My First Day

January 18, 2011: Today was my first day of work, the first day of the rest of my life or at least the first day of the next phase of my life.  I bounced out of bed at 5 a.m., got dressed, gathered up my stuff and headed for the subway. (I was getting up early to go and exercise – NOT to go to work.) I got outside and came to a screeching halt. It was sleeting and the sidewalk was literally a sheet of ice. I had to choose between walking in the slush of the street and possibly getting hit by a car or skating on the sidewalk and probably falling. I chose the street.  So I trudged the five blocks to the metro, carrying a garment bag with my newly purchased suit and a gym bag with all the stuff I’d need to shower and get ready for work. I also had an umbrella and my purse. I felt like a donkey carrying all those bags and they were heavy. I finally made it to the subway and headed down the long escalator. Once on the subway, I could relax for a few minutes as I anxiously watched for my stop and compared this subway to the London Underground. (I think the London Underground is a little more customer friendly.) Once I arrived at my stop, I headed back up the long escalator with all my bags and then trudged another four blocks to the Golds Gym. By the time I got to the gym, I’d gone about 3500 steps – not that those counted towards my 10,000. I still had to do those in the gym.  I got my workout in and then showered and dressed and got ready for the day. Yikes! I looked good but my shoes wouldn’t fit. I’ve lost so much weight that my feet have shrunk too.  Leaving the gym, I crept towards the drug store, clutching my toes in my shoes to keep them on. In the drugstore I crammed a few different shoe pads into my shoes, hoping that would keep them on. At first I thought I’d triumphed but that didn’t last for long. They were still too big. It was good enough to get me to my office but a nightmare later when I had to walk another 12 blocks to and from a meeting. Ugh! That was the only hard part about the day though. My first day at work went great. People were really nice. It was pretty low-key but good.

For those that don’t know the latest, I have gotten a new job at the Committee for Economic Development in Washington, DC. I moved to Washington on Sunday and started work on Tuesday. I am staying with relatives until I get settled in my own place. I have always loved Washington and am excited about being here, seeing old friends, spending time with my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Sam and being part of big city life again. I love it up here. I’ve already found an apartment and will move in fairly soon – pending the purchase of a bed. It’s located in Arlington, Virginia and is near where I used to live when I worked here previously. It’s down the street from great restaurants, a movie theater and a grocery store. There’s a shuttle that will take me to the subway every day for a quick commute and there’s a fitness center in the building where I’ll live. I can exercise and then shower at home and head to work using public transportation. It’s a tiny place but is everything I wanted. I’m excited about getting settled.

People have asked what it was like to come back after a year of such amazing adventures. It was a little surreal. I remember the first weekend after I returned from my travels. I was driving down the highway in my car towards my mother’s house. It felt as if the past year had been a dream and that I’d never left home. I was dropping back into everyone’s lives and they had carried on without me. It felt very strange. I based out of my mother’s house on the coast while I looked for a job. I am sure I drove her crazy with my need to stay busy. I kept cleaning and organizing her house. She was so sweet and tolerated it all.  

I am excited about what is to come. I’ve chosen a job that hopefully I will enjoy without being consumed by it. I have resolved to work less, exercise more and have fun. What an amazing year I have had. Now I look forward to the next amazing year.

Going Home

Thursday, October 28^th:  In May 2008, in the midst of the National Smart Start Conference, I made the decision that it was time to take a break, take some time away from work to turn my life around so that it would not be completely about work.  I thought that I would use the time away from work to travel and see more of the world and perhaps to find the person that I’d lost along the way.

I am someone who makes decisions and then implements them fairly quickly. In this instance, I made the decision and then began executing it by putting my house on the market just a few days later. I thought the only way I could take the time off and do the travel that I wanted to do was if I had sold my house and eliminated the only real debt I had.  Then the economy fell apart and, more than a year later, I was still trying to sell my house and launch this life change.  For more than a year, only a few people knew of my decision and I was sinking pretty deeply into depression, gaining weight and fearing that I was never going to be able to make this happen. Finally though, my house sold and I was able to move forward. I gave 4 months notice at work and started trying to lose the weight that I’d gained during my 15 months of quiet despair and the 15 years before that of work, work, work and eat, eat, eat.

