Thanksgiving in Norway

As most of you know, last Thursday was American Thanksgiving.  I specify “American Thanksgiving” because Canadians also travel abroad and confuse everyone with their October-based Thanksgiving celebration.  Dumb.  October belongs to Halloween, Canada!  I don’t care if it’s colder and therefore your harvest is earlier!  Thanksgiving is in November!

The American contingent here in Trondheim brought Thanksgiving to Norway on a whole new level.  Our plans, however, did not start out so ambitious.  I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with my roommates, and American Alice also wanted to celebrate with her roommates and some friends.  We joined forces and invited American Joe along to our festivities as well.  This was the moment when our smallish Thanksgiving for 15 turned into something much, much bigger.

Joe is someone you could describe as an “aggressive friend maker.”  It’s a great quality.  I mean truly great.  Like, leadership material.  He has this way of naturally getting people to like him.  For instance, on his birthday, we took the bus to town to go out for the evening.  There were a few of us in his group, but the vast majority of the bus was full of strangers.  By the end of our 15 minute commute, the entire bus was singing happy birthday to Joe.  This is who Joe is.

These sound like some ideal personality qualities.  Normally I would agree wholeheartedly.  But there are some situations where being such a natural friend maker can get you into trouble.  One of those instances being when throwing a dinner party/feast.  Joe managed to invite about 30 extra people to our Thanksgiving.

Joe kept calling, saying he, Alice, and I need to meet to talk about a location for Thanksgiving and to make a plan.  Alice and I were baffled by this because we felt like, sure, 15 people is a lot, but we could make it work in someone’s apartment for one night.  Little did we know.  Once we finally met up and got the total count, the panic set in.  I wasn’t prepared to cook a feast for 30-some people!  Joe talked me down from my crazy place and suggested that we make the Thanksgiving more of a potluck than a traditional feast, which placated my inner worrier.  So a Facebook event was created, American recipes were posted on the wall, and a grand total of 49 people were invited.

This left only one major concern: Turkey.  Turkey is a must at Thanksgiving!  I’ll be honest.  I don’t even like turkey that much, but it’s a necessary part of the celebration like a tree at Christmas or fireworks on Independence Day or a possum on New Year’s.  You just have to have it.  And the problem wasn’t just supplying potentially 49 people with enough turkey.  The problem is also that Norway isn’t a huge turkey-consuming nation.  I searched for “kalkun” everywhere in grocery stores near my house, but the only option I could find was turkey breast.  And no.  Just no!  Thanksgiving demands a whole turkey!

The logical solution?  A trip to Sweden.  I’ve learned over the past few months that a crucial part of Norwegian culture is the act of traveling to Sweden to purchase alcohol and meat.  Only in Norway are Swedish prices “cheap.”  So I hopped on the free bus to Sweden (yeah, guys, it’s that big of a deal – there’s a free bus to take grocery shoppers to Sweden – it ONLY stops at the grocery store) and went in search of some Swedish turkeys!

This adventure was all made more ridiculous by the fact that that morning my plantar fasciitis had decide to flare up (thanks, ultimate frisbee), meaning I was a hobbling mess of a human.  I managed to find several frozen turkeys of decent size and get them on to the bus.  The real hilarity (for other people) ensued when it was time to walk my 35 pounds of frozen turkey back to my dorm from the free bus on a useless foot.  Just imagine a Quasimodo-style human, struggling under the weight of two IKEA bags filled with Swedish meat.  Guys, this is my real life.

With the turkeys secured, I felt good about the future of our feast.  I had not considered the time it takes to cook three turkeys.   Starting on Wednesday night at 9 PM, my roommates endured what can only be called a marathon of turkey cooking, gravy making, and intense kitchen cleaning.  I don’t mess around about salmonella.  With about 15 minutes to spare before meeting the guy who was going to open up the student basement we got access to for the event, I was, with the help of my roommates, putting the finishing touches on my stuffed mushrooms… because, you know, three turkeys just aren’t enough of a contribution to Thanksgiving.

This is how you treat a turkey after you have spent 24 hours doing nothing but sleeping and  turkeying.

Joe and I had some clashing visions for what Thanksgiving should look like.  I had turkey platters lined with lettuce, candles, matching plates and utensils.  Joe had techno music and had arranged for the bar to be open.  It could have been a disaster, but our mish-mash Thanksgiving turned out beautifully!

FEAST!

Look at all this joy!

What?  You think that’s the end of my Thanksgiving story?  WRONG!  No.  I’m having not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgivings this year, guys.  STEP UP YOUR GAME, stateside friends!

Kaia and Barry from my previous post decided to have a Thanksgiving for their friends down in Lillehammer, and they very graciously invited me to join.  My time there was a little bit more how I envision Thanksgiving.  We spent all day in the kitchen on Saturday, making a beautiful dinner.  There was just so much joy and warmth in the house.  It made me feel like I was home again!  You know, aside from most of the conversation being in Norwegian.  I wish I had photos of all the beautiful food, but unfortunately it was just too delicious to capture in detail on film before being eaten.  I did manage to get a few images though.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving at a table! So traditional.

So much joy again!

THIS HAPPENED!  My heart almost exploded trying to take in all the adorableness.

Thanksgiving, part 3?  It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s sure to be wonderful!  A few of the English teachers are getting together at Maria’s house for a celebration tomorrow.  She’s another displaced citizen of the United States working at Byåsen videregående skole.  So, yeah, America!  Feel good about the fact that your citizens abroad are holding down the cultural fort!