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Friday, June 15, 2007

Miscellanea

Stavanger, Norway

  1. I've been in Norway for the last week. It is about 37oF cooler here than in my hometown, with a strong breeze.
  2. Stavanger is a lovely city, with many things within walking distance - up and down hills like this.
  3. Whenever I try to do any blogging, I have been having to translate the commands and buttons from Norwegian - Blogger knows I'm in Norway, and thinks I must be Norwegian.
  4. Being only eight days from the longest day/shortest night of the year, it does not get dark here. Seriously. Not dark, as in I can read a book on the street without the aid of any lights. I have seen neither moon nor stars this week.
  5. For a person who is not used to it, not getting any dark can really mess up your sleep patterns.
  6. I ate at a lovely island last night, with the rest of the conference attendees. The restaurant, Flor & Fjære (Flower and Beach), is a thirty minute boat ride from the city. They have palm trees, grapes, olives, and banana trees - among other tropical plants - growing there. Did I mention this is Norway, not the Bahamas?
  7. I did not get back to the hotel after dinner until midnight. I left for dinner at 7:00.
  8. I gave my presentation at the conference this afternoon. When I was getting in my cab this morning, I felt the seam in the seat of my pants rip. Lovely. At least I could go back up and change clothes.
  9. I get on a plane tomorrow morning and leave Stavanger at 6:50 a.m. Tomorrow night, I get to hug my wife and kiddos for the first time in a week. Just in time to share Father's Day with my family. I've missed them!
  10. Don't tell Mrs. E, but I plan on bringing a nice box of chocolates home with me.
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7 comments:

euphrony said...

Oh, I forgot to mention something. Things are expensive here. It is extremely hard to justify buying a 20-oz bottle of coke for $4. I tried to give my company a break (since they are paying for meals) and eat lunch at Burger King the other day: Whopper, fries and medium drink for $13.

Seth Ward said...

13 dollars??!!!!!

Good lord a Ford Escort must cost a half a million.

I am extremely envious of the weather you are experiencing. Welcome back to the bathtub.

euphrony said...

I'm still trying to get back to the bathtub. It seems the flight that is coming in to Amsterdam to take be back to Houston was having too much fun playing in the bathtub and lost track of time. It (and now I) am running late.

Honestly, though, it's hard to think of a time when the sun has seemed so bright. Even by Norwegian standards it was a beautiful week. Little rain and no humidity. Ahhh, no humidity.

Now, it would have gone more smoothly if they had not lost my reservation for the flight from Stavanger to Amsterdam this morning. Or if they would not have sprung this on me when I got there to check in at 5:30 AM! I got lucky and got on my same flight on standby - but it was close.

And, since I'm doing this from Schipol (translated Ship's Hell) airport in Amsterdam, I get to trasnlate the blogger commands from Dutch to English. Yeah for me, learning new langues like this.

Anne said...

Hope you made it back safely. Happy Father's Day!

FancyPants said...

How did the chocolates go over?

Welcome back.

euphrony said...

I'm home safe. Unusual for me, I actually slept on the flight back - to the tune of four hours. Which is good, since I had only slept two hours the night before leaving.

As to the chocolates? Let's just say that no one I know has ever turned their nose up at Swiss chocolates, much less my chocohaulic wife. Lil'E loved them, too.

Amy said...

sounds fun, but 13 dollars????? wow that trumps Tokyo in expense. No wonder so few people travel to Norway!

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