Coming home

I woke up early this morning after my late night arrival.  It wasn't surprising, I slept about 20 hours since leaving Stavanger.  I've always tried to stay wake on trips home from Europe but this time I gave into the strong need to sleep and loved every minute of it.

Shockingly the house was pretty clean when I got home.  Leaving two young adults (two of our children) alone in the house for 10 days one could expect to find "party central" when arriving home.  Very proud of the kids that instead I found a nice clean home.  Are they growing up?  Maybe.  Are they are little wiser?  Definitely.

I got up and went shopping - no food in the house.  Not the usual shopping trip but a shopping trip that seemed to be focused on what I will miss when the move is complete.  I don't want to wallow in sadness but it is probably healthy to recognize what will be missed when we are in Norway.

When we were in Stavanger the hubby and I realized that the U.S. is an amazing place.  We have more, more than most, more food, more clothes, more stuff, simply more of everything.  One example is that the grocery stores are fairly small in Norway.  Our real estate agent said that large grocery stores have only recently come into the area.

This morning I walked into the large "you can find everything" grocery store and loved it!  I love that there is an entire aisle for potato chips and another for frozen vegetables.  Do I need that much?  No.  But I love that they are waiting in the store for me just in case I feel the need to have 50 different types of potato chips.  I can have them!  I love that I can get instant gratification when I walk into the store.

The U.S. is a huge consumer.  It is our global role.  The world makes stuff and we buy it.  We may be in debt but we fuel the world economy and we seem to be pretty good at doing that.  We have so much of so many things it is amazing.

The hubby and I have the realization that given we have such easy access to so much it is amazing that American's aren't fatter than we are.  I mean, we must have much more discipline and self control than we are credited with having.  An example, a McDonald's burger is $16 US in Norway.   We can get a burger for $1 each in the U.S.  So basically we could eat 16 burgers for the same cost as a Norwegian eating one.  So, if my logic is good, we could be 16 times the size of the average Norwegian.  Yeah, I may have a problem with logic but you get the idea.

I am going to miss the huge grocery stores and wholesale box stores and the opportunity to buy large quantities of food and junk that I can live without but that I don't have to live without.   I may become a more responsible member of the global community but I will certainly not be fulfilling my role as an American in the world economy.  I'm sure that my lack of contribution will have minimal impact on the global economy but we'll have to wait and see the outcome.  If the world economy takes a dive a few months after our move you and I will all know why....

Potato chip heaven!

Yes, I'll miss life in the U.S. but there are some things that are going to be amazing!

See:   http://www.stavanger-web.com/touristinfo/swords_in_rock.htm

Headed Home

We're headed home after a busy week!  It was good to get this exposure to Stavanger.  I'm glad to say that the hubby likes the area and is excited!  I was wondering if he would say "NO WAY!!" but so far so good!

Before leaving Stavanger we stopped and saw an additional house.  It was nice but way to big for us and didn't have that homey feel we want.  We asked the real estate agent to put an offer on the house located near the downtown area.  We're excited about the location and the house!

By the time we arrived in Amsterdam the agent called to let us know the owner agreed to let us have the house!  Excellent!!

About two seconds later I felt a feeling of "What have we done?".  A little panic....  It's okay, I'm fine.  Deep breath.  I'm good.

Now that we have a home we can start to focus on the rest of this process - moving, job demands, job for hubby...and all the other parts of what makes up a life.

This was a big week for us and confirms that we're ready for a change.  This will be a good adventure for us!

Making progress (maybe)

Before I give the rundown on today's activities here are a few learnings

1.  There are no answering machines in Norway unless you work for a U.S. based company (may be an overstatement but I don't think so).

2.  Service groups (lets say at hotels) do not feel the need to answer the phone.  You will call back if it's important.

3.  Norwegians keep the toilet brush in the bathrooms in hotels and restaurants and other offices.  If necessary one should clean after use...yes, you are expected to clean up after yourself.  Always.

4.  If you don't pay your car taxes the police will cut your license plate in half.  

5.  If you get caught drinking and driving they will take 10% of your household's gross income.  Yes, they have my attention.  We should try this in the U.S.

6.  Norway is known for fish but their pastries are pretty good.  

7.  You can leave your wallet in a restaurant and it will be there when you go back to get it.  Everything will still be as you left it.  

That's it for learnings...for now...

I went to our office this morning.  Although the word is that your average Norwegian isn't that friendly, I must disagree.  The folks at the office are extremely friendly and helpful.  Enough said.  It was a great opportunity to talk with the folks I'll be working with and get to know them.   Coming back in six weeks will be a lot more comfortable now that we've had this time.

