My New Norwegian Home

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. :-)

I'm sure in times to come I'll update quite a bit about Norwegian courses. I really like being in the class. I love talking to people of different backgrounds in my class and a lot of my curiosity and questions get answered about other parts of the world. Not to mention I'm learning Norwegian at a fast pace and it wasn't until this week I've actually realized I've been progressing in Norwegian since my husband and I had our first, second and third ongoing conversations in Norwegian that didn't consist of the basics. Part of being in Norsk kurs is about helping us foreigners - that word sounds so strange to me - integrate into society. We recently took a hiking trip and the point of which was to teach us about mushrooms. Here in Norway, the early fall is a popular time to go into the forest and pluck mushrooms to eat. However, recently it's been in the news of people being hospitalized due to plucking the wrong mushrooms and consuming them. About 50% o...

Usually on our lazy Sundays, the husband and I will go to a small coastal town. We've been randomizing lately so we can visit all the nearby coastal towns. We only live about 20 minutes from the coast which is absolutely great! Some people may not understand my excitement for these trips and that's okay, but I'm more properly used to just seeing farm land as that's what the majority of Kentucky consists of. Farm land and coal mines in the Appalachian mountains on the eastern end. There is no coast in Kentucky. It's surrounded by borders to Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia,  Missouri and Illinois. If you see any body of water in Kentucky, it's probably a pond, a river or a lake. Anytime I've been able to see a coastline and look at the ocean has been on trips to either South Carolina or Florida - and I know many people who have never even seen the natural beauty of a coastline. A few weeks ago I went to Kragerø, Norway. I like to research these tow...