Dinner and a movie;

I walked up to Trolltech so that we could go on an outing with a few of the guys. The nine of us took the subway down town to an Indian restaurant. It was located in the middle of the main tourist street, just in front of the palace. We were able to ascertain most of the items on the menu, but the waitress brought us some English menus just incase. Even though we have been attending the Norwegian classes, and I know my numbers, I still felt uncertain when ordering “number 56”, so I resorted to English. Maybe next time I will feel more confident.

After dinner we walked about five blocks over to one of the theaters. We had ordered the tickets on line, so we only had to pick them up. In Norway you pick the seats that you want to sit in when you purchase the tickets. The seating is all assigned, so you have the ability to sit in just the place you like the best. One interesting “tid bit” about the seats I noticed was that there was no cup holders in the armrest. I have no idea why this is; I just found it an interesting fact.

It was nice to go to out to dinner and especially out to a movie. We have been watching the movies we have, in the living room on our laptop. At the theater we watched “King Kong”, which was a good movie to see in the theaters due to the nature of the film. It was fun to compare this new release to the original feature from 1933. On the walk home, we also had discussions about the graphics and the effects of the movie. We also learned from this movie that an enormous bug is always “scarier” then the large hungry dinosaur just out side your hiding place.

Classes:

We have finally been able to start Norwegian lessons at the new Trolltech office. There were a total of twelve people (employees and spouses) that wished to take a Norwegian class. Because there were so many of us, Trolltech decided to hire a private teacher to come to the office instead of sending us to a local college. Every Thursday we meet in one of the conference rooms, and have our private lesson.

Since we only meet for two hours once a week, most of our learning is done at home on our own. We were all supplied with a text book that included a CD, and a workbook. We have a lesson for homework, that we go over in class. The point is to work on the oral pronunciations, and have the grammar explained to us while we are together in class. We are then able to work on the translations at our own pace. The CD also allows us to listen to the pronunciations, to improve our speech.

Like any language class, it is hard and frustrating work. We are already seeing a difference in the amount of words we are able to pick up form television and the grocery store. At times we are even able to hear some spoken words, and understand the meaning. Of course we can only say simple sentences like “My name is” and “what?” but it feels good to know we will soon be able to get around in the verbal part of living in a foreign country.

Sledding;

Trolltech has internal mailing list dedicated to certain interests that the employees can interact together in. On the sports list a message was left for an outing to a near by sled renting lodge. The idea was to take the new employees out to experience a Norwegian winter “sport”.

It took about thirty minutes to travel by subway to the mountain sledding resort. We obtained our sleds at the rental office and preceded to carry/pull them to the start or the run. The sleds consisted of two wooden rails with a metal strip on the bottom. The rails were attached to wooden framed square that housed a nylon fabric square attached with rope laces. The result of the construction was a heavy, sturdy sled that cushioned the rider from the bumps of the run.

It took about ten minutes to reach the bottom of the sled run. In that time you tried in vain to control the path the sled would take. Even though in some places the edge of the run had a curved wooden wall to herd sleders on the path, at times there was nothing to keep you on the track. I found myself approaching turns with nothing to keep me from going over the side of the cliffs. Other times the lack of sled control produced my appearance beneath the bushes of the forest surrounding the route. It felt like a ski run that had been “let go”. It was several miles long of mostly un-maintained hills where you could get up to twenty miles an hour. Portions of the trail curved around the side of the hill where there was vistas views of Oslo to your left.

When we arrived at the bottom of the “hill”, there was a platform to wait for the city tram to stop and pick us up. It took the tram about twenty minutes to return the sledders to the lodge next to the run at the top. Two members of our group were Girish and his wife Tahara. They are originally from India, but came to Oslo from Texas. It is hardly surprising that this is the first year that they have seen snow. They have been making the effort to try winter activities such as ice skating. Tahara was a little nervous about the sledding, but quickly got the hang of it. I could hear Girishs’ excited yelps the entire way down the run.

After sledding down the hill twice, we were all wet and cold. Most of us could no longer feel out toes, and fingers. We went to the lodge for coco and snacks. We all sat by the fire talked and ate. We took a few group photos before we headed back to the subway station. When we got home, we quickly changed in to our warmest pajamas, and sat together drinking one last cup of coco before heading to bed.

