Home is where The Needle is

I just heard it was the Space Needle's 50th birthday a few days ago, wow! While I'm super glad and thankful to have to the opportunity to live in another place, I still love and miss my city. Not the city itself, but the familiarity and the people in it that have made it home. And Dick's burgers, I miss those too. Ah, sacrifices.

Asian Me and the Space Needle, circa 2006

I've been here eight, almost nine months, and lately a visit home before next year sounds nice. I have no idea if that will happen, but if the opportunity arose, why not? I wouldn't say I'm homesick, just that I'm a little nostalgic for America right now. I'm coming to grips with the fact that, though it would be cool to be purely Norwegian, I am an American, and can't just erase that from my being. The U.S. can seem strange and foreign when you're away for a while, which is probably a good thing to experience, but it's also OK to miss it. It's home, and home is always a special place.


A few Americans I've met are dying to get back stateside, but I feel pretty un-homesick compared to most of them. I think that has to do with a several things, like learning to be content wherever I am and not worrying about what I would be doing were I somewhere else. Living here means developing familiarity with a new place and relationships with new people. These things take time to do, but before my eyes, I have a second home. Even though I am focused on life here, I really look forward to seeing my family and good friends once again, whenever that happens. I keep imagining how special, yet hopefully normal, it will be. It will be exciting to see what's the same and what's changed, with them and me.


Even though I probably won't be back soon, something just as good is happening: Home is coming to me! Next weekend I will get my first visit in Norway from someone back home. My cousin, Kirsten, and her husband will be in Oslo on partly work-related matters, and I get to hang out with them for a few days. I'm excited about that, to be able to see them in person and catch up, and for them to experience a little bit of Norway. Should be a good time, a great time if they could smuggle a hot Dick's Deluxe across the borders.