My New Norwegian Home

Back in September was when I first learned about babies napping outdoors. The first post about babies sleeping outdoors can be seen here!  My initial reaction was a quick one and I kept thinking, "Wow, if that happened in America, Child Protective Services would be getting a call!" When I get a reaction from other Americans it's very close to the same as what I first thought about it, but more words and phrases are tossed around like, crazy , insane ,  "freezing to death",   kidnapping, " what are they thinking!?!? !", poor babies, neglect  and abuse . I explain, go into detail of this practice (Nordic cultures do this with children without a second thought) and sometimes it soaks in and they understand and other times it just simply doesn't. I'm not entirely sure if people get this image of moms wrapping their children in a blanket and tossing them into snow or what exactly is going on there. I hope this blog post clears up some things thoug...

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." -  Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler. Today I went to school and many of the teachers were telling the women in class, "Gratulerer med dagen!!!" (Congratulations with the day!). I was confused and wondered who was having a birthday. Then our teacher was telling us about how today is International Women's Day. I should have known that! In class, we were explained how today is a day where people take a look at statistics and compare equality between men and women, what can be done to fix problems of inequality and why these problems still exist. I mean, come on people, it's 2013 and equality is still an issue worldwide!!! Women still earn less, there are still double standards - okay, they exist for men too, but arguably maybe not to the same extent (men feel the pressure to appear strong when they're vulnerable whereas, well, women can be chastised with vulgar names for the same actions a man w...

I'm feeling more and more like a person again so I can quit neglecting you, my blog children, and write some! :-) I haven't been out much. I hate the winter. I'm really not too fond of the cold and my butt has been staying inside all winter. On the bright side, spring is coming!!!! The days are getting longer. The snow is slowly, but surely melting...*fingers crossed* and I've been getting spring fever! I'm still in awe at how beautiful this place is. Even after 9 months of living here, I still think it's just as pretty as the day I arrived. I love living here, but I really can't wait til spring!!! Sunset after hiking in Langesund! This picture of Skien was taken on top of a mall roof/parking lot.  It's a very special feeling, at least to this Kentuckian, when there's a mountain view everywhere and a trip to the ocean is just a 20 minute drive. :-)

While there are a lot of good foods and bakeries that will make you drool, there are also a lot of foods in Norway you can't help but wonder in its strangeness, "People really eat that?" As a foreigner coming to Norway, it's expected that I find some cultural aspects strange or weird. At first thinking people actually eat moose was a bit strange to me, but I've tried some and it's not so bad. If I hadn't known better I'd have thought it were beef. However, US customs doesn't allow "exotic meats" such as moose and reindeer jerky, so in Detroit's airport I had to hand over the jerky I was trying to bring to my family. First and foremost, being so accustomed to chocolately peanutbuttery candy as we have in America it was a bit of a let down when I couldn't find but some makeshift Reese's cups and in place of all the chocolately marshmallowy peanutbuttery candy, I have found an American's worst candy nightmare - LICORICE! ...

While my last post was about homesickness, it's very exciting and interesting to experience different traditions during the holiday season. It's mine and my husband's first Christmas together as a married couple and without Skype and though I'm a little saddened by not getting to be with my own family, I think it's very exciting to be here in Norway with my husband and my in-laws. I think Christmas here will be quite cozy because well, it already looks Christmas-y here and we're already basically at the north pole!  Welcome to the North Pole!  Since my husband has lived a bachelor life for so long, he hasn't really had too many Christmas decorations. That has changed thanks to me! :-) Within the past month or so I've taken notice to many interesting Christmas decorations and have tried to find the most Norwegian looking decorations as possible. :-)  The first thing I began to notice was pigs. Really, pigs are everywhere. In Norwegian they...

Homesickness is a bit unique, isn't it? It comes and goes. There's really nothing to take it away other than "home" itself. You can distract yourself, keep yourself busy, but you know homesickness is there. Possibly even more so during holidays.  Johnny Cash version of My Old Kentucky Home aka the state song  <---- You can listen to this while reading my post if you want to get an extra feel for Kentucky. :-)  It's been over 6 months since my move to Norway and I'm beginning to feel the pangs of homesickness. It's not out of control or anything, but it's well... there. I miss being with family and going to dinner or meeting friends. I miss tickling my little sister, having long talks with my grandparents, visiting and gossiping with my mother or going out for ice cream with my dad. I miss rural Kentucky scenery. I like it here in Norway. I really like it, but really I miss the sights, sounds, smells... so many things about my dear old Kentucky...

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...

Winter is well on its way. For the first time in nine long dark, dreary, cold, foggy, rainy, gloomy days we've had sunshine. :-) I've been preparing for this winter, so on nice days I try to take advantage of, like today. I went on a walk to embrace the sunlight. With it getting colder, you see many Norwegians looking very, well, Norwegian in their knitted clothing they sport so well. I've recently taken up knitting as a new hobby. Every time I go to a friend's house when we're gathered around and talking, they will bring out their knitting and knit while talking. It almost seems socially awkward to sit without knitting. Personally, I never thought I would ever enjoy anything like that because I've always thought of knitting as way too feminine and old-fashioned for my taste, but it turns out I like it - or I just like scarves. When I first moved here, Arild and I walked around a park and walked into this building which also had a kiosk (tiny cafeteria) a...

Since moving here I've been trying many new foods. I'm still skeptical of meat (leverpostei and stuff in a tube DOES NOT tickle my fancy) but I've tried moose and if I didn't know better I'd have thought it was beef. My biggest norsk mat (Norwegian food) fascination is lefse. When I was first introduced to it, I couldn't stop eating it. I ate lefse everyday when I first moved here to Norway. Even that is sounding strange now because it's been 5 months since my move and I'm realizing there's been some history since my move. My favorite lefse is Vestlands lefsa. I think it was around August I couldn't find it - in any store - anywhere. By September I began to really wonder what happened to the lefse. I mean, this is Norway. Lefse is a staple just like flour, bread or sugar. It turns out, there was a lefse shortage due to the company relocating. Thankfully production is back to normal and lefse is back! I think I have an undying love for No...

A couple of weeks ago, my mother-in-law told me a typical Norwegian quote, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!" I still have no idea how to dress and when I came here with all my "Kentucky clothes" as I call them now, I wasn't prepared at all for Norwegian weather. I just love a quote from one of the Alt for Norge contestants, "The Norwegian weather hates you!"   That really sums it up! :-) When I first arrived here to a very rainy and cool summer, my husband asked, "Where's your raincoat?" I told him, "I've never had one." He looked at me like I was crazy and asked, "What did you do in Kentucky when it rains?" I explained to him if it rained, it would dry soon. Kentucky weather changes from hour to hour, so a raincoat never mattered much to me anyways. And honestly, I've never had much use for umbrellas and raincoats. I hate wearing layers of clothing and I hate clothing (like...

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...