Archive for the year 2010
Snowmobiling in Norway Posted by kari on Dec 14, 2010
I am embarassed to say that as a born and raised Minnesotan, I have never ridden a snyscooter (snowmobile, as they say in northern Norway, otherwise snøskooter or snøskuter elsewhere in the country) in Minnesota. Many of my friends and acquaintances own snyscooterer and spend a significant amount of time on them during the winter…
Fridtjof Nansen Posted by kari on Dec 9, 2010
Nansen (Oct. 10, 1861-May 13, 1930) grew up nearby Christiania (now Oslo), where his interests in expeditions and the outdoors blossomed. At age 2, Fridtjof was on skis and later skates. He broke the world record for skating one mile and for 12 consecutive years won the cross-country skiing championship in Norway. As a boy…
Airport language in Norwegian Posted by kari on Dec 4, 2010
I have spent quite a lot of time in flyplasser (airports) in the last few months, so I feel it is appropriate to write a post about words one frequently hears and uses in a flyplass. You will find that many of the words and phrases in Norwegian are similar to English. For instance, before…
Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish-mutually intelligible Posted by kari on Nov 30, 2010
Most people give me a very strange look when I tell them that I speak Norwegian. They give me an even stranger look when I say that one of my majors was Norwegian. After the look sets in for a few seconds, they typically ask, “why?” A simple, straight-forward and fair question, although I get…
Air travel in Norway Posted by kari on Nov 23, 2010
Norway is an extremely long and narrow country. If you look at the map, you will see that it really isn´t very far from Bergen to Stavanger, Ålesund, or Trondheim. It takes a long time to drive to most places in Norway, whether it be on the coast or in the mountains. However, as the…
Winter weather in Norway Posted by kari on Nov 18, 2010
Now that we have had our first snø (snow) here in MN after a long, warm, and beautiful høst, I´m definitely getting in the spirit of vinter and jul. Although I was very disappointed to have to leave Norway recently, I was happy to narrowly escape the normally scheduled and very prompt arrival of vinter…
Culinary vocabulary in Norwegian Posted by kari on Nov 16, 2010
I just started working part-time at a restaurant and wine bar called Fermentations. If you are in the vicinity of the metro area or southeastern MN, I highly recommend it. It is quite a liten restaurant (small restaurant) in kind of a dumpy area outside of where I live. It´s a gem in the…