People kept saying I was brave but it didn’t really seem brave to me. Some probably thought I was stupid or crazy and I know that some questioned whether I was going through some sort of mid-life crisis. I don’t think it was any of that. It was just a life choice for me. Why not do it? I’m single, have few responsibilities, have saved fairly well over the years and had no debt once I sold my house. I had been with the same organization for 13 years and, while I loved it, my growth potential there was limited. It was time for a change in many different aspects of my life.

It has now been nearly a year since I left work and started on this journey. I’ve lost about 120 pounds, walked nearly 6 million steps, reconnected with old friends and made new friends and been to 20 countries, 7 continents, 5 oceans, the top of the world, the bottom of the world and around the world. I have created memories that I will never forget. I am lighter in body and in spirit than I have been in years.

And today I return home and start the next phase of my life. What will it be like? It is a big blank slate in my mind at the moment. I have no picture of what it will look like. I thought that I might have painted that picture for myself along the way this year but I haven’t. The worries that lurk at the back of my mind are questions like….. Will I be able to find a job that fulfills me? Will I be able to achieve a balance in life and work that eluded me in the past? Will I be able to lose the final 30 pounds and then keep it off? Will I be able to avoid falling into the old ruts? Will I be able to create a more meaningful life for myself? In my mind, I think that the answer to all those questions can be yes. I have the power to make them happen. I just have to keep reminding myself that anything is possible and that I can make it happen if I put my mind to it.  That is what I have to keep in the forefront.

I am ready to go home. It is time. I could easily keep drifting around the world for years. In fact, the list of countries I want to visit has gotten longer this year instead of shorter. There are so many amazing places to go and people to meet. Even if finances weren’t a factor though, I know I couldn’t do this indefinitely. I have a family I love that I want to go back to and I know that I need purpose in my life that I find through work or perhaps through some other yet undiscovered avenue.

I think back again to the earlier comment that so many people have said I was brave for doing all this. For me, what is brave is going home, confronting my fears and making sure that I answer “yes” to all my questions. And I will.

Jacob Takes London

Tuesday, October 26^th:  I put Linda and Jacob on the airplane today and now I’m ensconced in my hotel room, counting down the final days and hours of my trip. The last five days with them were fantastic. We had such a good time together and I loved being able to show them the sights of London, a city that I love.  Jacob was a total trooper. He let us drag him from one end of the city to the other without complaint.  We’d leave the hotel by 9:30 a.m. and not return until 9:00 in the evening. He never complained and was rarely grumpy. He seemed to enjoy every moment and clearly showed his colors as a veteran traveler. He completely knows the London Underground (subway system) now and would let us know when it was time to get off at our stop every day.  When we’d pass by an Underground entrance, planning to walk instead of riding, he’d yell that we’d missed the Underground and we needed to stop and go back.  He always knew our “home stop” (Kings Cross) and I honestly think he’d have been able to make his way around London on his own in another few weeks. Of course his cute face would help him if he was on his own. Women drop like flies around him.

Jacob had to do a scrapbook for his Kindergarten class to show what he had seen and learned on this trip. At various stops along the way, he would take out his sketch pad and draw whatever sight we were seeing. During our tour of Parliament, he drew several of the rooms and there was also a good likeness of the London Eye and the Tower of London among his sketches. He clearly is a budding artist! 

At the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Jacob announced that he had seen the Queen looking out the window at us. We continued with this charade for several minutes and I believed that he believed that he had seen her. Later in the evening, when we were getting ready for bed, I made some reference to seeing the Queen. “I didn’t see the Queen”, he said. “I was just kidding.” He clearly has a pretty well-developed sense of humor as well since he completely fooled me and his mother.

On Sunday we had two experiences that made me feel as if I had come full circle in my travels. The first was at Buckingham Palace that morning. We were in a crowd of thousands, watching the ceremony and listening to the Palace Band play several selections. One of the pieces they played was “Yesterday” by the Beatles. The entire crowd immediately recognized the song and you could hear all of these voices, representing so many different countries, singing this well-known song.  I felt my eyes well up at the idea that we were all there together from all over the world, singing with different voices this one song. Why can’t it always be that easy for everyone to come together in this way?

Later that day, we went to see “The Lion King” at London’s version of Broadway. As the lights went down, the melodic beat of African music filled the theater and the stage filled with a variety of African wildlife and colorfully dressed African villagers. I was transported back to my time in Africa, remembering the beautiful animals that I saw and the beautiful people that I met during my time on the African continent. Of course the play was fantasy but it felt very real in my memories for a few moments.

