Lately, I shuffle around Oslo and the streets feel familiar. Already.
It might seem an exageration given that I arrived 28 days ago.
This feeling of "familiarity" is partly due to the city being small, cozy. My mental map of Oslo is simple and that helps my exploration of the city. But the feeling of familiarity in a foreign city is also a personal choice. You choose to embrace your new town. And this is something I have done every time I moved around (this is the eighth country I live in, including Costa Rica). One has to adapt to the new ecosystem. Not adapting is the road to unhappiness.
(Many times, I heard the bitter complains of some foreigners who moved to Costa Rica which left me wonder why they moved there in the first place...!).
This week, for instance, I came out of the gym at 10.30pm look at the sky.
It might seem an exageration given that I arrived 28 days ago.
This feeling of "familiarity" is partly due to the city being small, cozy. My mental map of Oslo is simple and that helps my exploration of the city. But the feeling of familiarity in a foreign city is also a personal choice. You choose to embrace your new town. And this is something I have done every time I moved around (this is the eighth country I live in, including Costa Rica). One has to adapt to the new ecosystem. Not adapting is the road to unhappiness.
(Many times, I heard the bitter complains of some foreigners who moved to Costa Rica which left me wonder why they moved there in the first place...!).
But there is a unique moment of the day when the Oslo sky makes me feel disoriented. It is the un-familiar time of the day when I realise that I am new to Oslo, to Norway, to Scandinavia and that moment occurs when the day wants the end but the skies refuse to go dark.
This week, for instance, I came out of the gym at 10.30pm look at the sky.
 |
| 10.30 at night. |
The exotic color of the sky gets better around midnight then it keeps changing until 1am, 2am, 3am... it
just does not become dark and I am just not used to it. But I like it.
