NBA Finals 2013 and Maintaining one's American-ness Abroad

After living abroad for a year and a half (give or take a few months), the one thing that an ex-pat starts to feel is a disconnect with their homeland.

I'm not saying it's an absolute truth, it's just something that I've learned.

There are a few times I will do an overwhelmingly American thing (eat a greasy burger with my hands, drink a beer in public with no shirt on, impose my will on a small country... I kid) just as a reminder to myself that "hey, idiot!  You're an American!"

I say all of that to say that, last night, I stayed up until 6am to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals (The championship for those of you who don't know).

While I'm not particularly a NBA fan (I have no favorite team and have only been to a half dozen actual, pro games), it felt like something that was important.  It was only the fifth time the title-deciding series had gone to the last game.  Plus, the world's best player (Lebron James) was battling against the player that most embodied stoicism and old-school efficiency (Tim Duncan).

The only hang-up was that the game started at 9:00pm east coast time, which made it 3:00 am Norway time.

That's a lot of lines between the East Coast and Central Europe

To prepare for the evening, I did what any good American would do.  I loaded up on caffeine drinks and alcohol just like the last time I decided to watch an American, sporting event after hours.

The hardest thing isn't the actual staying up (you just don't go to sleep), but the hours preceding the event.  What do you do?  I watched a movie (an ill-fated choice as I watched the incredibly underwhelming Seeking A Friend For the End of the World), I tried to watch that Bill Maher show (but that's sorta hard after he got sonn'd by Wayne Brady)...  Afterwards, I just watched Russell Brand do Russell Brand-y things and Amy Schumer be awkward.

Tangent.  Sorry.  Re-directing.  Re-directing

Anyway, soon, it was game time.  I was double fisting and had my browser tuned to NBA UK and my twitter feed primed in another window.  

20 min before game time, prediction time... Heat by 5. Btw, sun about to come up here in #Norway 2:40am #nbafinals pic.twitter.com/ut3FJ1wMMf
—  (@boomerOSLO) June 21, 2013

The game didn't disappoint.

Both teams battled fiercely, though, not always making for the prettiest basketball, but it was a memorable game.  I was only off by 2 points as the Heat won back-to-back titles.

However, it wasn't just the game that made the whole evening worthwhile.  The lack of sleep and energy drink induced rapid heart rate was vindicated by the feeling I got reading tweets and refreshing my Facebook newsfeed and seeing all my countrymen's comments.  We were all sharing in a collective experience at the same exact time.

We were connected.

The distance between here and where I grew up is a little over 6000 kilometers, but it felt like I transcended it for a few hours in the early, Scandinavian morning.

ALT FOR NORGE

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The return of plus degrees

In America, there are countless signs that Spring is approaching.  Baseball season starts, college kids violating State of Florida ordinances while at Spring Break, warmer temperatures, etc.

Alas, only one of those are present here in Norway (well, two... but one is well-known).

That's right, it's getting warmer.

For those of you that are too cool for metric (Hey, America... what up?), the idea of "plus degrees" (you know, above zero) may seem like its radically cold here.  However, all it means is that the weather is consistently above 32 Fahrenheit (yeah, Norway isn't a windbreaker-in-March place).

Which means the snow is melting giving us a view of all that dead grass and a smell of all the rotting leaves (leaf removal is not a priority).

BUT, as last year has taught me, after that is washed away by the rain (April showers bring May showers), things start perking up.

(Here's how you know you live in a cold place, when you Google for spring pictures, the overwhelming majority have snow in them)

Just seeing this picture, and waking up to the third straight day above 0 (2, if you're scoring at home) makes me ready to go grilling in the park.  Which is a national pastime here.  As soon as the first patches of brown-green turf emerge from the receding ice and decomposed leaves, Norwegians will throw a blanket on it and fire up the grill.  Don't let it get in the teens...

That's when the party starts... while it doesn't quite get as turned up as it does in the States

The party can jump off...

Well, maybe it does get a little crazier here.

Alt for Norge

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Follow me on Twitter: @BoomerOSLO

Buy my non-Norway based book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-New-Normal-ebook/dp/B008M0GPW2

You can get with this... or you can get with that

Norway isn't Sweden.

Norway, also, isn't America.


I don't know if I've made that fact clear over the eight or so months of this blog (save the summer vacation break).

