Changes in Latitudes

This weekend before we go back to work, we headed up to the cabin for skiing. I went running today to train for my race, but skiing was great yesterday! Today there was a sled dog race that went on the trails that we usually ski. There were 43 sled dog teams, some with only 8 dogs and others with as many as 16. Phones have great editing programs now. It looks like I had Marius' fancy camera! (Mom and Dad: he forgot to bring it and his new mono-/tri-pods to test it out...doh!!)

It meant a lot to me that Marius came with me to Michigan for Christmas this year! Our bags were stuffed with presents when we departed Bergen/Oslo on the 13th at 6am bound for Detroit. When we arrived Marius greeted everyone working at the airport with a Merry Christmas, which spread a lot of smiles. Unfortunately, some of our gifts were confiscated...apparently all meat is prohibited from entering the US unless it has been boiled and sealed in a metal container. Sounded a lot like spam. So our gift of Norwegian smoked ham and lam sausage was given in spirit. At least the other gifts made it through! [Upon arrival at DTW] [Marius cutting down the tree] Mom and Dad picked us up on time and we were tired. We had a hard time adjusting to the time zone since our flight just made us awake for the day, but after three days we were adjusted. We picked out our tree the day after arriving and Marius was given the task to cut it down after a fair amount of time of comparing several...

Last weekend Marius came to visit me in Bergen for the Light Festival. We were a little disappointed because there were not as many Christmas songs as the last time we went, but the fireworks at the end were still good. [Christmas atmosphere in Bergen] [Annual Bergen Light Festival/Tree-Lighting] [Beautiful sunrise on my way to work last week] Right now we are at the cabin in Synnfjell for our first ski weekend of the season with Tron and Rigmor. We also have Kajsa with us because her owners are in Copenhagen for the weekend, and they asked us to dog-sit (she is the old cocker spaniel). Marius' two younger cousins who live near Oslo are also up with us, and they like having Kajsa around but forget that she can't hear. [Kajsa likes to roll around in the snow whenever she gets the chance] Tron, Marius and I arrived to the cabin on Friday night. I woke up with Kajsa around 7:30. It was still dark and the moon was really bright. After a little breakfast we r...

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...

Marius turned 29 last week! And sticking to tradition, he got his 3rd annual birthday pumpkin. We took it over to Tron and Rigmor's to show them (and grandma) a little taste of Halloween.  We didn't have scary music, but Grandma Oddny was interested in the carving and seed baking procedures. But once we showed her pictures that people posted on Facebook of the decorations and costumes she quickly "ba humbuged" the holiday saying "Uff, Americans" and waving her hand down. hahaha  Well, Halloween is still getting more and more popular each year. There's significantly more Halloween activity in Oslo than in Bergen. I even saw trick-or-treaters! (None came to our apartment nor the Engebrethsen's house though) I baked Marius a chocolate cake, and of course it had to be a scary cake! Marius tried to give Rigmor a little scare I also was contacted for an interview with a research group called Bioforsk. They work primarily with...

We drove from Copenhagen to Oslo in one day; it's only 6 hours. While we were still in Denmark we found a grocery store to stock up on cheaper beer and some road snacks. But then the GPS took us the wrong way, and we found ourselves in line for the ferry from a city just north of Copenhagen to Helsingborg, Sweden. Instead of backtracking to the bridge, we decided to take the 20 minute ferry ride across. We obviously went way north! Six hours later we were back in Oslo. We took it easy the next day and walked around our neighborhood and up the river. It was good weather for a long walk. Rigmor had us over for dinner and served moose "gryte" (a stew) and "Troll krem" (troll cream = lingonberry, egg whites and sugar) for dessert. We still had some must-sees to cover in Oslo. Mainly the royal palace and ski jump/ski museum. We made it in time for the changing of the guard. Skis varied by region and were over 15 feet long back in the day! Dad...

First Carlsberg of the trip As we crossed the bridge from Malmö, Sweden, into Denmark, we saw blue sky, blue water and white sail boats. The bridge was long, but before we knew it we were in Denmark...yet again, no indication that we actually entered another country, and it felt more like we were crossing the bridge up to the U.P. Following our GPS passed lots of houses that Marius described as "typical Danish", but to me they just looked like "typical northern Europe": brick homes with steep roofs. There were tons of cyclists! A lot of people bike in Norway, but Copenhagen sets the bar really high. We came to the street with our hotel and parked in the street. As well as there being two other hotels, there were also two "gentlemen's clubs", and the street smelled like pee. At least the room was alright! We went to the tourist information center around the corner and got a map for a walking tour of Copenhagen that "should only take...