Yes, I'm still here...

I'm a little busy right now trying to make sense out of my master's project results and write my thesis (and doing more social things than blogging when I do take breaks) but I wanted to share an anecdote from my life that is a good example of how Norway is a different place.

I recently realized that where I come from (Seattle), we are more excited/proud about being interviewed at the grocery store for King 5 News than a Norwegian is about making it to the Top 10 on their country's version of American Idol.

No, I've never been interviewed by King 5 in the grocery store, maybe someday! But yes, a friend I've known for almost a year placed 7th on Norwegian Idol a couple of years ago and I just found a couple of days ago. I was shocked. She sings often and has a great voice, and I'd even asked her if she has any recordings of herself that I could have. So I knew she was a good singer. But I didn't know she was a celebrity! She just mentioned the show in passing and I stopped her. I couldn't get over it. I am still in awe. She thought it was funny that I was so impressed. Then I thought that she was making the story up, which she thought was even funnier. Granted, the talent pool in Norway is smaller, so the quality of the Top 10 singers from the US and Norway is probably vastly different, but regardless! Being a finalist on a nationally televised talent show is a big deal (to me). You'd think it would have come up in conversation earlier.

It's not just that my friend is humble, I think this also has a little something to do with Norwegians often downplaying their acheivements. It's generally not socially acceptable to be seen as better than someone else in Norway. How they have talent shows at all beats me. If you've never heard of Scandinavian Janteloven ("Law of Jante" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante), it's a set of rules that influences Norwegian's views of themselves and others. It's all about not standing out in any way. This sort of thing has not really caught on in the US...

That's my tidbit for you today. Also, tomorrow is Syttende mai, the 17th of May, Norway's Constitution Day AKA the biggest celebration of the year! I'm probably not going to blog about it this time, so I'll refer to you my post from last year so you can re-live the glory. And it's not supposed to rain this year :) Hurra for Norge! http://delightedbutconfused.blogspot.no/2012/05/hurra-for-syttende-mai.html

Never say never again

Alternate title: Will she never learn?

I have a love-hate relationship with winter sports. I snowboarded for a couple years, but never got good enough so that I could go without getting beaten up. I swore off snowboarding after I sprained my knee on a bad fall two years ago. Then last year some friends talked me into going snowboarding in Sweden, their treat. Bad idea. Sweden was nice, but the icy terrain was unforgiving, and being a year out of practice didn't help. The pain outweighed the fun, so I swore off snowboarding again and other winter sports along with it. I was sick and tired of it all of getting hurt.

You probably see where this is going. I should have listened to myself, to my body. There's a lot of reasons I should stop trying, but something keeps bringing me back to the snow. I should have started learning when I was younger, but I didn't and here we are. So against my better judgment, I've been out cross-country skiing the past two weekends. Norwegians ask me all the time if I've been yet and I got tired of saying no. Plus, it's supposed to be easy, right? While the skiing itself was easy enough, it's the dang downhills that get me.

Cross-country skiing was also pretty fun and a great workout. The nice thing about living in Trondheim is there is good terrain in close proximity. You only have to drive about 15 min from where I live in the center of town to get to the great snowy outdoors. The pictures below are from last week's trip, complete with campfire. Here's hoping the memories outlast the physical harm done!

Norwegians (born with skis on their feet):

Bjørn, Håkon, Nathalie, and Camilla

 "Imitate Kathleen"

Haha! I personally think Bjørn's rendition is the best

A glorious day to be out!

Aw yeah, gettin' the hang of it

At one point we stood at the top of a hill that was steep enough for me to stop and think about how I was going to make it down. My friends pushed off and quickly disappeared behind the turn ahead. The next thing I knew, an old man, probably 70 years old, was skiing up the hill at full speed. As he got closer he greeted me, "Hei hei," and I greeted him back. But instead of blowing past me he slowed down a little and seemed to stare at me for a moment, probably wondering why I was just standing there, all alone. "It's my first time on skis," I said. He stopped and laughed, "And your friends just left you?" We had a short chat (he guessed I was from the Netherlands), and he gave me a few pointers.

Lots of times Norwegian strangers are reserved and can seem cold. Other times they are the sweetest people you will ever meet. If you want to find them at their friendliest, head to the ski slopes. The old man jokingly scolded me for waiting so long to try cross country skiing, we laughed, and then he was off again. I sat down on the backs of my skis and sledded down the hill. If I've tried everything else and still fall, I find that to be the safest and fastest way to get down.

After two and half hours, it was time for a break:

Bjørn makes himself useful. I stand and take pictures.

