Norwegian Camp, Day 3

(Note that, once I have defined a Norwegian word, I am not defining it again with subsequent uses. Need help jogging your memory? See this and this.)

Another day of fantastic food at Camp Trollfjorden! Here's the menu from today's frukost: eggerøre ["scrambled eggs"], pølser ["sausages"], muffin ["muffins"], brød og smør med bringebær syltetøy, kjeks og ost (both Jarlsberg og brunost/gjetost), sardin og sursild, yoghurt, frukt, kaffe, melk, saft, and te ["tea"].

And here's the menu from today's middag: smørbrød [literally "butterbread," but it refers to open-faced sandwiches, which Norwegians take pains to make not only tasty but also visually appealling (see this)--ours today were on dark bread and included toppings such as ham, cucumber, summersausage, hard-boiled egg, tomato, and sardine], salat, grønnsak suppe ["vegetable soup"], flatbrød, frukt, cottage cheese med grønn løk ["cottage cheese with green onion"--unusual and savory], lemonade, melk, vann ["water"], and gresskar kake ["pumpkin cake"] for dessert.

And Signe's name was drawn for KP duty! And Hilde's name was drawn to help clean up the spisestue after dinner (shake table cloths, vacuum)! So far Sonja is the only one from our family not to be put to work after a meal. I think the drawing is rigged.

And here's the menu from this evening's kveldsmat: torsk med hvit saus ["cod with white gravy"], kokte poteter ["boiled potatoes"], gulrøtter ["carrots"], salat, boller, leftover kjøtkaker og brun saus, lefse, and for dessert an item they called "sweet lefse" that looked like a thick whole-wheat lefse with a diamond pattern pressed into it, spread with almond-flavored butter, rolled up, and sliced into wide chunks. They said that it's a kind of lefse that must be moistened in water before serving. Hm, I've never heard of that . . .

The leftover smørbrød was served for lunch this afternoon; and just before bed, they served us rømmegrøt, a sour cream porridge that is topped with cinnamon and sugar and eaten hot. Delicious!

Oh yeah, we did other things today besides eat. We learned some more Norwegian words and phrases. Signe og Sonja carved yams, and Hilde had another cooking class. We finished our Norsk håndverk and displayed our items in the butikk area for everyone else to see. [Because I finished my clock yesterday, I spent my two karveskurd sessions today using a spare block of basswood to practice new chip carving techniques that I read about as I paged through a book on the subject.] We posed outdoors for a group photo before the lowering of the Norwegian flag.

Birdhouse painted by Kaia.

Birdhouse painted by Sonja.

Wool headbands knitted by Signe (middle) and Hilde (bottom of photo).

Clock (center bottom of photo) chip-carved by me!

Trollfjorden campers 2009!

There were two others attending from our lodge, so we posed with them for a "lodge photo." They're both knitters, too, so they've been sharing advice and techniques with Hilde og Signe all weekend.

The kvelden program included a slide show of photos from a fashion show that was held last autumn at Minot's annual Norsk Høstfest. It was a Norwegian bunad and Scandinavian folk costume fashion show, and some of the ladies here at camp brought along their own bunads and wore them this evening. A woman played her fiddle afterward, and the children danced. Many of the adults played cards while they ate their rømmegrøt before going to bed. It was another full day of Norwegian heritage!

Campers posing in their bunads and folk costumes. Some were hand-made; others were passed down to them from mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc.

P.S. Aargh! Kaia spent last night with Hilde, too! It seems that another girl at camp--a particularly annoying girl--decided to move into Kaia's room last night, which annoyed Kaia and her roommate so much that they each moved out. Hilde laid a blanket on the top bunk above her and put Kaia there for the night. So, will Hilde be able to sleep uninterrupted tonight?!

Norwegian Camp, Day 2

Camp Trollfjorden equals a half-day (last night), two full days, and a half-day (we'll be done before noon on Sunday). Here's the daily schedule for today and tomorrow:

• 7:00 A.M. -- rise and shine (someone walks from one end of the resort to the other ringing a cow bell--is that what passes for a Norwegian alarm clock?!)


