My name is Anthony (@BoomerOSLO) and I’m from Maryland.  Currently, I live in sunny, Oslo, Norway.

1. Why did you move abroad?
I wanted to chase love, adventure, and lucrative opportunities across the sea… I’m happily married and working as a freelancer so, safe to say, I have the first two and definitely not the last one. Two out of three ain’t bad [/Meatloaf]

2. How do you make a living?
After a few, dodgy tele-sales jobs (there is a certain hunger that goes with being successful in borderline harassment via a telephone that I don’t possess despite my BSc saying otherwise), I’ve been working in consulting and writing.  I tell myself it’s not about the money :

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
If you ask my mother, not often enough.  I’d say that I email once a day with my parents and siblings and Skype/FaceTime once every two/three weeks.

4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Oslo?
The fact that everyone speaks English.  After having been in Belgium and other places where English isn’t the primary language, it’s always enjoyable to be in a place where communicating in your native tongue is always an option.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Oslo?
Scandinavians, particularly Norwegians, are not known for their social graces (If someone steps on your foot or bump you in a bus/sidewalk, rarely will there be a “pardon me/excuse me/sorry” coming in any language) and that can be a bit of a nuisance.  Which also transfers over into breaking into new social groups.  No new friends [/Drake].

6. What do you miss most?
Food, especially in restaurants.  The options for dining out here are probably the worst of any place I’ve ever been.  There’s not much selection and the few things available are mostly abysmal.  Tex-Mex doesn’t really exist here.

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
I joined sports teams (American Football and Baseball) and started taking language courses (new, immigrants unite!)

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
Pretty much anything that happens at Christmas.  From Pinneknjott (which means “stick meat” because it’s lamb that’s actually cooked with sticks) to dancing around the Christmas tree (I have nothing really to add to that).  Though, I enjoy the shots of aquavit (whiskey distilled in cherry casks that travel pass the equator twice).

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
That you can see the Northern lights and the midnight sun from anywhere in the country.  You have to go to the top part of the country (like a 10 hour flight from Oslo) to actually see either phenomenon.  Though, during the summer here in Oslo, the sun sets at around midnight and rises near 4am.

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
The cost of living is higher.  Quite higher.  Though, the average salary is also much more, too.  So I guess it balances out.  However, that’s a sentiment that is hard to remember when you’re paying $14 at a bar for a beer.

11. What advice would you give other expats?
Travel, listen (always listen), experience as much as you can and become as like your new countrymen as possible, but don’t forget from where you’ve come.  No matter how much you assimilate, you will never, truly, be a native because you’re native to another land.

12. When and why did you start your blog?
I started my blog in January 2012 because I kept getting so many emails from friends and family asking about what I was doing in my life and travels.  I read other blogs and didn’t want to make it so “me-centric”, but also a general “Marylanders take on Norwegian society/life”.

Anthony's blog, OSLOst in Space

Guide to Oslo

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