Norway Day 2

No one in Norway is stout! Apparently, it is because all 4 million of them go outside. All the time. There is a path that runs along the road from P and T's house to anywhere else and every time we are on the road, there are walkers, runners and cyclists along the path. We went to a little shopping center with a bank on our way out to town today and there were people walking up the hill as we drove to the parking lot. And all adults speak English, thank god, because the only thing I can say reliably in Norsk is thank you. Please is way too hard. I hope it'd be easier if I was living here and learning the language. At least I no longer want to default to the French. Anyway, I changed money at the bank and so now I know how expensive everything is! 300 US$ yielded around 1700 kroner. Lunch today -- and it wasn't a particularly fancy lunch – was 776 kroner.

So, after the bank we continued into Oslo itself, to go to Vigeland Park. It was pretty busy for a cold (-4 C) day. We saw a lot of naked statues, including the "famous angry little naked boy." We saw the monolith of naked bodies at the center of a huge park, and walked around the park for a bit. The playground, Frognersborgen,was mobbed. The Girl, unfortunately, was cold and tired and didn't want to play.

So we went to lunch near Aker Brugge instead. It was an interesting experience to find someone willing to feed our party of 6 along the shoreline. The first place was full. The second place took a giant pass on the kiddies. The third place said Ok, despite having only one waiter and a cook. In all of these places, the waiters and hostesses were Swedish. P says it's because Norwegians usually don't want those jobs. The third place was called Alfred, and was attached to the Nobel Peace Center. Fred means peace in Norsk. I had a delicious bowl of cream of cauliflower soup with chives and bacon and the strongest cup of coffee in my life. The Girl had a chicken and bacon salad, which was excellent as well. Little e had the kids' chicken, but NO potatoes or salad. Big E ate those. My credit card worked here. USAA forgot to tell me in the travel notice that I need some kind of anti-theft chip on the card, so it only works on swipe machines, which not everyone has.

After lunch, we wandered over to check out the gift shop of the museum and the docent at the intro desk of the museum handed The Girl (English) and Big E (Norsk) each a scavenger hunt card and said "the museum is free today." We said "awesome!" and checked it out, since it's normally 80 kroner (about $13) to get in. I learned something about the Nobel peace prize and Alfred Nobel himself in this cool interactive, giant book exhibit. Had no idea that he invented dynamite, and find it somewhat ironic that the man who invented a great instrument of war would also leave his legacy in those striving for peace. This year's prize winners were dubbed "Sheroes" by the institute. I also had no idea that American Quakers, Jane Addams or Woodrow Wilson had previously received the prize. Big E and The Girl completed the hunt and picked out a prize each in the gift shop (button depicting the icons of the 8 different ways to begin peace - The Girl chose th one depicting a tree for recycling and Big E chose the one for depicting a megaphone for speaking up/out). We all went to the bathroom (I keep taking photos of interiors like bathrooms because I think they are so cool) and then left around 4:30. It was pitch black at that time and there was a man singing opera and wearing sweatpants in the public square just outside the center.


We came home after Aker Brugge and had teriyaki salmon with veggies and rice for dinner. Yum, so yum! I probably could have eaten the whole fish myself. P and I had dropped T and the girls at home and gone to the local grocery (Rema 1000) to get some supplies for dinner. P said it’s critical to plan, something that she isn't very good at, because most shops close at 8 on weekdays and all of them are closed on Sundays. In Norway, not only is it a cultural tradition to spend most of one’s time outside (regardless of weather), but it's also tradition that children can have sweets (candy, chocolate) on Saturdays - usually after dinner, but P said her neighbor with boys does it after breakfast because her kids are hooligans on that much sugar. The Boy would be also. And on Fridays after work, it's salty smack time. So we split a bag of "Friday mix," which also goes well with a cold glass of beer or wine. I don't know if I could be that disciplined - especially in a sea of Veruca Salts - but I wonder if I could implement such rules in my own life.



At dinner, I jinxed us by commenting how well the girls were doing together, so at bedtime there was a bit of a quarrel. P read to Little e and Big E and I read some Clementine to The Girl  and put her in bed – T’s excellent IKEA hack of a Hemnes twin bed mounted like a bunk bed - and then Big E asked to sleep with The Girl and they snuggled in together, their quarrel forgotten.



