It's my birthday! :)
While I have celebrated my birthday away from home before, this is the first birthday that I have celebrated away from home while on a different continent. According to Canadian time, it's not my birthday for another few hours...but I still count it. Sarah & Kristian have been amazingly kind enough to invite me to their place in Norway to celebrate my birthday for the weekend--I'm so excited :). I fly out tomorrow evening and, if all goes according to plane, will arrive back Sunday evening, tired and hopefully ready for orientation Monday morning.
On another happy note, I do believe that we've found an aparment! Joel & I went to view it yesterday afternoon and, for the cost of rent, bills, etc, all included, it's a great price and a really good location. 2 bedroom, both with ensuite bathrooms (score! No sharing my bathroom!!) and fully furnished. I'll post pictures if (hopefully when) we move in...the letting agent still had a couple viewings yesterday afternoon, I just hope, hope, hope that it wasn't let after our viewing.
I haven't had any more embarrassing blunders that I know of. Oh, wait. I was trying to buy a bottle of water the other day, and it cost 46 pence, or something along those lines. Instead of having just pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, etc, there is also a 50pence piece here. Mistaking them for my more-familar Canadian quarters, I tried to hand 2 of the 50p pieces to the clerk and couldn't understand him when he kept telling me, "too much! Too much!" It turns out that I also cannot pronounce the names of streets. There is a street just up from our hotel called Leicester Parade. Reading it and pronouncing it as I would normally, I assumed it was pronounced along the lines of "Lie-kester"...oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. Chatting to the guy who was selling me my mobile phone, I was informed, amidst his many chuckles, that it was pronounced "Lester." Oh. Obviously. Lester.
Other than that, things have been going exceedingly well. Although I did walk out into traffic last night when we were coming back with supper. Oops. Uncle David's mantra of "look right, look right, look right" just doesn't seem to be sticking.
Looking forward to seeing Sarah & Kristian, meeting his parents & seeing some of the Norwegian landscape this weekend! Here's to hoping I 1)make it to the airport on the train successfully--it's my first trip solo and my first trip on the train system, period and 2)by the time I return, I'm living in my own apartment! Also...if I have an address, it will be much easier for my parents, and loving friends, to mail me some decent coffee. I'm still holding out hope I can find a decent cafe around Northampton. Stay tuned for updates. Trust me. When I find a decent cup of coffee, my shouts of joy will be heard across the Atlantic. If all else fails, I will have to replace coffee with Irish cider for my morning wake-up.
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