This weekend I decided to start phase two of operation "Painting my apartment". So last thursday I went to Maxbo (kinda norwegian version of Home Depot), and bought some paint. Since now I'm painting the entrance hall I decided to go with a not so common color so I choose violet for the wall and purple for the finishings. Yesterday I started the painting process and so far it looks very well.
Continuing with the improvements to my apartment I also went to Ikea and bought some furniture I was in need, and of course I bought more than what I needed but it does not matter my apartment is going to be very cool.
So, all this made me wonder what's going on... I mean, I'm improving my apartment, I'm buying furniture that matches with what I have and with the colors I'm using... so far, every time I bought something there was a clear practical reason for it, but this time it seems that is basically because I'm happy and I just want to make my apartment nicer. Maybe it's the norwegian winter, maybe it's the fact that I really like it here, maybe it's a combination of those and more reasons, but no matter what I'm doing it.
On a side track, yesterday I received an email from somebody I thought I would never hear from again. It is curious how you can try to bury some things in your head and in your heart just to realize that some things are stronger than what you think. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to hear from that person, it's just that it really surprised me. We used to be very good friends and for my blindness and dumbness we part on different ways (even different countries) for a long time. Hopefully this time things might turn out better.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Hiking on the snow
This week was a very intense week because many things had to be ready before the holliday, so I needed a break. So today, with two colleagues we went hiking out in the snow. I must say, there is snow in Oslo already but we decided to take the same route we have hiked before (without snow) and see how it looks like with snow.
First thing, lakes are frozen and we walked over three of them.
Second thing, for the snow lovers there is still not enough snow. However there was one ski slope open, and people were skiing.
Third thing, the landscape looks very nice with snow. We missed two turns so we had to take different routes, but in the end we managed to get to our destination. It was very interesting and I liked it very much.
On the side note, I'm so glad that I bought this military outfit in the US from the army surplus. It was a real advantage to be able to just go through with this Goretex suit without having to worry about the snow or the coldness.
First thing, lakes are frozen and we walked over three of them.
Second thing, for the snow lovers there is still not enough snow. However there was one ski slope open, and people were skiing.
Third thing, the landscape looks very nice with snow. We missed two turns so we had to take different routes, but in the end we managed to get to our destination. It was very interesting and I liked it very much.
On the side note, I'm so glad that I bought this military outfit in the US from the army surplus. It was a real advantage to be able to just go through with this Goretex suit without having to worry about the snow or the coldness.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Me, the coldness and 26Mbps
Today I realized how annoying I can be. It was at lunch time (although I didn't notice it until I came back home), and I was talking about marmalade (jam) and fresh fruits. Somebody was telling me where to find things from outside Norway, essentially an immigrant neighborhood and I just shut up at him without even realizing... To top it off, after that somebody else came to talk to me and I did it again....
And afterwards I ask myself why sometimes people is scared of me.... But as my psychiatrist once told me, the first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem, so let's see what I can do to avoid "frightening" people.
In other topic, I thought I knew what was coldness all about. I thought I could manage without problems since I like to hike and camp and all that.... how wrong I was... In the little time I've been here
my body has proved that is not designed for this weather... first it was the humidity (or better said, the lack of), my body seems to need some minimal humidity to work. Since here everything is so cold and every place has heating, the humidity seems to be very low. Then my lips started turning purple... hopefully it fixed using blistex, but I still feel them a little "unease" about the weather. And of course, everytime I go out I need to wrap myself in tons of stuff or risk to freeze myself while walking.... Strangely enough having a short day hasn't been a problem so far, although people tells me that Scandinavia will bite me anytime soon.
Last but not at least I got my internet connection: 26Mbps!!! which is amazingly fast, it really flies.
And afterwards I ask myself why sometimes people is scared of me.... But as my psychiatrist once told me, the first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem, so let's see what I can do to avoid "frightening" people.
