June 2, 2010
Our last morning in Bodø led us to the local college, Høgsloken i Bodø/ Bodø University. Home to 5,500 students, this local college is known for its business school, nursing program and adjacent police academy. Our host for the morning is Peter Glanfield, the Internasjonal rådgiver and Internasjonalt kontor (International Affairs Ambassador). His job is to work with the international students visiting Bodø University, market and brand the program to attract new students and for the past 12 years, help the accreditation process so the college can became a full-fledged university. This dream is in fact ready to be a reality as Bodø University is scheduled to receive accreditations later this year and will then be renamed Universitet i Nordland. The accreditation process is particularly important to allow the University to make independent decisions. Prior to becoming a University, the college can only offer the programs and classes that the state government allows. As a University, they can expand their programming and offer a variety of tracks from Bachelor to PhD options and thus attract a greater number of students to the area.
During our tour of the campus, Peter explained that the schooling here in Norway is a typical European format of three years of college for your Bachelor degree, followed by 2-3 years of additional studies depending on your specialization. Bodø University has four main departments: business, health, social studies and fishery. However, Bodø continues to face the challenge of depopulation with family sizes going down to an average of 1.8 these days and that number continues to drop. The students that are going to college have their pick from other Norwegian Universities including Tromsø and Oslo. Therefore, the challenge for Bodø University is to find a way to continue growing and since they cannot keep their local students here, they have decided to focus on the international aspect instead. Both local and international students do not have to pay a tuition to go to the University. International students must show a balance of 89,000 NOK (about $15,000) in their bank account with their application in order to be accepted to the University and cleared for their visa. This is to guarantee that they have the funds for housing during the school year. Most of the international students currently at Bodø University are from Russia, some of Scandinavia and just recently, some East Asian students have been finding their way to Bodø.
One interesting department at the University is the professional research lab. Faculty can transfer into this department when they want to take a break from teaching and focus solely on their research. They can then switch back to their respective departments and continue teaching when they are ready. As in the United States, government funding for the University is dependent on the amount of published work by graduate students and faculty members. However, individual faculty members cannot receive or apply for grant money on their own. While there is no tenure here in Norway, there is an implied tenure since faculty cannot be terminated unless there is valid cause and for the most part, once you work at the University, you stay there until you want to leave.
In the afternoon, we packed our bags and had some downtime with our host families before getting ready to board the evening ship, Gamle Salten, for a cruise down the fjord. Several of our host families and the incoming Fauske Rotary Club members joined us for this trip. The Gamle Salten has been sailing for 50 years, originally along the coast line linking people and industry together. It is still one of the few ships maintained in its original condition. As soon as you step inside the boat, the first thing you notice is the mahogany wood, leather and brass. The ship is separated into two compartments, first and second class. There is a top deck to take in the sights and cabins below for those interested in staying advantage of the overnight accommodations. One of the crew members took us through the ship, showing us the different rooms, dining halls and the engine. For most of the night, however, we enjoyed our hosts’ company and the live music band. After pulling back into the dock at 10 pm, we said our goodbyes to Bodø and headed to Fauske, which is about an hour south.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Looking for a job in Bodø?
June 1, 2010
Today was our first career day in Norway. With my work experience, I was matched with two local organizations: NRK Nordland and Avisa Nordland. I was excited about entering a newsroom in Norway and learning about the similaries and differences between media outlets in two different countries. As I expected, Norway does follow a similar format to the United Kingdom in that all residents must pay a fee to own a television. They are not licensing fees but revenue generated to help support programming and networks within the country. Norway is also a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and thus able to participate in the Eurovision competition.
NRK Nordland is a radio and television broadcasting station in the county of Nordland. There are several satellite offices but the main branch is in Bodø. I arrived at the station at 8:15 am to meet Eivind Undrum Jacobsen, the editor, and sit in on the morning meeting at 8:30 am. Although the meeting was held in Norwegian, newsrooms are the same everywhere and I could tell the editor was discussing story ideas and hearing from reporters on what their plan was for the day. The main stories for the day included a discussion about the Gulf Stream spill and its impact on Norwegians, the fact that SAS is sending its planes to Israel for maintenance and the school and transportation strikes. Immediately after the meeting, the staff dispersed throughout the building and I was introduced to Martin Steinholt, a researcher and occasional radio personality at NRK. Martin had his five year old son with him today since it was the beginning of the school strike. Since Martin is in kindergarten, he is the first one affected and on day one, the primary teachers were walking out but the teachers assistants were allowed to work and provide daycare for a few hours of the normal workday, from 11-2 pm. The teachers were striking to fight for equal pay for women. As we dropped off his son at the daycare, we found out that tomorrow the assistants will also be going on strike and the primary and secondary schools will be closed indefinitely. I learned that in Norway, there is an expected strike season that happens every two years or so. Currently, the schools, transportation and printers are all either on strike or on the verge of going on strike. Oddly, when I asked Martin if there was any coverage of the pending strike, his answer was that if there was no resolution in a couple days, they would do some interviews. In the United States, a teacher strike would be front page news days before it even happened!
When we got back to the office, Martin gave me the tour of the building including stops at the radio booths, the television control room and the newsroom. Unlike most newsrooms back home, there were no cubicles here but rather open desks and the main wall as replaced by windows providing a panoramic view of the sea and the fort. Definitely makes going to work a bit easier! It was interesting to see two media outlets, television and radio, combined under one roof. The researchers were the same and the title research essentially indicates reporter; somebody who is looking for a story and doing the background work for the piece. Television and radio segments are only 30 seconds to a minute long, so the research needs to be concise and since this is a county-wide broadcast, any story needs to be tied back to Nordland. For example, the top stories today included the spill in the Gulf Coast and the reporter was looking for a Nordland resident affected by the calamity. The newsrooms can of course get busy at various times, but for the most part, it did feel very relaxed. NRK Nordland hosts three radio broadcasts, from 6-9 am, 11-1 and 4-5:30 pm. Those hours include a live radio personality delivering news, traffic updates and weather reports between music. About 85 percent of the show is live in-studio, while the remaining is pre-taped interviews. During the afternoon show, from 4-5:30, the remaining 1.5 hour is given to dedicated to national news. In addition to those shows, a reporter gives the 2 minute news bulletin on the hour every hour between 6 am and 5 pm. Television is very similar, there are two tv broadcasts in the morning and the afternoon for about 30 minutes each. Perhaps the biggest difference here was that each staff member was expected to take on multiple tasks, whether it was researching, reporting, working the camera or editing reels for the live broadcast.
