Canada Day in Northern Norway

So, this year Canada day was a little different than what I am used to. First of all, I didn´t see anyone walking in red all day with maple leaves painted all over their faces, and it was really strange to be living a place that didn´t really acknowledge that July 1st was a day to be celebrated.

This year, I did however, get to celebrate the entire day (this is new since I´m usually working on Canada Day, and miss most of the celebrations). My friends and I drove to Sandvika, which is a little island not far from here. The plan was to spend the day on the beach and camp overnight.

Now when I think of beach weather, I think of bathing suits, swimming, warm weather, and sunburns. I wore a summer dress with a bathing suit underneath… and of course I was freezing most of the day. I think I made it until dinner time before I changed into sweatpants and a sweater.

It was such a strange feeling to be wearing a sweater and sweatpants at 5pm on July 1st. Not to mention that we we´re almost blown away with the wind multiple times throughout the day. Nonetheless, I refused to admit that the wind and cold was bringing down the day.

We built a campfire, roasted hot dogs, made hamburgers on a throw away grill. We didn´t make smore´s but we did roast bananas with chocolate in foil as well as an experiment with ice cream cones stuffed with marshmallows, chocolate, and strawberries. It was delicious.

I was also introduced to a game call KUBB, which involved throwing wooden cylinders at wooden blocks, with a wooden king in the middle. The blocks are placed on opposite sides of the playing area, and the king is in the middle. The object of the game (for my readers outside of Scandinavia) is to knock over the wooden blocks, by throwing the wooden cylinders at them, and then eventually knocking over the king…before the other team does. Which actually, is a lot harder than it sounds. We played that for a while, and went to sit by the fire, and of course it started to rain. What I wouldn´t give for a full day of  warmth and sunshine.

I think this transition into summer has been a bigger change than I expected. I feel like I keep waiting for the warm weather and sun to arrive and it just hasn´t. I find myself getting a little jealous of my Canadian friends and family posting poolside pictures, and wearing shorts, and having Canada Day celebrations. Then of course, I saw a post about strawberry season. Æææ! The best part of summer/fall, all the fresh, delicious, giant produce… oh well I guess we have mountains here and the sea. Hopefully it will stop raining so I can enjoy those one day.

Anyway, I hope everyone back home had a nice long weekend, and are enjoying the last day of it today. It´s just a regular day here. Hopefully the sun came out for you, you ate lots of strawberries, and had a chance to view some fireworks. Thanks to everyone here who remembered Canada Day and helped me to celebrate it.

 

 

 

 

 

April in Bodø

Jørgen and I have spent the last month settling into our apartment and daily life. It´s taken me longer than I hoped to put some words down about my experiences in Bodø, Norway, but here I am trying to organize my thoughts again.

There definately some differences between Northern Norway and Central Ontario that I´ve picked up on, especially during this transition from winter to spring. First of all, I definitely have a new appreciation for the sun. March was so dreary, rainy, and snowy, that when we had the first few days of sunshine I just wanted to soak it all in. Anytime the sun is out now, I have do something outside for awhile, just to feel it.

I have been skiing a few times, and not just on little trips. During Easter weekend I went on two separate ski trips, one 11km long, and the second was about 13km (up and down a mountain). What they don´t tell you is, just how scary it is to ski down hill, or in my case, several series of standing on skiis for a few meters and then falling, struggling to get up again, and repeat. The only thing that keeps me going is the promise of oranges, chocolate, and rest stops.

After the last trip, I felt truly accomplished but equally exhausted. I may need to rest until the next ski season, and who knows, I may even have skis of my own by then. On skies I look like a rag doll, with my wobbly `technique,´ in borrowed clothes and gear, that are a little big everywhere… some people may even find it endearing. Story of my life. Although, I do appreciate all the new opportunities and experiences; once you reach the top of the mountain and see the scenery, there is a brief moment where you forget that you have to ski back down the other side of the mountain.  It´s these moments that get me back out there each time.

Towards the end of April I really started to notice the different in the daylight hours. It´s truly and energizing experience living this far north at this time of the year. On the days when the sun in shining, it´s still bright daylight at 9pm, with dim lighting around midnight. It´s very easy to lose track of time in the evening, and even harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.

