Wednesday 29 March 2006

Pic of the day: In The Sims 2, the neighbors just keep walking past your house until you stop them and talk to them. Perhaps that's the American way?

Nosy neighbors

The most memorable event of my day was that I noticed someone following me as I walked home from the bus. It is not exactly desolate, but not lots of people there either, and most of them pensioners. This moved far too fast for that, and was drawing very gradually closer. I briefly thought of walking faster to see if he did too, but decided to not show that I was nervous. Besides, I thought, I would need all my energy for the crushing blow to the larynx.

When I turned onto the local road where barely ever anyone goes and he still followed me, I knew it was not a coincidence. But right then he started to speak. At first I wondered if he was talking in a mobile phone... people do that all the time here. But eventually I realized he was trying to speak to me.

It was a dark-haired, handsome young man whose parents are my neighbors, and he lives with them some days of the week. He was old enough to know the student whose house I am renting, but evidently not close enough to ask him how long I have lived here and how long I intend to live here. For some reason he also wanted to know where I was from.

In the more than 20 years I lived in Søgne, the neighboring municipality, I never had anyone just talk to me and ask me things they did not need to know. (Except toddlers and the occasional grade schooler asking for my name.) What kind of people would talk to a neighbor without some dire need forcing them? That is just not the Norwegian way.