Nordic Dancer

Thoughts of the day

2012-01-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

David and I have completed the first semester of our master's degrees in Rauland. Lots of exciting theories to wrestle with and try to apply to our own ideas. This week we had our first gathering since our exam. Each student presented their idea for their project and got feedback from the rest of the class (there are 11 of us) and the teachers. My idea is not completely formed, but like a pearl begins with a grain of sand, my fundamental focus is the moment where live music and dance are experience by those playing and dancing. One suggestion given during the master's gathering was to write down our thoughts and ideas all of the time. I thought it would be a good idea to use my (woefully neglected) blog as a place to store thoughts and, if anyone feels like it, take in some feedback. So here we go, today's thoughts:

When I am dancing, I occasionally feel as though the movements of my body are the complete expression of my self, somehow connected to my dance partner and the musician. At that moment, we are all three working toward the same goal – the perfect balance between cooperation and personal expression. I have experienced this feeling of release as a dancer in different corners of the world, with different partners, dancing different dances; as a fiddler I have felt it playing fiddle and especially singing in Seattle for my dancing friends. After years of practice, I am now able to leave my thinking self and simply react to the impulses of those around me, all of us playing our role in the creation of the moment.

Delays

2011-02-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

We're on our way home from a great trip in Seattle. After repacking the spoils of our shopping spree to meet the baggage weight limit, we were informed that the flight was delayed two hours. No big deal, right? It's just two hours.
Two hours at SeaTac means we miss our connecting flight in Iceland. The later flight arrives in Oslo just late enough that we miss the reasonable 5:30pm bus back to Rauland. Faced with the choices of extending this travel day and taking the night bus (arriving in Åmot at 2:30 and needing a ride to Rauland), we opted for spending the night in Oslo.
So, instead of getting to Rauland at 2pm on Friday, we'll likely be arriving at 6pm on Saturday. Just a little bad weather on Iceland...

Thanksgiving in Bondal

2010-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

I just sent this in an email and then figured - if I'm going to write blog posts, I might as well post them! Enjoy :D
Let me tell you about our Thanksgiving in Bondal. An American friend of ours who was a student at Rauland moved to Bondal with her baby and boyfriend. Bondal is a tiny little collection of houses at the end of a very long road (there are now ten people, including the baby, who live there). David and I visited in September and were charmed by how relaxing it was to not be at home, even for a couple days. I suggested that we have Thanksgiving in Bondal. As the time between September and last week went by, this idea grew and grew in our friend's mind. She wanted to share Thanksgiving with her new community and, since she teaches music at the local school, got the green light to give a presentation complete with taste tests. She started by inviting all of her American friends in Norway; when they couldn't come she invited everyone who lives in Bondal and all of her boyfriends family. For good measure, she tacked on people who had been especially kind to the baby. This was all well and good until ALL OF THEM said yes. We had adjusted the date for our Thanksgiving to the day before Thanksgiving in the US for practical reasons. When we arrived at the house on Tuesday night with two medium sized turkeys and fixings for four pumpkin pies, I was shocked to find out that we would be providing dinner for 40 people (including kids). My friend had thankfully imported her mother in-law from Østerdalen, who had arrived the day before and was comfortable cooking all day for three days straight.
The presentation at the school went off almost perfectly; I probably wouldn't have had them play tug-of-war inside. The kids liked the food and were polite about not liking it. The teachers were enthralled. Then we got home and put the turkeys in the oven for dinner. I crashed and took a much need nap, while my friend worked herself up toward a panic attack and her mother in law and boyfriend held steady with the preparations. Everything was pretty much ready at 6pm, except for the green beans because I had forgotten them. David and I were the last to arrive at the old school house at the end of the driveway. When I walked in, I understood what all of the fuss was about from the night before. There was no way that building was designed to hold 40 people! But we crammed ourselves in.
I stood by the buffet to help explain the mysteries of mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberries, stuffing, and turkey gravy to a never line of Bondal relatives and friends. After a while I realized that it was never ending because they kept getting up to refill their plates! I took that as my cue to get my plate and load it up. Everything was tasty, but my pumpkin pie was the kind that I dream about. The crust was perfect and the filling had just the right balance of spices and sugar. Add whipped cream and the fact that pumpkin pie is possibly my favorite food and all of the stress from the previous two days was suddenly worth it, both in the magic taste of that pie and all the happy faces in the room. After dessert and coffee we managed to clear a tiny little corner of the room for dancing - how often do you get to combine Thanksgiving with telespringar played in family tradition?
The real downside is that David and I managed to bring the stomach flu back to Rauland in addition to all of our leftovers. We are recovering, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning, but it was definitely not a fun way to spend the weekend. Fortunately, the giant pot of turkey soup I made has been in the our super-freezer also known as our outside stairwell. The temperatures here have been in the single digits (F) and that is definitely colder than usual for this time of year.
The upside is that we had a great time, in spite of the stress and have a better idea of how to approach next year's event.

Östersund

2010-08-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

David and I used our Thursday to drive leisurely north toward Östersund. For those interested in the route we took, we left Furudal and drove through Orsa, Sveg, and Vemdalen before arriving at our destination - Frösö Camping and Stugby. We had hoped to see a bear (from a distance), but they were not on the road. Instead, just outside of Vemdalen, we saw three reindeer! They crossed the highway in front of us and we turned around to take photos while they snacked on the roadside vegetation.
Due to the fact that Östersund hosts a big music festival the same weekend as Uppdansningen, there were no cabins available at the campground adjacent to the conference center (Folkets Hus) when we tried booking in April. Frösö, located only a 15 minute drive away, had a cabin with room for Larry and his mother, David and I, so we took it. Unfortunately, the beds at these cabins were well used and had never been as nice as the ones in Furudal. I don't think any of us slept well, but at least we were warm, dry, and not too far away.
Thursday night we made a respectable appearance at the dance. We said hello to lots of people we hadn't seen since last year and even got to dance with some of them. David and I hit the dance floor and had a pretty excellent time. We were tired, though, so after I got in a few practice dances with Larry, we headed back to the cabin and called it a night.
Larry and I danced on Friday afternoon. We all got up early and watched most of the dancers who were on before us. Watching folk dancing at this level, a person learns to appreciate different qualities that make folk dance beautiful. Dancers have the opportunity to choose which dances fit their style - smooth, bouncy, slow and controlled, fast and furious. Watching the same dancers over a number of years, gives the audience the opportunity to watch them progress as dancers. Watching a many dancers dance the same dances over the weekend allows the audience to experience a wide range of styles interpreting the same dance. When it was our turn to dance, Larry and a put on our performance smiles and contributed to the weekend's potpourri of dances and dancers.
Dancing on Friday gave us the opportunity to relax the rest of the weekend. We were invited to some friends' cabin for dinner. After the stress of dancing up, the good food and relaxed company made us too tired to go to the Friday dance. We headed back to the cabin and slept on the crummy mattresses until we woke up the next morning.
Saturday we took our time getting to the conference center. I had woken up in a rotten mood, and it didn't improve as the day went on. Fortunately, David is a genius at getting me to change directions from a bad mood to constant giggling. While we were waiting for the dancing to start up after lunch, one of the judges (Bengt Wittgren) found us sitting in the balcony above the judges table. He asked if we had fiddles with us and, when we answered yes, he asked us to play a half hour set at the evening dance! This helped tremendously on the improving my mood front. Who wouldn't be thrilled to be asked to share the bill with Mats and Ulf Andersson, Familien Westling, and three young Boda fiddlers!?
After securing a fiddle for David to play that evening, we decided to leave at the coffee break so we would have time to practice with the borrowed fiddle. Our stomachs and tourist-curiosity led us to the Jamtli cafe where we ate reindeer cold cuts on flat bread followed by dessert. This left little time for practicing, but was a nice way to relieve stress.
After dinner (fish balls, potatoes, and vegetables), we headed back to the dance hall. We got the word that the program had changed and we would instead be playing last. This was fine with us, but it meant that we needed to find a different fiddle for David. After securing a fiddle and dancing to the excellent music of the first two sets (Mats and Ulf, and the Boda kids), we took our coffee tickets and chose our tunes. We decided to play several Finnskogs pols and I would sing a couple polskor. We rounded out the set with a few reinlenders, a polka, and a waltz. The crowd was small by the time we played, but they all enjoyed our set!
Sunday we got up early, packed, and cleaned the cabin. After returning the keys to reception we headed in to watch the last round of dancers. The medal ceremony was immediately following lunch. I always find the award ceremony exciting and stressful at the same time. Regardless of how well I've danced, I can never be 100% certain that I've passed until I have the diploma in my hand. Larry and I both passed; he now has his big silver and I have two more tests before I get mine. The word on both of our diplomas is 'frejdigt' which Google translates to bold, spirited, or plucky. I like that description and I'm looking forward to next year. I've just got to find a partner!

Furudal

2010-07-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Where to start? My arrival in Furudal was filled both with a sense of anxiety about my dances and eagerness to get started working on them. Once we ran through the dances, I could tell that we didn't have any major obstacles. That was a good thing, but it also means that haven't worked on them hard enough to make them perfect. Regardless, Larry and I are both confident that Friday afternoon will be a passing day for us.
Furudal and the training camp is more than just practicing. Most importantly, it is the opportunity to withdraw from the world and focus on the wonderful people who are also interested in dancing. Our evenings at the campfire are filled with entertaining discussions. On the rare occasion that the subject wanders to dancing, it is a discussion of past hijinks.
My first appearance at the campfire (we were too late the first night, so I didn't manage perfect attendance this year) was accompanied by foil packets of salmon. Since we took our time getting down to the lake, there was very little fire left and more wood had to be thrown on to cook our meal. When we finally got to eat, the fish was delicious, however I got to endure several days of teasing thanks to those pieces of fish. Not to be outdone, I announced that the following evening I would bring a moose roast. One night I even suggested that we catch a wolf to bbq and then we could make a new pair of pants for Larry, or a hat, or a couple purses. Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.
This year we stayed in the youth hostel rooms attached to the Norwegian Veteran Museum. During WWII, Sweden wasn't allowed to host a foreign army, but the Norwegian 'police troops' were active in a number of towns throughout Sweden. When they built the rooms in the museum they went asking for money in Norway. The beds here are the nicest beds I have ever slept in; they are, in fact, the best beds you can buy in Norway.
Tonight, we have one last night in Furudal with only a few remaining dancers. Tomorrow, we drive to Östersund and Friday we dance up. Good luck to everyone!

Constant change

2010-07-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

In our quest to get everything in the coffee shop just perfect, we did a lot of moving things around. In the beginning, I would move all of the tables and chairs into the art gallery in order to wash the floors. Later we switched out the tables, so that was no longer necessary. We moved around all of the cups, glasses, and bottles on our back wall, until we decided that we could take half of them out. In the interest of ergonomics and efficiency, we moved the coffee grinder to the other side of the espresso machine and moved the machine itself a few inches to the right and elevated it a few inches.

In the back of the house, we have moved our giant freezers around like puzzle pieces. Once we got our walk-in fridge working, we had to find suitable storage space for all of the random things that had been kept in there. Our motto has been, don't stop working until you get crabby. And even then, we usually only take a break.

Our menu has been the most stable with variations in daily specials and adjustments in prices. We have settled on several key winners - vegetable quiche, a pasta salad with roasted vegetables and feta, a smoked salmon plate. Initially we struggled with bread, but then we discovered that it was well worth the money to buy fresh bread from the stone oven bakery, open only during the summer, at Raulandsakademiet. Now we make sandwiches with that bread, too!

Now, I'm on vacation. My wonderful employees are taking excellent care of the coffee shop while I'm away. I don't think we're done with changing things at Kaffibaren Rauland, but at least I'm getting time to recharge!

Hard work, good coffee

2010-07-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

The three days following our opening weekend we were closed. David spent his time painting shelves, fixing lighting, defrosting freezers, etc. Basically he figured out what worked and what didn't. If it worked, he tried to make it work better; if it didn't work, he figured out why and tried to fix it. For the things he couldn't fix himself, like the aforementioned plumbing, we called in the specialists.

I spent most of my time on the phone. I set up bank accounts and arranged for delivery of vegetables, coffee, and ice cream. I created spreadsheets to keep track of just about everything I could think of. I also spent a good chunk of time in the kitchen cooking up our new menu.

All this sounds highly organized and well thought out. What really happened was we would show up with a list of three things to get done, work for twelve to fourteen hours and then notice that we still had the same three things on our list. I don't mean to imply that we wasted time. Rather, we vastly underestimated the amount of work there was to be done!

For example, it took three weeks to finally get the bank card terminal switched to my name. First I asked at the bank how to do it. They said to call company A. Company A said to call company B - the people whose name was on the machine. This seemed reasonable, but nearly impossible to accomplish. After several long periods of time (20-30minutes each) on hold only to get dropped or have my phone sabotage me, I finally got through to a person at company B. That person said - you don't want to talk to us, you want to talk to company C. I said thank you, wrote down the phone number, hung up and redialed. That number was no longer in service, but their website offered an alternative. Relieved by the lack of a long wait on hold with company C, I explained to their operator that I had taken over this coffee shop effective three days ago and would like to switch over the bank account that was linked to the terminal. The man took all of my information and said he would call back when he got the new number. After a week, I hadn't heard from him, so I gave them a call. Oh, they said, we need all of that information in writing. So, I wrote it all down and sent them an email. This time I did get a phone call back within a half hour, but my phone (in the process of dying) just felt like ringing and not letting me answer. After I borrowed a cell phone and called them back, I spent roughly five minutes on the phone and the bank terminal was reprogrammed and funneling money in my bank account!

On Friday of our first week, we left the coffee shop in the trustworthy hands of the art gallery administrators, Ingerid and Ingebjørg. David and I, along with Inger and Claudia two of our employees, were headed for a barista class offered free of charge by our coffee supplier. Arranging the class was one of the first things I did when I started thinking about the coffee shop. I knew how the coffee should taste, but not necessarily how to get it to taste that way; I figured the people at Crema could help us with that. What we got in return for our 4 hour each way drive was lots and lots of interesting information about how the coffee is produced, from growing on a tree to putting it in the bag. We also learned about preparing coffee and tea, cleaning our machines, and some milk steaming theory. Saturday, we returned to the coffee shop and gave all of our coffee machines a thorough cleaning. By the time the customers arrived our coffee was tasting better than ever!

The following Monday-Wednesday we were closed again and once again we seized the opportunity to fix everything that needed fixing before we couldn't anymore. David, in his admirable and unending quest to locate and understand everything in the building, discovered an interesting drain pump under the stairs on Sunday evening. The waste water from our sink (not in the kitchen, but in the coffee bar) runs first into a bucket, containing the pump, and is then pumped up and out. Coffee grounds, milk, and other sediment like things hang around in the bottom of the bucket and should be cleaned out once a month or so. That cleaning had not happened in a long long long time. When the customers left and David was allowed to open the bucket, I thought I was going to pass out the smell was so horrible. David persevered and managed to clean off the pump and the bucket and get everything screwed back together. Fortunately we had those three days closed to let the building air out. Unfortunately, we were working in the building those three days. By the time that Thursday rolled around (July 1st) we were ready to be open every day for the rest of the summer.

Opening Weekend

2010-07-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

We opened for real the same day as the summer exhibition opened. In the week between commencement and the opening, we focused our efforts primarily on getting paperwork in order. I had foolishly assumed that everything would be in working order and that we would just show up and start running the shop. Fortunately for us, things were functional, just not optimally functional.

We opened the doors at six pm and were more or less ready. We had our case filled with cakes and our refrigerator filled with milk. My milk steaming skills needed work, but I had planned a trip to our coffee supplier the following week, so I just had to survive until I made it to the barista class. While there really wasn't much new that first evening people seemed positive to seeing us behind the counter.

The first sign of trouble popped up while we were trying to get some wax out of a candle holder. David filled up our main kitchen sink with hot water and in went the candle holder. Later, when I ran the dishwasher, the water didn't go down the drain - it came up in both sinks! As can be imagine, I was not particularly excited by this sight, but I was relieved that it didn't come cascading over the lip of the sinks and onto the floor (which we have now learned slopes away from the drain). To be fair, it must be mentioned that the wax was simply the last straw in a very long list of problems with the drain. The solution for the evening was, thankfully, David driving home, getting our emergency drain cleaner (the Norwegian equivalent of Drain-O) and pouring it down both drains.

Once we got the sinks functioning, I could get back to work on the dinner that I was preparing for the artists and board members. Things were rolling along, granted slightly behind schedule, when we discovered that we didn't have enough flatware for 19 people. Ingerid, one of the administrators, drove home and brought her own personal silverware to save the day. I served couscous with ground beef and vegetables and tzatziki in tomato boats. For dessert we had chocolate pudding with blackberry-ginger sauce topped with whipped cream. Dinner was a success.

The following day we were open regular hours, plus we hosted two concerts. As part of the Haukeliseter Festival, we had a concert with Ola Bäckström and Per Gudmundson. They were wonderful, the room was filled and people enjoyed the new tastes we had to offer. We started on a positive note building a reputation for good coffee, good food, and a good place to meet people.

The second group was a cowboy band from Oslo with some connection to the local population. The audience was considerably (and surprisingly) smaller - seven band members and fifteen audience members. As thoroughly accustomed to folk music concerts as I am, I was shocked when they announced that they would be taking a break and then playing a second set. I actually thought they were joking, so did David. So they played a second set and by the end of the evening they had earned enough money to pay for their food (but I was nice and gave them their coffee). One thing we have learned as music students is to always negotiate your contract beforehand - if you want a deal on food, let someone know that upfront so things don't get awkward when it's time to settle the bill.

We had survived the first weekend, now the real work was about to begin.

Kaffibaren Rauland

2010-07-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

After returning from Seattle in early May, I received the sad news that the coffee shop in town was once again looking for a new owner. The last time the coffee shop changed hands (in September), I was amongst those interested in taking it over, but that interest never got off the drawing board. I figured that I had way too much to do to run a coffee shop and take classes; we did a lot of traveling and had a heavy course load which would have made it impossible to juggle the coffee shop and school.

After serious consideration and discussion with David, I made my offer to take over the coffee shop starting in the fall. The response was positive, verging on overjoyed. A few days later, they asked if I couldn't get out of my summer job, and take over as soon as school was out. I said I would try.

It didn't take much for me to convince my summer employer to give the job to someone else. They weren't really excited to be losing me, but fortunately had a couple of other responsible, hard-working young people who were interested in summer jobs. Then I just had to worry about what I would do with this vacation I am currently taking.

Let me back up a little. Rauland Kunstforening, the art gallery I worked at last summer, is the home to this coffee shop. When the initial owner decided to get out of the business, the art gallery purchased all of the equipment, from the espresso machine to the tea spoons. So, I get to run the coffee shop using their equipment.

Up until school was out I had no extra energy or brainpower to devote to the coffee shop. This turns out to have been a good thing, because now all I do is think about the coffee shop. Starting to think about it before finals would have definitely detracted from my grades!

Whoah! an update

2010-06-24T03:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, in brief. In the last five months I have had two fabulous trips to Seattle, including an extension tour to San Fran thanks to an Icelandic volcano. I went on tour with my classmates. David and I re-emerged on the Rauland party scene (that's what was missing in our lives!). I passed my exams and got pretty good grades for the year. David has made his own beer (it's bitter, but people seem to like it). Last, but absolutely not least, I have taken on running the coffee shop in town.

Now, after an adventurous start to business owning, I am back in Furudal training for my third year of testing. This is going to theoretically provide me with some extra time to write a few updates! Wish me luck!

Destination: Seattle! Arrival

2010-01-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

Our flight made excellent time and, even though we had left Iceland a little behind schedule, we landed in Seattle early. We were almost the last people off the plane, putting us essentially last in the line to go through customs. Since David obviously doesn't have an American passport, I waited with him in the 'everybody else' line. Things went pretty quickly and soon it was our turn.

We each went to our own custom's agent. Both of us answered the question, 'Are you travelling with anyone?' in the affirmative. Both of us then got the question, 'Are you thinking of getting married?' I wasn't prepared for that one! We got two reasonably similar lectures about making sure we followed all the rules if we were going to get married. Finally, we got past the first hurdle and headed down to pick up our bags.

After collecting our luggage, we headed through the gauntlet of various US Government Officials. The first guy also wanted to know if we were getting married. I thought he was the one that usually has the drug sniffing dog, so I was again surprised by this sudden interest in our relationship status. He made some marks on our papers and sent us on to the next line.

In that line there were two stops. First one guy looks at the papers, ask some of the questions on it (perhaps to check if our answers match), marks up the papers, and gives them back. The next guy basically just looks at all of the marks on the papers and sends us on our way. That last guy is also the one that can send you to the 'open all your suitcases and waste a bunch of time' security station, as I learned on my last trip. Fortunately, that didn't happen again.

