Random post of a the week

Here it is, another post of random things from this past week. It is really hard to believe that we are going home in 2 weeks. I feel torn about it. I am really ready to get home but yet I feel like I have finally fallen into a good routine and made some good friends. Well, it is what it is and we head home on November 14th.

Sam has been working really hard lately. He was been at work until midnight on Monday and Tuesday and until 10:30 tonight. It is hard, but it is better to have him work late while we are all in Oslo than for him to be in Oslo while we were back home. I am so glad we were able to join him.

Daylight Savings Time has already happened here. This means that it gets dark really early. According to the internet we only have 9 hours before sunrise and sunset anyway. At about 5:15pm it is almost pitch black. I have actually seen appliances for you home that produce "outdoor" light.

It is getting cold here in Oslo. As native Texans, we are not used to cold weather, especially in October. It has been below freezing almost every night and in the day it reaches the 40's. It has been a struggle to dress Katherine for the cold when we are out. A friend saw me trying to keep a blanket on Katherine in the stroller and she lent me her extra "warm fuzzy stroller bag". They have an official name, but I don't remember it. Katherine loves it. She snuggles up inside. It looks like she is about to blast off into space doesn't it.

Saturday we went to a petting zoo with Hilde, her partner Mark, Nikolas and Hilde's granddaughter Lona. Katherine gets so excited when I tell her we are going to see Nikolas. She enjoyed chasing the birds around.
She had fun making goat and pig noises. I need to get the pig 0n video. It is pretty funny.


She was able to see some cute bunny rabbits.
As we were walking back to the bus, we tried, once again to get some good fall pictures. We are running out of opportunities as many trees have no leaves anymore and the ones on the ground are wet and getting brown. Katherine is finally learning how to throw the leaves.
In other news, we are doing really well in the potty training area. I have not changed a poopy diaper in over 2 weeks with the exception of one in Helsinki when there were no opportunities for her to go anywhere but her diaper. This makes mama very happy. We do spend a lot of time in the bathroom waiting for her to do her thing. There is a lot of playing, getting up and down and reading. You can see that Katherine is already reading the final Harry Potter book. She actually likes to put it on the floor and step on and off it since it is so thick.

I could not believe it but I actually found some tiny underwear when I was looking for winter hats. They are European sizes so I am not sure exactly what a 50-56 translates to but in other things Katherine wears a 74 for length. They are so tiny and cute. We are not quite ready for them but when we are, we now have tiny underwear.
Tuesday I was the social coordinator. I wanted all of my friends to meet. So, Hilde graciously offered to have us over to her house and weather permitting we would go to the local park. Sarah's Aiden and Hilde's Nikolas are 2 days apart. Both Hilde and Sarah are staying home, working a little from home, but not putting the boys in barnehage which is not common. I hope they will be able to hang out. I wanted Donna and Hilde to meet because they live about 1/2 mile from one another. Their kids are not as close in age as Donna's are 3.5 and 10 months but they are neighbors who are staying home with their kids. It was a fun afternoon.

The friendly viking

Today we went to the American Women's Club Halloween party. It was not quite like the Fall Fun Fest I am used to at church. I really missed that since this year Katherine would have really enjoyed it.

We actually had quite a rough time today. The party was in Sandvika, a suburb of Oslo. We took a bus (actually 2) to get there and it took half an hour. When we got to the venue, there was a sign that the location was changed. Apparently it had been double booked. The problem was that now we were there with no transportation and the bus only comes every 30 minutes. To top that off, it was rainy. We called and they sent someone to pick us up. It was so frustrating though. When we got there, it was very crowded and there were only a few games. You had to pay to get in as it was a fundraiser but you also had to pay for the food. I guess we are overall glad we went.

Katherine was a viking. We thought that was fun for the year we were in Oslo for Halloween. Mom made the helmet for us and we bought her a sword in Copenhagen. Everyone thought she was a boy but oh, well.

