First few days in Norway

Tuesday: 27 April. London/Heathrow had a fairly warm and sunny day. Temperatures were about 21 C / 75 F.

Arriving in Oslo, however, I saw that the countryside was still winter brown. Although in the last grip of winter, most of the snow was gone. My relatives (Turid & Gunnar) met me at the airport and I stayed with them 2 days. Wednesday morning it snowed a bit but nothing accumulated. On the flight north on Thursday I could that the mountains and higher elevations covered in snow.

Sandnessjøen: I arrived at about 2 pm on Thursday. The parish administrator picked me up at the airport. She drove the 5 plus miles into town. Rounding a bend in the road there suddenly appeared “The Seven Sisters”, a beautiful mountain range covered in snow. The town itself is rather ordinary, but the surrounding mountains are magnificent.

Friday was rather cold, about 5 C/40 F. I had a rehearsal with the minister for the large confirmation services on Sunday. Everything went well. After lunch I tried to get an ID number from the Norwegian Register (the equivalent of a social security number) but only applied for one. It should be issued within 14 days. But without that number I can’t open a bank account. My package of books and music arrived that I sent over last week. Later that afternoon I bought lots of groceries to prepare for the long weekend. (Very few stores are open on the 1^st of May – Labor Day in Norway).

I still haven't received my residency permit. It will probably come sometime in May. Without it I technically shouldn't begin working in Norway. To get around that I received special permission from the police to begin work on Sunday, the 2nd of May. Things are very different in a country with no separation between church and state. I'll be learning a lot in the next few weeks.