The two countries are different, not radically different (yeah, the whole "different language" thing jumps out at you...), but different (but, Norway and America are WAY similar than Belgium and the good ol' USA).

It's not a bad thing (something I had to remind myself early on...), but it can lead to a lot of "Wait.  What?" moments.


For Example:

Numerous items in supermarkets are sold based on weight (i.e. Carrots cost 51 kroner a kilogram), not that much different than in the states (well, carrots wouldn't run like $4 a pound unless you were in Alaska, but I digress).  However, in Norwegian supermarkets, there are no scales to ascertain how much one has procured of said product.  I didn't realize this the first time I went to a Norwegian supermarket and proceeded to walk around the store for like twenty minutes searching for a scale.  I ended up almost sending six apples through the bread slicer (if you're scoring at home, yes... there's a fancy, bread slicer, but no scale).  It wasn't like I wanted to only buy 60 kroner worth of apples, I was curious how many grams equaled six apples (approx. 720 grams).  A buddy of mine just chalked it up to the "Norwegian way", but I have definitely seen people sneaking scales into the supermarket.

Whatever.  I've adapted by guessing the weight and, when I'm right, I break out the Anne Hathaway...

Fine, something non-food related...

Alcohol cost more in Norway.

Though, its not to say that all the differences are bad or annoying.

Here is an Oslo, city bus

It is cleaner and runs on a vastly more efficient system than virtually every major city bus I've rode in the states (NYC, Baltimore, DC, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia).  A lot of the bus lines (particularly the one I frequently ride) run 24-hours a day.

Additionally, there is a flat rate for Bus, Subway, and Light Rail (all vastly cleaner and efficient) so there's no figuring out if you have enough on your travel card (I think NYC is also the same and I know the bus and subway in Baltimore are the same, but who takes those?).

Anyway, the longer I live here, the more I appreciate what makes Norway unique and cool (speaking of cool, it snowed twice in the past week... Fall doesn't linger here).  It's a special place with a lot of interesting food and culture.  Writing this blog has been my way to share with you all how fortunate I feel to be having this experience...

Instead of sharing more sweet and corny sentiments, I'm just going to post another funny, norway related .gif

ALT FOR NORGE

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tilbakken

So yeah... you're probably like "wait... didn't there use to be awesome blog entries on this page like twice a month?" (well, a boy can dream...).  You're right.  I took a break.  Like from Norway.  I was in exile in America (details aren't really all that interesting or uncommon), but now I'm back.

Were they happy to see me?

You could say so...

In any case, I thought I'd shape my first return entry with what I did in America.  However, I figured that would be antithetical of what this blog should be about (really, it wasn't that much fun), I started writing this to detail about how I found the moods of Norway.  So, I returned earlier this week and, like the two times before, I immediately became sick.

Not like, sick sick, but sick enough that my stomach felt like Prince Harry was throwing a party inside it.  Before, I had chalked it up to excitement (my first time!!) or stopping over in Iceland, but this time there was no direct cause (of course I was excited, stay with me here).  I decided to start looking in to a red thread... a similarity between each of the trips.  Finally, after ruling out the insane (global conspiracy to force me to stay in America where I will become a manchurian candidate and bring about world war 3) and the plausible (air pollution withdrawal), I figured it either came down to my girlfriend making me sick (I'm allergic to adorableness!) or the one thing I'd had each time. Water.  That's right, in an ironic twist, the most essential thing I needed was making me sick.

A short search confirmed my fears.  Over 22 percent of the water pipes were made between 1941 and 1970s?!?  Imagine how far technology has come sense then!  Would you trust your life to a car made between 1941 and 1970s everyday on your commute to and from work?  This is awful!!  I'm going to need a Brita and to boil the water I bathe myself in.  Or maybe a britta filter to tape to the shower head.

What's this?  A detailed study and it says that the "22% water pipe" thing refers to an estimate done in 2010, and, of those pipes, the majority are secondary piping in rural regions and, subsequently, there have been over 10,000 projects a year to fix the problem.

Oh.

Maybe I am allergic to adorableness after all.

