It has been an interesting transition back to the United States of America. There are of course numerous minor things to get used to again- language, landscape, and culture- but the biggest epiphany has been with friends. I had an opportunity to travel to Minneapolis last weekend and see my best friends from college. It was an unusual experience. I was so excited to see all of them, but it felt weird to essentially step back into an old world. They have new lives, but in many ways it seems the same as college days. They live together, have the same personalities, the same quirks, and are the same fun, good people. I wonder if I am the reason that it seems like the old college days since they have lives in the moment that I don’t share with them. Essentially we all have our own pattern of living and when we get back together we revert back to our old way of living because that is a pattern that we share.
It was also a difficult weekend to realize that timing is enough to bring down some relationships. It is frustrating to know that there are amazing people that I can’t get to know, can’t spend time with, and can’t support simply because I am in a different time zone, in a different country, and in a different life. It seems to be the price of exploration or maybe just the logical effect of growing up. Fortunately, beneath all of these slightly depressing realizations is the fact that they are my friends. We will always have a shared history. I have spent formative years with them, and they know me. Even if I grow, they know at some level the roots of that growth. I have a lot of fun with them and am at peace knowing that I will always be able to randomly show up and be a part of their lives, regardless of how unfair it is to expect that. Whether making lunch, playing Smash Brothers, drinking wine, or helping to shave their backs, I have a lot of random experiences to share with my friends. And in that, I’m thankful.
“No Surprises” - Radiohead
A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,
with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silence.
This is my final fit,
my final bellyache,
with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.
Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.
No alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises, please.
I am back in Central Standard Time Zone and the thesis work has begun! I am researching a program run by the South Dakota Lutheran Church. I am trying to find out if South Dakota's partnership with the Lutheran church in Nicaragua is helping meet the needs of Nicaraguans or if it only gives the donors a warm feeling without making a change. I bought a new digital recorder and have started my research by interviewing a few of the key people involved, and it has been interesting already. They have all been changed by the program but seem to be very aware of the potential pitfalls of the program. My first impression is that it's a good program because they are working on building a long-term relationship instead of just handing out money. It is getting me very excited for the chance to visit Nicaragua and to meet the characters that I am already hearing about. Pieces seem to be falling in place. The bishop of Nicaragua is even coming to visit South Dakota next weekend so I'll be able to make contact with her before I travel to Nicaragua! I am also getting prepared thanks to a string of ridiculously hot days. I've been sweating in my sleep, getting ready to travel south. Off to watch some baseball. I feel so American.
I made it back to the green, flat, warm land of South Dakota. I had a smooth 22 hour day of travel. Sat by a lady who was born in Indonesia when it was under Dutch rule and spent 5 years in a Japanese internment camp which was interesting and met a flight attendant who had a job lead for my sister. It's crazy to be back to a place where I can say the city I am from instead of just generalizing that I am from Dakota or the middle of the United States. I miss Norway, but it is great to talk to the family and have a great breakfast made for me! So Koselig!
Today is the first official night with the midnight sun and my last official night in Norway for the next four months. What poor timing! It's been alright saying goodbye to most people because I know that I will come back and see them again (inshallah), but it was tough saying goodbye to my international friends who are only studying here for one year. I spent a few hours drinking tea and just chatting with Tony, Alex, Jesus, Cintia, Alessandra, Alberto, and Nere. We reflected on the year and talked about our future travel plans. I just hope that after 3 months in Nicaragua, I'll be able to visit Spain and survive with only Spanish. It's been a great year, and it's been fun to see the evolution of the international crowd since they were the first people I met and spent time with. It's supposed to be better to be the first one to leave, but I feel like I'm actually the last since I'll come back and they'll all be goneo. But it's been great and there are many more adventures ahead, quite possibly with the same crazy international friends. Ciao Norway. See you all Stateside.
