Travel Day

It feels like a week since I wrote my first entry.  Thanks for all your good thoughts.  Travel was really long but otherwise uneventful.  All my flights were on time and I even arrived a half hour early in Oslo this morning.

I had three hours to people watch in NY at JFK airport.  We humans certainly do come in a wide variety.  I saw a few groups of nuns who seemed only to be able to move if they were in a tight cluster.  It seems to odd to see nuns in habits these days.  My seatmate on the NY-Amsterdam flight was from Vienna.  After they fed us, he went right to sleep.  I tried but the best I could manage was a light semi-comatose state.  As soon as we took off from NY, I set my watch and my computer clock to Norway time which is six hours ahead of NY.  In my mind, it was 10pm when we left the gate at JFK.  We arrived in Amsterdam at 6a.m. I only had a one hour connection and had to go through passport control before I could get to my gate.  I finally got to my gate five minutes before departure time.   I sat beside a woman with an infant, probably 6 months old.  The kid had beady eyes and kept staring at me.  Did I ever mention that little kids make me nervous?  Fortunately it was a short flight, about 75 minutes.

My luggage arrived and since it wasn't dripping red wine, I assumed that the two bottles I got for Gard and his husband had not broken.  Since I had nothing to declare, I waltzed right out.  They have an express train that runs from the airport every 10-15 minutes.  It's new and clean and amazing.  I called Gard from the train station to tell him I was early and then found a coffee shop to wait.  We walked to his place and he left me so I could sleep for a few hours.  He had to go back to work anyway.

My first glimpse of Norway as we flew in over the coast showed hilly, rugged, terrain.  There was snow on the ground and really heavy ground fog that looked like clouds it was so thick.  The airport is a smaller airport but is well developed and there are some great shops.  People are really friendly and smile readily.  The central train station is full of shops and is very busy.  I was standing in an obvious place so Gard could spot me when he arrived.  One guy kept walking around.  He looked a little crazed.  Every time he came near me, he yelled at me.  I have no idea what he yelled but I can't say it bothered me.  What does it say about me that unhinged people don't faze me?  A very sweet older lady asked me for directions.  We just smiled at each other! Gard and I walked about 10 minutes to his house and he left me to settle in while he went back to work.  I slept for about 3 hours and then got up and showered and read until Gard and his husband, Lasse, came home from work.  Lasse cooked a wonderful meat sauce for fresh linguine.  He chopped a whole habanero pepper into it.  Whew!  We drank a lot of water and wiped our noses a lot during supper.  But, my sinuses are clear now.
I am enjoying a quiet moment to blog while Lasse is out running and Gard is at the airport picking up some more delegates.   Many of my friends will be here for the conference/retreat.  Fr. Maxim is already here, Leah, Rostek and Roman are arriving now.  Szymon comes in tomorrow morning. 

In the morning, we will drive out to the gasthaus where we are holding the conference.  I am excited to see old friends and to make new ones.

I'll begin to take pictures tomorrow.