The International Moose

In this blog post, I will tell you about our trip to Prague!!! So sit down and hopefully enjoy it!!

So some of you may know that my moms birthday was in January and we got her tickets to Prague, a place she had been already with a friend but came back with good reviews. We had heard stories and my dad thought it would be a great idea! For my mom’s birthday, I also handmade a scavenger hunt and each note was hidden somewhere special around our neighborhood. Anyways off to Prague we go!

We arrived at Prague and took a cab to our hotel called the BoHo Hotel (BoHo is short for Bohemia, more about that later). It was very fancy and a little weird. For example, the bathroom lacked privacy because the walls were made of glass, but I got to take a bubble bath, which was special because we don’t have a bathtub I Norway! I like staying in hotels because of they comfy robes, and big beds, and room service!!! I also like testing out the breakfast buffets. I was excited to see that the Boho hotel had some North-American cereals, like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, my favorite!!

Then we headed to the Charles bridge, which is the most famous bridge in the country. It’s a walking bridge that was built in 1357! It looked really old and gothic and had many cool gargoyles. The bridge was full of artists and people selling stuff. I got drawn by a caricature artist (see drawing below).

We hiked around and saw some cool little stores and we even saw a store called the kwiki-mart (from the Simpsons) and a classic gingerbread store. What was funny is that all the stores were called “museum,” so, for example, a coffee shop would be called a coffee museum. I think it was just to trick the tourists. My mom and I even fell for it and got sucked into a few and spent some money in the chocolate “museum.”

We were excited to try Czech food for the first time. We went for dinner in the Old Town Square. I discovered that the people of Prague really like pork knee pumpkin soup, potato dumplings, and goulash. We tried a platter with duck meat and dumplings. Dad got a pork knee, which ended up being the size of my head (very big) and he could only eat half of it. My favorite Czech food was their special dessert called Trdelník, also called trdlo for short (see below). They sell them on every corner! They are made from dough that is rolled onto a wooden pin, then cooked over hot coals. They can be eaten plain or with toppings. For instance, I wanted Nutella and ice cream. It was pretty messy but delicious. They taste like sweet frybread or doughnuts with sugar.

We went to the Prague castle, which was very old and it reminded me of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Then we saw the Golden Lane, which was a little village by the castle where the goldsmiths and sword-makers lived. Then we went and saw the torture dungeons and we saw many gruesome torture devices. Hand crushers, spiked thrones, a stretcher thing and other creepy devices. I got to dress up as the king and give sword fighting a try.

Today we went to the Lennon wall and saw lots of graffiti about him. Later, after many photos of the river, we decided to go hike the tower at the top of the mountain. (See below).we had lunch up there and took photos. Then we went walking around and it started snowing. So we went inside the tower and we got cold so we walked down the beautiful mountain.

Prague is very important to my family (Mom’s side of the family) because that’s where are we are from. Our family is German and we are from a part of the Czech Republic that was called Sudetenland, where mostly Germans were living. It was annexed (taken) by Nazi Germany during the war. However, when the German Nazis started the war, My grandparents were Socialists and were against the war, so they left and helped a bunch of other people escape too! That’s why I was born in Canada, not Germany, and why it was an important trip for us.

The part of The Czech Republic we were in was called Bohemia. In Bohemia, we saw cool crystals and the Traditional painted eggs and stacking doll. We bought some beautifully painted eggs to hang on our Christmas tree.

It was a super fun trip. We liked the medieval city a lot. Here are a few photos of me goofing around. I like liked all of the fun stuff happening in the old square. Especially the silver man who looks like a statue and the people blowing bubbles!!

Thanks for reading!! Stay tuned for more adventures with The International Moose!

Welcome to Mark’s Crazy Summer blog part 2!

In this blog entry, I will be talking about my final and biggest adventure of this summer, A whole month in the Arctic!! You can see my route, below!

My parents work on a cruise ship in the Arctic and they come with stories about there trips and I am always envious, but this time I got to come along. I had traveled with my parents on Adventure Canada before but this time, being older, I was almost completely independent. My parents, who were working, woke up at five and I was on my own. I would get myself food, attend lectures, and get ready for the zodiacs all on my own. I would see them out driving zodiacs like James Bond, weaving in between icebergs in and whisking passengers to and from shore.

