Kaleb and I both went back to school today. It was good to get out of the house, even if it was raining. I don’t know why I bothered to go to school, however, because it was just another big testing day. We had another practice run at the Norskprøve 3 test as some in our class will be taking it for real in a few weeks. It was painful, but I did get to write an essay on the differences between schools in America and schools in Norway, so at least I got to vent a little (on both sides). Kaleb also got to take a practice test today – the big end of the school year test all student’s must take before advancing to the next level. He told me all the kids in his class took the 5th grade entrance test, but his teacher gave him the 8th grade one because it was just in math and English and he’s pretty good in both of those. He thought it was all too easy.
Kory spent his morning trying to get the car tested. Once a year Norway requires all cars to go through a certification process and all Kory could do was make an appointment for next week. I was thinking we should have had the car tested before we planned to use it for our road trip, just in case anything is seriously wrong with it and we can’t afford to get it fixed. But I’m trusting God on that one. The car seems fine, but who knows. The certification test alone costs well over a hundred dollars and if anything needs fixing, it could break the bank, as car repairs are outrageously expensive. Cars in general are obscenely expensive to own in Norway anyway. A new car purchased in Norway comes with 100% sales tax, plus a thousand dollar deposit that is returned when the car makes its way to the junkyard. They are now talking about increasing that deposit to around fifteen thousand dollars just to encourage more people to turn their cars in sooner.
There are quite a few differences between owning cars in Norway versus America. For one thing, they don’t make it easy to drive here. It takes over a year to attend a driving course just to get a license. No one under 18 is allowed to drive. The process of getting a license costs about six grand, but once a person obtains a driver’s license, it doesn’t expire until their 100th birthday. (That’s a funny sight to see on a license.) Once a driver turns 70 years old, however, they need to go in for recertification every year to test their eyesight and reflexes and driving knowledge. And I just found out today that insurance is not pro-rated. It must be paid annually, and can’t be cancelled. We are going to be using our car for one week past its renewal date and we have to pay insurance for the entire year – over a thousand dollars for it to just sit in a garage while we are out of the country. (At least we can use it when we come back.)
The tabs on our car cost over five hundred dollars a year, which is actually much cheaper than most people pay because we have an older car. The tabs are based on the age of the car, how big the engine is, how much it weighs and how much cubic feet is available for passengers inside the vehicle. We have a mini-van with the last seat section removed for extra luggage space. The previous owners had the middle seat scooted up as far as they could get it behind the driver’s seat so their tabs would be cheaper. (They apparently never used the back seat because there is no leg room back there. It works OK for us because Kaleb sits in the middle, but it’s a tight squeeze with adults back there.) A two passenger vehicle pays the least amount for tabs and they get a green license plate to show just how special they are (as opposed to the white ones on vehicles that can hold more than two passengers). And all vehicles with any kind of storage space available behind the seats, like a hatch back or our mini van, are required to have a wire wall separating the spaces so that items in the back won’t come hurling forward in case of a collision. Not a bad idea. It’s also not a bad idea that the police set up random check points every now and then and pull people over for no seat belts or for talking on a cell phone while driving. And last of all, no one here drives without insurance. The insurance company is in ka-hootz with the police and the car registration place and somehow they have that one figured out. I know when we got our van they would not release the license plates to us until we showed we had proof of insurance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police impounded a vehicle if the insurance premiums aren’t paid. They don’t mess around with that stuff here. Driving is a privilege and I’m very thankful we have that freedom. It’s made all the difference this year as we love not having to bother Turid anymore to take us places and we love to go on road trips. Taking the bus works fine for me now that I know the routes, and my bike is great on sunny days. I heard someone here say they visited America once but they hated it because it was impossible to get around unless they had a car. So sad, but true. Europe has the whole “mass transit” thing figured out so it’s possible to never even own a car. But I think that would be sad. I love to drive!
Kory spent his morning trying to get the car tested. Once a year Norway requires all cars to go through a certification process and all Kory could do was make an appointment for next week. I was thinking we should have had the car tested before we planned to use it for our road trip, just in case anything is seriously wrong with it and we can’t afford to get it fixed. But I’m trusting God on that one. The car seems fine, but who knows. The certification test alone costs well over a hundred dollars and if anything needs fixing, it could break the bank, as car repairs are outrageously expensive. Cars in general are obscenely expensive to own in Norway anyway. A new car purchased in Norway comes with 100% sales tax, plus a thousand dollar deposit that is returned when the car makes its way to the junkyard. They are now talking about increasing that deposit to around fifteen thousand dollars just to encourage more people to turn their cars in sooner.
There are quite a few differences between owning cars in Norway versus America. For one thing, they don’t make it easy to drive here. It takes over a year to attend a driving course just to get a license. No one under 18 is allowed to drive. The process of getting a license costs about six grand, but once a person obtains a driver’s license, it doesn’t expire until their 100th birthday. (That’s a funny sight to see on a license.) Once a driver turns 70 years old, however, they need to go in for recertification every year to test their eyesight and reflexes and driving knowledge. And I just found out today that insurance is not pro-rated. It must be paid annually, and can’t be cancelled. We are going to be using our car for one week past its renewal date and we have to pay insurance for the entire year – over a thousand dollars for it to just sit in a garage while we are out of the country. (At least we can use it when we come back.)
The tabs on our car cost over five hundred dollars a year, which is actually much cheaper than most people pay because we have an older car. The tabs are based on the age of the car, how big the engine is, how much it weighs and how much cubic feet is available for passengers inside the vehicle. We have a mini-van with the last seat section removed for extra luggage space. The previous owners had the middle seat scooted up as far as they could get it behind the driver’s seat so their tabs would be cheaper. (They apparently never used the back seat because there is no leg room back there. It works OK for us because Kaleb sits in the middle, but it’s a tight squeeze with adults back there.) A two passenger vehicle pays the least amount for tabs and they get a green license plate to show just how special they are (as opposed to the white ones on vehicles that can hold more than two passengers). And all vehicles with any kind of storage space available behind the seats, like a hatch back or our mini van, are required to have a wire wall separating the spaces so that items in the back won’t come hurling forward in case of a collision. Not a bad idea. It’s also not a bad idea that the police set up random check points every now and then and pull people over for no seat belts or for talking on a cell phone while driving. And last of all, no one here drives without insurance. The insurance company is in ka-hootz with the police and the car registration place and somehow they have that one figured out. I know when we got our van they would not release the license plates to us until we showed we had proof of insurance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police impounded a vehicle if the insurance premiums aren’t paid. They don’t mess around with that stuff here. Driving is a privilege and I’m very thankful we have that freedom. It’s made all the difference this year as we love not having to bother Turid anymore to take us places and we love to go on road trips. Taking the bus works fine for me now that I know the routes, and my bike is great on sunny days. I heard someone here say they visited America once but they hated it because it was impossible to get around unless they had a car. So sad, but true. Europe has the whole “mass transit” thing figured out so it’s possible to never even own a car. But I think that would be sad. I love to drive!
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