The man I am renting a place from picked me up from the central station and drove me to the apartment/room. So that was very nice, since I had two suitcases I was not in the mood to drag them all the way up there. Especially now I know it's located half way up a hill. The view from my room is amazing. I am looking out over the Oslofjord and can see the sunset behind the mountains in the afternoon. In front of my window are trees that are already changing to fall colors. The room is small but manageable and so far I am very happy with this place.
After I arrived and the paperwork for the room was sorted out, I had to go to the supermarket, since I had nothing in my new house, and here is where I immediately remembered what was so exhausting about Norway. The hills.... Don't get me wrong, it is amazing here and the hills and mountains make it amazing, but I always have to go up to the store, in the picture below it does not look steep but believe me, it is. As a Dutch person my legs are not used to walking upwards, and it is exhausting.
The first weekend I used to walk around in the neighborhood, there is a small shopping centre nearby (uphill ofcourse) and the area is filled with villa's some even with swimming pools. People drive Tesla and hybrid cars in this neighborhood and are walking with their dogs, but there is no dogpoop on the street. This is so different from the Hague, where the city centre just smells like dogpoop and where it is everywhere.
On Monday I immediately wanted to register as a jobseeker at NAV, since I had to do that within 7 days to keep my unemployment benefits from the Netherlands. Unfortunately you have to have a D-number (sort of social security number) before you can do anything here. So at Nav they accepted my documents and now I have to wait for a number before I can officially register. But handing in the documents should be sufficient for the 7 day deadline, since the number will take up to one month.
I also need that number to open a bankaccount. I kind of want to have a bank account before I go to all the job agencies and sign up, since if I get a job I need some place where the paycheck can go. I haven't decided if I am going to wait this long. I have already applied for all kinds of jobs, also from temp agencies, so I will just see how it goes. Maybe next week I will visit the temp agencies and register or something.
So without a D-number I can't do much more, so right now I am looking for interesting vacancies online and apply for those jobs. I have looked into taking a course, for example Norwegian, but they either cost a lot of money or are for beginners. NAV does have some courses for jobseekers, one that startes on the 12th of October, so I hope I can join that course. I have send an email to NAV, but if I haven't heard from them on Tuesday I'll call.
So now I am here a week. I didn't expect to be so incredeibly insecure about using the language. I really need to get over that and just use it. It is so easy when everybody speaks English. My money is going fast, since it is more expensive here and I just arrived so I need to buy all kinds of essentials like detergent. And yesterday I got stung by a wasp which hurt like crazy so I had to buy a lidocaine creme. But I think I have most of the important stuff now, so now just try to life as cheaply as possible.... I did find out that the chips I absolutely loved when I was in Norway 10 years ago are no longer being sold, so that is kinda a good thing.
So first week down, so far so good (besides that stupid wasp, what is the purpose of those animals anyway?)
