Prachi's post from September 27, 2006

It is so hard to believe it will be an year soon. Sometimes it feels like yesterday that we came here and at others it feels as we have always lived here. I distinctly remember how we had started to panic about Norway and about Bergen before we left India. We were not sure if we should bring groceries with us. Thankfully, Shruti's cousin told us that it should be possible to find Indian shops here. Then we were not sure if all our boxes had reached and what had reached and what had not. I distinctly remember that we brought the katoris that came with the meal in the flight so that we will atleast have 4 bowls however small!! We were so disappointed by the size of the apt when Olav showed us in there. We were grateful that all our boxes had reached!! It was a blessing that Trygve took us to Ikea and we bought a Duvet else all of us would have frozen in the cold night. Also we were blessed as we met the Gulatis within couple hours of landing in this land of unknown and they took us to the Indian grocery store and even invited us for dinner. That one day in the Fantoft studio was depressing enough. I still remember how difficult it was to cook there, I made bhindi and roti and there was no place for Prarthna. Although that apt served us well in providing us a lot of stuff to start our life with. We still use the pans and the laundry basket that we got from there. God blessed us abundantly and we moved into our current abode the next day and over the weekend Amarjit came and took us to the big Indian shop and we filled our groceries from there. Soon enough Karwachauth came and Vanita took me to Arora's place I had never imagined that I will be able to do Karwachauth pooja in Norway with a group of other ladies, it had taken me over an year to find such a group in the US. However, there I met a whole lot of other people including Sangita and Deepa whom I exchanged numbers with. I never called them though but it was nice of Sangita to call to wish Diwali and then invite us to the Paath. We even met her at Asane senter when we were there with Trygve. Again at the Paath we met a lot of other people, by then the Aroras and Bhamras had already had us for dinner. We have been blessed abundantly in this one year!! After the Paath started the shopping trips with Sangita she is such a nice person she took us shopping almost every weekend and to LIDL whenever we asked her. I think we were also blessed as Olavs wife and other people at Prankuls office gave so many clothes to Prarthna and then we were able to find so much stuff at Loppemarked and of course rides to them!!

We did not much effort in buying the car Narinder singh ji did all the work and we just paid and owned the car which was another favor from God. I am sure He will choose the right house also for us!! Prankul's bday party was a great success; the food was delicious and everyone had a great time. I still repent having not called Vanita after all she was the one who introduced us to many others who later helped us.