My First Trip After Moving

I spent this week in Lafayette, LA in Chevron new employee training. We learned about pumps, compressors, and piping (I know you are probably jealous you didn't get to come). Besides training the main tasks of the week were to buy all of the American things that we had forgotten or realized we really couldn't wait for the sea shipment for. Items such as Twizzlers and hand lotion for Robin were on top of the list. I must have looked pretty odd standing in the lady's bath products section of Target trying to find the right shampoos and lotions for Robin. I don't remember the last time I was in a Target without her and I realized very quickly that I have become dependent on her to lead me around the store. My job for the last two years has been to push the basket, so when it came time to find door hangers and Stitch Witchery I was a bit lost. 5 hours after I started though I had a trunk full of products and a very empty stomach.

Although I had only been in Norway for two weeks it was a little strange coming back to the US because I really just felt like a visitor. Little things seemed different; some of the things were good and some were bad. For example I had gotten used to speed limits set at 28 mph so when I found myself on a two lane road with a 45 mph speed limit I had trouble keeping up. It was nice to be warm for a change. I spent about 5 minutes just standing outside of my hotel soaking up the 85 degree weather. One thing I missed while I was in Lafayette was the Norwegian food portion sizes that I had become more accustomed to at home. There is definatly something to be said for smaller portions and less fried food. Robin has also done an amazing job cooking in Trondheim so I don't have to dread Norwegian food. We are three weeks into our adventure and fish paste has still not showed up on our kitchen table for which I am eternally thankful.

I do feel pretty bad about ditching Robin after only being in Norway for 2 weeks together. We knew this was going to happen and she seems to be doing really well, but I still feel bad for her. I have to travel again in a couple of weeks but hopefully after that is over we can start spending some time traveling in Norway and Europe together.

I am glad to be heading home. I am surprised to say it but it really does seem like home even after only two weeks. I did enjoy my time in the states going to Target and Best Buy but what really makes me happy is spending time with my wife and two dogs.

Work Life Balance is Great but My Water is Cold

So... most people are aware of Norwegians dislike of doing the work. The typical work day here is from 8-4 with a 30 minute lunch and at my office they also take a 15 minute mid afternoon break. On average, although their are exceptions to every rule, work stops dead at 4:00 in the afternoon. I have been in quite a few meetings with StatoilHydro (Norwegian company I am working with) when there has still been much to do but meetings were stopped because it was the end of the day. Robin read in an informational book we have about Norway that the average Norwegian works about 165 days per year! That is right the average Norwegian works just over 45% of the time.

In general this is all well and good. Everybody thinks that Americans work too much and most people say that Norwegians have gotten it right. Norwegians work to live where as Americans live to work is how one author put it. I personally am looking forward to my 7.5 hours days and am going to have Robin pick me up promtly at 4:00 pm everyday. Tomorrow I don't have to go to work because it is some bank holiday in Norway (in Norway everyone gets bank holidays off not just the banks) and I love it.

The problem is that nobody works so trying to get stuff done at night, around holidays, or on weekends is impossible. For example on Friday afternoon our hot water heater stopped working. In the US this would be a pain but not impossible. You just contact a plumber and have them come out late at night or on a Saturday. It may cost you more but a worse you would be without hot water for 24 hrs. In Norway you are screwed! By the time we were able to contact the land lord (who is in the Canary Islands on vacation) it was 3:30 in the afternoon so there was no hope of getting somebody out on Friday. As I mentioned Monday is a holiday so nobody will be open then and god help you if you think you can get help on a weekend. My landlord has shown little interest in helping us until she returns on Monday because she is on vacation and a Norwegian does not mix vacation with work. By the way she has been on vacation 3 of the last 4 weeks (goes along with only working 165 days a year). So Robin and I are without hot water until at least Tuesday and I have no real hope that it will be fixed on Tuesday. Luckly we joined a gym and have access to their showers so I will be clean when I go into work on Tuesday. That may not be a problem though because we are going to run out of food tonight and won't have anything to eat tomorrow. Why you ask? Well it is because grocery stores were only open until 2:00 pm yesterday (normally open until 8:00 pm) because Monday is a holiday. I mean you wouldn't want to have to wait until Monday to start enjoying the holiday would you? So when Robin and I went to the grocery store at 4:00 to shop we were greeted by locked doors.

