April 13, '13
This is a bittersweet day. Erik and I leave London in the morning. We have really had a wonderful time here, had the chance to do and learn so many things. It's been great to have quality time together and with Bryn and Ryan (and with family in Norway too)! We miss our family and friends back in Portland so it will be good to back with them again.
I see that the last 6 weeks haven't been very well documented. Oops. Having too much fun, I guess. I'm pretty sure I won't get any more entries done, so I'll just summarize what we've done.
February 28th-March 3- Spent time in Sippersfeld, Germany with Benedikt, Bernard, Elke, Selina and Maren Blanz, what fun, what food and what beautiful country.
Mar 6th - Mar 13 Evan Powers, Bryn's friend, visited. The boys kept themselves mostly entertained, it was very fun to have Evan here. Paint balling with the LC guys and Maya was their highlight.
Mar 10th, Erik, Taylor, Noelle and I went to Canterbury and got to see our 4 choir boys, awesome! March 12th was our Gospel Choir's concert. Mar 15th we had church young adults over for pizza, what a fun evening.
Mar 14-18 Bryn went to Latvia to visit a former exchange student, Martin.
March 21st-Ryan turned 16, we celebrated at a French restaurant with the LC students, yum.
March 23-March 31 Scott, Laurie and Nicholas visited and we toured London, went to Wales and Canterbury. Such fun! During that week, Ryan headed home on March 26th and Bryn on March 30th.
April 6-8, we took the LC students to York and Edinburgh. Erik and I also went to Stirling! Great trip.
It really has been a fun adventure, we've done so many things. I have mentioned many of them before, but I thought I'd just go thru my pile of tickets and brochures and list off what we've done. Thanks LC for the chance to make this trip. The LC students were wonderful, their profs all thought so and we do too!!!
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A list, not in any order, of most of the things we did-London 2013
Windsor Castle
Versailles
Easter service and tour of St Paul's Cathedral
Lille food tour-Erik
London Pass x 3
Westminster Abbey tour, eucharist x 2 and evensong x 3
The Hobbit x 2
River tour from Westminster to Tower Bridge x 3
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Monument
Faure' Requiem-Tiffin Boys' Choir
St Martin in the Fields Lunchtime Concert
Natural History Museum
Albert and Victoria Museum
Hyde Park
Regent's Park
British Museum
Science Museum
London Museum
Kensington Palace
Rodin Museum
Brandenburg Choral Festival - Mozart Requiem, Vivace Chorus
Les Miserable movie
Eiffel Tower
Spamalot
Billy Elliot
Ceremony of Carols - Vivamus
Laburnum Grove- Finborough Theatre
Kooza Cirque Du Soleil
Lecture-Royal College of Music
The Magnets-London A Cappella Festival
The Making of Harry Potter
The 39 Steps
Rajaton- A Cappella Festival (Ryan and I were also in a workshop there)
Football-Fulham FC vs West Ham
Matilda musical
Viking Festival and Merchant Hall-York
Christ Rests in Peace-Southwark Cathedral-art exhibit
Houses of Parliament tour
Mamma Mia
Rugby Harlequins v London Wasps
The showstoppers
Wicked
Canterbury Tales-Medieval Misadventures
Pride and Prejudice
Classical Spectacular
St Patrick's day music at Irish Culture
Hampton Court Palace Maze and Gardens
St Giles' cathedral in Edinburgh
Phantom of the Opera
Messiah
Football Brasil v Russia
Host
Caerphilly Castle
Stonehenge
British Music Experience
Scott monument-Edinburgh
Cardiff Castle
Canterbury Historic River Tours
Church and Evensongs in Canterbury Cathedral
Kew Gardens
Salisbury Cathedral
Stirling Castle
Hollyrood Park - Climbed Arthur's Seat
Climbed Wallace Monument
Singin in the Rain
Life of Pi
Walking tours of many places
And so much more....................
Farewell,
Carla
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Finishing up our Norway Dec trip posts
Kragerø Dec 27 thru Dec 31
We headed out mid morning for Kragerø. This is the town where Tore grew up as a child. It's right on the water of a fjord and absolutely beautiful. We were greeted by Per Fredrik and his wife Sigrunn. Per Fredrik is Pappa's first cousin and such a great guy. He speaks English quite well. They offered us a drink of tea, coffee or pop, and then told us we should get ready to go to the village. The day was so gorgeous and they wanted to take us to an overview looking over the city. We hiked a little ways to get to the overlook, it was pretty cold, probably in the 20's, but clear and sunny. Wow, we got some great photos.
Their daughter, Anette, is a professional photographer and she had gone out that morning to take photos. She got some awesome ones, and made collages of them. They are on my picasa site.
We got back to Per Fredrik's and settled in. They have 2 fluffy cats, which was hard on Emily's allergies, but thankfully they had all the kids stay in their garage. It is renovated with a bathroom with small shower, a spiral staircase leading up to a small kitchen and mini bedroom. The living room had 4 beds alongside the walls in the eaves. Super cute and fun for the kids to stay together there.
Then we had a wonderful meal of pork roast with crackling and potatoes and carrots and lots of other yummy things. They had recently remodeled their kitchen to make it larger, which was good. They have 2 of their kids who live very close by, with their children, so the roomier kitchen will work well for them in the future too.
We enjoyed visiting and meeting Anette's kids: Amallie, 12 years old, Herman, 10 years and Brage, 4 years.
Brage enjoyed hanging around with Bryn and Ryan even tho neither could speak each other's language. He played computer games with them and loved to punch them and rough house. Any time he asked Bryn a question in Norwegian, Bryn would say, "Smør brød, which mean sandwiches." It was hilarious. All of our "kids" were great with the Norwegian family's kids. I was very proud of them the whole trip actually. They were so polite, even tho they couldn't understand everything and very gracious and thankful. Willing to try new foods and experiences.
One of the days in Kragerø we went downtown and did a little shopping. Erik was so happy to find a bløtekake, a cream cake with marzipan frosting. He bought a whole cake from the bakery, that's his Norsk souvenir. We all enjoyed eating it with him, yum! Each day we had cakes and coffee with different family members. One night it was at Anette's home, another was at Inge Elena and Harold's (we sang lots of carols that night and saw cool birds that are in Harold's collection) and another was at Preben and Hege's home, where we enjoyed waffles. Anette and Preben are Per Fredrik and Sigrunn's children. Preben and Hege are parents of Kristian, a 2 year old sweetie and Hege has 3 children, Andreas and 2 daughters, whose names escape me. Nice family! Inge Elene is Per Fredrik's sister and Harold is her son.
Per Fredrik and his family have built a huge awesome swimming pool. One morning we helped shovel the 8-10" of snow off of it so it wouldn't break thru the cover. He also showed us all the electrical set up for heating it and the jet that is in it so you can swim "laps" and the heated concrete below, too cool. They have an outdoor living room, which had a fireplace. We spent several hours each day out there, enjoying the fire and playing lots of pinochle and other games. It was a good place for Emily since the cats don't go in there. We also had a big snowball fight one day.
Our favorite thing was the outdoor picnic in the snow. We hiked up in the forest behind their home for about 20 minutes, thru pretty deep snow, at least a foot deep. They own a little shed/overhang (see my photos) and fire pit. There was wood up there already and they had packed lots of food and reindeer hides to sit on. It was so amazingly cozy and gorgeous. Harold had elg heart which he cooked over the fire, our guys loved it! He also had a reindeer leg which was smoked and he carved off thin slices of that for us, quite tasty and a very special treat! Anette pulled out candles and oranges and chocolate, quite the nice picnic. We also had our favorite, pølse, which is Norwegian smoked hot dogs, yum.
I had asked Anette if she would take a family photo of us, several months before we traveled. She said "yes", so I had all 9 of us bring Norsk sweaters for the photo. She took them of us on the snow up in the forest. They turned out so awesome. I am so very happy with them. Thanks Anette!!! Here is the link if you haven't seen them yet. https://picasaweb.google.com/107525715707559384779/KragerNorwayFor4Days#
Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I headed out early on New Year's Eve day for Oslo and London. Andrew and Emily left in the middle of the night for their 6 a.m. flight, from the airport about an hour away. Thanks, Bestefar for driving them to the airport. Kari and Tore and Jared headed up to Porsgrunn on New Year's Day. I hear they had amazing shrimp for dinner and close awesome fireworks for NYE! Happy 2013.
Really, the trip to Norway was a dream come true for Erik and I. We both love Norway so very much and were so happy to share it with our children in such a special way. Thanks to all our Norwegian family for taking care of us so well and for sharing your lives with us. Tusen Takk!
We headed out mid morning for Kragerø. This is the town where Tore grew up as a child. It's right on the water of a fjord and absolutely beautiful. We were greeted by Per Fredrik and his wife Sigrunn. Per Fredrik is Pappa's first cousin and such a great guy. He speaks English quite well. They offered us a drink of tea, coffee or pop, and then told us we should get ready to go to the village. The day was so gorgeous and they wanted to take us to an overview looking over the city. We hiked a little ways to get to the overlook, it was pretty cold, probably in the 20's, but clear and sunny. Wow, we got some great photos.
Their daughter, Anette, is a professional photographer and she had gone out that morning to take photos. She got some awesome ones, and made collages of them. They are on my picasa site.
We got back to Per Fredrik's and settled in. They have 2 fluffy cats, which was hard on Emily's allergies, but thankfully they had all the kids stay in their garage. It is renovated with a bathroom with small shower, a spiral staircase leading up to a small kitchen and mini bedroom. The living room had 4 beds alongside the walls in the eaves. Super cute and fun for the kids to stay together there.
Then we had a wonderful meal of pork roast with crackling and potatoes and carrots and lots of other yummy things. They had recently remodeled their kitchen to make it larger, which was good. They have 2 of their kids who live very close by, with their children, so the roomier kitchen will work well for them in the future too.
We enjoyed visiting and meeting Anette's kids: Amallie, 12 years old, Herman, 10 years and Brage, 4 years.
Brage enjoyed hanging around with Bryn and Ryan even tho neither could speak each other's language. He played computer games with them and loved to punch them and rough house. Any time he asked Bryn a question in Norwegian, Bryn would say, "Smør brød, which mean sandwiches." It was hilarious. All of our "kids" were great with the Norwegian family's kids. I was very proud of them the whole trip actually. They were so polite, even tho they couldn't understand everything and very gracious and thankful. Willing to try new foods and experiences.
One of the days in Kragerø we went downtown and did a little shopping. Erik was so happy to find a bløtekake, a cream cake with marzipan frosting. He bought a whole cake from the bakery, that's his Norsk souvenir. We all enjoyed eating it with him, yum! Each day we had cakes and coffee with different family members. One night it was at Anette's home, another was at Inge Elena and Harold's (we sang lots of carols that night and saw cool birds that are in Harold's collection) and another was at Preben and Hege's home, where we enjoyed waffles. Anette and Preben are Per Fredrik and Sigrunn's children. Preben and Hege are parents of Kristian, a 2 year old sweetie and Hege has 3 children, Andreas and 2 daughters, whose names escape me. Nice family! Inge Elene is Per Fredrik's sister and Harold is her son.
Per Fredrik and his family have built a huge awesome swimming pool. One morning we helped shovel the 8-10" of snow off of it so it wouldn't break thru the cover. He also showed us all the electrical set up for heating it and the jet that is in it so you can swim "laps" and the heated concrete below, too cool. They have an outdoor living room, which had a fireplace. We spent several hours each day out there, enjoying the fire and playing lots of pinochle and other games. It was a good place for Emily since the cats don't go in there. We also had a big snowball fight one day.
Our favorite thing was the outdoor picnic in the snow. We hiked up in the forest behind their home for about 20 minutes, thru pretty deep snow, at least a foot deep. They own a little shed/overhang (see my photos) and fire pit. There was wood up there already and they had packed lots of food and reindeer hides to sit on. It was so amazingly cozy and gorgeous. Harold had elg heart which he cooked over the fire, our guys loved it! He also had a reindeer leg which was smoked and he carved off thin slices of that for us, quite tasty and a very special treat! Anette pulled out candles and oranges and chocolate, quite the nice picnic. We also had our favorite, pølse, which is Norwegian smoked hot dogs, yum.
I had asked Anette if she would take a family photo of us, several months before we traveled. She said "yes", so I had all 9 of us bring Norsk sweaters for the photo. She took them of us on the snow up in the forest. They turned out so awesome. I am so very happy with them. Thanks Anette!!! Here is the link if you haven't seen them yet. https://picasaweb.google.com/107525715707559384779/KragerNorwayFor4Days#
Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I headed out early on New Year's Eve day for Oslo and London. Andrew and Emily left in the middle of the night for their 6 a.m. flight, from the airport about an hour away. Thanks, Bestefar for driving them to the airport. Kari and Tore and Jared headed up to Porsgrunn on New Year's Day. I hear they had amazing shrimp for dinner and close awesome fireworks for NYE! Happy 2013.
Really, the trip to Norway was a dream come true for Erik and I. We both love Norway so very much and were so happy to share it with our children in such a special way. Thanks to all our Norwegian family for taking care of us so well and for sharing your lives with us. Tusen Takk!
Vikki's Visit
Friday, March 29, 2013
I am having trouble keeping up with this blog, having too much fun with our company. I don't know if I'll have time to write details about everything that we've done since Feb 19th, but I wanted to at least summarize Vikki's visit.
Erik and I went to pick her up at Heathrow airport. She arrived, out of customs a little before noon, and Erik took her suitcases back to the flat so she and I could begin our adventures. We each had purchased a 3 day London pass so wanted to see as many things as possible. We also wanted to keep her awake so she'd get used to the time change quicker. Here's what we did in the first 3 days:
Westminster Abbey, Thames River cruise, Fish and Chips in a pub, Tower bridge, Double decker bus ride to Trafalgar square, National Art gallery, Lunch and brass rubbings in St Martin in the Fields, Kensington Palace, High Tea in the Orangery at Hyde Park, (the boys went to the movie "Hitchcock" for free using our passes and we had Sarah James, a young adult church member from Wales, over for supper), Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, and All Hallow's church. Whew, we got our money's worth.
