My New Norwegian Home

We have finally found a name for our Miss "Beansprout." Our guidelines were these: 1) It couldn't be a popular name. 2) It has to be pronounced the same or very similar in both Norway and the US. 3) It couldn't have any more than one spelling. 4) No ÆØÅ or rolling Rs. Mom has to be able to pronounce her daughter's name. ;-) After going through baby books, websites, suggestions from friends and family and other lists of names, we found the name - something simple, cute and feminine and it's a short and sweet name for a short and sweet little girl. :-) We were sitting at home and struggling with finding a name we both agreed on until I finally remembered watching some Norwegian-American dating show on TV several months ago (these type of shows bore me, so I only watched a few minutes) and I remember a girl on the show being named the name we chose and I thought it was adorable. So I blurted the name and Arild agreed with me on the name. We tossed the nam...

This past Friday was a big day for Norway. It was the 17th of May or in other words the National Day where Norway gained its independence from Denmark 199 years ago by making their own constitution. Today it's celebrated with parades of bunad-wearing school children, marching bands, eating cake, ice cream, waffles and hot dogs all day. Yep, this pretty much explains it! From:  http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/17%20mai I was very excited to be here to finally celebrate my first 17th of May in Norway! We went to the city center in time to watch the children's parade and left right as the Russ were beginning their parade. Ate ice cream, then went to my husband's old elementary school where we thought there would be a local parade. Instead there was no parade, so we ate cake. Afterwards we went and ate more ice cream and hot dogs. That sums up our 17. mai! We were also bombarded by a couple of sugar crazed 9-10 year olds who were wondering if we were Russ. Apparently Russ g...

I could say a million things about mine and my husband's one year anniversary. I could go on and on, but I'll just stick to something simple. It's been a year, a really great year! 2 years ago on May 18th Arild made his first visit to the US and that's when we met in person. When I met him, it felt like I had known him my entire life. 1 year ago we exchanged vows and said our I Dos. (Actually I had forgotten to write the "I Do" part in our vows, so it was never said!) I'd like to think only good things have happened for us since meeting 2 years ago. If it weren't for my husband, the thought of moving to Norway would have never even crossed my mind. He's the sole reason why I'm living 4200 miles away from the US and would have only dreamed of living elsewhere. Anyways, I think I'll just save the writing and say the rest in pictures! Reunited on May 12, 2012. How we spent our May 17th last year.  Married. May 18, 2012! ...

With Norway's national day coming soon (May 17th) I thought it would be fitting to talk a bit about bunads. I just love old culture preserved in bunads! It's such a great dose of Norwegian culture to go to an event and be surrounded by people wearing bunads that in a way it kind of feels like you've stepped back in time a couple hundred years. In fact, it is what people wore a few centuries ago in Norway. Today the traditional clothing can be worn to weddings, folk festivals and church events like baptisms and confirmations, as well as on May 17th of course. What better way to celebrate nationalism than to wear traditional folk clothing from the 1800s? I'm absolutely excited to celebrate this holiday for the first time. It's tradition for there to be parades with small children and school kids, some of which are dressed in bunads. Afterwards, the day is celebrated with ice cream and waffles. I have been looking at baby bunads lately. I know it's too early to...

In the past few years I've learned it's stereotypical of Americans to be terrible at geography. I greatly reinforce that stereotype. Really, I don't think it should be an American stereotype, but possibly just an individual issue. I have  learned a little geography since moving to Norway, but mostly it's because my husband underestimated how terrible I am at knowing about other countries and he's given me geographic lectures upon more lectures. Stereotyped map of the world. From:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/feb/17/stereotype-maps-tsvetkov# At my Norwegian course the other day, my teacher asked me, "What did you think about Norway before you moved here?" I laughed. Did he really want me to try to explain how I didn't know the place was even a country, but possibly a place in Moscow or Morocco? Not sure why I once thought that, but it's almost embarrassing to admit that. I didn't know Norway was a country until my husba...

Yeah... it's that  time of year. Russ. To my understanding, it's a traditional celebration where students in their last year of high school take a few weeks in May typically May 1-17 (but they can get an early start in April) and complete a series of pranks and tasks to earn knots on a hat which completes their overalls outfit. The pranks can range from the innocent like eating breakfast or spending the night in a roundabout to the not so innocent like drinking games and um... well, other things. From what I do know about it, I don't think I feel too comfortable with young people (well, anyone for that matter) acting reckless and senseless. Trying on my husband's old Russ outfit.  A typical Russ picture, red van and all. From:  http://no.gosupermodel.com/frontpage/news.jsp?news_id=3021 Recently I've been told about a day where the girls were supposed to come to school wearing a mustache.  If they weren't wearing a drawn on mustache they'd be chas...

A good sign spring has sprung in Norway is the neighborhood volunteering effort of spring cleaning called, "Dugnad." We had dugnad in our neighborhood on Tuesday where everyone took part in cleaning up something. I swept the carport and picked up trash while Arild hosed the carport and part of the driveway. Sometimes people paint, get rid of dead leaves or chip wood. The idea of it is to have a community effort in doing something and also because wages are so high in Norway, it would be quite expensive to hire someone to do the work. Afterwards we were treated to a cookout and we checked out a small playground in our neighborhood that neither of us had noticed too much before and talked about taking our little one there next summer.

I guess it's time I should update. It's been almost 2 weeks since my last ultrasound - t he BIG ultrasound!  We're now beginning month 5 of this pregnancy and everything is going well. As well as a pregnancy can go I guess - of course there's the fatigue, feeling like I have no control over my emotions or my appetite and other lovely symptoms and surprises of pregnancy. Most importantly though, our little troll is doing great! :-) Anyways, just a little update on the soon to be new addition.... Beansprout is a..... GIRL!!!! We were told by my doctor about a month and a half ago that our little one is probably a girl, but when my husband began interrogating the doctor for a specific percentage of certainty, she only said she was 60% certain. So, almost 2 weeks ago we went to our specialist and we were shown "girl parts" I'm assuming that's a decent probability Beansprout is a girl anyways! :-) AND she's not looking so much like a bean sprou...