After a quick lunch at NRK, I headed toward the downtown square to the offices of AN Media. Avisa Nordland is the community newspaper for all of Nordland county. While headquartered in Bodø, AN does have several other branches including Feuske, Røst and Harstadt to name a few. In the Bodø office, there are about 30 employees. The Sjefradaktør (Editor-in-Chief) Jan-Eirik Hanssen was out of town for a conference on a new software program they introduced to their office a few weeks ago, so I met the equivalent to their Redaktør (Managing Editor) Vibeke Madsen. The office structure at AN includes one editor-in-chief, three rotating managing editors, section editors and then reporters. The three rotating managing editors take a week each of being the second in command, followed by one week off since they are expected to work 24/7 during the week and then a third week to work on other projects before taking the helm again. Vibeke explained how the managing editor is asked to carry a phone and should any problems arise in the evening or night, she is expected to solve the issue. She is responsible for assigning stories and filling space in the magazine once the sales department gives her the paid advertisements for the day. The section editors are in charge of editing the reporters’ pieces and submitting the work in time, however, she would proofread and edit the front page stories or any other controversial pieces in the newspaper. The section editors would then lay out the pages using created templates and fill in the spaces for headlines, photo, captions and text. Vibeke tries to hold several meetings during the day starting with the 9 am staff meeting for story ideas, then a series of conference calls with other branches for updates on story submissions and then a meeting in the afternoon to learn about updates on the developing stories and to pick a lead story for the front page. Her hours are generally 7 am to 4:30-5 pm, followed by another couple hours of work from home in the evening and of course, to be on-call should any printer issues arise. As managing editor, Vibeke earns about 800,000 NOK.
I then asked to talk to a reporter to learn more about the investigating process in Bodø. My host for the next couple hours was Iris Lyngmo, a ten year veteran to Avisa Nordland and a journalist with many national awards for her investigative pieces. Iris focuses on hard news stories, preferring to dig in and uncover stories. She said at any given time, she is likely working on one to two stories and is currently in a competition with a coworker to see who can earn the most covers! Since Iris was busy making travel plans for a story she plans to cover over the next couple days, we didn’t have a lot of time but Iris wanted to ask me about the gripes of journalists back home and in particular, whether there is fair compensation for the work. Iris, who represents the journalists in the office, said she just finished talking with the central office regarding the pay and after weeks of negotiations, walked away with a promised 10,000 NOK raise for her fellow writers. Her bosses at AN Bodø were unhappy with this, insisting that the newspaper needs to tighten its reigns. Iris, however, said AN has been increasing its profit every year and rather than offer the employees a better pay or work environment, the bosses continue to fire staff and make the remaining reporters work twice the hours on a salary with no overtime. Now, as she heads into negotiations with her bosses next week, Iris insists that she will ask for more than the 10,000 NOK promised increase but does not have high hopes for any change. On average, reporters at AN Bodø make about 247,000-297,000 NOK, which after you subtract 40 percent for taxes, does not amount to much. The same position in Oslo would receive 600,000 NOK or more. It is interesting that while journalism seems to be a more important profession in Norway than in the United States, the reporters face the same issues of needing to fight for more pay and feeling overworked and uncompensated, particularly compared to the editors.
To start the evening, we all met at Cafeteria for a traditional Norwegian dinner. Items on the menu include fish balls (not a big hit), stew and Norwegian hamburgers which are open-faced sandwiches. After dinner, Majvi and Per took the group on a field trip to see the world’s strongest whirlpool at Saltstraumen. Saltstraumen, approximately half an hour from Bodø, is a sound with a strong tidal current connecting the channel Saltfjord with its extension, the large Skerstadfjord. This tidal current is the strongest in the world, bringing 400 million tons of sea water through a 1.8 mile long and 500 feet wide waterway. This happens every six hours and today, the strongest whirlpool will be visible at 8:51 pm. The whirlpools or maelstroms are roughly 32 feet in diameter and 16 feet in depth. Surrounding Saltstraumen is the Børvasstindene mountains, making this area one of the most beautiful places we've seen in Norway! On this particular day, while the whirlpools were certainly impressive, they did not live up the "looking into the devil's mouth" description we had heard from the locals. Sitting by the water, watching this natural phenomenon was pretty amazing though and we have heard that the government is taking steps to protect the land. They have turned down several applications to build houses down closer to the water so as to preserve the landscape.
Today was our first career day in Norway. With my work experience, I was matched with two local organizations: NRK Nordland and Avisa Nordland. I was excited about entering a newsroom in Norway and learning about the similaries and differences between media outlets in two different countries. As I expected, Norway does follow a similar format to the United Kingdom in that all residents must pay a fee to own a television. They are not licensing fees but revenue generated to help support programming and networks within the country. Norway is also a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and thus able to participate in the Eurovision competition.
NRK Nordland is a radio and television broadcasting station in the county of Nordland. There are several satellite offices but the main branch is in Bodø. I arrived at the station at 8:15 am to meet Eivind Undrum Jacobsen, the editor, and sit in on the morning meeting at 8:30 am. Although the meeting was held in Norwegian, newsrooms are the same everywhere and I could tell the editor was discussing story ideas and hearing from reporters on what their plan was for the day. The main stories for the day included a discussion about the Gulf Stream spill and its impact on Norwegians, the fact that SAS is sending its planes to Israel for maintenance and the school and transportation strikes. Immediately after the meeting, the staff dispersed throughout the building and I was introduced to Martin Steinholt, a researcher and occasional radio personality at NRK. Martin had his five year old son with him today since it was the beginning of the school strike. Since Martin is in kindergarten, he is the first one affected and on day one, the primary teachers were walking out but the teachers assistants were allowed to work and provide daycare for a few hours of the normal workday, from 11-2 pm. The teachers were striking to fight for equal pay for women. As we dropped off his son at the daycare, we found out that tomorrow the assistants will also be going on strike and the primary and secondary schools will be closed indefinitely. I learned that in Norway, there is an expected strike season that happens every two years or so. Currently, the schools, transportation and printers are all either on strike or on the verge of going on strike. Oddly, when I asked Martin if there was any coverage of the pending strike, his answer was that if there was no resolution in a couple days, they would do some interviews. In the United States, a teacher strike would be front page news days before it even happened!
When we got back to the office, Martin gave me the tour of the building including stops at the radio booths, the television control room and the newsroom. Unlike most newsrooms back home, there were no cubicles here but rather open desks and the main wall as replaced by windows providing a panoramic view of the sea and the fort. Definitely makes going to work a bit easier! It was interesting to see two media outlets, television and radio, combined under one roof. The researchers were the same and the title research essentially indicates reporter; somebody who is looking for a story and doing the background work for the piece. Television and radio segments are only 30 seconds to a minute long, so the research needs to be concise and since this is a county-wide broadcast, any story needs to be tied back to Nordland. For example, the top stories today included the spill in the Gulf Coast and the reporter was looking for a Nordland resident affected by the calamity. The newsrooms can of course get busy at various times, but for the most part, it did feel very relaxed. NRK Nordland hosts three radio broadcasts, from 6-9 am, 11-1 and 4-5:30 pm. Those hours include a live radio personality delivering news, traffic updates and weather reports between music. About 85 percent of the show is live in-studio, while the remaining is pre-taped interviews. During the afternoon show, from 4-5:30, the remaining 1.5 hour is given to dedicated to national news. In addition to those shows, a reporter gives the 2 minute news bulletin on the hour every hour between 6 am and 5 pm. Television is very similar, there are two tv broadcasts in the morning and the afternoon for about 30 minutes each. Perhaps the biggest difference here was that each staff member was expected to take on multiple tasks, whether it was researching, reporting, working the camera or editing reels for the live broadcast.
