My New Norwegian Home

Americans love food. It's a stereotype, it's a fact of life. Food is awesome! After following the Americans in Norway group on Facebook, I've realized a common complaint among Americans is the lack of food variety in Norway. I'm guilty of complaining of the same thing - A LOT. I've made compromises, but for the most part, I've come to terms with it and do as Teddy Roosevelt once stated, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." This means making a lot of things from scratch and that's okay because I could desperately use the cooking experience and homemade meals are generally healthier. ****Just a side note of advice from one expat to another: Depending on my mood, sometimes it's not a great idea to replicate a family recipe. Even if I follow the recipe EXACTLY, it never tastes the same. It's frustrating and if you're homesick at the time, it just doesn't go over well.***** Due to our daughter's approaching due ...

Finally. The day has come where I have met an American in Norway. The fact that she is an American the same age as me doesn't really matter. It's nice to consult in a friend, no matter where they are from. A person is a person. BUT of course it is nice to speak with someone who has the same type of background and culture as you as well as trying to learn Norwegian with having the same mother tongue. Although she is from busy, high trafficked Los Angeles, California and I am from back woods, rural Kentucky (two different cultures right there) it's very interesting comparing the two states and backgrounds, yet still having the same nationality and other things in common. She comes from a state where marijuana can be prescribed for tons of medical issues and I come from a place which was a dry county and it was illegal to even buy or sell alcohol until a recent vote 2 weeks ago (although Kentucky is one of the largest whiskey and bourbon makers in the world!). I come fro...

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...

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...

While there are political issues in America (and I feel a much deeper attachment to America than Norway) like healthcare, economy and unemployment, women's issues (though this has been a huge debate throughout the entire campaign, neither of our opponents even mentioned it in this last debate) and many other concerns, I'm NOT going to talk about my political views or anything of the sort because I think that either makes people like you a little less or a little more and really, I'd like people to just like me for what's beyond the person I vote for. And although here on Norway time our presidential debates don't come on the television until 3 in the morning, I just go to this website the morning after rather than confuse myself with listening to each party's exaggerations....  Fact Check! With our upcoming election I wanted to exercise my right to vote. What I had to do was send in an absentee ballot request to the county clerk's office of the previous...

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 measur...

This past Sunday was the premier for season 3 Alt for Norge! In English the translation is 'All for Norway.' The show is about 12 Americans with Norwegian heritage coming to Norway and learning the culture of their ancestors. The reality show has them competing in various tasks somehow dealing with Norwegian culture or history. The winner over the course of 12 weeks wins $50,000 and they get to meet their living relatives in Norway. America has about the same amount of Norwegian-Americans as there are actual ethnic Norwegians in Norway.  Norwegian Americans I love the show, but I wish it were available for Americans to watch... free. It is available for Americans, but at a price.  How Americans Can Watch Alt for Norge For those curious, here's t he season premier for the show  and here's a peek at the next episode s neak peek at the next episode. For me, it's just fun to watch other Americans and what they think about Norway. Of course the show emphasizes th...

When I meet someone new of Arild's friends one of the first things they tell me is, "You're very brave." I don't think that at all. I'm still extremely dependent on Arild and I try very hard for that to not let me down. He is very supportive, which makes a huge difference and I'm very appreciative for having an extremely laid-back and supportive husband, but I miss my independence. The day I get my independence back I am going to do one hell of a victory dance, but it will take baby steps to get there. I'm scared to go into public alone because I'm afraid people will talk to me and I have no idea what they say or say back to them. Any time I have ventured off on my own this has never happened, so it's really just an irrational fear. The times I have had to speak English to people they've almost always spoken English back. I''m learning how to drive a manual car. The first 3 months an American is in Norway they can drive with ...

I've never quite realized how diverse and especially unique America really is until I met Arild and started talking to him about ancestry. I've always been so used to hearing people say something like, "Oh I'm 1/4 German, 1/16 African- American, 1/8 Native American, 1/8 Latino decent and 1/32 Irish. As for the rest I'm not so sure, but I am 100% American." My closest ancestry is Swiss (my great-great-great grandparents came to America and were orchard farmers) and French (from my understanding this individual and his brother were adopted by an American couple as children). Even further back, there is Native American ancestry on both my parents sides (Cherokee on my father's and Blackfoot on my mother's), German and Dutch and English on my mother's, Irish and English on my father's side. If there's any other mixture of nationalities in there, which I'm sure there is, I really have no idea what or who they were. I've once traced s...

I just have to say, I'm getting a few e-mails from my readers and it's a very bizarre moment for me to realize I'm openly writing about the craziest thing I've ever decided to do with my life and receive e-mails from other people in similar situations. I greatly enjoy talking to others in situations like mine! It's very hopeful and relieving! I understand when people read blogs like mine, this is the sort of thing they're looking for. I've purposely made this particular blog extremely personal just for this matter. I guess I'll have to start off by saying I would never jump out of a plane without a parachute. I've done research on Norway and have spent countless hours talking to Arild. Being a high-anxiety person in general, I think this is a crazy crazy thing to do, but I am so happy and so excited to be able to experience this! I'm often asked if I'm scared doing this. I'm not. Not at all. I'm scared of falling off the bed in my s...