We've Been Set Free!

We continue to unpack and get ourselves settled in.  There’s a familiarity with the process but also a freshness to it as I place things around the house with a little different style.  I love all the Norwegian trinkets to decorate with and I love finding uses for those decorative items – whether it’s holding Q-tips in the bathroom, candies in the living room or napkins in the kitchen, it just feels so fun to have such cool stuff to work with.  If the pewter items traveled better, I’d bring suitcases of that stuff home with me, but it inevitably gets damaged in the process because the metal is so soft.

It was cloudy today, but still no rain so we were thankful for that.  The boys slept in until 10:30 when I woke them to get the day going.  We’ve all been up until after midnight each night so it’s ok with me they sleep in a little.  If I didn’t like the quiet time in the morning I’d wake them sooner than I do. 

While the boys were eating breakfast I made a quick trip to the library, right downstairs from us, to post my blog and get my mail.  Soon thereafter a message came on Kory’s cell phone that our license plates had arrived – another miracle of all miracles.  Kory called the insurance company right away to get the car insured, to the tune of $200 a month - just for liability!  But at least we now have the insurance because without it, we wouldn’t get the plates.

This country pretty much shuts down in July, but they have to leave a skeleton crew in some businesses and I guess because the rest of the inhabitants are on vacation, the car place didn’t have much to do.  Getting our plates just a day and a half after we ordered them was incredible – especially considering they had to make them brand new and send them up from Oslo.  (We have to turn them in each year in order to save money on the insurance – as long as the plates on are the car, the car must be insured, even if the car is just sitting.  And if we are gone more than six months, they destroy the old plates.)

We told the woman at the car place that we had just ordered insurance.  “Yes, I know” she said, “It’s registered in the computer.”  They are efficient in some areas far greater than America could ever dream of, as it hadn’t even been 30 minutes since we’d purchased the insurance.

I asked for the tabs to put on the plates, as we’ve had them in the past and she said they don’t use them anymore.  I asked how they knew the tabs were paid for and she said the police have put a new system in place in the last year, “so they know.”  I asked how.  She said they have a scanner gun and they will regularly stand by the side of the road and scan every license plate that passes them and the computer alerts them if anything is “wrong” – meaning, no insurance, no tabs, unpaid tickets, etc.  They can then “take care of the problem immediately.”  Wow, that’s efficient and scary all at the same time.  But the good news of the day is, we can now drive our car!  It took Kory about 3 hours to install the plates though, as they didn’t have holes predrilled in them and he had to find a drill and other tools, so he was quite frustrated by the process.  He charged up the battery last night so we’re good to go.  Hallelujah!

We also were able to order a new title for our car as it seems we never received one.  Last year, that was the big hang-up in getting the car licensed so we had to have the previous owner go down to the car place and sign a form.  We still never received it in the mail so I sure hope it comes this time.  We’re supposed to have it if we get pulled over by the police and we’ll certainly need it if we ever sell the vehicle.  I expect we’ll run it into the ground, like we do all our others cars, however, so that probably won’t be necessary.  Except, I think we get a thousand dollar deposit back when it goes off to the junkyard, so we do need that title.

I noticed the car place had information about driving around in Norway and some of the pamphlets were printed in Norwegian and some in Arabic!  No English versions at all, which seemed a bit odd.  It’s interesting that’s the only “second language” information brochure printed, when there are so many women here from Thailand and certainly an abundance of English speakers.  Also, kinda scary.  I also noticed the Asian food store is no longer just carrying food for all those Thai ladies, it now has a huge aisle with just middle eastern food, so that’s another sign more and more Arabs are moving into the area.  It’s good for me though because I didn’t know I could get so many kinds of lentils here – and I brought several kinds with me.

We all walked together down to the car place so we got our walking in for the day.  Kaleb collected a few more bottles along the path.  I love there are such huge sidewalks everywhere (above) – it makes riding a bike or going for a walk so much more enjoyable.  Kaleb tried not to complain that we’d asked him to join us.  He’s going to be gone Friday and Saturday on a “double sleepover” with both Andre and Daniel so we won’t see him for two days so I begged him to come along.  He would have rather stayed home and read a book.  He loves that he can check out electronic books from the Seattle City Library while we are here and download them on his Nook, so he’s had his nose in that thing morning, noon and night, when he’s been home.

