No More School For Jeremy

...On Rainy Days!

Jeremy came back from school today and announced he didn’t want to go to school anymore; which surprise us since he loves school. I first thought he was missing his old friends (which he does and China in general) but it wasn’t a friend problem, it was a weather problem (tell me about it!).  He told us that in fact he would only not go to school when it’s raining. Oh buddy let me tell you something between you and me: if you don’t go to school when it rains you are not going to go often!

Living in Norway, you’d better learn quickly to live like the Norwegians, i.e rain or shine (well it’s more like rain or rain) you keep on… living. Jeremy learned today at school that when it’s time to go to recess and the weather is not clement (!) you need to put your rain gear on… and since mommy is not at hand at school he need to put the raingear all by himself!!

What you see in a school hallway in Norway from January 1 to December 31 (give or take a day)

Lunch With Friends...

...Or Is It a "Business" Meeting?

First lunch today with newfound friends which makes me on one hand happy to start making a life for myself here and sad of the memory of our (more than) weekly Let’s Do Lunch in Beijing!

I talked about the importance of Business Cards in China and Lunches but let me refresh your memory:

The Business of Business Cards
Yes I know it is not technically a BUSINESS card…. 'cause who am I kidding, going around having tea with friends does not qualify as business or does it? In fact, this is where I meet with potential clients (read: friends), exchange business plans (read: clues to the best bargain places, How to live here) and I sometimes even have business lunches when we discuss potential outsourcing (read: finding the best ayi -babysitter/maid- in town) or where international expansion (read: next must-do vacation) are debated. Maybe I should rethink my business plan and introduce myself as CEO™ (Chief Everything Officer) for the multinational company SUITER (French, American, Argentinean and Scottish) searching new ventures (expat’ lifestyle) worldwide (North America, South America, Europe and Asia so far). What do you think, should I have them remade with my new title?

But it doesn’t really apply much here: No best bargain places and definitely no potential outsourcing!  I guess the share holders of Suiter 'n Co. have decided that the core business should be re-center to the family (I strongly opposed but I only have one vote!).  I’m still the Chief in Charge, Treasurer remains Jeff, and Chloe & Jeremy are non-executive partners. My new title is "Supermom/Multitasker". Everyday I combine the skills of event organizer, household manager, family counselor, personal shopper, housekeeper, chauffeur and even diplomat just to keep the family lives running smoothly!

My Business card doesn’t look too businessy nowadays!!!. Oh and by the way I don’t like the English term: "Business Card".  Only people doing “business” should have one? In French it’s called a Carte de Visite, Tarjeta de Visita in Spanish, Biglietto da Visita in Italian, in Norwegian it’s Visittkort (all meaning more or less “Visiting Card”) and in Chinese it’s 名片 (Ming2 Pian4 – literally Name Card). No business and all about visits.... I like it.

Here’s my card if you want to come for a visit...No business, please

What Happened...

...To IKEA?

Since I needed some hangers (see previous post!) I went to my “favorite” (familiar might be a more correct word!) store: Ikea.

But when Tom told me I had arrived to my finale destination I was a little bit confused:

What happened to IKEA? It’s supposed to be yellow and blue just like the Swedish flag but no here it’s red, plain old red?!

Hanger Management…

...Once Again

Some of the experiences are very similar when you first arrive to a new country so I am shamelessly going to recycle and reuse an old post: "Hanger Management" (first posted here)

No, no you read it right… there is no misspelling. I meant to put that H. I might write another post without the H but for now I want to talk about the business of clothes hanging!!!!

I realized one day that I must have bought more hangers in my entire life than anything else.
Well it’s simple, each time we are moving somewhere this is probably the first thing on the list. You see we are always asked to move with the essentials (well you don’t put a lot already with 4m3 worth of personal belongings so you may as well forget about bringing the hangers!!) so as soon as we start to unpack in a new place guess what we need !! So off we go and buy more hangers. That’s already the 7th time for me (Denver, Houston, Paris, Buenos Aires, Aberdeen, Pau and Beijing). I tried them all and I came to the conclusion that they are basically all the same…. doing a pretty good job of hanging my clothes.
And some people think expat life is all about glamour…. Well for us it’s all about Hangers!! And off we go to Ikea because you can never have too many hangers!!