After a quick lunch at NRK, I headed toward the downtown square to the offices of AN Media. Avisa Nordland is the community newspaper for all of Nordland county. While headquartered in Bodø, AN does have several other branches including Feuske, Røst and Harstadt to name a few. In the Bodø office, there are about 30 employees. The Sjefradaktør (Editor-in-Chief) Jan-Eirik Hanssen was out of town for a conference on a new software program they introduced to their office a few weeks ago, so I met the equivalent to their Redaktør (Managing Editor) Vibeke Madsen. The office structure at AN includes one editor-in-chief, three rotating managing editors, section editors and then reporters. The three rotating managing editors take a week each of being the second in command, followed by one week off since they are expected to work 24/7 during the week and then a third week to work on other projects before taking the helm again. Vibeke explained how the managing editor is asked to carry a phone and should any problems arise in the evening or night, she is expected to solve the issue. She is responsible for assigning stories and filling space in the magazine once the sales department gives her the paid advertisements for the day. The section editors are in charge of editing the reporters’ pieces and submitting the work in time, however, she would proofread and edit the front page stories or any other controversial pieces in the newspaper. The section editors would then lay out the pages using created templates and fill in the spaces for headlines, photo, captions and text. Vibeke tries to hold several meetings during the day starting with the 9 am staff meeting for story ideas, then a series of conference calls with other branches for updates on story submissions and then a meeting in the afternoon to learn about updates on the developing stories and to pick a lead story for the front page. Her hours are generally 7 am to 4:30-5 pm, followed by another couple hours of work from home in the evening and of course, to be on-call should any printer issues arise. As managing editor, Vibeke earns about 800,000 NOK.
I then asked to talk to a reporter to learn more about the investigating process in Bodø. My host for the next couple hours was Iris Lyngmo, a ten year veteran to Avisa Nordland and a journalist with many national awards for her investigative pieces. Iris focuses on hard news stories, preferring to dig in and uncover stories. She said at any given time, she is likely working on one to two stories and is currently in a competition with a coworker to see who can earn the most covers! Since Iris was busy making travel plans for a story she plans to cover over the next couple days, we didn’t have a lot of time but Iris wanted to ask me about the gripes of journalists back home and in particular, whether there is fair compensation for the work. Iris, who represents the journalists in the office, said she just finished talking with the central office regarding the pay and after weeks of negotiations, walked away with a promised 10,000 NOK raise for her fellow writers. Her bosses at AN Bodø were unhappy with this, insisting that the newspaper needs to tighten its reigns. Iris, however, said AN has been increasing its profit every year and rather than offer the employees a better pay or work environment, the bosses continue to fire staff and make the remaining reporters work twice the hours on a salary with no overtime. Now, as she heads into negotiations with her bosses next week, Iris insists that she will ask for more than the 10,000 NOK promised increase but does not have high hopes for any change. On average, reporters at AN Bodø make about 247,000-297,000 NOK, which after you subtract 40 percent for taxes, does not amount to much. The same position in Oslo would receive 600,000 NOK or more. It is interesting that while journalism seems to be a more important profession in Norway than in the United States, the reporters face the same issues of needing to fight for more pay and feeling overworked and uncompensated, particularly compared to the editors.
To start the evening, we all met at Cafeteria for a traditional Norwegian dinner. Items on the menu include fish balls (not a big hit), stew and Norwegian hamburgers which are open-faced sandwiches. After dinner, Majvi and Per took the group on a field trip to see the world’s strongest whirlpool at Saltstraumen. Saltstraumen, approximately half an hour from Bodø, is a sound with a strong tidal current connecting the channel Saltfjord with its extension, the large Skerstadfjord. This tidal current is the strongest in the world, bringing 400 million tons of sea water through a 1.8 mile long and 500 feet wide waterway. This happens every six hours and today, the strongest whirlpool will be visible at 8:51 pm. The whirlpools or maelstroms are roughly 32 feet in diameter and 16 feet in depth. Surrounding Saltstraumen is the Børvasstindene mountains, making this area one of the most beautiful places we've seen in Norway! On this particular day, while the whirlpools were certainly impressive, they did not live up the "looking into the devil's mouth" description we had heard from the locals. Sitting by the water, watching this natural phenomenon was pretty amazing though and we have heard that the government is taking steps to protect the land. They have turned down several applications to build houses down closer to the water so as to preserve the landscape.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Aviation and Beyond!
May 31, 2010
An early morning after a late night of fishing made for a very tired group of Americans as we met Sven Scheiderbauer, an incoming Rotarian president and our host for the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum (Norwegian Aviation Museum). Sven is the director of Norsk Luftfartsmuseum and was in fact hand-selected and courted to move from Sweden to Norway to take the helm of this national museum. As director, Sven is responsible for all the daily operations of the museum including the hiring and maintaining of the nearly 35+ staff members and for raising the 25 million NOK budget. The first 20 million NOK is relatively easy: 10 million NOK comes from the government and the other 10 million NOK comes from storage fees paid by the Norway military and other private entities that have aircrafts or archives on display on museum grounds. The remaining 5 million NOK is a challenge, largely because Norwegians do not donate in the same way Americans do at home. Instead, Sven has to be creative in bringing groups to the museum. His efforts over the past five years have been very successful, Norsk Luftfartsmusuem boasts a record of 40,000 attendees per year, which is especially impressive considering there are only 45,000 residents in Bodø.
The Norsk Luftfartsmuseum itself is shaped as a giant propeller and situated on approximately the same land as the German airfield during World War II. The aircrafts within the walls are separated into two exhibits: civil and military. The civilian hanger dates back to the early 1900s when Norway saw its first planes and record setting was a major sport. It wasn't until the 1950s when planes were used for transportation. Interesting exhibits included both the first female pilot, who never flew commercially since nobody would hire her to fly a plane and the second female pilot who was independently wealthy so bought her own plane but also retired after seven years due to lack of business. There was also an interesting display of a small plane that got caught between two electrical wires and how they saved the pilot and then shot the plane out of the sky instead of cutting down the wires and taking out the electricity of the town. On the military side, we saw several aircrafts purchased by the Americans as gifts to Norway. This turned out to be a brilliant move since the Norweigians adopted the American way of flying and today continue to buy a majority of their aircrafts from the United States. Also interesting was a nuclear bomb, the only nuclear bomb in a country that doesn't own their own nuclear weapons. This particular bomb is 500 times as powerful as the one that went off in Hiroshima! Perhaps the highlight of the visit was seeing a homemade plane... the engine was made of parts from car engines and the owner used it for about a year before the air patrol heard about the plane and grounded it.
After a lunch at the museum, we headed over to Widerøe's company headquarters here in Bodø. Widerøe is the top airline in Northern Norway, owned and operated under the Scandinavian Airline System (SAS). Interestingly, the airlines in Norway all bid once every three years to operate certain routes. Currently, Widerøe is operating 85 percent of the routes in Norway with a few international connections to Scotland and England. However, with the system designed as it is, there is no guarantee that the company will remain busy after three years so they have to continue to do the best they can to keep costs low and remain efficient and on time. The headquarters include an administrative building, followed by a series of hangers. Widerøe flight staff are expected to make several visits to the headquarters over the course of the year and the hangers hold several teaching tools including a flight simulator, a cockpit for training pilots and an airplane for practicing how to open emergency exit doors, administer first aid and any other necessities that might arise while in air. The building also includes an aviaition technical team working on fixing radios, batteries and any other wire connections; a fire set; and two hangers for planes in need of maintenance or repair. On this day, there were four planes waiting to integrate a new GPS system. An aviation transmitter team also works at the building, keeping track of all the planes scheduled to fly, their status and the crew aboard each aircraft. Watching the monitors was fascinating!
