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.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
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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