An awesome person I know: Ingvild

Ingvild is awesome. She is from Bergen, which may I say is my favourite city in Norway. If it didn't rain there everyday I would move there and drink Hansa for the rest of my life.

Knitting is one of Ingvild's favourite pastimes. She is always trying out a new style of knitting, a new pattern or a new type of wool. Many times has she tried to teach me how to knit socks, but I suck. I'll stick to my simple scarves for now. I had never met someone so passionate about cordial, I would say Ingvild is an ambassador for cordial. She is one of the founding members of the school cordial club. Each week she leads cordial drinking games and quizzes. As an initiation to the club we had to take a full strength cordial shot. It's awesome.

When not drinking cordial Ingvild can be found cursing at her computer. Not because she lost her work or doesn't have enough ram but because of a losing a game in tetris, The Sims or her favourite fishing game. I keep thinking something serious is happening with her computer, when actually an animated fish just died.

Glad i deg Ingvild!


P.S Ingvild is not a grandma. 

Grilling at Sunset

An awesome person I know: Sigrunn

A while ago I was taking to my folkehøgskole friends about the array of possibilities of things I could write about on my blog. We came up with the idea that I could write about all my awesome new my friends. So today I begin my new blog segment: An awesome person I know.

Sigrunn is awesome. She is a pro at enjoying the simple things in life, for example she makes up the best stories, songs, and philosophical quotes about life. An example of this was my birthday when I received a painting from Sigrunn which read "Life is like a banana, it's yellow". She also has a talent for laughing at ironic, random and unusual things that happen in everyday life. Sigrunn is capable of laughing for many hours in a row, often at things that only she finds funny. I live directly above her, and sometimes she laughs so loud I can feel the vibrations of her laughter through the floor.I also don't think I know anybody more accomplished at pulling funny faces for photos, she could probably publish a book about them.

Sigrunn is also known for her stylishness and has a way with acquiring clothes from everywhere and everyone. Sometimes she can have clothes borrowed from five different people on at the same time. Sigrunn brought a skate board all the way to Folkehøgskole. Now that spring has come and the ice has melted off the roads she has become our skating teacher. By the time we leave here we are all going to skate like Tony Hawk!

Other cool facts about Sigrunn include: she has only been to the hairdresser twice in her life, likes knekkebrød with jam and brunost, and gets really excited everytime "Jon and Kate plus 8" comes on tv.

Sigrunn, jeg er glad i deg!

Memory from my childhood: Gutten som kappåt med trollet

I don't even remember where in my childhood this memory comes from, but I remember very distantly when I was little having a VHS with Norwegian fairy tales on it. This week in class we saw exactly the same video. It was a really strange feeling. I was surprised by how much of the story I remembered. I wonder what language the film was when I saw it in Australia? Was it Norwegian or was it English?

My favourite fairytale from the video is about a poor boy who is cleverer than the giant troll he meets in the forrest. In Norwegian it is known as "Askeladden som knappåt med trollet" (The Boy who had an eating contest with a Troll).

Here it is translated into English text. After the jump.

International Waffle Day

A day dedicated to celebrating one of the best inventions ever. Now thats a rad idea. Lets celebrate! For the last couple of years my food crazed friend Alex T has hosted a waffle breakfast. We must continue them when I am back in Australia! This year I learnt I new waffle recipe from my grandma. In Norway waffles are eaten with brown goats cheese or with sour cream and jam. Despite my initial confusion of using  sour cream on something sweet, I have been converted. Sour cream on waffles is actually the best. Happy International Waffle day!

Recipe after the jump.

Spring is in the air! Lalala!

food

I want to learn more about where my food comes from. One thing I look forward to after folkehøgskole is being educated about whats going in my mouth. The way many westerners eat food these days is pretty messed up. 


P.S generally speaking and world food supply speaking- I wonder what the future will bring.

Food I want to eat right now!

Eggs hollandaise from King Street. Perfectly poached eggs, fresh sourdough bread and homemade hollandaise sauce. I could drool forever. The french toast in the background is also looking pretty good right now. Can you tell I'm hungry?

I sound like a glutinous pig, but one of he main reasons I miss Perth is the food. Living in Australia with such a diverse mix of nationalities and cultures we get to eat so many amazing types of food. Here are the ten dishes I plan to stuff my face with when I get home.

1. Chinese steamed pork buns
2. Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls made by Alex
3. Pad Thai
4. Chocolate croissants
5. Fesenjan
6. Fruit loaf from Barret's bakery
7. Long mac's
8. Thai green chicken curry
9. Eggs Hollandaise: see photo.
10. Vegetable tempura and miso soup from Takas Kitchen

PLUS: Cake at Kind Street Cafe 

In my bid to be diplomatic here is my list of Norwegian food I will miss. Norway has the best climate for berries, and the much better diary products than Australia. Norwegian milk, cheese, yoghurt and chocolate, yes please!

