On Thursday night, we participated in a festival that celebrates the longest day of the year. The tradition of Mid Summer Night's Eve stems back to the times before Christianity. In Lillehammer, they had the party in an outdoor museum that has buildings from the 18th and 20th centuries. Many people were dressed in their traditional costumes which they apparently pull out for special occasions. Norwegians do quirky things like log cutting and polka dances. At the end of the celebration, they lit a bonfire on a small island in the middle of a lake. I knew there was going to be a bonfire. But silly me. I was thinking of an American blaze where people throw tons and tons of wood and other things in a heap and stand around it with beer in hand. The wood for this fire was placed in a neat spiral, and the people watched from a safe distance around the lake. The interesting thing about the Nansen seminar was that we were all foreigners in Norway. I sat with a Macedonian woman at the bonfire, and we were both observing a Norwegian family nearby. All of a sudden, we both starting laughing at how quaint the family was. The three blond-haired children ate their sandwiches from their lunch packets while their mother chuckled as she spoke to her friend. The father casually chatted with his friends nearby. This is a terrible description of how humorous the situation was, but I guess you just had to be there. I think the mutual culture shock among all of the students at the seminar created a tight bond. Most of us felt a little out of place among the picture-perfect families and peaceful culture.
We ended the seminar yesterday with a discussion of the challenges of nation and state. I think we finally reached a point where the discussion could become more difficult. One of the biggest problems in ex-Yugoslavia is that nations are not divided by state borders. People vote based on nationality of the party rather than the political objectives of the party. In a democracy, this means the ethnic minorities are rarely represented fairly in government. Nationalism provides a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded and culturally similar people, but in the Balkans, it often overrides a sense of belonging to a state. Ethnicity comes before citizenship.
I will be interested to see how my friends and I continue to discuss issues such as this one as we continue our studies in Oslo. At first I was unclear that we Americans were going to fit into the conversation at the Nansen Center, but there are many parallels between the conflicts in the Balkans and the identity issues that arise due to immigration problems in the U.S. As one person pointed out, the American students seem to feel extremely guilty for many things in our history. There is a lot to proud of as well, but it is easy to point to our faults as a country when we have so much power. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" is happening right here in the United States.
We took a bus to Oslo yesterday afternoon and arrived in the early evening. I spent the night without a roommate. As of yet, I have still not met her, but I came back to find her bags in the room, so at least she is here. I'm still getting acquainted with the campus and the food. I don't eat fish, and I am struggling to find ways to get around it since Norwegians consider it a staple of their diet. The food is getting better, but it is a letdown compared to what we had in Lillehammer. In Oslo, fresh fruit is considered a dessert because it is expensive to import. I am learning to appreciate fruit more than I ever have before.
*The photo was taken at the Mid Summer Night's Eve in Lillehammer. The person in the picture is a grad student from the U of Minnesota who is in Norway because he was working with the U.S. Embassy in Oslo and is now a student at the ISS. The other photo is an example of the huge spread of food at the cafeteria in Lillehammer.
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