Open doors and open minds . . .

I am in Oslo now. Just spent a quick day in Trondheim, and now about to head down to Malmö and catch my flight back to Iceland Wednesday. I’ll spend another week or so in Iceland before I fly back to Canada on the 5th of October. I’m looking forward to visiting some relatives there again, and also spending some time at the Arni Magnusson Institute, reading some neat books and talking with the people studying there.

More about Oslo and Trondheim another time. For now it is important I say something about Servas. I hope my hosts do not mind me mentioning them here, but I’ve had such a wonderful time with them and it has been such an important part of my trip that I cannot simply leave it out!

Servas is an international peace program and an open-doors program. A person can get interviewed and accepted in his/her home country (I got in while I was in Iceland, which was a bit of an exception), and then you can ask for contact information for “hosts” in various countries around the world. This is not an on-demand type of opportunity. It is a privilege and an opportunity to meet people and spend quality time getting to know them. Getting a place to sleep for a couple nights at a time and a meal or two are secondary (but VERY nice) features.

So. I tried Servas for the first time in Copenhagen. I stayed with Bjorn and his family there, and got to enjoy a wonderful dancing performance by his two kids, Kalle and Sigga. Bjorn was VERY kind and generous and we had a very nice time talking about anything from his work with employment challenges in Denmark, to how he made himself a REAL shirt of chain-mail (weighs more than all my luggage...! and if you know me then you’ll know that I’ve got a lot of luggage!), or how he and his family might move to Canada for a year or so! I think near Vancouver would be an excellent place... but maybe I am biased!

In Odense I stayed with Birthe and Johannes. They are retired. Birthe used to do nursing, and even did trips to the Mediterranean with some groups of patients; Johannes used to work in a small publishing/printing company, and now he is collecting stamps and telling fantastic stories with them, particularly about natives in North America. I got to have dinner with them and their son, Bo, and his wife and two kids. It was really special and a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about Denmark and life there. And the food was oh so good!

In Stockholm I stayed with a family living outside the central city, at the end of one of the subway lines. Ulla and Ulf welcomed me generously into their home, as did their three daughters. It was really neat to talk with them about things in Sweden and Canada and the world, and life in general and specific. I felt very comfortable there, and they even put me in touch with a friend of theirs in Gotland who works as a blacksmith! I’m hoping I’ll be able to correspond with him a bit, or maybe even visit his workshop one day!

In Uppsala I stayed with Eva and Harley. They were amazing! They drove me around over the weekend and we all had a great time visiting runestones, old stone carvings from 2500 years ago, old remains of houses from the Viking-Age and Migration Period, and also Gamla Uppsala and the famous grave mounds there and at Valsgarde. Harley is putting together his new and improved PC, and I wish him lots of luck with it! Eva makes the most amazing tuna casserole thing... and I’d really like the recipe!

I made some snap decisions last week that landed me in Oslo sooner than I had planned (which is a good thing, as it turns out, since I wouldn’t have had much time there otherwise) Anyways. I got a bit stuck cause accomodation can be VERY tough to find in the big cities, even in late September. So I couldn’t find anything, but Liv and Michael rescued me and let me stay with them for two nights in Gjøvik. Gjøvik is a small town, with more grave mounds (actually woke up and looked out the window to see some at the farm just across the road!) and it is a lovely two-hour train-ride north of Oslo. Their family is very musical. Maia Beth, their daughter, has a lovely voice, and played the piano beautifully the first evening I was there. Their son David plays the cello with an orchestra and is also studying to finish his Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering. Liv teaches music, and Michael admits modestly that he is very good at playing the stereo... I had a lot of fun talking with them and learning about how they have moved back and forth from the USA (Michael told me he is originally from a small town called “New York”) and Norway (Liv grew up in Bergen), and how the graduation year in high schools here has a phenomenon known as the “Russ” . . . Sounds like fun, although perhaps not so helpful for exam preparation!

So that’s my experience (in short) with Servas so far. It has been truly wonderful and made my trip much more meaningful and engaging. I plan to become a host myself, although I doubt London Ontario is the most exciting of places to visit when compared with Stockholm, Uppsala, Copenhagen, Odense, or Oslo/Gjøvik.

Many many thanks to all my hosts!