One of my favorite experiences of the trip was when our boat drifted very close to an ice floe with polar bears on it. It was a beautiful evening and a little chili. There was a strong current using us toward a big iceberg. When I heard the announcements I ran from the lowest floor to the top just to see it. It was a great site and was only about 12 meters away. As we floated close everybody either had a binoculars or cameras focused on them. It was one of my favorite experiences.

I also have to tell you about seeing narwhals for the first time. We were in Croker Bay (on Devon Island) and I was standing on the top deck. Narwhals had been spotted by some zodiacs. All of a sudden, I saw it!! like a lightsabre coming out of the water – a tusk!!!! I think it’s because I wore my lucky narwhal hat! I was one of the only people to actually see a tusk. It was so cool! Narwhals! Narwhals, swimming in the ocean, causing a commotion, ’cause they are so awesome!!

On the cruise ship, I befriended a lot of people: crew, passengers, and staff. I have a lot of friends now. I think some of the best people were the staff.  I’ll give you an example: George Sirk was one of my favorites and Jerry kobelinko. I also really liked Dawn and I met Les Stroud aka Survivorman! I have all his DVDs and some of his books 🙂

I liked George Sirk (see the photo of me and George below) because he is really funny and smart. I learned more about birds than I thought possible. He is an expert in bird studies and is so good at spotting birds, even when camouflaged. I liked Jerry kobelenko cause he is funny and smart and an adventurer. He has been the first person to step on some land and has skied the north a lot. But when your traveling funny things happen and especially with polar bears. One time he was scaring away a polar bear from his sled and the polar bear went but took a bag – his food bag! He went after the bear and finally found him carefully opening the zipper, ignoring five pounds of sausage and going straight for the Belgian chocolates that he was bringing to a friend.

Just thinking about the ship, I miss the pancakes and my friend Augusti making me an omelet every day – he even gave me a tour of the kitchen. The Chef was from France and he became my pal. He made me special hamburgers.

The passengers were great too! I met a famous magician named Andre Cadieux and one less famous magician named Gerry Sullivan. He taught me a lot and showed me a lot of tricks that are very cool. One very good friend that I made is a climate scientist named Matt. He studies the ship logs from old explorers and whalers to see how the climate has changed. He taught me how to read and transcript ship logs. The writing was funny because they called whales  “fish” and narwhals “unicorns”.

So, on the ship, I celebrated my real birthday! We were in Nuuk (pronounced: nuke) which is the capital of Greenland and I had a great day. We got have caribou burgers!!!! Funny enough, It tasted like beef jerky. For my birthday I got a fitbit, a BB8 Sphero a shirt that had the scream except the person was Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes plus I started my coin collection.

The coin collection all started when ladies named Sue and Margret from New Zealand that had won a toonie that had 2 polar bear cubs, I let them know that I wanted it badly by jokingly asking to exchange toonies (my regular for her cool one) she refused my offer, but on my birthday, slipped an envelope under my door with three coins: one 50 cents (New Zealand) two rupees (India) and ten pence (England) the new design. Then it snowballed from there! Once people found out I was collecting coins, everyone starting giving them to me. since the ship has people from everywhere, I collected tons! The ship’s crew also game coins from the Philippines, India, Curacao, and France.  It was ridiculous!! Someone would give me a coin and someone would see that and give me five coins and somebody would see that and give me another coin. It ended up filling my glasses case.

My mom would let me drive the zodiac when nobody was around, but sometimes I would let my dad drive for safety. hehe.

In order to make the visit to the Arctic official, you have to do one very important thing!! Swim in the ice-cold ocean! I did it twice and even convinced my dad to do it with me. It was COOOOOLLLLLLLDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!

Visting the communities was super fun. In Cape Dorset we saw a lot of Inuit Art. My mom and I met a nice boy named Abraham. He showed us around his town. In Kimmirut, we played soccer against the town and we lost. It was a good game. I got to be the mascot!

Greenland communities are really different. The houses are colorful and the people are friendly. Below is a town called Kangaamuit (below). We got to listen to a local choir in a church and watch a seal be skinned. I got to try eating the heart (raw!). It tasted like blood. Strange. I got my photo taken with a Greenlandic mom and daughter. They didn’t speak English but I could say “tusen takk”, which is the same as thank you in Danish.

