Norwegians

I do stuff like…

Notice some intriguing characteristics of the Norwegian society:

o Norwegians are shy… for about seven seconds. Once they acquire the knowledge of you being from America they are very talkative and curious about every aspect of the States, considering they speak English, which the majority of them do.

o I haven’t decided yet if this is just Norway or people in general but you do not need to know the language to communicate and I find it rather enjoyable to pretend to know Norwegian. To further illustrate this idea here are two circumstances I was in just today. The first one occurred at the gym, I swiped my card and checked into the gym and continued to walk through the door but it didn’t unlock. The second time I did this the employee turned to me and said something in Norwegian while looking at the machine, I replied, “ja” which means yes assuming he asked if I checked in. Then he continued to give me further instruction in Norwegian as I smirked and stared at him. I assumed he told me to try again, so I did, and it worked. As I walked away I turned back and said “takk for hjelpen” which means thanks for your help. Now he could have been telling me something completely different because I truly had no idea what he was saying but if he was really saying what I figured he would say than he would probably be unaware that in reality I did not understand anything he just said.

o Another example of this would be on the walk home. An elderly woman was walking with a ski stick (which is common around here) and came to a curb where she stopped. We happened to be walking by at that exact moment. Just as we passed her I heard her say something in Norwegian so I quickly spun around and walked back to her where she held out her hand and I helped her down the snow bank. The woman looked up at me with her little smile, squeezed my hand, uttered “takk “, and continued on her way. The only word I understood was thank you and I’m assuming that’s all she wanted considering she just walked away. Therefore communication is much more than verbal vocabulary.

o Education is not just a task they are expected to complete. Students learning in class are genuinely interested in the topics and intrigued with the subjects they are studying. This in encouraging to me as I may not always be the most enthusiastic about class I do enjoy acquiring knowledge.

o Physical fitness is not a rarity. Norwegians work out frequently and love outdoor sports and activity.

o From what I’ve noticed traffic laws are more of suggestions. This may be because of the icy roads or maybe I’ve just seen the few risky drivers. I’m not familiar with the laws either but from what I’ve observed red lights simply mean slow down and look around you. Also pedestrians don’t stop for cars nor cars for pedestrians but I think I know who would lose that collision so I choose to wait for the light.

o Norwegians do not fear the cold; they embrace it. They go ice-skating, skiing, and sledding daily. I’ve seen infants waddle around in the snow more content than some self bundled adults.