I got the bathroom and Kaleb’s room somewhat put together today so one more productive day working on my “office” and a bit more in the living room and I’ll feel like we can start inviting people over.  I also cleaned out the dead plants in all the planters outside, cleaned up the outside front entryway and planted some fresh flowers.  It just looks so Norwegian, now.

Cousin Linda stopped by today to welcome us to Norway and invite us to her son’s wedding next month.  Cousin Kari also stopped by for a good visit and to invite us over tomorrow night to her house.  All the cousins are getting together for a big potluck.  I guess I’ll make a salad so Kory has something to eat.  Kory and I had a long talk about him “cheating” a little on his fat-free diet, but the problem with him is, it’s an on/off switch and once he breaks it, it’s like a snowball effect.  He has incredible self-control to NOT eat what he shouldn’t, but the minute he even has a bite of something forbidden, the switch is turned completely on and he can’t stop himself.  It’s weird.  So I’m hoping he can dabble a little tomorrow night in some real Norwegian food, without dying of a heart attack the next day.  He did go for a 30 minutes jog/walk today though, trying to get his heart rate up and in preparation for the promise that he’ll get to eat some fat one meal a week. He got angina in his shoulder, which is weird because it usually comes on in his bicep, and his Cousin Dr. Odd told him he should just walk fast and not run at all, but he can’t get a good enough work-out if he just walks so he’s mixing it up a bit.  I hope he keeps up the exercise and learns moderation with his eating.

Kaleb was home all day and spent time with me getting his room organized (above), at my insistence, sorting through clothes he’s outgrown and tossing out toys and things he’s no longer interested in.  Keeping him focused is another challenge I’d rather avoid, but it needed to be done.

I went to the mall to buy a few more things and I ran into Morten’s mom for the second day in a row.  Morten is a boy who punched Kaleb out on a regular basis in the 4^th grade when we lived here.  I got to know his mom fairly well through the process.  I guess I should invite them over sometime, as running in to her two days in a row is more than just a coincidence. 

I was at the mall to get, among other things, some hydrogen peroxide to wash fruits and vegetables with.  I get two large bottles at Costco for under three dollars so it was a bit of a shock to me to get one very small bottle for $30 here.  It was also a controlled substance and had to be gotten from behind the counter at the pharmacy.  I’m sure it’s a higher grade and more concentrated that what we get at Costco, but it’s all that’s available and I do like using it.  It’s the only thing that’s choked me so far on the price, as the price of everyday things I’m getting used to, but that one hurt.  I guess the car insurance was a bit of a shock too, since in the past we’ve only paid about a hundred dollars a month, but with Kory getting that speeding ticket last year, it jacked up our insurance bill significantly.  Ouch.

But I will say, this year I can buy six kroner for a dollar and last year we could only buy five kroner, so things have gotten cheaper in that regard.  Normally, we could buy seven kroner with a dollar and back in the year 2000 we were able to buy ten kroner with the dollar, so the price of things shifts dramatically based on the exchange rates.  I’m happy with six kroner right now only because it’s better than five.  The gas prices haven’t gone up much at all since last year, even though they have skyrocketed in that same time period in America.  Go figure. (Photo above is of our bedroom with the Norwegian style of bedding - which I'm not real fond of.)

Tonight Kory felt a little more “at home” since we had boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and “surkaal” for dinner.  Surkaal is translated as sour cabbage but it’s a sweet type of sauerkraut with caraway seeds in it.  It’s pretty tasty and luckily it has no fat.  Flatbread and surkaal are the only two traditional Norwegian foods we’ve found that are fat-free so he can eat all he wants of that.  To make things interesting, I found a Flafel mix at the Asian store the other day so I bought that and made up some flafel “pancakes.”  Normally they are formed into balls and deep fat fried but I flattened them out and baked them in the oven and they tasted the same but were fat-free.  I made up my own sauce to put on them using my handy-dandy Magic Bullet blender I bought yesterday and the whole dinner was actually pretty darn good.  I feel triumphant each day I get through this vegan “challenge.”

