Dinner at the Norwegian Ambassador's Residence! (a.k.a. I have the best "cousin" ever!!)

Yes, you read that correctly. Little ol' regular civilian had dinner at the Norwegian Ambassdor's house last week! And it was amazing!

First, let me explain why "cousin" is in quotation marks. Kristen is my mother's first cousin's wife's sister. Read that a couple times and see if you get it. However, Kristen and her husband, Josh have become dear friends of mine and they live just down the road from me. Being so far from any sort of immediate family it is such a comfort and joy knowing they are there. So, I call them both my cousins even if it's a bit "removed." They are family and I love them!

Because I didn't have a typical Bridal Shower with tons of gifts and silly games (who wants to ship all those gifts to Norway!?) Kristen treated me to tickets to this dinner. The dinner was part of the Nordic Cool Festival at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington DC. The festival includes cultural contributions from all the Nordic countries/territories/islands from theatre to art to music to food. Unfortunately it will be coming to a close soon but I am so honored (and thankful!) to have been able to participate in such an incredible way!

Per usual, lets start at the beginning...

I got a mysterious message from Kristen over a month ago asking if I was free on February 25th. I responded with "Yes, what's up?" But I didn't receive a response so I figured it was another one of Kristen and Josh's delicious BBQ's and Josh was breaking out the grill early since the weather has been so strangely mild.

A couple weeks later I went to dinner with them. Just pizza and beers at the local pizza joint (but I did my hair and makeup because, as a dog walker, I don't get to "gussie up" very often!). At the start of dinner Kristen announced what the deal was with February 25th...
 Dinner at the Norwegian Embassy with the Ambassador!!! 
The gesture moved me to tears! I couldn't believe they did that! Josh said he wasn't able to attend due to work obligations (it was to be on a Monday night, after all) but Kristen said she was going to take me.

So, the weekend before the dinner I was aflutter with excitement figuring out what I was going to wear, what the timing of the day would be, would I get to meet the ambassador?! I couldn't contain my excitement!!

I was so excited that I got ready uber-fast and made it to Kristen's house a half an hour early! She could tell I was rarin' to go! We hopped in her car and headed down to Washington DC. We got a little lost because of the way roads change to one-way traffic during rush hour but we made it! Kristen dropped me off at the entrance to the Kennedy Center and went to park the car...and almost ended up in Virginia! But, fortunately, the shuttles were waiting for other people to arrive so she made it back and parked the car in the knick of time!

Decoration on the marble at the entrance to the Kennedy Center.

The shuttles took us the strangest way through some back-alley/forest/questionably paved route to get to the embassy. Everyone aboard was a little confused but, hey, they got us there!

You will notice (if you read the post about Paper Day) that I am wearing, essentially, the same outfit in the subsequent pictures...well, I am. It looks nice, it's comfortable and it's warm. I do own more than one dress but I didn't want to be too fancy or too casual and that one seemed to fit the bill!

Outside the Ambassador's residence next to the Embassy!

Kristen and I excited for dinner!

Officially on Norwegian land!

Hanging my coat in the coatroom. (after picking up literature for our American reception in April!)

We walked up from the foyer and were greeted by the ambassador and his wife at the top of the stairs! Waiters were serving beer and wine but we kept getting passed by. So we headed to the serving table. After getting our glasses of wine we headed to the dining room which was pretty full at this point. Wandering towards the end of the room we were just looking for two places together. Waved on by embassy employees, we arrived at a table with four seats available. Yay!

An embassy employee said, "You may sit in these seats but reserve these two over here for the ambassador and his wife."

Kristen and I looked at each other - both silently expressing with our faces, "Jackpot!"

Kristen is happy to be there!

She, graciously, asked if I wanted to sit next to the ambassador but I refused because I know, from experience, that eye contact is important and being next to somebody - even at a round table - can pose issues and I wanted to be able to see him.

