So once again I disappeared into the wilderness and for this I can only apologise. It all started after I took a short week back in England which messed with my rhythm. I then came back planning to write loads about the trip and even wrote two posts, only to then decide I was waffling on far too much about unimportant or irrelevant stuff and so just deleted them. To then make it worse shortly after my laptop officially gave in, I did almost immediately go out and buy myself a lovely new machine but sadly, never got back on the horse. This is particularly annoying as I missed my one year anniversary in these fine lands which was on June 10th.
Here I am though, back in the saddle and I am going to try and slip in two or three posts in the next couple of days before I begin my summer holiday. Firstly there is the usual house keeping subjects to address which are; employment, language and living. None have actually had the dramatic catalyst just yet but all have moved on notably in the last couple of months and while I may be still far behind where Id hoped I would be after a year when I arrived, things have never looked more positive.
So employment, its a quick one so lets get it out the way. I'm still in my temporary job, I have grown to enjoy it more as time as passed, particularly as of late where I have had a wider variety of things to do. That being said of course I am still desperate to find a more permanent and relevant position but alas that is still yet to happen, one lives in hope.
The living situation is also still the same with Marianne and I still lurking in the basement of her parents. This area however has developed very interestingly now though as we have had multiple meetings with the bank and now have our figure to start bidding when we find the right place. Its a massive massive step and it feels great to be ready to go. We have looked at a few places and I will probably right a whole post on this when I return but suffice to say its a tough choice so may be a little more time before we finally get out own home. Everything is ready to go though and I'm really excited/nervous about finding the place we will eventually call out home.
Language as always is the big one to discuss and as is often the case I can say Im pleased with my progress. I went away recently for a cabin trip with a load of my guy mates, now this is the same trip I made just a week or so after arriving in Norway regular readers may remember and it was a nice milestone for assessing just how far Id come in a year. True, when people spoke to me directly we spoke English and this is still always the case generally. That being said however it was amazing to realise just how much I understood and it really made a difference. Its the simple things like someone making a joke at the dinner table, overhearing an interesting conversation between the two guys sitting next to you and being able to join in that was really amazing.
As much as I want to practice more and get over my shyness of talking Norwegian, understanding really is the key. I find myself keeping up with basically everything these days and even though I switch the conversation to English when I speak which still makes me feel rather like a burden, being able to get involved, understand the passing jokes being made in Norwegian make for such an amazingly increased feeling of inclusion. I still have a long way to go of course, but the cabin trip especially was a really nice way for me to see just how far I'd come, something that is so often hard to quantify.
Finally I will say both on the language topic and it being the only other thing of note really happening recently is that I have finally gotten on a Norsk Kors, a Norwegian language course. To get this sorted has been a nightmare, one I will probably re-live in its own post when I start the course, but starting one I am. It begins in late August and I'm really looking forward to it.
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