Hookin' up with mom

A few days ago I met up with my Bangkokian friend May - the big shot journalist - who's been on her own little tour around Scandinavia. It was so weird seeing her in Norway!

No, I'm not a ladyboy

It turned out May knew this Thai guy living in the building next to mine at Bjølsen student village, and we went to his house to make green curry.

Such a small world!

Poc is a master student at my university - I didn't even know there were any Thai students at my school, let alone one who's living right next door to me!

Poc is learning Norwegian, and I'd use any excuse to practise my Thai - do I smell a speaking partner?

Canned lychees in syrup

Yesterday I brought Asaki and hubby to my childhood home in Lier.

It's a Godforsaken place.

The "21" family

Mm, lamb chops

Asaki

Momma and Vidar

They kept us entertained for literally minutes

Miang Kham

Miang Kham is a traditional Thai /Laos snack where, in this case, salty peanuts, chunks of fresh ginger, pieces of lime, raw onion and roasted coconut is topped with palm syrup ad wrapped in Chaplu leaves

The name can be interpreted as meaning "eating many things in one bite" - from miang (เมี่ยง), meaning "food wrapped in leaves", and kham (คำ), "a bite".

To me the flavours are way too intense, and remembering one time when I was a kid and ate too much of this stuff to the point I felt sick, I stay away from it.


But the Japanese person loved it:

Rice noodles and broth

Badabing, badabang
Noodle soup!

Silje, my childhood friend whom I've known since the age of four still lives in the same building as where I grew up, stopped by.

Silje

Snøball,
also known as
Mr. Grumpypants

My mom is quite the character.




And pretty tiring.

Yay! I feel so petite

The end.

Study Date & Cinnamon Buns

If he looks a little crazy
it's because
he is

Today Petter came to my humble crib early in the morning for our study date - he even brought breakfast!

We spent the intire day preparing for our first Japanese class since we got back from Japan.

I had to rearrange
"all"
of my furniture
to make room for us

Fun, fun, fun!

Got it?
Me neither

This is how I'd like to remember
my momma
and
rebellious teen sister
Even though
they're not
dead

When we got tired of studying Petter made cinnamon buns - and I watched.

Ueeh!
What a mess

Makeshift
roll

I present to you
Petter's cinnamon buns
(and my electronic dictionary)

Yep, that's it.

Back in Norway

Norway.
No, not really
Just a boring picture from the flight

Gah, I've been back in Norway for three days, and I'm still jetlagged. Does that mean I'm getting old? At 5 a.m this morning I couldn't sleep anymore and got up and made.. popcorn. Yep.

The flight was long. But remember, I've survived a 14-hour busride in a super-small seat and no toilet onboard, so I've been through worse.

At the airport in Oslo I was greeted by:

Who's that hot momma, you're probably thinking
Well, it happens to be
my
hot momma

My 15-year-old kid sister

And it took exactly three minutes before my mother already got on my nerves and I wanted to cry. Gotta love that family bond!

Then we hopped (well, maybe not "hopped" considering my heavy suitcase was FOUR kilos overweight and I had to pay frickin' 120 Euros at Narita airport) on a train heading for Asker where momma had parked her car.

The road was long..

Finally after a long drive from Asker we arrived at my childhood home in a itty-bitty place (that's not even a town) called Sjåstad.

Here I was greeted by:

Whose big fat ass is that?..!

Oh, hello Snowball
Looking especially grumpy today

There ya go

Where's Waldo?
Please notice mom has a banana tree
in her living room

This is how we keep warm in Norway
- by standing over the heater like this

Excuse the blurry picture,
we had to act fast

I went to bed pretty early, and the next day mom presented the grosest breakfast ever. No offence, mom, but lutefisk at 7 in the morning?

She has a great sense of homour, that one.

Lutefisk is a Scandinavian dish which is made from dried stockfish, also called whitefish. Most commonly, the fish of choice is cod, although other white fleshed fish can be used as well. The fish is rehydrated before being soaked in lye and then soaked in fresh water. Finally, lutefisk is cooked and served with an assortment of side dishes. This particular fish delicacy is a topic of intense discussion and debate in some parts of the world; it has a unique texture and scent which can be quite intense for first-timers.

Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-lutefisk.htm

Lutefisk

My sister squealed when I poked it and revealed it's jelly-like consistency. No way I was eating that, jetlagged and miserable, at seven in the morning. No offence mom!

Morning view from
my childhood bedroom window
(stupid tree)

At nine we loaded the car with all of my junk that I had kept in my mom's storage while I was in Japan. Then we drove to Oslo and my beloved university to fetch the key to my new home.

Look what my momma got me
An insane amount of
Longan

Ueeeh, clutter!!

After dropping me and my junk off at Bjølsen Studentby, I spent the rest of the day getting settled into my new home.

This is all you'll get the next months

Ugly pictures

in the bathroom mirror

So, I'm back from Japan.

What to do with this blog?

I have a feeling my life will be pretty uneventful these next few months - besides, how interesting will it be to read about my life in Norway, anyway?