The small one

Yesterday I worked out to Jillian Michael's 30 minute shred. Ave wanted a sports bra like mine so I rigged this up.
Daddy on the left, Mommy on the right and Avery in the middle. So flippin cute!
Crazy face. She likes me to take pictures of her so she can look at them.

Newest things,

Calling me sir - well come here sir.

Saying, "well goodbye Mom" then leaving the room.

Painting and drawing constantly, her own skin is her favorite canvas.

Asking, "who made this for me" about anything she owns. I think she means who gave this to me.

Saying, "Mommy you the best ever" and "I love you too much."

Just told me, "we don't drink out of the toilet." Glad she figured that one out.

Running around with her guitar singing at the top of her lungs, "you get the other means, you get the other means and the best of both worlds" Don't ask me where the first song came from.

When I tell her not to do something her favorite reply is "Mommy I'm alright with it."

Walk with us to the store

Today Avery and I walked to the Coop Pris to get some groceries. It was a nice day and we were out of milk so we bundled up and took off. The start of the bike path that cuts across.


The residential after we get off the bike path.
Walking down the street, what a great view of the fjord.
The store!

Buns, Basil and Beer

So I tried making hamburger buns yesterday and they turned out like this...Not sure what I did wrong but I think the yeast was old or I used too much flour, I'm going to try again next week.
Growing basil and it actually sprouted!
This was one of the ciders we tried. It cost almost $6 but it was yummy so I guess it was worth it!
Here's our beer from Sat night. The Tuborg was about $13 a six pack. We really need to start brewing soon.

It's been really cold over here the last couple of days so I haven't gone outside. Once it warms up Ave and I will trek to the store again and this time I'm bringing my camera. They gravel the bike paths here, I thought that was really cool so I'll take a pic in a couple of days.

Finally figured out the picture

The picture at the top with Avery is a picture in front of the Royal Residence in Trondheim. It was built in 1778 and is one of the largest wooden buildings in Norway. I guess you can tour it and see some of the 140 rooms. I am hoping we can do this at some point. There is your history lesson for day!

Solsiden

Today in our continued quest to find familiar food we took off to Solsiden. Solsiden is kind of like a mall. There are a bunch of shops and restaurants. There is also a vinmonopolt or liquor store. Inside one of the malls there is a grocery store that we were told sold more imported items and a hardware store both of which we needed to visit. So we got on the bus and took off for downtown Trondheim. Solsiden is a very pretty area and there were lots of people shopping. The restaurants were very expensive so we just looked at the menus. We're talking $25 for a hamburger and fries but it was till fun to look. We ended up getting the tool we needed at the hardware store and to my amazement we found ... black beans! We also found tortilla chips and chorizo which we'll have to live with since we can't find ground sausage. They have ricotta cheese and Newman's own salad dressing. This will be a grocery to go to for certain items. We are finding out that it is best to shop at different stores for different reasons. Some stores are cheaper, some have a bigger variety and some have specialty items. It seems like most of our time has been spent tracking down the right food! Yet we are figuring it out and in our quest for groceries we are seeing a lot of the town. Solsiden is definetly a place I will go again. It'd be awesome to get an apartment near that area but I've read that they can be very expensive. Oh and we ended up missing the liquor store. It closed at 3:00 and we got there at 3:15, go figure. So right now Jeff is trekking over to the closest grocery store to pick us up some 4.5% alcohol beer, guess that's better than nothing! © Trondheim kommune

Small Victories

Ave and I walked to the store by ourselves for the first time today. Might seem like a small thing but I've been putting it off since I got here. It's probably a little over half a mile to the store up and down some hills. We cut across a bike trail and into residential. I was a little afraid I'd get lost but apparantly I need more confidence because we made it with no problems. Avery was a trooper and walked almost the entire way herself. When we got to the store she pushed a kid sized shopping cart (which all grocery stores here have) and that made her happy. Here's what we bought; powdered sugar, chips, two doughnuts (yeah I couldn't resist) two things of mild that I'm guessing total a little over a half gallon, six baguettes, six apples and some pepperoni. It came to 135 kr or the equivilant to about $23 USD. I'm thinking in the states this stuff would have ran me about $15 so that gives a little insight into prices here. Today was a small victory and as weird as it sounds something as simple as going to the grocery store can be intimidating in a forgein country, especially when it's below zero and you have to walk 1/2 mile each way with a two year old! So hooray for me, I'm pretty proud of myself!