In other topic, I thought I knew what was coldness all about. I thought I could manage without problems since I like to hike and camp and all that.... how wrong I was... In the little time I've been here
my body has proved that is not designed for this weather... first it was the humidity (or better said, the lack of), my body seems to need some minimal humidity to work. Since here everything is so cold and every place has heating, the humidity seems to be very low. Then my lips started turning purple... hopefully it fixed using blistex, but I still feel them a little "unease" about the weather. And of course, everytime I go out I need to wrap myself in tons of stuff or risk to freeze myself while walking.... Strangely enough having a short day hasn't been a problem so far, although people tells me that Scandinavia will bite me anytime soon.
Last but not at least I got my internet connection: 26Mbps!!! which is amazingly fast, it really flies.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Painting
Yesterday and today I've been painting my apartment, it has been an interesting experience.
So far, only my bedroom is being painted in the future I plan to paint the living room, the hallway and the kitchen. It's interesting to see how things change with a little color, my apartment was originally "hospital white", which means that it was almost colorless. Now my bedroom is yellow and you can tell right away that it looks much better and much more alive than before. I still have to finish some details but I can say that it's almost done.
One thing that I noticed is, why am I doing this? meaning why do I go through all the pain of painting my bedroom? It's quite an interesting question, but the answer so far is because I really like where I am now, and I really like the life that I have so I would like to establish here and that's why I paint my apartment to start the process.
So far, only my bedroom is being painted in the future I plan to paint the living room, the hallway and the kitchen. It's interesting to see how things change with a little color, my apartment was originally "hospital white", which means that it was almost colorless. Now my bedroom is yellow and you can tell right away that it looks much better and much more alive than before. I still have to finish some details but I can say that it's almost done.
One thing that I noticed is, why am I doing this? meaning why do I go through all the pain of painting my bedroom? It's quite an interesting question, but the answer so far is because I really like where I am now, and I really like the life that I have so I would like to establish here and that's why I paint my apartment to start the process.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Apartments and moving issues
Last week I had to move to a new apartment, since my first month in Norway was approaching. I found a nice apartment at a very convenient price and I rented it.
It must be said that renting was an "interesting" experience, since at first I had help from some people but the last steps I had to do it myself. To spice things up, the landlord spoke very little english, so it was basically a sign language conversation. Finally the move day came, I move all my stuff from the 4th floor to the door (moving things that way is not funny), and I called a taxi. I tried to speak norwegian and I prepare myself, so I knew exactly what I needed to say (although it was not the most usual way, most people agreed that it was correct). I called, listened the options in the menu and selected a "Maxitaxi" since I was moving my stuff and had some boxes to carry. Finally I reached an operator and I said: "Jeg vil en taxi fra ... til ...", totally proud of myself and feeling totally sure that after that my problems were over. Of course the lady asked me something that sounded like white noise to me, so swallowing my pride I replied "Could you repeat that in english please?". I turned to be a very simple question (once the question was asked in english of course): " Do you think that you need a van or is it a station wagon enough?". I asked for a station wagon, and wait for a few minutes.
Once everything was in, we went to my new place and I unload the station wagon. Thinking that finally I could do something without much pain, I went to my apartment and tried to open the door.... voila! the landlord didn't give me all the keys.... I called him (at this time I was pissed off) and demanded a solution because I was not going to pack everything and return to my previous place. After a while, the building manager came and gave me the missing key and finally I was able to move my stuff.
Despite all the troubles I'm really happy now, this weekend I went to Ikea and bought some curtains, and I'm thinking about painting my room. My furniture & friends are still "sailing" through customs, so I'm sleeping on a sleep bag on the floor, but at least my apartment is going to look really nice in a few days.
It must be said that renting was an "interesting" experience, since at first I had help from some people but the last steps I had to do it myself. To spice things up, the landlord spoke very little english, so it was basically a sign language conversation. Finally the move day came, I move all my stuff from the 4th floor to the door (moving things that way is not funny), and I called a taxi. I tried to speak norwegian and I prepare myself, so I knew exactly what I needed to say (although it was not the most usual way, most people agreed that it was correct). I called, listened the options in the menu and selected a "Maxitaxi" since I was moving my stuff and had some boxes to carry. Finally I reached an operator and I said: "Jeg vil en taxi fra ... til ...", totally proud of myself and feeling totally sure that after that my problems were over. Of course the lady asked me something that sounded like white noise to me, so swallowing my pride I replied "Could you repeat that in english please?". I turned to be a very simple question (once the question was asked in english of course): " Do you think that you need a van or is it a station wagon enough?". I asked for a station wagon, and wait for a few minutes.
