Category Archives: cross-cultural living

"Can" you figure this out?

We are settling nicely into our home and town. We have small victories and minor setbacks on a daily basis.

Today I was excited to make chili for dinner. That is, until I realized I don’t have a can opener. So I rummaged through drawers and came upon something…

Take a look at the picture. I have never seen anything like this before. I thought it must be a can opener, but couldn’t for the life of me figure it out.

Superman to the rescue… Zack worked with it and finally figured out how to use it. My hero!

I found out later from my aunt that it is just like one my great-grandmother used to use (hers wasn’t so rusty though!).

And for those who already expressed concern, we are all current on our tetanus shots!

Moving in the Right Direction

Looks like we have a home!Zack and William took the train back to Sandefjord on Monday to sign the lease, and we made a trip to the bank on Tuesday to make the deposit (our first banking experience here – success!). All looks to be in line for us to move in by Wednesday of next week!

We are renting the second floor of a beautiful home built in 1897. It has lots of windows, beautiful floors, and way more than any expectations than we had. The landlord has been great to work with so far, and we look forward to getting to know him and his family (including two sons not much older than our boys!).

Here is a sneak peak…

The view from the master bedroom
Living room
Kitchen (this is where God really knocked our socks off!)

Sandefjord

On Monday, we rented a car and drove to Sandefjord, the city where we will ultimately be living. We stayed two nights, toured the city, looked at several apartments, met with a local friend, and visited the boys’ school. We are incredibly excited about our new town and can’t wait to get settled there.
We have one apartment that looks to be a very good option – awaiting the final lease and all the details to fall into place. Hopefully we’ll have everything finalized early next week.
We are back in Oslo now, spending some time trying to learn about the city, the culture, and little bits of the language. Zack is excited to get to spend some time with several of his Norwegian friends tomorrow, and we hope to visit a couple of museums over the weekend.
It is SOOOOO cold for Georgia natives (supposed to get down to -16C tonight!), but we are thankful to have lots of warm clothes that make it bearable!
Here are a few pictures from Sandefjord:

 

 

 

 

Our first official Note from Norge!

And now we can officially live up to our blog title!

The last week and a half were a whirlwind, to say the least. But here’s the short version: we got permission to travel to Norway, and we are here!

We arrived late Friday evening. We were greeted by several friends and are now in our temporary apartment in Oslo. It is good to be here… and a bit surreal!

Jet lag is a killer. We slept well our first night, mostly from exhaustion I guess! But it is about 4:30 AM right now, and Zack & I are wide awake. Guess it will just take time to get adjusted!

We will write more as we get settled. For now, here are a couple of pictures from our first day here.

 

 

 

 

Christmas was great – sorry we’re late!

I always have the best intentions, and then I get behind on things. I can’t believe it is almost the middle of January and I haven’t even posted about Christmas!

This was our first Christmas away from extended family. It was weird, of course. Most of our normal routines and traditions were replaced with new ones. But it was also sweet and simple and full of great memories.
We went to a Norwegian church service a couple of days before Christmas. We picked up a few words here and there. And we followed the main stuff. How sweet it was to hear the beautiful language and pray that we will be able to understand even more by next Christmas!
Ready for the Norwegian Christmas service
On Christmas Eve, we made the trek to Grouse Mountain to enjoy their Christmas festivities. The boys had fun ice skating. We went on a sleigh ride, had lunch, explored a bit in the snow, and watched some Christmas cartoons.

That evening, we opened a few packages we had received in the mail, and opened gifts via FaceTime with some of our family. Then we had dinner at our local Indian restaurant – delicious!

Taste of Punjab

Christmas morning was filled with gifts, the reading of the Christmas story, FaceTime & Skype calls with family, and a big breakfast.

The boys gave Zack a new scarf
Breakfast!
Big hugs for thoughtful gifts – sweet brothers!

We hosted 8 others in our home for a big Christmas lunch. It was a wonderful time of food and friends: a great way to spend our first non-US Christmas Day!

Snow Day

It snowed overnight. Not a lot, so we got ready for class & school. Just as we were walking out, we received word that they had decided to cancel class, just to play it safe.What does that mean?

SNOW DAY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be it ever so humble…

(Two new posts in one day – be sure to check out the other below this one!)Our first Christmas away from the country we once called home. Away from the traditions we’ve shared since we married in 1998. Away from family. From friends. From our church.

