Fauske, episode 1
After the drive from the airport I slept over 10 hours. I guess I was tired. After the fun experience with the sarcastic border guard dude in Oslo, I decided that I should get on this "permanent residence" status business right away. It was fun trying to figure out who in the world to call, but after a while I found I only needed to talk to the Utlendingsdirektoratet, or Norwegialand's Directorate of Immigration http://www.udi.no/. After much back-and-forth, I find that apparently, because of my Norwegian father having been married to my Canadian mother while I was being born in Canada, I am a special case and can skip much of the red tape in getting permanent residence status. Within a week I have most of the paperwork finished and now I'm waiting for an extended birth certificate to arrive from Halifax. But that's all really boring.
The first day in Fauske I met, in order of appearance, Sebastian the saber-toothed cat; Grethe, Dad's girlfriend; Camilla, my half sister; Simon, Grethe's youngest boy; Eva, my aunt with Kim-Erik, her son and my cousin. This is the first time I've ever met Kim-Erik. Good looking boy, and pretty funny too. After dinner, Camilla, Simon and I go to Daniel's apartment (Daniel is Grethe's oldest boy), and hang out with Daniel, his girlfriend Ann (though everyone calls her Annki, excuse the spelling if it's wrong) and their newborn daughter, Andrea. She's beautiful! And so little... 2 weeks old, so she hasn't "dried out" completely yet. Thanks Leslie. Also there, but going to bed, is Annki's 7-year-old child, Melinda. Very cute as well. One of Daniel's friends is there too, although the name is forgotten. Sorry whoever you are! Much laughter, very gregarious. Camilla leaves early, so I lost my interpreter, but it was all okay, I could manage without. We ate possibly the strangest pizza I've ever eaten. It was your regular bad, hamburger pizza, but they put lettuce, hot peppers, dill dip and sour cream on top! Strange, but pretty good.
Simon and Daniel are members of the Fauske Pistolklubb, and the next day is firing range day. I was invited and gladly tagged along. I shot a .22 pistol and a 9mm. Crap, but the 9mm has some serious kick! It was a pretty cool venue in which we blasted away too. Underneath a school, in a dark, dank basement. We stood in the middle of a long room, to our rear were bound hay mounds for shooting arrows. Ahead were the paper bulls-eye targets for pistols. After shooting 5 rounds we would lay our weapons down for inspection, then check how bad our aim was at the targets. Then we would repair our holes with little white and black stickers. White for the outer rings, and black for the inner, good shots. I used few black stickers. On sunday they were holding a bit of a contest, which, of course, I wanted in on. Shooting made my heart race fast. It was frightening, but fun.
One night Dad, Grethe and I went to Eva and Rune's (Rune is Eva's boyfriend, and a dentist who owns a fancy car and a boat). I met Eva's other little man, Tom-Roger, as well as Rune's boy, who's name escapes me at the moment. Tom tells me of his crazy adventures in Sulitjelma, and invites me to go snowmobiling in the winter. Hopefully none of that future fun gets me killed or badly injured. Ha! Rune has a lovely looking home. We drink coffee and eat fancy ice cream, and talk of all things trip-related, as well as catch up a little bit.
Saturday, the 22nd, I go with Daniel, Annki and Simon to the gym in Bodø (boo-doh). I think I've already told of this episode, though.
Sunday, Simon, Daniel and I return to the pistolklubb for a little competition. Daniel brings his own gun. Ringer. The competition is quite fun. I couldn't understand much of the bubbling in norwegian, or norsk as it's called here. But it was fun anyway. Of course, I ended up with the lowest score: 220 out of 600. I think Simon finished third, with 480; and Daniel blew away the competition (well, not really) with 522! Shoot for a while, drink some coffee, shoot some more, go to Daniel's apartment. Drink a whole lot more coffee, eat some snacky food, chat. That seems the thing to do on a sunday.
I think Simon and Daniel may take me out exploring caves again this time. That is one of the cooler things I remember from the last trip out here. And it would be great to try again.
I think that was most of what I did my first week in Fauske. I was pretty drained and sad, so I don't think I was much fun. Perhaps I should have toured around for a month or so to pull myself together before heading into Fauske. Oh well, it is what it is.
Tuesday, the 27th. I took a bus from Fauske into Sweden, to the end of the line. A town called Skellefteå (Shell-eff-tee-oh). To visit my half-brother, Kenneth, and his family. That's where I am now. Well, right now I am in a coffee shop called Wayne's Coffee: home of the worst chai latte in the world! But that is a story from Umeå, and for another blog entry. Hmmm, I need to buy some internet time so I can actually post this mess...
