TRAVEL

A Geordie and 40 years in Norway

Guest post

by T. R

Only he who wanders, finds new paths

(Berre den som vandrar, finn nye vegar)

It is incredible to think that today I have lived in Norway 40 years. Honestly, where did those years go? I can remember the day I arrived like it was yesterday, and now it’s 40 years ago. There have been so many highs and one or two lows throughout the four decades that I have been in Norway. I sat thinking the other night about some of them, and here’s a taster. The rest of them will in my biography, that my second daughter says I have to write…but that is for another day.

80’s: I got married, learned to speak Norwegian, learned that Newcastle and my local pub were NOT the centre of the universe, got my first job, bought my first property in Oslo, was present at the birth of my beautiful daughter, Iris (named after my late mother), completed the equivalent of U.S High School for adults, started university, studied German and History at uni, sold my first property (and made a canny packet), moved to an end link house, (Rekkehus,for my Norwegian friends), managed to find my Dad’s only sister Janet, went to see Dad’s sister and her family in Brisbane, Australia, and wow, was that some adventure for a toe rag from Scotswood and Benwell. As for the “lows”: I lost my father to complications after prostate surgery in 1984, fell out with my two sisters (I have been falling in and out with them ever since) and now it is “out” on a permanent basis.

90’s: I completed my degree at university doing English as my final subject, then did teacher training at the same university, getting my first teaching job in the far north of Norway, Finnmark. I worked at a school not far from Kirkenes, near the Russian border; great job, great students, many of whom I am still in touch with on social media. Then I really got into my career and forgot my family for a good while. Regrets? Of course! How I wish I could turn the clock back and do things differently, but to use the old cliché, ‘as one door closes another one opens’. Family first, however, is now my motto for the rest of my life. Separated a while, got back together, bought a house out in the sticks, in beautiful Norwegian countryside, sold the house, bought a brand new apartment, never moved in though as my marriage collapsed, moved in with my brother and celebrated the new millennium with my daughter and said brother, who had also since moved to Norway.

00’s: Tried to move back to the UK but realised that I had become a Norwegian. I couldn’t stick the U.K’s way of treating people in the work place, and moved back to Norway after six weeks. I got a teaching job in the beautiful mountainous “Sirdal” district, probably the best job I have ever had, and definitely some of the best colleagues. So, one Friday night I bought a couple of cans of Newcastle Brown Ale and visited one of said colleagues, Monica. Be careful of buying Newcastle Brown Ale for Norwegian women is my advice. It led to me marrying Monica and us having 4 children….Moral of the story, Newcastle Brown Ale is potent stuff! As the U.S and U.K went into Afghanistan, our little premature boy, Isaac, was fighting for his life in hospital and died four weeks later. Moved from the Oslo area to the south-west coast of Norway, place is called Jæren, the town is called Bryne, still there now. Became father to three more lovely kids, became Head of Adult Education, left Adult Ed. and moved back to mainstream teaching. Moved into a nice new house, still there now, got married to Monica in the Norwegian Sailors’ Church in Spain, busy years bringing up three children followed, some great holidays in the U.K, taking the ferry to Newcastle. Experienced my first trip to the U.S, to New York, with the oldest daughter. Ended the decade with second trip to U.S with two weeks in Florida to celebrate my 50th with kids, wifey, brother and mother-in-law.

10’s: New job at a brand-new school for performing arts in Sandnes, not far from Stavanger; New challenges, new colleagues, new technology, new ways of teaching, more holidays in the U.S, summer holidays doing road trips with the kids in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, health issues with the old waterworks, suspected prostate cancer, loads of examinations, biopsies, all clear given, the high of the decade, symptoms continue, then cancer diagnosis, which is the low of the decade. Surgery followed by complications and pulmonary emboli, that really should have killed me. From the middle of the decade a lot of hard work trying to get myself back to reasonable health, whilst realising I was not the superman I thought I was, went back to work, struggled with thoughts about the meaning of life, drove all the way down from Norway to Spain and back again, finding time to meet Tony, an old friend from my teenage years, on the way home. Took my kids to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the top of the Empire State building, and the top of Ellis Tower in Chicago, visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Okinawa, bought a new house in Bryne, at the moment doing up said house and preparing to move in…and this amazing journey continues!

Have you lived away from your home country for many years?

How has it changed you?