Seasons greetings from Norway

It's Yuletide here on our little island, and the Christmas spirit is all around. The lights are up, people are spending absurd amounts of money, and Santa Claus is in the mall. Even the weather is making an effort to be festive. The normal, west coast rainstorms have been temporarily replaced by gentle snow, and the local ice skating rink is actually frozen for once.

This is month four for me here in Norway, and it's been the best yet. I'm staying with some wonderful hosts, the Grov family, and began attending vidaregåande skulen (high school) in August. It's such a joy to be able to experience everyday life in another culture. I'm constantly trying new things and learning new ways to express myself without English.

To fill the hours after school, I've taken on the challenges of teaching young girls gymnastics at the local sport center and tutoring music at an elementary school. It's been incredibly rewarding. I've also joined the Stord gymnastics team, which was all men until now, and am a member of the community band. The two most popular sports in Norway are, without a doubt, soccer and handball, but I'm about the only one who hasn't been playing since I could walk, so I can't join a team. My two host sisters are involved in both, though, and it is great just to watch.

My host family lives about a 10-minute drive from downtown in a nice house by the ocean. There are quite a few tiny communities on the island, but the only real town nearby where we live is Leirvik, with about 15,000 people (The population of the whole island is only 20,000). Stord has been inhabited since Viking times, so the families here are very well established, and everyone knows everyone else. It makes me feel so welcome when almost everyone I meet already knows who I am and where I'm staying. Despite what I was told before I arrived in Norway, the people here are very friendly and outgoing.

Now that winter is upon us and the hours of daylight are limited, one of the only remaining excitements for the citizens of Stord is the prospect of Christmas. The holiday certainly isn't as flashy an affair in Norway as it is in America. At home, Christmas decorating might mean inflating that nylon Santa, perching some wooden reindeer on the roof, and buying ropes of blinking, colorful lights to cover the house and everything in the front yard. The resulting effect is wonderfully dazzling and very Las Vegas-like.

Norwegians, on the other hand, use lights sparingly, and they're always white. It's almost magical to see the little wooden houses nestled together by the shore, glowing with delicate strings of soft light. Downtown, the cobblestone gågater (walking streets) are lined with candles and pine boughs.

Of course, there's the commercialized version of Christmas here as well. Traditionally, julenissen (the Norwegian Santa) comes to your house on Christmas Eve with gifts if you leave him some graut (a sort of rice pudding) and beer in the barn. According to folk tales, this bearded forest man stays near farms and protects Norwegians' homes, wandering around with a lantern and watching over everyone.

Nowadays, however, Christmas in Norway puts equal attention on the "Coca-Cola Santa," who flies around in a sleigh, has dwarves and wears the fuzzy red suit. It's interesting to see the combination of old and new traditions here.

I still have six months in this country, and I'm looking forward to using my remaining time to learn lots of new things to share with everyone back home. With my organization, I get to explore Norway and possibly the rest of Europe with students from around the world. I've already been in the two largest cities in the country and seen a bit of Sweden, and my experiences here on Stord alone have been enough to write a book about. I feel so fortunate to have gotten this opportunity.

I hope everyone in Columbia Falls is enjoying this holiday season as much as I am. I'm excited to be back home next June but, until then, wish me luck in my adventures.

I'll leave you here with a hearty Norwegian God Jul og Godt Nyttår!

Willow Shaw

CFHS class of 2004