read time: approximately 10 minutes

This week

• It was Autumn Break! But evidently just for students. And if you are a parent of a student. If you don’t have children you were to be at work? This is the thing I have understood the least so far. 
• Thursday, 02 October went to the county police station to finalize my residency permit!
• Friday, 03 October was in Oslo for private tours of the Norsk Maritime Museum and the Norsk Folkemuseum! Also had a waffle (very famous in Norway) and got a drink and a snack at the bar, The Wild Rover!

It is October! That means I have been living in Norway for two months! The leaves are changing color, the weather is getting rainier and chillier, and apples are now local! We are into the ‘bers (September, October, November, December)! If you’re keeping track of time the way Scandinavians do—which lots of people say they don’t understand and find unnecessary but I must admit it makes good sense to me!—we have just come through week 40! <whispers> there are only 12 weeks left of the year! eek! 

Okay, an aside to explain week numbers: every week of the year is given a number, starting with the first week in January. That’s week 1. The second week of the year is week 2, etc. So we have just finished the 40th week of the year. As someone who orders this calendar every year on Etsy from Germany and had already added week numbers to her Google calendar, this is one of my favorite parts of living in Norway. Seriously. Alongside the cheese and bread and hiking and trains and the selection of gummy candies available in the grocery store. It’s really helpful for me to know what week we are in until we get to week 52 (the last week of the year). It just works with how I conceptualize time. Also! When I am going to post work every other week to my writing group, I can say in my head, oh, so in odd weeks and it is so much easier to know when to post. Or, when someone says let’s meet in week 40, I know exactly when that is. Versus them saying let’s meet in the first week of October. Wait, do you mean the first week October starts or the first full week of October? I think this Scandinavian system is brilliant!

Anyway, we are moving through time. My gig here is 10 months and ends Week 25. Which means I have only 37 weeks left (there are 12 weeks left in this year + 25 weeks of this job next year)! I’ve already lived through 8 weeks! I’ve done 5 weeks of a 14-week running program! Sometimes the weeks I’ve lived through have moved really slowly, like when I don’t have a lot of workshops to prep or give. And sometimes those weeks have moved really quickly because I have so much going on. Time is relative! 

One interesting marker of time, other than the weather and seasonal food, that I don’t use back in the States, is how often I am going through toiletries. I brought a year’s supply of certain personal toiletries from the US that I am slowly going through and will not be replacing. Their use is another marker of how I am moving through time. These toiletries include a year supply of prescription medication, vitamins, contact lenses, tampons, my fluoride toothpaste I buy from my dentist to repair some enamel from evidently being an overachiever at toothbrushing (literally my dentist looked in my mouth and asked if I am an overachiever; my special toothpaste is especially important because the water in Norway doesn’t contain fluoride), flonase, floss (I am very particular about my floss), my toothbrush heads on my electric toothbrush. Lots of things involving my teeth now that I list them out like that. Back in the States, I keep track of my toiletries only to know when I have to buy more. But in watching them dwindle now, it’s like I’m watching time move in a different way as the supply gets more and more depleted from month to month and sometimes from day to day. It’s kind of trippy to think about—the different ways we keep time. 

Thinking about the time I’ve come through and the time in front of me has also got me thinking about where I am in the culture shock cycle. I think because I know myself when I have traveled to new places I feel like here I’ve been simultaneously in the enjoyment/honeymoon phase and the acceptance, adjustment, and integration phases. I came into my move knowing that there were going to be things that I really enjoyed about Norway and that I would find far superior to the United States. Like the number of electric vehicles and the infrastructure to support them. Or fresh food that isn’t poison. Or the transportation system. Or the selection of gummy candies in the grocery store. 