One of my favorite communities in Greenland is a called sisimiut, in Greenland. It’s so colorful with its houses harbors and ponds. It’s got a great Danish cafe that sells danishes (duh) which are really good.  I had been there before when I was six, and remembered a little bit around the city. I have a picture when I was six and when I was eleven, standing in the same spot. Boy, I sure have grown!! I hope I get to go back for a 3rd photo!

See you next time, international moose followers!!

This past summer was filled with action and travel and it has taken me a long time to write all about it. The blog is so big that it had to split it into two parts!!! Part 1 – Hiking mountains in Squamish BC, paddleboarding at the cabin in Wisconsin, spending a whole month in the Arctic and celebrating my birthday in Greenland!  I even got to tour Ottawa for the first time and even spend a day in the The Big Apple! So let’s get straight into it!

First stop: Squamish BC!

I was excited that I was back in Canada after a whole year of being away. Some of the things I missed the most: speaking English, being home, Tim Horton’s and most of all being home. Even though I didn’t visit Yellowknife it still felt familiar. One of the first things I did was go to Tim Hortons and get some chocolate glazed timbits. We visited my cousins and uncles, and aunties for a week and it was so much fun!!! We swam and hiked every day. I even got to celebrate an early birthday at Boston Pizza (which they don’t have it Norway🇳🇴 so it was a treat). Our very last day was Canada Day, the 150th anniversary. We celebrated by hiking the Stawamus Cheif,  the second largest granite monolith in the world!

Next stop: the cabin in Wisconsin

The Spitzer cabin is very special because the Spitzer family owns most of North Bay and they have protected it for wildlife. The forest has lots of animals: deer, bears, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks. My favorite thing to do is catch fireflies and watch the bats come out at night. Almost every evening after dinner we take the canoes out on the lake and watch the baby loons, beavers, and great blue herons. At the cabin, I swim almost every day, go paddle boarding, fishing, and catching frogs. I also love paddling across the lake to  get ice cream at the ice cream store and candy.

The rule at the cabin is that there are no electronics allowed, so instead, we play board games like Settlers of Catan and read. Everyone takes care of the cabin, which means I set the table, help mix cement and help build and fix stuff in the boathouse. It is very fun being able to help at the cabin. It also helps build character and that’s always a good thing. Another rule at the cabin is nobody is allowed to take boats out unless you have swum across the bay. Well, this year I did it! And (FINALLY) was allowed to take the boats out on to the bay and it was a very good feeling.

From the cabin, we went NORTH to the Arctic for a whole month. For more on that see Mark’s Crazy Summer Part 2, where you will hear about polar bears, narwhals, and icebergs!

Next stop – Ottawa

I was very excited to see the capital of Canada because I got to see the Parliment and eat a classic Canadian food, the beaver tail. It was very good with Nutella and banana. In Parliment, I got to see the office of Sir John A. Macdonald the very first prime minister of Canada, and the office of serval other people of parliaments.  In Ottawa, I also tried poutine for the first time and it was pretty good! On my trip, I also visited the natural history museum, and we even saw dinosaurs and a real blue whale skeleton.

 

Next stop:  New York City

When I heard I was going to New York, I was so glad. I was finally going to visit the big apple, the home of the hotdog! It was a good experience and fun trip. We got to ride around on the big red bus tour. We saw the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and we got to walk through Central Park. After being in the Arctic for a month, it was like entering a parallel universe, it was the exact opposite. It was just like the movies, with noise and lights and signs flashing and selling stuff. There were lots of people trying to get you to buy stuff. I liked it, but I was looking forward to getting back to peace and quiet.

Well, after a crazy summer back in North America, it’s back to Norway to start 6th grade!

Stay tuned (and check out Part 2)

THE INTERNATIONAL MOOSE!!!!!!!!!

Hi, everyone! It’s been a long time but now that it’s adventure season I’ll be updating more often. We went on a trip to northern Scandinavia so I will be telling you the story.

We went to Northern Scandinavia on a road trip to visit the Sami indigenous people in Norway, Finland, and Sweden. It was very fun. We went into Finnmark (county in Norway), into Finland and Sweden and back to Norway.  My dad is studying the indigenous people in Norway. That’s why we went on the trip, not to study the Sami, but to get a feel for what the communities are like and what their lives are like. Below is a map of our trip and I am sharing my video that I presented to my class. It is in Norwegian, but I think you’ll like it.

