Thanksgiving

Hi All,

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I invited my students in teacher training (Norwegians students who will be specially trained in teaching English), two colleagues, three American students from Oregon State, and an American au pair, whom I met at a concert. Irene, who is standing in the black v-neck, sang Simple Gifts (her voice is beautiful, and I got a bit teary listening to my favorite hymn). She brought her two young children, who spoke little English. Walter asked how to say "hide and seek" in Norwegian, and they all had a wonderful time hiding and searching throughout the apartment.





This is a photo of Jan Erik, whom I am teaching with this semester, at the table, where we had turkey, stuffing, pie, applesauce, etc. He and Irene are great colleagues, warm, funny, and sharp.

Mark and Sunbeam

The view from our window

Mark's camping trip--update

The scout leader dropped off Mark on Sunday from his camping trip. Turns out Mark had almost none of the appropriate gear--his sleeping back wasn't warm enough so the scout leader had to give Mark his own (poor guy; I don't think he got any sleep that night), Mark's backpack was too small; his hiking shoes (which were actually mine) should have been boots; his mittens too thin; his pants should have been waterproof. Mark came back wet, cold, smokey, but happy. One of the campers decided to roast a Pokemon figure in the evening's bonfire, and Mark found this hilarious.

On Sunday a colleague and I went to Grim church where we heard a wonderful choral concert featuring Grieg's four psalms, Rachmaninov's Vespers, and Benjamin Britten's "Sick Rose," which I especially enjoyed. Met an American au pair there whom I invited to Thanksgiving dinner along with my students. One of my colleagues is going to sing "Simple Gifts."

Walter continues to plunk away at Grieg, but his real love is Arsenal; don't even bring up Manchester United.

I would like to read Jay-Z's autobiography.

I miss friends and family. During these seemingly endless succession of grey days I wonder why there isn't a mass migration southward, but Bill urges me to get out and soak up the muted grey light we call sunshine regardless of weather.

The fate of Norwegian Jews during WWII

On Friday Bill met with an archivist at the Kristiansand National Archives who contributed to a book about the fate of Jews in southern Norway. Here's a Google translate description of the book entitled "Jakten etter jødene på Agder" [The Hunt for the Jews in Agder] which has apparently created quite a stir because it names some of the most prominent Norwegian Nazi collaborators.

"Also in southern Norway, there were Jews who were persecuted and arrested in the years 1940-45. In Kristiansand, two stores in 1940 had Jewish owners. One was closed in 1942, the second was "Norwegianised" and continued their activities. Here are stories of Jews who fled and the Norwegians who helped them. But the book also shows that some Southerners often helped in the Nazi attempt at total annihilation of the Norwegian Jews."

Walter's knitting

Walter's teacher started all the kids in her class on knitting projects so Walter came home with a dozen rows of a mini-scarf in grey loaded onto his knitting needles. Tonight I taught him how to knit and Walter now wants to try making a sweater. Maybe mittens first, who knows. I still feel badly about all of the hand knit mittens I lost as a kid.

Tomorrow Mark goes camping on his own with his troop. It's cold!

Martha

U.S. Embassy Hires Norwegians to Spy on Norwegians

Hi All,

My colleagues are talking about the recent revelations of American Embassy sponsored spying on Norwegians. If a foreign
embassy in the U.S. had orchestrated the surveillance of Americans, the U.S. govt./American people would be livid. The general feeling here is that someone in a position of power in the Norwegian government who knew about the surveillance but declined to uphold Norwegian law forbidding it, will be held accountable. If you click on the article below it will enlarge.

Bill gave his lecture today on American religious and reform movements in the mid-nineteenth century. I gave a lecture on American race relations to prospective teachers grade 5-10. Both lectures went well.

Mark will go camping this weekend as part of Scouts. It may go down as low as 5 degrees below C and he'll be sleeping in a cave. Walter is off at soccer.

On Saturday we're going to see if we can get any boots for the used skis we bought at a school yard sale. Sunday we're going to a choral concert two of my colleagues are performing in.

Next weekend we're taking a ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark and then a train to Skagen, which is on the tip of Denmark's northernmost coastline. One of my colleagues gave us discounted ferry tickets so we can afford to go.

On Tuesday a friend took me grocery shopping where I bought half a pumpkin for 150 NOK or about 25$! Tonight I made a NYT pumpkin, sweet potato, and apple recipe which we everyone but Walter liked:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/19/dining/20091120-tgivingrecipe-slideshow_index-2.html

Martha