Sunday August 19th, 2007

12:04pm Sand, Norway Time
4:04pm Saskatoon Time
We got up and went for breakfast around 10. Daniel was still sleeping. It was a breakfast we weren’t used to. Meat, cheese, fish, and eggs. We then went to church in Sand. It was all in Norwegian, so I didn’t get much out of it, but it was an experience. It was too bad though, because the church was nearly empty. People just don’t go to church anymore. There was a Baptism, so there were lots of people and little blonde kids in their gorgeous bunads. We drove around Sand and got to know the town a bit. Its Sunday so everything was closed. There is a big chess set in town, and it reminded me of Harry Potter, because it was full sized, and people were able to be the pieces.
We came back and moved from the cabin by Bjorne’s and the pool, down the hill to a cottage right beside Daniel and Borghild’s house. Bjorne took us to the salmon station where there was a waterfall/rapid area of the river, and the salmon jump up it. There was glass looking under the water, and we could see the salmon under the rapids, trying to jump up. We saw one that was 12kg. It was a MONSTER, and apparently that was normal. This river is known for BIG salmon. Barf. The largest salmon ever caught was in 1910, and it was 35kg, 75POUNDS!! That’s like the size of Siri.
Daniel and Borghild invited us for a snack once we got back. We met their neighbour, he was a cute man who came over to meet the Canadian relatives. Å sne and Helge (Bjorne’s daughter and her fiancé) came from Oslo to visit. She’s very sweet, and translated everything. While we were clearing the table he told us he wasn’t a big help in the kitchen. They were telling us how his hearing aid broke, and he fixed it with tape until his appointment which was 2 months away. When it was taped up, it made a loud buzzing noise that he couldn’t hear, but Borghild could. Daniel told us that he was happy when he got his new hearing aid because it didn’t make a noise, so he and Borghild were friends again. We looked at pictures, and saw some from when Leah, Anna, Nils, etc visited in the past. We even saw one where mom, Randi, and Ami were here 30 years ago. We saw a picture of Daniel giving Borghild flowers, and were were like “oooh, Daniel getting romantic!” and he smacked his forehead, shook his head and was like, “oooohhh”. Daniel proudly showed us his carvings, and they were amazing! We then walked up for supper. It was the funniest thing trying to walk with Daniel. We took probably 17times as long to walk up the hill as we would normally. He just chatted and chatted and chatted and chatted to mom and would stop every 4 steps to point at something with his cane and give an entire explanation. Then we would FINALLY start walking again, and he’d stop to draw a picture in the dirt with his cane to explain something. Then when we were halfway up the hill Daniel stops and tells mom (in Norwegian) that here was a good place to rest. HAHAHAHAHAHA. He’s so darn cute. Stole (Bjorne`s brother) joined us for supper. Supper was AMAZING. Salmon, potatoes, mushrooms, cooked veggies, and lefse. I`ve never eaten salmon that was so perfect. YUMMY. Stole told me I was welcome to stay with them for Christmas, so that’s definitely an option. We stuffed ourselves full, then chatted until almost midnight. Then Å sne, Helge, Daniel, Borghild, and us travelled down the hill in the pitch black back to the farm. T`was a good day.

Ps: Daniel also told us he didn’t really talk all that much. Ahem.