Last week when I arrived back in London, there was a major announcement by the Government on their upcoming budget. They are proposing major cuts to current benefits as well as an increase in taxes. All of this is in response to the still challenging economy and the need to cut expenses and increase revenues. The cuts are of course controversial and there are differences of opinion between the two major parties as to whether they are putting too great a burden on the poorer sectors and not enough on the upper classes. All of this sounds pretty familiar.  An article that I read in the Washington Post a few days later though contrasted what the British are doing right now to steady their economy as opposed to what we are doing in the US. The commentary focused on the fact that the British political parties are at least in agreement that there must be cuts in spending and increases in taxes. The question of the writer was whether the Democratic and Republican Parties could ever reach agreement in the US on the fact that there must be spending cuts and there must be tax increases.  Can they ever put aside their political gamesmanship and do what is best for the country as a whole?

Linda and I did often feel that we were subsidizing the British economy ourselves over the past week. The cost of visiting any major historic site in London costs a fortune. There are so many things that we take for granted in Washington, DC that are free. It costs nothing to visit the US Capitol or the White House. All of the Smithsonian museums are free. Numerous other historic sites are either free or have only a small entry fee. In London, we paid the equivalent of about $25/person to go into the Parliament and other sites were of similar cost. On the other hand, none of our history is hundreds of years old. I guess when our buildings are that old, we should start charging too.

There are only 48 hours left until I depart for home……

A Message from my Mom

I found this email from my mom this morning just before I headed out to catch the Tube to Heathrow Airport to meet my sister and adorable nephew. Thought you’d find it entertaining and give you a glimpse of what life will be like for the next 5 days as Jacob takes London by storm.

Email from Mom: Linda called from the Philadelphia Airport just before they boarded the plane for London.  I could hear Jacob in the background asking some guy “are you a rock star?”.  Then he asked him if he liked N.C. State.  The fellow said “yes” to both questions, so Jacob declared him a good guy.  (Linda said the guy had a guitar.)  They called again from the airplane while awaiting take off.  Linda reported that when Jacob saw he had his own personal TV on the seat in front of him, he shouted “Cool!!!”.  Jacob says his top front tooth is real loose.  I expect him to return snaggle toothed.  We discussed whether they had tooth fairies in England and if they gave out pounds or American money.  He will give us a full report when he returns.  When Linda told him he was going to go to a castle in England, he wanted to know if it would have a draw bridge.  When Jacob returns, the teacher expects him to make a full report to the class about his trip.  How many 6 year olds do you know that get class credit for study abroad?    Do we think England is ready for Jacob?

Talking US Politics in Slovenia

Wednesday, October 20^th:  So I lied. There will be a few more postings. I’m sitting in the airport in Ljubljana for a couple of hours and they actually had wireless internet access – for free. I’m taking advantage of it to post a quick update on a conversation I had today with Kaja and Anja Sajovic….

As we wandered around the beautiful town of Bled, Slovenia this morning, I queried Kaja’s sister, Anja, on a comment she had made the other day about everyone knowing the bad things about the US but still loving it anyway. I was curious as to what she considered the bad things. I expected her to say “crime”. On the list she gave me, crime was nowhere on there. Crime often comes up in conversations with people in other countries. Everyone seems to hear all the terrible stories about crime in the US and wonders if it is even safe to visit. Most see their own countries as being pretty safe and, comparatively, the crime statistics would back that up.  That was not of primary concern to Anja.

What Anja – and Kaja too – listed as the #1 bad thing about the US is our politics, the plethora of right-wingers that seem to dominate our politics, in their opinion, and the huge influence of corporations on US policymaking and politics.  These are very informed people about the US so maybe it should not be surprising that they would not pick the obvious answer of crime. Their concern about the dominance of the right in US politics though is something that I did hear from others in my conversations in numerous countries. There is huge coverage around the world on the current elections and the success that the tea party candidates are having. People are very worried about it as they don’t see this group as being a positive influence on US politics and wonder how it will impact US foreign policy and our involvement with our partners in other countries. Over and over again, I also got the question of whether I think Obama will be reelected. From the coverage they read, there is great concern about whether he will make it to another term. Obama is very well-liked around the world. People greeted his election with excitement as well as a huge sigh of relief after the Bush years.  They do not want to see us regress and they fear that exact thing happening if the tea party movement continues to be successful. Many also asked me about the prospect of a Sarah Palin candidacy in 2012. It makes the US look like a joke in other countries when the prospect of a President Palin is discussed by the news media.