Alt for Norge

Quirky Bands and Fresh Air

The above is a promotion for a homegrown band here in Oslo.  Yes, their name really is "Turbonegro", and yes, when I first became aware of them I was slightly offended and confused (more confused, namely because that awareness came in the way of a block long ad, in all black, that just read "TURBONEGRO!" which lead to a frantic google search when I got home).  However, after doing more research (their music isn't bad for punk-death metal... which isn't nearly as backhanded as I meant it to be.  "All my Friends are Dead" is probably my favorite track).  They seem to be seemingly self-aware and not very racist (though, I mean, I didn't actually call any of them and most PR material is shaped to be accessible... I like giving the benefit of the doubt), and I respect them for sticking to their guns and not changing their name even though it would've (probably) led to more distribution in... well, everywhere that isn't the latin world (Luis Suarez is reading this and nodding glumly... sorry, that's my English Premier League joke for this entry).

Anyway, Turbonegro is the perfect embodiment of the, seemingly prevalent here, unintentionally funny comedy (Fine, I will give you an example,  "Founding member Thomas Seltzer once said, "A turbonegro is a large, well-equipped, armed black male in a fast car, out for vengeance. We are his prophets."")

The above is a common occurrence here in Oslo throughout the winter... Yes, people will leave their UNATTENDED strollers (barnevogn, for my my Norsk speaking friends) outside of houses/restaurants/IKEAs/Hos Bakeri/etc.  If you think that's crazy, its not uncommon for these UNATTENDED monstrosities on wheels (seriously, they're much larger than their American counterparts)  to be left WITH THE BABY STILL INSIDE!!  Now, to get an idea of just how cold winters in Oslo can get, a mother here told me that she doesn't leave her baby out once the temperature hits -5 Celsius [23 Farenheit], because that's too cold!  


Why do they do this?  


Well, this city is very trusting and crime isn't really that big of a deal (mainly because of the generous social services and microscopic unemployment rate... I was walking down the street today and two shop employees were standing befuddled in the street and were discussing a man who had just ran out of their shop with hundreds of dollars in unpaid merchandise.  Bystanders were pointing in which direction the guy went, but, when they found out the guy was "running", the employees decided it wasn't worth pursuit.  Yes, I'm serious) and Norwegians believe the fresh air is good for the child's lungs/breathing (the air quality is a touch better than most of the US).


But still... 


oh, today was the warmest day since I've been here, a balmy +3 degrees celsius (that's 42 Farenheit if you're scoring at home).  Norwegians decided to celebrate by taking up outdoor seating at all the cafes around town... Spring is on the way!


Rap lyric I'd incorporate into a song if I were a rapper:
Tryin' me a bad idea, indeed/Like callin' a Norwegian a Swede 

endless waiting and human mario kart

Two things of note:

1)  Oslo is constantly under construction (much in the same way as Baltimore and Washington D.C., yet those two places at least have signs explaining why and when things are "projected" to get better.  In fact, some Maryland signs are a little too forthright).

I bring this up about Oslo because my daily tram ride has been altered due to this being turned into this, yet, strangely, they're leaving this.  Ok, so it doesn't look entirely like they're searching for buried treasure, but  a good two blocks of tram tracks and road have been reduced to rubble.  I'm all about proper, urban maintenance after having lived in the aforementioned Baltimore and Washington D.C. (both having recently had, uhmm, problems with infrastructure in recent years).

Oh well, such is the cost of progress... Not to mention that they're building some really cool things.


2) The best benefit of Oslo's incessant winter has been an opportunity for me to engage in more winter sports. So far, I have been Cross country skiing and walking to the grocery store, uphill, on sidewalks covered entirely with ice.  However, this past weekend, I went toe-to-toe with Korketrekkeren.  Its 2.5 kilometers of downhill terrain covered in snow, ice, and fury that can only be traversed on a metal sled (toboggan, if you will).  Honestly, the only thing that I can compare it to is "a human version of mario kart".  It feels like you're going so fast (clearly, even more so than that video as you won't be holding a camera while doing so).  The whole setting is awesome, too.  Korketrekkeren is on the same mountain they use for ski jump (same as the 1992 Winter Games... in fact, the course wraps around the actual jump).  The metro drops you off right at the starting point and the bottom of the run is at another metro stop so you can just ride back up to the top.  Additionally, there's sled and helmet rental (yes, helmet rental... strongly advised, but not mandatory).  If that doesn't convince you how awesome this thing is, here's my favorite video related to it (which Norwegians insist on calling "sledging").

I'm going back again Saturday!

Rap lyric I'd incorporate into a song if I were a rapper:
You lame and lack, your game for the birds/ You rarely get Ws like Norsk words