The last couple of evenings, I lay down to go to sleep between 11:30 and midnight, but I cannot fall asleep. I turn over to see that Jørgen has fallen asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow. Grumble. I toss and turn, and when I do fall asleep I wake up around 4, thinking it´s time to get up. In fact, it seems like the only time I can sleep is when it´s time to wake up with Jørgen. I´m sure I will get used to it, it´s worth it having such long daylight hours.

I have tried to be creative in finding a solution to the light at night dilemma. In my frustration last night, I turn the blinds to face up instead of down and in addition to that I tried to make my own sleep mask out of a buff (which is a scarf-like piece of material used to protect your face from the wind). So, there I was with my homemade sleep mask trying to sleep, but then I kept thinking about the weird feeling of having my eyes completely covered, and took it off. Then it was bright again. I did this back and forth, on and off, for the rest of the night. Hopefully I will have better luck tonight.

The rest of my time has been spent trying to fill in the down time, I will never get used to not working or being in school. I am getting to know my bus route from Bodøjoen to Kvalvika, which I can proudly say I am getting familiar with. I have been on several hikes. I am getting to know a lot more people, both family and new friends. I am also lucky enough to have a friend here with me from back home.

My Norwegian is coming along, but slowly. I have some workbooks that were generously donated to the Teach Colleen Norwegian Foundation, that I have started to go through. The tricky part is that the instruction are also in Norwegian, so I guess what I am supposed to do, and they are similar to the French workbooks we had in elementary school.  I am definitely looking forward to starting formal Norwegian training, provided I´m accepted into the program (fingers crossed).

Oh yes, and there is a wedding coming up soon. Wedding planning has also been on my mind a lot lately. It´s almost a month away and there is lots to do. I don´t want to write too much about this, as it will ruin the surprises. It´s very exciting to bring together our families again.

Anyway, I think I´ve hit all the exciting news that´s happened in April. Sorry to keep everyone waiting.

Bye for now!

 

The Day I (almost) Ordered a Coffee

Today started slowly, like most days do when Jørgen is working all day. I started today by eating the rest of the yogurt in the fridge. I hate using the community kitchen, most of the time there is someone in there, and today it looked like there was an entire family in there (and for most of the morning too).

I finally managed to sneak into the kitchen to clean up a couple of dishes from the night before. When I was finished I came back to the room only to find out that my key to my room wasn´t working, and of course I didn’t have my phone on me. This stuff just happens to me, and I now know why people constantly have their phones on them. You´d think I´d learn my lesson, after getting locked in the bathroom a couple of weeks ago (at Jørgen´s parents house) but no, that’s not really my style.

I ran over to the restaurant where Jørgen is training to grab the other hotel key. Luckily, it´s only takes about ten minutes to walk there, as I wasn’t wearing have a coat, but good job me for remembering to wear shoes to the kitchen. I grabbed the key to the hotel room, ran back, and thankfully this key worked. I sit down to relax, and the cleaning crew came, so I also had to speak with them. I left the room, to let them do their thing; no one likes being watched while they work. I decided to go to a cafe.

The whole way there I psyched myself up, I was going to order a cup of coffee in Norwegian. So, I practice in my head what I was going to say, checked to make sure I had enough coins. I arrived at the cafe, here it goes… and I chicken out and order in English. Dang, I was so close, but then it was too scary. I sat down and sulked with my cup of coffee. Oh well, I guess tomorrow is a new day.

I know that I know the words, I just can´t bring myself to say them out loud yet. People say, what´s the worse that could happen, and they’re right. I just hope that one day soon I´ll. be able to work up the courage to order something in Norwegian. It´ll be something to work towards.

Har det from Harstad!

Three Weeks in Norway

I´ve been living in Norway for three weeks now. It hasn´t really felt like I´ve been living here here until recently. For the first week or so it just felt like an extended vacation. I guess I had a reality check last week during my meeting at the police station for my visa application.

I guess the first difference that I´ve noticed is the weather. It was cloudy and rainy the whole first week I was here. The second week I was here it was snowing, and now that I´m here in Harstad the weather changes hourly! Secondly, I think people here just live in active wear, and it´s probably because they´re always on the go. The sports store is the biggest store in City Nord (the main shopping mall here) and there is more than one sports store in that mall.

