The Long Trip Home

On Sunday my day started at 3:30 am. I'd gotten about two hours of sleep. I walked to Sognsvann with the hope of finally getting to watch the sunrise-and I DID get to see it. It was pretty cloudy when I walked over and still cloudy when I got there, but there were two decent chunks of sky that were visible in the East. I stood there for about 15 minutes watching the sky get lighter and lighter. Then, I decided to start my walk around. It was an awesome walk. Every time I got to a place where I could see that part of the sky it was different. At one point I had a very good idea exactly where the sun was because the clouds behind it were so vibrantly pink and orange. Needless to say I never actually saw the sun, but the sky made up for it. It took me a little over an hour to make it back home. I stopped a lot. I was trying to take in everything I could, knowing that it might be years before I could see a sunrise at 3:50 am again. I stopped at my favorite place, the dock on the opposite side of the lake. I couldn't sit because the dock was soaked from the rain but I just stood there and stared out at everything. It was just me and Sognsvann and the Oslo sun, newly awake. The left side of the lake was covered by a thick sheet of puffy grey clouds, while on the right side of the sky there were wisps of pink and orange clouds on a backdrop of baby blue sky, and these were reflected in the water. Such a contrast.

When I finally made it back home I took my time eating and getting everything ready to leave. I left Kringsja around 7:15 am. I had sort of said "goodbye" the day before so the fact that I was sweating like a pig because of carrying my bags didn't really interrupt the fact that I was leaving for the last time. I am very very happy that I was able to leave on a sunny day.

Overall no major problems flying home. There were some minor worrisome details with the flights, but no problems with security/customs. My brown cheese made it! At Newark they were cancelling and delaying departures due to weather so my flight was delayed a bit, but only by a half hour or so.

There were a couple times when I wanted to turn around and run back to Kringsja. At the Oslo airport the majority of people at my gate were Norwegian but there were so many Americans and they were all talking how Americans talk and I just wanted that to be put on hold. Newark was crazy. Loud and lots of people. As soon as I got there some guy mouthed off to one of the airport workers and the worker stormed off, spouting something about how she doesn't know why she even tries to help. There were a lot of people complaining about the wait to recheck our bags. And yes, it did take forever but it was just very stressful. You wouldn't see Norwegians complaining that loudly at least :p

My parents met me at the airport and it was SO great to see them. Everything felt way too normal though. It felt like I wasn't seeing them for the first time in six months, or riding in the car or walking around my house. Everything just felt familiar.  Even seeing Sean felt familiar. Same kind of thing with my parents. I was SO happy to see him, but everything after just felt normal.

One thing that was different was how DARK it gets here. I'm hoping that will help my adjusting-ya know, so my body knows when to fall asleep. I slept GREAT last night and I was up by 7:30 this morning. I guess it makes sense though. I was up for almost 36 hours with only about 5 hours of sleep.

I think I will get a bit overwhelmed by all the people who want to talk to me/see me. I spent a good twenty minutes texting/facebooking people before I got out of bed this morning. I'm glad I have two months to say hi to everyone again :p Some people only come home for a couple weeks.

Sean is coming over for breakfast today. I have an eye appointment this afternoon and then car shopping! Should be a good first day back.  Though it's only 8:30 am and I'm already sweating...hey, summer.