Epilogue

I can't take credit for the lovely photo above. A friend who lives in Gjøvik snapped it from his veranda early one morning. I love all the twinkly lights and the dramatic sunrise over Lake Mjøsa, and I thought it was an appropriate picture for my last post.

Everything is fine--the animals and I all made it safely back to New York two weeks ago, and Kevin joined us a week later. Making a trans-Atlantic flight with pets is not fun, and while the whole process was taken care of by the pet moving company on the voyage to Norway, on the way back to the U.S., I was responsible for transporting the animals to the airport cargo area. Since I didn't witness the loading procedure on the first trip, I was a bit shocked to learn that my beloved animals would be stacked on pallets and hoisted by forklift onto a semi. I lost it as Kermit yelped while the truck door was being lowered, and as I watched the semi drive off towards the awaiting plane, I really questioned my decision to put my animals through this trauma. I traveled on the same plane and was so relieved that at least they had a smooth ride--there was virtually no turbulence. Once I landed in Newark, I called the pet moving company and was reassured that all the animals were just fine and had made it through U.S. Customs with no problems. (All that worry about the malfunctioning microchip was totally unnecessary--Customs barely even glanced at their health documents!) The pets were delivered to the new house healthy and relatively calm and happy, and I am so grateful!
The transport of the furniture didn't go quite as smoothly--the movers didn't finish in time, so the date for the container pick-up was delayed by another week. It is now scheduled to arrive at our house in New York on Christmas day--I guess lounging by the tree and sipping cocoa in my pajamas isn't in the cards this year! Also, even though we actually got rid of a lot of our stuff before the move, somehow our possessions didn't all fit on the container. We have skis, snowshoes, patio furniture, a porch swing and a bunch of tools still in Norway. Hopefully it will be shipped seperately to the U.S., but really, it can all be replaced. The animals made it safely, Kevin and I made it safely, and that's all I care about!
My Norwegian experience was sometimes wonderful and amazing and sometimes lonely and terrible, but I am definitely better for it. I met some incredible friends, I saw some truly breathtaking sights, I learned (kind of!) a new language, and I stepped way out of my comfort zone. Now I'm moving on and embracing my new life in New York. I won't be writing at this site any longer, but if you want to continue reading about American expat adventures in Norway, I highly recommend the insightful and hilarious blogs of Michele http://michelesmistakes.blogspot.com/ and Victoria http://victoriasguidetonorway.blogspot.com/ . And if you would like to see some gorgeous photos of Norway, my favorite photo journal is http://blog.thomaslaupstad.com/ . And finally, if you would like to keep up with me and Kevin and the critters (and all of our missteps and mishaps) I plan to continue writing at http://lakesidereflections.blogspot.com/ .