Since leaving Canada, my "career" as an outdoor educator has come to a standstill. But, over the recent months, I have been attempting to kickstart my outdoor ed brain again. Basically, I did two things. 1) I bought (and read) the book "The last child in the woods". 2) I volunteered for a week at a lavvouke (outdoor week) at Eluin's barnehagen.
Let's start with the book. In (very) short, the book discusses the impact the reduced access (compared to the access the authors had in their childhood) to nature that our children experience has on our children. The authors refer to this reduced access as the cause of "nature deficiency disorder" and use this disorder to explain the much higher occurrence of behavioural and social problems in children and adolescents.
Now, I am too much of a scientist to lose my skepticism over the proclaimed correlation between reduced access to nature and ADHD and autism. I am, however, a big enough proponent of outdoor education to completely and utterly agree with their observation that a) nature has become a distant phenomenon for too many children and b) the fact that it is no longer normal for a child to spend their time in nature, to play, to build, to observe, to learn, to get lost, to climb and to fall is a huge loss.
One reason the book gives for the loss of our children's interaction with nature, is the criminalization of natural play. This refers to the tendency of society to try and box in every single part of our lives, including outdoor play areas. Building a tree fort is not safe, kids might get hurt when the building collapses. They may damage the tree they are building it in. That tree might be an endangered species. If they play in it, they might leave their trash, thus polluting the environment. There is no supervision in the woods. What if drug addicts start using it as a shelter? What if a child molester finds out that children are playing there unsupervised and attacks our children. It is just not safe! And, yeah, as a side effect, this attitude also makes free, natural play for our children next to impossible, but, hey, at least they are safe.
Just this week, two posts on social media caught my eye in this respect. One was a newspaper article that received a lot of praise on facebook. It told the story of how a forest ranger in the Netherlands had dealt with a tree fort he had found in the woods. Although building tree forts in the Dutch national forests is prohibited, this guy decided to turn a blind eye and to not break down the fort. He did, however, leave a laminated page of rules for the kids, that they had to abide by in order for their tree fort to be condoned.
What the peep... I mean, kudos for the dude for breaking the rules. And great to hear that so many people think he did a great job. But, really?! It is not allowed to build a hut and we need a laminated rulebook to "allow" these kids their playtime?!
The second post that caught my eye, was one posted by the Girl Scouts of Canada. It offered a list of "empowering comments" to replace the omnipresent "be careful". It argued that "be careful" is not conducive of kids trying their limits, nor does it offer any assistance in the child achieving the goal she has set herself. When you think of it, being careful actually gets in the way of a lot of cool things you can do as a child (or adult, for that matter ;-) ) . This one rang home in particular, too, because I spent the first part of my lavvouke yelling "forsiktig" (be careful) every 5 minutes and the second part of the week biting my tongue every 5 minutes to avoid yelling "forsiktig" ;-)
So why do I need such a long intro to finally share my excitement about my week in the woods? Well, because I have spent a lot of time thinking about the stark contrast between Norway and the rest of the world in this respect. And also, should there be any Norwegians reading my blog, I want to make them aware of just how special their situation is. And how important it is to foster the outdoor connection they have in a world that is swiftly moving away from that connection.
I am very grateful that as an outsider and an amateur outdoor education fanatic, I got the opportunity to tag along with a group from Eluin's barnehagen. Spending a week outdoors with a group of 2-4 year olds and their dedicated teachers was pretty much the best week I have spent in Norway so far ;-)
Eluin had her lavvouke the week before I went into the woods and it is funny how my perspective on this week changed from the "mom"perspective one week to the "volunteer"perspective the next. As a mom, I am very happy that Eluin gets to spend so much time outdoors. I love the stories she comes home with. I love how her first-day-apprehension turns into last-day-I-don't-want-to-go-home. I am mildly frustrated with the amount of clothes, shoes, lunch boxes, breakfasts and extra coats I have to pack, but let's face it, that is only my frustration about the horrible planner I am. I mean, I have trouble making sure my kids are wearing all the clothes they should an a normal school day, let alone me having to make sure there is extras of everything! Oh, and where at first I found the wood-smoke-and-mud smell of Eluin rather yucky, I now have come to like it because I associate it with the happy girl that climbs into my car after a day outside.
The Monday after, as I took my backpack, my lunch pack and my wool-clad body up the slope to the lavvo, I realized I was experiencing a little of Eluin's first-day-apprehension. Was I really going to spend a week "just being in the woods"? Would the kids not get bored? Cold? What if they did not understand my Norwegian? What if the teachers thought me weird for being so excited about the fact that they took kids to the woods for an entire week? How could you possibly spend so long outside with such young kids?
When I arrived, there were two teachers, one child and a crackling fire. This lavvouke was at a gappahuke (a wooden shelter with a fire pit in front of it) just a short walk from the road, with beautiful views over the fjord. There is a tent for shelter and changing diapers. There is a kids' bathroom, consisting of a potty for number 1 and a potty for number 2. There are some big wooden play structures and some climbing structures built by the barnehagen. The child was checking out the play structures and I accepted her invitation to race on the motorbike with her. Shortly after, she grabbed my hand and asked if we could go and pick raspberries. I asked the teacher and found myself 10 minutes after my lavvouke had started in a raspberry bush with a chatterbox -5 year old. She checked every raspberry she and I picked if they had worms in them and handed me the ones that did.
After breakfast, one of the teachers explained the rules of the lavvouke to the children. She explained that it was fine if they wanted to explore, but that they had to make sure they had a grown up with them. At that point, my new best friend nudged my knee and whispered: "Are you a grown-up?" Me saying yes sealed the deal and from that moment onwards, I was part of their world.
That week, their world consisted of picking, and eating, berries. Of going on hikes in the surrounding forest. Of climbing the play structures, swinging on the swing, gliding on the zipline and jumping off a table. I saw kids challenge themselves to be brave enough to jump off that table without a grown up holding their hand. I saw kids starting up a pretend game one day and continue with it the day after. The kids that still needed a nap slept out in the open in the coziest sleeping bags I ever saw.
Even though the kids were quite young, I was amazed to see how quickly they felt at home outside. They all found that one thing that was the highlight of their day. A couple of kids were completely mesmerized by a dead mouse that was slowly, bit by bit, being eaten by an ant colony. They would just sit and watch the steady work of ants cleaning up a corpse. The teachers told them not to pick up dead animals in general (and this mouse in particular ;-) ) and explained how if an animal dies in the forest, it provides food to other animals and is cleared away. In a world where everything dead is scary and yucky, it was refreshing to see the wonder of these kids while watching nature in progress And yes, as a biologist who sees death, decay and decomposition as normal, necessary parts of life, I felt very smitten when during one of hikes, one of the kids ran towards me, grabbed my hand and proudly showed me another dead mouse. It's a good thing when you can share your interests ;-)
Other kids ate their weight in blueberries, raspberries and tyttebær. Just imagine if we could also just sit down between our food, only having to extend your hand and eat as many berries as you like, while discussing with your best friend which one tastes better...the blue ones or the dark-blue ones. Four out of five days, lunch was prepared on the fire and the kids helped find herbs in the woods to spice up their meals. Eat that, elementary school students who think that their broccoli actually grows in the supermarket...
All kids roamed freely. They played, climbed, sought each other's company or solitude, fought over sticks, resolved said conflict over sticks and decided to play with rocks after all. They needed no "toys", but built their own playground with whatever was lying around. I saw kids that were happy, upset, angry, funny, solemn, inquisitive, sleepy or active, but never, at any point, did I see a child that was bored!
What struck me most, though, was the flexible approach the teachers had. In the email I received before the lavvouke, they told me that they take it as it is and see what the children like to do. That is very little planning for an entire week of being outdoors... It also expresses their willingness to actually put the child at the center and their dedication to follow the children's lead. From what little I know of child-led learning, this is something that a lot of educators aim for, but have little capacity to actually work with in a traditional school setting. The fact that these educators in an early childhood centre grab their chance and run with it, makes my amateur teacher heart sing (because child-led learning was at the heart of the forest project that we did in Canada).
Seeing that particular pedagogical framework in action over the week, made me realize why it is so hard to put that idea in practice in a traditional school setting. And how much HARD WORK it is to stand by that principle. It would probably have been so much easier to just jampack-plan the entire week full with activities, storytime hours and a rigid hiking schedule. Instead they went with the flow.
They followed the kids' pace, while keeping their own schedule in mind. They made sure no-one got hurt, while at the same time offering the kids knives and saws to do some woodwork (yes, that's right. I got to learn knife-skills at 39 that most Norwegian kids learn at 4 years of age ;-) ). They made sure the children's needs were met, while at the same time fostering their independence. Even though all basic child care actions that are part of their daily barnehagen day must have taken at least twice as long as it does in barnehagen, no one was ever in a hurry it seemed.
Come to think of it, this lavvo-uke may very well have been one of those Kung-Fu warrior tests, where you learn how to grow your strength by bending with the wind. Or something. Anyhow, I think I failed that test, because I did not really have a job to do, yet have never been as tired in my life as after that week! :-D
In conclusion, I am yet again in awe of teachers. And in teachers that take kids outdoors in particular. In fact, it has made me realize how much I miss working with children, how much I miss working outdoors and what an amazing opportunity it would be for me to learn from Norway's tradition of outdoor life and outdoor education... So... I am kind of toying with the idea to go back to school. First off, I need to find out if the "outdoor pedagogue" they have at Eluin's barnehagen is actually a Norwegian profession, or if that is just the name they gave to the guy, because he refuses to come inside ;-) If it is a profession, though, I may have finally found out what I want to be when I grow up! Which basically then leaves me with finding out where to apply for that course. And how I will find the time to study. And the money. And yes, that would also mean passing the dreaded Norwegian language proficiency test, but hey, at least I would finally have some motivation to do my Norwegian course homework ;-)
Friday, October 6, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
Lost in translation
DISCLAIMER: I do not take any responsibility for any mistakes I have made in the Norwegian words and sentences I have written here :-)
Moving to a different country when you are Dutch inadvertently means you have to learn a new language. In our case, with two moves to two linguistically different countries, it meant learning two languages.
Moving to a different country when you are Dutch inadvertently means you have to learn a new language. In our case, with two moves to two linguistically different countries, it meant learning two languages.
As Dutchies, we are very well aware that only a very slim portion of the earth's inhabitants actually speak Dutch and as such we get (some) education in at least 3 different languages in high school. Which would make you think that moving to a country where they speak a language you have learned in school would be a breeze. Think again.
Our move to Canada taught us, or me at least, that there is a huge difference between learning a language and actually speaking a language. I remember quite vividly how after 2 weeks in Canada, I thought my English was pretty darn great...only to realize 3 months later that my English actually was, for a native English speaker, as boring as those conversations one hears in an online language course. Where Canadians had about 35 ways of saying how they were doing, I had only one. "I'm fine, thank you."
Thankfully, I was able to find a friend who was willing to serve as my linguistic guinea pig, so I could try out different ways of saying things. Most often by directly translating expressions from Dutch into English...and then having her teach me what the English equivalent of that expression would be. Soon I felt confident enough to actually speak English, rather than reciting the sentences I had learned in school. Unfortunately, that led to another pitfall!
Nothing leads to bigger language mistakes than thinking you can "wing it". And it seems that I in particular have a knack for using the wrong words at exactly the wrong time! Like this one:
During our first spring in Canada, I was at a party. The weather had just changed from rainy to sunny and I was explaining to my friend's husband, that in the Netherlands we have a name for the first warm day of spring. It is called "rokjesdag", skirts-day. Now, in Dutch, the name for tights is "panty". So, here I was, proudly telling the story of "rokjesdag", speaking the infamous words: "...so, basically it's the first day that Dutch women wear their skirts without panties." And yeah. Panties in English means underwear. As in knickers. As in I had just told someone that on the first warm day of the year, Dutch women went commando under their skirts en masse. Whoops!
So fast-forward to our arrival in Norway. The biggest take-home message from our time in Canada was that you will fail no matter what and that you actually learn most from your mistakes. And as I make a fool out of myself on a regular basis anyway, I can't really use fear of being socially awkward as an excuse not to try and speak Norwegian. So, from day one I tried to engage in conversation. In Norwegian, that is.
One of the huge advantages of the steep rise in smartphone usage, is of course the fact that a lot of "conversation" actually takes place online or on-texts. This means that as a language newbie, you don't have to think on your feet, but can actually take your time to figure out what to write. Or just copy-paste the google translation into your message. Unfortunately, this is not completely fool-proof as google translations may not be very accurate. And nor does google recognize the local Norwegian dialect that people use here (yes, they use it in their texts, too). Plus, you always run the risk of cursing google translate for failing again and again to translate a word in a text you got. Only to realize later that the word you were so desperately trying to translate was actually the name of the person sending the message... And yes, that happened to me. Twice.
The more I learned, though, the more I started to realize that Norwegian is actually a blend between Dutch and English. For example, the word for "knife" is "knive", which looks a lot like the English word, but is actually pronounced the way a Dutch person would do if it saw that word for the first time ("kuh-nee-veh"). Should you think, that this has made learning Norwegian any easier for me, you are sadly mistaken. More often than not, it only adds to the muddled, confusing fog that is now what my brains once were. Let me give you some examples (and yes, most of them I have remembered, because they are kind of funny ;-) ).
In Norwegian, there is a verb "å gå". This sounds a bit like "go" and looks a bit like the Dutch "ga", which also means to go. In Norwegian, however, "å gå" means "to walk". So, it was only after someone made the remark: "Well, you made pretty good time then, getting to the Netherlands and back in only a week with 3 children in tow." that whenever I said: "Vi har gå til Nederland i juleferien" I did not say "we went to the Netherlands for Christmas"....but rather that we walked there! Should there be any Norwegians reading this part, I do not take responsibility for any mistakes I make in my Norwegian things I write here (I do know that the Norwegian sentence above is not grammatically correct, though ;-) ).
