Foundation poured. Does paint dry faster?

 The digging and excavating for the addition began last week. It's amazing what a mess a few big digging machines made of our yard. I'm also a bit surprised at how slow this part of the process feels. It's been over a week, but there's only a 3-foot high foundation sitting there. Granted, there is this huge hole as well. . . And did I mention the mess?


Inside it feels like we've made more progress. The kitchen is completely sheetrocked. Our front hall and downstairs bath tile has been delivered. And today, Erik and our carpenter removed the stairs (from the first to second floor). We have ordered stairs--as a complete finished package--that will arrive sometime next week. Erik had seriously considered building them himself, but in the end decided he already had enough
on his plate. Wise decision, my friend.


Check out the door on on the back side of the house: if you look closely, you can see that on the inside there is a smaller window framed in, and yellow insulation surrounding it and completely covering the door. That will be our kitchen window over the sink. There will be no door. But Tika doesn't quite understand this. She's been running through the house--in front door, out back door--in back door, out front door--for the last 4 months. Despite the fact that from the inside there is no door visible anymore--covered with plastic, insulation and now sheetrock--she still goes and sits in front of the "door" and looks at us expectantly. . . can you, please please please, open the door and let me out of this dangerous and noisy hell hole? I just want to go sit in my bed in the back of the car and take another nap. . . 

So tempting, I might almost join her

First outdoor spring nap. . .

Spring is sprunging here in Lillehammer. Yesterday the temps hit +9C (uhh 48F), and today Tika deemed spring officially here by taking her first nap on the sun-drenched porch. You can see by the hillside behind her that we still have plenty of snow: a good 2 feet deep on most parts of the yard. But everyday reveals more and more hillside and more and more dog poop, so I, too, know spring has arrived.

Doggy Worries Part 2

My worrying didn't pay off this time. Tika's got hip dysplasia.

I took her to the vet on Monday for her x-ray, and she was given a sedative and allowed to fall asleep (really just sleep, not put to sleep) on my lap on a couch off the main waiting room. It was really very sweet and cozy, and then the vet came in with an assistant to carry my sleeping 77lb dog into the x-ray room, and Tika's head popped up, eyes wide, ears all perky, and he said, "maybe a little more sedative then. . . "

It's discouraging, and sad, and we are bummed. On the other hand, our vet didn't ban Tika to a life of neighborhood walks and no ball-chasing. He acknowledged that she has been a very active dog, and that she won't be happy if she's not out running around with us in the woods and on the snow. He just encouraged us to back off on her miles--no more 40km weekend skis with Erik. But to be honest, we've been backing off those really long skis already, sensing that she was slowing down a little. We'll just back off even more. 

And, we'll just watch how she does. . . monitor her for signs of increasing pain. I've got a call in to our trusted vet back in New Hampshire (Dr. Kim Jones at Stoneybrook Vets), just to see how she would treat Tika in this situation. That's one thing I'm discovering here: I feel like the medical and now veterinary care we've gotten here is good. . . but I always wonder "is this what we'd do in the US?" It's really hard to let go of what you know, what's familiar. Especially in times of stress.

She's been started on pain medication (a Cox-2 inhibitor, for those of you who are curious--Previcox), and we'll likely start a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement as well. There's a special "joint" food available, but in the past Tika hasn't tolerated a lot of messing with her diet. We're hoping she'll tolerate the food, as it would save us the money for the supplements. As it is, the pain pills are about $2 a day--in Norway and the US. Getting a stash sent to us from the US won't save us any money (already checked). In fact, it seems like it might be one of the few things thus far in Norway that's cheaper here than in the US. My dog's pain pills. Excellent.

Doggy Worries

Tika's left hind leg has been shaking lately, the whole leg has tremors in it, unpredictably and inconsistently. It tremors when her little stubby tail wags, and shakes when she simply stands alert in the kitchen eyeing our table scraps. Other times it's fine. Erik and I skied with her yesterday, with Tika in the ski-joring harness, and I was able to watch her hind legs pretty closely. She doesn't seem to touch down very heavily on her left leg when she's trotting along at an easy gait, but when she's running all out, she seems fine. She doesn't limp when walking or running, and eagerly sprints and springs around the yard.

We took her to the vet on Friday, a nice guy who has an American mother himself, and he kindly speaks English with me. (These things are important when it comes to stuff I really want to understand). He is concerned about hip dysplasia, and we'll have her x-rayed on Monday to check this out. This is weighing heavily on my mind, what this could mean for Tika's future. . . her activity level, namely. She loves to run, loooves to ski with us, and I just can't imagine spending the rest of her days taking her on leisurely walks.

Honestly, this is quite ridiculous

This is not going to win me any winter-time visitors, but I feel I must report on the current goings on in Lillehammer. There is a cold snap in central and southern Norway that I am being reassured is highly abnormal for late November/early December. This morning it was -6F, and at 1pm this afternoon it is now a balmy +5F. Forecasts for Friday have temps around -25C, which according to my handy converter is about -13F.

Now before anyone thinks, "Well, Emily, you moved to Norway. . . what did you expect?" I will say I was expecting it to get cold, just not this soon! Minnesota and Vermont have their fair share of bitterly cold weather, usually deep into January, so I am well accustomed to cold cold weather. But I was led to believe that Lillehammer had winters not unlike Minnesota, not like, oh I don't know, somewhere really really cold.

