Fjordward

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.