The weekend, finally

My two weeks at the barnehage are now over and I'll just be going on Thurs & Fri from now until christmas. Back to the norskkurs on Monday for a well earned rest! I have spoken sooooo much norwegian for the last 2 weeks but I still get to a point where I hit a wall and have to revert to english. Will I ever get over the wall? It also suddenly hit me this week that this is my life now. A norwegian life. It's hard to be yourself when speaking a new language and I feel that when I speak norwegian I lose some of my personality. It's not really me. I can't crack jokes or express myself the way I can in english and it is sooooo frustrating! I was also told this week that when I speak my accent sounds a bit danish, and considering I cannot understand danish at all I found this rather odd!

Hello October

How on earth is it October already? Only 11 weeks til christmas!
So, I've just finished my first full week in the norwegian workplace (unpaid,of course!) and I had a fantastic week! I was scared witless on Monday and could barely breathe as I walked into the barnehage that morning but I really had no need to be so afraid as I was welcomed with open arms! I have learned so much norwegian this week and got over my fear of talking to kids. All the staff have been so kind to me,answering all my questions, joking about the many mistakes I make and just helping me in general. I got lucky with this barnehage! They even offered me a vikar (temp,stand in) position for January. It's only 5 weeks but it's a start (and will be my first paid job in Norway!)
Next week I'll work with the older kids (5-6) which I'm also pretty scared about as they ask so many questions. I will cope though!
p.s Like most of Europe we are having amazing weather at the moment. Thick fog in the morning followed by warm,sunny days. Lovely.
Enjoy the weekend folks!

A new chapter

Don't worry, the weather has not changed just yet but I guess this picture shows what I should be expecting pretty soon! I did see on the front page of the newspaper last week "Ekstrem Vinter" (extreme winter!) emblazened in huge letters and felt slightly scared. Speaking of being scared I begin my språkpraksis tomorrow morning at a very nice local barnehage and I'm terrified. Terrified, I tell you! This is a real test of my norwegian, talking to little kids who can't speak english, gulp! Wish me luck!

The weekend

We have had a lovely weekend. Friday night we celebrated Henrik's 36th birthday with our friends, Saturday we visited three fleamarkets, picked apples & plums and today we took a trip to Sweden and now I've just finished my norwegian homework (the least favourite bit of the weekend) Autumn is certainly here and I'm trying to embrace it but I'm still not ready to give in and get all our winter gear out of storage. The idea of the long winter we have ahead is too awful to even think about!!
(top 3 pics by Vindhya)

A catch up

I've been a bad blogger lately but I seem to have no time to take pictures. So, whats been happening around here lately?
*My British car is now norwegian. My British plates have gone and I'm now sporting Norsk plates. It cost us a bloody fortune (47,000kr = £5327) but it's worth it to me as our car has low mileage and I know its history. The same car here would cost me 80,000kr. Norway is a money sucking vampire! I now don't have to hide from the police and Statens vegvesen so I'm less stressed!
*School is hard and I have days when I really feel as though I will never understand this damn language (and some days I really hate how norwegian sounds)
*We babysat our friends husky at the weekend and learned that you cannot walk huskies enough. They just recharge and are ready to go again half an hour after a 3 hour long walk....
*Fleamarket season is in full swing and I've been finding some amazing stuff. Surely my lucky fleamarket run is about to come to an end soon?
*I've been down with a stinking cold all week after never being ill for the whole time we have been in Norway. I was proud of the whole year cold free!
* In a weeks time I shall begin språkpraksis (language practice) at a barnehage (kindergarten)
To say I'm nervous would be an understatement. I have not worked with children for over a year now plus I'm gonna have to speak norwegian! God help me!

It's the weekend!

We are off to the cabin with a year old husky- should be interesting!?
Have a great weekend folks! The sun is out, the sky is blue!

ikke så flink

Life is busy right now with school- full time school! It's been a shock to the system to be getting up at 6am again and then getting home and spending a good few hours studying. My new course is very hard, a huge step up from my last one. I feel as though I have skipped a whole level. I went from feeling pretty clever during the summer to feeling like a total muppet after a week back in class! I have cried, threatened to go home to England,bitched and moaned for the last week but now it's time to pull up my socks and get on with the job in hand! I'm very lucky that Henrik is right behind me, encouraging me to study, helping me, marking my work for mistakes- but sometimes I can't help but want to whack him over the head with my text book for being norwegian in the first place!

A new season

Autumn is here (which I'm not ready for!) which also means that fleamarket season is back (which I am ready for!) and this season got off to a great start! Being at the cabin (and therefore being even further away from Oslo) means that the fleamarkets are even cheaper and there are less people! woo hoo!
There are not many more weekends that we can visit the cabin now, maybe only four as it's not winter proof, we already need a extra duvet and woolen socks and the fjord is too chilly to swim in.

One year in Norway!

We have been living in Norway for one year today. I have no idea how that year slipped by so quickly! What a year! It has taken me longer to settle here than it has anywhere I've moved to but I'm slowly getting there..... Tonight we shall celebrate with a BBQ on the beach with our friends. Gratulerer til oss!

?

Norway you are very pretty but you have spent the last year kicking my arse. Maybe you can give me a break now? være så snill!

Friends

Yesterday I went back to the norwegian course and what a difference from when I first started!! I remember feeling so nervous that first day. I instantly hated the look of everyone on my course and came home announcing to Henrik, "Ugh, I hate it! I'm not going to make friends with any of these people. I shall learn norwegian and nothing else!" but yesterday I met up with all my friends/coursemates and we hugged/kissed and chatted and it felt nice to have the whole gang back together.
I have made some very nice friends at school and feel so happy to have all these people in my life now. We are all from different corners of the globe, with totally different backgrounds but I've realised that no matter where you are from, what religion you are, we are all the same. We are all struggling to find where we fit in Norway, we are all trying to integrate, we all want a job,we all miss our old lives/friends/family and we all just want to be happy.

(pics from Skagen, Denmark)

End of holidays

Summer holidays are now over for us. I'm back to school on Monday and Henrik back to work. What an amazing summer it has been. I think my best summer ever.Having the cabin to visit every weekend has been a dream come true (and I hope we can carry on visiting til at least October before the winter sets in) We just came back from Denmark last night after a lovely holiday in Skagen. Once again, I loved Denmark!
More pics tomorrow from our trip, I have a pile of washing to attack!

Trip

We have been in Wales & Liverpool visiting my mum and stepdad. I had no idea Wales was so pretty and filled with so many castles. Henrik is a total castle boffin (history in general, and of course he loves Tanks!) so we spent many hours at Conwy Castle (as long as there is a shop and a cafe I'm pretty happy to be dragged around these places!) Tomorrow we will take our last little trip of my summer holiday to Denmark (and maybe visit a castle?) before I'm back to norwegian classes on Monday. It's been a great summer....