Hanna lost her first tooth on Monday and was happy to discover that the tooth fairy delivers in Norway. She was so excited she wanted to tell the hotel manager that she lost her tooth in their hotel!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A lost tooth
Hanna lost her first tooth on Monday and was happy to discover that the tooth fairy delivers in Norway. She was so excited she wanted to tell the hotel manager that she lost her tooth in their hotel!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Norway
We have been in Norway for one week and are thoroughly enchanted. It is full of spectacular scenery and friendly people. We started our first night out in Bergen in an apartment near the docks. The owner mentioned he knew exactly where to find the town of Saevareid (the area where Travis's ancestors were from) and that it wasn't very far from Bergen. This was pretty intriguing so we had him show us on google maps where it was and how to get there. In the evening we walked around the city and had a picnic dinner near the town square. We wandered through the oldest part of the city, Bryggen, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and looked at the old wooden buildings, picturing what they must of been like many years ago filled with merchants and people in the streets.
In the morning we headed south towards Os where we got on our first of many car ferries to cross the fjord and drive to Saevareid. The roads in the fjord region are narrow, windy, and very close to the edge of the fjord. It makes for exciting driving in a manual transmission car! It didn't take us long to find the town of Saevareid where we took lots of pictures of the farms and signs and then stopped in the town center to have ice cream at the small local market. We chatted a bit with the people in the store and found that there are still a few people living there with the same name. Suddenly it all makes sense to us why Travis is drawn to the ocean and to northern regions. It must be in his bones from his ancestors living there for years, farming their small acres of land and rowing around the fjord to fish and travel.
The next leg of our journey took us on another ferry across another fjord and then through a 11 km long tunnel under the Folgafonna mountain and glacier. Then up north to the small "town" of Aga along a narrow branch of the Hardanger fjord. This fjord runs north/south so it is well suited for fruit farms. We passed small plots of cherry, apple and plum trees, hanging on the steep sides of the hills between the pine trees and the water. In Aga, we stayed in a cabin right next to the water. It was owned by Erling Aga and besides renting out a couple cabins for tourists, he raised chickens and had a farm of plum trees and a few milking cows up the hill for the winter. It was quiet and beautiful and a perfect place for the kids to enjoy a bit of swimming, some exploring of the glacier, the town of Odda, and also towards the Hardagervidda National Park and the town of Eidfjord. The waterfalls coming off the mountains in this area are unbelievable. This time of year the snow is still visible on the higher peaks and it is melting quickly and coming town in raging, icy waterfalls.
Leif and Travis spent an entire day fishing (it was rainy and chilly most of the day so we also read and put together a puzzle). That night Leif was sleeping so hard he fell out of his bunk in the cabin and hurt his foot. It was the middle of the night, so we didn't give it much thought and put him back to bed in our bunk. In the morning, seeing it was so swollen and bruised we decided we should probably have it checked out in the ER in Bergen. We were going there anyway to take back the rental car and take a train to Finse. The ER was quiet and efficient and in about 1 hour we learned he had broken a couple of the bones in his foot, they wrapped it up in a bandage, we paid 40 NOK (about $6) and we were on our way. The next problem was deciding what to do since the only activities in Finse were hiking or biking. We spent a couple hours at the tourist info center, canceled our train tickets, drove to the dock of the Hurtigruten (Norwegian Cruise line that also delivers mail and supplies), returned the rental car, and then found ourselves headed north in the last 2 cabins on the ship. The Hurtigruten left Bergen at 8pm at night and we arrived in our destination, Aalesund by 8:45 in the morning. What a thrill for the kids to spend a night on a ship and to see the gorgeous coastline of Norway. Travis was able to arrange a hotel for us in Aalesund and we are all cosily packed into a "family room" in the Thon hotel located right on the water only a few hundred meters from the Hurtigruten dock.
Today we rented a car for the day so we could drive to the island of Runde (a drive, a ferry ride, and then a drive over several islands and bridges). On Runde there are half a million sea birds nesting on the cliffs, the southern most nesting colonies in Europe. This was a dream come true for Travis that we were able to go out on a guided boat tour and see the puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbacks, fulmars, kittywakes, and sea eagles (oh and also a few seals). The kids were pretty impressed as well- it was a stunning sight to see the birds swarming the island likes bees. The puffins were floating in the water right next to the boat so we could see their bright colorful beaks quite well. The kids were also impressed with the large swells as we bobbed up and down in the fishing boat!
Tomorrow we fly to Oslo (rather than the 9 hour train trip- another slight change in our plans). Then we will be off to London on Friday. The pictures will have to wait until we are back in Switzerland.
