LEARNING MORE EACH DAY

OK, so last week I was a little hard on Norway because it costs money (10Nkr ~$1.50) to get a shopping cart at most stores. This week I learned that when you put your cart back in a cart area and plug it into the cart in front of it, your 10Nkr is ejected. The previous times I had just pushed it into the line of carts and did not bother to lock it to the cart in front. This is actually a good way to get people to return carts where they belong rather than spread all over the parking lot. Maybe I will start something new when we return.

As you are aware, we moved last weekend. The apartment is VERY nice and a major shift from where we were (the other one was clean and nice, just VERY small). I am attaching a picture comparison of the two living rooms.

Another interesting thing about shopping in Norway is that most bread is boutht in uncut loaves, similar to french bread at home. There are many types of bread, but not many are pre-sliced. So after you select your bread, you can place it in a bread slicing machine. Once the bread is in, you close the cover and the bread comes out the bottom sliced. You then pick it up (pushing each end toward the middle so you can move the whole loaf) and place it on a metal support, slip a bag over the end of the support, pull it up over the bread, slide the whole thing off, then twist the open end of the bag, place it in a little tape dispenser and the end is taped and the tape cut off. You then place this bag in the original bag, so the clerk at checkout will know what kind of bread you have. Photos attached.

Nancy is feeling much better this week. She had a followup visit to the doctor who treated her at the hospital and he said her blood count was much improved and he will send all of her records to our "fastlege" (family doctor)--which we were able to get assigned this week and she has an appointment with him on October 7. She has been feeling much better and has more energy, so we are all happy with the results.

We traveled south and west on Tuesday of this week to visit with 5 members of the branch who live in the town of Kristiansund-N (the N distinguishes it from Kristiansand-S on the southern coast). The trip is about 225 km (about 125 mi) but took about 4 hours. Some of that was due to the fact that I stopped often to take pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way--until the battery in both cameras went dead. The next time we take a trip I will remember to charge both batteries the night before. We went up over mountains, along, over and under fjords. As we got near Kristiansund, we went into a tunnel that is 5.1 km (~3 mi) that goes under the fjord, there were many other tunnels through the mountains, but this was our first for going under water. Not too long after the tunnel, we got on a ferry boat (much larger than the Gifford ferry that takes us to twin lakes). I did get a picture of mom on the ferry, just like on the trip to twin lakes.

Kristiansund is right on the coast of the north sea and it was very windy and rained very hard several times during the time we were there. We stayed in an older hotel in the center of town and had an enjoyable visit with the members we had made appointments with there. I learned something else new on this trip--about hotel reservations in Europe. We had planned on making this trip the week before, then mom ended up in the hospital on Sunday night. On Monday, I called all of the people we had appointments with to tell them we would not be coming. However, I forgot to call the hotel to cancel my reservation. When I remembered it on Wednesday I thought "no problem, I did not give my credit card number to guarantee the room." Imagine my surprise when I received a bill in the mail on Thursday for the cost of one night's lodging for a "no show". I called the hotel and spoke with the clerk, but he told me to call back later when the manager was in. I called back later and spoke to the manager (in English hoping he would have compassion on my ignorance of European methods) and explained the situation, but it did not get me very far. I told him we would probably be coming there the next week and he said he would give me a reduced rate. Now I know that any reservation is guaranteed, even though you do not give your credit card number. Your address will allow the bill to find you. Anyway when we arrived on Tuesday, the manager was very nice and not only gave me a reduced rate for the night we were staying, but also for the night we did not stay.

There is a lot more I could share, but will save some for another day. I am including some photos taken along the road between Trondheim and Kristiansund.

Love,

Elder and Sister Sorensen