Stuff I Miss - Volume 1
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2011
1
23
61
Trip End
May 18, 2011
Sarpsborg, Norway
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Today marks the fifth week since my journey began. 5 weeks down, 14 to go. Over 1/4 done already. It's hard to believe, really. I think I can say that I'm pretty well settled in now, and more familiar with Norwegian culture than most people on earth. It's been a great five weeks, but there are some things that I do miss from home:
1. The UND dining centers. Maybe they are overpriced, but the convenience just can't be beat. A short walk from the dorm to the dinning center and tadaa! All the food you could ever care to eat. Now I'm pretty much on my own for food, unless someone is kind enough to share their cooking or we eat out. Though I must say, I am slowing starting to pick up some culinary skills. Hopefully by the end of the semester I'll be a master chef!
2. Driving home on weekends. I miss the feeling of getting out of my last class of the week and jumping into my car and driving home. I don't so much miss home (yet), but the drive home. It's quite liberating after a tough week of paper writing and so on to hit the open road and feel free. Here, when I'm done for the week, nothing much happens.
3. My car. I miss my old 91 cougar! One thing I've noticed here is that there are very few if any cars that even try to look sporty. Everybody either drives a super compact tin can, or a four door sedan. It's unusual to see a car that sticks out from the rest. Though, to be fair, the same thing happens in America, but at least there are some interesting cars on the road. There's nothing particularly eye-catching here. They don't have the Mustang here!
4. Driving, in general. If you haven't figured it our by now, I kinda miss driving. Luckily the public transit system in Europe is pretty well developed, so I haven't been in dire need of a car. But taking the train everywhere only fascinates for so long.
Oh yeah, Mom and Dad, I'm driving the car home when you come pick me up at the airport. Just a little heads up!
5. Mass in English. Masses at the church here in Moss are offered in Norwegian, Polish, Vietnamese, and some other language, but not English. Though it's not all that hard to follow along, it would be nice to know what's being said in the homily, etc.
6. Piano! I miss having a piano that I can just sit down and play at for as long as I wish, whenever I wish to do so. We do have a keyboard in the dorms, but you just can't replicate the feeling of playing a real piano. I feel a bit deprived.
7. A good sound system. Perhaps this is kinda a guy thing, but the tinny sound of my computer speakers is driving my crazy! Oh what I would give for even a half decent pair of cheap desktop computer speakers!
These are just some of the things I can think of right now. There are some other ones, which will be included in Volume 2. If you are really concerned about me, which I'm sure you all are, you could have my car and a piano (just a console piano, not a baby grand) mailed to the dorms here. I would appreciate that. :)
On a totally unrelated note, if you are getting tired of checking the blog only to find that it hasn't been updated, you can sign up to get an email alert whenever I do another entry. Just a suggestion.
Anyhow, I guess I haven't got anything exciting planned for the weekend, so it may very well be Sunday before I write something again. I would like to start writing more often again, so maybe I'll have something sooner. We'll see. But in case I don't, I hope you all have a good rest of the week and a great weekend!
Wish you were here!
Robert
Comments
BTW, who said anything about picking you up when you get back??? hahaha