My New Norwegian Home

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...

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...

I've been curious about the western coast of Norway and wanted to see it and with my father-in-law giving us a pair of plane tickets he won, we went. So we got on a tiny propeller plane and went to Bergen. The city was beautiful. It's filled with history, old well-preserved buildings, cobblestone streets and surrounded by 7 sister mountains. There was even a wedding at this church.  I began to wonder what it would be like for an expatriate living in Bergen and I came up with two things. Since at least down town Bergen is more of a tourist attraction, I can see how someone living there would be more comfortable speaking English and possibly be hindered in learning Norwegian. Of course Norwegians speak English as well, but I can understand when it's common to speak English especially in a place like Bergen how that may slow down learning Norwegian. Number 2 - the rain. I can completely understand how this may affect someone's mood. Especially with it ra...