December 21: I’m so excited (and I just can’t hide it)

Please not this is not actually me. It is some girl from google search being excited too.

The anticipation of a leisure travel trip very often reminds me of the same feeling I used to get the night before the first day of school. You are not really sure what lies ahead, but you are very excited to see whatever that may be. So far, I have done a good job suppressing this feeling. That was until this morning. As soon as I awoke I had a smile on my face and now I can’t seem to ward off the tension in my chest and butterflies in my stomach. In the loud voice of Oprah, please image me saying, “I am excittttteeeedddddddddddd!”

Excited for what exactly you may ponder. I am looking forward to seeing my family, which as most my age now know, it sadly takes some distance and years to realize how great they have always been. I can NOT wait to hang out with my girls. I have been around to many guys between work and B’s friends and I need some giggles and nail polish. The whole flight over I may replay The Beatles “Here Come the Sun”, as seeing that giant, warm and tanning star could not make me happier when I currently enjoy 6 hours of light through grey clouds and tinted windows at work. Which reminds me I will enjoy a break from work, who doesn’t like to relax?!  I’m also pretty pumped about how cheap everything is in the US, as in we can afford to go to a mediocre restaurant, be served ridiculously large portions and drink more than 2 beers before we max out budget.

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the most important, the biggest, the specialist, best, most well planned, thought out day of my entire life in which no other day will ever compare in the whole history of the world and even the world will stop rotating for a split second and *spoiler alert* I arranged for a solar eclipse the moment we say, “I Do”, my wedding day. Yup, that day will be pretty awesome.

Naturally, when you get so many amazing things in one trip human nature only allows you to think about the things you don’t get. In this case, unfortunately, is the family and friends I will not be seeing on my trip. Those of you who fall in this group and are reading this should know that I will be generically thinking I wish you were here. Because I really do.

One more time though, I just need to emphasize how excited I am to get off that plane and sing “God Bless America” to my loving fiancé while we are going through passport control in Miami!  Wooooo Whoooo!

 

December 8, 2011: Jul i Norge/ Christmas in Norway

 

My colleague found 10 of these on her desk...hehehe

As Christmas is only a few weeks away, I have been enjoying learning more about Christmas traditions here in Norway. (As some of you may recall, I was not allowed back to Norway last December because I was an illegal alien). If my fellow Americans are looking to spice up their Christmas with any Norwegian traditions, or learn that not all Christmas traditions are universal, read on.

Stores began their holiday displays mid-November and now have extended opening hours and are EVEN OPEN ON SUNDAY! That fact alone makes me wish Christmas was year-round.

Homes are decorated quite modestly with perhaps a single strand of white lights on a porch or balcony. The colored lights are for the foreigners. I may buy some just to make a point.

One decoration that I can’t seem to escape is the hybrid Santa Clause/ creepy gnome called Julenisse. He hand delivers Christmas presents to the nice children. His close relative, Fjøsnisse, lives in barns and likes to play tricks on people such as moving animals around to different stalls and blowing candles out in the barn unless you leave him a large portion of porridge on Christmas Eve. I think I like him the best.

Christmas trees are normally brought into homes a day before Christmas; mind you Christmas is celebrated December 24 here, and decorated with the family. At a julebord (Christmas party) it is not uncommon for guests to gather around the tree, hold hands and sing Norwegian Christmas carols. I have two julebord parties this weekend- wish me luck. It is also quite common for children to sing carols, julebukk, door-to-door for candy. This now makes sense to me as when I was explaining the concept of trick-or-treating to co-workers, this is what they related the tradition to for themselves.

There are many choices for Christmas dinner depending upon the region you live in Norway. The most popular dishes are pinnekjøtt (salted & dried lamb ribs served with sausage & boiled potatoes), lutefisk (fish lying in water forever, then cooked in oven served with potatoes, bacon & mushy peas) and torsk (fresh cod boiled in salt water and served, naturally, with potatoes). Chocolate covered marzipan, sometimes in the shape of a pig, is a treat found everywhere this time of the year.

Christmas in the language Norwegian derives from a pre-Christian Viking drinking festival called “Jul”. It seems not much has changed as there are Christmas versions of every beverage. Christmas beer, juleøl, Christmas soda that is essentially Big Red but called julebrus, mulled wine known as gløgg and who can forget (or remember anything thereafter) drinking aquavit, a potato-based spirit flavored with herbs, dill and coriander served with dinner.

Hopefully you learned something, as it is quite rare that my blog is educational. Hopefully if you are not Norwegian you will try a new, Norwegian tradition. And hopefully if you are Norwegian you will now consider me an expert on juletid

Merry Christmas & God Jul!

December 2, 2011: Dun Dun DunDun, Dun Dun DunDun

This is not me. For so many reasons!

I felt motivated to write  another blog. Rare I know. But instead of spending the next paragraph apologizing and justifying my neglect of this page, I am merely going to write, because that I why I created this thing in the first place.

I will be married in a month, to the man of my dreams might I cliché-ly  add. People keep asking me if I am scared or laugh and say, “It’s not too late”. They act as if getting married is like I will be jumping off of a bridge OR out of an airplane OR suddenly finding myself in some unknown  environment OR making a large commitment to something vaguely known. I guess most normal people have not experienced those things, but since I have chosen extreme situations to “build my character”, I am familiar with the fear, rush, frustration and complete loss of control feeling from each situation. Just as Beyoncé sang beautifully years ago, “ I am a survivor”.

This is not to say that I am taking my vow to B lightly. No sir-re. I just want to clear up the fact that NO, I am not scared, and if you want to joke and say that it is not too late, then my friend, I will retort with saying, “It is not soon enough.”

Without getting too lovey-dovey, I will leave my readers with this: I am choosing to spend the rest of my life with the person I want to explore every facet of the world with, the person who inspires me to be the best version myself (without losing myself) and the person who makes me wish there was 25 hours in a day, just so we could have more time together.

I will be married in a month, to the man of my dreams.