Confessions of a Prior Veggie Eater

Halla Folkens (learned a new saying today *insert high five*)! So today's post will probably be one of the more odd ones for me to write. Only because I don't think I have ever really written about this kind of thing before, but hey there's a first time for everything!

So as you may or may not already know, I was a vegetarian for about the past two years and off and on for short periods before that. Sure, I will admit that I did enjoy a few In and Out cheeseburgers between that two years, but hey that's a very strong temptation. Now, of course, I'm most definitely not a vegetarian. 

Reason for my decision to go, veggies up, being to be able to enjoy awesome Norwegian food! Also, I didn't think it would be right to go into someone else home and demand a certain kind of eating when your purposely in this kind of situation to experience the culture and it would as well as it make unessesary work for my Norwegian family. 

Well anyways, to come to the point of all of this, I am pretty happy that I made this decision a few months back because my Norwegian family is as well hunting family. Now before the vegetarians I know that may be reading this begin to cringe, you must admit, it is a much better alternative then mass butchering corporations. In the past I have had one or two experiences with my father hunting in the states, but because of my age and lack of experience I really didn't take too much part in it as my family here does. 

Here my host Dad goes out hunting with a group of guys and sometimes members of the family go along as well. This last time they said they brought home eight moose. Then everyone gets together and divides it equally. My host mom and sister then take part in grinding up and packaging our share. Its actually a pretty cool thing. My family is pretty comfortable with all of it, seasoned pros! I have to say that personally I think that it is pretty awesome. True Vikings my friends, haha. :) 

So yes, that is this prior vegetarians experience so far with hunting! Whether or not I will decide to go back to being a vegetarian when I go back to USA is still a matter of question, but I have more than enough time to figure that one out and now I am more than happy to continue on in my meat eating ways. ;) 

To anyone planning on going on exchange in the future, I would definitely advise to not limit yourself when experiencing an new culture and to always keep an open mind. I think that is one of the things I have been the most happy with and have found so important on my exchange. In all the times that I have just made myself completely open to changes and new ways of doing things, I have never once been disappointed and have been happy that I can at least say I tried it. To really experience a culture you have to allow yourself to go out of your comfort zone and do it all. I never want to look back at my life and say, "Yeah, I could of, should of, but didn't." I always want to be able to say "Yeah, I did."
 

The Diaries of a Matpakke

In comparing Norway to America this week in a search to find a topic for a blog post, I realized that in the States, at least where I live, people normally don't bring a packed lunch to school, or well not like how Norwegians do it! I am still mastering the art of creating a matpakke. For example, the following lunch with cracker bread inside was more like a cracker salad by the time I pulled it out at lunch. It always baffles me how all the people around me can have such perfect looking boxes, and mine normally looks like a tornado suddenly had an  outbreak in it. But I have to say they are significantly better than the first few I created.

So to be defined, a "matpakke" basically just translated to, mat = food and pakke =  pack. So I bring a "food pack" to school everyday. My school has a cafeteria as well, and the food is so much better than in the average American schools. But it is as well is much more expensive, not outrageous of course because I believe the school only breaks even and does not turn a profit, but definitely not the kind of place you can eat everyday, especially not with a student budget.

So without further to do, here are THE DIARIES OF A MATPAKKE this week *Bum ba ba buuuuuummmm!*

Mondays Matpakke: Bread with Norwegian cheese, cucumbers and a box of raisins. This one is probably my favorite. 

Tuesdays Matpakke: Cracker bread with Norwegian cheese and a box of raisins.

Wednesdays Mattpakke: Pizza Swirls with cheese, pizza sauce and ham. Yumm

Thursdays Matpakke: None! I start school at 11:30! :)

Fridays Matpakke: Peanut butter and Nugatti (basically nutella) sandwich and a kiwi. This is a very dangerously good combination....

So yes! I believe that concludes Mattpakke Diarys for the week! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their Autumn! 

Oh yes and random side note: we may get snow here soon (YAY!!). 

Trondheim Trip... and an elg!

Heja! Well in the beginning of all of this I had it set in mind that I - of course - would constantly update my blog. Regrettably though, I've found that has not been the case! I'm actually finding blogging to be like a McDonald Monopoly more than anything? You always start off with such high expectations for the little ticket on that very large soda and bag of fries. You know the chances are you didn't exactly win the lottery, but your still pretty happy with your free milkshake ticket. So this is me, being happy about my few blogging milkshake tickets.

Well now to stray away from my horrible McDonalds metaphor, this last week has been Hostferie! I spent the most of it in Trondheim with my family and a couple days with a friend and my contact family. Trondheim is a super beautiful city, whenever I'm there I feel like I could probably spend my entire stay with my camera up. Although, that would require me looking like even more of a tourist than I already do, so I keep my camera away... for some of the time. A picture is worth a thousand words (mind my cheesy saying), so here are a few of my favorite.

Niderosdomen, a large cathedral (and when I say large I mean absolutely huge) in central Trondheim built in the the 11th century.

Buildings built on the waterfront in Trondheim. Some portions of the buildings being homes, where as others are shops.

The last photo is of the bridge that goes over the water that these buildings are built by.

Overlooking the city.

My living situation really does work out perfectly for visiting. Just a 10 minute drive from where I live and then an hour and half boat to the city! Buses travel all around Trondheim throughout the day as well so it makes transportation easy. Although I'm finding that if my budget ever breaks, its usually due to travel. The boat costs almost 40 US dollars both ways, and then of course you have bus fees. So I'm quickly finding out that these trips can not be too frequent, especially not on a student budget with Christmas arriving! 

Oh so awesome thing that I have to share about today, I saw an elg (moose)! For the first time ever on a tur (English direct translation is trip but its equivalent to a hike). He even stayed for a quick photo shoot.

So on that awesome moose note, I should probably leave that blog post, its late and I start school again tomorrow! As always I hope everyone is doing well and thanks for taking the time to read. :)