Late tonight Kory and I walked across the street to another grocery store trying to find exotic things like black beans and fresh mint for the salad I’m going to make tomorrow.  (Check out the rutabagas above - some were much larger than a head of cabbage!)  We debated about which path to take and each day we pray God orders our steps, and it was clear He was doing that when we ran into Kory’s cousin’s daughter who is estranged from the rest of the family, but keeps contact with only us, so that was a nice surprise.  She also invited us over in the near future.

I got an e-mail today from my 3^rd cousin, Amanda, who is currently living in England as a missionary for Youth With a Mission.  She wants to come up and visit us so she bought tickets to be here August 11-18.  We are really looking forward to that. I think she will be our only guest this year so we’ll have to figure out what to do with ourselves the rest of the time.  Ha.   Life is good.

Running Errands

I didn’t do much in the way of getting settled in today.  The sun was shining a bit and it didn’t rain all day so I felt the need to “lufte meg” (air myself), as the saying goes, to explain what one does when they go for a walk. (The above photo is of a house in our neighborhood - it shows the sun deck everyone has, with a few chairs, candle on the table, flowers everywhere - so typical of a scene in Norway.)

Actually, we needed to go for a couple of walks, even though friends offered to loan us their cars to save us the trouble, but we had business to take care of and the places are all within a few miles of our condo so it didn’t hurt to spend the bulk of the day literally running errands… well, walking them, at least.

I was up by 8am this morning, fairly adjusted to the new time zone, but the boys slept in until ten.  I did a little Bible study during the quiet time.  After we all ate breakfast, we decided to walk together down to the “people register” place to ask a few questions about our tax return and also to get a copy of our “people numbers” (their equivalent of the social security number).  I knew we couldn’t order the Internet service without them, as it’s impossible to do anything in Norway unless one has a people number.  I have those numbers, but they are in storage and since I haven’t fully unpacked everything, I knew we’d be in a world of hurt without those numbers.

On our walk, we passed a few empty pop bottles, which Kaleb quickly picked up.  If the barcode labels are not damaged, he can turn them into the grocery store and get a kroner for each one, which is currently worth 17 cents, so it adds up fast.  It’s a side job he’s happy to have whenever he’s out and about.  He’s also taking to looking for stray grocery carts.  People have to deposit either 10 or 20 kroner coin (worth $1.70 or $3.40) to free one up from the locking system, and sometimes people don’t put them back to get their coin back, so any stray carts are easily returned to their proper place, which then frees up the coin.  Kaleb’s already made 30 kroner doing this ($5 in one day!).   If he’s industrious, he could pile up some serious money when he’s here, just going around picking up bottles and cans and returning carts.  God provides in mysterious ways.

So we got our tax questions answered, got our people numbers and headed on down to the telephone company, which was a few miles in another direction.  As it turns out, the modem I bought years ago will still work and because I had that modem, I don’t need to sign a one-year lease with Telenor.  I now can just have month-to-month service, which is nearly miraculous.  The only down side is the service won’t be turned on until August 7^th, but I can wait and just use the library until then.  At least we’ll have two months of high-speed internet once it is hooked up and we can Skype people back home – so this is as good as it gets.  Hallelujah for that.

We did a little more shopping on the way back home.  I bought a Magic Bullet little mini blender for making smoothies and salad dressings, etc., brand new at the store here for cheaper than they sell for at Costco.  Go figure.  I was thrilled.  I also bought a rice cooker for $17 – brand new!  I hit the right sale at the right store so I’m thinking God was directing my steps today as I really could use both of those items and I didn’t even flinch at their price.  I’m thrilled.  Last night we had stir-fry veggies and rice and I had to watch the stove like a hawk as I’m not used to making rice without a rice cooker, and I’m also not used to using an electric stove top, as our gas range back home is so much easier to control. 