After a few hours of chat time at the office, the hubby and I restarted our house hunting adventure.  There was an amazing house on a fiord overlooking the main shipping lanes and port.  The inside was modern and sleek.  It had an interesting building in the back yard - let's call it a pool house, although there was no pool.  It was modern with two glass doors and furnished with a wood stove, TV and leather sofa & chairs.  If I were to judge by the odor, I'd say it was used as a smoking shack - man cave combo.  The back yard was beautifully landscaped and had multi-level decks.  Truly unique.  Unfortunately there is an occupied apartment and the house was located too far out of town for us.  

After the fiord house we saw what could only be described as the polar-opposite house.  Bad inside, bad outside - "Why are we seeing this place?".

The third house was located in the "rich" section of town.  The owner is eager to rent it to a company expat so he's offering it at a cut rate.  We couldn't see the inside today but may tomorrow.  It's a huge house - more than we need but we're into seeing it.  It's close to town - an easy walk to the city center and all of the fun.    

The most suitable house for us is the one we saw yesterday.  Not the biggest, not the newest or most modern but it seems to fit our life style and preferences.  It is the closest to the city core.  It's only a few minutes walk and is surrounded by a number of parks.  

We'll make decisions by 10 am tomorrow and we leave at noon.  We may know if we get the house we select by the time we arrive in Amsterdam.  It would be great to get over this hurtle but in reality we could live in temporary housing if we're not successful but, let's not go there if we don't need to do so.

Twelve more hours to go....

A mostly paper day...

Interesting day....

We started off meeting with the Human Resource rep to review routine rules that apply to working and living in Norway.  Traffic signs...way different.

I achieved a big step, I'm now the proud holder of a Norway corporate badge - no going back now!

The company will apply for my work permit but we'll need to handle the hubby's work permit ourselves.  We want him to get the permit as soon as possible so we went down to the police station this afternoon to submit his paperwork.  We knew it would be tough to get all the way through the process in the short time we had so we treated it like a dry run.  We didn't get it done today.  On Friday morning we'll try again.  We leave Norway at noon and the police office opens at 9 am so there's some excitement in this effort.  Can we get it done in time?  Will they reject us and force a two month delay?

The way this process works is that we apply and it takes anywhere from 2 to 4 months to get the work permit.  Why is this important?  When you get your work permit they give you a residents number (think Social Security number).  Without the all important number you can't have a credit card, a bank account, a job, a drivers license or any other significant position that allows you to "live".  So...hubby needs the number.  They will give him a permit on the basis of "family reunification".  Since I will have a number he gets one too.  Nice family focused country.  They love the families being together.  Not all countries do - one country is known to have said there is no reason why the workers could not go without their spouse for a year.

We'll attempt the permit again on Friday morning.  Our goal will be for them to accept his application.  We'll let you know how it goes.  Keep your fingers crossed!!

After our trial run we called a real estate agent and saw one house in the downtown area.  It was soooo great to see a house that we felt a connection with.  It could be better but it's probably 90% where we want to be.

We seem to be recreating our Anchorage home here in Stavanger.  The house we found is similar in many ways to our sweet house in Anchorage.  There are four houses we want to see tomorrow.  Two of the houses are scheduled for us to see.

Some of the real estate agents don't want to talk to us.  They only want to work with the company representative.  They say the client is the company rep. not us.  There's something not quite right about that approach.  But who are we to argue with local custom?

After our day of paper and process we walked around the city.   Very nice ending to the day!

Big tower in the center of old town 

All of a sudden there's a huge cruise ship in town! 

Old town has turned into a shopping district

Life in Stavanger

I realize I need to share what we've learned about life in Stavanger.  One area worth seeing is the party district near the docks.  It's a series of small buildings with good food, lots of booze, tons of people and good music - by good I mean danceable!

The Mexican place we ate at on our first day here is located in this area.  Very lively place to visit!

A day of house hunting

Yesterday we had our first opportunity to tour homes.  We were picked up by a 20-something, typically beautiful, blond young lady.  She had selected 6 homes for us to view.  Yes, think House Hunters International.

My goal was to find a house near the office.  Lee was on board with that approach.

The first one we visited was a two story (daylight basement) house.  The main floor seemed dark with small rooms to me.  The second floor was primarily an apartment - would be perfect for our son while he is here.  The house was located on a hill looking over the highway - noise only for a few hours a day in the morning and evening at rush hour.  It had one neighboring house next to it.  Lee liked it.  Me, not so much.  My priority was that the house was in walking distance from the office - it wasn't.  In retrospect I think I was more amazed he like it than anything else.  We've never been the "live in a field" type.  Hmmmm.

