Julegaver!

Hello world! We are in preparations for our epic journey to Canada. Tomorrow, I will take the kitties to Pusenfryd (a play on the amusement park Tusenfryd, meaning "a thousand smiles") which will be an undertaking itself - two cats, 15 minutes in a car, a ferry, another 30 minutes drive.... I'm sure they are both very excited. Then we're taking the 14:50 hurtigbåt to the airport and flying to London via Oslo. Two days in London, where the most generous Mike Wood has lent us his flat, and then on to Vancouver via Toronto on Monday, overnight in Vancouver, and finally on the 23rd we will fly to Bella Coola. PHEW!

In the picture you can see the christmas gift from the Ulstein group to all of their employees, a beautiful woolen blanket. Mysteriously, it is not plastered with Ulstein all over it, and not a boat in site. Just fishies! Works for me. The cats love it too.

Our favourite restaurant and bar here in Ulsteinvik, Snorrebuda, has gone bankrupt and closed which meant our weekly Norwegian speaking group was held at our house instead, where we had delicious shortbread cookies from my grandma's recipe, courtesy of the fabulous mixer I purchased using Rene and John's birthday present. Thanks guys!

Anyhoo, I must get back to loads of laundry and packing, with a little work interspersed. I'm a little too excited about the trip to settle down to work!

All the best,

Kes

Yepp, that's 9 am in the morning and the beginning of suggestion of sunrise out our windows.

We have been very busy of late with the holiday season and my birthday. Last night was the company julebord - direct translation is "christmas table". Of course, it is more than the table! This is the company office party, which served a full dinner to 400 people last night. We arrived at 7 pm to a bunch of speeches which we caught some of, then were hustled into one of the three seating areas where we were served pinnekjøtt ("peen-uh-chuhtt" - Ashley) (dried salted lamb ribs), ribbe (pork rib served with the fat and skin on), mor (sheep sausage) and all the fixins'. Of course the main topic of conversation was whether or not we liked julemat (christmas food), which Norwegians are rightly very proud of. Luckily we didn't have to fib because we do like it!

Other than that, observations of the holiday party was that like any other christmas party around the world, the booze was flowing. However, as a difference, about 25% were not drinking, I presume due to a combination of principles and the very strict drinking and driving laws (one drink here is too many to drive). People were quite dressed up, and as my father reported from London, black is THE colour this season. After dinner people started dancing to a random assortment of music, but you will have to wait until Ashley wakes up for details of that because at that point, I went home. I've been fighting a cold for what seems like forever and I really want to be well by Friday when we TRAVEL HOME!!! YAY!!

Talk to you later,
Kes

"Stuff" from the last few months.

Okay, back on the wagon again! I'm really excited that Kes has started posting, but it has made it even that much more obvious that I haven't been!

...well, that, and it makes it obvious that I leave myself logged into my google account at home, so that she ends up posting under my login. Huh.

So, many things have happened since I last wrote. Here are some highlights:

My parents were here in October - celebrating their anniversary with us. It was wonderful to have them here, so that they can see more about our life here than the little bit we can relate to them through a computer screen and a telephone. We met them for four days in Stavanger, first (again, location and date dictated by the rugby schedule), and then travelled home on our own, to meet up with them again for a second four days in Ulsteinvik. In the interim, they took boats (one to Bergen, one the rest of the way up to Ålesund) up the Norwegian coast.

I won't go into too much detail on that - suffice to say that we had a great time, and it was great to show them our life here.

The domestic rugby season concluded with a flurry of trips. All in all, my weekends since I got here have included four trips to Trondheim, two trips to Stavanger, one trip to Bergen, two trips to Fredrikstad, one trip to Tønsberg and six trips to Oslo. Oh, and one trip to Copenhagen. Wow. The best was last, though, refereeing the national club final between Oslo and Bergen. Oslo won, 20-13 in a pretty good game, though one played in chilly, slick conditions.

Still, the big prize is up next. FIRA, the European amateur rugby association, has seen fit to appoint me to referee an international game. Now, to be clear, this is pretty much the lowest level of international rugby on Earth. The match I've been appointed to referee is Bosnia & Hercegovnia vs. Azerbaijan, in Zenica, Bosnia. Bosnia & Hercegovnia are currently 89th (of 95) on the world rankings table, and Azerbaijan haven't yet played enough international matches to be ranked at all! Still, it's a fantastic opportunity, and I'm really excited. The match is on the 22nd of November - wish me luck!

Kes reported on our Hallowe'en party, which was a roaring success, and it has been both cause and effect of our social circle here in Ulsteinvik growing, particularly among other ex-pats. The other causes have been several, including two new Norwegian language courses (one Bokmål, one Nynorsk), our growing confidence, in general, in the language and, of course, Kes's fantastic social organizing skills. As just one example, we now have a Norwegian conversation group on Wednesdays from 7-8pm at a local café/bar. For that hour, we are only allowed to speak Norwegian. We had eight (from six countries) on our first night, and I think we'll have more this Wednesday. Funny how a beer or two sometimes improves one's language abilities...

A friend here berated me the other day for my blogging having failed to report on my other sporting involvement - Flø IL. Yes, I have finally given up and started playing soccer ("fotball"). I decided, over the summer break, when there wasn't much else going on, that it would be a good idea to do something to keep in shape, because I am not one for going to the gym on my own. Kes had met a fellow marine biologist here who plays with a local club, Flø, and he invited me to come out with them. Quickly, I proved to decrease the average ability on the club, and while everyone was very welcoming, I think they were secretly happy that I didn't expect to actually pull on a jersey on game day. Still, the club puts out two teams - an 11-a-side "serious" team, that competes in the local 6th division (two regional 6th div's feed one 5th, and so on up, until you reach the 1st divsion, which is a national division - that's the one that Hødd is in), but they also have a 7-a-side team, which is really just for laughs, and exists so that everyone gets a decent chance to run around.

Now, the type of guy who shows up for the 7-aside team doesn't want to play in goal. Really, the only reason he bothers to show up is to run around, kick the ball - maybe score, if things work out. So I showed up to my first 7-aside match, not dressed to play, and expecting to cheer, and maybe retreive stray balls. The guys sized me up, and none of them wanting to play goal, decided to put me there. I went along with the plan, and ended up playing there for the rest of the season - 4 games. Let me tell you - I am terrible. In my four matches, we lost by scores of 8-3 , 8-6, 7-6 and - wait for it - 20-13. That's right - twenty goals in a soccer match. It was a bit ridiculous. Still, the guys in the club have been great, and it's been really nice to have non-work links to people who actually live here, rather then just ex-pats and rugby players who live 500 km away. I'll practice this winter and see whether I can maybe lower my goals-against-average a bit next year - maybe even win a game.

It's getting very dark here, now. Sunrise is technically about 9am, but it "rises" behind a hill, so we don't see it until about 10. It sets again at 4 but, again, more like 3:30. Those times aren't that strange, having grown up in Bella Coola, because of the mountains that block the sun in the winter through so much of the Valley. Still, the sky is light through much more of the day there. This, now, is like Bella Coola on the darkest day of the year - and we've still got six weeks of "darkening" to go.

We're planning to go back to Bella Coola over Christmas. We will be gone from Ulsteinvik for two weeks, but with travel time, plus two nights in London and three in Vancouver (one coming, two going), we'll only be in Bella Coola for a week. Still, I'm really looking forward to it - my family, of course, but it's been a long time since I've been back to Bella Coola itself, as well.

Anyway, enough for now.

Cheers,

Ashley

Halloween in Ulsteinvik!

So we had a little Halloween party in Ulsteinvik, and invited all of our new friends. Norway hasn't really gotten into Halloween, and unfortunately many who observe the holiday here have adopted the negative aspects like pranks and throwing eggs at houses without much of the positivity. As a result, many Norwegians that we have talked to are actively against Halloween.

However, we were able to convince our new friends that it was a good idea, although it did take some explaining what we were going to "do" at a Halloween party. Getting a pumpkin was also a challenge, finally I found some that cost $4 a kilo. So two tiny pumpkins were about $16 each. I also made some "witches fingers" cookies, and I attempted to make a white chocolate "slime" but I don't have a double boiler so I burnt it. I had ordered some costumes from Ebay some time ago, and I also picked up a few extra masks at the Nille (expensive Norwegian version of a dollar store) for guests who might not have gotten masks but want to participate. Ashley carved the pumpkins and we discovered that Riker likes pumpkin. Who would've guessed?

The big night was a roaring success, with guests from 12 different countries :-) Everyone had a great time, we played some halloween games, mingled, and even people who weren't so sure at the beginning were very happy to have had their first halloween party. Then we went out to one of the local bars and I won best costume :-) Not that hard in Ulsteinvik, admittedly, but I did feel a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.

That's all for now, we're off to have tacos at our Venezuelan and German friends.

Kes

Snow!