Big E goes back to school on the 3rd. The article about Finnish education (especially compared to Norway and the U.S.) was timely, although anyone knows how interesting the subject of education is to me and of course I am asking questions. The Norwegian primary schools are similar to U.S. schools. In 1st grade, Big E goes every day from 8 -1 (or similar), and the instructional time is redistributed in the length of the school year - a 6-week summer break, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week in February. There are 27-28 kids in Big E's class with 1 teacher and 1 aide. Big E calls her teacher by her first name. It is very informal. Perhaps because, as P says, so few couples get married. For example, T's sister got married a few years ago to her partner of 25 years.

Big E goes to aftercare, and Little e goes to heavily subsidized daycare (Barnhege) until 5. Barnhege is 400 US$ each month for full time care. Seriously. The taxes are about 30 percent of income. P says Big E comes home and then has homework, which is as exhausting here as ours is in the U.S.



We are going to take the cruise to Copenhagen with Little e on the 2nd and come back on the 4th. The guidebook stresses shopping. Apparently, everyone shops everywhere else except no one shops in Norway because it’s too expensive. I spent 120US$ on 3 pairs of (awesome) Norwegian mitts yesterday, so this is not surprising. I'm not going to Copenhagen to shop however. The plan is to see the Viking museum and the Danish design museum. T says to buy marzipan and look at speakers too.

Adventures in International Travel - Day 1

Up at 1 am local time, so my sleep is still messy. But The Girl made it until 9:30 after a two-hour nap so maybe her sleep will be better.


It's not as dark or cold as I expected. Reminds me a bit of both Pittsburgh and Seattle, although more likely that those places were influenced by Scandinavian design. Went through Swedish customs and The Girl freaked out by crowds and fear of being left behind. We were officially the last through the passport check and we still had 90 minutes for our flight, so she calmed a bit. Got a coffee and muffin in one of the coffee lounges at Arlanda. The benefit to not knowing the currency is that if felt like play money. I want to move in to Arlanda. I had joked with The Girl that there would be a mini IKEA in the airport. There wasn't, but the design aesthetic was everywhere. It got light around 9, when our flight took off.


Everyone on flight from Sweden to Norway spoke in Norge to us; feel like I need a sign round my neck that says "I'm sorry, I do not speak Swedish/Norwegian/Danish." that said, it gives me a thrill that I look enough like I could be from here. Told The Girl  that this is why learning a second language is important; may have convinced her to start Polish school. Norge customs nonexistent, got bags and got on flytoget, which is pronounced nothing like the English and is the express train to Drammen, stopping along city center, Lillestrom, and Sandvika, our destination, along the way.


My friend P and her daughter, Big E, met us at station. Sandvika is site of largest mall in Norway. Funny to me, since P is from Minneapolis-st. Paul. The Girl and Big E instant friends, chattering like magpies to their house. House is big, would be called duplex in US, with one adjoining wall. Simple, clean lines and colors with lots of windows. We met Little E and saw Toff. LIttle E is a stubborn 2.5y and speaks only in Norge. Big E had written us a welcome note, using Norge phonetics and pronunciation, translated to the English "Caroline and The Girl, wwelcome to ass (us)."


I was hungry, so we went to local village - Barens Verk - for lunch and some "stay awake" browsing. P told me that Barens Verk used to be an iron factory (allegedly why Hitler wanted Norway) and most of the buildings have been there for 500+ years so it is a popular spot with tourists , especially in summer. Cute and quaint, with hills and lots of gallery spaces and shops. We went to Hansen Baker, a bakery/cafe for lunch. P says it is a chain. I had ham and cheese with veggies and cappuccino, p had cheese sandwich with veggies and cappuccino, girls had vanilla bolle, chocolate muffin, cinnamon roll. Yum. Walked around shops, over bridge over waterfall. Snow melty but lots of ice. Went into chocolate house - will go back for goodies for boys before we leave, bought locally made Norge mitts for me and The Girl. My credit card didn't work - missing some kind of chip. Should have looked into that more closely before I left.


Stopped to buy firework for NYE on way back. I took a nap, The Girl played with E and e, The Girl fell asleep on front of The Princess Bride. Make your own pizza for dinner. P and T anniversary so I put kids to bed and crashed out myself. Light at 2-3, dark at 5.