One clearing all of customs and security, we delivered our luggage back to airport staff. I have never really understood this particular step in the process. Why can't we just take our bags with us on the shuttle train? Especially when there are so few people waiting in line to ride it. At least they don't seem to lose luggage in that step.

Once in the main terminal, we headed to pick up our luggage and meet the welcome party. Due to a misunderstanding (thanks Dad), there was no welcome party. Our bags arrived and I reluctantly used my Norwegian phone to call the family and organize getting picked up. Dad was waiting nearby and we were finally out of the airport!

Mom, Sonya, and Tyler were waiting for us at an Italian restaurant in West Seattle. There we engaged in sorely missed family conversational antics, including hilarious stories and imitating Dad. Somewhere in there we managed to order way too much food and had to pass on dessert. Mom was loaning us her car and had to catch a ferry, so we raced off to meet the boat.

Since Dad didn't want to shock us on the first night of our visit with the state of our house, he had decided to put us up in bed and breakfast. The bed there was a welcome sight and we were very appreciative that Dad made the effort for us. We crashed early, and woke up around 4am to watch a little cable TV (we found a Swedish cooking show, of all things). We got up again around 9:30 and enjoyed a pretty excellent breakfast.

Since Dad was still not quite ready for us after breakfast, we ditched our luggage at the house and headed for Southcenter. While we should have been studying, we wandered around the mall for several hours, drinking coffee, buying pants and a new computer, and acquiring a US cell phone for David. We got back to Dad's with just enough time to shower and head off to a much anticipated Hanukah dinner with Vicki and family. The following couple of days were filled with studying and avoiding studying for our mid-term test.

Destination: Seattle! Getting There

2010-01-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

David had driven the suitcases down to school and then returned with the car. I was madly trying to get the dishes done, so we didn't have to come back to them. We washed and hung up our sheets and blankets, we turned down the heat, we gave our landlords the poinsettia and the car key, we locked the door and hurried to the school.

We arrived at school in plenty of time (at least 10 minutes before the bus) and dragged all of our stuff out to the side of the road where the bus comes. Everything went smoothly from there. We piled into the first bus, transferred to the second in Åmot, and arrived with everything in the Oslo bus station five hours later. After a quick meal at a rather good (especially for mall food) Italian restaurant, we trudged down to the subway and headed out toward Alix Cordray's.

Alix met us at the subway station and we filled her car with what we considered to be packing light. She showed us around her cool old house and whipped up a little apple cobbler. We helped her finish off one of those pesky boxes of ice cream that seem to keep cropping up. After dessert, we tried playing some tunes together. Whether it was due to exhaustion or unfamiliarity, we didn't manage to come up with a very large common repertoire. By then it was late enough for us to go to sleep and Alix to get back to work. In the morning, she very kindly drove us to the bus stop where we boarded the airport bus and successfully arrived at Gardermoen with plenty of time to spare.

We checked in our luggage and went through security. David bought a few books for the trip. We found our gate and set up camp (fiddles, backpacks, and coats). As it was lunchtime, we treated ourselves to hot dogs and soda. I also purchased a couple of sandwiches for the flight. Finally, we got to board the plane.

Flying IcelandAir was a very pleasant experience. The seats were hard and we had to buy our own meals, but the in-flight entertainment included plenty of watchable movies and I had packed some serious snack food (the aforementioned sandwiches were supplemented with bread and roastbeef, boiled eggs, plus chips and a small meal we purchased in the air). The layover in Iceland was pleasant and short. There was some drama when the guy boarding the plane right before us fell on the escalator, but fortunately that was the most drama we had on the whole flight.

I have to say, I highly recommend IcelandAir. They fly direct to Seattle from Iceland. They cost less than pretty much any other carrier, at least the single stop carriers. Best of all, the total travel time is the shortest! Of course, they offer the possibility to spend a few days in Iceland at no extra ticket cost, which seems like an excellent deal and something to do in the future.

Destination: Seattle! Pre-Departure

2010-01-25T11:15:00.000-08:00

In mid-December, David and I packed our suitcases, cleaned as much of the apartment as we could, and raced to the bus stop. We were on our way to Seattle and I was really excited. Life is great in Rauland, but nothing beats Seattle!

The week before we were scheduled to leave we'd been on a class trip to Oslo to visit a variety of folk music organizations and archives. While it was a very interesting trip, the most memorable part for me is the phone call I received when we were almost home. A very nice sounding man had found my wallet, passport included, in the parking lot where we had stopped on the way home.

He said he'd mail it up here and that was a great relief. When it hadn't arrived several days later, I started to get nervous. I was grumpy, having trouble sleeping, and stressed about all the things we needed to get done before we left, plus I was really starting to worry that the passport wouldn't arrive in time. I went to the effort of checking online what I would need to do to get an emergency passport in Oslo (a fairly straightforward process, however, I was looking at needing to get the emergency passport the same day President Obama was visiting Oslo).

I tried a few times calling the number that the guy had called from - no answer and no response to voice messages. Then, I sent him a message explaining that I needed the passport before Friday and that we would happily drive to Kongsberg (a two hour drive) to pick it up if he still had it. He replied that he and his friend had been in his friend's car, and if we hadn't received it, it was probably still there. I got in touch with the friend, who had completely forgotten about the wallet and was very agreeable to meeting us whenever we could get to Kongsberg. We took off directly after school and successfully retrieved the wallet and the passport.

On the way back we drove through the beginning of the snow that would form the foundation for this year's winter sports. We had been in Fall mode since October with lots of ice and snow that melted into ice followed by rain that froze into ice. Everyone welcomed the arrival of real cold weather and a solid snowfall. In the three days left before we took off roughly 12 to 18 inches had fallen!

Concert Reviews

2009-11-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

In Rauland we are home to one of the most active Folkemusikkscener (Folk Music Stages). This fall we have been more active than ever before and we have managed to have a concert almost every other week.

The school year started off with a concert by Ragnhild Furholt and Leiv Solberg. Their stage presence is highly entertaining, especially when joined by Ånon Egeland with a poly-rhythmic percussion solo played on the back of a ukulele. All three are instructors at the school and excellent musicians.

The following concert was the Fliflet/Hamre Kraftforening (Energy Association). These two play wild music on accordion and percussion with inspiration from modern and popular music to Norwegian and Hungarian folk. After the concert they explained to us some of their philosophies about playing music. Their goal is to be the host at a party with the audience as their guests; they hope to get us to laugh, relax, and have a good time while listening to them tell stories and play music.

Following Fliflet/Hamre was the moving music of Nils Økland. I wrote about his concert earlier, but I am still impressed by the music he created. It was soft and gentle and permeated the room; when it's empty, I think the walls probably play back his concert.

Moving right along, we were next treated to Kim Andre Rysstad, Lajla Renate Buer Storli, and Jon Ole Morken. They played from all three of their traditions (Setesdal, Hardanger, and Røros). They played solos, duets, and as a trio giving a varied texture to an excellent concert.

In the eyes of the traditionalists, nothing beats a concert of solo hardingfele. The house was packed two weeks ago when Valdres native Jan Beitohaugen Granli sailed in from a seminar in Oslo to share tunes and stories with us. The five time Landskappleiken winner kept us on the edge of our seats for nearly and hour. He entertained us with funny anecdotes about the music, instruments, and history and commanded our attention with his technical and musical expertise. Anyone who enjoys Valdres tunes or solo hardingfele should get a copy of his CD. To those on the fence about the potential for beauty in solo hardingfele, I also recommend giving his CD a listen.

Last night we took a tour to the land of springleik (or sprenglek). Going by the name Duo, Erlend Viken from Oppdal and Aslak Brimi from Lom are a powerful pair. The blend simple but elegant harmonies with phenomenal melodies (both well known and new) and impeccable dance pulse. Rivaling Jan Beitohaugen, their stories were personal and got us to laugh. As I listen to their CD now, I hope that everyone gets a chance to hear these two.

Kitchen activities

2009-11-12T05:12:00.000-08:00

David is an excellent baker. Mostly he bakes bread, but sometimes we get carried away and make cakes and muffins. I have contributed (thanks to a shipment from Mom) to the baking of corn bread and corn bread muffins. Tonight I'm planning to try out chocoloate creamcheese muffins. Yum!

We have also experimented with sour dough. After a few false starts (involving a fair amount of mold) we got our culture in high gear. We made several loaves of rye sour dough bread and rye sour dough rolls before we moved on to wheat sour dough bread. That was good! It was an excellent compliment to either turkey or cream cheese with tomato slices and (home-grown) alfalfa sprouts.

I have made a large number of dinners that stretch to lunch for several days. After about a month of various combinations of canned corn, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, onions, and ground beef, I moved on to more interesting food. We've have been eating pan-fried salmon, totally awesome orange chicken, various stir fry dishes, quiche, and last night was avgolimono soup.

Since we are both coffee connoisseurs, we made the decision at the beginning of the year (really over the summer) to grind our own beans. This takes time, but our coffee is definitely worth drinking, compared to pretty much everything else. Recently we received an order of loose-leaf tea and have been happily enjoying having options that suit all our warm beverage needs.

These culinary delights have led to a huge pile of dishes. Both of us are generally uninterested in washing them, so they stack up until we can't avoid them any longer. Our plan is to acquire a used dishwasher after the holidays to save us time and stress. I can't wait!

Work

2009-11-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

I continue with my daily assignment at the Dentists' office. I wash the counters and floors, while David (my chauffeur) sits in the lobby and reads Science Illustrated. Occasionally I work a few hours at the Academy.

Things have started to pick up again at the hotel. I am one of two employees from last year that have stayed on in the restaurant. This makes for lots of training of new people and hoping that they stay more than one shift. This past Saturday, I working in the restaurant for three hours and then went downstairs and was the bartender for the next five hours. It was the first time I have been a bartender for a whole night and it went reasonable well. That is except for being completely exhausted on Sunday.

I'm off to the dentists' office now, future updates will include health, weather, and school!

Sweden in the fall

2009-11-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

For our fall vacation, we headed to Sweden. This started and ended with late night bus/train trips. On the way to Sweden, we got a ride to Åmot at 2:30am, took the bus to Oslo and the train to Uppsala. On the way back, we took the afternoon train (filled with drunk Korean businessmen) to Oslo, the night bus to Åmot, and shared a taxi home with 5 other tired students.

We spent most of our week off hanging out in Uppsala. David's brother is spending a year in Australia, so this was our last chance to see him for a while. We also got haircuts; mine is shorter, but not short and David's is definitely short. We visited the yarn store and coffee shops and an electronics store. We made a brief appearance at IKEA. We watched TV and movies. I got a new backpack (at a really good price) and David found new boots to replace the pair that disappeared from school last spring.

While in Uppsala, I got confirmation from the UW that we could take our December exam at the Scandinavian Dept. This lead to me purchasing our tickets back to Seattle for a rockin' good price on IcelandAir. We will be in Seattle from December 12th to January 10th, playing at both the third and first Friday dances while we are there! Whoohoo! I'm really looking forward to this trip home!

After a week relaxing with David's family, we packed our things and headed to the Linköping Folkmusik Festival. This year's highlights included a workshop in Polsdans fra Finnskogen and a partner to take it with (yay David!), meeting up with Irene, and lots of good concerts, notably Ralf Novak-Rosengren who is really worth checking out on YouTube.

David and I had decided to stay in a hotel after our less than pleasant experience sleeping on the floor in Geilo. The hotel was as nice as I remembered it being - nothing beats a hotel breakfast while you're at a festival. The only downside was that the room we got was only sort-of a double room. There was one single bed and a hide-a-bed. We opted for sharing the (very comfortable) single bed. It was not exactly spacious, but we could have been on a classroom floor.

What happened to October?

2009-11-09T06:28:00.000-08:00

Lots happened in October! Hopefully I will have time to write about it before too much of November slips away. I'm going to try to go with a thematic approach, rather than chronological, to see if that speeds up my output.

Starting with our last theme - the car. We waited with baited breath for the first three weeks of October to get a call from the guy in Rjukan saying he'd fixed the breaks and we could come pick it up. Eventually we gave in and David called him. Sadly, he reported the news to me that the guy was not going to fix the brakes. We opted out of buying it cheaply and fixing the brakes ourselves.

We continue to share a car with Sarah. This is working out much better than it did in the beginning, although it has some drawbacks. Mostly the car is too small to cram in four people plus instruments, so we will need to find another solution in February when our class goes on tour. As of the beginning of this month, Sarah does not have a valid driver's license in Norway; while she's working on that we get the car. We (that is David) also get to drive her places when she needs a ride. While not convenient, it's not nearly as inconvenient as it sounds.

Fall adventures

2009-09-28T06:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made the semi-spur-of-the-moment decision to drive back to Rjukan in search of our own vehicle. We had located a VW stationwagon for sale at a pretty good price and decided to go look at it in the hopes that we would then have a our own car in Sweden next week.

The drive to Rjukan was gorgeous. Here in Rauland we only have trees that turn yellow, maybe orange; between here and Rjukan are entire hillsides of red trees. The leaves on the birches are mostly falling off now (we had a big storm a couple days ago). We drove past the edge of Hardangervidda, the massive mountain plateau, where most of the trees had lost their leaves and the grasses were all various shades of brown and orange. The brown walls of the cabins blended in with the brown grass on their roofs and the surrounding landscape.

As we made our long descent into Rjukan, I was reminded of my thoughts from our previous trip. Rjukan is located at the bottom of a steep valley. The mountainsides have little vegetation but tons of waterfalls. Regardless of where you are in the town, you can hear running water from both the river and the waterfalls. It's pretty amazing.

We arrived at the car and checked out wheel that had been making noise. The man selling the car had determined that the brake cylinder was going bad and had a new one, but hadn't gotten around to fixing it. He put the wheel back on and we got in the car to go for a test drive. We made it about five feet before determining that the car had no brakes. We poured in brake fluid and watched as it came running out the back wheel. Sadly we were not able to head home with a new car, but hopefully we'll get to buy it soon after he gets the brakes replaced. Otherwise, the car was perfect - good engine, good tires, lots of cargo room, central locks, AC, four doors. I'm hoping it can get fixed soon!

Finally caught up!

2009-09-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today I have been enjoying working at the art gallery again. It is quiet and calm here. One of the new artists, Ary Ketting, has created granite pillows, a sandstone Prada (which diplays JADA on the label), and a sweater carved in birch that looks just like a sweater hanging on a hook! This job is great not only because it is much more refined than washing floors or rooms or serving, but it also gives me time to catch up on my blog! My apologies to everyone who is waiting to hear from me and checked back faithfully during this hiatus. I hope I will have more time to write in the near future.

Tonight I work at the hotel. Next week we will be playing concerts for the school children. After that, David and I are off to Sweden for a week to enjoy our fall vacation!

Forskningsdagane

2009-09-26T04:56:00.001-07:00

Research Week is observed by all departments of Høgskolen i Telemark. Instructors and masters students present their recent research. Students have free from classes so we can listen to breaking news in our fields. The lectures tend to be very academic and intensly interesting - for those of us who are interested.

My class started the week off with a trip to Porsgrunn. We were to play two songs for the opening of Forskningsdagane down there. They paid for overnight accomodations and we paid for our gas. Not a bad deal. We drove down on Monday evening and arrived in Porsgrunn around 10:30, that is after all restaurants were closed. Starving, we reluctantly ate at the only convenience store that was open before we went to bed.

After breakfast, we navigated our way to the school. We parked about as far away from our destination as possible and trekked our instruments across campus. The performance itsself went well enough. We smiled and sang and played through our mistakes. Our contact seemed pleased with our performance, as did a good portion of the audience. Before we started home, we stopped for coffee and a quick visit to the local music store.

Wednesday was the start of presentations here in Rauland. First, Per Åsmund Omholt presented his Ph.D. thesis, which he completed last year. He analyzed 500 fiddle tunes in a variety of tunings and from different places throughout Norway. The paper focused on what defines dialects in Norwegian folk music. By classifying every note in the 500 tunes, he arrived at a number of interesting statistical conclusions regarding regional dialects in Norwegian music. He also very kindly presented them in a number of easy to read graphs and charts.

After Per Åsmund, Atle Lien Jenssen took the floor. He is in the process of a masters project relating to tungehorn. Tungehorn is an instrument made from the horn of (usually) a goat. It has three to seven finger holes and a reed fixed to the outside of the mouthpiece; the reed can be made of any number of materials from the traditional juniper to metal or even a yogurt lid! Atle's project is especially interesting because his research seems to indicate that this is an instrument that originated in Norway and spread outward, unlike most other instruments in Norway. Possible implications include that tungehorn is an ancestor of the modern clarinet.

The highlight of the presentations came Thursday morning when Mats Johansson present the doctoral thesis he has nearly finished (it's in the editing stage). The paper focuses on assymmetrical rhythm in pols and springar. What I found most fascinating was his presentation of the variation of lengths of beats. He showed that variation exists within a regional style, between fiddlers, from one performance to the next as played by the same fiddler, and (most interestingly) from one measure to the next in the same performance of the same tune based on the melodic context. He presented examples that some melodic elements (particularly decorative trills) occupy a fixed period of time (relative to the performer) and that other elements are shortened or lengthened based on their relation to the fixed elements and their function in the melody (e.g. a triplet can be shorter when it leads to a continuation of the melody in the next beat and longer when it leads to the conclusion of a melodic phrase).

Of course, research can also manifest in the form of performance, so we at Rauland are treated to a concert each year in connection with Forskningsdagane. This year Nils Økland played on a variety of violin-like instruments. In addition to a standard violin, he played hardingfele and viola d'amour (a massive instrument with seven melody strings and seven understrings, I think). I was most impressed by the first piece he played, inspired by darkness - it really sounded like moths fluttering around in the night. He also uses all gut strings and light weight baroque style bows. If only I had a pile of money to play with, I could have gut strings and new bows as well!

A free weekend!

2009-09-26T04:13:00.000-07:00

David and I decided not to go to FolkeLarm this year. While the tickets to the festival were cheaper, hotel rooms, food, and travel are certainly not inexpensive. Plus we were exhausted from three weeks of constant rehearsing and travel. Finally, we had a weekend at home!

I had originally told all of my employers that I wasn't available and I stuck to that story. Instead of working like crazy and spending all of my free time at school or asleep, I got to relax at home with David. Friday we had free from school, so we cleaned the house and went for a walk to town. Saturday we got a last minute invitation to play at the gallery opening, so we used the afternoon to rehearse and then played that evening.

Saturday night we had time to visit with friends. First Marco and Victor came to us and then we went out to Victor's cabin. We drove there with the plan of walking home. Around 4am we were all tired enough to end the party so the three of us walked and arrived at our homes around 5. Marco and David kept the conversation going, mostly about all of the dangerous animals a person can meet in the dark on a road like the one we were walking on and what a person should do when one meets a bear or moose or beaver. When we were almost home, we ran into a few very drunk and entertaining locals; they figured that we must be from Oslo and were out on a training tour. As tired as we were, we managed to walk considerable faster then them!

Sunday we slept in late and walked back to the car in the afternoon. The road was much less terrifying in the daylight. The scenery was fantastic. Fall is making its brief appearance before winter sets in and the trees are displaying beautiful yellows and oranges. The conditions here aren't right to get red leaves, so the mountains are covered with tapestries of evergreens and golden birches.

That evening we made dinner and watched a movie. We went to sleep early in an attempt to start the next week well rested. We were headed into Research Week and even the most interesting lectures are difficult to stay awake through while suffering from sleep deprivation.

Dyrsku'n

2009-09-26T03:03:00.000-07:00

Dyrsku'n is what Americans would recognize as a country fair. There are booths selling everything imaginable from wool socks, belts, and used household items to sausages and tea. They also have large things available for sale, such as home appliances and farm equipment.

Like Farsund, Dyrsku'n also involves a set of obligatory performances. The perks are: 1) the festival pays for our travel and parking, 2) we get food vouchers and 3) we are allowed to have a fiddle case open for donations. The downside is that we have to play outside in varied weather a program that is rather patched together for an audience that for the most part could care less about our music.

We were required to play with the two students taking the half year program. They are both very talented musicians, but it was a challenge to come up with a common repertoire in such a short time. Adding to the stress was the fact that three of us had rehearsals and the performance in Rjukan the previous weekend which cut into the available time to rehearse for Dyrsku'n.

In the end things went well. It was hot and sunny in the morning with more and more clouds as the day wore on. We played our last set just before it started to rain. Some of the audiences were more generous than others and we wound up with about $15 each to take home.

Our earnings from the day did not make it home in the form of cash, however. After we put our instruments back in the car, we had an hour to wander around the fair before we needed to leave. Somehow we managed to not spend all of our money; $15 doesn't last very long in Norway. Now, I have wool socks and David has a new belt; we also have fresh loose-leaf tea and a cast iron pan for small pancakes.

