From Newark airport you can see Manhattan. Which, apart from my train ride to Boston, was as close as I got...
On Friday I was 23 years old, I was in the United States, and I was preparing to leave after my three months stay. Today, Monday, I’m 24, I’m in (snowy) Norway, I’ve had a great weekend with my family and it hardly feels like I’ve been away at all (except for the unpacked suitcase that I try to ignore). I’m not even all that jetlagged – I don’t think my body ever got used to the East Coast time zone, so adjusting it back wasn’t all that hard. In fact I think it’s harder for me now to adjust to the fact that I am a lot further north – this primarily has two consequences.
First of all, it’s colder. I mentioned we had snow today. It stopped a few hours ago, but it’s still white out (it probably will stay till the morning, then I expect it’ll all melt). Now, I like snow (at least on this side of Christmas), so I’m okay with this. I also have a new coat that I couldn’t use in the US (too warm), so I’m also okay with lower temperatures.
The other result of being further north is that it’s a lot darker here. It started getting dark at 4p.m. this afternoon (“the blue hour” – fall and winter twilight makes the whole world blue), and by 5 p.m. it was pitch dark. I guess this also helps with convincing my body it’s not midday, so perhaps I have winter darkness to thank for lack of jetlag. It also allows nice, cozy evenings in front of the fireplace. Let’s hope it won’t give me too much “darkness depressions” – usually I find spring before actually spring starts worse in that respect so I might be okay for now.
It is also dawning on me that now that I am back, it is time to return to my daily life. I’ve had a ton of greetings from friends, asking me when I’ll be back in Oslo (I’m currently residing with my parents in my hometown, in case I didn’t mention that). It’s very nice to feel so appreciated. The truth is, though, that I haven’t thought that much about when I’ll go back yet. Actually, I don’t even have a place to stay. (I have options, but nothing settled.) Since I ideally ought to get cracking on my thesis again pretty damn soon, there is no time to lose in getting back to Oslo (plus I want to see my friends). However, it is pretty darned comfortable being here, having my meals made, my clothes washed and no rent to pay. Still, I can’t have such luxury forever.
Finally, NaNoWriMo is on. I signed up not really believing I could do it, and I still don’t know if I can. But by now I’ve decided that I do want to make an effort. So far (2460 words) it’s crappy, but I know that it will get better once get further into the actual plot. The problem right now is that my back story doesn’t match the character, which eventually will mean I re-write the back story, but at the moment it’s too integrated in the main action for me to care, and in true NaNo spirit, I’ve decided to limit edits in favour of word count.
The view from my bedroom window this afternoon. I told you there was snow!
6 comments:
Aw, your snow is beautiful! Ours always looks a mess...
If I were you, I'd want to stay with my parents too. I can't remember the last time I had meals cooked for me and when I didn't have to spend hours washing and ironing clothes.*sighs*
And I agree on the NaNo thing, as long as the words make some sort of sense, it doesn't matter if they aren't brilliant. It's the word count that, er, counts :)
I think the direction you flew makes the transition easier, too. I get jetlag far worse flying west than east.
I don't think I could handle snow already. The blustery wind has be plenty irritable... (rain I can live with).
And yes--NaNo's POINT is to teach us to all just keep plodding along... editing is for making it pretty. So glad you are getting started, and good luck finding a place to stay!
Snow is the most inspiring weather. Snow snow snow, write write write!
The best thing about writing über-quickly is that your true talents, interests and idiosyncracies bleed everywhere. It's MESSY.
I want to see blood on the snow! Good luck with the NanoMoFo... thingy.
We don't get much snow here in NC, so I'd find the snow wayyyy too distracting to be able to do NaNo. Sounds like you're doing really well so far!
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Lovely picture. We get snow in NYC but not until January and February. We would like a good Christmas snow but somehow we rarely get it.
I also get jetlagged but like Tart, it's when I fly west not east.
I joined Nanowrimo. *dies* Let's see how it goes. If I even add half the end month word count, I am a happy woman. So far, 1931. Not bad for one day.
Tara - snow's all gone now, I'm afraid, and all we've got left is fog :(
Tami - this may be the case for me too. It's always been that way, at any rate, but I always figured it was because I when I was travelling to Japan I had an incentive to adjust, while when I got home I could relax and allow myself to be jetlagged. This time, however, it's the other way around, so that's probably not it.
Mark - not sure if I can promise any blod on the snow (seeing as the snow is gone), but MESSY it is...
Elizabeth - no point in finding snow distracting here. Half of the year, we'd never get anything done (I'm exaggerating - normally we have (real) snow from ca December to about March)
Chary - good for you that you joined! I agree with you that the point is much more to have a word count, than what the word count actually is. I just remembered my thesis again... Ideally I should write about 20 pages (aka 9000 words) on that in November too... And there I cannot make things up as I go...
What's your nanoname, by the way? Buddy me if you like - I'm CruellaCollett :)
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