I found the conversation interesting and wanted to share…..

The Pottery Lady

Tuesday evening, October 19^th:  For anyone who has ever been to my home or my mom’s or my sister’s, you know that we love pottery. We have it all over our houses, we serve meals on it, we give it as gifts, we decorate with it. When we go on vacations, we buy more pottery.  Throughout my travels over the past year, I have not been able to buy anything because I could only carry what would fit in my backpack. Since that was pretty full of necessities,  I’ve bought very little. When I saw places that carried pottery, I tried to stay away from them. There was no point in being tempted or crushed that I could not buy some wonderful piece of art to remember a particular country.  Here in Slovenia though, I am nearly at the end and I have the potential to carry at least a little more back with me.  As a result, I was thrilled to see all the pottery in the Sajovic’s house. It was everywhere. I immediately felt even more of a kinship with them. These are pottery people. Mrs. Sajovic offered to take me to a nearby town where a friend of hers is a potter. I jumped right on that offer. So this afternoon, after Kaja and her mom had finished working, we headed off for the nearby town of Kamnik. It’s an adorable medieval town with buildings dating from the 12^th and 13^th centuries including a few castles. (Slovenia has many castles.) I enjoyed wandering through the town but the ultimate reason for the visit there was to visit the potter. She invited us into her workshop, showed me her wheel and her kiln and some of the things she’s working on and immediately made us feel right at home. I was thrilled to be there and loved the chance to be able to buy a few pieces to take home with me as a remembrance of my time in Slovenia and of my year of travel.

The Sajovic’s have been so sweet to me.  They have taken me places, showed me their country, cooked me meals and made me feel right at home. Mrs. Sajovic will not allow me to go to a restaurant or eat somewhere else. I can do that any time. She insists that she will cook and I must eat. I am trying not to be an imposition but she will not hear of it. When I told her today that I would eat something in town while I was wandering around and that she should not cook, she was adamant that I must not do that and practically ordered me to be home by 2:00 and hungry.  And of course I followed her orders.  Kaja, likewise, has been wonderful. She has taken time off and given me the grand tour of Slovenia. We have one more day of sightseeing tomorrow before I head off to London on Wednesday evening.  Anja is the younger daughter of the family.  I met her for the first time last night and she is as sweet as everyone says she is. She has a boyfriend in Canada so potentially may move there after she finishes her degree. 

The other thing about the Sajovics is that they love the United States. After meeting people who disliked or were lukewarm to the US throughout the year, it’s pretty amazing to meet a family that so completely loves it. They have travelled all over the US on multiple vacations and have so many positive things to say about our country.  People who like England are “Anglophiles”. Whatever the term is for people who would like the US (Americaphiles?) would definitely apply to the Sajovics.  It’s not that they don’t see our flaws but they love us anyway.

Nine days until I am back on US soil……I likely will not have internet access at the place I am staying in London with my sister so do not expect to hear from me again until just before I return…..There will definitely be one last posting though before I head home. What will I say?????

Sun in Slovenia

Tuesday, October 19^th:  I actually saw some sun yesterday here in Slovenia. Of course I had to drive about 90 minutes away from Ljubljana in order to see it but that’s all right. Kaja drove me to the coast of Slovenia yesterday. We wandered around the City of Piran and basked in the gorgeous sunshine. Piran is an adorable little tourist town on the Adriatic Sea. You can see Italy just on the other side of the coastline.  Because we were there outside of tourist season though, it was almost deserted and we could wander the streets without being crowded by other people. The town is built on the side of a hill and is right on the ocean, providing gorgeous views of the ocean and the terrain all around it. We walked up and down the hilly streets of the town and sat in the square drinking coffee as if we were just two Europeans hanging out for the day. Of course Kaja is a European so it is only me that was pretending.

Slovenia only has about 26 miles of coastline but all of it is certainly beautiful with rocky beaches and blue, blue water.  Several miles of the coastline have been under dispute with neighboring Croatia for years. Croatia contends that part of this area is actually Croatian territory and they want it back. Fortunately the dispute hasn’t resulted in war and they went to mediation to resolve it. In the meantime, in retaliation, Slovenia blocked Croatia’s entry into the European Union. They have finally backed off though and Croatia will enter the EU in the next few years.