Random observations: Norwegians are uncomfortable looking at you in passing on the street and they never smile at you. I'm guessing it's a cultural thing and if you look at them they look away? So if a person smiles at you it probably means they are a immigrant.

People walk their dogs no matter how cold and there are a lot of dogs. On our way to the store we saw about six people walking their dogs. If I look out the window right now I'm sure I'll see at least one person walking a pup. And most of the dogs are small. I'm guessing it has something to do with how many people live in apartments over here and with how small yards are? Either that or it's an excuse for people to get outside. Oh and everyone can take dogs on the bus here?

Jeff is going to attempt to get a cell phone today - wish him luck. I can't get one until I get my tax ID number which will hopefully come in the next couple of weeks. Oh and we can open a bank account once Jeff gets a cell number which means next month he can get paid! Yeah since NTNU owes him for like three months. Oh and he got his tax card but of course it was the wrong tax bracket. So we have to fill out another form to protest that and hopefully get him into a bracket that shows he is married and has a child. Auugghh, it never ends!

Groceries

When I first walked into a grocery store in Norway I experienced my first meeting with culture shock. It was so odd trying to decifer the Norwegian words and buying things based on what we thought was in the box by looking at the picture or guessing. Luckily I have quickly figured out what the staples are and feel a little more confident each time I go into a store. We are making trips to the grocery store a few times a week. This is because things are smaller over here. A person can't buy anything close to a gallon of milk. Thus most of our trips are to get milk. Here are a few pictures of food we have purchased. Frozen pizza. This does not have sausage on it it has meatballs or kjottboller.
These are the largest sized for juice and milk. Then first milk is 1.5% milk fat and that's what Ave is drinking. On the end is skim milk and this is the largest size we can find. I found it funny that eple juice is apple juice and applesin is orange juice (thank goodness for the pics on the cartoons). Oh and everything is in paper cartoons, no plastic at all.
A pic of the sandwich bread. You can get this cut in the stores but we're hoping it'll last longer if we cut it ourselves. I find the bread dense and dry thus I am going to start making my own.
Chips come in like three flavors; paprika (kind of like barbque), sea salt and vinegar, and onion.
Soup usually comes like this, no campballs cans here. If you want to buy a can of Campball's soup is cost about $5.
Cereal, they actually have some American brands.
My new favorite thing. I'm guessing it's like Nutella which oddly enough I never ate in the States. I've been eating this stuff by the spoonful, it's yummy chocolaty goodness.

What happens when you leave a kid alone with paint

The Police Station and downtown.

On Monday we had to go downtown to the police station to turn in our passports so Ave and I could get our Visa's. This was an experience to say the least. We had to get to the police station before 7 am, to stand in line with the other immigrants so that when it opened at 8am we could get a front spot in another line were we got a number. With the exception of one lady that cut everyone was very polite and respectful about the place they took in line according to when they showed up at the station. Once we got our number we had to wait until 9am for the station to actually open and then we had to wait for our number to be called. The whole process took until roughly 11 am and by then Ave (and I) were getting pretty grumpy. This Monday we have to go back to pick up our passports stamped with our Visa's but luckily we don't have to wait in line this time and then once we get the passports we have to go to the tax office and fill out more forms.

After the police station we walked downtown to find a place to eat. We ended up at a coffee shop were we paid the equivalent of $50 for three sandwiches, a waffle for Ave, a latte, two hot teas and a glass of milk (it is not cheap to eat out here.) Then we wandered around a little. We hit a grocery store so my Mom could check out the local goods before getting on the bus back to the apartment. It was a long but productive day.
Trondheim Torg, a central square downtown.
The only McDonald's in Trondheim. Norwegians do not like corporations and shy away from places like McDonalds.
The family outside that place we ate.
Mom in front of an old building. Next time I'll read up on what it is.

