Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Inversion Posted by kari on Feb 17, 2009
In Norwegian, sentence structure is fairly painless. Normally, the parts of speech follow the same pattern as they do in English. Subject, verb, object. Han går til butikken (he goes to the store. Jeg spiser frokost når jeg våkner (I eat breakfast when I wake up). Notice that the til (to) and når (when) fall after the…
Traditional Norwegian Cuisine- part 1 Posted by kari on Feb 12, 2009
Tradisjonell norsk mat. Bland and fairly simple, but delicious. Until the last half of the 20th century, Norway was a very poor country. Its people had to make do with what they had-namely meat, fish, and potatoes. Potatoes would actually be the main dish of a meal, with meat or fish and sauce added as condiments. Of course, as…
Bokhandleren i Kabul Posted by kari on Feb 3, 2009
Perhaps some of you have heard about the book Bokhandleren i Kabul (The Bookseller from Kabul) written by Åsne Seierstad in 2003. Seierstad traveled to Afghanistan two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks and lived with an Afghani family for three months. The head of the household, Shah Muhammad Rais, was a bookseller with many wives. Bigamy…
The dark side of Norway Posted by kari on Feb 2, 2009
Most of what the average person hears about Norway is positive in nature. Norway is the land of the midnattsol (midnight sun), fjorder og fjell (fjords and mountains), havet (the sea), a country of magnificent beauty. Norway is also very well known for taking care of its people with excellent health and social welfare programs. Life…
Norske kroner Posted by kari on Jan 29, 2009
Today I’m going to give alle dere (all of you) a lesson on Norwegian currency aka. norske kroner (Norwegian crowns). Norwegian currency, like most, consists of both paper bills and coin. There are a few things I’ve always appreciated about Norwegian currency. I think it’s brilliant that the bills are different sizes and not only are the coins different…
Brown cheese Posted by kari on Jan 24, 2009
Gjetost or Gudbrandsdalost are the two most common names for this delicious Norwegian cheese. You might also see it spelled geitost or if you are in Sweden it would be mesost and in Denmark myseost. Ost means cheese, geit or gjet means goat and Gudbrandsdalost means cheese from the Gudbrandsdal valley (dal is valley). Many…
Vidkun Quisling-‘the Hitler of Norway’ Posted by kari on Jan 23, 2009
Vidkun Quisling is undoubtedly the only Norwegian individual (and among but a small number of individuals regardless of geographic origin) for whom a noun has been created. The name “Quisling” is synonymous with “traitor.” I’m sure many people have heard somebody referred to as this, but I would be willing to bet most people don’t know…