Katherine enjoyed the few games that there were. She got a cute stuffed dog as a prize in the fishing game.

Her favorite activity was the craft table where she was able to color and glue and play with stickers.

They had a witch's story time. It was a bunch of cute poems, songs and stories. It was weird though having so many adults and kids dress up as witch's and scary monsters. I am used to the church party where there is none of that.

To top off the day that did not go as planned, we had no idea how to get back to town from the new party location. We went to the bus stop that we saw and it only came once an hour on Sunday. Luckily we only had to wait about 10 minutes. We were headed to church and it did not stop where we needed it to so our pastor came to pick us up. Once at church we were going to put Katherine's costume back on to show everyone and the hat was missing. I am so upset and hope that they find it at the party because mom made it and I did not get a really good picture of Katherine in her costume.

Friends

I consider myself an outgoing, social person who is fairly easy to get to know. Still, for some reason, the idea of moving to a new place where I knew no one was a bit intimidating for me. I knew that no one in Oslo would be looking out for me or concerned about my social life.

I have been frustrated at times. I would meet a cool mom at the playground or open kindergarten and exchange email and phone numbers but then I would never hear from her and if I called her it seemed we could not connect. I went to an international playgroup and met some cool moms that I enjoy talking to but we don't ever get together outside of the playgroup time. I expressed my frustration about this to someone at an American Women's Club meeting and she honestly told me that in the expatriate community if you are not going to be around for two years you are often not worth the time to get to know because they are tired of having people come and go in their life. So, as someone here for only three months, I was not worth their time. When I met people who were here for a few years they would almost downplay the time I was here. When I would say, "three months" they would comment that it was just a vacation. As our time draws near to the end, I realize that three months really is not that long, but yet, it can get lonely and you do need friends.

I do not have as many friends here as I do back home but I have really enjoyed the friends whom I have made. It has been fun because I have met a lot of people who are not exactly like me. Back home, most of my friends have very similar stories and lives. Here, there is more diversity. It is fun. I have friends who are older, friends who are younger, friends who are Norwegian, friends who are American, friends who are Australian. Some share my views on family, child raising, religion and politics and others are very different in these areas.

I have really appreciated those who have welcomed me and reached out to me. I have been shown areas of the city I would not have discovered on my own. I have been shown incredible generosity. All I have to do is mention something that I miss from home or wish I had and someone offers to let me borrow theirs. We have borrowed a stroller, crib, winter clothing, kitchen items, an air mattress, tools, etc. It has taught me a lot about generosity. I need to make sure I am that generous with my things when I go home.

• Hilde, Mark and Nikolas - Thank you for reaching out to me before we even met by offering to let me use Lona's crib. I have so enjoyed getting to know you as you have shown me Norwegian culture and many areas of Oslo. Katherine loves Nikolas and we will miss our weekly times with you.
• Sarah and Aiden - I love that we call one another to do things last minute. We are the same in that regard. I love that we can discuss our differences without offending each other. It has been fun to see Katherine and Aiden interact and have so much fun together.
• Patrick, Karen, Colin and Vivien - I sure wish we could have hung out more. We all really clicked as we are in Norway working for the same company. We look forward to hanging out with you back at home.
• Donna, Stew, Sophie and Isabel - I sure wish we had met you earlier in our trip. We sure enjoyed dinner together. It is fun to have a couple where the men can hang, the women can hang and we can all hang together. I love hearing all of your funny Australian sayings too.
• Luckey and Christa - You all have been so incredible. You truly have shown the love of Christ to us. We had been here less than 48 hours when you picked us up for church and then had us over for dinner. you have been so helpful in helping us to get acclimated to Oslo and we have really enjoyed our time and our conversations together.
• John and Anne Grethe - I wish we had been in town at the same time more often but we are both sure on the go. It is fun to be with a fellow Texas. You sure can cook a mean elk stew.
• Cally - What a great babysitter! Thanks for loving on Katherine.

