Holidays, Later Days, Always

A turkey carrying a turkey...

When you're an expat, there are three, different ways you can spend a holiday:

1) You go back to your home native country.  This is, in most cases, the preferable route.  You go back to the place where you grew up, eat familiar foods, see familiar people, and pretend like everything isn't awkward.

2) You make the best of it in your current new home country.  You can scour the internets for recipes and/or beg your mom to mail you possibly customs violating goodies.  If your new land also celebrates the holiday (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa… no) you can try to incorporate their traditions into your own (If your partner is from said country, "can try to" is replaced with "will"… Compromise is the spice of life!)

3) You can pretend like it's just another day even though it's not and nothing is open.  You can't even order Chinese food here on certain days.

Anyway, I tried doing #3 during the time I was in Belgium, it's not much fun (I remember subsisting on  cheese, bread, and jam on Good Friday… Ok.  There wasn't much cheese.  Or bread).  Since that experience, I've decided to only do #1 or #2.

As funds are tight and both Thanksgiving and the Christmas were over these past, two months, I did both.

THANKSGIVING

I'm not sure what's the best part of the trans-atlantic flight.  The moment the plane lifts off and the journey itself actually hits you or the moment you take your sip from the first, complimentary alcoholic beverage.  Thanks to SAS' draconian law of banning free booze on international flights (Btw, here's a list of airlines that keep their passengers lubed up… If there's not too big of a difference, definitely worth it to fly Lufthuansa), I only had the first option to choose.

Regardless, I landed home for the first time since the Ravens' won the Super Bowl (important to point out as this will be the first, post-season without play-offs in Baltimore since SRB took City Hall).

It was fun.  The food was awesome (Top, three meals I miss:  1) Wings; 2) Maryland Crabs; 3) Korean BBQ; 4) Fish Tacos… I know I said three, but I couldn't limit myself).

Though, the thing that's hardest about traveling home as an expat isn't the time away, it's what changes when you're away.

My parents had gotten older.  My siblings were becoming more like my parents.  I got to see my nephews and nieces.  They're growing up too fast.  I got to see my friends.  They're becoming the adults we thought we'd never be.  I got confused driving around the hometown I'd spent every summer in since 1986 (This was the first summer since then where I didn't spend a single day there).

The worst of all is that I felt behind in all the conversations.  Even if I'd been sitting in the room/car/bar stool for the beginning, I constantly felt myself saying "What?" and "Who?" during stories and talks with the people who'd once been so intricate in my daily life.  I couldn't pretend like it wasn't weird, because, often, the speaker was looking at me in just such a manner.

People asked me how come I hadn't been updating my blog.  I was surprised they were reading (Thanks, nation of 8,000!).  I didn't really have an answer I could tell them.  It feels weird and overdramatic to say what I really felt.  I didn't write because I didn't know what to say anymore.  I was a stranger to a life I had always lived.

CHRISTMAS

I landed back in Norway in early December.  I had to turn in my paper at the dreaded UDI to renew my residence permit.  I passed the weeks in labor disputes about some work I had performed (tl;dr) and unsuccessfully hiding the Christmas gift I'd purchased for my wife.

It also gave me time to savor/miss all the things I'd experienced when I was home.  Riding the metro.  Neighborhood bars.  Brunch.  Watching sports at normal hours.  The list goes on.

Though, soon it was time for the season.  We got a Christmas tree and were soon on our way across the mountains to her hometown.

And so we spent Christmas.

I got to celebrate many of the Norwegian traditions, like dancing around the Christmas Tree and drinking a lot of champagne (the picture on the website is from my first, Norwegian Christmas) and aquavit.

I enjoyed it.  The food was good (Pinnkjøtt and Ribbe!), I already said the drinks were good, but, the most important thing was that it was a home.  My wife's family and friends made me feel like I was apart of the group and not an outsider.

Which is an important thing.  As an expat, you're constantly straddling with one foot in both your native and present worlds.  It's not so much a balancing act (I realize the term "straddle" can intimate a need for balance), but one of a willingness to adapt and amend.

I've come to learn over this journey of being an expatriate that it's not about stripping anything away, but what one can add.

The life I live may not be one I set out to lead or one I'm fully comfortable in yet, but it's one that I'm happy to own.  It's not about what I don't have or am not anymore, but the things I'm building.  Stay with me.

I'm still building.

Thanks for reading and now a word from our sponsors…

ALT FOR NORGE

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Buy my non-Norway based book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-New-Normal-ebook/dp/B008M0GPW2

Thanksgiving in Norway

In previous blog entries, I have noted that there are some Fall holidays here in Norway, but nothing remotely close to the American celebration of Thanksgiving.  The lack of the holiday may be a good thing as there was no systematic genocide of an indigenous people to commemorate... but hey, why focus on the negative?  Turkey is delicious!

Who needs a baster?  We get it in with a ladle, son! 

So... What did your American-in-Norway do to commemorate the day?  Well... I moved a mattress.  

I guess that requires some background.  You see, our mattress here has been the source of much consternation (i.e. griping in the morning when awaking with sore backs) for some time and, buoyed by the holiday spirit, it was time to purchase a new bed.  

For anyone whoever said that "vacations" and "bathroom habits" are the tests of a relationship has never had different bed preferences than their significant other (alert: First World Problems!!!).  After an hour in Norway's Bed Center (really, that's the name... Norges SengSenter.  It really might be one of a few, non-IKEA bed options in the Eastern part of the country), we were deadlocked between the Memory Foam Mattress (my pick largely based on the commercials I use to see in the States all the time... I have no shame admitting that) and the HR Foam.  After countless trials on each (don't worry, I'm almost done), my inability to differentiate gave the deciding vote to the HR Foam (in hindsight, it was the right choice... better support).  Awesome.  The bed was delivered on Thanksgiving Eve and, to my chagrin, the removal of the old one was going to be almost 100 dollars (550 nok).  Not having it.

