Oslo Bombing

As some of you may know, earlier this afternoon (Friday) there were two explosions in downtown Oslo; one, near the office of the Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, and the other near to the Norwegian Parliament.

I am relieved to say that myself and the other Peace Scholars are all safe and staying at the Blindern Dormitory until further notice. My friends Kelsey and Thato, who were meeting a friend for coffee in city center, said they greatly felt the explosion and saw people running away from the area soon after the explosions. Back at the dorm, a rattle sounding like a thunder clap was heard, but nothing was felt- we're about 15 minutes away by train.

Little is known as to what the explosions were, if they were accidental or plotted, and who/what is behind it. We do know that several are injured and two deaths have been reported.

I've found that BBC has so far had the most up-to-date and reliable news; follow here.

This weekend I will be away in the Jotunheimen mountains on a hike, but I will keep all posted as best as I can!

Sognsvann

About a ten minutes T-Bane ride away from the Blindern dormitory sits Sognsvann Lake, a typical picture of Norwegian nature that showcases the country's pride in its natural beauty. On any sunny day, you can expect to see all types of Norwegians grilling out, playing volleyball, doing yoga, or pitching tents around Sognvann. The lake is surrounded by a beautiful (and truly mystical) forest with trails that lead further and deeper into the Nordmarka woods the longer you walk (which would take days to explore in their entirety). I've taken a liking to walking around the lake several times each week at sunset and have also done several longer morning hikes with friends! Below are a few pictures of Sognsvaan and the beautiful Norwegian wood:

Stereotyping 101

Yesterday, I went on an excursion with my Scandinavian Government and Politics class to Grønland, a neighborhood predominantly inhabited by immigrants originally from Africa, the Middle East, and other areas of Asia. The purpose for the excursion was to question our personal idea of the ‘typical’ Norwegian- usually the perception of blonde hair, blue eyed, Caucasian Scandinavians. Today, 80% of Norway’s population growth is due to immigration. Because of the country’s egalitarian nature, its identity as a social welfare state, and the high quotas of refugees and asylum seekers it allows into the country each year, immigrants are challenging the assumption that Norwegians are a homogeneous group of peoples.

We were given a route to follow and an hour and a half to explore the neighborhood. My first observation was that the area was extremely multi-ethnic. It was not a Chinatown or Greektown, with restaurants and shops prescribing to one geographical identity. I saw Thai food, Indian food, Pakistani and Middle Eastern shops; mosques, churches, and synagogues.  The streets weren’t designated for particular immigrants of a certain area- in fact, when I looked around I was surprised at the type of people I saw as well. My second observation was that there weren’t only non-ethnic Norwegians inhabiting this neighborhood, but that over a third of the people I was seeing were native Norwegians (and mostly young people). From my own experience within immigrant neighborhoods, I hadn’t expected this type of demography.

The area had several public parks and green spaces, old and new buildings, schools, daycares, and lots of places to try new foods. Besides a large amount of graffiti (something that Oslo has a lot of), Grønland looked like any other middle class, inner city neighborhood. I walked away happy that I had the chance to explore a new place and with the hope to come back for their weekend market or to eat something other than fish and potatoes, our staple diet back at the dorms.

In class this morning, I was ready to discuss my exploration of Grønland as my professor asked us to share what we had noticed and observed about the neighborhood and if it had challenged our idea of a ‘typical’ Norwegian. But after the first comment was given…“It wasn’t that bad for an immigrant neighborhood”…I knew this discussion was going somewhere very different (when asked to later to describe immigrant neighborhoods in France, this same student concluded their statement with “I’m not judging, but that’s just the way it is there”). Here are some of the words that followed from others:

·         - “My group only saw one person asking for money and one person drinking on the street, but it was early in the morning so there weren’t that many people out yet.”

·        - “I noticed that many of the native Norwegians were riding bikes or driving cars, but most of the people of different ethnicities were walking.”

·        - “That was the first time that I’ve seen a sign for a police station while I’ve been here.”

·        - “It’s crazy, you walked on one street that was part of a really nice neighborhood, and you could move even one street down and it was like…third world!”

…at which time, I gave a very audible gasp. This student had just compared a Norwegian neighborhood, predominantly immigrant inhabited but also known as a trendy, more affordable place for young students to live, as third world. I repeat- third. world. Maybe I shouldn’t be as astonished at some of my colleague’s attitudes towards the Other. After all, each of us had the ability to fly to another country for the summer, enroll in and afford summer classes, and live for six weeks in one of the most expensive cities in Europe. Most of us (on scholarship or not) have probably come from some level of privilege. We’re used to hearing some version of “Don’t go to that neighborhood, it’s dangerous.” The same idea manifests back home in the perceptions that many Minneapolis inhabitants hold about the Northside- it’s dangerous, crime-ridden, and poor over there. Until you take the time to explore, talk, challenge, and take the time to look, there will always be a stereotype about the unknown, whether in America or Scandinavia. It’s upsetting to me that for many people in this world, the image of immigrants, people of color, or those with a different ethnic make-up than our own often connotes poverty, crime, and unemployment and in turn ignites a level of subconscious superiority.

Where do your stereotypes lie? Are they about a certain place, group of peoples, or a specific culture? Challenge that today; prove yourself wrong. 

Lillehammer

For the past few days, I've been staying at the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer, Norway (a few hours North of Oslo) to learn about the Nansen Dialogue Network, to meet students from the Western Balkans and Caucasus regions that will also be attending the International Summer School, and to feed off the wisdom of a burly, bearded Norwegian man named Steinar Bryn, the Project Director of the Nansen Academy. Bryn has dedicated his entire life to cultivating peace between feuding peoples, specifically those in the ex-Yugoslavian countries of Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. He frequently travels across Eastern Europe to facilitate dialogue between those who literally hate each other. Instead of debating facts, numbers, and lives lost, those involved talk and dialogue with each other and learn that their experiences are not so different from one another. In this way, the Nansen Dialogue Network creates peace in the midst of conflict. 

The single best thing that I've been able to do this week is to look around a circle of people....and not see one other person from my own country. In the middle of a discussion yesterday about our own willingness to dialogue with those our own countries are in conflict with, I looked up at those surrounding me. A Macedonian named Biljana, a Croatian named Marija, Annette from Serbia, and myself. Have you ever been in a conversation as the sole American? It makes you feel especially great when you get things like "I thought you all would be stupid and fat!" or, even more sobering, "It seems like you have a lot to be ashamed of in your history."

I've also had time to explore quaint Lillehammer- below is a picture from the top of the city's ski jump that was built for the 1994 Winter Olympics. I've been on a few walks around the city, to the movie theater, and to the Maihaugen Museum where we celebrated Midsummer's Night Eve by gathering around Breisjøen Lake and watching a traditional fire lighting ceremony.

 

Tomorrow we leave for Oslo, where I will spend the next six weeks of my summer. I couldn't be more excited!

Traveler's Prologue

In less than one week, I will be leaving the familiarity of Minneapolis to begin my summer in Norway at the University of Oslo's International Summer School! For the majority of the seven weeks abroad, I will be taking a Scandinavian Government and Politics course and participating in a peace seminar twice a week with nine other peace scholars from the Midwest (we all received the same scholarship to travel to Norway). The ten of us leave from Minneapolis on June 19th and, after a brief layover in Reykjavik, Iceland, travel to Lillehammer (host of the '94 Winter Olympics) to participate in a week long seminar called The Nansen Dialogue. The Nansen Dialogue happens every year one week prior to the start of summer courses in Oslo. It serves as an analysis and healing process for enrolled summer school students that come from the Caucas region that have been impacted by conflicts and wars after the fall of the Soviet Union. The seminar allows students from countries that may have been in previous opposition with each other to talk about their experiences and relate to one another. The goal is to find common ground among the anger and hostility that these students may feel towards each other. Why have myself and nine other Americans been invited to these dialogues? I wish I knew! I suppose that's all for a future blog post.


There are several trips that the summer school offers throughout the term ("excursions" is what the University calls them...cute). I'll have a chance to do hiking, water rafting, and a reindeer safari in Jotunheimen, a visit to the Oslo Fjord, and a trip to see the beautiful landscape of Telemark, a county described as the heart of Norwegian culture. We also have a long four day weekend in the middle of July that students can use to do whatever they wish. My eyes are set on Dublin. More to come on that.


When I traveled to Namibia and South Africa last fall, people there would ask me what I had thought of the two countries before I left and what I believed my experience would be like. And I could never quite give them a satisfying answer. To be honest, I don't like to do much digging into the places that I go to before I leave. An experience without preconceived notions almost always leads to a disappointment-free affair. You can't be let down by something that you had no amount of expectation for. Personally, I feel more open to the things that I see and people I meet if I leave my own judgement at home. Having said that, one must know some background about their destination to avoid becoming that stereotypical image of the annoying American traveler. I hear that Norway's one of the most expensive places in the world that I could go. There's 18 hours of daylight in the summer. The fjords are something like paradise. And if, heaven forbid, I ever need a place to stay besides my own dorm room, I've got the Svanoes, the Ouses, and about 18 other relatives of Minnesota friends that can house me in the greater Scandinavian area.


I'm excited and happy and feel incredibly lucky to have seven weeks to explore a new part of the world. I'll try to be a reliable blogger and friend while I'm gone, so keep checking back for new posts in the coming weeks :)