Since I´ve been here, I´ve done one 10km cross-country ski trip, the distance I was not informed of until afterwards. Let´s go skiing they said, we´ll take a trip to the cabin, have a koselig time. At some point I didn´t think there was a stopping point, it was all a trick! No I´m kidding, I made it to the stop point, had some deilig oatmeal soup, and then before I knew it, it was time to get back on the skiis and head back… down hill. I fell, pretty much the whole way back, laughing most of the way (the competitive part of me wasn´t impressed). I had a nice bruise on my knee to show for it! It must not have been so bad though, because we have been to the sports store since, looking to buy my own skiis.

I have also been on lots of walks. On the beach, up mountain sides, and down by the water front. It´s been one of my favourite things to do here. The scenery is unlike anything I´ve seen before. Northern Norway is so beautiful that I could be living in a story book.

Jørgen and I haven´t really had a chance to settle yet. He has an exciting new job that requires three weeks of training, and lots of time away. Last week Jørgen was away in Trondheim, and I stayed in Bodø with his family. I had stayed behind so I could attend my visa meeting, but also because Jørgen would be busy with his work.

For the next couple of weeks Jørgen and I are staying in Harstad, which is even further north that Bodø. For my Canadian readers, when you follow across the map of the world, Harstad is as far north as the part of Nunavut that begins to break off into tiny islands (in technical geography terms of course).

I´ll keep you posted as life in Harstad unfolds. I might even find the confidence to talk to the cashiers, Nei, pose takk! Secretly hoping that this is as far as the conversation will go, (which I have been promised, but then again someone sat next to me on an empty bus, so I don´t know what to believe anymore).

Ha det fra Harstad!

 

Three Planes Away from Our New Life

It wasn´t long, after we arrived at the gate, before it was time to board the plane. At this point I was starting to relax a little more. That´s the thing about flying for me, I am anxious pretty much the entire time until I reach the gate. Once I´m on the plane I´m fine.

Jørgen and I boarded our plane and found our seats easily, and everyone around us began settling in as well. We just start to get comfortable when we here, Achoo... Achoo... Achoo...,` probably 15 times in a row followed by, `fuuuuurrrrrttt`  This was then followed by the worst smell, gagworthy, I´m not exaggerating either, the people beside her anda behind us were gaging.  This continued for the rest of the 5 hour flight, so bad that at one point the smell woke me up from a sleep attempt. Needless to say, I could not wait to get off this plane.

This isn´t a whole lot to say about our layover in Reykjavík, Iceland, as it was only an hour long, and a fairly small airport. We landed, went through passport control, which I was nervous about, but went through flawlessly. Both Jørgen and I were pretty hungry so I sent him on a food run while I held our spot at the gate. He came back, we ate our crazy expensive airport sandwiches and carried onto our next flight.

I tried to sleep on this plane but was unsuccessful. The two women in front of us were having an intensely loud conversation, and I couldn’t even eavesdrop, as they were switching between Icelandic, Norwegian, and English. How inconsiderate of them, if they were going to be loud, I would´ve at least liked to have known what was so exciting.

When we landed in Oslo, grabbed our bags and rechecked in. No stopping. All that worrying and the only trouble we had we left behind in Toronto. Who knew? Now I really could relax.

Jørgen and I had a little more time in Oslo between flights, so together we went on a hunt for something to eat. Jørgen really wanted a hot dog so even though we had found our gate we had to back track and check out all the convenience shops until we found one that sold hot dogs. I don´t know if I was just starving, or it was the familiar taste, but it was the best hot dog I´ve had since my last Blue Jays game.

Eventually it was time to board the plane again. Finally! The last flight of the trip! I can´t actually write much about this last flight though because I slept through most of it. I fell asleep when we took off and woke up just before we began our descent in Bodø.

We got off our plane, went to baggage claim, and there Jørgen´s parents were waiting for us with big hugs and smiles. I´m also happy to report that all of our bags made it, and my wedding dress looked flawless when I took it out of my bag. Thanks for your help with that Cathy!