In the morning we headed south towards Os where we got on our first of many car ferries to cross the fjord and drive to Saevareid. The roads in the fjord region are narrow, windy, and very close to the edge of the fjord. It makes for exciting driving in a manual transmission car! It didn't take us long to find the town of Saevareid where we took lots of pictures of the farms and signs and then stopped in the town center to have ice cream at the small local market. We chatted a bit with the people in the store and found that there are still a few people living there with the same name. Suddenly it all makes sense to us why Travis is drawn to the ocean and to northern regions. It must be in his bones from his ancestors living there for years, farming their small acres of land and rowing around the fjord to fish and travel.
The next leg of our journey took us on another ferry across another fjord and then through a 11 km long tunnel under the Folgafonna mountain and glacier. Then up north to the small "town" of Aga along a narrow branch of the Hardanger fjord. This fjord runs north/south so it is well suited for fruit farms. We passed small plots of cherry, apple and plum trees, hanging on the steep sides of the hills between the pine trees and the water. In Aga, we stayed in a cabin right next to the water. It was owned by Erling Aga and besides renting out a couple cabins for tourists, he raised chickens and had a farm of plum trees and a few milking cows up the hill for the winter. It was quiet and beautiful and a perfect place for the kids to enjoy a bit of swimming, some exploring of the glacier, the town of Odda, and also towards the Hardagervidda National Park and the town of Eidfjord. The waterfalls coming off the mountains in this area are unbelievable. This time of year the snow is still visible on the higher peaks and it is melting quickly and coming town in raging, icy waterfalls.
Leif and Travis spent an entire day fishing (it was rainy and chilly most of the day so we also read and put together a puzzle). That night Leif was sleeping so hard he fell out of his bunk in the cabin and hurt his foot. It was the middle of the night, so we didn't give it much thought and put him back to bed in our bunk. In the morning, seeing it was so swollen and bruised we decided we should probably have it checked out in the ER in Bergen. We were going there anyway to take back the rental car and take a train to Finse. The ER was quiet and efficient and in about 1 hour we learned he had broken a couple of the bones in his foot, they wrapped it up in a bandage, we paid 40 NOK (about $6) and we were on our way. The next problem was deciding what to do since the only activities in Finse were hiking or biking. We spent a couple hours at the tourist info center, canceled our train tickets, drove to the dock of the Hurtigruten (Norwegian Cruise line that also delivers mail and supplies), returned the rental car, and then found ourselves headed north in the last 2 cabins on the ship. The Hurtigruten left Bergen at 8pm at night and we arrived in our destination, Aalesund by 8:45 in the morning. What a thrill for the kids to spend a night on a ship and to see the gorgeous coastline of Norway. Travis was able to arrange a hotel for us in Aalesund and we are all cosily packed into a "family room" in the Thon hotel located right on the water only a few hundred meters from the Hurtigruten dock.
Today we rented a car for the day so we could drive to the island of Runde (a drive, a ferry ride, and then a drive over several islands and bridges). On Runde there are half a million sea birds nesting on the cliffs, the southern most nesting colonies in Europe. This was a dream come true for Travis that we were able to go out on a guided boat tour and see the puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbacks, fulmars, kittywakes, and sea eagles (oh and also a few seals). The kids were pretty impressed as well- it was a stunning sight to see the birds swarming the island likes bees. The puffins were floating in the water right next to the boat so we could see their bright colorful beaks quite well. The kids were also impressed with the large swells as we bobbed up and down in the fishing boat!
Tomorrow we fly to Oslo (rather than the 9 hour train trip- another slight change in our plans). Then we will be off to London on Friday. The pictures will have to wait until we are back in Switzerland.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Photos and blog by Leif
My last day of school was really fun. I took my camera along so I could take lots and lots of pictures. Everyone from the class brought games like Uno, Legos, Lotto to play. We also played a couple group games such as "Who is the King or Queen?" and "find the Twix bar" (by listening to musical instruments to guide them to the prize). We also helped carry back mathematic books, folders (Heft), paper and other materials to the main Ahorn building. We had a special snack of Schokolade (chocolate) and Citronen (lemon) Kuchen. For the last week we helped clean up the classroom and brought home our work from the year and the materials we used. We will bring the materials (colored pencils, paints, Gummi (eraser), Fülli (calligraphy pen)) to our next class in August. It was a little sad because I know I will not see some of the kids again.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
July 4th Weekend
We had our first dip in the Zürichsee this weekend. It was a beautiful, hot day, perfect for swimming. The lake was refreshing and we found a nice spot on a rocky beach.
