Skjeggedal

Matt has been here for the weekend. He arrived from the US on thursday before I left for Tønsberg, and spent the weekend here in the apartment, meeting up with Warren and getting settled. I arrived back from Tønsberg yesterday and it has been really cool having another American around.
We decided to walk up to Skjeggedal today, along the Kaiser's Way which starts right outside our apartment here in Tyssedal. I had never been up it the whole way, so it was an adventure. The weather started out rainy, but just got better and better as we went. Here you can see the insignia that was carved in the stone to mark the path, which was the only way up at the turn of the century. This was where all the workers came up, with their horses, and where the Kaiser came up with his entourage in order to view the dual falls that have now been diverted for electric power.
We wandered up to the dam in Skjeggedal, which was built to generate hydroelectricity at the beginning of the century. All hand-cut stone. Pretty crazy. We went over to the lake that is fed by rivers off the plateau, and it was so amazingly clear - we could see 30 feet down to the lake bed near the shore. There is actually a giant intake for the hydroelectric plant below the surface of the water, and it draws the water through a 2-mile long tunnel under the mountains, coming out right above Tyssedal, around Lilletopp. That explains why no water was getting through the dam, and also why the water level of the lake was so low.
On the way down we met some German tourists, who kindly gave us a ride home in their minivan. By then our feet were pretty tired, so it was nice to have a break.

Rainy Day

Today it rained all day, off and on. Here's a few pictures from my balcony, in succession, several minutes after each other. You can see the rain coming in the first, then it obscures the view (but I still have some sunshine), then it passes by and the next cloud comes into view. It was really windy too, so sometimes the rain would go sideways.
I'm continuing to prepare for Matt's arrival - doing some cleaning, sorting, and organizing. Warren has a lot of papers to go through when he gets back. I need to find a place to store the tools and finish up a couple of small tasks around the place.
I also went shopping in preparation for the weekend. I'm beginning to use Norwegian a bit more as I shop and interact with people, and I can understand more and more.
I also helped Ove set up his Myspace so we could get some songs up in a public place for people to listen to. We listened to some mixes on his surround sound system, and they sound pretty good. I have to send out an email to all my friends letting them know they can listen to them: www.myspace.com/ovedanielsen
The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow I'm recording some Hammond B3 organ (with a Leslie amp), then Thursday Matt comes, and Friday I travel to Tønsberg for the weekend, where I'm playing for a youth event. Hopefully I can get Matt settled before I leave. Warren missed his flight from Frankfurt, so we're praying he arrives safely today and is able to make it to Bergen for his dentist appointment. Crazy things.
Oh, I met an Afghani on the bus on my way home from Odda. We spoke some Dari together, though he is actually Pashtun, a language which I don't know, unfortunately. My language was a bit confused, what with all the Norwegian I've been trying to learn, but I was able to communicate pretty effectively. That was really cool. I couldn't quite catch whether he was here for a long time, or just temporarily working a job before he returns to Oslo. Hopefully I'll meet him again.

Sabbath Rest

Today being sunday, and having gotten a good night's sleep last night, I hung out at home and read and played music, listened to John Piper and did a slight bit of recording. I borrowed a friend's bass last week, and just now got around to recording it on a couple of songs - Play Switch (I wasn't happy with the tone of the earlier bass) and Ove's song I Will Hope Continually. I'm not sure I'll keep the bass on that second one.
You can see me in this picture playing the bass. I relocated my desk to the living room of the apartment, in preparation for Matt's coming this week, and I think the new location is pretty nice, actually. Gives it more of an office feel when I sit down at the computer.
The bass belongs to Jan Olav Andersson, and is pretty nice. It's an old Ibanez (they like the Japanese-made instruments around here) from the 70s - an Eagle bass. Has a nice growly attack and a smooth sound and feel. I recorded direct through the Mbox and am really liking the takes I got.
I also did some laundry, the dishes, and a few other things like nailing nails into a board so I have somewhere to put all my Uncle's keys other than in a pile. I also played around a bit with GarageBand. It's a pretty cool program, but as always I have issues with it. ONly because I dual-partitioned my hard drive, though. So I had to figure out the Mac OS X file structure and copy the files onto the second hard drive so Garageband could find the loops. I don't know why they don't just have an option in preferences that lets you select WHere to look for loops, rather than forcing you to copy the files on a dual-boot system. I think that was an issue they didn't think of though.
It just started raining, so after I post this I'll probably call it a night and crash early. Tomorrow's a busy day. I'd like to watch a DVD, but that means I'd have to change the DVD region on my player, and I'm not interested yet. I need to see if I can find a player online that lets you bypass the region. Though with Mac it might be a hardware lock...

