A Case of the Wanderlust

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Dear Friends,

I am tired out from a very satisfying, long walk in the fresh air. Today has actually been pretty low-key, but I think I will be ready for a good nights sleep tonight.

As most of you know, I have traveled quite a bit this week, so I guess we can start with Philadelphia. I had a five-hour layover there on Wednesday, and luckily, my friend Winn goes to school at Haverford, which is about twenty minutes away from the airport. For those of you who haven't heard me talk about Winn, she is originally from Ohio and was on Rotary exchange in Los Andes the same year that I was. Basically, that means that we were best friends. Since we hadn't seen each other in about three years, it was absolutely spectacular that it worked out for us to have dinner together.

I took the train into University City where Winn was in class, and we met up at a StarBucks before going out to eat at the Philly Diner. Since we only really had two hours together, we chattered nonstop just trying to catch up as much as possible in the time that we had. Winn really is a true blue friend, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to see her again.

The flight to Madrid everything you could ask of a trans Atlantic flight when youre tired and theres no comfortable way for you to fall asleep. Perhaps more awkward than trying to sleep on an airplane was me trying to maneuver all of my luggage through the Madrid metro system. Between checked luggage and carry-ons, I easily had more than 130 lbs on my back or on wheels. It wasnt so bad until found out that my transfer between lines involved going down two flights of stairs with no elevator or escalator in sight. I had managed to lug everything down two steps, and had just made peace with the fact that the whole task might take me an hour, when a young Spanish couple rounded the corner, saw me, uttered a cuss word in surprise, and proceeded to carry my largest bag down the stairs for me.

My friend Tim met me at the station nearest his apartment and led me to his home where he had graciously offered me a bed in the living room that he shares with his two roommates. Tim had taken the morning off in order to meet me, and we chatted for quite a while before it was time for him to go back to work. I got settled in and proceeded to fight the jet lag with a nice four-hour-long siesta. Mmmmm. That night, Tim and I made dinner together and then went to a Couch Surfing event called the Language Exchange in Cafe Madrid. We met up with a whole bunch of other travelers and chatted in a nice Spanglish until well after midnight. When Cafe Madrid closed, we were having so much fun with the people we had met that we decided to go to a nearby pub. All told, we got back to the apartment with just enough time to fall asleep before 5. Tim assured me that the schedule was pretty typical of a weekend in Madrid.

He doesnt have to work on Fridays, so we took it pretty easy until stores reopened after siesta. Then we set out with the mission of getting me a cell phone. The store was a 20 minute subway ride away, and when we got there, we realized that I needed my passport to make the purchase. So, we headed back to the apartment. Not wanting him to put in over an hour of time on the subway on my account, I told him that I would be able to make the second, with-passport trip on my own. I took very careful notes and was super proud when I made it to the store and back all by myself. And yes, that means I now have a Spanish cell phone. No, that does not mean that I actually have a number where you can call me. Supposedly it came with 10 euro of talk time on it, but for some reason that's not working out right now...that will have to be my first big adventure when I get back to Madrid.

Friday was another late night that involved dinner with another former counselor from the language villages and then dancing out on the town with Tim, his roommate, and a whole bunch of their friends.

Saturday I was a lot less awkward going to the airport as I was thankfully able to leave a good portion of my things at Tim's for the time that I'm in Norway. I had a short layover in Munich and touched down in Oslo shortly after 10 pm. My friend Tessa was waiting right outside of customs with a sign that said MALLORY VELKOMMEN TIL NORGE. One of her co-workers, Mikael, had offered to drive over an hour with her to Oslo so that she could be there to pick me up. Of course we both raved about how when we said goodbye in June we really didn't know when we would ever see each other again, and how we certainly didn't expect it to be this soon. I felt at home with them right away. The drive home was a bit slow because of the unusual amount of snow that had fallen (nothing by Minnesota standards), and we arrived in Fredrikstad at about 1:15 am, a few minutes before the bars close up for the night.

At a time like that, the only logical thing to do is to stop into the local Soccer Club and have a pint at the private birthday party that's going on. The party was for a guy who was turning 20, but there were people as old as 70 there. All jolly, and all singing along to the karaoke music. As Tessa put it, it was possibly the most Norwegian thing I could have asked for on my first night.

Again last night, I stayed up until past 6 am, just catching up on life with Tessa, which was, of course, spectacular. It was interesting hearing about how this world traveler has adjusted to having a normal life back in Norway. Today she was scheduled to work at a group home where shes a personal caregiver for a man with autism. He absolutely loves languages, so they came walking by the apartment and we all walked to the town center to eat an early dinner together. He didn't talk very much, but Tessa said that she could tell that he loved listening to me. She had her hands full acting as both a caregiver for me and a translator for me, but when she came home, she said that it was worth it because she could tell that he was very happy. All told, he learned my name and made up many nicknames including Mary, Mally, and, oddly, Marilee. He also picked up the words butter and buffalo.

After dinner we took a slow walk back and instead of waiting in the apartment for Tessa to get done with work, I decided to go for a walk. I first walked away from the city center and just enjoyed how similar Norwegian houses look to those at home, as well as the tiny glimpses of people's cozy lives that I could see through open drapes in their brightly painted living rooms. (Yes, it did occur to me that that might be slightly creepy...). I managed to get a bit lost, but found my way back to the apartment, but then decided to continue on to the city center. I did some window shopping (everything was already closed), people watched outside the cinema, and then happened upon the boardwalk along the ocean inlet. And you can't find a boardwalk without walking the entire thing, so I got a bit turned around once again. I eventually meandered back, and I guess that brings us up to date.

I'm hoping to get plenty of sleep tonight as I'm getting up at 6 tomorrow morning to go with Tessa to school where I'll be visiting her English classes.

That's it from this lovely land for now...I'll be back in about a week to tell you all just how much I learn to love it here.

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