New Years;

We were invited to Frank’s house for a new years party. Frank does not work for Trolltech, but is friends with many of the people who work there. When we arrived Marius, Simon and Jason had already arrived. Also present was another friend of Frank, his sister, and two of her friends. At about eight o’clock there was a buffet style dinner. There was an assortment of cold trays with pasta, shrimp, and meat entrées. We ate in the living room, talked and listened to music. Mostly we talked about our Christmas’s and the different cultural experiences that goes with every ones respective holiday. While talking the group broke up in to two sub groups. Those that can speak Norwegian, and those that cannot.

After dinner, a cheese and fruit platter was served to go with the wine that had been consumed all night. At this point Jason was a little tipsy, but was having more fun for it. An assortment of chips and sweets were also at hand to wait out the clock till midnight. At about ten till midnight we bundled up, retrieved some plastic glasses and champagne and headed out side.

There was no ball dropping on any of the buildings, and there was no count down to the moment of midnight. Instead the sky over Oslo was on fire. We walked to the closest park to watch the fire works. The displays were not put on by the government, but by hundreds of regular citizens. People were set up all over the park with all kids of fire works. They ranged from small sparklers to huge multi colored rockets. It looked like the types of displays you would see on the fourth of July in the US, only multiplied by ten. The rockets were going off about ten feet from where we were standing. A few rockets exploded on the ground and although we all new that it was dangerous; the effect was still pretty cool.

Our group each had a sparkler, and champagne as we watched the spectacle. We walked up the hill for a better view, and we could see more fire works in all the different parks through out the city. The noise was immense and reminiscence of thunder. The smoke in the air seemed to magnify the brightness of the explosions. The seen was amazing and can just not be described short of it was the most amazing thing we have yet seen.

On the walk home, the men in the group amused themselves with sliding down the hills, which were ice slicks. Back at the apartment, we continued to eat and talk. Then there was the “cheese shots”. One of the cheeses served had a funky taste so the boys decided to mix the cheese with alcohol and grapes in a blender to make shots. Simon and Frank had the idea and only they partook of the creation. Surprisingly Simon found the concoction palatable.

We had a fantastic time at our first Norwegian New Year. We are thinking that next year we will either join in the setting off of fireworks, or travel to the fordge to watch from the cliffs.

Christmas;

We had the most wonderful Christmas this year. Every year of our marriage we, have driving for many hours and spent a few day with our families in Boston Mass. Both sides of the family live with in a few minutes of each other, which makes visiting a little easer. On the flip side however, Christmas day has always felt rushed and hectic. It always seemed that as soon as we had settled at one house, opened gifts, and had a little conversation, we had to leave to travel to the next house. It is a lot of fun seeing everyone, but exhausting. We would wait until we returned home to open our gifts to one another.

Well this year we have our Christmas at home. We decided not to travel back to the states for the holiday. We have only been here for five months and we could just not justify the cost of the flight. We bought and sent all of the families gifts back in October, and they sent our gifts to Norway.

To get our tree we walked a few blocks down to a tree lot, and pick out a small tree. Together we carried the tree home, set it up, and decorated the tree with ornaments I have been collecting in the countries we have visited. We bought a few bulbs to fill in the extra spaces, as well as lights and a silver star.

On Christmas Eve, I prepared dough for us to make cookies, and for cinnamon buns in the morning. We filled the stockings and arranged all the gifts under the tree. We lit the tree, set a fire in the fireplace, snuggled under a blanket and watched a movie. At midnight we kissed and were blissful in the moment. The night was cozy, warm, and relaxing.

Christmas morning we got up about ten, made tea and cinnamon buns, and sat down to open stockings and gifts. We took our time and enjoyed exploring each gift as it was opened. When everything was opened, we cleaned up the wrapping paper, and organized the gifts back under the tree. The rest of the day was spent playing with all our new “toys”.  I got “Dance, Dance Revolution two”, so I spent most of the day with that.  Later in the day we both called our families to exchange thank yous for all the gifts.
I made a roast for dinner with all of our favorite side dishes. We spent some time baking sugar cookies together for dessert. After dinner we sat in the living room reading some of the new books. We played my game a little more. All and all the day was exactly what we wanted, relaxing and calm. It is very likely that we will be returning to the states for Christmas next year, so it was nice to have Christmas ourselves this year.