In addition, "å løpe" may look like the Dutch verb "lopen" (to walk), but actually means "to run". Not to be confused with "å springe", which looks almost exactly like the Dutch verb "springen" (which means "to jump"), but means "to run" as well, but then slightly faster.
A box is not called a box, but an "eske". Because a "boks" is a can. Or this one: In Dutch, a squirrel is called an "eekhoorn". This sounds exactly like the word "acorn". Which of course is the name of the fruit of an oak tree. Now, in Norwegian the word for squirrel is "ekorn" which sounds exactly like "eekhoorn". Or "acorn" for that matter. Are you confused yet? ;-)
To avoid too much confusion, I actually practice conversations whenever I have the chance. I look up ways to talk about the winter holidays for example, so I have answers ready to the most common questions. I even go as far as practicing my sentences out loud. So if you ever hear me mutter unintelligibly, I am probably working through some new replies.
Now, the big problem with that is, that I can sometimes quite reasonably respond to questions Norwegian people ask. I might even trick them into thinking that I can actually speak Norwegian. And so the next time I run in to them, they may actually just ask me something out of the blue. At which point I am in big trouble! Because is she asking me whether my bag is heavy? Or did she mean that my bag has a hole in it? Did he just comment on the weather? Or that I have a big booger in my nose? HELP ME OUT PLEASE I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!!!
Failures aside, the best thing about learning a language is if you can share your learning with others. It works really well to just ask people the translation of English words. Especially when that translation is really funny. Like when I asked my Norwegian friend, who is from Alaska originally, what the Norwegian word was for "beard". It is "skjegg". Which looks funny, but sounds even funnier, because it sounds exactly like "shag". Which cracked me up completely! No wonder so many guys in Norway want to have a beard, hey? Nudge nudge, wink wink.
Like I said before, the scariest moment is when you think you can "wing" it in a language, that you can improvise your way through. It is, however, also the phase that gives the best stories! Like that time when Menno tried to say I love you. Because "sweetheart" is "kjæreste", he said: "Jeg kjære deg"...which means something like: "I cut you" :-) Or that time when I wanted to practice the list of occupations and said: "Kuk jobber i kjøkken." I of course meant to say: "The cook works in the kitchen." Instead of "kok" though, I said "kuk". So what I actually said was: "The cock works in the kitchen." This may only be a one letter difference, but the hollering laughter of my three girls (who did know what kuk meant), still rings in my ears! That is one mistake I will never make again!!!
...I hope ;-)
A box is not called a box, but an "eske". Because a "boks" is a can. Or this one: In Dutch, a squirrel is called an "eekhoorn". This sounds exactly like the word "acorn". Which of course is the name of the fruit of an oak tree. Now, in Norwegian the word for squirrel is "ekorn" which sounds exactly like "eekhoorn". Or "acorn" for that matter. Are you confused yet? ;-)
To avoid too much confusion, I actually practice conversations whenever I have the chance. I look up ways to talk about the winter holidays for example, so I have answers ready to the most common questions. I even go as far as practicing my sentences out loud. So if you ever hear me mutter unintelligibly, I am probably working through some new replies.
Now, the big problem with that is, that I can sometimes quite reasonably respond to questions Norwegian people ask. I might even trick them into thinking that I can actually speak Norwegian. And so the next time I run in to them, they may actually just ask me something out of the blue. At which point I am in big trouble! Because is she asking me whether my bag is heavy? Or did she mean that my bag has a hole in it? Did he just comment on the weather? Or that I have a big booger in my nose? HELP ME OUT PLEASE I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!!!
Failures aside, the best thing about learning a language is if you can share your learning with others. It works really well to just ask people the translation of English words. Especially when that translation is really funny. Like when I asked my Norwegian friend, who is from Alaska originally, what the Norwegian word was for "beard". It is "skjegg". Which looks funny, but sounds even funnier, because it sounds exactly like "shag". Which cracked me up completely! No wonder so many guys in Norway want to have a beard, hey? Nudge nudge, wink wink.
Like I said before, the scariest moment is when you think you can "wing" it in a language, that you can improvise your way through. It is, however, also the phase that gives the best stories! Like that time when Menno tried to say I love you. Because "sweetheart" is "kjæreste", he said: "Jeg kjære deg"...which means something like: "I cut you" :-) Or that time when I wanted to practice the list of occupations and said: "Kuk jobber i kjøkken." I of course meant to say: "The cook works in the kitchen." Instead of "kok" though, I said "kuk". So what I actually said was: "The cock works in the kitchen." This may only be a one letter difference, but the hollering laughter of my three girls (who did know what kuk meant), still rings in my ears! That is one mistake I will never make again!!!
...I hope ;-)
Friday, July 7, 2017
How to survive Norwegian winter
I have been meaning to write about how our family made it through our first Norwegian winter (and first proper winter in general). But in order to write about our "survival" of "winter", winter had to be over. And only now, early July, do I finally feel confident that my tell-tale sign of winter, a.k.a. snow, will no longer rain down on my summer parade.
Of course, that is a lesson I learned the hard way, too. Like after Easter this year. The Easter weekend was gorgeous! Clear blue skies, rising temperatures and, most of all, no snow. All our neighbours were out in their gardens starting some spring cleaning and I decided to use the long weekend to swap our winter clothes for our summer clothes. Of course, I was a little more cautious with putting away our winter clothes than I would have been in Vancouver, but still.
After Easter, I dropped off Eluin at her barnehagen. As I was walking across the sunkissed playground, I called out to one of her teachers and said: "Wooohoooo! Spring is here!" To which he replied: "It will snow again at the end of the week." Haha. Funny guy. Thinking he can scare the tourist.
Of course, as I was shovelling the snow off our front steps two days later, the joke was very much on me. This incident taught me two very important lessons. 1) It can, and probably will, snow in April. And May. And I am sure sometimes in June, too. 2) Norwegian people do not joke about the weather. Ever.
But let's start at the beginning, say, somewhere in October. The first thing we realized, was that Norwegians are very well adapted to the wide ranges of temperatures, types of downpour and beauforts of wind that any given autumn in Norway can throw at you. This adaptability stems from the sheer abundance of base-layer, mid-layer, outer-layer, rain gear, shell pants, shell jackets, snowsuits, outdoor suits and ski jackets they have. The combinations of these layers is endless! However, there is a correlation between the type of weather and the combination of layers and it can take some time to figure out what to buy, when to put it on your child and, most importantly, which garments to have on stand-by should the weather change. Because it will ;-)
Thanks to Eluin's barnehagen, and the fact that they spend a lot of time outdoors, we got a quick course in Norwegian weather-adaptability. The course was quick, but it still took us some time to find the right gear, to pick the right gear for the right day and to convince Eluin that she really had to wear more clothes than she wanted. Nevertheless I am forever grateful that they took the time to explain things to us and to give us tips on where to find good deals on the gear Lulu needed.
Of course, being a mom of three, I figured I could just copy-paste the tips for Eluin onto the other girls (and myself). So, with some fiddling with sizes and layers, I felt pretty confident around the middle of November that I had successfully increased our weather adaptability. I swear I even got some jealous looks from Julie, our dog, who only had a winter coat and a summer coat to choose from...
But of course, once you have one thing covered, another thing pops up. Or, in this case, pops out. Like the light. Because part of living "up North" is going on a sunlight diet. It's not that it gets completely dark here, we're not that arctic, but there is definitely less light. And as a consequence, you need to dress your kids with reflective vests, headlights and blinkers on their backpacks in order for them not to end up as roadkill on their way to school. In fact, you might as well strap one of those fancy light-up collars on your dog, because if you let her off leash and she sprints away...well, good luck finding a black dog in a black field under a black sky.
For me, however, the biggest adjustment was indoor life. Or, more specifically, nightlife (but more on that later). With lower temperatures than I was used to, and the fact that the heating system was different than in the other homes I have lived in, this for me was the biggest thing. Now, in the Netherlands, most of us have what is called "central heating". You have a boiler that heats up water and all through the house you have radiators. Usually there is one central thermostat, so you can set the temperature for your entire home. However, with opening and closing the valves on the radiators in the different rooms, you can quite specifically adjust the warmth in your home to your particular needs.
In Canada, we did not have such fancy heating. In our first apartment, we had floorboard heaters. Which are pretty much electrical heaters, but place at such a height that they are ideal for crawling toddlers (read; Eluin) to roast there little fingers on or for grown-ups (read; Roos) to fry their toes on if you accidentally step on it. In our second apartment, the heat was switched on once a year and switched off once a year. With no ability to adjust it in between. That was not my favourite place to live, heatingwise, for sure.
Here in Norway, however, we have three different heat systems in place. Downstairs in the basement, we have two rooms with floor heating (LOVE IT!). Every room upstairs (including our washroom next to the front door) has electrical heaters mounted to the wall. And our living room of course has a very cute Jotul wood stove.
Now, in theory, Jotul would be my favourite and preferred way to heat our home. It's cosy, it's Norwegian, it's romantic. For some reason I feel it is less of a fire hazard then the electrical heaters. And, most importantly, it is cheaper than the electrical heaters. This is particularly important because I am married to Mr. Stingy. He likes to save money every step of the way. Being Ms. Spendthrifter, I have come to appreciate his penny-pinching approach to life, because if we save money on one part of our life, I have more money to spendthrift with in other parts of our life. Sometimes, however, the prioritization of where to pinch and where to spend might be open for reconsideration...
So, as I said, in theory we would use jolly Jotul to warm our home. In practice, that worked out really well...if we managed to light it. Once lit, it did warm our home brilliantly. The problem of course lies in the "once lit" part.
Holy shit.
Forget about Norwegian courses to learn the language! Forget about learning about Norwegian holidays and how to celebrate them! There is but one thing of crucial importance when you move to Norway and that is TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD A FIRE!!!! We need tips on kindle, how to heat up the smoke channel when there is snow on your chimney, how to keep it going, etc.
I spent countless hours trying to light the friggin' white monster, only to give up, put on an extra layer of wool and start baking yet another cake, so I could at least put the oven on and generate heat that way. Of course, I could have put on the electrical heaters, but I would not give Mr. Stingy that satisfaction ;-)
Now, the fact that we do not use our electrical heaters might seem stupid and stubborn to Norwegians. And it probably is. But to me it is equally stupid that in a country where one experiences sub-comfortable temperatures for the better part of the year, your "most convenient" option for heating your house are power-guzzling, inefficient, smelly (yes, that could improve if we cleaned our house more often), fire-hazardous, electrical heaters. So I refuse to give in.
Even if that means that our girls refer to the washroom next to the front door as the "summer washroom, the "outhouse" or, as a Dutch-English word joke, the "koudhouse" (koud meaning cold in Dutch). Or the fact that my friend goes to the washroom before coming to our home because she is afraid to freeze off her patooties if she has to use our koudhouse. Next time, just give me a heads-up before you come over and I will put the heater on in our washroom especially for you ;-)
Even if that means that our bedrooms are as warm and cozy as an igloo. I think that is where my biggest adjustment lies in adapting to Norwegian winter. Before moving to Norway, I had to principles when it came to sleeping. 1) I slept with the window open. 2) I slept with as little clothes on as possible. I know, probably too much information ;-) Nonetheless, if you are used to sleeping like that, it takes some time to adjust.
In our case, the answer was wool. Lots of it! During our stay in Canada, I had already invested in woollen 4-season duvets. My all time favourite duvets, because they are never too warm and they are nice and heavy. I thought that would be enough. Alas...
For years, we have had a memory foam mattress and memory foam pillows, because we both love the way it supports our bodies at night. Little did we know, however, that memory foam comes with an optimal temperature. And that if you go below that temperature, it turns, well, less foamy and more rocky. So the first 10 minutes in bed were spent thawing out the memory foam enough to accommodate our curves again.
That changed once we got a woollen under blanket to put on top of our mattress. Getting flannel sheets also helped. As did giving up on the whole "as little clothing as possible concept". I actually became a huge proponent of the "as much clothing as possible concept". On any given night, I would crawl on top of my woollen blanket, under my double woollen duvet, wearing a woollen longsleeve, woollen long johns and woollen socks. Perhaps for next winter I should just buy a sheep and put that on every night!
Needless to say, the excess of clothing and the cold are not particularly conducive to keeping things "interesting" between the sheets. Believe me, we have tried, but results have so far not been very satisfactory. The whole on-the-rug-in-front-of-the-fireplace is of course a plausible alternative, but as that is not technically between the sheets, I feel it would not count. Judging by the fact that there are numerous highly pregnant ladies around in July, one has to conclude that Norwegians have figured out a way...probably by just switching on those darn heaters, I presume ;-)
For the kids, sleeping in winter has not been much of a problem. First of all, the lack of daylight actually makes my two notorious insomniacs (Jura and Eluin) sleep like babies. I will not comment on their sleeping patterns in summer when there is an excess of daylight ;-) Jura, Nori and Eluin have grown quite fond of their hot water bottles, especially if I put them between their blankets a little before they crawl into bed. I have been woken by Eluin a couple of times in the dead of night, with her pushing a cold water bottle in my face and the admonition: "It is cold. You need to fill it again."
In the morning, I wake them up by putting the clothes they are going to wear that day under the blankets with them, so they can warm up a little. And the cats obviously also help to keep them warm at night ;-)
All in all, this first winter has been hard work. But on the other hand it is rather cool (pun intended ;-)) to experience a proper winter. To learn to adjust, to push your boundaries and to accept that you still have a lot to learn. With the near constant daylight we have right now in summer, I kind of long for the winter darkness. For the coziness and the holidays. I love the fact that I can now really knit to my heart's content, because here you get to use your woollen goodies pretty much year round.
