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/ .

Ha Det Bra, Norge!

Midnight sun over Lake Mjøsa--6/20/2007

Kevin, & his parents, Maria & George at Akershus fortress in Oslo--7/24/2007

A pair of fjord horses--7/21/2007

3 moose outside our house--3/27/2007

Me & Kevin on a ferry in Sognefjord--3/23/2007

Kevin, me & my mom, Carol at 17. mai parade in Oslo--5/17/2007

The royal family--5/17/2007

Kevin at our Halloween party--10/16/2006

Kevin & me--1/6/2007

Kevin, me & Anders at the Birkebeiner in Lillehammer--3/17/2007

Kevin & Anders in Ireland--6/30/2007

Nina, Victor, Carrie, Kevin & me at Malahaide castle in Ireland--6/30/2007

It has been quite a year...I can hardly believe it is over.

Sobriety is Overrated!

Yesterday, Michele (of http://michelesmistakes.blogspot.com/ ) and her husband Ian drove up from Sandefjord for a visit. A few of my Norwegian friends stopped by too and soon we were all sitting around, drinking wine and talking. The conversation was mostly in English but we did flip flop between English and Norwegian. The funny thing is that I had many glasses of wine but I understood everything that was said in Norwegian, and I was able to speak without agonizing over every word. (I remember thinking to myself, in my tipsy state, "Holy crap, I'm keeping up with the conversation! Woo hoo!") I wonder if my biggest obstacles to fluency have been my embarrassment about my funny accent and grammar mistakes, and my constant worry that I might misunderstand what others were saying. The alcohol erased any shame or self-consciousness I had and I babbled away. Maybe if I had consumed a pre-norskkurs cocktail every day, I'd be talking like a native by now! (At the very least, it would have made all the goofy songs we had to sing a lot more amusing!)

Acclimation

When I talked with Kevin last night, he mentioned that he had experienced a bit of culture shock in New York. He went to the local Wegman's to stock up on groceries but quickly became overwhelmed and had to leave! He said he was kind of tired, and the size of the store and the myriad of choices were just too much for him. Our local grocery store in Gjøvik reminds me a lot of Aldi's--small and dingy with the cans and boxes of food still sitting in their shipping cartons. (Of course if the prices were similar to Aldi's, I wouldn't complain, but alas, they are not.) Personally, I am excited about bright, spacious super markets with attractively presented food, but I will make sure that the first time I go to Wegman's I am well rested and mentally prepared for the food extravaganza within!
(At least we won't have to adjust to a new climate--Kevin said it is really cold and it even snowed in New York yesterday.)

Time is Flying

Only 3 days left in Norway...I have been alternating through states of euphoria and panic! Euphoria because I can't wait to get settled into the new house and see old friends and reclaim my life. Panic because moving is always a headache, and moving from one continent to another is even more migraine-inducing. A container is to be delivered to our house on Monday and then picked up for shipping on Friday. Unfortunately, the moving company that was supposed to start packing our stuff up yesterday has a scheduling conflict and won't be able to start until Monday. I'm a little concerned about them getting our rather large house packed up and loaded on the container in less than a week--it could still happen, right? Oh well, by next week I'll be in New York and poor Kevin will be here in Norway dealing with the moving company. I had a brief meltdown yesterday after visiting the vet with the animals. The microchip scanner wasn't picking up one of the cats' microchip number--the number that is on every single one of its health documents. Apparently microchips can sometimes migrate or just stop transmitting information altogether...4 days before the animals are due to fly overseas wasn't the day for me to learn about malfunctioning microchips! I started cursing the Home Again people, but luckily, my vet is a bit calmer under pressure than I am--he quickly rechipped the cat and printed up new certificates. I checked with the pet moving company, and I guess my meltdown was totally unwarranted, as microchips aren't even necessary in animals being transported to the U.S. Minor microchip annoyances aside, I think I definitely got the preferable moving tasks. Kevin is racing around madly in New York, meeting with contractors, ordering more tile, doing small repairs and cleaning at the new house. (All while trying to also do his rather demanding job without internet access yet at the house--he found a gas station with wireless access close to home and has become a regular fixture there!) It's not all drudgery for him, though--today he takes possession of his new Prius! It's silver, it's tiny, it's adorable! I just need to accept that the next few weeks will be mayhem, but eventually everything will calm down and life will be great--we'll be zipping around in our cute little cars and living on a lake!

Maybe I Should Have Studied a Little Harder?

Everyone knows you're not supposed to go to the grocery store hungry, but I did, and I made a few impulse purchases. I generally try to stay away from junk food (unless it's chocolate, which is heart healthy, right?) but in the salty snacks aisle I had a moment of weakness and grabbed a bag of potato chips. The bag advertised that these particular chips were the reduced salt variety, so I put them in my shopping cart feeling not too guilty. I mean, sure, they were packed full of fat, but less sodium is a good thing! Later, while checking email, I was idly snacking on my chips when I realized that my lips were starting to tingle from the saltiness. I was kind of surprised--if this is what a reduced-salt chip tastes like, how crazy salty is the full-salt version? And then I looked at the bag again, and realized my error. It was labeled "Hav Salt." In Norwegian, "halv" means "half" but "hav" means "sea." I wasn't eating "Half Salt" potato chips, I was eating "Sea Salt" potato chips, hence all the brine! Oops! Now I'm feeling quite stupid (and I'm retaining all kinds of fluid!) so I think I'll back away from the bag of chips. I think I'll also back away from the computer--my puffy, sodium filled fingers are making all kinds of typos anyway!

Almost Home

Kevin arrived at the New York house late on Saturday night safely, but not without incident. During the flight from Oslo to Newark, the pilot announced that because of heavy winds the plane was running out of gas, so they had to make an emergency landing in Gander, Newfoundland to refuel. I'm not a happy, easy going passenger, and I think I would have flipped out a little about an announcement like that! Nothing ever fazes Kevin, though, and he was only slightly annoyed that his very long flight ended up taking an extra hour.
Anyway, he's at the new house now and progress has been made. We have cable (plus DVR--yay!) hooked up, a couple of the rooms have already been tiled, and Kevin has hauled in some of the small appliances we bought on our last trip back. (It's too bad we gave away all of our appliances when we moved to Norway, but now we have the chance to get brand new, shiny things. Like a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner--I know, I'm incredibly lame to be excited about this, but with so many furry beasts, a good vacuum cleaner is worth cheering about!) Our new driveway is lined with apple and pear trees, so Kevin picked a bunch of Empire apples too--yum!
I can't believe that I'll be in our new home in one week--I have a few last things to do, like take the animals to their final vet appointments for their health certificates, and a bit of sorting through things and giving away what we don't want to move, but this Norwegian experience is almost over for me. I'm trying to take in everything I can--I even got up early enough to catch the sunrise over the lake this morning (pictured above). Not like that was too difficult of a feat--the sun rises at about 7:45 these days, and it is completely dark again by 4:00. I also took the dogs for a long walk through the forest this afternoon, but unfortunately I didn't see any moose or hedgehogs...I am still hoping for one more moose encounter before I go!