• 7:30 A.M. -- health walk (led by the camp's sykepleier ["nurse"] along a walking trail decorated with trolls carved from wood and attached to various trees along the way--we are encouraged to be alert in order to find all 11 trolls)


• 8:00 A.M. -- flag raising (of the Norwegian flag while we all sing Ja, Vi Elsker Dette Landet ["Yes, We Love This Country"], the Norwegian national anthem--I recommend your listening to this beautiful version)


• 8:15 A.M. -- frokost ["breakfast"] and announcements for the day


• 9:00 A.M. -- språk klassen ["language class"]


• 10:00 A.M. -- Norsk håndverk ["Norwegian crafts"]


• 12:00 P.M. -- middag og synge ["dinner and singing"]


• 1:30 P.M. -- språk klassen


• 2:30 P.M. -- Norsk håndverk


• 4:00 P.M. -- butikk ["store"] (for us to buy camp T-shirts, imported Norwegian candy, and other souvenirs)


• 4:30 P.M. -- ulike aktiviteter ["various activities"]


• 6:00 P.M. -- kveldsmat


• 7:30 P.M. -- kvelden program ["evening program"]


• 10:30 P.M. -- stillhet ["quiet"]

Going for a walk along a wooded trail that peeks out over the lake in the early morning on a day with serenely beautiful weather would be pleasant enough, but it was added fun to be on the lookout for trolls along the path! Here are some highlights:

One of 11!

Don't you just want to crawl into the photograph and follow that trail?!

There's Lake Metigoshe partially hidden by the trees. Beautiful.

Because I'm all about the food, here's the menu from today's frukost: egg ["eggs"] (covered in individual warmers knit to look like chickens--and served in eggs cups), yoghurt ["yogurt"], frukt ["fruit"], brød og smør ["bread and butter"], bringebær syltetøy ["raspberry jam"], knekkebrød ["hardtack"], kjeks ["crackers"], Jarlsberg ost ["Jarlsberg cheese," similar to Swiss in flavor], brunost/gjetost ["brown cheese"/"goat cheese"--remember?], sardin ["canned sardines"], sursild ["pickled herring"], melk, kaffe, and saft ["juice"].

And here's the menu from today's middag: brennende kjærlighet ["burning love," basically a ring sausage cooked, cut into bite-sized pieces, and stirred into mashed potatoes], leftover lapskaus, salat, brød, flatbrød, lefse, melk, kaffe, lemonade, hardkokte egg ["hard-boiled eggs" from this morning, some sliced to eat as is, and some made into egg salad and served on dark bread--the egg salad had horseradish in it, which gave it a nice tang], cottage cheese ["cottage cheese"], sylteagurk ["pickles"], and gulrot kake ["carrot cake"] for dessert.

And my name was drawn for KP duty, so I burned my hands handling the directly-from-the-industrial-dishwasher plates and flatware. Good times.

And here's the menu from this evening's kveldsmat: kjøttkaker og brun saus ["meatballs and gravy"], potetmos ["mashed potatoes"], salat, erter og mais ["peas and corn"], boller, lefse, and iskrem ["ice cream"] for dessert.

As if that weren't enough food, in the afternoon they served kjeks og ost in the spisestua while we shopped in the butikk nearby. (We bought camp T-shirts for the girls and CDs of the Norwegian songs from last night's folk dancing.) Is it any wonder that they offered a second health walk after supper?! That was followed by a bonfire near the lake where the kids made s'mores (and served them to the adults) while we all sang Norsk sanger ["Norwegian songs"]--many of them with actions to go along with each verse, which the children really "got into"! We have the lyrics to about 20 songs; so when we get home, just stop by and we'll teach you a song or two!

The språk klassen is very low-key. It's taught by a woman we knew from our previous church (remember?) . . . who talked throughout today about needing to speak Norwegian to us the next time she sees us in church. It soon became apparent that she didn't realize that we moved away almost three years ago! She's doing a fine job teaching a large class of mixed ages: from the youngest kids to youthful adults (such as Hilde and I) to grandparent-aged folks. Perhaps not surprisingly, the little kids are picking up on vocabulary and pronunciations far more quickly than their grandparents are. Susan and I, who have studied foreign languagues, are maybe too cerebral about it all; we would like to know more about grammar rules, whereas the teacher is keeping it simple: how to count to 20, the days of the week and the months of the year, parts of the body, common foods, parts of the house, how to tell time, how to greet one another, etc. That's probably for the best. Some of the senior citizens seated near Hilde and me look like their heads are going to explode as it is; imagine if we were to start discussing conjugating verbs!

