PostdocPartum #8: Moving on north

{866 words, 36 figures, 9 minutes}

As a postdoc, I knew I should get used to moving but moving three times in my first six months in Norway was surprising. It's hard to realize how quickly life changes when your mind is more pre-occupied with the immediate tasks at hand. And when you have to move your home and essentially belongings, you get much too focused on all of the little things necessary for the comforts of making a new home that you can lose perspective of where you're going and where you're coming from. Having recently just finished my first year in Norway, it's a good time to recap the journey.

 

The First Move: America to Norway

My first residence was at the IFE guesthouse, which is intended to host temporary employees and visiting researchers. I thought it was fairly spacious for one person at first glance, with a couch, coffee table, breakfast table with chairs, and medium-sized desk with overhead shelf space. And then I realized there was no bed; the couch was my pull-out bed. It had such a thin mattress that I ended up never pulling it out to its full size. The kitchen is smaller than the bathroom, equipped with a sink, miniature refrigerator (with no freezer component), and a Frankenstein combination of two-element electric range and toaster oven. Slather on a furniture style from the 1970s or 1980s, add one loud music neighbor and one vocal-during-sex neighbor (or were there two?), and the memories of living in the college dorms are back in full force, including the $1,000 USD monthly rent (utilities included).

Despite all of that, I was grateful to live there, especially in having a place to immediately settle down and recover from the red-eye flight into Oslo that morning. Furthermore, having a furnished apartment allowed me to start learning how to live in my new environment, like learning how to explore Lillestrøm on foot, how to purchase groceries, how to enjoy the view from my 2nd floor windows, and how to fail at keeping a regular sleep cycle during the summer's 18 daily hours of daylight. I don't think I would have enjoyed spending six months there but I knew I would be moving to an remodeled unit after one month. Survival mode could remain engaged until I had made the essential integrations into Norwegian society.

Net movement north: about 20 degrees latitude.

The Second Move: Room to Room, Decade to Decade

At the end of August, I was cleared to move into the new apartment. I packed the half of my suitcase that I had unpacked (the other half was all winter clothing) and moved to the northwest unit on the 1st floor. The remodeled unit had a newer and repainted door, so it was clear from the outside which were which, but stepping into one was like a leap 20 years into the future. It was far more modern and unsurprisingly, IKEA.

But the greatest joy for me was the upgraded kitchen:

• Glass windowed cabinets (although not really a fan of the glass shelves)
• Full size refrigerator with freezer compartment (technically small but much better than the mini fridge)
• Fully functional convection/conventional oven
• Three times more counter space and cabinet space
• Automatic dishwasher
• With the nerdiest enthusiasm of all, the 4-element induction range (magnets, baby!)

Net movement north: about 35 to 40 feet (10 to 12 meters).

The entirety of my belongings in Norway, ready to move north.

The Third Move: the America House

After just over six months, when my "lease" at the IFE guesthouse was due to expire, I packed up all of my belongings and moved from Lillestrøm to Skedsmokorset. If Lillestrøm is a suburb of Oslo, then Skedsmokorset is a suburb of Lillestrøm. It might even venture into "rural" category, given the farms one passes during transit. But with the multi-story, carport-attached homes in between the sprinkling of modern apartment complexes, industrial centers, and grocery stores with large parking lots, the area strikes me as suburbia. Still, it's a significantly quieter area dotted with cul-de-sacs that aren't found in Lillestrøm.

Our house is a pleasant 3-story, 4-bedroom, 2-bath [technical real estate categorical term that I don’t know]. I get my own room, which isn't as exciting as the full-size kitchen with plenty of counter space and a humungous refrigerator. Combined with the large living room, spiral staircase, and third floor open space, I think it's the perfect place to host parties, dance-offs, and games nights, all of which I look forward to. In fact, we hosted our house-warming/department social/birthday party in February with about 18 friends, which involved a dance floor lit by an "Open" sign, a biking headlight in strobe mode, a spontaneous limbo competition, and peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Net movement north: about 3 miles (4 or 5 kilometers).

As we slowly fill the house with furniture, food, and memories, it's comforting to settle down and have one less distraction from the demands of life and research. It's certainly not what I imagined before I came - not that my imagination was well informed in the least - but it's become my landing pad, my home base for my excursions to the rest of the world.