You probably just realised that your salary seems higher in December. Some say the tax authorities only tax half of your salary in December and none of it in July. Well sadly none of this is true. No tax authorities, not even in Norway, ever gave one and a half month of tax free salary to a whole country. The Nanny state How does it … Continue reading Why is your Norwegian Salary much Higher in December?
If you live in Norway you might have noticed a lot of headlines about a guy called Knut Arild Hareide, the head of KrF aka The Christian Democrats Party. (If you are lacking behind in terms of Norwegian political parties read this: Norwegian Politics for Dummies and Clueless Foreigners.) This is Knut Arild Hareide: You might have also noticed from the media and angry Facebook … Continue reading Is Norway about to Make Abortion Illegal? Understanding Norway’s Hottest Political Debate
Three days ago the New York Times was offering its readers a tour of all the amazing things one can do in 36 hours in Oslo. It says that “The Norwegian capital is filled with art and stunning architecture, but nature, too, is an integral part of urban life”. Is that enough to make Oslo the coolest city of Scandinavia? Let’s see what the city … Continue reading Has Oslo Become the Coolest Capital City in Scandinavia?
Rêvez-vous de cabanes dans les bois au bord d’un fjord, de vous réveiller au rythme des aurores boréales et de faire connaissance avec des Norvégiens au bord du fjord en pêchant? Vous rêvez de déménager en Norvège et ne savez pas où commencer? Je m’appelle Lorelou et écris un blog d’humour en anglais pour les étrangers installés en Norvège et j’écris aussi pour des journaux … Continue reading S’installer en Norvège. Bonne ou mauvaise idée?
I remember vividly, like all Norwegians and foreigners living in Norway back then, where I was during the Utøya attacks. Especially because I had walked passed the car Anders Behring Breivik had hidden a bomb in 15 minutes before it exploded. He was targeting the Prime Minister’s office in Regjeringskvartalen in the centre of Oslo. My office happened to be just behind that building. The bomb … Continue reading When the Roses turned Black. Seven years after Utøya Survivors Receive Hatred and Death Threats.
This article was written in Norwegian for NRK Ytring on the 05.05.2018 under the title Inneklemt-fest, and later adapted for this blog. May is a widely expected month for many Norwegians, because of something called inneklemte dager. Now this is a bit of a strange word to translate to English. “Klem” is a word used in different words. It can mean “hug”, and I really wondered … Continue reading Why do Norwegians love inneklemte days so much
The Winter Olympics are finally over. Hasn’t it been a blast? The answer is yes, if you are Norwegian. For us foreigners living in Norway things can look a bit differently. Here are a few tips I have developed for foreigners to survive Winter Olympics when living in Norway. Buy earplugs. You will need those not to die of a heart attack when Norwegians … Continue reading Survival Guide for Foreigners in Norway during the Winter Olympics
Last night I was at my boyfriend’s Birthday party, and when the Norwegians around me started singing “Hurra for Deg som Fyller ditt år” I thought “Oh damn, I still haven’t learned that song”. Then I fell in shame (as I usually do when this happens) and looked at other people and tried to remember the lyrics. I tried to hop and turn and stuff … Continue reading The Norwegian Birthday Song Officially the Hardest in the World to Learn. I mean, come on.
“Why don’t you learn Chinese or Spanish, or any other language spoken by more than a few sheep and 5 million people” asked my parents while I was learning Norwegian. My answer is always that Norwegian is a fantastic and very funny language. Some of the words the Norwegian language has created requires either a lot of imagination or high doses of hallucinative drugs to … Continue reading 8 Unbelievably Strange Norwegian Words With Meanings Foreigners Cannot Guess
The drilling of oil and gas in the islands of Lofoten, Vesterålen and Senja in the Northern Sea has been a huge topic during the elections of September 2017 in Norway. Environmental groups such as Folkeaksjon, Nature and Youth, Friends of the Earth Norway and others have gone very strong to stop the research for drilling up North, claiming among other things that the oil … Continue reading Environmental Win: Oil Drilling in Northern Norway Stopped!!