And I’ve been very curious, more curious than the last time I lived abroad, about Norway’s culture and history. We got a book list at orientation from a fellow Fulbrighter, who happens to be a professor of Nordic Studies, and I’ve been making my way through the list (so far I’ve read Shark Drunk, A Doll’s House, The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktalkes of Asbjørnsen and Moe. I’m currently reading One of Us (because October = scary books). I’m especially intrigued by how the history of Norwegian involvement in WW2 and how the cultural concept of Janteloven have shaped national consciousness and especially teacher preparation. Eventually I will write more about this idea when I feel like I have a better understanding of it. I’m preparing a workshop called What Does It Mean to Be American? To Be Norwegian? And including ideas I was writing about in my Sept 20 blog. I just feel like my engagement with the culture is more curious and open to learning than fetishizing and glorifying it like I did when I lived abroad the first time. I’m also 24 years older than I was then. 

And I’ve been missing things from the States too. Yes, my family and my pets. Students I teach and learn from at CSU. And a backyard. Oh. A grill. Man do I miss my grill. But I’ll have those things back eventually. And in the grand scheme of how long I have lived my life, 44 weeks isn’t that long to go without them. But about this time the first time I lived abroad I started getting annoyed with the way this new-to-me culture does things and wishing for the way things are Stateside. There aren’t as many things that annoy me like that this time around. I would love a blender and/or an immersion blender. But I can buy that if I find that I really need it. I would love a dryer so I can put in my towels and have them come out all fluffy. But I don’t mind drying my clothes—except for sheets, towels, underwear, and socks, we air dry everything in Colorado. I would really love access to my washer in Colorado because it can hold more stuff and I think it just cleans better. But that’s it really. None of those are annoying enough that I’m frustrated about living here.

A lot of my friends have expressed their delight that I get to live away from the magnificent dumpster fire of the US right now. But I’m not sure I’d ever want to move permanently to Norway, or even permanently out of the US. Norwegians have told me that they’re not as independent from their government as we are in the States. I have heard from many a Norwegian—not all, but many—that what the government tells them to do or says is good for them they’ll believe and do. The concept of personal freedoms doesn’t exist on the same scale that it does in the States. I guess it’s okay for the government to tell you what to do if you agree with them. But what if you’re conditioned to always agree with them? I’m not saying that our system in the States is perfect, but I might prefer the option to disagree with the government. But this means that those I don’t agree with also get this system, and that often leads to conflict. We’re experiencing a lot of conflict now in the US. Also fascism. Being here gives me some distance to observe and rest. And learn. From Norway and Norwegians. I’m also reading On Tyranny (October = scary books) and will start Where Do We Go From Here and Emergent Strategy thereafter. Democracy is something we must constantly fight for. I’m still working through this idea and say more about it in my Sept 20 post. 

The time away has also given me time to be with my own thoughts. Which can sometimes be overwhelming, but it’s been 20 years since I’ve lived by myself and had this kind of time—and quiet—to and for myself. This time has given me space to think about who I am and to re-energize. I was telling my supervisor about something I had to do and she was like, yes! You have things to do outside work. And in my head I was like, I do? Like what? Because back in the States I do so much work. And here I work on Fulbright stuff and I work on CSU stuff. But I also read and cook and run a lot. I have been thinking about what really brings me joy and gives me energy. 

A former Fulbrighter was here last week working on a special project and it turned out that we knew a lot of the same people from our time in grad school in Michigan (she went to State but we can still be friends!). We have a lot of the same philosophies and perspectives on teaching and learning and students and teacher preparation and it was really cool to be able to talk and hang out with her. The night before she left for a week’s vacation in Oslo I invited her over for supper at my house. And it reaffirmed for me that I love cooking and I love getting to know people and be in relationship with them. I really do feel like part of the reason I was put on this Earth is to learn how to love others and be loved by them in return. I’ve tried to build relationships with each of my fellow Rovers this year. I am thinking about what prevents me from being in relationship with others back in the States and how to mitigate the distractions to that next year. I’m thinking about how to be a better wife, sister, daughter, friend. And how to be better to myself as well. 

It’s been nice to have the time away to do all this thinking about time. And on it marches!