1. Kjøttkake: Norwegain meat balls.
2. Brunost: Brown cheese.
3. Krotekake- click to see link
4. Norwegian Easter eggs! They are blowing my mind!
5. Kolhrabi stappe: mashed swedes.
6. Boiled salmon.
7. Sundepølse: a local sausage from the area my grandmother lives.
8. Norwegian berries: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, red currants, blackberries. They are amazing! Sweet, juicy and not expensive.
9. Beetroot salad.
10. Kvik lunsj: The Norwegian version of the Kit Kat.

Wednesday in Kristiansand

1. First I took a trip to the "Sørlands Kunstsmueum" i.e The Southern Norway Museum of Art. I saw a poster of the current exhibitions and they looked really cool. Unfortunately they had put the two most exciting art works on the poster and the exhibitions were a little disappointing. New exhibitions were being set up on the first and second floor, so I will have to go back and see if the quality improves. It's free for students so no harm done!

2. Fjorden baby is playing next Friday in Kristiansand! Who wants to come?!

3. It has almost become I joke how much I complain about Norwegian coffee. It's not hard to see that Norwegians have no clue about coffee, but when they I found I shop in Kristiansand called "Kaffe & Pasta" it made my hopes for the future of Norwegian coffee sink even lower.

4. Really cosy town houses in the middle of the town. This week spring has really begun to show it's face. It's so nice to see blue sky and sun again. Man I can't remember the last time I felt the sun shining on my face. Plus it really lifts the mood, being out in the sun made me feel so happy!

5. The Kristiansand library, one stop shop for all my free literary needs.

6. I take a photo of the Kristiansand domkirke (cathedral) pretty much every time I am in Kristiansand, it's just so pretty. And it's the highest building in Kristiansand at 70m.

Ice Fishing

Yeah this morning we went ice fishing. 

Vanja caught the first and only fish of the day.

Johan started a snowball fight.

Alina made a mini snowman.

Morten had his whole head under the ice.

Artist profile: Duane Michals

Duane Michals is an American photographer who I spotted hanging next to Andy Warhol in the museum of modern art in Stockholm. Amazingly Michals came from the same small town in Pennsylvania as Warhol and was born just four years later! I was actually surprised to find out how old Michals is (79). I found his work so modern, or maybe I was brainwashed into thinking his work was newer than it actually was because I was at the museum of modern art. According to my wikipedia research modern art ranges roughly between the 1860s to the 1970s. I thought modern art was more modern, as in now. I wonder what the art period we are in presently is called? Anyways, there is something I found very appealing about Duane Michals.  

Michals studied for a year at New Yorks's Parsons school of designs with plans to become a graphic designer. By chance he discovered he was a talented photographer while on holiday in Russia. His vacation photos became his first exhibition. He never had any formal training as a photographer, had never had his own studio, and has never used strobe lighting. Yet he has ended up shooting for Vouge, The New York Times, publishing over 20 books of his work and having several solo exhibitions. Check out his work. He is cool.

Click on the images for their sources.

My favourite piece from Michals I saw in Stockholm was not actually a photo at all. It was simply a hand written text. I managed to find a copy of it. Imagine a handwritten note of black cursive writing on white paper.

"It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected... For the length of these few sentences, we meet here. It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me."

-Duane Michals

Bad Taste Party

GAH! Best party theme! I think I can speak for many when I say it was super fun to dress in bad taste clothes for Agder Lørdag last week. I couldn't stop cracking up at peoples costumes! We ate homemade pizza, chocolate mousse and were presented by an awesome show, including a dance choreographed by Eirin to "Double Rainbow". Thanks Bildedkunst!

PiZZADEIG!

Only 20 packets of yeast needed

The art class made 26 massive pizzas for the whole school on Saturday night. They needed a little help and I really felt like throwing pizza dough in the air while singing "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie" so I gatecrashed. The event was a "Bad taste party" the twist was that the pizza didn't taste bad at all! They were super delicious! We made pepperoni pizza, taco pizza, vegetarian pizza and Sigrunn's special pizza which had bacon, ham, mushroom, onion, pineapple and cheese. It was epicly good.


For the pizza dough, recipe as written above:
9 kg plain flour
6L water
20 packets of dry yeast
60 dessert spoons/700ml olive oil

Eirin the saucerer

Sigrunn making Sigrunn's special

Julie the dough master

Ane looking sexy while Antonie does all the work

Ingrid loves washing dishes

I LOVE Stockholm

Last weekend I had a spontaneous trip, alone, to Sweden's capital Stockholm. I had zero expectations and I ended up having the most fantastic time. I talked to Australians for the first time in months, visited photography and modern art museums, stayed at an awesome hostel (City Backpackers if you ever visit Stockholm), visited parliament (see previous post) bought a pair of clogs and ate Swedish meatballs ten times better than the ones at IKEA. GO there, it's really cool!