Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I wrote a Christmas card a few weeks back but haven't sent out copies yet, so if you're interested, read on and enjoy my first ever "Christmas" card (albeit a little late...):

Home is tricky word. As I sit here in my room in my South Dakota home enjoying the brightness of the 44th parallel, I feel at home. Relaxed, comfortable, and content. However, I also know that I left Tromsø, Norway (70 degrees north) which has also begun to feel like home: filled with friends, work, and adventure. I think this is the limbo of not quite being in the real world. Or maybe this is the real world. I’m not sure yet where I fall, but I think I’m am leaning towards the real world and making a new home, and this decision comes with the obvious conclusion: I now need my own “Christmas card!” It is time to start the great American tradition of keeping in touch with friends and family through an annual Christmas card.

Although Christmas cards usually cover the whole year’s events, my independent life starts in August when I left the United States for Tromsø, Norway to begin a master’s program in Peace and Conflict Transformation. Norway has been a great challenge and a great reward. I study with 17 other students from all over the world. There are 7 students from Norway and students from Finland, Bangladesh, Tchad, Cameroon, Germany, Ghana, and Poland. This international program is taught in English, but is definitely taught in the European-style with little in-class discussion, an emphasis on teaching yourself, and 100% of the grade determined on a final exam. This has been a frustrating change for me, but fortunately I have been able to make great friends from the program and we often discuss and debate our material, which ranges from anthropology and sociology, to political science and economics. I am excited for next semester to start elective courses and hopefully qualify to be an elections observer through a long distance learning course in Bergen, Norway.



I was very fortunate in the beginning of the fall to move into a house with 4 other classmates, aptly named “The Peace House.” The five of us joined two other students already living in the house to create a cozy, fun collective. Five of my housemates are Norwegian and one is Finnish, so we have an interesting mix of Norwegian and English spoken throughout all three floors of our house. It is a great place to live and has helped me to make great friends with some of my classmates.

The fall has also been a great time for travel! I have had the opportunity to visit Spain, England, and Poland. The last trip to Poland was definitely a highlight because I went with five of my classmates and enjoyed a Polish spa, a trip to Krakow and Auschwitz, and lots of great food and drink. After all of these trips I have always been excited to return north of the Arctic Circle to Tromsø where I live right on the water, surrounded by mountains and picturesque Norwegian homes. Tromsø is known for having the northernmost brewery, the most bars per capita in Norway, and lots of crazy international students who have kept my weekends lively. Currently Tromsø is dark 24 hours a day, so the vitamin D in South Dakota has been a pleasant change.

I will be studying in Tromsø until May 2007. This summer I have the exciting prospect of doing fieldwork, which I will be the basis of my master’s thesis that I will write next year. I want to research whether certain types of foreign aid from the United States are more or less political and effective than others as well as how aid may cause brain drain in recipient nations. I have thought about traveling to Nicaragua to do fieldwork, but still need to focus my ideas before I can make a decision. If anyone has suggestions or connections, please let me know!

Lots of adventures await me in the next year and half, and I would love to invite everyone to join me in my journeys. I have set up a website that I update regularly with stories and pictures: scottinnorway.blogspot.com. I also would love visitors to Tromsø! You have a free place to stay in my house when you come.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a God Jul! Thanks for joining me in my first big step of adulthood!

Vennlig Hilsen,

Scott

Norwegian Mobile: (47)92 25 20 47 AIM: bigtwig16meyer
E-mail: scottdavidmeyer@gmail.com Skype Name: bigtwig16