God Tag!

We arrived in Oslo on Friday. Those middle of the night flights are so strange. In seven hours you go through dusk, night, and morning, arrive feeling like you've been run over by a truck, and carry on. Luckily Oslo was bright and sunny when we got here and our friends Thoerbjorn, Kristin, Petter, Eldri, and Therese (that's the Steen family, pronounced "Stay-en"--Petter and Eldri are the dad and mom, Thor and Therese are the kids, and Kristin is Thor's wife) were so totally welcoming and wonderful we felt...cushioned. Moved into our new apartment on Saturday. It's roughly in the center of Oslo, around here on a map, and it's small but very sunny and clean and nice. We have a little balcony, and the flat comes with a 120-cm bed that Ben and I have been sharing, which is sort of funny because at six in the morning I noticed that when Ben curls up, the length from his knee caps to his back is about 100 cm. We may be getting a larger bed.

Today I meet with Rebecca, The Professor, up in Blindern where the University of Oslo is located--for me. Ben's department is a ten-minute walk from our place. My school is more like a forty-minute walk, uphill, so I think today I might take the tram. I am feeling very nervous about teaching--about the whole thing--for some reason. I think it's just the new place, new everything, and teaching texts I haven't taught before. Of course it's always dislocating when you don't know the language, too, because even if you're teaching in English (thank goodness) you still have to negotiate a university run in Norwegian. Of course, most people speak English perfectly.

Discovery yesterday: a restaurant called Japo Sushi (yikes!).

We got bikes yesterday, too. First we walked up to Blindern so I had a sense of where I'd be going today, then decided to walk to Petter and Eldri's house and got, if not lost, a little confused. Oslo has a lot of little alleyways and bike paths and other routes I'm sure qualify as shortcuts when you know where the hell you're going. The second leg of the walk took us about an hour and a half, and we arrived exhausted and foot-blistered and luckily weren't too late to avail ourselves of Sunday dinner. Afterwards the thought of walking home was unappealing, so we picked up a couple of bikes from Eldri and Kristin. The ride home was blissfully short and easy.

Thor and Kristin have two little girls, Agnes who is four-and-a-half and Rannveig who is two-and-a-half. Agnes has been sick with a bug since we got here, but Rannveig (pronounced like Rrrrrrahn-vigh") has been in good form. She is one of the sunniest little kids I've ever met, always smiling. She doesn't quite get that we don't speak Norwegian yet, which is fantastic because then we learn from her. I wasn't sure we had really registered on their radar until Kristin told me the girls have been talking about us. When we were leaving with the bikes Rannveig insisted on fastening my helmet for me and then she said "Susie! Susie!" It took me a second to realize she was saying my name. Apparently she was telling me I had to put my feet in the toe clips. Of course.

I attempted a Norwegian text message yesterday (did I mention we got cell phones? We joined on a family plan with the Steens). I told Thor that our flat was "fulkommen" and that we were going on a "Spasertur." Apparently the text was a bit anachronistic. I said something like "The apartment is simply splendid. Ben and I are going on a sightseeing venture."

Ah well. I'll get it.

Ha det,

Susie