Nanas

You would think that when Katherine says "Nanas" it would referring to her Nana. No, Nana is pronounced "lalala". "Nanas" is actually how Katherine pronounces the name of her buddy Nikolas here in Norway. That is the funny thing about kids and language development (correct me if I am wrong Heather and Amy). It seems that she has the ability to say certain sounds but there is something about the way she hears things and says things that often is not consistent.

Anyway, Katherine loves Nikolas. It amazes me the things she remembers. The other day I mentioned to Sam when we sat Katherine in a restaurant high chair that is different than what we are used to that it was the kind she sits in at Nikolas' house. Katherine heard me mention Nikolas and started to say "Nanas" and do the sign for "cat". Nikolas has a cat. She hear me say his name and made those connections.

Today I went to a playgroup at my friend Donna's house. To get there we took a bus and happened to get off at the same stop that we get off for Nikolas' house. When we got off the bus, Katherine said, "Nanas" I was so amazed. To me, most of the city looks very much the same. We have only been to Nikolas' house 3 times but there was something at that bus stop that alerted her to the fact that we were in his area.

Since we were in the area, I have Hilde a call and after my playgroup we met at the river to feed the ducks. Katherine was happy to get to play with Nanas.

Weekly random post

This is my weekly post or random things. When you are out of town for three months, you eventually need a haircut if you have short hair. Sam has needed a haircut for a few weeks now and has not gotten around to it. Finally I made an appointment for him at a studio that was open late. He usually goes to a true barber shop so he was a little apprehensive about what kind of stylist and cut he would receive.

Sam's "before" hair - the swoop reminds me of his high school pictures.
Sam's "after" hair- much improved.

He came home very happy with the experience and even said he almost bought the "hair wax" that they used but it was so expensive with the exchange rate. It is by Redken so we are going to look for it back home.

A few weeks ago I found out that there is a Little Gym in a suburb about 30 minutes away by city bus. Since I am always looking for things to do with Katherine, I went to their free trial class. There is a Little Gym close to our home in the US but we have never gone. She LOVED it. We have signed up to go for the remaining time that we are here and may have to check into it when we get home.

Today we went to a 2nd Birthday party for Colin, one of Katherine's friends. Colin's dad works with Sam and his mom Karen and I really enjoy hanging out. Colin just had a baby sister 3 weeks ago too but I did not get any pictures of her.

For the party all the kid from his Barnehage (kindergarten) came to his house to play and eat lunch. It was chaotic, but fun and Katherine enjoyed playing with different toys.
Yesterday my friend Sarah (moved her from NY) and I took our kids to the International Children's Art Museum. It was a fun museum for the adults and not as much for the kids, despite the name. The building was full of artwork from children throughout the world. Some were really great. We would try to keep the kids interested by pointing out different pieces of art and asking them to describe them. There were a lot of things that were within reach that they could not touch so that made it frustrating.

They did have an art room with magnadoodles and Katherine and Aiden enjoyed that a lot.

Aiden and Sarah

In the garden outside the museum

Helsinki

This past weekend we went to Helsinki, Finland. We got there late and arrived at our hotel about 11pm. We actually stayed at an apartment which was great. Saturday we got up and hit the pavement to try to see as much as possible. If only the weather and the toddler had been more cooperative.

As you can see in the photo, our first stop was actually a playground. The playgrounds in Helsinki are not too different from the playgrounds in Oslo. It was cold - below freezing - so I think that was making Katherine grumpy. Luckily this playground was at the base of the first site we were going to see so Sam played with Katherine on the playground while I went in and then we switched. It worked well and we did this arrangement at 3 different churches all before lunch. Thank goodness for playgrounds.
Our first stop was the Temppeliaukio Church. It was built in 1969 by being blasted out of solid rock and then capped with a copper-and-skylight dome. The copper ribbon coil on the inside of the roof is 13 miles long. Under the church is an air-raid shelter for 6,000 people. It is a Lutheran church and they have frequent concerts there. I bet the acoustics are pretty amazing.

