Meet Alyssa from Freeways to Fjords

Hi peeps,

 I am back from Morocco after a torturously long airport stay (in which i slept on a bench, more on that another time) and i am raring to get back on track with work, life and especially blogging unfortunately fate saw fit to strike me down with some horrible illness so i spent my first day back in Bergen sweating my face off at home and leaving my co workers to survive without me (which i am sure isn't hard) while i try to get my creative juices flowing and line up some posts for a few days i would like you to meet one of my co workers and fellow bloggers Alyssa who kindly wrote me a blog post for while i was away but i managed to forget to post woops....ah well better late than never

Hey readers! I blog at From Freeways to Fjords, mostly about my transition from being in a long distance relationship in California to being married in Norway. Selina asked me to do a guest post on her fabulous blog, and that sounded pretty great! So here it is...a debut guest blog post for me (this is my first time writing for another  blog...).

It's October. Normally, in California, I'd be preparing for one of the best holidays: Halloween. In Norway, however, that's a bit tricky. It seems like Norway has a growing enthusiasm for the fun, candy-and-costume themed day, but it just isn't as embraced as it is where I'm from. In Cali, I always know I have plans: either get dressed up and party, or get prepared to pass out candy on the front porch of my parents house. 

Lately, I've been preferring the candy option. It's delightful to watch the little kids get up enough courage to walk up to the house without their parents and say "trick or treat!" (which, of course, translates to "give me some candy!"). And some of the kids have the most adorable costumes. Halloween night in Southern California isn't likely to be rainy (as it is almost certain to be here in Bergen), so it's a perfect autumn night to be roaming the streets getting a months worth of goodies to rot your teeth and bounce off the walls. 

You usually see the kids with the pumpkin buckets:

I grew up using a pillowcase, which personally, I think is way better. You can fit way more candy in it, there's no plastic handle so it won't hurt your hand or break, and you can sling it over shoulder during your long walk from house to house. 

Year after year I would go out with my brothers, sister, cousin, and eventually, when my siblings grew too old for it, with my friends. When we returned home after getting to every house with a light on in the neighborhood, we would find a spot on the living room floor and dump out our candy. 

It was time to compare. My parents sort of made it into a math game I guess, so we each sorted our candy (snickers go with snickers, reese's peanut butter cups in a big pile - those were my favorite!, m&m's together, etc) and counted how many were in each pile. Of course, we wrote it down to see who got the most of anything and compared notes after. We traded for our favorite pieces. 

Such a fun night. But now, being "all grown up" in my own apartment in Bergen, I fear I will have to travel back to California for some real Halloween fun. I doubt we'll get even 1 trick-or-treater here. I don't know how children trick-or-treat in apartments anyway. 

I found a store called "-nille" that sells Halloween decorations. Seriously lacking in creativity and options, I picked the best that I could find and brought it home. I've got a few orange- and -black decorations and I'm on the hunt for more. 

It's about that time to carve pumpkins, as well. Those aren't easy to come by here, but I'm determined to find the perfect pumpkin in Norway, and bring it home to carve something wonderful. 

Slowly but surely, I'll bring this beloved tradition of Halloween trick-or-treating to Bergen!

Happy early Halloween!!!

Thanks for sharing that Alyssa, i totally miss halloween too, maybe we should get dressed up and go trick or treating ourselves ;)