Today was the last day of school for Leif and he came home with extra math books (his choice), artwork, school supplies for the next grade, and a big smile on his face. He took some pictures of his classmates with his camera so we'll work on uploading those this weekend.
Hanna has been going to the upper Mattenhof school all week for "project week". They have spent the days outdoors in the woods learning how to make bread over a campfire, build a nest/basket from roots they dug up from the ground, make spears, bows and arrows, and also to build a fire. Elisabet and I were helpers yesterday morning and we got to help with the spear project. The children measured the branch to the correct size (chest high), cut it with a small serrated saw, and then used their pocket knife to shave the bark off the ends. Then they selected a feather, split it in two and used melted tar from a rubber tree to glue it on to the end of the spear. I marveled the entire morning that I was at a public school and we were using saws, knives and candles and lighters with kids from 5-12 years old! After they carved their name in their spear, the teachers showed us the proper form for throwing a spear and then children spent the next 45 minutes practicing. I wasn't sure how much help I would be with my limited German skills, but between the few words I knew and some gesturing we were successful. Each child I helped said "thank you" afterwards in English- they are all eager to try out the words they know. And I was also able to observe that Hanna knows exactly what is going on and can follow directions in German perfectly (she has been telling us she doesn't understand yet....).
We have been having rain squalls every day this week so the students are decked out in rain pants, jackets, and lots of mud when they return home for lunch. It's also been quite cool and even with pants, a couple shirts, a vest and rain jacket, I never could stay warm outside yesterday morning.
We have officially been living in Switzerland for 6 months now. The pressure is on now at work for Travis to stay. He was taken out to lunch Tuesday by the department head and then he said at least 5 other people have asked him if he could stay. It's tempting because we are enjoying our experiences, but we also look forward to returning to friends and family in the US.
Next week we travel to Norway and England. I will hopefully try to keep up with the blog while we take our holiday.
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| swimming |
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Mattenhof Abschlussfest
Wednesday evening was a celebration for the graduation of the Grundstufe 1 klasse at Hanna's school. The children have been in this school for 3 years (2 Kindergarten years and 1st grade) and now they are moving on the older grade school. We met at the Grundstufe building with our picnic supplies and then hiked up the hill to the Ziegelhütte, about a 30 minute walk. The Ziegelhütte is a picnic area in the woods by our apartment with a small shelter, play area, picnic tables, benches, a running water fountain and fire pits for roasting brats and cervelats. I'd love to see a statistic on the number of brats consumed per person in Switzerland. It has to be incredibly high.... it's the main meat (they are veal not pork) for grilling or cookouts and they do it regularly for school hikes too. They sell them on the streets with a hunk of bread and some mustard, at the train station, or at every outdoor festival or market.
After eating dinner, the children ran around in the woods, looking for frogs, snails and slugs. Then the parents and children presented the teachers with a special gift, a glass platter with tiles made by each child. One of the mothers had very thoughtfully translated her presentation into English for us so we could understand what was going on. It would be also interesting to know how many different languages are spoken at home by the families. One family that was sitting near us included a mother from Brazil and father from CH and they only spoke Portuguese at home. I also heard a couple of fathers talking and they sounded like they were speaking an Eastern European language. We met a little boy from Hanna's class at the park one day and his mother said they spoke mostly Italian at home and that the Swiss German she spoke was very different from the dialect here because she was from Bodensee (only 50 km to the north!). Elisabet has been picking up a little bit from her German class lately and when I overhear them playing she says things like "ok, let's pretend that they speak French, Italian and German". Even if they do not come home speaking German fluently, at least they have learned how there are so many ways to communicate around the world.
After eating dinner, the children ran around in the woods, looking for frogs, snails and slugs. Then the parents and children presented the teachers with a special gift, a glass platter with tiles made by each child. One of the mothers had very thoughtfully translated her presentation into English for us so we could understand what was going on. It would be also interesting to know how many different languages are spoken at home by the families. One family that was sitting near us included a mother from Brazil and father from CH and they only spoke Portuguese at home. I also heard a couple of fathers talking and they sounded like they were speaking an Eastern European language. We met a little boy from Hanna's class at the park one day and his mother said they spoke mostly Italian at home and that the Swiss German she spoke was very different from the dialect here because she was from Bodensee (only 50 km to the north!). Elisabet has been picking up a little bit from her German class lately and when I overhear them playing she says things like "ok, let's pretend that they speak French, Italian and German". Even if they do not come home speaking German fluently, at least they have learned how there are so many ways to communicate around the world.
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