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!