We walked through town viewing all of the buildings with interesting architecture. That is something the Fins are known for. The train station was built in the Art Deco style and was nice. This is the tower of the station.
Across from the station was a "Texas" restaurant. We found that funny. They served burgers and Mexican food.

We actually saw a surprising number of Mexican restaurants and actually ended up eating in one. That was not our plan but Katherine was very frustrated and there were not that many restaurants that looked child friendly in the area we were at that time. It was actually pretty good. The Senate Square has a Senate building and a large Lutheran Cathedral built by Carl Engel after the original square was devastated in fire in 1808. That was when the Russians ruled Finland so the Czar sent him to revive the square with a neo-classical style. The Cathedral is huge and set up on a hill so it is even more impressive.


Our third church was the Uspenski Cathedral, the biggest Russian Orthodox church in Western Europe.
Having been to Russia twice I was excited to visit this cathedral. It was pretty typical of Russian Orthodox churches with a lot of icons inside but it was not as impressive as the churches that I visited in Moscow and St Petersburg. It had the typical "onion dome" on top.

Since Helsinki had been ruled by Russia for awhile, I was hoping that there would be more Russian influence, but with the exception of this church it felt pretty much like Oslo.

We went in Stockmans which is the largest department store in Europe. We normally don't shop too much while in other countries but we actually went in thinking we might buy some long underwear since it was so cold. It was so expensive that we decided to deal with the cold. While there we saw some interesting pairs of Crocs. I have never owned a pair though many swear by them. I always thought of them as summer shoes, kind of like flip flops. But in Finland they sell Croc boots and Crocs that are lined with warm fuzzy fur. We thought it was pretty funny.

The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art was open late so we went there when everything else was closed. I was actually surprised by how much I liked it. Honestly, I get kind of sick of museums that all look the same. The building itself was very interesting architecturally. There were lots of interesting curves and lighting.

The exhibits were also interesting. In the one below an artist collected water samples from different places along the Seine River in France. She made slides of them and then did watercolors of what she saw. She noted the changing pollution as she moved down the river. The beer bottles in front of the paintings were all made from water from the Seine River and all of their labels have pictures or sketches of the river. Another exhibit that I did not get any pictures of was photos of and drawings by trees in the wind. In the set of photos a light was attached to a limb and then a camera shot a picture at a very slow shutter speed so you had a trail of light that showed what the wind did. In the paintings the artist attached a pencil to the tree limb and then held the paper so that the wind "drew" on the paper. It was so interesting and creative. A different kind of art. Not really what I would hang on my wall but very creative.

In the next picture it looks like there is some construction. That was actually another art exhibit. It was called social art. A guy walked into a busy sidewalk with the metal box and took out the cones, tape and chair and sat there reading the paper noting people's reaction. Weird.

This last one was interesting. It is a globe with the outline of the continents being raised. The globe rotated and as it did, the raised outline plucked metal pieces similar to that in a music box. It did not really play a tune but again, an interesting piece.

As I said, it was very cold on Saturday. I am not sure the exact temperature but it was below freezing. We were bundled up. Katherine had on tights, pants and a snowsuit on the bottom, long underwear, turtleneck, sweater and a heavy coat on top. Poor thing reminded us of the kid in A Christmas Story when she would walk and fall over, unable to get back up.

Sunday was warmer but still cold. We were bundled up but not miserable and we were actually outside most of the day. We took a 15 minute ferry to Suomenlinna, an island guarding Helsinki's harbor. It was fortified by Sweden (when they governed the area). We ate a great Finnish lunch, took a tour of the area and went in some museums.



Of course we also played on a playground and even ran into a man from our hometown whose kids attend the school where I graduated. He has been in Helsinki for 18 months on business. What a small world. He took us to his favorite coffee shop to kill an hour before it was time to head back to the airport.