Well I guess since this is technically a joint blog I ought to post once in a while. This is officially my first blog EVER so excuse me if I'm unaware of any blogger protocols....

Today we had our first snow in Ulsteinvik, which rapidly deposited between 5-10 cm in the course of 30 minutes. The cats were not particularly moved either way. I thought we would definitely hear some complaining, or they would be fascinated, but they don't seem to care at all. It was challenging getting the little VW polo up our hill with summer tires on snow, but luckily I have Newfoundland driving experience and no mere snowfall will defeat me.

All the best,

Kes

Bergen, for real this time.

Kes and I went to Bergen this weekend. Of course, the destination was picked by the rugby schedule - I didn't have a refereeing appointment this weekend, and the Trondheim club was short of players, so I jumped in with them and played a game. We won't discuss the score, but it was good to get out on the field in contact a bit.

It was our first real trip to Bergen (not counting my flying trip to have supper with Tricia.) Both Kes and I really liked Bergen. It's a great city, really, with many buildings several hundreds of years old, and lots of beautiful spaces in the downtown.

We drove down (about 6 and a half hours) on Friday night. We stayed with a member of the Bergen Rugby Club who happens to have a house only a few blocks from the waterfront downtown. The house seems like a bit of a "fixer-upper", but it's over 100 years old, so it's still really neat. With the game at 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, we wandered around town in the morning. First up was a trip up the "Fløibanen" cable car, which brings you from almost sea level up to near the top of Fløyfjellet (Fløy mountain) at 320m (a little over 1,000 feet). The view over Bergen is fantastic. Bergen has a great natural harbour, which was the reason why the Hanseatic League made it the primary trading city in Norway starting in about the 1300s. However, it is surrounded by steep hills and mountains, that form a bowl that the city sits in. Thus, the views are fantastic.

After coming back down, we wandered around Bryggen, the UNESCO world site that preserves the old market centre of Bergen. There was a food festival on, so we checked that out. There were all sorts of different items on display, with a heavy emphasis on ecological products from local farms. Then there was the game, and the post-game celebrations, but we explored again a bit on Sunday with the aquarium our primary destination. The aquarium turned out to be fantastic, almost a zoo in their tropical exhibits, including crocodiles and monkeys. We had a great time - Kes especially (easy way to make points with your marine biologist wife - take her to an aquarium).

Anyway, off to bed.

Cheers.

One Month Later...

Wow - a month since I last wrote. Sorry.

With Kes home, my social calendar has suddenly become full. Of course, I do mean time with her, but somehow we now have people over for dinners and drinks, and we go over to people's houses, as well.

Huh.

I think I had somewhat fallen comfortably into bachelorhood while she was away - Sure I cleaned the place (not as often) and cooked for myself (frozen pizza & spaghetti), but the calendar just wasn't as full, and I hadn't noticed. Oh well, I'm excited she's back, and it is great to be doing so much.

Since I last wrote, I went to Fredrikstad for the Scandinavian U-20 rugby tournament, Copenhagen for the Copenhagen 7's, Oslo for a friendly game that the Oslo club had set up, Trondheim for the national 10-aside tournament, and back to Oslo for a regular season game just last weekend. I can definitely say that jumping in with both feet to the Norwegian rugby community has paid fantastic travel dividends! Kes has been coming with me on all the trips, and we've been exploring the country.

Some random items, and then I think I'll sign off - I don't have that much time, but I really wanted to get "back on the wagon" of writing this, to update friends and family.

-My boat is now officially "under construction" - we were emailed photos of some random-looking pieces of cut steel from Poland at the beginning of April. They will, one day, become a part of the boat I'm spending all my time on. It's really exciting.

-The yard will be actually be providing a Norwegian language course on-site this fall, and they've been sure to invite Kes - I'm really happy. It will be very convenient, and apparently it will be Bokmål. I am still somewhat divided on which version of Norwegian I would like to speak, but Kes, with her academic aspirations, is pretty confirmed that she would like to learn Bokmål.

-Though the days are still relatively (to southern Norway, or Canada) long here, now, they're so much shorter than my mental images of this place. Since my first six months here will have been the longest-daylight six months, I suspect I will always think of the summer twilight nights when I think of the weather here. (Though we'll see after I've lived through six months of long nights!) It certainly was odd to drive down the main road here the other night, and realize that I had never driven in Ulsteinvik in the dark before then!

-I discovered that I can get the Daily Show with Jon Stewart here! It seems to be a few days behind, but good nonetheless - it's on NRK 2, in prime time - I think it goes over really well here.

-I've managed to get Kes and I registered to vote in Canada. I discovered that for the first five years we live overseas, we retain the right to vote in federal elections in Canada.

-There are two new members of our "ex-pat world" here in Ulsteinvik, an Australian guy who has moved here to join Ulstein Design and a Chinese woman who has joined Ulstein International (both are spin-off companies from the original shipyard business, but still housed on the same grounds). We really are a United Nations, with people just in our close friend circle (people who've sat on our couch) from Germany, Romania, Venezuela, New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, China and, of course, Norway. All under 30. All moving to Ulsteinvik because of the opportunities. What a success story.

-Like much of the world, the economy is slowing in Norway. However, it's tough to see that from this vantage point. We're signing contracts here, there and everywhere; the company just announced the invention of yet another new feature for offshore vessels that will probably continue to shunt business in our direction that might otherwise have gone to cheaper labour destinations; we continue to have more work than people (a fact which is becoming more evident to me the more we get into the "real work" on my boat); and BMWs and baby strollers are still in strong evidence on the streets of Ulsteinvik. It feels a bit surreal, particularly with all the doom and gloom economic news from around the world.

-The American election is big news here, of course, but I think the start-up of the English soccer season is getting more press than that (or any other news topic).

Anyway, must run.

Cheers,

Ashley

Big news in Ulsteinvik.

Whew. You'll never imagine. News event of the year.

Kaffe Baren has been sold!

I know - shocking, isn't it? The institution around which this town was built... Well, not really. Okay, the most popular bar in town... Maybe, though perhaps fading to classier new places that have opened recently. Okay, the place that's closest to Ashley & Kes's place... Well, that can't be argued.

Seriously, though, it is big news here - Kaffe Baren is an institution, where anyone who grew up here has probably been ejected at least once, and is the only real live music venue in town, other than the theatre. Even more shockingly, it's been sold from a late-50s man probably looking to retire, to a mid-20s woman. This has been the topic of at least 50% of all non-work conversations I've been part of here in the last week. Of course, opinions on where she got the money abound, theories that the place is going to change significantly are alternately supported and shot down and sure enough, one of my friends claims to have slept with her (not confirmed by independent reports).

I can certainly imagine a similar general rhubarb of gossip if such a thing happened in Bella Coola. Once again, the more I learn about this place, the more it seems just like home!

Things are going well at work, with the "crack team of ex-pats" putting out a lot of work. It's been neat to see, for the first time, serious work on the detailed design of my vessel advancing. Up until now, my work has been primarily concerned with navigating purchasing and suppliers, structuring the work to be done, and a lot of co-ordination with other departments. I feel like that groundwork has been well laid, and now the real churning out of drawings and details has begun. We're now getting into things as detailed as where smoke detectors will be placed, and how many breakers in specific distribution cabinets. It's a bit surreal to be doing this before a single piece of steel has been cut for the hull, but there's really an overwhelming number of such details on a boat this big.

I once had shipbuilding described to me as a series of "divebombs" - you have to be able to float along at 40,000 feet, with a comprehensive overview of the project, managing generalities such as the number of employees assigned to specific categories of work and the mains voltage. Then, when something seems to be going slightly off-course, you have to be able to zoom into six inches away, identifying the terminal block that has been put in backwards, or the component that was supplied with the wrong mounting bolts, before those problems multiply. I'm finding that to be the case, and I really enjoy it.

Anyway, there's really not all that much happening here, so I'm going to keep this short.

Next weekend, I'm off to Fredrikstad, for a Scandinavian Under-20 Men's tournament. It's more than just the tournament, though, it's also a big workshop, with referees from Norway, Demark & Sweden, a whole bunch of Under-17 players, and some coaching workshops, too. I am definitely looking forward to the opportunity.

...and the weekend after that, I meet Kes in Copenhagen! Finally!

Summer in a town on shut-down...

Sorry it's been so long since I've written but, well, the world has closed for summer here in Norway, and there's not a lot happening.

I think that in a tourist town, or a place otherwise defined by the service industry (I suspect that Oslo falls into that category), the feeling wouldn't be so acute. However, here in Ulsteinvik, almost everyone is employed in a manufacturing company. Sure, there are grocery stores and the restaurants, but the town is defined by manufacturing. ...and the July holiday is sacred in industry, here.