Everyone says people in Piran and the surrounding area are more “Mediterranean” in their outlook on life versus those in the rest of Slovenia who take a more “Slavic” or “Russian” approach to life. It basically means that one group is more optimistic and happy and the other is more serious and dark in their perspectives.  I wonder if the difference is that one group gets more sun and the other gets more rain…….The Sajovic family seem to personify the differences in Slovenia of “Mediterranean” vs “Slavic” approaches to life.  Some have a darker perspective and others have a brighter one.  I think if I lived here, my need to make things “sunny” would be working over time!

On the return trip, we stopped in to see the farm where the famous Lippazaner Stallions are bred. While you can find breeding programs for these gorgeous horses in other parts of the world now, they originated in Lipica, Slovenia many centuries ago. They were first bred to be used at the Spanish Riding Academy in Vienna, Austria at the request of the royal court.

The drive back and forth to the coast was beautiful, very mountainous and green with lots of trees and occasional farms and cow pastures.  It really is a beautiful area. Tomorrow we head towards the higher mountain ranges – the Alps – so I will get the full perspective on Slovenia before I head off to London on Wednesday night.  Just two more days and my baby sister and adorable nephew arrive. Yay!!!!

Arrival in Slovenia

Saturday, October 16^th:  I departed Copenhagen today and flew to Ljubljana, the capital of the country of Slovenia. Slovenia is one of the regions that was previously part of the former Yugoslavia.   It is bordered by Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Austria and the Adriatic Sea. The country is small with only 2 million people but has mountains and oceans and is, by many accounts, a beautiful part of the world to explore.

Slovenia has been independent for nearly 2 decades now and seems to have flourished more than many of the other eastern European countries.  Today, Slovenia is part of the European Union and its currency is the Euro.  It has suffered from the global recession with high unemployment and inflation. Its governments have bounced back and forth in recent years.  There was a right-wing government in power but that was replaced two years ago with the election of a very left-wing government. They are getting a lot of blame for the lack of progress in coming out of the recession (sounds familiar) so there will likely be a change in the next election.

I’ve come to Slovenia to visit with Kaja Sajovic. I met Kaja when I was volunteering in Swaziland and we became friends. She invited me to come and see her beautiful country.  I’m staying with her and her mother and sister and feel like I will get a real introduction to the country and its culture through them. Kaja is a journalist working for the government television and radio station. Her mother teaches at a secondary school and her sister is a student in her last year at university.  They are an interesting family and very well-travelled. They have probably been to more places in the United States than many Americans have as well as travelling all over Europe.  Kaja is very interested in US politics and current events so it has been fun, in our first day together, to talk politics with someone who keeps up with it and brings her own unique perspective.

Today we wandered all over the City of Ljubljana.  While it has a population of 300,000, you do not get the sense of a busy city. Much of the commerce has moved out to the shopping malls in the suburbs, leaving the central town area rather quiet. It’s such a shame because it’s a gorgeous town and just what you would expect to see in walking through a place that was built back in medieval times. It even has a castle high upon a hill. It feels like a place that is waiting to be discovered by tourists. In the meantime, it is a treat for me to wander through this interesting place and to not be buffeted by lots of tourists.

Like everywhere else I’ve gone lately, rain is in the forecast so I will likely get damp here. I’m used to that though! I’ll spend part of my time wandering on my own while Kaja works. She’ll be off part of the time though so we’ll get out and explore a little of the countryside.

Sunday, October 17^th:  Today I quietly left the house early this morning to get my walk in while everyone was sleeping. It was raining as I’d expected so I was smart for a change and took my umbrella with me. While it’s hard to walk and pump your arms while carrying an umbrella, at least I got the walk in for the day and returned only slightly wet…..well, perhaps a little more than slightly.

