December 29th, 2008

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Finally arrived in UMB, Aas.

My Vancouver to Chicago flight was delayed for 4 hours (yes, we sat on the plane for 4 extra hours). Due to the delay, I had to stay in the Chicago O’hare airport for over 13 hours for the next SAS flight to Europe (Stockholm). From Stockholm, I would fly to Oslo.

Fortunately, the United Airlines phone agents were super nice in helping me rebook my flight. (I really have to get over my fear of phoning people I don’t know on the phone). I kept wondering if the story in “The World is Flat” is true…are these agents working from homes in the midwest USA?

The Chicago airport is really hard to sleep in…the lights didn’t go off (of course)…but at 6 am, these bunch of really, really noisy tourists (in a tour group probably) showed up. They were really excited to go to Mexico for their holidays…but for goodness sake…I arrived at 2 am, please let me have some kind of sleep.

On the plane to Chicago, a really nice couple from North Carolina sat beside me (Karen and Tyler). We talked a bit about how it is like in the southern states. According to them, sleeping over night at the Chicago airport is a rite of passage for the North American traveller.

I got on Scandinavian Airlines for my next flight. The crew was super nice, especially when I asked for a vegetarian meal (because the flight transfer forgot to transfer my request). They even gave me the business class meal once! The crew was the oldest crew I had ever seen, plus there were quite a few male flight attendents. It’s really nice to see such a company not conform to the norms.

Surprisingly, I slept all the way to Stockholm, except the last 3 hours, I spent watching “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “The Mummy 3”. Some nice distraction from the monotomous staring of the back of the chair in front of me.

All the airports except YVR had no free wireless internet…definitely something to be proud of being Canadian :P (seriously…)

I felt so bad that I couldn’t contact M (who was picking me up in Oslo). I really hope he’s not going to be mad at me when I phone him…

At Stockholm, the airport was so nice and quiet. Even some of the chairs were nicely designed. They were big, comfy, red, swivling chairs. I didn’t look, but I bet they were IKEA creations…everything seems to be from IKEA here.

It struck me as odd because I was pretty much the only Asian in sight on the plane from Stockholm to Oslo.

People here really don’t make any small talk. The airports and train stations were soooo quiet compared to what I’m used to in both HK and Canada.

I got to Oslo airport and phoned M. Of course he couldn’t pick me up today because he wasn’t in Oslo. So I took the train to Oslo S (the central station) and waited for 2 hours for the local train to Aas. I arrived in one piece, but I had no idea how to get to UMB from the station…M said take the taxi..but there were no taxis! I asked some people at the bus station and it turned out two of them were going to pentagon (student residences…yes, don’t ask me why they named it after the USA defense ministry building). All three of them were from Ethiopea, and one of them was a masters student in ecology. They told me that I don’t need to buy a new ticket if I had my train one. And they showed me all the way to M’s room.

I said I was really sorry and that I tried to send him sms messages..but it seems like they didn’t work (darn Rogers). He didn’t seem to be mad at all. He said that when he first arrived in UMB, the girl who was supposed to give him his keys was late for two hours because of a dance class. He was so mad he could have punched her :P well I said he could pretty much have punched me for being a day late!

I got my keys, used his internet for a while, and he gave me some “chocolate from Italy” (he’s Italian) and sent me off to my room. I got to my place, but it seems like nobody else is there. I unpacked and took a shower and fell asleep. I was feeling a bit sick….

I got up the next day at 6:45 am…so I went and left M a note. I got back to the dorm and met Shresta, who is a student. I guess she works for the housing company because she was cleaning the room next door. I offered to help and we chatted a bit. She’s from Nepal and is also a masters student (it seems like everyone is a graduate student here…). She told me where to go get groceries etc. So nice!

Some things I noticed:

When I tell people I’m Canadian, they always ask where I am originally from. This is kinda annoying, since nobody assumes that in Vancouver. I can understand the cultural difference, but just for fun, maybe one time I’ll tell them that my family has been in Canada for generations. Just to demostrate that many people who don’t looke “Canadian” are actually more Canadian than everyone else.

People here are soooooooooo quiet. There’s no small talk at all. I sat at the Oslo S for 2 hours…and rarely noticed people talking…

When I was people watching, I noticed that there are quite a few “ethnic groups”. Of course, not as many as in vancouver. But these groups generally don’t mix….there’s no stares or any kind of discrimination that I could see, but people just generally keep to themselves. (heck, even the people who look native Norwegian don’t mix)

The conductors on the trains come over and check each of our tickets…something impossible in more busy cities…Also, the electronic signs in the trains display the time as well as the temperature! I guess they’re equally important for people here :P Remind me to never, ever go out to the train platforms early again. Everyone smokes!

There are lots of graffti near the train tracks…even a city as safe and as crimeless as Oslo has it’s own problems (well I don’t really see graffti as a ‘problem’ in that sense)

Almost everyone speaks english…but the trains don’t have english announcements.

There was a Burger King! Smack in the middle of Oslo S. A lot of the ads were also in English. People didn’t seem to mind or feel it was unpatriotic…

It’s still dark around 9 am…and it gets dark by 3 pm…