Norwegian Culture.
Living in Bodø has been an easy transition since it is such a small town. Since we have a key and know where our host family house is, we've been walking around town on our own and making it back to on our own after our commitments for the evening. I have noticed a few interesting cultural differences. First, both men and women exchange rings during an engagement but they are plain bands and are worn on the right hand. During a wedding ceremony, they will either engrave the band with the date or the woman will wear a second similar band. Another interesting experience is dining. In Norway, people do not wait for all the guests on the table to receive their meals before starting to eat. As soon as the first plate comes, the person is expected to start eating and at times, this can mean that the first meal is done before the last plate arrives on the table. There is also no keeping your elbows off the table or excusing yourself or other norms that we expect back at home. Similarly, if you accidentally bump into somebody while walking, people do not say "excuse me" or expect to hear it. In fact, if they do, they just ignore it because they do not know what to do. When you sneeze, people will generally not say "bless you" or make any comment. Tipping: there is generally no gratuity or taxes in Norway and that includes everything from taxi rides to dining out. However, everything is ridiculously expensive here so the tip is actually included in the item price.
Our evening started with our first Rotary presentation and ended with a couple bottles of wine and great conversation with our host, Majvi! Yes, it was another 2 am bedtime.
An early morning after a late night of fishing made for a very tired group of Americans as we met Sven Scheiderbauer, an incoming Rotarian president and our host for the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum (Norwegian Aviation Museum). Sven is the director of Norsk Luftfartsmuseum and was in fact hand-selected and courted to move from Sweden to Norway to take the helm of this national museum. As director, Sven is responsible for all the daily operations of the museum including the hiring and maintaining of the nearly 35+ staff members and for raising the 25 million NOK budget. The first 20 million NOK is relatively easy: 10 million NOK comes from the government and the other 10 million NOK comes from storage fees paid by the Norway military and other private entities that have aircrafts or archives on display on museum grounds. The remaining 5 million NOK is a challenge, largely because Norwegians do not donate in the same way Americans do at home. Instead, Sven has to be creative in bringing groups to the museum. His efforts over the past five years have been very successful, Norsk Luftfartsmusuem boasts a record of 40,000 attendees per year, which is especially impressive considering there are only 45,000 residents in Bodø.
The Norsk Luftfartsmuseum itself is shaped as a giant propeller and situated on approximately the same land as the German airfield during World War II. The aircrafts within the walls are separated into two exhibits: civil and military. The civilian hanger dates back to the early 1900s when Norway saw its first planes and record setting was a major sport. It wasn't until the 1950s when planes were used for transportation. Interesting exhibits included both the first female pilot, who never flew commercially since nobody would hire her to fly a plane and the second female pilot who was independently wealthy so bought her own plane but also retired after seven years due to lack of business. There was also an interesting display of a small plane that got caught between two electrical wires and how they saved the pilot and then shot the plane out of the sky instead of cutting down the wires and taking out the electricity of the town. On the military side, we saw several aircrafts purchased by the Americans as gifts to Norway. This turned out to be a brilliant move since the Norweigians adopted the American way of flying and today continue to buy a majority of their aircrafts from the United States. Also interesting was a nuclear bomb, the only nuclear bomb in a country that doesn't own their own nuclear weapons. This particular bomb is 500 times as powerful as the one that went off in Hiroshima! Perhaps the highlight of the visit was seeing a homemade plane... the engine was made of parts from car engines and the owner used it for about a year before the air patrol heard about the plane and grounded it.
After a lunch at the museum, we headed over to Widerøe's company headquarters here in Bodø. Widerøe is the top airline in Northern Norway, owned and operated under the Scandinavian Airline System (SAS). Interestingly, the airlines in Norway all bid once every three years to operate certain routes. Currently, Widerøe is operating 85 percent of the routes in Norway with a few international connections to Scotland and England. However, with the system designed as it is, there is no guarantee that the company will remain busy after three years so they have to continue to do the best they can to keep costs low and remain efficient and on time. The headquarters include an administrative building, followed by a series of hangers. Widerøe flight staff are expected to make several visits to the headquarters over the course of the year and the hangers hold several teaching tools including a flight simulator, a cockpit for training pilots and an airplane for practicing how to open emergency exit doors, administer first aid and any other necessities that might arise while in air. The building also includes an aviaition technical team working on fixing radios, batteries and any other wire connections; a fire set; and two hangers for planes in need of maintenance or repair. On this day, there were four planes waiting to integrate a new GPS system. An aviation transmitter team also works at the building, keeping track of all the planes scheduled to fly, their status and the crew aboard each aircraft. Watching the monitors was fascinating!
Norwegian Culture.
Living in Bodø has been an easy transition since it is such a small town. Since we have a key and know where our host family house is, we've been walking around town on our own and making it back to on our own after our commitments for the evening. I have noticed a few interesting cultural differences. First, both men and women exchange rings during an engagement but they are plain bands and are worn on the right hand. During a wedding ceremony, they will either engrave the band with the date or the woman will wear a second similar band. Another interesting experience is dining. In Norway, people do not wait for all the guests on the table to receive their meals before starting to eat. As soon as the first plate comes, the person is expected to start eating and at times, this can mean that the first meal is done before the last plate arrives on the table. There is also no keeping your elbows off the table or excusing yourself or other norms that we expect back at home. Similarly, if you accidentally bump into somebody while walking, people do not say "excuse me" or expect to hear it. In fact, if they do, they just ignore it because they do not know what to do. When you sneeze, people will generally not say "bless you" or make any comment. Tipping: there is generally no gratuity or taxes in Norway and that includes everything from taxi rides to dining out. However, everything is ridiculously expensive here so the tip is actually included in the item price.
Our evening started with our first Rotary presentation and ended with a couple bottles of wine and great conversation with our host, Majvi! Yes, it was another 2 am bedtime.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Faxsen to Bliksvær
May 30, 2010
Today is our first day with a host family. For our first visit, Nicole and I have been placed with Majvi Schjødt Larsen (pronounced Moyri). She is in fact not a Rotarian but the niece of a Rotarian who was supposed to host us but is out of town on vacation to Stravbad. We are actually staying at Aud Schjødt Fredricksen’s house, which is a cute little old house built by her father in 1956. The house has stayed in the family through the years and her mother, the living matriarch of the family, lives in an apartment on the second floor. The house is divided into two apartments with two bedrooms and two bathrooms each. We are on the top floor of the house – which was fun to carry our heavy bags up the narrow spiral staircase – where there are two bedrooms and one toilet. The shower is on the ground floor and there is an additional shower-only bathroom in the basement for guests. The house can best be described as eclectic. Aud Schjødt Fredricksen is obviously a well-traveled woman who has collected souvenirs from around the world. She has crammed everything into her living room, so it feels homey but a bit like you are in a museum. Instead of a couch, she chose to buy six lounge chairs and then place them in a circle so all the guests can be comfortable and talk to one another face to face. It doesn’t look like she has any kids of her own, but her niece lives about 6 km away.