Saturday and Sunday the 5 of us went to York, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. York used to be Jørvik, settled by the Vikings and they were having a Viking Festival while we were there. It was awesome! Saw lots of medieval crafts and artisans and costumed Vikings and mock battles and real competitions too. York is a completely walled city and we got to walk on a bit of that wall too. We got to Edinburgh in time to find our hotel and eat at Nando's chicken-we all slept in the same room, a fun sleepover. Sure saved Vikki money and we had fun. Our hotel rate got us authentic Scottish breakfasts the next morning. I even tried the black pudding and haggis, not too bad mixed with eggs and toast. Erik loved it, of course!
Sunday we were surprised to wake up to snow covering the ground. It melted pretty quickly, but made the mountains pretty. I was so happy to see mountains and hills and grass. London is so flat and mostly all stone and concrete. We spent most of the day in the castle, which was so interesting and awesome!!! We ended up with a 9 hour train ride home instead of 4 and a half. There was a death on the tracks ahead of us and that stopped all the trains for about 2 hours. Then by the time, 1 a.m., we got to the tube, it was closed, so we stood in line for another hour or more waiting for tazis. We got home at 3 a.m., Vikki should get a refund on her ticket, but we haven't seen the money yet We still had fun, standing in the cold snowy night being silly.
Monday we went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and to Trafalgar square and St Martin in the Fields church for a free concert. We also saw the National Portrait gallery. We went to Covent Gardens and Harrods' and Piccadilly Market.
Tueady, Vikki and I headed off to Paris for the day. We enjoyed ourselves and saw Versailles, Nortre Dame (got to see the brand new bells they will install for the 850 anniversary celebration going on this year) and the Rodin Sculpture museum, and the Eiffel Tower (Vikki went to the first level with me, even tho she was freaked out, good for you Vikki!) We were proud of ourselves for figuring out the subway systems and finding what we wanted to see. It was a very long day, with lots of walking, but now we can say we've been to Paris! I bought macaroons in a McDonals McCafe! So inexpensive and so yummy!
Wednesday we did some shopping and Ryan, Vikki and I went to Matilda, the musical. It was very entertaining!
Thursday we all headed to Heathrow, and Vikki flew home, and we flew to Frankfurt, Germany to start another adventure.
Thanks so much for coming to visit, Vikki, it was awesome to be with you. You are so funny and have such great stories to tell. You also said lots of funny things while here. I was explaining how they pray for the queen and the royal family at Evensong in Westminster Abbey and you wondered why they don't pray for them during the odd numbered hymns! Erik asked you if you would try some Cornish game hen and you said, "yes, I'll try gamish hens!" You also wondered why i kept looking for a rotisserie in Paris (patisserie!) We love you!
I am having trouble keeping up with this blog, having too much fun with our company. I don't know if I'll have time to write details about everything that we've done since Feb 19th, but I wanted to at least summarize Vikki's visit.
Erik and I went to pick her up at Heathrow airport. She arrived, out of customs a little before noon, and Erik took her suitcases back to the flat so she and I could begin our adventures. We each had purchased a 3 day London pass so wanted to see as many things as possible. We also wanted to keep her awake so she'd get used to the time change quicker. Here's what we did in the first 3 days:
Westminster Abbey, Thames River cruise, Fish and Chips in a pub, Tower bridge, Double decker bus ride to Trafalgar square, National Art gallery, Lunch and brass rubbings in St Martin in the Fields, Kensington Palace, High Tea in the Orangery at Hyde Park, (the boys went to the movie "Hitchcock" for free using our passes and we had Sarah James, a young adult church member from Wales, over for supper), Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, and All Hallow's church. Whew, we got our money's worth.
Saturday and Sunday the 5 of us went to York, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. York used to be Jørvik, settled by the Vikings and they were having a Viking Festival while we were there. It was awesome! Saw lots of medieval crafts and artisans and costumed Vikings and mock battles and real competitions too. York is a completely walled city and we got to walk on a bit of that wall too. We got to Edinburgh in time to find our hotel and eat at Nando's chicken-we all slept in the same room, a fun sleepover. Sure saved Vikki money and we had fun. Our hotel rate got us authentic Scottish breakfasts the next morning. I even tried the black pudding and haggis, not too bad mixed with eggs and toast. Erik loved it, of course!
Sunday we were surprised to wake up to snow covering the ground. It melted pretty quickly, but made the mountains pretty. I was so happy to see mountains and hills and grass. London is so flat and mostly all stone and concrete. We spent most of the day in the castle, which was so interesting and awesome!!! We ended up with a 9 hour train ride home instead of 4 and a half. There was a death on the tracks ahead of us and that stopped all the trains for about 2 hours. Then by the time, 1 a.m., we got to the tube, it was closed, so we stood in line for another hour or more waiting for tazis. We got home at 3 a.m., Vikki should get a refund on her ticket, but we haven't seen the money yet We still had fun, standing in the cold snowy night being silly.
Monday we went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and to Trafalgar square and St Martin in the Fields church for a free concert. We also saw the National Portrait gallery. We went to Covent Gardens and Harrods' and Piccadilly Market.
Tueady, Vikki and I headed off to Paris for the day. We enjoyed ourselves and saw Versailles, Nortre Dame (got to see the brand new bells they will install for the 850 anniversary celebration going on this year) and the Rodin Sculpture museum, and the Eiffel Tower (Vikki went to the first level with me, even tho she was freaked out, good for you Vikki!) We were proud of ourselves for figuring out the subway systems and finding what we wanted to see. It was a very long day, with lots of walking, but now we can say we've been to Paris! I bought macaroons in a McDonals McCafe! So inexpensive and so yummy!
Wednesday we did some shopping and Ryan, Vikki and I went to Matilda, the musical. It was very entertaining!
Thursday we all headed to Heathrow, and Vikki flew home, and we flew to Frankfurt, Germany to start another adventure.
Thanks so much for coming to visit, Vikki, it was awesome to be with you. You are so funny and have such great stories to tell. You also said lots of funny things while here. I was explaining how they pray for the queen and the royal family at Evensong in Westminster Abbey and you wondered why they don't pray for them during the odd numbered hymns! Erik asked you if you would try some Cornish game hen and you said, "yes, I'll try gamish hens!" You also wondered why i kept looking for a rotisserie in Paris (patisserie!) We love you!
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Saturday, March 16th
Erik and I are heading to the London Irish Center today to hear some traditional Irish music in honor of St Patrick's Day. It's in Camden. Ryan will stay in the flat as he didn't get much sleep last night and has a cold. It's a dreary rainy day here, a common day in London, but thankfully we haven't had many days like this. It's been pretty cold, and some snow, but not bad.
Bryn is in Latvia. He is with his friend, Martin, who was an exchange student at Wilson Bryn's sophomore year. He left on Thursday and will come home on Monday. So far he's got to play pool, attend a class at Martin's school (English!), attend a birthday party and today I think he's going to a hockey game. Bryn will only be here another week and a half as he heads home on March 30th to get in on most of his lacrosse season. (Just got an email from Bryn, he said he made a room full of Latvian teenagers laugh, at the party and it as awesome!)
Ryan has decided to go home to Portland a bit early. He's paying to change his ticket and fly home on March 26th. Erik and I will go home on April 14th. We'll miss him, but it'll be great for him to be with his family and friends. He's not been around anyone his age since Mid December so he's excited to go home early. He'll get there in time to go on the choir tour with the Wilson choir. They are going to Seattle and Bellingham.
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We're back from the Irish Center. We got to listen to several hours of wonderful music. There was a fiddle, guitar and flute at first and then 2 more fiddlers and a penny whistler joined in. We also stayed longer and watched some of the Ireland vs Italy rugby game on a huge screen. That was fun too.
We came home and watched the England vs Wales 6 nations rugby game. Wales won handily, 30-3 that means they are the champions. Erik and Ryan are out walking now. Erik's been getting 18,000 steps nearly every day, 10 miles.
Tomorrow morning we leave here before 7 to attend the church Mission Center conference in Birmingham. A friend, Keith McMillan, is giving us a ride most of the way. He was in Orion with Steve and Roger and is a great guy, very funny. Last night we had some of the community of Christ young adults over for pizza. He came too and kept calling Ryan, Roger.
We had people here from Germany, Russia, England, Norway and America, quite international. We then sang a song in Spanish! Plus a few other songs. It was very fun.
Erik and I are heading to the London Irish Center today to hear some traditional Irish music in honor of St Patrick's Day. It's in Camden. Ryan will stay in the flat as he didn't get much sleep last night and has a cold. It's a dreary rainy day here, a common day in London, but thankfully we haven't had many days like this. It's been pretty cold, and some snow, but not bad.
Bryn is in Latvia. He is with his friend, Martin, who was an exchange student at Wilson Bryn's sophomore year. He left on Thursday and will come home on Monday. So far he's got to play pool, attend a class at Martin's school (English!), attend a birthday party and today I think he's going to a hockey game. Bryn will only be here another week and a half as he heads home on March 30th to get in on most of his lacrosse season. (Just got an email from Bryn, he said he made a room full of Latvian teenagers laugh, at the party and it as awesome!)
Ryan has decided to go home to Portland a bit early. He's paying to change his ticket and fly home on March 26th. Erik and I will go home on April 14th. We'll miss him, but it'll be great for him to be with his family and friends. He's not been around anyone his age since Mid December so he's excited to go home early. He'll get there in time to go on the choir tour with the Wilson choir. They are going to Seattle and Bellingham.
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We're back from the Irish Center. We got to listen to several hours of wonderful music. There was a fiddle, guitar and flute at first and then 2 more fiddlers and a penny whistler joined in. We also stayed longer and watched some of the Ireland vs Italy rugby game on a huge screen. That was fun too.
We came home and watched the England vs Wales 6 nations rugby game. Wales won handily, 30-3 that means they are the champions. Erik and Ryan are out walking now. Erik's been getting 18,000 steps nearly every day, 10 miles.
Tomorrow morning we leave here before 7 to attend the church Mission Center conference in Birmingham. A friend, Keith McMillan, is giving us a ride most of the way. He was in Orion with Steve and Roger and is a great guy, very funny. Last night we had some of the community of Christ young adults over for pizza. He came too and kept calling Ryan, Roger.
We had people here from Germany, Russia, England, Norway and America, quite international. We then sang a song in Spanish! Plus a few other songs. It was very fun.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Norway-Porsgrunn/Skien
I'm catching up. I haven't written about our time, over Christmas, with Erik's cousin and family. We drove to Hilde and Ove Larson's home. They live out of town, overlooking the fjord, between Porsgrunn and Skien. Erik was born in Porsgrunn and I've visited his grandparents there 3 times before, so we were very happy to finally return. Hilde is Erik's first cousin and she and Ove have an amazing home. It was large enough for all 9 of us to sleep there. Kari, Bryn, Ryan and Jared were all in the family room on mattresses around this huge pool table, which we learned was a snooker table, which belonged to their son, Thomas.
Over the 3 days we were there we got to see Tante Gerd and Onkle Ragnar every day. Gerd is Pappa Tore's sister. She is such a wonderful loving and funny woman. Her English is still quite good, she attended Graceland back in the day! Ragnar is a tease and so supportive and hospitable and funny, too! The kids loved getting to know them both! One afternoon we went to their apartment in Porsgrunn for many yummy desserts. They call it "cake", but it was cake and cookies and ice cream, so yummy. Gerd also gave several of us hand me downs from both of them. Jared got a Norwegian sweater that fit him perfectly, Erik and Bryn got sweatshirts and I got several sweaters and scarves. One of the scarves she gave me has kept me nice and warm many cold days here in London! Thanks Tante!
We also got to see Hilde and Ove's 3 children. Benedikte, who is Kari's age, lives with her parents, so we got to see her in between her shifts. She is a nurse and had to work the Christmas holiday. Jeanette and her man, Thomas and son, Tobias, spent Christmas in Sweden, but we got to see them before we left. Tobias is a toddler and is so very cute!!! Jeanette is expecting a girl this spring, how wonderful. Their son, Thomas, also joined us for a meal one of the days. We didn't get to meet his new wife as she was ill. Again, so awesome for our kids to get to know their family.
We went in to Porsgrunn for a few hours on Christmas eve, but didn't get to do much shopping because the stores aren't open much at all during the holidays. I guess it saved me some money!! We did buy a case of our favorite Norwegian sweet mustard. It's only made in Porsgrunn so we bought 15 of them! I did get a few Christmas decorations and we purchased 3 sleds.
They'd received at least 8 inches of snow when we arrived and the hill by their house made a great place for sledding. We went out twice for great sledding! The snow was amazing and so gorgeous.
One day Pappa took us on a little tour, we saw the home that Erik lived in when he was living in Norway the year he was in 4th grade. And we went to Bestefar Thorlief and Bestemor Karen's grave site too. We gathered around and sang "May the Longtime Sun shine on you."
Mostly we ate amazing meals. Smør brød every morning, so yummy. It's open faced sandwiches with banana, nutella, meats, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumber, fish, and so much more. Whatever you like, you make your own.
They catered the meal for Christmas eve. The food came in boxes and there were so many! I can't even remember all the yummy food, there was so much. I loved the dessert, rice pudding with red berry sauce.
The Norwegians bake lots of cakes for Christmas, many of them using meringue and almonds. Yum!!
We visited and laughed and played lots of pinochle. Gerd and Ragnar told lots of jokes and we watched the new movie called "Kontiki". Such wonderful memories.
Emily created stockings for the 9 of us, out of gift wrap and yarn. We gave the kids little gifts and candy and we each wrote nice notes to each other. Great Christmas celebration. We also sang many Norsk carols and Pappa read the Bible story in Norsk. Awesome.
I'm catching up. I haven't written about our time, over Christmas, with Erik's cousin and family. We drove to Hilde and Ove Larson's home. They live out of town, overlooking the fjord, between Porsgrunn and Skien. Erik was born in Porsgrunn and I've visited his grandparents there 3 times before, so we were very happy to finally return. Hilde is Erik's first cousin and she and Ove have an amazing home. It was large enough for all 9 of us to sleep there. Kari, Bryn, Ryan and Jared were all in the family room on mattresses around this huge pool table, which we learned was a snooker table, which belonged to their son, Thomas.
