Hverdagsliv

Today in my Norwegian class, we were learning about Hverdagsliv, or in English, Everyday Life. Vocab included words that describe your day, such as stress, having very much to do, relaxing, tired, working overtime and so on. As we went around the class and described our days, I had a realization. For the first time in a few years, I was able to say that I am not stressed. I enjoy my days.

Yes, I am slightly stressed that I still don't have the steady job I want, but compared to two months ago, my stress is GONE. I didn't realize how long it had been since I was so stress free. My last job left me dreaming about work (not good dreams), waking up and screaming about work, losing sleep and patience having to deal with the realities of my old career.

While I don't have a new job (yet), I love where I am and I'm so happy. I am a substitute teacher at a great school. I have made some great connections which hopefully will lead to a great position in my field of expertise (cross your fingers!!). I have met some amazing people and I've had an awesome time with my family. I'm in a fun, intensive Norwegian class and I have a great apartment in one of the most interesting and beautiful cities in the world.


"If you want to be happy, be."
~Leo Tolstoy

One month in Bergen: The view from my window

Yesterday was one month in Bergen. And it has been an amazing month. It feels so right that it's like I've been here forever, but it also feels like yesterday that I just got off the plane.

The one thing everyone in Bergen has in common is the weather. It is a topic that comes up in conversation daily. Yes, the weather is difficult, but I don't mind it. I've seen many pretty views of ugly weather from my apartment window.


Week 1: My first morning and first view from the window. Muggy, but what a beautiful view!!



Sun and blue skies!!



A cold, rainy day



Snow day!

Each day brings new things. At one month, I am now taking Norwegian classes, have a job (kinda), I'm searching for a new job and having a great time!!

I started at level two in Norwegian and it is still a review from what I learned years ago. It's a challenge, but I'm loving it.

I am a substitute teacher at the International School of Bergen. I've been with them for one week, but I haven't been called in yet. I am hoping next week will be the week, but not on Monday.

Monday I have a meeting with a very important man who may be able to help me find a job working at a foster care home for children, many of them immigrant children. I am crossing my fingers and toes that something will come of it. Help me out if you can!!

Things I miss at one month:
1. My family and friends. I am so happy for Skype!!
2. Loads of big, fluffy, white snow, with snow days, snowmen and shoveling.
3. Shopping for clothes.

Things I don't miss at one month:
1. Denver water
2. Driving in the snow
3. Stress
4. The view from my Denver window

Eating in Bergen

Dining out in Norway is expensive. I moved from a place where grabbing a quick $5 meal was easy, delicious, fast and if you knew the right places could even be healthy. In Norway, cheap dining out consists of Kebabs, danishes, pizza or hot dogs (always with coffee). And still, it is expensive. The grocery stores are good but things add up fast. I have found that making Thai food (my favorite) is one of the best ways to go. It's tasty, healthy and pretty cost efficient.

Eating healthy has become another challenge. I've learned a few things...
1. Not having a schedule makes it difficult to plan good, healthy meals.
2. I miss Sunflower Market.
3. Living with boys means more chips, pizza, beer and hot dogs just laying around for me to eat.
4. It's dark outside, which I've learned makes me want to snack...all the time.

Norwegians have a somewhat bland diet for my taste. It consists mostly of bread, cheese, milk, boiled eggs, fish, and potatoes. Breakfast (Frokost) consists of open faced build your own type sandwich. I prefer butter, cheese, meat, tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, salt and pepper. This morning I felt like a true Norwegian as I enjoyed a sandwich with mayonnaise (from a squeeze bag), a boiled egg, tomato and salt and pepper. I'm still not brave enough to eat breakfast with pickled herring (fish in a jar). Norwegian dinner (middag)means fish, potatoes and a few veggies (boiled carrots). Sauces are popular...white sauce or Bernaise (bernaisesaus). And I can't forget rømmegrøt (sour cream porridge) and risgrøt (rice porridge).

Some of my favorite meals I've made so far (non Norwegian)...

1. Chicken Fried Rice
2. Crustless quiche
3. Pad Kra Prow (Basil and Peppers)
4. Baked chicken with glazed brussel sprouts
5. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (for the road trip)
6. Stuffed Peppers

Don't worry, today I made a classic Norwegian meal for middag. Fish (really good smoked fish), potatoes and carrots in white sauce. A note for anyone interested in making Norwegian food, it is quick and easy!


All of the ingredients needed: Fish, potatoes, carrots, white sauce, milk.



The delicious fish!



