Født med ski på beina?

A norwegian expression meaning "born with skies on your feet".
Supposedly something all norwegians are.
Maybe except for me.
We had this terrible trip on new years eve when the plan was to go to this cabin in the mountain belonging to this tourist organisation we are in (DNT), but the route to the cabin was more than I could handle on skies.
So we ended up driving the tree hours back home and spent the night drinking wine and watching TV. Despite it all we had a really nice day driving through the most amazing nature.
I have always hated skiing. I have never been any good at it, always ending up falling of the ski-elevator. Once I was on a ski-trip by myself (yes, I have tried!), and found out even kids were faster and felt they had to pass me, I was so slow.
Tried snowbording, you say? Don't even go there. For the record; yes, I have and I sucked !
Shalg bought himself new cross-country skies before christmas, so he has been talking about it every weekend.
Last weekend he had decided the time had come. He was going to this place called Gautefall, about 2 hours drive and I felt I had to go with him. Neither of us had been there before, so I couldn't let him go by himself.
On the way we drove by this famous norwegian folk/country-singer called Sputnik. He is quit the character, selling his own brand of mens panties.
We knew he lived in the village we passed and his home was not hard to spot.

We arrived at the ski-resort and eventually also found the cross-country-track.
I was shaky and cold, but it was a really easy track and I kept standing!
Even went down a few small hills without falling.
But Shalg never knows my limits and forced me up this steep hill where even he fell over.
The way down that hill was even worse and my mood was no longer good. I was so scared and angry I fell over just standing still. So I took off my skies and slid down the hill half on my bum.
Luckily this was not the end of the trip, if it had been I probably would never look on a pair of skies again.
Safely down the hill I put my skies back on and successfully stood through a small down-hill with a turn! (going down hill and turning is a recipe for disaster)
I was real proud of myself!
On the last bit of the track we passed some teenage girls that just couldn't stay on their feet even on flat ground. Getting closer I heard them speak and thought to myself: Thank God I'm not danish...

Sweet Christmas Time

So we spent christmas with his family this year, and it was real nice. What can I say, you always want christmas to be exactly like it was when you were a kid, but every family have different traditions.I really missed Pinnekjøtt, a traditional norwegian dish from very salty lamb. Up east most people have Ribbe, pork and sausages, which is tasty but very heavy and full of fat. Oh yeah , norwegians get fat during christmas, but now it's a new year and it's all coming off :-)

We have moved to another house, and as you can see it is wonderful. Right outside town and real cheap rent! We are so happy here.

I love christmas, and insisted that we bought a real christmas tree.

Oh, what bliss!

frost, hail and numb toes

We had snow last week and in Kristiansand when it snows, you can bet your life it's gonna rain in a few hours. We're far south in Norway and the winter is not as tough as in the rest of the kingdom.
This particular day started off with a romantic snowfall in the dark morning when we were waiting for the bus, and continued with something of a snowstorm that turned into rain and hail for the rest of the day... My collegue from Singapore was not happy, to say the least.
From this day onwards, I have been wearing extra layers of clothing, and still found that my toes just won't get warm.
So most days I have felt about tree toes getting numb and completely white. And it's still just autumn!!!
Oh, I miss the winters of Guangzhou, China, but who knew the fall could be so beautiful!
I think I've never really noticed before...
I'm writing this sunday morning, and can't help feeling it's not right to stay inside. It's about -1 degree C, clear blue sky and frost on the ground. The only downpart is that the road is slippery and my shoes are not made for frost. Maybe I should buy a pair of those metal rails that old people put under their shoes during winter.

Working nine to five...

We have now been working at our new jobs for a month, and life is different..
In danger of sounding like a spoiled brat, I must say it 's hard to work 8 hours every day, or 7,5 as we do in this country. I get home at 4.30, go to the gym, make dinner, watch a show on tv and go to bed. thats it!
How do people have time to do house-work, have a hobby, help their kids do homework?
At least the first weeks it felt like the day suddenly had about 5 hours less than when I was a student.
Now I'm getting into it and have accepted that for the rest of my life I have to choose just one thing every day. No time for it all..
Is it Diesel Jeans that have that advertisement saying: 8 hours work, 8 hours play, 8hours sleep?
It's bullshit! I use 2 hours from I get up till I arrive work, 1 hour back from work, and that leaves 4 hours play! I wanna be a student all my life!

