Add basketball in there, and I think you're dead on.

I know from listening to my guild and clan mates from over the years that NFL and NBA are two of the main ones. Although in the last year or so MMA is mentioned a lot. I have followed NBA and NCAA for over ten years now as do most of my buds so I get how popular it is.

I'm not the guy you asked, but it can't hurt to have more answers I suppose.

Norway is great in the same sense that the US is great, only different. Err, what I mean is you have your problems, we have ours. But in general, it's a good country to live in.

The weather depends on where you are in the country. It's obviously not a huge country, but it's about as "tall" as the US if you look at the map. So in the south we have fairly warm summers and fairly mild winters, while it's much colder up north. Look here for some proper info: http://met.no/English/Climate_in_Norway/

My personal feelings? Norwegian summers are perfect. Norwegian winters suck. :-)

Hunting of any large animals is restricted to short periods of the year (autumn). There are quite a few regulations, but I'm no expert on this.

If you have a decent pay, you'll most likely have enough money to live comfortably. Things are expensive, yeah, but the salaries match this.

We need to import a lot of food. Farming here is fairly small-scale thanks to the climate and geography.

Privacy is kind of respected, but like in the US there's always people in power who try to change things. Norway follows the trend in the rest of the western world, in that things seem to get worse. Also, prepare to have your yearly salary plastered on the web for everyone to see, courtesy of the tax authorities.

People are fairly open minded about nudity et.c. But again, the mood seems to be changing a bit (could be wrong about this).

It's kind of weird to have salary information on the web, I wouldn't care especially if no one looks at it, except since my salary in the US is a lot different than a lot of other professional folks sometimes it has caused issues with acquaintances (I certainly never volunteer this information, sometimes people do find out though). It's kind of one of those social faux pas here, one doesn't discuss one's salary if you're much above minimum wage. Does that faux pas not exist?

The weather link is great. I assume Oslo is both where most of the tech work is done and pretty low in elevation due to being on the river. Also it looks like it might not get as much rain or snow since the mountains to the west take the brunt. Am I about right?

Yeah, you can usually just hunt once in most areas of the US (per animal type) for a couple weeks. Bow hunters usually get to go in first.

I'm sad to hear about everyone getting more conservative over there. I knew you guys were (forgive me, it's just a viewpoint) a bit backwards on the whole controlled substance thing, but at least you don't throw people in prison for it.

The US is in a race to the bottom with itself, the group of people in the professional income range shrinks every year. People buy Chinese made stuff at Walmart not because they want Chinese made stuff, but because it's all they can afford. That coupled with our social issues is enough to make me want to find someplace else (and hopefully provide my daughter with a way out of this mess over here).

Yeah, yeah, I could do something to change it, tried that. If I have to push a boulder to the top of a hill, I'm going to pick the boulder near the top. I'm done pushing the one around at the bottom.

Actually. while certainly not self sufficient, Norway produces quite a bit of the food we need - about 50%. In particular we produce a large amount of the grains we need, which leaves us less vulnerable to the current global rise in prices of grains and rice.

Wondering if the quoting system will work...

Yeah, kind of. It's not considered polite to ask people about their income. I've no idea why it gets published like this, it's a fairly new thing (and there's a lot of discussions about it). Yeah, that's basically how it works. Oslo is a coastal city (pretty much all major Norwegian cities are coastal, due to the terrain getting more "difficult" further inland). Yeah. I like the policy they have in the Netherlands. But as you say, at least the legal system is fairly tolerant, and the focus is on punishing the sellers not the buyers.

The tax listings have always been public, the only new thing is that they are publicized online. Do note that once you get east of the mountains, there is less rain, but the winters are icy cold. West of the mountains you will have a lot of rain/snow, but the winters are much milder.

I grew up in -5C type weather, dry cold though and little wind, so it didn't bite through your clothes (Geneva was sooooo cold with the wind off of Lac Leman, coldest I've been in my life!).

You'll probably survive Oslo. :-)

Stick to the coastal areas if you don't like the cold. That's basically my only real suggestion if you're considering moving here. The south of the country is fairly good too, not as much rain and snow as in the west and not as cold as in the east. The best part of the country if you ask me (but then, I am biased...)

Very good weather site, btw: http://www.yr.no/ (you can choose english language, and get some info from it. keep in mind that we're in a colder than average period right now)

^ question for you Norwegian folks. :)

Any good scholarships for foreign students? My girl and I are currently in our second year of undergraduate university (she's into medical stuff, I'm into informatics)... And moving out of this place is a thing we're considering for our future... :)

And related to the question above... Is it hard for a foreign student to survive the month (assuming he does some work in his free time to get some money)?

I hear beer is expensive over there? This makes me sad, I drink 1-3 beers a day (note, this is average in the US, which might say something about us). Can one afford a couple nice beers (not crappy canned stuff) per day? I've heard of folks having one drink at the pub and then heading home to drink canned brews due to cost.

Do you drink cider in the States? I love the stuff.

I can't really answer this, but here are the English language websites of the universities that I remember off the top of my head:

http://www.uio.no/english/ - Oslo
http://www.uia.no/en - Agder (Kristiansand & Grimstad)
http://www.uib.no/en/ - Bergen
http://www.ntnu.edu/ - Trondheim
http://www.uis.no/frontpage/ - Stavanger
http://www2.uit.no/www/inenglish - Tromsø (you'll freeze to death)

Edit: Oh, and there's this: http://www.unis.no/ - but that would be insane...
Edit 2: Added Stavanger, that seems to be the lot.

The main problem you'll have is the same that Norwegian students have, namely that it's quite expensive to rent somewhere to live in the big cities. There might be ways to get support for these expenses, I've no idea.

orcishgamer: Beer is quite expensive, yeah. I don't drink, so I don't know really how much you'd have to pay. But most people over here seems to drink a bit, and it's not bankrupting them, so... I dunno :-)

Alcoholic Apple Cider is kind of hard to find (unless you want the piss they cook with). In the Pacific Northwest it's a bit easier due to all the apple orchards. I can't say I drink it a lot but I think I use it in at least one or two holiday drinks (wassail uses it and brown ale, iirc).

I'm actually kind of a fan or German and UK brews (Irish especially), Smithwicks is probably my favorite go to beer. Unless we're talking whiskey, then it's Scottish (mostly highland, though I like Aberlour as well). We also have some awesome microbrews around here that do all kinds of stuff (even fruity beer if you like that kind of thing).

Cider is an acquired taste, and is not really promoted.

Woodchuck and Strongbow are the most common hard ciders here.

Cider generally means a hot apple drink, or sparkling, unfermented apple juice.

I'll take a Strongbow draught any day.