However, if someone knows about a course in fire-lighting techniques, please fill me in, because that is one course I would like to join! :-)
Of course, that is a lesson I learned the hard way, too. Like after Easter this year. The Easter weekend was gorgeous! Clear blue skies, rising temperatures and, most of all, no snow. All our neighbours were out in their gardens starting some spring cleaning and I decided to use the long weekend to swap our winter clothes for our summer clothes. Of course, I was a little more cautious with putting away our winter clothes than I would have been in Vancouver, but still.
After Easter, I dropped off Eluin at her barnehagen. As I was walking across the sunkissed playground, I called out to one of her teachers and said: "Wooohoooo! Spring is here!" To which he replied: "It will snow again at the end of the week." Haha. Funny guy. Thinking he can scare the tourist.
Of course, as I was shovelling the snow off our front steps two days later, the joke was very much on me. This incident taught me two very important lessons. 1) It can, and probably will, snow in April. And May. And I am sure sometimes in June, too. 2) Norwegian people do not joke about the weather. Ever.
But let's start at the beginning, say, somewhere in October. The first thing we realized, was that Norwegians are very well adapted to the wide ranges of temperatures, types of downpour and beauforts of wind that any given autumn in Norway can throw at you. This adaptability stems from the sheer abundance of base-layer, mid-layer, outer-layer, rain gear, shell pants, shell jackets, snowsuits, outdoor suits and ski jackets they have. The combinations of these layers is endless! However, there is a correlation between the type of weather and the combination of layers and it can take some time to figure out what to buy, when to put it on your child and, most importantly, which garments to have on stand-by should the weather change. Because it will ;-)
Thanks to Eluin's barnehagen, and the fact that they spend a lot of time outdoors, we got a quick course in Norwegian weather-adaptability. The course was quick, but it still took us some time to find the right gear, to pick the right gear for the right day and to convince Eluin that she really had to wear more clothes than she wanted. Nevertheless I am forever grateful that they took the time to explain things to us and to give us tips on where to find good deals on the gear Lulu needed.
Of course, being a mom of three, I figured I could just copy-paste the tips for Eluin onto the other girls (and myself). So, with some fiddling with sizes and layers, I felt pretty confident around the middle of November that I had successfully increased our weather adaptability. I swear I even got some jealous looks from Julie, our dog, who only had a winter coat and a summer coat to choose from...
But of course, once you have one thing covered, another thing pops up. Or, in this case, pops out. Like the light. Because part of living "up North" is going on a sunlight diet. It's not that it gets completely dark here, we're not that arctic, but there is definitely less light. And as a consequence, you need to dress your kids with reflective vests, headlights and blinkers on their backpacks in order for them not to end up as roadkill on their way to school. In fact, you might as well strap one of those fancy light-up collars on your dog, because if you let her off leash and she sprints away...well, good luck finding a black dog in a black field under a black sky.
For me, however, the biggest adjustment was indoor life. Or, more specifically, nightlife (but more on that later). With lower temperatures than I was used to, and the fact that the heating system was different than in the other homes I have lived in, this for me was the biggest thing. Now, in the Netherlands, most of us have what is called "central heating". You have a boiler that heats up water and all through the house you have radiators. Usually there is one central thermostat, so you can set the temperature for your entire home. However, with opening and closing the valves on the radiators in the different rooms, you can quite specifically adjust the warmth in your home to your particular needs.
In Canada, we did not have such fancy heating. In our first apartment, we had floorboard heaters. Which are pretty much electrical heaters, but place at such a height that they are ideal for crawling toddlers (read; Eluin) to roast there little fingers on or for grown-ups (read; Roos) to fry their toes on if you accidentally step on it. In our second apartment, the heat was switched on once a year and switched off once a year. With no ability to adjust it in between. That was not my favourite place to live, heatingwise, for sure.
Here in Norway, however, we have three different heat systems in place. Downstairs in the basement, we have two rooms with floor heating (LOVE IT!). Every room upstairs (including our washroom next to the front door) has electrical heaters mounted to the wall. And our living room of course has a very cute Jotul wood stove.
Now, in theory, Jotul would be my favourite and preferred way to heat our home. It's cosy, it's Norwegian, it's romantic. For some reason I feel it is less of a fire hazard then the electrical heaters. And, most importantly, it is cheaper than the electrical heaters. This is particularly important because I am married to Mr. Stingy. He likes to save money every step of the way. Being Ms. Spendthrifter, I have come to appreciate his penny-pinching approach to life, because if we save money on one part of our life, I have more money to spendthrift with in other parts of our life. Sometimes, however, the prioritization of where to pinch and where to spend might be open for reconsideration...
So, as I said, in theory we would use jolly Jotul to warm our home. In practice, that worked out really well...if we managed to light it. Once lit, it did warm our home brilliantly. The problem of course lies in the "once lit" part.
Holy shit.
Forget about Norwegian courses to learn the language! Forget about learning about Norwegian holidays and how to celebrate them! There is but one thing of crucial importance when you move to Norway and that is TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD A FIRE!!!! We need tips on kindle, how to heat up the smoke channel when there is snow on your chimney, how to keep it going, etc.
I spent countless hours trying to light the friggin' white monster, only to give up, put on an extra layer of wool and start baking yet another cake, so I could at least put the oven on and generate heat that way. Of course, I could have put on the electrical heaters, but I would not give Mr. Stingy that satisfaction ;-)
Now, the fact that we do not use our electrical heaters might seem stupid and stubborn to Norwegians. And it probably is. But to me it is equally stupid that in a country where one experiences sub-comfortable temperatures for the better part of the year, your "most convenient" option for heating your house are power-guzzling, inefficient, smelly (yes, that could improve if we cleaned our house more often), fire-hazardous, electrical heaters. So I refuse to give in.
Even if that means that our girls refer to the washroom next to the front door as the "summer washroom, the "outhouse" or, as a Dutch-English word joke, the "koudhouse" (koud meaning cold in Dutch). Or the fact that my friend goes to the washroom before coming to our home because she is afraid to freeze off her patooties if she has to use our koudhouse. Next time, just give me a heads-up before you come over and I will put the heater on in our washroom especially for you ;-)
Even if that means that our bedrooms are as warm and cozy as an igloo. I think that is where my biggest adjustment lies in adapting to Norwegian winter. Before moving to Norway, I had to principles when it came to sleeping. 1) I slept with the window open. 2) I slept with as little clothes on as possible. I know, probably too much information ;-) Nonetheless, if you are used to sleeping like that, it takes some time to adjust.
In our case, the answer was wool. Lots of it! During our stay in Canada, I had already invested in woollen 4-season duvets. My all time favourite duvets, because they are never too warm and they are nice and heavy. I thought that would be enough. Alas...
For years, we have had a memory foam mattress and memory foam pillows, because we both love the way it supports our bodies at night. Little did we know, however, that memory foam comes with an optimal temperature. And that if you go below that temperature, it turns, well, less foamy and more rocky. So the first 10 minutes in bed were spent thawing out the memory foam enough to accommodate our curves again.
That changed once we got a woollen under blanket to put on top of our mattress. Getting flannel sheets also helped. As did giving up on the whole "as little clothing as possible concept". I actually became a huge proponent of the "as much clothing as possible concept". On any given night, I would crawl on top of my woollen blanket, under my double woollen duvet, wearing a woollen longsleeve, woollen long johns and woollen socks. Perhaps for next winter I should just buy a sheep and put that on every night!
Needless to say, the excess of clothing and the cold are not particularly conducive to keeping things "interesting" between the sheets. Believe me, we have tried, but results have so far not been very satisfactory. The whole on-the-rug-in-front-of-the-fireplace is of course a plausible alternative, but as that is not technically between the sheets, I feel it would not count. Judging by the fact that there are numerous highly pregnant ladies around in July, one has to conclude that Norwegians have figured out a way...probably by just switching on those darn heaters, I presume ;-)
For the kids, sleeping in winter has not been much of a problem. First of all, the lack of daylight actually makes my two notorious insomniacs (Jura and Eluin) sleep like babies. I will not comment on their sleeping patterns in summer when there is an excess of daylight ;-) Jura, Nori and Eluin have grown quite fond of their hot water bottles, especially if I put them between their blankets a little before they crawl into bed. I have been woken by Eluin a couple of times in the dead of night, with her pushing a cold water bottle in my face and the admonition: "It is cold. You need to fill it again."
In the morning, I wake them up by putting the clothes they are going to wear that day under the blankets with them, so they can warm up a little. And the cats obviously also help to keep them warm at night ;-)
All in all, this first winter has been hard work. But on the other hand it is rather cool (pun intended ;-)) to experience a proper winter. To learn to adjust, to push your boundaries and to accept that you still have a lot to learn. With the near constant daylight we have right now in summer, I kind of long for the winter darkness. For the coziness and the holidays. I love the fact that I can now really knit to my heart's content, because here you get to use your woollen goodies pretty much year round.
However, if someone knows about a course in fire-lighting techniques, please fill me in, because that is one course I would like to join! :-)
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Julebord (on Norwegian food...)
One of the great benefits, and challenges, of moving to another country is that you get to experience a new cuisine. Increased globalization and the omnipresence of Mr. McDonalds might give you the impression that food is food is food pretty much everywhere you are in the West. But as it turns out, just like Canada, Norway has it's own specific flavour. A flavour that takes some time before you appreciate it (at least, our family took a while).
Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, taste is in, well, the mouth of the muncher. And the munchers in our house differ significantly from one another. The best eater of all of us is Nori. She likes everything, tries everything and eats with gusto. Eluin is definitely a good eater, too, unless of course her 4-year-old logic takes over. Like last week when she decided that she refused to eat animals. Whatever dish we served, she would meticulously pick out all things animal protein and put them next to her plate with a look of great pity and regret on her face. So, I decided during my weekly grocery trip, to pick her up some vegetarian fake chicken nuggets. You know, to placate the budding vegetarian (I do applaud her effort, don't get me wrong). And simultaneously easing my mind about her weekly protein intake. So...I made her some ficken nuggets that night and serve them to her. I informed her that I bought her some special chicken nuggets that were not made out of chicken, so she would not have to eat a dead animal again. Insert full-on 4-year-old meltdown here. Turns out, the lady likes the chicken in her nuggets. So I had to take them back to the store and "put the chicken back into them". I kid you not, that was the request I got (so of course I walked back to the kitchen, opened the fridge, rummaged through few drawers, closed the fridge again, walked back to the kitchen table with the same plate of ficken nuggets and informed Eluin that the chicken was back in the nuggets...sheesh!).
At the other end of the table, we have Menno and Jura. Now, Menno is not really a picky eater. But he is definitely a creature of habit. And he does not like meat with bones. Or beef. Unless it is ground beyond recognition. And he sometimes has an issue with the texture of food. Which brings me directly to Jura, the pickiest eater of all of them. And her biggest issue with food is texture, too. For years she would refuse to eat anything with a skin on it, because once a piece of skin of a cherry tomato got stuck at the back of her throat. So, out went the apples (unless they were peeled), berries and nectarines. And, because tomatoes could not be trusted, obviously, out went all things tomatoey, too. Including pasta sauce and ketchup. Or curries. Or basically anything in which you could not clearly see what exactly is in it.
And then there's me. I Love Food. And eating. Obviously, I would say, because I did not get overweight eating celery sticks ;-) And, this is pretty awkward, I tend to, erm, really show how much I like food. My foodie-friend back in Vancouver used to kid that she should videotape my food-ecstatics, because in some dark corner of the internet, there might be a group of food-fetishist that would pay good money to hear me moan over sushi :-D
Unfortunately, though, besides having a good appetite, I also have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrom). That is no fun. Luckily, I got introduced to a new diet by my physician in Vancouver, called Fodmap (the diet, not the doctor). The reasoning behind the diet is that some types of sugars can act as a trigger for intestinal discomfort. So, although leaving out those sugars do not cure the underlying illness, it can reduce the number of triggers. So, I started out by eliminating all those sugars from my diet (there's a lot of them) and by slowly reintroducing them, I found out what my triggers are. They include gluten, legumes (peas, beans, soy, etc.), stonefruits (cherries, mangos, avocados, etc.), high-fructose corn syrup, onions and garlic. Thankfully I figured out that fresh garlic is not nearly as much of a trigger as garlic powder, so I still use it in pretty much everything I make ;-)
On the plus side, eating on plan makes me feel a whole lot better. I no longer feel as if I have swallowed a piano and have no idea what tunes it is going to play (from tediously painful ballads to Rachmaninov, but never easy listening ;-) ). On the downside, food takes a lot more time, because I have to cook so many things from scratch. Also, it makes eating out/with friends always a bit more awkward. Since I'm not in mortal danger if I eat anything from my "nono-list", I tend to eat on plan as much as I can, but also sometimes just close my eyes and cross my fingers and eat food that other people serve me. Because I don't want to be rude and whiny and because I don't always feel like explaining why I cannot eat their delicious food!
So, now you know who are at our table, let's get back to Norwegian food. With the munchers above in mind, it should not come as a surprise that the first time I ever went to a supermarket in Norway to get my weekly groceries, it took me two hours! And not just because I had to Fodmap-approve pretty much everything that went in my cart. So many new things, so many options, so many things I had no idea about what it even was! Take meat for example. It's all called kjøtt. But except for kjylling (chicken) I still have no idea which kjøtt comes from which animal. I'm sure there is a logic to the meat section at the supermarket. I just haven't found it yet...
Which is why I usually drift over to the seafood aisle. Sweet lordy pyjama pants, there is some gooooooood seafood here! Which should come as no surprise because of Norway's geographical lay out, but still; omnomnom! Again, though, there are still things I dare not buy yet, because I have no idea how to prepare them. Lutefisk for example. Or fiskeboller.