The Sami are indigenous people of Scandinavia. They are reindeer herders/hunter-gatherers. In my video below, I explain how they lived, but it’s in Norwegian so I will explain it in English also. Their lives depended on reindeer. The used to mark their ears with special patterns to identify them, but now they mark them with numbers. They build special huts called gaohtis. The Sami have colorful clothing and different designs for each family. At the Sami Park in Karasjok, we learned the Sami creation myth. It says that there was a magical white reindeer. When it died, it veins became the rivers and streams, it’s hair became the forest, its eyes became the stars. Its heart was buried in the earth and it beats and keeps all living things connected. They say that if the Sami ever feel lost they just need to listen for the heartbeat. I liked the story because it is about being connected to nature and that nature created earth.

This trip was super cool because we saw many museums. At the museum in Alta, we saw stone carving that had been carved into rock 6000 years ago. They drew fish, reindeer, moose, and hunters. I thought the drawings were neat but not exactly artistic like the Mona Lisa.

On our trip, we discovered many cool campsites, saw many caribou and other animals. Finland had lots of pine trees and I think dad liked it there best. Mom, I think liked Norway best and I liked Sweden. Sweden had pine trees, frozen lakes, etc. I couldn’t help but notice that the words are very long in Finland!

 

The Weather was weird. It was supposed to be summer but it was a snowstorm half of the time. We finally got some nice weather in the Lofotens. After a long day of driving, we found the perfect camp spot by a beach with clear water and mountains. After being in a car all day and I wanted to go swimming because it was nice to get some fresh air. The Lofoten Islands are one of the most beautiful places on earth (see below).

 

In other news! I am graduating from my welcome class into real Norwegian 6th grade and I’m very excited!!!! Also, I watched my first movie at the theatre in Norwegian and understood it all!! It means a year of Norwegian practice is paying off. See you next time!

 

– INTERNATIONAL MOOSE!!!

 

 

It’s been a long time since I posted a blog update, but I’ve been doing lots of writing.I hope you forgive me. Lot’s has happened, so this weeks blog will be extra long. So pull up a chair and get comfy.

Christmas traditions of Norway and santas:

Norwegians take their traditions very seriously. They seem to love Christmas or Jule tid. We went to a tree lighting ceremony or Lysfesten (light festival) and it looked like the entire population of Bergen was there (see below). There were lots of Christmas carols. After the tree lighting, they gave us torches and there rock band singing rap and rock and roll 🎸, followed by fire works! BOOM! CRASH! KABLOOIE! POW! The fireworks duplicated as the carollers were singing and the duplicates would POW AND KABLOOIE again and it was so fun!

In Norway, they celebrate advent, which means waiting for Christmas. Families have four candles and you light one each Sunday until Christmas.  Also they have three “santas” in Norway. They have blue Santa who lives in the mountains and barn Santa who lives in a barn and normal Santa (Santa Clause) . Blue Santa has elves and for one hour on Christmas eve the mountain opens and the elves enjoy the blue sky until it closes again an our later. It’s call the blue hour. The barn Santa is a little elf called a nisse or Fjøsnissen is a creature from Scandinavian folklore. He loves oatmeal and if you don’t leave out snacks for him on Christmas eve he will give you bad luck and do mischief. He wears a little read hat and if he turns it backwards, he becomes invisible.

 

 

Christmas is the time of giving and on that topic I want to tell you about a little project that I am working on. I really care for the world and  I have decided to devote my energy to saving elephants 🐘. I hope my kids will have the same ideas.I have started saving my allowance and recycling money in what I call the giving jar. So far I have saved 297 kroner plus my Christmas money from my grandma Martha, so that adds up to 597 kroner ($99). My goal is to raise $190 dollars to help a family start a small farm in Africa. I think this is the best way to help elephants because if people have food they don’t need to sell ivory and kill elephants.

We watched a sad documentary the other day called “the 13th”. It’s about the 13th amendment and liberating people from slavery. It made me really sad and angry because people treat other people so badly. I am very embarrassed by my race. Please watch the 13th on Netflix.