A Bad Night's Sleep

Last night I went to bed around 11:30pm. Which is normal, given that the sun doesn't really go down until 1am. What isn't normal, though, is that I lay in bed until 5:30 am before I finally fell asleep. I don't know if I was just thinking a lot (sometimes my mind just spins incessantly, but maybe I was trying to process all the norwegian I had just learned) or I had eaten the wrong kind of food just before bed (spaghetti and hamburger meat in sauce), or it was just so warm (even though I had opened all the windows), or it was too noisy outside (cars revving their engines outside the apartment at 3am and kids yelling, not to mention the birds that started up a racket at about 4am when the sun rose), or what. Kind of strange.
Needless to say, I didn't feel all that well-rested when I got up at 10:30. I then went in to Odda to record some saxophone with Ove. That was fun, but tiring. Jazz sax - a little gospel feel for the one song, and then more pop-oriented for the other. It's been great to work with Ove as a co-producer, to give suggestions and help steer the ship, as it were. Perhaps not as much creative control, but after all, it's more his vision than mine. I think we got some great tracks today - now we only have three more that Ove wants other instruments on. We have the rest of this week to record, and then the schedule calls for mixing from then on. It's good to have deadlines sometimes.

Norwegian Wood 2

The other day Ove asked me to play a few songs in a concert that was happening in Tyssedal's church. The place he leads worship (Bedehuse) was sponsoring it. So yesterday and today we were busy setting up and playing. I borrowed the key to the church yesterday evening, and overnight I recorded some vocals in the sanctuary. It's a great place for vocals - natural reverb with the high ceilings and natural wood, but not too much bounce. Actually, the guitar tracks I recorded in there sounded pretty good too. Something about all the space, I guess.
Here's a shot of my recording stuff all set up in front (computer on the right), with the sound system up as well. I got some great takes. I was a little worried because earlier in the day, when we were setting up, I discovered a nest of birds just on the outside of the wall, in the eaves. Every now and then they would send up a chorus of 'cheep! cheep!' as the parent came with food. And it wasn't something you could predict, so I wasn't sure how that would go. Luckily, at night they were silent. Of course, night doesn't fall until midnight now, here in Norway. So I was recording from about 11:30 to 2:30. At least I can sleep in. Except for the sunlight coming through my window at 6am. But despite that I managed to stay in bed until 11 or so this morning.
But the concert went well, I thought - lots of people there, and most of them didn't speak much english. They listened well though, and seemed to appreciate the songs, especially the one I wrote in Nynorsk. I have my doubts about how much they understood of that song either, though, what with my accent and all. I've also learned that a lot of Norwegians don't understand Nynorsk anyway. It's like a strange dialect, and you have to study it to really know it. It's probably easier to understand than English, though.

Behind the times

So I guess I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so I'll give a quick overview, though no pictures, unfortunately. Sunday I hung out at home - listened to a sermon by John Piper, did some mixing. I wrote a couple songs as well, which was pretty cool! I'll unveil them at some point, but you guys have to be patient.
Monday and today I've been doing more of the same, as well as doing some fixing up of apartments and chasing down electric companies. I met with Ove a couple times to do some overdubbing and continued to work on mixes. I'm also re-ordering my apartment to get ready for Matt's coming - just a week or so away, pretty crazy. Time is flying.

