{"id":178,"date":"2012-06-08T10:31:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T15:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/?p=178"},"modified":"2014-10-03T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T15:48:34","slug":"royal-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/2012\/06\/08\/royal-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back to my early years, some of the most vivid memories I have are the ones when I was doing something with my Norwegian roots.\u00a0 I remember learning how to move my mouth in weird ways in\u00a0<\/span>Mindekirken’s\u00a0busserull<\/i><\/span>\u00a0choir, I remember being on stage with Lillebj\u00f8rn Nilsen and Steinar Oftsdal and swaying back and forth to the beat, I remember enjoying every moment\u00a0 at Skogfjorden, Norwegian Camp.\u00a0 One of the<\/span>\u00a0highlights of my involvement in the Norwegian community was when our choir sang for then Crown Prince Harald and Crown Princess Sonja of Norway.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A picture from after the concert, I’m the one in front of Sonja.<\/p><\/div>\n

Eventually this involvement in the Norwegian-American community became my vocation as a Norwegian professor at St. Olaf College.\u00a0 As a professor of a heritage language, many assume that I acquired Norwegian at home as a native language.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 My parents are second generation English-only speakers, but both have always been very interested in their heritage, encouraging us to be involved in heritage communities and organizations.\u00a0 So, I twirled around in a Danish dance group, attempted Deutsch in college, attended Slovak camp and dinners for many years.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after many years I became a professor of Norwegian at St. Olaf College, a college that prides itself on being founded by Norwegian immigrants.\u00a0 And sometime in late spring 2011, I was told that I would not only be meeting the King and Queen for the second time, they would be visiting my Norwegian class.\u00a0 I immediately called my mom with tears of joy and excitement.\u00a0 And then the planning began…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the event neared, I received more updates and worked on my lesson plan some more.\u00a0 I couldn’t quite decide how my students were feeling until the first visit with a very large camera in class about a week before the event.\u00a0 My poor students were freaking out nervous.\u00a0 My nervousness only intensified every time someone asked how nervous we were and if I had everything planned.\u00a0 I knew that there would be lots of media at the event itself, but I totally underestimated how much pre-event interest and coverage there would be.\u00a0 Totally overwhelming but enjoyable in way, too.\u00a0 Here are articles from the\u00a0Star Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0The New York Times<\/a>, and a video clip from\u00a0KSTP<\/a>\u00a0news.<\/p>\n

And then after much anticipation, Friday, October 14, 2012 finally arrived.\u00a0 And I thought the pre-event coverage was overwhelming… from the moment the royal couple set foot on campus they were greeted with huge Norwegian-American smiles and sweaters. Hundreds of Norwegian flags waved in excitement.<\/p>\n

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On the way to my classroom, photo credit: Stephanie Fay<\/p><\/div>\n

I asked my students to arrive very early that day and shortly after we got the room in order, a few more press people arrived to film our preparations.\u00a0 There were a few last minute changes to the room and protocol from the palace was reviewed and our plans were changed.\u00a0 About 5 minutes before the royal couple arrived, I walked outside my classroom to see hundreds of people gathered from every floor of Tomson Hall; I was overwhelmed by the number of colleagues and students who had come catch a glimpse of the King and Queen.\u00a0 They were calling our\u00a0names waving their flags to wish me and my students well.\u00a0 This is a moment i will never forget, I felt so honored to represent St. Olaf and Norwegian-America together with my students.\u00a0 And it was also this moment I realized a bubble bath and a drink would be needed later that evening.<\/p>\n

I had a minute to catch my breath before the press literally stormed in the room. The only sound I remember from the first two minutes of the visit was the click of the camera button, of which there were hundreds.\u00a0 There were more press than students, also in attendance was Ambassador Strommen (Norwegian Ambassador to the US), St. Olaf’s President Anderson, secret service and a few other assistants.<\/p>\n

The King and Queen each greeted me, took their seats and the visit began.<\/p>\n

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Greeting the king with the secret service in the background.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Greeting the queen.<\/p><\/div>\n

The press was only allowed to be in the room for a few minutes of the visit.\u00a0 Can I tell you how much more enjoyable it is to hang out with their majesties without the press?\u00a0 It was just so overwhelming to have so many bodies in the classroom and so many flashes in your face.\u00a0 Here is an example of what I mean.<\/p>\n