There wasn’t much point in wandering around in the rain on Sunday since I’d seen the general layout of Ljubljana and most things would be closed for the day. Instead I hung around the house with Kaja and her mom, talking about lots of different topics ranging from current events to magazine articles and movies. Kaja headed out to work in the afternoon and I continued chatting with her mom.  I asked her about how things were in Slovenia now as compared to when it was part of the former Yugoslavia. She was very emphatic in stating that things were much better when they were part of Yugoslavia.  People lived more comfortably, had good health care and did not have to worry about money so much. Now money is much tighter and people can’t afford to go to the doctor when they are sick. There is much more corruption in the government now as well.  This really fit with what I’d heard from Sonia, the woman I met from eastern Germany when I was in India. She also said that life was much better  before the fall of Communism and before they became “westernized”. I asked Mrs. Sajovic why they had changed if everyone felt that life was so much better then. She said that Slovenia was actually the first to want the change. Their country was more developed than some of the other Yugoslav republics. She said that Slovenians felt like they worked harder than everyone else and had more resources and did not want to have to worry about resources for the other republics. She said also there were the problems between the Serbs and the Albanians. The Serbs felt like they were completely under the domination of the Albanians and were being treated badly. Mrs. Sajovic said that, while she didn’t live in that area, she had heard that this was true.  She said that, when Slovenia decided to separate from the rest of Yugoslavia then that caused everyone else to do the same. She doesn’t think it would have necessarily happened if Slovenia had not started the break-up by saying they were going to be independent.  After that, the others decided they would separate as well and then all the bad blood between the different nationalities began to boil over. She said there was no real war in Slovenia. A few people died but they managed to come through it all fairly easily. She says she feels badly that Slovenia’s actions may have led to all the problems in the other republics. If they had not stood for independence, she wonders if perhaps there might not have been so many other problems and the bloodshed that followed. It was really interesting to hear her perspective.

I am always a little uptight when I go to stay with new people as part of my travels. I never know what it is going to be like, staying with people I don’t know very well, imposing on their hospitality.  Will we have anything to talk about? Will it be awkward staying with them? Will I snore and keep people awake at night? I have been staying with new and old friends for the past two months and those are always the questions that go through my mind. I felt the same way upon arriving in Slovenia. I got to know Kaja in our month together in Swaziland and of course have not seen her since. She did invite me several times to come and visit so I could only hope it was a genuine invitation. Here I am, staying in their small house and eating their food.  Kaja’s sister has been sent to live with her grandmother and I am sleeping in her bed in the room that she shares with Kaja.  I insist that I must help out with cooking and the dishes and offer repeatedly to go to the market for them. I want to do my part. Some people think I am crazy for offering so much and others take me right up on my offer of assistance. Anyway, those were all my trepidations when I arrived here yesterday. Kaja and her mother have been so welcoming though and it’s been so interesting to learn more about their life here in Slovenia. I would certainly not have gotten this perspective if I’d stayed in a hotel or hostel.  Tomorrow we will head out for the day to the coast of Slovenia on the Adriatic Sea. It will be nice to see the countryside along the way.

Colorful Norway

Monday, October 11^th: We spent yesterday driving through the countryside of northern Norway.  We were never far from the water and it wasn’t simply because we chose those routes. There is a lot of water in this country – at least in the area we are in the north. The landscape is a series of fjords surrounded by towering mountains.  Our drive consisted of following the coastline up one side of a fjord and down another, around a curve and up and down the sides of another fjord. That pattern repeated itself all day long and did not get boring. We’d see a town on the other side of the fjord and, an hour later, we’d be in that town. That’s how long it takes to get from one side to another when driving. The only way to short cut some of those distances is to take a ferry and the Norwegians seem to have a very efficient ferry system. Late this afternoon, we took a ferry from one side to another, drove another 20 miles and then hopped on another ferry to get across another fjord. It eliminated about 3 hours of driving for us and got us back to Tromso just as darkness was descending.

Everything seems to shut down here on Sundays although, once you get outside of Tromso, there is not a lot of retail business to shut down anyway. Beth and I went looking for breakfast on Sunday morning before we left Tromso for our driving adventure and everything was closed. We ended up at the Seven/Eleven convenience store where they actually did have a nice bakery counter. That satisfied us for a few hours – a good thing given that we did not see any prospects for lunch for many more hours. We were starting to think that we might not get another bite to eat until we made it back to Tromso in the evening as there was literally nothing open among any of the villages we passed through.  (Even if there had been something open, there just isn’t much in any of these villages anyway. We kept  wondering where they do their grocery shopping.) We finally found a small kiosk open by the ferry and were able to get lunch there and wait for our 3:00 ferry crossing. With the zeal with which we greeted that hamburger, you’d have thought we hadn’t eaten in days instead of hours.

