Easter & parental leave

Well, I'm out of school now until May 6th on my mandatory minimum share of the parental leave Inki and I get to split after Ella's birth. Like I said, it's weird to be out of school in the middle of the year, but I think I've got most everything set up so the teachers who will be taking my classes can hit the ground running. Everybody's out until Tuesday the 25th, though -- it's Easter week, and after a winter of cold and dark, Norwegians take their spring holidays seriously. It seems like school's out almost as often as it's in over the next two months until the big national holiday, Constitution Day, on May 17th.
To give you an idea of how seriously they take Easter here, the stores close on Wednesday afternoon and are only open again a little on Saturday before everything starts up again the Tuesday after Easter. In fact, people have more days off here and everything is shut for a longer period than at Christmas. Everyone takes off for the mountains if they're the skiing type, or the fjords, or somewhere else pleasant and grab as much sun and fun as they can manage in a week and a half.
There's lots of candy, of course, but detective stories are also traditional. The TV stations each show their Easter Whodunit which everyone watches, and up in their cabins people curl up with a detective story whenever they're not outside. Agatha Christie is huge here, but there are others, including Bergen's own Gunnar Staalesen, who is a personal favorite.
We are, typically, being a bit atypical. We're at home here all week and will be going to France in early April instead when everyone else is back home. I like doing stuff that way, since the airports and roads are jammed at the start and end of Easter break, and I hate crowds and lines.
So happy Easter, everyone, and hopefully now that I have a bit more time on my hands since I'm no longer furiously prepping to be out of school, I'll be updating this blog more frequently.
Right now, though, I'm off to the library to pick out a detective novel....