Jørgen and I went back to his parents house where a lovely dinner was waiting for us. I was so tired that I wasn´t able to enjoy it as much as I would´ve liked. I spent the rest of the night fighting to stay awake, it would´ve been sweet relief to sleep, but I´m glad that I stayed awake until a proper bed time, as I was able to wake up on Bodø time the next day (with a short break in sleeping from 1:30-3:30).

All in all I would say this trip, minus the hiccup at Toronto Pearson, went smoothly. We have spent the last week settling in, Jørgen has been securing his new job, we´ve organized our things in the apartment, visiting with friends and family, and started our paperwork. I will aim to write new blogs once a week as our adventure unfolds.

 

 

March, 7, 2017: Part 1 (Preparing to leave)

So… this is the first time I´ve sat down to write in a while. I debated whether I should write something down before I left, but to be honest, I myself wasn´t sure what I was feeling in my own head, so I didn´t know how I would articulate that in writing.

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March 7, 2017,

Started like any other travelling day, scrambling to pack everything. Jørgen and I had started to pack during our last month at home, but like any good student/former student knows, with desperation comes inspiration. I do my best work in a time crunch struggle. Jørgen and I had two bags packed up until the night before we left.

Luckily, I have a good friend who knows me too well, and left her evening open for such an event. She and her husband came over after dinner to hang out, and after an hour or so we decided maybe we should finish packing. I was happy to have her there because I hadn´t figured out how I was going to pack my wedding dress in my suitcase. So after watching a few youtube videos we decided to layer the dress with packing tissue and roll it up, leaving the form inside the body. Yes! we managed to make it fit, delicately, along with Jørgen´s sister´s bridesmaid dress and the ties for the groomsmen.

Not long after that, we had to say our goodbyes, which doesn´t get easier no matter how many you have to say. The rest of the night was spent trying to fit the most important things in our lives into, four bags, one backpack, and one murse (Jørgen´s man purse). I gave up around 11:30, still unfinished.

In the morning, we decided that we could probably fit more into the bags if we used vacuum pack bags. So we took everything out of the suitcases and started over. The rest of the morning was spent putting things into bags and finding things we forgot about and trying to squeeze them in. By the end, we were on our weight limit for every bag, and ended up doing a last minute run to the store to pick up baggage straps.

We left the house around 1pm, at this point I don´t think I realized I was actually leaving the country. We stopped at my aunt´s house for a lovely lunch, the last real meal before entering Norway. It was strange, in a way, how normal it felt.

3:15 time to leave for the airport. We left early to prepare for traffic, and of course, because we left early we didn´t hit any traffic and arrived at the airport around 4:30. We were about to walk into the scariest part of the trip, we just didn´t know it yet.

We walked into the terminal, Jørgen, my mom, my aunt and I, and get in line to check our bags. So far so good. We finally got to the front of the line and proceeded to the counter. Handed over our passports. The flight attendent says to me, You don´t have a return flight, this is not a problem for him, he has a Norwegian passport, but you have a Canadian Passport, you need to have a return flight.`

I immediately felt sick to my stomach. We explained to her that although we weren´t currently married, we had plans to be married once we arrived. Do you have any documentation to prove this?` Luckily I had anticipated some hiccups during our travels, and all our documents together and ready to go. I just wasn´t expecting to experience any at Toronto Pearson. I hurried back to my mom and my aunt to get my back pack, and rushed back to the front of the line with them. I handed them over while we waited impatiently, nervously, while she phone the airline lawyer. It was in that moment that all the feelings of apprehension and sadness I was having in the weeks before disappeared. The thought of not being allowed on the plane terrified me and nearly sick to my stomach. After a few moments on the phone, we were given the OK and proceeded to check in our bags and collect our boarding passes. I´m glad we arrived early.

Although we were able to proceed I now had it in my head that this wasn´t going to be an easy journey. I was sure we were going to be stopped in Oslo. I couldn´t relax for the rest of the night. So, here I was sitting stewing in my own head about what could go wrong, while my aunt, who is apparently the information woman at Pearson (random people were coming up to her and asking her to check their boarding pass or where to buy wine haha), my mom and Jørgen all enjoying a glass of something delicious. My dad and his girlfriend also showed up at the airport to have a drink and say goodbye. In hindsight I wish I could´ve relaxed more, but of course, that just isn´t my style.