While we were bagging up our goods at the store, the couple behind us in line was listening to Kaleb and I talking English.  She asked if we were from America, and she told us they are from England.  She said they have a B&B on an island near here and she invited us to come over for tea sometime.  We were thrilled!  So as soon as we get our car going, we’ll be taking Carol and Clive up on their offer.  Can’t wait to make some new friends, and tea doesn’t even have any fat in it!  (Photo below is of mailboxes - I love it when people hand paint scenes on them.)

I’m taking this whole food thing one day at a time since it’s too depressing to think about being here for 3 months and not eating some Norwegian food.  Actually, it’s not as bad for me as it is for Kory – he’s downright depressed about it already.  He said today it doesn’t even feel like we are in Norway because the food means everything to him.  Tonight we had tacos, so that didn’t help much either, but they were pretty darn good.  I told him if he started getting some aerobic exercise everyday, that one heart specialist, Dean Ornish, allows heart patients to eat fish once a week, assuming they are getting their heart rate up.  So, maybe there’s hope on his horizon.  He’s already started planning a jogging route in preparation for the big day he gets to eat fish.  Poor Kory.  He made Kaleb “fish cakes” for lunch today as it at least gives him a vicarious thrill to know that Kaleb is enjoying some Norwegian food, anyway.  I’ve been scarfing down lefse and I even cheated and had a slice of good Norwegian white cheese yesterday because I bought a loaf of bread at the store that was still warm when I got it home, and I just couldn’t resist putting the two together.  Kory may be a fat-free vegan, but I have to call myself a “cheatin’ vegan.”

After lunch today Kaleb took off on his bike to go visit Daniel, his friend who was just visiting us in America.  Daniel lives about five miles away, but the beauty of being in Norway is there is no potential threat of him being kidnapped along the way.  He loves that kind of freedom here.

While Kaleb was gone, Kory and I went for another long walk down to my favorite thrift store.  I knew their hours last year were noon to five, so we made sure to get there by 4pm.  The older couple working there have been there for several years and they recognized us right away from years prior.  As I walked in, the woman told me that they were just “coincidentally opened” right then because someone came by to pick up some furniture, but the store was closed tight for vacation from July 10-August 7^th.  My heart sank.  When she saw the look on my face, she said I could look around and if I wanted to buy something I had to use cash because they weren’t really open for business due to it being vacation season and all.  That’s kind of how it is in all of Norway as even the churches shut down in the month of July.

It was a real thrift-store miracle for me, but talk about stress!  I had to speed shop like I’ve never shopped before!  My eyes darted back and forth from shelf to shelf, looking at all the things I can’t live without.  I love everything I got and could have bought more but I knew she was staying open just for me as the people who came to pick up the furniture were just leaving when we arrived.  We were limited in what I could buy anyway because we were walking, but at least I thought enough ahead of time to bring a backpack.  I got some pewter bowls, candle sticks, vases, salt and pepper shakers, candy dish and a basket and some glass plates, tourist plates, a hand woven table runner, hand stitched table runners, rosmaling painted bowl, plant holders and a few kitchen dishes all for less than $85!  I love them all and realize my obsessive compulsive hoarding disorder has reared it’s head once again.  I tell myself I’ll be giving these things as gifts, but then I get them home and love them too much to part with them.  But there is only so much room in our condo, and in our luggage back home, so I’m not sure when the madness will stop but until then, it makes me smile.  For me, it feels like we are back in Norway, now.

On the way home, Kory stopped and picked a large bouquet of wild flowers along the roadside.  There must have been at least 20 different kinds of flowers blooming everywhere.  It was so beautiful and colorful and I can’t imagine why anyone would go buy cut flowers in the stores this time of year.  I’m sure people live all year off just the idea of seeing the countryside in bloom.  Amazing.  We were able to put to use some of the pewter vases I’ve collected over the years.  At least I’m not verging on the impractical. 

