Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
Very cool new piece of public art in Oslo: “Grass Roots Square”, in front of government building R6 (Teatergata). It consists of 50,000 tiny statues embedded into the stones of the walkway, inviting people to walk atop them. The artist is Korean-born Do Ho Suh, and while this piece has come to symbolize a lot more since the 22/7 terror attacks … Read More
I’m hoping this double-whammy of a rainbow–shot from my window–will make up for the lack of updates. It’s been raining all summer in Oslo; not just regular rain, but torrential and schizophrenic downpours (with sunny bouts in between, hence the rainbows). Does not seem like the kind of weather that is typical for this part of the world… and meanwhile, … Read More
amazing how many thai-chinese-vietnamese-sushi places you can find in Oslo.
the ski jump the metro stop
aker brygge is a fancy schmancy place–all except for the back end, which faces several warehouses. but now even these have been camouflaged with some pretty coverings:
A common difficulty for Norwegian learners is to distinguish between the different “thinking” words. Using the right word for the right context is not always easy–at least if you’re worried about offending people. jeg tror = I think, but only in circumstances for which you are uncertain about something. for example, “I think he is 32 years old”–implying that you … Read More
Last weekend we did something very Norwegian: the Sunday hike. We took the T-bane all the way to the end stop of Frognerseteren, with the aim of hiking to Sognsvann (about 15 km). On the way there we stopped for coffee at the cabin at Skjennungstua, where–amongst the sea of Norwegians in their fancy hiking boots and colourful goretex jackets–we saw … Read More
the wonderful bún at Lille Saigon 1 (not to be confused with their competitor Saigon Lille Cafe up the street–a splitting of ways apparently caused by some nasty divorce). but really, what could go wrong when you combine rice vermicelli, pickled carrots & daikon, fresh cucumber, fried onions, bean sprouts, peanuts, tofu fried with lemongrass, and sweet/spicy fish sauce? nothing. … Read More
Only in Norway could caustic soda be advertised as something to cook your fish with (“luting” being the verb for making “lutefisk”–a dish commonly served at Christmas, no less). An apt description by a Norwegian-American named Dave Fox: Norwegians didn’t invent lutefisk because they thought it was tasty. A long time ago, in the pre-refrigeration epoch, salting and drying fish … Read More