Burger King, Trondheim has a few of these, apparently they like the King better than McD's.

The neighborhood

We don't have a car and we aren't sure when or if we are going to get one. Car's are very expensive over here and there are a ton of taxes. There is a registration fee, a winter snow tire fee (snow tires are required) a few for carbon emissions and gas runs about the equivalent of $10 a gallon. So for now we are taking the bus. The bus isn't cheap either it's about $5 or 30 kroner each way. So any trip is going to cost you at least $10. Jeff got a bus pass for the month which was roughly $200 and will run him about $100 a month from here on out. Things are not cheap in Norway. Waiting for the bus and trying to figure out our next stop. We take our backpacks everywhere because you have to pay for a plastic bag at the grocery store. You can bring your backpack in any store. Theft is not as much of a problem here as in the states and they seem to be much more trusting. When we get groceries we just load everything into our back packs.
The neighborhood.
View from one of the bus stops. This was taken while waiting for the bus to IKEA.
Same bus stop, the view from another angle. It was funny because at IKEA people were getting onto the bus with huge pictures. Apparently this is normal and a lot of people use the bus instead of driving cars.

Shopping is roughly twice as expensive as in the states. The grocery stores seem very expensive but we are finding out it depends on the products you buy. If we want brand names that we recognize from the states like Heinz ketchup we pay for the name. They have local brands that are cheaper, however, I feel better buying what I know I like so for now we are buying a mix of American products and Norwegian products. Funny things we have found out include; Norwegians in Trondheim do not eat ground sausage so you can't buy it in the store or get it on pizza, cheddar cheese runs the equivalent of $20 for roughly 12 oz, it is hard to find black beans and all products are smaller. Our fridge is shorter than I am, our dishwasher won't fit our large plates and our stove won't fit my large cookie sheets. Apparently in the States we are gluttons and don't even know it! You can't buy anything close to a gallon of milk here and skim milk only comes in small liter size containers. It is taking some getting used to but we are figuring it out. Jeff has lost like 25 pounds since he got here and we think a lot of it is due to the fact that high fructose corn syrup is illegal in Europe and they really don't use preservatives like in the states. Products are fresher but they also don't last as long. It's almost like shopping at the Good Food Store everyday!

Our Place

The apartment is surprisingly bigger than I expected. It's very bright and our stuff fits perfect. I'm kicking myself for not sending a table. I really didn't want anything to happen to our table since it's my favorite piece of furniture, so right now it's stored in my Grandma's basement back in the states. We don't have a car yet so I'm not sure when we'll be getting one but we're currently making do with TV trays. Here are a few pics of where we live.Playing in the snow. We got about 2.5 feet over the last week. This playground is right outside our building.
View from our front window.
Kitchen.

Ave's bedroom or as she says bedjoom.
Mom and Ave in the entry. Mom flew over with us and stayed for four days, thanks Mom couldn't have done it without you!

Where a table should be, but a really good place for the kid to ride her cozy coup and bike!

Our bedroom. (don't mind the mess it's cleaned up now!)
Separate shower area and bathroom or wash room.

Airplane Ride

We made it to Norway! After 21 hours of travel we finally touched down in Trondheim. Ave was a trooper. She only slept two hours the entire trip, which meant I didn't sleep at all. However with a couple of exceptions she was a wonderful traveler. The flight over the ocean lasted almost 9 hours and each of us had our own TV. I watched 4 Christmases and the Time Travelers Wife. Ave watched cartoons. That really made the time go by. When we got to Trondheim one of my bags didn't make it. We had to wait in line to find out why. At this point Ave was so exhausted she laid facedown on the floor at the airport and wouldn't move. Luckily the bag had just gotten placed on the later flight and they delivered it to me a couple of days later. All in all it was a smooth flight and not even close to as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Watching cartoons on the I pod.
Playing with her $1 Walmart animals.