Rjukan

2009-09-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

After Farsund, we unpacked our bags, washed our clothes, and packed again, this time for Rjukan. One of our classmates from last year had asked those of us who knew we were continuing to play for Kjerringsveiven. We had eagerly said yes to a paid gig.

On Thursday we packed everything we could into our little car and drove over the mountain to Rjukan. The car was never really built for four people plus all the instruments the can pack in the trunk and it wasn't really up to the task now that it's aged a good 15 years. We spent the car ride listening to esoteric recordings so we would be less aware of the noises the back wheels were making. It really sounded like they were going to fall off.

We arrived to Randi's house, unpacked, and relaxed. Her house is amazingly large. I think it was a duplex that has been remodeled to be one phenomenal house. Her boyfriend made us excellent food and there was plenty of candy to go around. We drank wine, told jokes, and laughed really hard.

The night was long and morning came a little too early. Even though we didn't get up until 10am. We ate a leisurely breakfast and started in on rehearsals. We worked hard finding arrangements to our list of forty tunes, selecting the best ones for the gig the next day, and then running through our final set list. By the time we crawled into bed Friday night, we had been practicing for 14 hours with two breaks.

We slept hard and fast and were on the road at 9am to the top of Gaustatoppen. On the way up we navigated narrow mountain trails through a herd of cows to the seter where we would play. We unpacked the instruments and assessed the stage (wooden pallets in the middle of a sheep pasture covered with a three sided tent). Our sound check was rather relaxed, but we managed to check all of the instruments and vocal mic's before the ladies started to arrive at noon.

Kjerringsveiven translates literally to 'The old ladies' swing' and the event is an organized march around the top of Gaustatoppen. About 2000 women came this year. The sporty ones and the early birds finish first. The one's who prefer to mosey and sleep in come a little later. They take buses from the town to the starting point and from the finish line back to town. We were playing at the finish line, where they also sell rømmegraut, sauplapper (buttermilk pancakes), and coffee/soda. The marchers tend to bring additional refreshments in the form of sandwhiches, fruit, and every kind of alcoholic beverage imaginable.

We played five forty minute sets over the course of five hours. The audience got more interested and more entertaining as time passed. In our third set they started singing along, one of them was even dancing in the mud. The fourth set was marked by the opening of a couple champagne bottles. The highlight of the last set was the 'chicken ladies'. At least twenty women had outfitted themselves with matching hats that looked like chicken.

Our music also got better as we played it more. We rearranged ourselves so we had shorter pauses and better communication. We learned which tunes worked and which ones didn't; the later it got, the more drinking songs we sang. The sound guy also got in on the act, throwing in all of the effects he had (reverb, echo, distortion), sometimes all at once!

We were happy and tired when we got back to Randi's. We relaxed, had dinner, and gingerly listened to the recording we had made. We discovered that it wasn't actually so bad! Those of us heading back to Rauland decided it would be a good idea to head home. The drive home was another hour of happy companionship, but we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!

Farsund

2009-09-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

The weather was not on our side this year. It rained pretty much constantly in Farsund. On Friday and Saturday nights the rain and wind reached impressive storm intensity.

As artists (and lowly student artists at that), the festival was not particularly well organized. We got conflicting messages about all of our concerts (time, location, what kind of concert). Other groups were also listed at the wrong time or wrong location in the official program. Still, it was a great time.

We drove out of Rauland on Thursday morning with a car packed full of instruments. Sveinung and I were bad passengers and slept almost the whole trip while David struggled to hold himself entertained in the driver's seat. We stopped in Evje and treated ourselves to espresso and pastries. After that we passengers did a better job of keeping the driver company; we worked on learning the rather complicated refrain to an entertaining mock ballad.

Upon arrival in Farsund, we found our hotel rooms, grabbed our instruments, and to the Reinlender Parade. Our first taste of the days to come was leading the reinlender parade, playing a tune we were supposed to be learning as we marched. This didn't really work very well since there was only one person who knew the tune and he was successfully drowned out by his drummer accompanist.

The parade ended in the public square with a festival showcase. We were asked to play a tune for the showcase a few minutes before we went on stage. Anna (who play two and one rowed accordions) hadn't been up to school yet and hadn't rehearsed with us all summer. Also, her accordion had some sticky keys. We played our safest tune. Needless to say, it didn't go as well as it could have.

That evening we rehearsed with the students from last year who had managed to get festival passes if they played parts of our concerts. It was here that the confusion began when we found out that our hour-long concert was actually a half hour, so we had to figure out what to cut of our largely unrehearsed program. In the end we divided our solo numbers between concerts and took the best of the group numbers.

Thursday night's party was short lived. We came late and had to get up early for Friday's concert. There were also not very many of us and we had a rather thin set of common tunes.

Friday we were scheduled to play in a Chinese restaurant. It was difficult to tell if the audience was interested in us, but eating their lunch, or not interested at all. We're going with the former because it makes us feel better. Later we went back to the restaurant since we got free lunch for playing; the food was pretty good, so I can understand if people we paying more attention to lunch than our music.

After Chinese food, we enjoyed a couple of concerts. The first was panel concert with a broad spectrum of the festival artists. From Kim Andre Rysstad (kveding) to Fosbrooks School (English music/step-dance - playing and dancing at the same time) the program was varied and entertaining.

We left early from that concert to get to Unni Boksasp and band. I think Unni is amazing, plus her band includes Ånon Egeland (my fiddle teacher and big name in Norwegian folk music) and Olav Mjelva. Her concert was a usual excellent. The only low point was a tune she composed about the woman who was her inspiration. I can forgive one tune in an otherwise fabulous hour long concert.

We went to bed early so we would be fresh and prepared for Saturday's concert. Saturday we got up early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we headed over to the other hotel where we would be playing. We had a successful soundcheck in spite of our ridiculous combination of intruments (enrader, torader, gitar, seljefløyte, sang, harpeleik, 2 fiddles, and nyckelharpa for four people). Anna made it from her other performance just in time for us all to go on stage together. I think we played pretty well considering we were quite nervous and it was a little difficult to hear each other on stage.

After our performance we wandered off to find lunch and relax, having fulfilled all of our obligations for the weekend. The only place we found to eat at was the local pub in the center of town. As we got closer we read on their announcement board "HiT Studenter", that is... us. We headed back to the car and got our instruments, put our heads together and came up with a new set list. 45 minutes after realizing we were supposed to play the concert we started. It turned out to be the best of our concerts that weekend. We were relaxed, the audience was engaged, and we had a lot of fun.

When we arrived back at the hotel, I got a message that a relative had called. I called him back and got to meet up with my 4th cousin who lives in Farsund. That was pretty exciting - I hadn't seen him in at least 15 years, so there was a fair amount of family updating to be had.

On Sunday we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little before climbing in the car for the long drive home. Sveinung entertained us by learning to play melodies on the harpeleik the whole ride home.

Back in the mountains

2009-08-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

The week before school started was a hectic mess. I worked and unpacked and worked and unpacked. David spent his time unpacking. Surprisingly enough, we're still not really finished.

David has also been using his time to get familiar with the kitchen. He has baked all of the bread we've eaten in the past two weeks. In addition he has experimented with a couple cakes and a batch of muffins. Outside of the oven he has whipped several excellent meals including chicken soup, fried fish and mashed potatoes, and a hearty meat sauce. I always look forward to coming home after washing at the dentists' office to see what he has whipped up.

David has not been alone in the use of our kitchen. I have contributed with corn bread (thanks to a very expensive package from Mom containing corn meal) and corn bread muffins. My dinners have included lemon chicken, stir fry, fajitas, and delicious salads.

My job at the cafe has turned into a job at the Akademi. The Akademi work is very similar to working at the hotel, it just pays better and is closer to home. It also involves checking guests into their rooms. Since I'm there pretty much every day, they can ask me to work at a moments notice, whenever they need me. I have yet to hear from the hotel and, if it works out at the Akademi, I won't call to remind them that I can work...

So far our classes have consisted mostly of rehearsals. That is, we've had six days of rehearsals and two days of folkemusikkformidling (promotion and presentation of folk music) We're getting ready for a concert at the Nordsjøfestival in Farsund.

Last year the festival was a great way to kick off the year, with concerts and late nights. This year, we get to be one of the concerts! This festival is well organized with almost all of the concerts at the same hotel everyone stays at. There are also a number of concerts within easy walking distance and midday concerts in the public square. Last year we got to take a boat trip with our teacher; I'm hoping the weather holds out for a repeat!

Driving back to Rauland

2009-08-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

Reasonably early on Friday morning (August 7), we piled into the van and headed west again. David and I promptly passed out in the passenger seats while his father drove. In Karlstad we stopped at Biltema, a hardware store with everything you could possibly need. Almost. We spent about an hour and half buying tools and equipment to help us make the apartment nice and keep David busy for hours.

We stopped for lunch at the Swedish equivalent of McDonalds, MAX hamburgare. This was at my request, having heard so much from visiting Swedes in Seattle about the superiority of MAX vs. any of the American hamburger chains. I would have to say that, while the hamburger itsself was better than one from a chain, and the free coffee was a nice touch, the fries left something to be desired (something like a lot of grease) and the hamburger was really anything special compared to a real burger from a quality establishment in the US.

We pressed further across the late summer landscape, stopping outside Oslo to stretch our legs and eat the remaining spanikopita. We switched drivers and I took the wheel. Things went reasonably smoothly. I choose the wrong road at the big traffic circle in Drammen, but that much a delay is hardly noticable.

The most exciting part of the journey came on the tiny road we drove on for the last 90 minutes. After a few cars passed me by, I took the signal to drive faster. That is 80km/hr roughly. Having not driven in a while and driving a much larger car, the twisting and turning on a narrow road at that speed was intense, to say the least. Not to mention the time we almost collided with another car on a one lane bridge. Thank goodness the van has good breaks!

We drove directly to our new apartment and started unpacking. Our landlady, Anne, came out and asked us if we wanted to join them for some fish soup on the patio. In the short time it took her to whip up the soup, we unpacked the van and stuffed the apartment full of things. After dinner we took a mini road trip to see the view from Vierli. Then it was coffee at my old apartment where Anders was sleeping and off to our first night in the new apartment.

Uppsala

2009-08-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

Since David and I are moving into a mostly unfurnished apartment, we have been shopping here in Uppsala. That is, we have basically lived at IKEA. I'm pleased to report that the IKEA in Seattle is very much like the IKEA in Uppsala. The Seattle IKEA really needs to get the self-serve soft-serve because it is the coolest machine.

In addition to IKEA we spent an afternoon/evening with David's sister, husband, and three kids. They are currently living in San Francisco, but are in Sweden for the summer. The whole family was great, plus I got to play with the baby (totally cute at 11 months old)!

We spent a day wandering around town and met up with one of David's friends from school. She was a load of fun. We sat outside and ate ice cream while she told entertaining stories about what seems to be a rather thrilling life. Later we managed to buy new clothes for me and new shirts for David; it had been far too long since my last shopping excursion.

On our last night in Uppsala, David and I made dinner. That is, I made spanikopita and David helped. Turns out, you can get pretty decent phyllo dough in Sweden. The rest of the family enjoyed the spanikopita, which we served with rice and salad.

We also packed the car that evening, which was quite the experience. The car was actually a full size van with most of the rear seats removed. We stuffed it full of clothes and bookshelves, necessities from IKEA and instruments. Somehow we managed to find enough room for ourselves as well.

Silver lining

2009-08-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

Last year's medal testing experience was a rush of sheer adrenaline. I didn't know what to expect. I had worked really hard to get there. I had spent a lot of money. I really had something to prove.

This year was less about the amount of training I had put into the three dances I had presented and more about the training I have built up during a lifetime of dancing and performing. Since Larry and I were on different continents until ten days before we tested, it was a little difficult to put a lot of time in prior to the big day. We worked hard at Furudal, but a week of rehearsal doesn't build the same hunger and sense of entitlement to pass as six months of rehearsing.

The dance floor in Orsa was slick. Like ice. Testing on Saturday gave us a little time to get used to it. The evening dances were really fun, although I left them all early because I was pretty tired. I did a fair amount of practicing with Larry, although I mostly danced with David. I did get to dance with David Eriksson, always nice.

After I danced on Saturday, I was fairly certain that things went well for me. We danced cleanly, if not perfectly and we got good music. Larry and Karlyn got difficult music, so their Saturday night was a little more nerve-wracking. To smooth things over, David and I made a chocolate cake.

On Sunday they started with the certificates; the tensest moment was waiting to hear Larry's name when they were calling people who in the process of earning the Big Silver. Even though I was the last one of the Seattle crew to get called, I was relaxed after Larry and Karlyn walked across the stage. I knew that if they had passed with the difficulties they had experienced, I had passed. The word on my certificate is 'gott' (good or well). Not quite as poetic as last year, but perhaps next year will be better.

Fun in Furudal

2009-08-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2009

Generally, I prefer to be well prepared for any kind of exam. Seeing as how I haven't been in Seattle, it's been difficult to practice with Larry. The first day or so involved a lot of remembering how to dance, especially my dances (Storpolska fr. Vemdalen, Slängpolska fr Malung, Gammalvänster fr. Oviken). Things are going better now that we've been at it for a few days. Leif and Margareta are, as usual, full of gentle and constructive adjustments and, occasionally, a compliment.

The weather here has been wet and mosquito filled. We have managed to have dry enough weather for the evening camp fires and hot-dog grilling. Friday night we took a little trip down to Boda to catch the Boda Spelmann playing on home turf. David was on his way up to visit from Uppsala and met us in Boda. It was great to see him and talk to him in person (Skype is nice, but it ain't the real thing). It was really great to dance with David.

The rest of the week progressed as to be expected. General drama unfolded that comes from being with the same people for too many days in a row. Mostly we worked on our dances, relaxed and grilled hot dogs. They way things are supposed to be at Furudal.

Our last night there was probably the best, in spite of its misadventures. After dinner, four of us from Seattle (me, Larry, Tom, and Karlyn) headed down to grill the last of our hot dogs. We tried to get Bonnie to join us, but it was pretty late already. We were the only ones who headed down that night and, while we had firewood, we were lacking anything to start a fire with. Instead of grilling hot dogs, we sat and enjoyed the view and each other's company, swapping stories until the mosquitos had sucked us dry.

Cold and not quite ready to say good-bye to Furudal we stayed up late watching TV. The rest of the gang bailed sometime during the Danish mystery program with Swedish subtitles. I sure slept well once I finally went to bed!

The road to Furudal

2009-08-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

July 24, 2009

Larry and his mother picked me up in Rauland. They arrived several hours earlier than I was expecting them. I was mostly packed and the apartment was a rough approximation of clean. When I left Rauland, my bags were packed and the apartment was a little closer to presentable.

There was just barely enough room in the back seat of the rental car for me and the roads from Telemark weren't any friendlier than usual. At least I was in a car and not on the bus! By the time we arrived in Hokksund, I was slightly green. We spent a lovely evening with Chris and Terry-Anne, with a walk down to the river and songs late into the night.

We dragged ourselves out of bed early the next morning, Sweden bound! Karlyn called from the train station just as Larry had come down for breakfast, so he headed straight off to find her. We enjoyed our breakfast and coffee while Karlyn entertained us with her travel updates. We were on the road before 8am.

We drove through Oslo to Kongsvinger. We picked the most direct route, along the small roads through Finnskogen, Värmland, and Dalarna. We didn't see to many other cars, but we did hear shooting in the distance just after we crossed the border. We cruised Malung, got some groceries in Mora, zipped through Orsa, and happily arrived in Furudal in plenty of time to find our rooms, unpack the car, eat and get to the dance floor early. It was a long day for Larry who drove the whole way!

Summer routine

2009-07-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

July 23, 2009

My summer routine involves lots of work and lots of relaxing. Since Geilo, I have had three days off. While I've been working pretty much every day, most days are pretty short, leaving plenty of time for summer lounging. The weather here reminds me of home, rain, chance of rain, sun breaks with rain, and a few really hot days.

I most prefer working at the art gallery; the people here are interesting and the work is not physically exhausting. When someone buys a painting or other piece of art, everyone is happy about it. The transaction, regardless of the amount, is considered a joyous event or at least a positive one by the gallery, the artists, and the purchasers.

It's a little different working at the cafe. People are always happy to get their food, but the stress begins when they pay. Then they stand there and watch while I (or one of my coworkers) engage in the mad rush to try to get all of the hot food hot and the cold food cold and onto the table at the same time. Meanwhile there tends to be a line forming of more people who want more food. Unless there is nothing happening at all in the cafe. And that's no fun either.

On Fridays and Saturdays we have free concerts at the cafe. Free in Norway equals chaos. Everyone wants there coffee and waffles right when the concert starts. This means that the concert starts late, which annoys the people who came twenty minutes early. Then the concert lasts for half an hour and everybody heads back out into the fresh air, leaving behind them a wake of coins (for the musicians), coffee cups, and crumbs. Fortunately, the concerts are pretty good otherwise it wouldn't be worth the exhaustion!

On sunny days, tourists stay outside. They do not visit art galleries and they do not visit cafes in dark timber buildings. As previously mentioned, we have not had so many sunny days, so we have had a lot of tourists. That has meant lots of work to do for those of us who wanted to work. Of course, you can only work so long before it's time for a vacation!

The delights of summer

2009-07-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, between rain showers, I ate my lunch outside at the tables in front of the coffee shop. I had prepared for myself a salad teeming with the bounty of summer produce. While I sat on the mostly dry chair at a table that was definitely wet, eating my salad that seemed to increase in size as I ate it, I thought of the rainy summers in Seattle.

Perhaps it is global warming or my shady memory, but I don't remember summers in Seattle being long stretches of sunshine. I remember the comfortable rain. Perhaps it is more closely related to my summer habits of retreating into the cool dark basement with a special blend of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips and walnuts in a Tupperware cup that someday would be taken to the beach and used as a digging implement losing its pleasantly smooth edge and becoming forever relegated to the back of the cupboard. In the hours while my parents were at work, I would watch tv mindlessly - making sure to follow the complicated system of turning on fans and closing hatches and windows to preserve the valued coolness of our stone house.

It must have been hot. It must have been hot because we went swimming in the sun. We all thought that swimming in the rain was the best, but swimming in the sun was necessary. When the weather was hot on the weekends we would pile in the Falcon and drive to Tacoma. Nana and Grandpa Arne always had fabulously delicious food (the broccoli chicken bake, salmon, potato salad, sour cream and onion potato chips, real sandwiches, PIE, ice cream in a variety of flavors, waffles with homemade jam for breakfast). The rest of the family tended to show up. Who wouldn't come for good food, swimming, and laughter?

Grandpa Arne's pool was the perfect place to play and get wet. It was a little short for laps that were more than recreational and diving was not allowed, but those limitations were not particularly bothersome. We floated, played games we'd made up (like Fox and the Eggs), and did tricks (mostly headstands and sommersaults). We'd get out when our fingers and toes looked like the prunes Grandpa and Nana ate every night before going to sleep and there were streaks of teal randomly distrubuted across out bodies where we had bumped into the walls of the pool, the aging paint had come off on our skin.

Sitting at a sidewalk cafe outside an art gallery, eating a bottomless salad, I started thinking about food as art in five dimentions. The fourth and fifth are clearly taste and time, but which is which? According to convention it is time that is the fourth dimention. But isn't taste more important? But perhaps the time to grow the ingredients and select them are as important as the art of the perfect composition of flavors. Taking time to taste the variety of ingredients is critical to the success of the piece. It also creates ample time to remember the delights of summers past.

Yesterday's Salad:

Iceberg lettuce (in Norway it still has a little green color)
Cabbage
Arugula
Onion
Carrot
Tomato
Avocado
Kidney Beans
Feta (marinated in olive oil and herbs)
Red wine vinegar
Oil and herbs from the feta

Chop the things that are choppable and mix together. Enjoy with friends or memories.

Det er kunst vi vil ha

2009-07-05T03:11:00.000-07:00

We spent a long day on Sunday packing David's apartment. We didn't finish. He decided that it would be better to drive all day Tuesday and keep packing on Monday than stress to get it finished on Sunday night.This was fine with me. It was going to be hard to say good-bye and I was happy to put it off for another day.

Monday I also started working at the art gallery (www.raulandkunstforening.no). This is a perfect summer job. I am surrounded by art and people interested in art. We share the building with the local coffee shop. When we're not busy, I get to check the internet for exciting developments. Sometimes I even get to clean the floors, something which has come to give me great joy after a year of washing at the dentist's office. Mostly, the job gives me a purpose for five hours a day; I pendle between feeling incredibly useful and phenomenally ignorant. Fortunately, in those slow times, I get to read art catalogs and artists' websites to help me build a little knowledge.

On Tuesday, David tried to leave. Tried, as in he packed the car and drove off, but his brakes gave out an hour down the road. Working at the art gallery also affords me the luxury of being both conveniently located to the local gas station and the flexibility to run out the door when he called to ask them if they had time to check out his car. In the end he drove to another town, had the brakes checked and then back up here to have them fixed. We got our extra night after all!

