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| Looking out from Bjørn & Gro's Living Room on a fine Saturday Morning |
Perhaps it was my husband's mention that Crosby, Stills, & Nash were coming to Vegas in April (yes, honey, get tickets because they ain't getting any younger and we've never seen them live, even though Graham's son WAS a student in my French class) or because I was just having another moment of ennui about being here for so long....or maybe it was that poor carnage of a spent blue umbrella that I saw in the ditch today on my way back from teaching Gro's english class, but that song just popped into my head. It calls to mind the idea of being in the now, of loving where you ARE, and who you are WITH, regardless of, well, anything else. So WHAT if everyone around me talking and laughing and sharing with each other is as intelligible as the dogs at the dog park at home; so WHAT if I have to take the bus everywhere (did Jon La Joie know how funny it was for him to rhyme "public transportation" with "destination"?), so WHAT if a nice day here equals ONE day with 3, but not 4 seasons represented, so WHAT .....Immediately, I became able to smile again and to want to drink in all that I can of life here before heading back home in April. So far, I've been just hiking a lot in the nearby hills and mountains in order to continue to fit into the local fashion here: skin-tight jeans.
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| Yes...even tight around the calves...and pay special attention to those Norwegian socks! |
This being the first day of rain, I have nothing to say except to marvel at it. The rain here is most likely not much different from what my niece in Portland, Oregon deals with daily. One must remember that I am from the DESERT, so it is a marvel to me to even witness clouds. An acquaintance of mine posted on her FB the other day that the AVERAGE annual rainfall here in Bergen is 89". For 2011, it was 106", so....nearly 9 FEET OF RAIN last year!!!! I'm beginning to think that the blue umbrella carcass I saw in the ditch/stream a couple hours ago MUST have been an umbrella suicide. It just couldn't TAKE it anymore. It was dreaming of being one of those umbrellas in Vegas that everyone is beginning to use for shade, now that they are all unemployed, have to walk everywhere, and have no more health insurance with which to visit the dermatologist to check for skin cancer or to buy the cream to cure it. And who wants to walk around with zinc oxide on their face all day? Norwegians probably don't even know what that IS. At any rate, my next foray into the sentrum tomorrow to meet with my on-line Norwegian language instructor will most likely find me in, yes, my skin tight jeans (aka, denim long-johns) covered by my REI rain pants, and a good raincoat. Umbrellas live in fear of the wind, of having their poor little metal bones pulled backwards like a frail pencil-necked geek encountering Ahnold in Terminator II. I shielded the eyes of my umbrella as I walked past poor-blue-thing-in-the-ditch.
I've been to Gro's school twice now. She is an administrator and English teacher at a school with children aged 14 - 16, I believe. During this time, and even before, the kids kind of go through school the same way grad students in the U.S. go through a co-hort program. The 22 students that Gro has in her English class take all their classes together, with each other. They all go to the same english class, math class, language class, science class, etc...There are multitudes of opinions about the advantages and disadvantages to this system which I won't go into here. Perhaps you may want to respond at the end of the post. At 16, they take their big exams that determine whether they can go on to school to prepare for University studies, or to prepare for Practical studies. I don't believe they understand our concept of "Hey, if you don't want to finish high school and have no desire to go to college, just drop out and take your GED." I asked these students what they possibly saw for their near future, and as expected, most of them had no idea. I don't think I had any idea at that age either, except that I knew I would be going to college because, well....it was expected and my parents could afford it, and if I needed to, I was intelligent enough to apply for a scholarship. What to study? Not sure. I'll figure it out when I get there.
It is a bit different here. Children must find their motivation from a deeper place, I believe. And this is the trick. Finding a "deeper place" when asked of a moderately educated 14 year old boy, for instance, can only mean what you think I think he thinks it means.... When I asked where most of them saw themselves living when they turned 18, I kid you not, almost everyone just said, "at home". Wow. I painted this picture for them of someday having a nice job, just something they enjoyed....and being married to someone they loved....and having a comfortable home of their own that they loved....and let's say they had some children, and then....boom, their children were 18, and hey, would they want their children hanging around the house? After they all said "no way".....I just had to laugh, WITH some of them...AT some of them. At any rate, this idea of motivation has really stuck in my mind for the past few days when thinking about this system, and what is born from it.
I suppose it is actually something that I do value in America: the idea that NOTHING is really handed to you (Paris Hilton, Kim Kardishian, et al. aside). That you must work for just about everything if you want to live comfortably. Of course, what has happened in our country over the past 20 years or so, is that you can work your tail off (if you can find work at all), and still be struggling, but that is not the point of my discussion at this level. I am talking about the stuff that Adam Smith was talking about: that a person should be able to be rewarded commensurately for his/her efforts. Period. I believe these children know and understand this. But the crisis comes for them with the word "efforts." And American's problems come from the word "commensurate". The Norwegian social system of high taxes to pay for a better society for everyone is a noble one and not without its faults. Americans who love our system would go CRAZY here with how involved the government is in everything, down to one's cell phone. But, so far, it is what the government here has decided is necessary in order for as many people as possible to benefit from the taxes that are collected. Watching the news the other day, however, I found myself coming down a little on the conservative side of things, which shocked even me. The government normally spends 3% of its income (most of this is from oil exports) on schools, roads, other infrastructure, health care facilities, etc. and it was discovered that 4% had been spent last year, so it is saying that cuts need to be made. Meanwhile, schools are deteriorating, roads need to be improved, and hospitals are having to buy their instruments and updated equipment on E-Bay. Here's the irony: it is the Conservatives that are clamoring for the government to spend MORE money on its people.....while the government, with one of the largest, if not THE largest, sovereign wealth fund, feels afraid to spend its wealth on its own people.
The other day, a professor lost his job, and rightly so, for talking about looking forward to "hunting season" starting at Utøya soon...in July....Conservatives here are tiring of the Liberal government not willing to spend money on Norwegian schools, roads, bridges, retirements pensions, etc...but perfectly willing to spend it making life more comfortable for immigrants fleeing their countries for political asylum, or for better economic opportunities. After all, Norway is home to the Nobel Peace Prize. The children murdered on that island were all there at a camp sponsored by the Liberal party, and the activities there were all political in nature. This is not new for Americans, at least when looking to our own history books. We had (and still have) the Statue of Liberty at our eastern gateway, and despite all the wonderful poetry thereupon, there was, and still is, lurking within many "Americans", the same disenfranchised, angry, fearful, xenophobic, mentality that is within Anders Brievik (the radical Conservative perpetrator of the Utøya crime). When I see it starting to be vocalized more publicly here, as in that professor mentioned above, I am horrified. I should be so horrified when I hear it at home.
So...full circle, I can see how so very similar we all are, really. At such a basic level. In this respect, I suppose it makes "loving the one your with" a little easier, because love is love is love, after all. Loving Norway has nothing to do with not being able to love America. In loving Norway, I am able to better see and understand my own country, and for this, I am so very grateful for my affair.
Here are a few more photos from the past week:
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| Coming down from Fløyen in the brief sun |
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| 15 minutes before the photo in the sun |
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| Looking down on the Bergen harbor |
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| My cousin, Elzbieta, with her ENVIABLE new jacket! |
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| Enjoying some mid-day sun on Nukane, a neighborhood hike |
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| Looking North to the glaciers from Nukane |
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| Easterly view from Nukane |
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| Looking over Tertnes, where I'm staying, and Eidsvaagen |
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| Later that night, with a hike up Veten, with the lights of Bergen in the background. I was pretty trashed after this walk, as I had done 2 hikes that day. I need more city time! |
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