But I might have found the solution of my Hanger problem!

Space saving and recycling all at once

What's For Supper?

Going grocery shopping is usually one of the first things you have to do when you first move to a new country. There is no gracing period; the troop need to eat no matter what and this first official outing can be a little daunting. What will I find? What will be missing on my must-have list of items?

Each country has its own way of arranging items in their stores and it’s often a challenge for the first few weeks to remember where everything is. Habits of different countries start to blend in and what should take half an hour to an hour can eat most of your morning while still missing half of what you actually needed.

The other challenge is to buy the right products with the little knowledge of the local language you can remember. Grocery shopping with a dictionary in hand is NOT something you want to do: How do you say butter, salt butter, margarine? How about whole milk, half/skimmed milk? The first few weeks are usually critical in our family as I buy products which will be tasted in situ and when I finally find the ones that please the taste buds of my worldwide culinary experts I stick to it until the next move. But the judges are always happy when we are in a country that sells Nutella!!!

Who knows, we might miss it when we leave!!!

Sorry Mr Wang...

...I Have a New Man in My Life

Kids are in school, husband at work and I’m the one who has to make a home out of this new house.

While kids get adjusted to their new school and husband to his new office, the wife (or Trailing Spouse as we are often called) is the one who has to find everything to make this new place a family place and I need all the help that I can get. So right now, Tom is my best friend:

TomTom to the rescue

While Tom understands everything I tell him; I first do need to know what I want and where I want to go. Just a few months ago I only needed to know what I wanted and Mr Wang would know where to go. OK first he had to understand what I wanted in my Chinglish but that’s behind the point and some of our conversations made great memories!

The good old time!

I Want My Own...

...Weekly Planner Too

So we are all moved in, the boxes have been opened and partially emptied and now the house really looks like a mess. I need to get rid of the cardboard boxes and  in the process I found out that the trash system has its own color coded calendar. So not only do I need to keep a Google calendar (so it’s accessible from everywhere and from everybody involved!) of Jeremy’s activities, Chloe’s activities and Jeffrey’s whereabouts but also a calendar for my trash! Thankfully MY personal calendar is very simple right now (see Jeremy’s, Chloe’s and Jeffrey’s!)

Now if I can only remember which day of the week they come to collect....

With this trash calendar comes the inevitable question each time I will throw something in the bin: which color is this piece of trash?  If it’s a residual waste it needs to go in the black container, a food or garden waste then it’s the brown bin, paper should go in the green bin while the red box is for any hazardous or electrical waste. Then I need my own color coded bins system for glass, metal and plastic containers which I will need to deliver myself to environmental stations. I think I just have a full time job just managing my trash!!!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Moving In...

The new home:

Home Sweet Home

The new mess that comes with moving to a new home:

Hours of fun ahead

The new custom that comes with moving to a new country:

The Norwegian lunch

The new view:

First photo of many to come I'm sure!

Norwegian Humor

In the UNLIKELY event of RAIN - feel free to use this umbrella!.

So very UNLIKELY!

That same umbrella being put to good use:

Umbrella: checked; rain boots: checked; rain coat: checked

New Adventures Ahead...

...First Day of School

Chloe and Jeremy are starting a new school year in yet another country. I’m sure they will make new friends in no time at the International School of Stavanger. It's the first time they get to go to school without a uniform. Maman is already preparing herself with the clothes choice dilemma every morning!

Let's go get some friends

Arriving in Stavanger

Before landing to our new home:

Clear day... starting well!