But, for every thing in the supermarket that I have not brought home yet, I have at least sampled two other products that I have never had before. And as per all our Norwegian adventures, Eluin has been leading by example. I can't say it enough, Eluin has truly won the jackpot with regards to the school she is going to! At school, they have a cook, that cooks them a warm lunch three times a week. They eat bread with cheese and fruit in the afternoon as well. Freshly baked, homemade bread that is. Plus, they often cook while they are on tour, outside on the wood fire. One time, they even wrapped some meat in tinfoil, dug a hole, built a fire, heated some stones under the fire, took the fire of the stones, put the meat on the stones, covered it up with soil again and dug it up again after a couple of hours. At least, that's how I think they did it. According to Eluin that was the best food she ever ate, so she has been pestering me to build a fire pit like that in our backyard, so we can try it out as well ;-)
Because Eluin is such a great ambassador to Norwegian food, we have slowly introduced some Norwegian staples into our diet. Perhaps not always how they were meant to be eaten, but hey, live and learn! New favourites include makrell i tomat (yes, that's right, mackerell in tomato sauce), knackebrød and brunost (a sweet-salty specialty cheese that everybody eats here). Oh, and risgrøt. That is technically something you eat for dinner, but Eluin and I have decided to gloss over that fact and so we eat it for breakfast sometimes as a special treat (with sugar and cinnamon, sooooo good!). To Norwegian people that is probably the equivalent of eating mac and cheese for breakfast, but hey, we have no Norwegian people at our breakfast table, so who cares. Added bonus is that one of the ready-made containers comes with a vent in the plastic lid that whistles/moans when it is done. The mention of that feature has Eluin out of bed in no time in the morning, eagerly watching the tub turn in the microwave until it makes that weird sound.
Having had dinner with Norwegian families a couple of times now, I have come to realize what characterizes Norwegian food. First off, it is very seasonal. People integrate local produce in their dishes. So, in summer, you eat berries. Norwegian strawberries (jordbær) are the stuff of dreams, so imagine how lucky we felt that pretty much the first friends we made here own a strawberry farm. All through late summer and early fall we picked blåbær (blueberries) and tyttebær (cranberries). I still have bags and bags of tyttebær in the freezer that I some day hope to one day turn into tyttebær syltetøy, a tartly sweet cranberry compote that is a bit like the cranberry compote you eat with your Turkey, but not quite...
Of course, people also pick mushrooms in the fall. And they taste amazing! Freshly picked cantharells are incredibly good. Too bad that I am too scared of picking the wrong ones (well, eating the wrong ones I picked would be more accurate), so I will leave that to the professionals for the next couple of years. Because so much food comes from the forest, people enjoy preparing food in the forest as well. It may seem to be a bit of a hassle, and truth be told, we have never done it as a family yet, but a lot of families hike into the woods during the weekend with firewood and stuff to cook on the fire. Whether it be pølse (sausages), brødskive med ost (bread with cheese) or freshly caught fish (again something that our family will need a couple of years for before we get to that stage ;-) ), it is all grilled on the fire and it all tastes amazing. If you don't drop it in the fire, of course.
Overall, Norwegian food is all about hearty and authentic flavours. The kind of stuff that you want to eat after a day of cross country skiing. Or after a day of picking berries in the woods. My only frustration is that there is so much more I want to try, yet because the tastes are pretty outspoken sometimes, I am afraid that my family won't like it. It is with this in mind that I am a little bit anxious about December.
As in every cuisine, the holidays are a reason to go all out. And Norway is no exception. And the dishes are pretty, well, exotic. As in, I had never heard of any of them before they started showing up in the special Christmas flyers of the supermarkets. The traditional foods are, amongst others (because every region seems to have their own favourites), lutefisk (which is fish with lye???), ribbe (like spareribs, but then looking as if the pig's skin is still attached to it) and pinekjøtt (lambchops, but marinated and dried it looks like). There are special Christmas sausages. And Christmas meatballs. There's risgrøt, too, with an almond hidden inside it that brings a year of good luck to the one who finds it. And some kind of saffron bread rolls. It all sounds and looks delicious and I really hope I get to sample some of it in the coming months. I just hope my kids will be good sports and not turn up their noses for these very elaborate dishes and thus by insulting them jeopardize what little social contacts we have here... ;-)
Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, taste is in, well, the mouth of the muncher. And the munchers in our house differ significantly from one another. The best eater of all of us is Nori. She likes everything, tries everything and eats with gusto. Eluin is definitely a good eater, too, unless of course her 4-year-old logic takes over. Like last week when she decided that she refused to eat animals. Whatever dish we served, she would meticulously pick out all things animal protein and put them next to her plate with a look of great pity and regret on her face. So, I decided during my weekly grocery trip, to pick her up some vegetarian fake chicken nuggets. You know, to placate the budding vegetarian (I do applaud her effort, don't get me wrong). And simultaneously easing my mind about her weekly protein intake. So...I made her some ficken nuggets that night and serve them to her. I informed her that I bought her some special chicken nuggets that were not made out of chicken, so she would not have to eat a dead animal again. Insert full-on 4-year-old meltdown here. Turns out, the lady likes the chicken in her nuggets. So I had to take them back to the store and "put the chicken back into them". I kid you not, that was the request I got (so of course I walked back to the kitchen, opened the fridge, rummaged through few drawers, closed the fridge again, walked back to the kitchen table with the same plate of ficken nuggets and informed Eluin that the chicken was back in the nuggets...sheesh!).
At the other end of the table, we have Menno and Jura. Now, Menno is not really a picky eater. But he is definitely a creature of habit. And he does not like meat with bones. Or beef. Unless it is ground beyond recognition. And he sometimes has an issue with the texture of food. Which brings me directly to Jura, the pickiest eater of all of them. And her biggest issue with food is texture, too. For years she would refuse to eat anything with a skin on it, because once a piece of skin of a cherry tomato got stuck at the back of her throat. So, out went the apples (unless they were peeled), berries and nectarines. And, because tomatoes could not be trusted, obviously, out went all things tomatoey, too. Including pasta sauce and ketchup. Or curries. Or basically anything in which you could not clearly see what exactly is in it.
And then there's me. I Love Food. And eating. Obviously, I would say, because I did not get overweight eating celery sticks ;-) And, this is pretty awkward, I tend to, erm, really show how much I like food. My foodie-friend back in Vancouver used to kid that she should videotape my food-ecstatics, because in some dark corner of the internet, there might be a group of food-fetishist that would pay good money to hear me moan over sushi :-D
Unfortunately, though, besides having a good appetite, I also have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrom). That is no fun. Luckily, I got introduced to a new diet by my physician in Vancouver, called Fodmap (the diet, not the doctor). The reasoning behind the diet is that some types of sugars can act as a trigger for intestinal discomfort. So, although leaving out those sugars do not cure the underlying illness, it can reduce the number of triggers. So, I started out by eliminating all those sugars from my diet (there's a lot of them) and by slowly reintroducing them, I found out what my triggers are. They include gluten, legumes (peas, beans, soy, etc.), stonefruits (cherries, mangos, avocados, etc.), high-fructose corn syrup, onions and garlic. Thankfully I figured out that fresh garlic is not nearly as much of a trigger as garlic powder, so I still use it in pretty much everything I make ;-)
On the plus side, eating on plan makes me feel a whole lot better. I no longer feel as if I have swallowed a piano and have no idea what tunes it is going to play (from tediously painful ballads to Rachmaninov, but never easy listening ;-) ). On the downside, food takes a lot more time, because I have to cook so many things from scratch. Also, it makes eating out/with friends always a bit more awkward. Since I'm not in mortal danger if I eat anything from my "nono-list", I tend to eat on plan as much as I can, but also sometimes just close my eyes and cross my fingers and eat food that other people serve me. Because I don't want to be rude and whiny and because I don't always feel like explaining why I cannot eat their delicious food!
So, now you know who are at our table, let's get back to Norwegian food. With the munchers above in mind, it should not come as a surprise that the first time I ever went to a supermarket in Norway to get my weekly groceries, it took me two hours! And not just because I had to Fodmap-approve pretty much everything that went in my cart. So many new things, so many options, so many things I had no idea about what it even was! Take meat for example. It's all called kjøtt. But except for kjylling (chicken) I still have no idea which kjøtt comes from which animal. I'm sure there is a logic to the meat section at the supermarket. I just haven't found it yet...
Which is why I usually drift over to the seafood aisle. Sweet lordy pyjama pants, there is some gooooooood seafood here! Which should come as no surprise because of Norway's geographical lay out, but still; omnomnom! Again, though, there are still things I dare not buy yet, because I have no idea how to prepare them. Lutefisk for example. Or fiskeboller.
But, for every thing in the supermarket that I have not brought home yet, I have at least sampled two other products that I have never had before. And as per all our Norwegian adventures, Eluin has been leading by example. I can't say it enough, Eluin has truly won the jackpot with regards to the school she is going to! At school, they have a cook, that cooks them a warm lunch three times a week. They eat bread with cheese and fruit in the afternoon as well. Freshly baked, homemade bread that is. Plus, they often cook while they are on tour, outside on the wood fire. One time, they even wrapped some meat in tinfoil, dug a hole, built a fire, heated some stones under the fire, took the fire of the stones, put the meat on the stones, covered it up with soil again and dug it up again after a couple of hours. At least, that's how I think they did it. According to Eluin that was the best food she ever ate, so she has been pestering me to build a fire pit like that in our backyard, so we can try it out as well ;-)
Because Eluin is such a great ambassador to Norwegian food, we have slowly introduced some Norwegian staples into our diet. Perhaps not always how they were meant to be eaten, but hey, live and learn! New favourites include makrell i tomat (yes, that's right, mackerell in tomato sauce), knackebrød and brunost (a sweet-salty specialty cheese that everybody eats here). Oh, and risgrøt. That is technically something you eat for dinner, but Eluin and I have decided to gloss over that fact and so we eat it for breakfast sometimes as a special treat (with sugar and cinnamon, sooooo good!). To Norwegian people that is probably the equivalent of eating mac and cheese for breakfast, but hey, we have no Norwegian people at our breakfast table, so who cares. Added bonus is that one of the ready-made containers comes with a vent in the plastic lid that whistles/moans when it is done. The mention of that feature has Eluin out of bed in no time in the morning, eagerly watching the tub turn in the microwave until it makes that weird sound.
Having had dinner with Norwegian families a couple of times now, I have come to realize what characterizes Norwegian food. First off, it is very seasonal. People integrate local produce in their dishes. So, in summer, you eat berries. Norwegian strawberries (jordbær) are the stuff of dreams, so imagine how lucky we felt that pretty much the first friends we made here own a strawberry farm. All through late summer and early fall we picked blåbær (blueberries) and tyttebær (cranberries). I still have bags and bags of tyttebær in the freezer that I some day hope to one day turn into tyttebær syltetøy, a tartly sweet cranberry compote that is a bit like the cranberry compote you eat with your Turkey, but not quite...
Of course, people also pick mushrooms in the fall. And they taste amazing! Freshly picked cantharells are incredibly good. Too bad that I am too scared of picking the wrong ones (well, eating the wrong ones I picked would be more accurate), so I will leave that to the professionals for the next couple of years. Because so much food comes from the forest, people enjoy preparing food in the forest as well. It may seem to be a bit of a hassle, and truth be told, we have never done it as a family yet, but a lot of families hike into the woods during the weekend with firewood and stuff to cook on the fire. Whether it be pølse (sausages), brødskive med ost (bread with cheese) or freshly caught fish (again something that our family will need a couple of years for before we get to that stage ;-) ), it is all grilled on the fire and it all tastes amazing. If you don't drop it in the fire, of course.
Overall, Norwegian food is all about hearty and authentic flavours. The kind of stuff that you want to eat after a day of cross country skiing. Or after a day of picking berries in the woods. My only frustration is that there is so much more I want to try, yet because the tastes are pretty outspoken sometimes, I am afraid that my family won't like it. It is with this in mind that I am a little bit anxious about December.
As in every cuisine, the holidays are a reason to go all out. And Norway is no exception. And the dishes are pretty, well, exotic. As in, I had never heard of any of them before they started showing up in the special Christmas flyers of the supermarkets. The traditional foods are, amongst others (because every region seems to have their own favourites), lutefisk (which is fish with lye???), ribbe (like spareribs, but then looking as if the pig's skin is still attached to it) and pinekjøtt (lambchops, but marinated and dried it looks like). There are special Christmas sausages. And Christmas meatballs. There's risgrøt, too, with an almond hidden inside it that brings a year of good luck to the one who finds it. And some kind of saffron bread rolls. It all sounds and looks delicious and I really hope I get to sample some of it in the coming months. I just hope my kids will be good sports and not turn up their noses for these very elaborate dishes and thus by insulting them jeopardize what little social contacts we have here... ;-)
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Finding my way around Norway, one note at a time
Disclaimer: This blogpost is purely a reflection on my own experiences and I by no means mean to draw conclusions about what truly makes Norwegian people tick...in fact, this blogpost is probably more about my own social awkwardness than it is about Norwegian people.
There is a general idea among people not from Norway that Norwegian people are stand-offish, hard to read, gruff, proud of their own country and fond of everything to do with nature, winter and physical hardship. Their society is hard to become a part of as an outsider. You are never truly Norwegian, unless you AND your parents were born there. This makes it hard for an outsider to feel at home.
This is what I read before moving our family to Norway. And this proved to be true and absolute rubbish in such equal proportions, that I think I would have been better off not knowing what I was getting into. So let me share my story with you about how I got to know Norwegian people as one of the kindest and most welcoming people I have met. While also experiencing social awkwardness at a level that I had been spared since my high school days. And no, that is not because Norwegian men are all insanely good-looking Viking offspring. If that were the case, life would have been even more awkward!
