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I took to a trip back to Stavanger about a week and a half ago…it was my first time back in 13 years.  13 Years!  It’s hard to believe that part of my life existed so long ago.  My friend Parul, who I met when I was in high school there that long ago, was going home for a surprise party for her dad’s 60th birthday and suggested I come along.  We left London in time to reach there on Sunday afternoon.  We went straight to her brother’s house to get ready and then headed to a Turkish restaurant in town where the party was being held.  There were probably about 40 people there, which is about half the population of Stavanger….kidding (it is only a town of about 500,000 though).  Needless to say, her dad was quite surprised when he walked in to a bunch of screaming lunatics armed with confetti-filled party favors.  He got another surprise later on when the the belly dancers showed up and dragged him on to the dance floor!  Somehow, I didn’t think he minded though.  We were there until about 2am before heading home and crashing. 

The next day was fairly lazy…we went for drive toward Frafjord. I guess I used to take it for granted as a kid, but the scenic views really are breathtaking.  Stavanger doesn’t tend to get much sun, so we when we did see the clouds part we would end up going for long drives and stopping for picnics.  Some of the places we stopped at, I remembered having visited long before….which is amazing as most of you know my memory isn’t my strong point! When we got home that evening, we arrived at the house and thought someone was blaring the stereo in one of the rooms…it turns out that some students live nearby, and had set up a tent and were having a party.  The music was so loud that being in the house felt like being in a club!  They were celebrating in anticipation of the 17th of May, which is Norway’s Constitution Day.   Usually the night of the 16th is a big party night.  Knowing that we wouldn’t have gotten any sleep anyway, we grabbed a bottle of wine and decided to crash the party.  Of course, we arrived to see a bunch of teenagers getting plastered…that’s when I started to feel old.  We hung out for a while, and would occasionally rush back to the house to thaw out or get more alcohol.  Then the cops came and shut down the party saying they were getting complaints from 10km away.  We were standing around hoping they would start the party again when we met some random Norwegian guys who happened to be close to our age and started talking to them.  Of course I can’t remember any of their names.  Needless to say, by the time we got home it was 4am.

The next day we went into town and watched the parades.  When I was in high school, we used to walk in the morning parade.  It’s a tradition that everyone walks in the parade….so our whole school went, all 400 of us from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  Since we went in the afternoon, we didn’t see any of the schools, just a lot of the sports clubs, and associations.  I recognized some of the clubs we played against in basketball and volleyball.  In the evening we went to a family friend’s house for dinner and then headed home.

On Wednesday we went downtown and walked around…the town center hadn’t changed much.  I saw the old movie hall we used to go watch movies in…back then we would pay about 50 kroner to see a movie, which is about $9, so it’s certainly not a cheap country.  My dad just happened to be flying in that day for meetings (it’s hard to believe that this is his idea of retirement), so we picked him up from hotel in the afternoon.  We went and saw our old house on Rodstilkveien….we used to the get the most amazing view of the sun setting from our living room.  Afterward, we went to ISS to have a look around the school.  When we walked in, the receptionist said How are you? as if she knew me….then when I gave her a puzzled look she said, "it’s Taruna, right?"  My jaw was on the floor…she remembered me from high school!  I couldn’t believe it.  I hardly even remembered her.  Crazy…apparently I haven’t changed much!  We went upstairs and saw the old classrooms, it was eerie at how familiar it all looked…nothing had changed.  Then we went downstairs and saw the gym, that looked a bit different, somehow I didn’t remember it having a blue floor.  I wasn’t sure how I would feel going back there and seeing everything again…I suppose I was reminded by just how fast time flies.  The kids in the hallways looked so young, I was struggling to remember what I was like at that age.  I thought about the friends I had at the time and wished some of them had been there to see it all again with me.  There were some good memories from those days…and it was nice to reminisce for a bit. 

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