7 August
Today will be the first day of work. We have to dig up a driveway before we do the cobblestone work. I think I'm in for a rude awakening.
The mainland harbour for the nearby islands
The last 2 days were incredible. We met an old contact of Piotr's, a guy named 'Per' (sounds like Pear), who brought us to an island he and some friends bought. This island was quite cool. A few old houses with double rooms, a main house with a dining room / restaurant, then down and away from this area, and old pub/restaurant.
Per Gørseth
They bought the place last Christmas, recognizing its potential, but are now trying to find a way/plan to really fix it up to do it right. Meantime, we've been called in to do a cosmetic upgrade so to keep the place from looking overly run down.
Also, Per and Co. are incredibly kind, generous people who just want to help us (poor) students out, and so I think they are finding us jobs for us a little bit, though they perhaps don't NEED the work done. But wow, how incredible!
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So the first night on the island, we had a look at the job, made an estimate, then negotiated that we'll generally work for 80 Crowns/hour. After that, we were brought coffee, pastries, then a bit later, beer. There was a guitarist in the pub that night, where we went for another beer, courtesy (again) of our host and new employer, Per! (I will eventually record his last name, but Scandinavian sounds are still tough to put to paper.) [Gørseth, sounds like Yerzeth I think]
We drank a bit at the pub, then I went out for some air and started chatting with the locals (It's extremely rare to find a Norwegian who doesn't speak English). Next thing I know, I've got some 40+ woman (she really didn't look it... no more than 35) telling me she wants me to meet her 26yr old daughter... ballet teacher. OK! If you insist! But the daughter is in Bodo and we are here to work. I suppose I'll carry on walking through 'the desert'. God, at this point I'm so used to the desert I'm a fucking Bedouin...
Per provided us some cans of beer so we wouldn’t have to drink expensively at the pub, so afterward we drank the beer at another (unused) pub house, reveling at the midnight sun. Then we slept under a roof in beds, and woke up to hot showers! Luxury! First night in 5 that we slept indoors. Not bad for city kids.
A typical room where we stayed on the Krokholmen island.
The following day, we were served a lovely breakfast of coffee, juice, bread, cheese, fruit, meat, boiled eggs, and a few Norwegian specialties. Norwegian cheese is brown, creamy soft and has a hint of sweetness to it. It’s not uncommon to have this cheese with strawberries. We also had candied mackerel which was good. The Norwegians would tell me how I kill my coffee by putting milk and sugar in it. Oh well.
After breakfast we were informed that until our job began on the island (in one week), Per Gørseth and Per Jørgen Haugan (another one of the owners) had some smaller jobs for us, 2 people each. One job was to demolish an old cottage (a hytte) and the other to do window installations on Per Jørgen’s summer home. They asked for our 2 best carpenters, and so Piotr and I piped up and said "That’s us".
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