So work life balance is great but my water is freezing cold and I would really appreciate somebody fixing it.

Oh and good news we are supposed to have our internet hooked up this Friday. Of course this is just an estimate.

The Grocery Store...

Robin and I went to the grocery store for the first time on Saturday. One thing we have learned in our time thus far in Trondheim is that there are about a million grocery stores. Most are tiny but some would compare to a small US major grocery store. There are two major chains here: REMA 1000 and Bun Pris (Good Price) and there are very few fundamental differences between the two. What we have learned is that one store may have a really good selection of international cheeses and another may have lots of international sauces (mustard, ketchup, etc); however, it should be noted that I have not found A1 steak sauce as of yet. None of the stores have everything international. Although the grocery stores are smaller they still all seem to have all of the staples. They seem to get away with smaller size just by carrying less variety than you would expect to see in the US. For example (because this one really chaps my hide) is that there really only seem to be about 6 different types of cereals in Trondheim. They are primarily muslix type grainy goodness but they do have a kellogs type plain flake cereal and most disturbingly only one sugary good cereal. The sugary good cereal is CoCo Puffs and I have a feeling I am going to eat it everyday for the next 700 days or so.

The grocery store visit was super awesome for multiple reasons. The first was because it was crowded as all get out. I have a feeling super markets on Saturdays are like the perfect storm. First nothing is open on Sunday (except for plant stores which is weird) so if you want to grocery shop on the weekends you have to go on Saturday. Second because there is no such thing as the night shift at a Norwegian grocery store they do all of their stocking during the day. So there are a million people running around the store trying to buy their crazy over prised groceries while stock boys and girls are plodding around with their pallets full of Norwegian goodness. Add to this the fact that because there is no night shift they also do all of their cleaning during the day. So now imagine that everyone is at the store, people are stocking like crazy, and other employees are tearing up and down the isles with big automatic floor cleaners that are leaving the floors clean but also very wet. The final addition to this problem is that the average Norwegian does not give a crap about cutting you off, pushing in front or around you, and personal space is only a fond memory. All in all it was awesome but i don't think Robin is going to be doing much shopping on Saturday afternoons anymore.

Like I said most of the grocery stores we went in had most of the basics. Of course there are some items that just say "Welcome to Norway". I will add pictures later but some of those items are the fish paste, the fish pudding, and of course there are fish cakes on just about every isle in the store. Don't think that the only meat in a Norwegian grocery store is fish. Oh no they have meat too. Robin and I were strolling through the meat department trying to find something to add to our dinner when we stumbled upon the "Ground Meat" area. They had pork, chicken, and lamb clearly labeled but what we couldn't find was actual ground beef. They had some stuff that looked like ground beef but it was just labeled meat (the chicken and lamb were also labeled meat but there was an extra word that described what type of meat). Finally after several minutes of debate we decided to ask one of the locals what type of meat we were looking at. A very nice girl, probably about 18, offered to help us with our issue. She clearly explained that what we were looking at was meat and she pointed out the ground chicken that we had already found. We asked her where the ground beef was and she took us to another section where the steaks were. We took her back and asked her specifically about our mystery meat and if it was beef. The conversation went something like this...

"Is this beef?" Robin pointing at mystery meat

"No this is meat not beef" Norwegian girl

"What type of meat is it?" Robin

... silence...

"Is it chicken, pork, reindeer?" Robin

"No this is meat."

"But what type of meat?"

... silence...

"Thank you for your help, I think we will just get the chicken." Robin

Something in Norwegian probably loosely translated as "Stupid Americans"

As we were walking away another lady stopped us and told us that the mystery meat was in fact beef.

We discovered another fun thing about Norwegian meat a day later when we went to cook the chicken. It expired the same day we bought it!!! I love this country.

Till Next Time. I will add pictures to this post later.