Little to big.

I have to admit--I felt pretty darn Norwegian this Saturday. As soon as we woke up, Lars and I bundled up and walked to catch a bus up to Gåsbu where thousands of Norwegians were braving the cold to cheer on other Norwegians on skis.

Norwegians have got this spectating in the snow thing down--the mountain was covered with scarfed and mittened ski fans with Norwegian flags, signs, face paint and backpacks full of goodies--even furry companions were on the hill and in the spirit!

I brought my camera but took no pictures. Shame on me. But I was pretty much freezing (haven't turned completely Norwegian yet) ;). I did manage to snap a shot of the races with my trusty iPhone (which may be single-handedly responsible for ruining me as a photographer!) and another of my cool new co-worker Annie with her legit photography set-up! :)

I have yet to hit the slopes this winter and I'm really looking forward to it!

One of the highlights of our trip to the US (besides celebrating Christmas with my family of course!) was celebrating Lars' birthday at our first ever professional (American) football game!

We got in the spirit and into Seattle early and wandered through the tailgating area. It's slightly un-American to have never tailgated before the age of 26, I must admit, but I feel like we covered all the bases--we peed in Porta Potties, made friends with people we didn't know, ran into distant relatives, got our faces painted, drank wine with a straw and everything else out of red keg cups, and avoided free food after eating half of a obscenely undercooked bratwurst.

The fun continued in the stadium where we walked up and down 100 flights of stairs to buy overpriced beers, Mike's lemonades and garlic fries that smelled way better than they tasted. We yelled and screamed and jumped up and down with the other 60,000 people dressed in Seahawks green and blue and tried to avoid the unstable, drunk frat boy in the row behind us. He only fell once and landed on the sweet old man sitting next to us, luckily.

We had a great view and the Hawks won! What more could we possibly have wanted?

I love our couch. A lot.
It's big and brown and fabulously comfortable.

I have fallen asleep on the couch plenty of times. It's actually a habit of mine I quite enjoy. I even do it on purpose (don't we all?). But I'm talking power naps--nothing that exceeds 20 minutes to an hour or so.

But early this week, I managed to fall asleep watching tv after work around midnight (in my work clothes!) and didn't wake up until 5 am the next day. That, for me, is TIRED.

The explanation for this exhaustion (besides remainders of some nasty jet lag)(did I mention I was in the US for Christmas?) was the aftermath of a humongous event that my work catered.

We fed and served 1600+ people at Idrettsgalla 2013 in Hamar. The closest comparison I can come up with if you aren't familiar with the Norwegian event, is a smaller-scaled ESPYs--a televised awards show where athletes receive awards. So yeah, a big deal. On live tv, celebrities, the prime minister, ties, fancy gowns: really cool.

And really daunting, really a lot of planning and last minute preparations and stress and coordination and and and... you get the drift.

And it was also apparently reeaaallly exhausting because as much as I love our couch, I love our bed even more.

Winter came early this year. And then melted away. And then came back, and melted again. There is nothing worse or more dangerous weather-wise than wannabe-Winter-come-too-early.

It's really weird that it is mid-November and it has been raining cats and dogs all day. I thought I lived in Eastern Norway?!

I'm as confused as the seasons!

It's been awhile since I have written anything at all, and even longer since I've written about the challenges facing immigrants in Norway. This is most likely because I finally figured out my own work/living situation, have been granted permission to work and have been working my ass off ever since!

But there are many other people that are struggling with creating lives here. Emily Stange is one of these people. She moved here with her American husband and their daughter, and brought 6 years education and 12 years of work experience with her.

But this was still not enough for the Norwegian authorities to recognize her as a midwife in this country. Paperwork, technicalities and what seems to be arbitrary bullshit (for lack of a better term) has been standing in her way for over two years now.

For those of you who can understand Norwegian, check out this news link where they interview Emily and visit her home (for an English translation, visit Emily's blog).

Does anyone have any solutions? 
Keep your hopes up Emily. Something has to work out soon!

Mer info på norsk, Bent Høies tanker.