Not every company takes the same weeks, but these weeks (particularly the one starting tomorrow) are pretty close to being common, so I suspect the overall population of the town is down 20-30%. Of course, those who have chosen to stick around during their time off are generally in a party mood, so you can't tell this by the population of Kaffe Baren on a Friday night, but try the grocery store at a normally-busy time - pretty empty.

Still, I suppose there are a few stories to tell. Last weekend was the Ålesund Båtfestival (Boat Festival, unsurprisingly). I expected it to be a festival of boats. Well, there were more boats than normal tied up in Ålesund harbour, but really, it was just a name for "another festival" - kind of like how 95% of the Peach Festival in BC's Okanagan is not really about peaches at all. So there were three nights of live music, many people selling tacky bandanas and jewelry (shockingly similar to things that I've seen sold out of similar carts in Canada!), and some displays from local industry.

The biggest single tent was from NCE-Maritime (the Norwegian Centre of Expertise for the Maritime industry). They were trying to recruit young people to be interested in the boatbuilding world - we're desperate for people throughout this region & industry. However, as far as I can tell, they only got 6-year-olds who wanted to sit in the captain's chair, and people like me who are already working in the industry who were mostly there to find out what other folks in the industry are doing. Not so successful for them.

On another note, they charged 300+ kroner (over Can$60 - I can't remember the exact price) for the headline concert on Friday night - Kaizers Orchestra. However, an expensive ticket to an outdoor concert in the downtown core of a fairly dense town doesn't work very well - I sat at a nearby café and caught the show without buying a ticket - sure I couldn't see the band, but I didn't know the band, anyway. Actually, the band's pretty cool - they sing in Norwegian, which is odd for a Norwegian band that anyone's heard of - they've done relatively well in Europe outside of Norway. They use Nynorsk and their local dialect, not Bokmål - I think this gives them a bit of nationalistic authenticity, too. Their myspace page is at this link - If you go there, you can hear the stuff from some of their past albums.

On Saturday, I was back in Ålesund to witness the christening ceremony for our (Ulstein Verft's) new vessel - interesting, but nothing really special - I suspect I'll see quite a few of these during my time here - the one that I'll be really excited about should happen in March '10. Then, I went to a soccer game at the Ålesund stadium. It was Aalesunds Fotball Klubb against the team from Tromsø, Tromsø Idrettslag. I went because one of the guys who works with me was a childhood friend of the Tromsø team's new star, Morten Moldskred. Now, Tromsø is way the heck up there in northern Norway, so by supporting them at the game, we put ourselves in a significant minority! However, Morten didn't dissappoint - he scored two goals in a 3-1 victory. We then had the fun of going out to the bar later with "The Star". He was really nice - classy, not playing on his success at all, though there was a parade of admirers past the table. It was a good night.

On Monday, I drove to Bergen to have dinner with a traveller from my home town. Trish (you might have noticed - I generally don't use people's full names - I don't want random people who might be out there stalking being able to find any search hits through my blog), who is ten years younger than me, but who also grew up in Bella Coola, was travelling through Scandinavia with her boyfriend. It was a bit of a hike to go to Bergen for only a meal and a bit of a wander around town - 6-and-a-half hours each way. However, I believe in a sort of karma with these things - I hope that in 10 years, they'll show up and buy supper for some travelling kids. I feel horrendously old saying this, but it was really cool to have supper with some really "together" young people. These guys are only just graduated high school, yet are travelling Europe, learning all sorts of cool stuff (like how to get upgraded to a loft apartment in what would have otherwise been a gungy dorm-style youth hostel - I wish I'd known that one when I was backpacking!). One's going to university next year, the other has a steady job as a mechanic - they're going to do really well. Made me feel good to chat with them. Well, that, and I'd never been to Bergen - now I have!

This weekend was pretty quiet, though I did go to a Hødd soccer game - they lost to Alta, who are from WAY up there in northern Norway - Finnmark. Didn't go well - the home guys lost via a goal with two minutes left to go. Ouch.

I'll see Kes in just under 3 weeks - phew - this break has been really long. She's going to an academic conference in Kiel, Germany during the first week of August, and I'm going to be refereeing at a rugby tournament in Copenhagen at the end of that week, so she's going to meet me at the tournament.

I promise I'll write again sooner next time.

Cheers,

Ashley

Such a Stereotype...

I turned a load of washing blue.

I know, you probably expected it sooner. My bachelor skills (though probably better than Mom thinks) are pretty limited. There has been a lot of pizza in my life.

Well, and now some faintly-blue athletic socks.

Oh well, could be worse - at least there were no white shirts in the load (and really, who cares if your dishrags are baby blue?)

This past weekend in Ulsteinvik turned out to be really quite busy. On Friday (only 3 weeks after the rest of the world), I attended the Ulsteinvik premiere of "The Incredible Hulk". I like the genre, and reviews seemed to imply that it was worth watching, but of course I went because Bella Coola, British Columbia plays a vital, 30-second role in the movie - it's where the main character has run away to by the end of the movie. It was neat to see the name of my hometown on a movie screen on the other side of the world.

Then, Saturday, I drove to the neighbouring municipality, Herøy kommune, to see their annual "Viking musical", Kongens Ring ("the King's Ring"). While I admit to missing most of the plot due to the language barrier, some was obvious (there was a love triangle, duh), and I spent a lot of time distracted by the very impressive costumes, music and production quality (I suppose they can afford some tech gimmicks - they only put on four shows per year, but they charged us Can$60 (kr. 300) each, and there were probably 500 people in attendance. The weather was fabulous, and the show was very impressive - 200 people in the cast, and apparently over 50 behind the scenes.

While the Herøy one is particularly impressive, apparently this is common up and down the coast - one weekend in the summer, the town will put on a major theatrical production of a story (this one was entirely fictional, but they vary from recorded history through mythical stories to pure fiction) from the region's past. Of course, these towns may now be only 15 minutes driving from each other, but in ancient times, they may even have been different kingdoms - giving many different storylines to explore. Particularly for the children of the area, this is just "one of those things you do" if you live in the town. Herøy has a total population of about 8,300, and put on a show with over 300 people (once you include people directing traffic, etc.) Very impressive.

The "second half" of the soccer season has now started (they take a summer break, like everyone else), so Sunday was back to Høddvoll to see Hødd take on Nybergsund. Not a great start (down 3-0 after 20 minutes), but they came back to make it 3-2 by the end, so it was worth watching.

The weather here has been fantastic, 20+ degree temperatures, and sunny. Everyone tells me that I'm just lucky. I don't care, I'll take it. It turns out there is a nice little white sand beach in Ulsteinvik, so I went there on Saturday evening. The water is still the North Atlantic, regardless of the air temperature, though, so it's not so great for swimming!

The office is emptying out, as Ulstein's official three-week designated summer vacation (which I'm not taking) starts next week, so many people are getting a head start. I would say we're at about 50% of the staff present this week, and we'll be down at about 10% next week - the cafeteria even shuts down for three weeks.

During that time, it'll just be me and the contract workers (the Romanians and my Venezuelan friend), so I'm hoping to get a lot of work done on my boat.

Cheers,

Ashley

Back in Ulsteinvik for a While...

Well, I went back to Canada for a week, and then I spent last weekend in Oslo, refereeing the Nordic (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway) club champions' rugby tournament, but now I should be home for over a month - a first since I've been here!

The visit to Canada was a 10-year reunion for my high school (Pearson College) - In the period immediately preceding the reunion, I realized that 10 years is really an awfully short period of time. I mean, sure, some people have kids, one guy is bald, and many of us are married (only one pair of graduates married, that I know of), but there are also many who are still in school (Ph.D's, usually), or certainly still in the early stages of figuring out what life will hold for us.

Yes, I know - you never really know what life will hold. Still, at age 28/29/30, really only the first few serious moves have been made, after all that build-up of training and education. Therefore, the reunion is not so much a "report back on how life has gone", as it is a "snapshot of a work in the early stages."

Then, of course, the other factor in play was the self-selective nature of a reunion - who's going to spend the time, energy and money to show up at a reunion just to comment on their failings? Thus, pretty much everyone who came was doing really well - even including the occasional perma-student - Most were doing something interesting, and had neat stories to report.

Of course, the school asked us for money while we were there. Specifically though, it asked for very little money, but from as many of us graduates as possible. The point was made that 10 dollars a month - even 10 dollars a year - added us to the list of "alumni who support the college". The longer that list is (relevantly, the higher the percentage of alumni who support the college), the easier it is to approach other donors, because it demonstrates that the school is doing something right. Pearson College really is a pretty special place - for those who don't know much about it, it's a 2-year "end of high school" school, with 200 students from 80+ different countries attending at once. It is "private", in that it's not run by the government, but it's full-scholarship - you can't pay to go, even if you wanted to (though they clearly ask for donations once you're finished!) - more if you're interested at www.pearsoncollege.ca.

