This last Tuesday, right after landing in Tromsø from our four day vacation, we finished packing our stuff while my mom drove to pick up a trailer so we could do a sprint-move.
That's right. We found a place! A couple thousand NOKs above what we had first planned on paying, but the market demands it here, so it was either that, or get something too small, too old, and too inconvenient.
[Good bye house]
So, seven months after we arrive with a few suitcases, we move with a semi-packed trailer.
Thankfully a major portion of it is borrowed from my mom - fortunate not only because it means we don't have to buy those things, but also because we can return them when we leave, and thus don't have so much stuff - literally - to worry about.
Our new place is pretty stellar, actually. Yesterday, during our celebratory tea after having finished cleaning the old place, my mom asked us what we would miss there, and what we are excited about at the new place.
Of course number one bummer about moving is that we don't get so much time with my mom. Though we haven't exactly been living the 'norm' here in the west, having dinner together almost daily, walking to and from work together often, etc., it's been so thirst-quenching, perhaps since we've been making up for the 16 preceding years, and because we have a little Leona-baby so it's so great that she gets to spend so much time with her mormor. So there is a sense of loss, moving here (about an hour's walk from our old place), but it's not so far away that we can't still have dinner together three times a week or so if we make the effort, which is still more than most families have here.
The second is of course the view. Hard to beat what we had.
However, we live on the 5th floor now, and in the corner there's a nice big window we can look northward (meaning the expected amazing northern lights coming this winter will be even harder to miss than at our old palce), and when I lay down there in the nook I can see the big, big sky, mountains, and water...with some houses and rooftops of course. And facing west we see up the hill, and again it's not too shabby. So though once again it is not as amazing as it was, it's not at all bad either. In fact, quite impressive if you don't have the other one to compare it with. Plus, the nook is just perfect for Leona.
The third, for Judge, is the kitchen. There is no comparison really. Induction oven and huge countertops (and cast iron pot for our awesome bread) vs ceramic oven and limited counter area (and no cast iron pot). But we (read: he) will manage.
The third, for me, is the walk to work. Again, it would take something pretty amazing to beat my old walk. Now, though it's 15 min shorter (which is a positive), it's all in neighborhoods pretty much...so on real roads with houses lining the streets and all that jazz. Of course it's still peaceful, and not ugly looking, but nothing close to the awesomeness that was.
Benefits of our new place is we can walk to town and Judge's Norwegian classes (15-20 min), there are the cheap grocery shoppings all within 10 min talk so we no longer have to do huge, long Saturday hauls that basically take up our entire day. And that our home now actually feels like our home - not filled (and I mean jam packed) with all the little nicnacs that belong to another family.
We also have a daily visitor that comes around 4:30. Rules of this place are you're not supposed to feed wild animals...but she's so cute, and since she is so on schedule you know someone else has been doing this before us, so we are just continuing the tradition. Plus Leona loves seeing her.
And though shoveling snow wasn't really that terrible - I mean, it was a good workout, I think Judge is still pretty happy he won't be having to do that any more, as it can get tiring when it just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming...
So here's to our new home for the next seven months!
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