As fond as I am of Norway thus far, it does not come without its pitfalls. I have come to learn that Norway is not only the land of good looking people but also the land of long lines and bureaucratic nightmares (hence the title) in which you have to follow a million and one steps to get a final result. And the minute you are lulled into a false sense of security and think that something just might be simple here...is the minute right before you are laughing at yourself for being so naive. This has been one of the hardest things for me to get used to here, mainly because I don't want to...but its just gotten to be a joke between me and my American friend Libby.
To give you an idea, I'll use opening a bank account here as an example. I thought the saga had ended once I finally got my national ID number from the tax office after waiting 4 hours in the police station to register, and then two weeks for them to send it to me, so that I could get a bank account, so I could transfer the money I had to put in my school banking account in order to get my residence permit, to my new bank account, so that I could touch the money I had sitting here to begin with. Alright. I went to the bank, took a number, sat down and managed fairly smoothly to open an account. This was odd. I was just supposed to wait in the mail until I got my debit card and I would be good to go right? Ha. Well, one day I received a text with a personal code. Then the next day in the mail I received a start code. Then the next day a pin code. Then my debit card. Then a security token. Apparently one of the codes needs to be plugged into the security token and then another code so that it can give a security code so I can log into my online account for which I have to punch in my security code and another code. I have yet to get the sequences of codes right and as the system locks up on me when I get it wrong...I can only hope that the banking gods will one day smile upon me and that the stars will align just perfectly so that I put in the correct combinations. Until then, all I can do is laugh...
On a different note....I was able to change rooms in my student housing! The only thing that I did not like about living in Norway (aside from the above) was that I hated the hall I got put into. There were various reasons for this which I'm not going to get into, but I had been on the waiting list to move rooms for over a month. I contemplated numerous ways to expedite the process. On the first day they said they were going to have new rooms available I got there bright and early and prepared the waterworks. Surely, student housing is not heartless and cannot deny my teary angelic face (haha). I wouldn't know though because when I got in there I overheard them telling two different sobbing people that there was nothing they could do as there were no open rooms. I just left. I had heard that a couple of people were able to move immediately because one had a mattress with bed bugs and the other had mold. I thought to myself..hmmmm mold takes too long to grow and where could I find bed bugs? No, no, too messy. But I noted...health issues gets people moved quickly. Then a week later after my friend apparently started hysterically crying in the housing office, she was given another room. That's when I snapped. I went home and sent housing a polite, kindly worded and matter of fact letter explaining to them that "the man in the room next to me has a strong odor (true) and I have very weak stomach (less than true) and at times fall ill. Consequently, I am worried about my health." And I got a new room the next day. :)
As I relished in my new bigger room with actual students in my hallway, where I could actually cook in my kitchen and walk in my bathroom without flip flops I was beginning to think student housing wasn't so bad...they had finally done me right. Then I asked my hallmate who lived there before me and he said "Oh that room has been empty for weeks."
So I go on strongly disliking student housing, but now that I do it in a decent room, I am happy. This happiness also enables me to better take the bureaucratic nightmares in stride. I suppose, in the end everything works out...it just happens a little slower over here.
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