This last weekend I was in Oslo for the "Nordic Cup" - a rugby tournament between the champions of the leagues in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It was a lot of fun, and there was an assessor there from France, to evaluate my ability as a referee, so if things go well, I might get the opportunity to take on even higher-level games. The tournament was won by the Swedish team, which was probably expected, but the Norwegians gave them a real run for their money.

The nice thing for me about the schedule was that Saturday was free (games were on Friday and Sunday). As a result, I had a chance to play a bit of "tourist" in Oslo for the first time (even though I have been there several times). The city core was bustling, particularly because it happened to be the Oslo Pride Parade. It doesn't have anything on the Toronto festival, of course, but it still meant there were lots of people in a party mood in the downtown. That, and many large men without shirts, dancing to arabic-themed techno music. Huh.

The main pedestrian-only boulevard in the downtown, Karl Johans Gate, is a really great street - lots of buskers, people selling political buttons (I bought one that says "Tog til Ålesund!" - Train to Ålesund. I know that the button-maker saw it as a political comment on using trains vs. planes for environmental reasons, but I mostly think that I would sleep better on a train than the overnight bus.), coffee shops (where I got yet another price-shock - $30 club sandwich and I didn't even get fries!), and hordes of people who just clearly enjoyed being out downtown on a sunny day.

One thing that I've noticed about Oslo (and this was confirmed by a friend I visited for breakfast on Sunday morning) is that it doesn't really connect with the sea. It has a port, and there are ferries that go overnight to a number of places (Copenhagen, Kiel, and others), but there are very few views of the ocean from the city, very few marine-focused industries (at least, not focused on the ocean accessible from Oslo - they might be offices for a company that operates in the North Sea, but they fly to Stavanger before they ever smell salt water), and limited numbers of real waterfront walks/parks. Of course, there are some, including their big new opera house (Photos at this link), but it's nothing compared what I've felt in Vancouver, Victoria, St. John's, Halifax, or even London, England (where the ocean is miles away, but the waterfront is a fundamental feature of the city).

So yes, now back in Ulsteinvik for a good stretch, here. I think I need to explore my neighbourhood a bit more, and this will be a good chance - there are several other little towns in the area that I haven't visited, and some good, easy hiking to be done.

Oh, yeah, and maybe get the car fixed. Living without 5th gear should not be permanent.

Cheers,

Ashley

House Colours, Midnight Light, Trondheim

(new pictures linked at the bottom of the post)

I spent the weekend in Trondheim - finally got a chance to actually play rugby here, rather than just refereeing. I know that I am a much better referee than I am player (though that's more a comment on my playing than my refereeing), however I still definitely get a big charge out of actually pulling on the same jersey as fourteen other guys and playing. There are all the physical positives that come out of the adrenalin from playing a contact sport, but there are also some great things that only come from team sports. As a result, I felt sore, but fantastic, after the game on Saturday. Too bad we lost. (What was the score, Ashley? Never you mind.)

After the game in Oslo, we went to an English pub (actually run by an Englishman who, in fine British form, was the primary bartender, as well) for the traditional dinner afterward with the guests. The bar has some interesting items painted on the wall. One is a "Norwegian Guy's night out", which you can find in the photos below. However, the other major one was the text of a Norwegian radio sports commentator's call of Norway's 1981 2-1 victory over England in soccer (football). At the time, it was unthinkable, and the commentator goes a bit over the top in his partisan ship. Here's the complete text, which you should read in the original "Norwegian" (he mixes in a fair bit of English anyway) first. Translation below it.

Vi er best i verden! Vi er best i verden! Vi har slått England 2-1 i fotball! Det er aldeles utrolig! Vi har slått England! England, kjempers fødeland – Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Atlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, vi har slått dem alle sammen, vi har slått dem alle sammen. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, jeg har et budskap til deg midt under valgkampen, jeg har et budskap til deg: Vi har slått England ut av verdens mesterskapet i fotball. Maggie Thatcher, som de sier på ditt språk i bokse barene rundt Madison Square Garden i New York: –Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!

We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten England 2-1 in football! This is absolutely incredible! We have beaten England! England, homeland of warriors - Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Atlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, we have beaten them all together, we have beaten them all together. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message to you in the middle of your election, I have a message to you: We have beaten England out of the World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language, in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York - Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!

It's a fun, and funny commentary, but it has certainly entered into the Norwegian consciousness - When I began reading it, one of the Norwegians at the pubs started rolling it off, out loud, in the accent of the commentator, which caught the attention of some others, and several people joined in. Obviously, the victory in question was massive, but the commentator's call has been immortalized. Here's a link to a RealPlayer file of it that I found on the internet:

http://www.btinternet.com/~alexc/audio/canyouhearme.ra

In other news, there are only about 4 different colours that are approved for houses in rural Norway. Not really, of course, but it certainly seems like there is a certain shade of red, one of a dark yellow, white, and the occasionally blue one that must be the only colours Norwegian paint stores stock. Kes was the first one to point this fact out, but I was reminded of this again when I looked through the pictures from this latest trip.

There are some items to note from the photos. First - how light it was at midnight in Trondheim. Second - how narrow the E39 highway is! Finally, check out the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. It's where the kings are crowned and buried, and is the most impressive gothic building in Norway. In Norway, the impressive churches are usually the truly ancient, but small, rural churches. As such, Nidaros is a bit unique, and very impressive. Then, I drove home via Kristiansund, just to explore another bit of Norway.

Here are the photos.

I'm back in Canada for the next week for a high school reunion (10 years!), so I probably won't post for something more than a week.

Cheers,

Ashley

The "Real" Weather Just Got Here.

I was in Oslo & Tønsberg this past weekend - Tønsberg because Norway was playing rugby against Lithuania in Tønsberg, and Oslo because it's only an hour's drive from Tønsberg and because there is a generous member of the rugby club there who lets me use his apartment (and because the social life there is more insteresting than Tønsberg).

Norway didn't do so well - lost 40-9, but the game was the last game of the season, and they were already guaranteed to finish 3rd out of 5, while Lithuania were already guaranteed to finish 1st in the group. This means that for next year (starting in the fall), Norway will be in a group with Denmark, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria. That's actually really nice, because Denmark is close to Norway, and the other three are at least close to each other.

I got to touch judge this game, and refereed four 10-a-side games in the morning. I actually managed to referee one game mostly in Norwegian. Of course, as with most sports, you only need about 10 words to do that, and for many things in rugby, Norwegian simply uses the English words ("scrum", "line-out", etc.), so I can't say that it was a big challenge, but I'm glad I did it. The game in question was an under-18 game, so some of the kids aren't as fluent in English as some of the adults, and I would like to believe that it helped.

I drove down via one route, and back home another way, just to explore the country a bit. I'm glad I did, but I certainly was reminded of the Norwegian habit of paying for tunnels with tolls. I had to pay 3 separate tunnel tolls and 3 separate ferry fares on my way home. It turned something that would have cost only about 400 kr. (Can$80) in gas (I was very happy with the fuel efficiency of the new car), into something that cost almost 800 kr. (Can$160). The way these things work here, they collect a toll on the new tunnel (or bridge) until the costs of construction are paid off. There has been a lot of new construction in that area.

One thing that struck me as I drove (in both directions) was the effect that the extended period of heat had had. There have been forest fires this summer in greater-than-normal amounts, but in this case, what was particularly noticeable was the runoff from the hills. Rivers were clearly higher than their normal highest banks, and mountain waterfalls were truly spectacular. Hydroelectric dams that I drove past generally were spilling water like crazy. I got a couple of pictures of waterfals, but it was a striking feature of the moment throughout the whole trip.

Here's a link to a map of my weekend of driving, and some photos I took out the sunroof: MAP PHOTOS

Unfortunately, the car decided, about 600km into the 1200-km trip, that it had a philosphical opposition to 5th gear. I could hold the shift in 5th, but that wasn't really an option over 600 km. In reality, I didn't miss it too much, because I didn't even spend much time above 80 km/hr, and zero time above 90, because the roads are so thin, windy and hilly here. Well, that, and the fact that they have zero-tolerance speed enforcement here, with fines that range from $400-$2000. If the speed limit is 80, then that gives you another reason not to use your 5th gear so much. Still, I'm going to take a look at the transmission when I get a second, to figure out whether it's probably a repair or a replace issue.

As for the weather, about halfway home, this tropical weather with clear skies and 20-plus-degree weather that we had enjoyed for most of the last two months decided to leave us. The wind picked up, the clouds rolled in, and it started raining. That's the way it's now been for the intervening 4 days.

I'm off to to Trondheim this weekend. This time, I should finally get a chance to actually play, after all these false starts. I'm really excited about it, although there's quite a different fitness required to make a lot of tackles, compared with the fitness required to simply chase players around with a whistle. Here's hoping I'm up for it!

-Ashley

Flat Company

Just a quick one today, because I've got a long drive tomorrow, so I'm going to try to get some sleep. However, I did think that I would note that it's currently 12:46 am, and the streetlights have still not come on.