Over the 3 days we were there we got to see Tante Gerd and Onkle Ragnar every day. Gerd is Pappa Tore's sister. She is such a wonderful loving and funny woman. Her English is still quite good, she attended Graceland back in the day! Ragnar is a tease and so supportive and hospitable and funny, too! The kids loved getting to know them both! One afternoon we went to their apartment in Porsgrunn for many yummy desserts. They call it "cake", but it was cake and cookies and ice cream, so yummy. Gerd also gave several of us hand me downs from both of them. Jared got a Norwegian sweater that fit him perfectly, Erik and Bryn got sweatshirts and I got several sweaters and scarves. One of the scarves she gave me has kept me nice and warm many cold days here in London! Thanks Tante!
We also got to see Hilde and Ove's 3 children. Benedikte, who is Kari's age, lives with her parents, so we got to see her in between her shifts. She is a nurse and had to work the Christmas holiday. Jeanette and her man, Thomas and son, Tobias, spent Christmas in Sweden, but we got to see them before we left. Tobias is a toddler and is so very cute!!! Jeanette is expecting a girl this spring, how wonderful. Their son, Thomas, also joined us for a meal one of the days. We didn't get to meet his new wife as she was ill. Again, so awesome for our kids to get to know their family.
We went in to Porsgrunn for a few hours on Christmas eve, but didn't get to do much shopping because the stores aren't open much at all during the holidays. I guess it saved me some money!! We did buy a case of our favorite Norwegian sweet mustard. It's only made in Porsgrunn so we bought 15 of them! I did get a few Christmas decorations and we purchased 3 sleds.
They'd received at least 8 inches of snow when we arrived and the hill by their house made a great place for sledding. We went out twice for great sledding! The snow was amazing and so gorgeous.
One day Pappa took us on a little tour, we saw the home that Erik lived in when he was living in Norway the year he was in 4th grade. And we went to Bestefar Thorlief and Bestemor Karen's grave site too. We gathered around and sang "May the Longtime Sun shine on you."
Mostly we ate amazing meals. Smør brød every morning, so yummy. It's open faced sandwiches with banana, nutella, meats, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumber, fish, and so much more. Whatever you like, you make your own.
They catered the meal for Christmas eve. The food came in boxes and there were so many! I can't even remember all the yummy food, there was so much. I loved the dessert, rice pudding with red berry sauce.
The Norwegians bake lots of cakes for Christmas, many of them using meringue and almonds. Yum!!
We visited and laughed and played lots of pinochle. Gerd and Ragnar told lots of jokes and we watched the new movie called "Kontiki". Such wonderful memories.
Emily created stockings for the 9 of us, out of gift wrap and yarn. We gave the kids little gifts and candy and we each wrote nice notes to each other. Great Christmas celebration. We also sang many Norsk carols and Pappa read the Bible story in Norsk. Awesome.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Reporting on Feb 17-19th
The LC students that live in Manson #12 invited us to dinner on Sunday, the 17th. They made homemade quiche and salad and crepes. It was super yummy and we enjoyed hanging out and playing the category game with them. Such great people.
Monday evening, Erik, Ryan and I went to a musical called Showstoppers. It was performed in a small auditorium at the Royal Albert Hall. It was an improvisational musical with one director, 5 actors and 3 musicians. The director asked for us to holler out ideas for an unlikely setting for a musical. Three things were chosen for us to vote on: a pickle jar, the Royal Albert Hall and a department store. We voted for "Pickle Jar" and we came up with title "Life of Brine". It was hilarious to see the story that they came up with: it included a revolution, 2 pickles leaving the jar for a time and interacting with some courgettes (zucchinis) in the store and all sorts of craziness. They sang quite a few songs in the style of musicals that the audience suggested. They were so good.
Tuesday, Ryan went out wandering on his own to downtown. He had a nice time, but was tired from all the walking. This evening we had the last group of LC students over for pizza, salad and raspberry trifle. It was fun, as usual. We played "Bananagrams", including Erik's crazy creative way.
Vikki arrives on Wed, Feb 20th, so I had asked FIE for a cot for her to sleep on. While we were gone, they came and put it in our living room. It was a playpen!!! I guess "cot" has a different meaning in "English English"! So we asked them for a bigger bed. Too funny.
The LC students that live in Manson #12 invited us to dinner on Sunday, the 17th. They made homemade quiche and salad and crepes. It was super yummy and we enjoyed hanging out and playing the category game with them. Such great people.
Monday evening, Erik, Ryan and I went to a musical called Showstoppers. It was performed in a small auditorium at the Royal Albert Hall. It was an improvisational musical with one director, 5 actors and 3 musicians. The director asked for us to holler out ideas for an unlikely setting for a musical. Three things were chosen for us to vote on: a pickle jar, the Royal Albert Hall and a department store. We voted for "Pickle Jar" and we came up with title "Life of Brine". It was hilarious to see the story that they came up with: it included a revolution, 2 pickles leaving the jar for a time and interacting with some courgettes (zucchinis) in the store and all sorts of craziness. They sang quite a few songs in the style of musicals that the audience suggested. They were so good.
Tuesday, Ryan went out wandering on his own to downtown. He had a nice time, but was tired from all the walking. This evening we had the last group of LC students over for pizza, salad and raspberry trifle. It was fun, as usual. We played "Bananagrams", including Erik's crazy creative way.
Vikki arrives on Wed, Feb 20th, so I had asked FIE for a cot for her to sleep on. While we were gone, they came and put it in our living room. It was a playpen!!! I guess "cot" has a different meaning in "English English"! So we asked them for a bigger bed. Too funny.
Thursday, March 7th,
Well, I see that I haven't written since last month. Time sure flies when you're having fun and having company. Right now, Bryn's friend, Evan, is visiting from Portland. Nice to have him here. The boys haven't really been around anyone their age since we left home.
Saturday, February 16th we took the Lewis and Clark group to Oxford. Thankfully, Lewis and Clark bought each student 8 Britrail passes, which are good for anywhere in England, Scotland and Wales. So they were able to use them for the train ride to Oxford, about an hour away. Once we arrived we met 2 tour guides that spent 2 hours with us, explaining about the history of Oxford and especially about the unique Oxford university and the colleges that make it up. So cool! And very different from what we're used to. Oxford is the oldest English speaking university in the world and is made up of 38 colleges. The colleges are where the students live, study, eat and worship. The program for undergrads is 3 years and during that time the only thing they are required to do is meet with their tutor once a week for about 2 hours and take the final exams at the end of the 3rd year. Most of them also attend classes/lectures in their fields but they aren't required to and they can do only independent study during their time there.
We got to tour Oriel college. Each of the colleges is set up the same with a quad area surrounded by the dorms. The grass in the quad is forbidden for the students to walk on, until their graduation day, when they get their group photo taken on it. The "fellows", the faculty can walk on the grass, and do! The students can eat their three meals in the dining hall for about $12/day. The supper is formal and they all wear their robes to that meal. They also wear their robes to chapel. Back in the day, chapel was required every day, but now it is optional. When we went into the chapel someone was practicing the organ, which sounded great. The dorms are set up more like apartments so they are more conducive to studying. There are separate staircases for each group of about 6 rooms. We saw graffiti on the walls of the quad, but that is acceptable because it was telling that their college had won "Head of the River" crew race. To win you have to bump the boat in front. So on my photos you can see "bumped ....college", that means they won that year! Each of the colleges have very wonderful libraries and we also saw the Bodleian library in town, which is amazing. Every book every published in the UK has a copy at this library. Many of the books are stored underground..
(The Bodleian Libraries form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 45,000 e-journals and other materials in different formats.
The Bodleian Library, the University’s main research library, dates from 1602 and is globally acknowledged to be one of the greatest libraries in the world. Its priceless collections include the papers of six British Prime Ministers; a Gutenberg Bible; the earliest surviving book written wholly in English; a quarter of the world’s original copies of the Magna Carta; and almost 10,000 western medieval and renaissance manuscripts.)
After our tour, many of us ate at the Turf Tavern, which served amazing food. I got Shrimp Scampi and we had a yummy brie cheese appetizer. The pubs and taverns here are often great restaurants. It was a lovely day and we even sat outside!
Then we walked up and down the city trying to find a place where Erik could go punting on the Thames, but unfortunately the water was too high and the boats weren't operating yet. We asked a group of hippies where the boats were, and got invited to join them in saying "Ommmmm" along with hundreds of others across England. It was interesting, felt like a Portland moment.
We then headed to Blackwell's which is a huge bookstore. Not as big as Powell's, but very cool. One of our LC students knows a woman, a former LC alum, who is at Oxford right now as a graduate student. She is a Rhodes Scholar. Melissa got ahold of her and she gave about half of our group a personal guided tour of her college, Magdalen-pronounced Maudlen. It was neat to walk on the paths of her college, we saw some famous deer, they are genetically unique to the college and stay there year round. We also learned that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien walked on that same path many times, sharing ideas. Too cool! The college did look similar to Oriel, but more beautiful.
We walked so many miles, I think 15, but we saw lots and had a great time. We went back to Blackwell's a second time for a bit. The four of us were so tired, and couldn't find a place to eat supper, but then we found an amazing Italian restaurant. We don't usually eat Italian, but we've had 2 great meals here in London, so we are starting to change our thinking. We headed home about 8 p.m. What a day. We LOVED Oxford.
Well, I see that I haven't written since last month. Time sure flies when you're having fun and having company. Right now, Bryn's friend, Evan, is visiting from Portland. Nice to have him here. The boys haven't really been around anyone their age since we left home.
Saturday, February 16th we took the Lewis and Clark group to Oxford. Thankfully, Lewis and Clark bought each student 8 Britrail passes, which are good for anywhere in England, Scotland and Wales. So they were able to use them for the train ride to Oxford, about an hour away. Once we arrived we met 2 tour guides that spent 2 hours with us, explaining about the history of Oxford and especially about the unique Oxford university and the colleges that make it up. So cool! And very different from what we're used to. Oxford is the oldest English speaking university in the world and is made up of 38 colleges. The colleges are where the students live, study, eat and worship. The program for undergrads is 3 years and during that time the only thing they are required to do is meet with their tutor once a week for about 2 hours and take the final exams at the end of the 3rd year. Most of them also attend classes/lectures in their fields but they aren't required to and they can do only independent study during their time there.
We got to tour Oriel college. Each of the colleges is set up the same with a quad area surrounded by the dorms. The grass in the quad is forbidden for the students to walk on, until their graduation day, when they get their group photo taken on it. The "fellows", the faculty can walk on the grass, and do! The students can eat their three meals in the dining hall for about $12/day. The supper is formal and they all wear their robes to that meal. They also wear their robes to chapel. Back in the day, chapel was required every day, but now it is optional. When we went into the chapel someone was practicing the organ, which sounded great. The dorms are set up more like apartments so they are more conducive to studying. There are separate staircases for each group of about 6 rooms. We saw graffiti on the walls of the quad, but that is acceptable because it was telling that their college had won "Head of the River" crew race. To win you have to bump the boat in front. So on my photos you can see "bumped ....college", that means they won that year! Each of the colleges have very wonderful libraries and we also saw the Bodleian library in town, which is amazing. Every book every published in the UK has a copy at this library. Many of the books are stored underground..
(The Bodleian Libraries form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 45,000 e-journals and other materials in different formats.
The Bodleian Library, the University’s main research library, dates from 1602 and is globally acknowledged to be one of the greatest libraries in the world. Its priceless collections include the papers of six British Prime Ministers; a Gutenberg Bible; the earliest surviving book written wholly in English; a quarter of the world’s original copies of the Magna Carta; and almost 10,000 western medieval and renaissance manuscripts.)
After our tour, many of us ate at the Turf Tavern, which served amazing food. I got Shrimp Scampi and we had a yummy brie cheese appetizer. The pubs and taverns here are often great restaurants. It was a lovely day and we even sat outside!
Then we walked up and down the city trying to find a place where Erik could go punting on the Thames, but unfortunately the water was too high and the boats weren't operating yet. We asked a group of hippies where the boats were, and got invited to join them in saying "Ommmmm" along with hundreds of others across England. It was interesting, felt like a Portland moment.
We then headed to Blackwell's which is a huge bookstore. Not as big as Powell's, but very cool. One of our LC students knows a woman, a former LC alum, who is at Oxford right now as a graduate student. She is a Rhodes Scholar. Melissa got ahold of her and she gave about half of our group a personal guided tour of her college, Magdalen-pronounced Maudlen. It was neat to walk on the paths of her college, we saw some famous deer, they are genetically unique to the college and stay there year round. We also learned that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien walked on that same path many times, sharing ideas. Too cool! The college did look similar to Oriel, but more beautiful.
We walked so many miles, I think 15, but we saw lots and had a great time. We went back to Blackwell's a second time for a bit. The four of us were so tired, and couldn't find a place to eat supper, but then we found an amazing Italian restaurant. We don't usually eat Italian, but we've had 2 great meals here in London, so we are starting to change our thinking. We headed home about 8 p.m. What a day. We LOVED Oxford.
Monday, February 18, 2013
February 15th, 2013 Catching up. Where to begin. Well, today marks the half way point of our adventure. We left on Dec 15th and we arrive home on April 14th. Wow, we've done so much, but it's crazy to think it's half over. Ryan's ready to go home now, he's missing his girl. He's a good sport tho, and doesn't complain. Thank goodness for Skype-they enjoy that.
This morning was a little crazy. Kari and Jared had a flight from Heathrow to Chicago at 8:40 a.m. They were all packed last night (even taking some of our extra things) and we set to wake up at 5 a.m. Bryn was going with them to the airport so they could use our Oyster cards and so he could help with luggage. Erik's got a bad cold so he and I said goodbye last night. Well, at 7 a.m. when Erik woke up they were still here. Quite the flurry of activity and they were out of here in 10 minutes. They got to the airport by 8 a.m., but too late to make it. They had to rebook on another flight, for $250 each. They get in about 4 hours later than expected, so that's not too bad, and I was afraid that it would cost more. Still a stressful morning, especially at the end of a two month vacation when you're out of money! We sure had a wonderful time with them here tho!
The 4 kids had a 3 day adventure in Dublin, Ireland earlier this week. They had fun cycling around the city, hiking on the Ocean Cliffs at Howth,(about a 30 minute train ride away), walking thru a path that was more like a creek bed, playing in a playground and seeing a Viking Museum. They also got to enjoy some live music one evening.
