Taste of Norway part five (As taken from Facebook)

Hi guys,

I had a very strange and wonderful evening last night. I was lucky enough to be invited to Ingrid's brothers birthday party (he's 30 now poor soul), which turned out to be very enlightening. Imagine it. 15 people, friends and close family, each one knows at least two languages. Three of them know around five. Here I was with my two: English and baaaad English.
Thankfully they didnt always speak in English for me. Why am I being thankful? Simply this, I want to learn. It can be done, but the trouble for us English speaking folk lies in the fact that most Europeon countries teach English as a second language and do it properly!
I'm glad they were reluctant to dum it all down for me, not because I was a guest but because I should know another language. I shouldn't simply sit down and say 'well they know English so I don't need to bother.' I had a fantastic conversation with three individuals: Nico, a Haitian who learnt English to speak to his now wife, who knows french, creol and Norwegian. Sigsbjeorn (Hi bestefar!), an academic in languages who knew more about the history of language than I thought possible. And, finally, Bernard: A French man who despite being funny and incurably charismatic was still French, so I have to beat him at Trivial pursuit (apparently about as likely as me competing in the high jump.) Oh Bernard knew about at least three languages, so I have to learn three now too... Viv la France....;)
Point is, I saw a world beyond and I wonder whether (as a good friend Roy Calder once said), that British culture makes us self depreciate ourselves. Make us unable to achieve, go further. I'm beginning to see what he was taking about.
If you have never done it and you still can (i.e. dependents depending), then get out there and get somewhere else, anywhere. If not to see what that place is like then to compare it to home and see what home is "really" like.

Later the next day I was out at the viking ship museum, looking at three vessels over 1000 years old and the single solid evidence we have about the infamous vikings. Its amazing how much we apparently know about them came from so little. Thank god I had my camcorder with me.
I also noticed the air is dry here, maybe thats why they call it 'Norwegian formula hand cream?' :)

ANyway, that's my nightly rant for today.
Thanks for reading.
Rik. (Jeg Hetair Rik! Jeg er Britisk! I HATE CRABS LISA STOP SAYING IT!) :)
xxx