Stavanger: The Final Weekend

The week was uneventful. I did my best to be as accommodating as possible and enjoyed what little time I knew I had left. Either way, this wasn't going to last more than two weeks. I enjoyed hearing their life stories, I enjoyed the cooking and I enjoyed teaching English. The rest was just too much to overcome, I knew I'd be getting resentful all too quickly over the amount of work I was doing versus my pay and having my freedom greatly restricted.

Friday I was relieved when the wife said we needed to talk and told me that things just weren't working out. There were too many cultural differences. I was told I could stay an extra week and she would pay me and that there were no hard feelings. I told her how happy I was that she brought this up, that I was feeling the exact same way. I was very happy that things were going to end so well.

The next morning we all had breakfast, and afterwards they went to town for grocery shopping while I went to the library. We agreed I'd be home around two o'clock so we could make dinner. Everything seemed fine, I felt like I had a huge weight off my chest because now I didn't have to worry about ending this business relationship.

Then I came home.

It's like an arctic blast had come through the house. I went to work putting away the groceries and did my best to ignore the change in mood in the house. When I was putting away the groceries I notice that they only bought be one half-liter of milk and one bag of oatmeal. I asked for two because I eat two a week.

Hoping it was a mistake I ask the wife about this, to which she first replies "I thought you only asked for one." I'm now a little irritated, and remind her that we had to go by the store mid-week to get me more milk and oatmeal and that I had written "two" on the list.

Then she tells me, "Oh, well you're leaving soon anyway."

I knew that's what it was about. I don't know what happened in the hours I was gone, but I knew something had changed before I had even taken my shoes off. I still had to ask, "I thought you said you'd pay me to stay an extra week."

With a look that could kill and in a tone that said "no chance in hell" she said, "We'll talk about it."

I spent the rest of the day trying to be both invisible and available to help out. By evening time the mood in the house had thawed considerably, we had a good meal together and then a language lesson after. By the end of the language lesson we were all laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our faces. I went to bed that night thinking I must have completely misjudged the situation that day. The cold front that had moved through must not have been my fault.

Sunday I decided not to get up early for church service for two reasons. I wasn't 100% certain I'd satisfied my requirements for notification and I was also going to meet a couchsurfer after. Also, I'd have a long time between church and the meeting time. One church service in Norwegian wasn't going to kill me, and I thought it would be best to toe the line for however much time I had left.

I talked to the wife before I left, she was surprised I hadn't gone to church. I said that I'd overslept, but I'd be going to a later Norwegian service. We also talked about when I'd be home, I said I wasn't sure but I could call her when I knew. She said that wasn't necessary, she just needed to know if I'd be home for dinner. I said I wouldn't and offered again to text or call her. She said no, that was fine.

I came home around eight o'clock that night. As I was heating up the leftovers the wife had left out for me, the husband came in to the kitchen. He asked how my day was and we chatted for a bit. He then asked me if I had another job yet. Not wanting it to appear like I'd been job hunting since the exchange the previous Sunday, I told him I had some good prospective families instead of telling him that I'd already been hired by one.

I mentioned that I really did need that extra week of work we had talked about, but that the wife didn't seem to keen on the idea anymore. He said that I could stay another week only if it was absolutely necessary but they really needed me gone as soon as possible. I asked him what had changed since Friday, but he refused to tell me. He told me that I was destabilizing the family, and that the wife had collapsed on the floor in a fit of rage earlier that evening. I asked a second time, saying I really wanted to know and that it was important to me that I received an answer. He said it was something his wife would have to explain to me, but he didn't think it would be healthy for her to talk about it.

This is about the time the warning bells started going off in my head and I really started to feel unsafe. Friday we'd all been in agreement this wasn't working out and I'd be out of there soon, yet things were still escalating at an alarming pace. I had maybe exchanged two dozen words with the wife before I left and I was gone the entire day, appropriately prearranged. How I could have caused her to become apoplectic during my absence was beyond me.

I started suspecting on Saturday that they had been monitoring my email and instant messaging, and now I was nearly certain. It was just too strange that twice I'd been gone and during my absence something had enraged the wife so greatly. I had been venting via email to my friends and family about my living situation, of course I was. I was angry about the racism, being treated like a young teenager, working well over my 30 hours when I'd been promised I'd be working less.

I booked myself the earliest cheap train I could, which left Monday night. I knew I couldn't find a couchsurfer on such short notice to stay with, and I couldn't afford a hotel room which would have started at $200. I also knew that leaving in the middle of the night could possibly be the thing that tipped everything over the edge, and I risked losing all of my luggage if that happened. I reasoned that I probably wasn't in mortal danger, that the most I had to worry about was her coming into my room in the middle of the night and screaming at me. At any rate, I kept my cell phone with the police department's number near by and I stacked my suitcases against my bedroom door. I didn't go to sleep until after they went to sleep and I made sure I woke up before they did.