Toronto in January: Jørgen´s Third Trip to Canada

After spending the holiday season apart, it was time for Jørgen to come back and see me. He had just started a new job, and they still allowed him to come and see me. I feel like that would never happen here, where work comes first and personal lives come last.

This was the trip to finally start making some real life plans to be together. We had arranged to meet up with an immigration consultant, which I had received mixed messages about. You see, sometimes when I worry about things I tend to want to talk about everything to anyone who will listen, just so I can get a feel for all the opinions out there. In doing so, I had heard many horror stories of spending lots of money on help with immigration and not receiving and benefits in return. Luckily, this was not the case for us. We met with our consultant and discussed our options. Together we came up with a plan to apply for a one year Ìnternational Experience`visa, which would allow Jørgen to live, work, and experience Canada for one year. This sounded perfect, and of course in my mind, too good to be true (always the sceptic, maybe I should work on that). Anyway, this was our new plan, once Jørgen went back to Bodø we would start the application.

Of course since he was here we needed to cram in as much site seeing as possible. On Jørgen´s first night we stayed in a fancy, yet moderately priced of course, hotel in downtown Toronto. Our original plan was to go to the Aquarium, which was right across the street from where we were staying, but when we made our way down the Aquarium was closed for the evening for a special event. Dang! So settled on dinner downtown… our second real dinner date.

The next morning my Dad and his girlfriend, Janet picked us up at took us to Niagra Falls. I hadn´t been since I was a kid and Jørgen had never been. It was cold and rainy, but really nice in the end. We checked out the falls, the wax museum, and the SkyWheel.  That night we also went to a restaurant that had the best potato and bacon soup I have ever had!

The rest of the week included fitting in some normal hang out time in Canada. I took Jørgen skating in a hockey area, he really wanted to go to Five Guys because of a Youtube video, and we eventually made it back to Toronto to go to the Ripley´s Aquarium. In between me working and site seeing, we did spend some time at home just hanging out and watching movies.

The more time we spent together, the less we felt we had to be doing things. With this trip, it actually began to feel like being together could be reality. Then of course it was time to drop him off at the airport, which as I mention in every post, is not easy. This time was different however, we promised that this would be the last time we said goodbye to each other at the airport. So, I watched him walk through security one more time, collected myself, and headed home. Things were going to work out, this time we had a plan.

UP Express From Pearson to Union Station

View from our hotel

Morning view from our hotel

The Falls

Marty McFly at the wax museum

SkyWheel

Port Hope Arena

So Manly

Let´s go skating

He´s hooked

Ice cream after meeting immigration consultant

Ripley´s

Halfway back to Bodø

Bodø Trip #2

It was almost a year ago today that I made my way back to Bodø. I had written my CSNM exam, and now it was time to relax and travel the world again. It had felt like forever since I last saw Jørgen, 12 weeks is a very long time. Actually our longest time apart up to date (hopefully there will be no more breaks).

This time I was flying via London Heathrow, and incase you were wondering, it was actually smooth sailing this time. SPOILER: I made it to Oslo with my bags and everything. Of course it wouldn´t be me if something didn´t interrupt… well… anything I plan. I made made it to London and even had time to sit down and relax before boarding the plane to Bodø. I of course knew that I was in the right terminal because no one was talking to each other (hehe Norwegians). Anyway, once I made it to Oslo I was thinking Yes! I´m so close now, I was tired but almost there. Then of course, as I am walking to my gate I am stopped for an extra security check. So, there I am forcing small talk with a Norwegian security guard while he routes through my socks and undies. After that incredibly awkward experience I am allowed to carry on my way. The thing I remember about that guard the most was that he seemed quite upset that I would not be staying for Christmas,  You´re not staying, don´t you know its almost Christmas?! Hehe.

It was so dark when I landed at 5:30pm, it could´ve been midnight. That is something I will have a hard time getting used to. I got off the plane and there he was, waiting for me. It was so good to see him again, I don´t actually remember our first reaction, but I´m sure it was a miss- kiss, we have never figured out the right airport greeting.  Anyway, I had arrived and my bags had arrived, finally feeling wonderful again.