Håkon and Camilla also make themselves useful

Can you find the hotdog?

I'm starting to understand why they like to go skiing

As we sat next to the fire, I asked what they liked best about going skiing. Here's a few of their answers:

"Not to go anywhere in particular, but just to go for skiing's sake, just to be out here"

"I feel more Norwegian doing this than anything else"

"Bringing along an American who's never been before"

I've never snarfed down three hotdogs so quickly

 Håkon boils water for coffee and hot cocoa

Good folks to spend an afternoon in the wilderness with

They told me I did really well for a beginner (I know that's at least half true because I kept up and completed the 10 kilometer trip). And I could feel I was a little better the second time than the first. Though I have to agree with that old man. I waited too long to try. I wonder if late really is better than never. While I still vow never to snowboard again, maybe I shouldn't have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to winter sports. I'm glad I've gotten out there and tried, but I don't know how much more I'll pursue cross-country skiing. It'd be nice to get a little better, but a girl can only take so much pain. And if, as the old saying goes, Norwegians are born with skis on their feet, I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Norwegian superiority in unexpected places

It is a well known fact (right?) that Norway is the best country in the world. There's the United Nations numbers and standard of living blah blah blah ...does all that even matter? What does it really mean to be excellent? How does that play out in everyday life? Why is Norway better than your country, wherever you are, and why is this the best place on earth to live? I'll tell you why: The Norwegian Birthday Song.

Now, if you'll allow me to explain. I am proud American. But I know when we've been bested. Let's face it, "Happy Birthday" is more of a durge than a celebration song. But after years of dealing with it, what I didn't realize was there are other choices available. And I don't mean just translating "Happy Birthday" into the language of your choice. There are other, unique birthday songs sung in other parts of the world. In my opinion, the Norwegian birthday song is head and shoulders above any other one out there. I don't even need to hear the rest, I know I've found the best. Obsessed with the best... I'm sounding like an American again, aren't I?

The point being! The Norwegian birthday song is fun to sing and even more fun to have sung to you. It is much less awkward than "Happy Birthday," which gives the birthday boy or girl about 20 seconds to self-consciously half-smile and bob to the slow beat and think of a wish while everyone stares at you. In contrast, the Norwegian song has a upbeat melody and lyrics with meaning, and more than six words. Once it begins you know you are celebrating someone instead of wondering if you're sending them to an untimely death.

OK, I'm done trying to explain it, you just have to hear it to understand. I had a birthday recently and so got the pleasure of having this delightful tune directed at me. I wanted to record the whole thing but alas, my friends were too fast so I only caught the last half of the song. You get the idea, at least!

Just try and tell me that didn't put a smile on your face.

The lyrics were written about 100 years ago, so its old, but it still works. Here's my best English translation: 

Hooray for you, the one who has completed your year!
Yes, it's you we congratulate!
We all stand around you in a circle
and look, now we're marching!
Bowing, nodding, curtseying, turning ourselves around,
dancing for you with hops and leaps and bounds!
With heartfelt wishes for all good things,
tell me, what else could you want?
Congratulations!

Pretty good, huh? Seriously though, I never (see below for exception) want to hear "Happy Birthday" again, so everyone back home better start the Norwegian version. I know when we've been outdone and trust me, fellow Americans, this is one of those times.

Bonus material:
I will gladly listen to "Happy Birthday" as sung by a small child, especially a relative! My two-year old nephew sang to me (after first singing to his baby sister, haha) over Skype on my birthday. Nothing really beats that. I'm so thankful for the technology that lets me enjoy these special moments. I shouldn't get to experience this being as far away as I am, and yet I do, amazing!

Answering your fan mail

This is embarrassing. A whole YEAR ago I asked for blog post ideas and my brother suggested I write about "Norwegian pop culture and how they think about Americans." I'm (clearly) terrible at blogging and late is probably not better than never in this situation, but I will give it a shot. 

OK, Norwegian pop culture. My initial reaction was, and kind of still is, "does Norwegian pop culture exist?" I don't mean to say that it doesn't exist, but it is kind of like trying to define the pop culture of a single US state (Norway has a population of about 5 million). Like a state it has things that are unique to its culture, but it is very much influenced by the larger world around it. And I think you have to live here a little longer and watch a lot more TV than I do to get a feel for the unique culture here.

That being said, there is a lot that is especially Norwegian. Instead of football and baseball and basketball, the big sports are skiing and soccer and handball. Don't feel bad, I'd never heard of handball either. I once saw a group of Norwegian guys "throwing" the football around and was tempted to step in and help.