Germany

I was surprised last week by being told we were going some place for my birthday. All I was told was that we were going to another country and that they would give me a hint every day until Thursday. The clues included “We can uses our Euros there”, “we will be gone for three days and four nights”, “we have never been there before”, and “it is not France”.

Finally Thursday came and they revealed that we would be going to Germany. They had been invited to a company called “Frog logic” to discuss issues with a computer documentation system. They would be busy with that for two days, but we will be staying for an extra day to go sight seeing together on my birthday. They divulged that we would be leaving Friday night, and would return Tuesday morning. I ran around packing, getting together all the travel papers, and buying film.

The next night we were off. The flight only took about an hour and fifteen minutes, so before I knew it, we had landed. Simon and Harald, who come from Germany, had also been invited to join in the discussion. Having them with us was extremely convenient. They spoke to the cab driver, and the man at the hotel’s front desk.

While the boys went to the Frog logic offices, I explored the city of Hamburg. There were many churches and towers exemplifying a broad range of architectural design. My favorite was St. Nicholas, which had been bombed in the Second World War. The city never rebuilt the church, so only the tower and a bit of wall remains today. Even though the church was destroyed, the remaining bell tower an inspiring example of rococo design.

One of the popular churches to visit is St. Michaels, which offers an observation deck atop the bell tower. You have a choice of riding in an elevator, or climbing over three hundred steps to the summit of the church. For some reason I still cannot fathom, I chose to climb the stairs. The views were amazing from any point on the three hundred and sixty degree platform.

I visited a museum that was featuring the history of image entertainment. It began with original shadow puppets from the 17th century and continued to how television and 3D pictures work. The exhibit also showed an amazing collection of picture boxes from the 18th century. In the main gallery a man was creating siluets of the patrons, not with light, but by cutting the profiles directly in to back paper. It was amazing to watch him snip the paper with tiny scissors, never even sketching an outline.

Throughout Hamburg, the city was celebrating the holiday with a Christmas market. Booths were set up in all the squares selling merchandise, food, and glugg. Glugg is a traditional hot drink served at Christmas. It is a liquor based drink, mixed with orange and a plethora of spices. Christmas music was being played in many languages throughout the markets. There were lights and decorations everywhere including large nativity sets, hand carved out of logs.

On my birthday we wondered the city enjoying the sites I had located earlier. We took a boat tour of the harbor, and adjacent channels leading in to the city. We saw the “Queen Mary Two” as well as the old brick warehouse’s that line the city’s harbor. We were also able to go to some local malls to pick up a few things. We had a great time on our second trip to a new country. It was an amazing and wonderful birthday surprise!

Christmas party;

Trolltech recently had their annual Christmas party. It was located at the local pub and was a lot of fun. The party started with the “master of ceremonies” Trenton, discussion what a “Julebord” was with Jason. A “Julebord” is the word for a Christmas party, and Jason wanted to know what you eat at a Norwegian “Julebord”. Trenton described all the foods that Norwegians eat at Christmas, like salted, dried and smoked lamb ribs, cod with its liver, lute fish, and a ribbe-rib roast of pork. Jason asked if these were some of the foods we would be sampling tonight, to which Trenton replied, “ Oh god no! That stuff is disgusting! We are having Cajun tonight.”
The Cajun menu included catfish, spicy potatoes, chicken wings, and other typical Cajun dishes. During dinner every table was expected to sing Christmas carols. The words were provided on each table for carols from Germany, Norway, and America. Our table took the easy way out and sang, “Deck the Halls”. Dessert was a plethora or sweet treats. They served chocolate pie, cheesecake, carrot cake and a fruitcake.
Through out the night we played a game to see how well the company knows the new employees. Five flyers were made up for each table featuring images of the new employees. The only thing was that the images went through Photoshop to combine four photos in to one odd looking face. The point of the game was to correctly label the twenty new employees to their respective feature. Our table came in 2nd place after getting 16 of the 20 features correct.
Some other entertainment was a skit put on by the employees, jokes preformed separately to win more drink tickets, and the president of the company doing the “Can Can” (yes sober) in full “Can Can” girl dress. The entertainment ending in the “Golden Troll Awards” which was awards to employees who best fit the made up humorous categories. The awards were troll figures spray painted gold. The atmosphere was light and fun. The night felt like a big family gathering.

