, where the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper takes place every Sunday, is the cultural hall, where people play basketball, perform skits and talent shows, and have potluck dinners like this one, among other things. The juxtaposition of the sacred and the mundane is something I've really come to appreciate over the years. What, after all, is a religion for if it doesn't intrude a little into our everyday lives? In addition to mingling and sharing some warm food together, we enjoyed music, poetry and prose from some ward members.Comments [0]
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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