A Norskified Thanksgiving

Prepare yourselves for a cheesy post, everyone, because this week was Thanksgiving which means we need to take some time to appreciate all the wonderful things we have. The past few months have brought a lot of new things, which means I have a lot of new things to be thankful for, but I also need to think a little more about a bunch of old things that I didn't take time to be grateful for before that I now hold in a special place in my heart.

First, I need to thank my family back home for not only allowing me to leave for a year, but for supporting me from halfway across the world. But I can't only thank them for their support this year; they deserve recognition for the more than sixteen years that they've supported me in everything I did and all the opportunities they have given me, even if it meant taking something away from their own lives. The time they've put into making sure my brother and I have the best lives is uncountable, and I'm more grateful for that than anything this year. I'm also beyond grateful to have friends that understand how important this year is to me and support me in all my crazy, huge decisions. To those of you reading this that I haven't talked to much or at all since I left, just know that I still think about you and can't wait to be able to share stories with you when I come back <3 There's one more important thing I have to mention from back in the US, and that's my amazing community. I knew Portsmouth was a beautiful town and that I was lucky to live there before I left, but it wasn't until I was gone that I really started to appreciate how amazing the community there is. I live in arguably the best neighborhood one can live in with the best neighbors and I miss that atmosphere so much. I've realized how great Portsmouth is, and now I'm grateful that I get one more year to take advantage of my community and hopefully give something back to it, seeing as it's given so much to me.

But now, there are a few things here in Norway that I'm especially thankful for this year. My amazing host family for welcoming me in and showing me so many aspects of Norwegian culture, for dealing with my "developing" Norwegian, and for all the help and love you've given me. Jeg er så takknemlig for alt dere har gitt meg og gjort for meg og jeg vil at dere skal vite det:) Next, to everyone at Katta, from YFU, and just in general that I've met that's helped me in one way or another: there are way too many people to thank personally in this blog post, but I'm so grateful for everything and I hope that at some point in the next seven months I'm able to tell that to you personally. Tusen takk <3 While Portsmouth will always be the town I spent my childhood in, Oslo will always be the city I really grew up in. In only three and a half months I've become so much more independent and grown into more of an adult in ways that I don't think most sixteen-year-olds can say. So, Oslo, thank you for giving me a safe, forgiving place to experiment with my new-found adulthood.

Well, now that the gushy part is over, I can get into the fun things I did this week! Last week I published a post right before going off to meet some friends in the city to go to a Christmas market in the center. I met Robin and Pien (my Dutch exchange student friend living in Tromsø) around 6:30, although it felt a lot later since it had been dark for several hours already. We walked around the market and got candy apples. That was a bad decision. It was quite cold, and the apples were rock hard. We sat down to eat them and spent an hour trying to get to the apple part without breaking any teeth. It was so nice to talk to them (in Norwegian!!) and hear Pien's Tromsø dialect:) Afterwards we walked around a little more before Robin and I headed home to get ready for school the next day.

The school week was pretty mundane, aside from having to give presentations in science class on Friday. They were group presentations so I only had to talk for a few minutes but it's still a little intimidating to speak in Norwegian in front of so many people... The real excitement this week was my attempt to recreate a Thanksgiving dinner here in Norway!

Because we don't have any vacation in November, I thought it would be best to have the meal during the weekend so there was enough time to make all the food. That doesn't mean we didn't start a few days in advance, though... It all began on Thursday with a shopping trip to see if I could find the ingredients I needed to make all the different dishes. For those of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, there are a lot of dishes. The shopping trip was almost 100% successful, although I almost went home pecan-less (I found some last-minute) and ended up only being able to find dried cranberries. Thursday was also the making of the pie crust and setting the turkey (which was easy to find thanks to Anne's friend who owns a fish store that had turkey in for the season) in a brine.

Friday I got home as quickly as I could to start the real food marathon. After dinner I talked with my family, who were visiting my grandma for Thanksgiving, and got some food help while I made it! I got everything that could be done the day before done, then went to bed to get rest for the crazy day ahead! Saturday morning we set the turkey in the oven, and began on the sides. I've never been one of the main Thanksgiving chefs, I usually will bake a pie or something, so having to figure out the right rhythm was a little stressful. Thankfully, we didn't have any real disasters and although we had to guess about the turkey's doneness (we had three thermometers telling us three different temperatures), it turned out perfectly! Family arrived at 4 and all the food was ready, so I gave a little explanation of what everything was, then we dug in! All the food ended up tasting surprisingly similar to how it tends to, even the cranberry sauce! We had the classic pies, pecan and pumpkin, to end the evening and it was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember:)

I woke up today still in a bit of a food coma from the day before, but Anne and I decided to go for a little hike. The weather was not our best friend and brought some cold rain, but it still felt like the beginning of Christmas time with the snow on the trees. At the top of the mountain there was the coziest cabin where you could get some food and drink, so we split a skolebrød before heading back down. This evening we celebrated my host cousin's 5th birthday and us older cousins watched a biathlon relay that Norway won!! The US was doing really well before we went to eat cake, but when we came back, they seemed to have disappeared, so I'm not really sure what happened:( But hey, at least Norway won!!

Well this post has gotten long, even for me! This upcoming week I have midterms, but a fun weekend planned! More on that next week, though:)

Word of the Post:
en kalkun = a turkey

Plenty of pics this week!

Me, Robin and Pien!

Our bad-decision apples

Is this heaven or am I dreaming?! Brunost ice cream!!!

My first ever Norwegian waffle

Gotta get creative with the dried cranberries! 

Turkey!

Here's an overview of the table, detailed pics below:)

Gravy and Cranberry Sauce

Stuffing and Ambrosia Salad

Turkey

Mashed Potatoes and Salad

More Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, and Gravy

Proud of how normal this looks :P

Success!

Aaaanndd the pies! I made the pecan, my host uncle made the pumpkin

Drawing hand turkeys:)

Foggy, rainy, but beautiful hike

Cabin window view

Isn't this Christmasy?