In approaching Norwegian social life, I had two big handicaps. First, I did not (well still don't actually) speak Norwegian. Yes, I know, a lot of people here speak excellent English, but still... There is a certain freedom in talking that is lost if you have to think about everything you are going to say. Second, I came fresh from Canada, Small-Talk Country of the world! In Canada, your day is not worth calling a day if you have not at least engaged one stranger in a conversation about a completely random topic. That's just what life is like over there! After living there for a couple of years it became harder and harder to meet that one stranger, but I feel I still made pretty much every day worth living there.
So since I did not/do not speak the language, I used google translate to find the Norwegian version of Canada's conversation starter: "Hey, how are you?". GT came back with: "Hvordan går det?". So, for the first couple of days in Norway, I would ask that question to everyone I met. In the streets, at the supermarket, when meeting the principal of the girls' school, etc. Little did I know that "Hvordan går det?" inquires how people are actually doing. It is the kind of question you ask when you know someone has experienced a life-changing event, like a big surgery, loss of someone dear or moving to another part of the country. It is a pretty deep question. Kind of lacking in the non-committal, conversation starting aspect of the Canadian: "How are you?". So, instead of starting up nice conversations with my neighbours, I got quizzical looks about how on earth I could know that they were going through a rough patch in life... Of course, it took me a while to find out why my friendly enquiries were not met with a barrage of friendly responses, but I soon stopped asking it anyway.
Soon after, I realized that there was some truth to the stand-offish prejudice about Norwegian people. Out of the house, there is really little contact to be made. When shopping, everybody goes about their business, their OWN business. There is no eye-contact, no chance to make the odd comment about how nice somebody's rainboots look, how cute their baby is or where they bought that jacket that looks utterly Norwegian-weather-resistant. Nothing. Again, the contrast with Canada could not have been bigger.
Fortunately, we met some of the parents of the friends Jura and Nori made at school. And, they were awesome people! Very outgoing and welcoming, sharing stories about living in our small town and helping us navigate our way through all things new in Norway. I still feel incredibly grateful to these people for inviting us over, because they provided a much needed contrast with the rest of our contact with Norwegian society.
As mentioned in another blog post, dealing with bureaucracy in Norway wasn't exactly easy. Furthermore, I was trying to find a job as well. As suggested by the NAV (Norwegian social security agency), I wrote open applications to all possible employers around me (read: barnehagen and dental practices). But no one, and I mean no one, wrote anything back to my enquiries. Of course I had not expected to be showered with job opportunities, but coming, again, from Canada, I at least expected some form or reply. Something along the lines of: "Thank you for your interest in blahblah. Unfortunately we have no position available for non-Norwegian speaking middle-aged career-misfits who really should have thought about their job prospects before coming to Norway... We will contact you should such a position become available". That's only decent, right?!
So, after those dreadful summer months, I decided things needed to change. And quickly, too! Me, Ms. Chatterbox-pur-sang, I was starting to feel lonely! And not just lonely, I realized that I started to dislike Norway and at the same time was developing stalker-like tendencies to the people that I had had a good time with, aka the parents of Nori and Jura's friends. I could not rely on my Canadian experience anymore, nor did I want to rely solely on the goodwill of the Norwegian families who we had gotten in contact with so far. It was time for a change in tactics!
I decided to forego the job seeking mishap and focus on "learning Norwegian through social contacts" instead. I realized quickly that beggars can't be choosers and that perhaps I had to venture a little out of my comfort zone. In a way, I kind of thrive outside my comfort zone, once I have made the step to embrace the new and awkward so to speak. I decided to grab every opportunity I got to wiggle my way into Norwegian life. Over the course of a month, our family joined a family choir, I joined a local choir and I volunteered to become a member of the FAU at Eluin's barnehage (kind of like a PAC).
And almost immediately, things clicked! Because what people don't tell you about Norwegians, is that they are incredibly social, funny, welcoming, openhearted and supportive If They Have A Reason To Be Around You. That is the key. Don't expect people to chat with you at the playground. With every family being a double income family, there is no one at the playground during the week anyway. But, if you are part of a social gathering, you are part of social Norway, too. I learned how deeply ingrained going out, building a fire and being active in nature is in Norwegian culture. And come to think of it, why shouldn't it? Our natural surroundings are absolutely stunning and you sure do appreciate that fiery glow a lot more after a day in the woods! I've come to understand that even though people don't carry their heart on their sleeve, they are by no means shallow or cold. Indeed, moving to the Trondheim area from another part of Norway can leave one quite as in need of new friends as I was and I truly appreciate the people who have reached out to me and shared their stories of moving here with me. Then again, I have met quite a few Norwegians, both male and female, who are even more talkative than I am!
Also, I am really grateful to our friends who invited us to join the family choir (and the local choir).
It has given me insight, in how big a role music and singing plays in Norwegian life. Almost all the kids I know play an instrument and are a member of the school band. Nori and Jura both really enjoy singing at school. I truly enjoy singing at the choir, although I still find it pretty scary, too. I mean, I've never heard half the song before, so I don't know the melody, I don't know how to pronounce the words and I have no idea 90% of the time what the choir conductor is saying when she explains how she wants us to sing certain parts. What could possibly go wrong, right? Right.
But something that happened at the choir struck a chord in me and stirred a memory from long, long ago. During my studies, I went on an internship to South Africa. I worked with local volunteer groups in a rural, traditional Zulu community. Every meeting we had, we started with singing. They were mostly hymns, and they were sung with a heartfelt joy and spirit that gives me goosebumps just remembering it. Every single person I met there could sing. And every voice had the practice and power to go to a different place from where we were at that moment. To truly lift the spirit. I learned many a lesson over there, but the power of music, of singing, of forging a common goal at the beginning of each meeting is something I have not encountered ever again. And I am still in awe of that.
So, now I am here in Norway, quite far away from South Africa. And one night I joined the choir to sing at an evening where a number of local choirs gathered. It was my first social outing in Norway. The choir meeting was held in a "samfunnshus", kind of like a community centre. Everybody looked their best. There was good food and drinks to be had and the performances of the choirs were incredible. After the performances, the lights dimmed a little and people engaged in conversation. Until, at one point, one of the bass singers in our choir started a song at the other end of the table. His deep voice was joined almost instantly by another bass singer and an alto. Before I knew it, the table I sat at had burst into what I can only imagine to be an old seaman's song (though it could just as easily have been a song about how good oranges taste or the difficulties of finding a suitable partner in life, I have no idea actually ;-) ). Again, I felt the power of a song lifting the spirits. Of singing just for the sake of singing, because it is something that brings people together. I felt the same kind of goosebumps and connection that I had felt so many years ago in South Africa...
...wouldn't it be beautiful if I could end this blog post on finding my way around Norway on this magical, inspiring note? I bet it would, but alas, that is not me. Because the truth is, something else made me feel even more at home, and confident that I would have a good time in Norway after all. And that was something that has less to do with the power of music...and more with my potty mouth and dirty mind. It is no secret that I have a dirty mind to rival any 15-year-old. And although I met some cosmic twin sisters in Canada that met my level of tongue-in-cheek-jokes, the truth is that Canada was not entirely supportive, shall we say, of my particular tendency for "underpants-humour" as the Dutch proudly refer to it.
But lo and behold! At this local choir in rural Norway, people truly appreciate the power of a good joke! And the fact that I missed the clue on both the choir conductor's comparison between a choir conductor and a condom and a hilarious story involving a bass singer who's fly was open at the start of a concert has made me even more determined to learn Norwegian! Those jokes were too good to get lost in translation :-)
There is a general idea among people not from Norway that Norwegian people are stand-offish, hard to read, gruff, proud of their own country and fond of everything to do with nature, winter and physical hardship. Their society is hard to become a part of as an outsider. You are never truly Norwegian, unless you AND your parents were born there. This makes it hard for an outsider to feel at home.
This is what I read before moving our family to Norway. And this proved to be true and absolute rubbish in such equal proportions, that I think I would have been better off not knowing what I was getting into. So let me share my story with you about how I got to know Norwegian people as one of the kindest and most welcoming people I have met. While also experiencing social awkwardness at a level that I had been spared since my high school days. And no, that is not because Norwegian men are all insanely good-looking Viking offspring. If that were the case, life would have been even more awkward!
In approaching Norwegian social life, I had two big handicaps. First, I did not (well still don't actually) speak Norwegian. Yes, I know, a lot of people here speak excellent English, but still... There is a certain freedom in talking that is lost if you have to think about everything you are going to say. Second, I came fresh from Canada, Small-Talk Country of the world! In Canada, your day is not worth calling a day if you have not at least engaged one stranger in a conversation about a completely random topic. That's just what life is like over there! After living there for a couple of years it became harder and harder to meet that one stranger, but I feel I still made pretty much every day worth living there.
So since I did not/do not speak the language, I used google translate to find the Norwegian version of Canada's conversation starter: "Hey, how are you?". GT came back with: "Hvordan går det?". So, for the first couple of days in Norway, I would ask that question to everyone I met. In the streets, at the supermarket, when meeting the principal of the girls' school, etc. Little did I know that "Hvordan går det?" inquires how people are actually doing. It is the kind of question you ask when you know someone has experienced a life-changing event, like a big surgery, loss of someone dear or moving to another part of the country. It is a pretty deep question. Kind of lacking in the non-committal, conversation starting aspect of the Canadian: "How are you?". So, instead of starting up nice conversations with my neighbours, I got quizzical looks about how on earth I could know that they were going through a rough patch in life... Of course, it took me a while to find out why my friendly enquiries were not met with a barrage of friendly responses, but I soon stopped asking it anyway.
Soon after, I realized that there was some truth to the stand-offish prejudice about Norwegian people. Out of the house, there is really little contact to be made. When shopping, everybody goes about their business, their OWN business. There is no eye-contact, no chance to make the odd comment about how nice somebody's rainboots look, how cute their baby is or where they bought that jacket that looks utterly Norwegian-weather-resistant. Nothing. Again, the contrast with Canada could not have been bigger.
Fortunately, we met some of the parents of the friends Jura and Nori made at school. And, they were awesome people! Very outgoing and welcoming, sharing stories about living in our small town and helping us navigate our way through all things new in Norway. I still feel incredibly grateful to these people for inviting us over, because they provided a much needed contrast with the rest of our contact with Norwegian society.
As mentioned in another blog post, dealing with bureaucracy in Norway wasn't exactly easy. Furthermore, I was trying to find a job as well. As suggested by the NAV (Norwegian social security agency), I wrote open applications to all possible employers around me (read: barnehagen and dental practices). But no one, and I mean no one, wrote anything back to my enquiries. Of course I had not expected to be showered with job opportunities, but coming, again, from Canada, I at least expected some form or reply. Something along the lines of: "Thank you for your interest in blahblah. Unfortunately we have no position available for non-Norwegian speaking middle-aged career-misfits who really should have thought about their job prospects before coming to Norway... We will contact you should such a position become available". That's only decent, right?!
So, after those dreadful summer months, I decided things needed to change. And quickly, too! Me, Ms. Chatterbox-pur-sang, I was starting to feel lonely! And not just lonely, I realized that I started to dislike Norway and at the same time was developing stalker-like tendencies to the people that I had had a good time with, aka the parents of Nori and Jura's friends. I could not rely on my Canadian experience anymore, nor did I want to rely solely on the goodwill of the Norwegian families who we had gotten in contact with so far. It was time for a change in tactics!
I decided to forego the job seeking mishap and focus on "learning Norwegian through social contacts" instead. I realized quickly that beggars can't be choosers and that perhaps I had to venture a little out of my comfort zone. In a way, I kind of thrive outside my comfort zone, once I have made the step to embrace the new and awkward so to speak. I decided to grab every opportunity I got to wiggle my way into Norwegian life. Over the course of a month, our family joined a family choir, I joined a local choir and I volunteered to become a member of the FAU at Eluin's barnehage (kind of like a PAC).
And almost immediately, things clicked! Because what people don't tell you about Norwegians, is that they are incredibly social, funny, welcoming, openhearted and supportive If They Have A Reason To Be Around You. That is the key. Don't expect people to chat with you at the playground. With every family being a double income family, there is no one at the playground during the week anyway. But, if you are part of a social gathering, you are part of social Norway, too. I learned how deeply ingrained going out, building a fire and being active in nature is in Norwegian culture. And come to think of it, why shouldn't it? Our natural surroundings are absolutely stunning and you sure do appreciate that fiery glow a lot more after a day in the woods! I've come to understand that even though people don't carry their heart on their sleeve, they are by no means shallow or cold. Indeed, moving to the Trondheim area from another part of Norway can leave one quite as in need of new friends as I was and I truly appreciate the people who have reached out to me and shared their stories of moving here with me. Then again, I have met quite a few Norwegians, both male and female, who are even more talkative than I am!
Also, I am really grateful to our friends who invited us to join the family choir (and the local choir).
It has given me insight, in how big a role music and singing plays in Norwegian life. Almost all the kids I know play an instrument and are a member of the school band. Nori and Jura both really enjoy singing at school. I truly enjoy singing at the choir, although I still find it pretty scary, too. I mean, I've never heard half the song before, so I don't know the melody, I don't know how to pronounce the words and I have no idea 90% of the time what the choir conductor is saying when she explains how she wants us to sing certain parts. What could possibly go wrong, right? Right.
But something that happened at the choir struck a chord in me and stirred a memory from long, long ago. During my studies, I went on an internship to South Africa. I worked with local volunteer groups in a rural, traditional Zulu community. Every meeting we had, we started with singing. They were mostly hymns, and they were sung with a heartfelt joy and spirit that gives me goosebumps just remembering it. Every single person I met there could sing. And every voice had the practice and power to go to a different place from where we were at that moment. To truly lift the spirit. I learned many a lesson over there, but the power of music, of singing, of forging a common goal at the beginning of each meeting is something I have not encountered ever again. And I am still in awe of that.
