A life in the merde

Going home

Yet another week has passed and yet again in the airport and this time on route back home.

Had a chat with some friends at Ralphs yesterday and the term “home” came up. As with more of my international friends we found the term somewhat ambiguous. Right now home refers to a well of destinations.

Home is Norway in general, I am Norwegian and will Norway will always be home. In particular Trondheim where I still have my things and also Oslo where my parents live.

Home is also Brussels, where I actually spend most of my time. It is a very nice city and as I now have plenty of friends here it will be sad to leave at some point… Belgium is a nice country, friendly people and Brussels is a very international city.

Home is also Antibes-Les-Pins where I have my registered address and where I am officially employed. I like France, the only thing it lacks is the right people. However, I am making an effort to import some of them for the weekends

So, this week home to Nice, next week home to Trondheim and in between I will be home in Brussels.

And there they are calling my flight, so long, see you at home!
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1 comment May 10th, 2007

Lasting impressions

This weekend has left some lasting impressions.

As you might know I am a Christian, but for some reason I think this is the first post on religion in my blog. This weekend I went to Stockholm to attend a meeting arranged by the community of Taizé (www.taize.fr) and various Swedish churches. And now, after the weekend I have so many things to blog about that I don’t really know where to start…

First of all, one of the themes of the weekend has been to discover what God wants for our lives and how He tells us. One of the things I found really helpful in my life is looking back and recognizing how God have worked in my life.

Thursday I was reminded of this Taizé-meeting by a friends, I got a simple SMS asking when I would arrive in Stockholm. I had of course forgotten that I even planned going there and had originally planned staying at home enjoying Brussels spring and not going at all. But the reminder, God working through people, made me consider changing my mind. And after some hesitation I ordered my tickets and suddenly found myself on an airplane to Stockholm with a phone number of a Swedish girl whom I had never met and apparently was going to share host-family with.

I find this hesitation to be one of the ways I can recognize Gods will, strange as it might seem. Looking back in my own life and looking at the Bible most great choices are accompanied with this doubt. “Is this really what I want, can I really do this, will it really be worth it?” are questions that turn up again and again and in retrospect I am happy to have made the right choice, even though doubting and hesitating.

Then arriving in Stockholm, being met by a total stranger and then taken to a host family with a single mother and her four year old child. My host had simply read about this Taizé-meeting in a newspaper and then decided to open her home to us, out of curiosity both of us and of what we believe in. Again, another impression of Gods work in the world, working through people and giving this inner desire to discover more of Him, regardless of where you are in life.

I am not going to mention more on the Taizé-prayers and the actual meeting, this was also very nice, but this weekend it was two other events that gave the lasting impressions.

The first was in church this morning, again I had low expectations. We where going to a Swedish church to take part in a service with confirmation, baptism and Holy Communion. Normally such services are boring (yes, even Christians can find services boring) and I definitely got surprised.

The confirmants had prepared a part each on what had touched then during their preparations and I must say that I got amazingly surprised. One of the girls talked about the simplest of things, why she wanted to be a Christian and why she wanted to belong to the Swedish church. She gave her witness with an amazing clarity and a smile on her face and I again this weekend I could see how people get touched by God and how they again can touch the people they meet. I do not remember the details of what she said, but the main message was her honest wish to be recognized as a Christian by her acts, and not by her words and her wished for the Swedish church and its community. Another reminder for me, I will keep it my heart for a long time.

So no, if you ever hesitate you know what to do.

2 comments May 6th, 2007

Life on cruise control - feeling the flow

Last couple of weeks things have been picking up, both at work and socially, and now life is officially on cruise control. Once the train starts rolling it just goes on and the options are getting limited.

If you don’t do anything life progresses rapidly, you get a lot of work done, meet a lot of new people and get little sleep and almost no time to relax. The fun part is that you never know what is going to happen, the disadvantage is that you don’t get to decide Working in flow-mode is excellent, you get a lot of things done, time just flies by and genereally quality is high. Social life however tends to suffer slightly.

The other alternative is to jump off, and break the rythm. This weekend I have left the Brussels-train and are off to Stockholm and a Taizé-gathering. Taizé, for those who do not know it, is a small monestary close to Lyon in France and the focus of the gathering is prayer and reflection. Quite a HUGE difference from my current life, but I am really looking forward to a reality check to stop and see where I am actually headed in my life and perhaps make some adjustments.

The change is going to particularly huge as today has been a crazy day at work with lots and lots of document review and really focused work. The day ended by waiting nervously for a taxi to the airport that never arrived and finally jumping into the car of another taxi driver that resembled the one in the Taxi movies. Traffic to the airport was crazy, but we still did it 15 minutes faster than our collegues that left half an hour earlier. Then arriving at the airport, rushing to meet up with some friends, discovering another friend at the gate who is also going to Stockholm, calling my hosts and now slowly transitioning into the Taize rythm (going to find the iPod with my Taizé song collection once I finish this entry).

So, where are you going today and what train are you on?

Signing off from the skies above europe.

Add comment May 6th, 2007

When is the time to get off the bandwagon?

Define irony: writing a post on when it is time to end the travelling life and settle down while sitting in an overfilled low-cost flight with some idiot in front of me who insists on leaning the seat as far back as it goes.

Yesterday I was out for a few drinks with my colleagues, some which have seen ten years of this life. A number of great experiences, meeting new people, doing interesting work, seeing new places, learning about new cultures all while earning a decent salary. However, the flipside is delayed flights in crammed airports, crying babies on a Monday morning while you try to get some sleep, the feeling of having no friends on a Friday night in a foreign city and trying to figure out what to call home. Which brings the great question we all ask, what is the escape plan and when to execute it?

I think this life is like a drug; extremely rewarding and interesting while you are high and devastatingly bad when you realize you never managed to quit in time (no, I am not into drugs, never tried any and never will).

For me I don’t know when and where to go, but after some time in the company and knowing a number of expats I think I know some of the things to look for.

The first one is the easiest, a friend and colleagues once said “You will travel until you find a woman that holds you so tight that you cannot travel anymore”. He is now settled down in London, at least almost settled down. And he is not the only one; I actually think that a considerable amount of attrition at our office is due to boys and girls holding their loved ones to tight for them to travel anymore.

The second sign is when you are no longer able to keep in touch with your friends and family. Keeping up with everyone requires a lot, sacrificing a quiet relaxin

A life in the merde

Norwegians

Going home

Lasting impressions

Life on cruise control - feeling the flow

When is the time to get off the bandwagon?