Beautiful Day

I took my time waking up this morning - what else is a saturday good for if not for sleeping in? =) Peter was supposed to come and move some of his things in the early afternoon, but when I reminded him via text that the last bus to and from Tyssedal was around 2:30pm, he decided he'd try on Monday. I'm hoping the electricity is on by then...
Dave Henrickson called in the afternoon and invited me up to Skjeggedal with him and the family. Both their younger daughters were visiting (from Bergen and the UK), and had brought another friend and her two daughters, to accompany Julia, the grand-daughter. So Dave and I were the sole representative males in the group. It was a really fun time though - gorgeous weather!
We rode in the cart/trolley up to the plateau at the top of these mountains - it's a huge national park almost in the middle of Norway. Takes a couple days to get around by car, and sits a thousand or so meters above sea level - great for wildlife and various winter sports, summer backpacking, etc...
This particular area of Tyssedal/Odda is known for the twin falls that used to fall from this plateau - the longest falling twin falls in Europe, until a company decided to divert the river to go through holes in the rock and through pipes for hydro-electricity. First, though, came the dam for hydro-electricity. Here's a picture of it from the trolley - it's one of the largest hand-quarried dams in the world- built around the turn of the century, I believe (don't quote me). That's the thing about being a tourist without having a guide - you find yourself trying hard to recall bits and pieces of information that you weren't paying incredibly close attention to at the time. I guess I could look it up on google, but who has time for that these days?
This river eventually comes out in Tyssedal, goes under the rock through a special tunnel built for it, and enters the fjord. There's a path called the Kaiser's Way that comes all the way up from outside the Slottet, along the river and to the dam. This is the way that the workers came up - they lived in the area of the Slottet and would travel up to work on the dam. But the name of the path comes from Kaiser Wilhelm - apparently Ringedallsfalls (the twin falls) was one of his favorite places to vacation, and he'd always go along that route.

Getting the washing machine

So I was mixing some songs today (I think I was working on Ove's project) and I got a call from a random number. Turned out it was the company that Warren had ordered a washing machine and several other appliances from. He ordered them a couple weeks before he left, thinking they'd deliver them before he went to the US. Now finally, after more than a month, they had found my phone number and were sending them.
I guess they had called his phone after he left, but since he took the phone with him, of course he didn't have service where he was, and they didn't have a number for me since I didn't have a phone then. The lady that talked to me said she found my number on the internet... not quite sure how that would work - maybe she meant email. In any case, she said the washing machine was on its way.
About an hour later I got a call from them again - this time a guy letting me know they probably wouldn't get it to me today, but would try to get it to me early next week. Ok, cool. I've been waiting this long, I can wait a bit longer.
A couple hours later I got a call from the driver of the delivery truck, asking me where exactly my apartment was. So I gave him directions, and a few minutes later he drove up, delivered all the things, carried the washing machine up, and even took the old one with him. Pretty sweet. Now I can wash clothes whenever I want. =)

Mixing and Making Movies

Today I just mixed and read and chilled out. You need some days of that, I think. Everything takes time, but at least I can choose my own pace. I worked on some of Ove's songs and finished reading a book called 'Peace Child' about missionaries in Irian Jaya/Indonesia during the 60s/70s. Quite a good read, I thought.

I'm continuing to explore the world of Mac. There are some cool programs, like iMovie and iPhoto. You have to learn their own little quirks though. Like iMovie won't let you separate actual movie file clips - if you record a 10-minute clip and decide you don't want half of it, you can't just delete the half - you have to export it as a separate movie file and then delete the original. And iPhoto won't let you create an album of multiple events that automatically updates itself when new photos are added to an event. Or maybe i just haven't figured out how to do these things yet...

But anyhow, I did figure out how to interface the Mbox mini with iMovie so I could record audio through my condenser mic while recording video. That was pretty cool. Here's the end result, which I uploaded to YouTube and Facebook. Not a bad sound, I think.