Thanksgiving


Thanksgiving this year was an exercise in adaptively. We could not find any turkeys at the grocery stores, so a friend suggested going to a butcher shop. Coincidently, one of the best butcher shops is right down the street from our new apartment. I had to ask if they had turkeys, because I could not see any in the cases. The person I asked at first could not figure out what I wanted. Another person at the counter figured out what I wanted after I described a turkey as a “big chicken”. He ducked in the back room and rustled in the deep freezer for about three minutes. He finally produced an extremely frozen turkey that was just the size I needed.
Another item we could not find was stuffing, or even breadcrumbs. This solution was simple enough; I simply made it from scratch. The only problem I had was buying the correct spices. Before I went to the store I looked up the Norwegian word for each spice necessary to make stuffing. As soon as I had the translations, I was able to buy all the spices I needed at the grocery store.
The only item I was unable to locate was pumpkin pie mix, or pumpkins at all. The only why to solve this problem was to not make pumpkin pie. I simply made apple pie and banana bread (each from scratch) for the dessert.
We invited four friends to dinner. Simon who is German, Marius who is Norwegian, Harold who is German, and his girlfriend Septop who is from Turkey. It was every ones first “Thanksgiving” but they all had an idea of what a Thanksgiving dinner was from TV and movies. They were intrigued by the turkey, and were impressed that “Americans actually ate apple pie”. After dessert we cleared the table and played a board game together. The game “Ticket to Ride” was very appropriate because the purpose of the game is to make trains form different US cities. We had great conversations about our cultures and current events.

Moving

We spent most of Saturday moving into our new apartment. We took two trips with the suitcases, walking the twenty minutes to the new place. The best part of the move was that unpacking only took about ten minutes. The apartment is fully furnished, which also includes the kitchen being full of appliances and other kitchenware. There are lots of home touches including plants, and curtains. We were very fortunate that the lady who owns the apartment, is renting it out while she attends school. Because of this, the apartment has everything we need. There is even a double bed, which compared to the single bed we have been sharing, seems huge. There is a phenomenal closet system with pull out baskets. There is lots of extra space considering we did not bring much clothing.

An interesting feature of the apartment is the bathroom set up. In the hall way there is a room about the size of a small closet that houses the toilet. There is a small sink to wash your hands, and that is it. In the bedroom there is another bathroom about twice the same as the other one, with a heated floor. On one side there is a small shower, and on the other is a good size sink with a cabinet below. There is also a good-sized medicine cabinet. So we have a shower room, and a water closet.

As far as other rooms go, there is a living room with a fireplace, the bedroom and the kitchen. I have yet to explore everything in the kitchen, but it is in need of a good re-organization. In the kitchen there is also a washing machine, dishwasher, and even a microwave. The windows in all the rooms are large and you can see the “kebab” vender on the corner.

There are lots of stores in out new area, selling everything from toys to fruit. There is even a local butcher shop. We went to an electronics store and we bought a cable modem so that we finally have Internet in our home. We also signed up for cable, and we ended up getting a digital cable box. We are borrowing a TV from Marius, but hope to get our own this weekend. All in all everything is settling down and life is getting back to our normal routine.

A White Halloween

We awoke this morning to discover it had snowed during the night. The snow was still falling, as a light lazy flurry. The total amount of snow was enough to cover the grass and only allowed the tips of fallen leaves to poke thru. There is a thick icing like layer of snow on top of all the cars. The trees have not yet lost all of their leaves, which makes for a white yet colorful landscape.

A little walk behind Trolltech there is a large hill besides a man made waterfall. The kids in the area were having a wonderful time with the first snowfall by sledding before and after school. So even though it is technically still fall, and Halloween has yet to a cure, winter has begun in Oslo.

