On November 1st, I picked up my visa (just a sticker with my picture in my passport), and I can officially stay in Norway for an entire year now! Until November 1, 2012 I don't have to worry about visas: Hallelujah! :) Now that I have temporary residency in Norway, I am also FINALLY allowed to start working part-time at the flower shop and I have already started! My first day was Thursday and I have already worked 13 hours! I won't be able to get paid until I get my Norwegian social security number though, which I applied for on the day that I picked up my visa. It actually takes 4-6 weeks to get one, not 1-2 weeks as people had told me. There are so many people wanting to live in Norway that the process now takes longer. No big deal though! I can still work up to 20 hours every week and once I get my social security number, which I should have by December 1st, then I will have to get a tax card, open a bank account and THEN be allowed to get paid. I should expect to get my first paycheck right before I head back to the US. Of course all the hours that I'm working now I will get reimbursed in my first paycheck. I am so excited to start making money again... I will be making the same amount of money working 50% that I used to make working full-time in the US; crazy. But, Norway as a whole and Oslo as a city are the most expensive places to live in the world right now, so yes I'm making more money, but it won't really seem like I will be. Anders had been SO supportive of me over these last few months, financial wise, and I'm looking forward to finally being able to contribute to paying bills. With my income as an addition we'll be able to live pretty comfortably and be able to start putting money aside for savings. Things are starting to finally fall into place, and I couldn't be happier!
Work is tough though. I've only worked 2 shifts so far, but it is one of the most overwhelming things that I've experienced. My Norwegian is still not at a level where I can communicate comfortably with costumers... but I've only worked twice and I already think that the second day was better than the first. I'm doing a lot of the same tasks that I used to do when I worked at Boloco in the US, but now I'm just working with flowers, not burritos, ha ha. I even have the same uniform, it's like déjà vu!!! Black shirt, black apron... it's pretty funny. Now I'm wrapping bouquets of flowers instead of rolling burritos. I've also been on cash register, which was a little new to me, because I barely was on cash register duty at Boloco. It's not as intimidating as I had thought though, it's actually quite easy, I just will need to learn over time to do all the complicated stuff like if costumers return products, or use gift cards, for example (mind you, I'm learning how to do this ALL in Norwegian)! I don't know very much, or actually anything about flowers, so it's like a double whammy for me when I go into work. Not only can I communicate very well with the costumers yet, but even if I could, I wouldn't be able to give them much advice on the products!! This is a problem, but I'm new to all this and will learn it over time, just like anything else. I am so thankful that I was given the job, because I need to money, but this is going to be so beneficial to me to learn the language better. I'm going to have to be more patient than ever, because it's going to be pretty frustrating. Everyone that works there though are all super helpful and nice, so I think it's going to be alright!
Also, I decided to apply for the Special Needs Education Masters program at the Universitet i Oslo afterall, because I don't want to close any doors for myself. Who knows what may happen in the next year and I don't want to regret not applying. I still need to send some documents to them this week, but hopefully I can get it all out of the way by the end of the week! I won't find out until April of next year anyways if I got accepted or not, and I can always decide not to follow through with the program if I decided to do so. So, we will see what happens! I thought it was a good idea to do this though.
I am really looking forward to come home for the holidays! It's going to be really great to see family and friends again, even if it's only for a short amount of time. I have a lot of people that I want to see, but I also look forward to just relaxing at home. It'll be good to bring back the last of my stuff that I have been keeping back home as well as stock up on some things that are cheaper to buy in the US, to bring back to Norway with me!
Although I have created a new home for myself here in Norway with Anders, New Hampshire is ALWAYS going to be my home! <3
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