Norwegians love chess!

We’ve also learned that Norwegians love chess! We got to watch the world chess championships. The best chess player in the world is a Norwegian. His name is Magnus Carlson and the Russian guys name is Sergey Karjakin. Magnus won of course. It was very awesome to see professional people play. And now I have some aces up my sleeve. I think I’ll beet him. I play chess with my dad all of the time but I never win, but I’m getting better all of the time.

Hospital horror:
So one afternoon my guts had sharp pains and so we went to the doctors office. They were worried it was something wrong with my appendix so they sent us to the hospital for some tests. And the next I went to the hospital to get an ultra sound. They did not find anything so we thought we could go home, but we had to stay over night!. I thought that might be okay until I realized later on that I would be sleeping in a room of cry baby’s groaning kids. While your reading this you probably reading this your hoping that I didn’t have to get my appendix removed. Well the answer is no, I did not. It just turned out to be swollen lymph nodes from a virus or something. And now I’m ok and my Norwegian life style is back on track.

 

 

POKEMON GO UPDATE:

there are new Pokemon you can only get in eggs so keep walkin people! This week I caught two lapras, a porygon and a hitmonlee! Also, the Christmas update has introduced pikachu with a santa hat!There so cute! I hope you catch some (see below) there hays are extra fluffy and there the cutest accessories in the world. Also, if you evolve one, it becomes a Richu wearing a santa hat!

 

We are off to the cabin for a few days to hopefully do some skiing. Stay tuned and watch out for the INTERNATIONAL MOOSE!!!

At first I didn’t know if they celebrated Halloween here, but it turns out it’s quite a big thing. I dressed up as my Pokémon go character or avatar (see below).I felt pretty awesome at the time and was very proud of my costume, especially because we made it all from second hand clothes (except pikachu on my shoulder). I had to go trick or treating with my mom because I have no friends that live in my neighbourhood sadly😔.The first house I went to, an old man answered and he didn’t know quite why I had a yellow creature on my shoulder (pikachu). He didn’t have any candy but told me he would see what he could find. He gave me a orange and three cookies 🍪. Some people seemed confused about my costume because most kids wore very normal costumes (witches and superheros). The other kids liked it though and they all sang the pokemon go song when they saw me.

On Halloween night we went to visit a castle they turned it into a haunted house. What I found dumb about it was that  you had to make an amulet to keep the ghosts away, which were weird looking stalkers. You would show them the amulet and they would run away. But I didn’t bother making an amulet. I escaped and told those ghosts up there noses with rubber hoses. Then we actually saw some ghosts fighting with real swords and axes. It looked like one of them almost got their head cut off. If I was fighting, I would have been the champion 🏆 (wink). There weren’t too many pumpkins around, but we found one to carve. I turned mine into Gengar, he’s a ghost pokemon. Well anyways I hope you had good Halloween.

 

The Norwegian word of the week is snødekte fjel = snowy mountains!

We went on a huge hike in the snowy mountains. Down in the city and it’s sunny with no snow (see photos) and I am boiling hot and then we get up in the mountains and I had to wear a fleece and the 2 coats that grandma Wanda gave me (thank you very much) to be warm. My parents would not let me throw snow balls at them. Man, I wish Rudi and Duncan were here because all of my friends take a twenty five minute bus home. COME ON! I may have a awesome house (read about my new one in the next paragraph) but no friends that live near by.

My new house!: well its pretty awesome. My room has a desk for doing homework and a secret room with a bed in the wall. I go up a staircase and crawl in and it’s like a little reading nook.  For more detail, i am posting a video. We also went to ikea and we bought some stuff for or new house. I wish I could teleport you here to see it with you own eyes 👀. It’s so awesome.

Pokemon go update!!!
This week I did a big evolution and leveled up to level 26 and I now have Machamp, Alakazam, Marawak, etc. Machamp is one of my strongest. He is 1807 cp. I have a 1396 Magmar and with that I can evolve him into Magmotar in Gen 2. I also saw Farefetch’d in a gym, but haven’t caught him yet. Now, when is Gen 2 again? On Tuesday !! hurrah hurrah 😁 HURRAH HURAH YAMA!!!!!! Lolololollollolololololololololol. Well that’s what a website told me so I don’t know if its right or wrong.

