Oslo : Week 1

  Hey there, can you see me ok? Hear me? It might take me a minute to get all the dust off this old thing.  It's been many, many years since I even opened this page.  Most of you probably don't know this, but I kept up a decent blog about our experience and travel while living in France.  Well here we are, just over a decade later, and we're at it again.  Never in a million years did I think I would be raising expat kids, but when life calls, the only answer option is to answer it. 

First things the first - the journey.  The days and weeks leading up to departure day were nothing short of exhausting.  So in the final 24-28 hours, when I felt worn out and tired, I didn't think anything of it.  We had been running on fumes for weeks already.  I also knew how fortunate we were that our family had not dealt with illness at all in about 10 months.  Seems we really did pay our dues when the kids were toddlers, because they  don't seem to get sick too often anymore.  Alas, as you have probably guessed, our luck ran out.  About half way over the Atlantic to be exact.  The long flights are uncomfortable as it is, but roughly four hours into the long flight, it became clear that it was not just fatigue I was dealing with, but something more sinister.  By the time we landed in Amsterdam, I was pretty sure I had the flu.  Unfortunately, we still had a layover and another flight, and then about a 45 minute van ride through a snow storm to get through.  Traveling with the flu is 0/10 for me - do not recommend at all!  And so, the first several days here in Oslo were not quite what we expected. 

Despite regular doses of Ibuprofen and Dayquil (miraculously packed in a suitcase and NOT available here!), I was still barely functional.  Now factor in that we don't know where anything is, don't know how to get around, and everything is in a different language that looks mostly like a strange mix of consonants, and we can say that the first week was not so great.  Oh also, the average temperature is about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, ya'll it's COLD.  AND had jetlag to cope with!  Basic survival was a chore, forget trying to do anything fun.  But we kept marching ahead, got the girls in school on day 5, then JR the following week.  His start was delayed because his entire year was away on a week long "winter education trip" - skiing.  In Texas if you opt out of a field trip, the school finds another place for you.  Here, just go home, see you next week.  But fast forward a week, and they are all settling in nicely at school.  We've started riding the school bus, and it seems no matter which approach we take, the commute to and from school is about an hour from our current apartment.  Phew, that is a big change.  We sure do miss a ten minute bike ride with friends.  

So here we are now, two weeks in, and we are finally starting to get our feet on the ground (when we aren't slipping on the ice) and venturing out a little bit more.  Saturday we celebrated our first Norwegian birthday - Gratulerer med dagen Penny!  We were totally unprepared, but threw some plans together last minute and it turned out pretty great.  She requested crepes for breakfast, then we met some families from the school for ice skating and hot chocolate, then a little roblox time, followed by a fun dinner out, a visit to the candy store, and more roblox time.    

We have some work to do on the ice skating... 

For Penny's birthday dinner we went to a place called SALT.  It's kind of like a restaurant, sauna, art, and entertainment venue / club all in one.  We only did the restaurant, which offers a very limited menu of foods to be cooked over an open fire.  This was a lot of fun!  The only offerings were chicken sausage for the kids, and reindeer sausage (seriously) for adults, corn on the cob, and of course, marshmallows!  I'm still not even sure if reindeer are real creatures, but I'm starting to think they are and that they eat them over here.  Weird.  Sausages in general seem to be a very popular food in Norway.  Anyhow, the kids (and I) started off nervous sitting around a fire, but quickly got the hang of it and enjoyed the experience.  SALT is located right on the fjord, we had a water view the entire time.  At one point, of the girls looked out and said "Mom, I think someone is getting in the water!".  I assured them that no one was getting in the icy fjord, absolutely not, no way anyone would voluntarily... oh wait look at that.  These people were going from the hot saunas to the fjords for an ice plunge.  We had on three layers and were still cold, and there were people (not very many) in swimsuits going for a dip in the icy water - you could actually see ice on the water!  NO!      

All in all, Penny said it was a really good birthday.  These kids have actually done incredibly well so far.  They haven't complained much about anything, even though there have been a lot of changes and adjustments, and they've done a great job of being open to new experiences and ways of life.  I think it has still sort of just felt like a vacation for them, and they haven't had too much time yet to miss home.  Although home is here now, so I guess I should say their old home.

More info coming soon on our temporary living set up and general life around here, but for now, I hope you find something this week that makes you as happy as this marshmallow made Clara...