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!