Olympic gold medal in handball last summer. Go Norway!

Many people in the US may picture Norway and think of a country that hates the Sweden. They don't hate the Swedes nearly as much as we like to think. They are more than happy to be independent from them, but now it's much more of a friendly rivalry/brotherly love type of situation. But Norwegians my age grew up watching Swedish cartoons because for a long time Norway didn't have its own. They are fond of their neighbors, and even if they do consider themselves superior, I think it's all in good fun. Except beating the Swedes in winter sports, that is a matter of utmost importance.

I don't feel qualified to say much more about Norwegian pop culture, but here's a good example of something Norwegian women can get excited about:

As you may know, the climate in Norway is on the chilly side and this has made knitting very popular over the years. There is a Norwegian television talk show host who made up a new sweater design and started knitting them. She made the instructions public and now these sweaters are all the rage. I thought that was kind of funny. Then my friend's (awesome) mom knitted me one and it's the warmest, most comfortable thing I own. And apparently very in style. So it's not out of the question for a Norwegian talk show host to design and knit her own clothes, and easily influence the rest of the country style-wise. When's the last time Oprah did that?

Norway's latest fashion craze.
You want one now, don't you?

Now, what do Norwegians think about Americans? Since we were just talking about pop culture, I will point out that a lot of people think about Americans is based on what they see on television and in movies. And rightfully so, TV is our national pasttime, after all. But all jokes aside, that is kind of scary. Think about all the crap we export to the rest of the world. It doesn't represent the average American very well, or does it?

I'm just one person, and I don't want to say these are the views of every Norwegian. But I've heard a few things about America since I've been here, so here's my stereotypes of their stereotypes of Americans:

Everything is big. Everything is cheap. Everyone is fat. To elaborate on that, some think all we eat for breakfast is donuts. And if something here seems abnormally large people label it the "American" version. Fair enough, a lot of stuff we produce is larger than it would be in other countries and a lot of Americans are overweight.

On the plus side, Americans are seen as very friendly and helpful. Though maybe they're just saying that to make us feel better.

He looks friendly enough.

The most frustrating thing about being American here isn't that they think we're fat, it's that they tend to think that something they've heard or experienced about "America" applies to all of America. One of my least favorite questions is, "Isn't it ____ in America?" Fill in the blank with just about anything you can think of, I've heard a lot of generalized assertions. My answer is usually, "I don't know. Maybe it is like that, somewhere." America is a very diverse country, and significantly larger than Norway. Even so, Norway has regional differences. Why wouldn't you expect that in a country with about 60 times the population and 30 times the landmass?

All this helps me see the importance of getting to know people for who they are and not just applying everything you've heard about a place to the person you're talking to. We are so much more than our cultures, so let's stop reducing one another to labels and find out for ourselves by truly getting to know people who are different than us. Every day here is a day I get to learn something new about Norway and understand the people around me a little more, and that is an opportunity I'm thankful to have. Thanks for reading, and sorry this pathetic post took a year to write. ;)

There's no place like home

This is my family. I love them.

I got to be with them for Christmas and it was great.

I thought that since I felt pretty at home in Trondheim, I might not feel a strong connection to home, at least not right off the bat. My experience couldn't have been more different. To my surprise and delight I settled easily back into place with family and friends. A year and a half had passed, the familiar had become unfamiliar, but it was as if a part of me knew exactly where I was again (guess it hadn't been too long after all). The best part about going home was being a present part of my family again. I got to be a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and quite possibly best of all, an aunt. These are roles I have missed since coming to Norway, and roles I honestly didn't know if I would fit into again. Haven't asked anyone else, but I think I managed alright.

I'm so thankful for my family, and to have a family at all. I had special joy in celebrating Jesus' birth with them and remembering all he is and all he has done in my life, even bringing me to Norway! There is nothing better than getting to enjoy him together with family.

Christmas with my immediate family:

Attire: Norwegian sweaters, as if there were any other choice!

My special Christmas gift

I was home for 16 days before I came back to Trondheim. Besides several Christmas celebrations my trip was jam-packed with visits and errands. Looking back I probably did a little too much. Maybe I should have just relaxed at home a little more but that's hard to do you've been gone as long as I had. And I was happy to see and spend time with everyone I was able to. But I equally enjoyed the time I spent lounging around the house and getting reacquainted with my parents' endearing peculiarities.

What else did I do?

I went to familiar places like my friends', the Smiths, house. They had set up nativity scenes from many countries around their home, and the one from Norway had a special greeting along with it:

A warm welcome!

