What I have learned so far

Just my own personal observations...

-Grocery stores, and most any other stores, are not open on Sundays.  I found this out on a Sunday when I was in desperate need of food.

-Electrical convertors and adapters are tricky, and don’t always work when they are supposed to.

-Russians love their vodka… and chase it down by chewing on a pickle

-in Norway, it is just as much up to the girl then up to the guy to pick up at a bar.  Norwegians are known, in general, to be a bit guarded but once you get to know them they are tons of fun!

-Scandinavians love coffee.  But usually without cream, milk or sugar.

-Norwegians love love love frozen pizzas.  According to a recent national survey, it is now the most popular dish in Norway.

-Norway is a rich oil country which translates to everything being crazy expensive.  This is not a joke: many Norwegians drive to Sweden to save money on groceries; it is actually worth the long drive and gas money.

-You can buy beer and cider at grocery stores… but not after 6pm

-Most useful thing to be able to say, “Jeg snakker litt norsk” (I speak only a little bit of Norwegian).  Although sometimes it isn’t even necessary to say this since a dumb look works too.  I say “takk” (thank you) a lot.  I’ve also learned some bad words since that seems to always be the first thing learned in another language.  Also, Northern Norwegians are known for swearing A LOT more then southern speakers.

-Norwegians love going out.  Pre drinking parties start at 8, head to the first bar at 12 then to an after party or “nachspeil” at around 3-4 for some food then you can be in bed by 5am.

-When you meet up with someone, instead of a generic “how are you doing” where no one really expects a genuine answer, Norwegians will say something like “thank you for last time (we saw one another)”.

-Just because part of Norway is above the Arctic Circle, it does not mean that there is the much-imagined Arctic weather of -40C temperatures and constant blizzards.  Instead, it can rain in January, be +8C in Feb and have little to no snowfall in a month of winter.

-Scandinavian languages: Norwegian and Danish are quite similar and they can interact easily enough (although both had regional dialects that can even make communication within the country difficult).  Norwegian is similar to Swedish, but each have 3 characters that are different from one another and the rest of the English language; however Swedish and Norwegian is not as similar as Norwegian is to Danish.  Finnish and Icelandic are very different from each other and other Scandinavian languages.  Finnish is more similar to Estonian and other Baltic languages.