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The press<\/p><\/div>\n

While the press was there, there was a few key pictures taken, this one being my favorite.\u00a0 What a great photo which truly captures the fun we had.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Smiles all around<\/p><\/div>\n

When the press left, I gave an introduction to Norwegian at St. Olaf, telling their majesties a bit about the St. Olaf Norwegian Studies program and the number of students in each level, etc.\u00a0 Then, each of the students went around and introduced themselves\u00a0p\u00e5 norsk<\/em>.\u00a0 Here I should interject that each of these students are beginners and they had only had 14 hours (total) of instruction.\u00a0 And they rocked!\u00a0 At that point, we just finished learning the key phrases for why they are studying Norwegian, so the timing of the royal visit couldn’t have been better.\u00a0 After that, we talked in English for awhile about the introductions.\u00a0 They seemed so genuinely interested in the students and so thankful for their interest in Norway.\u00a0 It was very touching.\u00a0 And talking about touching, quite possibly my most memorable\u00a0moment \u00a0was when the student sitting next to the queen said he was a wrestler, she felt his arm muscles and gave him an approving grin.\u00a0 Too funny!\u00a0 Things like this made the class realize that their majesties are real people, with a good sense of humor and genuine smiles.<\/p>\n

After their visit to my classroom, I rushed off for a reception with about 40 others.\u00a0 Here again I got to talk with the King and Queen. And yet again everyone was full of smiles, happy to a part of this event.\u00a0 Later that day there was a short service in the chapel called a\u00a0sammenkomst<\/a>. It was a hot ticket item and I was thankfully able to get a ticket with my mom so she could be a part of the big day as she fostered much of my involvement in my heritage.\u00a0 Here the choir and band performed, the King and two students spoke about the ties between St. Olaf College and Norway.\u00a0 It was a very memorable event!<\/p>\n

Written documentation of the event includes stories from the\u00a0Post-Bulletin<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Patch<\/a>, and the\u00a0Northfield News<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Video news stories included NBC affiliate\u00a0KARE 11<\/a>, ABC affiliate\u00a0KSTP 5<\/a>, and\u00a0FOX 9<\/a>.\u00a0 We were also featured in Norwegian press:NRK<\/a>\u00a0(my personal favorite because they show\u00a0Sett i gang<\/em>, the text I co-authored),\u00a0TV2<\/a>\u00a0(here the royal couple is asked how they liked the classroom visit and the queen responds that she would have liked to stay longer!),\u00a0ABC Nyheter<\/a>\u00a0(including this\u00a0classroom visit<\/a>\u00a0video),\u00a0Klikk<\/a>, and\u00a0VG Nett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And if you thought the excitement was over after all this, you thought wrong.\u00a0 Just as I finished up the events at St. Olaf, I rushed up to the Minneapolis to attend\u00a0Norway Seminar<\/a>.\u00a0 This is a seminar is where everyone who teaches Norwegian at the University level gathers to further our knowledge of Norwegian and Norway.\u00a0 And it is where I would be greeted by many familiar faces who could truly appreciate today’s events.\u00a0 Although it was lovely to be surrounded by and catch up with everyone, I was too exhausted to concentrate and fully enjoy it.\u00a0 I skipped one of the receptions so I could instead have some downtime with my Ben, a beer and a bubble bath.<\/p>\n

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The King’s speech. Photo credit: Creative Flight Media<\/p><\/div>\n

Eventually Sunday evening rolled around and the last of the royal events was to dine with their majesties at the Hilton downtown… and 1,063 of their other bffs were there too.\u00a0 The King gave a good\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0reflecting on his time in the Midwest and the ties between Norway and Norwegian-America, we ate an excellent dinner, and we conversed about the one thing that bound our table together- our Norwegian heritage.<\/p>\n

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Table 44!<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, it’s pretty cool when you get all dolled up to have dinner with the King and Queen of Norway.\u00a0 Being able to enjoy it with your favorite person is just icing on the kransekake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Me and my Ben.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back to my early years, some of the most vivid memories I have are the ones when I was doing something with my Norwegian roots.\u00a0 I remember learning how to move my mouth in weird ways in\u00a0Mindekirken’s\u00a0busserull\u00a0choir, I remember being on stage with Lillebj\u00f8rn Nilsen and Steinar Oftsdal and swaying back and forth to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}