So I went to a sort of corporate retreat thingy today. It was intended to be a focus group environment, with 50 staff from diverse backgrounds within the shipyard (from imported Polish welders through office workers like me, to the head of HR) to talk about ways that the company can make itself into a better workplace.

The project went well, and I think the meeting achieved what it was designed to achieve. That's not what fascinated me. What I found interesting was the period from about 6:30pm to 9:00pm. We were in a neighbouring town, and had taken a chartered bus to get there. So we all had to wait for the bus to return, in order to leave. However, the work was done at 6:30, and the bus didn't come until 9. Therefore, there was nothing much to do, except sit out on the patio (in the sun - the weather's great) of the hotel where the meeting was, and drink/socialize (many of the people had to drive home even after the bus brought them back to the shipyard, so they weren't drinking, but there was still about half who were).

What really struck me was how socially "flat" (not hierarchical) the company is. The idea that a welder would be having a beer with the HR manager for a company is not completely foreign idea in Canada, although it would be rare. However, to watch them talk about the various parties each of them attended last weekend, complete with stories about drunk friends, was not something I would have expected - and similar scenarios were playing themselves out all around me. Now, Ulstein prides itself on being particularly "flat", but I think that it's a Norwegian cultural thing - there is no sense that the seniority you have in the company brings a certain social separation when you're sitting at a table in a hotel bar.

This was only magnified when one of the carpenters started giving out shoulder massages. Now, this is something I did in my first year of university, when I was trying to pick up girls. But here we have a 45-ish-year-old carpenter manipulating the shoulder muscles of, among others, the HR manager. She said it felt good. I believe her. It's still something that seemed odd from my workplace experience.

There were many mentions today during the retreat, of the "Ulstein Culture". I guess this is part of it. Everyone is approachable. Everyone is a social equal, unless you choose not to be. Everyone deserves a shoulder massage.

I really shouldn't generalise without more complete knowledge, so I'll definitely be doing my best to watch around me over the coming months to see whether this phenomenon is for real, or whether this was a bit of an exception because of the fact that we were at an event designed specifically to exaggerate the approachability of the senior staff, and the other positive aspects of the company.

I'll let you know.

Ashley

A car (finally!) and some fotball (soccer)

So I now own a car. Thank goodness.

It is, ridiculously enough, a bright red 1998 VW Polo - that's the size below the Golf (for North Americans who didn't know that there was a size below the Golf).

I've never considered myself someone who absolutely needed a car, but living here, I can tell you that it sure feels good to have wheels again. Aside from the fact that it turns my 15 minute commute into a 5 minute commute, which is really not the point, it means that I can explore the neighbourhood - there are tremendously beautiful areas less than half an hour's drive from my house that I haven't seen.

We decided that we should take the most basic little car for the moment, because so much of the structure of our life here depends on what happens with Kes's employment. If she's working in Ålesund, that will mean one thing. Another opportunity she has is in a very rural research station about 35 minutes' drive from here - that would clearly mean something else! In fact, there's actually a big difference between a position in downtown Ålesund and a position in the suburbs - if she's in the downtown, then she can take the passenger ferry from our island, and walk to work on the other end. On the other hand, if she works in the suburbs, then it probably makes more sense to live in Ålesund, and have me be the one commuting. You see, while it seems like there's no question that she will find work somewhere (and somewhere reasonably close), the details are going to make a big difference in our lives.

My primary deciding factor with regard to the car was its gas mileage. I don't have the exact stats, but considering that I now drive a VW the size of a matchbox, I'm not really worried. Gas here is currently 12.99 NOK per litre - that's Can$2.54/l. Thus, I'm perfectly happy to drive a matchbox. This weekend, I'll be going to Tønsberg for the Norway-Lithuania rugby game, and I'm considering driving. It would be a long drive, but I think that it would be valuable to know what the overall cost of a return drive to Oslo (Tønsberg is beyond Oslo) is, so that I can compare it to the cost of a return bus ticket (1100 NOK - Can$215), or a return flight (which varies massively, from about 1000 NOK in the low season to 4000+ in the high season).

In Tønsberg, I will be touch (line) judging for the international, and playing in the 10-a-side tournament that is happening earlier in the day (for the Oslo team). Should be a really good day!

I spent a couple of hours this evening watching fotball (soccer) up at the Høddvoll stadium. There are two different competitions in Norway, the League (which is what we North Americans are used to, except with the idea that if you win your league, you get promoted to a higher league, and similarly, you can be demoted for losing), and the Cup. In the Cup, the national Association effectively takes every team in the country, throws their names in a hat, and draws out pairs to play each other in a single-elimination tournament. Then, they take every team that won that round, throw their names in a hat, etc. So it's really neat, because you can end up with a fully professional team playing "Joe's Friday Night Soccer Club from Fredrikstad", or some such. While it seems, at first, like that's a bad idea, it means that these local recreational teams get, probably just once in their lives, to play against the stars of the game. Sure, they get beaten 11-0, but they never forget it.

Tonight was a good example. The local team (Hødd) is a fully professional outfit, with at least two international imports, one from the USA, and one from the Faeroe Islands. The team they were playing against (NTNUI) was a university recreational team from Trondheim. Hødd had physios and a goalie coach. NTNUI had a really excited player/manager. Hødd had completely separate warm-up jerseys. NTNUI didn't have matching shorts, and their jerseys were clearly from two different years. Still, it was 2-1 for a good portion of the second half. However, with about 20 minutes left, I think the difference between a professional fitness regime and two practices each week finally showed. The final was 4-1 for Hødd. I think the local fans are really looking forward to when the competition advances a little bit further, so that they get to be the underdogs again. Hødd, generally, thrives on that environment - this is too small a town for this team - the club doesn't have enough money - they don't bring in enough internationals - the travel costs are too high... and yet they still do remarkably well. So it's a bit odd for them to be playing a team who are even worse off than they are. Bring on Lyn (Oslo) or Rosenborg (Trondheim's main professional team). Then they'll be happy, because any victory is massive, and even a defeat is honourable. Oh well, they've made it to the round of 32. Here's hoping things keep going well!

Cheers,

Ashley

Weekend in Oslo & Some Pictures of Ulsteinvik

(Note: if you just want pictures, there's a link at the end of the post.)

Well, I spent last weekend in Fredrikstad and Oslo, getting my first "real" chance to referee since getting here (I'm not including the statistician role for the international game). Fredrikstad was a neat place, with a historic old town (I forgot the camera for that part, sorry!), and some excited young rugby players. As a result of this, I have made my Norwegian television debut, being visible for about 3 seconds during a piece the local channel shot about the day's rugby. Here's a link to the piece - click on the video that's a short way down on the right hand side of the main text. Most places that I go in Norway, rugby is such a novelty that we get some media coverage. On the other hand, that might have something to do with the fact that Norwegians read an average of more than one newspaper per day for every man, woman and child, and many of those newspapers are small-town dailies. They have to find something to fill all those pages!

I slept in Oslo, went out with the Oslo Rugby Klubb folks on Saturday night, and then assisted (by refereeing) with a youth rugby camp they were organizing on Sunday. The camp was an overwhelming success, with 60+ kids running around tackling each other.

The light here continues to impress me. I know, logically, that it's not really going to get dark, but it's just so cool when it's 1:30 am, and I could go outside and play catch! On the other hand, it's a bit odd to walk out after the end of a movie that started at 9:30 pm - into sunlight!

Sunset is 11:00pm right now. It will top out on June 20th at 11:36pm, with sunrise that day at 3:34am.

I've hit a bit of a wall with my Norwegian-learning. It's becoming very frustrating that I still can't understand much of any conversation. I know that it's only been two months, but there's a significant problem that I really don't hear much Norwegian. People walk into my office, and immediately switch to (usually very fluent) English. At the lunch table, there are Romanians and a Venezuelan, so much of the conversation is either completely incomprehensible (Romanian), or in English. However, the top tiers of the company are 100% Norwegian. In fact, I'm one of the more senior people who is not Norwegian by birth, and I'm probably, at the moment, the most senior who doesn't really speak Norwegian.

Therefore, the people with whom I need to have meetings are all Norwegian. This makes it really difficult. I could ask them to speak English, and they probably would do it, but it is really awkward - asking eight people at a meeting to speak awkwardly and slowly (because, while their English is good, there's no hiding that it's the second language, except for a select few) is both rude and non-functional. As a result, I just sit there, and become frustrated, because I'm not learning fast enough. Then, I usually have to approach the meeting's chair privately after the meeting, for a review. He seldom seems to mind, but I can't help but think that it would be more efficient with someone who didn't need such repeats. I know that there were some in the company who didn't agree with hiring a "fresh off the boat" foreigner, because of the language problem. I'm worried that, so far, I'm only proving them right.

