Updates

Below are my most recent photos and updates.

The most exciting thing that happened in the last week was visiting my great-great-great...grandparents' farm north of Oslo.  It is a BEAUTIFUL village nestled in a valley with a river running through it.  Below are photos of the village and valley:

And below are photos of the family farm:

I stayed with some beautiful people, neighbors of my family.  One of my new friends is a knitting enthusiast like me:  

AND makes the most amazing lefse - just like my grandma .  :)

Interestingly, Mt. Tron Peace University is hoping to build its campus nearby...  If they succeed, they will have one of the world's most beautiful campuses!!  This would be the view...

I will also include below a photo of a trunk with Rosemåling that I found particularly gorgeous.  These trunks are apparently given to Norwegian women when they leave their parents' house, setting out on their path to adulthood.  I think they are gorgeous!!

There is a museum in the village which portrays traditional, rural Norwegian life as it was in the past.  Photos below:

Before I visited the village, back in Oslo, I was fortunate to visit "Akershus Fest," which is a military fort and historically has been a fort as well as a prison.  One of the most interesting aspects of the fort is a museum which brings attention to the history of Nazi German occupation of Norway between 1940 and 1945 during WWII.  While sobering and sad, the museum also pays tribute to those who resisted during this difficult time.  For example, there is a large exhibit displaying the underground resistance newspapers that were in wide circulation during that time.  The first photo is examples of the newspapers, the second is a mock-up of what an underground, basement newspaper press might have looked like.

People resisted in both extraordinary and quotidian ways.  For example, many people fabricated illegal radios and hid them in household furniture, such as those shown below:

A lot of people lost their lives during this time, including these 3 young men who were executed for resisting the Germans:

The final exhibit in the museum shows some of the Norwegians celebrating victory in 1945 when the war finally ended and Norway gained its independence.  The quote on the wall says "Each of us was chosen by our country, one by one, day by day.  With victory there was also defeat."

I talked to a docent about this for some time.  She said this part of the museum was meant to demonstrate that though Norway won the war, many died, and that with victory, there was also great sadness and loss.  She talked about the horrific 2011 terror attacks in Oslo and Utøya in which nearly 100 people were killed at the hands of a right-wing white supremacist.  I asked her if people today still remember both the Nazi occupation and the terrorist attacks.  She said with time people forget the war...but that Utøya brought issues of the need for understanding and tolerance once again into the Norwegian consciousness.

Moving on to other sites...nearby Akershus is this interesting "hand" sculpture...

I also visited the Oslo Cathedral.  Photos below...

AND finally, our gender equality course visited a domestic violence crisis center today.  The center is pretty amazing - completely free and funded by the Norwegian government.  Survivors of domestic violence can go there completely free, no questions asked, for up to 4 weeks.  The center then helps people find affordable housing after that.  Interestingly, the center accepts men and women who have survived domestic violence.  Photos below: