In every nook and cranny of this wild world, one can find the warm,
welcoming arms of a fellow Norski. As a proud Norwegian-American, who
attends St. Olaf College, founded by Norwegian-Americans in 1874, I am
blessed to find Scandinavian tradition woven into my everyday life. At
St. Olaf, we eat lutefisk dinner the first weekend in December, we
celebrate Syttende Mai, we even fly a Norwegian flag right alongside the
Stars and Stripes.
As much as I adored my blue-eyed,
blonde populated college, I ached to explore beyond its Minnesotan
borders. I spent this past semester studying infectious disease and
healthcare in China, Viet Nam and Thailand with a group of 19 Oles and
our professor and his wife. We climbed the Great Wall, boated through Ha
Long Bay and hiked to more mountain temples than my feet care to
remember; we also took classes at local universities and visited dozens
of clinics, labs and hospitals. I soaked up every glorious minute of it,
diving in to the Asian culture that was so different from my own.
After
months of fumbling with chopsticks and making friends who lovingly
forgave our Western attempts at acclimating Eastern culture, we landed
in Cha Am Beach, Thailand for a Thanksgiving vacation. We had just
finished a week long, un air-conditioned bus tour of Thailand’s ancient
capitals. Under the blistering heat of the Thai sun, we gratefully
collapsed out of the bus and onto the sandy beaches of Cha Am. We
slurped up the sun and salty spray, feeling bad for our frigid friends
back home in the snow. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel with
sand between our toes and smiles plastered on our sunburned faces. While
trekking back to our rooms, we heard raucous laughter and disco music
echoing from a nearby alley. Following our ears, we found a charming
outdoor bar bearing a Norwegian flag, slowly fluttering in the warm sea
air.
Surprised to find the flag of our school and heritage
literally thousands of miles from home, we stumbled into the
affectionate arms of a Norwegian man, Karl, welcoming us to his bar,
Baan Chang (Thai for elephant house). The bar was absolutely packed with
people, a lively mix of people dancing and singing. We huddled to a
table in front of the motely group of Thais and Europeans playing live
music, mostly rock classics. Karl asked us where we were from, and when
we mentioned we were students at St. Olaf College in Northfield,
Minnesota, his smiling face broke into a great guffaw. He laughed as he
pointed to a table populated entirely of elderly Norwegians, enjoying
rounds of akvavit. “Those folks are from Trondheim, where Saint Olav’s
bones are buried!” he exclaimed in accented English. I laughed at the
absurdity of the situation: here I was, on a remote beach in Thailand,
being hugged by a bear of a Norwegian man introducing me to Norskis who
lived in the city my Norwegian school’s namesake was buried!
I
have never felt so at home as I did that night, embraced by the warm
ties of Scandinavian heritage, even though I was literally thousands of
miles away from any semblance of it. It was then I realized what a
blessing it is to be Norwegian – for wherever you go, you are bound to
find a Norski brother or sister, waiting with open arms and an embrace
that feels like family.
Petra Hahn Northfield, Minn.
This
article originally appeared in the Mar. 8, 2013 issue of the Norwegian
American Weekly. To subscribe, call us at (800) 305-0271.
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