To be clear, I shouldn't exaggerate the issue - The work is coming along just fine, and I'm learning, and I suppose it gets better every day, it's just a frustration that I really wish would go away!

Anyway, the pictures below are "around town" ones from Ulsteinvik proper, as well as a series showing what the walk to work is like. Enjoy!

Around Ulsteinvik

Cheers,

Ashley

I Feel Very European

I'm sitting at my window, drinking a glass of red wine, and watching the Eurovision song contest...

I first heard of this in high school, but I'm not sure that everyone in North America has necessarily connected with it, so here's a quick refresher: Each year (since 1956), most European countries (the national entry is determined by the a major national TV network) nominate a single musical act to represent their country at the finals. The finals are held in the home country of the previous year's winner, and are one of the biggest TV events on the continent every year. "Europe" is defined rather broadly, and includes, for example, Israel (every year since 1973), Morocco (one year) and Cyprus (every year since 1981)

There are political overtones, though usually just domestic ones, for example: The Italians once censored their own entry, because it contained a pro-divorce (which was illegal at the time) message. The French are very unhappy this year, because their entrant has chosen to sing some of his lyrics in English. The Belgians on the other hand, whose country is very close to breaking up over linguistic divisions, are very happy, because their entry will be singing in an invented language, neither French nor Flemish. (that's before we even get into the Israeli transsexual who won...)

The event, however, is resolutely EuroTrash, with pop & techno dominating, and absolutely ridiculous costumes. The winning entry usually uses some variation on the ABBA formula (ABBA won in 1974) - attractive women, pop (often to the point of techno) , and well-designed for TV. The winner is decided by popular vote, through one's cell phone.

The Estonian entry this year, on the other hand, appears to be three overweight men singing about food, complete with backup props that include pictures of the food in question. Their backup dancers, on the other hand are gorgeous, scantily clad women. (At the same time, gorgeous, scantily clad backup dancers are a bit of a common theme.)

+++

Well, I've now seen 10 entries, and they've underwhelmed me. I think that I like the San Marino dude best. It was a good, sort-of rock ballad - it's also neat that a country of 60 square km and less than 30,000 has even bothered to enter - and he's really from there, and he's not half bad.

WAIT. Stop the presses. Ireland has entered a turkey puppet. In good old-fashioned Irish fashion, they have decided to mock the entire contest. Their song is a sarcastic take on the whole thing - they're doing things like naming every country, and then claiming that if you do that, you'll get extra votes. (Lyrics also include "We're sorry for RiverDance") There are dancers in the most outrageous costumes, flagrantly sexual, and yet not at all, because the whole thing is so sarcastic. Wow. I think I'm going to have to spend 5 kroner and vote for Ireland.

...even after watching Bosnia & Hercegovina, with the go-go dancers in enourmous wedding dresses, who were knitting while dancing. Indeed.

Okay, enough of that - I think you get the point.

I promised pictures of Stavanger. Here you go...

Stavanger - 10 May 2008

Cheers,

Ashley

17th of May photos

My schedule has become pretty hectic in the last 24 hours, so I'm just going to give you some photos from the 17th of May here in Ulsteinvik. The 17th of May is technically Constitution Day in Norway, but everyone simply calls it "the 17th of May", and it's the big national holiday. Picture your local county fair, Canada Day and Remembrance Day all rolled into one big festival. Well, that, and everyone is in either traditional dress or semi-formal/formal attire. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow or as soon as I can, but for the moment, follow the link to pictures from the 17th.

17 May in Ulsteinvik

Cheers,

Ashley

Weekend in Stavanger

Before I get into the weekend I just spent in Stavanger (yeah, the plans changed even once more after the update I posted last week), I have one complaint about product unavailability - iced tea!!! Since I was about 7 years old, and particularly when I was living away from home, iced tea, usually mixed from powder, has been important. I'm no addict, but especially after running around, playing a sport or something (when beer's not the right answer for any number of reasons), iced tea is great. In Canada, I've never failed to find it in a supermarket. Here, when Kes and I finally found something close (labelled as "Lemon Citrus Tea Drink - Enjoy Hot or Cold!"), the container holds pellets. They look like mouse crap. We bought it, anyway, and the end product is not too bad, but you have to stir for 15 minutes in order to dissolve them!

I shouldn't complain - other than occasional price shock, the transition has been remarkably smooth in terms of finding products. Really, there have even been some products where the price is better, including things that are thought of as staples here, but wouldn't be at home, such as cheese.

But anyway, yes, I spent the weekend in Stavanger, there for an international rugby match, Norway vs. Bulgaria. There was some significant confusion in the run-up to the event (which is why I was going, then not going, and finally going again), but the event itself went off really well. The weather co-operated perfectly, with 22 degrees and sun (I got a sunburn, of course), and the game was good, particularly because the home side won, 44-21. For anyone who's not really into rugby, scores are pretty comparable to American or Canadian football, meaning that that was a high-scoring game, fun to watch, but not really that close at the end of the day.

The confusion meant that I ended up being the No. 4 official (1 is the ref, 2 & 3 are the touch (line) judges), responsible for record keeping, substitutions, etc. Definitely a bureaucratic role. If it had been clear that that's all I was going to do, I don't think the rugby federation would have paid to fly me to Stavanger, but clearly there were some communication gaps. Oh well, I think it's true in any small-ish community organization, made particularly tough by the size and (non-)density of the country.

Stavanger is really beautiful. Of course, it had the benefit of good weather to show it off, but there is an old cobblestoned downtown area that is really neat. In addition, right in the middle of town, between the train station and the big church, is a pond with trees along the banks, ducks swimming, and teenagers making out on the more secluded benches. ...not that the teenagers particularly added to the beauty, but it is clearly a well-used, beautiful public space. I have some pictures (again, not of the teenagers), but I can't figure out how to download them from my phone. Kes is much better at such things. 6 years of engineering and I still have limited gadgetry instincts.

Also, Stavanger has been named a "Capital of European Culture" for 2008 (they pick two each year throughout Europe), meaning that there were live music events and art installations around. I didn't really explore as much as I would have liked, but I always find that having music around in a city (not counting the drive-by speakers of the local show-off) makes it really easy to like. So, yeah, if you have a chance to go to Stavanger, particularly this year, I really recommend it.

Today was a holiday, here, pinsedag (Pentecost, or whitmonday). Unfortunately it's the last public holiday until Christmas. Of course, everyone gets signifiant vacation time from their work, but there's no structured long-weekend type holiday until December. Yuck. There would have been, because May 17th is Norway's national day (Constitution Day), but it falls on a Saturday this year. In Canada that would have meant that we get the Monday - not so here. Get out, celebrate, wave the flag, but be back to work first thing on Monday. Again, yuck.

Sunsets are getting really late now, and the sky is getting lighter and lighter, even in the middle of the night. Sunset tonight was 10:20pm, and sunrise will be at 4:45am, meaning the sky never really gets 100% dark (and it's not nearly so impressive to say that you stayed out 'til dawn - wait for December on that one).

Cheers,

Ashley

I Feel Very Canadian...

...I'm sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, and watching hockey.

That is, until I remind myself that the beer is Heineken, and the hockey is Finland vs. Norway at the World Championships, with commentary in Norwegian. It's actually a great help with my Norwegian, because I know what the commentators are probably saying, so it makes the translation a lot easier.

I'm definitely cheering for Norway - not only because I'm now 10 feet from the nearest Norwegian flag (my landlord has one hanging over the balcony), but also because I'm probably only one or two degrees removed from the guys on the national team, simply by living here. Picture a situation where British Columbia had a national team - that's the population of Norway (Norway: 4,737,200; BC: 4,414,000). At that point, pretty much everyone in the province would be that much closer to everyone. Norway should, by all rights, be just barely scraping to stay in the top division (the "real" championships). However, in this game, they're holding the Finns 2-2 late into the second period. Good for them.

Speaking of learning Norwegian, I mentioned earlier that I would talk about the two different types of Norwegian. You can read in depth about it on Wikipedia (look up the article titled "Norwegian Language Struggle"), but here's the Reader's Digest Condensed Version: There have always been many and various spoken dialects in Norway. However, while Norway was part of joint governments (most recently under the rule of the Danish), they generally wrote something that was very close to Danish, and the pompous people at court, in the universities, and in the Oslo region generally considered it "high class", "intelligent" language. When Norwegian pride and nationalism started building through the second half of the 19th century, one of the ways that some people thought that they should express that was to have their own written language that was much closer to what people out in the countryside actually spoke. So this guy Ivar Aasen wandered around documenting rural "real Norwegian" dialects, and developed a written language that standardised a basis for them.