I also enjoyed the Norsk håndverk sessions at which I learned karveskurd--or at which I taught myself karveskurd. We are chip carving square pieces of basswood which, when finished, we will stain, drill a hole into, and insert the workings for a clock. The instructor is an elderly man who showed us some of his work as well as a model for our project. He then handed out the wood and karveskurd knives, gave us each pencils, laid out one compass and one protractor on the table, and made himself scarce. The seven of us in the class looked at each other and realized that we were pretty much on our own. We had to use the compass and protractor to create the design on our pieces of wood, mark the portions to remove, and then figure out how to hold the knife at the proper angle and depth while chip carving. We helped each other through it and laughed a lot along the way. There are four total sessions reserved for our crafts, but I finished my project this afternoon, and the instructor applied a coat of stain. So, what will I do during tomorrow's Norsk håndverk sessions?

Sonja og Kaia had a good time during their Norsk håndverk classes; they are painting birdhouses and napkin rings and creating watercolor paintings. Hilde og Signe are now addicted to strikke. Ever since this morning's Norsk håndverk session, every time that I see them, they are furiously knitting, making excellent progress on the wool wintertime headbands that is their project. Hilde used to do counted cross stitch projects quite a bit, and Signe has done a little bit of embroidery; but this is their first time knitting, and they're liking it. A lot.

During ulike aktiviteter, Signe og Sonja joined Hilde for a cooking class, and Kaia joined me for a yam carving class. Yep, we each got a yam and a paring knife, and we carved trolls out of the vegetables. We'll take them home, and in about a month, they'll be completed dried out and hard. As they dry, they will shrivel and curve, accentuating the lines that we carved into them and adding "character" to the trolls' faces. We saw some samples of dried-out yam carvings, and they really do look like intricate wood carvings, the product of an artisan's expert hands--even though they're quick and easy to make!

Anyhoo, after the bonfire, we gathered for the lowering of the flag and went inside for more folk dancing. I was too pooped to dance, so I enjoyed reading a collection of Viking-related books set up in a nook at the resort. Here and there throughout the building, camp organizers have left books on Norwegian topics: Vikings, trolls, touring Norway, learning the Norwegian language, etc. At one of those areas, there are also several CDs of Norwegian music to which Hilde and I listened while relaxing before heading to bed.

P.S. Let's hope for no nighttime adventures tonight with the children. Last night, Kaia "felt queasy," so she hiked it from her second-story bedroom at one end of the resort down to the room of the sykepleier, who walked her down to the room where Hilde was sleeping. Kaia ended up spending the night in Mommy's bed, meaning that Hilde did not get a good's night sleep (on the bottom bunk with a plastic mattress in a sleeping bag with a little girl lying/breathing on her all night).

P.P.S. Happy birthday today to my sister Cathy!

Norwegian Camp, Day 1

Our whole family is at summer camp!

As relatively new members of the Sons of Norway, our family has spent the past many months getting to know the organization by participating in our local lodge's activities: lutefisk supper, monthly meetings, Syttende Mai celebration, and so forth. When we found out that the Sons of Norway sponsors summertime Norwegian language and cultural camps, we did some research to find out where the nearest camp is, thinking that we might send the girls. We found two about the same distance from Dickinson: outside Red Lodge, MT and outside Bottineau, ND on Lake Metigoshe. We brought up the topic at a monthly meeting, hoping to find out if other members knew about either camp and could recommend one or the other.

Well, it turns out that our lodge has sent children to Camp Trollfjorden ["the troll inlet"] at Lake Metigoshe in the past and even pays kids' camp fees! Furthermore, we found out that Sons of Norway camps are for people of all ages: littluns, teens, parents, grandparents--whoever wants to learn more about Norwegian culture. So, of course, we signed up to go together as a family.


View Larger Map

Because we had a bit of a drive ahead of us, we left early enough this morning to allow time for a stop in Minot for a restroom break, more fuel for the vehicle, and dinner (at the Captain's Cove, a ripoff of Long John Silver's). Just a couple hours later, we found the Metigoshe Ministries Lakeside Christian Center and checked in for camp.