Boiling the fish, carrots and potatoes and making the white sauce. They all take about 10 minutes max.



Dinner is done!



My Aunt and Cousins, ready to eat!


Yes, I do miss Illegal Petes, Thai Pot Cafe, Salvaggios, Little Man Ice Cream, Max's, Swing Thai, and all the other delicious spots in Denver. But, I'm happy to replace it with some delicious Norwegian food! I mean, who can resist white sauce, sour cream porridge, and of course, fish!

Takk for maten! (Thanks for the food)

Happy, pretty, scary, funny things

I woke up this morning and light was glaring into my window behind my bed. This is not a normal occurrence here in Bergen. I quickly grabbed my phone, thinking my alarm didn't go off and I had slept in. Nope, it was just that sunny.


I didn't have my camera downtown today, but here is the afternoon photo from my apartment window.

On the bus downtown, I went past the Bryggen and fish market and had one of my happy moments. What? I live here?? How did I get so lucky???

This weekend I went on a road trip with my two cousins to visit their brother. We drove through Hardanger, went skiing and visited with some Aunts and Uncles and saw some of the most stunningly beautiful scenery ever. Again, how lucky am I to live here!? Just check out some of these pictures!


A pretty waterfall on the way home



Me and the Berge boys outside of the apartment in Odda


Pretty!


Even more pretty!

The town my cousin lives in now (Odda) is very small. Everyone knows each other. After spending the day skiing, the boys decided to go out to the one and only pub they have in Odda. It was quite the experience. People were asking us "Why are you here? Did you get lost?". We got the feeling that people do not visit Odda very often. It may not be a popular tourist destination, but we sure enjoyed it.


At the pub in Odda

Driving in Norway is one of the scariest things I've ever done. There's a show called "Ice Road Truckers" and it's about big trucks driving on small icy roads. There are always small cars that the truckers almost crush because they can barely both fit on the road. Well, driving in Norway is like being that small car that is almost getting run off the road. Regardless of how scary it is, the views are just amazing. My poor cousins were forced to stop a few times to take some pictures of the most amazing landscapes ever! And there was no lack of entertainment in the car. My cousins are some of the best road trip buddies ever, with lots of entertaining songs and stories to keep things going.



I don't know what they were doing, but something shocking!


Yes, this is a two way road.


One of the many tunnels in Norway


On the road again...searching for a pub that would play their soccer game!

We survived Spring 05!!!

A little over 7 years ago, I was on the waiting list for a program called Semester at Sea (SAS). I had chosen New Zealand as my second choice. It was 7pm the night before I had to make my decision about New Zealand when I got a call from SAS...there was space for me on the ship!!! I could not be more excited!! Little did I know it was a trip that would change my life forever!

I packed, flew to Vancouver and boarded the ship that I was going to call home for the next 100 days.



The first night, the captain announced that we would be hitting some bad weather and we should take whatever sea sickness medicine we brought. As days went on, the seas started to get worse and worse, the waves bigger and bigger. Life on-board the MV Explorer started to get difficult. We could barely eat because the food would be sliding back and forth across the table. In class, you would fall off your chair. One night the grand piano flipped over!! People were sick for days (somehow, I avoided this). We were not even allowed outside.



On the night of January 26th, right before we were going to pass the international dateline, the weather was VERY bad. Nobody was sleeping, we were all being tossed around. The night stand next to my bed had broken away from the wall and was rolling back and forth. After flying around for a few hours, an announcement came on and said something like "brace yourselves, we are going to turn the ship", then we turned. A few seconds later, another announcement "Everyone put your life jacket vests on immediately and get into the hall!!!!". Apparently, once the ship was turned, a 60 foot rouge wave hit us head on and broke the windows to the bridge.


This isn't the SAS wave, but what a rogue wave looks like.

We spent hours in our pajamas and life jackets. I was sure it was the end. When they started to give away the expensive food, I really knew we were in trouble. When they separated the boys and girls, I just gave up. We've all seen Titanic. We bounced around for a while, then changed directions and found smoother seas. We missed our stops in Korea and Japan and had to go to Hawaii while we waited for the ship to be repaired.



After our "wave day", we embraced life, the journey and everything the world had to offer. Skydiving in South Africa, riding camels in Kenya, climbing mountains, meeting amazing people, learning about new and exciting food (yep, this is when I ate dog), and experiencing life from the a different view. Little did I know that my entire perspective on life had changed.