Kaleb was gone from home til nearly 11pm, but it stays light out until long after midnight so there were no worries about him getting home safely and he had a great time hanging with Daniel.  Kory and I were pretty tired after all the walking we did today so we had to stay on our feet in order to keep from falling asleep too early.  I managed to get all my clothes put away and we got several more boxes unloaded from the basement late tonight.  It won’t be long now before we can sit down and relax and start having the life we came here to have.  God is good.

Hello, Norway!

It’s good to be home! (Our condo is above - on the top floor.)  It seems we have split personalities as it feels so good when we are home in Skagit Valley but then when we are in Ålesund, it feels great here, too.  The saying, “Home is where the heart is” is very applicable to us.

I felt so blessed Sunday and Monday as we journeyed to our home across the sea. 

Sunday morning, our church, Bethany Covenant, usually calls the 4-7 year olds forward during the service and prays for them before they get dismissed out to activity time.  But this Sunday, they called them forward and then called us forward, and had them pray for us! They prayed that God would bless our time here in Norway and we’d have safe travels.  It brought me to tears.   It so took away the anxiety I was feeling about going this year and the uncertainties about what to do with this whole fat-free vegan diet we are on.  Kale has become Kory’s main food source and that’s not even available in Norway, so I’ve been more than a little stressed about what to feed him for three months.  But after that prayer, I felt peaceful and all my worries vanished.  God has a plan and I’ll be taking it just one day at a time.

After church we stopped off at Grammy J’s house so she could also pray for us.  We also got in a quick visit before we drove our van down to our apartment building in Seattle where our manager, once again, graciously offered to take us to the airport.  We left the van in the garage down there, hooked up to electricity so the battery doesn’t die on it while we are gone so long. 

When we got to the airport, my step-mom, Jan, was there waiting to see us off!  It was another sweet moment in the day, to spend some time with her before we left.  We never get enough time with her as she lives so far away, but I’ll take whatever time I can get.

One thing I always stress about when making this journey, is how much our luggage will weigh and if we go over the allowed 50 pounds per.  I weighed and repacked our luggage half a dozen times and got every piece as close to 50 as I could.  Once they got weighed in and all were fine, I could cross that worry off my list.  But as an added bonus, and I believe an answer to the prayers for traveling mercies, the woman behind the counter asked if she could check our luggage all the way through the Ålesund!  That’s never happened before. (Photo below is view from our condo about 11pm Tuesday night.)

Normally we have to pick-up our luggage in Oslo, then re-check it in to a different airline to get to Aalesund, as Iceland Air only goes to Oslo so we have to use another carrier to fly within Norway.  This is why my stress levels go up because international flights allow each person to have two 50 pound pieces of luggage, but domestic flights, which the one is from Oslo to Ålesund only allow one 40 pound bag.  I was fully expecting to pay “excess baggage fees,” which I have in the past, in order to get all our luggage on the last leg of our journey.  But this very kind woman at Iceland Air said she could check it all the way through - which saved us nearly $100 - so woo-hoo for that!  I later found out it was because our last flight was with SAS, and Iceland Air now has an “agreement” with them, so they could tap into their computer system and even issue us boarding cards for that flight.  I guess from now on I’ll be using SAS.

So I was feeling pretty good when we got on the airplane that God loves me that much.  It blows me away that the God of the universe treats me like I’m the only one in it sometimes.  I am a blessed woman.

Our flight was on-time and without difficulties.  We all watched a few movies and and next thing we knew we were landing in Iceland.  We had about 20 minutes there before we caught our next flight to Oslo.  All of us took a short nap on that flight, and then during the four hour layover in Oslo we all caught a few more zzzz’s (above) so by the time our flight to Ålesund came about, we were doing OK with the time difference and jet lag. 

We left at 4:30 Sunday afternoon from Seattle and landed in Ålesund about 9:30 in the morning on Monday – as our body clock goes – so we all kinda skipped a night’s sleep, but that was OK because it was 6:30pm Monday night, Norway time, so we just had to stay awake long enough to unpack a few things, make a quick stop at the grocery store, eat some dinner and go to bed. (Photo below is the view of our deck from Tante Aslaug's deck next door.)

