Brunost, melkesjokolade and knekkebrød

So much have happened lately that I decided to focus on my fieldwork notes and not my blog. I think It's nice that tings are finally starting to work out. On Friday it was one month since I arrived in Seattle. One month. I feel like I have been here a lot longer, but I imagine that is because everything still is new to me. Now with my one month anniversary things are starting to look a little bit better.

On Wednesday I met with Sandys family for lunch. It was so nice! I think I have met some of them before, when they have been to Harstad. I also met some of my relatives from back home who were in Vancouver to watch the Olympics. Scott, the brother that I know haven't met before, came and picked me up and we went to visit "grandma Polly". I thought she looked good despite here age, in fact, she looked just like I remembered her. Then "uncle Stu" came with Svein and Sverre, and when Scotts wife came we all went out for lunch. I had a really good time with some really nice people.

Later that day I went to the Nordic Heritage Museum. There was a meeting for the volunteers for a project called Nordic American Voices. They record the stories of old Nordic-Americans (not just Norwegians, but people from the Nordic countries) and they are doing an effort to collect, preserve, and share the life histories of Nordic immigrants and their descendants in the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Strand, one of the people working on the project, had invited me to come. There was a woman there talking about her experience with World War II, she was from Borkenes, which is about a 20 min. drive from Harstad. It turned out that her cousin is a friend of my mom. On Friday Mari-Ann, the lady that I met on Wednesday, came and picked me up and we went to the museum to see The Kautokeino Rebellion (Kautokeino opprøret). I had seen it before, but I get so angry every time I see it.

On Saturday Mari-Ann came and picked me up, and we went to Auburn, just outside of Seattle, to do some interviews for the Nordic American Voices project. They had invited me to come, so that I could learn how to do interviews. The people we interviewed had some really fascinating stories to tell, and I decided that if my grandmothers will let me, I will record their stories when I come home. Just to have their stories, to get to know them from a different time in their lives and to have them when they are gone. I'm really looking forward to it already!

When we came back from Auburn Mari-Ann took me to a Scandinavian shop in Ballard. We had shrimp sandwiches and Solo and I bought brunost, melkesjokolade and knekkebrød. 
 

I had Trista, my roommate, taste brunost when I came home, and she actually liked it. Of course she loved the Norwegian milk chocolate but who doesn't?!  So to day for breakfast I had knekkebrød with brunost, and it tasted like heaven!

Reminder

I just want to remind you to listen to "The Scandinavian Hour" to morrow 18:00 - 19:00 (Norwegian time)

Follow the link and you'll get to the streaming page:

1150AM KKNW

Radiostar and Norwegian meatball dinner

I realize now It's been a while since my last post, but that doesn't mean that things are not happening. I'll try to give you a short summary of what I have been doing these last days.

Sunday and Monday my back really hurt because of the snowboarding trip. I didn't want to admit it to anyone, but I was kind of worried. Again, I just have to say that I had a really good time and I think it was worth it! I'm fine now, and it doesn't hurt at all when I bend over or sit down. To celebrate I cleaned the bathroom. It does not happen often that I celebrate that way, that I can assure you.

On Tuesday Doug came and picked me up and we went to the radio station to record his radio show "The Scandinavian Hour". The show that I'm in will be on the air February 20th at 9 - 10 (18 - 19 Norwegian time). You can listen to it here: http://www.1150kknw.com/. I taked about my master thesis, and a little bit about Norway. The funny thing is that the Norwegian music he played was Åge Aleksandersen and music from a CD called "Kong Drillo og hans menn".. In my opinion not exactly the best Norwegian music, but he seemed to think so. At the radiostation I met another Norwegian American who worked at the Nordic Heritage Museum, and he said yes to let me interview him for my thesis.

Later that day I went to my first rehearsal with the Norwegian Ladies Chorus of Seattle. It was a lot of fun, and even though most of the women were about 20 years older than me (there was one person my ange) it was still nice to be a part of a choir again. They were rehearsing "Tango for to", "Bruremasj i Hardanger" and a couple of other Norwegian songs. Only one English song, from "The Fiddler on the Roof".