Comment theme for this post? Ummm, gun stories! Or funny immigration tales.
The first day in Fauske I met, in order of appearance, Sebastian the saber-toothed cat; Grethe, Dad's girlfriend; Camilla, my half sister; Simon, Grethe's youngest boy; Eva, my aunt with Kim-Erik, her son and my cousin. This is the first time I've ever met Kim-Erik. Good looking boy, and pretty funny too. After dinner, Camilla, Simon and I go to Daniel's apartment (Daniel is Grethe's oldest boy), and hang out with Daniel, his girlfriend Ann (though everyone calls her Annki, excuse the spelling if it's wrong) and their newborn daughter, Andrea. She's beautiful! And so little... 2 weeks old, so she hasn't "dried out" completely yet. Thanks Leslie. Also there, but going to bed, is Annki's 7-year-old child, Melinda. Very cute as well. One of Daniel's friends is there too, although the name is forgotten. Sorry whoever you are! Much laughter, very gregarious. Camilla leaves early, so I lost my interpreter, but it was all okay, I could manage without. We ate possibly the strangest pizza I've ever eaten. It was your regular bad, hamburger pizza, but they put lettuce, hot peppers, dill dip and sour cream on top! Strange, but pretty good.
Simon and Daniel are members of the Fauske Pistolklubb, and the next day is firing range day. I was invited and gladly tagged along. I shot a .22 pistol and a 9mm. Crap, but the 9mm has some serious kick! It was a pretty cool venue in which we blasted away too. Underneath a school, in a dark, dank basement. We stood in the middle of a long room, to our rear were bound hay mounds for shooting arrows. Ahead were the paper bulls-eye targets for pistols. After shooting 5 rounds we would lay our weapons down for inspection, then check how bad our aim was at the targets. Then we would repair our holes with little white and black stickers. White for the outer rings, and black for the inner, good shots. I used few black stickers. On sunday they were holding a bit of a contest, which, of course, I wanted in on. Shooting made my heart race fast. It was frightening, but fun.
One night Dad, Grethe and I went to Eva and Rune's (Rune is Eva's boyfriend, and a dentist who owns a fancy car and a boat). I met Eva's other little man, Tom-Roger, as well as Rune's boy, who's name escapes me at the moment. Tom tells me of his crazy adventures in Sulitjelma, and invites me to go snowmobiling in the winter. Hopefully none of that future fun gets me killed or badly injured. Ha! Rune has a lovely looking home. We drink coffee and eat fancy ice cream, and talk of all things trip-related, as well as catch up a little bit.
Saturday, the 22nd, I go with Daniel, Annki and Simon to the gym in Bodø (boo-doh). I think I've already told of this episode, though.
Sunday, Simon, Daniel and I return to the pistolklubb for a little competition. Daniel brings his own gun. Ringer. The competition is quite fun. I couldn't understand much of the bubbling in norwegian, or norsk as it's called here. But it was fun anyway. Of course, I ended up with the lowest score: 220 out of 600. I think Simon finished third, with 480; and Daniel blew away the competition (well, not really) with 522! Shoot for a while, drink some coffee, shoot some more, go to Daniel's apartment. Drink a whole lot more coffee, eat some snacky food, chat. That seems the thing to do on a sunday.
I think Simon and Daniel may take me out exploring caves again this time. That is one of the cooler things I remember from the last trip out here. And it would be great to try again.
I think that was most of what I did my first week in Fauske. I was pretty drained and sad, so I don't think I was much fun. Perhaps I should have toured around for a month or so to pull myself together before heading into Fauske. Oh well, it is what it is.
Tuesday, the 27th. I took a bus from Fauske into Sweden, to the end of the line. A town called Skellefteå (Shell-eff-tee-oh). To visit my half-brother, Kenneth, and his family. That's where I am now. Well, right now I am in a coffee shop called Wayne's Coffee: home of the worst chai latte in the world! But that is a story from Umeå, and for another blog entry. Hmmm, I need to buy some internet time so I can actually post this mess...
Comment theme for this post? Ummm, gun stories! Or funny immigration tales.
posted by Shaun at
4:28 p.m.
1 Comments:
Another great post!
I hate customs.. well to be exact, i hate Air canada for flagging me for a security check cause I complained fo thier lack service...
Need pictures!
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