Away to the beautiful cold: Snorting snowflakes

Well Mariana went skiing this weekend, or more like attempted skiing.
Since Zoyla worked the night shifts at the hospital this weekend, Stig took Sebastian and me to his hometown, Voss, a small town not too far from Bergen.

The left dot is where I live, and Voss is the upper red dot.

Stig will probably laugh that I called it a town but compared to San Diego...it's a town. But size doesn't matter, Voss was beautiful with its small center and frozen lake, the green trees on the mountains sprinkled with fresh snow. But despite its beauty, it was still cold! A beautiful but stinging -14!! This year has been the coldest year Norway has had in over 110 years. What a coincidence that it be the same year that I choose to come.
We arrived at Stig's parents house and I was greeted warmly by Steiner and Else. shortly after arriving Stig handed me snow gear and once dressed like an Eskimo we left to go skiing. I've been snowboarding before but never have I been skiing. One board is enough to handle, plus when you're on the slopes, skiing just isn't that cool. In Europe however, skiing is it, its the thing to do. So there I was bundled up and feet strapped to 2inch wide skis and my two poles. Right beside me; little 2 year old Sebastian with his own two skis. He was my inspiration! Altogether it was Grandpa Steiner, Stig, Sebastian and me! Wish I had pictures but I didn't want to bring the camera knowing that I would be falling down. Sure enough I did fall, but not until after we split up. Now let me pause to tell you that this wasn't downhill skiing, it was cross country skiing, which can best be described as hiking with skis. Sebastian got tired after a good distance, so Stig stayed with him and Grandpa Steiner took me to ski some more. Then we came to a slope...that was the least graceful I have ever looked in my entire life, and i have had some bad "far from graceful" falls and incidents. Trying to ski/walk/or whatever you want to call what I was doing, up this little hill was the easiest yet hardest thing ever. Easiest because it wasn't even that high, it was a ridiculously tiny slope. Hardest because every time I put a ski forward it would slide backwards and sure enough I went with it. After several minutes of failed attempts a family passed by, a mom, dad and two little kids. I was put to shame by those little runts, they shuffled up that slope like it was nothing. Eager to get up that mound i tried harder causing myself to fall even harder. Then the lightbulb went on and I figured heck if I cant go up the slope facing forward I will take my 6ft. or so skis and go up sideways! It worked and I finally made it up to the top. I can't fail to say that Grandpa Steiner helped me on this great success of mine. Now i know where Stig gets his patience from. But Grandpa Steiner did not even let me triumph my success for 5 seconds; as soon as I got up there he said "ok lets go back because there's more slopes that way". Believe it or not, in that freezing cold weather I managed to work up a sweat.
We went back to the house where Grandma Else was making dinner. We had this amazing stew with rice and salad. For dessert we had something called Dravle. Before they brought it out, Stig told me I didn't have to try it if i didn't want to. I'm guessing that was some sort of warning for what was about to come. Grandpa Steiner said he was eager to see my reaction. When Stig came out with what at first looked like a bucket of paint I was a bit scared, I won't lie. Then when he opened it I was...sort of hesitant, but I would never travel somewhere and not try or experience things from that country or culture. So sure enough I dug my spoon into what looked like pooped out sea sponge.

I loved it! It tasted a bit like flan, or also known as custard, only not as sweet. i'm pretty sure that had i never had flan, the consistency of Dravle would have weirded me out, but since I was used to that feeling it didn't come as a shock. The saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" stands true!
So dinner was great, and I seriously felt like I was in a Rick Steve's travel show. Simply delightful! Oh I must also add that Grandma Else gave me hand knitted socks! I'm sporting them right now as I'm typing this! She has this stash of hand knitted socks, I thought it was adorable and had to take a picture of it.