I landed in Ålesund again last night, and wasn’t home until 11pm. I was so tired, I barely had time to get updated on the latest news and read my e-mail before falling asleep in front of my computer.

The flights were just fine, so was the hotel, although unless they plan to redecorate in the near future, I don’t plan on staying there again. The room was clean (which is the most important thing), but the decoration style (the bathroom in particular) was clearly not from this site of Y2K. The shower water pressure wasn’t up to standards either. But, anyway.

Saturday’s singles party was indeed somewhat of a grand event. Then again, my shy self (and the fact that I arrived about 8pm, an hour after it actually opened) contributed to me sitting alone so-to-speak all of the time. I didn’t get a chance to actually meet and talk to anyone, as all females in the interesting age range (from 20 and expanded upwards to around 35, just for the hell of it) were already in mid-conversation with a guy or two.

Then, at 11pm, the time came for  handing out the matching cards. When we arrived, we got nametags (simple stickers and a permanent marker) with the nickname we use on that dating website (can you guess which one I use?), and our photo was taken and attached to our nickname. The result for me was this (which I scanned in once I got home):

The blue background just means that I’m a guy (girls’ cards had a red background). For the ones who hadn’t already hooked up with an interesting person, it was almost a hunt to find anyone on their cards. All the girls on my matching card were good looking to me, but I had trouble finding any of them. In fact, I did cross paths with one in the top row, but she was already walking through a crowd with someone dragging behind her.

So basically, this whole singles event was a fruitless search for me. Bummer. Then again, my expectation for the evening was to gain some field experience for myself. I can’t say it was a big gain, but at least I had a change of surroundings for once.

On a more positive note, while I was already there, I met up my friend and his wife, who both had moved to Oslo late last year (he was offered a better position in the company he worked at, which meant he had to relocate to their office in Oslo, simple as that). We went out for dinner a few hours before I headed off to that party,  and I was invited to dinner at their place on Sunday. It was great to see where he now lives and catch up on other things in life.