On Wednesday he left for real, leaving me to entertain myself by waiting for text messages from the road and washing the enormous pile of dishes we had steadily ignored since returning from Geilo. My apartment seemed lonely and somehow empty without David, in spite of the impressive volume of things we had managed to pack into it. It's a good thing we have found a larger place to live in the fall, even if it's not that much larger.

Since Wednesday I have beat the heat by avoiding it. Mostly by sitting calmly in the art gallery, guiding visitors to the send floor exhibition and film room. Generally hoping that they would be inspired by the calmness in the gallery to purchase something off our walls.

I've also spent a fair amount of time lounging on my couch, too hot to do anything but lay there and think about the boy who had driven off. The smooth gentle tan of his skin is that of someone who has never really sought out the sun, but also hasn't avoided it. Some might describe it as honey colored, even though I've never seen honey that shade. He sends me beautiful messages and I reply haltingly; language barriers are no fun.

Even the weekend was dedicated to the kunstforening. My alternatives were cleaning the house, so it seemed like an obvious choice. On Sunday we got some rain and a little thunder storm. I took a walk up to our new apartment - only five more minutes up the hill! Before I slept, I was struck by the deliciousness of the cold water from the tap here in the mountains. Even in the hot summer months, it is crisp and sweet, like I remember the water in Seattle tasting when I was a child.

NM i folkemusikk og folkedans

2009-07-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

We were sleeping in a classroom with eleven people, most of whom we'd never met before; that is, I'd met one of them before and David had never met any of them. Since we were the last two to show up, we got the spot right by the door and the sink that everyone had to walk by. Needless to say, it was not comfortable. Fortunately that was the only real downside the event.

The other downside was that I had too many friends competing at the same time. I managed to see very few of them dancing. I did however get to see and hear lots of very good competition. The results of the week's competition were exciting - especially in dance! As usual with such a competition, there is now some debate about the criteria the judges used, especially in the vocal categories. As a spectator, the event was a success - lots to see and hear during the day and lots to dance to in the evening. As usual in Norway, going to a dance with a steady partner is a lot more fun.

We left early to get back to Rauland in time for the opening of the summer art exhibition. We drove the short way over the mountains and took lots of photos from the car. We stopped at a mountain stream for lunch. David played on a rock out in the stream; I was too chicken to jump out there and the rocks were too slippery to wade out on. We made it home just in time to take a shower, eat dinner and drive to the gallery opening.

New beginnings

2009-07-02T04:04:00.000-07:00

The night before our final concert, when most people were busy packing and saying goodbye, I took a deep breath and leapt down a new path. Having had my own heart broken more often than I'd like, I have a tendency to be overly cautious both with my own emotional well being and that of others. The feelings I'd been having for David (a classmate) kept getting stronger the more time I spent with him; the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I wanted to spend even more time with him. We are both very aware of the potential for negative ramifications if things go poorly next year, however things are going very well and I haven't been happier in a very long time.

Our first adventure as a couple was a cross-country tour. We took off from Rauland on a Saturday afternoon by bus. The plan was to catch the night bus to Uppsala (yippee!), but that plan fell through when the bus was full. I called everyone we knew in Oslo. A classmate of ours came through with his mother's apartment in a very nice neighborhood in Oslo. His mother was moving so, we got the place to ourselves for the few hours we were there.

Early the next morning we found our way back out of the courtyard (we were very nearly locked in) and back to the bus station. After nine long hours on the bus, we arrived at the central station in Stockholm where we met David's mother, Nina. We were very happy that she was in the city and driving up to Uppsala, because we were very hungry and had run into some money trouble (my bank card had stopped working and David was broke). She made good time and we arrived at his home outside the city and met his brother, Thomas, and father, Anders. Everyone was very welcoming - it was fantastic to be home.

After dinner we went for a walk in the forest, then took a shower, and played some music. We were generally exhausted from our journey, but it was good to move, good to play, and phenomenal to be clean. I could have slept through the whole following day, but it was Thomas' birthday so we got up early and woke him up with cake, song, and presents. It was very festive.

In the afternoon, David took me on an Uppsala sightseeing tour. We met a couple friends of his for coffee and sat outside at a cafe in the almost too warm sunshine. We did some shopping (cough drops and a new tooth brush), visited David's high school, the cathedral, and the salvation army. Before leaving town we stopped at the concert hall, both to admire the building and the view from the top floor.

Hot and tired, we headed back to the cozy valley David grew up in, stopping only for Swedish summer essentials (soft serve and dill chips). Back at the Rönnlund ranch (which is not a ranch in the slightest), Anders was preparing Thomas' birthday dinner (steak!). The brothers worked together to produce homemade pasta. As if all that weren't enough, the meal was rounded out with a caprice salad and a second round of birthday cake. David took me sightseeing in the neighboring valley afterward; the pleasant drive and long walk gave us ample time to talk about all kinds of things - and test the temperature of the water. I ended the evening having a somewhat involved conversation with Nina about my thoughts on Judaism; her mother was jewish, so it was an interesting discussion for both of us.

The next day we packed Thomas' car with our things and headed back toward Norway. We spent the evening with Peter, David's uncle, in Karlstad. Well rested we took off toward Geilo and the first NM in folkemusikk (formerly Landskappleiken). Our journey was slowed by a very punctured tire that we limped along on from Kongsberg to Geilo; we filled it once with air and once with foam. Upon arriving in Geilo ten hours later, we changed to the mini tire to be certain that we could drive to the gas station in the morning. In the morning we found out that the tire had four holes in it and we didn't manage to leave before replacing two tires (they wouldn't let us fix just the one).

Avsluttning

2009-07-02T03:42:00.000-07:00

Our last week of school was filled with playing exams, getting our final grades, and many hours of rehearsals for our final concert. My playing exams went as well as can be expected, that is poorly. I get so nervous playing for judges. They were very kind when they gave me their feedback; I have come to the conclusion that while Scandinavians are not particularly great at giving positive encouragement along the way, the are exceptionally talented in giving advice after the fact.

Our rehearsals for the final concert were long and exhausting. Ånon jumped in and helped us with arrangments and tune selection. He both gently and not-so-gently stripped away the parts that were unworkable and pointed us in the direction he thought would work. We didn't always agree with him, but we managed to make some good music. The concert itsself couldn't have gone better; we played our hearts out in the shadows of Dyre Vaa's enormous sculptures cast by the hot summer sun to an audience of locals and relatives. And then we were finished!

Catching up

2009-06-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Since we got back from Shetland things have been in fast forward. We had our last week of classes, followed by the Seventeenth of May, a visit from my mom, our written exam, lots of rehearsals, a few sunny days on the beach, fylkeskappleiken, and today I had my playing exam. Saturday is our final concert and then this crazy year winds to an end. It's hard to believe.

We celebrated 17. mai by sharing a long and delicious breakfast with our friends. We dressed up in bunad, sang songs, and watched the parades in other parts of the country on TV. Around noon, the local parade made it's way passed us. After cheering on the school children, we joined the end of the parade down to the school. There were games and a raffle, lots of food, speeches, and a short concert. In the evening we relaxed at home and watched the re-run of the Eurovision Song Contest Finals (which Norway had won the night before).

The next day, my mom came to visit for her birthday. It was really great to see her. We went for a walk down to the lake, which has been drained and now has at least a hundred feet of beautiful sandy beach. Mom was only here for a two days, so I didn't really get to spend much time with her, but I'm glad she made the effort to come all the way out here to the middle of Norway.

After Mom left I began studying for my final exam. This was interrupted by several opportunities to bbq and the fylkeskappleik. The fylkeskappleik itself was inspiring in that it made me feel more like I am part of this community and also helped boost my confidence in playing for judges. I'm still struggling with stage fright and nerves when playing for judges, but I'm hoping that will pass with time. The kappleik was held at the hotel; we danced teledans for hours and hours in the bar!

The next Tuesday we had our written exams. Six hours to answer questions ranging from, 'When was the first extant hardingfele built?' to, 'Discuss professionalism in folk music.' I was very happy with most of my answers and that's the best you can hope for on an exam like that. We get our grades tomorrow for the whole year.

Since the written exam we have had both really good weather (four days sun-bathing on our mountain beach) and heavy rain mixed with snow. We have spent a large part of our time rehearsing for the final concert that's coming on Saturday, and the rest of our time rehearsing for the playing exams. I've managed to squeeze in a few parties, cleaning at the dentist's office, and a hike up Falkeriset. I also helped out at the town bazaar yesterday - I sold pizza and hot dogs (including gluten free pizza and milk free hot dogs)!

The main topic of conversation these days revolves around who will be here next year and where we will live. I have wanted to live in the house in Nesland basically all year, but it wasn't a possibility until yesterday. I had in the meantime decided that I would really like to live alone, or rather that I thought it would be a bad idea to live with my classmates. I don't want to get sick of them, since they're the only people I see up here. Nesland is cheaper, but farther away; it would be with my classmates which means it would be more social, but there would be a greater opportunity to get tired of each other. What to do?!

Shetland!

2009-05-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

I met my classmates at the ferry terminal. The months preceding this trip had been filled with stories of a week of phenomenal jam sessions starting with the party on the boat. The rest of the class was concerned that if they had too much fun on the boat, they might ruin the festival ahead. Some of them went to see the on-board movie theater. A few of us took our instruments to the party in the middle of the boat; it was clear that the jam sessions were friendly, but not very Nordic. We retreated to the front of the boat to wait until it was ok to sleep there.

While my companions passed out on the couches, I tried to catch up on my blogging. That's when Andy found me. Our conversation went something along the lines of:

Him: Hey, there's a party in the middle of the boat, you should come.
Me: But I'm supposed to be watching our stuff. (with a vague hand gesture toward at least three sleeping classmates and a pile of instruments, snacks, and luggage).
Him: Right, but there's a party.
Me: I know, but the stuff...
Me: Wait! I'm coming!

The party in the middle of the boat was definitely in full swing. The ferry we were on brings the majority of the artists to the festival. Members of Frigg, Zar, and Box Club were definitely involved in the jamming. I sat with my new friends and listened. After a while the group I was sitting with started playing. They were clearly not the folkie type that plays fiddles; a couple gitars, song, and harmonica were present as well as recognizable blues hits. I made several new friends that evening and well into the morning.

We stumbled off the boat when it arrived and took a cab to the Youth Hostel. Reception wasn't technically open yet, so we hung out and waited for them with visibly low energy levels. Once the warden arrived to check us in, we found out that girls wouldn't be able to get into our room for another couple hours. We went off in search of food, abandoning our luggage at the hostel.

We found both our classmates who had been in Shetland for several days and food at the community center next door. By the time we ate breakfast and caught up with everyone (including meeting some of the other students who were taking part in the Nordic Tone project) it was time to pick up our keys. We took some very cold showers and headed back out for some exploring before the concerts started. By chance we found the preview concert, which was totally packed. So, we hung around the door, sweltering and getting our first on-stage tastes of the concerts to come.

The concerts that week were great. Great! But they were only a tiny portion of the festival. The concerts are very social events and the audience tends to wander around (usually to and from the bar) through out the entire evening. Each concert has between three and five artists - pretty much all of them exceptionally talented.

After the scheduled concerts people gather at the Festival Club to listen to more music (both unpublished performances by the main artists and other bands as well as jam sessions in every room and corner and stairwell). After the Festival Club closes at 5am (or a little before then) people wander off to house parties that tend to last until the restaurants open in the morning. The truly hardcore (not me) then go straight to the pub to continue playing after breakfast.

The festival planners don't schedule anything during the day. This leaves plenty of time for either sleeping during the day or sight-seeing. I did a reasonable amount of both. On Saturday, Birgit and I walked along the coastal path in search of seals. We did not find them, but we did get some good photos.

Sunday we went for a tour of South Mainland in less than inviting weather. It was windy and almost raining the whole time. We had with us our local guide, Cameron, whom I had met on the ferry and spent a fair amount of time hanging out with during the festival. A fan of music and Norwegian chocolate, he knew where to take us to squeeze the most out of our few tourist hours.

First stop - St. Ninian's Isle, connected to the mainland by the sand bar you see above.

Looking southward from St. Ninian's.

Next stop was Sumburgh, as far south as you can go on land in Shetland. The puffins just wait for you to take their photos. Below are a couple shots looking down from the point, next to the lighthouse.

After the final party on Monday (awesome music, but less fun due to the lack of a local guide), we scrambled to pack and get out of our rooms before check out. We went shopping in town. Some of us spent a few hours in the Shetland Museum; I recommend the museum as a stop at the beginning of the trip, if it's your first time to Shetland. Then we all piled in the hostel van and headed back to the ferry.

The boat ride back to Aberdeen was significantly less of a party, due mostly to the high waves we were sailing through. Nobody really wanted the festival to come to an end, but it's hard to play when the floor rolls out from under you. I slept happily under my new Shetland wool blanket, preparing for another day and a half of travel before finally arriving back in Rauland. I'm looking forward to next year's festival already!

A day in Aberdeen

2009-05-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

I arrived in Aberdeen after flying from Seattle via Copenhagen. It was a long, long trip that was not made shorter by the fact that I had managed to dump most of a glass of wine on my lap in the early hours of the first flight. Having arrived in Scotland, I exchanged what was left of my US currency and hopped a bus to the Youth Hostel.

That sounds pretty good, except I didn't really know where I was or where I was going. At least not at the level that I like to know these things. The result was not catastrophic, but I did wind up getting off the bus about ten blocks early and hauling all of my luggage along the bus route to the Youth Hostel.

I got checked in, stashed my stuff (up three flights of stairs), and decided to go for a walk. Seeing as how I'd botched being prepared arriving in Aberdeen, I figured I might as well be prepared leaving the city. I walked through a long street of shops (stopping for coffee and a sandwich) and made a sharp right to the harbor. I had acquired a map, so I knew where I was headed.

I was headed to the ferry terminal. I wanted to know if there were luggage lockers that I could leave my bags in during the day, since check out was at 10am and the boat wasn't leaving until 5pm. What I could see through the tinted windows didn't indicate the presence of lockers, and I didn't really want to appear too suspicious on the deserted dock, so I started formulating a plan B. That consisted of 'there must be lockers at the train or bus station' which I had walked past on the way down.

I went grocery shopping and tried to refrain from purchasing the whole store. I only needed food for one day and I already had coffee. (I bought coffee and a travel mug/french press in Seattle) I found myself with cheese, crackers, smoothie, and a couple bottles of water. I'd been walking for a couple hours by the time I made it back to the hostel, ate, showered, and crashed.

In the morning, I got up, had breakfast, repacked, and checked out. I took a bus to the bus station and asked about luggage lockers; they directed me to the train station a bus away. At the train station I paid £4 to have my bags searched and stored while I wandered around. I figured both the search and the price were reasonable.

Freed from my burdens, I headed off to the art gallery. There I made a painstaking survey of everything (just about) on the first floor. Then it was lunch time (spicy carrot soup!) before almost the same consideration was given to the upper floor. There was a lot more to look at on the upper floor and I was getting tired so I didn't quite study everything. Also, there were a few rooms closed. I suppose I'll just have to go back if I want to really see everything!

Having exhausted the gallery, I headed into the toasty early afternoon sun. I read in the park for a while. I drank coffee in a shop where the Canadian barista asked if I was reading Swedish. I bought a pen to write postcards and then wrote them. Then, I reclaimed my bags and headed back to the ferry terminal. It was time for adventure.

Leave them wanting more

2009-05-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

After three weeks in Seattle, I felt like I could really use another week there. I'd managed to see many of my friends and almost all of my family, but I would have liked to have spent more time with all of them. I managed to dance and fiddle, do my school work and relax. In three weeks, I slept in seven different locations, drank an ocean of coffee, and ate out an average of once a day.

Writing papers is a little like torture for me. It's not something I enjoy doing, even when the subject of the paper is something I absolutely love. Take for example the two papers I wrote while in Seattle - one on dance rhythms and one about singing for dancing Clearly these are topics that I enjoy talking about and have a strong interest in these activities themselves. I couldn't right the paper about singing until it was practically due.

(I was writing this on the boat to Shetland and at this point got coerced to the party in the middle of the boat. A story you will read later.)

I love Seattle. The people, the trees, the smell of the sea, the coffee shops, walks with the ladies, the weather (yes, really), everything except the traffic is great. December is a long ways away, but it will come and then I will be back home for another refill of life in the city. Until then, I have some good memories.

Staying with Warshaw family is always great. It is both relaxing and chaotic at the same time. I was fortunate enough to time my visit with passover, so I got to join them for their seder. Of course, my dad came too, and even on his best behavior (which he was on) he still manages to annoy me. Something about fathers and daughters, I suppose.

Springdans was fantastic! Lots of dancing, Norwegian and Swedish. It was fabulous to see folks I'd met in Sweden last summer. With a little bit of nudging we came to the conclusion that I can dance up again this summer, so I'm looking forward to that. Silver in Orsa, here I come! One of the highlights of the weekend was (after the traditional strip tease), of course, staying up really late playing music with Irene. She's just so much fun and so good! Not wanting the fun to end, I started scheming up a jam session for later in the week.

After camp, I spent a few productive days at Mom's. It was great to hang out with her, talking until late in the night drinking lambic and laughing. The second afternoon, Aunt Susie and Solvei came to visit. The weather was perfect and we crashed on the beach, watching the waves and talking about life. Those girls know how to have a good time. The sun went down, the beer was gone, and it was time for Susie and Solvei to head back to Poulsbo (Solvei had school the next day). Mom and I stayed up late again and I passed out after proclaiming that I wasn't tired.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by the feeling of a tail that was definitely not the cat's dragging across my foot. What followed was an hour long real-live cat and mouse game, essentially on the bed. I can't wait until Mom gets her cabin built. Of course, the cat (Finn the Hunter) won the game, with a satisfying, if revolting, crunch.

Back to Seattle for dinner in town with Mark A (way to represent!) and off to Anna's for a few days. If there's anyone who shares my love for chillin' like a villain, it's my best friend Anna. As an extra bonus it was her birthday, so we went out to as many meals as possible (not as easy as it sounds with a vegan). Then, to continue the Springdans fun, which Anna couldn't make it to due to work, we invited a star studded cast of the retired, self-employed, and unemployed to her house on Friday afternoon. It was a jam session for the record book and we could have kept going all night if we hadn't had to get over the the SCC to play the late night set at their happy hour.

Playing the happy hour is a very informal affair. You check with the Center to make sure you won't be conflicting with anyone and then you show up and play. The idea is to play for as long as people seem interested. After playing for 5 hours at Anna's, we played another two at the SCC. Almost all new tunes! What a day!

The rest of the weekend was paper writing crunch time and hanging out with the family. Both families really. I spent time with Sonya at the dental lab (holla!), had dinner with Mom in Ballard, one last night at the Warshaw's complete with Dad coming for dinner and the girls putting on a play. Perhaps a poor choice of pre-travel television, Mark and I watched 'Crashes that Changed Flight' until it was time to go to sleep. As much as I hate saying goodbye, setting off on the adventure to Shetland was exciting and I was really looking forward to getting back to Rauland.

Seattle Spring '09

2009-04-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Seattle three weeks ago to warm sunshine and the usual family circus at the airport. Christa had been suffering an allergic reaction on the airplane for most of the trip and hurried off to her hotel. I was thrilled and surprised that the whole Warshaw family had made the trek to the aiport to meet me when I finally emerged from having all of my bags inspected. Dad still managed to not be at the airport waiting for me.

After a family dinner with Dad, Sonya, and her boyfriend at Dave's Diner, I decided to stay with Christa in the hotel. Both of us passed out pretty early. We both got up pretty early too. Dad came to pick me up around 8:30 and, in spite of my double checking the room, I managed to leave my broken by the inspection agent wallet in the room.The ensuing two day search of all of my belongings did end happily with the recovery of the errant wallet.

I spent a few mornings a Cafe Senso Unico. I love to sit there, drinking coffee and reading, watching the world I left behind scurry in and out between meetings. Of course, they are the home of the most amazing coffee, especially the soy cappuccino.

Preparing for Reentry

2009-04-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

In contrast to the party I had on Sunday, the hotel party on Monday was a usual a drunken scene. I decided instead to dance like a fool, which was clearly the better choice. The plan had been to grill outside, but that plan was foiled by the weather (high winds are not ideal for BBQ). Instead we cooked in the kitchen and hung out in the lift house until 4am.

On Tuesday we set the program for our final concert in June and review masurka. I spent some time reading at the local cafe and then went to a friend's house for dinner. We wound up watching Finding Nemo in Swedish. It was great. I felt like I was in Sweden in the summer. That house is very cheery. I've got my fingers crossed that I can live there next year, or at least in the summer.

Wednesday was dance, first with the children (they are so cute) and then the adults. We have about ten kids coming to the children's group we started. I hope they keep dancing. The adults were visited by a couple very nice German tourists. I stayed up late packing and finished on Thursday morning.