When we first got here, we spent an hour talking to Majvi about Norway and the United States. She wanted to hear about the problems we have in the States, saying that while Norway has its fair share of issues, it makes her feel better to hear about other people’s problems instead. We talked about everything from the prevalence of guns (there are none in Norway) to abortion and the death penalty, the healthcare reform and political divide within the country. In Norway, Majvi said the main problems are the education system and the fact that the students are not well-educated, that the jails are perhaps too lenient and that kids are a status symbol here but the parents are not raising them to be responsible, courteous and good. Interestingly, in Norway, the government gives each family a gift of 30,000 NOK for having a kid and then the mother is not allowed to work until the child is at least one year old. Instead, she is paid about 3,000 NOK a month as a salary. She can then choose to continue receiving this salary until the child is 2 years and 11 months old. Apparently, the more children you have in Norway the better status you have since the country needs more citizens and encourages the population to have children. Another interesting fact is that Norwegians do not carry guns unless they do hunt elk or moose in some parts. Even the police officers do not carry guns although they may have a gun locked in their vehicle in case it is needed. During our entire time in Bodø, we have actually not seen any police officers.
After settling into our rooms, which were as eclectic as the downstairs living room, we met up with the group for lunch before an afternoon hike. Many Norwegians hike during the summertime and today we decided to climb Keiservarden. Majvi actually lives at the base of the mountain and often times leaves her house to climb up to the top as her workout for the week. The climb up the mountain took about an hour, with stops along the way to see the city of Bodø and some surrounding towns. The top of the mountain is actually a popular spot for local residents since they occasionally host concerts up there. No concerts during our visit though! It was pretty chilly outside today, hard to believe this is their summer!
After a short break at home to change, it was time for our first boat ride and what better christening than aboard Faxsen, a boat that was born in 1916! Our captain for the evening is the grandson of the man who bought the boat and today, the restoration and maintenance is funded by a private foundation. Our trip today is to Bliksvær, a cluster of islands about an hour and half out to sea from Bodø. We boarded the ship at 8 pm and immediately started adding more layers of clothing. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, a fleece, a vest and two jackets, plus gloves and a warm hat and freezing the entire time! The first leg of the trip was windy and a bit rough but it wasn't until we stopped outside of the islands to attempt to fish for cod that things got really rocky. The boat started swaying as the captain turned on the sonar to try and find a few schools of fish. We probably fished for 10 minutes but only managed to catch two cod fish. We then pulled into a dock under the "Welcommen to Bliksvær" sign, where our crew helped us disembark into what looked like an old empty barn. There, on two wooden picnic benches, we sat and waited for dinner.
Dinner was a bucket of shrimp! The crew threw three huge buckets of shrimp, three smaller trash buckets, loaves of bread, tubes of mayonnaise and some utensils, paper plates and napkins on the table. Immediately, the guests started digging in, grabbing handfuls of shrimp and starting to break off the head, peel back the skin and prepare their shrimp. Norwegians then explained that they take a piece of white bread, cover it with mayonnaise and add the shrimp on top. A final squirt of lemon finishes off the sandwich and then the process starts again. Each guests was also alloted two units of either beer, white wine or a non-alcoholic beverage. The meal ended up with one of the Swedes starting a chant and his friends cheering with their aquavit shot. "Skol!" Aquavit is a Norwegian liquor made out of potatoes and is very much an acquired taste.
After cleaning up, we started heading back and did indeed catch the Midnight Sun before it hid behind a looming cloud. We pulled up to the Bodø docks at 1:30 am and didn't waste any time walking home and climbing under the warm wool blankets in our beds!
Today is our first day with a host family. For our first visit, Nicole and I have been placed with Majvi Schjødt Larsen (pronounced Moyri). She is in fact not a Rotarian but the niece of a Rotarian who was supposed to host us but is out of town on vacation to Stravbad. We are actually staying at Aud Schjødt Fredricksen’s house, which is a cute little old house built by her father in 1956. The house has stayed in the family through the years and her mother, the living matriarch of the family, lives in an apartment on the second floor. The house is divided into two apartments with two bedrooms and two bathrooms each. We are on the top floor of the house – which was fun to carry our heavy bags up the narrow spiral staircase – where there are two bedrooms and one toilet. The shower is on the ground floor and there is an additional shower-only bathroom in the basement for guests. The house can best be described as eclectic. Aud Schjødt Fredricksen is obviously a well-traveled woman who has collected souvenirs from around the world. She has crammed everything into her living room, so it feels homey but a bit like you are in a museum. Instead of a couch, she chose to buy six lounge chairs and then place them in a circle so all the guests can be comfortable and talk to one another face to face. It doesn’t look like she has any kids of her own, but her niece lives about 6 km away.
When we first got here, we spent an hour talking to Majvi about Norway and the United States. She wanted to hear about the problems we have in the States, saying that while Norway has its fair share of issues, it makes her feel better to hear about other people’s problems instead. We talked about everything from the prevalence of guns (there are none in Norway) to abortion and the death penalty, the healthcare reform and political divide within the country. In Norway, Majvi said the main problems are the education system and the fact that the students are not well-educated, that the jails are perhaps too lenient and that kids are a status symbol here but the parents are not raising them to be responsible, courteous and good. Interestingly, in Norway, the government gives each family a gift of 30,000 NOK for having a kid and then the mother is not allowed to work until the child is at least one year old. Instead, she is paid about 3,000 NOK a month as a salary. She can then choose to continue receiving this salary until the child is 2 years and 11 months old. Apparently, the more children you have in Norway the better status you have since the country needs more citizens and encourages the population to have children. Another interesting fact is that Norwegians do not carry guns unless they do hunt elk or moose in some parts. Even the police officers do not carry guns although they may have a gun locked in their vehicle in case it is needed. During our entire time in Bodø, we have actually not seen any police officers.
After settling into our rooms, which were as eclectic as the downstairs living room, we met up with the group for lunch before an afternoon hike. Many Norwegians hike during the summertime and today we decided to climb Keiservarden. Majvi actually lives at the base of the mountain and often times leaves her house to climb up to the top as her workout for the week. The climb up the mountain took about an hour, with stops along the way to see the city of Bodø and some surrounding towns. The top of the mountain is actually a popular spot for local residents since they occasionally host concerts up there. No concerts during our visit though! It was pretty chilly outside today, hard to believe this is their summer!
After a short break at home to change, it was time for our first boat ride and what better christening than aboard Faxsen, a boat that was born in 1916! Our captain for the evening is the grandson of the man who bought the boat and today, the restoration and maintenance is funded by a private foundation. Our trip today is to Bliksvær, a cluster of islands about an hour and half out to sea from Bodø. We boarded the ship at 8 pm and immediately started adding more layers of clothing. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, a fleece, a vest and two jackets, plus gloves and a warm hat and freezing the entire time! The first leg of the trip was windy and a bit rough but it wasn't until we stopped outside of the islands to attempt to fish for cod that things got really rocky. The boat started swaying as the captain turned on the sonar to try and find a few schools of fish. We probably fished for 10 minutes but only managed to catch two cod fish. We then pulled into a dock under the "Welcommen to Bliksvær" sign, where our crew helped us disembark into what looked like an old empty barn. There, on two wooden picnic benches, we sat and waited for dinner.