Friends moving back home

Two of our good friends have decided to leave Trolltech and return to their home countries. The first person to leave is Zack. Zack has decided to return to the states after having a hard time adjusting to a new country. He is a vegetarian and has found it hard to find the assortment of meals he was used to in the states. Zack was also used to playing basketball and riding a skateboard with his friends back home. He has tried to get in to a basketball league here, but he says it is not the same. He has toughed it out for about five months, but now has decided to return home.

Our other friend that is leaving is Boris. Boris is from Croatia and has a young daughter. Due to some family issues, Boris has decided to resign from Trolltech and return home. Boris has also only been at Trolltech for a short time, about four months.

I cannot begin to express how much we will miss them. It seems that we are with them at least once a week. We have gone to museums with Boris, and Zack comes over for dinner often. Luckily in the computer profession, there are many conferences and worldwide meetings. I know we will see them at one of these functions, but I will miss them on a day-to-day basis.

There is one good occurrence for Boris leaving, as cruel as it is to say it. Boris had recently leased an apartment and now has to break his lease. We have agreed to take over the lease and move in to his apartment. So we finally have an apartment of our own. It is about a twenty-minute walk from Trolltech’s current location. However when the new office opens on December, it will only be a ten minutes walk. We will be moving next weekend, and we are currently setting up the cable and Internet services.

Fun things going on

We try to get out of the house and do something together whenever we can. One activity we did together was to go to ceramic store on the corner. It is basically like a “color me mine” where you pick out a pre-made ceramic item. The items vary from simple cups to piggy banks and vases. I painted a water jug to uses as a flower vase. We are planning to return for another date soon.

There is a small stream that runs thru Oslo, that we live about five minutes from. All up and down the stream you can find many small clusters of ducks. In the past we have always forgotten to bring bread on our walks to feed them. The other day we realized we had some bread that had gone stale. So we saved the bread with the intent to take it on our walk. However when we left the house, we had once again forgotten it. We walked home just to get the bread, and we were finally able to feed the ducks. It was a lot of fun feeding the ducks especially when groups of them came from up and down the river when we started feeding just a few of them so we took some pictures.

There was a film crew directly out side of our apartment filming a scene for a local soap opera. They shutdown the street and spent the entire day filming a boy and girl talking, and then the boy backs up and gets hit by a car. He stands up and is fine. The scene ended with the boy and girl hugging. The boy did his own stunt, and it was fun watching all the takes of him getting hit by the car in different ways. I doubt we will ever see the show this scene was intended for, but is was interesting to see the filming from the living room window.

Alone again

Jason moved out of the apartment, and in with his girlfriend Pam. Pam’s job transferred her to Norway, and Jason decided to move with her. Pam’s transfer did not go in to effect until now, so Jason has just been waiting for her to move. Pam’s company is providing her with an apartment, so she did not need to locate one on her own.

Now that Jason is gone, we have the apartment to our selves. As of right now, Trolltech has not hired any one else so we might be alone for a wile. Of course if any business associates arrive for a meeting, they will stay with us.

We are still in search of an apartment of our own. We have been looking for one on-line and in person. Trolltech is moving to a new office building in December, so we are mostly looking in the area of the new office. We are looking forward to moving out, so that we can finally finish unpacking and be all moved in.

Underwater bar

We went to a bar a few block away from us with a large group of guys from Trolltech. It is called “The Underwater Bar” and has a matching décor. The walls and ceiling were painted with ocean murals, and schools of colorful schools of fish. On all the walls were displays of artifacts supposedly from the ocean floor. The bar had an upstairs reachable by a “dock” bridge and a down stairs representing underwater. The group of us sat down stairs in a corner next to a salt-water fish tank.

The thing that makes this bar different is that every Tuesday and Thursday is Opera night. They show Opera on a large screen TV over the door, and at seven and nine PM, students from a local college sing Opera live for the patrons. Two women took turns singing ballets with a live piano acompiment. To end the performance, both girls sang a lovely duet. The second performance started with a violin solo, and a violin/ piano duet. The second act also sported a different program of classic Operatic melodies.