Tonight was the night: EuroVision. It was as cheesy and ridiculous as everyone warned me. The best way to describe it is the cheese of a Miss America Pageant combined with an Olympic version of Idol. 24 countries from Europe competed in the Finals and all of them perform a song written in their country. It ends up being basically 24 versions of love dance songs in English...often unique English combined with ridiculous dance numbers, wind machines, and costumes. There were some great anomalies though, including this year's winner: Finland! They had a monster rock band dressed in masks and make-up that looked like hideous monsters singing the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah." This masterpiece in song writing included lines like: The walls come down like thunder/ the rocks about to roll/ it's the arockalypse/ now bare your soul. The true believers/ thou shall be saved/ brothers and sisters keep strong in the faith/ on the day of rockoning/ it's who dares, wins/ you will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings. Poetic genius. What word play, what power. Just imagine monsters singing it, and it's so much more meaningful! Better yet, watch them do it here: Hard Rock Hallelujah
Well, Norway didn't do to well. We got 36 points I think. The way it works is that every European country has a call center where people from the country call in to. They cannot vote for their own country, but what happens is that the countries often vote for their neighbors. Sweden gave us a few points and Ireland gave the UK a few votes. Helping out the neighbors you know. Anyways, the top 10 get points and it's fun because they have the votes called in from the capitals around Europe and have a dramatic, pregnant pause as they announce who their great country voted for. Even Malta, at the very end of the night got one 10th place vote for their one and only point.
Well, beneath the complex voting system, dazzling costumes, cheesy music, and bad hosts, there was some entertainment value. I had fun eating shrimp sandwiches for three hours with a few Norwegian friends trying to find it.
(The view walking home at 12.30am. As I finish this blog I'm squinting at the sun coming through my window. Time for the curtains and some sleep.)
After having the best day of the year on the 17th, last night I enjoyed the best part of the year: Rachel and Danny's pizza fest! It was quite an event. There was over 40 people at the party, and it was the most diverse, interesting, fun, and beautiful group of Norwegian and international people assembled at a party this year.
The party started for me at 6pm when I went to help Rachel and Daniel, who is a Swedish friend who has worked as a baker, start preparing the pizzas. I brought my speakers and soon we were listening to "That's Amore" while we cut vegetables and starting making the dough from scratch. 
Danny was great at teaching us about making the dough and soon we had almost 2 kilos of dough rising. A little before 8pm our first guest arrived: another guy named Daniel who was appropriately enough from Italy! He told us what it would be like if we were making pizzas in Italy. He said we lacked underwear hanging from the balcony, noise in the streets, and the Napoli accent. But, we did have some great pizzas! Danny started making very thin, very Italian pizzas and soon people were streaming into the party and the queue was quickly formed for the pizzas which were made continuously for 4 straight hours.
I had a great time welcoming people, helping in the kitchen, and meeting lots of new people. It made me very excited to come back to Tromsø to get know all of my new acquaintances better next fall. 
The best part of the night was that I was on (or maybe it was when a Turkish guy's shirt caught on fire). It was one of those nights when I felt extremely social, comfortable, excited, energetic, flirtatious, and somehow nearly fluent in Norwegian...or at least I felt that way. The beer was tasting good, everyone was laughing, and the sun shined the entire night lighting up Rachel's flat.
After a while I was mixing gin and tonics and trying to learn how to open a bottle with a knife. (I was successful with the former and not the latter.) Eventually Rachel had to kick people out because of the apartment building's curfew, but I think everyone would have stayed all night (it felt like day!) if we could have.
We continued the party for a while at a bar, but soon I was headed open with the sun just behind the mountains. I had a smile thinking back on the evening. Great party, great pizza, great people.
When the moon (midnight sun) hits your eye like a big pizza pie that's amore!
I walked home from the town center, wearing a t-shirt and feeling a little cool as I walked to keep warm. Spring in Tromsø! I felt extra Norwegian as I carried my white plastic bag carrying 1 and a half kilos of shrimp for Stian and I to decapitate and eat tonight. It was such a picture perfect Tromsø day. The old lady near the soccer fields was sitting in a chair on her front steps to be in the sun while doing her Sudoko. Couples rode bikes and took their dogs for a walk. The even older lady four houses down from us was knitting in the sun while our neighbors were busy painting a new fence. I really enjoy my life here and am going to miss it when I leave Monday morning. Fortunately, I'll be back in the fall, ready to patiently wait for the sun to bring everyone outside again.
