Te uită cum ninge decembre...

...e ziuă şi ce întuneric intr-o sambata care sub obisnuitu-i cotidian ascunde farmecul zilelor de sarbatoare ce se-apropie. Si poate ca mirosul iernatic al crengilor de brad, caldura luminilor care incep sa se iveasca in dreapta si stanga sau cate-un mic spiridus saltand prin zapezi in recrutare de reni ne-aduc pe unul sau pe altul un pas mai aproape de Craciun. Iar eu, chiar daca aud doar ploaia cum bate la fereastra, mai simt inca zapada de ieri scartaind sub talpa cizmelor de iarna, ghicesc gheatza ce se zbate sub patura stropilor prea calzi si presimt linistea de maine, cand totul va straluci din nou intr-un alb de poveste. Cu alte cuvinte, I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…

… just like the one we’re going to have this year! YES. I decided that given a white pre- and a white post-Christmas time (even if I’m cheating a bit, by being in Norway now), the Christmas time should definitely be white as well! So when I get on my plane this Thursday and fly all the way south-east to Budapest, I am determined not to forget all about snow, ice and winter but to rebuild the hope of a Norwegian-weathered Christmas in Timisoara. Until then I am enjoying my last days of 2007 here in Trondheim, after a rather full past week, with my 1. Julebord, the 1. December, 1. skiing this year, 1. Norwegian language course “exam”, 1. Aquavit taste and finally my 2. Julebord.

Julebord

Strangely enough, Norwegians like to celebrate Christmas before it is actually here, and don’t wait until the 24-25th to get stuffed with food and alcohol, but train over a period of around one month for the Christmas dinner. You find Julebords (= “Christmas tables”) everywhere – friends julebord, company julebord, department julebord, sub-department julebord, sports club julebord, language course julebord, other friend julebord, university julebord, santa’s julebord, elk’s julebord, and so on until you finally reach the Jule-Julebord, the supreme challenge. As for me, I must admit that I haven’t been training too hard, and missed one or two practices, with some regrets about missing the Pinekjott, the Ribbe and definetly the Aquavit.

1. Decembrie

Romania’s national Day is of course a day of great pride and importance for everybody in the world, even if they don’t know it yet. Some lucky ones get picked every year and join Romanians all over the world in their celebration, benefiting from insider privileges, being offered a taste of mamaliga and a sip of tzuica. This year the Romanians stroke again and five brave youngsters organized a feast in the city of Trondheim overwhelming their Norwegian, Dutch, Japanese and Peruvian guests with salata de vinete, salata de fasole, salata de ciuperci, bulz/balmos/ceva cu mamaliga, tochitura (ca la mam-acasa), prajitura, cozonac, vin fiert and of course tuica… They did not join the initiative of their brothers in Spain and failed to start a hora around the house, not to be blamed, considering the weather conditions and extremely dangerously surroundings (there is no ice in Spain!!!).

Skiing in Oppdal

… is great!!! Especially if you get the one day with sun in one month so that you can really enjoy the fresh snow that fell just two hours before your arrival. And even though is it by far not as big as famous stations in Austria, France & Co. you get far more out of it by the enormous off-piste options you have without needing to compete with hundreds of other skiers looking for virgin spots as it is not crowded at all! Plus, on and off the pists, you don’t have to worry about people cutting your path: the only direction is down, and it’s faaast! And finally, you can always stop to enjoy the sight of elegant telemarkers, flying down in dream of snow… I guess it must be true: Norwegians are born with skies on their feet.






... citeste-mi ceva de la poluri, te uita cum ninge decembre...

November

While a silent and dark war between autumn and winter is going on outside, I’m baking sjokoladekake and finally dropping some blog-lines. I must admit that it’s quite easy to be lazy when the evening starts at four o’clock, after the sun’s unconvincing short journey along the horizon line ;)



Two weeks ago, I went to Røros, far into the country, close to the Swedish border. Røros is a former mining town (copper mining), on the UNESCO world heritage list, with small black wooden houses, a huge wooden church and a mining museum. It’s a very cold place in winter, my car got a strong taste of ice and snow on the way there, we had the chance to walk in white frozen surroundings and envy the owners of a spark (some kind of bike-sledge). We got to see traditional Norwegian bunads (cloths) in the church and the miniature miners working in the Røros museum’s undergrounds.