On Wednesday there was a meatball dinner at the Leif Ericson Lodge. I helped decorate and prepare the food, and so I got the dinner and a glass of wine for free. It was not that expensive, $5 for dinner, so I wold be glad to pay, but of course, free is a really nice price. I also met some Norwegian students at the meatball dinner. It was so nice to talk Norwegian again. They were students from Trondheim just like me, but they are only staying for tree months, and they have already been here one month. I hope we can meet again, and hopefully this Saturday at the Leif Ericson Lodge happy hour. $5 for two drinks and snax.. what a good price!

So, thats my week so far, yesterday it was raining really hard, so I just stayed in and made Norwegian pancakes and to night I'm going to wach the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

I went snowboarding!

 

  

  

I went snowboarding yesterday. It was so much fun! I met this guy at the Swedish Cultural Club, he participated in the Swedes Got Talent show even though he was Norwegian. He won by the way, mostly because that most the Swedes that participated did not have talent. I was just talking about how I missed the snow and the real winter in Norway, and he offered me to tag along when he was going skiing the next day. His job was to chaperon some school kids, so I got a free ride up and a free pass, the only thing I had to pay for was renting the snowboard. The weather was really nice, although you cant see that on the pictures I took.. I really can not tell how much I appreciated everything. Right now my back hurts like h*** because I fell really bad, but it was worth it I had a really good time! I even got to practice my interviewing skills on him on our way home. I realized that I have to read a lot more before I can start interviewing people for real, but it's nice to have someone to practice on.

I'm starting to really enjoy my stay here now. For real, not just something I'm saying so that the people back home won't get worried about me, I really am!

On Tuesday Doug (the president of the Leif Erickson lodge) will come and pick me up and we will go to record his radio show; Scandinavian hour.  It's on air on Saturday, and apparently you can stream it (whatever that means). I'll find out how and let you know.

My first fieldworkday

I had my first fieldworkday on Tuesday! I'm really proud, and it was a lot of fun. I met with Doug Warne, the president of the Leif Erikson Lodge in Ballard, he took me to the Kaffestue. A place quite similar to "Kaffistova" back home. This is the place where all the old Norwegian Americans meet to drink coffe and eat sandwich with brunost, eggs or Norwegian waffles with brunost or jam, and listen to old, but live, Nordic musik. There we met with Gordon Strand who is responsible for Nordic American Voices: An oral History Initiative, where they "record the life histories of Nordic immigrants and their descendants in the Pacific Northwest".  It is all done by volunteers, and off course I offered him my help. I think it will be a great experience for me, and I'll get to practice interviewing people for my project. 

It was still early when Doug had to go to a meeting so I went down to the library which is located in the basement of the lodge. I was lucky because it is only open on Tuesdays. There I met Margaret and Gunnar. Margaret was born in Seattle and didn't speak any Norwegian, but Gunnar was originally from Trondheim and spoke Norwegian really well. He was even more updated on the latest news about Trondheim than I was. The library was a small room with a lot of books and a large table in the middle of the room where ther lay a bunch of Norwegian magazines, like "Allers" and "Hjemmet" and the Bunad Leksikon bind I - III. Here people could come to loan books, DVDs and VHS. Most of the books where Norwegian, and a lot of books from World War II which was the most popular books, they had books by Lars Saabye Christensen, Erlen Loe and Anne Karin Elstad, but also classics like Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Snorre and Hamsund. 

Gunnar offered to buy me coffee, so we went back up to the Kaffestue. This time there were a lot of people there, and all really interested in talking to me about Norway. Most of the was born in Norway, so most of them spoke really good Norwegian. I met this lady who was from the same place as my grandmother. She said that if I just mentioned her name to my grandmother she would know who she was. I passed the name on to my mother, and I hope she remember to ask my grandmother. 

I also met this relatively young lady (maybe in the early fifty), who invited me to the Swedish Cultural Center to morrow for "Swedes Got Talent night", which is basically karaoke night. She also took it upon herself to get me a bike, so she is coming to pick me up later to day to go to one lady we met at the Kaffestue who thought she had a bike I could borrow. 

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I didn't take any pictures of the Kaffestue, the library or the people there, but it is not the last time I'm going there next time I'll take many pictures.