Once everything was in, we went to my new place and I unload the station wagon. Thinking that finally I could do something without much pain, I went to my apartment and tried to open the door.... voila! the landlord didn't give me all the keys.... I called him (at this time I was pissed off) and demanded a solution because I was not going to pack everything and return to my previous place. After a while, the building manager came and gave me the missing key and finally I was able to move my stuff.
Despite all the troubles I'm really happy now, this weekend I went to Ikea and bought some curtains, and I'm thinking about painting my room. My furniture & friends are still "sailing" through customs, so I'm sleeping on a sleep bag on the floor, but at least my apartment is going to look really nice in a few days.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
I think...
I think I really like Norway, life is so peaceful here. I know I've been here only for a little while, but so far I really love it.
This Saturday I went to a fishing sport store to ask about fishing here in Norway. The guy was really nice and he explained that fishing near Oslo is really easy but only during spring and summer and that during October it's forbidded. He told me that during winter I could don "ice fishing". Since I didn't know what "ice fishing" was, naively I asked the guy if he could tell me more. He looked at me like "duh...." and started: "ok, you get yourself a drill go to the frozen rivers or lakes, drill a hole and then start fishing".... I think he saw the surprise on my eyes while he was telling me about this... sounds fun, but I'm not sure if I'm going to try it in the short term.
This Saturday I went to a fishing sport store to ask about fishing here in Norway. The guy was really nice and he explained that fishing near Oslo is really easy but only during spring and summer and that during October it's forbidded. He told me that during winter I could don "ice fishing". Since I didn't know what "ice fishing" was, naively I asked the guy if he could tell me more. He looked at me like "duh...." and started: "ok, you get yourself a drill go to the frozen rivers or lakes, drill a hole and then start fishing".... I think he saw the surprise on my eyes while he was telling me about this... sounds fun, but I'm not sure if I'm going to try it in the short term.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Vikings, elves and... Trolls :-)
19 days ago I started a new face on my life, I left the US and my previous job, and I moved to Norway looking for new challenges.
I have to admit, if you are a developer and you work in the US you probably earn more money than you will in other parts of the world, although cost of living there is really expensive.
I also have to acknowledge that working for Microsoft was a great experience because of all the things that I learned. It has to be said that working for such a humungus company makes you open your eyes and pay attention to how they manage to do something at all.
That being said, my stay here in Norway has been great so far. The country is beautiful, the people is friendly and my job is great. Finally I am working for open source again, which make me feel really good.
People in Norway seem to be very elvish, I was expecting to find lots of viking looking people, but people here is more elvish than anything. Of course, walking around I've seen viking looking people, but so far (probably because I've been mainly in Oslo) they don't seem to be too many.
I do not belong to any of those categories, since my new employer is Trolltech, I'm officially a troll :-)
I have to admit, if you are a developer and you work in the US you probably earn more money than you will in other parts of the world, although cost of living there is really expensive.
I also have to acknowledge that working for Microsoft was a great experience because of all the things that I learned. It has to be said that working for such a humungus company makes you open your eyes and pay attention to how they manage to do something at all.
That being said, my stay here in Norway has been great so far. The country is beautiful, the people is friendly and my job is great. Finally I am working for open source again, which make me feel really good.
People in Norway seem to be very elvish, I was expecting to find lots of viking looking people, but people here is more elvish than anything. Of course, walking around I've seen viking looking people, but so far (probably because I've been mainly in Oslo) they don't seem to be too many.
I do not belong to any of those categories, since my new employer is Trolltech, I'm officially a troll :-)
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