This morning was a little crazy. Kari and Jared had a flight from Heathrow to Chicago at 8:40 a.m. They were all packed last night (even taking some of our extra things) and we set to wake up at 5 a.m. Bryn was going with them to the airport so they could use our Oyster cards and so he could help with luggage. Erik's got a bad cold so he and I said goodbye last night. Well, at 7 a.m. when Erik woke up they were still here. Quite the flurry of activity and they were out of here in 10 minutes. They got to the airport by 8 a.m., but too late to make it. They had to rebook on another flight, for $250 each. They get in about 4 hours later than expected, so that's not too bad, and I was afraid that it would cost more. Still a stressful morning, especially at the end of a two month vacation when you're out of money! We sure had a wonderful time with them here tho!
The 4 kids had a 3 day adventure in Dublin, Ireland earlier this week. They had fun cycling around the city, hiking on the Ocean Cliffs at Howth,(about a 30 minute train ride away), walking thru a path that was more like a creek bed, playing in a playground and seeing a Viking Museum. They also got to enjoy some live music one evening.
Monday, February 18th
It's a gorgeous sunny day here in S Kensington, London. Erik, the boys and I took a 5 mile walk down to the Thames, crossing over 2 bridges and enjoying the weather. We also stopped at a fun restaurant "The Old Dutch Pancake", which sells huge crepe-like pancakes for 5 pounds, on Monday! Tonight, Erik is roasting a chicken for dinner, it's nice that he's got more time to enjoy cooking. Makes my life pretty easy! Then this evening, we will go to "Showstoppers", an improvisational musical. I guess they take ideas from the audience and create the musical on the spot! It's at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a gorgeous building.
I'm quite a bit behind, so I'll try to catch up. On Sunday, February 3rd, Kari, Jared and I attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Then for supper, we went to Churchill Arms for Thai food. Erik was back from France in time to join us.
Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Science, The British Museum and The Natural History Museum. They are incredible museums and all free! I think I like the Natural History Museum the best, but it's really cool seeing the Rosetta Stone and the very old things in the British Museum. Tuesday night, Erik and the kids went to Spamalot and I went to Billy Elliot. I loved the musical, such amazing talent, lots of singing and dancing and humor. On Wed we had 6 LC students here for pizza and had fun squishing into our living room and playing Salad Bowl. Thursday we all joined in with the students on their Food Walking Tour. It was quite chilly, but was an interesting tour of Boroughs Market and surrounding area. The guide talked about fishing over the years in the Thames, it's a very clean river now. She also told how the railway completely changed how people ate, especially the milk trains. That evening, Ryan,Erik, Kari and I got to learn about change ringing. One of my fellow sopranos in Gospel choir is a bell ringer and she invited us to her rehearsal. The bell master took us up to the belfry and showed us the bells. This tower, St Olaves, has 8 bells. There are about 5000 bell towers in the UK, 50 in the US and 7000 in the world. So it is definitely a culturally British thing. Then we even got to ring the bells, with individual supervision, so we didn't damage the bells. It was very fun. We stayed and listened to several of their methods (songs).
Friday we attended a 2 hour tour of the Houses of Parliament, the palace of Westminster. We even got to go into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, (but we couldn't sit on the seats!) The House of Lords contained a big red wool sack, kind of like a huge bean bag, which contained wool from each of the countries in the British commonwealth and the justices sit on it-it was so interesting!! I wish I could remember all that our guide said, but I do remember there is lots of ceremony associated with the building, which is huge. There were several amazingly gorgeous rooms that are used exclusively for the queen to walk thru when she opens parliament. It is almost all rebuilt after the fire of 1834, except for the Great Hall. There are over 1100 rooms, 4 post offices and numerous employees on eight acres. Quite an impressive place.
Friday evening was especially fun. Kari and Jared went to a Scottish Ceilidh. They ended up walking extra to get there, but had fun once in. It was sold out, but there were 90 tickets available at the door. Kari and Jared were right after the last ones were sold, yikes, but thankfully someone had two tickets they didn't need, so they bought those. It was very packed and Jared said he hadn't frolicked so much in his life, but they had fun. Good exercise too. Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I went to Chalk Farm and met Joe Berry and his fiancé Chloe at an amazing Italian Restaurant. Joe was a UK soccer coach and had stayed with us for a week 5 years ago. We'd kept in touch via Facebook and it was awesome to see him again. He was surprised at how grown the boys were and was happy for us to meet Chloe. We really enjoyed visiting with them and they bought our meals too, what a nice surprise.
Saturday, Erik, Kari, Ryan and I headed to Cambridge. It's about an hour via train. We went to the Wesley Methodist church, who are celebrating their 100th birthday and hosted a workshop, "Come and Sing with John Rutter". We've all sang many songs written by him and really enjoyed our day. There were about 350 people there to sing, mostly all amateurs like us. We sang thru several songs John had written and before each song he'd talk about it. He also talked about what it is like to be a composer, he said writing music doesn't get easier as he gets older. We sang music by other composers too. What a fun day!!!
After the workshop we joined with Jared and Bryn, ate at Nando's-a chicken place Bryn and Ryan love and headed to a rugby game. We had some trouble finding it. There was engineering work taking place on the tube lines we were supposed to take so we took a train. It was quite far away from SW London, many of the students had trouble getting there, what a bummer. We really enjoyed the game tho.
On Sunday, Erik and I headed to Enfield to attend the Community of Christ service. We took the tube and then a train. The rails were being worked on, so we had to catch a replacement bus. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn't stop for the 6 of us waiting in the rain, so we took a taxi. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there and we missed half of the service. But it was very nice to meet everyone. We ate lunch with Keith McMillan, who is a good friend of Roger and Patty's and worked in Cordova with Dave Allison in 1985. Apostle Richard James also joined us for lunch. At 1 p.m. we attended the Congolese service, which is also Community of Christ. We enjoyed it very much, lots of singing and praising. All in all, it was an 8 hour day, but well worth it.
As I mentioned in the Feb 15th post, the kids flew to Ireland for 3 days. While they were gone, Erik and I went to the Musical Mamma Mia, which was funny, and included ABBA's music. Erik has had a bad cold for a week now, so we took it easy. We did go to a Pancake flipping race on Tuesday for Shrove Tuesday. Quite a funny tradition. I guess traditionally people couldn't eat sugar, flour and fat during lent so on Shrove Tuesday they would clean out their cupboards by making pancakes. Lots of pancakes are still eaten in London on Shrove Tuesday and there were several races around the city! We also went to Southwark cathedral, pronounced Suh-thark, and saw a new art exhibit there and the famous Shakespeare stained glass window.
On Valentines day we went downtown to do a laser obstacle course race. (Except Jared, whose back was bothering him) Ryan won, with Kari in 2nd. Then Kari and Ryan got their feet nibbled on by fish, it's a thing they do in Turkey. It tickled them quite a lot at first, was funny to watch them. We did a little souvenir shopping and then Erik and Ryan came home and we went to the British museum. Erik cooked an amazing Valentines dinner, we had a yummy meringue cake to top it off. Then Kari, Jared and I spent time packing-they took some of our souvenirs, etc home with them. Thanks.
It was so very wonderful to spend the week and a bit with Kari and Jared, such wonderful people whom we all love! I'm sure they are having a wonderful week in Illinois right now. They will be home to Portland on the 21st.
I'll write about Oxford in my next post, it's time for dinner.
It's a gorgeous sunny day here in S Kensington, London. Erik, the boys and I took a 5 mile walk down to the Thames, crossing over 2 bridges and enjoying the weather. We also stopped at a fun restaurant "The Old Dutch Pancake", which sells huge crepe-like pancakes for 5 pounds, on Monday! Tonight, Erik is roasting a chicken for dinner, it's nice that he's got more time to enjoy cooking. Makes my life pretty easy! Then this evening, we will go to "Showstoppers", an improvisational musical. I guess they take ideas from the audience and create the musical on the spot! It's at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a gorgeous building.
I'm quite a bit behind, so I'll try to catch up. On Sunday, February 3rd, Kari, Jared and I attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Then for supper, we went to Churchill Arms for Thai food. Erik was back from France in time to join us.
Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Science, The British Museum and The Natural History Museum. They are incredible museums and all free! I think I like the Natural History Museum the best, but it's really cool seeing the Rosetta Stone and the very old things in the British Museum. Tuesday night, Erik and the kids went to Spamalot and I went to Billy Elliot. I loved the musical, such amazing talent, lots of singing and dancing and humor. On Wed we had 6 LC students here for pizza and had fun squishing into our living room and playing Salad Bowl. Thursday we all joined in with the students on their Food Walking Tour. It was quite chilly, but was an interesting tour of Boroughs Market and surrounding area. The guide talked about fishing over the years in the Thames, it's a very clean river now. She also told how the railway completely changed how people ate, especially the milk trains. That evening, Ryan,Erik, Kari and I got to learn about change ringing. One of my fellow sopranos in Gospel choir is a bell ringer and she invited us to her rehearsal. The bell master took us up to the belfry and showed us the bells. This tower, St Olaves, has 8 bells. There are about 5000 bell towers in the UK, 50 in the US and 7000 in the world. So it is definitely a culturally British thing. Then we even got to ring the bells, with individual supervision, so we didn't damage the bells. It was very fun. We stayed and listened to several of their methods (songs).
Friday we attended a 2 hour tour of the Houses of Parliament, the palace of Westminster. We even got to go into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, (but we couldn't sit on the seats!) The House of Lords contained a big red wool sack, kind of like a huge bean bag, which contained wool from each of the countries in the British commonwealth and the justices sit on it-it was so interesting!! I wish I could remember all that our guide said, but I do remember there is lots of ceremony associated with the building, which is huge. There were several amazingly gorgeous rooms that are used exclusively for the queen to walk thru when she opens parliament. It is almost all rebuilt after the fire of 1834, except for the Great Hall. There are over 1100 rooms, 4 post offices and numerous employees on eight acres. Quite an impressive place.
Friday evening was especially fun. Kari and Jared went to a Scottish Ceilidh. They ended up walking extra to get there, but had fun once in. It was sold out, but there were 90 tickets available at the door. Kari and Jared were right after the last ones were sold, yikes, but thankfully someone had two tickets they didn't need, so they bought those. It was very packed and Jared said he hadn't frolicked so much in his life, but they had fun. Good exercise too. Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I went to Chalk Farm and met Joe Berry and his fiancé Chloe at an amazing Italian Restaurant. Joe was a UK soccer coach and had stayed with us for a week 5 years ago. We'd kept in touch via Facebook and it was awesome to see him again. He was surprised at how grown the boys were and was happy for us to meet Chloe. We really enjoyed visiting with them and they bought our meals too, what a nice surprise.
Saturday, Erik, Kari, Ryan and I headed to Cambridge. It's about an hour via train. We went to the Wesley Methodist church, who are celebrating their 100th birthday and hosted a workshop, "Come and Sing with John Rutter". We've all sang many songs written by him and really enjoyed our day. There were about 350 people there to sing, mostly all amateurs like us. We sang thru several songs John had written and before each song he'd talk about it. He also talked about what it is like to be a composer, he said writing music doesn't get easier as he gets older. We sang music by other composers too. What a fun day!!!
After the workshop we joined with Jared and Bryn, ate at Nando's-a chicken place Bryn and Ryan love and headed to a rugby game. We had some trouble finding it. There was engineering work taking place on the tube lines we were supposed to take so we took a train. It was quite far away from SW London, many of the students had trouble getting there, what a bummer. We really enjoyed the game tho.
On Sunday, Erik and I headed to Enfield to attend the Community of Christ service. We took the tube and then a train. The rails were being worked on, so we had to catch a replacement bus. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn't stop for the 6 of us waiting in the rain, so we took a taxi. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there and we missed half of the service. But it was very nice to meet everyone. We ate lunch with Keith McMillan, who is a good friend of Roger and Patty's and worked in Cordova with Dave Allison in 1985. Apostle Richard James also joined us for lunch. At 1 p.m. we attended the Congolese service, which is also Community of Christ. We enjoyed it very much, lots of singing and praising. All in all, it was an 8 hour day, but well worth it.
As I mentioned in the Feb 15th post, the kids flew to Ireland for 3 days. While they were gone, Erik and I went to the Musical Mamma Mia, which was funny, and included ABBA's music. Erik has had a bad cold for a week now, so we took it easy. We did go to a Pancake flipping race on Tuesday for Shrove Tuesday. Quite a funny tradition. I guess traditionally people couldn't eat sugar, flour and fat during lent so on Shrove Tuesday they would clean out their cupboards by making pancakes. Lots of pancakes are still eaten in London on Shrove Tuesday and there were several races around the city! We also went to Southwark cathedral, pronounced Suh-thark, and saw a new art exhibit there and the famous Shakespeare stained glass window.
On Valentines day we went downtown to do a laser obstacle course race. (Except Jared, whose back was bothering him) Ryan won, with Kari in 2nd. Then Kari and Ryan got their feet nibbled on by fish, it's a thing they do in Turkey. It tickled them quite a lot at first, was funny to watch them. We did a little souvenir shopping and then Erik and Ryan came home and we went to the British museum. Erik cooked an amazing Valentines dinner, we had a yummy meringue cake to top it off. Then Kari, Jared and I spent time packing-they took some of our souvenirs, etc home with them. Thanks.
It was so very wonderful to spend the week and a bit with Kari and Jared, such wonderful people whom we all love! I'm sure they are having a wonderful week in Illinois right now. They will be home to Portland on the 21st.
I'll write about Oxford in my next post, it's time for dinner.
Monday, February 11, 2013
London life, mid February
Yay, we all got healthy before Kari and Jared's visit. They arrived on Saturday, Feb 2nd, late in the evening. It was so great to see them and hear more about their adventures. I think they will have visited 13 countries by the time they get back to Illinois on Feb 15th! They are pretty tired out, so we've had a nice mixture of activities and hanging out in the flat playing pinochle, reading and playing D&D.
On Saturday morning, Erik went to Lille, France. It was an optional trip as part of the Food and Society class that the students are taking.
