A little update on the smalltownlife of Norway.. For thoose of you who don..t quite know where I live; if you find a map of Norway - and look to the fat part of it (it..s a loooong country, but kinda broad around the bottom (kinda like me..)) There you see an area that is green and grey- where everyone(including norwegians) think- "oh yeah- that..s where all the trees and mountains are- noone really lives there." THAT is were I spend my days. The smalltown I live in is split in to two by three tunnels (and occasionally, rocks slide unto the road between them, causing line-ups, road-work, death ect..). Between the two areas we have two doctor..s offices, two churches (but only one priest), two sport stores, five grocery stores (but none that sells chocolate raisins or minimarshmellows..), one decent coffeeshop-thingy (but the tunnels close at 9.30pm leaving me on the wrong side to return home..), no cinema, no training centre and get this; SEVEN hairdressers spread all about. One would think all the people here would have trendy hair, eh? But nono... not at all.

I have now spent 10 valuable months of my life here, and have gotten to know the total sum of 2 natives. I had a friend visit me for Easter who allmost laughed her head off, cause everytime I met a new person I was like- so are you from here? DO YOU STILL LIVE HERE?!?! Desperate for new aquaintences. ANyway- you get the point- someone obviously slammed the breaks on my social life. After living here three months I was asked to host the community..s Christmasparty (long story to how THAT happened), so not knowing a single soul I wandered around a room with 300 strangers including the mayor and all kinds of "VIP..s" singing and joking while wearing one of thoose Madonnamikes strapped to my cheek. No one can claim I..m shy.. You really can..t be shy when you move to a new place without knowing anyone. I did an awsome job and everyone loved me, but did they talk to me?? No, of course not.. I..m proud of my toughness though.

Not too long ago I was clued in on a group of penecostal Christians who meet weekly, and I was asked to check it out. The group is led by a woman of 96 years of age, and has four other members; two in their eighties, one in her sixties and a man around 50. It was quite the experience :) The 96 year old woman is AWSOME- she can hardly see nor hear and she keeps wanting to pray that Jesus can come and take her home.. But she is healthy as hmm.. well, let..s say a 70 year old, and has a great spirit. She said that they had also been praying for new and younger members who can come and take over the job of saving the lost souls of this village, and while I looked around the living room in the old-folks home and saw the five pairs of eyes sparkling, staring at me.. it wasn..hard to do the math- i was obviously the answer to their prayers. Looking into the eyes of the 50 year old, i also saw i might have been the answer to a differnt kind of prayer aswell, without going into the embarrasing details further. One of the members had a chat about typical pentecostal things- such as sin and hell.. not too much about grace and forgiveness and glory *sigh* and continued talking about all the sinners in the world who for instance wear make-up.. i laughed a silent laugh and said; hmm.. I guess that would be ME then?! Little did I expect the reply; "yeah- you were the one I had in mind acctually". Great. So needless to say- i wouldn..t exactly claim to have found a new church:)


A few months ago I moved into a bigger appartment after living in a veeery small room for 7 months (where the firealarm could og off just for showering..), so now I no longer bump into the bookshelf/TV/sofa/coffeetable when doing my pilates (yes, I acctually DO pilates quite frequently). This has solved so many problems in my life- not the pilates (well.. that too..), but the larger space! First of all I finally have a BEDroom! Yeah! I have room in my kitchen to cook proper food- to bake- to have guests over.. I can choose between several chairs and sofas.. I even have a veranda so I can sit outside on sunny days and watch the river flow by. I am such a happier person :) Just outside where I live are several trails to take walks on..Or to hike, might be better to say. Most of them go up-up-up into the mountains, and down-down-down back home again, so my knees haven..t been agreeing too much, but I..m getting used to it. All in all I..m happier, healthier, more laid-back, more peaceful and social. Not that I still don..t want to move away from this village all together. I totally do. But getting a larger place and to a better area definetly made it more livable here.

However there is one thing i find annoying here, and i would LOVE some feedback on how to solve this one.....; Thing is that I..ve never been a fan of getting commercial adds in the mail. First of all I never read any of them anyway. They just fill up my mailbox and garabagecan, and aren..t at all good for the environment. So I have reserved myself from this. I had a sticker on my mailbox signaling to the mailman that I..m not supposed to recieve such. But after two days I see that the sticker has been scraped off with a key-like item and Im back to getting my mailbox filled with crap. So I put up another sticker, but also this one disappears shortly after. Annoyed I use a dymo-writer with like SuperStrong glue and write out; No advertisement please. I also gaffa this sticker in place, just to make sure. So now I no longer get advertisement from the mailman BUT the plot thickens you see… cause everyday I get someone ELSES adds into my mailbox!! And I know that it isn..t the mailman that is doing this cause theese ones are folded unorderly- in shape to fit them into the slot of my postage area  I know this might be stupid to react on, but it is just soooo freakin annoying!! If anyone needs tips on how to get on a neighbour..s nerves- this is really effective! Cause I mean, it IS only paper, but i DON..T want them! And it takes me an extra trip out to the garabagecans everyday!! It..s not like I know any of the neighbours here either- so it can..t be a joke, and this has been going on for three months! Help, anyone??

Whew.. this turned out to be an insanely long blog.. sorry bout that 