Wow! What an evening we have had. The Humanities Department was invited to a seminar and dinner at the Hotel Norge, which has facilities where guests collectively make their own gourmet meal. Our Gladkjøkkenet, or Happy Kitchen meal, included a mango, cilantro and beef appetizer, crab legs in butter and dill (?) sauce, followed by reindeer, potatoes, leeks, and raspberry dressing, followed by a chocolate torte and homemade ice cream and a strawberry glaze. The meal was served with a choice of Italian wines (dry followed by sweet). Our department cooked the meal collectively and we had a wonderful time--although I made the mistake of touching my mouth after chopping hot peppers and had to rush to the bathroom to wash my burning lips:)
The boys waited for me in the adjoining room, but also were able to sample the courses. Walter was most impressed by his orange Fanta being served in flute glasses and exclaimed that this was the highest class restaurant he had ever eaten in. The boys did, however, have misgivings about eating what Mark called "Santa's reindeer."
I have bits and pieces of the day I remember and want to share. A Ugandan graduate student studying linguistics described the educational experience in his country and how Ugandans resist learning Swahili because Idi Amin's henchmen used the language in their campaign of terror. He noted the irony that Ugandans for many years had all of their formal schooling in their non-native tongue, English, because of their colonial past. His wife and two children, about the age of Mark and Walter, are back in Uganda, and he will be here two of three years finishing his Ph.D.
One colleague defended Norwegian whaling--for which the Norwegians take a fair amount of criticism from Europeans and Americans--on the grounds that it was ingrained cultural practice. Another colleague, who had worked in Tromsø, declared that the meat was quite good, akin to eating steak.
Another colleague is working on a revitalization project to bring back skilled craftsmen and tourists to Flekkefjord, where apparently all the young people have left.
Norwegians have a hard time understanding why Obama's health reform package is so unpopular.
Next weekend, Walter and I, along with about 30 of his classmates, are going hiking in Lakkenstova, a mountainous region about two hours north. We'll spend the night at a cabin owned by the Norwegian government and operated by KOT.
Bill and I are considering joining the KOT, which is a Norwegian hiking club that runs cabins and tours all over the country. If you join, you get reduced rates at these cabins and guided hiking tours of some of the beautiful areas of the country.
http://www.kot.no/group.php?gr_id=28&fo_id=419
But, hiking is serious business in Norway...and I'm not sure if Ms. Martha, a gal born and raised in car-bound suburbia, is ready for woolen long underwear and freeze-dried chicken soup. We'll have to see.
That's Walter at the bottom; he nearly fell into the Skagerrak Strait, which connects to the North Sea. (I had said the North Sea, but Bill said it was technically the Skagerrak Strait. We're still debating.) 
See, mom, there are older people who go on rigorous hikes:) We're getting you hiking poles for X-mas! When we reached this viewing spot, instead of contemplating the rugged beauty of the vista, the first thing Mark said was, "Where are the waffles?" We had heard from other hikers that there were cottages that served waffles and ice cream near the look out spot, and as we hiked down the rocks, we found the cottages where Mark and Walter promptly gobbled up two servings of waffles and raspberry jam.
