The Long Way Home

What do you do when you have entire days at your exposal? Oh I can think of a lot of things...but when you are also broke, adventuring seems to be a bit more challenging.

Once in awhile, I am known to have a good idea. The most recent one was a LONG walk in the opposite direction than I usually go. So long that I got a blister and my camera battery died.

The first stop of my adventure was a tall, teetering tower with lots of interesting graffiti and not a bad view either.

(View from the tower)

I made the journey back down the rickety stairs, and continued out to explore the half-frozen, half-filled lake. Because the water levels are low, there is a huge mud bank extending out farther than half way across this part of Mjøsa. The plan was, of course, to make it all the way out to the end.

What I didn't account for was that the mud was no where near as hard as I thought. I had seen people sitting out here on chairs days previous when we drove past. But this day, my white sneakers were getting sucked into no man's land. So I ditched my shoes. As gross as you may or may not think that was, I will insist that mud feels cool between my toes.

I did make it out to the end, and met a lot of interesting things along my way. I think I counted thirteen abandoned golf balls and made some friends with a few different species of birds. I even got to dip my toes into the icy water! (It was COLD!).

Did I mention the whole time I had a rockin' view of Vikingskipet?

Finally, it was time to attempt to get the mud off my feet and slip them back into my white (now dingy gray) socks. Luckily the weather was so nice that my feet dried quickly on the walk back along the shore of the lake.

I took the long way home.

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Påske er rundt hjørnet!

The weather is getting better, which means the snow is melting and there are more and more signs of life around Hamar. People are out and about, walking around, taking a beer or a coffee outside and trying to soak in all the rays they were deprived of this winter. On Saturday Lars and I joined the crowd and strolled around town, sipped on some coffee, window shopped etc. Most excitingly we spent a solid few hours on our balcony, reading and enjoying the weather. I am really looking forward to spending more time out here, especially as spring transitions into summer! The weather has been so nice lately (especially this weekend) that we even went so far as to buy some ice cream--and eat it outside! Spring is finally here!

Maybe you can see what I mean in this shot of Parkgata, the street we live on:

Early tomorrow morning Lars and I are headed up to Tynset to spend the Easter holiday, or Påske, with his family and friends. Påske is a lot different than the Easter celebration I am accustomed to as an American; here Easter egg hunts and frilly Easter dresses are replaced by ski trips and ski gear, and the holiday is a week long instead of just one day! I hear it is typical for Norwegians to take an entire week of work off and head up to a cabin. But in about a week I will be able to tell you how things go from my own experience instead of just relying on all this hearsay, haha. For now let's just say that even though I am so sad to miss out on my nieces and nephews' cute little mugs while they scour the backyard for surprise-filled eggs, I am really looking forward to experiencing a Norwegian Easter in the snow!

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Onsdag på norsk = Wednesday

After we took a vocabulary test in class on Wednesday we walked down to the waterfront and slipped in the back of the Hamar Teater. Our teacher mentioned earlier in the week that we would be going there as a class and watching the dress rehearsal of a new show called Rattus Norvegicus that premieres on Friday. What she didn't mention, however, was that she had WRITTEN the script and that she had used a lot of her experiences from our school as inspiration!

The show was absurdly hilarious, and well acted by only a three man crew. One Norwegian man is forced to take assess his own level of Norwegian-ness after he fails an oral Norwegian test (designed for immigrants) not because he can't speak Norwegian but because he doesn't have the right answers. It was hilarious to see him treated in a similar manner as immigrants are treated and interesting to see how generalizations that we as immigrants are held responsible for fulfilling or understanding didn't apply to Norwegians themselves. The play was a sharp and insightful commentary on culture and immigration, and I was really proud of my teacher Marte Monsen! ;)

After the play, we headed to Poesi as usual (Wednesday!!! YES!). The weather was so crisp and sunny that we took a chance and sat outside of Poesi in the plaza. We sat outside for hours, and I think we have officially recruited some more friends for our coffee crew. Yesterday Svetlana, Ali, Ihjad, Laith, Geisha (from Brazil) and Natali (from Chile) all joined us for varying periods of time. It was gorgeous and the sun felt so good streaming down on our backs. I think maybe spring is actually coming to Norway after all!

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