 

This week was a dream come true! I got to go to Paris!!!

We went to Paris because my dad had a work meeting. My mom and I got to tour the city. My goal was to see the Mona Lisa and we did!! The Louvre is pretty impressive. It used to be a castle that was burned down, but it still has a dungeon. They turned it into a museum now and it turns out that the Mona Lisa has been in the Louvre since 1797. The Louvre is huge like a castle with lots of hallways and statues that can be kind of creepy sometimes. It was hard not to get lost. It was very crowded. It was hard to push through the crowd to reach the Mona Lisa. I went back to see it a second time because it felt rushed the first time. The room with the Mona Lisa was huge and filled with other paintings. I felt bad for the other art because everyone ignored it, which was weird because the Mona Lisa is so tiny. We also saw the painting called “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix. I liked this one because I like the history of the French Revolution.

We saw the Notre Dame cathedral, which is a huge and beautiful church. There were lots of people lighting candles inside and praying. We got to climb to the top of it. It was amazing to be inside a building that is almost 1000 years old. The spiral stair cases made me dizzy but we got some very nice views (see below). The building was covered in gargoyles, which scare away evil spirits.

Early in the morning we went to the Pantheon. It was neat because we had it all to ourselves. It felt like a big haunted castle. There were lots pillars and the walls were painted with pictures. The rooms echoed. Downstairs in the crypts there were many important tombs, at least for me because one of them made my favourite play: Victor Hugo, the creator of Les Miserable. It is about the French Revolution and this amazing man who does amazing things (at the end). If you haven’t seen it yet, I would recommend watching it📺.

I felt at home in Paris because I can speak French. I also felt like I knew the city even before I got there because my 4th grade teacher was from France and he taught me so much about Paris. It was also very fun being my parents’ French guide. I got to order their food and weirdly order their wine.

One of my favorite things about Paris was the food! Crepes! Crepes! Crepes! They were so good! I had 4 crepes from 4 different Creperies in Paris. Did you know that you can get crepes with eggs and chicken and vegetables? It is very common to see people eating those kind of crepes but I preferred the Nutella and the bananas(I am sure every other kid and some adults in the world would agree with me on that).

On our last night in Paris we visited the Eiffel tower. It was at night so it was lit up and ever hour it sparkles and glitters. We got to take an elevator to the top and we got many good photos. It was a bit scary because it felt like the tower was going to tip over. Also there were signs saying to beware of pickpockets.

 

Au revoir! Je vais te voir a la semain prochaine

Okay, there is a food mom loves called leverpostei (it means liverpaste) and has a baby’s face on it.creepy…so I asked my mom what it was maid out of. she said “oh… probably chicken liver. That was relieving because since it has a babies face on it, I thought it was made of babies. There is even one with an older boys face on it. Hehe.

The Norwegian football game:
We got to see a local Norwegian fotball game last weekend! We saw the Brann team (fire team) play against Lillistrom, but Brann lost because of the referee was not counting our goals😡. I forgot to mention that brann is the bergen team of norway in the Norwegian league. The score was 1-2 and we lost😲. The fans of the visiting team was kind of crazy. They kept them behind a special fence for safety because when their team scored, they went nuts! They bent the fences so they had to add more fences and security guards. Here’s a video we took of the visiting team in black and yellow.

 

We discovered a new awesome hike! We hiked up a new mountain called Lovstakken and had a beautiful view and lunch. And on the way up there we saw a little cabin that had a lot of graffiti in it but still looked Liveable if you asked me. And on the very top there was a Pokemon gym, but mom wanted me to enjoy the view so I didn’t battle there. There were tons of pokemon there!

Speaking of Pokemon, this week I did a big evolution and got Victreebel and a Pinsir. And I also hatched a Magmar in a 10km egg. I also finally got wheezing.(See below). And did you know (no, I guess you don’t know) that ivysaur was nearby last weekend after I posted my last blog(also see below)😎 but I did not catch him.😭. Right now, my strongest pokemon is Arcanine. Here he is defending a gym (below).

 

 

come hunting for the next blog post next weekend!!!!!