So, now I am here in Norway, quite far away from South Africa. And one night I joined the choir to sing at an evening where a number of local choirs gathered. It was my first social outing in Norway. The choir meeting was held in a "samfunnshus", kind of like a community centre. Everybody looked their best. There was good food and drinks to be had and the performances of the choirs were incredible. After the performances, the lights dimmed a little and people engaged in conversation. Until, at one point, one of the bass singers in our choir started a song at the other end of the table. His deep voice was joined almost instantly by another bass singer and an alto. Before I knew it, the table I sat at had burst into what I can only imagine to be an old seaman's song (though it could just as easily have been a song about how good oranges taste or the difficulties of finding a suitable partner in life, I have no idea actually ;-) ). Again, I felt the power of a song lifting the spirits. Of singing just for the sake of singing, because it is something that brings people together. I felt the same kind of goosebumps and connection that I had felt so many years ago in South Africa...
...wouldn't it be beautiful if I could end this blog post on finding my way around Norway on this magical, inspiring note? I bet it would, but alas, that is not me. Because the truth is, something else made me feel even more at home, and confident that I would have a good time in Norway after all. And that was something that has less to do with the power of music...and more with my potty mouth and dirty mind. It is no secret that I have a dirty mind to rival any 15-year-old. And although I met some cosmic twin sisters in Canada that met my level of tongue-in-cheek-jokes, the truth is that Canada was not entirely supportive, shall we say, of my particular tendency for "underpants-humour" as the Dutch proudly refer to it.
But lo and behold! At this local choir in rural Norway, people truly appreciate the power of a good joke! And the fact that I missed the clue on both the choir conductor's comparison between a choir conductor and a condom and a hilarious story involving a bass singer who's fly was open at the start of a concert has made me even more determined to learn Norwegian! Those jokes were too good to get lost in translation :-)
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Don't let money change yaaahhhh-deeptap-dabeedooowaahhh....
Holy mackerel, we're rich!!! I still can't really believe it myself, but we are... We finally sold our house and the savings from our mortgage thus became available to us as well. Technically speaking, it is not that big a load of cash, but for me it feels as if we have become millionaires overnight!
And so a period of our life seems to have come to an end. A way of life we not necessarily have to cling to anymore. Well, at least not for the coming months, at least ;-) The lifestyle of the let's-see-how-we-can-make-ends-meet-this-time.
Don't get me wrong, we have never been poor. But we have experienced a rather prolonged period of life in a state of not-having-enough-money. And while it may sound as if I am looking for some form of pity, I actually want to share with you some of the lessons I learned from being on a budget. Lessons I learned with the help of Menno, who, aside from being an amazing husband, also is a pretty steadfast financial conscience. True, I have called him stingy in the past, but let's face it, if it had been left up to me, we probably would be knee-deep in debt right now. So thank you! Plus, his budgeting and my creativity inspired us to do things that we normally would never have done. Or even considered a possibility!
Let's start at where our financial situation started to slope downhill. January 17th, 2011. The day we arrived at YVR airport in Vancouver. With only 2 children and no more than 7 suitcases (and 4 hand luggage trolleys, let's be fair) we were ready to start our new life at the other side of the globe. We had briefly considered shipping our furniture and belongings from The Netherlands, but even with my meagre grasp of math I was able to figure out that the added value of our belongings was less than how much it would cost us to ship it.
So, that first night, we came into our empty apartment, unrolled our thermarest mats and slept on the floor. The next few days we spent collecting the basic necessities of furniture, because we had a rental car for a week. It was during our search that we already met with the kindness of strangers. For people on a budget, the kindness of strangers is like your christmas bonus at work. Out of nowhere, people can make you so happy with what they have to share. In our case, we picked up a super cute, second hand, wooden toddler bed from a house in Coquitlam. Of course Jura and Nori, heavily jet lagged at that time, wanted to come into the house with me. While Menno lugged the bed to our car, I chatted with the lady who sold us the bed. Upon hearing that we had just moved to Canada and had only few toys for the girls, she gave us some very nice things for free! I felt bad accepting it, because, well, I had never been in the situation where somebody had felt the need to give me things for free...but seeing how happy Jura was to have another chalkboard to replace the one she had had to leave behind in the Netherlands, I decided to swallow my pride.
And that, right there, is the first lesson I learned. Having less money than you would like to have, places you in a strange position. All of a sudden, you become aware of what is considered "the norm" for spending money on. Like buying a coffee when going to the playground. Or having a car. Or bringing presents to your child's friend's birthday party. Or, heck, handing out goodie bags at your child's birthday party. It takes some courage, or at least, it took me some courage, to navigate those particular waters. To realize that it is ok not to have the things that society somehow thinks you should have in order to be successful. Now, I am not talking about the big things like buying a house or a fancy car. But even in the small things, you can feel the sting of the have's vs. the have-nots. If you are susceptible to that feeling, that is. You have to learn to take pride in living on a budget (because nobody else will applaud you for it ;-) ) while at the same time swallowing a different kind of pride and allow people to help you where they want to help you. Accept what is given, because it will make your life a lot easier!
When it comes to learning life on a budget, I am still eternally grateful that I got to go to the University of British Columbia. Living on campus taught me basically everything I needed to know, with a little extra help from my dear Dutch friend who lived 70km away from me. On campus, everybody was struggling. Life in Vancouver is insanely expensive, the cost of living is ridiculously high. You may think upon reading this that it is prosaic exaggeration, but let me tell you, this is the regular way to talk about life expenses in Vancouver. To exaggerate would be to say that nobody can afford to live there. That only being an exaggeration, because obviously people still do. Live there, I mean.
Add to that, that as a family from another country, you are dealing with the common money-slurping shenanigans of immigration bureaucracy. You do not move oversees because it makes your life easier, or less expensive, that's for sure. By leaving the Netherlands, we said goodbye to the child support we received there and were not eligible for child support in Canada until we had lived there for 18 months. Those kinds of rules and regulations held for every international family that lived in the UBC student-family or faculty-and-staff-housing. Those from Canada were also far away from family and support networks, so there was a general atmosphere of helping each other out.
My dear friend M. and I have spent many happy days collecting second hand furniture, or even dumpster furniture, to build ourselves a house worthy of Martha Stewart (just kidding, M ;-) ). She would call me whenever she had seen something nice, and later when I met my friend S who lived off campus, she would do the same! The first year I decorated, and re-decorated, our apartment with furniture found at the side of the street. More often than not, Menno would come back home from work and would see something was different, but would not be able right away to put his finger on what it was... Which was always kind of funny, because it gave me the feeling of what it would be like to have gone to the hairdresser and Menno not noticing. Of course, we had no money for me to actually go to the hairdresser, so this was a good second ;-)
Life on a budget also meant we did not have a car. Luckily, the public transportation system is excellent in Vancouver. One of my fondest memories of our first year in Vancouver, though, is our first christmas eve. Our dear friend M had lent us our car, because they were visiting family in Toronto for christmas. On christmas eve, after dinner, we put Jura and Nori in the car with a sippy cup filled with hot chocolate. With Cookie (Eluin's working title while I was pregnant with her) doing summersaults in my tummy, we drove around the neighbourhoods surrounding the UBC campus. The girls were completely mesmerized by the insanely beautiful christmas decorations. In fact, that drive around town became one of our christmas traditions in Vancouver.
Still, I felt we had to invest in some form of transportation. So first we bough a bike for me with a double bike trailer. Later on, while pregnant with Cookie, we bought a Phil and Teds stroller. Second hand of course, from someone in Surrey. The girls thought the trip on the skytrain to Surrey was the best trip they had ever had (all credits go to the bag of snacks that I had brought with me on that trip ;-) ) and I arrived home with 2 kids sound asleep in the new double stroller.
That double stroller was such a life-saver, that it inspired me to the most ambitious holiday I have ever organized. Going camping. By public transport. Yup, you read that right. Our family (Menno, Roos, Jura (5), Nori (3) and Eluin (4 months)) decided to go camping on Vancouver Island and to travel there by bus and ferry. We made so many good memories!
In preparation for this trip, I went to the Canadian Tire to stock up on some camping gear. Of course, I brought the Phil and Teds stroller, because that was basically going to be our tent trailer. I spent quite some time in the aisles fitting all the necessary items (double air mattress, new tent, sleeping bags, etc.) in the stroller. Feeling like the queen of Tetris, I finally found all the things to fit into the stroller, with room to spare for a child to sit in the stroller. Happy as a clam, I took my loot to the check out. The lady behind the register asked me if I needed help getting it to the car. This is the conversation that followed:
C(heckout lady): "Are you sure? We really don't mind and it looks like you have your hands full..."
R(oos): "Thank you, but it's ok...I came here by bus."
C (surprised): "You came here by bus? But how are you going to take it back?"
R (feeling proud): "Well, I just spent some time trying how everything would fit in my stroller"
C (impressed): "Wow, smart thinking if you have to take it home by bus."
R: "Well...actually...we don't own a car. So I bought this camping gear for a camping trip to Nanaimo and we will travel there by public transport"
C (incredulous): "What? Are you taking 3 kids camping by bus? Wow...that is kind of, well, ambitious... Can I call my manager? He definitely needs to see this!!!"
:-)
So now, fast forward about 3 years. In the meantime we had moved from our place on campus to a place off campus. Menno had been awarded a prestigious research grant that gave us a lot more financial leeway. We were actually able to save some money!
And then we got to move overseas again...
Really, there is no thing that makes you lose your money as quickly as a trans-continental move. Maybe we are playing this particular game the wrong way, but as much as we tried to prevent history from repeating itself, we found ourselves in Norway in a uncomfortably similar situation as how we had started in Canada.
First off, this time we did decide to ship our stuff. Because, frankly, we had more that we wanted to keep from our time in Canada than we did moving out of the Netherlands. In part because we left most of our life locked away in our families' various attics before moving to Canada. With our stuff on the way, Menno made his way to Norway and me and the girls travelled to Holland to sell our house. I left Holland after three months with a signed preliminary buying agreement in my pocket...only to see that fall through at the last moment, because the buyers were unable to secure a mortgage. Bummer.
Not only did this mean we had to find some way to sell our house while already overseas (thank you, parents-in-law!), it also meant double rents and financial insecurity. Our savings from Canada were mostly usurped by the deposit for our rental home here (a whopping 5.000 euros) and an exorbitantly high storage fee for our goods at the port in Oslo.
So there we were again... Trying to build our house on no money. Lending money from our parents. With more stuff, that's true, because we have a much bigger house here in Norway than we ever had in Canada. And the comfort of having our "own" material rubble around us (toys, books, plates and cutlery) from the start, rather than having to forage for an inventory, does make a lot of difference. But starting up a new life is expensive, it always is. And I have felt so bad about not being able to be as generous as I want to be for all these years and then starting anew with the stingy scurmudgeon lifestyle, that I have to admit that I have felt lost sometimes during our first months here...
But all that is a thing from the past now! We are out of the deep and murky waters. And I am so grateful for that. Because having learned my lessons in appreciating health, family, friends, love, laughter, traditions, food, kindness, volunteer work, crazy plans and shoestring holidays above material wealth, the money we have now feels like something that gives us opportunities, rather than something we need to make us happy in life.
And on that note: I realize that although we may not have been wealthy in the traditional sense of the word for the past years, I truly recognize my wealth in how lucky we are to be alive. I can't believe how little misfortune we have had over the years. Even my grandmother, who I anticipated to pass away during our time in Canada is still alive!!!
So please, if anyone anywhere is in charge of making us pay our dues for outstanding debts in the bad things of life, whether it be karma, God, Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster... I know we have been lucky these past few years, but could you please hold off your payments for a couple of months? So we can relish in this new found financial peace? Much appreciated! :-)
And so a period of our life seems to have come to an end. A way of life we not necessarily have to cling to anymore. Well, at least not for the coming months, at least ;-) The lifestyle of the let's-see-how-we-can-make-ends-meet-this-time.
Don't get me wrong, we have never been poor. But we have experienced a rather prolonged period of life in a state of not-having-enough-money. And while it may sound as if I am looking for some form of pity, I actually want to share with you some of the lessons I learned from being on a budget. Lessons I learned with the help of Menno, who, aside from being an amazing husband, also is a pretty steadfast financial conscience. True, I have called him stingy in the past, but let's face it, if it had been left up to me, we probably would be knee-deep in debt right now. So thank you! Plus, his budgeting and my creativity inspired us to do things that we normally would never have done. Or even considered a possibility!
Let's start at where our financial situation started to slope downhill. January 17th, 2011. The day we arrived at YVR airport in Vancouver. With only 2 children and no more than 7 suitcases (and 4 hand luggage trolleys, let's be fair) we were ready to start our new life at the other side of the globe. We had briefly considered shipping our furniture and belongings from The Netherlands, but even with my meagre grasp of math I was able to figure out that the added value of our belongings was less than how much it would cost us to ship it.
So, that first night, we came into our empty apartment, unrolled our thermarest mats and slept on the floor. The next few days we spent collecting the basic necessities of furniture, because we had a rental car for a week. It was during our search that we already met with the kindness of strangers. For people on a budget, the kindness of strangers is like your christmas bonus at work. Out of nowhere, people can make you so happy with what they have to share. In our case, we picked up a super cute, second hand, wooden toddler bed from a house in Coquitlam. Of course Jura and Nori, heavily jet lagged at that time, wanted to come into the house with me. While Menno lugged the bed to our car, I chatted with the lady who sold us the bed. Upon hearing that we had just moved to Canada and had only few toys for the girls, she gave us some very nice things for free! I felt bad accepting it, because, well, I had never been in the situation where somebody had felt the need to give me things for free...but seeing how happy Jura was to have another chalkboard to replace the one she had had to leave behind in the Netherlands, I decided to swallow my pride.