Erik and 8 LC students went. He came back Sunday night, loved the trip and all the food. I'll have him write a bit:
Lille was wonderful! My first trip formally devoted to food, but certainly not my last. We started off on Saturday morning with a speedy trip on the Eurostar from London to Lille in less than 2 hours! Upon arrival, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. 5 minutes later the wind whipped hail in our faces as we began a 2 hour walking tour! We walked A LOT! 10 miles the first day and 15 the 2nd day were recorded on my fitbit activity tracker. The first walk ended at a wonderful little creperie. I had a ham and cheese crepe for my savory, complete with buckwheat flour crepe and accompanied by cider (with a bit of kick). Cider is the traditional French accompaniment for crepes and there is a tradition that the last person to pour from the jug will either be married or hung by the neck in 1 year's time! Our guide told us this just after one of the students was emptying the jug! Here is to hoping for a wedding in Hannah's near future! On the tour we learned that Lille has been occupied by many different countries over and over in the past 1500 years, but always kept it's own identity. Dinner that night was a 5 course 3+ hour meal with Rabbit pate early , 4 types of stinky cheese in the middle and delicious chicory ice cream in cream-puffs for dessert, magnifique! Another highlight were the amazing patisseries. I lost count of how many we saw, but the highlight was one named Aux Merveilleux! There were people lined up outside it halfway down the block. We had to see what the draw was and in the window we saw 3 mademoiselles creating these cream filled, chocolate covered meringue cannonballs that are the eponymous specialty of this shop worthy of a holy pilgrimage! I bought 2 large ones (reputed to serve 8) and we ate one of them on the train ride home on Sunday and the Nilsen horde polished off the other one on Sunday night (with a smidgen left for b-fast on monday). One last food highlight was a meal on Sunday afternoon. The town is renowned for their "mussels and fries" meals. In fact, every August they have a festival and competition between the restaurants where they pile up huge mounds of shells outside to see who can make the biggest mountain of mussel shells. The 5 ladies who accompanied me and I made quite an impressive stack on our table as well! Last, but not least, I will leave you with a teaser in french for you to translate if you have an inquisitive mind: saucisson de cheval! Erik
The "cake" Erik brought us home was wonderful and there was even better news. One of their shops is opening up here, their first in the UK, today!! So we are off for their grand opening. Will write more later.
On Saturday morning, Erik went to Lille, France. It was an optional trip as part of the Food and Society class that the students are taking.
Erik and 8 LC students went. He came back Sunday night, loved the trip and all the food. I'll have him write a bit:
Lille was wonderful! My first trip formally devoted to food, but certainly not my last. We started off on Saturday morning with a speedy trip on the Eurostar from London to Lille in less than 2 hours! Upon arrival, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. 5 minutes later the wind whipped hail in our faces as we began a 2 hour walking tour! We walked A LOT! 10 miles the first day and 15 the 2nd day were recorded on my fitbit activity tracker. The first walk ended at a wonderful little creperie. I had a ham and cheese crepe for my savory, complete with buckwheat flour crepe and accompanied by cider (with a bit of kick). Cider is the traditional French accompaniment for crepes and there is a tradition that the last person to pour from the jug will either be married or hung by the neck in 1 year's time! Our guide told us this just after one of the students was emptying the jug! Here is to hoping for a wedding in Hannah's near future! On the tour we learned that Lille has been occupied by many different countries over and over in the past 1500 years, but always kept it's own identity. Dinner that night was a 5 course 3+ hour meal with Rabbit pate early , 4 types of stinky cheese in the middle and delicious chicory ice cream in cream-puffs for dessert, magnifique! Another highlight were the amazing patisseries. I lost count of how many we saw, but the highlight was one named Aux Merveilleux! There were people lined up outside it halfway down the block. We had to see what the draw was and in the window we saw 3 mademoiselles creating these cream filled, chocolate covered meringue cannonballs that are the eponymous specialty of this shop worthy of a holy pilgrimage! I bought 2 large ones (reputed to serve 8) and we ate one of them on the train ride home on Sunday and the Nilsen horde polished off the other one on Sunday night (with a smidgen left for b-fast on monday). One last food highlight was a meal on Sunday afternoon. The town is renowned for their "mussels and fries" meals. In fact, every August they have a festival and competition between the restaurants where they pile up huge mounds of shells outside to see who can make the biggest mountain of mussel shells. The 5 ladies who accompanied me and I made quite an impressive stack on our table as well! Last, but not least, I will leave you with a teaser in french for you to translate if you have an inquisitive mind: saucisson de cheval! Erik
The "cake" Erik brought us home was wonderful and there was even better news. One of their shops is opening up here, their first in the UK, today!! So we are off for their grand opening. Will write more later.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Friday, Feb 1st
Just a quick update. Not too much has been happening this last week and a half since Bryn, Ryan and I have
been feeling pretty sick. We're so glad Erik has been spared, he's taken good care of us. On Sunday, I wrote that I thought I was
getting better, but that wasn't true. I had a fever thru Tuesday morning. 3 days with a fever really wiped me out, the highest it got was 102.4 and that was with meds every 4 hours. Yuck. The last few days have been better, except for the cough that keeps me awake at night. Thankfully, I slept nearly normally last night. Ryan is still quite miserable and he has also got his awful nose infection back. It's not bothered him much the last few years, but a few times it becomes quite inflamed. So he's still taking it very easy, reading lots and playing lots of video games and listening to lots of music. Thank goodness for technology! Bryn has been sick over a week and a half and felt better today, so went to work out with Erik. I guess he could only work out for about 15 min before he had to stop.
Monday, Ryan and I both had fevers so we had to stay home from the Billy Elliot musical. Bummer. But 2 of the others from FIE that are in our flat here were able to go, so that was good. Joyce and Carol loved it. Erik says he'll take me another time.
Wed, my first day out of the house. Bryn's 18th birthday. We ate dinner at Wagamama's, which was a great place for all of us to gather. They had 2 large tables for us and the food was awesome. I got a chicken ramen soup and it tasted great. After the game, we met Ryan (he wasn't up to too much) and headed, along with about 12 of the students, to the footy. It was a soccer game with Fulham vs West Ham. There were about 25,000 people there, on a work night. It was very exciting with lots of cheering. I only saw one fight on the field and it was quickly broken up. You can tell they have had troubles in the past, there were lots of security there and the away team had a certain area, where they could only go, etc. It didn't seem too rowdy to me, thankfully! On our walk there, we saw the cutest British boy, about 8 years old, selling "Homemade flapjacks and sausages". So sweet-I hope someone bought from him.
I can't believe my Bryn is 18! What a joy boy! As Erik said at the dinner on Wed, "Bryn is the chillest of our children". He is unflappable. He is such a pleasure to be with here in London, never complains, always up for an adventure and very helpful. We're really glad we've had this time to be with him before he heads to Graceland in August. What a cool son he is. It's also exciting for him, he finished up all his school work for the 4 classes he was working on. So now he's officially got the correct credits to graduate on June 12th!
All for now, more exciting posts coming up!
Just a quick update. Not too much has been happening this last week and a half since Bryn, Ryan and I have
been feeling pretty sick. We're so glad Erik has been spared, he's taken good care of us. On Sunday, I wrote that I thought I was
getting better, but that wasn't true. I had a fever thru Tuesday morning. 3 days with a fever really wiped me out, the highest it got was 102.4 and that was with meds every 4 hours. Yuck. The last few days have been better, except for the cough that keeps me awake at night. Thankfully, I slept nearly normally last night. Ryan is still quite miserable and he has also got his awful nose infection back. It's not bothered him much the last few years, but a few times it becomes quite inflamed. So he's still taking it very easy, reading lots and playing lots of video games and listening to lots of music. Thank goodness for technology! Bryn has been sick over a week and a half and felt better today, so went to work out with Erik. I guess he could only work out for about 15 min before he had to stop.
Monday, Ryan and I both had fevers so we had to stay home from the Billy Elliot musical. Bummer. But 2 of the others from FIE that are in our flat here were able to go, so that was good. Joyce and Carol loved it. Erik says he'll take me another time.
Wed, my first day out of the house. Bryn's 18th birthday. We ate dinner at Wagamama's, which was a great place for all of us to gather. They had 2 large tables for us and the food was awesome. I got a chicken ramen soup and it tasted great. After the game, we met Ryan (he wasn't up to too much) and headed, along with about 12 of the students, to the footy. It was a soccer game with Fulham vs West Ham. There were about 25,000 people there, on a work night. It was very exciting with lots of cheering. I only saw one fight on the field and it was quickly broken up. You can tell they have had troubles in the past, there were lots of security there and the away team had a certain area, where they could only go, etc. It didn't seem too rowdy to me, thankfully! On our walk there, we saw the cutest British boy, about 8 years old, selling "Homemade flapjacks and sausages". So sweet-I hope someone bought from him.
I can't believe my Bryn is 18! What a joy boy! As Erik said at the dinner on Wed, "Bryn is the chillest of our children". He is unflappable. He is such a pleasure to be with here in London, never complains, always up for an adventure and very helpful. We're really glad we've had this time to be with him before he heads to Graceland in August. What a cool son he is. It's also exciting for him, he finished up all his school work for the 4 classes he was working on. So now he's officially got the correct credits to graduate on June 12th!
All for now, more exciting posts coming up!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Oslo-Dec 19th - Dec 23rd
We arrived in Oslo at about 11 p.m. and the kids all went to Skoyen stop, where Erik and Gustavo met them. Kari, Jared and Ryan stayed with Erik and Kerstin Kristiansen. Erik is Erik's 2nd cousin. They have 2 young daughters. Andrew, Emily and Bryn went to Bente and Gustavo Montenegro's, who have 2 girls too. Erik and I took the train to the center of Oslo and walked to our hotel, quite a late night, probably 1 a.m. before we got to sleep.
Pappa had arrived at the hotel that afternoon so we met up at breakfast the next morning. Breakfast was amazing. Smørbrød, which is fixins for open faced sandwiches. They had cheese, nutella, jam, tomatoes, cucumber, ham, mackerel, and so much more. They also had cereal and eggs and bacon and juice and fruit. Quite yummy.
After breakfast we headed to Bente and Gustavo's, stopping on the way to buy Pappa a hat. We got a little turned around with our directions after we got off the bus, and the guy at 7-11 sent us the wrong way, but Gustavo came and picked us up in his car! Bente and Gustavo and girls were heading off that day for 4 nights in a cabin in Lillehammer so they let us use their whole house. So very generous, and the kids loved being together like that! Erik brought K, J and R over so we got to see him. Then we hopped on the bus and started exploring Oslo. I had purchased the Oslo pass for us, which gets you in to many attractions for free and includes all the buses and trains in the city. It's typically about $100 for 4 days and I got them for $14, woo hoo! It was such a great deal and very helpful.
The weather was pretty cold, probably about 25 degrees. We went to Frogner parken first. It's a huge park in Oslo with 212 amazing bronze and granite statues all made by Vigeland. The Vigeland Park is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist, and is one of Norway's most popular tourist attractions.
The unique sculpture park is Gustav Vigeland's lifework Vigeland was also in charge of the design and architechtural layout of the park. The Vigeland Park was mainly completed between 1939 and 1949.
As you can see from the photos, we had fun re-creating some of the poses.
https://picasaweb.google.com/107525715707559384779/OsloIn3Days
We stopped in a cafe for a snack and were once again shocked at the price of food in Norway. Kari got a small piece of cheese cake and it cost her $10. Yikes. Thankfully we were able to cook several meals at "home" so that helped.
We went to the Oslo City Hall next, which has lots of unique art in it. They had a huge Christmas tree in the main hall and we (minus Bryn) sang "Angels we have Heard on High" - it sounded awesome in there! We went to the Christmas market and enjoyed Pølse, Norwegian hot dogs and Elg burgers (an Elg is like a small American moose.) We also got bollar, yummy rolls. And we had fun looking at the items for sale, but it was pretty chilly so we went into a book store and looked around.
Friday we went to the Viking Ship Museum and saw the Ra II and Kontiki and Fram. Those Norwegians are amazing explorers. The museums were very interesting. (A new movie just came our in Norway, called "Kon tiki", and we watched it with Hilde and Ove)
Then we went to the Norske Folk Museum. We walked among many of the old stabbur, storehouses, and a stave church. The coolest thing is that we found a shed that had been on my family's farm, Jørisdal. So awesome. This link should take you info about it. http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/75209_10151347326693972_1957557097_n.jpg
We did some grocery shopping (Kari and I buying Kick, the yummy black licorice!) and the kids cooked dinner for Bestefar and themselves and played pinochle. Erik and I headed to the Oslo Cathedral and heard a free Christmas concert. I liked the boys choir best, and seeing a woman come in to sit down, carrying her cross country skis!
Saturday, Emily stayed back as she wasn't feeling great. I think she enjoyed reading on her new Kindle Fire that Andrew got her for Christmas!! She read 4-6 books during the vacation! Awesome.
We went to Holmenkollen, the huge ski jump and museum. We ate a very yummy lunch at the cafe there. We also went on the ski jump simulator, which was interesting, but made us a little motion sick. Then we took the train on up the mountain and rented toboggans. We went down the Korketrekkeren, a trail called the Corkscrew in the Oslo Community forest. It was about 2 miles long and was next to the Bobsleigh track for the Olympics in the 50's. It was SUPER fun. You'd get to going pretty fast, but could slow yourself by dragging your hands, which I did several times! Then you'd get to the bottom and hop on the train again, with your sled and it'd take you right to the top. Such fun! I'm so glad they had enough snow so we could do it.
Saturday evening we went to have Cake and Coffee with Erik and Kerstin and Sophie and Anna Maria. By cake they mean, 3 kinds of cake and some cookies and ice cream. Wow, yummy. We practiced our song that we were to sing for church the next day: "Angels..."
It was a very nice evening.
Sunday we packed up our things and put them in the hotel storage and headed to a community room in Erik's apartment complex. There were 4 others there, the church in Oslo is small. Kerstin couldn't come as one of the girls had got the stomach flu in the night. (unfortunately, Ryan caught it and was sick for Christmas) We had a very nice church service. Tore and Erik both talked. Then we had smørbrød for lunch. Erik gave Pappa and Erik a ride to our rental car location and they picked up the bags and met us at Bente's. We cleaned up their place and headed out to Porsgrunn. The rental cars were super nice, an Audi and a Nissan. Thankfully Erik asked for an upgrade and they gave it to us for free. We barely fit all 9 of us and our bags in the 2 cars.
The drive to Porsgrunn took several hours, there was some snow on the road, but not dangerous. We were so happy to see Tante Gerd, Onkel Ragnar, Ove and Hilde!!! It kept snowing all night and Erik and I took a walk in the 8 inches of powder. Gorgeous.