On Thursday I took the long bus ride across Southern Norway to Oslo. Coming down from the mountains, the snow recedes and gives way to the grey brown gravel and mud underneath. Soon there will be leaves on the trees to hide the birds that are singing. When I return, it might even be Spring in Rauland!

A Weekend in Wonderland

2009-04-03T02:48:00.000-07:00

After school on Friday we went on an adventure to Åmot. That is, we visited the liqour store. We knew we had a big weekend ahead of us, but managed to not buy the entire store. We headed home, made dinner and took naps. Around nine we called for a taxi up to the hotel.

I wanted to show my friends where I work. The hotel is decidedly more interesting than the dentist's office on a Friday night, but it still wasn't that busy. We hung out with the rest of the staff that had gotten off work, complained about the music, and looked at the paintings in the lobby. The crowd never reached critical mass to hit the dance floor, but that could have something to do with the music never being dance music. We took a taxi home and crawled into bed, happy and tired.

Saturday was loaded with potential. We started the day with mimosas (and mimosa floats) which may or may not have influenced the brilliant idea to build an igloo. Six hours later we had rolled some monster snow balls and formed them into the first two layers of a kids' igloo, right outside Åslaug's window. We were freezing, but I can't remember the last time I've had that much fun.

We went inside for some hot chocolate and wound up taking naps. We hadn't quite decided what we were doing with the evening, but we were certain that we weren't paying cab fare up to the hotel again and figured the local pub would be a good change of pace. We were right.

The bar was about half full. People looked at us like we were aliens. We acquired beverages and sat down. After about five minutes, a couple local guys (one in particular) decided that Rania and Christa were about the most interesting thing next to snow mobiles and started chatting them up. Rania, who is married, made a tactical bathroom break, putting Christa in the hot seat. Christa happens to be a pro at dealing with drunk small town boys.

They were about five minutes into conversation when he proposed marriage, which Christa declined. When the bar was closing, his friend wanted to head up to the hotel. We went with them, because that's where the rest of my friends were. We piled into the cab, the oil engineer, the factory manager, the fishmonger, the musician, and the law student, and headed off to breathe life into the the party at the hotel.

Christa's new best friend wasn't very exciting once we got up to the hotel. He mostly slept on the couch next to her. It gave me a chance to relax and talk to all of my friends, and there was definitely more dancing that evening! We waited for the bartender to give us a ride home, since he lives around the corner from me.

Sunday we had another long breakfast, this time without the champagne. We packed a lunch for Rania and took her down to the bus. She had to be back in London on Monday morning. Christa finished rolling snow balls for the igloo, while I cooked for the party I was hosting that evening. Åslaug came out to help us put the last layer on the igloo.

Christa and I managed to take a nap before my friends showed up for dinner. Usually, we don't get to enjoy dinner together at the hotel, so it was really nice that they could come down and spend time talking. The season ends while I'm in Seattle, so I won't see many of them again. It's a little sad, but a good excuse for a party.

Christa left on Monday for a business trip to Germany. I'll meet her again in Oslo on Saturday and then we'll fly back to Seattle together. It's crazy to think how soon I'll be home!

Visitors from abroad

2009-04-03T02:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my wonderful friends Christa and Rania came to visit me in Rauland. Rania is studying in London right now and Christa made the trek all the way from Astoria. They had never met before, but the way the timing worked out, they were both available to visit me the same weekend.

Christa was scheduled to arrive from Sweden (where she had been visiting relatives) on Wednesday with the 6:20 bus. I went out to wait for it. A young man got off at the school, but I'd told her to get off at the student apartments, so I wasn't worried. I asked him if there were any girls still on the bus, and then if there was an American. He thought there was an American girl, so I went after the bus.

I walked up to the main road, thinking I might catch the bus there as it came back down from the rehabilitation center up the hill. When I didn't see it, I started walking toward the center of town. I walked on the road because I figured I would see the bus, and Christa, if it drove by me. It hadn't passed me by the time I got to the gas station, so I went in and asked if they'd seen the bus. After looking at me like I was crazy, they said no.

I headed back to my apartment. Slightly frantic, but telling myself the whole time that Christa is perfectly capable and it's not possible to get lost in Rauland. She must be coming on the next bus. I ate dinner and went to the evening concert. Not before considering calling or emailing Christa's company to see if they had heard anything from her...

The concert was Trio Nor, a star studded cast of Knut Hamre, Anders Bjernulf, and Arto Järvelä. As one can imagine, the concert was fabulous. They played individually and together. They played tunes that were related from each of their respective countries. They most certainly did not disappoint on the entertaining chatter.

After the concert, most of us were too shy to play solo. I had to run out to wait for Christa on the next bus, so I didn't get much time to dance. I headed back out into the cold mountain night with a glass of wine for company. Christa arrived at the student apartments shortly thereafter. I crammed some food into her and rushed her back down to the party.

Back in Årestoga, all of the students had started playing (strength in numbers), which left few people and not much space for dancing. That was fine, since I was excited to catch up with Christa. The jam session had taken an English turn, since we were also hosting a young English fiddler that week.

A tune came on that I really wanted to play. I had been talking to Anders Bjernulf and he said I could play his fiddle (mine was locked in the school). What a thrill! It is always a little awkward playing on an instrument you've never tried before, especially when it's such a nice fiddle. I must have looked terrified while I was playing!

On Thursday, Rania arrived on the 6:20 bus. She hadn't been stopped at the Swedish border like Christa, so she arrived on time! We had dinner with my roommate and one of the other art students. The art students had just finished all of their exams and were planning a party at my place that evening.

The party wound up being fairly low-key for once. A bunch of us sat in the kitchen talking and a bunch in Birgit's room listening to music. After a while, some more musicians (including the visiting Englishman) showed up and things got a little rowdy. Eventually though, it was time to go to sleep - especially since Rania had been travelling since 3am!

Weather update

2009-04-03T01:58:00.000-07:00

After my last post we had roughly a week of early spring weather. Then the snow came again. Ten inches in two days. It covered the ugly brown snow that had started to pile up on the sides of the road and on the paths. It also covered the ice, which made it difficult to walk.

The new snow lasted for about three days before the melting resumed. This time it seems serious. People have stopped talking about 'spring' and have moved on to 'summer'. The sun is warm, but we still have two feet of hard packed snow standing pretty much everywhere and the temperatures never get above 40F. Last year there was a snow storm on the 17th of May.

I'm in Oslo now, looking out the window of my friends' apartment. All I see is a thick wall of fog; at first I wasn't sure if it was the building next to us it is so solid and white. I took the bus here yesterday and all the way from Telemark, the snow is showing signs of retreating. It will be Spring when I return!

Spring's first attempt!

2009-03-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

While I have been particularly busy with school and work the past two weeks, not much of interest has really happened here. Last Sunday we were awarded 20cm of new snow over night. However, Spring is trying to let us know that it will come; we have had several days with temperatures over freezing which means melting snow. Right now it's even possible to see the pavement on the road!

The big news at work is that I've started learning how to tend bar. Friday night was looking pretty slow, so the bar manager told the guys they could go home (they just go downstairs, change clothes, and then sit on the other side of the bar) and I would practice pouring drinks. Almost as soon as they had started drinking (making them ineligible to help out), a whole crowd of locals came pouring into the bar. Trial by fire! Apparently, I passed the test. :)

At school we currently have about one assignment per week, which is a lot of reading and writing in Norwegian. On Friday we will discuss the various terms used in social anthropology. Monday we will be turning in a tune analysis. We are also working on our term papers that are due the end of April; mine is about tralling for dancing. It seems like I have a lot of work to do before I come home!

Return to the Regular Rhythm

2009-03-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

Rauland seems so much emptier now that the festival is over. We have returned to watching the road for entertainment. Now that it's winter there are additional forms of transportation that might pass by - we have the usual cars, bikes and tractors, plus skis, sleds, sparks, and scooters.

It has been relatively warm here the past few weeks. This causes melting snow during the day and heavy accumulation at night. So far, we have been fortunate that we haven't returned to the icy phase.

The path between my building and the road gets no special treatment from the snow-scraping vehicles. It's getting to the point where we might not be able to jump up onto the path from the road because the snow is piled so high. On the other hand, the hill isn't so steep on the way down, since it's been filled in with snow.

The excitement this week has been ordering our tickets for the class trip to Shetland. After I leave Seattle, I'll be meeting my class at the Shetland Folk Festival. We're all looking forward to a week of concerts and culture outside of Rauland!

Rørosmartnan

2009-02-26T04:56:00.000-08:00

To start with, Rørosmartnan is not just a folk dance and music festival. It is a full out market that takes over the town. There are craft booths and food booths and craft-food booths, guys selling fancy drills, lots of reindeer skins, and endless sausages, waffles, cocoa, and gløgg. Then there are concerts and dances on top of all that.

I arrived on Tuesday on the same train as Tom Sears who kindly pointed me up the hill to the cafe where my host was working that evening. I dragged my suitcase up past the church and met Sylvia. She gave me some cocoa and the directions to her house and off I went. I left my fiddle at the cafe because it was a long walk and I planned on heading out again.

I made it Sylvia's house, figured out which mattress on the floor was designated for me (she had eight people staying there) and headed back into the snowy evening. I walked past the cafe on my way to the hotel, so I picked up my fiddle, just in case. I was on my way to hear SVER play for dancing! I got to the hotel before they started and happened across them sitting in the lobby bar discussing their set list. I sat with the guys for a few minutes while I thawed and they got organized.

Playing for dancing at a hotel is not really very easy. First, they were playing in the bar, so most of the audience was sloshed. Then there was the large pillar in the middle of the dance floor which cuts down on maneuverability. Third is the floor itself was a typical concrete/tile job, so there weren't very many serious folk dancers taking part in the evening's festivities. I stayed content with listening to them play and taking a few photos. I was also exhausted and left when they took their break.

The next day, and every day, the middagsdans (mid-day dance) began at noon in Sangarhuset. Anyone who's been dancing in Norway knows that it's difficult to get a dance partner if you don't know anyone. Dance etiquette in Norway also indicates that once you're one the floor with someone it's polite to keep dancing with that person four or five dances (more if you're really enjoying it) and then suggest that you take a break after the next dance (or if a waltz or polka is being played). Fortunately, I knew two or three people that first day and that was enough to keep me moving most of the time.

Even if you're not dancing, in Røros it's fascinating just to watch the dancers on the floor. People come from all over Norway and Sweden (and we're a few Americans) to dance pols to the best Røros bands; you probably own their CD's - Glåmos spelmannslag, Småviltlaget, Brekken spelmannslag, Dalakopa. Sitting on the sidelines, you can see variations in all parts of the dance - and in four days of dancing there's plenty of variation to watch.

It's hard to choose what the most exciting part of dancing in Røros is. Is it the extremely high level of dance skill that almost everyone has? Dancing primarily pols for four days? Swirling around the dance floor like a school of sardines? The fabulous music? Dancing with friends? Dancing with friends you didn't expect to see? Dancing seven to ten hours a day without getting tired?

For me, the best experiences are those shared with people. That's one of the reasons I think dancing is so fantastic. One evening I was dancing with my friend Bjørn Sverre, who is a fabulous dancer with a lot of bounce in his style. I so admire his dancing that it was thrilling just do dance with him. But why was it so wonderful? One of my greatest joys is trusting the person I'm dancing with enough to give in completely and follow him (and the music) all over the dance floor. Bjørn Sverre commands this kind of respect and has earned my trust. He also leads so well that I find myself learning from him while we dance. There are so many ingredients that go in to making dance-magic!

The museum holds mid-day concerts. I went to 'Olav Mjelva and friends' which was of course excellent. And Bjørn Sverre gave a tour of Norway's bunads (he is fantastic to listen to, as well). I also saw SVER play packed into a tiny cafe with tons of fans; naturally jamming broke out afterward.

One evening I found myself in Kaffistuggu, thanks to Bjørn Sverre and an abundance of time. Kaffistuggu is an institution in Røros. It is a two story cafe with food and beer and lots of small spaces for musicians to play. And that is what happens during Martnan. The line can stretch for hours while people wait for enough space to get in. People packed close together, jam sessions pressing against one another like a car full of balloons. Walking through (if possible) one hears music on all kinds of instruments from accordion to hardingfele, played by everyone from local heroes to Swedens biggest stars.

The evening dances in Sangarhuset were essentially a continuation of the midday dances. On Friday night the evening was allowed to stretch until 4am with the much anticipated nattdans (night dance). Saturday's final dance was held at the high school gym, which has much less atmosphere and twice as much (or more) dance floor. It was strange to dance with so much space between the couples after dancing so close together all week. I guess it was a way to start saying good-bye.

When I got home from the dance that night, I fired up the wood stove. The girls I lived with were planning to have a little party to celebrate surviving Martnan - they had worked the whole week. When they got back we grilled hot dogs on the fire and ate candy and chatted. I got the distinct impression of a pack of cats lounging in the sun as we all sat there, exhausted and happy. One by one we started falling asleep and went to bed.

The real end of my Rørosmartnan story is the race to find a place on the train Sunday morning. Several hundred people line up on the platform waiting for the train to arrive and when it does, it is total chaos trying to get luggage and instruments and people onto the waiting train cars as fast as possible. The girls I was travelling home with and I all managed to get seats on the same car, which was a small miracle. Eleven hours later and very tired, we were home in Rauland.

Vinterfestivalen

2009-02-16T08:38:00.001-08:00

This past week the school organized and hosted the Rauland internasjonale vinterfestival (vinterkappleiken.com). We had the opportunity to take part in music and art classes, Norsk folkemusikklag seminars, concerts and parties. My class also organized a kappleik (traditional music competition) on Saturday.

I can say with absolute certainty that I have never partied so hard, worked so hard, and learned so much in one week. Especially not all at once. My current level of exhaustion is extreme, but I wouldn't have missed a second of it. In fact, if I could have figured out a way to sleep less, I would have.

The festival got started when the students (and teachers) from Nitra, Slovakia arrived on Monday night. We joined them at at the school for a welcome jam session that lasted until the small hours of the morning. I managed to catch Slovak fever, the cure for which is more Slovakian music and brennevin.

Tuesday was our day to prepare for the kappleik, before the festival really got started. We found the sound equipment and the stage decorations. We made sure we would have enough change in the cash boxes and money for the kappleik prizes. We had time for a walk through of the Saturday events. Then we met the Slovak group for a couple of hours of fiddle exchange before dinner.

After dinner, some of the Slovak students met some of us at Anja's house for tea. Eventually things drifted to her room where the instruments were. Anja jammed with the Slovakians while the rest of us listened and then we drifted back to the living room for another cup of tea. It was time to let Anja sleep, so we headed back to the party at the school, which hadn't quite managed to get off the ground until we showed up.

There were some Norwegians there, including my friend Olav who was teaching one of the music workshops during the festival. He passed his hardingfele around to the other Norwegians and there was lots of nasjonalspel and dancing in the lunchroom. This was clearly not the first time and nor would it be the last. After my stomach gave me a sign that it was time to go to sleep, I dragged myself away from the party and back to bed.

The festival started Wednesday with Olav's workshop. Not very many people showed up, which meant that I had time to attempt to learn the tunes he was teaching. In the afternoon, I took a singing workshop with Hill Romtveit, a local kvedar with an interesting repertoire and a great singing style. The evening event was a concert by the Slovakian and Romanian guest musicians at the local pub. After the concert, they sat in the corner and played and played and played. They played until the pub closed, and we headed back to the school to finish the evenings festivities properly.

On Thursday, I listened to the seminars given for members of the Norsk Folkemusikklag. The theme was 'Toward a common Nordic sound style?' The various lecturers had different opinions with regard to defining the cultural region in reference and the existence or source of a common sound ideal. The day ended with a lecture about dance in The North with respect to the topic at hand and was really quite interesting.

After the lectures and dinner, we all headed back to the pub for another folk music concert. This time with a North Sea focus, Gabriel Fliflet and friends played a whole range of instruments and a variety of styles. After the concert, I found my way into the little room with the Slovakian students and listened to complex ornamentation and rich, full harmony for hours. Occasionally, I dragged Lucia out of our little world and danced while Per Gudmundson played the seductive Swedish pulse of polska on the dance floor behind us. Naturally the party continued long after we got sent home.

Friday morning, bright and early, we tuned our fiddles again for a workshop in music from Shetland. We raced through a pile of tunes with shivers and burls. The afternoon workshop was back to Sweden with Per Gudmundson, followed by a dance workshop taught by Mats Nilsson. I didn't make it to the evening concert (it was the only nap I took all week), but I did manage to get my eyes back open and my dance shoes on in time to dance all evening.

All evening that is, until we closed the school and the teachers wanted us to go home so we could go to sleep. Stine said we could move the party to her place, so we did. Almost the entire festival showed up and crowded into her tiny kitchen and room (it's the same size as mine). Before I even managed to get in the door, there were fiddles out and people were jamming. All of the chairs had been removed because there wasn't room for them. It is so cold here right now, that I'd broken a string on the way up from the school. Fortunately I had an extra and threw myself into the fiddling. When the tunes moved to Shetland, I passed my fiddle off to one of the experts for a while; I got it back when the jam returned to Swedish music. It was a brilliant party, that ended with a lot of drunks, but fortunately, I had gone to sleep before it lost it's shine.

Saturday morning came a little too soon, but it was time for my class to put on a competition, so off I went. There was a lot of running back and forth in the beginning, but on the whole, we managed to pull off what looked like a reasonably organized competition. The judges were happy with our system; the competitors seemed at ease or at least not put out by our level of planning. We managed to finish early enough that the judges had time for an hour break before the concert and we were able to announce the winners and finalists in good time before the concert began. I didn't get to hear all of the concert, because I was busy making sure things would be ready for the final prize announcement. I did manage to hear Olav play (magical) and the see the first half of the Slovakians (they played and danced this time!).

After the concert there was dancing. It was easily the best dancing I've done in Norway. Ever. I was completely worn out, but managed to find the energy for terrific teledans, great gammaldans, and perfect polskor. I didn't stay until the end of the night, because I was so tired. I wasn't surprised later when the party came up to my house and I got out of bed to join the fun. Fortunately, it wasn't that much fun and I went back to sleep after about an hour.

We still have to tie up some loose ends, but all in all things went pretty well. On Sunday we cleaned the school. Afterward we had dinner with the remaining guest artists. That party wore long into the evening as well, but was much more relaxing and a perfect way to end a wonderful week.

Birthday

2009-02-16T08:26:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday was my birthday. In an effort to get prepared, I baked two cakes (well one cake and brownies) on Friday. Ok, the cake didn't really bake so much as rise up out of the pan and get burned while remaining completely liquid in the center. I made the decision to rescue the party by making a new cake, learning from the lessons of the first one.

On Saturday, I made cake. And Birgit made cake. And Mona brought cake. Eventually we had six cakes and ice cream to complement the dinner I made.

Dinner was deviled eggs, a couple of quiches, rice, and salad. I'd invited roughly eight of my friends for dinner and everyone else for dessert and party afterward. For me the highlight of the evening was sitting at the head of the table while everyone stood and sang the Norwegian birthday song!

The party continued until long into the night. We played games. We played fiddles. I got to talk to lots of people. It was a lovely way to spend my birthday, even though I missed my family and Seattle friends.

Time to think

2009-02-02T23:41:00.000-08:00

This morning (I started writing this a week and half ago) I woke up early to go to work. The advantage of getting up at 6am to wash the floors at the dentist office is that I have time to relax and really wake up before classes start. Today I had time to drink coffee, eat breakfast, and watch the sunrise.

The sunrises here start with the stark contrast of white on blue illuminated by the moon in the pre-dawn. As the sun creeps above the mountains behind me the blues slowly change to shades of pink and lavender, but the snow is always white. Once the sun has finally emerged from it's evening resting place, the blues return; now, the snow is almost blinding in its whiteness.

I appreciate the luxury of time to watch the sunrise in the mornings. I'm able to wake up and gather my thoughts before the day begins. On days when we have singing in classes I'm able to warm up my voice too. If only I could remember this in the evenings so I didn't stay up so late!

24/7

2009-01-31T05:17:00.000-08:00

Thousands of pictures and millions of words will never accurately describe the beauty those of us fortunate enough to live in Rauland are surrounded by constantly. Vinje kommune (where we're located) is home to a disproportionate number of Norway's artists and authors; they're here either because the landscape inspires talent or talent is drawn to these surroundings. There is ample evidence of both in these parts.

When I wake up on a sunny day (or a day that will be sunny) I walk into my kitchen and look out the window. The first thing I notice is how the mountain (Skarsnuten) completely fills my frame of vision. I want to take a few steps back in order to see the whole thing since the top is too high for me to see from my room. Instead I approach the window (floor-to-ceiling, which makes no sense from a heat saving standpoint, but we'll take it) and look out and the rolling white giant that slices the heavens off at their knees.

