Happy 17th of May! Today is Norway's Constitution Day! We started it off with breakfast with a couple friends (in normal Norwegian style of course - bread, brown cheese, meats and more cheese), followed by a rainy walk to the city for the parade.
The crowds were pretty intense, but not above what I expected for a parade. Some similarities to the American style parade, but still fairly different. They have the politicians (only those in office) walking in the front followed by an old fire truck or two and then the school bands come along with the boy and girl scouts, and at the end of that is the children's parade where every child in Bergen gets to walk with their school.
For dinner, Marius and I had pan-seared cod with potatoes, broccoli and carrots - pretty traditional Norwegian food. And dessert was sour cream porridge - which was topped with raisins, a little butter and sugar, and cinnamon. What a nice first 17th of May in Norway!
[The children's parade coming around with the beginning of the parade across the way]
[Bergen's politicians leading the parade]
[Can't forget to have the old fire brigade!]
[17. Mai middag for to: torsk, poteter, broccoli, og gulrot]
Many Norwegian traditions are distinctly regional. Even recipes are variable by region to go along with dialects that can be different by town separated by just 50 kilometers. This tradition, that both Marius and I were new to trying, was from a town just about an hour and a half east of Bergen called Voss....smalahove, or half of a sheep's head that is cooked in a broth for several hours. Smalahove comes from two Norwegian words: smale = sheep, and hove = head. It is served before Christmas with potatoes, mashed rutabaga, and red cabbage. Many of my friends were telling me that the cheek is supposed to be the best part, and others were saying that they wouldn't dare eat it. So I can now say that I have done something that many other Norwegians haven't dared try. I actually really enjoyed it! It had a texture like corned beef and had a very nice flavor. Marius went as far as to try the tongue, and thought that eating the eye was a normal thing, so tried that as well...bu...
But only temporarily, as of yet. In the beginning of the month I took the train from Oslo to Bergen. It was a beautiful trip cross-country ascending to over 1000m above sea level and back down again. My friend Knut said that I could stay at his place until an apartment was available to rent. I picked up the key from his mom, dropped off my things, and went back downtown to go to my Norwegian course. He was out of town for the week for work, and my first day of work was not until the following Monday. So I used the next five days reacquainting myself with Bergen....mainly by running around my old neighborhood. On Monday (Nov 10) I started my new (tempoary) part time job at UniResarch Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology...UniSars for short. Technically I am called a "research technician", but I'm more like a glorified dishwasher at the moment. I made sure to tell the researchers that I am more than capable to help them if they need an extra pa...
FIFA 2010 kicked off on June 11 and today, New Zealand will today make a return to the world’s greatest football stage exactly 28 years to the day since their FIFA World Cup debut. The All Whites will take on Slovakia at 11PM (New Zealand time). It is hard to say whether it will be a good game or not; however, the fact that NZ is in the world cup for the first time in so long is enough of a reason to stay up so late. Saturday morning was the big USA vs. England match. The Americans are so happy with a tie that the New York Post had this as its front page: The time difference makes it a bit hard to keep up with seeing the games, but it's always fun to rub in the fact that the British tied the US in their first World Cup game this year to some British friends. Next exam is Saturday for Invertebrate Diversity. And only 20 days to go til Thailand!!
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