Larkollen

I spent the weekend at my roommate Michael's cabin in Larkollen, Norway- about 70km south of Oslo. The weather was perfect and activities included chess, bocce, badminton, Risk, reading, socializing and napping. Needless to say, it was very difficult to leave at the end of the weekend. Ane and Michael have been amazingly generous at sharing the Norwegian experience. I remember reading an article in the NYT a few months ago- praising the Norwegian economy for avoiding the global financial crisis and managing to reduce public spending even in light of all its oil money. This may seem totally unrelated to visiting my friend's cabin, but hang on. The author commented that in Norway there is a sense of virtue- that if you are given a lot you inherently have responsibility. Although government spending is clearly different from the generosity of my friends- it seems to me this is a consistent theme in Norway: virtuousness and general moral goodness. Just a thought.

Panorama of Saturday afternoon.

Keegan & shrimp dinner near sunset.