Tika begged and pleaded with her big brown eyes to be let out last night around 10pm, but once the door opened and that cold air hit her, she backed up out of the door, turned around, and went straight to her bed.

I read in the paper today (really I did!) that Storbrittania (can you guess where that is?), okay, Great Britain is also experiencing record breaking cold temperatures, also around -15C. On the other hand, in northern Norway, where one might expect it to be colder, it is actually above freezing! To which I say in my best childlike-taunting voice, "Welllllll. . . . . I've got Sunshine, Yes I do! I've got Sunshine, How about You?"

Language learnin' . . . (now with a Tika update!)

My Grand Plan, upon arriving in Norway, was to immediately sign up for language classes and fully immerse myself in Norwegian. I have a Norwegian textbook and workbook that are used in American colleges, and I had dabbled in learning Norwegian in the months leading up to our move in August. But everyone kept telling me "oh, you'll learn it when you get there."  True. . . but it's not so easy.

Even Tika is learning Norsk.
Here I caught her studying "Se og Si", which is
pronounced "say oh see" but really means
 "See and say," which is so confusing I
still don't have it straight in my head after 4 months.

The week after we arrived in Norway, we went to the Volksenoplæringen (community learning center) to register for a norsk kurs. A first level class had started the week before, which I was hoping to join, but was told the course was full and I couldn't be squeezed in. The next class would start in. . . November. (Now, as I write this in November, you think "that's not so far away,"  but when I was told this in AUGUST, it felt very far away). This was not a part of my Grand Plan.

So, in the meantime, I continued my efforts at home in hopes that I might join the second level class come November. Just last week I received a phone call from the learning center informing me that the November class won't actually start until JANUARY. I politely explained how I hoped to join the second level class, and would this be possible. I was then tersely informed that "that class is full, and there is no room for you." Perhaps they didn't mean to be terse, and it was just the fact that they were being succinct with their English-as-a-second-language skills. But if felt really crappy.

I'm really not happy about what feels like my only option to join a first level class FIVE months after we arrive here. I've essentially covered a semester's worth of material at home on my own. I've also recently discovered a website with interactive assignments to be used with the Norwegian text they use at the learning center, and I've breezed through the first 12 chapters of that.

On the other hand, I'm also not convinced that attending classes at the learning center will be all that I hope it will be anyway. I've had at least 4 sources who have either first- or second-hand knowledge of the courses tell me the courses move extreeeeemely slowly, which can be very frustrating for the motivated student who wants to learn as quickly as possible. I've been told the slow pace is due primarily because the courses are mostly filled with asylum refugees who may have little formal education, no knowledge of a Germanic language, and are essentially being paid by the Norwegian government to attend classes and therefore have little incentive to learn quickly. This sounds pretty racist when I put it down in black and white (it also sounds rather black and white), and I am just reporting what I've been told, and haven't witnessed myself. But it does make me wonder if my expectations for these courses are way too high.

In the meantime we've come up with a few alternatives, with suggestions from other English speakers who have successfully learned the Norwegian language in Norway. I'll continue to hit the books at home; we'll actually try to watch more TV--Norwegian TV, and hopefully with subtitles; listen to the radio, even if it's just background noise; read newspapers and magazines; and finally, go to a 3rd grade elementary school class!

This last suggestion was made by at least two American friends now living in Norway, and was made possible by one of Erik's colleagues who has a 3rd grader at a local school. The school is an "open school", which quite honestly I don't know what that means, aside from the fact that parents are welcome to visit as much as they wish. The 3rd grade teacher, who I will call A., was very open to the idea of me coming. So last Friday, I attended my first day of Norwegian 3rd grade.

Those are some smart little Norwegian kids. Their Norwegian is so good! They speak so quickly! ARG! Maybe I need a remedial 1st grade class!

I've attended about 4 days (only 2-3 hours a day) of school thus far, and I can understand the jest of the topic of conversation, but not usually the details that are rather important. Such as "students. . . conjugated verb. . . book. . . . you can. . . . table.  .  . conjugated verb. . . lunchtime. . . . red car." It's very overwhelming, even though there are absolutely no expectations that I do anything. I've listened to a morning theme discussion about Hindu-people and how they pick a baby's name, the Stoneage people and what the first housepets were (goats and pigs, in case you're wondering), math class about volume, learning to write a cursive "R" and "r", and crafts where they sewed a button onto a felt pouch they had made and braided a handle. That was the first time I felt I could actually communicate with some of the kids.

Erik and I plan on visiting the learning center soon, and make a personal plea to let me join the second level class, letting them know that there is essentially a job awaiting me as soon as my Norwegian is "okay". We're hopeful this might melt their icy Nordic hearts.

Snowy hike

A few pictures taken yesterday afternoon around 3:30pm, on a snowy hike with Tika. It was nearing sunset, so the trees were taking on a pinkish hue.

Warm doggy

"How is Tika?" is a question I hear from friends and family.

Tika is a big fan of the fireplace. Here are a few image taken throughout the day of her warming her toesies by the fire. I would venture to guess that she is warm and content.