Winter Tires

Jason arrived home last weekend!  It is great to have him home- the dogs missed him too.  I took my driving lesson last week (in the dark and rain) and the instructor told me I was the best foreign driver he had ever worked with.  I was pretty impressed with myself!  So now I am ready to take my driving test – I am just waiting on notification of the test date.  Jason also took him driving lessons and passed but I think I am still the “best”.  Jason is sick so we have spent all weekend inside trying to get Jason better.  Though we did venture out yesterday afternoon to change our summer tires out for our winter tires – Jason did the work but I helpedJ.  You legally must have your winter tires on by November 1 but they say it is good to do it before then cause you never know when the snow will start!  We have heard this week could be pretty cold and snow is possible. 

We are also having our bathroom at the house redone so we are currently without a shower and having to use the gym.  It has been quite an ordeal with our landlady since she told us the shower would be set up in the laundry room for us to use but then when she scheduled it I guess that didn’t follow through.  The issue is we are traveling the last week of October and have someone watching the dogs and they must have a shower.  So it looks like she will have the shower set up and there is a possibility she will leave a shower in the laundry room for good and install another shower in the new bathroom. That may be nice as long as the new shower is nice too.  I know it is strange to have a shower in the laundry room but houses are weird like that in Norway.  It is interesting to see Norwegian construction –there is very little insulation in the walls of bathroom, which makes me think the house has no really insulation (which doesn’t surprise me).  Also the workers are very messy – they have left drywall dust all over the house every day – in the US I would expect them to clean up after themselves in the common spaces every day- but I guess I have high expectations!

Observations

It is funny how you don’t notice things that are missing in a society. You notice stuff that is different like all the weird food but you don’t notice little things like the fact that the world markets do not affect gas prices. Since we have been here gas has only fluctuated maybe 50 cents a gallon at most. Most days it is within 5 cents of the price last week. Needless to say the gas itself is literally $10/gallon.

The other thing I noticed last night while walking to Norwegian class was how few people use a Bluetooth earpiece for their phones. I really hate the Bluetooth earpieces in public places so I am surprised I haven’t noticed this sooner. Don’t get me wrong the Norwegians love their cell phones but they are more polite about them – they don’t talk on them while checking out at stores or in line etc. But on a whole this society is less 24/7 crazy – they are real believers in time off and leaving work at the office.

I am interested to see what type of experiences I have when I come home for Christmas. I will have been out of the US for 7 months at that point. Jason has already had some eye openers while in the US but I think I might even be more sensitive to them since I have been gone longer. Jason went to buy a “healthy” breakfast in Houston last week to avoid the unhealthy food he would get in the office. He was looking for something similar to what we eat here - light yogurt with muesli (which is fabulous!). He ended up with a yogurt parfait (with granola) but he quickly realized that it was 3 times the size of our normal portion in Norway. We all know the portion sizes are huge in the US but it was interesting for Jason to notice it and be really frustrated by it.

I have my practice driving lessons tomorrow at 7am (this seems to be the only thing open before 8am). Hopefully they go well and I can schedule the driving test before the snow arrives. Though I am told it can snow in October! Yippee!

Autumn in Norway

It has turned to autumn here. The trees, bushes and weeds are all changing colors and it is really spectacular.  I have never lived anywhere to see the change in seasons so this is really neat.  Here is the view out the kitchen window – it is where I spend most of my time on the computer.

It has also gotten cold.  The high today is supposed to be 5 C (41 F) and rainy.  I think this is the start of the season of cold, wet and dark.  The sun is now setting and rising at more normal times but we are losing 20 minutes a week so soon it will be dark!  Jason and I invested in flannel sheets and electric blankets 2 weeks ago and they are really nice at night!  Of course they don’t really have electric blankets only heating pads, which is kinda weird, but they work well.  We have also broken the heat in the bathroom – well we don’t think it was our fault and we don’t think our landlady is going to make us pay for it -thank god!  I guess some moisture got through the grout and shorted the heaters – what a stupid system!    But our entire bathroom (floor and walls) will be ripped out to replace the electric strip heaters under the floor and all the tile – it will take THREE WEEKS!  You could build an entire house in Houston in 3 weeksJ  We think the house is going to be mighty cold – strip heating is the dumbest idea ever.

 

Other then that things are going well.  Jason has been in Houston for a week and he has one more week to go.  I am on vacation from school next week (Autumn Break) so I am going to catch up with school work and plan our next trip to France/Spain.