Alone in America
Something always seems to go wrong when I venture into my home country alone. Granted, I’ve only done that twice since having moved to Oslo but both times something goes wrong. Alexander and I must have the worst luck with landlords.
In 2009, I moved to Oslo. Before I had moved Alexander and I had been searching finn.no (a internet marketplace of sorts, similar to craigslist) to find an apartment. Even though I couldn’t be there to view it, I trusted Alexander’s judgement and I was glad I did. We got the apartment we wanted and it was beautiful. On Møllergata, in the center of the city, a small one bedroom apartment with beautiful wood floors large windows. I was in love. But a year later, on an already very bad day, I got some bad news. Our landlord called and told us they wanted to sell, and thus we had to move. And so began one the most grueling moving processes I’ve ever experienced. Literally 2 days before we had to be out of our apartment, we finally found a new place to live. I was so stressed until then, constantly checking sites and sending emails. Viewing apartments and getting our hopes up just to have them crashing down. Many places didn’t want to sign a lease for just 2 years (we were, and still are planning on making the move to America in 2012.) Finally we found a place and made it our own. We purchased a new fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine. We got our dog. Things were good.
Then a week ago I was headed to America. I joked to Alexander I shouldn’t go alone because something will go wrong. The last time I went we found out a whole mess of crap we didn’t want to know like: you have to get married in 2 months or else the relationship isn’t going to work (I promise I’m going to write a full on post about this one day. That or post the video from my show which pretty much explains everything. Probably gonna go with the latter.) But I couldn’t wait to see my family. But just about an hour ago, Alexander rang me up on gtalk and told me he had talked to our landlord, and that we needed to go through the whole moving process once again. We had signed a lease for 3 years and when we did, our landlord was adamant that we not move, and kept questioning whether or not we were going to. We assured her we wouldn’t and there would be 2 months notice on both parties’ ends. Well, we have 2 months to move. This also greatly affects any plans we had to finally take our honeymoon, two years, and now possibly three years after the fact. I’m just so upset right now. I can’t believe I have to go through this process again and it might ruin my chances of taking a vacation with my husband outside of America or Norway. A vacation just for us… Our honeymoon that we never got.
I will have lived in 3 different apartments in 3 years in Oslo. This is ridiculous to me. I can’t believe that you can sign a contract with someone with a law that totally negates the whole contract. “Yes, sign this for 3 years but if we ever want you to move, we just have to call you up and tell you that you have 2 months to be out.” Makes very little sense to me.
I’m going to try and enjoy the rest of my trip, enjoy my birthday, and enjoy my family but I don’t know how I’m not going to be stressing over this. I can’t help but think the universe is trying to tell me something. Not too long ago Alexander got an emailing suggesting there was a job opportunity for him in San Francisco, and now we are forced to hunt for another apartment we’ll only spend a year living in? Just seems pointless. However, if we moved to America now, I would miss out on a year of school and have to pay my entire loan back, rather than just half upon finishing both years.
So yeah, lots to think about. Gives me good reason not to come to America alone again, unfortunately. But we’ll be back here next year semi permanently for my brother’s wedding in July and Christmas in December so we might as well just move next summer. I’m sure I’ll be able to laugh about this… Someday.