Lure Coursing

Spent a good bit of the week unpacking and breaking down boxes. The delivery company had to come back twice to pick up all the boxes. I also had to go back to the Police Station to file my work permit addendum to my residence visa. The international school has officially offered me a job teaching part time in the fall. All I have to do now is get the residence visa processed prior to the first day of school! They say it has been prioritized since I have pending work but then again it has been “on the way to Oslo” for 2 weeks – I think they use the Moose Express for immigration papers.

Last week we went to a dog show for the local sighthound group in the area. There are very few greyhounds here so sighthounds are the next closest group. We meet some people and saw lots of beautiful dogs (check out the pictures). So on Saturday we were invited to go Lure Coursing with the group. It was about 45 minutes outside the city – the drive out was unbelievably beautiful but we didn’t get pictures since we were following someone. Stretch got sick on the way out- he takes after me in the carJ. We get to the field which is actually a horse race track and the course is all set up. Lure Coursing is a “track” set up with a line and pulley that drags a “lure” on the ground for the dogs to chase.

In this case the “lure” is a bunch of plastic bags – the course has lots of turns and the person in control alters the speed of the lure based on the dog ( see a video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjQIqsI20MM). We are nervous to let our dogs run it since the field is not really fenced and we have been told to never take them off their leashes. So we watch several dogs (mostly Whippets) run it and we see they are so interested in the lure that they don’t have any intention to run off. So we bring the dogs out of the car and let them watch – boy are they interested! We can barely hold on to them – so after much discussion we let them try it. The course is adjusted for the first timers so there is only one turn. All the other dogs are put away (since Stretch is unsure of other dogs). Dopler goes first and is real fast but misses the turn- once he sees the lure again he gets it and goes right to Jason. I am holding Stretch and he is very

excited. Then it is his turn- he runs faster then Dopler I think and misses the turn – but he gets confused and just stands in the middle of the field not moving – after an anxious minute thinking he might bolt – he trots over to Jason. It is pretty amazing to see dogs that were never trained to race (like whippets and Italian greyhounds) get so excited to run- it defiantly proved to me running is in their blood and not something they learn or are forced to do. Our dogs are defiantly rare here – everyone wants to see them- they don’t have dog racing here so there are very few greyhounds and even fewer that have professionally raced. We have met several of the famous Spanish Galgos – they are neat dogs too. It was a fun day – a little nervous but fun. We will try again on another day.

Spanish Galgo

I have also included some pictures from our bike ride on Sunday in the “new photos”. It is really hard to believe sometimes that we live in such a beautiful place!

Moving Day

Our sea shipment of goods and furniture arrived on June 6^th. Pretty impressive since it left Houston on May 7^th. Erin and Micheal’s sea shipment took over 3 months to arrive here but we chalk that up to them working for SchlumbergerJ It was great to have the stuff delivered but I did make an enemy along the way. The shipper in Oslo told me that the delivery crew would unpack all the furniture and remove that trash. All the other boxes I would unpack myself and they would come back the next week to pick up the trash. So the 2 guys arrive (only 2!) and start to load in the boxes. They took a very inefficient method but who am I to judge since I am standing around checking off box numbers on my papers. It is a warm day but I am not prepared for them to show up in Capri pants and sandals. About an hour in one guy took his shirt off – interesting safety and professionalism standards here. Moving on- I ask the guy if he will be unpacking the furniture – he says NO. So I ask a few more times and he is adamant that he is not doing to do it. At the very end they unload the giant wooden crate that some of our large paintings are packed in (the crate is large enough to house King Tut’s treasure). I wait for him to open the crate and remove the items- nope he doesn’t have any tools so they move this huge crate into the house. Now it is about 3:30pm and they finish up and leave. I send a nice email to our move coordinator and the guy in Oslo – needless to say I got a phone call from Oslo about 10 minutes later telling me the guys would return and finish the job. Then Thelma our move coordinator called- I can tell she is one detail orientated and tough woman so I know she will ensure the job is finished. So about an hour later one guy returns to assist me with unpacking the furniture and taking the trash away. He also breaks open the large crate and removes it. You should note the Norwegian work day ends at 4pm sharp and usually earlier on a Friday (which it is) so they guy is not pleased that he is working until 5:30pm!

The best part about unpacking was opening all the boxes of American goods we bought before we left – we literally have a “store room” full of food, cleaning supplies and toiletry items! Nothing broke in the move and everything is accounted for – which is great considering the horror stories you hear about sea shipments falling into the ocean etc!

Warm Days!

Well Jason left on Sunday for a week in lovely Bakersfield.  I went to the local football (soccer) game on Sunday night.  One of the guys we meet works for a company called Ling – they have a “box” at the soccer stadium.  By “box” I mean you sit in a large room with about 50 tables and have a meal and drinks.  You can only drink before the game starts and then they take away all alcoholic beverages 30 minutes prior to the game – literally take them away from you.  We arrived too late to have any beverages.  The meal consisted of cold salmon, potatoes and salad with no dressing.  It wasn’t bad it just wasn’t what I would expect for a football game.   Where are the hot dogs?  During the game you go out to your seat in a special section and at half time there is dessert back at the table – dessert was worth the cold salmon though!  The game itself was pretty interesting as soccer goes.  There were penalty kicks and the opposing team’s goalie got a red card and had to leave – they can’t replace him so some other guy attempted to fill the spot but didn’t do so well.  The local team (Rosenberg) won 2-0.  The best part is defiantly the fans cheering the whole game – pretty impressive even though I have no idea what they were saying.

 

Jason and I also got invited over to our land lady’s house for coffee last Saturday – which is a big deal in Norwegian society.  It was really lovely – she and her husband are about 70.  They live in an amazing flat overlooking the whole city with a huge patio – I think they do well for themselves considering they have that plus 3 other homes!  We talked about the usual subjects – Bush, Clinton/Obama, gun laws, crime, American obesity, American healthcare and social security.  They both speak excellent English for being older but I guess that has to do with their level of education – she is a dentist and he was an ENT doctor. 

 

Other then that I have been working in our yard trying to keep up with the weeds but everything grows so quick here – I swear weeds grow at least 3 inches each day!  It has been pretty warm here but Norwegian standards- highs of 82 or so and lows of 62.  You would think they never get warm days here by the way they act.  They are lying out in bathing suits on every inch of grass they can find (see picture below taken from the car window) and city workers have their shirts off while working on things like installing pipes in the road and operating back hoes.  But I have to admit it is hot considering there is NO AIR CONDITIONING!  No houses have it, no stores (not even IKEA), not even the gym (I now know what Old Gregory was like!).  So I bought an $80 fan yesterday hoping we can deal with it but we may need to break down and by a room A/C unit as well.  Luckily we have a basement so it stays cool down there.  If I could only convince the dogs to hang out down there instead of with me all the timeJ.