Some Food During Week 1

One of my goals here is to try to become a better cook. I was really good a cooking a handful of things at home (luckily Kevin liked them), but I cooked them over and over again. Time to move forward… Kevin and I tried a few things this week, and we are still trying to navigate around the grocery store as best as we can! Finally found shredded cheese that I could not find the first trip, ha. Thinking we should invest in a cheese grater just in case. There are quite a few things that we are still having trouble finding--such as chicken broth. It will all come with time. I could not find oatmeal, however here I think they eat Porridge instead. We bought some, and to me it looked exactly the same as oatmeal in the packet. When I made it, I felt it was a little "stickier" than the oatmeal I eat back home. It may very well be the same thing, I'll have to do my research on it. Kevin said at work a lot of people eat Porridge and they sell it at the cafeteria, so it must be the popular thing. 

We did make Salmon for the first time! That is very prevalent here and at the grocery stores. Kevin took the honor of getting the scales off--that may take a while for me to come around to. The skin kind of freaked me out a little, but I'll get over it. For those that know, I do not care for fish at all so I was trying to step out of the box a little bit. Surprisingly, it did not taste very fishy and with a little cajun seasoning it was actually pretty good. I took small bites and told Kevin it would take some time but I was willing to continue to try it.  We fried it in the pan this time, and will probably try a baking recipe next. 

The Mexican section of the grocery has been half off the entire month of February. So in honor of this, we made Mexican casserole and a few other mexican dishes this week!  We stocked up on salsa, jalapeños, tortillas etc. Can't wait to see if another section is on sale in March! Ha! 

The 1/2 price section at the Grocery Store

Mexican Casserole (Prior to finding shredded cheese-ha)

Kongsberg Vinterfestival- Part 1

Saturday was the beginning of the Kongsberg Vinterfestival also known as “Snowstock” which holds a week of events. One of the biggest nights was this past Saturday! We attended and had a great time. We met up with some friends Kevin met through work, so it was nice to meet a few people!  There was a huge ramp built that was covered in snow on a bridge in the middle of town. It was like a simulated slope for skiers and snowboarders to perform tricks on. There were some Professionals that came out and competed on it that night. It was very entertaining, and so cool to see in person since I have been so into the Winter Olympics this year! They had a few open concerts afterwards,  one of them being a Norwegian Rapper-- Awesome. There were also a few local bars near, and there happen to be 5 giant teepees combined selling beer and food (Tentipi, ha). Thankfully it was heated! So we had a fun time checking out each of the places after the Extreme sports and concert ended. Check out some of the videos and pictures taken at the event!

The Giant Ramp

Awesome View

Concert!

Tentipi

Welcome to Kongsberg, Norway!

Kevin and I moved to Kongsberg, Norway due to a job opportunity within his company. The headquarters of the company are in Kongsberg. We will be here for about 1- 1.5 years, and we are excited to see what this next year brings! I have decided to dedicate a blog to our journey here, as it should be interesting moving from Southern Louisiana to Northern Europe, ha. Enjoy!

I arrived in Oslo, Norway on Friday, February 21st at 9:35 AM (2:35 AM my time- talk about Jetlag). I was instantly overwhelmed by the amount of snow I saw outside. There was too much for words, however beyond beautiful. It looked like something I’ve only ever seen in a snowglobe.  It was recommended to Kevin and I that every time we arrive in Norway our first stop has to be the Duty-Free shop for Alcohol before getting our baggage. So of course I did not pass that up. They let you pick different packages--I chose one liquor, 2 wines, and a 6-pack of beer (to make Kev happy). They had a lot of similar liquor however many I had never heard of. My choice of beer happen to be Lite Aass (not pronounced like you think, ha).  I was then greeted by Kevin at the airport and thus that is when our adventure started…

Outside the Train Station in Kongsberg

Friday was spent unpacking, exploring, and buying the essentials once we made it to Kongsberg which included a REGULAR coffee pot and of course a hair straightener. Kevin had been using an electronic kettle to make coffee and has expressed that I would prefer a regular coffee pot, ha. I finally got to wear real snow boots for the first time, which prevented me from slipping (although there were a few “almost” falls--graceful of course). I do have to give a shout out to Landsend and L.L. Bean for allowing us to indulge in buying “real” winter gear while ordering online from the south during the Winter Sale. We now officially own our first down jackets, vests, and multiple pairs of waterproof boots. They have already come in more handy than anticipated.  We went grocery shopping for the first time which was CRAZY. My head was spinning by the end of it. Norway uses Kroner for money. So there was a LOT of math going on while we were shopping, dividing each number by 6 to get the dollar amount. Kevin of course was a natural, but I kept forgetting and thinking that for example cheese cost 30 dollars instead of just 5. It is definitely an adjustment, especially since all labels are in Norwegian. Google translate is our new best friend for the time being.

Saturday- Kevin took me shopping around town. I finally found ski pants that were LONG enough, and happen to be on sale! As you can imagine it was hard enough finding snow pants, let alone ones that were long enough in southern Louisiana.  My pants were actually grazing the ground, SUCCESS! Saturday Night we attended the Kongsberg Vinterfestival also known as "Snowstock" which will deserve its own post. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!

The River that goes through Kongsberg

Testing out our new Winter Gear!

One of the Beautiful Views in Kongsberg