Read time: approximately 11 minutes

This week

• Monday, 12 January my first day back in the office!
• Wednesday, 14 January went out to Torsnes Skole in Fredrikstad to work the 6th and 7th graders on their self-portraits, framing it as how do we present ourselves? Who are we? The 7th graders might have gone into slight existential crisis. There was also a fire alarm that day! But the kids were in their indoor shoes! Many panicked, looking back and forth between their indoor and outdoor shoes and didn’t know what to do! The teacher made them exit immediately so they were in their Crocs and sandals on their playground that has become an ice skating rink (not because they on purpose turned it into an ice skating rink, but because we are in Norway in the winter). Everything was okay, nothing was burning down. It was fun to see the kids having fun on the ice and even carrying some of their classmates with less ice-specific footwear.
• Thursday, 15 January facilitated a workshop on intercultural communication, schooling, and building democracies with 4th year masters students at Høgskolen i Østfold, which is where I’m based out of. This was exciting partly because most of the students in this class overlapped with students I had taught in the fall term in a workshop on teaching writing. And exciting because this workshop is very close to what I teach about in the States. And even more exciting because some of the students are in their practicum this semester with a teacher at Kruseløkka Ungdommskole in Sarpsborg, where I spent a lot of time last term—and she wants to know if I want to do something with her this term. Perhaps involving teacher candidates?! Very exciting.
• Friday, 16 February planned a workshop on collaborative writing with a colleague from the Fremmedspråksenteret (the Norwegian National Institute for the Teaching of English and Other Foreign Languages) and went to my first Zumba class at the university, hosted by another faculty member at the school. So fun!

Before I left the United States to return to Norway, my partner said, maybe you can pretend you’re Canadian. You know, because the US is really leaning hard into her imperialist and xenophobic-if-you’re-a-person-of-color era. When I was living in Morocco and September 11 happened I pretended I was Canadian. When I was living in Paris and W was president and he was saying some really stupid stuff that as of this writing doesn’t actually seem that stupid relative to what is now said I pretended I was Canadian. 

I chuckled at what my partner said and then told him that it’s kind of my job to be American. When I arrived in Norway in the fall and was hiking with a new friend and her partner and the partner said that students and teachers would give me a hard time because I’m American I was like, yeah, I know. It’s okay. I took this job knowing that. It felt a little different to come back to Norway, though, after continued clashes between ICE and protesters in Minneapolis, the US’ kidnapping of a sovereign nation’s president and his wife, and Trump’s insistence that he’s going to buy Greenland, which has a complicated relationship with Denmark, my neighbor directly to the South and former occupier of Norway. I hid my passport even more when coming through passport control in London and Oslo. 

But I was back at work this week and it actually feels really good. It was nice to have a pause to reorient; like my friend said when I was home in the States, like halftime. I came out this half knowing what to expect and excited to start. I affirmed that, as the Fulbright program values, our purpose is to turn nations into people. I am here to share what’s good about the United States, but also to help people unpack their stereotypes and misconceptions about the United States and its people. Not all of us don’t want immigrants coming into our country. Not all of us support the president. Not all of us are right-wing nationalists. We are not a monolith, just like Norwegians aren’t a monolith. 

In the masters class this week a student came up to me after class to chat. Toward the end of our conversation she said, I don’t know if you remember this from last time, but in the fall after class I also told you this and I want to tell you again: your voice is so nice to listen to. I laughed and thanked her for the compliment. And then asked her what she meant: like the words, the tone, what is it? She said that she and her peers grew up listening to Americans on youtube and watching American tv and I just sound like them—super American. At various points in my life I have been pretty self-conscious of my Valley girl accent, because I am, like, actually from that Valley. But I think that’s what she was talking about (and others have mentioned it): I sound like what she expects someone from the States to sound like. And oh the irony! I have written in this blog the irony of being questioned my.entire.life in the United States if I’m American because of my name and how I look and my skin color and ta da! I am often the first American that Norwegian students have ever met. Back in the States my Americanness is questioned and in Norway I am literally serving as a representative of the United States, here to turn nations into people. 

Another thing I was reminded of this week is when students start their last year at school, whatever level (elementary, middle, high school, college), and they have these milestones that are like, this is my last first day of school, or my last first day of this class, or my last prom or whatever. I kind of felt like that for me. In the first semester, everything was new and I was trying to figure out my job, the culture, the money, the language, the copy machine, how to get onto the internet at work. Everything was new. But this term, I know what to expect. I can even kind of carry on a conversation in Norwegian. It feels good. 

