Earlier this month, as the weather warmed up for a few days, I kept hearing this loud buzzing sound in the house. I discovered that a large wasp had gotten into the house and was lazily flying around the room trying to find a way out. Well, I opened the veranda door and tried to "herd" it out, but I think I eventually triggered it's defensive instinct, and it started coming after me rather than flying away. Unfortunately, I had to invoke my natural right to self-defense (but on the up side, it was a tasty free meal for Carlos.... more on this later). Well, no sooner than I had disposed of the first body, I noticed another wasp was in the house. Then, later, a third! I thought that perhaps wasps had made some kind of nest in an air vent or interstitial space, but after observing the local bees and wasps for a while, I think I have figured out that they seem to instinctively land and fly into small openings in the walls (or indeed anywhere). I watched them repeatedly land and crawl expeditiously into small cracks in the exterior wall, into utility boxes with exposed conduit openings, and even my barbecue grill which has a small vent hole in the side.
Marine biology, and especially malacology, is a field of special interest to me, so after the first rain, I was excited to see my first European snails which are very small with yellow shells. I was told that there was another larger variety of gastropod, but I have yet to see those.
For the record, the fjords, though fed by countless freshwater tributaries, are in fact salt-water and should more aptly be thought of as large inlets or bays, than wide river canyons (which is what they tend to look like). They are glacially cut and extremely deep, a kilometre or more in some places. There is this place in town called Ravnkloa (Raven Claw for you Harry Potter fans) down by the waterfront where the fish market stands and where fishermen traditionally bring their fresh catch to be sold right off the boats on the dock. Yum! I have found it an enjoyable exercise to go see what types of fish they bring in from the cold depths. It is mostly shiny black-grey cod and halibut, but there are also some interesting odds and ends that I cannot readily identify. There is some kind of skate which I did not know was edible, and some type of large red fish similar to a lingcod. Salmon of course. I have learned that Norwegians eschew eel, finding them "disgusting" for some reason.
Norwegians are dog people. They have dogs of every breed from Afghan hounds and St. Bernards to toy poodles and rat-sized chihuahuas who are freezing their butts off up far this north. I have seen a greater variety of dogs here than in the U.S. even.... akitas, borzhois, greyhounds, pugs and whippets. There are far more dogs here than cats as far as I can tell. They are out in the city on a leash by the hundreds, and the public trash cans, like at bus stops, are just piled high with little black plastic bags of poop. Surprisingly, dogs are permitted to ride the bus if their fare is paid (by the owner.... since as Seinfeld points out, dogs have no pockets to carry change).
There is a VERY interesting thing about dogs here. They behave quite differently from dogs in the United States. It is hard to precisely articulate, but they seem more..... civilized and inured to human activity. For example, if you are walking along on a sidewalk and are passing a fenced yard with a dog in it. What would you expect? First the dog probably would have barked when you were halfway down the block... then it would probably run to the edge of the fence in a territorial display and bark and follow you until you had completely passed it's yard. But in Norway.... no. Maybe I have just encountered some really well-disciplined (or severely unmotivated) dogs, but from my experience, they just sit there, calmly, give you a good stare down, and... quietly watch you pass. They mind their own business. Just like the Norwegian people. Dogs sitting in cars in front of stores, don't bark. Dogs on a leash passing you on the sidewalk do not even give you a passing glance. In fact, the first time that I heard a dog bark in Norway was when a dog encountered another dog in a public park and was playfully trying to initiate some playful behaviour.
My newest neighbour is a badger that lives in my backyard. I have never before seen a live badger before and I only know them from reputation and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. They are supposed to be voracious omnivores in the weasel family, I think. Interestingly, the neighbour has a Dachshund, a breed, I believe that was designed to hunt badgers. What I can say about the Dachsund is that it is lightning fast which is something that I never expected to say about that breed. It will zip through our backyard like a low slung blur presumably chasing the badger.
Speaking of speed.... I thought it was just my imagination at first, but I think I have pretty much confirmed now.... dipterans here (single wing paired flies and mosquitoes) are slower than in the United States. Do you know how you can swat at or sweep the air at a fly or mosquito and most of the time you know it is pointless? most of the time you just expect to miss? (except in Alaska where the mosquitoes are so thick that you can hit a whole hand full of them at once). Well, in Norway, one can actually hit a fly or mosquito a high percentage of the time! Perhaps because it is colder, or they have not evolved in the Old World to avoid human swattage, but I have stunned many flies and mosquitoes here already who were as surprised as I was. I have been feeding them (alive) to a spider that lives on my veranda.
Arachnids here are not particularly large and seem to be of a monochromatic variety (either solid grey, brown, or yellow). I have not seen one that exceeded a total of 1 cm from front legs to rear legs. Some do spin those classic radial orb webs though.
What are large are the ants! Except in the deserts of the American Southwest and the jungles of Central America, I have not seen an ant species so enormous. At first I thought it was some kind of coleopteran with odd proportions, but when I got closer it was a formicidean that was nearly 2 cm in total length. It moved pretty slowly, thank goodness, but had irregular jerky movements with frequent stops. These big ants did not seem to follow the traditional trails (the behaviour that I associate with ants) but rather, seemed to scatter radially and randomly from the hive-hole. They are tenacious and extremely durable, I can attest, as I have accidentally trod on one before, and rather than being traumatically compressed, it seems to shake it off and hobble off with a slight limp. I just hope I don't get an infestation of these bad boys.
I think that even the mycology around here is different, that is, the bacteriological life. I have noticed that the rates of decay are different and even the smell of garbage is noticeably different. When I left California, it was the height of the allergy season and I was suffering terribly (runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing, wheezing, sinus headaches) but from the moment I stepped off the plane, my symptoms have completely cleared up. Not a sniffle or a sneeze. It was like a switch was turned off. So apparently I have been exposed to a whole new alien set of allergens that I am currently not reacting to. I wonder if, like the Aztecs, there are things that I have no natural defense for. Something distinctly European. Like bubonic plague.
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