Merry Christmas

Changing countries every six months, or so, has some interesting side effects. One of them is mail situations, with parcels and letters being lost for months before they finally find their way to wherever I am at the time. Like with a Christmas package from South Africa that I think must have travelled the world before it managed to find its way to my local, Australian post office in late May. Needless to say, the contents were inedible by then. 

This week I received a Christmas card from my friend Sally. The card was sent to my address in Denmark in early December. It lingered there till February, when someone was kind enough to gather all my mail and send it to my home address in Norway. In Norway the process stagnated, before the card was again travelling at the beginning of April. As Sally lives in California, the card has basically done a nice little loop. Merry Christmas!

On a completely different note, I was amused to see this video clip on VG of a dog, cat and rat on top of each other. As some of you might remember, I have a photo of the same trio from my trip to San Francisco last year. 

Go Reds!

I have a new team – the great and mighty Reds, which is Cincinnati’s baseball team. This evening they played the Chicago Cubs, and I was of course there to support and cheer. Well, at least I was there. I did not really pay too much attention, not until the last two innings (yeah, I picked up some jargon) when I have to admit it did get a bit exciting.

I actually wanted to go to this game, despite most people telling me that baseball was boring. And even though I doubt it will ever become a favourite sport of mine, I am glad I got to see a game. It does of course help that we won. I quite like winning. Go Reds!

Hege the devoted baseball fan.

Yegor and William were ecstatic about winning. At least when posing for the camera.

My new team is apparently not that good, so it was a pleasant surprise that they won. Unless you are a Cubs supporter of course.

Oh Sweet Happiness

An Easter parcel  from my mother arrived today packed with Norwegian sweets, including the popular Freia Easter eggs. However, I am sorry to announce that not all of the eggs made it; there was quite a few causalities and the messy cream filling made it necessary to wash all the other sweets. I am just happy it was  cream and not mackerel oil, which was the case with another package. That one had to be treated like toxic waste.

Also a big Hip Hip Hurray for Vasos who is turning 25 today (Friday), and can now rent a car without the extra insurance fee. Road trip?

In addition to a small amount of sweets, I also got an Easter card from Ingrid. Thank you!

 They will still be eaten, but I guess I cannot exactly give them to others. Oh well, more for me.

Norwegian Bachelor Farmers

“It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out on the edge of the prairie."

This is the standard opening words of a weekly feature called News From Lake Wobegon  on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion.  The popular segment features stories and news from the fictitious “little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

The show often parodies the Scandinavian-American communities living on the prairie, with Norwegian bachelor farmers, lutefisk and the Lutheran Church being important ingredients. About 3.4 million Americans tune in each week to get the latest news from Lake Wobegon.

The show is proudly sponsored by the fictitious company Powdermilk Biscuits: "Made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers; so you know they're not only good for you, but also pure ... mostly", which "give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens they're tasty and expeditious.”

Free podcasts can be downloaded from the  A Prairie Home Companion website. Or click here to listen to an online Christmas episode.

Easter Feast

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day spent in great company at Don and his wife’s farm. They had well over 20 students from NKU over for Easter dinner, games and fun, and their grandson even arranged an egg hunt. Not that I managed to find any – he  was clearly a highly skilled Easter Bunny.

The weather was amazing and people were running around barefooted playing ball games or chilling on the grass. The smell of barbeque and some sun burnt people added to the perfect summer feeling.

International students from NKU, with the Easter Bunny in the middle.

Happy Easter

Even though my university has no days off for Easter, there is still a a bit of a holiday feel. The dining hall sure did their bit by decorating cup cakes and providing Easter snacks and food. Not that there were many people there to enjoy it - the  campus is nearly empty as most people have gone home to celebrate Easter Sunday.

I will be going out to a farm later to join in on a Easter Feast. If the weather holds, it should be good fun. We have been having extraordinary weather the last couple of the days, with the temperatures in the high 20s. Summer is here. At least for now, it actually snowed during the night last week.