When I announced that I am moving to Norway, people wondered – “Who would move to Norway in January?” Well, me of course! And no, it’s not such a freezing Siberian winter here (in Stavanger) as you would imagine. The rest of Norway and Europe are much worse off now. The temperature here ranges between only -8 ° C and zero, but with frequent strong winds. When the snow appeared for the first time (1.19), it made my day. However, temperatures were still above zero and it melted quickly. Colleagues were amused when I tried to take photos from the office window. They only warned me about icy roads in…

It‘s two weeks since I moved a bit more to the north, to Scandinavia. I took up a temporary (but never say never) residence in Stavanger, southwest Norway, the so called „oil capital“. The city itself has a population of over 100 000 people, with the metropolitan area inhabited by almost 300 000 (in case someone is too lazy to google it). Right, I became an oil market analyst for a certain Norwegian company. Here is a couple of my first minor observations: I live in an apartment on the fifth floor, with a view of the local shopping centre. I was happy to discover the local supermarket is open…