Sunsets here are equally impressive. The sky stays blue while every reflective surface (mountains, buildings, clouds) turn a rosy warm shade of pink. The lake, which is frozen over and covered in snow, turns into a huge pink disc. I do miss the rich array of colors we get in Seattle, but the simplicity of just pink between the long shadows is breathtaking.

I have always been a sucker for nighttime. When it snows at night you feel like the stars are descending from the sky to hibernate in the fields for winter. When it's clear, you can see them, safely in the sky. The air is so clear and there is so little light pollution that the stars really seem like they could fall to Earth. Last night was a stunning crescent moon; I tried to take photos, but they all turned out a little blurry. I'm no night photographer.

During the day, everything glitters. The colder it gets, the more the ice crystals sparkle in the sun. There are icicles hanging off of every building and car, varying from clear to mineral tinted greens and reds. Cloud cover means two things, warmer weather and more snow.

Burrs in my Side

2009-01-30T03:17:00.000-08:00

I think I have managed, to a substantial degree, to avoid complaining on this blog. This probably accounts for it being one of the less exciting personal accounts of life at school on the internet. I am going to take a moment to share with you, my dear friends and readers, what little I have to complain about, which should put all of the posts about the weather into perspective.

First, it is my opinion that the whole point of being here is, well, being here. By that I mean, attending classes, going to concerts, taking time to practice, and soaking up as much as possible of Rauland. It's not a big place, but it's got a lot of history. It absolutely infuriates me that so many of the other students here (I come up with at least 3 names without trying and that's almost ten percent of the student body) don't care enough to come to class everyday, or on time. Now, I am not the world's most punctual individual, and I am planning to take two weeks off of school to be at home in April, so I clearly don't consider myself the perfect student. But I find the disrespectful behavior of my classmates appalling.

Next: A cooling world economy has meant that Rauland's ski season has gotten off to a slow start. This means that I haven't been working at the hotel which in turn means that I haven't been earning nearly as much as I would like to earn. This is compounded with January being the month to buy travel tickets and a unwillingness to exert real spending controls has put me deep in the red for January. Fortunately, I'm operating on a fiscal budget that started in July and looks like it will stretch until June. Next year I'll have to find a cheaper place to live.

Third: I like to work on projects in teams, it turns out. This is a shock to me since I always detested group projects in school. What makes teamwork function is all of the team-members working enthusiastically (or at least working) toward the common goal. Our class project (Vinterkappleiken) is not voluntary, so it should go without saying that some people are more interested in it's success than others. Regardless of interest level, everyone has a job and it needs to get done now. The festival starts in ten days. I'm tired of being asked why we're having a meeting. We have meetings because they give people deadlines to meet. Without deadlines, work doesn't get done. If work doesn't get done, we look like a bunch of idiots come February 14th. My job as co-chair of the kappleik is to make sure that we don't look like a bunch of idiots, but I can't do that with barely half of the class participating in the planning process.

I also have some conflicting complaints about playing music. I really want to play more in small groups (playing with the whole class is nearly impossible to coordinate). I also want to play more solo for dancing. Allow me to explain the difference. When playing in a group, it is extremely important that everyone gets along with each other; communication is critical. We're supposed to be having fun, so it's vital that the group members enjoy each others' company and can find musical common ground.

I want to play for dancing alone because it's a much more personal experience and it's much easier to react to the dancers. Jamming with an audience annoys me; I also don't really like listening to jamming. It probably comes back to playing with people who have a similar viewpoint about danceability in music. It's one thing to sit with a group of musicians who have a similar background and repertoire and just play tunes - that can be great fun. It's another thing entirely to try to find common ground with other musicians while the dancers stand around, get bored, and leave. That kind of jamming should be left for kitchens and corners while the dancers and people trying to enjoy a beer can relax and enjoy their activity of choice.

Finally, my biggest complaint. Everyone who saw my apartment in Ballard knows that when I live alone, tidy is not a word most people would use to describe my living situation. I currently share a kitchen and I do my best to make sure that when I get something dirty, I clean up after myself. This is pretty easy since we have a dishwasher. The other girl in the kitchen doesn't seem to think it's that important. Actually, if I didn't clean, I don't know if it would ever be clean in the kitchen. I had finally come to terms with this, when she started eating my food. Not just practical sharing of more perishable items and things that are cheaper in bulk (milk, cheese, butter, onions, potatoes, etc.), but the expensive things like fruit, meat, and beer. Before the holidays, I don't think she went grocery shopping for three weeks. That's expensive in Norway. I don't mind sharing food, but I don't like stealing.

Ok, enough for now. On to more positive thinking!

January hi-lights

2009-01-29T09:50:00.000-08:00

The main attraction in January has been the snow. It snowed almost non-stop for two weeks straight. For at least twelve days we didn't see the sky or even the mountains. There are number of amazing things about snow, one of them is that snow falling never stops being beautiful. Another is that, unlike rain, snowfall is quiet. Of course, one of the more impressive things about this snow is that we got over two feet in just under two weeks (which I can say fairly accurately is all new since we had a period of warm days just before the long snow).

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. After we demolished the gingerbread cathedral, those of us who don't live at Nesland walked home in the moonlight. The sky was crystal clear and the moon was reflecting off the snow so brightly that our flashlights were superfluous. In spite of being 2am, we could see everything perfectly and everything was beautiful. The wind had blown the snow off the ice on the lake. The mountains cut the horizon so short that they seem like part of the sky.

Things are really starting to get busy now. The Vinterkappleik, which my class is responsible for, is in two weeks. Dancing will be starting again next Wednesday at the school, with a considerable increase in student organizing (that means me). My class will be playing a lunch concert next Thursday for a group of visiting high school students. Last night the second year class played a concert for us as a dress rehearsal for their West Coast tour.

I'll do my best to update more regularly! I'm sorry for the long pause.

Mis(sed)-adventure

2009-01-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, we were sitting around at the Schrøders', socializing between breakfast and dinner. There was bowl of unshelled nuts on the table and an implement that was clearly intended to be used to crack the nuts.

Jan's mother was enjoying herself cracking nuts, but eventually got tired. Being the squirrel that I am, I almost immediately began when she stopped. I hadn't cracked very many when I came to one that seemed uncrackable. But, I'm stubborn, so I kept trying for a while. Eventually I moved on to a new nut and that's when it happened.

First I should mention that this implement was actually a shellfish-cracker (having never cracked any shellfish, I wouldn't know). Apparently last year, they had managed to break two nut-crackers on the same nut and were reduced to using the shellfish-cracker.

In spite of being told many times to be careful, when I placed the new nut in it, I mis-calculated and squished the pad of my little finger. It only hurt for the first few minutes, but it left two small black blood blisters. Both of which are still visible, although one has been fading for some time now and the other has finally started fading today.

Limbo and a New Beginning

2009-01-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

I returned to Rauland before any of my classmates. Vacation was over, but school hadn't started yet. The holidays were over at the hotel and ski season hasn't picked up; the nights I worked were slow and short. The guests were mostly families with small children who didn't stay up late and party.

Fortunately, the beginning of the semester didn't wait too long. Classes are pretty much the same as last semester, that is, awesome. My goals this semester are to play more. I want to really improve both my individual playing and my group playing and that takes practicing. So far, I'm doing pretty good.

The first Wednesday of the year, was a staff party for everyone who works in the tourist industry here in town. It was really fun! We went on a bus ride to all the various locations (the hotel, tourist office, three ski areas) and ended the evening with free pizza, pool (the kind that doesn't involve water), and cheap beer!

Last Friday was both a great party and a sad event. It was time to break the gingerbread Nidaros cathedral. About twelve of us gathered to help with festivities. We played music and hung around until we figured we'd reached critical mass, wrapped a hammer in tinfoil, and let the main builders have at it. We did our best to eat a fair amount of it before returning to playing music late into the night.

Winter Break Part V

2009-01-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

It takes two buses to get to Trysil from Hamar. Fortunately, they're relatively short and inexpensive. I arrived on a bus full of ski tourists eager to get to their hotels, trying to jump off at every stop starting in the town before Trysil.

Else and her father met me at the bus station and we piled my luggage into the car. As usual, the Myhr home was full of friendly faces. In addition to the Else, her three siblings, her parents, and me, they were entertaining a visit from an aunt and uncle. While I was there the family received a constant stream of guests.

The Myhr family is extremely good at entertaining guests. Coffee and cookies are always around. Usually there is some kind of game played; we played lots of cards, Fantasi (think charades), a relative of Monopoly, and did I mention, lots of cards.

One evening we went on a road trip to Sømådalen to see a play. Sømådalen is about an hour and a half away from Trysil and is a very small place. From what I could tell, in the middle of the night, it consisted of an intersection with a community building and not much else. The play was put on by the theater club of local kids. They were presenting Trekkspillkrigen (the Accordion War), a rather bizarre story about bad meat and conflict between fiddlers and dance band music.

While in Trysil I made my first outing on skis in Norway. It's almost not worth mentioning, it was so short. We managed three laps around the small field by Else's house. In our defense, it was a delightfully beautiful day, but also a chilly -10C (14F).

We spent New Year's Eve enjoying each other's company in their cozy living room. At midnight we went outside to watch the fireworks the tourists were shooting off the mountain across the river. (It was really cold then -24C/-11F.) Once we were thoroughly frozen we came inside and started the new year with cheese and crackers and a movie.

I spent my New Year's Day on the bus back to Rauland. The moon was an amazing harvest moon that we chased all evening across Southern Norway. I arrived to an empty Studentheim, happy to be home and filled with good memories of my winter break.

Winter Break Part IV

2009-01-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how I'm in Norway and the plan was to experience Christmas in Norway, when Erling asked if I wanted to join him at a concert and then out on the town the second day of Christmas, I did not say no. Living in Rauland is wonderful, but I was really looking forward to a night on the town.

We arrived at the concert (a rock cover band that one of Erlings friends was playing in), and Erling knew pretty much everyone there. I spent the whole concert at the front of the stage. They were pretty darn good and I had a great time!

After the concert we waited an hour for the taxi into town. Fortunately we had plenty of clothes on because it was cold! Erling had had the presence of mind to preorder tickets to the club so we didn't have to stand outside for another hour. Inside, we danced and drank and had a good time.

Afterward, we wandered around Hamar in search of food - Erling found the baked potato cart, some of his friends found kebabs. I was more interested in not freezing to death. Eventually we found ourselves a ride back to Ottestad. We arrived at about the same time as Arne and sat up talking for a little while longer, not quite willing to give up on the night.

The next day, I took a walk around the area. In addition to the best sunsets, Ottestad looks like a place from a fairy tale when it's covered in snow. Later, I played music until everyone gathered again. We had dinner, prepared by Åsmund. I hung out with Alvhild and Jan. Erling and I played a final concert and Åsmund and Marianne drove me to the bus.

Winter Break Part III

2009-01-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

Let me start with - Jul i Ottestad was the best Christmas ever! We made pepperkaker (think gingerbread, but thinner) the first night. Alvhild had made the dough in advance. Rolling, cutting, and decorating was a joint effort from me, Åsmund, Erling, and Arne (Åsmund's brothers). We went for the speedy mass production effect, although there were a few individual pieces. The stack of hearts. A ukulele and electric guitar. Ukulele in relief!

On Christmas Eve, I went into town with Arne, Erling, and one of his friends. I bought violin and ukulele strings; they bought more presents. We sat for a while and drank coffee. I went on a mini shopping spree and picked up two shirts, a pair of pants, and a pair of tights in twenty minutes before we needed to leave town.

Family dinners included lots of laughter and good conversation. Before or after dinner most days, I played fiddle with Erling on piano. We found some sheet music and filled the house with happy music. I can't remember how long it's been since I've just played like that with someone!

True to Norwegian tradition, packages were opened on Christmas Eve. I wasn't expecting anything and was really shocked (and a little embarassed) to find my name on so many packages. I could tell that everyone had taken time to think about what I might like or need; all of the gifts were excellent.

Since Jan's parents were visiting, I had been kicked out of the standard guest room and found my way over to Alvhild's mother's guest room. This worked out really well for everyone. Not only was the bed particularly comfortable and warm, the family brunch was at Sigrid's on Christmas day. I managed to drag myself out of bed in time to be mildly helpful before the rest of the family arrived.

The highlights of the day were definitely the family quizzes. Erling and I somehow wound up as a team. A team that was ready to lose! The majority of the questions were about their extended family, a topic Erling was a little shady on, or more general Norwegian knowledge questions, where both of us were equally weak. There were also American questions, but I'm pretty sure I'm an atypical American, so those weren't really easy either. More clearly stated, we came in dead last out of the six teams. We also came in last on the geography quiz. There's always next year.

Later that evening we played a few more games. One was a board game about philosophers. We learned that the correct answer to all questions about French philosophers is Rousseau. Amazingly, Erling and I, with the help of Åsmund, did not lose that game!

Winter Break Part II

2009-01-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Oslo both hungry from not eating enough and queasy from being on the bus all day. Not a fun combination. The bus was a few minutes early, so Åsmund hadn't quite made it to the bus station yet. That gave me time to try to help a little old lady call her granddaughter (also named Ingrid) who was meeting her at the station. Åsmund and the granddaughter arrived at the same time and we all headed off to enjoy the holidays.

Well, Åsmund and I headed off in search of food. The restaurant he thought we could go to was closed; in the sense that a completely gutted storefront is a closed restaurant. We wound up eating cheeseburgers across the street from Bondeheimen. Marianne, Åsmund's girlfriend joined us just as her food arrived. Note, in Norway cheeseburgers come with corn and special sauce in addition to the cheese, burger, pickles, and lettuce; you really do need the knife and fork.

To make our Sunday evening in the city complete, we headed to the cinema to see Max Manus (see it when you get a chance). Then we headed back to their apartment and relaxed for a while. Åsmund hung up his laundry. Marianne wrapped his Christmas present. I lit Chanukah candles and played ukulele. In the morning, that is before noon, Åsmund and I got up and hit the road for Ottestad (just outside of Hamar).

We arrived to an empty house (only the dog, Tutta was home). We put our bags where they belonged and decided we needed to take a trip to town. Åsmund was after an almost last minute gift and we both figured it would be a good idea to stop at the liquor store before it closed for the week (this was a Monday!).

Winter Break Part I

2009-01-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

The first week of vacation I spent in Rauland. We had exams on December 11 and then people started leaving. Several left before the end-of-the-semester party, but most stuck around for the julebord turned party that lasted all night long.

By the end of the week, I was the only one left in the student housing. Fortunately, my coworkers from the hotel were still in town, so I had someone to talk with once in a while. On Friday (the 19th) I made dinner with most of the food I had that wouldn't make it through vacation and spent the evening socializing with my coworkers away from the hotel.

We realized that Saturday would be our only opportunity all year to go to the local pub. It's only open in the ski season and we work pretty much straight through the season. It was a reasonably unanimous decision to check out Krossen Pub the following night.

Our evening at Krossen Pub was relatively low key. Going out in Norway is expensive and Rauland is no exception. We were pretty much the only non-locals in the place and we did a good job of sticking out like four sore thumbs. We had a good time anyway.

In the morning I hurriedly packed my instruments and bags, cleaned the kitchen, chased down to the bus stop. I was on my way to Ottestad via Oslo!

What I miss from home

2008-12-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

People ask me all of the time if I miss home. I think this is an indication of how little people know about me. Of course I don't miss being at home. I am studying folk music, living in Norway. All I have to do is look out my window to remind myself that I am incredibly lucky to be here. This is a phenomenal experience that I am here to enjoy and learn from.

What I miss from home are people. People I care about. Fortunately, I can talk to them on the phone. It's not the same as sitting down with a cup of coffee or tea or a pair of fiddles, but it keeps away the home-sickness. I also miss good coffee, but that I can get in any reasonably large town, should I happen to be in one. I miss dancing as frequently as we do in Seattle, but that will be there when I come back.

Yesterday, I made the mistake of missing the rain. The sound of heavy rain drops beating into sidewalks, streets, gardens. And the smell! Even in Seattle, the smell I'm missing is more a springtime occurrence. I love to walk in the rain; the exercise keeping me warm, the water from the heavens keeping me cool.

Today it rained in Rauland. The foot of snow soaked up the precipitation in the places where it wasn't melting. The roads and walkways turned into sheets of ice as night fell. Piles of snow became solid frozen white walls. We were lucky this time. The rain turned to snow and adhered to the frozen paths giving them texture and traction. If it keeps snowing overnight, we can maybe forget that it rained by the time the sun comes up.

So many different kinds of snow

2008-12-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

The snow falls here almost every day. I am amazed by its variety. Some days it falls in great, big, fluffy flakes that float forever before they finally reach the ground. Other days the snow is angry and fast; small projectiles whipped around by the wind create patterns against the night sky. Some days I can't see that the snow is falling, but I can feel the icy precipitation on my exposed skin and hear it as it hits the ground and the hood of my jacket. Sometimes it's just purposeful; intent on covering the ground, it falls in large flakes fast and hard and straight down.

My favorite is when it glitters. I was walking home a few days ago and everything was glittering. The snow on the ground and the houses and the strange little trees they have suspended from the light posts. What was impressive, though, was that the air was glittering. In the background, the sun was setting turning the mountain rose-colored, but everywhere around me the air sparkled like it was full of diamond dust!

Early Morning Phone Calls

2008-12-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when the phone rings, even if it's the same phone (or computer in my case), with the same digital ring-tone, and caller ID indicates the same person is calling, you just get a feeling that something is different this time. Last Tuesday the phone rang at 7:30am, naturally it was my father waking me up from a very cozy sleep. Unnaturally, I answered the phone pleasantly.

"Have you read your email in the last few hours?" he asked. He still doesn't get that I sleep at night and he wakes me up, but I was still getting the vibe that this time, I shouldn't point out how irritating he is.

My father had sad news, although it wasn't entirely unexpected. His father, my grandfather, Alfred Hamberg, had passed away in the night. I wish I could say that he passed peacefully and without pain, but that's not true. I think that my uncle was there with him. My grandmother had seen him over the weekend. At 94, Opa lived a long, full life and had lots to be proud of.

The funeral was on Thursday, the same day as my mid-year exam. My cousin missed two finals. My sister took a red-eye across the country after she was done with her exams. I was the only one who wasn't there. There was no way I could've made the exam and the funeral. In fact, living in Rauland, it was unlikely that I could have left when I got my dad's call and made the funeral.

I hear the service was small, but nice. I hear that a lot of people came to visit my grandmother and my uncle at the apartment afterward. Sometimes I feel very far away from my family.

Exam time

2008-12-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday we had our first exam. The subject was music theory and ear training. I think it went pretty well. In addition to the exam, it was an awfully busy day; fortunately the fire drill was canceled, since it was supposed to be between rehearsal for the evening's concert and the concert.

My sections of the concert went pretty well. My group played the same two tunes from before, but we sounded better. I sang a solo that I had been stressing about all day. I really wasn't sure that I could do it for an audience, but it was sounding so good in the shower I just had to try! I'm pleased with the result; it wasn't the greatest performance, but it wasn't terrible either and I made it through the whole song.

The student spelmannslag played for some of the dancing afterward. That was exciting. There are about twelve of us, all operating on the assumption that some one else knows most of the tunes a little better. Fortunately, Ånon plays with us, so there is someone who knows the tunes a little better than we do. The dancing was good all evening, plus we were in the gym hall and not on the stone floor we usually dance on. Several of my coworkers from the hotel joined us for the party as well. It was a good time all around.

Since then we've been studying for our exams than are coming this week. Lots of reading, or trying to read. The study train got a little derailed yesterday when the ukulele's arrived. All 17 of them :D.

I also worked all weekend at the hotel. Lots and lots of guests means lots and lots of dirty dishes and empty glasses to wash. It's going to be really crazy when we get a little further into peak season.

Today I changed my ticket back to Seattle. I needed to change it from January 4 to April 4. First, I called SAS USA, but they were closed, so I called SAS in Norway. They said I had to talk to the travel agent. I called Travelocity and after talking to two very nice gentlemen, I decided that $1300 to change my ticket couldn't possibly be right and that I would need to call them back. Instead, I stressed out for a couple hours, waiting for SAS USA to open and then I called them. After a few minutes on the phone and a $300 fee, I am the proud owner of a ticket dated April 5. See you soon, Seattle!

Light

2008-12-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

Before I came to Norway for the first time (when I was ten) I imagined that everything here was colorless, like in a black and white movie. I'm not really sure where I got that image from, but certainly stories of the cold, dark winters and, well, black and white movies didn't help. In college I watched the old version of Hunger as part of my Scandinavian Cinema class; the light in that movie was what I was expecting things to be like. Boy was I surprised when I found the intense color palette. Pleasantly surprised, I might add. When I came a few years later, in the winter, I was also impressed by how light it was in contrast to the stories of darkness I'd heard.