We arrived in Oslo at about 11 p.m. and the kids all went to Skoyen stop, where Erik and Gustavo met them. Kari, Jared and Ryan stayed with Erik and Kerstin Kristiansen. Erik is Erik's 2nd cousin. They have 2 young daughters. Andrew, Emily and Bryn went to Bente and Gustavo Montenegro's, who have 2 girls too. Erik and I took the train to the center of Oslo and walked to our hotel, quite a late night, probably 1 a.m. before we got to sleep.
Pappa had arrived at the hotel that afternoon so we met up at breakfast the next morning. Breakfast was amazing. Smørbrød, which is fixins for open faced sandwiches. They had cheese, nutella, jam, tomatoes, cucumber, ham, mackerel, and so much more. They also had cereal and eggs and bacon and juice and fruit. Quite yummy.
After breakfast we headed to Bente and Gustavo's, stopping on the way to buy Pappa a hat. We got a little turned around with our directions after we got off the bus, and the guy at 7-11 sent us the wrong way, but Gustavo came and picked us up in his car! Bente and Gustavo and girls were heading off that day for 4 nights in a cabin in Lillehammer so they let us use their whole house. So very generous, and the kids loved being together like that! Erik brought K, J and R over so we got to see him. Then we hopped on the bus and started exploring Oslo. I had purchased the Oslo pass for us, which gets you in to many attractions for free and includes all the buses and trains in the city. It's typically about $100 for 4 days and I got them for $14, woo hoo! It was such a great deal and very helpful.
The weather was pretty cold, probably about 25 degrees. We went to Frogner parken first. It's a huge park in Oslo with 212 amazing bronze and granite statues all made by Vigeland. The Vigeland Park is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist, and is one of Norway's most popular tourist attractions.
The unique sculpture park is Gustav Vigeland's lifework Vigeland was also in charge of the design and architechtural layout of the park. The Vigeland Park was mainly completed between 1939 and 1949.
As you can see from the photos, we had fun re-creating some of the poses.
https://picasaweb.google.com/107525715707559384779/OsloIn3Days
We stopped in a cafe for a snack and were once again shocked at the price of food in Norway. Kari got a small piece of cheese cake and it cost her $10. Yikes. Thankfully we were able to cook several meals at "home" so that helped.
We went to the Oslo City Hall next, which has lots of unique art in it. They had a huge Christmas tree in the main hall and we (minus Bryn) sang "Angels we have Heard on High" - it sounded awesome in there! We went to the Christmas market and enjoyed Pølse, Norwegian hot dogs and Elg burgers (an Elg is like a small American moose.) We also got bollar, yummy rolls. And we had fun looking at the items for sale, but it was pretty chilly so we went into a book store and looked around.
Friday we went to the Viking Ship Museum and saw the Ra II and Kontiki and Fram. Those Norwegians are amazing explorers. The museums were very interesting. (A new movie just came our in Norway, called "Kon tiki", and we watched it with Hilde and Ove)
Then we went to the Norske Folk Museum. We walked among many of the old stabbur, storehouses, and a stave church. The coolest thing is that we found a shed that had been on my family's farm, Jørisdal. So awesome. This link should take you info about it. http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/75209_10151347326693972_1957557097_n.jpg
We did some grocery shopping (Kari and I buying Kick, the yummy black licorice!) and the kids cooked dinner for Bestefar and themselves and played pinochle. Erik and I headed to the Oslo Cathedral and heard a free Christmas concert. I liked the boys choir best, and seeing a woman come in to sit down, carrying her cross country skis!
Saturday, Emily stayed back as she wasn't feeling great. I think she enjoyed reading on her new Kindle Fire that Andrew got her for Christmas!! She read 4-6 books during the vacation! Awesome.
We went to Holmenkollen, the huge ski jump and museum. We ate a very yummy lunch at the cafe there. We also went on the ski jump simulator, which was interesting, but made us a little motion sick. Then we took the train on up the mountain and rented toboggans. We went down the Korketrekkeren, a trail called the Corkscrew in the Oslo Community forest. It was about 2 miles long and was next to the Bobsleigh track for the Olympics in the 50's. It was SUPER fun. You'd get to going pretty fast, but could slow yourself by dragging your hands, which I did several times! Then you'd get to the bottom and hop on the train again, with your sled and it'd take you right to the top. Such fun! I'm so glad they had enough snow so we could do it.
Saturday evening we went to have Cake and Coffee with Erik and Kerstin and Sophie and Anna Maria. By cake they mean, 3 kinds of cake and some cookies and ice cream. Wow, yummy. We practiced our song that we were to sing for church the next day: "Angels..."
It was a very nice evening.
Sunday we packed up our things and put them in the hotel storage and headed to a community room in Erik's apartment complex. There were 4 others there, the church in Oslo is small. Kerstin couldn't come as one of the girls had got the stomach flu in the night. (unfortunately, Ryan caught it and was sick for Christmas) We had a very nice church service. Tore and Erik both talked. Then we had smørbrød for lunch. Erik gave Pappa and Erik a ride to our rental car location and they picked up the bags and met us at Bente's. We cleaned up their place and headed out to Porsgrunn. The rental cars were super nice, an Audi and a Nissan. Thankfully Erik asked for an upgrade and they gave it to us for free. We barely fit all 9 of us and our bags in the 2 cars.
The drive to Porsgrunn took several hours, there was some snow on the road, but not dangerous. We were so happy to see Tante Gerd, Onkel Ragnar, Ove and Hilde!!! It kept snowing all night and Erik and I took a walk in the 8 inches of powder. Gorgeous.
Sunday, Jan 27th
Well, this week has been filled with illness. Bryn started getting a sore throat on Wednesday and by bedtime he had a fever. We didn't know how bad it was and we had 6 students over for pizza. Hopefully none of them caught it. Maia, Nik, Kyla, Alicia, Kelsie and Amy were here and we had a great time visiting and hearing about their internships. We also played the category game.
Bryn's still feeling poorly, has had a fever off and on for 5 days and has a deep painful cough. I started getting the same thing on Friday night and have had a fever yesterday and today. No fun. I haven't had a fever in years. I think it only got to 101, but sure has made me miserable. Ryan's got the bad cough today, yikes. Thankfully we didn't have any big plans this weekend.
Thursday, Erik attended a lecture on Music and Memory, with 4 of the students, at the Royal College of Music. He said it was very interesting.
That evening we had 3 tickets for "Rajaton", an a cappella choir from Finland. They were part of the London A cappella Festival. I was on the festival website during the day and saw an invitation for anyone to come at 5 p.m. and learn music to perform at 6:15 that night to kick off the festival. I talked Ryan into coming with me. It's a good thing too, because he was the only tenor there the whole time (ironically he's a baritone, but he sang amazing at tenor). There was another tenor that came in time to learn the second song. We learned the songs by rote and performed "Shut de door" and "Run Children Run". It was so much fun! There was lots of amazing singers and the director, James Davey, was awesome too. There were about 25 in the choir and we got to perform each song twice, once on the stage in the foyer and once above the main area. Thanks for coming with me, Ryan.
Then we listened to another free group, Seidaccordo, and then Ryan and I went to Nando's, a chicken place the boys love, for dinner. We had seats in the balcony, which was just one row of chairs, and our seats were right above the performers. They were absolutely awesome. You should listen to them on youtube. They've been together for 15 years. They sang many songs in Finnish, loved those songs. And quite a few in English. They introduced one song, by saying they love Swedish songs too and then they sang Fernando by ABBA. There were 6 of them, 3 guys and 3 girls. They could sing so quietly and used their mics and reverb to great advantage. I can't say enough good about them, a class act. We all just sat there with our mouths open in awe!
Friday, we served Turkish delight, fruit and bread for the LC group meeting. Then Erik and I went to FIE to start getting plans in place for the LC trip to Oxford on Feb 16th and the LC trip to Scotland the first part of April. It's great to have FIE's expert help with planning and booking, etc. Erik went on a walking tour in a Jewish neighborhood with the students for their Global Diaspora class. They ended up in a deli and got to sample some interesting food. Then he had a meeting with the 8 students from LC and several others and the professor who is leading a weekend trip next weekend to Lille, France.
Friday night, Erik and I went to another A cappella concert. This time "All the King's Men", a UK college group sang 3 songs to support "The Magnets". They were both good, especially the beat boxers in the Magnets. Wow! Then afterwards there was another free performance by 30 basses, called the "Woofers". This was led by the 2 basses in the "Swingle Singers" They put it together for the weekend and they were quite good. I've never heard a choir of only basses. They sang several spirituals and the dwarve's song from the Hobbit!
Saturday, I skyped with Kari and Jared for an hour while Erik and the boys were at the Ripley's Believe it or not museum. They loved the museum and Ryan did really well at this laser game they had. I hadn't talked with Kari since Dec 30th, so it was great! They are now with the Blanz family in Sippersfeld, Germany. Nice for them to be in a home instead of hotels. They have had a good adventure, by the end they will have been to 13 countries: UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Brussels, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg, Ireland and Wales. Pretty impressive. Some of their highlights were a hike near Barcelona, the Brazilian meal with Benedikt and friends, and skiing in the Alps. They will arrive here on Sat and stay with us until Feb 15th, you can imagine we are greatly looking forward to seeing them.
I also got to skype with Tore and Patricia, Annika, Linda and Edgar, so that was very nice. Last night, Brenda messaged me that my mom had to have an appendectomy. Crazy. She came thru surgery well and will probably go home tomorrow. Sure hope your recovery goes smoothly, Mom! You've got a DR close by so that's handy. I wish we did right now to listen to our chests.
Hopefully we'll all feel better by tomorrow night as we're taking the students to the musical "Billy Elliot" and then Bryn's 18th birthday is on Wednesday.
Still loving London,
Carla
PS Forgot to say that Bryn and Erik joined Club Kensington, a local gym. Bryn needs to get in shape for lacrosse and Erik's been enjoying doing more weight training, but especially he's enjoying the infrared sauna they have.
Well, this week has been filled with illness. Bryn started getting a sore throat on Wednesday and by bedtime he had a fever. We didn't know how bad it was and we had 6 students over for pizza. Hopefully none of them caught it. Maia, Nik, Kyla, Alicia, Kelsie and Amy were here and we had a great time visiting and hearing about their internships. We also played the category game.
Bryn's still feeling poorly, has had a fever off and on for 5 days and has a deep painful cough. I started getting the same thing on Friday night and have had a fever yesterday and today. No fun. I haven't had a fever in years. I think it only got to 101, but sure has made me miserable. Ryan's got the bad cough today, yikes. Thankfully we didn't have any big plans this weekend.
Thursday, Erik attended a lecture on Music and Memory, with 4 of the students, at the Royal College of Music. He said it was very interesting.
That evening we had 3 tickets for "Rajaton", an a cappella choir from Finland. They were part of the London A cappella Festival. I was on the festival website during the day and saw an invitation for anyone to come at 5 p.m. and learn music to perform at 6:15 that night to kick off the festival. I talked Ryan into coming with me. It's a good thing too, because he was the only tenor there the whole time (ironically he's a baritone, but he sang amazing at tenor). There was another tenor that came in time to learn the second song. We learned the songs by rote and performed "Shut de door" and "Run Children Run". It was so much fun! There was lots of amazing singers and the director, James Davey, was awesome too. There were about 25 in the choir and we got to perform each song twice, once on the stage in the foyer and once above the main area. Thanks for coming with me, Ryan.
Then we listened to another free group, Seidaccordo, and then Ryan and I went to Nando's, a chicken place the boys love, for dinner. We had seats in the balcony, which was just one row of chairs, and our seats were right above the performers. They were absolutely awesome. You should listen to them on youtube. They've been together for 15 years. They sang many songs in Finnish, loved those songs. And quite a few in English. They introduced one song, by saying they love Swedish songs too and then they sang Fernando by ABBA. There were 6 of them, 3 guys and 3 girls. They could sing so quietly and used their mics and reverb to great advantage. I can't say enough good about them, a class act. We all just sat there with our mouths open in awe!
Friday, we served Turkish delight, fruit and bread for the LC group meeting. Then Erik and I went to FIE to start getting plans in place for the LC trip to Oxford on Feb 16th and the LC trip to Scotland the first part of April. It's great to have FIE's expert help with planning and booking, etc. Erik went on a walking tour in a Jewish neighborhood with the students for their Global Diaspora class. They ended up in a deli and got to sample some interesting food. Then he had a meeting with the 8 students from LC and several others and the professor who is leading a weekend trip next weekend to Lille, France.
Friday night, Erik and I went to another A cappella concert. This time "All the King's Men", a UK college group sang 3 songs to support "The Magnets". They were both good, especially the beat boxers in the Magnets. Wow! Then afterwards there was another free performance by 30 basses, called the "Woofers". This was led by the 2 basses in the "Swingle Singers" They put it together for the weekend and they were quite good. I've never heard a choir of only basses. They sang several spirituals and the dwarve's song from the Hobbit!
Saturday, I skyped with Kari and Jared for an hour while Erik and the boys were at the Ripley's Believe it or not museum. They loved the museum and Ryan did really well at this laser game they had. I hadn't talked with Kari since Dec 30th, so it was great! They are now with the Blanz family in Sippersfeld, Germany. Nice for them to be in a home instead of hotels. They have had a good adventure, by the end they will have been to 13 countries: UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Brussels, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg, Ireland and Wales. Pretty impressive. Some of their highlights were a hike near Barcelona, the Brazilian meal with Benedikt and friends, and skiing in the Alps. They will arrive here on Sat and stay with us until Feb 15th, you can imagine we are greatly looking forward to seeing them.
I also got to skype with Tore and Patricia, Annika, Linda and Edgar, so that was very nice. Last night, Brenda messaged me that my mom had to have an appendectomy. Crazy. She came thru surgery well and will probably go home tomorrow. Sure hope your recovery goes smoothly, Mom! You've got a DR close by so that's handy. I wish we did right now to listen to our chests.
Hopefully we'll all feel better by tomorrow night as we're taking the students to the musical "Billy Elliot" and then Bryn's 18th birthday is on Wednesday.