I give SAS credit for my life today. It encouraged me to take another trip around the world with a close friend, stopping to teach English in Thailand. That led me to my graduate program in International Disaster Psychology. IDP helped me get my dream job in International Adoption. SAS is the ingredient in my life that has kept me moving, exploring new cultures, meeting new people, and teaching me more and more about myself along the way. And now, it steered me towards where I am now, Norway!! I would tell anyone considering to DO IT!



Videos of Wave Day!!

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6DBGhXI586k

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6yXfkXkHYTY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElQ4wsUqqi8

Week 3: Living in a sitcom

Sometimes (like tonight), I feel like I'm living in my own little sitcom. A twenty something girl quits her job in Denver to move in with her quirky and hilarious cousins in Norway. They've been teaching me the "norms" in Norway, and I've brought some girly, American charm to our apartment. Here are just a few episodes from the last week...

Episode 1, Round and Round We Go: We got our Aunt's car this week and I drove everyone to our Norwegian class. On the way home, I was going to drop off one of the volunteers. On our way to her apartment, we lost our way...big time. I learned, there is no easy way to turn around in Norway. Five long tunnels later, we finally found a round-about. Everyone has seen the movie "Griswolds European Vacation", where he can't get out of the round-about. That was me. With two Norwegians speaking to each other in Norwegian, and me saying "Which way, which way!?", I just kept going around, and around, and around. We ended up dropping her off at the bus station, because we never did find her apartment.



I'm sure this is how I looked from above, for a few minutes at least.

Episode 2: I moved in and was so excited when I found Siracha at the grocery store, my favorite spicy sauce! I introduced this to my cousins and now we all eat it on everything. Norwegian food isn't exactly the most flavorful and I love spicy! So, my cousin and I get home from the bars the other night and he goes directly for something to munch on. I look up and what has he got? Celery and Siracha. I think the direct quote was "I love bloody marys, but why do I need bloody marys if I have celery, and siracha....SO good!". I do have a video of this, but I've been banned from posting it. Earlier that same night, we had discussed my cousin's love for the old tv show, "7th Heaven". They sang the theme song so many times that I had it stuck in my head for days. After eating his own version of a "Bloody Mary", he sang his favorite song, again.



I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to have such a wonderful, fun and supportive family. People say Norwegians are “cold”, I’ve never known that because my cousins are the complete opposite of that. They have been so helpful during my first few weeks and are never short of a funny comment, story or even a song…

I’m so looking forward to the next episode

Week 2 in Bergen: Positive Employment Thoughts!

I've been in Bergen now for 2 weeks and 3 days and I'm still loving it! My most important task at the moment (aside from learning Norwegian) is finding a job. I've been searching like a crazy person. I know two weeks isn't too long, but I miss having a job, and I miss having an income.

Every morning I wake up and check the online job sites for new jobs and apply for any that sound good. I do the same at night before bed. I've applied for over 25 positions in many different areas...restaurants, cafe's, travel shops, retail, social work, teaching, personal assistant, and the list goes on. I have met with a few people and have a few leads I am really hoping for.

I worked at an SOS Organization in Bosnia and found that there is one here in Bergen. I got in touch with the representatives and had a meeting with them in Bergen. They were great people and the organization is wonderful. I am hoping to get on board with them as a volunteer to help implement a new program. I am hoping I'll be hearing from them soon!



From a contact at SOS, I was put in touch with the Center for Crisis Psychology here in Bergen. They provide services for children and adults who are in crisis. Exactly what I would love to be doing!! I am hoping for a meeting soon with them.

I'm also in touch with some great girls who moved here from abroad as well. Many of them are working at the International School. I heard that they need subs, so I sent them my CV. I'm really hoping I will hear back from them soon as well. Then, I'll have the chance to work with kids again!!

So, cross your fingers and toes and think some positive employment thoughts for me. I really want to be working by the time February rolls around (that's only 8 days!).

When I am not looking for jobs, I've been having a great time with my cousins and new friends. I had some of the best salmon sashimi ever out with the girls and had some very entertaining nights out at the bars. We took a trip to Osteroy (where one of my Aunt's live) and had a great time visiting and enjoying the great view.


Painting with my very talented cousins and Aunt. I'm proud to be named after her!!


A traditional Norwegian breakfast. Yummmmy!


How would you like to wake up to this view every morning?


And of course we had to watch 3D TV.

Things I miss at week 2:
1. Understanding entire conversations
2. Happy Hours and dining out
3. Working
4. Family and friends!!

Things I don't miss at week 2:
1. Stress at work
2. Crowded bars
3. Drama
4. Driving and parking everywhere

So, week two was also great. I can't wait to see what week three will bring!