When we signed the papers for the loan, I also signed a life insurance policy. Apparently, my life is worth 1,000,000NOK (190,000 USD/123,000EUR)...

The beneficiary will of course be Sylvain, and the insurance papers say so, but I still need to write a will, just in case... He has also got a similar policy, but his papers don’t state a beneficiary, and so he also needs to write a will.

Besides from that, we need to change our insurance policy for the house, and sign a cohabitation contract (samboerkontrakt in Norwegian), so the legal stuff will be in order in case something happens.

After the house bidding and "winning" (pictures can be found on Sylvain’s site), we have to take care of a few things.

Wednesday before Easter, I went upstairs and talked to our landlords about moving. Fortunately, they have already had some calls concerning the apartment, so at least it won’t be vacant for a long time.

Two days later, on the Friday, we went to the real estate agent’s in Jessheim (about 30 minutes away from Eidsvoll, very close to the airport). There, we met with the seller and the real estate agent responsible for the sale to sign the contract.

In Norway, on the day of property contract signings, it is customary to deposit 10% of the property price onto the account of the agency. The rest of the money gets transfered on, or right before, the day keys are exchanged.

We were able to negotiate paying a 5% "contract deposit", since we (that is, I) already had that sum saved up. If we would have had to pay 10%, we would have had to start the loan much earlier, which was a shame. Luckily, the "present" owner was so eager to get the sale over with, that he agreed to our request right away.

This last week, we went on Easter holiday in the South of Norway. One of the things we did there, was sign the papers for the loan. We decided to stick with a local bank with which my family has been customers for several generations, going at least back as far as my great grand parents, if not farther. This means, of course, that they know my family, and are able to give us better benefits than another bank could (or would!)...

We are getting a loan worth a bit more than the house price+taxes, because we need to get a few things for the place (curtains, parquet for one of the bedrooms, a freezer, lamps...). In addition, my very kind brother will pay for some much needed appliances, namely a kitchen stove, a dish washer and a tumble dryer. We are both very grateful for this contribution!!!

We will officially be house owners on Sunday March 30 2008, after 12pm :D

So, I got me an adviser for my MA thesis :D Incidentally, he’s also my grammar teacher this semester.

We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago, to discuss my MA project. He listened to my ideas, and agreed with them all :D. If you didn’t know already, I’m going to immerse myself in French sociolinguistics, and write about the vous-tu distinction in French.

Someone at the university had already written a MA thesis on the subject a couple of years ago, so I thought for a moment I wouldn’t be able to complete the project I’d been thinking about for the past five (and a half) years. Fortunately, you just have to find an original angle, and then you’re fine.

What the other guy did, was study the linguistic elements of the area (pragmatics, etc), and he also used a sample of Norwegians having spent a few months in France as part of their degree program. I would like to concentrate more on the sociological aspects, and use a French sample. We’ll see if I can pull it off...

I don’t officially begin my thesis work until next semester, but I thought I’d get a little head start. For that purpose, my adviser gave me a reading list for my immersion into the subject matter:

• Approches de la langue parlée en français by Claire Blanche-Benveniste
• Le français dans tous ses états by Bernard Cerquiglini
• Le français ordinaire and La variation sociale en français by Françoise Gadet
• Histoire de la langue française : 1945-2000 by Bernard Cerquiglini and Gérald Antoine
  

We signed the contract today, and he’s going to pass it on to the proper authorities.

Lånekassen is a national association providing loans to Norwegian studying at domestic or foreign institutions, and, I think, for foreigners studying at Norwegian institutions. This includes English speaking countries (UK, US, etc...), although with some restrictions because of high tuition and such.

You are eligible for loans for a total of eight years (16 semesters). After you’ve passed a semester, a certain percentage is converted into a scholarship. You won’t, however, know the total deduction until the degree is complete.

You can apply for a loan either online or by a form sent to you by mail, or obtained at a secondary school.

I called Lånekassen today because, this fall, I’d applied for a loan on the basis of my admission in the Language Bachelor’s program. In reality, because I was only completing the "80-group" (2 2/3 semester) I needed for Master’s admissions, I wasn’t going to use my BA spot anymore after Christmas (provided I passed the classes needed, of course). This is what I learned:

• I can transfer from a BA to a MA in the duration of the year and not inform Lånekassen, provided the transfer is within the same educational institution
• All that counts is that I pass my semester/year
• At the next application (this fall), I can change my admission data from a BA to an MA, no problem (!)

Because I’ve "forced" my French boyfriend to come back to Norway with me, I’ve felt it necessary to help him with Norwegian administrative and bureaucratic procedures involving the move. And with almost everything I’ve had to do, I’ve come to realize how much Norwegian bureaucratic and public services depend on our "person number" (date of birth+five personalized digits) to find us in their systems.

So, as a foreigner without this number, you can hardly do anything official. While waiting for a residence or a work permit, you can apply for a so-called "dummy number" (D-number), but this isn’t accepted everywhere, unfortunately.

The current situation for us, is that

- the license plate registration

- the car and property insurances

- the VISA card for Sylvain’s account

are in my name, although the insurances are in both our names.

I seriously don’t know how foreigners manage administratively without the social security number, especially since you need it for everything, and you can’t get it without a residence/work permit...