Our “home” for the next few days:

Victoria Hotel

A little background on the Victoria Hotel:

“Contractor John G. Nielsen completed Victoria Hotel in 1900. Henry Bucher of Kristiania (now Oslo) drew the building in neo-renaissance style and the building is of few buildings with pseudo-renaissance character in Stavanger. The building has always served as a hotel, but it has also hosted important institutions like he city’s first cinema, head quarters for Bjelland & Co., and Bennet Travel Agency. In the sixties the hotel seized the beautiful neighbour building, after the bank it hosted, moved. Today you find one of the grandest banquet halls in town, two modern conference rooms and Restaurant Nero. (Source: Victoria Hotel).

A Few Key Facts...

...About Our New Home

As I used to do at C²J² Suiter in China, I will give you some general information about Norway and Stavanger

Our new 'home' for the next few years

Norway or 'Norge' (in Bokmål), 'Noreg' (in Nynorsk) or 'Norga '(in Sami) and officially the Kingdom of Norway or 'Kongeriket Norge' (in Bokmål), and 'Kongeriket Noreg' (in Nynorsk)… and I thought I was done with different dialects when I left China!!!

Although some medieval texts attribute the name to a mythical King Nórr, it is conventionally derived today from Old Norse 'norðvegr', meaning "the northern route" (the way northwards).

Norway:

• Area: 385,199 square km
• Length: 1,752 km
• Shortest Width: 6 km
• Widest part: 430 km
• Population: 4,660,00 inhabitants (14.2 hab/km²)
• Currency: Norwegian kroner (NOK) 1 krone = 100 øre
• Language: Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Sámi is also an official language
• Unitary constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. His majesty King Harald V is the head of state and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is the head of government

Stavanger:

• Longitude : 5.70 or 5° 42’ 4”
• Latitude: 58.90 or 58° 58’ 54”
• Population : 120,000 inhabitants
• Check our Stavagner Webcam:

Trivial facts:

• Slightly larger than New Mexico
• Border countries: Sweden, Finland and Russia
• The average hourly wages in Norway are among the highest in the world.
• The wage difference between the lowest paid worker and the CEO of most companies is much smaller than in comparable western economies.
• Cost of living is about 30% higher in Norway than in the United States and 25% higher than the United Kingdom.
• The standard of living in Norway is among the highest in the world.
• Norway is the seventh largest oil exporter and the third largest gas exporter in the world, but it is not a member of the OPEC.
• There are almost 4.7 million Norwegian Americans according to the 2006 U.S. census. The number of Americans of Norwegian descent living in the U.S. today is roughly equal to the current population of Norway
• Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by the vast majority, about 85–90%.
• Traditionally, English, German and French were considered the main foreign languages in Norway. These languages, for instance, had been used on Norwegian passports until the 1990s, and university students have a general right to use these languages when submitting their theses.
• Norway has conscription for males (6–12 months of training) and voluntary service for females.
• The American Ambassador to Norway is Barry White. Not this one….Barry B. White!

Sources: Wikipedia, Norway.org and CIA

Let's Back Track a Little...

Before talking about our exciting life in Norway, let's go back a few weeks and see what happened after I said 再见北京 (pronounced: ZaiJian BeiJing)

• July 4th: Beijing, China. Taking the Beijing-Paris’ flight one last time.
• July 5th: St Quentin/La Rivière, France.  Our house
• July 6th: Grenoble, France. Driving Chloe to summer camp.
• July 7th-8th: Paris, France. You can never go too many times.
• July 9th, 10th, 11th: Stavanger, Norway. Looking for our new home.
• July 12th: Paris, France. Bono is in town and want to see us (or is it us who wanted to see him?)
• July 13th: St Quentin/La Rivière. We finally start our vacation

Great house, great friends, great time...

Conclusion: 3 countries, 5 cities in 6 days and I realize I have a very bad eating pattern: 3 McDonald in 3 countries in less than a week. By the way it went from 3 euros (equivalent) in Beijing to 6 euros in Paris to almost 12 euros in Stavanger (good thing we weren't going to Iceland after that or we would have had to forfeit the kids' college fund) .

Officially...

...Starting

The previous one was just about self promotion.

