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The quote is from Norwegian Totti Gjestland's 7/27/06 email to my wife (Donna) and me.
Charles Bussey and his wife left their home of Bowling Green, Kentucky, to spend their 2003-2004 academic year in Kristiansand, Norway. There, Bussey taught classes on American South and American History, 1950-1975 as a Fulbright Scholar at Agder University College.
From their experience, both Bussey and his wife, Donna, developed an appreciation and fondness for Norway and its people. Twelve days after they arrived in Kristiansand, on August 24, 2004, while still in a kind of culture shock, Bussey and his wife wandered toward the harbor leading to the North Sea. “We found ourselves in a large crowd with numerous live musicians playing a variety of kinds of music,” Bussey said. “There were no available seats at any of the harbor-front restaurants, and we debated whether to leave.”
Just then, Bussey heard a voice say, "Is that Charles Bussey I see there?" Turning, he saw Inger Fjermeros, a mid-fifties grandmother who sat in on one of his classes. Inger invited the two to sit with her and her daughter and son-in-law. “It was a great time,” Bussey said. “Remarkably, Inger quickly came to trust us, to take us into her confidence, and to lead us on many wonderful adventures. This flew in the face of all we'd been told about Norwegians—‘Oh, they'll be friendly and courteous at work, but don't expect to be invited into their lives or their homes.’”
“Inger quickly disabused us of that notion, and she—along with numerous others from Kristiansand—took care of us and made our year in Norway one of the best years of our lives,” said Bussey. “Toward the end of spring 2004 semester, Inger introduced us to her friend Totti Gjestland, whom we loved her immediately.”
“We kept in touch with numerous Kristiansand friends (e-mail is such a help!),” said Bussey. “We felt especially drawn to invite Inger and Totti—neither having ever been to the United States nor really ever wanted to make the trip—to the United States to visit us.”
After several months of e-mailing, Inger and Totti decided to visit the Busseys in July 2006. They planned to fly into Nashville, TN, spend several days in Bowling Green with the Busseys and then the group would go for a week to Chautauqua, New York, before taking the Amtrak from Buffalo to NYC for a week.
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Both Inger and Totti thoroughly enjoyed their visit with the Busseys. In an e-mail to the Busseys, Totti wrote, “We loved the food and also the rest of the body loved what it got. We saw and heard a lot of concerts, lectures, opera, and good reality stories. We saw gardens and met nice people, and we enjoyed good laughter. We walked in caves and tasted bourbon; we sang American songs on the 4th of July. We experienced everything, but we also lost something, which for me was important. We lost prejudices! I could write postcards to friends and family telling them that I liked the United States and that I like Americans. We are so satisfied with our American-tour. If it had not been for you, I think I would never have come, and I would have lived the rest of my life with all my prejudices about the Coca-Cola drinking, car driving, weapon loving, loud speaking Americans.”
A friend had told Bussey that he had given Inger and Totti a select view of Americans. “He's right, of course,” said Bussey. “But to my mind, our experience in Norway, coupled with Inger and Totti's experience in the United States, exemplifies what the Fulbright Scholar Program is designed to do—to enhance understanding between people of different nations.”
As Totti said in another e-mail to Bussey, “I felt my attempt to tell how much we appreciated what we saw, heard, learned and met with in America, was not complete. But as we say in Norway, siste ord er ikke sagt: the last word is not yet spoken.”
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