To put it simply, I’m having the time of my life. As I said before, I couldn't be happier that I made the decision to take a gap year to come to travel. I've really had a great time here, and I'm learning new things everyday! However, there are also some tough times that have come along with the experience too. Along with being an exchange student comes a wide range of ups and downs, so it has been quite an adventure so far. At the beginning of the year, we were told that the Christmas holidays would be the hardest time of the year for exchange students because we are reminded of everyone and everything at home. Well, they were right. I had a tough week or so around Christmas time where I was missing everything that was familiar about my American holiday season. Thankfully, I have a great host family and friends here that kept me occupied and having fun! Below are a some pictures from our family Christmas celebration.
In Norway around Christmas time there is a tradition that young children/teens participate in where they wear white, carry candles, and sing the Christmas song “Santa Lucia”. At school, those who are Russ walked through all of the school buildings singing the song and handing out boller (sweet rolls). Below is a picture of all of us walking through the gym with our candles and singing.
I bet some of you in America are pretty curious about what we eat in Norway around Christmas time, so here's a brief description of the most typical foods.
Ribbe: These are ribs that are prepared a special way so that the meat is tender but there is an incredibly hard casing around it (when you chew the outside it sounds like you're eating hard candy). I didn't particularly like the ribs, but at least I gave them a shot!
Potatoes: We eat potatoes almost every night for dinner, so it's clear that they are popular in the Norwegian diet.
Polse: Super thick sausages that are incredible. I love them and will definitely miss them when I go back to America!
Lefse: Similar to a tortilla, made from potatoes and is eating with meat and other dinner foods (in the U.S. my family eats Lefse, but we eat it with butter and cinnamon sugar).
Sauerkraut: We have it in the U.S. too, but it's not commonly eaten with the Christmas meal.
Laks: Salmon prepared in a wide variety of ways, all of which are delicious!
Medisterkaker: Large meatballs that are made from meat that tastes quite different than meatballs in the U.S. and the meat is much less chewy.
Sylte: Compacted meat in a big cube. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't too bad either.
Risgrøt: Hot rice pudding that we eat with butter and cinnamon sugar on top. It may sound odd but it's actually super delicious.
Riscreme: Cold rice creme that we eat with fruit sauce on top.
We also eat tons of Christmas cookies, of course! Some of the most popular are called: Krumkake (fragile cookies made into cones that you put cream in), smultring (donuts), pepperkake (gingerbread), riflekjeks (flat cookies), and many more.
Potatoes: We eat potatoes almost every night for dinner, so it's clear that they are popular in the Norwegian diet.
Polse: Super thick sausages that are incredible. I love them and will definitely miss them when I go back to America!
Lefse: Similar to a tortilla, made from potatoes and is eating with meat and other dinner foods (in the U.S. my family eats Lefse, but we eat it with butter and cinnamon sugar).
Sauerkraut: We have it in the U.S. too, but it's not commonly eaten with the Christmas meal.
Laks: Salmon prepared in a wide variety of ways, all of which are delicious!
Medisterkaker: Large meatballs that are made from meat that tastes quite different than meatballs in the U.S. and the meat is much less chewy. Sylte: Compacted meat in a big cube. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't too bad either.
Risgrøt: Hot rice pudding that we eat with butter and cinnamon sugar on top. It may sound odd but it's actually super delicious.
Riscreme: Cold rice creme that we eat with fruit sauce on top.
We also eat tons of Christmas cookies, of course! Some of the most popular are called: Krumkake (fragile cookies made into cones that you put cream in), smultring (donuts), pepperkake (gingerbread), riflekjeks (flat cookies), and many more.
My host mom and host sister baking donuts (and tons of them!) before Christmas.
Getting dressed up and going out around Christmas time/New Years is a really big deal for teens here, so on Christmas day we went out to the local club called Rozarin and I had a good time with many of my closest friends. This was after all of our family Christmas festivities, of course! We also had a Christmas Russ party, so the picture below is a picture of most of the third years in their costumes in our cafeteria. I don't think many people in America understand the concept of Russ, so I will make a blogpost in the future where I explain everything about this crazy graduation celebration (well, almost everything).
For AFS, we had a "Juletrefest" (Christmas tree party) where sang and danced around the Christmas tree together. It was one of the weirder Christmas traditions I've participated in, but it was still pretty fun anyway. Over break I also went skating many times, went sledding at a huge icy hill with some friends, celebrated New Years with many of my closest friends and ate a ridiculous of delicious food. It was a great holiday break, and it was fantastic to experience Christmas the way that Norwegians typically do.
I think that's about all I can say about December in Norway, so I hope you enjoyed this and come back again to read the second edition to this post which will be coming soon, I promise!
Until next time,
XOXO Karma
