Blood:Water Mission
Compassion International
International Justice Mission

Thursday, December 21, 2006

I just ate Rudolph!

So, I made it to Norway. But my mind has yet to catch up. I left Houston at 7 pm, slept maybe an hour in flight, and arrived in Stavanger, Norway at 5 pm the next day (15 hours in transit). The plane was pretty nice, but those seats are only so comfortable, so no sleep for me.

Sunny StavangerSurprisingly, the weather is actually quite balmy for December - hovering around 40oF with rain. I have yet to see the sun, though. Not that I have not been outside in the daytime, or even seen a brightness in the sky that could be called "day" (but only for about 5 hours), it's just that the sun does not rise high enough above the horizon to be seen over the buildings of the town.

Half-twin bedsMy hotel is a cheap one; the "twin" beds are not perceptibly larger than a couch and the shower leaks water all over the floor of the bathroom. A few environmental features are highlighted: first, no bars of soap (to save on packaging), instead there is hand soap; second, the lights in the room only come on once you insert your room key card into a slot by the door (you leave the room, you turn out the lights by necessity).

Light switchFor some strange reason the dozen or so TV channels I have to choose from are all in Norwegian - I just can't understand that ;~) And speaking of Norwegian, I find that I can read around a third of Norwegian (especially signs) as it is relatively similar to English and logical leaps can be made to translate.

But I digress. Did I mention that over the last 78+ hours, I have only slept six? The ol' brains a little foggy. And I don't want smoked fish for dinner :( Or lunch. Or breakfast!

Other than being tired, though, the business trip is going great. I presented our work this morning, and it was very well received. Now for a little more impromptu work to fill the next day and a half and I'll be off to home, weather permitting.

Oh, I bet you're wondering about the post title "I just ate Rudolph". I had reindeer for dinner. Don't tell Little Euphrony; she'll be crushed. Hey, at least I didn't eat the whale. No joking, here; it's on the menus. They have two notable slogans about their continuing whale hunting. First: "Intelligent food for intelligent people." Second: "If we had dolphins, we'd kill them, too."

Tags: , , , , , , ,

5 comments:

Anne said...

So did you teach them why jello gets all jiggly in the frig? Just kiddin' :)

Be safe and have a great Christmas!

euphrony said...

Yes, actually, I did talk about the Jell-O example. Its nice and simple and easy to relate to.

No, kat, it tasted nothing like chicken. Much more gamey. What I had was served up as a lunch meat type portion, so it was cold.

And I'm not joking about the whales and dolphins. When the continued whaling activities of Norway were questioned in recent years, these were actual slogans - on t-shirts and everything. I'm not sure if every is getting the implication of the whale slogan - "Intelligent food for intelligent people" so I guess they eat smart. The dichotomy of societal views in Norway amazes me. On one hand, they (along with Japan) continue their historic whale hunting; but, on the other hand, they have literally the strictest environmental legislation on earth. Go fig.

Anonymous said...

I once made a Christmas card for a French class that had Rudolph's head mounted over the fire and Santa sitting down to a big meal. The teacher didn't catch it at first and gave me an 'A.' Then she noticed, laughed, but told me I had to redo it. It even had a great French pun. Oh well.

But you actually did it yourself.

Sweet.

Anne said...

Are ya back yet?

euphrony said...

I'm home. Been taking a bit of a blog-cation. More to come soon, I promise.

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by to leave a comment. Be nice, and it'll stay. Be mean, and it'll go.