As those of you patient enough to read my ramblings already know, I have begun the long bureaucratic process of naturalisation. A part of this is that I must document my competency in the Norwegian language. Today I therefore sat my Norwegian Exam!
The odd deja vu feeling of walking from my house down to Finnsnes’s Institute of Higher Education (=Voksenopplæring), rather than going to work, began as soon as I left my door. Memories of my time as a student, living at my parents’ home, came rushing back to me. Then as I joined the swelling number of fellow candidates, most of whom were relatively new in this country, those memories were supplemented by a flood of memories from my own advent here.
All this, and not to mention the weird feeling of entering an examination rooom, and sitting down at a school desk! My brain was overwhelmed with impressions both from my present and the past. All this too as I went into super concentration mode, as we were given our instructions on answering the questions before us.
For those who might be interested, the examination – before which might begin everybody had to surrender their mobile phones – consisted of a listening and reading test, a written paper with three choices (of which one had to choose two), and an aural examination. The written examination, which includes the listening and reading tests, took 3 hours 45 minutes, and the aural was about 20 minutes.
However, quite unlike anything I remember in England, one is provided with a break here in Norway. Nothing can be taken out of the examination room, naturally, but after the listening test was over at about half past midday, I took advantage of this and bought myself something to eat at the local cafe. I needed strength for the main written paper I kept telling myself!
It is now getting distinctively “dark” here in the North. We are not quite in the Polar Night yet, but not far from it. Consequently, to a brain already on memory overload, the winter colours and sky hues brought memories back from my four years in Lødingen.
Anyhow, I am cautiously optimistic now that I have taken my first official examination here in Norway. Yet all these memories and impressions! I am tired out! Even so, tomorrow the bishop comes to inspect our parish…. ah well, no rest for the wicked!
The results of these examinations are not expected until December 4th. I’ll keep you posted.
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