My New Norwegian Home

Well, today makes two special days, Thanksgiving in America and Hug A Norwegian Day. Thanksgiving is generally a time where Americans gather with family, eat a large meal and give thanks for everything they appreciate in their lives. It's really a great concept and such a shame Black Friday (the day where it's socially acceptable for people to forget all they're thankful for, trample one another in stores and shop and shop and shop mostly for things they don't need) follows after. I could so go on and on about Black Friday. I'm not a big fan, but this post isn't about my near-hate of Black Friday. :-) Anyways, since I'm not in America, I'm celebrating the best way I can here in Norway. I tried to make a very tiny meal for both of us, but I failed at that, though the chocolate cheesecake I make turned out good! I actually managed to mess up my mother's recipe for cheesy hashbrown casserole because I forgot to boil the potatoes before baking. No su...

Danmark!  My husband's family loves Denmark. They love it so much they bought an apartment there. So this past weekend, we made a trip there. I think traveling within countries in Europe is best compared to traveling to other states within America. Taking a 3 hour boat ride to Denmark would be similar to someone in the US taking a little road trip to another state. More than likely a bordering state. The inside of the ferry we travel on.  I love how strangely diverse the Danish scenery is. One minute we're driving past windmills, rural dairy and turnip farms. The next we're driving past pine trees, a desert and then the seashore. Turnips!  An old Danish mill from the 1600s.  Hiking with some scenery similar to Norway's, but this time we climbed up a tree tower. And something else similar to Norway - grass growing on roofs!  Though I like a lot of things about Denmark so far, I really like this desert we went to...

In Norway, the driver's test you must complete if you wish to drive here is done with a manual car. If you take the test before the first year of your residence, you don't have to pay for lessons - only the cost of the car rental for the test and the test itself. This has resulted in me trying to learn how to drive a manual, which really isn't the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I'm still learning. My driving practice is getting much better though. Next time I drive will be on the actual highway, but because I'll be nervous with driving a manual car, the plan is to do it very late at night. My husband is a wonderful driving teacher. So wonderful, he's come to understand my best learning style for  driving our car - not teaching me at all. I practice my driving at night in an empty parking lot and back woods of a public park. We noticed at first his lectures on driving and technique of driving a manual were only making me nervous, frustrated and my d...

I am very cheap, thrifty, frugal, what have you. Moving to one of the most expensive countries in the world has left me not wanting to spend much if any money at all especially when I still don't fully understand the currency so everything seems extremely expensive to me. I have sought out some of the cheaper stores, which helps my peace of mind - some. You also must be careful purchasing items online because the items purchased can't cost over 200 kr (about $33) but this doesn't include shipping. 1) -nille - This is a store in Norway (yes, a store in Norway with reasonable prices) which sells a little bit of everything. I love the "little bit of everything" stores in Norway - it almost reminds me of Wal-Mart or Target, but smaller. I usually go here to purchase knitting supplies or craft supplies. nille.no 2) ebay.no-  Most American clothing stores online can have really great sales, but when you click shipping to Norway you're shocked that it costs arou...

I've often times hide my accent when I talk to other Norwegians and other people here in Norway. It's become such a huge habit of mine lately after someone saying to me, "Well, I was expecting you to talk like George W. Bush!" that I realized I've hid my accent so much (and I don't sound like George W. Bush!!!). The reason for me hiding it is because when I did talk without masking that long drawn out southern accent, people would ask me what I said or what I was talking about and I soon pinpointed it not to fluency in English, but just the way I said things. When first meeting even my husband asked me what I was saying at times. After repeating the same word several times I finally began to catch on to why he couldn't understand me. He couldn't understand what I meant with words like "semi", "iron", "oil", "shy" and many other words with an "i" or a "y" somewhere in them. Once I had a cousi...