Expensive car rant

I've just spent some time calculating how much money has been tossed into being able to drive around relatively freely. My car, so far, has cost me over 60 000 NOK. That's 30 000 buying it, 15 000 ensurance, 5 000 reregistration, 6000 repairs. Then theres an upcomming ~ 10 000 for additional repairs. 70 000! And then it's what i spent to get my drivers license, about 30 000. 100 000 NOK! And what do i have to show for it? I think if i'd known what i know now, i'd waited a year. 

Seems i have a job

I've been placing a lot of job applications for next year, so i can defend my car, apartment and schooling. Recently i got a phone call from Coop Mega, a grocery store, who said flat-out that they were interested in me. No talk of interviews or anything, just simply "we're very interested, call us when you know when you can come for initial training." So, scrap anyone that requires a interview unless they are particularly interesting. I've got a job! I'll quite likely be able to go the next year without gravely increasing my loan, and this henceforth is one big step closer to my freedom in living! Training starts 13th of august. 

I've thought about that selling alcohol in stores thing. I've, actually, already done something similar. Though i don't pour alcohol in peoples glass at the restaurant, i've accepted payment for alcohol that guests have already consumed or have requested themselves when i've been tending the register. This is not the active selling part, but more the control-part. This is where i check that they are of age. Though, in the store situation, it also is where the ownership of the alcohol is transferred. But it is not like me not doing this would make a difference to the positive. It could be someone in the register less vigilant about asking for ID. What i would not want to do, and this is a minimal thing that i am sure the store could be able to accept, is to restock the alcohol shelves in the store. That is actively making it more possible to sell alcohol, and something i would not want to do. If the store don't accept this, i'll probably be very displeased.

Next years school is setteled

Though i had no doubt i would be accepted, i've now got a confirmed schoolplace for next year. It'll be my last year of school for a while. I'll be going to the Kleiva school of agriculture, to get my certificate of apprentanceship as an agronomist. That certificate means, essentially, that i will be able to work for a somewhat higher pay, as a relay for farmers. This is a field where it is easy to get work, as there is a shortage of hands. The pay is quite avarage. I hope to work like this for at least one year, so i can remove my debt.

Kleiva is a boarding school, and this will be my fourth(!) year living in one. I'll be majorely discontent if i can't get an appartment there next year, and live a bit larger then the little holes that are most rooms.

If to serve alcohol

As a sober person who believes that alcohol is the cause of too many evils for individuals and for the society, and henceforth has chosen to stay away from it myself – how can I justify me serving or selling alcohol? Where do I draw the line as to what I can and cannot do?

I've been working this summer at a hotel with a restaurant and a bar. From the very start I told the proprietors that I did not want to serve alcohol, and to my surprise they accepted it and I have now worked there about a month without even touching alcohol, accept for cleaning it up afterwards. The other people there has accepted it and does not complain about it, accept for one time when I was asked to go bring up a case of wine to the bar. The girl who asked me to do so was tired and overworked and could not do it herself, and I considered it for a while, but finally decided against it. If I had brought it, I would have quite directly been the cause of that wine being served. That not really any better then pouring it in the glass myself.

Is that being too strict? I've also preveously denied people to borrow my lemonade to mix it with spirits, and I would deny to buy wine from the city to mother (In Norway, wine is only sold in dedicated shops in the city.) I'm always saying in Norwegian that “Ska det vær, så ska det vær” - If it is going to be that way, it is going to be that way. I can't do it half-way, that would be rather worthless.

But I have to admit, I have my problems here, and I was lucky that these people accepted me not serving alcohol. When I first heard about this job possibility, I was told that I would have to serve alcohol. This was the only chance I had on getting a job because I had a early vacation and was outside of regular summer job time. So I considered it, and it gave me many restless whiles, weighing for and against. I really needed the money, but I really didn't want to serve alcohol. I finally decided that I would try it if I had to, and quit if it didn't feel right. I think I would have quit after a little while, but I was lucky and the proprietors accepting it.

But now the problem is arising again. Next year I am going to need a job. A supermarket has asked me back for a second interview, and that might force me to sell beer next year. In ways, it is more scary in a supermarket – in the hotel, the alcohol goes to dinner guests or people in bars. In a supermarket, the beer might as well be going to a rapist who is going to use the alcohol to drug down hes next victim, or it might be sold on to thirteen year olds, or maybe it'll be someones first beer? I'll have a big inner discussion before I accept that job. I hope I won't have to, and that I can get a job somewhere else instead.

Me where i don't belong;

My path to freedom

As mentioned before, i've not yet reached my "freedom in living". I've got a plan though. First i should tell you about my problems.

My first and biggest problem, one that i can't start traveling as long as i have, is my loan. I ove the state a bit more then 100 000 norwegian krona, wich is about €12 700 or £10 000 - money for education. As soon as i finish schooling, i have to start paying the loan. My secound problem is my need for an education.

What i've so airily dubbed "my path to freedom", is my plan to brake free from these things as best as i can. The plan has a duration of two years. Next year i'm planning to go to school and learn what will at least be my temporary living, doing my best not to increase my loan more then absolutely nececerry. I've got only one year left, before i get a certificate of apprenticeship as an agronomist. That means i can work mainly as a help on farms, with a fixed pay somwhere along the lines of 250 000 NOK before tax. 

Then the secound year, i'll do just that. I'll get a full time job, live at home with my parents so i won't have to pay for housing, and earn enough money to completely kill off my loan. Then i'll do one of the many things i want to do sometime. There's so many things i really want to do, things that won't cost that much but won't be doable if i have a loan lurched on my back.

These two years can easily turn out to be two rather tough years, for varying reasons. The first year i will struggle with economy. I'll get a scollarship at about 3600 nok, whilst housing with food costs 3200 nok. Nothing left for anything! So i have to have a job if i'm going to live at all that year, and to have a job i have to have a car. A car costs, at the very least, 1000 nok a month for ensurance. If i do get a car, but end up not getting a job in spite of my many applications, i will be in serious trouble. If i do get a job, i'll still be living on the economical edge; If i happen to get less hours a month or if i am no longer required at work, i'll end up knee-deep in problems. Or, in other words, i'll end up increasing my loan. The good side to this, however, is that i belive i'll have a socially nice year, studying interesting things and having a generally nice time with many people around me.

The secound year can be tough in the way of lacking social parts. Steigen, my homeplace, outside of summertime is a sort of empty place. Youth my age move to the cities. There is a lot of people older than me, and a lot of people significantly younger then me, but little inbetween. I love Steigen and its nature, but this is a problem. I will move there when i grow old, i think, maybe someday start a farm there. But, it is no place for youth my age.

I'm not writing this to complain about the prospect of my life. I'm in a good place compared to many i know of, in norway, and particularily compared to many i've seen and heard of in the less fortunate corners of the world. I greatly appreciate my place in the world, and i am very happy for what i've realised is my big privlage as a norwegian - i won't have a real problem getting anywhere. I'm planning to use and try to appreciate my luck. Anything else would be mad. My life is good, and i know it. My blogpost simply talks froma a western point of view.