Arrived. Now What?

I suppose a first post should contain some sort of background on us, or a witty introduction to what exactly is going on, but I think I'll leave that alone for the moment. If one of us ever gets around to writing such contextual stuff, we'll put it in some sort of side menu, I suppose.

Suffice to say that Kes and I are moving to Norway. I have taken a position at Ulstein Verft A/S (www.ulsteingroup.com), and Kes will be finishing up her Ph.D thesis before diving into the world of Norwegian employment.

Ulstein Verft is a major shipyard, and is in the middle of what is being referred to as a "maritime cluster", with several shipyards and other companies with maritime expertise all nearby. Ulstein is located in Ulsteinvik, which is a little bit south of Ålesund, Norway. Pronounce that first letter like you're saying "oh" - at least, that's what I do. Maybe everyone's actually laughing at me behind my back.

I've taken a position as a "Technical Co-ordinator, Detailed Design" within the electrical division of the core shipyard (I say that to distinguish from Ulstein Elektro A/S, which is a separate company within the same group). I can't say that I know 100% of exactly what the position will require on a day-to-day basis, but then, who really does when they take a new position?

Our trip across to Ålesund was actually shockingly uneventful. Our routing was St. John's-Halifax-London (Heathrow)-Oslo-Ålesund. In the 24 hours before we left St. John's, we had been frantic when we realized two problems we hadn't considered. First, we only had one hour and 45 minutes between our flight into Heathrow and our flight out of Heathrow. Everyone told us this was insane and impossible. I began to believe them when I discovered that no travel insurance company will insure you against "trip interruption", unless you've allowed at least 3 hours for a Heathrow transfer.

Second, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines, the company with whom our Heathrow-Oslo-Ålesund ticket was booked) has what appears to be a draconian overbaggage policy: 20 kg (44lbs) per person, and a charge of 10 Euros per kg (Can$7.30/lb) for over-packed people (a category we definitely fell into, by that definition.) We were "moving" with our suitcases, not just packing for the weekend, so that was a problem. We hacked and slashed (and mailed some boxes to Kes's parents in New Brunswick), and finally ended up with about 80kg (about 180lbs). That was after doing all the "tricks", like packing all the really heavy, dense stuff in your carry-on. Thus, we were expecting a bill of about 418 Euros (Can$670).

Somehow, the travel gods were smiling on us that day, though, and both of these problems just evaporated. Our plane from Halifax landed 20 minutes early, there was no queue at immigration, or customs, or SAS baggage drop-off, or security. There we were, twiddling our thumbs in Heathrow for an hour before our SAS flight took off! ...and the overbaggage? I think we hit the right overworked desk staff person, because she clearly just didn't care - tagged the luggage, and on we went! Phew!

More about our first impressions and first days in Norway when I'm back. At the moment, we're going out to forage for food in Ulsteinvik on a Sunday evening - this may be a challenge.