“Life happens when you are busy making other plans” J. Lennon

I do not expect life to be easy. I expect it to be full of hard choices and decisions you just do not want to face. I know the difference between fantasy and reality. That life is not a scene in a movie, and that “Seventh Heaven” is not a reflection of the world. When a negative event happens, people are tend to ask, “why me?” I try to keep the position of “why not me?” What makes me so great that I am above suffering, and that for some reason there is another soul that deserves this hardship over me?

When we made the decision to move to Norway, we knew it would be hard. We expected confusion and the frustration that is inevitable when trying to acclimate you self to a new culture. What we have encountered has been harder than we could have predicted. The biggest issue we face on a daily basis is the language. Even though every one we encounter speaks English, all documents we get in the mail or have to fill out, is in Norwegian. It is frustrating when you feel you cannot function in the world you are living in. Even though it takes time and effort, we are slowly able translate a lot of words using a dictionary. We are stating to recognize common words, and we get help from people at Trolltech.

We have been living here for about eight months now, and things are getting easer. We sorted out a lot of bank confusion, I can use the Celsius stove with out effort, and we can read enough to be sure of our purchases at the grocery store. We were settled in our apartment and were starting to personalize it. However just as one difficulty was conquered we were informed that the woman whom we sublets the apartment from, needs to move back herself. So we had to rekindle our search for an apartment. This is also more difficult then it would be in America because the listings are all in Norwegian. Thankfully it is a bit easer then the first time we searched for an apartment simply because we now know more of the area. We also know which “buzz words” to look for. Such as the Norwegian words for, furnished, stove, storage, laundry room, and bedroom.