This has been the strangest day.. the strangest week really. Or why not

The Strangest Year.

It all started the last week in August 2008.. “I was suddently..  yadayada.. bore bore.. unneccesary details.. repetitions.. complaining ..and so I went to bed.”

All of a sudden

it’s Monday. I get up early.. ish. I pack my bag and head for the airport. Smoothly I make my way towards my gate, and one well-earned, airborne sandwich (concidering I got nothing during my 12-hour get-me-home last christmas.. hrmpf.. ) later I’m in the city of rain. The sun is shining.

The sun really did shine. A lot. The whole week. (I’m waiting for someone to comment on my almost-tanned face, but nothing thus far.. hrmpf.) The first day I spent in someone else’s clothes as I had not really prepared for the Bergen Heat (more so the neverending walking).. Monday was spent in Mari’s company with some general sunbathing whilst walking to and from places. Evening meant cooking with the Foodclubbers, which was strange but natural.

Then came Tuesday. And the opptaksprøve. I had a huge advantage, being able to walk around in my school as if I actually belonged there, greeting people to the left and right (such a display of feathers, I know..). My feathers where brutally plucked though, when we got as far as to the first task - croquis (in short - quick sketching of a naked woman standing in strange positions). Damn, these do-it-alls really can draw. Second task was initials, somethingsomething, visualize (as ever..), with nothing but thin paper, tape and string. The second day’s tasks, while I’m on it, were.. visualize (..) a combination of two of ‘these words’, and visualize (oh yes) balanced and unbalanced using a couple of papers with sans and serifs. A couple of days spent amongst paper and glue, in other words.

Tuesday evening I spent in the company of friends and guitars, strumming for hours. Wednesday included, as stated above, a lot of glue, and after this a pre-planned trip up Fløyen. I did my first natural-wall-climbing ever, and I did not do too poorly, even though one does feel like an ass when hanging from the ass, swinging side to side while the poor guy at the other end of the rope tries to support one’s weight. A small but fierce fire alongside more guitar playing kept us (not so) warm during most of the night on top of the mountain, the final part we spent in a sleeping bag, and.. though I do feel man should return to nature.. I hope he bring bed.

I woke up.. nah, well.. I got up when a woman hiked by our snoring bunch in the morning (bit akward..) and a bit later we merrily hiked down the mountain again. Not so merry anymore after a half-hour uphill bike-ride back to Fantoft though.. hrmpf. We spent a whole 20 minutes back at the hostel, and then we were off to the next adventure, fishing in Sotra. (I had to bring müsli, a bowl, a spoon and milk in a bottle in order to have time to eat lunch.. hah.. ) Sotra was lovely and sunny, and though I’ve never fished before I did not do too poorly here either.. I caught a salmon at my first throw.. ever.. which apparently is quite the accomplishment (not doing too well with trying to be modest here, hmm..). After we had caught a couple more fighters (only one salmon though.. *grin*) we went back to Fantoft and, well, ate them. And then came Thursday.

Now, what ever happened there after my memory will put in no proper order, but it involved a lot of cooking and eating, hiking up Løvstakken - twice, a Balkan Beat Party, a movie night, a six-hour-bohemian-grass-sitting-guitar-session (I could do that every day..), more eating, a 7-hour hike on Vidden (followed by four chocolate-buns in a row (and a pleasant visit to the UiB Maths’ Department (’s toilet))),  a fair deal of biking, more unneccesary walking (Bergen has both kinds..), and some odd mid-day sleeping as well.

After a quick master’s-interwiev on Tuesday morning (I just sat and nodded pretty much..), a bus ride to the airport and a care free check-in (thankyou Flesland for being small and simple) it started to rain. “Haha”, I thought as I and my second airborne sandwich of the week left the city.

Back in the Capital of Concrete then, and thus materialized the mystery of this Friday. On Wednesday I replied to a request for a job interview I had gotten before I left for Norway. “Can you come today before 18:00?” Uhm.. no..? Tomorrow morning? “Deal.” So Thursday morning I did my first ever Finnish interview, which pretty much included him staring at me and vice versa. Believe me, this interview would have been strange even if it had been in Swedish.. hm.. Oh, well “at least that’s done and over with” I thought to my self, and went back to being unemployed. Now, 11 p.m, same day, I get a mail saying “can you come work tomorrow?”. This I read at 2 a.m.

I.. ehrm.. Sure..? When? I get up at eight and read the mail that simply says: Nine. So at nine I’m there, and at nine-o-two I get a blueprint in my hand and get to work. Without a contract. Without an introduction. After five hours of work someone kindly tells me that “oh, by the way, that’s where you turn on the suction to the table saw”. Oh? I dig through the layers of saw dust on my glasses in order to see who I should thank.. This is just pure strangeness to me. I’m somewhere, but I’m not sure how I got there. I’m doing a drawer, for a huge shelf of some sort, that’s being mounted in.. Spain. I’m working with a material I’ve never seen, and the way the drawers a built.. well.. it’s hard to explain, but after 7 hours of work I still haven’t managed to complete the separate pieces, not to talk about a whole drawer.. hrm..

The non-verbal boss talked to me a little after my first five hours of work (without any breaks on my part as no one told me it was lunch?) and I still had no idea if I was on some sort of probation, if I was.. like.. employed..? or just brought in as a one-day-slave? Remember, this is all in Finnish, so one does not ask more than one has to (because one does not know how to..), and all the workers are - which apparently is compulsory wood working behaviour - non-social, suspicious, but talented people.

But.. well, I asked carefully about a contract, and well.. hm.. The boss also asked if I would know the technique well enough by tuesday, to be able to work on my own a couple of weeks, and I, well..? Well.. Sure?

You know, I think I have a job.

I think I’m the newest carpenter at Punavuoren Puuhevonen Oy [http://www.puuhevonen.com/]. I think I’ll sign a contract on Monday, I think I’ll get the codes to log onto the system, and I think I’ll get the company benefits when bying lunch at the local cafeteria. And a key to my own locker.

Uhm?

I also baked bread yesterday night, it turned out quite nice. And today I got chocolate in the mail.

This is definetly The Strangest Year.