Happy Christmas!!!

Here in Norway we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve - that's the day when we eat, eat, and open presents. We are usually only the five of us, in the nearest family for dinner: my brother and sister, me and my parents
In my family, my mother also decorates the three on the 24th, and, as has become tradition, I am helping her. Here is how it looks like:

Quite a golden three, as you can see!

This is what we normally eat on Christmas eve:

- Around 13:00 we eat a sweet rice-porridge, with an almond in it - whoever get's the almond, get's a price, which is a pig-shaped marcipanfigure
- At 6 or 7 we eat the traditional meal in the east of Norway(the very same every year!): A big piece of ribs of a pig ('ribbe'), where the skin on top is baked really crisp, and the meat is teeeender!!! Yammi :) (Accompanied by potatoes, a sauce, some sausages and 'surkål'; a sort of cooked cabbage with spices and vinegear which is quite sweet)

- Then we have dessert; leftovers of the rice-porridge(served cold) whit whipped cream, raisins and a berry-sauce to go with it

- If we can manage, we have cakes and coffee a bit later (this year, it was impossible!)

After we've eaten, we open presents (before the potential coffee and cakes...)

By the way, my mother aslo decorates the entire house for Christmas for the first sunday of 'advent'. She has a million of 'nisser' (small santa's) and angels and ... stuff, basically, everywhere! It's really cosy (Gezellig, as they would say in dutch. Koselig in norwegian.).

Take a look:

Merry Christmas, everyone! Tidings and joy, and peace and hope. That's what I'll pray the new year will bring us. Take care.

December

When December enters stage, girls all over Norway go crazy for 'Juleverksted' - a kind of Christmas Workshop. This is a scene for making Christmas Cards, decorations, presents, baking, listening to Christmas songs and drinking 'gløgg', which is a warm, spicy drink.

The girls in my circle of friends also gathered for this traditional activity.

Presenting:
Hilde, making cards

Åshild, baking 'kakemenn' (cake-men)

Marte, also baking

Mari was eating the very traditional Norwegian dish 'Mr.Lee'-nudles

After this wonderful meal, she joined in on making beautiful candleholders with decopagé
I was decorating candles, by using a hot kitchen tool to melt pieces of a napkin into the wax:

Result:

Snø!!!

It's been snowing in Bergen! Yesterday it was rather stormy, but today was simply beautiful! Sunny, cold and lots and lots of people in the street!

I started the day drinking coffee with a friend, then I went shopping and had cake with a girl from my studies. It was absolutely lovely! Tonight I'm attending a concert with St.Morritz - a country/pop band from Bergen which I highly reccomend. Visit their myspace on : www.myspace.com/stmorritz

Road Trip Norway

Ok, ok. I know - I'm terrible. I haven't written for almost three months! It's mainly because first, there was to much to write about, and then there was nothing. I've been back in Bergen since the beginning of August, and I'm buisy-buisy back to uni.

However, this weekend was a bit holiday-ish; a friend from Polen, which I met in Amsterdam, came to visit for some days! It was nice, and I think she loved the city :)

On sunday we went on a spectacular road trip in the area around Bergen. The guitar player in my band, Arne, was easy to convince about coming along with his car! We were gone all the day, and even though it was raining and SO cold, we had an amazing trip!!!

A waterfall called Steinsfossen - were you can acctually walk up behind the water!

View on a place called Øystese.
This was on the way up to Folgefonna, a glacier. Amazing colours!!
And as we got higher, it started snowing!! And Ula, my friend, was so excited!


What a country. Perfect!

The End

I've officially left Amsterdam. Wow. How did that happen? And how did it happen, that when I woke up the morning after I was soaked in tears and sadness, it already felt like a dream? Or like I'd been away on a holiday for some time.

Amsterdam. The place I found a family, people I've really come to love. And some of whom I'm sure I will meet again. I have to! At least I have to hope I will forever, since it would feel like love gone lost if I didn't.

Amsterdam! New friends - now old friends, new home - now no longer home.

Amsterdam. I AMsterdam. I AM (no longer) sterdam.

Luxembourg

From the 17th to the 19th of June I went to visit Luxembourg. I was surprised at how beautiful (and clean...) it was, and after 4 months in Holland, the hills and forests were an extremely welcoming sight!

