I AM HERE!!

The past couple of months have been chaotic but wonderful! I submitted my resident permit application in March. I assumed it would take anywhere from 2 months to 13 as the immigration paperwork said. Amazingly, my permit came through by the first week in April! I finished my job the third week in April and spent my last two weeks in the states with family. I had a really great time visiting family! :)

I flew over on British Air. The flight was longer than it should have been. FYI, direct flight does NOT mean nonstop! As we sat in Chicago for two or more hours, the flight attendant explained to me that they can stop 20 times before actually flying to England if it is just a direct flight! Good to know for future reference!
I had a few hours wait in London... then I was finally on my way to Oslo. I arrived in Oslo, passed through immigration rather quickly, and was in a hurry to get my trunks and get out to see Vegar. I stood for 15 minutes waiting for my luggage... just to find out that I was at the wrong luggage area. Whoops! There were my trunks waiting for me at the other baggage area. A very nice gentleman, Ivar, whom I sat next to on the flight to Oslo, helped me with two of my heavy trunks! I don´t think I could have made it out to the lobby without his help!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first few days in Oslo were very warm and beautiful! I enjoyed walking around town with Vegar and seeing more of Oslo. My first weekend here, we went to Bergen, one of the tourist capitals of Norway. it is surrounded by amazing fjords! Vegar and I took the train there, traveling over the mountains! At our highest stop on the mountains, we were surrounded by snow, frozen lakes, and snowy mountains! As a Texan, it is something interesting to hold snow in May! :) (The picture on the left was in the snowy area. The sun was so bright, thus the eye squints!)

We spent the weekend with Vegar´s uncle´s family. They were extremely hospitable ! I enjoyed learning about that side of Vegar´s family! I see that good humor and friendliness run on both sides of his family! There were 2 teenage boys and a 7 year old girl in that family. The teenage boys like to do extreme skiing with high jumps and stunts. They have a trampoline and are constantly doing flips and stunts on it. It is a good thing that trampolines now have net walls on them! One interesting story about the trampoline... one that vegar could probably tell better, but I will try since I have the time. :)

Our last day in Bergen we went for a walk that morning. We could see that a storm was rolling in across the mountains, but we decided to make it quick. We got to a lookout point at a high part of the mountain... took some pictures, then realized we should head down since the clouds were approaching the fjord. we headed down the mountain. Once we arrived at the house, I asked vegar to jump on the trampoline with me for a few minutes. He could tell that the clouds were on the fjord now and would be there any minute. But he jumped with me anyway. :) We had a fun time jumping up and down. At one point, Vegar tried to kiss me, but we only had a split second to kiss before one of us ending up going up and the other down... so he missed and kissed my runny nose!

17 MAY
The 17th of May is Constitution Day in Norway. It is a huge holiday. Everything is closed but the hospitals and police stations! Every Norwegian who owns national costumes wears them proudly all day long! Vegar dressed in very nice clothes to celebrate the day. The day is filled with parades of school children and 18 year old Russ
(students who will graduate in a couple of weeks, see image to the right). (A description from Lonely Planet: "An unusual tradition for students graduating from high school is called russ. When a student becomes russ, or rødruss, he or she dons overalls and a beret (these are colour coded based on the kind of high school the student attended - most of the uniforms are red or blue and tend to absorb a lot of alcohol and vomit) and is permitted to raise all sorts of hell for a period that may go on for several weeks around the end of the school year.")


Vegar and I visited a friend of his for bar-b-que (aka, hamburgers and steaks cooked in the oven because it was raining!). We watched a funny swedish comedy and played a really cool strategic/monopoly type game called Settlers.

WHAT´S NEXT
Today is Friday of my second week. We will head for Hamar this evening... I will be living with his parents for awhile, helping them with household things since they have two sick daughters and the government will pay for them to have two full time or part time caregivers. So, I will do anything from cooking, gardening, to painting doors. :) I enjoy broad and flexible job descriptions!

more soon!