Renters Galore

I did a lot of mixing today - a few of my songs and a bunch of Ove's. Things I'm still working on, but I want to get some rough mixes on a CD so he can listen to them. Just kind of hung out in the apartment today.
Peter, a friend of one of the our African friends, came to look at one of my uncle's apartments as well, so I was around to meet him, Innocent, and Blaise. He liked the place and is ready to move in as soon as I get the ok from my uncle (who, remember, is in the US at his neice's wedding) and can get the electricity turned on. Probably the end of this week.
They came in on the bus, and hung out with me in my apartment after seeing the empty one. We chatted and played some guitar, ate candy. Fun times. I should probably brush up on my French.

Eternal Flame

There are two main factories still working in the Odda/Tyssedal area (besides the hydroelectric plant, but that doesn't need constant human labor) - both having to do with extracting metal from rocks that they mine locally. The one down the hill from where I live, in Tyssedel, is some kind of smelting factory - I think they make iron ingots that they then send all over Norway and Europe and maybe the world. Don't know much about it except that they run 24 hours every day. Here's a picture of the flame that comes out of the stack all day and night and year round unless the kiln breaks down.
Across the fjord are big holes in the side of the mountain, which I guess at one time were mined out, but now they are just holes to put the junk into. It's like the factory's own private dump - pretty handy. Keeps the neighbors from complaining. And it employs a lot of people.
The other factory in the area is the zinc factory, just outside of Odda on the other side of the fjord. It's actually on it's own island, which used to be a farm before it was sold to the factory. Here's a picture I took when I was walking into town one day.
So these are the two main employers in the area, besides the hospital. There was another factory that was the largest employer earlier in the century, located directly in Odda, next to where the river empties into the fjord. But that's a story for another day.

Mixing and such.

It was a bit uneventful today - just taking care of business related things. I worked on the apartment that needs to be fixed up to show to a potential renter. The same one on which the windows were broken. There are a few other things that need to be done there, and I'm slowly completing the tasks. I also arranged for some of the trash to be picked up tomorrow.
I worked a bit on mixing some tunes. Play Switch is nearly ready, I think. The instruments sound good - maybe i'll redo the vocals. I did some recording with my mic today, working on 'Herre Mitt Berg', the Norwegian praise song, and I discovered that this room is not particularly conducive to recording - due to its smallness and flat walls, I would imagine. So I might have to go elsewhere to record. Maybe they'd let me do some recording in the church... I'll have to check.
I met with a guy named Ove Danielsen yesterday who wants to record an album. He is very talented and so I think I'll probably work with him over the next few weeks - test the limits of this Mbox Mini. Fortunately he has access to a large room for recording - the Bedehus in Odda, where he leads worship. Maybe I'll just do my vocals in there as well. He also knows everyone involved in the music scene here, so that is rather handy.

Apartment #6 Tour

So today, instead of writing a lot or giving you pictures, I'm going to make this a Vlog (video blog) and let you watch the video I just uploaded of a tour of my apartment here in Tyssedal. Hosted by yours truly, using the camera in my mac. Pretty sweet. =) Enjoy.