There are two bridges connecting the new and the old part of Luxembourg City, and in the valley underneath there used to be a river. This is what's left of it (can you spot the tiny-winy canal down there, to the right in the first picture?? What's up with this northern- continental fetish of controlling water in canals... )


The next pictures are from the Kasematres; the old fortress protecting Luxembourg (also known as the Gibraltar of the North, because of it's impenetrability). It used to be an enormous labyrinth of passageways in the mountain, covering 180 ha - compared to the citys' 120 ha. They started building it in the 963, and ever since it's been extended. But after Luxembourg declared themselves neutral during the wars, they had to demolish most of it. What's left today is, off course, a tourist attraction, and on the UNESCO world Heritage list.



Here's a view on the Grund Valley:



From the old part of the town:

The grey building in the middle is the oldest house in Luxembourg. On the thing built on the outside of the house (wow, I really don't have any word for it...) it's written: 'we want to stay the way we are', which has become the motto of the city.


This is the tower of the church of St.Miguel; the oldest church in Luxembourg.


I would definately recommend going there; it's very beautiful, apparently there's a good nightlife (we didn't check it out..), and no lack of shopping-oppurtunity. There's also a lot of interesting history, and one last fascinating fact; one third of the population (of less than 100.000 inhabitans) are acctually Portuguese!

Brussels
On the way back to Amsterdam we stopped in Brussels. Another beautiful city, unfortunately we only spent about two hours there. However, Ivan was the guide, and he's been there before so we could see some of the most important things in this short while.

The Grand Place...



The Manneken Pis (landmark of Brussels)...


...and we bought chocolate!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....


On the train back my backpack got stolen; nothing of great value, but still, it SUCKS. It feels so completely unnecessary. What was in the backpack was basically clothes, my favourite pair of shoes (assholes!!), my favourite piece of jewellery that was a present from my grandparents and the keys to my appartment. Well, I guess it was bound to happen, sooner or later, since it never happened to me before. And I will make sure it wont happen again. Hopefully...

Anyways, a nice trip; and it was good to get out of the city a bit. Especially because people here have started leaving, and it's just sad.

Franatra & Sjimpanje

Da var det endelig ferie!! Hadde eksamen på torsdag, i Sociale Psychologie van het Zelf, og etterpå feiret Tiril og jeg med Vla (deilig hollandsk dessert), Frank Sinatra på høytaleren og sprudlevin!


Stemningen var riktig så høytidelig - det skulle nå bare mangle, i og med at vi nå er ferdig med første avdeling! Hurra for oss, og alle på kullet vårt der hjemme. Nå begynner en ny æra, når jeg først klarer å surre meg hjem. Den 30.juni reiser jeg herifra; med pakk og kamel drar jeg til Tyskland for å besøke mine besteforeldre. Der møter jeg også mine foreldre, som tar med seg mesteparten av bagasjen min hjem, mens jeg vender snuten sørover; etter å ha snakket om det fire år på rad, skal jeg endelig få oppfylt drømmen min om Italia! 10.juli bærer det av sted til Napoli for å besøke en venn (Nærmere bestemt Pioppi enda litt lenger sør; se bildet). Så håper jeg å få sett Roma og Toscana i tillegg, og man kan forvente å se mitt (brune!) åsyn i Bergen igjen i begynnelsen av august. Jeg gleder meg! Både til ferie, og til å komme hjem!

Pioppi

Vel, etter at Tiril og jeg (med litt hjelp fra Kevin) var godt på vei ned i flaska med musserende, snakket vi nok en gang om hvor deilig det var å være ferdig. Og Tiril spruter ut med hva som ble den veldig søte tittelen for dette innlegget; Ja, Franatra og Sjimpanje! Skål ;)

Lab-weeks

Yeei, I have lab-weeks! Sitting around assigning participants for an experiment. Well, then there's a lot of web-surfing to be done, and here is one of the things I found; it's a video, and it really nails these popstars...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=17722105

Tulipaner i lange baner

Bilder fra sykkeltur til tulipanåkrene sør-vest for Amsterdam. En fantastisk dag!
Vi tok toget til Leiden, og syklet til Lisse. Der hadde vi picnic med ost og vin. På veien dit møtte vi på en blomsterparade. Kilometervis med store vogner dekorert med titusenvis av blomster!

Blomsterparade

Picnic i sola!

PS: Takk til Tiril for bilder :) Jeg hadde glemt kameraet mitt...