Lots of good stories, laughs, and encouragement shared with these guys (as well as a couple greatly needed hot tub sessions):

The Smiths (plus Alex & minus Haley)

Alex & Haley

Downtown with Haley for dinner and a choir concert

Other special people I got to see (and have pictures of):

Jessica, Connie, & Melissa

A couple of my dear cousins, Caroline & Monica

Bekah, Meara, & Paige

I got to reunite with many good friends but wish I could have spent more time with each of them. And I wish I could have seen more friends but at some point I had to choose "quality" over quantity and make tough decisions about how to spend my time. It became more important to me to really catch up and connect with less people in a real way rather than try to see absolutely everyone I would have liked to. Giving the same re-cap story day in and day out gets a little old and you just want things to be somewhat normal.

One thing I focused on was spending as much time as I could with my brother and his family.

David, Jack, Chelsea, & Greta

I played and read with my two-year-old nephew Jack. It was fun to get to know him (now as a toddler), see his personality, and enjoy him at this age. I met my niece Greta for the first time. She is a sweet baby, and I loved seeing the bond Jack is forming with her. It was also good to see David and Chelsea as parents and how they function as a family.

Jack likes to read. Just a little.

Greta likes to smile. A lot!

Being with people was my number one priority, and after that I managed to do a few other things. I went shopping at Fred Meyer and was overwhelmed by the size and selection. I stocked up on necessities like socks, shampoo, and peanut m&m's. Wheat thins, graham crackers, Adam's peanut butter, and Tillamook cheddar cheese were also a significant part of my bounty back to Norway. Somewhere in the mix I managed to apply for life insurance, renew my drivers license at the DMV, and get a haircut.

And I couldn't leave Seattle without having a Dick's Deluxe, fries, and vanilla milkshake.

So good, and so cheap.

As weird as it seems to me, I hardly thought about Norway while I was away. I didn't think about school. I didn't even think about the Norwegian Christmas food I was missing. I told stories and answered questions about Norway, but I didn't find myself missing it. But I guess that's how it is when you're on a much-anticipated trip. And given a little more time I probably would have started to miss it.

It was much more difficult than I anticipated to come back to Norway. A little over two weeks didn't seem long enough and I felt like I was ripped away from the place I belonged. I'd forgotten just how 'home' that home really is. I hope I can get back into life here and not feel like I'm missing out on what's going on at home. I have good friends and plenty to keep me busy here, and it is a good place for me to be. Still, there's no place like home!

Home away from home

In a couple days I'm going home for the first time since I left. Wow, it's been so long that it doesn't feel real, but it is definitely time for a visit. When I arrived almost a year and a half ago, Trondheim was not home. But a lot has happened since then and now it's hard to remember what the place I left is like. It's a great feeling to be able to say that Trondheim is a second home now. I have my everyday life here and I'm in a groove. If/when I say goodbye next summer, it won't be easy.

Here's some things I like about living here:

-People (at least most of the ones I know) prioritize spending time with each other. Egos are not built around schedules and productivity as much as they are in the US. It's possible to call someone up and have dinner together the day of. I don't remember it being quite like that at home. I am blessed to have made great friends and have wonderful relatives who take time together seriously.

-I feel safe. There is very little crime here, at least comparatively, and it's not something I worry about. While I still have to be smart and aware of my surroundings, there isn't an area of town I walk through regularly and think, "I shouldn't be here." Can't say that about Seattle.

-I think I'm growing, and hopefully maturing, in ways I wouldn't have at home. There's just something about moving that far away that will do that to you.

That being said, there are some things I really miss because I'm here. The first is family and friends. It's hard to not be a part of my family as much as I'd like to be. I wish I could have it all: live life fully here and also be able to develop the relationships back home more. But I wouldn't have the good relationships I have here if I was always Skyping with those at home. By choosing one place, I'm automatically not choosing another. It's difficult, but I'm trying to live in the present and invest my time wisely here. Anything else would be wasting an amazing opportunity.

I'm really looking forward to time to dedicate to just being with my family and good friends. I've been wondering a lot lately, who knows me better? The people who've known me since I've been here, or the people who've known me before I came? It's gonna be interesting...

Other reasons I'm excited to go home :
-Seattle. It's a beautiful place, and I miss having a big city nearby.
-Eating. My mom's cooking, going out for real Mexican food, sandwiches with two slices of bread.
-Driving. I walk most places here and that is great. I can take the bus if I need to and I don't need a car here in my everyday life, but I miss driving. 
-Daylight. I'm sure it's pretty dark there right now, but not as dark as here!