The housing here is really interesting. Most houses are primarily built of wood and they are very colorful. It’s as if people want to paint their houses bright colors to stand out against the greyness of the weather.  In the villages, we saw dozens of different buildings, houses, barns and boat shacks, scattered along the mountainside in colors of red, green and mustard with occasional white and blue colors thrown in for variety.  “Barn red” seems to be the most popular color.  It reminds me of the “Texaco Red” that my great uncle used to have available for us to use in painting our beach house. That color seems to be everywhere so it’s either really popular or someone got a deal on paint in this region of the world. In any event, the brightly colored houses and barns provide a real contrast to the landscape. The natural landscape is also a barrage of color with green pastures, brown trees that have lost their leaves for the winter, bright yellow-leaved trees with red berries on the few trees that haven’t yet lost their leaves and brown rocky mountainsides with white snow covering the tops and sides.  Against this craggy mountain landscape is a shimmering greenish blue water that often comes right up to the mountainsides.

I am typing this as I sit on the bathroom floor in our hotel room at 4:30 a.m. I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to wake Beth so I finally got up and came in here.  I’ve had my requisite 6 hours and don’t feel sleepy but my mind is also buzzing with thoughts of the future, despite my efforts to shut them down. Questions keep coming up about what I want to do when I return – natural questions this close to my return.  It brings out all my insecurities though of what I will do next and who will want to employ me. What will I have to offer that anyone wants? As good as I feel about myself right now, the insecurities about work do not seem to go away. It’s not that I don’t know the value of what I have to offer in a job.  I am a great organizer, very good at connecting ideas and people and resources and moving an idea from concept to implementation. Whoever hires me will get good value for their money. I have no doubts about that. Who will want to hire me though? I do not have a master’s degree and am not an “expert” in any particular field. Will anyone look at my experience and see my possibilities? It is putting knots in my stomach to think about it and I am not ready for those knots. I really don’t want to think about it at all. I’ve got a few more weeks to go and just want to enjoy this final bit of time.  I comfort myself with the thought that I am at least not in a rush to find something. I eliminated all my debt before I took off on this year-long adventure and I have a wonderful mother that will not let me go homeless while I look for work. I am pretty lucky, I know.

……Just returned from my morning walk. I crossed a huge bridge that took me from one side of the fjord to another and then I walked up a steep hill into a neighborhood of houses. Along the way, it started snowing. It was so beautiful to walk along in the quiet, breathing the clean mountain air and watching the snow waft past me.  While there’s no prince charming, if this were a movie or a fairy tale, it would be a great storybook end.

Chasing the Northern Lights

Saturday, October 9^th:  (Happy Birthday to my sweet sister Linda). Beth and I flew into Tromso, Norway yesterday in search of the northern lights. To give you an idea of how far north we are, we flew north for approximately five hours before we actually arrived here and we’re approximately 186 miles inside the Arctic Circle. While it’s still possible to go even further north in Norway, I am feeling like we are near the top of the world. Pretty amazing!

We arrived here at 4 p.m., picked up our rental car and raced to our hotel to drop our bags before heading off to meet our Nordic Viking Guide – Gunnar. Gunnar is truly an original and everything you would want in a guide taking you to see the northern lights. He’s from northern Norway and has been doing guiding for a dozen years. He leads hiking and cross-country ski expeditions – a true rugged Norwegian.

So we travelled 7 hours (2 hour layover in Oslo) to get here and now we set off on what will be an epic journey to see the northern lights.  Gunnar picked us up at 6 p.m. along with four others – a father/son from the Philippines and a young couple from Taiwan. The latter are here for a week as they were told that you needed to dedicate at least a week if you want to make sure you see the northern lights. They are determined to see them so they already have night tours booked for four days and will book additional nights if these first ones don’t work out. The thought of all those nights of sky watching gives me a headache but I am impressed with their enthusiasm.

We set off into the dark night of Norway and drive for about an hour, stopping for gas and our only bathroom stop of the night. Then we headed off into the darkness again, aiming for the Finnish border. It is cold and rainy and Gunnar thinks that we will have a better chance of seeing the lights in Finland where the weather is hopefully better. Throughout the two-hour drive to Finland, he is constantly checking the weather and his contacts in the area to determine the best place for us to stop.

At around 8 p.m., we arrive at the border of Finland and enthusiastically pile out of the van, sure that we will soon see the spectacle of the northern lights. We crane our necks and peer intently into the darkness, hoping to see our first glimpse. Some of the group excitedly points in the distance. “Are those the lights?”  “No”, Gunnar says, “That is a truck coming towards us.”  We disappointedly keep looking. The clouds have parted and there are stars in the sky. We can even see Venus and the Milky Way. Another person asks which way we should be looking. Gunnar says, “North….That’s why they call them the northern lights.” Duh! Of course, I never have a clue which direction is north so I just look where everyone else is looking. It starts raining harder so we get back into the van and press our noses to the window. Gunnar tells us that there is a glowing and that that is a sign of the northern lights. We have hope. It WILL happen. We pile out of the van again and pace around, taking silly pictures of ourselves in front of the Finland border sign. It’s so dark outside that we can’t see the sign until the flash goes off so the pictures are a little lopsided. It kills a little more time though.

