And it just keeps getting weirder and weirder...
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
21
29
Trip End
Dec 11, 2006
Lillehammer, Norway
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
And greetings from Lillehammer! Today is day five of my field study here at Nansenskolen, and I'm having a terrific time. :o) The snow is falling gently outside the window, and I can't help but smile at how wonderful snow is! The library here at the Nansen Academy is like a small Norwegian version of Harry Potter's library at Hogwarts, complete with shelves and shelves of books, cozy reading corners, tealight candles, and floor-to-ceiling windows to let in that pure, natural sunlight. You can't help but feel peaceful, even serene, here at Nansens. Can I be a student here? :o)
But I'm not writing you today to tell you about how Nansenskolen is so great. No, I had the weirdest, most amusing day of my life yesterday, and lived to tell the story.
It's funny where you find yourself in life sometimes...
So for the past few days, Lauren and I have been following around a group of 20 politicians and political party leaders from Serbia. Comprised of 6 women and 14 men, the group is ethnically diverse with Serbs, Albanians, and two Romas (from the Gypsies) from a range of political parties. This group of political leaders were brought up here to Norway by the Nansen Dialogue Center (I'm not sure if it's the Nansen Dialogue Center up here or their local Nansen Dialogue Center in Serbia) to learn how to be a politician in Norway. The purpose of the visit was to show them how different Norway is in education and local/regional politics, offering an alternative perspective on how things can be achieved through cooperation between political parties. English is the language the common language between the Norwegians and a few of the politicians, so every couple of sentences had to be translated into Serbian, and questions translated into English. It was a long, tiring process to do a lecture, and these politicians were getting bored. Now I thought that our class was distracted during our string of lectures on our week to northern Norway, until I met these people. People who are my parents age were taking pictures of each other, taking pictures of me and Lauren, whispering back and forth, not paying attention at all. A few of them kept looking over at us, smiling and making silly faces. The group was very receptive and welcoming towards us since we first met, excited to shake hands with "two beautiful American girls from Seattle". They remembered our names from the beginning, and I couldn't tell you even one of their names.
After a rather tiresome two hour meeting with a few of Lillehammer's local politicians at the city hall, the group was invited to a tour of the city hall. Taking pictures in the different offices, they pulled each of us into several of their pictures. "Hey, we want Christy!" "Lauren, come be in our picture!" I couldn't tell you why, but they were just so enthusiastic towards us. One guy, who had to be at least in his late 30s, invited me back to his room to share a cup of coffee and help me write my thesis for my big paper. I politely declined, saying that I had to catch the train back to Hamar. But instead, we were invited along with the rest of the group to lunch in the canteen. Rather than sit on the sidelines, we sat by a few of the friendlier men in the group. Calling us "Sleepless in Seattle", they asked us in broken English about our favorite music, our favorite movies, and favorite sports, while filling the awkward, lost-in-translation moments with Serbian or Albanians folk songs (I couldn't tell the difference). Lauren and I just couldn't help but laugh... how many other times in life do you get to hang out with Serbian and Albanian politicians?
Lauren and I tried very hard to extricate ourselves from the group after lunch was over, again using the excuse of the train. In all honesty, we just wanted to go Christmas shopping because it's Christmas season in the stores! The snow was coming down like crazy, sticking to Lauren's eyebrows and making my mascara run completely. I had one really bad fall, and my feet slid out from below me and I landed on my back (and good thing the snow was perfect, like powdered sugar). It was hilarious, and Lauren took a picture of me before helping me back on my feet. And just as we were walking to the train station to get on the train (for real, this time), we stumbled upon the friendliest politician (who I will now refer to as Online Lover... you will find out why) and his friend, the Serbian-Albanian translator for the group. After asking us why we hadn't got on the train yet, Online Lover and Translation-Man wanted to take us to the shopping center with him. We're always up for shopping as well as amusing adventures, so we took up the offer.
And what an amusing adventure it was! While trudging through the snow, Translation-Man explained the etemology of Serbian and Albanian to me as Online Lover proceeded to tell Lauren that he did "no smoking, no drinking, no women" (here he flashed his wedding ring), then told Lauren that she was very beautiful and he wanted to remember this moment forever. Then they told us that they really appreciated the United States and NATO bombing Kosovo in 1999. Even though it hurt their people (Albanians), we "bombed the hell out of the Serbs". Their chanting of "U-S-A" was quite uncomfortable, especially for their reasons for doing so. Anyway, they took us to the mall and bought sweaters for themselves, to the Norwegian equivalent of Best Buy called "El-Kjøp" (not Beste Buy!) to look at cameras and laptops, and made us miss our train. At this point, Online-Lover asked Lauren, "Do you want to love over the internet?" And Lauren replied, "You're married!" And to this, he said, "I'm not a homo!!" I thought I was going to die of laughter. Meanwhile, Translation-Man was singing me Albanian folksongs. Online-Lover was on a roll with his English now, making several other racial and sexual-orientation slurs, telling us how beautiful we were and such. Lauren said that they reminded her of Italian and Greek men, which makes sense since they are from the same general region. Finally, we were able to convince them to make the trip back up the long, icy road to the train station so we could make our train back to Hamar. We caught it with two minutes to spare, and laughed and laughed with tears in our eyes the entire way back to Hamar. Now really, how many other times in life do you get to say, "Yeah, I hung out with Serbian and Albanian politicians who are my dad's age in Norway when I studied there my junior year"? Crazy, and quite a story to tell!
Wait, what is this stuff again?
The second part of our day took place in the evening. The international student coordinators planned a traditional Norwegian dinner for us international students. Dressed up in their beautiful bunads (I want one!!!), they prepared us "rakfisk", which I understand it as a dish from eastern Norway that is made of trout that sits in a bucket under pressure for a few months. It sits in its own juice for months and months, and served in lefse with rømme (sour cream) and onions. It smells terrible,and I'm really not too fond of the taste or texture. But man, that tradition came from my people! There was also another dish of "sylte" (sool-tah), which is pork boiled for three hours, then put outside in a pressurized bucket (I want to see this pressurized bucket things) overnight to chill. It is served in lefse with mustard and tomatoes. Though not nearly as good as our trusty Norwegian meal of kjøttboller and potatoes, the sylte was pretty good. Not gonna lie, these are the types of foods that people think of when they ask if I like Norwegian food. I love Norwegian food, especially brunost, but wow... I think some traditions should just stay traditions. :o)
Okay, so maybe the excitement and amusement has worn off a little. But still, what an adventure!! Weird things happen all the time, and it's only adding to the experience. Now that it's 4:10pm, the sky is completely dark and all I want to do is cozy up and read. I love the perfect Norwegian snow outside my window, the glow of the candles in this library, and this peace of this country. Even in the midst of a busy, stressful time, I am enjoying every minute. :o)
Med beste hilsen fra Lillehammer,
Christy :o)
P.S. Pictures from this amusing adventure are now online at www.flickr.com/photos/christyolsen!!
