The Thinker

A couple of more observations about European life while I'm thinking about it.

Have you ever stood at the side of the road and cursed the cars as they drove by, no one stopping to let you go, and no expectation that they should?Ya just gotta wait. Well....here the expectation is that if a pedestrian is set to cross the road and sets foot in the crosswalk, you better stop. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that it wasn't some sort of trick and they were luring me into a false sense of security. Sometimes I would just lean toward the road to see if the drivers would stop before really committing myself. The flip side of this scenario is that if you are driving you better pay attention because these people will just step out into the road. So far, so good.

I don't think it is stating the obvious, but I haven't seen one Hummer, Escalade, Suburban, or big old Dodge truck. I have, however, seen a couple of these.

If the people that I am living with here in Norway don't need some big old SUV, why does anyone? Snowy, mountainy (is that a word?), rainy...you name it, they have it here. Seems the little cars are doing just fine handling everything Norway can throw at them.