Hello world!

[mummimamma]

Name: Mummimamma

Age: In 14 days I'll be 42. I expect all the answers to the life, universe and everything will revealed to me.

Location: Normally Bergen, Norway, but for the next couple of weeks I'm in Athens (the one with the Acropolis)

Languages: My journaling is in English. I read all Scandinavian languages, Greek, and reasonable French and German as well. And Latin - in case anyone is writing in Latin I'd *love* to read it.

Describe yourself in 5 sentences or less:
Norwegian linguist (hence all the languages) who thinks all evils can be solved with enough tea (preferably Assam) and a long leisurely breakfast.
I love reading, talking and thinking about things.
I am extrovert, and sometimes I feel like minority on the net.
I also love chocolate and running slowly (and then eating more chocolate. And drinking beer)

Top 5 fandoms:
I'm a venerate lurker in several fandoms
Harry Potter was the first one, which I'm currently having a fling with.
I occasionally participate in the Bujold fandoms Vorkosiverse and Five Gods.
Also I think I am falling out of love with Sherlock.
And I love meta - is that a fandom?

I mostly post about:
Myself! (it's my journal after all).
I try to keep some kind of booklog and academic work log as well

My last 3 posts were about:
Two entries about getting installed in Athens and the last one about a dream I had and my forays on Greek Tinder

How often do you post:
So far in 2017 I have posted 21 times, so a little more than once per week. Although sometimes there are several post in one week, and some weeks I don't post at all. I'm trying to write more regularly though.

How about commenting:
I try to comment regularly, at least if I have something to say.

A GIF to describe how your day has been so far:

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

I'm interested in languages and Scandinavia (my grandmother's family is from Norway though she grew up in an age when learning anything other than English was discouraged in the U.S.), and reading and beer. :) Adding you.

[smile_n_cuddle]

Hi, I'm Jen! I love Harry Potter, reading generally, and am Norwegian by heritage (although I've never been there). :)

I'd love to subscribe!

[used_songs]

Bujold, meta and languages! I'm adding you. Also, it will helpful having a friend who knows the answer to life, the universe and everything.

[songofcopper]

I love Norway! :-)

I love reading, talking and thinking about things. - love those too!

Will add you, most definitely. ^_^

[mummimamma]

Added you back!

Things are important, after all. So we have to read, talk and think about them! (I tend to do it in that order. Not always the best idea though :-)

have you visited Norway? What did you like) (not that I don't love Norway, but as a citizen of a small country, you always want to hear people extol the virtues of your home)

[mummimamma]

Adding you back!

I'm looking forwards to knowing all the answers (although will I know the question as well?), but I worry that they may get lost in the mail...

[mummimamma]

Reading is good! (And reading HP of course :)
Do you know where in Norway your family hails from?

[mummimamma]

Books and beer are important!

It's so sad when children don't get to learn their parents' language. Especially since children learn things like this easily. I know there is a small Norwegian(-ish) speaking group in the US, although they seem to be dying out as well.

Do you know where your grandmother's family came from?

[songofcopper]

I'm somewhat of an over-thinker so I probably do that before anything else! >.<

Yes, I've been to Norway 3 times. (First to Oslo, Balestrand and Bergen with usual train and boat trips that tourists do; then to Oslo again, and lastly to Tromso.) Obviously the landscape stands out as a definite highlight! Plus I found the people very down to earth, which I appreciate. Bergen felt very laid-back and welcoming, Tromso had that real Northern no-nonsense feeling (and candelight against the dark!) and I guess Oslo was somewhere in between. :-) Favourite things were probably outdoor museums (with old buildings), the Munch museum and dogsledding.

[mummimamma]

Thinking is good I've been told! I tend to think with my mouth, which isn't always as good (also, according to the woman whom I'm sharing and office with currently, very annoying)

It sounds like you've been doing quite a lot of Norway-sightseeing! Although I'm drawing a bit of a blank on Balestrand - what were you doing there? Not that it's not nice, but...
I've actually never gone dog-sledding. But I do burn a lot of candles. How do other people survive winter without candles?

[songofcopper]

Balestrand: that was just a couple of days doing really nothing at all except enjoy the scenery, before getting on the boat to Bergen. :-) I remember lots of fruit trees, wild flowers and pretty wooden houses, and taking dinner in the (very old-fashioned) hotel because there wasn't really anywhere else to go. That was a few years ago, so perhaps it's really cosmopolitan now! ;-)

[jenny_evergreen]

I just finished being The Answer and my husband just started! :)
You sound awesome, so I'm adding you! :)

[smile_n_cuddle]

No idea! (And that's a good question, I never thought to ask!) I am Norwegian through my Mom's and Dad's sides... although all of the grandparents have passed, so I'm not sure whether anyone around knows anymore.