Teachers and Students

All over Chicago, bloggers, message boarders, reporters and post-school playgrounds are abuzz with news of waiver votes happening at schools scattered throughout the city. For my family, the extended school day is nothing new.

What is new is that CPS paying for it. Or, more accurately, the teachers at our school voted to give up their stipend and take the flat 2 percent payout + $150,000 in discretionary funds of the Pioneer Program in exchange for teaching school for an additional 45 minutes (to our already extended day) each day. Starting Monday, The Boy and The Girl will attend school from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., giving them an extra 5 minutes for lunch and 40 total minutes added to the music, art, technology and physical education that they already receive, giving them a full 60 minutes to explore these subjects. They'll retain the daily 90-minute literacy and math blocks that make up the core of their instructional day. 

There is much debate over the extended day and public education in general these days in public forums and private living rooms and everywhere in between. Unfortunately, in education policy--as in parenting--we may only see the effects of our immediate actions 10 or 20 years down the line. But, I am fairly confident that a 7.5-hour day, structured in the above manner, will afford my children the kind of education I think that they--and their peers--need to become productive members of society in 16+ years. I believe that this new longer day will look nothing like the CPS-as-babysitter model feared by many.

And more importantly, the teachers at my children's school believe that this longer day is beneficial to the children. So much so that 83 percent of them voted to take a significant pay cut. In light of this, I am disappointed to learn that the 2011 Blue Ribbon Commission recommended that teachers pursue children-of-teacher admission to their schools as a benefit through CPS' Human Capital division (page 4). Won't someone please think about the teachers?

Fathers and School

Last May, Grandma Texas came to visit during a school week. She came with me on a Thursday afternoon to pick up The Boy, The Girl and The Tot (Who Isn't) from school and her observation about life at the kids' urban elementary school struck me as odd: she was surprised to see so many fathers at school. She thought that this was perhaps a Chicago thing, but more recent news makes me think it's yet another sign of school success.

Perhaps it's because The Dad has worked from home since we moved to Chicago 9 years ago, or the acquaintance of a fair number of police officers and fire fighters (both male and female) and nurses, but a sizable population of involved fathers has never struck me as odd. And fathers at our school are involved. And more to the point, their involvement is visible and tangible, regardless of individual race, educational level, marital status, address, generation, age or socioeconomic status, fathers are very involved at our school. They drop off their kids, pick up their kids, attend parent-education events, lead fundraising, chaperone field trips, direct traffic, volunteer in class, read books, coach extracurricular sports and bring special activities (like the Pilot Light Chefs) to our school.

I've always taken this for granted, but it's actually anomalous in Chicago today. Per new CPS chief Jean-Claude Brizard, such involvement is so rare in some neighborhoods as to be bizarre. In some areas of the city, in fact, according to Brizard, census data show that there are some neighborhoods where there are no males between the ages of 18 and 35 living there. They are all either incarcerated or dead, he said.

Although my father was not intimately involved in my early elementary years in the early 80s, I feel fortunate that I cannot really imagine a world bereft of dads.  And I thank goodness that my kids--and their classmates--do not have to either.

The Big Blue Box

On Monday morning, our power went out. A City of Chicago tree crashed into a ComEd power line, taking two power boxes and power for 90.9 percent of the houses on our block along with it. ComEd and the City sounded worse than my children during a squabble ("It's not my fault. You fix it." "No, you fix it first." "No, you." "NO, YOU."), leaving us without power for a dreadful 36 hours.*

What was a mama to do? Go to IKEA, of course!

I love IKEA. Certainly not as much as these folks, and probably not as much as the friend who once sent weekly countdown emails for the opening of the Emeryville IKEA, but my love for IKEA has been fierce and unwavering since my French host family took me to "Chez IKEA" in Paris when I was 17. I love Chicago because it's got O'Hare and a direct line to anywhere in the world, but I also love it because it's got two IKEA stores within a 40-minute drive.

I go there when it's cold outside (indeed, it was The Boy's first outing in February 2003). I go there when it's hot outside (as I told a family friend earlier this week, it's cheaper than a trip to the movies). I go to put the kids in Smaland. I go for inspiration, for lunch, to kill time, or because I just haven't been there in awhile. 




* I know there were households worse off than we were. I'm just sayin'