This week I’ve been reflecting on the kindness shown me as a foreigner traveling in Norway. While I’ve shared some of the examples that Minnesotan might consider ‘unfriendly’ (e.g., don’t make eye contact with, talk to, or sit next to someone on a bus or train), there are so many ways that strangers have shown kindness to me here. This is just a sampling of the good heartedness, or Godhjerthet, that I’ve experienced in the last few weeks.

When I was teaching in Molde three weeks ago, the teachers and students were all incredibly welcoming and kind. I chatted with staff in-between classes and had lively conversations about US politics at lunch. At the end of my week there, the host teacher presented me with a copy of Karius og Baktus, a children’s book meant to scare children into brushing their teeth. As someone who loves literacy and promotes early literacy, this was such a special gift, and totally unexpected! I was also given Norwegain havsalt (sea salt) and soda manufactured in Molde, Oscar Sylte pineapple-flavored soda. There was a 2-hour gap before a bus would drive by the school, so the host teacher even drove me back to my hotel during her afternoon break.

Gifts from Molde: Pineapple flavored soda, sea salt, and a traditional children’s story.

A week later, teaching in Volda, I was again welcomed into the lower secondary classrooms by delightfully energetic and positive teachers. In my introduction for the pupils, I shared a little bit about my family and life in Minnesota and noted how much I loved the bread in Norway. In addition to learning Norwegian while living here, I was on a mission to learn how to bake Norwegian bread.

The next day, one of the substitute teachers gave me five grams of his dried sourdough starter with directions for baking sourdough in both grams and cups and written in both Norwegian and English! He said that I could literally take the sourdough starter back to the US to bake Norwegian bread…he also recommended that I bring back some Norwegian flour, of course.

Dried sourdough starter to make Norwegian bread.

From Volda, I needed to take busses and a ferry to Nordfjordeid. The transportation transfers had a quick turn-around, so when the ferry docked, I walked directly to the bus stop and asked the woman standing there if I had missed the bus. She pointed back toward the ferry, to the vehicles labeled as Taxi, and told me to ask one of the drivers. The taxi driver quickly called the bus driver and then told me to go back to the bus stop.

Within a few minutes, the bus (disguised as a van with a Taxi label) stopped and picked me up. The people inside the van were the same people with whom I had traveled across the fjord on the ferry. The bus driver made a loop back to pick me up after his colleague called! I had walked right by the bus (labeled Taxi) when I walked to the bus stop. The drivers saved me from Plan B- needing to ride the ferry back to Volda to take a different route on the last bus to Nordfjoreid, two hours later.

After an hour of incredible views in the bus-van, I was in Nordfjordeid, settled into a rather upscale hotel. When I requested a sauna towel at the front desk, the receptionist recommended that I wait an hour because the sauna was rather busy. So, I did. An hour later, as I was walking to the sauna, the same receptionist said, “Yah, it will be much more relaxing now.” I was so glad that he saved me the awkward experience of trying to find a sitting space in a person-packed sauna.

I was also thrilled to be invited to dinner with teachers from the school in Nordfjordeid. I’d been told that Norwegians take their work-life balance seriously, rarely doing ‘school’ things after hours, so any invitation to meet with teachers after school should be embraced. When the English teachers asked if I’d like to meet for supper, I was grateful for time with these incredible educators. It is always so interesting to hear about educational topics, politics, life lessons with teachers outside of school, and especially with teachers outside of the US. We talked about teaching, travel, family, and more. Not only did they pay for my meal (eating out is rather expensive in Norway), but they also gave me some Norwegian chocolates.

Since then, some of the teachers have even emailed me to share different cultural topics or events. One message, for example, was to help me practice my Norwegian (Nynorsk, specifically) and teach me about rural Norwegian culture. Attached to the email was a picture from her local floral shop. It had a ‘closed’ sign in the window with a VIPPS number (think Venmo for Norwegians) at the bottom. There were plants outside the store, so I responded that perhaps the store was closed but the items could be purchased by sending the owner funds through VIPPS. That was correct AND people could buy bags of soil around the building as well.

Another teacher sent me a note with a Nynorsk phrase to translate, “Lat att grinda kyrne frys”. In Bokmål, it translates to “let the cows graze,” but in Nynorsk, it means “close the gate, the cows are freezing.” I am so appreciative of the people who have the patience and have taken the time guide me to grapple with language learning and continue to find little ways to help me with my Norwegian acquisition and understandings of Norwegian culture.

I am so very grateful for the godhjerthet of the people, teachers, students, and families with whom I’ve interacted these past few weeks, in particular. It is an honor and privilege to serve as a Fulbright Roving Scholar this academic year and I am so thankful for the opportunity to live, learn, and teach in Norway.

Godhjerthet: Kindness

Brød