Cabins and Perogies

Looks like I haven’t posted in a while, not because I don’t have much to write about but because believe it or not I have been busy!

Friday my roommate and I invited 3 girls from Ghana over for dinner.  We made delicious carrot patties with salad and baked potatoes.  We were soooo full afterward but had to suck it up because for dessert we were invited to some Russian girls’ home for Russian pancakes.  They were similar to crepes with lots of toppings, mmmm.  This is a traditional way to celebrate the beginning of Lent, in Russia.

Saturday we invited everyone over to celebrate a Norwegian friend’s birthday.  For some reason it quickly turned into a Russian themed evening where we tried some Russian treats including raw fish (like sardines but larger) and some marshmallow cookies.  They also brought some non-alcoholic drinks; one was made of wheat and is a perfect summer beverage (I thought it kind of tasted like bread soaked in vinegar) and the other was a green soda, which tasted good.  Then we had some Russian shots, which were interesting: a cucumber was cut into a shot glass size then filled with vodka, tomato juice and salt.

Cucumber shot; healthy drink!  You can see the "eppelsin juice" container in the back. 
You would think that "epple" means Apple but nope, its Orange juice...
this still confuses me every time.

Then I spent until Tuesday in a rented cabin a 40-minute bus ride out of the city.  It was a great way to relax from a long weekend and the view was magnificent.  It is located on a fjord overlooking beautiful mountains.  I went with two Danes and a German.  We spent the time chatting, cooking and relaxing.  We had had lots of snow prior to then so there was about a foot on the roof.  The cabin is not used often so when we got there we got the fireplace going right away.  After a few hours when the place was nice and cozy, the heat must have dislodged the snow from the roof because it came crashing down.  It was incredibly loud and it took a while to figure out what the noise was!  It was only a foot or so of snow but it made me realize how scary avalanches would be.  We thought the snow was done falling until the middle of the night when it happened again and woke us up; my heart was beating so loudly!

Before leaving we signed the cabin’s guestbook but only after looking through it myself to read past comments.  One of them was from a couple that had previously visited my school, UNBC in Canada as visiting professors.  They are from New Zealand and do a lot of travelling, but regardless, it was unbelievable not only that they travelled to the same small random northern Norwegian town as me, but stayed in the same small cabin (of which there are many to choose from).  Speaking of small worlds, my German friend from here and I have a mutual friend that I had gone to school with in Canada.  Somehow, of the 7 billion people in this world, and the 500 friends I have on facebook, these 2 friends of mine, who live on other sides of the world from each other, are friends.  Mindblowing.

This is the view from the cabin.

For those of you who have ever lived with me, you know that I love perogies.  I usually buy them frozen and eat them with boiled veggies… super easy.  Turns out perogies are very popular in Canada but not many other places.  No one here (except the Polish girl) has ever heard of them.  Anyways, this morning I woke up with the biggest craving for perogies so after class I headed to the store to buy some ingredients.  For those of you who have ever seen me attempt to cook, you know more often then not, my cooking doesn’t turn out so well.  The recipe I was following said it would take an hour but two hours later I had 2 dozen successful (enough) perogies to share with my roomies for dinner.

The icicles have been interesting lately.  Some are formed when it is very windy out so they are shaped almost horizontally from rooftops.

I have a break from school at the end of March to mid-June.  I have been thinking about where I want to travel in Europe since I got here.  There is a super cheap airline that makes flying to any country from Oslo extremely affordable so any where in Europe is really an option; especially since any other country is guaranteed to be far less expensive then Norway.  I have finally decided on spending time in Ireland, Scotland (maybe) and England (London).  I have a good friend to stay with in London and some other people to visit in the UK.  Also, being from Canada I figure visiting England is almost necessary.  3 Canadians I know from high school will be in London at the same time I plan on being there so it will be great!  Also, March 23-25 my University is paying for a snowboard trip to Sweden!  I am loving Norway!!