The Hardest Things to Learn
For me there are 3 things I think are the most difficult to learn. I even have a bet going on with the hubs that I will become fluent in Norwegian before learning any of these 3 things.
The thing number 1) The metric system. When you really start to think about America and its relationship with the world or if you compare America to our Western friends, you begin to see that America just HAS to be different. America has rejected the metric system, though we do use it occasionally - in hospitals, in science or when fixing your car.
I admit, the metric system really does make more sense. Things are counted in 10s and 100s and 1000s rather than 12 inches in 1 foot, 4 cups in a quart, 16 ounces (abbreviated as "oz.") in 1 pound (abbreviated as "lb.") and a normal body temperature is 98.6 F, water freezes at 32 F and boils at 212 F all of which really makes very little sense and it wasn't until just a few years ago I was able to memorize all of our crazy measuring system.
Personally, even though I think the metric system makes more sense and is probably more organized, I don't really care too much about it. The American common system is what I know and for now I'll stick with that, but I panic when someone asks me for a recipe and I have to go home and start pouring water from my American measuring cups into Arild's measuring cups. If I'm talking to someone and they give me a metric system measurement, I just pull out my phone and punch into the conversion app. I hate numbers and I don't think my brain can handle this just yet though after constantly converting Fahrenheit and Celsius either on my phone or having both temperature measurements on my Windows background I think I'm at least beginning to guess or memorize the conversions without the help.
The thing number 2) Money, well currency. Using a Visa card is the best way for me to go about my day. Seeing cash and using cash really isn't. I have no emotional attachment so to speak to Norwegian money and not fully understanding the currency makes it even worse. I am getting better with this, but when I have cash it just feels more like Monopoly money than real money. The currency usually stays between 5.7 and 6 NOK per $1 USD. I'm constantly dividing the amount of kroner by 6 in my head so I understand the price.
Everything is expensive in Norway, of course it is, it's home to the most expensive city in the world - Oslo. I still haven't quite gotten over the shock of the price of some things. My general rule of thumb is Norwegians earn double that of Americans in wages, so the price of things are about double that of anything in America (eating out could be triple or quadrupled!).
Combining thing number 1 and thing number 2, it's a good thing I don't quite understand either when pertaining to gas prices, but bear in mind after all conversions are done, a gallon of gas is almost $10 USD. Also bear in mind, America has some of the cheapest fuel prices in the world. I used to complain if it would cost any more than $40 to fill up my gas tank in America, but here it costs over $100 to fill up.
It's strange to compare American money to Norwegian money because I can hold 4 Norwegian coins and they equal to $5 USD, but if I were to have American money (quarters in particular) I'd have to hold 20 quarters.
The smallest bill in Norwegian kroner is the 50 NOK bill, which is about $8.33. Next up from that is the 100 NOK bill, which is doubled so about $16.66, a 200 NOK bill $33.33, and a 500 NOK bill $83.33.
The thing number 3) Direction. Being a person who had no idea where I was even when I knew what state and city I lived in and then moving to a new city, a new country, a new continent even, my lack of directional skills are worse now - tenfold. I never know where I am. If I think I know where I am, I'm usually wrong. After school, if I have to run errands, my husband will give me spoken if not visual directions on where to go so I can at least get back home. This usually ends in me walking 4-6 blocks in the opposite direction of the bus station or the nearest bus stop and me calling my husband and describing my surroundings so he can tell me where the heck I am and guide me home.
The thing number 1) The metric system. When you really start to think about America and its relationship with the world or if you compare America to our Western friends, you begin to see that America just HAS to be different. America has rejected the metric system, though we do use it occasionally - in hospitals, in science or when fixing your car.
I admit, the metric system really does make more sense. Things are counted in 10s and 100s and 1000s rather than 12 inches in 1 foot, 4 cups in a quart, 16 ounces (abbreviated as "oz.") in 1 pound (abbreviated as "lb.") and a normal body temperature is 98.6 F, water freezes at 32 F and boils at 212 F all of which really makes very little sense and it wasn't until just a few years ago I was able to memorize all of our crazy measuring system.
Personally, even though I think the metric system makes more sense and is probably more organized, I don't really care too much about it. The American common system is what I know and for now I'll stick with that, but I panic when someone asks me for a recipe and I have to go home and start pouring water from my American measuring cups into Arild's measuring cups. If I'm talking to someone and they give me a metric system measurement, I just pull out my phone and punch into the conversion app. I hate numbers and I don't think my brain can handle this just yet though after constantly converting Fahrenheit and Celsius either on my phone or having both temperature measurements on my Windows background I think I'm at least beginning to guess or memorize the conversions without the help.
The thing number 2) Money, well currency. Using a Visa card is the best way for me to go about my day. Seeing cash and using cash really isn't. I have no emotional attachment so to speak to Norwegian money and not fully understanding the currency makes it even worse. I am getting better with this, but when I have cash it just feels more like Monopoly money than real money. The currency usually stays between 5.7 and 6 NOK per $1 USD. I'm constantly dividing the amount of kroner by 6 in my head so I understand the price.
Everything is expensive in Norway, of course it is, it's home to the most expensive city in the world - Oslo. I still haven't quite gotten over the shock of the price of some things. My general rule of thumb is Norwegians earn double that of Americans in wages, so the price of things are about double that of anything in America (eating out could be triple or quadrupled!).
Combining thing number 1 and thing number 2, it's a good thing I don't quite understand either when pertaining to gas prices, but bear in mind after all conversions are done, a gallon of gas is almost $10 USD. Also bear in mind, America has some of the cheapest fuel prices in the world. I used to complain if it would cost any more than $40 to fill up my gas tank in America, but here it costs over $100 to fill up.
It's strange to compare American money to Norwegian money because I can hold 4 Norwegian coins and they equal to $5 USD, but if I were to have American money (quarters in particular) I'd have to hold 20 quarters.
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| Two 10 kroner coins and two 5 kroner coins equaling 30 NOK or $5. |
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| Nice to see a female on the face of a bill! |
Often times people from school ask me where I live, I'll tell them the area of Skien and they ask, "Where's that?". My next action is usually guessing a direction and pointing somewhere and saying, "Over that way somewhere. I really don't know."
After nearly 5 months of living here, my directional skills are getting slightly better, though not by much.
Maybe one day all 3 things will get better for me, but I'm really not too worried about it. Mastering the language is the most important thing for me as of right now. The other things will fall into place later.
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