All in all, it was lots of fun to be out with so many “trolls”. We took up an entire section on the down stairs with our group alone. We (they) drank and told stories from Spain and everyday life. The conversation eventually ended up returning to talk of work and the currents “bugs”. The live Opera was wonderful, and a welcome cultural treat.

The quest for Ricotta cheese.

I try to have Zack over for dinner once a week. I feel bad that he always eats out, or eats what is left over at Trolltech. Zack is a vegetarian, so I normally feed him pasta. I decided to make lasagna because it would be a little different, and yet still safe for Zack to eat. I found a proper pan, and all the ingredients except one, Ricotta cheese. I looked in every store near us with out success. I even went to my favorite little “mom and pop” shop but no one knew what it was, or sold it.

I went to Trolltech one day and asked some of the HR people if they knew where I could find it. Only one person knew what I was talking about. She had lived in the USA and had also gone on a hunt for the cheese when she had first arrived in Norway. She told me about a little Italian grocery store that sold it. She had not been there in a long time, but they should still carry it. It would take about a half hour to get there on the bus, so I started out. I found the street I was sent to, and walked to the address I was given. When I arrived there I did not find a grocery store, I found a gas station. I walked up and down the street hoping that the number was wrong, but again I could find nothing.

I returned to the bus and went home very disappointed. On my way I stopped at my favorite “mom and pop” store to pick up some vegetables for dinner. As I walked to the casher, I saw a boy unpacking a new shipment of Ricotta cheese in to the fridge. I was ecstatic as I realized my search was over.

Happily the lasagna came out well, and everyone enjoyed it. It feels good to make familiar foods that we enjoyed in the USA. It can be difficult at times to find all the ingredients needed, but in the end it is worth it.

Dinner Party

We were invited to a dinner party at Harold’s apartment the other Sunday for a non-birthday party. We have never been to a dinner party, so did not know what to expect. We have gone to other people’s houses for dinner and had people to our house, but it was never classified as a “dinner party”. It was always, “want to come over for dinner?” I instantly had images of the 1950’s with proper table setting and martinis. Again my images of what a dinner party is was in need of help. Basically it was a group of people eating and talking around a table, just like we do every day and how we both grew up with our families.

Then menu was as an interesting blend of cultures as were the people at the table. There was homemade bread and salad with different dressings for the first course. Dinner was Eggplant curry over rice, which was a Turkish recipe. Dessert was a dish called, Kaiserschmarrn, which was a pancake like substance, ripped up and added to an egg based liquid. Fruit is added and the whole thing is cooked in a pan and served with ice cream and applesauce. This recipe was an Austrian dish.

Harold, who is German, and his girlfriend who is from Turkey, made all the food. Also in attendants were Marius-Norwegian, Simon-German, Zack- Polish, and Trenton-American, which made for the best part of the dinner, the conversation. Normally when I am with computer guys, the conversation is almost entirely about computers. This night however we had almost no discussion of work. Instead we talked about world politics, and customs. We discussed the German elections and the state of New Orleans. There were debates about policies the European government has on Turkey, and India. The conversation was light though, with jokes and stories every ones has had. We even discussed the different news sources including the Daily Show.

We have debates and conversations with each other, but we have never been able to discuss these topics with anyone else. We never lived close enough to work in America, to be able to hang out with intelligent people. And lets face it; the three year olds at my work have a limited understanding of the world’s movements. It was so refreshing to be able to discuss topics with people who have a better understanding of the European markets and culture. To be able to have intelligent debates and informed conversation was a refreshing change to be a part of.

We are now Norwegians

Well not really but a Norwegian says we are. Our friend Marius took us out for a hike, which is the normal outing for Norwegians on Sunday afternoons. We took a bus and the subway to get out of the city. About thirty minutes north we ended up in a forest. There was a large lake and trails all over. The woods were “real” woods, which had wild animals in it. It takes three days to walk across it, and there are no fences to keep things in or out. It is like a smaller version of Yellow stone, only totally wild. We did not see any animals, not even a squirrel (another thing I have not seen since we moved here), but Marius told us how he has seen everything from Moose, Lynx and Bear.