Besides from the time-problem life is good, we are broke after buying a car, but still happy. It's maybe just the endorphines from working out, but all the same we're happy.
That is, Shalg is not to happy right now, his football team Lillestrøm lost 3-1 and the dog( we are dog-sitting these days) was totally freaked out by Shalg screaming in disapointment.

norwegian summer is over

The summer isn't long in this country, and now it's over, but we don't complain. This is the first fall we've had in two years, and I must say I've missed the cold septembers.
We moved into the appartment I wrote about, but it wasn't so perfect after all. Now we have to move again... The owners sold the place, and the new owners have 4 kids each and doesn't want us there. But we will stay untill we find something else, and now our minds are focused on the new jobs we will start at on monday. Hard to explain in english, but they pay well and there are possibilities..
Settling is hard; we need a car now, then we can rent a place further away, but let's see when the first paycheck comes :)
Since we've been kind of broke all summer we have used the nature as best we can, and our freezer is full off fish and berries, and today I'll bake bread. Last weekend we went to the mountains too collect sheep that has been out all summer. We were 11 people, slept in a tent, ate from a fire and walked for 9!!! hours in the mountains. I got lost. It wasn't my fault, but I was still embarassed. You see, I always brag about my good sense of direction. Obviously it only works in cities.

finding roof

Since I don't have a job yet, and everybody else is working all day, I feel kind of restless. So I wanted to start look for an appartment. Shalg told me to be picky and not settle for the first and the best. The place had to have a dishwasher, he said. So yesterday I went to see a couple of places. And what do you know, the first place I saw wouldn't leave my mind all day. I really wanted it and I prayed real hard!
At the hospital visiting my mom's man who crashed his micro-plane three weeks ago, we talked about showing that you really want the job when you apply, and I thought that could work with landlords too, so I called him again. " I just want to know if you have decided who to rent to, because I really wanna rent the place!" " No, haven't decided yet, but if you really want it, then I guess that's okay. I just want to get it over with." And then it was mine!
Learn the lesson from this story, people!

So I called my husband later that night and told him we have a place to live, and before he could say anything about me deciding too fast, I added. " and it is so close,you can walk to the sea to fish everyday!(he loooves fishing), and it has a dishwasher!"
He was definetly impressed, but I must admit he was a bit skeptic until my powers of convincing showed him his wife had made the right choice.

It's about 45 m2 and the rent is just 6500NOK electricity included!! I can't wait to go buy furniture!

and soon, very soon I will post some photos

This is when we write funny things about Norway

Which is not to easy. Yes, I write in english now, so that our wonderful foreign friends can understand.
At the airport in Finland I felt terribly uncomfortable by the fact that most people there could understand what I said. So when I was irritated at Shalg and wanted to start a fight, I had to whisper. In China all I had to do was change my tone so I didn't sound angry... The result in Finland was that after some minutes in silence, my anger was gone. Maybe a good thing, I don't know.
So when we landed in Oslo I was already used to the language. The fact is we sat next to a norwegian all the way from Guangzhou. Of course we landed in time to see the start of the sunset, and my eyes were not dry. Even to see signs like " nødutgang"(emergency exit)gave a sting in my heart.
Last summer when we landet, the airport smelled like hotdogs, this year it was pizza.
But you guys left in China can not imagine the fresh air. Even at the train-station the air was fresh.
But our idea of the heavenly kingdom of Norway disappeared when we arrived downtown Oslo. The amount of drugaddicts, prostitutes and romanian beggers is just depressive.

Let's talk about something else.
We have now been apart for two days, and I am starting to miss my husband. Shalg is in Oslo, working at Maxbo, and I am left in Kr.sand looking for a job, and an appartment. Yes, we have decided to live in my hometown, and all you guys in Oslo: Don't blame me, it was Shalg's idea!
He even plans to change his dialect, and was thrilled when he learned a new word in Sørlandsk(the dialect of south-Norway). We were late for the bus to Oslo and had to follow the bus to the next stop by car. My sister told us to "dyt og blink", and I had to explain that she did not mean "dytt og blink" (push and blink the lights), but that "dyt" is a word, and it means "tut"(honk).
We did neither, but caught up with the bus in Lillesand.