To the Middle East
The entire family departs for a two year stretch in the United Arab Emirates.
Dad stops working as a salesrep for Norema, and starts working for the Anthon B Nielsen shipping company as their middle east guy-on-the-ground. The entire family departs along with him, renting the house in Oslo to a socialist student collective for a two year stretch. We bring along a few boxes worth books and clothes, sell our Chrysler car just before it rusts to pieces, and set off on a long flight into the unknown.
I vividly remember the feeling of being physically struck by the heat and light as we walked out of the plane. This was before the jetway isolated you from the weather; when you walked down a mobile staircase. I remember the plane being cool and dark and pleasant, and then the moment I stepped into the doorway the heat and light searing my eyes, knocking the breath out of me. The humidity was like a wall compared to the dry recycled air in the plane.
Leaving my friends back in Norway was tough. It frightened me more than having to learn a new language (english) while keeping up with normal schoolwork (as far as I can remember). I remember being very sad that I was going to miss the local skiing competition, having finally mastered the darn planks the previous year.
My brother and I both started at the International School of Choueifat in Sharjah. School uniforms, 40 C and sand everywhere was a big change for us. My brother went straight into kinder-garten, while I got special tuition to get my english and math skills up to speed. I remember being asked which multiplication tables I knew, and having to say that back in Norway we had just learned to do subtraction… The norwegian school system has improved over the past 25 years I have heard.
Add comment August 20th, 1978