Unfortunately, even though the general nationalist movement was a big success - you may notice that Norway is no longer a property of the Danish queen - the whole language thing didn't really catch on other than in the rural areas where it really reflected the way they spoke. As a result, you now have Norwegian bokmål ("book language"), which is used by 85% or so, and is very very close to Danish. Then you have Norwegian nynorsk (ironically, "New Norwegian", even though it's based on the old dialects), which is used by only 11% (the other 4% are Sami, an ethnically different people in the North, who speak their own lanugage), in mostly rural areas... including Ulstein! It's minorly ridiculous that a people who number less than 5 million have two official forms of their language.

The issue is so political that, for example, I cannot take Norwegian classes in Bokmål here in Ulstein - I must take Nynorsk. Ah well, I end up communicating either in English, or with hand signals most of the time, anyway.

The two aren't that different. We have "Jeg heter Ashley. Jeg kommer fra Canada." in Bokmål and "Eg heiter Ashley. Eg kjem frå Canada." in Nynorsk. Should be fun...

We've developed a bit of an ex-pat network here, now, with the Brit who's at Rolls-Royce Marine, the New Zealander who's in the ship-design part of the Ulstein Group and the Venezuelan-German couple I've mentioned before. While we don't want to be the kind of internationals who don't actually meet the locals, it's awfully nice to have people who've gone through the same issues you're going through.

Some other notes:

-Kes goes back to Canada this week to tackle what will hopefully be the final stages of her thesis from close range. We don't know exactly when she'll be back, but we're obviously both hoping for "as early as possible". This was always the plan, but it's still no fun!

-I finally got my tax number!!! So I now have a bank account, and everything. I figure I'll buy a car sometime this week, maybe next weekend. It's too bad that I will be getting it just in time for Kes to leave, but she's sort of happy that it means I'll have to do all the legwork on it. She knows that if we were both here, and she was at home all day (even though she's working harder than I am!), she'd probably end up doing all the research, etc.

-I'm hoping to go to Stavanger this weekend for an international rugby match - Norway vs. Bulgaria. Not exactly high flyers, but international sports are always fun.

Cheers,

Ashley

Update: Going to Oslo instead - playing with the Oslo Rugby Klubb, refereeing a 10-a-side tournament. It means another pair of overnight bus rides, but it should still be good.

39 Hours in Oslo

This will probably be quick, as it's getting a bit late, and we didn't get loads of sleep this weekend.

...so we took the night bus (9 hours) to Oslo on Friday night, and used the same method returning. It was quite an experience, but really as comfortable as you could expect such a thing to be, particularly in a country full of winding mountain roads. very good seats, pillows, blankets, and few enough people that we were able to have a pair of seats each for 12 of the 18 hours. Besides, it was the cheapest method (could argue driving would be, but we wouldn't be able to drive and sleep at the same time - and there's no guarantee we'd get a good rate on the rental), and we didn't have to front for a hotel room on Friday or Sunday.

Oslo was nice, but not overwhelming. Of course, everything in Europe is old, compared to our North American history (even coming from Newfoundland, most recently), and there were definitely still moments of wonder, but having recently (last fall) travelled to England, Wales and France, Kes and I have some experience with that. Besides, Oslo is a growing city (growing through the general wealth of the nation - Norway's interest rate went up last week, while everyone else's is going down, for example), so some of the most impressive things (like their new opera house) are actually new. However, if you're looking for new and impressive, well then, Canada has a decent amount of that, too.

So anyway, I don't want to sound too cynical or anything, but Oslo was not overwhelming from a tourist point of view. On the other hand, I think that living there would be a lot of fun - it seemed full of restaurants (the good ones of which were pretty much all non-Norwegian food!) and pubs, and we had a really good time out on Saturday with some folks from the Norwegian national rugby federation.

Speaking of rugby, that's why we were there, nominally - I was getting my Level 2 IRB (International Rugby Board) referee certification. I am hoping that, even though we're a long way away from the nearest club, here in Ulsteinvik, I may be able to use my refereeing as a vehicle to see some more of Europe. For example, there are tournaments through much of the summer that I may attempt to link up with, as a referee.

We did see some of the negative side of Oslo - some neighbourhoods had extreme amounts of grafitti, and I would say that there is an immigrant immigration problem - there are lots of people of colour in Oslo, but we didn't see very many instances where people of different colours were walking together.

Of course, the large number of immigrants makes for great food, and there is Turkish restaurant that has become our new favourite restaurant in Norway.

'night,

Ashley

Back in action...

For those who didn't know, I travelled to Duncan, BC for two days last weekend, for my grandfather's funeral. There were (of course) also two days of travelling in there. That's really why I've been away from the blog for about a week. Many of you won't have even known that he died, of course, but many who know have been very kind in their comments - thank you. At the same time, my grandfather was a man who had 101 remarkable years (Well, his first 2 or 3 may have been a bit boring, but I assure you, he probably had more years full of good stories than most of us will ever have a chance to accumulate) - so his passing at the end of a very long, very full, and very productive life was, in some ways, not a tragedy, precisely because he hade done so much, so well. Regardless, enough about that - suffice to say that my family actually had a very wonderful chance to get together, even though I just about fell asleep in my soup dish, thanks to the 9-hour time change.

Sometimes one can expect that much travel to grant deep insights into humanity and the universe. Here, then, is a selection from my thoughts during the marathon of flights (Ørsta/Volda - Oslo - Frankfurt - Vancouver - Nanaimo - Vancouver - London - Oslo - Ørsta/Volda):

- If you are in an airport with moving sidewalks, anywhere in the world, then you can guarantee that, somewhere in that airport, there is a 7-year-old running in the wrong direction along one of those moving sidewalks. (Confirmed in Frankfurt, Vancouver, Oslo and London).
-Lufthansa has really cool trans-Atlantic planes - the bathrooms are downstairs!!! Who knew planes had basements?
-It feels a bit surreal to start your day on a Dash-8 (Nanaimo-Vancouver), and 21 hours later, finish it on one, too (Oslo-Ørsta/Volda).
-Duty-free shopping in Oslo is nuts! They have a special legal setup whereby you can actually go duty-free shopping in the arrivals area, where you pick up your luggage, so that you don't even have to carry all the stuff with you on the plane! People were pushing shopping carts FULL of hard liquor and cigarettes. ... again with the idea that the Norwegians don't mind, collectively, being part of a high-tax socialist state. However, personally, they do everything they can to get around it - especially the part where you pay an arm and a leg for booze.

The Norwegians really know how to build tunnels. The drive to the airport (no, we still don't have a car - we borrowed the company car.) includes a drive through this one:
(Yes, of course, that photo's from the official opening - needless to say, there's not so much pedestrian traffic normally.) - It's 8 km long, and has really steep grades to get down below a really deep waterway. However, it cuts about 30 minutes off the drive to the Ørsta/Volda airport - unquestionably the closest airport, but only since this tunnel opened at the end of February. I think this tunnel will probably do a lot to reduce the dependence of Ulstein and the surrounding kommunar on Ålesund - Ørsta and Volda are decent-sized places, with a combined population of 18,569, an airport (no international flights, but 45 minutes to Oslo), and an arts-focussed university college. Now, the (practically combined) communities are only 25 minutes or so from Ulsteinvik, thanks to the tunnel.

I had my first Norwegian class, yesterday. It went well, although there are only two others in my class - a middle-aged German man who does not want to learn Norwegian, and a younger (but still old enough to have two kids) Austrian man who wants to learn Norwegian, but does not want to learn Nynorsk - the form of Norwegian spoken here in the Western portion of the country. Thus, I was reduced to being the keener everyone thought I was in high school, while the "cool kids" sat at the back of the class and spoke a language I didn't understand. At least in high school it was only figuratively "a language I didn't understand". In this situation, they were actually speaking German.

I'll elaborate on the whole "different types of Norwegian" thing next time (barring some other distraction), but I know that at least some of you have been waiting with bated breath for winemaking results. They are... mixed, I'd say.

The wine, if you think to yourself "fruitwine" (or, of course, "fruktvin") before you taste it, is of medium quality - not so good, but might survive as a 10-dollar special in 2-litre bottles at the liquor store. However, if you think to yourself "Merlot" (which was on the label on the box!) before you drink it, you will likely spit it out.

Kes has found a clever solution - 1 part Morton Especial Rødvin, 1 part Diet 7-up, sprinkle of cinnamon powder. She claims that it tastes like sangria. I claim that the smell of the cinnamon distracts you from the taste of the wine. I think we're actually saying the same thing.

Anyway, we're having our other expat friends over to taste it tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Cheers,

Ashley

Finally, Some Photos...

Okay, let's see whether I can make Blogger show you some of our photos (of course, I say "our", but Kes is the only one with a camera who hasn't lost it). For most of them, you can click on the picture for a larger version.

Here's the view to the left out our front window. You can see the fjord, and the downtown core is that bustle of buildings below us. The road coming up toward us is Skulevegen. You can sort of make out two towers on the far side of the town - that's another shipyard. (not mine).

