Norway 2010-Super-Ultra-Massive Post

It is amazing how difficult it is to compress five days of being in Norway into one concise post. I have spent the last week mulling over and going through all the photos and the memories of those few days. There was no way I could share all the pictures that I would like to (Here is my Onkle Stein, my Tanta Kari, oh this is Onkle Finn...that would be a lot of family pictures).

I guess the best place to start is why I went. About 6 months ago, my younger brother Scott put the bug into everyone's ears. It was our Bestefar Sivert Kristian Tessem's 90th birthday (Bestefar is grandfather in Norwegian). He started to ask around and see if any of us would go with him. Well long story short, I decided to go, and after some pretty neat blessings of how to pay for this wild endeavor (I won't post it here, but if you want to know ask me-does that sound like a sales pitch?) a day after Kathleen's birthday I was on a flight from Raleigh to Newark (that flight decided to not have a working bathroom), Newark to Oslo (a lot of running to get on that one) and then from Oslo to Trondheim, Norway. I travel enough with work that flying is not a big deal for me, but this is the first time that I have flown to a country were I don't have mastery of the language since my mission. I know, you are thinking isn't he Norwegian-ish. Yes, but my language skills in Norwegian are more on the "I can listen and understand enough to get by" level, but my responses make me sound alot like Kevin Malone from the Office. Furthermore, ever since Brazil, whenever I open my mouth to respond in Norwegian I end up throwing Portuguese words in there. kind of like when I was returning from Norway and the security guard told me that I needed to be patted down and I said, "Can you say that in English, por favor?" (all of that was in Norwegian, except for the por favor).

Anyway, I finally got to Trondheim, which is about 1.5 hours south of where my Bestestefar and Bestemor live in Steinkjer. I beat my parents and siblings Scott, Troy and Tiffany and her husband Jason to the airport (my other sister, Melinda, was not able to be with us as she was in Norway over the summer and is expecting her second child).

After meeting up with my parents, and driving the distance to Steinkjer, we immediately went to see Bestefar and Bestemor. It was awesome. I haven't seen my grandparents for eight years. It has been a very long time. It is pretty much on par with the rest of my life, I think I have only seen them every six to eight years, so you can imagine I haven't spent an enormous amount of time with them. The picture above shows me with my Bestefar Sivert (who I am named after), my Bestemor Marit (who my sister Tiffany is named after). The house was packed with family who had come in for the celebration. I was able to see all of my Norwegian family except for my cousins Tor Olav, Agnete and Henriette.

The first night there, Scott and I could not sleep. So, due to the time difference, we decided that we would go running to try to get ready for bed. Unfortunately, this running began after sleeping a few hours. It also began at 1 in the morning. It must of looked quite funny to the Norwegians who were up in the discotheque to see these two guys running through the streets from 1 to 3am. It was a nice run, and probably the warmest of the time that I was there. The other time that I was able to run it was raining, and so was less fun and more wet.

Steiknjer is located on a fjord. In the picture above, the water that you see is the ocean, the Beistad fjord. One of my goals for the trip was to swim in the ocean. That was nixed by the family that was with me. I guess I will have to go back to do that one!

This picture above shows us wandering around Steinkjer. One of the things that we all wanted to do while we were here, was to eat the awesome Norwegian food. The interesting thing is that the Norwegian food that I think of (having been there only a few short times) and the things that my brothers think of (having lived there on their missions) are two different things. I think of fish cakes and sea food, sodd soup and open face sandwiches, meatballs and the typical Christmas dinner. Scott and Troy think of hot dogs and pizza from the street vendors. They also think of the food that I have heard Troy speak constantly of since he returned from his mission, the kebab. Apparently Norway has had a fair amount of immigration from the middle east, and they have brought some of their food there. Kebab, at least what we had, reminded me of a taco salad in a pita. It was good, and I would probably have it again, but it didn't have the same connection for me as it would for someone who lived on it during their mission. Maybe that is why I love pigs ears and snouts in some black beans. I think our different memories from places are interesting.

The principal reason for the trip was Bestefar's 90th birthday. They had a great party for him, that as I said almost all of the Norwegian family was at. We had a nice dinner, there was a live three piece band playing and then their were speeches and toasts from family members. For our part we sang a song that Dad, Troy and Scott wrote in Norwegian. It turned out pretty good. This was a wonderful day. I got to dance with my Bestemor while Tiffany danced with Bestefar. This was especially sweet. When I introduced myself to Bestemor the first day in Norway, she told me that she wouldn't recognize me on the street. I didn't know how to take that. It was awesome to dance with her. I like the picture of my Bestefar and I. After we took it, I showed it to him and said "Sivert og Sivert", Sivert and Sivert. It was at this point that he looked at me and said, "you are Jeffery Sivert? I didn't remember that you were here." He then seemed to see me for the first time. It was great. Also in the picture are my two male cousins that are closest to my age, Hans Marius and Terje. Terje was always the biggest cousin, it was fun to remember playing bloody knuckles with him. Hans Marius and I would see each other infrequently growing up, but every time it was like we were best friends. I remember when he came to Utah and went to a dance with us, and said how cool it would be if we could do things together and then people would say "here comes the Tessem boys. It is cool how family is like that, you don't see each other for a while, and then it is like you never left.