The event was titled, "A Taste of Norway" so, of course, they were required to speak about the food that was to be served. Though not much information was conveyed, it was a good speech. They had brought in a chef from Norway who had brought over such delicacies as cloudberries and cheeses. That's all well and good but we had been told that the Embassy Chef would be preparing the meals so to have him not present the menu and the reasons/descriptions seemed strange. The Embassy Chef is very young in his career but to be the chef at an embassy you must be pretty good. I just wish he had received more recognition for the work he does on a daily basis.

The menu for the evening.

The chef brought over ingredients from Norway for the evening.

Waiting for the "au jus" for the lobster dish - not knowing Kristen was taking a picture.

We stood in line for, what seemed like, forever in order to get food. By no fault of the embassy itself I think the wait-staff didn't understand what was going on. But we finally made it back to our table and I was lacking both lamb dishes mentioned in the menu. I'm kinda sad about that but, then again, I ate a LOT of pinnekjøte at Christmas so that makes up for it.

So many samples to try!

Breads, cheeses and crackers.

The *amazing* dessert! Cloudberries and all!

The ambassador's wife never sat down to eat because she was crazy busy keeping everything moving but the ambassador, himself, sat with us pretty much the whole time! I kinda felt bad for the rest of the guests because we really had a lot of one-on-one time with him! Kristen told him I was moving to Norway and when he asked where, I told him Stryn. He looked surprised and said that Stryn's residence are a very proud people, hold tight to their traditions and then said, "Ooohh, that means you have to learn nynorsk! Wow..." Yay! I'm not the only one who finds it difficult to learn! Nynorsk is the dialect spoken in that part of the country and is different from all the lesson books/audio lessons available which are in bokmål. But that's another blog post...

We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him and the other guests at our table. I think we really lucked out, not only with sitting with the ambassador but because our fellow guests were down-to-earth and genuinely interested in Norway. From conversations overheard some other tables were just interested in rubbing elbows - a lot of name-dropping was happening. Our table discussed culture, travel, and family histories. Never a dull moment or uncomfortable lag in chatter.

After dessert we were told it was time to go. Boo! But I wanted to make sure to get my picture taken with the ambassador and his wife (who is a reverend at the National Cathedral!). When we approached them his wife said, "Oh! You're moving to Stryn!" I was tickled pink she remembered! They graciously obliged to take the picture and here it is! And, yes, I'm wearing my 17 Mai ribbons! They thought that was pretty cool.

Cecilie Strommen, me, Ambassador Wegger Strommen.

Before leaving the residency we made sure to sign the guest book and then we had a good chat with a lady at the front door. She was impressed with the little norsk I presented (I was nervous!) and wished me luck. We were only there at the residency for a couple hours but it was amazing! They had so many Munch paintings and other Norwegian artists represented! We weren't allowed to take pictures of the works for insurance purposes which is totally understandable.

We loaded back into the shuttles and returned to the Kennedy Center with smiles on our faces! Upon our return we were greeted with the "Northern Lights" projected on the front of the building!

The projections moved and floated just like the real thing!

There were a few wooden moose scattered about outside too!

A picture of me taking a picture of a sign...I'm such a tourist!

The art exhibits inside were still open for another twenty minutes so we went in to check them out!

I'm sorry it's so hard to read!

A boat made out of shirts. A really *big* boat.

The inside of half of the boat.

I want that lamp!

Kristen posing with her new...couch?

Yes!! I'm a member of the Cool Club! ;)

Needless to say, this was an incredible night and I will always remember it! I never would have imagined getting to experience something like this and Kristen made it possible.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Kristen, for everything you did! It really meant so much and to be able to experience it with a wonderful woman made it all the more incredible. Getting to spend the evening with you in such a way before I move was so touching and I'm glad we were able to create these memories together! I'm going to miss you! (And Josh, of course!!!)

Well, dear reader, thank you for sticking with me through this rather long post. There was just no way for me to condense everything that happened. Every moment meant the world to me and I wanted to document it as best as I could.

With that, I leave you with an adorable picture of Kristen and Josh's new puppy, Toby. Ahh! So cute!

Such a cutie!