When it came time to go through security, that´s when the tears came. Not from me, because I was preoccupied in my head with thoughts of being kicked off a plane, but from my family. That was hard, and of course they wanted us to pose for a picture while I looked at their sad faces, how was I supposed to smile in that photo. You can even see the uncomfortable smile and anxiousness in my face of the photo my mom posted.

So that was that, we smiled for our photo, said our goodbyes, and went through security. We had no problems through security and found our gate with ease. Now we just had to wait.

I´ll end my post here while I try to remember the haze of 12 hours of travelling that followed. I´ll continue the story in my next post.

Coming to you from Bodø, Norway.

xoxo

 

 

Goodbye Kitchener

Jørgen and I have officially moved back to Campbellcroft. It´s hard to believe that we are actually back to where we started almost a year ago. Only now I feel differently about being home. It´s funny to think about how eager I was to leave.

I was so ready to prove that I could make it on my own, and yet, every chance I got I came back for a visit. If I have learned anything about myself this year it´s that I don´t enjoy being so far away from my family and friends. Now, I know what you´re thinking. If she couldn´t ´handle` living in Kitchener how will she handle being in Bodø? I can see how someone might think that. It won´t be the same. I know that.

Living in Kitchener, we really were on our own. We didn´t have any friends or family who were closer than an hour away. The only time I actually felt like I was making friends was when I announced to my colleagues that I was leaving. The first time I hung out with anyone besides Jørgen was last week!

In Bodø, we won´t be alone. Jørgen already has a life there, so we are moving to what I hope will be our home, not somewhere we sleep in between work. Friends and family, support systems, will already be in place. I am hoping to find something to do that keeps me happy and busy, while learning Norwegian of course ;). It will be strange though, not working, I´ve been working (part-time at least) since I was 15 and continued to work while at University (excluding that crazy time I completed a Masters degree in one year). I´m not really housewife material. Is that term still appropriate to use?

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Anyway, jumping back to the present (I apologize for my scattered thought), we moved back to my mom´s on Saturday. We were fortunate enough to find someone to take over the lease of our apartment, which was a huge relief for me. Last Monday we sold our couch, we posted an ad in the morning and it was gone by dinner time. It happened so fast I barely had a chance to say goodbye. She was so cozy and reliable, and its sad to say that we spent a lot of time with her.

We spent most of last week packing and getting organized. On Saturday morning my parents came and helped us move everything back here. By 4:00pm that day we were moved out, the keys were gone, and finished with the long drive back.

I didn´t think it would be an emotional day. So I was surprised by my reaction. Of course I was happy to be leaving and to have a whole month to spend relaxing and spending time with my family. However, so many people had so many nice things to say to us before we left, we were even given some gifts. I was so caught off guard by this. It almost would´ve been easier if people were mean or indifferent to us. But they weren´t. They were kind and full of well wishes. Damn. Not so easy.

Then of course, this was also mine and Jørgen´s first home together. We had to say goodbye to our first home. Yes, we had some challenges this past year, but we pulled through and became closer in the process. So, overall I´d say we had good year that was certainly less than boring.

I am looking forward to this next month. In the last couple of days we´ve relaxed, unpacked some things, and actually finished our wedding invitations! I´m hoping to cram in some fun activities that we never had time for. One last trip to Ottawa and possibly somewhere in Quebec before we leave is definitely on my to-do list. I just need to find a couple of days between organizing myself for my new life adventure.

I´ll keep you posted as the days go by and hope to see as many people as possible before we go. Please send me a message if I don´t send you one first.

Neb´s in Oshawa

VIP Cineplex

Who needs a bed?