Today, on my way to play for my practice playing exam, I was enveloped in a light that was so thin it barely made it through the clouds. Everything from the trees to the buildings to the mountains in the distances and especially the snow was black, white, or a shade of grey in between. I've never seen silver clouds before. Black ones, sure, but not silver; maybe pewter is more descriptive. They hung over the sky, holding in the horizons.

Somehow, the eerie lack of color didn't make me feel uneasy. In a way, it was rather comforting to know that the strange grey world my young mind had cooked up wasn't an indication of a lack of mental pigment. The stark contrast with Sunday's dazzling blue skies and glittering fresh snow was enough to remind me that I'm in a special place here amongst the mountain tops. If that weren't enough, after my practice exam (or perhaps during or before), the silver carpet lining the sky gave way to several hours of spectacular snowfall.

more photos!

2008-12-01T15:03:00.001-08:00

h;kj

A week in review

2008-12-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

This week there were concerts, parties, work, more work, and, oh yeah, classes.

Wednesday night we had a great hardingfele concert. Olav Mjelva and Per Anders Buen Garnås played a concert of solo hardingfele for roughly an hour. They make it look so easy! Their bows teasing the music out of the strings, applying just the right amount of pressure to create a clean crisp sound. Of course, there was a lot of tuning, but it's worth it when the fiddles sing like that!

After the concert, we danced to student musicians; I would rather have had them play the concert again so we could have danced to that! Then of course the party moved up to the studentheim. After a brief tour of my very clean room, we settled on the kitchen with a sofa. The party fell apart when someone broke the sofa (it's been fixed now). One of my friends crashed on the air mattress in my room and I headed off to wash at the dentist's office.

While everyone back home was celebrating Thanksgiving, I celebrated my friend Silke's birthday. We had pizza and cake, wine and conversation. She's from Germany and most of the time we speak English, which makes it easier for me to get in on deep discussions. I tend to understand what's being said in Norwegian, but I'm not quite fast enough to cut in to a conversation and make my point in Norwegian, yet.

Thursdays are also contain one of my favorite classes - Tradisjonskunnskap or Knowledge of Tradition. Ånon makes getting up on Thursday mornings after a late party really worth it. He knows so much about the traditions in Norway and folk music around the world that it's impossible to catch up if you haven't been in class to hear what he's said. He also has a phenomenal sense of humor that is terribly dry and helps keep me on my toes to avoid missing any good one liners.

Friday was a review day in Folk Music and Society. We also determined what our project topics would be for the year. Mine is going to be planning US tours for Norwegian folk musicians. Of course, I'll have to have at least one practical example, so I'll be writing more about that later! We rounded out the afternoon by making waffles and taking naps; it seemed like a practical use of time.

On Friday evening I started back at the hotel. We have a new manager and new coworkers and therefore a new system and new degrees of chaos. Things went surprisingly well, however. Things also went well on Saturday when I worked in the restaurant and then late into the night in the bar. Ironically, the fire alarm went off when we had the county firemen as our guests. Not to worry, it was a false alarm.

The best part of the week was definitely during the day on Saturday. I woke up to an overcast sky that was dumping snow all over our beautiful landscape. It was still snowing at one when we all met at the grocery store to purchase decorations for the gingerbread Nidaros cathedral we were going to help decorate. Then we all walked together out to Nesland in the snow. Once we got there, Hallvard and Ingebjørg got to work putting together the cathedral, the rest of the girls made pepperkaker, and the boys played music. After a while I changed tasks to help the other Ingrid grind the almonds to make marzipan. It was hard to leave such a cozy scene to head to the hotel! And the gingerbread cathedral - WOW!

On Sunday we went for a short walk so we could get a good view of the fresh snow. It's so beautiful here! The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and it was freezing cold. Since we'd gotten about 6 inches of snow the day before, it was easy to walk around again, so we allowed our feet to guide us to the finished gingerbread houses on display at the academy.

Tomorrow we are playing individually for our instructors. We aren't getting grades, but pretty much everyone is totally stressed out. It's terrifying to sit in front of people who really know what good folk music can sound like and play alone. I'm going to try to remember to breathe.

Two Ingrid's grinding nuts:

Hallvard, the architect planning his next move:The cookie factory:
Getting closer:

Mørketur

2008-11-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well, to follow up on the last post (I think), I did not get the extra lessons after the audition. According to Ånon, this is primarily because he is too busy and pretty sure that I have enough to work on with what I'm getting now. This is probably true. It also means that I still have time to work on playing the banjo, torader, and spoons in addition to my more serious instruments. (The ukulele's haven't arrived yet!)

This weekend I celebrated another weekend without hours at the hotel by visiting the crew at Nesland. Nesland is about 2km from here and 4 folk music students live in a charming house there. Not having a car, I walked with my fiddles in my hand and a backpack full of warming beverages and homemade applesauce. Fortunately, Egil, who also lives in the student apartments, had a flashlight function on his phone or it would have been very dark on the way there!

We passed the time watching most of The Pirates of the Caribbean and playing fiddles. The time really flew once we broke out the fiddles! By the time we started leaving it was closing in on 2:30.

It was really cold on the way home. Too cold to talk. And I was really glad that mom had sent me long underwear and that the Nesland crew had lent me a hat and a flashlight. The stars are amazing here; the nights are clear and there isn't much light to interfere, especially when there's no moon. It feels like the Big Dipper is going to swing down and scoop up the school.

Of course, we didn't leave before we had some applesauce. Don't ask me why, I'm sure it's cultural, but Norwegians really want to put applesauce on bread. I guess it sort of makes sense; applesauce resembles jam and Norwegians put just about everything on bread. Still, I would much rather have it fresh and warm on ice cream or just by itself!

Sunday I cleaned my room. I suppose that's not really that exciting, but it is worth mentioning. It was starting to get a little deep in here.

The high-light of today was definitely the dinner I made! Chicken curry salad, as close to Mom's recipe as I could manage. I cooked the chicken with perhaps too much curry and a little bit of coriander, salt and pepper. While the chicken cooled, I chopped up a quarter of an onion, a ton of celery, red grapes, and almonds which I toasted with a little olive oil and salt. I mixed it all together with less mayonnaise than I would have used at home and ate it with rice. Yum!

November is unstable

2008-11-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

That's what the dentist said to me last Monday morning while we were having a conversation about the six to eight inches of snow that were one the ground. At that point in time it was beautiful. And cold.

It stayed cold and clear right through the concert on Wednesday night. When we came out the full moon lit up the clear sky and reflected off the snow covered fields and roads like stadium lights. The stars were amazingly clear against a midnight blue sky.

On Thursday things warmed up a little. Just enough for the rain to fall in the afternoon and turn the entire town into a mud slushie. That was fine until the sun set (around 4pm) and the whole business froze. The roads, the shoulders, the pathways, and especially the treacherous little slope that the student organization intends for us to use as a our method of access to the road were all thick, clear, slippery ice.

Things remained in those conditions all weekend. Well actually, they got a little worse every day as the wind and time wore away at the snow that was left on the ground, leaving only the solid ice behind. We finally got some fresh snow Monday night, but it was too late for me to have escaped unscathed; I slipped on the ice Monday evening on my way to the school. Fortunately, I wasn't moving very fast and I didn't fall very hard.

The fresh snow on Tuesday morning was a welcome sign. Even with the ice underneath, it is much easier to walk on snow. Of course, all good things must come to an end and it rained again this afternoon. The road isn't looking terribly icy right now, but unless it snows again before it gets dark it will be impossible to get down the hill.

What I've learned about walking on the ice. Go slow. Take small steps, keep your knees bent, and keep your center of gravity over your feet. Hmm, sounds like dancing. Also, it's generally less slippery walking over vegetation (like grass) than the road or the path. I'm quite sure there's a scientific reason for that, but all I need to know right now is that it's safer. One more thing, if the ground crunches when you step on it, that is a good indicator that you shoe (or boot) has taken hold of something and it's less likely to slide out from under you.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-11-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a week!

Over the weekend, starting Thursday night, I took a fabulous course with Unni Boksasp. She is brilliant; her voice is amazing, she is a phenomenal teacher, and she is a really nice person. Over the course of the weekend she managed to make everyone in the class happy by covering pretty much every genre possible in Norwegian vocal tradition (from cow calls to religious folksongs). We also all got a fifteen minute private lesson with her. While fifteen minutes isn't a very long time, she did manage to give good tips and encouragement.

Unni gave two bits of advice I can pass on here. The first is it really is important to warm up if you're going to be singing for any length of time. Each day we warmed up for about a half an hour, and then another ten to fifteen minutes after lunch. Remember that you should warm up your whole body when you sing!

The second bit of advice is - enunciate. Enunciate everything until you think you've got it clear and then over enunciate a little bit more. Especially if you're tralling, the syllables are what drive the rhythm in the music and are very important. If you're singing for dancing (or dancing to singing) you can appreciate how important the enunciation of the rhythm is. That's not to say that everyone in a group has to use the same syllables in a trall, but that's a different topic...

Somewhere during the course of the weekend I managed to find time to write my first paper. Our assignment was to analyze a tune (Skjåken, track #3 on CD5 - Folkemusikk fra Oppland in the Norsk Folkemusikk series). I think the entire class made the assignment harder than it needed to be, but it wasn't easy. Also, the tune is enough to drive a person crazy after listening to it nearly 100 times in the span of a week.

If that weren't enough, we had auditions today for extra lessons. The way it works is if you're good enough to be worthy of extra lessons, the teachers will try to find the time to give them to you. Otherwise, you get a note saying something along the lines of, 'We think you have enough with what you're getting now.' So, I practiced like mad all weekend (between taking the course with Unni and working on the paper).

Today at 4pm it was my turn in the hot seat. I was up first and got to the room before the instructors. I had prepared four tunes, but was only going to play three of them. I was shaking like a leaf. This isn't particularly compatible with fiddling, but I didn't really have any options. I sat down, introduced my first tune, said some words about the tuning and played it.

They were tapping their feet. I made it through the rough parts. I remembered to breath. It was over! Two more tunes...

I announced them, still shaking, and began to play. I survived the first one and introduced the last tune. I played it. Finally, I was done with the ordeal! My mistakes were minor, but they were there. I wasn't playing for a prize, but I was playing for judges. I'll know by the end of the week if I passed that test or not. At least I tried.

Storm Weather!

2008-11-13T04:19:00.001-08:00

You might expect a weather update from that headline, but instead you're getting a concert review. Last night Rauland was graced with the rockin' presence of the Storm Weather Shanty Choir, http://www.shantychoir.com. The six members of the band sing to their own accompaniment on a variety of instruments. They sing everything you would expect from a Norwegian shanty choir. That is to say they sing shanties in Norwegian and English and sometimes a little of both. If you're lucky, you get to hear them sing sad songs about love lost; if you're really lucky, they break out their boy-band moves.

It seems natural that there is a healthy serving of audience participation in their performances. If everyone is going to be singing along anyway, why not make them sing out? Håkon Vatle, the head shantyman, is also a great performer and can get a crowd of any size singing and shouting and doing pretty much whatever he wants.

After the concert, we had the usual sequence of events. We clear the chairs, students play for dancing; people either dance, drink, or go home, and probably all of the above.

At one point, I was standing at the edge of the dance floor listening to my classmates play a really lovely waltz after a string of nordlandspols. It struck me that one of the things I'm really missing here is a really good waltz once in a while. I think I've danced one since school started. It's just hard to beat that feeling when the music is just right and you and your partner are moving perfectly together.

Rauland weather report

2008-11-09T23:46:00.000-08:00

Friday night I enjoyed dinner and conversation with my friend Anja and her roommates. It was snowing when I headed out to her house. It snowed while we ate dinner and talked about our teachers and classes. It snowed while we enjoyed ice cream over a lively discussion of religion and politics and future careers.

It was still snowing when I walked home that night. It was dark and beautiful, the snow making the whole world seem brighter in contrast. Best of all, it was quiet. Absolutely still. I took down the hood on my jacket and stopped walking just to enjoy the silence. It was cold, though, so I didn't stand around listening to nothing for long.

Saturday was a slushy miserable combination of snow and rain. It had its good moments though. I played with Iselin, then she helped me make applesauce. David came over and we played some more before making pizza. Then we watched a soccer match with Stine and Benjamin. It was nice to relax with my classmates.

On Sunday it rained and rained and rained. If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought I was at home. Of course at home, it wouldn't have turned into snow. Right about the time Marco and Mona picked me up for some singing and dinner (which turned into a few bottles of wine, good conversation, and me crashing in their extra bedroom) it started to snow again.

It seems to have snowed all night. We have roughly four inches of new snow and a real winter wonderland feeling. Of course, as the dentist said when I met him on my way out of work this morning, November is unstable, weather-wise. All we can do is hope that this snow stays. It's really no fun starting over with the ice every time it snows!

Weekly Schedule

2008-11-09T02:34:00.000-08:00

Since there was a request - here is my basic weekly schedule. I'm not actually sure we've made it through an entire week without some changes to the schedule, but this is the framework we try to follow.

Monday - Music Theory
Tuesday - Samspel, Vocal Tradition, Dance
Wedensday - Ear training, Individual lesson
Thursday - Tradition (covering all aspects except vocal), Spelmannslag, sometimes singing
Friday - Folkmusic and Society, sometimes singing, torader

Wednesday nights often have concerts. Sunday evenings the local dance group meets. We practice and play music and travel to festivals whenever we have the time, money, and desire!

From Sunshine to Snowstorm

2008-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

This week has been delightful. I got paid from both of my jobs. I made it to the doctor to refill my prescriptions. My prescriptions arrived at the gas station (there isn't a pharmacy in town). I ordered a ukulele. I stayed up late and got up early to watch the election. I attended the local spelmannslag rehearsal. We have managed to stay busy even without a Wednesday night concert.

We sang in classes this week. We sang and danced ballads (stordans) in our vocal tradition class. In our ear-training class, we sang the whole hour! And, we had a really great hour of singing in our singing group.

Until today, the sun has been shining. Bright sunshine filled the clear skies at lunch most days. We sat outside and soaked up the rays, surrounded by the picturesque campus coated with a thin layer of snow. I wouldn't call it exactly warm, but it wasn't cold either.

Today the snow came again. I was a little worried this morning when I headed to class, since the precipitation began as rain. By the time lunch rolled around it was definitely snow and lots of it. Hopefully, I don't have to worry about ice anymore for a long time!

This weekend promises to be relaxing and productive. I have a few practice dates lined up, but with the hotel closed, I will still have plenty of time to relax and read. I've got to rest up for next week - we'll have a concert by Storm Weather Shanty Choir and then I'm taking an extra course in kveding from Unni Boksasp.

Folkemusikkhelga i Suldal

2008-11-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend I enjoyed a trip over the mountains to the West with two of my classmates. We descended to sea-level on the bus (I hate traveling by bus) to Sand in Suldal, which is in Rogaland.
Sveinung's mother was the course organizer for the weekend, and also let us stay at her house. Over the course of the weekend, Sveinung and I took a kvedar (singer) class with Halvor Håkanes and David took hardingfele with Arngunn Timenes Bell (who is the sister of one of our classmates here in Rauland).

After we arrived on Friday, we unpacked and then headed up to Mo Laksegard where the courses were held and where most people were staying. Like Seabeck, they have houses that people sleep in, you can order your meals whether or not you're staying there, there's a small but functional bar, two fireplaces, a pool for warmer times of the year, and a dance hall.

We got straight to work on Friday, singing a few soothing melodies; a lullabye or two and a couple of stev. I raised the excitement level by getting locked in the bathroom during the break. I, like most people, lock the door when I use a bathroom. Somehow, the wrong key had been placed in the lock. After several minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, to unlock the door, I was about ready to call for help when several other class members arrived on the other side of the door.

We sent the key out the window and they tried unlocking it from the other side. Eventually the solution became clear. I would have to exit the bathroom the same way as the key. They brought around a chair and faster than Sveinung could get my camera, I was out the bathroom window and back on solid ground.

The rest of the weekend was considerably less exciting, but fun nonetheless. We learned a bunch of good tunes (stev, ballad, and slåttestev) from Halvor. We learned Suldalspringar, which is a super peppy dance. Saturday night was a presentation of everything we had learned, plus the teachers played solo. Some folks played for dancing after the concert as well.

On Sunday, we finished the courses in the morning and then began our bus journey home. We finally arrived in Rauland and made the decision (David and I) to go straight to dance. We were already a half hour late. It's always a small crowd, but it's fun and it's good to dance on a Sunday evening. Last night was the first time I've played for dancing and that was really fun.

This morning I was going to get up early to wash at the dentist's office (at 6am). I was in the middle of a dream about being late for a doctor's appointment when suddenly I woke up and realized that it was far too light outside to be 6am. It was in fact 8am. I had time to take out the garbage and vacuum, but that was all. I guess I was tired from the weekend!

Winter Concert

2008-10-30T13:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we got our first real taste of winter. Sure, it's been snowing off and on for the past month, but it's always melted. Yesterday we got a couple inches of snow during the day, and a few more at night, this time it's really staying. Walking in the snow is good for balance!

Here's a photo of the charming path we get to slide up and down between the school and the student apartments (also a photo of where I live). My room is on the second floor, on the far side of the kitchen which is the part that sticks out in the middle of the building.

Of course, there was some snow on the ground when we had the fire drill:

Monday morning, sunrise from the hotel:

Here is Anna warming up for the concert:

It seems to help her play torader!

Our concert when reasonably well. No huge mistakes. The rough spots from rehearsal went better then expected. The audience was all friends and classmates (and teachers) so they were very encouraging.

Afterward we danced and played the night away. Eventually we moved the party up to the student apartments where we had a slight change of genre. We played fiddles, banjo, spoons, and, definitely not least, the egg shaker until the very wee hours of the morning. Everyone was invited to the party, because you can hear the noise we make throughout the building!

Update, continued.

2008-10-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

After the fire drill on Wednesday, we had an evening concert with Nobody's Jig. Their performance was overshadowed by the best night I've had dancing here in Rauland. I danced and danced and danced and didn't play my fiddle at all! This week, we have a rotation for who is playing for dancing, so no one gets stuck playing all night and everyone gets a chance to dance.

Over the weekend I worked and worked and worked, and then I partied. Let's start with the working. Friday night the hotel had a 9 person Irish band from Stavanger (I think). Every room in the hotel was booked. The entire town was at the party. They drank us almost dry. The hotel had purchased several pony kegs of Guinness - they were gone before the evening was over. The guests also drank almost all of the regular beer we had. It was the party of the season!

Saturday was much, much calmer in the bar and the restaurant. There wasn't any live music. Just some very drunk Lithuanian carpenters, a handful of hotel guests, and a few locals. On the way home that evening, we found one of the locals attempting to walk home. I would guess that it's about 15km from the hotel to where we dropped him off. His buddies had disappeared and he was determined to make his way home. For a drunk hitch-hiker, he was a pretty entertaining guy.

And then there was Sunday. I started the day (around noon) by working at the dentist office. Around five we met up and headed back to the hotel for the staff party. Free drinks and food, games, a scavenger hunt, one short speech, and dancing. It was a great party. I spent most of my evening talking with a nice Swedish guy, who is a friend of one of the cooks. That is the time I wasn't dancing, chasing around in the snow and the dark looking for the clues we were supposed to find, or dancing some more.

Anja and I had planned to head back to town (either get a ride or take a taxi), but with a little incentive in the form of free lodging in the hotel and friendly conversation, we managed to spend the night. Naturally, we made it to school on time; before the instructor in fact!

We spent Monday learning tunes from Leiv Solberg. Today we worked on our concert program. Wish us luck tomorrow! We've got a big day and night ahead of us.

Whoah! Where has the time gone?

2008-10-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been a little busy. Let's see, since I last wrote I had a few more days in Kristiansand. I had my (very successful) shopping excursion. I bought winter boots, several work shirts, and hand cream. My last night in Kristiansand I got to attend a birthday party. The birthday girl was 92, she is the mother of the relative I was visiting (her husband was related to me).

Then I was off to Linköping and the Linköping Folkmusik Festival. If you are ever considering a Fall trip to Scandinavia, this is a phenomenal festival. Let me say that again. It was outstanding! Fantastic concerts, three dance floors with great music, and workshops during the day. It was really unbelievable how much they packed into that weekend. For me the highlights were Vegar and Patrick (like Anna and Ingrid, they don't use their last names; they just have an award winning CD or two to show for it), Frikar (OMG wow), and did I mention - THREE DANCE FLOORS!! Nätt og Jämt gets an honorable mention on the highlights list, especially since they played one of the dance stages. I recommend going with a group of friends that dance, or totally alone. I had a pretty good time getting dance partners when I was alone, but it's always more fun to dance with your dance-buddies.

I don't recommend driving to Linköping. At least not from Rauland. It took us 11 hours to get there and longer on the way home. At least we got to sing the whole way there and back!

