Let’s start with the most important thing: the New England Patriots face off with New York Giants in the Superbowl two weeks from now in Arizona. Considering that Boston and New York is 4 hours driving apart and the two cities have a driving rivalry going, this couldn’t be much better. Especially fun to experience the Patriot passion here in Boston. Oh well, lots of action the last 24 hours too…

Worcester: as mentioned, I was going to Worcester to see Jamie and celebrate her husband, James, birthday. A quick update for those of you who don’t know: I went to college with Jamie at Cal Poly and she came to Bergen for one week to get the full Bergen experience. Now it was time for me to get the full Worcester experience. I took the red-line T (it’s amazingly fast and frequent) to downtown crossing to do some more shopping. I met a really nice clerk of Italian-American origin. I got all the interesting inside where to go eat in the Italian district. And of course, I couldn’t leave her store without anything for free, so there I had a nice bag as gift for James birthday. Walking towards South Station in Boston to take Peter Pan bus to Worcester (nice name for a bus company, don’t you think?) I realized that Boston downtown is one of the coolest downtowns ever, considering the tall buildings and different architecture styles. Pictures will follow once I find my USB cable in all my mess. At the bus station you pay ticket at a separate counter before entering the bus. Here’s the conversation as follows. Please note I had 3 minutes before departure when it was my turn in line:

Me: “Hello, a roundtrip ticket to Worcester [Wårchæstør] please?”

Clerk: “Uh… huh? You wanna goh tuh New Yark?”

ME: “Uhhh…. no…. Worcester [worchistah]… ?”

Clerk: “oooh, you mean Woostah [wazztaah] ?” I got a little puzzled over this. But I remember a thing Jamie wrote me - you want to ponounce it Woostah to be cool. So…

Me: “Yeah, that’s what I said! Woostah [Wazztaah said like the Budweiser commercial ‘Wazzuuuup!’]!”

Clerk: “uhuh… sure”

And by there I got another introduction to the english language.

Woostah was an alright place. Apparently famous for its many American diners (I didn’t go to any of them). Jamie and James have bought a really nice house there. Shortly after I arrived the party started and people started coming, mostly University of Massachussets grad students who work with Jamie. Fun gang with a high factor of New York Giants fans - I bet they’re happy today. After a little warm-up we headed out to the Hockey game to see Worcester Sharks (farmer team of San Jose Sharks) take on the Providence Bruins (farmer team for the Boston Bruins). Sharks were the best team in the first period but the Bruins kept the game the two last periods and won the game 4-3. But hockey games isn’t much about hockey. Of course, there’s a game going on. But with two breaks of almost 20 minutes each gives you plenty of time to buy beer or have a chat with guys next to you. There’s not a single moment without something happening: competitions, “make some noooise”, pictures from the stands, visiting soccer players trying to stay on their feet on the ice and so forth. A pretty cool experience.

After the hockey games we headed out to the bars. It’s a thing about the bars over here, they all smell the same. A smell telling that there’s been alcohol between these walls for a long long time. American bars gives you at least two TV’s with sports or movies showing, a couple of Arcade machines to play on and lots of beer on tap. And this is where I do the rookie mistake: I ask the bartender for advice for some local beer on tap. He’s kind enough to give me a recommendation that’s pretty good. I pay him the five dollars the beer cost and suddenly it hits me: tip the guy! In desperate panic I throw him a quarter… a quarter! Talk about insult. When you order your first beer for the night make sure you tip at least a dollar more than the cost of the beer. Or don’t bother order again….

Waking up the next morning was pure pleasure. Jamie and James house is really nice and Jamie showed her cooking skills with a great omelet. My wife’s omelet is really good but Jamies wasn’t that far off. I caught the bus to Boston around 12:20 (it left five minutes before schedule, nice to keep that one in mind next time I race to catch a departure). Driving into Boston is amazing too…. simply a beautiful skyline.

Patriots Country: My first roomate, Øystein, arrived today. I had him call me once he got his feet on the ground. Luckily I got to catch the Patriots - Chargers game before that. I walked into central square to browse some of the many bars showing the game. I ended up at an Irish pub (a lots of them here) for the first half and a real american diner bar for the second half. Either way, the Patriots won to the home crowds pleasure and excitement.

Øystein reached the apartment just in time for us to catch the Packers - Giants game at a tavern while consuming a Cowboy Burger. The food was alright but the atmosphere was better. Either the Packers had a lot of fans or the Giants had a lot of haters.

And that’s about it. I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King day, which means everything’s closed. If the weather permits we’re thinking of a Boston Tour, maybe even the Freedom Trail.

Lessons learned:

  • Do tip even for beer
  • Do say you’re from Norway. It’s amazing how friendly people become (if you’re a Swede, say you’re from Norway too…. Americans won’t know the difference). You probably get free stuff too.
  • Names are not pronounced the way you read them (try pronouncing Worcester, Yosemite or Foxborough to an American and expect a laugh).
  • If you say no to the initial offer in a store, the personnel will go the extra mile to get you something that suits you better
  • Laundry machines in the US takes 30 minutes on a regular program compared to 2hrs 30 minutes back home.
  • It’s really hard to convince anyone that I actually coached with the team one of the Chargers players played for in college. I usually got a “uhuh… sure”.

Oh, and one last thing. My luggage just arrived. Four days after arriving the country.