At 10 p.m., Gunnar drives out of Finland and back into Norway so that he can build a fire for us on the side of the road. He isn’t sure of the laws in Finland but he knows he can build a fire in Norway. Again he plays the rugged Viking role perfectly, chopping up wood and building a roaring fire on the side of the road. Everyone seems to be impressed that he has built this fire with only a match. I figure if he’s a true Viking, wouldn’t he have done it by rubbing some sticks together or with flint. Doesn’t anyone watch how they build fires on “Survivor”? Still, it is an amazing fire and we all huddle around it to stay warm.

At midnight, we are back in the van, cold and tired and wet as it is raining again. One of the Filipinos is snoring in the back but our two Taiwanese friends are still as excited as ever.  Gunnar says that it is a good sign that the rain is coming from the west. It gives us a better chance of seeing the lights. We ask how he knows that the rain is coming from the west. “Well I open my window and the rain hits my face so I know it is coming from the west.” Gunnar says. He provides numerous moments of comic relief like that throughout the night, making the long hours of waiting bearable.

At 1 a.m. Gunnar says that it’s time to go as we still have a 2-hour drive back to Tromso. We pile into the van, tired and cold. Then he shouts “Look!”, throws the van into park and hops out. We all heave ourselves out as well. There in the distance are the start of the northern lights. Yes, we are going to see them. We see the random light shapes in the distance, dancing in front of us. We watch and watch and watch, waiting for it to get closer and get bigger and brighter. Everyone is saying “wow” but I am thinking that these are not like the pictures and I’m not really feeling wowed by it all. I say “wow” though, feeling as if it’s a case of “The Emperor has no clothes.” Is this really what we have spent 7 hours waiting to see after travelling 7 hours from Copenhagen to get here? Hmmmmmm……I am not wowed. I will pretend to be though because everyone else is excited.

At 1:30 a.m., Gunnar says it is time to go. We can’t delay any longer. We pile back into the van and settle in for the two hour drive back to Tromso. When we finally arrive there, it is 3:45 a.m. I was up at 5 a.m. on Friday morning for my morning walk before we headed to the airport so it has been nearly 24 hours since I got up. No one can say I didn’t give this whole northern lights thing my all. Do I need to do it again though? Nope. I will not be joining my Taiwan friends tonight on another northern light search. My brief glimpse of the lights last night was enough. Clearly there is more to see but I have had enough of long hours in the cold, craning my head and straining my eyes to see it. I’m comfortable with the fact that I made the effort and saw at least a semblance of it. Maybe another time…….I think not.

I’ve always wanted to come to Norway and am so glad that I’m here whether I see the northern lights or not. I read a story when I was a child about the Norwegian children hiding the gold bricks from the Germans during World War II. They hid the bricks on their sleds and slid down the mountains each day to secrete the bricks in a cave where they would be taken from Norway by boat. It was a great book and it has always symbolized the beauty and history of Norway for me. I wanted to come and see it for myself and it has not disappointed. Despite the grey skies and rain, the scenery here is spectacular. It reminds me in some ways of New Zealand but bigger and more craggy and even more remote. Beth and I drove for several hours today through the mountains and around various fjords, just looking at the scenery. We rarely passed cars and drove through only a few small villages. It’s a huge country but with a small population and vast open spaces. The mountains towered on one side of the car and the water on the other side.  With the weather being so cold and windy, we had a sense of how hard the life must be here. It would be a tough place to live but obviously people like Gunnar are born to this life and would not consider leaving it.  For me, I am totally a wimp. I am sure I could not last here too long. It was enough just staggering out of the car in the cold today in order to dip my foot into the Arctic Ocean. Brrrrrrr!

We have one more day here and then depart on Sunday. Despite the lack of seeing the real northern lights, the trip here is not a disappointment. I am thrilled to be here and it does feel like the nearly perfect end to a year that began in Antarctica and now nears the end with a visit to the Arctic.  And yet still I have a few more weeks to go and a few more memorable moments….