With the kids going to school, we will settle into regular life. Ted also started teaching this week and it seems to be going well. All of the Norwegian professors and PhD students sit together and eat lunch every day, so he enjoyed seeing some familiar faces.
Everyone came home happy from school again. Nora made 4 new friends–in 4th grade kids still come up to you and say “will you be my friend?” She seems to enjoy having the power to accept, and was uncertain about Henrik in particular. Now she has 5 friends, 2 boys and 3 girls, and she knows 3 of their names (not prerequisite for being a friend, apparently).
Anders appreciates that 7th graders are still “kids” here, not too cool to put on their snowpants and play outside. It was his first time playing hockey, and apparently he shoots left-handed (like Ted). He also learned more of his friends’ names yesterday. He is the only Anders in the class, while there is another Nora in Nora’s class and one in Anders’ class. But Anders is missing the warm lunch day, because he is home sick. Seems like just a bad cold, but he might have had a low fever last night so we kept him home.
Yesterday I took a walk in the sunshine to get some groceries. When I got home, I realized that I bought 3 packages of lutefisk! For goodness sakes, I shoulda known better. I was looking for torsk (cod) and was only focused on the look of the fish, not the name. I was also seduced by the seemingly low price (which I misread). I bought 6 portions of lutefisk, worth ~$40. I also don’t think of lutefisk looking like this or prepared this way. None of it added up in the moment. It was only after getting home and looking at the receipt that I had realized what I had done. When your brain is overwhelmed by navigating so many new things, you can lose sight of some important details.
This was not a mistake I was willing to eat (pun intended). I returned it, in Norwegian. They accepted my broken Norwegian and took it back. Instead, I bought 1 piece of fresh pollock (on sale) for dinner and 1 piece of frozen cod for later for less than $10. That was a good exchange. It was worth the potential embarrassment of trying to return something to the grocery store. All’s well that ends well in an edible meal, and only $5 worth of fresh fish! I even asked the lady at the fish counter how to prepare it, and understood that I should fry it in a pan. I made roasted potatoes and carrots on the side. Fresh fish and fruits and veggies are quite reasonably priced. All fruit is actually 30% off this week, so I will be back to the grocery store soon!
