Day 4, Wednesday ( The best day so far )

 Today, the plan is to go out with Kjetil’s parents. Anne Marit will come early from work and we will go to Floein which is a mountain on the Funicular which is a cable car.

 We got up and were barely ready when Anne Marit arrived. We left together to go to town. We took Funicular which is a little train operated on cables that takes you to the top of the mountain. You can see the whole Bergen from there. It was all there. One thing that I have noticed is that Norwegians really like to point out where they live. If there is a map around, they always point to the location where they live, their friends live, where they grew up, where they got married etc. We took some pics there and I bought some souvenirs. There is tax free shopping and we will get our tax back when we leave the country.

 When we came down the mountain, I saw a furniture plus store on the lines of Palomas. It was a pleasant surprise to see that.

 Kjell had an appointment at the hospital. So he left and we were going to meet him later at the hospital. Earlier, we had had some bad news. Kjetil’s brother-in-law Rune was hurt last night playing soccer. He collided into another player and fell and lost consciousness. When he came to, he was taken to the hospital and they discovered that he had a fracture in his skull behind his ear. He was in so much pain. So we were going to visit him.

 So anyways, Kjell left and we drove to visit with Kjetil’s mom’s brother Knut and Aunt Ruth. That was once  Kjetil’s grandmother’s house. So we visited with them and then we went to visit Kjetil’s grandmother’s (Anne Marit’s mom’s) grave. She is buried next to her husband who died in his early 30’s from cancer. She died last year. Here, they cremate you and then your ashes are buried in the ground so there is a place where your family can visit you. In India we cremate but the ashes are thrown in the river. There were 2 more relatives buried there also.

There is no special ritual to visit. We even forgot to bring flowers. Kjetil’s mom pointed to the relative’s grave with her feet. I was very surprised to see that. We in India would never do that. It would be considered very disrespectful. Earlier, I also noticed a used juice carton lying next to his grandmother’s grave. It seemed very disrespectful to me. How can anybody do that? But, I think somebody said that it must have flown in when the bus drives by.

 We then went to visit Rune in the hospital. Anette was outside his room. She said that she was so tired. She had been there with him all night. I was so surprised to realize that it had been such a serious situation but she had not called us or her parents. She had called Anne, Kjetil’s sister-in-law last night. Had this happened in India and she an Indian, she would have called us for sure and we would have gone or the elders would have, especially since it’s their daughter’s husband.

 So, we were there for sometime and then we came home. Anette came with us so she could rest a little. We had a light dinner.

 The plan now was to get ready and go to see Amalie play soccer. After that Kjetil’s cousin Arne was going to pick us up from the field and we would go to their friend Kenneth’s place where there was a party and we would later go into town and party. Kjetil’s Sister Anette and Rune were supposed to join us, but now there were not. Kjetil’s brother and his sister-in-law were going to join us also. So we went to the soccer game. It was the funniest game ever. Amalie is only 6 and there were these bunch of girls running after the ball, all of them follow the ball and throughout the game they all run after the ball in a little group. It was hilarious. When they would change players in the middle of the game, the girls would come out and start playing with the dirt, climbing things--- not interested in their game at all. Once I am told, Amalie was playing soccer and it started raining and she asked her mom where her umbrella was.

Nevertheless, the team won 6-0 and it was great. Earlier Anne had borrowed somebody’s cell phone so Kjetil can call Arne and make definite plans to pick us up from the field. But Kjetil asked him if he wanted to pick us from Georg and Anne’s house at 7:30 and he said yes so now we were going to their house first. Arne was just getting there when we arrived and we left right after. He said he had to drop off something at somebody’s house and wanted to go there first. This place was in a really nice neighborhood and I loved the houses there. So we waited till those people came home and then we drove back. On the way Arne showed us the school where Kjetil and he went as children and where Ole and Amalie go now. Kjetil told me that they used to walk to school and were always late. One time they counted all  the broken yellow lines on the road and were sooooooooo late to school. Arne and Kjetil are not only first cousins but very very good friends. Anyway, then Arne needed to fill gas and we bought some juice and paprika chips from there. He said that he wanted to stop by his brother’s house to pick up a CD that Kenneth had asked him to bring and Kjetil said that we will go in and say hello to them because they want to meet us. Arne is Kjetil’s dad’s twin brother’s son and this was his brother’s house Roy who is married to Anne’s sister. So we go in and Roy gave Arne some Cd’s and we went upstairs. I met Mereitta , Roy ’s wife and they had a long table laid out and I asked if they were going to have friends over and they said yes. And then the bell rang and soon there were a bunch of people coming in. Kjetil was very happy to see someone whom I thought was his friend. Soon, I saw Anette and she said, “surprise” and I thought ,”Oh! She was going to be here to their house but forgot to tell us or maybe just didn’t tell us” . Then I saw Anne and Georg and I thought, "Oh! Maybe they are visiting them” and then Arne said something in Norwegian (I didn’t hear it) and then Kjetil said to me, “ You know what’s going on in here right?” I said “NO” and he said, “This is the party. We are not going anywhere” I looked at him in disbelief and said , "NO”. He said “yes”. I couldn’t believe it. I thought Kjetil was in on it also. But, he didn’t have a clue either.

You see, Kjetil’s cousins from his dad’s side had thrown us a surprise party, a cousin fest. The whole thing with Anne and the borrowing of the cell phone, Arne and his gas filling, the trip to school was a setup to buy time, the need to pick up CD’s (and the funny thing is Roy actually gave him some Cd’s to make it look authentic). I was so overwhelmed. We sat and had some food and drinks and somebody played my favorite song,” Dancing Queen” by Abba as Georg had told them I loved that.  We sat and they told us how they had put the whole thing together. They said it was so hard to do it because Kjetil could understand what they were saying and so they had to pretend they were talking to somebody else when we were around. Arne was supposed to say,” No” when Kjetil asked him to pick us up from Anne’s house because the party stared at 8:00 and Anette was supposed to pick up Anne and Georg. Anne redialed after Kjetil handed her the borrowed phone back and scolded Arne and Anette had to hide at a gas station till the coast was clear and we were picked up by Arne and Arne had to drive a different road.

  It was a very sweet thing to do. I was so overwhelmed. The party was great fun. I talked to everybody and had conversation and got to know them. We all hung out. The house was beautiful. The view was just incredible. We danced and drank and talked and danced and drank.

 We left at 3:00 and took a cab home. Nobody drives after drinking in Norway . Not even after a beer. We got home and Kjetil and I sat and talked for some time about the party. Kjetil’s parents got up and joined us for a little bit as they had been in on the plan also. We went to bed at 4:00 and got up around 12:30 in the afternoon and Kjetil was sick from drinking.

The Funicular in Bergen.

Taking the funicular

Anne Marit, Jaspreet and Kjell on top of Floeien.

View of Bergen from Floeien.

Jaspreet and aunt Ruth

Anne Marit with her brother Knut

Kjetil, aunt Ruth, Anne Marit and uncle Knut

Just a light dinner

Surprise Party Pictures...