And that, right there, is the first lesson I learned. Having less money than you would like to have, places you in a strange position. All of a sudden, you become aware of what is considered "the norm" for spending money on. Like buying a coffee when going to the playground. Or having a car. Or bringing presents to your child's friend's birthday party. Or, heck, handing out goodie bags at your child's birthday party. It takes some courage, or at least, it took me some courage, to navigate those particular waters. To realize that it is ok not to have the things that society somehow thinks you should have in order to be successful. Now, I am not talking about the big things like buying a house or a fancy car. But even in the small things, you can feel the sting of the have's vs. the have-nots. If you are susceptible to that feeling, that is. You have to learn to take pride in living on a budget (because nobody else will applaud you for it ;-) ) while at the same time swallowing a different kind of pride and allow people to help you where they want to help you. Accept what is given, because it will make your life a lot easier!
When it comes to learning life on a budget, I am still eternally grateful that I got to go to the University of British Columbia. Living on campus taught me basically everything I needed to know, with a little extra help from my dear Dutch friend who lived 70km away from me. On campus, everybody was struggling. Life in Vancouver is insanely expensive, the cost of living is ridiculously high. You may think upon reading this that it is prosaic exaggeration, but let me tell you, this is the regular way to talk about life expenses in Vancouver. To exaggerate would be to say that nobody can afford to live there. That only being an exaggeration, because obviously people still do. Live there, I mean.
Add to that, that as a family from another country, you are dealing with the common money-slurping shenanigans of immigration bureaucracy. You do not move oversees because it makes your life easier, or less expensive, that's for sure. By leaving the Netherlands, we said goodbye to the child support we received there and were not eligible for child support in Canada until we had lived there for 18 months. Those kinds of rules and regulations held for every international family that lived in the UBC student-family or faculty-and-staff-housing. Those from Canada were also far away from family and support networks, so there was a general atmosphere of helping each other out.
My dear friend M. and I have spent many happy days collecting second hand furniture, or even dumpster furniture, to build ourselves a house worthy of Martha Stewart (just kidding, M ;-) ). She would call me whenever she had seen something nice, and later when I met my friend S who lived off campus, she would do the same! The first year I decorated, and re-decorated, our apartment with furniture found at the side of the street. More often than not, Menno would come back home from work and would see something was different, but would not be able right away to put his finger on what it was... Which was always kind of funny, because it gave me the feeling of what it would be like to have gone to the hairdresser and Menno not noticing. Of course, we had no money for me to actually go to the hairdresser, so this was a good second ;-)
Life on a budget also meant we did not have a car. Luckily, the public transportation system is excellent in Vancouver. One of my fondest memories of our first year in Vancouver, though, is our first christmas eve. Our dear friend M had lent us our car, because they were visiting family in Toronto for christmas. On christmas eve, after dinner, we put Jura and Nori in the car with a sippy cup filled with hot chocolate. With Cookie (Eluin's working title while I was pregnant with her) doing summersaults in my tummy, we drove around the neighbourhoods surrounding the UBC campus. The girls were completely mesmerized by the insanely beautiful christmas decorations. In fact, that drive around town became one of our christmas traditions in Vancouver.
Still, I felt we had to invest in some form of transportation. So first we bough a bike for me with a double bike trailer. Later on, while pregnant with Cookie, we bought a Phil and Teds stroller. Second hand of course, from someone in Surrey. The girls thought the trip on the skytrain to Surrey was the best trip they had ever had (all credits go to the bag of snacks that I had brought with me on that trip ;-) ) and I arrived home with 2 kids sound asleep in the new double stroller.
That double stroller was such a life-saver, that it inspired me to the most ambitious holiday I have ever organized. Going camping. By public transport. Yup, you read that right. Our family (Menno, Roos, Jura (5), Nori (3) and Eluin (4 months)) decided to go camping on Vancouver Island and to travel there by bus and ferry. We made so many good memories!
In preparation for this trip, I went to the Canadian Tire to stock up on some camping gear. Of course, I brought the Phil and Teds stroller, because that was basically going to be our tent trailer. I spent quite some time in the aisles fitting all the necessary items (double air mattress, new tent, sleeping bags, etc.) in the stroller. Feeling like the queen of Tetris, I finally found all the things to fit into the stroller, with room to spare for a child to sit in the stroller. Happy as a clam, I took my loot to the check out. The lady behind the register asked me if I needed help getting it to the car. This is the conversation that followed:
C(heckout lady): "Are you sure? We really don't mind and it looks like you have your hands full..."
R(oos): "Thank you, but it's ok...I came here by bus."
C (surprised): "You came here by bus? But how are you going to take it back?"
R (feeling proud): "Well, I just spent some time trying how everything would fit in my stroller"
C (impressed): "Wow, smart thinking if you have to take it home by bus."
R: "Well...actually...we don't own a car. So I bought this camping gear for a camping trip to Nanaimo and we will travel there by public transport"
C (incredulous): "What? Are you taking 3 kids camping by bus? Wow...that is kind of, well, ambitious... Can I call my manager? He definitely needs to see this!!!"
:-)
So now, fast forward about 3 years. In the meantime we had moved from our place on campus to a place off campus. Menno had been awarded a prestigious research grant that gave us a lot more financial leeway. We were actually able to save some money!
And then we got to move overseas again...
Really, there is no thing that makes you lose your money as quickly as a trans-continental move. Maybe we are playing this particular game the wrong way, but as much as we tried to prevent history from repeating itself, we found ourselves in Norway in a uncomfortably similar situation as how we had started in Canada.
First off, this time we did decide to ship our stuff. Because, frankly, we had more that we wanted to keep from our time in Canada than we did moving out of the Netherlands. In part because we left most of our life locked away in our families' various attics before moving to Canada. With our stuff on the way, Menno made his way to Norway and me and the girls travelled to Holland to sell our house. I left Holland after three months with a signed preliminary buying agreement in my pocket...only to see that fall through at the last moment, because the buyers were unable to secure a mortgage. Bummer.
Not only did this mean we had to find some way to sell our house while already overseas (thank you, parents-in-law!), it also meant double rents and financial insecurity. Our savings from Canada were mostly usurped by the deposit for our rental home here (a whopping 5.000 euros) and an exorbitantly high storage fee for our goods at the port in Oslo.
So there we were again... Trying to build our house on no money. Lending money from our parents. With more stuff, that's true, because we have a much bigger house here in Norway than we ever had in Canada. And the comfort of having our "own" material rubble around us (toys, books, plates and cutlery) from the start, rather than having to forage for an inventory, does make a lot of difference. But starting up a new life is expensive, it always is. And I have felt so bad about not being able to be as generous as I want to be for all these years and then starting anew with the stingy scurmudgeon lifestyle, that I have to admit that I have felt lost sometimes during our first months here...
But all that is a thing from the past now! We are out of the deep and murky waters. And I am so grateful for that. Because having learned my lessons in appreciating health, family, friends, love, laughter, traditions, food, kindness, volunteer work, crazy plans and shoestring holidays above material wealth, the money we have now feels like something that gives us opportunities, rather than something we need to make us happy in life.
And on that note: I realize that although we may not have been wealthy in the traditional sense of the word for the past years, I truly recognize my wealth in how lucky we are to be alive. I can't believe how little misfortune we have had over the years. Even my grandmother, who I anticipated to pass away during our time in Canada is still alive!!!
So please, if anyone anywhere is in charge of making us pay our dues for outstanding debts in the bad things of life, whether it be karma, God, Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster... I know we have been lucky these past few years, but could you please hold off your payments for a couple of months? So we can relish in this new found financial peace? Much appreciated! :-)
Friday, September 30, 2016
The last child in the woods
In Canada, I started a forest project at Jura and Nori's school. What started as a walk in the woods beside the school, slowly grew into a inquiry based outdoor science curriculum, thanks to the amazing teachers who let me be a part of their classroom.
We started to explore a trail at the edge of the school ground, called Swordfern Trail. Over the course of a year, 140 grade 1 and 2 kids slowly made this patch of forest their own. They learned the names of the trees on the trail and what ecosystem those trees were a part of. We looked for fungi and used a (crude) determination table as a puzzle to find the names of the mushrooms we found on the trail. I talked to them about the web of life and how even on that short stretch of trail each organism had it's role in the ecosystem. Outside of the science periods, the teachers took their groups to the same trail to have the kids inspired by their surroundings and write beautiful poems. We built fairy houses with the bounty of the woods
The children's curiosity was sparked and I got more questions than I ever could answer. The trail transformed from a path that some kids used to walk to school on to a part of the forest that they "knew". Probably the best part was when the grade 3 students the next year asked for "play time" in the woods as the last thing we did for the science program before I left for Norway. Seventy-two kids running wild in the woods for an hour, climbing logs, building dams in streams, finding treasures and trying very hard to get "lost" ;-)
In Canada, this was something relatively new. It felt like I had finely found a little niche for myself where I could use my biological knowledge in a way to teach outside of the regular "sit-at-a-table-and-repeat-after-me-way". If we had stayed in Canada, I would have explored my options to obtain some form of teaching degree and turn what I had been doing on a voluntary basis into a real, grown-up job.
Alas. We moved to Norway. And in Norway, outdoor education has been a substantial part of the elementary school curriculum for ages. Which, of course, is awesome. Jura and Nori have had 3 "friluftsdagen" so far (they have gone to school for only 1.5 months now!) where they do exactly what those grade 3 kids did...but instead of 1 hour, they do it all day! So aside from the language barrier preventing me from trying to become some sort of outdoor education teacher, it's not exactly as if what I have to offer has any "niche-value" around here. Bummer. Then again, at least my girls get to experience the benefits of outdoor education firsthand! And over the past couple of weeks, even I got to experience some :-)
Eluin in particular is the lucky duck. Because the barnehagen (that's what Norway's amazing daycares are called) in our town had no spot for Eluin available, she started at a barnehagen the next town over. This barnehagen has a strong focus on outdoor education. In fact, they even have an outdoor pedagogue who oversees all things outdoorsy. How cool is that?! Their school is at the edge of a beautiful forest and they take regular trips into the woods. Also, next to their school yard, there is a part of the forest that has been turned into a play-climbing-forest for the kids. I know. I want to go to school there, too!
Aside from the regular school-life, they also go on "outdoor weeks" twice a year (I think). They pick a place in the woods near one of the "wooden shelters with firepits" you find in the woods here everywhere. And they stay there. All week. Even if the weather is, well, Norwegian. Eluin got to experience her first outdoor week two weeks ago. She had an awesome time! Everyday she came home smelling like a smoked potato, full of stories about sawing tree trunks and swinging on rope swings and, on her first day, she even brought home an invisible troll friend named Lars that she had found in the woods. Over the week, her independence and feeling of freedom in the woods grew even more.
It was during this week that I decided to be bold and ask if the teachers perhaps needed some extra hands... Of course they did not need any extra hands, but they were polite enough to let this outdoor education groupie sniff up some of the good stuff. And, really, those couple of hours are amongst the best hours I have had in Norway so far! First off, I felt for the first time that I was conversing with people at the same level, in Norwegian no less! Two-to-four year olds are apparently right at my level of Norwegian language proficiency. By which I by no means am implying that I understood everything the kids said to me. But kids are a lot less awkward about using crude sign language to make themselves understood, so it still felt as if I was engaging in true conversation.
What struck me most was that the kids hardly needed any motivation or guidance in their activities. Every now and then a teacher would suggest something, like try out the zip line, and all munchkins would trundle after said teacher to wait their turn on the zip line. But for the most part, they were just, well, playing. With whatever they found lying around. Figuring out their own ways to cooperate, turning logs into trains or horses and just having a good time. They never, ever got bored. And they were so independent!
I had already noticed that new found independence in Eluin before she had her outdoor week, though. She actually freaked me out one of the first times we went on a family hike together after she had started school. It was the beginning of autumn and the woods were filled with berries of every imaginable kind. Of course, I pointed out the blueberry bushes to the girls and suggested we would take a break to snack some. When I looked at Eluin, I saw her mouth was already stained blue. Oh boy. So, I asked her what berries she had been snacking on, and she pointed to several bushes. Not all of them blueberries. Rats. I looked at the other bushes she had pointed out and racked my brains to see if I could come up with the name of the plants she was pointing at, and whether they were poisonous, but of course drew a blank. I decided to push the memory of Jura having food poisoning and projectile vomiting for 48 hours straight to the back of my mind and just told Eluin not to eat any more berries, unless she asked me if she could eat them. To which she muttered: "Fine...but everybody at my school eats them...but you don't go to my school, so you don't know..." A couple minutes later, I found her picking some heart-shaped leaves instead and munch on them. What the peep? Did I not just tell her not to eat anything unless she asked me? No, I had not. I had in fact told her not to eat any more BERRIES, unless she asked me. I had said nothing about leaves, because, well, it had not crossed my mind she would. But there she was, eating leaves and giving me a look of utter disdain that I told her that I wanted her to stop eating things. She rolled her eyes at me and said: "But mom, EVERYBODY at my school eats these. Even the teachers. They say it is ok. Try one!" So I did. And decided from that moment on to ask Eluin about anything outdoorsy. I mean, with all the fires they build at school, she's probably better at building a fire than either of her non-outdoorsy parents...
Last Tuesday, I got a chance to get a glimpse of what they do at Eluin's school. They had organized a parent meeting and in the invitation they mentioned that part of it would be outside. And that we had to bring the same 'tour-backpack' that our kids bring and to dress for the weather. Unfortunately, Menno was not able to join due to a deadline at work. Because it said to dress for the weather, I decided not to be stubborn and to wear the only piece of outdoor clothing I owned. My ski pants. It had been kind of chilly, so I combined it with my down jacket, my hat and my fingerless gloves. Menno took one look at me and asked if I was planning to go on an arctic expedition. Haha. Very funny. I just tried to be in Rome and do as the Romans. Even though it did leave me wondering that if this was my outfit for a walk in the woods on a night in September, what on earth I would wear on a night in December?!
