Yesterday afternoon Chris and I did different things. He went out in the car with my dad to get used to driving on the right and to a different set of laws, while I did the first five levels of Norwegian on Duolingo and then got used to being a pedestrian in small town Wisconsin again. I found I couldn’t quite remember the rules since most of the times we’d been back recently were too cold to go walking far (Christmas). I realized after a few pedestrian crossings, that if there was no light, I did have right of way and cars were actually pretty polite about it. It’s funny the little things you can forget, or at least be unsure about, even if you did them for years and years if you mostly give it a miss for a good five or six years.
After five years of some fairly nasty hills in Brighton, I very much enjoyed the flatness. There is hardly a small slope here, much less a proper hill in easy walking distance. But as in England, walking around in a Doctor Who backpack occasionally gets people wanting to talk to me. I met an older, slightly deaf man who was a big Tom Baker fan. I’m pretty sure he thought I was English since he told me he wasn’t surprised I like Doctor Who “because of my accent.”
Besides driving on the right, Chris and Dad were busily looking into cars we might want to purchase in the next few days and weeks. We know what Dad’s preference is:
We will see what we actually end up getting.
After Chris got back from his driving practice, we went for a walk together and accidentally ended up looking at a house for sale a few streets away from my parents’. It was a good opportunity for Chris to chat to someone about the nature of American housing and ended up being fairly educational. She explained a lot of why houses here were how they were, in particular, how various features contributed to keeping it warm in the winter.
For dinner, we went to Old Country Buffet, where Chris got to try a variety of American foods he’d never had before, like meatloaf and tater tots. We were all, once again, over full.
Today we are off to do lots of socializing with a school friend of mine, and later, my sister.