Neb´s in Oshawa

Last Day Selfie

 

 

Christmas in Canada

This Christmas was a little different this year, not just for Jørgen, but also for me. We live in Kitchener, Ontario, which is just far enough away from my family that it´s not worth the drive unless we can stay over night. At the same time, both Jørgen and I work in a Long Term Care facility which means that we were working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

This was a little disappointing for me as I was hoping to show Jørgen a true Canadian Christmas, complete with the excitement of Christmas morning. We did, however, have our own little Christmas morning. We woke up early and opened a few gifts (with family on videochat), and is was special since it was our first Christmas together. Just not exactly what I had in my mind. We both left the house around 9am and didn´t arrive home until 7pm.

We missed most of the excitement that is Christmas Day. Luckily, my mom, her boyfriend Chris and my sister were waiting for us when we finally made it back home. The house smelled amazing. Christmas dinner included all the traditions we Canadians love; turkey; cranberry sauce; stuffing; mashed potatoes; turnip; and of course pumpkin pie and homemade ice cream! I´m still full just thinking about it.

Afterwards, we opened gifts, which was weird for me (opening gifts in the evening?!) but normal for Jørgen, because, apparently Santa comes to Norway in the morning of the 24th, but they open their gifts in the evening of the 24th. Weird. So, I guess we had a little mix of both of our traditions. Maybe that means next year we will leave some gifts for the 25th ;). Hint-Hint.

The next morning, Boxing Day, we had to return to work and my family had to return home. Christmas came and went so quickly, it´s hard to believe. Oh well, I was looking forward to spending New Years at Mom´s. Yes we did finally get so time off work.

Let me fill you in on that silliness. We were given the 29th, 31st, and 1st. Yep, you read that quickly. Our boss expected us to come back (2.5 hours away) for a three hour shift. Of course, we did come back for that because we are suckers, but suckers with work ethic I might add.

So, we drove home wednesday night after work. The next morning we woke up early to catch a train back to Toronto, which was worth it by the way, my Dad and his girlfriend Janet had given us tickets to see an Ed Mirvish show downtown. After the show we had a late lunch and caught the train back to Mom´s. We made it in time for the family Christmas party that was happening that evening. SO MUCH TRAVELLING!

Wake up the next morning, get back in the car for 2.5 hours, work for 3 hours, and head back. Finally, we could go to sleep and know that we didn´t have to do anything the next day. We had a koselig New Years Eve with our friends playing board games and chatting. Quiet is perfect when you´ve been running around like crazy.

We woke up late on New Years Day. Relaxed and read books/ comics. Once it became dark we drove around with my family looking at the remaining Christmas lights on Old Scugog Road. Then we came home and had a fun night of fondue. A perfect day.

Sadly, morning came again and it was time to go back to Kitchener. We drove back in the morning and went to work and did it all over again. Now  that Christmas is over it is time to start thinking of the big move which is coming up soon. The next few weeks that will be our main focus, settling things with our apartment (hopefully), packing up and heading back to my Mom´s for the remainder of our time in Canada. Here´s hoping that things will run smoothly, and when they don´t (because it´s us) that we have the patience and know-how to deal with it, like we always do.

I´ll keep you posted on our progress and my thoughts along the way.

Sleepy Max

Looks just like him

Advent Stjerne

Our little tree

On our way to Toronto

Advent Stjerne

The best tea!

Traditions

Christmas morning video chat

Lunch time!

 

A Norwegian in Canada

Jørgen moved to Canada on March 14, 2016. I couldn´t believe that our life together was finally starting. When I picked him up at the airport I was expecting to wait a long time, but I think it was less than 30 minutes from the time I parked until the time I saw him walk through the sliding doors at Pearson. I can´t imagine how he must´ve been feeling, getting on not only one, but three planes to get here with his one-way ticket and one suitcase and a backpack. Well, I´m sure I will experience these feelings very soon, less than 12 week now.

Our original plan was to find an apartment for April 1st. I had already talked to my boss and the people I worked about my intention of leaving. However, it being March already there weren´t many apartments to choose from. Jørgen and I ended up staying in my mom´s house for another month. This wasn´t horrible, in hindsight, it was like an extended vacation. I stayed a little longer at my job in Port Hope, and we took a little more time to get ourselves organized.