Dinner was a bucket of shrimp! The crew threw three huge buckets of shrimp, three smaller trash buckets, loaves of bread, tubes of mayonnaise and some utensils, paper plates and napkins on the table. Immediately, the guests started digging in, grabbing handfuls of shrimp and starting to break off the head, peel back the skin and prepare their shrimp. Norwegians then explained that they take a piece of white bread, cover it with mayonnaise and add the shrimp on top. A final squirt of lemon finishes off the sandwich and then the process starts again. Each guests was also alloted two units of either beer, white wine or a non-alcoholic beverage. The meal ended up with one of the Swedes starting a chant and his friends cheering with their aquavit shot. "Skol!" Aquavit is a Norwegian liquor made out of potatoes and is very much an acquired taste.
After cleaning up, we started heading back and did indeed catch the Midnight Sun before it hid behind a looming cloud. We pulled up to the Bodø docks at 1:30 am and didn't waste any time walking home and climbing under the warm wool blankets in our beds!
Grand Prix celebration in Bodø!
May 29, 2010
Our second day in Bodø started with perhaps the most delicious mug of hot chocolate ever, Norwegians know their chocolate! Today was the second of our travel rest days and we kicked off the morning in search of a laptop adapter. Interestingly, electronic stores in Norway sell converters from Norwegian to US but not from US to Norwegian. The store clerk did figure out an alternative though and I bought a mickey mouse cord for only 35 NOK. I can now stay connected throughout the trip!
Richard and Wenche Lindal, perhaps our best friends in Bodø, picked us up for a Norwegian lunch. We visited a small restaurant called Formers Stue or Grandma's Dining Room. The inside of the restaurant was designed to look like Grandma's house including a living room, dining room and kitchen. Each room was decorated with old wallpaper, lace curtains, handmade dollies and of course, antiques throughout. Lunch was delicious and our party tried several Norwegian favorites including an open-faced burger, a brown cheese crepe and my selection, vegetarian pie.
After lunch, we met up with Per Vasshaug and a British-born Norwegian Edward Pegg. Edward has lived in Norway for the past 40 years after leaving Britain for the beauty of the Norwegian coast and of course, love. "There's always a girl," he explained. We decided to meet on the top floor of the County Building, which was great because of the panaromic view of the coastline. The goal for this afternoon meet up was to talk more about Norway and to answer any questions we might have about the country as we kick off our month-long stay. Over the next hour, we learned a lot about the country and the city of Bodø.
Norway is a country of 4.8 million and is located between 48 and 71 degrees north. In Bodø, we are already above the Artic Circle but sadly, because we crossed the line by airplane, it is not considered being baptized. Norway is about 1700 km in length, with Bodø being the approximate half way mark. Norway borders three countries: Finland, Sweden and Russia. Norwegians are very savvy negotiators and in fact, over 45 years ago negotiated with the English on the boundaries of the sea and took ownership of more than 75 percent of the sea between the two countries. Conveniently, the North Sea later was found to be home to oil so Norway became a very rich country because of that find. Border negotations for the waterways between Russia and Norway have been ongoing for 40 years, with Norway wanting the border to be half way and the Russians wanting a section line instead. Norway and Russia finally agreed on a border last year and the result is a compromise.
Norwegians initially settled along the coastline and the Sami people chose the inland area. Today, there are still about 40,000 Sami people who live closer to the northern tip of Norway. The Sami people are protected by the government and often have reserved seats for Parliament or even at universities. In Norway, everybody has a right to an education until 18. This means that you cannot fail out of a school or be kicked out for any reason. However, after 18, only those who are the brightest can apply to go to a university. Once a year, Norwegians would mail in an application to college to one address in Oslo. The government will then go through the applications and select candidates for seats in different universities and programs. Medicine, civil engineering and journalism remain the most competitive programs.
Politically, Norway is a constitutional monarchy. The king remains more a figurehead but does have the ability to make special decisions. The rest of the power is divided between Parliament (makes laws) and Government (executes). One interesting example of the monarch's power was in 1927, when the govenrmetn went into crisis and dissolved. The prime minister, who is appointed by the king, decided to step down and asked the king to find a substitute. The king selected a communist replacement and thus started a divide between the Parliament and the Government. Today, there are elections every four years and the king still can select the Prime Minister but the decision must be approved by Parliament. Local elections are every four years, two years after the national elections. Voting is by party and is not done electronically. Only for local elections can the individual candidates be selected. The parties in Norway include (from the left to the right): Left Party (Marxist/Leninist) which receives about 0.5-0.8 percent votes, Socialist Left Party which currently does have seats in Parliament, Labour Party which is represented in Government and the current Prime Minister is the head of the Labour Party, Christian Democrat Pary, Liberal Party, Center Party which is made up of the farmers, Conservative Party and the Progress Party which is more populist. Traditionally, it has been a competition between the Labour and Conservative Party to take the most seats in Parliament but recently, the Left/Socialist/Center Party has formed an alliance and works together. The winning party takes 30 percent of the seats and seven of the other parties do take some percentage of the seats. Norway has hosted two referendums in 1972 and 1992, both regarding joining the EU. People have voted against joining the EU mostly to protect their waters from other EU members coming in to fish. No other referendums have been mentioned since 1992.
While fish continues to be a valued commodity, the country's wealth comes from oil. Norway has been steadily putting away the profits from oil instead of spending the money in order to provide for healthcare and other needs the aging generations might need. Currently, there are four workers to every pension but the goal in the near future is to make it to two workers to every pension. Employees currently pay 2 percent of their wages to the pension plan while employers pay 9.5 percent of their pension, though it varies slightly depending on the region within the country. Parliament cannot reallocate more than 4 percent of the money in the plan. Unemployment in Norway is currently 3.5 percent due to the financial crisis but typically is 2.5 percent.
After learning about Norway, we went home to change and get ready for our first Eurovision contest party. Richard had bought us tickets to a party hosted at the Radisson Blu Hotel and being that Norway is last year's champion, this event going to be a celebration. Eurovision, or "Grand Prix" as it is referred to in Norway, is a Europe-wide singing contest where 40 countries participate by performing an original song in any language. After two rounds of semi-finals, the final 20 countries perform their songs live in the host city (Oslo this year, since Norway won last year) and each country participates in the voting. There are two parts to the voting, half comes from a panel of judges representing each country and the other half comes from the voting public at home. However, no country can vote for themselves. The only guaranteed spots in the final are the reigning champions and United Kingdom, Germany and France since they put up the most money toward the event. After every performance has been viewed, the judges collaborate the votes and each country assigns 10 scores ranging from 1-7, 8, 10 and 12 points. While technically this is a signing competition, votes are highly dependent on politics. In this year's competition, Germany won by a significant margin. Other notables include Greece, France, Romania and Belgium.
While watching the Grand Prix was half the fun, the other half was partying with the Norwegians. This was our first night out in town and we met a lot of fun and friendly people! After the party at the Radisson, we headed over to a bar called Public with our new friend Marie. Mind you, walking out of the Radisson at midnight, the sky was bright and looked like 3 pm in the afternoon. The bar scene in Bodø was like most pub scenes back at home, except more expensive! A glass of wine or a beer were 64 NOK or $10 and a mixed drink started at 91 NOK. At 3 am, it was finally time for bed!