I wasn’t sure I would keep a Blog once we moved. Lots of people asked if I was going to pursue my new found addiction but I thought I probably wouldn’t. I was closing the Chinese chapter and with it the blogging chapter. What could possibly be as exciting as our daily life in Asia when each time you step outside you have a cultural shock experience, where at every corner of the streets there are photo opportunities?

There were many reasons why I didn’t want to have a Blog about our life in Stavanger:

• Reason 1. “Deja Vue Done”: “Did-it, Done-That” kind of feeling
• Reason 2. Culture: what can I write about Stavanger (population 120 000 and that's because there is a lot of Expat -mainly Oil industry- and Military -Big Nato Base-) that can be as mind blowing, daily cultural shocking as Beijing (17 millions inhabitants -NOT counting the expat/illegal migrants- that is 4 TIME the size of the population of the WHOLE Norway)
•  Reason 3. Life: I thought that writing about my “normal” new daily life would be quite boring (cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, chauffeuring, etc….)
• Reason 4. Food: I won't be able to sample fine restaurants (still looking for them) without taking a 20-year mortgage (fix rate, insurance on Jeff's head): Cheap is not a word used often at this latitude!
• Reason 5. Weather: When the first thing you learn when you arrive and oh so slightly complain about the rain that "Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær." ("There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing") you know that the weather is not on your side.

But then I thought there are so many reasons why I should have a Blog about our life in Stavanger:

• Reason 1. “Deja Vue Done”: Because I did this, done that BUT I survived it and then when I’m old I’ll be able to relive my youth by re reading it (Printed copy, in big characters!!)
• Reason 2. Culture: Because underneath it all there are a lot of similarities between China and Norway... yes indeed
• Reason 3. Life: Because I thought that writing about my daily routine you'll be able to relate as opposed of my former (so missed) life in Beijing (How much I am willing to give for Ayi & Mr Wang right now.)
•  Reason 4. Food: Because I have to find the humor in spending the same amount of money in a Club sandwich + Coke than what I was spending on a 5* lunch at Maison Boulud
• Reason 5. Weather: Because you want to share your new found knowledge about “Water Proof” vs “Water Resistant”, which rain gear makes your b*** big and which one doesn't. And no a girl cannot have too many pair of shoes rain boots.

But most of all because of Cindy, Don, Violaine, Marie, and Benj's encouragements.

By the way SVG refer to Stavanger not Scalable Vector Graphic...
I (heart) Adobe not (rain cloud) it!

She's Back...

...And Writing Again

After my hugely successful first blog followed weekly (or was it monthly?) by four or five thousand avid readers* about our life in China I decided that I couldn't let them down and should keep on sharing my crazy thoughts on yet another place which will have the privilege to be our host country for the next 3 to 4 years (unless the big guys in Paris decide we have it too good here and send us somewhere else before that - if they read this blog they would know it ain't fun fun fun everyday)

So thank you: Cindy**, Don**, Violaine (She was the one harassing pushing me to write more when I was getting lazy), Marie (Don's neighbor who I’ve never met so I couldn't have bribed her!), and Benj (but he only discovered it recently even though I was shameless and put the link as my signature on every single one of my emails!)

Please note that Jeff is not listed because he never read the Blog...he has a close relationship with the writer and got to read the posts exclusively before they were made public. (BUT no editorial privilege at all no matter how much he tried to bribe influence me)

If you were indeed yourself an avid reader (or not so avid) and would like your name to be added to this CJ Suiter blog's wall of fame, please drop me a line (comment) and I will gladly make some room on the post for you. (This offer is only valid for the first million reader, has no expiration date and you don't need to prove anything)

via Danny Jones

So this little introduction will qualify as my first post on CJ Suiter in Norway. Please note that I'm always late on posting new thing... you can complain (via comment) but I don't think it will change a thing

Happy reading.


** Disclaimer. Cindy is my mother-in-law and Don my father-in-Law and I think by law they have a mandatory obligation to read everything I write and listen to everything I say within earring range; Don't quote me on this one as I'm not a professional lawyer just the step-daughter-in law-of one.