On Sunday (Thanksgiving), we went on a road trip to visit some small towns outside of Bergen. The first place we visited a small fishing village called Glesvaer. Then we travelled to a small town called telavåg that has an interesting history. We went to the local museum and learned that the town was part of the resistance movement that helped jewish people escape to Great Britain 🇬🇧. They were also smuggling guns and other weapons into Norway to give to the rebels that were fighting in the war. The Germans found out about what was happening and Hitler took all of the people away and pt them in concentration camps that had signs that said : work = freedom. Then the Germans blew up and burned down every single single building in the town. You may be wondering, then how do people live there? Well, they built the entire town back, and it does not like it was even touched! It looks identical to the old pictures. I guess they did a pretty good job at rebuilding it 👏. (See below).

 

 

And here’s a photo of me being a little Auk!

The Canadian coincidence:
With my dads boss, we had dinner and it just happen to be thanks giving, right? Well, we had salmon and salads. Then for dessert 🍨 we had apple pie 😂. So Canadian!
This week we got to explore Norway by Sea. We took a ferry to a few small villages and stopped for the day in a town called Rosendal (rose town) and it is named that because a little out of the town there is the rosenmanner (rose manner) we went to it and smelled every rose we saw. Then went hiking into the mountains and ran into a sheep herder who was blowing a dog whistle, which was controlling the dogs. The herder opened the gate (you can see the sheep behind me where I am standing on a bridge) and all of a sudden we were surrounded by sheep.  The dogs controlled the and moved them across the bridge in to a pen so that they could eat🐑. (See below)

 

Pokemon go update: It’s been an awesome week of pokemon! I caught hitmonchan! Also, I evolve Rhyhorn into Rhydon and Voltorb into electrode, ponyta into Rapidash, exeggcute to Exeggutor. I am waiting to to a big evolution so I can level up.

 

Thanks for tuning in! I’ll be back with more news next week! Bye for now – The International Moooooose!

 

 

 

Remember how I said I would have to get used to playing soccer in the rain? Well my first practice was in a storm. I had to have several layers to keep me warm enough and not get hyperthermia. We did all sorts of drills including corner kicks and how to react when the ball is in your possession. It was quite fun until my legs were frozen and I couldn’t run. Mom bought me soccer pants for next time. We practice a lot! For two hours, 3 days a week. We practice heading the ball too. There were different stations and people would throw the ball and you would head it or do a two touch pass, etc. We had our first cup last Sunday and we won three games and lost once. Check out my trophy (see below). The fist game we played, we just barely beat the but I don’t Remember the exact score. Then we won 7-3 and I scored once.  My team is pretty good at stuff like ball handling and passing. (see below)⚽️

We’ve had lots of little adventures around the city lately because the weather has been nice. Here’s a few photos of our walks and a photo of me photo-bombing my mom’s photo!

Last night we climbed mount Rundamen to our favorite picnic spot (see photos). My new favorite picnic snacks are kvikk lunsj (it’s a Norwegian kit kat bar for mountain hiking, see below) and  bread 🍞 with Nutella AND NO PALMOIL!

Pokémon go update:

I learned about a secret pokemon hotspot from kids at school! The aquarium!! I finally got to go there this week and they were right! It had tons of rare pokemon there. I caught a ponyta, omanyte, pinsir, magmar, lots of egans, oddishes, and another pikachu! This week I also caught  2 aerodactlys and I since I made pikachu my buddy, I have walked 50 km with him and have enough candy to evolve him and get Richu. I also caught a lickitung and the library and I evolved 400 magicarp into a Giradose AND I evolved haunter into Gengar. I hope that I can trade these Pokemon with Rudi back home.

 

Well happy thanks giving to my friends in Canada 🇨🇦!$!!! Cooked turkey 🦃! Yummy 🍨🍫🎂🍫🎂🍫🎂🍰🎂🍦🍰🍦🍰🍦🍿🍭🍿🍰🎂🎂🎂🎂🍮🎂🍮🎂🍮🍰🍮🍮🎂🍮🍮. Rudi would you like to skype again on Monday since no school?🐷 For thanksgiving we are going on a road trip with a friend from Dad’s work to explore the nature of Bergen outside the city, then we are going for dinner at their place. I hope it’s fish!

Then I have all next week off for holidays. We are going to go on a ferry trip so stay tuned for a report from the International Mooooose!!