Better late than never

My Sunday was spent Halloweening (the wee hours at least).
A week late, but that truly did not matter.

Scary, right? ;) 
Man I love Halloween.

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Trondheim, take two

Last summer, Lars and I met Colleen in Trondheim and had a fantastic time. Last weekend, Lars and I hopped a plane to his old stomping grounds to attend a childhood buddy's 30th birthday celebration. Trondheim did not disappoint the second time around either!

We spent the day wandering around the city Lars knows so well, met up with an old friend and soon-to-be father who co-authored his master thesis, drank some coffee, window shopped and enjoyed the crisp spring air.

We made our way back to the hotel to rest up a bit before meeting Øivind (one of my personal favorites!) at a local bar for wine, beer and mojitos! Or as Øivind mistakenly called them--mosquitos! Haha.

And then it was onwards to Trønderkjeller'n where Ole K. (the birthday boy) had rented out facilities for the festivities. Here he is, looking what he insists to be not a day over 30 years old:

I even had the honor of the first dance with the birthday boy!

Time went strangely fast down in that basement...it was 3am before we knew it!

It was a hell of a party. We made it out of there right before I turned into a pumpkin...

Takk for oss Trondheim! En gang i året er ikke nok!

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Tuesday night life

Hamar definitely does not have a reputation for having much of a night life. It's a small town--that basically says it all. I have disappointed many a visitor with my description of the bar scene at work and have heard many a local complain that there is no liv (life) around the place.

I am not sure what all the skeptics would say if I told them I was at a concert last night (on a Tuesday!) and so many people came that security had to turn people away!

The attraction was Bare Egil, an eccentric bearded man with an incredible sense of humor. The place was Seb's Hotel, undoubtedly one of the coolest places around Hamar, and the combination of his humor, acoustics and the crowd of happy Hamarians was more than enough to remind me how important music is in my life.

Maybe more Tuesday nights should be spent at Seb's. Just sayin'.

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Green vs. pink

I have so much to share, I am a bit overwhelmed. And I apologize, Annē, for not providing you with more procrastination reading material. I will get better, I promise. ;)

Updates have to start somewhere,... why not begin with two colorful nights of fun? For the first--our take on St. Patrick's Day: it's a wonderful green blur. And not just green beer and green outfits folks, but green veggies, green dip, green frosted cupcakes and even homemade green guacomole and salsa! Greentastic!

Knut was warned that he would regret coming to the St. Patrick's Day vorspiel without green clothes, but he took the chance anyway. Maybe he didn't take me seriously because St. Patty's isn't that big of a deal here in Norway, or at least not where we live. Knut got the pinch he deserved of course, plus the once in a lifetime opportunity to wear the green sequined vest that has been dying to get out of my closet.

He actually wore the vest out to Dirty Nelly's, our Irish bar of choice for the occassion although he wasn't too keen on taking off his coat haha.
I feel like Lars pulled off Irish well. Check him out, sitting at the pub, having a brew and reading the paper.

Dancing "Irish style" at Dirty Nelly was definitely a highlight, mostly because none of us can. But the absolute best might have been watching Marek (from Poland), uh, basically do anything. He is a hilarious, hilarious guy. Really wish you all could see his dance moves!

Needless to say, the night was a hit. In fact, Linda and I dug the color-themed party so much that we traded in green for pink when planning Linda's birthday extravaganza!

Originally it was going to be a pink girls night out...but Linda's German friends had mixed gendered visitors from Germany, so boys were allowed. Then Linda invited a Lars+1 from work and I brought along my new coworker Teodor. Have I mentioned it is a lot of fun partying with people you've just met or that you don't know that well? Don't get me wrong, it's great hanging with your best buds, but man it adds some spice to the mix when there's a lot of new faces about the place.

Also about the place was absolute pink-overload, language-overload and arguably vodka-overload.

Germans have this crazy tradition called vodka ahoy which involves a sugary soda powder packet dumped in your mouth followed by a vodka shot and then shake shake shake. Oh yeah, and then you yell vodka ahoy, of course.

When's the last time you were at a party where someone brought their own bar? It wasn't Iselin's, but she tried it on for size.

Or when's the last time you've been to a party where there was a spontaneous conga line on the way to town?

If it's been awhile, or if you've never been to such a party, I suggest you seek one out...even if you are just going to sit in the corner and watch. At the very least it will be entertaining...

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Surprise!

Iselin turned 20 on Wednesday. 20 is a bit of a milestone birthday as you are no longer a teen, but it is especially big here in Norway--you can officially get into the majority of bars and legally buy alcohol harder than beer and wine!

Reminder: if you are a bit fuzzy as to who the heck Iselin is, she is an ex-coworker of mine from Poesi and the same fun-loving Norwegian that came to visit me this fall in the US. We had an absolute blast and she is definitely one of my closest friends here in Norway.

She asked me if I wanted to join her and some friends for a drink at Siste Indre (20 years and up only, vet du ). I accepted så klart! and looked forward to the night immensely. Without any alterior motives I suggested we meet at my place before we were going to go out...and things just escalated from there.

Next thing I knew I was contacting friends we had in common and planning a surprise party. I must say I have not had much luck with surprise parties in the past; I tried to arrange one for Lars in 2008 and it was a total flop. I mean, we had a great time but he wasn't surprised in the least. This attempt was the complete opposite--Iselin was shocked! All she managed to say when she walked in the door was herregud (oh my god) over and over again. She even teared up a little!

Linda had come over early and helped me prepare--she baked a cake while I cleaned, blew up balloons and decorated the place. The rest of the girls showed up about a half an hour before Iselin just in time to help decorate and light the cake!

We also had some ridiculous party hats that completed the entire experience. Made us feel like we were six year olds again--and at the best kids' party ever!

Did I mention we pretended the balloons were breasts and even wore the hats out to Siste Indre? Yep, we are that cool and that mature.

Gratulerer så mye med dagen Iselin!

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Canon gets to party too (edited)

I am fairly certain that I will not take my new, beloved SLR camera to a vorspiel anytime in the near future. At least I don't think. I have never personally been responsible for ruining a camera after some drinks (I tend to drop mine in the sand while 100% sober) but a very faithful, old camera of mine was ruined by a very drunk man and I have witnessed many a frightful scene. It just doesn't make sense to have such an expensive and valued piece of equipment in a situation where I would expect lots of beer to be drunken and shenanigans to be had. But what to do if such a vorspiel is brought to you--hosted in the innocent camera's humble apartment and it is just waiting there to be utilized?

(Lars, Martin, Sondre, Marianne deep in discussion)

Well then, I suppose you just let nature take its course and let the camera be exposed to its first dangerous party ever.

(Halvor.)

(Marianne and Anne Kari.)

(Linda: blue steele.)

(Me and Halvor, grooving.)

(And then posing.)
(Martin, Lars and Sondre, all possibly sick of the camera.)

It survived. And, luckily, it got to get down with the best of 'em.

Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the pictures on Linda's camera (the one that got permission to come with to the bar). There was a lot of life in town that night--the European Speed Skating Championships were held in Hamar which means Siste Indre (one of the bars right around the corner that just happens to be completely devoted to speed skating) was full of drunk Dutchmen decked out in orange, and that Linda and I borrowed many of their silly hats and took equally as silly pictures. Oh boy.

An American running around a bar with her German ex-coworker (Linda) and their Norwegian buds amidst a throng of Dutchmen? It was a culturally rewarding evening, let's just put it that way. ;)

Linda sent me the pictures...and I thought I had to share at least a few:

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