Upon returning home, we cast ourselves back into the extremely busy rehearsal and class schedule. Our first concert is tomorrow and we hadn't really started rehearsing before then.

I, of course, also have two jobs to occupy my free time. This has a number of benefits. One of them being that I'm too busy working to spend money (or energy) partying. The other is that I'm earning money at the same time I'm not spending it! Two weekends ago, the hotel had a group of 140 members of a single's club as guests. I'll let you use your imagination regarding their behavior.

That Saturday, I started helping in the bar after dinner. I don't mean pour drinks or taking orders; I mean collecting the empty glasses and washing them, chilling them (we don't have enough glasses for them to cool to room temperature before they are needed again), and putting them back out so the bartenders can pour more drinks. This works out fine because I get a ride home from the head bartender. At 4:30am

Last week was mostly more of the same: Rehearsals, classes, cleaning at the dentist's. The highlight came mid-week with the fire drill. I'm used to fire drills where the alarm rings and everyone files out into the parking lot waits for the signal and returns to class. In the corporate setting we file out, get a latte and come back. In Rauland, we sat through a twenty minute presentation covering how quickly a room can succumb to fire and the various uses of all different types of fire extinguishers. Then we filed out into the parking lot (without an alarm). The instructor, clad in fire fighting gear, set out several hand held fire extinguishers, poured a few liters of gasoline into the large square metal container he had placed in the middle of the parking lot (at a safe distance from everything), and lit it. Then we got to practice putting out a pretty ferocious fire. Every time someone put it out, he'd light it again, until everyone had had a chance to practice putting out the fire. That's a fire drill.

More soon - I've got to check the laundry and get ready for tomorrow's concert!

On the road again

2008-10-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I left Rauland for a few days travel during our fall break. Right now, I'm visiting family in Kristiansand. In order to get here, I rode with a friend to Drammen and then took the train. This is not the most indirect way to get to Kristiansand, but it certainly wasn't the shortest way! It was, however, cheap! The most exciting part of the train ride was that I managed to get some reading done while on the train - usually this makes me motion-sick. Maybe I'm growing out of the motion-sickness!

Gunnar and Magnhild met me at the train station and we headed back to their house. We had dinner followed by watching the news. I sort of wish I were still hiding in my news-free bubble in Rauland! In between newscasts (Gunnar watches them all) we looked at wedding photos from a couple years ago when Håkon (the oldest son) and Mari got married. It was a beautiful summer wedding in Finland.

Today's plan was supposed to include going into town to go shopping. I got a late start and decided shopping could wait for tomorrow - I would rather practice today! I do need winter clothes though. And shoes. And work shirts. This trip to the city was rather well timed!

Snow!

2008-10-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

I realize that I'm going to have to get more descriptive with my titles. Last night it snowed it town. Here are some exciting photos from around 10:30 when I dragged myself out of bed.

From the kitchen:
From the dentists' office:

From the dentists' office looking at the Studentheim where I live:
This afternoon when the sun came out (again from the kitchen):

Tips from Music School

2008-10-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

Use a microfiber cloth to clean your fiddle! It picks up rosin like magic!

Tvaddehæg

2008-10-04T04:17:00.000-07:00

No one in my class seems to know what tvaddehæg means. It is a local word that seems to represent the weekend market that is happening in Rauland right now. There are booths outside with everything from traditional silver to pea soup to elgsnæks (that's moose jerkey). The invited the students from the university to come play, so of course we were there too!

Stine and I were the first brave souls to arrive. In case you didn't read the last post, it is really cold around here. Almost too cold to play outside. The organizer found us a mildly sheltered spot next to a couple of very friendly llamas. We played for about half an hour until our fingers were about to fall off. During that half hour we talked with some locals, were interviewed by the local newspaper, and received a variety of looks from the townspeople.

Snow

2008-10-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

There is snow on the mountaintops now. It is important to mention that I am not particularly far from the mountaintops. I expect we'll get snow here soon! And the autumn colors on the trees are just phenomenal right now!

On the way to town:
From my window:
From my kitchen window:
From my kitchen window in the morning:

The frame

2008-10-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

When we teach Norwegian dancing in Seattle (and other places I'm sure) we often talk about the range of accepable expression in a particular dance as being the 'frame.' Each dancer is encouraged to find their own style within that frame. This is what keeps the tradition alive and prevents stagnation.

Here in Rauland one of my two favorite questions is 'what is folk music?' We are all pretty sure we know it when we hear it, but everyone has a canvas of a different size and shape. Some are more conservative and feel that only pure traditional music belongs in the folk music category. Others are a more open and accept anything that includes traditional instruments or is inspired by traditional music. Our textbook includes community control in the mix of what is folk music.

On Saturday night at the Norwegian Folk Music Awards in Oslo, all possible combinations of folk music were presented. As I listened to Valkyrien Allstars play after they recieved the prize for the folk musicians of the year, I felt my personal frame stretch. Perhaps it was because I'd never heard them sound so good live before (the whole festival was plagued with less than fantastic sound). They weren't just playing rock music on hardanger fiddles; they were really playing hardingfele in a traditional style, but arranged for a 2008 rock audience. If you haven't heard them, I recommend it. And while you listen, listen for the folk music roots at the heart of it all.

FolkeLarm

2008-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

There is so much to write about FolkeLarm I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll start at the beginning.

On Thursday we drove to Oslo. When we arrived we took the easiest, although perhaps least direct route to the house where we would be staying; that is to say we drove around almost all of Ring 2. Once we arrived we introduced ourselves, made a trip to the grocery store and the liqour store (good beer!), and made a couple pizzas. Then I headed back downtown.

Volunteers got free festival passes, so I volunteered! My first job was to sell tickets at a small cafe on Thursday night. I got to hear SYM, Svanvit, and the Gjermund Larsen trio. The were all great! Afterward, I wandered off to meet my friends and ran into most of the members of Sver on the way. I caught the last couple minutes of Unni Boksasp's performance before that venue closed and the party moved on to a new location at a club on the 11th floor of an office building.

The following evenings were similar; fabulous music (Sver, Vallravn, Storm Weather Shanty Choir, Valkyrien Allstars, Einar Olav Larsen trio, solo concerts, etc.), late nights and a city atmosphere. I had moved to a hotel downtown after the hour long walk home (the trains weren't running when we headed in) and sleeping on the floor. This made it that much easier to soak up the bands, the dancing, the coffee shops (I had four soy cappuccinos!), the shopping, and meeting people from all over the world interested in Norwegian folk music.

Saturday night was the Norwegian Folk Music Awards ceremony. Sunday night was the obligatory and beautiful church concert (Anne Hytta) followed by the folkmusikkpub 'for those who haven't gotten enough'. I hadn't gotten enough so I stayed for both! The jam on Sunday night was worth the whole weekend :)

I soaked up enough inspiration in Oslo to last for a good long while. It's easy to lose oneself in a practice room for hours if you set your goals high enough. Just to be sure that I stay inspired, I will be travelling to Linköping in two weeks for their folk music festival.

Fast Forward

2008-09-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

It appears that since I found myself employment, I have also managed to be too busy to write much. I'm going to aim to mention all of the highlights, but there have been a lot of them!

On Wednesday the 17th we had a concert here in Rauland. It was a very classical representation of folk music. Most notable from that evening were the Israeli backpackers and the after-party which sparked my interest in the banjo. Yes, I said banjo.

The weather in Rauland (yes this is a highlight) was phenomenal that weekend. We had temperatures up to 30C in the sun. We had good weather all the way until the following Wednesday and that was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened here all week.

On Wednesday the 24th the school hosted a conference titled 'ancient techniques - new asthetics'. My class spent the day before with Tapani Varis, the Finnish munnharpa (amongst other instruments) player. His teaching and the lectures on Wednesday were thought provoking and interesting.

That evening we were treated to a concert of former masters students. Brit Pernille Frøholm presented contemporary hardingfele music. Øystein Sandbukt dazzled the crowd with tunes based in Nordmøre tradition laced with jazz tinged improvisation. Annette Thorsheim stole the show (in my opinion) with music from hardingfele tradition (springar and rull) played on torader. That was a concert!

On the way to the lake:
Totak!
More Totak:

Happy Summer Birthdays!

2008-09-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

I will write more soon. I just want to say, Happy Birthday Emily and Olav, we are celebrating in Rauland with 30 degree (C) weather. Also, Happy Belated Birthday to Josephine and Wes.

You can't know everything about anything

2008-09-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

Bergljot Roswick was my first dance, particularly song dance, instructor. When I was four years old and ran from the sidewalk into the parade to join the children's dance group, it was Bergljot who welcomed me (and my mother carrying my one year old sister) sight unseen. She wasn't young then and over twenty years have passed.

She taught me so much, not just examples of songs and dances, but about the associated traditions and her personal history. Her passion and respect for Norwegian music and dance captivated me. I danced through middle school, high school, college and beyond. I'm studying folk music in Norway and plan to write my term paper on singing for dancing. There are countless individuals who have supported me throughout the years, but Bergljot's influence shaped the path that my life has taken.

She didn't have an easy life, but she lived it well. As a school girl, she and her classmates would dance in secret in the classroom while the teacher was out to lunch. As an adult she worked as a nurse, while teaching dozens of children and adults to dance. When I dance and play and especially when I sing, I hope that I am making her proud. This is the tradition that she shared with me and I will do my best to share and protect it.

So long as we're talking sheep

2008-09-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

In the evenings, when it's really quite here, the only noise is the sound of the bells on the sheep as they make their way through the darkness.

Geitebondelag

2008-09-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

I now have two jobs. The first, as I may have mentioned, is cleaning at the dentist's office. It is awesome. I walk across the street, take out the trash, clean the sinks and toilets, vacuum, mop, make sure things look clean, and I'm done. The second job is a little more intense.

Somehow I thought that 6.5 hours of work a week might not be enough, so maybe one more day a week wouldn't hurt. Anja had mentioned me to the head waiter at the Rauland Høgfjellshotell and that's about all it takes to get a job there. I hadn't exactly expected to be working as a waitress this year, but then again, I was hoping to not work at all!

The first few two days (last Thursday and Friday), went reasonably smoothly. Roughly five hours each of serving drinks and clearing plates and washing dishes. Saturday night, however, was a different story.

Let me start by saying we are massively understaffed. I'll continue with at dinner on Saturday night we had roughly 130 members of the Goat Farmers' Association (Geitebondelaget) in addition to an automobile club and other hotel guests. We served all of them a four course meal, and beverages. There were nine of us working in the entire restaurant. We managed to get everything cleaned and ready for breakfast by 1:45am. All of those salmon dinners and lodge bazaars paid off finally!

Since yesterday was Sunday, we had dancing in Rauland. Yay! A few more locals came. Perhaps in a few weeks we'll get to critical mass to have some real open dancing! This evening I taught a dance class with one of my classmates, Anna G. She's an exceptional dancer. We taught several of the other students Rørospols and then Anna shared a half hour of halling tricks.

En liten tur på Falkeriset

2008-09-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 6, 2008

Sonya's visit was again brief. She left in the morning in a Taxi to Åmot, since the bus doesn't run from Rauland on Saturday's and we didn't figure that out until too late on Friday night. It's really nice to have visitors, especially Sonya!

I had plans to go on a little walk in the mountains. Since we don't all have bikes (and I can't ride one) we were going to walk to the base of the mountain (4km) on the road, then in and around a little way where we would find a trail up to a plateau. That was the plan according to Anja.

Just as we got to the turn-off, Marco pulled up in his car. He said he could join us, but we'd have to come back to his place first so he could change. This gave us the opportunity to meet his girlfriend, so we jumped on it!

Once we were on our way, we realized that it would have really been impossible for us to do all of the walking ourselves. Between where Marco picked us up and the trail head, it was an easy 12-15km. Then there was still the fun part!

We parked the car, put on warm clothes, and headed up the trail to Falkeriset. In places it was really muddy. Anja and I got our feet completely soaked. It was worth it though. By the time we got to the top, we'd eaten wild blueberries, seen fantastic sights, and made it over 1000 meters above sea level!

Sonya's second visit -and more!

2008-09-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I came home from my trip into town to register with the police and apply for a work permit only to be scared half to death by my impish sister who was hiding in my bed. This was an awesome surprise, since I didn't really think she'd come back here. We are kind of in the middle of nowhere...

That evening we trekked out to Nesland, where half of the second year class is sharing a house. It's not really that far, but it takes about twenty-five minutes if you're enjoying the scenery or a beverage while you walk. We were there to celebrate the SVER concert that was going to take place that evening.

That's right, I said SVER. Norway's power band featuring, amongst others, Olav Mjelva, made a trip to Rauland the same day as Sonya! How perfect is that!? Their concert was unbelievable; it made some of the audience cry and everyone was tapping their toes.

After the concert it was open stage as usual. There was dancing and music and merriment. We were treated to a jam set by the members of SVER. Just before the end, I got to play a little with Olav - always a good time. Somehow the party found its way to the common area that Birgit and I share; I don't know when the last people left, but I went to sleep around 2am.

Farsund

2008-09-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

From where we are (in the center of Norway) it takes 9 hours on the bus to get to Farsund where I was going to a music festival (Nordsjøfestivalen) with six of my classmates. We had a good time on the bus, but were really happy to finally get to Farsund. We were less happy when we started walking in the dark with our small orchestra of instruments the 2.5km to the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel and got our room assignments. All the girls (5 of us) in one room, and the boys in another. Fortunately, the hotel was really nice and there was plenty of room for five girls. We could also walk straight out of our rooms to the pier where some of us played music and some swam and some just got a head start on the party.

The second year students and instructors had some concerts. There were also concerts from bands around the North Sea. Really awesome bands. Lots of concerts! My recommendations for listening are Benedicte Maurseth for Norwegian and Fiddler's Bid for Shetland music. Of course, I've already made recommendations for Bruvoll/Halvorsen and RUSK. One of the better concerts was two of my instructors and titled 'songs they don't play on the radio'. Eight concerts in one day - and that was just one day!

I saw a several friends at the festival that I didn't realize would be there. The best surprise was Håvard. Even better was getting to listen to him play Saturday night during the buskspel! The evening parties were pretty fun. Hard to go wrong with friends and music!

The bus trip back was really long, but we made it. The worst was the train; I always feel ill on the train between Kristiansand and Bø. Luckily, we all got dropped off at our houses and no one had to schlep instruments too far. Man, was I happy to take a shower and crawl into my comfortable bed!

Sonya's visit II

2008-09-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Sonya got to visit the dentist. This was after she came and had lunch with me at the school and met some of my classmates. I decided that more people need to meet Sonya, so I invited everyone over.

Later, I decided that we should have something vaguely American, but not to cheesy to share. What could be better than chocolate chip cookies!? Sonya and I walked to the store again for ingredients and proceded to bake several dozen cookies. My classmates and friends came over and we wound up singing until just after midnight. We also decided that we needed to start some kind of choir.

Thursday was a bit of a rush. Sonya and I were both leaving - Sonya for Oslo and me for Farsund. Neither of us packed the night before and we had laundry that needed to dry! Fortunately the laundry in the dryers was dry, so ours could go in. We had lunch and a few more good laughs before catching the bus and saying another hard goodbye.

Sonya's visit I

2008-09-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the main subject - I have been a little busy and I apologize for not updating for a whole week... Sorry. Now, back to what I've been busy with!

Monday was our first real day of class. We spent several hours learning about folk music in society. We talked about possibilities for our projects. Some of us took music theory. Then I had a few hours to stress about Sonya's arrival before my next distraction.

The next distraction was dinner with the international students from Notodden. After dinner, the second year students gave a concert for the visitors and we had a small party. I played some after the concert with some of my classmates. If I hadn't been worrying about Sonya, it would have been awesome.

I left the party at 9:45 to wait for Sonya. It was dark and cold and raining a little. I kept running up and down the stairs to see if she'd sent me an email. I saw the bus go by so I figured she would be here soon. After three minutes, I hadn't seen her yet, so I went upstairs again to see if she'd left a Facebook message. I was a little panicky. Then, I heard the gentle sound of small plastic wheels on pavement from the road below. She had arrived!

Right away, we made some food. I didn't exactly have tomato sauce for the spaghetti. It was more like stewed tomatoes. Cold. Plus some cheese. Good thing she was tired. Then I blew up the air mattress. And we went to bed.

The next day we tried to go for a walk to the lake. We didn't find the lake, but we did go on a lovely nature walk along the road heading toward Åmot. We saw some interesting mushrooms and a slightly squashed beetle.

Vinje Rundt

2008-08-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

August 22, 2008

Today we (mainly the first year students) went on a bus tour of the county. My favorite fact is that there are approximately 1.2 people per km2. We stopped at Vinje, the place the county is named for, and got a history lesson and performance from Åsmund Nordstoga. Awesome. A little further up the road we stopped and looked at an exhibition of paintings from Draumkvedet and Sondre Bratland told us the story and sang a few verses. Again, awesome.

Vinje Kommune is attractive to artists both because there is such a rich history in the area and because there is a lot of open space. The open space happens to be stunningly beautiful. While a five hour bus tour may have been a little long, I can't choose anything I would have left out. I also spent an extra half hour looking at the sculpture museum that is about five minutes up the hill from the dorm, so I couldn't have been too burnt out!

In the evening, I made dinner and had some friends over. Then I went downstairs and played hardingfele. They taught me some easy tunes and then I taught them three Finnskogspols. They sound pretty good on hardingfele! We were joined by a ukulele and guitar and a small audience. It was really a good way to end the week.

Today we play & Back to Bø

2008-08-23T03:19:00.000-07:00

August 21, 2008

The main focus of Thursday's classes was learning tunes and playing together. We did that all morning and part of the afternoon. Then we were assigned instructors and there was the optional class in beginning music theory. I took the music theory, mostly because I figured it would be helpful to know what everything was in Norwegian.

After class I got a ride to Bø from one of my instructors, Ragnhild Furholt. The drive takes an hour and a half and it is difficult to get there and back in one afternoon on the bus. I was really glad that she was willing to take me as a passenger. I tried to keep up conversation, but as we wound our way down the mountain, I began to feel more and more carsick and talking much just wasn't an option. It all worked out and we made it into town without any major catastrophes.

In Bø, I collected my suitcase. By that I mean, I walked into the basement of the student home that was the motel I'd stayed in during the Telemarkfestival, grabbed my suitcase, and walked out. It was that easy, and I'm glad no one else had done it! Then I waited at the bus stop for three hours and couldn't make phone calls because the phone card wasn't working. I did get to talk to a very nice lady who had had a rather irritating day travelling on the late Norwegian trains.

Back on the bus, I tried to sleep. That didn't exactly work since the lady behind me was talking incessantly in a very high-pitched whine. I was also worried about the connection in Åmot. I shouldn't have been.

We pulled into the bus station in Åmot and the only vehicles parked in the bus zone were a minivan and two SUV's. I was trying to decide if I should ask someone if the bus to Rauland had left, when the guy with the minivan asked where I was going. When I said Rauland, he pointed to the first of the two SUV's. It's a pretty smart system. In day time I haven't seen more than six people on the bus; why should they spend the gas on driving a whole bus up the mountain when they could just send a small vehicle? Needless to say, I was the only passenger heading to Rauland and I got delivered back to the dorm.

Once inside with my suitcase, I started unpacking. Suddenly, I have have doubled my wardrobe! It's like going shopping without spending money or trying things on! Plus, now I have batteries and chargers and dictionaries that I didn't have before. Hannukah in August!

The first day of classes

2008-08-23T03:16:00.001-07:00

August 20, 2008

The opening ceremonies went as to be expected. There were several inspirational speeches, the instructors and support staff were introduced, and we had roll call for all of the students. That afternoon we broke into our classes and went over the syllabus for the first semester. There are eleven students in first year folk music; we come from five different countries and play an entire orchestra full of intruments. After that we had library orientation and we had made it through our first day.

The first night was a welcome party. The second year music students and the instructors played during the first part of the evening. The teachers sold beverages. We were in Årestoga, which is a reconstruction (I think) of the type of log buildings you see all over Norway; this one has a small entryway for coats and shoes and a rather large main room with a stone floor. There was easily enough room for the roughly 60 people in attendance to sit at the tables with a cozy dance space in the center.

Once all of the second year students had taken their turn, the first year students were encouraged to come up and play. Timidly, a few of us left our seats, got our instruments and started to tune. A few second year students joined us. We played for at least an hour. We played whatever came up first. If someone didn't know it, they hung in there singing or playing chords until the melody hit them. It was great fun until the instructors sent us home at 11.

Birgit had announced that the after party was at her place, which, when you have that many people over means that it is also in my kitchen. I thought that was a splendid place for an after party. Three of the hardingfele students broke out their instruments and played until the early hours of the morning. They had a huge repertoire in common and it was amazing to sit and listen to them, in between talking with people and trying to get the moths back on the correct side of the glass.