Hi

I got this mail from my wife...she is originally from South Africa but now we live in Norway I have posted some comments on some of the issues

Some views of foreigners (not necessarily mine) in Norway about being / becoming Norwegian
-You associate warm rice porridge with Saturday and xmas eve - what can I say...rice porridge is great with sugar, cinnamon and a bit of butter
-It seems sensible that the age limit at Oslo night clubs is 23 or 25.
-You find yourself debating the politics of Torbjørn Jagland he is the president of the parliment now but he has made some unfortunate remarks in the past
-You think there are no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing - that is correct...you can handle all sorts of weather if you just have the proper gear
-It seems nice to spend a week in a small wooden cottage up in the mountains, with no running water and no electricity ah...the Norwegian "hytte"
-You think cross-country skiing is the only *real* skiing.
-You know at least five different words describing different kinds of snow I think this is a slight exagerration. At least here in Stavanger we don't have that much snow
-The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is look for the queue number machine.
-You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number.
-A sharp intake of breath has become part of your active vocabulary.
-You associate Friday afternoon with a trip to Vinmonopolet (State wine monopoly) the price of alcohol is steep but the selection of wine at the State monopoly stores is excellent
-You think nothing of paying 75 NOK for a bottle of 'cheap' spirits at Vinmonopolet.
- Your native language has seriously deteriorated; you "eat medicine" and "go and lay yourself".
-You rummage through your plastic bag collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to the recycle centre.
-It's acceptable to eat lunch at 11.00 and dinner at 16.00.
-Your front door step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop.
-When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that:
he is drunk;
he is insane;
he is American;
he is all of the above.
-Silence is fun. (!!!)
-The reason you take the ferry to Denmark is:
duty free vodka
duty free beer
to party
-The only reason for getting off the boat in Copenhagen is to eat pizza.
-It no longer seems excessive to spend 500NOK on alcohol in a single night.
-Your old habit of being "fashionably late" is no longer acceptable.
-You know that "religious holiday" means "let's get pissed".
-You enjoy the taste of lutefisk.as a true Norwegian I guess I should work on this..it was not any good the last time I tried it
-You use mmmm as a conversation filler.
-An outside temperature of 9 degrees Celsius is mild (in mid June).
-You wear sandals with socks.
-You think riding a racing bike in the snow is a perfectly sensible thing to do (with or without snowtires)

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Gard,
Having never been to Norway most of that was over my head, but just for fun, I forwarded it to some friends of Norwegian descent.

(There's a large and active "Sons of Norway" organization here in the San Francisco Bay Area.)

OH MY GOD,GARD!!!!--- with the exception of a few things relating to cold weather and snow and the booze being expensive, LIVING IN NORWAY IS JUST LIKE LIVING IN HAMBURG GERMANY!!! I could have written this!!!

-Silence is fun. (!!!)

AH AH AH AH AH If there is talking on the bus in Hamburg, it is two foreigners!!!!

I never noticed the sound of silverware klinking in a restaurant until I lived in Hamburg!!! No one talks!!!

Your front door step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop.

Oh my God, I am dying here. This is so cathartic.

I could go on and on. I have always enjoyed your posts, Gard, please keep them coming!!!!

Diana

Hi

Well, many of the issues is of course exaggerated to make a point but there is quite a bit of truth behind most of the point on the list :-)

One of the funny point on the list is this:

-When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that:
he is drunk;
he is insane;
he is American;
he is all of the above.

I have an american brother-in-law and when we first came here we took him around in the area where we live and he would say hi to people that we met and we were like "What are you doing??"

But in Norway you can say Hi to total strangers too...but only when you go for walks up in the mountains...when you meet people in a situation like that it is very common to say Hi and to also do a bit of small talk. This is not usual in the city (like on the bus etc). It is strange but those are the "rules" :-)

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Gard,

Very similar to Germany. In the south, smalltalk and greeting eachother is relatively normal. In the north, however, if you say hi on the street or smile at a dog or a baby(God forbid)you'll get a look back like "What the hell do you want from me. Don't look at me, or my dog, or my baby!!!" After ten years of this, I just smiled to p--s people off

I found in Denmark, people were warm and friendly - it completely blew my theory that the further north you go, the cooler people are... although I have met a couple of Swedes who would have to be hit on the head with a brick to show any feeling at all

quote:

Originally posted by Diana Strinati Baur:
OH MY GOD,GARD

To paraphrase Diana, I would like to start with:

OH, MY GARD!!

Oh, Gard, are you sure your wife knows how to spell Norway? Maybe she meant Canada? Just a thought.

N.B.: Except for the "lutefisk", but I'm sure we have our own like stuff...

Doru,

Oh Gard,

i enjoyed this so much

Gard,

That was really funny! As a fellow Norwegian I could definitely relate. After having spent some years in the US and in Central America I always find myself wanting to chat with the busdriver, discuss with the sales clerks etc., but that is just not normal in Oslo! When I get on the bus at home I don't even say "One ticket for downtown, please", just "Oslo" like everyone else. And maybe "thank you" after the driver gives me my ticket and my change... Here in DC I am totally comfortable chatting up the busdrivers... And so true, when hiking in the mountains everyone is all of a sudden all talkative - how funny! Still, I miss Norway from time to time... A great place to have and raise kids, for instance, much more family friendly than the US (maternity leave, day care, short work days.) Then again, it is very cold...