Skip to main content

From Sunshine to Snow.

Finally landed. After a looong journey (including a 2 hour queue to get through security and passport control at São Paulo airport due to a strike) I arrived home on Thursday to snow. Not a white-coated scenery, but big flakes of snow falling from the sky. Obviously I was a wee bit cold in my vest-top and cardigan. It was strange to get home, but lovely to see family again, including my sister-in-law's bump which is soon to be a niece or nephew.

Saying goodbye at Fortaleza airport was tearfilled, and to my great amazement I had a whole delegation seeing me off. Boys and staff from the farm and city centre, as well as other friends were there bright and early to see me off, and allow me to give them one last hug. It was very sad, and felt very final.

Then I arrived home. On Friday I flew up to Bergen for a lovely celebration of my cousin's 30th Birthday. Then I flew back home on Saturday, and had a 2.5 hour delay of my flight coming back. Quite ironic, after a 28 hour journey will hardly any delays, and then when I have a 30 minute flight to catch, this happens. So I bought myself a cup of luke-warm Early Grey tea (why is it that the hot water you get a coffee-shops is never really hot?), some pick and mix sweets, and the latest Liza Marklund crime-novel, and sat myself comfortably in one of the chairs to wait. No point getting stressed or frustrated...these things happen. And to be honest, I'd rather wait than sit on a plane where one part of it isn't working the way it should.

Sunday I did nothing. Read, watched TV, did a bit of unpacking, and chilled. It was pouring down with rain the whole day so going outside was out of the question, especially as I didn't seem to manage to keep warm being inside.

Today, which is Monday, it's not raining. But I still feel quite dazed. Dazed by the time difference (haven't quite managed to adjust to 5 hours later than Fortaleza) and dazed by what the future holds. It is strange. Strange to think that I am not "going back" in a set amount of time. Strange to not have anything to work and walk towards. But hey, it's still early days and as my brother put it, I need to chill for a bit.

So that is me in a nutshell. Now I must get going unpacking. Lots of things to get into place.

Popular posts from this blog

It’s been one week.

A week ago we were sitting at work talking about how quickly the Corona situation was escalating. News of closed gyms and limited gatherings were there, and we were wondering what now. Only the day before we’d been open, and while taking the hygiene precautions and reminding each other to not hug or shake hands, there was a sense of support in each other, and normality was still there. Then suddenly it all changed. From being a crisis in China and Asia, then Italy, it had well and truly arrived in Norway. Friday morning we sat in our staff meeting. News of the closing of all schools and kindergartens for two weeks had come the evening before. We sat there with so many questions and few answers. The one thing we knew for sure was that this was a time to be available and present. A time to be proactive, and to make sure our people knew that we were there even if we weren’t open. That day we made many phone calls and sent messages and emails. Some were worried and needed reassurance,...

Preparing for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the 17th of May. But for any Norwegian, this particular date isn't like any other date in the year, it's the 4th of July of Norway. And this year I am actually here. However, some preparations had to be done to get ready for tomorrow. One was getting my national costume down from the loft. I got it a few days ago and tried it on. It's a wee bit tight, but I think it'll be fine. This evening I ironed (or rather started ironing) the blouse which is hand embroydered and made of linnen (so those of you who have a clue about fabrics, know that linnen is the opposite of no-crease material). And the second part of the preparation was polishing the silver. I tried the "foil-in-hot-water-with-salt" method, but I don't think it worked too well. I did a bit of polishing with toothpaste after that and it looks alright. At the end of the day I'm the only one who will notice the level of polishedness of my silver. I have also got my camera on charging re...

On the move again...

As I walked wheeling the trolley containing two suitcases and a rucksack (belonging to my middle brother who has bought himself a new one) I felt tears stinging in my eyes and threatening to push their way out. I suddenly felt so very small and the airport so very big. I’d got off my 45 minute flight from Sola to Oslo, got my bags from the baggage claim (the airline I flew with lets you decide how many bags of luggage you want to take against a small fee, and so I was able to bring not one suitcase weighing 20 kilos, but a suitcase and a rucksack), bought my train ticket for the last leg of my journey, and was walking along in search of a cup of coffee and a waffle to kill the half hour till the train. Walking along I caught myself thinking about this new stage in life. I wondered why this move up to the YWAM base here in Norway seemed so huge, when moving to Brazil obviously was a bigger move, at least further away. And then it occurred to me that when I’d been travelling back and for...