Velkommen til Trollfjorden ["Welcome to Trollfjorden"] plus many little Norwegian flags placed strategically around the grounds greeted us when we arrived.

We were asked to select, from lists that they provided, Norwegian names for ourselves to use for the weekend. Then each of us told that Norwegian name to a man seated at another table, and he used a wood-burning tool to write the name on a thin disk cut from the trunk of a birch tree. He tied a string through pre-cut holes in the bark-fringed disk, added a laminated card containing the lyrics to the Norwegian national anthem, and voilà: a rustic name tag to be hung from around the neck. Here are our names for the weekend:

• Kevin = Karsten
• Susan = Hilde
• Suzanna = Signe
• Abigail = Sonja
• Hillary = Kaia

A woman showed us to our rooms, and then we hauled in our stuff from the vehicle. The girls are in the farthest-away-from-us wing with all the other girls here at camp. Signe og Sonja are roommates, and Kaia is in the room next to them with a roommate with whom she became fast friends within seconds of meeting her. There are bunkbeds in each small bedroom, and their rooms are on a floor above a game room with a kitchenette and restrooms with showers.

At the other end of the retreat center, the adult females are sharing a couple bedrooms separated from the adult males' bedroom by a room reserved for the boys here at camp this weekend (yes, there are more girls than boys). So Hilde and I don't get to share a room, but we're sleeping just across the hall from one another. There's nothing fancy about our sleeping rooms or the built-in bunk beds (we'll sleep in our sleeping bags atop the plastic mattresses); but there are modern restrooms with showers just outside our bedrooms, so we're definitely not "roughing it."

We took a tour of the grounds (complete with posing and photograph-taking) before joining the large group for kveldsmat ["supper"] in the spisestue ["dining room"]. Tonight's delicious meal included lapskaus ["stew," this one containing ham, summersausage, potatoes, carrots, and rutabaga], salat ["salad," with not only mixed salad greens but also peas, yellow peppers, fresh cauliflower, and other vegetable delights], boller ["buns"], flatbrød ["flatbread"], lefse [a soft potato flatbread], smør ["butter"], melk ["milk"], lemonade ["lemonade"], kaffe ["coffee"], and sitron kake ["lemon cake"].

Together we sang this table prayer before the meal ["O You, who feeds the little bird, bless our food, O God"].

And we sang this one after the meal ["For health, happiness, daily bread, we thank You, O God"].

Before each meal, the names of two adults and two children will be drawn for KP duty after the meal (and another adult and child to clean tables and vaccuum the spisestue). Guess who got KP duty after kveldsmat? Kaia! Yep, there was little Kaia in the kjøkken ["kitchen"] with the industrial dishwasher pushing out stacks of steaming-hot plates and flatware toward her! She was game to help out however she was told to, but I think they assigned her light tasks and kept her away from the dishwasher (whew!).

Kaia is in the kjøkken ready for KP duty!

Kveldsmat was followed by an introduction of the camp staff and an overview of the camp's schedule, activities, and procedures. Everybody will be taking Norwegian language classes the next couple days, so we signed up for the level of class that we felt reflected our abilities (all five of us are in the "beginner" class). We'll all be learning a craft, too, and there were several options from which to choose. To help us out, they gave us a tour of each craft so that we could see what would be involved in learning it before we made our decisions. Kaia and Sonja both signed up for "small crafts" (a hodge-podge of drawing and painting; because they're both younger than 10, their options were limited); Signe and Hilde both signed up for strikke ["knitting"]; and I signed up for karveskurd ["chip carving"].

Afterward we gathered outside for the nightly lowering of the Norwegian flag and sang Aftensolen ["The Evening Sun"] . . . which you can listen to if you click on "Segment 3" of this A Prairie Home Companion program. Then we gathered inside where we learned several Norwegian folk dances and danced off our little Norwegian-American rumper ["butts"] until bedtime, children and adults alike! Camp Trollfjorden is veldig moro ["very fun"] so far!

Can you spot Signe in the yellow pants and Hilde in the purple striped shirt, both with partners near the camera? This particular dance required regular changes of partners; at certain points (synchronized with the music), the partners inside the circle move backward to join whoever's on the outside of the circle behind them.