Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Happy Holidays from South Dakota!

It's been a busy holiday season around the Meyer house with activities basically every day since I came home. Lots of fun relatives, gift opening, singing, talking, and even a Christmas Day 5k for the family. We needed to run off all the great food we've been eating. It's been more of a Christmas extravaganza than a Christmas vacation, but fun none-the-less. And as one of my international friends noted, just like a postcard! It's always great to see the family and friends and enjoy a postcard Christmas, but I feel this year more detached from the US than I have before. I guess I really am carving out a life in Norway.

One of the biggest changes has been worrying about weather again. It's great in Tromsø that all I have to worry about is not falling on the driveway and running to catch bus 32, but now that I'm home and have to drive everywhere, I'm glued to the tv (ok, the internet) trying to figure out if it will be icy. The colored maps appear every five minutes during the news, and I'm never quite sure if there is actually a threat or if they are just trying to get people to watch the news by selling fear. I guess either way it worked. Plans have already been altered to try to beat the storm coming tonight in order to escape to the east.

The other crazy change was going out on the town in Brookings with my brother! Now that John is 21 years old and can legally drink, we enjoyed a night in downtown Brookings together, along with about 10 of my high school friends and my college roommate Paul who surprised me and showed up for some hang out time. It felt a little strange going out with high school friends because we never really have since we grew up always being underage. Just feels different without those crazy Norwegian and international folk. Fortunately, one of my friends went to college in Brookings and was able to give us the full tour of all the desireable and undesireable night spots in Brookings. A good learning experience. We had a great time together and spent the next morning recovering with lots of water and episodes of "The Office."

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and will have a fun New Year's. Like Rachel said, if you're reading this I've probably been thinking about you, so feel loved because you are. I'll be enjoying a little more relaxation the next week and will fly back across the pond on the 8th of January. Until then, relax don't do it when you wanna go to it.