Our second day in Bodø started with perhaps the most delicious mug of hot chocolate ever, Norwegians know their chocolate! Today was the second of our travel rest days and we kicked off the morning in search of a laptop adapter. Interestingly, electronic stores in Norway sell converters from Norwegian to US but not from US to Norwegian. The store clerk did figure out an alternative though and I bought a mickey mouse cord for only 35 NOK. I can now stay connected throughout the trip!
Richard and Wenche Lindal, perhaps our best friends in Bodø, picked us up for a Norwegian lunch. We visited a small restaurant called Formers Stue or Grandma's Dining Room. The inside of the restaurant was designed to look like Grandma's house including a living room, dining room and kitchen. Each room was decorated with old wallpaper, lace curtains, handmade dollies and of course, antiques throughout. Lunch was delicious and our party tried several Norwegian favorites including an open-faced burger, a brown cheese crepe and my selection, vegetarian pie.
After lunch, we met up with Per Vasshaug and a British-born Norwegian Edward Pegg. Edward has lived in Norway for the past 40 years after leaving Britain for the beauty of the Norwegian coast and of course, love. "There's always a girl," he explained. We decided to meet on the top floor of the County Building, which was great because of the panaromic view of the coastline. The goal for this afternoon meet up was to talk more about Norway and to answer any questions we might have about the country as we kick off our month-long stay. Over the next hour, we learned a lot about the country and the city of Bodø.
Norway is a country of 4.8 million and is located between 48 and 71 degrees north. In Bodø, we are already above the Artic Circle but sadly, because we crossed the line by airplane, it is not considered being baptized. Norway is about 1700 km in length, with Bodø being the approximate half way mark. Norway borders three countries: Finland, Sweden and Russia. Norwegians are very savvy negotiators and in fact, over 45 years ago negotiated with the English on the boundaries of the sea and took ownership of more than 75 percent of the sea between the two countries. Conveniently, the North Sea later was found to be home to oil so Norway became a very rich country because of that find. Border negotations for the waterways between Russia and Norway have been ongoing for 40 years, with Norway wanting the border to be half way and the Russians wanting a section line instead. Norway and Russia finally agreed on a border last year and the result is a compromise.
Norwegians initially settled along the coastline and the Sami people chose the inland area. Today, there are still about 40,000 Sami people who live closer to the northern tip of Norway. The Sami people are protected by the government and often have reserved seats for Parliament or even at universities. In Norway, everybody has a right to an education until 18. This means that you cannot fail out of a school or be kicked out for any reason. However, after 18, only those who are the brightest can apply to go to a university. Once a year, Norwegians would mail in an application to college to one address in Oslo. The government will then go through the applications and select candidates for seats in different universities and programs. Medicine, civil engineering and journalism remain the most competitive programs.
Politically, Norway is a constitutional monarchy. The king remains more a figurehead but does have the ability to make special decisions. The rest of the power is divided between Parliament (makes laws) and Government (executes). One interesting example of the monarch's power was in 1927, when the govenrmetn went into crisis and dissolved. The prime minister, who is appointed by the king, decided to step down and asked the king to find a substitute. The king selected a communist replacement and thus started a divide between the Parliament and the Government. Today, there are elections every four years and the king still can select the Prime Minister but the decision must be approved by Parliament. Local elections are every four years, two years after the national elections. Voting is by party and is not done electronically. Only for local elections can the individual candidates be selected. The parties in Norway include (from the left to the right): Left Party (Marxist/Leninist) which receives about 0.5-0.8 percent votes, Socialist Left Party which currently does have seats in Parliament, Labour Party which is represented in Government and the current Prime Minister is the head of the Labour Party, Christian Democrat Pary, Liberal Party, Center Party which is made up of the farmers, Conservative Party and the Progress Party which is more populist. Traditionally, it has been a competition between the Labour and Conservative Party to take the most seats in Parliament but recently, the Left/Socialist/Center Party has formed an alliance and works together. The winning party takes 30 percent of the seats and seven of the other parties do take some percentage of the seats. Norway has hosted two referendums in 1972 and 1992, both regarding joining the EU. People have voted against joining the EU mostly to protect their waters from other EU members coming in to fish. No other referendums have been mentioned since 1992.
While fish continues to be a valued commodity, the country's wealth comes from oil. Norway has been steadily putting away the profits from oil instead of spending the money in order to provide for healthcare and other needs the aging generations might need. Currently, there are four workers to every pension but the goal in the near future is to make it to two workers to every pension. Employees currently pay 2 percent of their wages to the pension plan while employers pay 9.5 percent of their pension, though it varies slightly depending on the region within the country. Parliament cannot reallocate more than 4 percent of the money in the plan. Unemployment in Norway is currently 3.5 percent due to the financial crisis but typically is 2.5 percent.
After learning about Norway, we went home to change and get ready for our first Eurovision contest party. Richard had bought us tickets to a party hosted at the Radisson Blu Hotel and being that Norway is last year's champion, this event going to be a celebration. Eurovision, or "Grand Prix" as it is referred to in Norway, is a Europe-wide singing contest where 40 countries participate by performing an original song in any language. After two rounds of semi-finals, the final 20 countries perform their songs live in the host city (Oslo this year, since Norway won last year) and each country participates in the voting. There are two parts to the voting, half comes from a panel of judges representing each country and the other half comes from the voting public at home. However, no country can vote for themselves. The only guaranteed spots in the final are the reigning champions and United Kingdom, Germany and France since they put up the most money toward the event. After every performance has been viewed, the judges collaborate the votes and each country assigns 10 scores ranging from 1-7, 8, 10 and 12 points. While technically this is a signing competition, votes are highly dependent on politics. In this year's competition, Germany won by a significant margin. Other notables include Greece, France, Romania and Belgium.
While watching the Grand Prix was half the fun, the other half was partying with the Norwegians. This was our first night out in town and we met a lot of fun and friendly people! After the party at the Radisson, we headed over to a bar called Public with our new friend Marie. Mind you, walking out of the Radisson at midnight, the sky was bright and looked like 3 pm in the afternoon. The bar scene in Bodø was like most pub scenes back at home, except more expensive! A glass of wine or a beer were 64 NOK or $10 and a mixed drink started at 91 NOK. At 3 am, it was finally time for bed!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Landed in Bodø!
May 28, 2010
We have finally arrived! After what seems like hours of traveling including sitting on the runway for an extra hour and half while our flight was rerouted to avoid the lightning storm and running through the Oslo airport to go through customs, pick up our luggage and drop it off at our connecting airline, all within 45 minutes! We were greeted at the Bodø airport by three Rotarians including Per Vasshaug, the international contact and Richard Lindal, the incoming president. Since the Bodø airport is literally in the heart of town, we drove around the corner to our downtown hotel. The Grand Hotel/Clarion will be our home for the first two nights as we get adjusted to the time difference, get over our jet lag and learn how to sleep through the Midnight Sun. The hotel itself is special as it is one of only three buildings that partially survived the German bombing of Bodø in 1940 during World War II. The entire town was destroyed in that bombing, but as we can see today, they have picked themselves up and started over. In our hotel lobby, you can see an old wall mirror with a crack through the glass. The mirror was actually hanging in the Grand Hotel when a grenade was thrown into the building and is now kept in its original condition as a memory.
