March came with promises of sunny weather, snow drops and tender feelings. I embrace it as hard as I can, I let it lead the way, stumbling down a couple of times, two steps forward and one step back, then all the way, head first. I feels like falling, but in a good way, probably like parachuting- free fall and yet you know there´s someone there to catch you.;-)
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Xmas Eve and Xmas Brunch
Christmas in Norway is entirely destined to family. Whereas in Romania you´re expected to be at home during the day, but can choose go out for a drink with friends in the evening, in Norway, most places are closed and the city turns into a ghost town. It´s literally like in Oliver Twist, you can walk around peeping inside people´s apartments and see them dining and feasting and you´ll feel like the loneliest person alive.
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Conference, dog-sitting and such
How are you? I´ve had a productive start on this week, attended a two-days conference on HIV and made a new friend, too. (And a stalker, for that matter.) A couple of colleagues interpreted into English and so I spent both days listening to them and felt my chest raise with pride! Wow, the things we can do, it´s amazing! I won´t pretend to be at the same level as they are, I´m relatively new at this job and irrespective of my endeavour to be noticed, there aren´t as many conferences in Romanian! 😉 Not in Norway, at least. 😉 Continue reading
Halloween and Flea Market Saturday
We had a great day yesterday serving waffles and coffee to friends and their children, playing spooky with Sam and his little disciples, as well as looking for Beo (the cat), who´d gone into hiding from all that clamour. We sold quite a few things and are holding our breath hoping that more people will knock on our day today, too. 😉
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Garlic buns
Hi again! Yesterday we had the very Norwegian “dugnad” – community (somewhat) voluntary work. For the record I can´t stand anything that reminds me of communism, but it was about time I showed up since I had only participated once before in 4 years and people tend to notice. 😉 I took Sam with me and we rolled up our sleeves and did some gardening work in the back yard. We were a handful of people and in less than an hour I was done with my chores, so I could just drink some coffee and eat some soup to warm myself up. Throughout the whole seanse Sam was ecstatic, playing with some party flags, a football, then laying in the pile of leaves and sniffing everybody as soon as they arrived.
A lovely fall day
Yesterday I was a bit under the weather, feeling lazy and lacking energy. I´d already decided it was about time to take Sammy for a walk in the woods and so I sticked to it, although I got a couple of “better” offers from friends- coffee in the city, for the record. 😉 But as a mother you need to put your baby ahead of yourself and so at 11 o´clock we were already on our way to Frognerseteren for the first time this fall.
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Matstreif
Saturday we had a food festival in town- Matstreif. I had a coffee date with a couple of friends, but I was running late since I couldn´t take Sam with me (he tends to get a bit annoyed around big crowds) and so I ended up checking out the happening on my own. The amount of people was insane! The moment I climbed down from the bus I felt like taking one in the opposite direction straight away. But I was there with a purpose- I wanted some cheese, a new cook book and a svele (the fantastic Norwegian pancake!), so I couldn´t leave until I´d got what I´d come for. 😉 
Another week has gone by
Long time, no see. I was busy with my guests, who left on Wednesday afternoon, then worked long hours on Thursday and then summer came back to Norway, so I had to make sure I enjoyed it properly! 😉 Actually summer came back on Wednesday, so we´ve been frantic about staying outside in the sun, drinking ice coffee and white wine, going to the beach and so on. 
August
August has been awesome so far! The weather is pretty on and off and makes me long for Greek beaches and cloudless skies, but our social life has been amazing. My brother is visiting with his wife, yesterday was V´s birthday and the rest of the crew is back from holidays. Later on this month a friend is coming over with her boyfriend for a short holiday and at the end of the month- my mom and auntie will be visiting us, too. 
Sunny day
A couple of days ago we had great weather and we enjoyed the afternoon by the beach. We couldn’t be bothered to take a boat and spend the entire day on an island, so Sørenga, a 15 minutes walk from home, sounded most appealing. With an ice-coffee in our hand and Sam in the lead, the world was a pretty awesome place to be.
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