The next few houses had larger rooms and were very bright.  I really liked a house that was located even further away but it has a basement apartment being rented to someone else and there was really no dog area.

We visited one house that is on a hill near the office - you can see the office from the window about a mile or so away.  That sounds bad but the office is located on the water.  There are ships moving through the area so the view would change daily - always something interesting going on.  The house itself was owned by a couple with four children and the condition of the house showed it.  We agreed we could live there but we may not love it.  It still wasn't within walking distance - there's an inlet of the ocean between the house and the office.  The other issue was the landlord lives next door - somewhat too close for us.

The most interesting house was located in a farming area.  Across the street was a field occupied by about 50 to 100 sheep.  We kept laughing thinking of our dogs - they would be really excited about the sheep.  That means they would never stop barking!  Lots of new friends for them to play with.

When we were done with the day we sat down and discussed what we wanted - again, think "House Hunters International".  After some good discussion we decided we needed to change our approach.  If we couldn't find a house near the office then we'd rather live in Stavanger.  We'd be where the "action" was and able to take interesting walks every evening.

I spent some time looking at Finn.com ("The" web site for buy, selling, job hunting and anything else) and found about four houses in the Stavanger area that fit our needs.  We went and looked at each from the outside and really like them!!!!!!  It was an amazing relief to see something that we'd want to live in.  Our goal today is to try and see the inside of each of them.  If we can't we'll have one more day, tomorrow, and then we will have to select a house.  PRESSURE!

Day 2 - finding Stavanger

Today was a great day - we figured out the road system.  No small feat for us.  Step 1, ignore the GPS.  Step 2, read map.  I think we're finally getting the system down.

We had some "ah moments" today.  We drove through several tunnels that run through mountains.  They were fine - no stress.  We thought they were long tunnels but today we drove through a 5 KM tunnel that runs under the ocean - 2.5 KM down hill and 2.5 KM uphill.  Totally scary.  I gave hubby kudos for making it through with no signs of stress - I think it freaked both of us out.  Worse part of it was we knew we were going to have to drive back through it.  It was also unusal cause the other tunnels are totally encased in concrete while this tunnel had bare rock walls - totally raw.  We made it okay.  A little more appreciative of the differences between home and Norway.  They like tunnels and they like them alot!  One tunnel through a mountain actually has houses right on top of the tunnel area.  Yep, we are different.

Today was Sunday.  It is different.  No matter how many people you ask the stores are all closed.  All of them.  We found cafes and hotels open.  That is all.  There is no secrete store that's open - they are all closed.   So stop asking!

We found the company building and started looking at neighborhoods nearby.  Very nice homes.  Similar in size to what we are familiar with but with some stunning landscaping and great hedges going on.  Prettiest I've seen I think.  We could live anywhere near the office - hopefully someone is leaving in time for us to have a great home in the area.

Tomorrow I meet the team I'll be working with.  The biggest challenge is to find my way from the hotel to the office in an acceptable amount of time...I hear they love for people to be on time and hate it when people are not.  Well, we'll see how it goes. 

Day 2 went pretty well (Did I mention I had a small panic attack at 2 am? Yes, I got through it - hubby woke up in time to say "no, I'm not nervous about the move - it's okay).  We'll see how Monday goes : )

House hunting trip - Day 1

We arrived in Norway today around 2 pm.  I kept watching my hubby to see what his reaction would be.  Truth be told I was having second thoughts - "What am I doing?", "Why am I doing this?".

I've always heard to watch out for being too excited - big expectations will lead to big disappointments.  I think the reason for the second thoughts is probably because we made a short visit to St. Louis and the weather was so nice and toasty warm.  Arriving in Stavanger to 50 degree weather and high winds wasn't as welcome as it could have be.

Hubby and I drove around looking for the hotel for an hour or so...maybe longer.   I don't want to be too demanding but I don't want to spend too much of my days driving around - especially when gas is $9 a gallon!  We changed hotels to one a little closer to the office.

After a long nap we headed out to Stavanger.  I've heard in our society that we make decisions by making comparisons...we decide what we want by looking at options in comparison with each other.  We must do that because we ended up driving around comparing Stavanger to different places we've visited and some we hadn't.  Hubby says the area is a mix of Homer and Russia.  Some areas look like Seattle.

We went to dinner at a Mexican place.  Question:  "Do you need an English translation of a Mexican menu when in Norway?"  I hadn't considered this question before.  The answer...is no.  The menu is in Spanish anyway.

Oh, the big challenge for the day...using an electronic parking meter that requires a credit card.  We ended up asking three German women for help.  Turns out Saturday after 7 pm are free anyway.  On our list of must haves - a Norwegian - English dictionary, duh.

Well we're crashing now - the time change is tough!