We have finally arrived! After what seems like hours of traveling including sitting on the runway for an extra hour and half while our flight was rerouted to avoid the lightning storm and running through the Oslo airport to go through customs, pick up our luggage and drop it off at our connecting airline, all within 45 minutes! We were greeted at the Bodø airport by three Rotarians including Per Vasshaug, the international contact and Richard Lindal, the incoming president. Since the Bodø airport is literally in the heart of town, we drove around the corner to our downtown hotel. The Grand Hotel/Clarion will be our home for the first two nights as we get adjusted to the time difference, get over our jet lag and learn how to sleep through the Midnight Sun. The hotel itself is special as it is one of only three buildings that partially survived the German bombing of Bodø in 1940 during World War II. The entire town was destroyed in that bombing, but as we can see today, they have picked themselves up and started over. In our hotel lobby, you can see an old wall mirror with a crack through the glass. The mirror was actually hanging in the Grand Hotel when a grenade was thrown into the building and is now kept in its original condition as a memory.
Walking by the docks, Bodø, as with most cities in Norway, is situated right on the coast and between several mountains. At any given moment, you can see many personal and commercial boats including cruise ships headed toward Bergen, Estonia and Russia. In fact, during our stay here in Norway, we will be joining one leg of the Hurtigruten boat line which has 10 ships out on an 11-day roundtrip voyage between Bodø, Bergen and Finland. The docks are also home to five boats selling fresh fish for local residents. Customers visit the boats all day to buy shrimp by the pound.
The rest of our tour took us through the town including a visit to the local Cathedral (Protestant, which is the state religion of Norway) and City Hall. We walked by several residential neighborhoods as well. All of Bodø is walkable, within 10 minutes from any given area (including the airport) to downtown. Another interesting creation is Glass Heust or the Glass House. Essentially, architects designed a glass ceiling to connect two sides of a street to create an indoor mall for residents to shop, walk through and visit during the winter months. On both sides of the Glass Heust are stores or restaurants and on one end is the town square which is an open piazza with restaurants, a performance stage and more shops.
Our first day ended pretty early as we all needed to catch up on missed sleep. The Midnight Sun did not really affect us in the hotel since our curtains were pretty heavy and we were pretty exhausted but we shall see how the rest of the trip goes!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Scandinavian Adventure
Scandinavia. I can't say that a trip to Scandinavia was on my top ten list of places to visit in the world... and definitely, not somewhere I expected to visit within the next five years. But the one thing I have learned is that life is reliably unpredictable and in about seven hours, I will be boarding a U.S. Airways flight to Oslo for the first leg of my trip to Northern Norway.
How did I end up here? A few months ago, I received an email advertising a cultural emersion/exchange program sponsored by Rotary International. The South Jersey District 7640 was looking to send four non-Rotarians to Northern Norway for a four week program designed to experience, learn and understand life in Norway. The entire Group Study Exchange program was created with the idea that by transplanting a person from one place in the world (South Jersey) to another place in the world (in this case, Northern Norway), you are opening up new doors, broadening horizons and allowing the individual to take in a global perspective that will hopefully influence their personal and professional lives back home. Over the course of four weeks, I will be playing Norwegian. I will be living with Norwegian families, shadowing professionals in my field, participating in everyday Norwegian activities and essentially learning how this part of the world lives and works.
Initial Perspectives.
After meeting the Norwegian GSE team here, I have had an opportunity to learn bits and pieces about their culture back home. Everyday life in Northern Norway seems to mirror life at home. Most working professionals work 9-5 jobs, however life seems more relaxed and less dependent on working toward that next promotion and proving yourself in title or salary. Financially, all industry pays higher so as to compensate for a higher cost of living. I think there is a vast disparity between city life and rural suburban living, particularly in the social lifestyle. One consistency, however, is the dependent on the outdoors for activity whether it be hiking, fishing, boating and skiing. It is this commitment to nature and the outdoors that motivates Norwegians to take that extra step to guarantee its continued existence. Expense is not a limitation when it comes to taking precautions, which is particularly reassuring since oil and fuel are the financial lifelines of the country. I am, perhaps, most interested in learning more about the World Seed Bank and the Norwegian's foresight in protecting and preserving the very things that sustain our life today.
Expectations.
This trip to Northern Norway is going to be hectic, chaotic and inspiring. We are going to be on the go for most of the hours in any given day and given that we'll be there during 24 hours of sunlight, the days are guaranteed to be long. For each area we are going to be visiting, from Bodo to Tromso, our hosts want to show us the best of what their hometown has to offer and we are going to be the lucky recipients taking it all in. My goal is to meet as many people as I can, learn from them about life in Northern Norway and really understand what people prioritize, criticize and enjoy. I want to understand how life in another part of the world can be so different, yet so similar to life at home and what lessons we can take away to better ourselves. I want to capture every awe inspiring moment, take in the landscape and sights and come home ready to share my experience.
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but the number of moments that take your breath away."
How did I end up here? A few months ago, I received an email advertising a cultural emersion/exchange program sponsored by Rotary International. The South Jersey District 7640 was looking to send four non-Rotarians to Northern Norway for a four week program designed to experience, learn and understand life in Norway. The entire Group Study Exchange program was created with the idea that by transplanting a person from one place in the world (South Jersey) to another place in the world (in this case, Northern Norway), you are opening up new doors, broadening horizons and allowing the individual to take in a global perspective that will hopefully influence their personal and professional lives back home. Over the course of four weeks, I will be playing Norwegian. I will be living with Norwegian families, shadowing professionals in my field, participating in everyday Norwegian activities and essentially learning how this part of the world lives and works.
Initial Perspectives.
After meeting the Norwegian GSE team here, I have had an opportunity to learn bits and pieces about their culture back home. Everyday life in Northern Norway seems to mirror life at home. Most working professionals work 9-5 jobs, however life seems more relaxed and less dependent on working toward that next promotion and proving yourself in title or salary. Financially, all industry pays higher so as to compensate for a higher cost of living. I think there is a vast disparity between city life and rural suburban living, particularly in the social lifestyle. One consistency, however, is the dependent on the outdoors for activity whether it be hiking, fishing, boating and skiing. It is this commitment to nature and the outdoors that motivates Norwegians to take that extra step to guarantee its continued existence. Expense is not a limitation when it comes to taking precautions, which is particularly reassuring since oil and fuel are the financial lifelines of the country. I am, perhaps, most interested in learning more about the World Seed Bank and the Norwegian's foresight in protecting and preserving the very things that sustain our life today.
Expectations.
This trip to Northern Norway is going to be hectic, chaotic and inspiring. We are going to be on the go for most of the hours in any given day and given that we'll be there during 24 hours of sunlight, the days are guaranteed to be long. For each area we are going to be visiting, from Bodo to Tromso, our hosts want to show us the best of what their hometown has to offer and we are going to be the lucky recipients taking it all in. My goal is to meet as many people as I can, learn from them about life in Northern Norway and really understand what people prioritize, criticize and enjoy. I want to understand how life in another part of the world can be so different, yet so similar to life at home and what lessons we can take away to better ourselves. I want to capture every awe inspiring moment, take in the landscape and sights and come home ready to share my experience.
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but the number of moments that take your breath away."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)