Back in the mountains

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!

Mørketur

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!