So.  The following day, me and a good friend took the leftover mattress down to my storage unit to await an unsuspecting dugnad dumpster.  Progress!

So, uh yeah, where do we put the unwanted beds?

For the actual celebration, we had to wait until that Saturday.  Friends came over and the lady cooked her tail off (Squash Casserole, Candied Yams, Mashed Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans, Stuffing, Pumpkin pie, Apple Cake, and a stupendous turkey)

friends brought goodies (wine, beer, aquavit, and scallop potatoes with bacon)

So yeah... It was a great celebration.  We went around the table and said what we were thankful for over the past year, we laughed and shared stories about each other, and we played a board game.  Most importantly, we enjoyed, and were thankful, for each other's company.  Which, regardless of where you are or come from, is the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

Alt for Norge

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Absentee and Norwegian Cuisine

Due to the course of human life continuing even when unnoticed, the every four year cycle has returned again.

It's election time...

This is a big deal for me because I have never filled out an absentee ballot.  I figured it would be pretty easy.  I could log-in to a secure, government server, punch my ballot online, and be done with it.  Seriously, this was the 21st century, I sort of expected there would be an app for it.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case...

Though, with good reason, it seems the internet is still the wild west...

So, while I was able to register online (oddly, they make you go through the whole registration process like you're signing up to vote all over again...), I had to print out my actual ballot and mail it in.

The process was very convoluted and almost self-defeating in a way (in addition to having to fill out an awkwardly constructed, questionaire-like sheet with my ballot choices, there was very specific instructions.  You cannot erase.  You cannot use anything but a #2 pencil... which is weird because a human would look at it, not a machine...), I pressed on.  Though, I felt somewhat guilty voting on some of the choices.

The obvious options (President, Senator, District Representative... shout out to Elijah Cummings!, Same sex marriage, expanded gambling) were easy, as I'd read up on those all summer during my sabbatical/diaspora, as well as followed the developments via internet channels.  However, choosing who I wanted for School Board Representation wasn't easy.  I had no clue who any of the people were and I wouldn't be affected by the choices, as I was some years removed and don't have any children or extended family in the school system.  Thankfully, the internet provided a snappy detailing of the candidates (including one who is a senior at my alma mater... Yes, a 17-year-old is running for the School Board.  Only in America)

In other news, awesome girlfriend provided me with two, new Norwegian dishes.

Fårikål

My Take: The dish was very tasty.  It's an interesting thing with culture.  There are people who live thousands of miles away from each other and have no interaction, yet, there are a lot of dietary similarities.  I make that observation because, growing up, my mother (who learned it from her maternal  side consisting of Caribbean and Native American roots) would often stew cabbage with meat (albeit, that was usually turkey or pork... there were occasions when the meat of choice would be sheep).  Anyway, I had never quite had a meal prepared in this matter and I'm glad to have added it to my dietary experience.

Klubb

My Take:  Another, awesome dish and experience.  Klubb are potato dumplings, but done in a way that is slightly different than how I've ever had them (personally, pierogies are still king).  They're a mixture of mashed, boiled potato and grated, raw potato, drizzled (or drenched... I don't have a good hand for pouring) with butter and ate alongside salted meats and beer.  

These two dishes are traditional, fall dishes that helps me to feel even more Norwegian.

oh, and shame on me for not talking about the awesomeness that is Lefse earlier... it is like a churro, but not nearly as messy and with your mouth feeling like it may cry with enjoyment.  Or something like that...

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Alt for Norge

1 month in...

So... After three failed attempts at blogging (in a twist of irony, I may resurrect armchair all-americans while abroad), here we go again.  At first, I didn't want to do it, but, as I've come to realize, its the best way to keep everyone up to date on my travails without having to tell the same anecdotes in a million emails (I wish I knew how to do footnotes... but seriously, a piece of you dies each time you have to recycle the same half-funny joke).

That being said.  Short recap for those of you who don't know me or why I'm writing a blog.

I am an American who relocated to Oslo, Norway hence the semi-funny title (it'll get better, I promise... money-back guarantee)

That was really easy.

So.... How has the first month gone? (footnote 2: photo albums are on my Facebook)

Great.  I spent Christmas in the cozy, hometown of my girlfriend on the west coast of Norway. Enjoyed some new food :| and some really great food!.  Along with doing a lot of the traditional, Norwegian customs... oh, and I also got to experience aquavit.

Next, was New Years.  A simple plane, train, and car ride took us up to the middle of the country, amidst bustling metropolises with welcoming names.  Here, we drank more aquavit and I got to try Tuborg, which has become my second favorite beer here behind, Ringnes.  Oh, my girlfriend also built the best ice couch ever and our champagne froze in our glasses.  Minus 10 Celsius + ain't no joke.

Since then, its been a fun array of going to Norwegian language class and getting to know the city.  I went cross country skiing and didn't do too bad (those pictures should be up on Facebook soon).

So yeah... that's pretty much it.  I'm going to try to update this weekly or whenever something happens.  I hope you guys have enjoyed it and just comment or message me any questions.


Rap lyric I'd incorporate into a song if I were a rapper:
The path less chosen, chose me instead, though/ Now I'm an expat like Drew Bledsoe