My Name Is Eric

Our good friend from the US, Steve, is visiting right now. You can check out his page to learn more about him. He lives in Norway for a few months a year, but I felt it would be neat to get his perspective on spending time here.



Where do you come from (be specific)?

Hayward, CA, USA

Have you spent most of your life there?

I was born in Antioch, CA, USA, where I lived with my parents for the first 20 years of my life. I then transfered from junior college to CSU Hayward and have lived there since 2002.

How long have you lived in Norway?

I don't live here, but spend about 2 months/year here for work.

What drew you to Norway?

Work, and the chance to see a part of the world I'd never been to before.

How has your experience been in Norway? What are the best parts?

Great. The winter is really cold, but the snow is really beautiful. In the summer it's even better. The days are warm, but not too hot, and extremely long, allowing for picnics in the park after work.

Have you encountered any challenges living in Norway?

Not speaking the language, but 95%+ of people speak English, so it's usually pretty easy to figure things out.

Do you often feel homesick? Are there any specific things that you miss at home?

No, because I'm only here for a few weeks at a time. If anything, it's nice to get away from home.

What have you done to reach out to Norwegian culture?

I've been to the museums and other attractions, attempted to learn some of the language, and drank a lot of alcohol

Could you see yourself living in Norway long term?

No. Not longer than 6 months. Being from California, I can't really enjoy the winters here.

Any other comments?

Definitely worth a long visit, and gives you access to a lot of other countries, but wouldn't wanna live here.

Another week, another tale of a foreigner's experience in Norway. This week I spoke with an Indonesian friend of mine who chose to remain anonymous. I think alot of her answers are very candid and give a very honest telling of the person's experience.

Enjoy!




Where do you come from (be specifc)?


Indonesia. Need more spesific answer??? East java. Do you want me to
write my address as well?? hihiihhi....
Well, I will just tell you my city's name : Malang.

Have you spent most of your life there?

Do you mean, Will I spend most of my life here? Nope. I dont want to live
in here forever.

How long have you lived in Norway?

It's been 10 months already.


What drew you to Norway?

Do you mean, what do I think about Norway?

Before coming to Oslo, I thought It's gonna be awesome more than Jakarta,
or at least the same since Oslo is the capital city. But then, it's just
like small village. Even the population is less than half of my hometown's
population.

And also the buildings and the environments don't really look like other
Europian countries have. It's more simple and.. not that interesting (oops!)
But, it's been almost 1 year I live in here. And Norway is famous for
the beatifull and amazing landscape, and i agree with this. Also Norwegian
do alot of weird sports that I never seen before.

How has your experience been in Norway? What are the best parts?

The best part is the Cold! I love it!

Have you encountered any challenges living in Norway?

I never lived in other countries before this. So, the challenges for
me is not about living in NORWAY but about living independently far
away for my friends and family. I still can manage it though

Do you often feel homesick? Are there any specific things that you
miss at home?

I feel homesick sometimes for sure like other do. But, i have a nice
and great friends in here. Also, I have my Indonesia community as well
now, which is getting more perfect for me It doesn't mean, it's not
that perfect to have internationally friends. But I didn't have the
strong feeling anymore for being homesick like before.

What have you done to reach out to Norwegian culture?

I want to learn the language now. Yeah NOW! since i have more
motivation for it

Could you see yourself living in Norway long term?

Well, this is the most perfect place to earn alot of money, except
Swizzerland as the most expensive country in Europe. And like I said,
I love the weather for all summer, spring, autumn, and winter.
But I dont want to stay here for my whole life. May be for some years
it will be still fine.

Any other comments?

I wish they would have kylling pølse in Narvesen hahaha!

Lately I've been cooking pancake breakfasts on the weekends. North American, fluffy style pancakes. And they are smothered with pure Canadian maple syrup, whipped cream and fruits. It's amazing.



In Norway you mostly find less fluffy, flatter pancakes, similar to a crepe. They're still tasty, but in my opinion, cannot match good heavy North American pancakes.



I thought I'd share the recipe for my pancakes here. I've had to improvise a little bit since I cannot find liquid vanilla here, so I've had to use vanilla sugar instead.

The Recipe

1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (substitute for liquid vanilla if possible)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tbsp melted butter

Basically you mix everything together in a big bowl and whisk it until you get a smooth mixture. It's better if you mix all the dry ingredients first and then add the liquids to it.

Heat a pan to medium heat and pour a spoonful of pancake mix onto the pan. Wait until you see bubbles popping on the top of the mixture, and then flip the pancake over in the pan. Wait another minute or so and then remove the pancake from the pan. Repeat numerous times. You should get around 6 pancakes from this recipe.

When serving be sure to have a good mix of syrups, whipped cream and fruits.

You can see an image of one of these bad boys half eaten below