I feel like there was a lot more relaxing this time as well as some travelling. On my first full day we went to see some sights around town. Jørgen showed me the mall again, which just like here, had exploded with Christmas decorations. The one tradition that I really enjoyed was the season of advent (counting down until Christmas), oh and the story of the Nisse* of course. I loved the bright stars in the windows of all the houses we passed (which are put up during advent), and we of course will be doing that in our little apartment this year.

During this trip we spent more time with Jørgen´s friends and family. We went to the movies, twice! In Bodø when you go to the movies, you don´t actually get to choose your own seat, they assign them to you… same but different! It actually makes more sense, because there´s always that one random seat in the middle that no one sits in. Later during the week we also went to a soup café with Oliver (who was also at the Natasha-Anders wedding) and Jørgen2 (Jørgen´s friend also named Jørgen incase that wasn´t clear). This was such a nice day, I really appreciated everyone during that lunch was speaking English! I know I will eventually learn, and can´t expect everyone to speak English, but it´s sometimes a nice break to know what everyone is talking about.

Later that day, we went to Jørgen´s family´s cabin to have a early birthday party celebration. After last time you would think that I would learn not to try and keep up with Norwegians, but I didn´t, and I definitely know now. I´m just going to leave it at that.

That brings me to Sunday morning! Our trip to Arvidsjaur, Sweden. I remember being told that we had to wake up and leave before we missed the sunlight. At this point the sun came up around 10:30 in the morning and was setting around 2:30 in the afternoon. We had to leave by a certain time or I wouldn´t get to see any of the sites on our way. It might have taken us 3 maybe 4 hours, I can´t remember exactly. I do remember that we were staying in this perfect little cabin, in a perfect snowy setting. We could´ve been staying in a snow globe it was so picturesque. We built a snowman, had our first dinner date, and visited the dollar store. So nothing really that interesting, but still a very memorable experience and now I can say I´ve been to Sweden. I would actually love to go back to the place we stayed. It was just so… koselig.

The next day we drove home, and just relaxed after the long drive. I hate to admit this but on Monday Jørgen finally convinced me to go skiing. I had been dreading this the whole time, but of course I knew had some point they would get me on skiis, Plus I´m pretty sure that UDI won´t approve my visa if I don´t learn to ski, so I guess I had to start sometime. Skiing is hard, its not like skating, at one point I thought it would just be easier if I crawled up the hill. I also competitive by nature (shocker!) so the fact that Jørgen made skiing look so easy wasn´t helping. I did eventually make it back, which was good of course because it was now 2:00pm and the sun was starting to set.

The last night we spent celebrating Jørgen´s parents 25th wedding anniversary. I was glad that I was able to be a part of their special night. I had missed every other holiday and special occasion so it was a nice feeling to be present. Jørgen´s dad even took the time to thank me for being there, which I was both surprised and appreciative of, since it was of course their night.

Morning of course came too soon. I had to pack up and leave again. This time I at least I knew that I´d be seeing Jørgen again in January; a short six weeks this time. The next step from here was to start visa applications so we could be together permanently.

I can´t believe it´s been almost a year since I last went to Bodø. Jørgen and I have come so far from this moment, and I´m excited to see where our adventure takes us. Stay tuned for the last vacation/visit story: Jørgen´s Third Trip to Canada.

Our Swedish snowman

More straight roads

Straight Roads in Sweden

After Skiing at the Cabin

This is me skiing

Selfie

Border of Norway and Sweden

12 Long Weeks

Saying goodbye is never an easy thing to do. I find it to be especially difficult when you´re leaving someone who lives almost 6000 km away. The next 12 weeks felt so long, especially for the first few weeks we I didn´t know when the next time I´d see him.

The very next day after I arrived home I went into my work to see how much vacation time I had left. As it turned out I had about one week left. Now all I had to do was to convince my boss to give me that time. Which was easier said than done. I originally wanted to visit Jørgen for his birthday on December 7th, but we were having a work Christmas party, which I was told everyone had to work that day. So after going back and forth we finally worked out that I would leave for Bodø on Nov 23 and return December 2. Booked September 28th! Now all we had to do was wait.

The next 12 weeks we chatted on Facebook or Snapchat everyday, and we even created a day called Tues-date. This was our Facetime date day which alway ended up being on Tuesday. This doesn´t sound so complicated but when you and your partner have a six hours time difference, there is some planning required! For me our Tuesdates typically started around 1pm and for him around 7pm, and usually ended before I had to leave for work. This is how we sustained our relationship for those very long weeks. We missed my birthday, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Remembrance day. To put things in perspective, when I left Bodø people were wearing shorts, and when I returned to Bodø there were Christmas decorations in the store.