Gratulerer Med Dagen

Today, the 17th of May, is Norway's independence day - the day they declared independence from Sweden. It was quite a busy day. We started off with a parade in Tyssedal from the town center, up the hill and around to the pavilion at the school. People were greeting each other with 'gratulerer med dagen', which roughly translated means 'congratulations on the day'. It's also what you say on a birthday or any other special day.
Everyone wore their best clothes, which means the national dress if you can afford it - the 'bunard' that is different depending on which region of Norway you are from. Pretty dang spiffy if you ask me. If I spoke Norwegian better I'd probably save up for one just so I could sport it on holidays. I guess I have a soft spot for cultural expression - you should see me in my african clothes or central asian garb. I think I look better in them than western clothes sometimes.
At the pavilion, the Tyssedal choir sang. They are apparently famous throughout Hardanger and pack out the house whenever they sing anywhere. I wonder if they need any recording done... They sounded pretty good, though it was a bit hard to hear because of all the kids running around and talking and yelling. I think if the kids did the same sort of thing in the US they'd be smacked, but here in Norway they are tolerated. Something about them needing 'freedom to express themselves' according to popular opinion. Not in my house. Bring up a child in the way they should go, and when old they will not stray, as Proverbs says.
After lunch we went in to Odda, where another parade was going on. Much bigger than the one on May 1st, and much bigger than the one in Tyssedal that morning. All the local believers had made a banner and were going to march together, so I went to join them. It was quite a good experience. At the end we gathered at an open-air grass amphitheater, and there was some singing and the mayor spoke. Dave Henrickson kindly translated for me.
Finally, with the day over, around 6pm I went to the Filadelfia pentecostal church for a meal and a message. I played a song after the message by Roman (from Russia) in Norwegian, which Samuel from the Congo translated into English for me. It's crazy how many languages there are floating around here. We filled up on sandwiches and coffee and topped it off with many different kinds of cakes and ice-cream, all in celebration of freedom. Now this is the kind of freedom I like to enjoy!
Only one downside: no fireworks. But we did have cannon salutes - almost as good. =)

Rainbow

Today I finished fixing the windows in Salthellervegen 7C and did some other chores to fix it up (painting, cleaning, etc..) as well as doing some laundry. I had left one of the windows open while some paint on the frame dried, and had gone back up to the Slottet to do some mixing, thinking I'd come back in the evening to shut the window. After a few hours it started raining, and I ran down to close the window. Reminds me how little exercise I've done and how out of shape I am. As I walked back up the rain had mostly stopped, and over the Slottet was a huge rainbow. It was probably the most complete rainbow I'd seen, as its ends touched the mountain on either side. Quite a cool sight to see.

Glass and Food

Today I ventured out on my own to town for the first time since my uncle left (he left on Monday). I had to go get some work tools and materials at the local building supply store. To get there, I caught the 8:30 bus from Tyssedal, through Odda to Eiterheim on the other side of the fjord (I probably could have gotten there quicker by boat if i had one). A place called Montèr, which supplies most of the local contractors. I got a few things, but apparently they don't supply cut glass, just the whole windows, so I had to go somewhere else. They also don't have plumbing equipment. For a building supply store they sure didn't have a great selection - I had to walk down the road to find a 3-in-1 combination painter's tool at a smaller supply store, and learned that one of the glass cutter/supplier companies had an accident earlier in the week with broken glass and so none of them were at work. So I walked the rest of the way into Odda and ordered glass from the only other glass supplier in town.

I figured while I was there I should do some grocery shopping, and I'd brought my list - I managed to find everything. Mayonnaise is pretty expensive, I learned (what isn't), and comes in a squeeze container as if it were toothpaste. Probably the packaging is what is so expensive - although peanut butter comes in a jar but is still expensive. A small amount of either (the smallest jar in the US) costs $3-4. Wow! So if you come to Norway, expect to spend twice as much on food. I figured I'd include a picture so you can see. Notice the rice cooker (a must-have) and the cutting board, which comes standard in all Norwegian homes - it jut pulls out from underneath the counter, quite handy in my opinion. I haven't seen that in the US.

Waiting for Deliveries

The new washing machine (for clothes) is supposed to come today between 12 and 5pm. It is now 5:11pm and still no sign of the washing machine or the guy who's supposed to deliver it. Maybe we're at the end of the line and he had trouble with one of the other deliveries. That's a long time to wait for something that doesn't come. I could've gotten a lot of other things done today, but I assumed that since this is Norway the guy would be on time. Wrong assumption to make, apparently. Maybe Warren should've left his phone with me so the guy could call, or maybe it's actually coming next tuesday.
Ah well. At least I got a lot of mixing done, and I wasn't sitting around doing nothing. Tomorrow I'm going in to get some supplies so I can finish making one of the lower apartments ready for a tenant who's coming to look at it on May 23rd. Should be able to finish the projects in a couple days, and if I can get the supplies tomorrow that should be plenty of time. I'll probably also go shopping tomorrow for a few minor items. I got the 'deal flyers' today in my mailbox, and the prices are pretty insane when compared with the US. Fortunately I was able to open a bank account so my uncle can deposit funds if necessary while he's gone.

