What's up, world?

"Chilling" at a coffee shop in Oslo I am glad that we chose a smaller place to settle down (for a while :) ).  Although people watching and urban life is fun, I'll be happy to come home tonight to our house and our new dog, to water the garden and sit down for a while to enjoy the bright midsummer night before going off to work again tomorrow.

A few things are new since last time I wrote:

We got a dog, a one year old West Highland White Terrier.  I'd post a picture of him, but for some reason the uploader won't work... So later... His current name is Torvald, and he's really cute.  He likes to cuddle and to chew on people, he does not at all like his toys, and he loves "working" in the garden with me.  He even doesn't mind taking showers.  He used to share his home with 4 girl dogs and their puppies, but now he gets to rule over our pad all by himself.  We've had him for 4 days, and today will be his first day to be home alone for a while.  Hope he doesn't freak out!!!

Ryan got an early work start permit!!! This means that although his application for work and residency in Norway is not approved yet, he can work and get paid and that's great.  In my opinion, though, anybody that applies for residency here should be given an early work start permit automatically, cuz why the heck should people have to sit on their butts and do nothing for months on end just because their final immigration status is not determined yet?  But it feels great to know that we're at least a little bit farther along the way toward really living here.

I'm working at the local hospital, full time and more.  It's good, there's a lot of things I don't know yet, but mostly everybody, nurses, patients, doctors, have been really sweet and welcoming toward me and they seem genuinely happy that I'm there to join the team so it's been a good work environment for me so far.  It seems like there are good opportunities for professional development at my unit and I think I can maybe squeeze a couple new friends out of it too;)  On a side note, working life sure feels like a never ending vacation after completing grad school...  so if for nothing else, I will forever appreciate my Fuller years for adding this perspective to the rest of my life:)

We've found an organization that we want to volunteer with.  A place to work out.  Somewhere to go on short hikes with our dog.  And I've come up with lots of plans to start dog-owner friendly coffee shops, dog-sitting/dog play group while you shop type stuff (believe it or not, Californians, we don't have those here in Vikingland), to start groups or hangouts for others who have recently moved to Fredrikstad (because I myself at times feel sad and lonely and not integrated and tired of not knowing where to find good beaches or bookstores, hangouts where there's more people than just myself or places where there's good, live music).  It shouldn't have to take years to find community when you move somewhere new, and being of the impatient semi-extroverted kind these are really a selfish self-help kind of thing for me.

Yeah, we are settling down a little, and I think we're both pretty happy with our life.  We're hoping Ryan's visa application will go through pretty soon so that he can go to Italy for his job next week, and so that we can visit the Manus family in Spain in July.

Pretty exciting times!

Pics will follow.. watch out.

p.s. our new banner photo (which Ryan put up) is from the Norwegian national day celebration... Norwegian kids do not walk around carrying the flag with them every day, contrary to popular belief:)