Last weekend it was time for another koia trip, that turned out to be more extreme than expected. It started snowing on Thursday and by Saturday even Trondheim’s streets were all white and icy. But our great motivated international troop (the seven nation army) was ready to get onto the Tydal bus at 9 a.m. and head towards the Holmsåkoia. On our way there, it kept on snowing happily and I kept on congratulating myself for having left Wü home. All in all, we had a very cosy weekend in a four stars koia, after a two and a half hour long struggle with knee-high snow (we didn’t have skis :( ), during which some received the graceful title of path-makers. The four star koia was worth its fame: We had the best crepes ever on Saturday (the cooks spend three hours ín the kitchen), got to enjoy the French cuisine under an Italian cover (Sunday was pasta day), some had the chance to taste the Finnish sauna and we all enjoyed quality piano music all trough the weekend. We all bravely survived our way back (the path was already covered with fresh snow on Sunday), but we were very disappointed to arrive in a melting Trondheim in the evening… Hopefully new snow is on the way, I'm a faithfull supporter of team winter and my skates are very anxious to get out there :)

Snø

Today I finally got to see fairytale-snowflakes, in Frau Holle size. One minute I was looking out the window, disappointed of the everlasting rain, the next one a white universe took over. The shy, almost transparent snowflakes kept getting bigger and bigger until everything turned white and the playful feathers took over the sky, the trees, the ground, the grass, the people, our world. And we – we were gazing out of the window, staring at the hard-working Frau Holle, hoping that she would have infinite pillows to shake…

Høst - My first post

It's autumn again, or almost winter in these Norwegian surroundings (had the first snow 3 days ago, quite amazing :) ) and if the sun dares to shine for some hours, it's the most beatiful høst ever - the grass stays green here all through the 3 "warm" seasons, creating an amazing blue-yellow/red-green contrast. Have some pics.
Had a barbeque (!) on friday at work, the brave Norwegians stayed outside and grilled the pølse (saucisson/wurst/carnatz) , we (Takaya, Iwe an me - Japan, Holland, Romania/Germany) - confortably inside, waiting for the food, enjoying a glass of beer/wine (Best wine ever, I won it at our lottery, nice, red, from Chile - must add that 1 "cheap" bottle of wine - which u can only get in special shops - costs around 10 Euros) ... In the evening we went 2 watch a theatre play, Norwegian students as actors (very professional !), really enjoyed it and had the impression I understood almost everything, only to find out that I had missed the key point... Na ja, almost got it... Talking about the Norwegian language, it's incredible how bad I am at learning it. Literally not able to understand people talking. It's much easier when I read, a lot of german words, just a bit different, always ok to get the meaning from the context. But speaking is a whooole different story... Hmm... Hoped that I would be able 2 talk fluently in 2 months (before coming here), now my goal is before Christmas. I am still confident that it'll be perfect (sau asha :)) by the time I'll have to leave.
Had a very very relaxed weekend (still managed 2 clean the house), with mexican food, great omelette breakfasts and hopefully climbing tonight; only quick steps outside, trying to stay away from the unfriendly weather (det bloser, det regner alltid!) Used to remember the "indian summer" in october, with warm, lazy days in the sun, here it's more like the october version of november rain. Interestingly not as depressing :)
Added some pictures from our climbing trip and our fjelltur (a greeeat tour) , the landscape really amazing, and we even saw a jerv (not xactly a polar bear, but similar :) small little beast, jumps around the mountains, only 260 left in Norway, quite dangerous if man alone, looks like a small bear or like a bursuc (?) never saw a bursuc before...) !!!
What elsee... The pic on the right (me, Trondheim and the bike) - the 2 other main characters are Trondheim's big cathedral (might be quite famous, some kings are burried here, the biggest in Norway, unfortunately still didn't get the chance 2 see it from inside 1. because I'm lazy and 2. because they ask money for it on regular days so I have to wait 4 a concert/a mess) and my great bike, the best ever, 100% Hollandrad, no gears, only Torpedo break, greeeat to use :)
Erik's sister is visiting next week, will be happy to finally see her perform live (she's gonna play in a cafe here in Trondheim) and also quite curious to hear about life in Oxford. In 2 weeks Virgil is coming, bringing my brand new jacket ;) , some calitatea 1. bunica jams (syltetøy) and hopefully some wine :) Also, some volleyball games are on the schedule and climbing in between (think I'm even getting better now :) ) And work, of course, my project is going quite well and who-knows maybe I'll even achieve my goals :)
Promise 2 keep u up to date and post a word from time 2 time!