Marius lead us through the woods and up some rock faces. The trail was slippery, rugged, and skinny due to the fact that other hikers made it. We all slipped and fell, and got very wet and dirty. We ended up at a cabin that served food and hot drinks to the hikers (skiers in winter). We ate our packed lunch and Marius had hot coffee. In the cabin there were little troll figures, not like the cartoon image that is popular in the tourist shops, but a more classic looking image. We took the main path back down, which was much easier but not as much fun. Marius told us that next we should spend the night before going on a long weekend camping trip.

Homesick


Some of the people at Trolltech have asked us how we are handling the home sickness? They all seem surprised when we tell them that we are not home sick at all. I’ll admit that we miss some of our belongings, but that is just because we have had them for a while and we still want them. Like our furniture and our collections. Of course we miss our families, and we will miss our three nephews growing up. When we left the youngest was only a year old. However we have lived in a different state then our families for three years. So missing the boys grow up is unfortunately not something new to us. Not seeing our families more then twice a year is also not new to us. So we really can’t miss them more now then we did in New Jersey or on Long Island. We have gotten used to moving around and an unfortunate by-product of that is getting used to saying good-bye to friends and family.

But as far as being home sick goes, how can we be? After all, we are home. I mean think about it. We live here, we work here, and we have friends here. We are forming routines here, and having new experiences. Most of all though, we are together here. We are our own family and have been for more than just three years. We are our own support structure. So it does not matter where in the word we live. As long as we are together we are always home. So if we are always home together, then how can we ever be home sick?

Spanish wrap up

All in all we had a great time. I was able to experience the city. One other activity we were able to do together was a beach party. The city of Malaga put together a beach party for the developers at the conference. They served sardines and had an open bar. It would have been really nice if most of the developers had not taking advantage of the open bar and gotten really drunk. A lot of them got the idea to go skinny dipping. So the guys for Trolltech and I walked on the beach and talked. It was an interesting experience to remember Spain by.

It was nice to go shopping in Spain because the currency was Euros, which is much easer to figure out then Krones. Also everything was much cheaper then it is in Norway. I was able to buy a few tools for half the price they would have been in Oslo.

It was nice to get home and return to our routine. We discovered that ten days is a little too much time to be away from home. I would guess that a week is the perfect amount of time to go away, before it starts to get boring. That said we are looking forward to our next adventure.

The language barrier

Norway has spoiled us with the knowledge that we can easily survive in a foreign country with out speaking the language. Almost every one in Norway speaks English, and going shopping or going to a restaurant is never a problem. We naively thought that Spain would be the same way. We quickly discovered all menus were only in Spanish, and getting directions required a photo of where I wanted to go. I had to take a taxi back to the hotel one day, but was unable to correctly pronounce the name of the hotel. I resolved to show the driven hotel door card. It had the hotel logo printed on the front. The driver understood and I arrived at the hotel a few moments later.

We learned to point a lot in Spain. You would be amazed at the number of uses for pointing in a foreign country. For example, you can order food. If the menu has photos then you can just point to the picture. If you see another patron eating something appetizing, then just point to it when the waiter comes for your order. It may be a bit rude, but you do not have many options.

You can also get directions by pointing. When I was walking to the Picasso Museum, I got turned around in the many side streets. I stopped a man passing by and pointed to my photo of the museum. I then pointed to the street I thought I needed to take and looked at the man and shrugged. He smiled and said “si”. A few moments later I found the museum.

We did encounter one situation where pointing was of no help.  Myself and four other “trollies” got stuck in the hotel elevator. Instead of going up, the elevator took us to the bottom of the shaft. The doors would not open, and the elevator would not move. Now this situation was not like in the movies and TV, were there are two people in a very large elevator. They sit and talk and laugh. Well we were in an elevator with six people that was only big enough to hold eight. Even thou it was not full it was very tight and heating up quickly.

We pressed the alarm button and a voice came on the speaker. She did not speak English. We asked for English but apparently no one in her office spoke it. She was asking us questions we did not understand, and had no hope of answering. Finally someone suggested trying to manually open the door. Two other guys helped and thankfully it opened. We had to step up a bit, but everything worked out fine.