Dad gave Bestefar a wood carving he had made of Bestefar catching a fish with his bare hands when my father was a child. I love hearing my fathers stories of growing up in Norway (bombs made from WWII ammunition, islands lit on fire) in so many of the stories it is fun to see the role of my father as the child and of my Bestefar as the father. I love those stories.

Sunday was spent in Trondheim going to church. We went to the LDS Branch in Trondheim where Mom, Dad and Scott all served during their missions (at different times). This was a pretty cool experience. All of us, except Jason, had been here before. The branch is small, although the day that we were there they had a confirmation of a new member (a man from Nigeria, which brings another interesting aside, that of immigration of Africans, Middle-Eastern, Indians and Asians to Norway-Norway is more of a smorgasbord than a melting pot, everyone seems to stay in their own little spot).

The cool part of this day was a story that Mom told us. When she was on her mission, she met Dad in Bergen, where he was taught by her for a little bit and the Elders. She hadn't seen him since then, but he had come to Trondheim for a young adult conference. The Sunday he was there she saw him at church, passing the sacrament. This Sunday, my brothers and I got to prepare, bless and pass the sacrament. That was so neat, to all serve in this ordinance in this place that is pretty special to our family history.

Trondheim is also known for Nidaros Cathedral, which is the second largest cathedral in Scandinavia and the location where all Norwegian kings are coronated. It is a pretty impressive building, I love its architecture. We got to go inside and walk around and look at the stained glass windows and the statues. It was pretty neat.



Our family name comes from a farm in the area of Steinkjer called Tessemplassen. It is always great to head up there and see where we came from. Plus, it is cool to stand next to a street sign on the side of a road with super busy traffic.

I like to take funny and interesting pictures as well. The collage below is some of the pictures I found the most interesting from the trip. First, how can you say no to kylling pizza? It kylls. I like that Norwegians are so organized that they even have places to keep all the hints. The dark brown sausage you see in the top row is reindeer sausage, which actually tastes really good. The picture of me and the fish is in the supermarket. You can by frozen full salmon, I thought that was pretty cool. Finally the last two pictures are of things that I love about Norway, they love hot dogs (this store sells 10 different versions, named after different cities in the U.S.) and you can buy caviar in a toothpaste tube. In fact, you can buy a lot of foods in toothpaste tubes, cheese, mayonnaise, caviar, etc. What a country.

Another fun thing about Norway is visiting the City of Hell, which in Norwegian actually means luck. Anyway, it is a great tourist picture to go the Hell train station. I need to point out that it was a cold day there, there was quite a bit of snow, and yes in fact it had frozen over.

Our final day in Norway was Bestefars birthday. At this point it was just Bestefar and Bestemor and us. Everyone else had gone to their homes. We got to spend the last few hours with them, by ourselves. They opened up their bottle of wine that they had received to skoll each other. We decided to get in on the fun, started by Scott. We came out with our glasses of water. Jason decided to up the ante, by not bringing a cup of water but a picture of water. That was awesome, and they loved it. Also, in the picture is a bowl of the sodd that Bestemor made. This is one of my favorite meals from Norway. She, however, made enough to feed an army, and we were informed that we had to eat a lot. That was an adventure, I think I got my fill of it for quite some time. But it was so good! Sodd is made with lamb chunks and meatballs made from pork and mutton. It has this amazing broth, and is served with potatoes and with carrots. Wonderful stuff.


One of the cool things about this trip, was that although most of our U.S. family didn't get to come, they did get to participate through Skype. We were able to call home and have most everyone talk to Bestefar and Bestemor. That was cool. I don't think they got it at first, I think they thought it was just a video or something. Then Kathleen and the kids started singing Happy Birthday and I think Bestefar got that it was live. That was pretty cool. I also love the picture of Melinda waving at her grandparents, technology is awesome.


The hardest part was saying good bye. It is always hard to say good bye to the Norwegian family, since the time in between visits is always so long. It is especially hard to say good bye to grandparents that you may not see again. The connection is amazing, even with differences in age, distance and language, I have such a love for them and I can feel their love for me. As the sign in the airport said, it was a good trip and I hope to come back soon to Trondelag.
Although leaving Norway was hard, it was great to get back home. It was wonderful to get back home to my Kathleen and our children.

I am glad that I could go on this trip. Thank Kathleen for letting me go! It was wonderful to see my grandparents.