San Francisco!

I had a great time in San Francisco! It was really nice to meet Marte again, and we actually had some nice discussions about our master thesis as well, so it wasn't just a vacation. I got some good ideas and advices, and I hope I gave her some as well. But we mostly had fun, it was so nice to get away for a little time, and just thinking about having fun.

we had ice cream in a park while we waited for La mission to start. That was a really good movie!

we walked through China Town

to get City Lights Bookstore

and this is now my favorite place in the whole world! I could have moved in there if they would allow me..

but we had to get home to make dinner. "Pølsegrateng", the most Norwegian food we could make in a short time

the next day we tried to find Golden Gate Bridge, though we hardly could see it

we decided to walk across it anyway, but it was so cold so we ended up just walking half way

we found a heart on our way to the Cheese Cake Factory

at a art exhibit we met Max, he made sculptures out of tin cans, and each of them had its own word play;

"What's your favorite national anthem?"

"Oh Canada" 

Got it?

 then we went to The Elbow Room and had a couple of drinks and met some of Martes friends

three days was hardly enough, and I am definitely going back some other time!

What is Stephen Harper reading?

I went to the library to day studying. The cool library Downtown. It is still really nice, and the roof actually had sun block. So even though the sun was shining, it didn't bother me that much.

Anyway, I was on my way home when I passed the Microsoft Auditorium, and I saw that Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, was having a book reading (I got Life of Pi as a present from my aunt Rita a couple yeas ago, and it is one of my favorite books). He was promoting his new book Beatrice and Virgil. The nice thing was that he read some sections of his new book, but the best thing was when he told about his project What is Stephen Harper reading?.
Yann Martel is from Canada, and Stephen Harper is the Canadian Prime Minister. What Martel is some what frustrated about is that it seems like the Prime Minister doesn't read much at all. Any books. Not even bad ones. Martel thinks that reading books build character, and by that becoming a more interesting person. It doesn't matter what book you read, just that you read books (I actually agree with him). What Martel does is that every second Monday he sends a book to the Prime Ministers office, with a letter telling him about the book, and why he thinks that the Prime Minister should read that book. He has now sent 79 books. The latest: Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White.
Quote from the website:
"For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written."
When Barack Obama wisited Canada, Martel even sent Sephen Harper a book that he knew Obama loved, so that they could have some things to talk about, when they weren't talking about politics. A overview over the books that he has sent is on the website, and also the story of how it all started.

He haven't got an answer from Stephen Harper yet, just from his office, some secretary or something, so he doesn't actually know if the Prime Minister is reading the books or not. He does know, however, that the Prime Minister know he is sending the books, because there has been a big deal in the media about this. What he also thinks is funny is that he got a letter from Barack Obama, where Obama told him that Life of Pi was one of his favorite books. But he is still waiting for a thank you note from Stephen Harper for all the books that he has sent him.

She's the Liverpool packet. Oh Lord, let her go !

I was kind of a lousy fieldworker the other day, when I decided to go to a concert instead of going to the monthly membership meting at the Sons of Norway. In my defense, the concert was at the Nordic Heritage Museum, and it was the Storm Weather Shanty Choir from Norway!

I am actually glad I went. It was a great concert! To get a bunch of Nordic Americans to stand up, dance and sing along, is, I would imagine, as hard as making Norwegians to do the same. And that is hard!  It takes a really good concert to do that, and they did. At the end of the concert people stood in the front, clapping, dancing and singing along, I was amazed!

 If you have spotify, you can hear them here. If not check out their My Space Page, you cane hear some of their music there (especially the Drunken Sailor song!).

I also got to talk to some of the people working at the museum, they are really nice people, I am glad I started working there. I signed up for working at the Nordic Fashion Show on May 8. I figured my experience in volunteer work, and arranging a big event could come in handy. It is good that I could be used for something!

They are the moth and I am the flame

OBS! This post is a mess, but I have a lot on my mind so it is hard to be precise..

One thing that I have noticed when I am at the lodge doing my research is that I am very visible. I stand out. Not in the "we are all individual and we all stand out in one way or the other", but I stand out because of my age. I am young, and sadly there aren't that many young people interested in what's going on there. Usually I am the youngest by twenty years, and that make people notice me. When they also finds out that I am actually from Norway they tend to draw to me like a moth to a flame. Everyone wants to talk to me about their family in Norway and who their family is, just in case I know them. I seldom do, though. I love to talk to people, but as nice as I think this is, and I really do enjoy being in the center of attention, it makes my fieldwork a little bit difficult. I tend to loose focus on what I originally was going to study, just because I have trouble finding out what kind of information that is actually important, and what information that may not be that important.
My original idea was to study how the descendants of the Norwegian immigrants feel about their Norwegian heritage.  That means that when I am doing my research down at the Kaffe Stue I can't use it to anything. Almost all the people there actually from Norway. What they are doing is holding on to their Norwegianess, and as fascinating it is for me to listen to their stories, it would never be a part of my paper. But they expect me to be there, if I haven't been there in a while, they start asking for me. And in some way, I actually enjoy being there, I enjoy hearing their stories and discussing Norwegian history with them.

The other problem is that I have some difficulties when it comes to the actual descendants. They are not as Norwegian as I first thought, and it is actually hard to find them. As I said earlier, a huge part of my fieldwork is participant observation, so I can't go around interviewing everyone that have a Norwegian Heritage. It would be good to observe them as well. With that said, the people that I do meet, is more than willing to talk to me. Maybe my problem is more of a luxury problem. I get too much information, and I will have a BIG job when I come back to school to sort out what is important and what's not important.


PS: I went to a random dentist Downtown to fix my tooth, and what do you know, his wife had Norwegian family and was second generation Norwegian. They actually are everywhere!

Everyone believes in how they think it ought to be

In my last post I may have stepped on some toes, or stepped deep in to the salad, as we would say in Norway. I am really sorry for that!

When I wrote that easter is not a big deal here in the U.S, I just chose some really bad words, what I meant to say was that easter is not as visible here as it is in Norway. It just becomes more visible back home when all the stores close during the easter holiday. That is mainly because the State and Church is not a separate thing there, as it is here. When you have a state religion, you have no choice but to have the day of when easter comes. However, if you ask any Norwegian teenager what easter is all about, most of the times, you will not get a good answer. 

The reason why it is not so visible here, is that there is no state religion, so you can't force someone to celebrate a religious holiday they don't believe in. I do know that for those who believe in the Christian message, easter is a really big deal, as it should be..

I promised my self not to discuss religion or politics when I was here, and unfortunately I did.. I will have to chose my words more carefully in the future. Some times I forget that people actually read the things that I write.

That being said, take a look at the pictures, and see how I usually spend my easter holiday.