We tried very hard to make sure we had one Facetime chat a week. I think that was the most important aspect of keeping our long distance relationship alive. I just have to share this one example. On my birthday Jørgen Facetime called me to wish me a happy birthday, but that wasn´t just it. He had a tiny cupcake waiting for me with a candle so he could sing to me. This is the kind of person worth waiting and working for.

The rest of the time was spent doing everyday things. I was busy studying for an exam I had to write in November before leaving, so between that and working and holidays, I hoped that the time would pass quickly.

This was a short post, but I still feel like this was an essential part of our story to tell. Waiting. More Waiting. Also, Wondering- How can we be together permanently? Still a mystery, at this point in the story.

 

Bodø, September 2015

When I landed in Oslo, I noticed that my bags never arrived. Of course I wasn´t really surprised since I had just made the flight myself. Oh well, the attendant said that it should arrive by the morning.

By this time, I was so nervous and excited. I was nervous to see Jørgen again, I mean what if it had just been a fluke last time. I was just about to land and my stomach was doing flip-flops. I know I looked and probably smelled gross, having travelled across the world and then ran across the Paris airport… and having no clean clothes to change into. That was actually the first thing we did after meeting up again, we made a quick trip to the mall to get a change of clothes. For those of you wondering, the malls in Bodø are exactly the same as every mall I´ve been to here.

The next morning I was up bright and early, 6am start, although Jørgen wasn´t as excited I was about this. The sun was so high in the sky at the time (being so far north) I thought I´d slept in. Time to start the day! That day we were climbing a mountain… and for me, with jet lag. That day was also the day I would meet Jørgen´s family. Climbing a mountain and meeting family. No big deal.

We arrived at his parents house. I was very nervous, especially since I´d been informed that his parents don´t speak English. His mom came outside, Hello and welcome, I am happy to meet you I´m not sure if that´s exactly what she said but it was definitely in English. We continued to speak to each other, in English, for the rest of the day. Including during our mountain climb (which I believe was two hours up and two hours back down!). After the mountain climb we went back to his parents house. His dad´s first words to me, in English, were Hi- those aren´t your clothes Oh yeah, my bags still hadn´t arrived and I had to borrow Jørgen´s mom´s clothes and shoes to climb the mountain. What a day: Hi nice to meet you, can I have some clothes! Ah. At least his family was and still is very down-to-earth. Later that evening, when we were going back to Jørgen´s apartment, I said,`Ì thought your parents didn´t speak English,` and his response, ` I didn´t know they did.`That is probably one of my favourite stories. Jørgen and his family never spoke English to eachother… how would they know!

The rest of the week we did some touring around Bodø and I met more friends and family. Jørgen took me to see the Saultstraumen, which is the world´s largest maelstrom (tidal current). I tried a reindeer stew, which has a name that I can´t remember. I met up with my friend Natasha, who was also in Bodø at the time (woohoo two Canadians in Bodø). I met Pelle, the famous police car from the kid´s tv show (similar to Theadore Tugboat and Thomas the Tank Engine). That weekend we went to the family cabin (hytte), where I should´ve learned a valuable lesson- As a Canadian you should NOT try to keep up with Norwegians when they drink. I called it a night a 2am, I believe the party kept going until the sun came up.

I woke up quite hungover. I mean the kind of hangover that even cold pizza from the night before can´t fix. As we were on our way home, Jørgen gets a call from his parents, they want to have a nice meal in a restaurant tonight. Perfect. How will I pull this off?

Later that evening, after attempting to sleep and having a shower, trying to look not-like-I`ve-been-out-all-night, we arrived at the restaurant. Oh! Look who´s here, Jørgen´s grandfather and uncle. Shit. I´m meeting them in this condition. Luckily Jørgen´s brother was in worse shape than I was- a nice distraction. They might not have even known, until now. Sorry. Secret´s out. Anyway, the rest of the night went well, me trying to figure out what´s going on between English and Norwegian language switches. Which I am getting used to, by the way.