So, as I am kind of partially Norwegian now, you'll have to be patient with me on a few things. Like thinking in the Fahrenheit scale and US dollars again. And please don't laugh too hard when I can't think of the English word for something (happens often now)... I'm sure I'll be back to normal by the end of my trip, just in time to go "home" again.

Adventures in Language: The Wacky World of Norwegian Dialects

I've been learning Norwegian for a couple years now. To recap, I took a few basic courses before I moved, but nothing my first year in Norway. Instead I learned a lot (and still do) by listening and speaking as much as possible. But as a student here I'm allowed to take Norwegian for Foreigners classes at the university without any extra fee, so in June I took a placement exam and this semester I am taking level 3 (out of 4).

The class has been pretty fun and a good balance to my master thesis work. We write a lot and I'm learning way more grammar than ever before. And my teacher says I don't speak with an American accent, which is a huge compliment. Not completely true, but still very nice to hear. With a passing grade in this class I am allowed to take university courses in Norwegian, should I ever want to. It's also a fairly nationally recognized stamp of approval, more or less saying "You can speak Norwegian." So that's nice!

I just finished the big assignment for my class, a 5-page paper with references written in Norwegian. We could write about basically whatever we wanted as long as the topic was somewhat academic. I chose to write about Norwegian dialects because they fascinate me. There's a lot of dialects here, and they can be very different from each other. That can be really frustrating for some people, but I find dialects really fun to listen to and try to figure out. When you first learn Norwegian as a Foreigner you learn the written language, bokmål, and you learn to speak like bokmål. The problem is, and this can be a pain at first, is that almost no Norwegians speak like bokmål. Instead, there are what seems like a million dialects that are used by everyday people in everyday life. 

I felt like this post needed some pictures, 

so I'm including a few from this fall even though

they have nothing to do with anything...

Norwegian dialects developed way back when in small remote areas, at the end of fjords or down in the valleys, where there was little contact with those outside the area. That's why they can be so different from each other. Every dialect falls into one of the main dialect groups, and a given dialect is probably similar to what’s spoken in nearby places, but it almost certainly has some special characteristics in terms of intonation, pronunciation, and/or vocabulary. And of course the dialects are more alike than not, but how many ways do you suppose there are to say the word “I” in Norwegian? Five? Maybe ten? I submit to you that there are no less than 12. It's ridiculous, but also pretty cool. Here they are: jeg, je, eg, jæ, jæi, e, æ, æg, æi, æig, i, and ig.

Do you know how many people live in Norway today? About five million. Think about that for a second. Five million people and 12 different ways to say "I." I didn't know it was possible to have that much variety in such a small country. As you can imagine, sometimes Norwegians have to change the way the speak (a little or a lot) so they can be more easily understood by others. I have friends in Trondheim who speak very differently here than they do at home because the differences are that big.

What gets me is when Norwegians from different places can't understand each other at all. Some dialects are so different, so unique, that they can hardly be called the same language. The language situation here is so different than in the US. Even though the US is much bigger, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone speaking American English that I can't understand.

Because there is so much variation and dialects represent distinct places, dialects mean a lot to people. You can tell where someone is from by the way the speak, sometimes down to which side of town they grew up on. So it makes sense that people can be pretty proud of their dialect because it separates them from others. Others might be embarrassed about their dialect and not want to associate with the place it comes from. As you can imagine, Norwegians from different areas like to poke fun at each other, and everyone (even me) has their own opinion about which dialect is the prettiest/hardest/ugliest/etc.

You might be wondering, is it hard to understand and keep up with different dialects? My answer is mostly no, but a little bit yes. Most dialects I'm exposed to just take a little getting used to and then I understand what people were saying. But other dialects are more difficult and take more concentration, and you would need to live in a place for a while before you really got everything. I still speak basically like bokmål, even though I'm surrounded by lots of different dialects. But it’s fun to learn new words in specific dialect that you can use when you are in a certain place. I think it means a lot to people for them to be able to speak like they normally would, so as much as possible I make an effort to understand each new dialect and person I come into contact with.

For me, Norwegian is both easy and hard. Lots of Norwegians and foreigners think it's difficult to learn but I pick most of it up fairly quickly. Probably because I'm highly motivated and maybe because it's in my genes? At the same time there are always challenges. Dialects are one, grammar is another. But learning is fun, and as long as dialects are around I will have a lot to learn, and Norwegians will always have something to talk about.