The outside of the apartment, looking right. You can see the steeple of the town church, and then, at the end of town, the cranes of my shipyard. There's a ship at quayside right now - the "Island Constructor", that is in the final stages of its outfitting.

Kes hard at work, making wine.



We're not quite ready for a job translating Norwegian winemaking instructions. Not quite yet.

This is our apartment. Just a tiny bit smaller than where we lived in St. John's!
The "Ishall" in Fosen. That's a hockey rink (European size), a curling sheet (just one - straight ahead), and a soccer field, inside a long-track speed skating oval!

This is on the ferry from Vestnes to Molde - that's the return boat, going the other way.

This is from our drive back from Trondheim - remind anyone of Bella Coola?


These are the boats that I'm working on. Now, that was the picture that was released when the contract was signed, so the design has morphed a bit since then, but they're still really cool. Yes, that is the front end pointing to the right. There's a helicopter platform on top of the bridge.

I think I'm going to be lazy for the evening, and just leave you with the pictures. These have been long days at work, due to a visit by the owners to the yard. At the same time, it's rewarding, because I feel like I'm actually slowly becoming a contributor - it's taken a while to get there!

Cheers,

Ashley

Socialist, not Collectivist

Okay, I think I'm going to get into some dangerous territory here, because I'm going to throw out some generalisations about Norwegian society. I know, I know - I'm clearly an expert, because I've been here all of 21 whole days, but I feel like some things are clicking into place. Please, don't be insulted - if I'm completely out to lunch, let me know.

The idea that Norwegian society is socialist is "common knowledge" - the pension plans, the free education, the high taxes, the subsidies... I mean, there was a case in 2004 where the courts here ordered the government to purchase a car for a man who was too short to ride public transit. ...Not because he couldn't physically use the transit, but because riding on public transit exposed him to traumatic memories of being ridiculed for his height on the school bus as a child. I'm not going to debate the merits of that case, but I think that it demonstrates the accomodations the state feels it must make to provide a social safety net. Another aspect of this is the pension system. This is the sort of sacred cow that the health care system is in Canada (only because there is no sense, here, of any threat or other option to their socialised medicine). Under the Norwegian pension framework, every worker expects to receive, when he/she retires, presuming he/she worked long enough, and at a full-time job, a significant salary from the government's pension funds. By "significant", I mean that the "pension salary" is enough to provide full necessities of life, at significantly above the poverty line.

Anyway, those features, among many others, confirm the label that many people apply to many European (but particularly Scandinavian) countries - "Socialist". However, there is another, seemingly contradictory, aspect here, as well.

That is the individualistic nature of life here. For example, while the government controls alcohol sales through their monopoly, and taxes it very highly, many, many people make their own. While the government subsidises public transit, almost everyone has a car. While the government encourages physical fitness, the sports of choice are individual ones (skiing, speed skating, ski jumping), rather than team ones (say, hockey, or even soccer - though they clearly follow soccer, and play it, it's not nearly the magnitude of many other European countries). I think that this is shown in many of the national heroes, who are often individualistic explorers, people who were the first to ski solo to the north pole, or first to do this or that - rather than people who do things like found movements, or even lead political parties. Norwegian society clearly respects entrepreneurship, and there are successful international businesses everywhere - far more than the population should be expected to generate.

...so Norway is an interesting study in contradictions. It seems to have found its own, successful answer to a number of problems - I don't mind voting for a socialist system, and high taxes in general - but don't get in the way of me going hiking, starting a business, clubbing a seal, or making wine in my bathroom.

Speaking of which, the wine production is complete, but the wine needs to be filtered now. Our supplier of winemaking equipment (the elderly gentleman in the store called "PartyMan") is inexplicably closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Therefore, filtration on Thursday. ...Unless we want to drink something that is currently about the consistency of tomato juice. Still, we tasted it. I hope the filtering improves it - Kes assures me that it will.

Cheers,

Ashley

"Why didn't we buy these books before we moved here?"

Kes just said that (the title of this post) after coming across a really useful-sounding book about Norwegian customs and etiquette on the internet. In some ways, it's shocking just how unprepared we were before we came here - this relocation was not based in a long fascination with this place - it was a really neat opportunity waved under our noses, that we just took a deep breath and jumped at. On the other hand, I think we've both proven our existing abilities and added loads of new abilities in the general category of "adapting".

At the same time, we shouldn't glorify our undertaking - Norway, and particularly Ulsteinvik, has proven to be shockingly familiar and similar to previous life experience in Canada. In addition, the Internet has made life so much easier! Of course there is the basic stuff, like emailing friends and family, and reading news from home. However, some of the most important advantages might not be immediately obvious. For example - it's a good idea to go to a supermarket website (even if it's only available in Norwegian) in advance of your trip, look up all the words you need in your dictionary, get a sense of prices, etc. Thus, when you actually do go to the store, you can do so with much more confidence. Well, that and you're less likely to buy licorice when you meant to buys spaghetti. Still, we ended up getting turkey when we expected chicken the other day. If that's the worst we do, I'd say we're doing fine!

We spent the weekend in Trondheim and Fosen (a region across the Trondheimsfjord from Trondheim proper). We initially thought of doing this because there is a rugby club in Trondheim, and they're probably the closest one to us here (although it's about equidistant to Bergen). The TRK (Trondheim Rugbyklubb) was having an overnight trip to Fosen for a day of training and "teambuilding". We contacted them and they were happy to have us join in and inflate their numbers.

In addition, Trondheim has an Ikea. Ulsteinvik, needless to say, does not. We needed to buy Kes an office chair. She's working from home, and will be for the next several months, so wire-backed, slouch-inducing, butt-bruising kitchen chairs just weren't appropriate for 6- to 12-hour days.

Unfortunately we still lack a D-number, thus a bank account, thus a car. Still, we decided that an excursion was in order, so we sucked up the financial hit and rented a car. We drove up via the "coastal route" - the E39, which is a "Europavei" - European highway (indicated by the "E" in it's number) We assumed this guaranteed a certain quality. Apparently not. Picture the road into Bella Coola, complete with one-and-a-half lane patches, blind corners, and switchbacks (not quite as steep, but still...), except paved. Now, leave that road alone long enough that it develops 6-inch ruts. Wow. Of course, that wasn't the entire trip, but it was the reality for at least a few heart-in-throat moments. However, the views were beautiful, with snow-capped mountains, 3 ferry rides, ancient farms, and numerous transitions between white and green as we gained and lost altitude.

I could fill a week's worth of posts with a description of the trip, from the fun of playing rugby on an artificial grass surface inside a speed-skating oval (the inside of the track also had a full-size hockey rink and a curling sheet), to the really neat reclaimed port warehouses that Trondheim has turned into a trendy bar area, to Kes's experiments with driving a standard (hey, what are rental standards for, right?) to our trip back through the interior, including the Dovrefjell mountains, and the wasteland of snow, on forever.

However, I'm going to work on a Norwegian lesson, and then head to bed - I have a big meeting this week at work, with the future owners of the ships I'm working on visiting from the USA. Normally, I wouldn't be in an owners' meeting. However, this meeting will focus exclusively on "my stuff", so I'm going to have some long-ish hours in the run-up to it.

Cheers,

Ashley

Busy, busy...

Hi everyone.

Sorry I've been out of touch lately, but I've honestly been too busy. This post is going to actually be pretty short, for the same reason, but I wanted to update things before we went away for the weekend.

Wednesday night, I went to a movie. It was just an American one, "Charlie Wilson's War", nothing really special (though I liked it), but it was nice to feel "less foreign" for an hour and a half. I must admit, though, it's my first experience with being, literally, the only person in a theatre while a movie is playing. (Kes was busy at hime, fighting the good fight with her thesis - when the mood strikes, it's best to ride it as long as she can, because there are days when it's really tough to stare at the computer and wrangle numbers for as long as she does). Still, the facility is really nice, clearly open less than a year, I'd say.

Thursday night we went bowling with our fellow ex-pat friends, Marco and Nadine (Venezuela & Germany). We had a lot of fun, though we demonstrated our general incompetence at 10-pin bowling. Kes and I protested that, had it been 5-pin, we would have been much better.

We're off this weekend to Trondheim (Friday night) and then Fosen (just NW of Trondheim) for Saturday, to hang out with the folks from the Trondheim Rugby Klubb. Should be a good time.

I let the folks from the Norges Rugbyforbund (Norway Rugby Union) know that I was a referee and coach, and have been told that I should set up a club here in Sunnmøre (that's the region that includes both Ålesund and Ulsteinvik), and that I should start refereeing around the country. In fact, the president of the union said today "You know, the head of our referees just retired, and we don't have anyone to fill his position...." I said no, don't worry.

By the way, my email address, ashley.morton[at]utoronto.ca still works, and is my primary personal email address, in case you'd rather not post comments (I think that it might make you log into a Blogger account in order to post - if so, sorry about that. I'll see if I can change it.

Cheers,

Ashley