Overall, the trip was like a dream, it passed way too quickly.  This was a big step forward for our relationship. Meeting up again, and realizing this wasn´t a summer fling. Meeting the family. Climbing mountains together. We had yet to face our biggest challenge, the end of this trip was the beginning of our longest time apart (˜12 weeks).  I had to leave Jørgen behind, again. Only this time, neither of us had flights booked. When would we see each other again, how long would we wait. Saying goodbye was just too hard.

Stay tuned for the next post, How can we be together permanently.

 

 

 

Skipping Ahead. This Crazy Week.

So I´m skipping ahead because this last week- two weeks has been so crazy that I had to write it down. We live in Kitchener, Ontario right now (spoiler alert) and both work in Waterloo and have been since May. Anyway everything started happening the night of September 17th. I had just had my first Saturday off in a while, let´s say a month, which was exciting enough on its own. My family had come up for a visit to take me wedding dress shopping, and surprised me with birthday celebrations. It had been a perfect day, and trust me, I really needed it.

Jørgen and I came home after a lovely birthday dinner with my family and soon went to bed. Then we here this noise… drip drip drip. Oh no! There´s a leak in the ceiling. Oh well not the worst thing that can happen to someone. We would just report this in the morning.

Ah! What a nice sleep in! I took a long time to wake up, had a slow morning, stayed in my jammies until noon. Jørgen was at work. I decided I should probably do something productive. Why don´t I go through the closet and start putting away clothes that we don´t need anymore. I started digging through the closet, it had this funny smell and everything was so dusty, but as I continued to dig through our things I noticed that this wasn´t dust, this was mould. OMG, mould is all over our clothes, I checked the other closet, and sure enough the winter coats and shoes were covered in mould too. Just great! (Sarcasm). I called the building assistant and let him know, but of course it was Sunday and nothing happens on the weekend. So I was sitting there, letting my mind run wild, sending a million texts to Jørgen. All we could do was wait.

The next morning, Jørgen took the car into the shop, as I forgot to mention earlier that the wheel bearing on the car needed replacing. I made phone calls trying to get the building manager to come in and assess the problem. I finally get ahold of her, but of course she couldn´t come in until Wednesday. At least the car was fixed today.

Skip ahead to Wednesday, yep they confirmed that there is mould in the apartment. We pulled the bed back only to find that it was a lot worse than expected. Mould was and is still growing all along the back wall of our apartment. We removed everything from that room, except the bed, and closed that room off. The rest of the week, we were sleeping on the couch trying to live around the mountains of dirty, mouldy clothes. The building manager did at least promise to pay for the cleaning of our clothes.

Saturday rolls around. I started to drive to work when I noticed the engine light came on. ´Now what?!` There was something going on with the car that was putting it into safety mode, which wouldn´t let me drive more than third gear. Panic. Again. We had to wait until Monday  before we could have the car examined in the shop, again. In the meantime, we had to take the bus back and forth from work. Apparently, a 25 min drive to work is at least an hour and a half to two hours, maybe more if you can´t make each transfer to get home, and its three buses to get home. We were taking more time to get back and forth to work then actual time spent working (three hour shifts… what is that?!). In addition to more time spent travelling, we were also spending more money to travel back and forth than we were making. This went on from Monday until Friday morning. The car had been in the shop for days, they were pretty sure they figured out the problem, the part that needed replacing was at least under warranty. All week we were stressing that the longer it was in the shop the more it would cost in labour.

The mould problem was still in existence, however the building manager and us decided the best and fastest way to resolve that issue was to move us to a new unit. Yay! Some good news. We started cleaning our clothes and moving things into the new unit.

Thursday was probably the most depressing day of all. We started the day by taking the bus into town so we could hook up the power in the new apartment. We then received a phone call that we could pick up the car. Woo hoo! After we had the power hooked up we took another bus to go get the car. There was hope in the air. We arrived and… turns out it wasn´t completely fixed yet, they hadn´t quite solved the problem. Our hearts just sank, now what. We had to take another bus to work also knowing it would take us a couple of hours to get home. What were we going to do now? We were contemplating every bad scenario of how the next six months were going to play out. Feeling lower and lower. I´m not exactly sure how to describe how awful and hopeless we were feeling. This feeling of uncertainty and despair stayed with us until bedtime. Now we wait…

The phone rings bright and early the next day. The car is ready! OMG YES! We hopped on the bus, still not sure if we should be excited, just in case. An hour later, we picked up the car and took it home. From there we continued our move into the new apartment. We made it, we got through these challenges that life decided to throw our way. Just in time to. I never mentioned early, but, we also had visitors coming to stay. Jørgen´s family is on their way from Bodø. I am just finishing up this post as they are going through Canadian customs at Pearson. I am definitely looking forward to this coming week.