As it was, Cousin Turid offered to come get us at the airport but we insisted she didn’t as the bus goes right to our condo and there was no need to put anyone out.  As the bus was pulling up to the terminal near our condo, I got a call from my friend Tina, who was just visiting us in America, and she wondered where we were.  She was standing outside our building, ringing our doorbell and we weren’t answering.   I told her we just pulled up in the bus, so she, her husband and son, all walked down the sidewalk and met us as we got off the bus and helped us get our luggage home.  Even that was a huge blessing as we had six pieces of luggage, we each had a backpack and a carry on bag so it would have been awkward to manage all that for the block we had to walk, but as it turned out, it was great fun chatting with them as we arrived.

Tina, Are and Daniel visited with us for a few minutes as I went through our luggage trying to find the things we brought for them.  It was sure fun to see them again on this side of the planet. (Photo below is of our Home Sweet Home.)

I’d packed some fat-free vegan cup-a-soups we ate on the airplane, but Kory was still starving, so after the Johansen’s left we ran over to the grocery store to get some food for dinner.   Kory nearly left the store crying as he spied all the foods he’d love to be eating right now and couldn’t.  He’s been crabby ever since he went vegan, but he’s kicked the crabbiness up a notch now that we are in Norway and he’s vegan. 

I bought some pasta, taco sauce and tomato sauce to make a quick fat-free sauce, as all the pasta sauces had oil in them.  What a pain this diet is, but I’m not sure what else we are supposed to do.  We had salad and the pasta, which wasn’t too bad once I threw in a few more spices and a can of corn.  Norwegians add corn to everything so it worked with pasta, too.

After dinner we went down to see Tante Kari about 10pm. (Photo above is yhe view from our condo on the entry side on our way to Kari's condo below.)  She gave us the usual squeal of delight that we were back and her smiling face was a welcoming as it gets, and a great way to end the day, or days, as it were, since they kind of blurred together there.

Tuesday morning I had to start “resettling” our condo as the family that stayed here for five months this winter put a lot of things away so their kids wouldn’t break stuff.  It’s going to take awhile before everything is back in it’s place but at least I got the kitchen and living room mostly reorganized.

The sun hasn’t been shining much in Ålesund this summer, but today it was hot and as sunny as it can get, thank you Lord!  Kory and I took a long walk down to the car registration place to order up new plates for our van, so hopefully we can drive it soon.  We also did a little more grocery shopping along the way.  Kaleb took his bike up to Skaathaugen where all his friends live, to see who was home.  He only found one friend in all his searching, but at least he got a little time with Henrik before the day was done.

Tante Aslaug dropped by this morning to welcome us back (she was gone all day yesterday). Cousin Kari came by also to greet us, but it was a quick visit because she’s busy now with Kory’s brother, Gunnar, who is staying with her for a few weeks. Kaleb’s third cousin, Beate, came by with some roses to thank us for bringing some things to her from America, and to invite us over for dinner soon.  And cousin Odd and Turid came by to greet us and also to invite us over soon.  This is how it goes.  We rarely get drop-in company in America, but here, it’s a revolving door and that’s partly why we love it here so much.  Life is just so social.

We all walked over to the mall tonight (which is attached to our condo building) to see about getting the internet hooked up, buy some light bulbs and a few other things for the condo.  Kaleb ran into three girls that were his classmates when we lived here in 2008.  One of the girls said, “You’re in Norway?” and Kaleb thought that was a pretty funny comment considering she was staring right at him, so he laughed for way too long over that one.  He later thought of several funny responses he could have given her, so I guess he’ll be prepared for the next time. 

No one felt the need for a nap today so the jet lag seems to be a non-issue.  We went next door to visit with Tante Aslaug about 9:30pm just to keep us all awake a little longer, and that worked great.  There is still much to do to get settled, but it sure wasn’t a bad way to spend our first day back in our Home Sweet Home across the sea.  Hallelujah!