And part of the reason why it feels good is because I feel like this term I can make decisions about where and how I want to spend my time. I can feel myself moving toward colleagues at work or fellow Rovers who I want to make sure I keep in touch with after this year. I can feel myself pulling away from those I’m not sure I’ll see or hear from after this year is over. In previous posts, I’ve noted that community is important to me and I want to connect with others. I feel like I am reaching out, hanging out with people I want to continue to be in relationship with. And, I think I’m making friends! 

Norwegian class also started this week and I had to miss because I was teaching, but I’m looking forward to picking that up again. When I first rearrived I was like, mmm, maybe the Norwegian I know is enough. But then I had two interactions on Saturday that showed me that there are people in my little town who don’t know a lot of English and to communicate with them, I need to know more Norwegian. So I made a goal to improve my vocabulary. I was at the library picking up a Welcome to Halden goodie bag (thanks I’ve been here since August) and decided that since I have a Norwegian ID card and person number now (like a social security number), I could get a library card! So I got one and checked out When Stars Are Scattered, The Little Prince (actually the first full book I read in French), and another illustrated book in Norwegian by a famous Norwegian author. I’ve read the first two books multiple times and can easily access them in English so I figured these would be good books to build my Norwegian vocabulary, because I pretty much have down the structure (grammar) of Norwegian. 

Interesting side note on finding books at the library: in the States, if we have secondary students who have a hard time reading, it’s important to find texts for them to read that are intellectually stimulating and manageable for their reading level. Many many young adult authors write books in verse or construct graphic texts so that readers who have a hard time reading can feel successful reading, improve their reading, and have something that is engaging for them. Knowing this, when I saw When Stars Are Scattered on the shelf, I asked the librarian for books like it: graphic, in Norwegian, something to help me learn Norwegian. I didn’t mention the intellectual stimulation bit. But she showed me little kid books. And I was like, but the books are for me. I ended up walking around the library and picking out the second two books. But this was a real experience of something I’m often on the other side of as the book recommender. It’s good to have experienced it from the side of the person trying to learn how to read and learn the language. 

I’m also really looking forward to workshops this term, my schedule this term, closing out the academic year in a way that feels good and right. And, to come back to my goals from the first term, I’m looking forward to learning how to listen. Our Rover University person last week asked the Rovers if we’d be willing to serve as judges in a writing competition in February. I was like, well, I’m available, but I don’t know if I want to because I think it’ll make me upset what they think about writing (they’re very into the five-paragraph essay here, another glorious American export). But one of my Rover mates responded before me. And she said that she’d have to check her schedule, but that she always loves to participate with other writing teachers in conversations about what makes writing good. And I was like, whoa, I love that attitude. Yeah, okay, how long has it been since I’ve engaged with others on that question? It was good to be reminded to put on my listening ears. 

I have also been engaged already with responsibilities that await me Stateside upon my return. This weekend I completed my annual report for Colorado State University, a document I (and others employees) have to complete every calendar year to list out what we were up to in the last calendar year. So I just finished my 2025 file. I build it bit-by-bit throughout the year, but then there’s a template we have to put it in blah blah blah. This dossier gets passed to my department chair, to the tenure and promotion committee, and eventually to the Dean. They all evaluate it for how well I’m doing my job, if I’m eligible for my contract to be renewed for another year, and if I’m making satisfactory progress toward tenure. 

This weekend I also worked on a couple of proposals for the next NCTE Convention, which will be in Philadelphia. Proposals are due Jan 27 and I have to write up something that I envision presenting in nine months. One could gestate a baby in that time! The Community Literacy Center (CLC) at CSU is also shifting a little bit and myself and a couple other English Department colleagues are starting conversations about what the CLC will look like next year. 

So even though I am trying to be present in the six short months I have left in Norway, creating community, and being able to be more intentional with how I spend my time, I’m already looking ahead to reentry into the States and in full force to my full-time job at CSU. And that’s okay. I have a life here and there; home is in Norway and in Colorado (And Atlanta, and California, and Michigan, and Boston, etc etc. I am lucky to call many many places home). 

So skål (cheers) as the Norwegians say. Looking forward to the term. Thanks for (continuing to) join/ing me on this journey.