As one final note, I would like to add, that I am very lucky to have such a supportive partner. I wouldn´t have made it through these challenges alone. I was very near an emotional breakdown, but with him I was able to push through each day. Thank you for staying strong. We did it. Now we can´t look back and know we can handle all life´s curve balls.

Now let´s have some fun!

 

 

Will I ever get there?! Stuck in France (almost)

After what felt like a long six weeks later (after Jørgen left) it was finally time for my trip. I was so excited, and only a little nervous about travelling alone and two plane switches. So, I packed up my suitcase, the night before of course, and headed to the airport.

This is me we´re talking about though, so of course the trip was less than smooth sailing. I remember sitting on the tarmac for at least an hour. I was panicking, because I had two more flights to catch after this. Thanks Air Canada. Anyway, 8 hours later and we finally made it to the Paris Airport.

I had to change terminals and we were over an hour late landing. My flight was boarding in less than 30 minutes and I had to switch terminals! Thankfully my flight to Oslo had been delayed as well, but there still wasn´t much time to catch this one either. Then I had to wait through this incredibly long and painful line to go through security. I finally get through, and scramble around trying to figure out where to go next.

I hop on another bus to take me to the next terminal. Wouldn´t you know it there was another Canadian on that bus as well. He recognized me from my Blue Jays Cap, what a small world. Ok, so that cheered me up a little bit!

Oh no! Apparently when you switch terminals in Paris you need to go through another security check! Why?! Ah I´m gonna be stuck in France! So, I waited in line, unpack my backpack again, and run to the passport check. OMG this line is longer than the last one,    I´m not going to make me flight, as that flight is boarding now!  I stand in that line, panicking again, not knowing what to do. I finally get some Wifi and let Jørgen know that   I´m probably not making this flight. To which he replied, You have to make that flight there isn´t another flight to Oslo from Paris today!Ah! Panic! Now What?! I run up to a security officer and explain my situation, and he couldn´t care less…

I wait a few more minutes and I see another security officer. I thought, What do I have to lose, I´ll cry if that´s what it takes to get me on this plane!` I run up to her and explain that I am here in Paris, alone, and my plane Oslo is boarding now and its the only flight to Oslo today. She must´ve felt sorry for me, (woo hoo it worked, and I didn´t even have to break down in tears), because she brought me to the front of the passport line. I ran to my gate, and I can hear them paging me. I get to the gate, I can see it! Wait miss, you have to unpack your backpack! AHHHHHH! I call to the officer at the gate, wait, I´m here! I dumped my backpack and then grabbed my stuff and went to my gate… which was probably 10 meters away. I boarded the plane and the pilot said, ´You´re here good, now we can go.´ I made it! OMG I can´t believe I made it. I splurged $0.60 on an international text to let Jørgen know I made it. Exhausted, sweaty, and full of adrenaline, but I made it!

A backpack and sneakers is what you need to get through international flights

 

 

 

Omg he is actually coming to visit me

So… Jørgen flew across the word to visit me. Only having met me once before.

This is crazy! It was crazy. I remember going through it in my head, Oh, what if we don´t get along, what are we going to do for a whole week if we don´t like each other. That night I was going to pick him up from the airport. July 6, 2015. Oh yeah, that´s another thing I should probably mention, I´d never driven on the 401 past Oshawa before. I was going to drive all the way to the airport to pick up a boy I´d met once. This was really my first step in really coming out of my shell, in becoming the kind of person who moves to a new country to start a new adventure. Sometimes you just have to do things you´re not comfortable with.

As it turns out, we got along just fine, it was a little awkward at first. We miss-kissed at the airport. I went for a kiss, he went for a hug… omg that is the most awkward thing, how will I get through the rest of tonight!Anyway, we got through it, once I found my way out of the parking garage in Pearson Airport.