The first part of the evening was a talk about the school and general information about things that were coming up. At least, that's what I think it was about ;-) After that, the parents were divided into groups and were assigned one teacher who was the leader of the group. In the woods around the school, they had set up different stations to explain different parts of the school's philosophy. Best. Parent night. Ever.
The group of parents I was in was really nice. They were joking and laughing with the teacher. It was so nice to be in a group of adults again that had fun together! Forget about what they say about Norwegians being stand-offish and quiet, these people were a hoot! If only I could understand what they were laughing about... ;-)
The first station we visited was hosted by the "special pedagogue" who, as I understood it, works with kids in small groups to, amongst others, deal with language issues. Like little Eluin learning Norwegian. He explained what he did by focusing on one word (in our case "bil" = car) and talking about all the things you can think of around "car". Anything ranging form the fact that it starts with a "b" and is one syllable to what it does (drive), what it sounds like, what colour it has and different brands of cars. So cool! I immediately figured that this was something I needed to do with the girls at home, as part of our quest to master the Norwegian language. Such a great way to go beyond the tedium of learning one word at a time. In fact, it might even be a good format for Menno and myself to use for learning Norwegian, but instead of "bil" we would put something like "health insurance" in the middle...
After this, we walked over to the next station, where 2 teachers gave us insight in the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in the form of a role play involving a log. Pretending to be kids, they turned the log into a boat, found sticks to turn into fishing rods and used collaboration to get the log from the place it was at, where there was obviously no fish, into open sea. They explained to us how parents usually like open places, but how for kids the density of the forest gives a lot more opportunity for play and games. And again, I was able to understand what they were talking about!
The third station was at the edge of the little lake that is close to the school. I knew that the school had canoes and that they sometimes took the kids on a little canoe trip on the lake (I know, this school is just AWESOME!). Darkness was falling as we stood on the edge of the lake and the scenery was just breath-taking. Whether it was that my brain had reached its limit for absorbing Norwegian or that this particular teacher spoke quite a strong dialect, I don't know, but I had a hard time following what he was saying. So I just enjoyed the scenery. I snapped back to attention when he held up a life jacket and one of the other parents took it. Cool! We might be going on a little trip ourselves! So, when he held up the next life jacket, I grabbed it. The other parent was putting it on, so I decided to put mine on as well. There were three parents and a teacher, so we paired up and climbed into a canoe. As I stepped into the canoe, though, I realized that I had no idea whatsoever what the plan was. I had not paid attention to the instructions. Darn. Why do I always get myself in this kind of situations?! Apparently we were going for a little tour on the lake, because we got pushed off shore and so I started paddling. Had the teacher explained anything on how to paddle? No idea... I mean, I have gone kayaking and canoeing before, but I was either on my own or the one in the back doing the steering and the main part of the paddling, because the one up front was a kid. Being in a canoe with two adults, this quickly turned into a team building exercise with the added challenge of a language barrier. Thankfully, the dad in the back was really kind and we even managed to win the race back to the shore! Probably because the other boat was not aware that we were racing them, but still.
Being on the water makes me hungry, so hurray for the next station being the "food" station. While eating Italian vegetable soup (yum) and drinking coffee, we listened to a story about the importance of good, nutritious food and lightweight thermos bottles to make sure our kids' backpacks did not weigh too much while they were on tours. The barnehagen offers hot lunch three days a week and I was tempted to ask if they had ever considered writing a cookbook. All I ever heard from Eluin when I asked what she had for lunch was: "So-and-so...and it was SO GOOD!!!" Thanks to the cooks at barnehagen, we in our family got introduced to typical Norwegian staples as mackerel in tomato sauce and the weird sweet-and-sour-cheese (Eluin does not eat it, but she told me a lot of kids in her class eat it, so I decided to be brave and try it...and now I am hooked!). They even ate chanterelle mushrooms that their teacher picked in the forest one day! And they cooked lamb in a fire pit which they covered up with earth... Talk about the pedagogical value of having children eat a variety of food in a group setting, so they all try new stuff because the person sitting next to them does too :-)
As I was digesting (pun intended) the talk about food, we walked over to the last station. The teachers in charge of that station had put up a little tent in the woods and all parents in the group before us were huddled inside. So, our group waited outside and I asked the teacher who was the leader of the group whether this kind of barnehagen was normal in Norway. It's not the mainstream kind of barnehagen, but because of the location of this barnehagen, it seemed only fitting to have such a focus on the outdoors. I think they are doing an amazing job, not just on the outdoors stuff, but basically at every level they care for and teach Eluin. And hearing how this is not the standard, I truly feel we got lucky in having no spot at our "own" barnehagen and being bumped one village over.
Soon it was time for us to crawl into the tent. I wondered what we could possibly learn more that night, but when I saw the bag of clothes I knew... This was the Tent of Bad News. Well, ok, it was the Tent of Appropriate Clothing for the Weather, but in my case, this could only spell bad news. And I was right. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly understand the need for kids to be warm and comfortable, especially if you take them outside for longer periods of time. And I also get that Norwegian weather calls for a larger variety in attire than Haarlem or Vancouver did. I even get that there is a certain correlation between the price of a piece of clothing and it's quality. But boohoo us... It turned out that the wardrobe I got Eluin was just her late-summer-early-fall wardrobe. I still needed more. Lots more. Darn. The past couple of months we have been scraping by (scraping is part of the expression for living from paycheck to paycheck because of all the peanut butter he has scraped out of jars over the past couple of months (it's the only thing he eats on sandwiches these days)). With our house in Holland still not transferred to the new owners, we have had to pay the mortgage on our home in Holland on top of our rent here. I really want my girl to be warm, but for now I just have to cross my fingers that the bad weather does not set in until mid October when our house is finally sold.
Once we got to the winter attire, with extra thick park dresses, I could see black spots in front of my eyes. I was just wondering whether it would be too awkward to put my head between my knees and thus keep from hyperventilating, when I heard the teacher say that although this particular snowsuit costs about 2000 kroner (~$330 CAD) it at least lasts for up to three children. In broken Norwegian, I groaned: "But Eluin already IS my third child..." But once I had said that, and as I listened to another parent explain to me that you could buy them second hand and they would still be good quality, one word flashed through my mind...
...TWINS! Twins. Twins would be the solution for the dilemma of investing in new, high quality outdoor clothing for Eluin! If we had twins, as indeed Jura and Nori are desperately hoping for in the highly improbable case of me ever getting pregnant again, that would solve the problem! We would have three kids that can use the fancy snow pants which lasts at least three kids. And, added bonus, if we apply soon enough, perhaps those two could go to this amazing barnehagen, too!
Last Tuesday, I got a chance to get a glimpse of what they do at Eluin's school. They had organized a parent meeting and in the invitation they mentioned that part of it would be outside. And that we had to bring the same 'tour-backpack' that our kids bring and to dress for the weather. Unfortunately, Menno was not able to join due to a deadline at work. Because it said to dress for the weather, I decided not to be stubborn and to wear the only piece of outdoor clothing I owned. My ski pants. It had been kind of chilly, so I combined it with my down jacket, my hat and my fingerless gloves. Menno took one look at me and asked if I was planning to go on an arctic expedition. Haha. Very funny. I just tried to be in Rome and do as the Romans. Even though it did leave me wondering that if this was my outfit for a walk in the woods on a night in September, what on earth I would wear on a night in December?!
The first part of the evening was a talk about the school and general information about things that were coming up. At least, that's what I think it was about ;-) After that, the parents were divided into groups and were assigned one teacher who was the leader of the group. In the woods around the school, they had set up different stations to explain different parts of the school's philosophy. Best. Parent night. Ever.
The group of parents I was in was really nice. They were joking and laughing with the teacher. It was so nice to be in a group of adults again that had fun together! Forget about what they say about Norwegians being stand-offish and quiet, these people were a hoot! If only I could understand what they were laughing about... ;-)
The first station we visited was hosted by the "special pedagogue" who, as I understood it, works with kids in small groups to, amongst others, deal with language issues. Like little Eluin learning Norwegian. He explained what he did by focusing on one word (in our case "bil" = car) and talking about all the things you can think of around "car". Anything ranging form the fact that it starts with a "b" and is one syllable to what it does (drive), what it sounds like, what colour it has and different brands of cars. So cool! I immediately figured that this was something I needed to do with the girls at home, as part of our quest to master the Norwegian language. Such a great way to go beyond the tedium of learning one word at a time. In fact, it might even be a good format for Menno and myself to use for learning Norwegian, but instead of "bil" we would put something like "health insurance" in the middle...
After this, we walked over to the next station, where 2 teachers gave us insight in the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in the form of a role play involving a log. Pretending to be kids, they turned the log into a boat, found sticks to turn into fishing rods and used collaboration to get the log from the place it was at, where there was obviously no fish, into open sea. They explained to us how parents usually like open places, but how for kids the density of the forest gives a lot more opportunity for play and games. And again, I was able to understand what they were talking about!
The third station was at the edge of the little lake that is close to the school. I knew that the school had canoes and that they sometimes took the kids on a little canoe trip on the lake (I know, this school is just AWESOME!). Darkness was falling as we stood on the edge of the lake and the scenery was just breath-taking. Whether it was that my brain had reached its limit for absorbing Norwegian or that this particular teacher spoke quite a strong dialect, I don't know, but I had a hard time following what he was saying. So I just enjoyed the scenery. I snapped back to attention when he held up a life jacket and one of the other parents took it. Cool! We might be going on a little trip ourselves! So, when he held up the next life jacket, I grabbed it. The other parent was putting it on, so I decided to put mine on as well. There were three parents and a teacher, so we paired up and climbed into a canoe. As I stepped into the canoe, though, I realized that I had no idea whatsoever what the plan was. I had not paid attention to the instructions. Darn. Why do I always get myself in this kind of situations?! Apparently we were going for a little tour on the lake, because we got pushed off shore and so I started paddling. Had the teacher explained anything on how to paddle? No idea... I mean, I have gone kayaking and canoeing before, but I was either on my own or the one in the back doing the steering and the main part of the paddling, because the one up front was a kid. Being in a canoe with two adults, this quickly turned into a team building exercise with the added challenge of a language barrier. Thankfully, the dad in the back was really kind and we even managed to win the race back to the shore! Probably because the other boat was not aware that we were racing them, but still.
Being on the water makes me hungry, so hurray for the next station being the "food" station. While eating Italian vegetable soup (yum) and drinking coffee, we listened to a story about the importance of good, nutritious food and lightweight thermos bottles to make sure our kids' backpacks did not weigh too much while they were on tours. The barnehagen offers hot lunch three days a week and I was tempted to ask if they had ever considered writing a cookbook. All I ever heard from Eluin when I asked what she had for lunch was: "So-and-so...and it was SO GOOD!!!" Thanks to the cooks at barnehagen, we in our family got introduced to typical Norwegian staples as mackerel in tomato sauce and the weird sweet-and-sour-cheese (Eluin does not eat it, but she told me a lot of kids in her class eat it, so I decided to be brave and try it...and now I am hooked!). They even ate chanterelle mushrooms that their teacher picked in the forest one day! And they cooked lamb in a fire pit which they covered up with earth... Talk about the pedagogical value of having children eat a variety of food in a group setting, so they all try new stuff because the person sitting next to them does too :-)
As I was digesting (pun intended) the talk about food, we walked over to the last station. The teachers in charge of that station had put up a little tent in the woods and all parents in the group before us were huddled inside. So, our group waited outside and I asked the teacher who was the leader of the group whether this kind of barnehagen was normal in Norway. It's not the mainstream kind of barnehagen, but because of the location of this barnehagen, it seemed only fitting to have such a focus on the outdoors. I think they are doing an amazing job, not just on the outdoors stuff, but basically at every level they care for and teach Eluin. And hearing how this is not the standard, I truly feel we got lucky in having no spot at our "own" barnehagen and being bumped one village over.
Soon it was time for us to crawl into the tent. I wondered what we could possibly learn more that night, but when I saw the bag of clothes I knew... This was the Tent of Bad News. Well, ok, it was the Tent of Appropriate Clothing for the Weather, but in my case, this could only spell bad news. And I was right. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly understand the need for kids to be warm and comfortable, especially if you take them outside for longer periods of time. And I also get that Norwegian weather calls for a larger variety in attire than Haarlem or Vancouver did. I even get that there is a certain correlation between the price of a piece of clothing and it's quality. But boohoo us... It turned out that the wardrobe I got Eluin was just her late-summer-early-fall wardrobe. I still needed more. Lots more. Darn. The past couple of months we have been scraping by (scraping is part of the expression for living from paycheck to paycheck because of all the peanut butter he has scraped out of jars over the past couple of months (it's the only thing he eats on sandwiches these days)). With our house in Holland still not transferred to the new owners, we have had to pay the mortgage on our home in Holland on top of our rent here. I really want my girl to be warm, but for now I just have to cross my fingers that the bad weather does not set in until mid October when our house is finally sold.
Once we got to the winter attire, with extra thick park dresses, I could see black spots in front of my eyes. I was just wondering whether it would be too awkward to put my head between my knees and thus keep from hyperventilating, when I heard the teacher say that although this particular snowsuit costs about 2000 kroner (~$330 CAD) it at least lasts for up to three children. In broken Norwegian, I groaned: "But Eluin already IS my third child..." But once I had said that, and as I listened to another parent explain to me that you could buy them second hand and they would still be good quality, one word flashed through my mind...
...TWINS! Twins. Twins would be the solution for the dilemma of investing in new, high quality outdoor clothing for Eluin! If we had twins, as indeed Jura and Nori are desperately hoping for in the highly improbable case of me ever getting pregnant again, that would solve the problem! We would have three kids that can use the fancy snow pants which lasts at least three kids. And, added bonus, if we apply soon enough, perhaps those two could go to this amazing barnehagen, too!
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