Still loving London,
Carla
PS Forgot to say that Bryn and Erik joined Club Kensington, a local gym. Bryn needs to get in shape for lacrosse and Erik's been enjoying doing more weight training, but especially he's enjoying the infrared sauna they have.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Wednesday, Jan 23rd
Friday, at our LC group meeting we served Scones and Squash (cordial). Yum. We all shared highs and lows from the week. Many of us couldn't think of any lows!
The play "39 Steps" was entertaining and held in a unique theatre, The Criterion. There were only 4 actors/actress and they played over 100 roles. It reminded me of a melodrama from Virginia City, but with British accents and punch lines!
Saturday we got up early, met at Metrogate at 8 a.m., loaded onto 3 coaches and headed to Bath. We were supposed to also go to Stonehenge, but there was about 4-5" of snow and the roads around Stonehenge weren't good so it was closed. We were bummed, but it did give us more time to enjoy Bath. They don't often get much snow around here, so as is in Portland, they close schools and cancel flights, etc for just a little snow. I really enjoyed it tho.
Bath is a unique town. It has the only hot springs in all of England. It probably was used over 3000 years ago by the Celtic tribes. The Romans started using it in AD 75 and built a massive complex around the spring. It continues to bubble forth at 116 degrees F at a rate of about 240,000 gallons a day. By 500 AD the Romans had left and their buildings crumbled. In 1100 AD the spring becomes used for healing again, but it wasn't until 1880 that the Roman Baths were discovered. Over years it had been overgrown and covered and other buildings built on top of it. It was discovered because water began to seep into their hall that was right on top of the Roman Bath!!!Quite a discovery and what an awesome museum.
We also saw the gorgeous Bath Abbey. Begun in 1499, Bath Abbey is the last of the great medieval churches of England. Over the past twelve and a half centuries, three different churches have occupied the site of today’s Abbey; an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church dating from 757, a massive Norman cathedral begun about 1090, and the present Abbey church. In 973, the first English king, Edgar, was crowned here. I loved all the stained glass windows, the front one had 56 depictions of Jesus' life.
We had several hours on our own to eat lunch and look around. As we were hiking around looking for a restaurant the students started throwing snowballs at each other. Then from across the road, a random British guy got in on it. So there were about 12 of LC ers against him. It was fun. After a while, several of our guys went over to help him.
The first restaurant we went to was too spendy, but on the way back down the hill we found an awesome Indian restaurant, lots of yummy food for 6.75 GBP. 18 of us ate there and loved it.
Sunday we tried to find our church in Enfield, but ended up at the right address, but south of town. We were supposed to be North of town. I guess there are lots of Lancaster roads around here. Well, I was bummed since Carla Long was here as a guest speaker and she's great, but we had a nice walk in the snow. We'll try again this weekend.
Sunday afternoon we enjoyed an open house with the other faculty members living in our flat.
The student's internships started on Monday and we had choir practice. We also went to the British Museum, which is huge and free. We only saw about 1/4 of it. We got to see the Rosetta stone and lots of old Egyptian and Assyrian statues and sphinxes etc. Very interesting.
Last night we had Noelle, Lame and Erika over for pizza, we played Bananagrams, including Erik's creative version. It was hilarious. Tonight we have 6 other students
coming over for pizza.
I'm excited for tomorrow and Friday, we have tix for 2 concerts for the London A cappella festival, will hear the Magnets, Rajaton (from Finland) and All the King's Men, plus a bunch of other groups who sing for free in the foyer at King's Place.
All for now, we're heading to Brixton Market to get some fruit and veggies for dinner tonight.
Friday, at our LC group meeting we served Scones and Squash (cordial). Yum. We all shared highs and lows from the week. Many of us couldn't think of any lows!
The play "39 Steps" was entertaining and held in a unique theatre, The Criterion. There were only 4 actors/actress and they played over 100 roles. It reminded me of a melodrama from Virginia City, but with British accents and punch lines!
Saturday we got up early, met at Metrogate at 8 a.m., loaded onto 3 coaches and headed to Bath. We were supposed to also go to Stonehenge, but there was about 4-5" of snow and the roads around Stonehenge weren't good so it was closed. We were bummed, but it did give us more time to enjoy Bath. They don't often get much snow around here, so as is in Portland, they close schools and cancel flights, etc for just a little snow. I really enjoyed it tho.
Bath is a unique town. It has the only hot springs in all of England. It probably was used over 3000 years ago by the Celtic tribes. The Romans started using it in AD 75 and built a massive complex around the spring. It continues to bubble forth at 116 degrees F at a rate of about 240,000 gallons a day. By 500 AD the Romans had left and their buildings crumbled. In 1100 AD the spring becomes used for healing again, but it wasn't until 1880 that the Roman Baths were discovered. Over years it had been overgrown and covered and other buildings built on top of it. It was discovered because water began to seep into their hall that was right on top of the Roman Bath!!!Quite a discovery and what an awesome museum.
We also saw the gorgeous Bath Abbey. Begun in 1499, Bath Abbey is the last of the great medieval churches of England. Over the past twelve and a half centuries, three different churches have occupied the site of today’s Abbey; an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church dating from 757, a massive Norman cathedral begun about 1090, and the present Abbey church. In 973, the first English king, Edgar, was crowned here. I loved all the stained glass windows, the front one had 56 depictions of Jesus' life.
We had several hours on our own to eat lunch and look around. As we were hiking around looking for a restaurant the students started throwing snowballs at each other. Then from across the road, a random British guy got in on it. So there were about 12 of LC ers against him. It was fun. After a while, several of our guys went over to help him.
The first restaurant we went to was too spendy, but on the way back down the hill we found an awesome Indian restaurant, lots of yummy food for 6.75 GBP. 18 of us ate there and loved it.
Sunday we tried to find our church in Enfield, but ended up at the right address, but south of town. We were supposed to be North of town. I guess there are lots of Lancaster roads around here. Well, I was bummed since Carla Long was here as a guest speaker and she's great, but we had a nice walk in the snow. We'll try again this weekend.
Sunday afternoon we enjoyed an open house with the other faculty members living in our flat.
The student's internships started on Monday and we had choir practice. We also went to the British Museum, which is huge and free. We only saw about 1/4 of it. We got to see the Rosetta stone and lots of old Egyptian and Assyrian statues and sphinxes etc. Very interesting.
Last night we had Noelle, Lame and Erika over for pizza, we played Bananagrams, including Erik's creative version. It was hilarious. Tonight we have 6 other students
coming over for pizza.
I'm excited for tomorrow and Friday, we have tix for 2 concerts for the London A cappella festival, will hear the Magnets, Rajaton (from Finland) and All the King's Men, plus a bunch of other groups who sing for free in the foyer at King's Place.
All for now, we're heading to Brixton Market to get some fruit and veggies for dinner tonight.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Wednesday, Jan 16th
Just an update since last week. We looked at several exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and saw the dinosaurs and cool animals at the Natural History museum. It's a great resource, close and free!
The reception that FIE put on was nice. We had hamburgers, salad and choc cake. It was fun to see how many students FIE is hosting this spring, nearly 300.
Friday morning early, Erik went to a local artisan bakery, "Gail's", and got 13 different loaves of bread. He'd also purchased preserves, cheese, nutella, bananas and butter the night before. We had quite a yummy snack at our first LC group meeting. We decided to meet in one of the lounges, where the students stay, because it's cozier and we have more space. It was fun to meet with the students and hear about their newly assigned service learning internship assignments. We don't see the students nearly as often as we did on the Australia trip, but we're having them over to our place 5 or 6 at a time for Firezza pizza. It's an awesome pizza place right across the street from us. Pizza is quite different here, but good. Thin crust and different toppings.
Saturday we went to Canary Wharf to the Ice Festival. Erik and Ryan played chess on ice, they carved at an ice graffiti wall, we ate yummy food and saw cool sculptures. It was pretty cold, but a gorgeous day.
Sunday, Erik and I went to the "Sung Eucharist" communion service at Westminster Abbey. Erik asked if there was room in the stalls for us and they made room for us. We were sitting right beside the men and boys choir. It was very awesome. We got to sing 3 hymns, 2 of which we knew the tunes to. What an awesome worship. There have been worship services in the Abbey every day for over 1000 years. That's right, one thousand!
Monday we went to the movie Les Mis, awesome. That evening, Ryan, Erik and I went to Gospel choir at the Imperial College. FIE has an affiliation with the Imperial College Student Union, so we heard about all the clubs and this is one of them. Imperial College is comparable to MIT in the states. The choir is run and led by the students. One thing that was interesting is that we didn't use music, just learned the parts by rote. The students were so sweet and nice. I think we'll sing with them for their Easter concert. It's a fun way to get to know locals.
Tuesday, last night, we went to Kooza, a Cirque Du Soleil production. We've never attended one, but got standing seats-that's ironic. They were only 20GBP and we were at the top of the Royal Albert Hall, with an awesome view. And we could lean on the rail, so it was awesome. There were numerous times I could scarcely watch, so scary. They are so talented. We stood by a very nice British couple, they told Erik to try Pie and Mash.
Today we're going to Leicster square to see Foyles bookstore, and then maybe to Camden market. Friday, we go to 39 Steps with all the college students.
The sun is shining and we're so appreciating this opportunity.
Just an update since last week. We looked at several exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and saw the dinosaurs and cool animals at the Natural History museum. It's a great resource, close and free!
The reception that FIE put on was nice. We had hamburgers, salad and choc cake. It was fun to see how many students FIE is hosting this spring, nearly 300.
Friday morning early, Erik went to a local artisan bakery, "Gail's", and got 13 different loaves of bread. He'd also purchased preserves, cheese, nutella, bananas and butter the night before. We had quite a yummy snack at our first LC group meeting. We decided to meet in one of the lounges, where the students stay, because it's cozier and we have more space. It was fun to meet with the students and hear about their newly assigned service learning internship assignments. We don't see the students nearly as often as we did on the Australia trip, but we're having them over to our place 5 or 6 at a time for Firezza pizza. It's an awesome pizza place right across the street from us. Pizza is quite different here, but good. Thin crust and different toppings.
Saturday we went to Canary Wharf to the Ice Festival. Erik and Ryan played chess on ice, they carved at an ice graffiti wall, we ate yummy food and saw cool sculptures. It was pretty cold, but a gorgeous day.
Sunday, Erik and I went to the "Sung Eucharist" communion service at Westminster Abbey. Erik asked if there was room in the stalls for us and they made room for us. We were sitting right beside the men and boys choir. It was very awesome. We got to sing 3 hymns, 2 of which we knew the tunes to. What an awesome worship. There have been worship services in the Abbey every day for over 1000 years. That's right, one thousand!
Monday we went to the movie Les Mis, awesome. That evening, Ryan, Erik and I went to Gospel choir at the Imperial College. FIE has an affiliation with the Imperial College Student Union, so we heard about all the clubs and this is one of them. Imperial College is comparable to MIT in the states. The choir is run and led by the students. One thing that was interesting is that we didn't use music, just learned the parts by rote. The students were so sweet and nice. I think we'll sing with them for their Easter concert. It's a fun way to get to know locals.
Tuesday, last night, we went to Kooza, a Cirque Du Soleil production. We've never attended one, but got standing seats-that's ironic. They were only 20GBP and we were at the top of the Royal Albert Hall, with an awesome view. And we could lean on the rail, so it was awesome. There were numerous times I could scarcely watch, so scary. They are so talented. We stood by a very nice British couple, they told Erik to try Pie and Mash.
Today we're going to Leicster square to see Foyles bookstore, and then maybe to Camden market. Friday, we go to 39 Steps with all the college students.
The sun is shining and we're so appreciating this opportunity.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Our Norwegian Christmas.
First, let me say that we really missed having Patricia with us on this trip. Her heart made it so she couldn't join us and it made our hearts sad. We tried to keep her informed with pictures on Facebook and Pappa often skyped her, but still it would have been better to have her there.
The only other thing that didn't go perfectly was that Ryan got sick on Christmas eve, with the stomach flu, a fever and a cold. Poor guy. Thankfully he only passed it on to 2 others, I was worried we'd all get it, but we didn't.
Oh, there was one other thing, but it turned out well. When we were in Kragerø, the family we were staying with had cats, which Emily is very allergic too. Thankfully tho, they have a loft above their garage which was where the kids slept and no cats had been in there. And they have a wonderful room near their pool which had a fireplace, so we were able to hang out there to play games and relax.
So other than those things, this trip turned out to be wonderful, magical, awesome and near perfect!!!! I loved it so much. I have been to Norway 3 times and LOVE it, and it was incredible being able to share this with our kids and Pappa Tore. Erik and I hadn't been to Norway since I was pregnant with Kari so it's been a long time, 23 years.
It was a bit chilly traveling to Norway in the winter, but I really enjoy the snow and we were prepared for the cold. So many things about Norway in the winter are awesome. Norwegians love to celebrate Christmas (Jul). They use candles everywhere, many stores have candles outside their doors, maybe to show they are open. Whatever the reason it looks so welcoming.
They also love to decorate their homes and stores for Christmas. At one point we saw a wonderful winter display of Christmas things and thought it was a store that sold decorations; when we went in, it was a pet store! Another time that happened for a hardware store, but they actually did sell some. I love all the little Christmas elves (Jule Nissen) that they often decorate with. In fact Erik had a competition with everyone guessing how many were at Hilde's and there were 119. They often put up Christmas curtains too. I'm sure you saw many of the great decorations in my pics.
Another things Norwegians like to do at Christmas is make cakes. We got to try some very yummy cakes that our family had cooked: Crown cake and cream cake and meringues and almond cakes and cheese cakes and oreo cake, etc. So yummy. They don't just serve you one kind, it's always 2 or 3 kinds along with small cakes-cookies!
Another awesome thing about Norway in December is snow. We hit that just right. There wasn't much snow in Oslo, some ice tho the first day walking around the town. The roads were pretty clear driving down to Porsgrunn and that night after we'd arrived we got at least 8 inches of amazing powder. There were lots of iced waterfalls along the roadside too.
We stayed in 3 different places and each one was unique, but all 3 included family members. They were all so generous and kind and fun! Most spoke English quite well and even if they weren't as comfortable, we were able to communicate and enjoy all of them. So great for our kids to see the extended family they have in Norway and to hear many stories of their ancestors. What a blessing indeed.
I'll tell more about specifics in the next post. God Jul!
