I wrote this email as we were getting ready to leave but hit "save" instead of "post" so it is a little behind. I did update it though with how our travel day went.
Well, we are headed to the airport. So excited and yet also a bit sad to be heading home. Yesterday when I was coming back from Hilde's house I couldn't help but think it was the last Oslo bus I'd ride and the last time I would walk past all the shops on our street. I was getting a little sentimental.
Overall we had a great experience. There were things that were hard, frustrating or just different. But, we learned a lot about ourselves as we basically moved to a city where we knew no one and started over, if only for 3 months.
I feel like I made some true friends which I did not really expect. I will really miss them. I will miss certain aspects of urban living though I do look forward to having a yard and a car again.
I am not sure that we ever would want to move overseas for a long term assignment but it was a fun adventure for three months of our life.
As you are reading this, we are either at the airport or on the plane. Please pray for our day. I am dreading it.
Update: Well our day of travel was pretty uneventful considering we were traveling with a toddler. We had a great stay in our hotel. There was a wonderful buffet breakfast which was more than the usual toast and sandwich meat and cheese served as a Scandinavian breakfast. We ate as much as we could knowing that we would be surviving on airplane food for the rest of the day.
We saw online that our flight to Newark would be leaving an hour late so we took our time walking across the street to the airport. We figured we would rather spend the hour at our hotel than in the airport. That ended up being a little mistake as we were the last people to check in and even though there was a long line in front of us it seemed to be a problem for the workers. In the Oslo airport we changed most of our money back to dollars, got a few drinks and went to the gate. We had our tickets and passport checked five times between arriving and boarding.
It was a smaller plane for international travel with only 3 seats on each side of the aisle. We were not able to get a bulkhead row so it was a bit of a struggle to get the carseat in and to keep Katherine from constantly kicking the seat in front of her. Our flight left at noon and was 8 hours long so it was not really when you would be sleeping. Katherine did take a 2 hour nap. She really did well though she was active.
In Newark we cleared customs, rechecked our bags and traveled to the new terminal and gate. By this time it was past Katherine's bedtime. Did she sleep - NO! She was wired and wanting to run all over the airport. Our flight was delayed an our which made things worse. Luckily as soon as we got on the plane she fell asleep and slept the entire flight.
At the airport we were met by my mom and our good friends Jen and Richard. All of our suitcases arrived (unlike when we went to Oslo). When we got home, Hooligan was very excited to see us (be watching for a video in the future). Our friends who stayed in our house were still here so Katherine had fun playing with Jaden, Caleb and Andrew as well as all of her toys. It was like Christmas morning.
It is good to be home and to sleep in our own beds!
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