Friday, September 26, 1958
THE SALEMITE
Page TTrree
Oslo Scholars Recount International Experience
Last year we saw Martha Jarvis’
energetic enthusiasm, Ruth Ben
nett’s dreamy-eyed look, and Lynn
Hamrick’s longing sighs as they
reminisced over their summer ex
periences as Oslo scholars — and
we looked forward to a wonderful
and exciting summer. Now we are
accused of showing the same en
thusiasm, longing sighs, and dreamy
looks. We’ve even adopted their
determined motto: Some day we
must go back to Norway—and the
rest of Europe.
The Oslo summer school is a
special ; session that follows the
American college system. This
year we were part of the largest
gtoup the summer school has ac
commodated : about 180 Americans
and Canadians and around 40 other
students from many countries, in
cluding Norway, France, Italy, Ger
many, Belgium, England, Poland,
TurkeyV India, and China. The
courses, all taught in English, dealt
with practically every phase of Nor
wegian culture and politics, and
most of the teachers were the re
gular Oslo University professors. In
the International Relations course,
we were fortunate to have lecturers
from high state positions in Nor
way; for example, one speaker was
an expert on international law al
The Hague.
Of all the souvenirs we brought
back from our summer as Strong
Scholarship students, the most
valuable ones are the new ideas
.obtained, not only from the class
room, but by talking with people
of other countries and backgrounds.
We were introduced to the life
and culture of a hardy, warm
hearted group of people called Nor
wegians. Besides the eighteen Nor
wegian summer school students, we
met and visited in the homes of
many others. One of these you
probably have seen: Agnes Sende,
now a part of our Salem life.
Although we are quite against the
Nan Williams
idea of generalizing about a whole
nationality after meeting a few rep
resentatives, we did notice some
traits peculiar to all the Norwegians
we met. In the first place—and a
Nofwegian warned us about this—
they hardly ever accept compli
ments. In answer to a flattering
remark, they will reply: “Oh, you
don’t really mean that.” Try this
on Aggie sometimes. We did, and
it worked. We were also warned
that all Norwegians are conceited
—about Norway. Many times, in
and out of the classroom, we heard.
“I do not mean to be bragging,
but . . .” After seeing their
country—the clear, narrow fjords,
the rugged mountains, the “mid
night sun” — we understand this
strong national pride. A clear evi
dence of their real affection for
Norway is 'their great respect for
the Norwegian national anthem.
This beautiful patriotic song was
used only for appropriate occasions
and never in jest.
Many Norwegians accused us
■Americans of hanging on to old
Victorian attitudes. We admitted
that we were rather shocked by
our first swimming outing. Some
of the Norwegians changed into
their bathing suits on the beach—
and the children under about five
years old just didn’t bother with
any clothes at all.
Wo naturally took a great in
terest in the Norwegian food. For
six weeks our diet included a daily
supply of potatoes, cheese, open-
faced sandwiches, and plenty of
fish. One day we were served a
meat that tasted like a cross be
tween rather tough roast beef and
liver. Lots of us thought it was
pretty good—until we found out it
was whale meat! At one of the
private Norwegian parties to which
we two were invited, the main dish
was shrimp: unshelled! A huge
plater was brought out of shrimp
complete with heads, legs and “an
tennas”. A Norwegian showed us
the proper etiquette for shelling
them: first you pull off the head
and tail; then come the legs; and
last of all you make sure all the
shell is off before you pop the
. delicious meat into your mouth.
We got along fine: the problem
was the two beady eyes staring at
us from the plate.
In addition to our Norwegian
friends, we met and became friends
with many of the other foriegn stu
dents. One of the most interesting
Frankie Cuningham
of these was Stanislav Kowalski,
our Communist friend from Poland.
He told us about his idea of a
“democratic communism”, about the
American failures that are most
useful to the Russians as propa
ganda, and about the life and ideas
of Russian young people. “Stan”
tried to make us understand that
our democracy is" only one concept
of the democratic idea: political
equality and freedom. His view of
communism is another democratic
concept: economic and social
equality. He dislikes the Russian
“communism” as much as we do;
in fact, he was ousted from the
Polish Communist Party because
of his radical communistic ideas.
As we e.xpected, Stan said that the
most successful topic of Soviet pro
paganda is the segregation problem.
Perhaps one of the experiences
which will remain .in our minds the
longest was a series of international
evenings which were held almost
every week during our stay in
'Oslo. While we learned a great
deal about other countries, probably
the most- thought-provoking meet
ing was the one given on our
'country by two young men, one
from Chile and one from Italy.
After a year’s visit in the U. S.
they were given the difficult topic
of “Why I still would not like to
live in America.” It seemed to be
■a rather unusual approach,^ and yet
the ideas which they presented to
ais were quite valid and worthy of
our thought. The one point which
they, as well as others. who had
visited America, brought out was
one of conformity in our country.
To many of them, we are people
ruled by social pressure and group
.standards. During the remainder
of the school session, many of our
discussions came back to this one
thought.
Yes, the longing sighs, the en
thusiasm, and the dreamy-eyed
look are all a result of an inde
scribably enriching summer in Oslo.
As it has been said before, “Some
day we must go back”.
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