When I walked to the train station this morning, there was a thin-ish layer of snow on the ground. It won’t stay, though, because the temperature was already above freezing at 8:30am.

Apparently, it had snowed already yesterday, but I didn’t look outside, so I have to take Sylvain’s word for it.

There was also snow on the ground on campus, but it rained this afternoon, so all of it is gone...

Last Wednesday (November 14th), I celebrated the two year anniversary of my relationship with Sylvain.

The day started just passed midnight with an exchange of gifts. We do it this early partly because I’m too impatient to wait for the morning (when I’m usually very sleepy) or the evening to open it/them.

I got a purple Swatch watch from him, and he got a belt and a pair of warm PJ’s from me.

That evening, we dressed up a bit, and went out to dinner in an Asian restaurant in Eidsvoll. I had duck, as I always do in Asian restaurants, and Sylvain had beef. Yum yum!

Overall, it was a nice two-year anniversary.  

Last weekend, I went with Sylvain to a dinner party with his colleagues.

It’s a Norwegian tradition for work places to organize a pre-Christmas party ("julebord") with colleagues and spouses (or girlfriends/boyfriends, etc). Normally, there’s a dinner with Norwegian traditional dishes in a restaurant or party facilities, or the likes.

Our party was at the Mini Bottle Gallery, where a descendant of the Norwegian Ringnes brewery creators, Christian Ringnes, has exhibited his life long hobby: his mini bottle collection. To put it mildly, the man is a bit eccentric, a thing which shows in some of the installations.

We got a tour of the place before dinner... interesting...

Dinner wasn’t the traditional Norwegian meal, either, but a variety of international dishes. It wasn’t too bad, but not what I’d expected.

At "formal" dinners, there’s always someone welcoming everyone to the table, and someone doing a "thank you for the food" speech at the end. This year, the latter had fallen on Sylvain, and his challenge was to do it in Norwegian, after only three weeks of lessons. It went very well, got applause and laughter from everyone at several occasions, and I was very proud of him!

During, and after, dinner, I got to converse with a few of Sylvain’s colleagues, and thus get to know them a little better. They are really nice, and don’t seem to want to let go of Sylvain without a fight... but that’s not an option, in any case!