Before I knew it it was time to move. I had it in my head that Kitchener, ON, was the place to be this year. I really did believe that there were going to be so many more opportunities in this city. Little did I know that I would be without a job (but searching relentlessly) for over a month, and that we would be living on Jørgen´s one minimum wage income for that period of time. He managed to find a job working as a line cook at Montana´s, the hours were long and late, and the pay was very little. Finally I broke, I started to apply for dietary aide jobs (which I had left behind in Port Hope), and it wasn´t long after that that my phone finally started to ring.

In June of 2016 I was offered the not-so-glamourous job of washing pots and making snacks, which I happily accepted. Of course its frustrating that I have six years of post secondary education and this was the only job I could find. Not long after that I took a second dietary aide job at another home, hoping that with two part-time jobs we could live a little more comfortably. It´s a sad realization that there are many people in my situation, in fact most of the people I do work with have to have two jobs, and some even have three, and these (ladies for the most part) have bigger families than I do to support. Of course, it´s not all bad, but it´s safe to say that we might´ve been a bit happier staying a little closer to home.

August came around and some exciting changes were happening. We desperately needed people at one of my jobs, and Jørgen was growing tired of his late-night hours. He went in for a interview and landed the dietary aide/part-time cook position. He left his restaurant job and we finally had schedules where we could actually spend some time together. While he was working in the restaurant I was working days and he was working evenings and weekends. With his new job we could see each other in the morning and have dinner together every night.

So although we work a lot I am still very glad that we are here together. We waited a long time to be together and I wouldn´t give up what we have just to have a little more money in the accounts. When I was on my own living at my mom´s house, of course I had a little extra spending money, but there wasn´t much going on in my personal life. I worked a lot, I went to the gym everyday, and I was holding on to a career dream that kept knocking me down every year. Now I finally feel like I´m moving forward, and I really think that I needed to move away, at least just to learn that I like being close to my family and friends. It´s good to learn that I need to have people the people that I love in my life. It will be difficult to move away from my family and friends but I am going (with my partner) to a place where I know I will be welcomed into a by my Norwegian family and I already feel like a have friends waiting there for me. This gives me comfort and I hope it will give comfort to those here in Canada.

Spring is here!

Moving day!

A day in the park

His first Jays game

Jørgen´s Application Process

When Jørgen made it back to Bodø we started working on his visa application. With the help of our consultant we managed to pull together his application within a week of him returning (Submitted February 4th). It was all very exciting, we were finally making progress. Now all we had to do was wait and we were told that it should be six weeks before we get a response.

Two weeks later, I was sitting at home, killing time before my evening shift started. I was surprised to see an email from our consultant. The tag line on the email read Your Application I was thinking, Òh no, maybe we forgot something.´ I opened the email only to read, `Great news – Jorgen’s application has been marked as approved in his online portal. Is this real, I was thinking, `It can´t be, but it says approved!` My heart was racing. I had to call Jørgen. I called him probably seven times in a row. `Why is he always napping! ah!` Eventually he called me back. All I could tell him was to check his email. He was just as shocked as I was, approved in two weeks. I was crying I was so happy and excited. We were finally going to be together. Now we just had to settle things before starting our new life together. 

Jørgen had been approved so quickly that we were not ready yet. Jørgen had to sell his car before we could make any plans. I remember thinking that it was taking forever to sell that thing. That was really the only thing keeping us apart now. On March 10th was the day he sold his car and he booked his one-way ticket to Toronto for March 14, 2016.

After all the waiting and wondering we´d been through together we finally had an answer. Jørgen would move to Canada in a few days and together we would have a fresh start. I wanted to try and find something that would allow me to use my schooling, and he wanted to find something in his field as a chef in order to renew his visa if that´s what we decided. Together, although I feel I was the one pushing for this, we decided we wanted to make it on our own. Once he arrived we would start looking for jobs and an apartment in a new city.

So I guess this is the end of this chapter of the story. From now until the big move the posts will be about our adventures here in Canada, the ones that have already passed, and the ones that we have yet to come across. I may also throw in a few about the thoughts and feelings that come about as the days go by.  We are just about at the three month mark. Fingers crossed for smooth sailing the rest of the way.

A Collage of Us

Yay Airport

His Boarding Pass

Let´s go to Canada!

Last beer in Norway

´Billy` Jørgen´s car