Fjordward

Yesterday, T got the dryer upstairs and installed it all by himself--well H was with him to cheer on his efforts, but she didn't have much to offer in the brute strength dept. As it turns out, we live very close to a self-storage place, so he was able to rent a handtruck. That helped with the stairs part, but I don't know how he got it on top of the washing machine without assistance. (I was blissfully cleaning the kitchen at the time.)

So, yesterday we did several loads of laundry and didn't have to drape them on various things to dry. It was lovely.

Saturday was Syttende Mai, and it was rainy and very cold. Poor H had to keep her lovely new dress under wraps all day. Still, we managed to have a good time, and we enjoyed seeing everyone out in their finery--I envied the women their woolen capes. I will post a few photos later--given the weather, I didn't get as many as I would have liked.

Well, we are still in limbo land (still partially boxed up in the new place, still cleaning out the old), but we're getting there. The kitchen is done, which is a biggie. For this move we ate only one take-away meal, and that was the night before when all our dishes were boxed up. Not bad. (Of course, with the price of food--even fast food--in Oslo, there is a big incentive to cook instead.)

I am really liking the new apartment, and have not come to dread the four-story climb yet. What I do dread is the outcome of the current wrangle with our landlords. When we agreed to take the place, it was on the condition that it came with a dryer. This was in the ad. T got the keys to the apartment and soon discovered that the dryer we had seen at the showing was now gone. The agent is looking into it for us. (Owners are in France until this week.) We hope that they will either provide one or agree to reduce our rent, so we can afford to buy one, since with a kid and 2 large dogs, living without is not an option--and really, at our current rent, it is ridiculous not to provide one. (I reeeeally don't want to have to buy one--not because of price, though it would be exhorbitant (likely 700 USD+), but because I know we will have to move again eventually, and having a dryer to schlep around will be an unfun complication.) Fingers crossed that it all works out as it should.

The light in Oslo right now is insane. I think “malevolent orb” is an apt deccription of the sun at present, though I am sure there are those who will disagree. (Hi, Karla!) It is just so damned bright! And the new place didn't have blackout blinds in the bedroom--a deficiency we promptly rectified on Saturday after being awakened by unrelentingly cheerful sun at 6 am. (These days, you can see dawn start at 4:50 am, and it will only get earlier over the next few months until we have almost no darkness to the day at all.)

H is liking the new place and has adjusted quite well to taking showers. It helped immensely that she found out a few weeks ago that one of her best friends, who is a year younger, takes showers exclusively. I think that helped her over the hump of thinking showers were just for grown-ups. She has worked out a way to play with her toys—the most important part of any bathing activity, of course. Her favorite game is playing with the squeegee to keep the water from going all over the floor. (The shower is a fairly typical Norwegian style, with no curtain or door to retain the water. )

We hand the keys back to our Kampen place this Thursday. Then, we will just have the rest of the boxes with which to contend. There is less built-in storage in this apartment and the bedrooms are much smaller (though the kitchen is larger and living/dining is about the same), so we will likely need to go shopping for storage solutions before we can get everything sorted.

I am looking forward to it.

Yep, it is that time again. Our current landlords want to sell the apartment, and they were hoping to put it on the market before the summer, so we agreed to move prior to the end of our lease (which would have been July 1). We move in mid-April.

We found a really cute place in Torshov, which is a 10 minute walk slightly NE of work.

The only real downsides of the apartment are that it is on the fourth floor, has no tub, and smaller bedrooms. However, the exercise will be good for me, H is now old enough to conquer showers, and the main living areas in the house are a good size--we also gain a proper dining room which is nice.

We have a 3-year lease, which here means that either of us can terminate it after the first year, with 3 months' notice. So the plan is to stay here awhile until we gather enough savings to buy a place.

I think it will be a nice home.

More pictures are uploaded at Snapfish (after taking the time to upload them here, I couldn't get them to stay rotated--will check on that once folks are back at work). (If you don't have a Snapfish account, just use my primary Gmail address and the password "photos", and you should be able to see them. If you still can't view them, e-mail me.)

This Christmas was our second in Oslo, and we had a wonderful time, though we miss our families, of course. This year we had visitors, our friends the K's, over from Paris from the 22nd until today. They stayed at our friends' apartment and cat-sat. So, they were nearby, but we also each had our own space, which with kids was nice.

Speaking of kids, their son T and our H got along famously. They are close in age, and with 3 languages between them, they overlapped with English, thankfully. (In case you were wondering, sulking is much more effective in French. )

We had such a nice visit, and the weather cooperated for the most part. When we went up to Frognersteren, it had snowed, so it was gorgeous. On the trip up the mountain, O seemed particularly pleased with what she saw, and T enjoyed being up with the train driver throughout the trip.

Sadly, we soon had a heatwave of sorts and all the beauty in town melted. Sigh. Still, on Christmas Day, we had massive snowflakes coming down. (They melted within hours, but we had the benefit of the temporary effect at least.)

Christmas Eve we had nibbles (salmon, sausage, paté) over at their place, which was perfect. Then, for Christmas, I roasted a couple of chickens (thanks to Karla for the fool-proof recipe) and we had a lovely, relaxed evening. Having guests helped it feel more festive. I made dinner rolls for the second time ever, and they turned out well. Hurrah. (They were a little taste of home, since this type of roll isn't seen here.) H helped me with kneading the dough. She particularly enjoyed punching it, but she was also a champion flour-sprinkler.

Oh, and first thing on Christmas morning, H initially sailed past her presents to hand me her present to me. What a kid! (And how utterly different from me at that age!) As you will see from the pictures, she spent most of the day in the ballgown her Nana made for her. (The pink velour nightgown she also has on was a gift from the K's.)

It was so nice being prepared for the Christmas shutdown. We didn't have any last-minute grocery panic (apart from running out of papertowels on Christmas day). Nor did we have a grocery store trip that required a mule to assist us on the trip home.

Yesterday, we took the K's to Frogner park to check out the Vigeland sculptures. It is a must-see, and we thought the kids would enjoy running amok. What we hadn't counted on was that all the melted snow would have refrozen in an impressive sheet of ice. Seriously, the entire surface of the park--with the exception of the stairs, which had been salted--was covered in ice. We slip-skated our way round, but it was a bit unnerving, and near the end, T slipped while holding H and they had a spectacular fall. Luckily, only bruises and tears resulted, but it was frightening for all involved.

Despite the stressful park visit, I think the K's had a good visit overall--and I was so pleased to finally meet O. We got on easily and well. Still, I don't think even now they can quite believe how expensive everything is here. It made me realize how much I have come to accept in the past year.

Today was a patented lazy day. It was rainy and windy and dark, so we stayed in and watched movies (and a DVD of our friend E's appearance on last year's Skal Vi Danse--the Norwegian Dancing with the Stars--great fun) and ate French chocolates and popcorn and leftover fish soup.

Our vacation continues until next Wednesday. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.