Stars

We hung up some Christmas stars around the house today. They are big white stars made of cut paper and they hang in the windows. We have one that fits over a light as well and makes the house warm and cozy. The stockings are hung with care and we have hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here! (in four weeks, that is...)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is not at all celebrated in Norway. Only by the Americans who have migrated here, or by Norwegians who have spent a lot of time in the states and brought this tradition back home with them. So, no time off work. But... the American population is large enough that specialty stores carry the basic Thanksgiving staples! Cranberry sauce, cranberries, stuffing mix, pumpkin pie filling, turkey, and sweet potatoes. We had a fantastic dinner at our place with the family and it tasted just as good as it does in the states! The only thing we had to import was Turkey gravy. Thanks Mom! And thanks Lars and Heidi for carrying it all the way here.

Do you stand on skis?

"Står du på ski?" This is how you ask if someone skis, but directly translated it means "do you stand on skis?" Kind of cute.

Economic boom

Times are good in Norway now. What this means is that people like to shop, people travel and live well, and... people have way too much work to do. Unemployment is near zero, so companies just can't find enough people to hire. As a consultant, I find the challenge is trying to get enough resources from my company to get the job done, but also that the clients I work with have very little time to dedicate to projects since they are over-worked as it is. At least we are all in the same boat and are understanding of the challenges. : )

Dark

It is dark! The days keep getting shorter. As of now, it is not light until 8:30 and starts getting dark already at 3:00. The Norwegians are very good at "being seen" in the dark. They are big on reflective gear. All the kids wear flourescent vests with reflective strips, they clip reflective disks on their backpacks, and the adults wear athletic gear with reflective strips or they strap strips to their everyday outerwear. It is a big campaign each year as it starts to get dark... see and be seen! 'se og bli sett!"

Paris

Paris... je t'aime! We spent a short, but perfect weekend in Paris for my birthday. It was a surprise and quite the birthday gift! Cafe, croissant, Eiffel tower, love, sunshine, boulangerie, fromage, Louvre, Notre Dame, and walking hand in hand. It was absolutely perfect and I think I have to say now that France, particularly Paris, is at the top of my list of places I want to go to again.

Sick day law

Interesting how sick days work... employees are permitted 12 sick days a year (without doctor's orders), but they are not single days. They are in groups of four. So, if you are sick one day only, you have used up four days. This results in different behaviors than you see in the US: people do not generally work from home when sick, people tend to only stay home if seriously or highly contagiously sick, people often are out of work for four days when sick (or at least more than one day).

North Pole

I had to laugh when I was browsing through the Oslo newspapers to find the weather in Texas. Nope. Closest was Los Angeles. But there was weather for the North and South Poles!

Nature is very sacred here. People value fresh air, clean water, and lots of time outdoors. Even TV programs are filmed outside! There is something called BarneTV (Kids TV) every night for 30 minutes. They often film much of the show outside, with a few cartoons in between. Weekends at winter cabins or summer homes are treasured since they entail lots of fresh air and time outdoors.