Monday, April 19, 2010

Excuse Me?

I do stuff like... attend a Norwegian rummage sale.


Friday night I got an email from a Norwegian friend asking if I wanted to join her and another friend at a rummage sale in the morning. Despite my obvious desire to sleep in on Saturday morning I cheerfully replied that I would love to. Which is true, I did love to. I walked over to her house in the morning and we drove about an hour to a school in Grimstad. As we pulled up, the parking lot and even the lawn in front of the school was polluted with vehicles. We got out and walked up the hill to see the front area flooded with furniture for sale; everything from tables to chairs to pianos.


We meandered our way around the crowds of people and stacked furnishings in order to make our way into the building. I took a deep sigh of relief when we entered, thinking we would avoid the majority of the populace. I realized how mistaken I was when I looked up into the hallway and rooms that were overflowing with people. From my personal perspective I wouldn’t say that Norwegians are purposefully rude by any means. However as far as I have been told, there is no Norwegian word for “excuse me”. So you can see how they would be labeled rude in a situation such as this.


As we set foot into the first room I was immediately shocked at how many people could voluntarily be in one small room at a time. A room that would normally have a twenty person max limit was surly violating the fire code while occupying fifty or sixty people all shuffling around trying to “shop”. I barely glanced at the tables overflowing with antique items displayed for sale. My eyes were glued on Miriam so that I wouldn’t get lost in the frenzy of purchases.


Imagine yourself in one of those big blow up obstacle courses… now think about how obnoxious it is to have to run between those towering pillars that just push you back and forth like a pinball. This, my friends, is how I felt for the next few hours. It was not even a slight nudge followed by an immediate apology. Full-grown adults would try to squeeze into spaces that not even my right leg alone would fit into. There were bodies smashed up against other bodies. I’m not even Closter phobic and I began to experience shortness of breath. Lets just say I made my wall to the hallway whenever it was plausible. I don’t mean to complain at all, it was rather comical to watch and be apart of such a Norwegian function.

5 comments:

  1. Too funny!! I can just see you sticking close to Miriam. Did she buy anything?

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  2. Haha.. I can easily imagine what you're aying;) but as a matter of fact, we Norwegians DO have a word for "excuse me" and that is "unnskyld", just for the reckord;)

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  3. Yes, excuse me: "unnskyld meg!" in Norwegian :) And I think I said that word a few times through the hours we were there :D

    I laughed when I read this. You must tell me when you are shocked, Kelsey! haha. Everyone just tried to find a treasure at the same time! There is probably more space at a rummage sale in the US :)

    But we had fin, though! And we bought ice cream! Nam

    Miriam

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  4. By the way, sales like that are extremely popular nowadays! So that is probably the reason. I don't think it would have been that crowded 5-10 years ago.. Old things are more valued now than earlier, I think.. :) The "shabby"-style..

    Miriam (again!)

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