[segunda-feira, maio 02, 2005]

Desde semana passada, quando teve a festinha na Embaixada da Noruega, eu tenho andado meio nostálgica. Todo mundo tá cansado de saber o quanto eu amo a Noruega e os noruegueses, e sinto a maior falta daquele lugar (que ganhou 1º lugar no Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano por três anos consecutivos, diga-se de passagem). Mas têm algumas coisas culturais muito engraçadas sobre eles, e hoje eu consegui achar o email que citava algumas dessas diferenças.

You know you've been in Norway too long when:

1: Manners
* You can't remember when to say "please" and "excuse me"
* You always prepare to catch the closing door if following too closely behind somebody
* You know that envy is a stronger driving force than sex
* When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that:
a. he is a drunk
b. he is insane
c. he is American
d. he is all of the above
* You are always on time.
* You have only two facial expressions, smiling or blank.
* You think riding a racing bike in the snow is a perfectly sensible thing to do (with or without snowtires).
* You will leave a pub if you can't find a seat.
* You don't mind paying the same for a 200 metre bus ride as you do for going 10 kms.
* You don't fall over when walking on ice.
* You know at least five different words describing different kinds of snow.

2: Social life
* Silence is fun.
* You use "Mmmm" as conversation filler (a sharp intake of breath has become part of your active vocabulary)
* You only buy your own drink at the bar even when you take a girl out
* It's acceptable to eat lunch at 11.00 and dinner at 16.00
* The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is look for the queue number machine.
* You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number.

3: Beverage
* You find yourself more interested in the alcohol content than in the name of the wine.
* You associate Friday afternoon with a trip to Vinmonopolet, Norway's state owned liquor store
* You think nothing of paying 400 NOK for a bottle of cheap liquor at Vinmonopolet.
* It no longer seems expensive to spend 800 NOK on drinks one night. (did you get it, $100 USD)

4: Cuisine
* You think it's acceptable to wrap your hotdog in a cold pancake
* You associate warm rice porridge with Saturday and Xmas-eve
* You eat whale more as a principle than for the taste of it
* You wrap two slices of dark bread with cheese in a piece of paper every day, bring it to work, and call it lunch
* You can prepare fish in five different ways without cooking it.

5: Recreation
* It is great to spend a week in a small wooden cottage up in the mountains, with no running water and no electricity
* An outside temperature of 9 degrees Celsius is mild (in mid June)
* You know when to use Blue and Red ski wax.
* It seems sensible that the age limit at Oslo night clubs is 25
* You think cross-country skiing is the only "real" skiing
* You rummage through your plastic bottles collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to the recycling center.

6: Dress code
* You think there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing
* You wear sandals with socks
* Rubber boots go well with the evening gown
* You don't look twice at business men in dark suite wearing white sport socks
* It feels natural to carry a backpack to the movie theater - and everywhere else * Your front door step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop.
* Your wardrobe no longer has suites but blue shirts and mustard coloured sports jackets.
* You have more than one scarf
* You have more than one hat and at least one of them has ear flaps.

7: International relations
* You find yourself speaking semi-Swedish with Swedes
* You can't understand why foreigners haven't heard about Bjørn Dæhlie (cross country skier)
* You know Norway's results in the European Song Contest for the last three years
* You start to believe that if it wasn't for Norway's efforts the world would probably collapse pretty soon
* Whenever they talk about soccer with a brazilian they remember that they only played against Brazil three times, and won them all. So, they believe their team is better than the brazilian one.
* Your English has seriously deteriorated; you begin to "eat medicine" and "hire videos"

Finally:
* You know that the meaning of life has something to do with the word "koselig" (cozy).