The Interview

Today for my blog, I decided to interview one of the students I work with here. Marie Lowzow is a fourth year student at NTNU studying Architecture. She loves buildings and is almost always talking about one. She also has a passion for meeting and interacting with people. She is both a Norwegian and American citizen and has German roots. She has interacted a lot with Hald students for several years now and I wanted to hear her experiences with them.

Meet Marie Lowzow

Mokaya: I remember the first day we met you told me that you always look forward to meeting the new Hald students every year. Why are you always eager to meet with them?

Marie: Well, meeting up with Hald students is always fun. they have this sense of curiosity and the ability to ask lots of questions. I like listening to the questions and answering them. for instance, when you first arrived here, you had many questions on snow. For example, you asked me what we do when there is lots of snow on the streets and I was happy to explain on how the trucks shovel the snow away. I like the honesty and sincerity of their questions too 

Mokaya: What impact have the cross cultural interactions with Hald students had on you?

Marie: I have grown in my appreciation of  things i take for granted sometimes. They have also helped me see my country with new eyes. For instance, it was when you said how lovely it was to sleep in a sleeping bag that I realized what a good thing it is to have one and sleep in it, something i usually took for granted. By interacting with them, I get to see tour country and it's culture in a new way.

Mokaya: What do you always look forward to seeing the Hald students do?

Marie: I always look forward to seeing them the first time they go skiing and they see snow. The child like smile on their eyes and faces is fun to see. The falling and standing up while skiing is always fun to watch. These are rare experiences for me to see what it really means to see something for the first time by a person who is my age mate.

Marie and I during my first cabin trip

Mokaya: Tell me some interesting experiences you have had with them?

Marie: Last year we had two students from Nepal. One day my fiance placed his hand on top of my head as a sign of affection. We didn't know that in Nepali that meant that he was pushing me down and looking down on me. You can imagine my surprise when the two students explained this to me later.

Mokaya: Final thoughts...

Marie:Keep the questions coming. They help me discover more about our country.

Christmas in Kristiansand...

Were I to summarize my Christmas time in Kristiansand in one word, I would say awesome. I spent Christmas in Kristiansand for Christmas at the home of a former Hald student, Åsmund Skomedal. He studies Math and Physics at NTNU Trondheim and we work together in Laget. We left on the night of 21^st December by train but not before having a lovely meal at his cool boat, where he lives, near the Train station. The journey took around 13 hours and we arrived to a windy and snowy weather. It remained so and grew worse for the next two days. But as they say in Norway, det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare darlige klæer [there is no bad weather, only bad clothing].

Shoveling the snow away

We warmly welcomed by his lovely brother, father and mother and were later joined by the eldest brother who recently got married. For the next few days, I had a real taste of a warm home as I experienced the warmth and friendship and fellowship of being in a family. We watched football, read very few pages of books (what did u expect with all the fun around), shoveled the snow away from the driveway and walkway, slid downhill on the snow, jumped off the roof of the house into the snow below, built snow castles, had snow fights, cooked and ate, received visitors and even managed to go skiing. I look back with longing and satisfaction over the things we did.

Fire in the snow

Christmas here is actually family time. So the whole family met on Christmas Eve (Jule aften) to dance around the Christmas tree and exchange gifts later. Before this we had ate a special meal of Pinnekjøtt for dinner (It is delicious to say the least). Tradition here is that the father prepares it and this day was no exception. Everyone received a gift but none could beat the sleeping bag I got. Earlier that day, we had visited åsmund’s grandfather in the elderly care centre. We had some nice rice porridge for lunch and then left together for church near the care center.

On Christmas day, we went to church and were later joined in the evening by another family with whom they had been friends with for many years. It was lovely listening to the parents tell of the stories of their children when they were young. Throughout my stay there, I enjoyed the close family feeling I got and especially the conversations over dinenr and breakfast. I realized that the Skomedals had a tradition of meeting up with other close families during the Christmas period for dinners. On the day after Christmas, we went skiing and made fire in the snow and cooked food in the fire and ate it there.

To say that I had a lovely time is a huge understatement. This remains the best true taste of Norwegian culture that left my heart and mind touched with love and care. I extend warm thanks to Skomedal family for making my Christmas time last year the loveliest and warmest I have had in years.  It felt sad when I had to leave for a new year’s camp in the north but takk for fin tid!