Norwegian Wood

Today is the second sunday of Pentecost. There was a morning service here in Tyssedal, which doesn't happen very often. There are so few believers/churchgoers in this small town that the Lutheran church (the only church in Tyssedal) only holds a service here once a month. I counted nine people in the pews, including the organist. Perhaps there would be more if the service had been on a sunday. It's a really pretty church, though, and a shame not to see it used more often for worship and other events.
I was able to talk with the officiators after the service (some of which I understood - Jesus praying for his disciples in the gospel of John after his resurrection, that they would receive the Holy Spirit when he left) and they were friendly. The priest, a reader, and an offering taker. They were all pretty new to it, so none of them knew of my uncle - the old priest who is relocating knows my uncle. Very friendly though, and could answer some of my questions.
Here's a couple pictures of the church in Tyssedal - the outside with the really steep roof and the mountain backdrop, and the inside with all this beautifully bare Norwegian wood supporting the high ceiling, and the Lord's table at the center.

Pentecost

Today is the first day of Pentecost, when the first believers in Jerusalem received the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire on their heads (first few chapters of Acts in the New Testament). This is a national holiday here in Norway, as is tomorrow (it being the second day of Pentecost). It seems like they have a holiday almost every week here, but my uncle says I'm just experiencing what it's like in May, which happens to have tons of holidays in it. Which is a great thing after such a long winter - the sun shines and you're able to enjoy the day without having to worry about work.
A lot of people take the extra time to work outside and get their gardens ready, as well as doing other general maintenance around the house and having barbecues with friends and family. Norway is a pretty social culture - not like the US where people are glued to their TVs or computers.
But regarding holidays, it's interesting that so many of them are based around the church calendar, though most people who live here in Norway would probably tell you there's no God. "There's no God, but I'll enjoy the holidays He gives us!" Seems like quite a funny mindset.
It's interesting that so much of the societal framework we depend on and take for granted - laws based on morality, a system of government founded on the premise that the hearts of humans are bad and checks and balances are necessary, the simple distinction between good and bad, right and wrong - so much of it was founded on biblical truths by people who sincerely believed the scriptures to be the word of God, yet so easily people slip into worshipping the created framework and denying the existence of the one who created the foundation of truth in the first place.
Well, on Pentecost the believers received the Spirit of God, which enabled them to proclaim boldly the truth of the Gospel. "God is One and His name is One," they may have said, "And His name is Yeshua - the Lord Saves, Jesus the Christ of Nazareth, of Bethlehem, a Benjaminite of the tribe of David, a light to the Gentiles and to his people Israel - salvation to all those who call on His name." May I speak so boldly to those around me.

Apartment #6

I may have mentioned that I moved into one of my uncle's flats last week - I think I blogged about cleaning it out. Well here's a shot of before I cleaned it, and then one of after:
As you can see, it looks a lot nicer now that all the stuff is out of the way. And that was just the bedroom. My desk is in a great spot by the window, with a nice view (I can see Lilletopp on the opposite mountain as I write) - this is where I take care of business, write emails, and mix music. I also watch movies once in awhile. I just set up the second monitor, to make it easier to mix, and today I've actually been spending some time with my songs on ProTools, for the second time since I got here. Just so many other things to keep me busy.
The only downside to this space is that I don't have internet access from here - I have to take my computer into town or find an open wireless network here in Tyssedal. Few and far between, unfortunately. But check out the view I get from my balcony! Oh yeah, I have a balcony.