First, let me say that we really missed having Patricia with us on this trip. Her heart made it so she couldn't join us and it made our hearts sad. We tried to keep her informed with pictures on Facebook and Pappa often skyped her, but still it would have been better to have her there.
The only other thing that didn't go perfectly was that Ryan got sick on Christmas eve, with the stomach flu, a fever and a cold. Poor guy. Thankfully he only passed it on to 2 others, I was worried we'd all get it, but we didn't.
Oh, there was one other thing, but it turned out well. When we were in Kragerø, the family we were staying with had cats, which Emily is very allergic too. Thankfully tho, they have a loft above their garage which was where the kids slept and no cats had been in there. And they have a wonderful room near their pool which had a fireplace, so we were able to hang out there to play games and relax.
So other than those things, this trip turned out to be wonderful, magical, awesome and near perfect!!!! I loved it so much. I have been to Norway 3 times and LOVE it, and it was incredible being able to share this with our kids and Pappa Tore. Erik and I hadn't been to Norway since I was pregnant with Kari so it's been a long time, 23 years.
It was a bit chilly traveling to Norway in the winter, but I really enjoy the snow and we were prepared for the cold. So many things about Norway in the winter are awesome. Norwegians love to celebrate Christmas (Jul). They use candles everywhere, many stores have candles outside their doors, maybe to show they are open. Whatever the reason it looks so welcoming.
They also love to decorate their homes and stores for Christmas. At one point we saw a wonderful winter display of Christmas things and thought it was a store that sold decorations; when we went in, it was a pet store! Another time that happened for a hardware store, but they actually did sell some. I love all the little Christmas elves (Jule Nissen) that they often decorate with. In fact Erik had a competition with everyone guessing how many were at Hilde's and there were 119. They often put up Christmas curtains too. I'm sure you saw many of the great decorations in my pics.
Another things Norwegians like to do at Christmas is make cakes. We got to try some very yummy cakes that our family had cooked: Crown cake and cream cake and meringues and almond cakes and cheese cakes and oreo cake, etc. So yummy. They don't just serve you one kind, it's always 2 or 3 kinds along with small cakes-cookies!
Another awesome thing about Norway in December is snow. We hit that just right. There wasn't much snow in Oslo, some ice tho the first day walking around the town. The roads were pretty clear driving down to Porsgrunn and that night after we'd arrived we got at least 8 inches of amazing powder. There were lots of iced waterfalls along the roadside too.
We stayed in 3 different places and each one was unique, but all 3 included family members. They were all so generous and kind and fun! Most spoke English quite well and even if they weren't as comfortable, we were able to communicate and enjoy all of them. So great for our kids to see the extended family they have in Norway and to hear many stories of their ancestors. What a blessing indeed.
I'll tell more about specifics in the next post. God Jul!
This week, so far
Thursday, Jan 10th
On Monday, Erik and I went to the morning orientation meeting with the students to learn about FIE and other important details. Then we came home and got our laundry, 2 big suitcases full and one little one. We walked to a laundromat and got it started, then the boys ordered lunch at a nearby pub.(After Ryan finished his lunch, he came and watched the dryers and I joined Bryn-I had breaded shrimp-yum.) Erik wanted to head back for another meeting where the students were learning about how to prepare for their service learning interviews, so he grabbed a shrimp sandwich, drink and candy bar at Sainsbury-3 for 3 pounds-a great deal.
We had dirty clothes still from our trip to Norway. We have a washing machine, but it takes a good 2 days for the clothes to dry on the rack, so I wanted to do up all the clothes. Then I'll be able to stay on top of it, I hope. We did 5 washers full and had to restart the 4 huge dryers numerous times. It cost us about $50 to do it all, but nice to have it done!
Tuesday we went on the bus and walking tour with the LC students. Our Blue Badge guide was very knowledgable about London and we got to see quite a lot of the city. We learned that London is made up of over 30 boroughs and 2 cities within the city: Westminster and London. After we drove downtown, we stopped at Buckingham Palace and saw the ending of the changing of the guard, 2 bands and quite a few soldiers. The weather was great too.
On the walking tour we went by Imperial College, Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Interesting to learn that the Royal Albert Hall wasn't built very well for concerts, etc. They've had to do lots of work to it, but I hear that now it's an impressive venue. Cirque Du Soleil is there now-over $100 for a ticket so we won't be going. Someday!
The Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park is very impressive. He died when he was 42 in 1861 and Queen Victoria mourned him for 40 more years. They were very close, first cousins, with 9 children. Our guide said he would not have liked the huge, golden statue that she had made in his memory. It took 10 years to make. It is surrounded with many smaller statues, at one place around the base there are 169 statues, Leaonardo Da Vinci is on there twice, and only one woman. They are 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side.
Wednesday, we went North of London to Watford Junction, to the Warner Brothers studio tour where filming was done on the Harry Potter films. We saw lots of great displays and original props and monsters and sets. It was awesome. The tour ended with a display of the Hogwarts castle. It was truly amazing. Here is some info about it:
Get a 360˚ view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone™. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.
The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films.
Check out my picasa for photos. We also bought butter beer, which was very tasty. A fun day for the 4 of us. Here's a link to more interesting facts about the studio if you're interested. http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/about-us/harry-potter-at-leavesden
Today we're catching up on errands, homework, planning etc. This afternoon we'll head to the Natural History Museum and then to the FIE reception for all the faculty and students. I think they have about 250+ students here this spring.
Bryn and Ryan brought their x box with them. When they first plugged it in, it blew out the cord, so they ordered one from Amazon or ebay that is wired for the UK and it came today! So they are happy.
All for now, we're having a great time.
I forgot to tell something funny. As we were waiting around for the guards to pass at Buckingham palace, all of a sudden I hear Bryn falling. I looked over and he was on his back on the lawn. In front of us was a chain fence about 3 feet high and he thought he was leaning back onto one like that, but where we were it was only 1 foot high, so he kept leaning back and back. Pretty funny!
On Monday, Erik and I went to the morning orientation meeting with the students to learn about FIE and other important details. Then we came home and got our laundry, 2 big suitcases full and one little one. We walked to a laundromat and got it started, then the boys ordered lunch at a nearby pub.(After Ryan finished his lunch, he came and watched the dryers and I joined Bryn-I had breaded shrimp-yum.) Erik wanted to head back for another meeting where the students were learning about how to prepare for their service learning interviews, so he grabbed a shrimp sandwich, drink and candy bar at Sainsbury-3 for 3 pounds-a great deal.
We had dirty clothes still from our trip to Norway. We have a washing machine, but it takes a good 2 days for the clothes to dry on the rack, so I wanted to do up all the clothes. Then I'll be able to stay on top of it, I hope. We did 5 washers full and had to restart the 4 huge dryers numerous times. It cost us about $50 to do it all, but nice to have it done!
Tuesday we went on the bus and walking tour with the LC students. Our Blue Badge guide was very knowledgable about London and we got to see quite a lot of the city. We learned that London is made up of over 30 boroughs and 2 cities within the city: Westminster and London. After we drove downtown, we stopped at Buckingham Palace and saw the ending of the changing of the guard, 2 bands and quite a few soldiers. The weather was great too.
On the walking tour we went by Imperial College, Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Interesting to learn that the Royal Albert Hall wasn't built very well for concerts, etc. They've had to do lots of work to it, but I hear that now it's an impressive venue. Cirque Du Soleil is there now-over $100 for a ticket so we won't be going. Someday!
The Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park is very impressive. He died when he was 42 in 1861 and Queen Victoria mourned him for 40 more years. They were very close, first cousins, with 9 children. Our guide said he would not have liked the huge, golden statue that she had made in his memory. It took 10 years to make. It is surrounded with many smaller statues, at one place around the base there are 169 statues, Leaonardo Da Vinci is on there twice, and only one woman. They are 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side.
Wednesday, we went North of London to Watford Junction, to the Warner Brothers studio tour where filming was done on the Harry Potter films. We saw lots of great displays and original props and monsters and sets. It was awesome. The tour ended with a display of the Hogwarts castle. It was truly amazing. Here is some info about it:
Get a 360˚ view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone™. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.
The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films.
Check out my picasa for photos. We also bought butter beer, which was very tasty. A fun day for the 4 of us. Here's a link to more interesting facts about the studio if you're interested. http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/about-us/harry-potter-at-leavesden
Today we're catching up on errands, homework, planning etc. This afternoon we'll head to the Natural History Museum and then to the FIE reception for all the faculty and students. I think they have about 250+ students here this spring.
Bryn and Ryan brought their x box with them. When they first plugged it in, it blew out the cord, so they ordered one from Amazon or ebay that is wired for the UK and it came today! So they are happy.
All for now, we're having a great time.
I forgot to tell something funny. As we were waiting around for the guards to pass at Buckingham palace, all of a sudden I hear Bryn falling. I looked over and he was on his back on the lawn. In front of us was a chain fence about 3 feet high and he thought he was leaning back onto one like that, but where we were it was only 1 foot high, so he kept leaning back and back. Pretty funny!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Good morning, just a quick note today. 24 of our 25 LC students arrived yesterday, one was to arrive late last night. Erik went to Heathrow airport and met most of them that were using the group travel. It's fun to have them here.
For those of you reading this, make sure and check out my pictures on www.picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen
It's faster for me to add them there than to insert them into the blog. Be warned, there are lots from Norway, and London!! I love photos!
Have a great week,
Carla
Saturday, January 5, 2013
January 5th, Saturday
I find it's tricky to get computer time to catch up on my blogs. So I'll post this from an email I sent to Kari and Andrew to tell about last night. I'll hopefully get my Norway time posted soon. Today we're heading out to Boroughs market, one of the largest outdoor food markets in the world, and to find a bball court.
Hi honey,
Yesterday, I was just checking on Time out and put in "classical music". St Martins in the Field is an amazing church for acoustics, many groups record there. Other than lights on the stage, the rest of the church was in candlelight. It's at Trafalgar square. A Brandenburg Choral Festival just started which includes 28 concerts over the next 4 months. Last night, the first one was a group of about 50, Vivace, mostly older people with an orchestra and they did Mozart's Requiem. We had just sung it last year and it was awesome to hear them. They went faster than we did. The dynamics were awesome. When they started singing "Rex" it was so loud I almost covered my ears.
Then the second concert was Vivamus, a 15 member group of mostly young adults your age, post graduate students, etc. They did all acapella songs, mostly Christmas ones, but only In Dulci Jubilo was familiar. They could blast it and sing so quietly too. Then, my favorite of the evening, the women in the group performed Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" accompanied by a young man on harp. Wow, wow! I could go home to Oregon after last night and be happy. It was so wonderful. As soon as they started singing "Wolcum Yole" tears sprang to my eyes, I've not had that happened often. Then they all ended the concert with Eric Whitacre's "light and Gold", singing it from the balcony. This concert as #14, but worth every pence.
I got the inexpensive seats, 8#, for the first concert and was in the balcony, with restricted views. I could see half the choir if I stood. The second concert, Pappa joined me for, and we sat in the front row, since all the seats were the same price. Erik was so good, he came with me on the tube down to the church, and we ate in the Crypts under the church, in their awesome cafe. Then he hustled back to the flat for a Skype conference call and then hustled back to the 2nd concert. I am not confident finding my way around here yet. What a wonderful guy he is. Plus it helped him get his steps, he has 18000 as his goal for London every day, that's about 10 miles!
I'm hoping to catch more of this festival's concerts.
Hope you all have a great weekend,
Love,
Mamma
Thursday, January 3, 2013
London adventures
January 3, 2013
Happy New Year!!! We are now settled into our flat in Kensington, London, UK! So cool. Before I write about our Norway trip, I want to summarize our whirlwind visit in London.
We'd heard that to beat jet lag we should keep awake the whole day, so that's why we bought the London Passes, to help us keep busy. We headed downtown. Erik, Andrew and Bryn were especially good at figuring out which tube lines to get on and which stops to get off at. The rest of us just followed them. We made quite a scene, I'm sure. All 8 of us in a bunch. The double decker buses are part of the regular mass transit system, so we got to ride on several of them. Such fun to ride in the top-a better view by far.
Our first activity was a boat tour on the Thames. It was such a gorgeous sunny day, quite unusual for mid-December. Our guide was a funny character and made the tour even more entertaining. It was so cool to see lots of sites that you've seen in movies or books: the London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, the Globe Theater, etc.
I can't remember the order of the rest of the activities, I'm sure if I looked at my photos I could figure it out, but oh well.
We went to St Paul's cathedral, of course climbing to the Whisperer's level and the top viewing area. We got to the top just about at sunset, gorgeous. We went to the Tower museum, started out on a tour, but didn't have time to finish with that-saw the crown jewels and lots of interesting things. I am looking forward to having more time there when others come to visit. We also walked across the top of the Tower bridge, interesting displays there too. One of our tube stops was at King's cross to see Platform 9 3/4, of Harry Potter fame. Ryan and Emily each got wands there!
We went to Portabello Road, remember that from the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It's got lots of antiques shops and other unique stores all up and down. Andrew and Emily got some scarves there and Kari and I got postcards. We went to the Christmas Market along the Thames. I bought some yummy licorice, similar to the kind at the Markets in Australia, not quite as good, but close! The kids played some free video games that came with the London pass while several of us were at the market. Another free thing that came with the pass was a movie, most of us went to "The Life of Pi"-3D, very good and thought provoking.
One morning the 6 kids went on a 3 hour bike tour of the city, they really enjoyed that. While they did that, Erik and I went to Leicester Square and got discount tickets for a musical. We went to Warhorse and really loved it (except Bryn who was so tired and kept falling asleep). Everyone but me went to The Crypts under the London Bridge, like a haunted house. I went across the way to the Southwark Cathedral and heard a boys choir rehearsing for evensong-beautiful.
We enjoyed several meals in London: Wagamama-fancy yummy ramen, etc. A very nice Indian restaurant and pizza-quite different, but good. The rest of the time we just grabbed from shops/stands as we went.
It was really enjoyable all being in London together, what fun kids we have and such good travelers.
The last day it was dreary and rainy so we went to Herrod's - a huge department store with expensive items. Quite an experience. Thankfully, Erik reserved us a van to get to the Gatwick airport, which is about an hour away. So much nicer than hauling all our bags to the tube. On to the Northern homeland!
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