[mummimamma]

Whenever people here in Norway turn 60-65, they start becoming interested in genealogy, hopefully someone around you will start to look into it soon ;-)
Or you can sign up for this

[mummimamma]

Sadly - or perhaps happily - almost nowhere around Balestrand is getting more cosmopolitan yet. But it is a nice place to relax. And they do make delicious apple juice and apple cider there!

[mummimamma]

Aww, thanks! So you now know everything or does the answers go away again? :)
Added you back.

[smile_n_cuddle]

That's funny!!! Haha, apparently genealogy is in our blood. It's that popular there?

I'll check out the link, thanks!

[jenny_evergreen]

I won't ruin the surprise! ;)

[cosmolinguist]

I know her family lived on a farm (and then moved to rural Minnesota, another farm), but I don't know where in Norway that was, sadly. Now I'm an immigrant myself so too far away to see her and ask her questions like this. I miss her a lot.

[nanila]

Hello! You sounds fantastic and I chuckled a lot at your Greek Tinder dabbling. Adding you. :)

[mummimamma]

Aw, thank you :)
I fear there might be more updates on the subject of Greek Tinder - it's just hilarious. And that's before I have had even one proper date!
Added you back.

[mummimamma]

It's fairly popular, and you can find most of the censuses online, and they're working on getting the books from the churches digitalised as well as well as taking pictures of al lthe gravestones. All done by voluntaries.

And if you look far enough everyone in Norway are related to the Viking king Harald Fairhair, and then we feel cool. Or perhaps they're hoping for a rich uncle in America? (Unfortunately, so far as we know, all our relatives came back from the US)(and earned a tidy bit sailing emigrants back and forth)

[paw_prints]

Hello there :) You sound very interesting. I'm in NZ but absolutely adore Scandinavia, especially Norway. We're also a similar age. I'll add you so you can read my introduction (which is about all there is to see at the moment). Would you like to be friends?

[mummimamma]

He, now I feel the pressure to talk about Norway all the time. Perhaps the Norwegian toruist board should pay me ;-)
Well, according to rumours Norway and NZ have sheep in common, so clearly we must be friends!

[mummimamma]

Oh, and you icon <3

[paw_prints]

Hehe no pressure! NZ and Norway definitely do have their similarities, especially some parts of the south island like Fiordland.

I was absolutely blown away by the dramatic and breathtaking landscapes when I was in Norway. That was my favourite place for scenery, and Copenhagen was my favourite city out of all the places I visited in Scandinavia and mainland Europe. I'd love to go back one day.

[mummimamma]

Yeah, we're pretty good at landscapes, and it one of the things I miss when I'm away, the variation and the green. That said, there are some rather flat and boring places in the east of Norway, for for some reason tourists never go there - well, I wouldn't either, so.

Faroe Islands!

[jesse_the_k]

I'm subscribing to you so hard! I got a chance to visit the Faroes back in the 70s, when all inter-island travel was by ferry.

Also attempted to import an entire leg of skerpikjøt to the US. The certificate signed by the Head Veterinarian of the island, attesting complete absence of hoof&mouth etc, was insufficient. Tragically the customs at JFK in NY burned it. Evidently, I'm still mad.

Re: Faroe Islands!

[mummimamma]

They burned your skerpikjøt!? Heathens! the faroes are beautiful, how was it back in the 70s? even more remote I imagine?

Re: Faroe Islands!

[jesse_the_k]

It was lovely. I was 14. I stayed with my sister & her husband for two weeks. They lived in Skópun on Sandoy, but I landed at Váyar (taxi-ferry-taxi to Havn, then ferry to Sandoy) and I got to tag along to a wedding (on another island lost in the fogs of the N Atlantic).

I remember most:

• The deep silence (except when the ferry came)
• Whaling was still happening; I didn’t see a grindarap but I did eat whale (boiled, with potatoes & blubber on each bite. Horrible).
• How relaxed the boundaries were between households. It was assumed that dropping by and helping yourself to what you needed was fine; of course later the reverse would happen. (I’d never stayed in that small a town before, which could have been more relevant.)
• I admired the trees in Havn, but nobody else was trying to grow them.

My sister wrote a novel about it and my former-brother-in-law wrote his PhD. thesis on it.

[didotwite]

Months later, mind if I add you?

[mummimamma]

Of course not! Welcome! (Although I've been a bit absent lately...)