It is definitely different! But we are making the most of it. We’ve seen some beautiful Christmas lights. We attended the big tree lighting party at the mall close to where we live. We went to Grouse Mountain and enjoyed festivities there. We’ve visited the (German) Christmas Market a couple of times. We bought a small tree and the boys have also made a few decorations.

In my mind, this Christmas will likely be referred to in years to come as Limbo Christmas. No longer in the states, but not yet on the continent where we feel God calling us. Most of our belongings in a crate, waiting to be shipped to that continent.

But we are thankful! We have learned our way around this city. We have a really nice apartment and are blessed to have a washer & dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, and two full bathrooms. The weather is manageable. We have made some good connections & some friends. We have received cards and packages from family and friends in the states. We have had fun baking cookies and watching Christmas movies with friends here.

We believe different can be a beautiful thing – especially when you are where God wants you to be. No matter where we are this time each year, we rejoice that it is Christmas, and that a little baby was born in a manger, bringing hope and salvation to all who will receive it!

Christmas Tree Lighting Festival

 

Decorations at a local mall
Enjoying a treat from Tim Hortons

 

Paper Chain Christmas Trees

 

William at his first skate lesson

 

Daniel at his first skate lesson

 

Vancouver Christmas Market (like a traditional
German Market)

 

Our retro tree (silver!) and the boys’ Canada stockings

 

Scandinavian lunch at a Bible study with our new friends
from the local Danish church
One of several care packages we’ve received in the mail –
the timing of their arrival always seems to be perfect
(God is in the details!)

 

Grinch Crinkle Cookies

 

Train ride at a local mall

 

Snickerdoodles
(Jenn’s Nana’s recipe)
Gifts received in the mail – the boys
are anxious to open them!

 

Snow Business

We spent a few hours at Grouse Mountain this past week. It was BEAUTIFUL! Being from Georgia, we would get excited if we saw a dusting of snow on the ground. So imagine our delight when we stepped of the gondola and found snow that was often knee-high on Zack (who is 6’5″!).
The boys went ice skating. We saw reindeer and visited Santa. We checked out a gingerbread display. Some friends met us later in the morning and we had lunch and explored some of the scenery (and threw quite a few snowballs!).

 

 

 

Sunny weekend

Whenever the sun is out, we try to take advantage of it! This past weekend was beautiful! So we explored Granville Island, Granville Street, and the area around Science World. We also attended the tree lighting in Surrey on Saturday night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One week down…

We are starting to get settled into our new routine, new surroundings, and new normal.
This past weekend we had some time to get out and get to know Vancouver a little better. Our apartment is in a suburb just east of the city. So there is much in the city that we haven’t seen yet. We had fun checking out a little of it on Saturday.
Sunday we attended a Danish Church not too far from home. They alternate weeks of having services in English or Danish – we happened to land on a Danish service! Even though Danish and Norwegian are similar, we still didn’t understand much. I did recognize when they talked about God, Jesus, or the days of the week, but that’s about it! The people were very friendly and interested in knowing more about us. The funniest moment of the day was when the children’s teacher came and introduced herself to us after church. She said “I could tell you were from the south by your boys’ Southern accents!” Too funny – our little Ukrainian-Americans and their apparent Southern drawl!
Here are some various pictures from the past week…

World’s Tallest Toy Soldier
New Westminster, BC

 

Some signs are just too fun to pass up without a pic…

 

Riding the Sea Bus

 

Exploring Downtown Vancouver
The view from our apartment
Fall is definitely here (okay, actually, it feels more akin
to winter in Georgia!
Ukrainian Church
Surrey, BC
Lonsdale Quay
North Vancouver, looking back to Downtown Vancouver
Two Handsome Boys
Waterfront Park in North Vancouver
Enjoying a day of exploration
A big uphill road in North Vancouver
Home of the Canucks (would love to see a game if
they NHL would get their act together!)
Chinatown – had a great lunch here on Saturday!
Snow began falling on the mountains over this
past weekend – so pretty!
Cool Lego Jack-o-Lantern at the mall near our apartment
Baked some yummy cookies, thanks to
a Pinterest recipe & the discovery of the ingredients at
a nearby discount store!