After our night in Toronto, we went home. I took Jørgen home to meet my family. It was a full house, my mom actually had some of my extended family staying with her. So not only did Jørgen get to meet up with me (day 1), he also got to meet my mom, her boyfriend, my aunt and uncle and my cousin (day 2). That´s not overwhelming at all… luckily Jørgen is a very easy-going person and smiled the whole time. In fact, I went to work, and they all went bowling together (day 3).

Look who won

The rest of the week we spent doing some tourist-y things. I took him to some local spots, the Port Hope drive in as well as the beach in Cobourg. Of course we had to go to Wonderland, which was much bigger than any amusement park found in Norway (so I´ve heard). On the Friday before his return to Norway we took a trip to Ottawa. All in all I would say that I had a perfect week with him.

This made me start thinking, I really like him, whats going to happen after my trip to Norway? I knew this would come up in a conversation before he left. I didn´t want things to end between us, and neither did he. It was during this trip that we decided we wanted to be together. We just didn´t know how to be.

Stay tuned for the next post, My First Trip to Bodø.

 

 

I like him, I wonder if he likes me too…

He always says the nicest things

My first trip to Bodø

Jørgen and I really started to connect during his train ride home on, `The Northern Railway.´  For those who are not so familiar with this train, it is a ten hour ride from Trondheim to Bodø, so we had plenty of time to chat.

Jørgen and I began talking online everyday. A few times a day at first, but that eventually increased to god morgen messages and god natt messages everyday. If I remember correctly, it was only a few weeks later that I decided, I am going to Bodø. According to my emails, I actually booked my ticket on June 18, 2015. When I decide I´m doing something, I act right away, I would´ve even booked sooner however, I had some issues with my getting answers about vacation time, but that´s another story.

Anyway, I wish I had written this down sooner, because I´m mostly basing this story on memory. Jørgen had already been given some vacation time in July, and I know he was a little disappointed (he may not admit to this) that I couldn´t come until the end of August. I would be missing Bodø´s one week of summer (heh) and the midnight sun. I then suggested that he should come to Toronto to visit me, and wouldn´t you know it, he agreed! I remember he had some crazy work training exercise thing at the military base and was working very long days, I didn´t hear from him much on those days but I didn´t mind as I knew that pay check would be going towards his trip to visit me. As soon as I knew I had some days off in July, I let him know and he booked his ticket. From here it was just a waiting game, lots of Facebook messages, and a few Facetime dates until we would see each other again. What a gamble!

Stay tuned for the next post… Omg he is actually coming to visit me.

 

 

My Story… Our Story

Hi,

I´m starting this blog to keep track of all my thoughts (good luck right? for those who know me) while I begin my new adventure.

First of all, I should tell you who I am. My name is Colleen, I´m 25 years old, nearly 26. I moved to Wolfville, NS, when I was 18 to start my schooling at Acadia University. While I was there, I met my good friend Natasha, who is the root cause of everything that´s about to happen…

I met my fiance, Jørgen, at Natasha´s wedding. Natasha married a Norwegian, Anders. I guess these northerners have a thing for Canadian women. Probably because we were willing to talk to someone we didn´t know. Anyway, the Natasha-Anders wedding is where Jørgen and I hit it off. Funny thing, we didn´t even speak much during the wedding. I only started talking to him when I found out he was a chef. I love food (did I mention my degree is in Nutrition), oh yeah and Jørgen I love him too.

I left that night, contemplating whether I should return to the wedding to party with the Norwegian boys. Alas, I couldn´t bring myself to spend time with three strange Norwegian boys in the big scary town of Wolfville.

The next day I returned to Wolfville to meet up with the bride, to say goodbye before catching my flight home. So, that afternoon I came to her apartment, only to wake up a few half-naked Norwegian boys… who apparently didn´t know I was coming. Where is the bride? She was no where to be found, and not answering her phone. I ended up giving an impromptu walking-tour of Wolfville to Jørgen of course and the two other groomsmen, Øyvind and Oliver. An hour came and went and it was time for me to leave for the airport. This was the only actual time spent with Jørgen before his second adventure to Canada (Spoiler Alert).

I met Jørgen on May 8, 2015, and added him as a friend on Facebook May 9, 2015. In my personal opinion, that´s really where it all started… stay tuned for the next post on, where we went from here.