10 May 2008

Life in Norway III - Running the Race

I love living in Norway and the people are great. However as an expat there will always be things that make you laugh/cry/tear your hair out - those are the aspects of the culture that are so different to the one you come from. Quite often they are there but difficult to describe or put a finger on and then something happens that hits the proverbial nail smack on the head...

I was in bar in Moab (Utah) last night with two Norwegian buddies and it came out that in the 1980's (and before) Norwegian school children ran races, just like everywhere else. But, and this is a big but, instead of giving a prize to the kid that came first, the teachers would add up all the finish times and then calculate a "most typical" time - they would then give the kid that comes closest to that a big prize! The race winner got nothing!

Its awesome - it sums up Norwegian culture so eloquently! Its all there in that short tale. Even better my Norwegian friends genuinely thought this went on everywhere else in the World!

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