Vaaler Rotary Club

Jeg har fortsatt paa meg den samme kjolen!

One of the drawbacks to this program is that you'll show up in all the photos wearing the same thing. Here we are in our uniforms, post-presentation with our Vaaler Dads. Notice the proud looks on their faces (and the relief on ours!). We just delivered our presentation in Norwegian, and it was, to quote one of the members, "90% understandable." I was shooting for anything greater than 0%.

It was a wonderful evening and a great first take for our presentation. Melissa had the slides perfectly coordinated and timed, Jessica and I played the Norwegian national anthem as well as two American folk songs, and I think we handled the Q and A quite well. Try answering "What are your hopes for the future and our world?" in less than a minute! We followed with a delicious buffet of "summer food" like cured meats and potato salad accompanied by beer and shots of akvavit.

Some other thoughts:
1. As our presentation began, we were temporarily blinded as all of our dads jumped up and started snapping photos. It was so sweet, like we were a group of preschoolers. Which I suppose, in a way, we were. I also loved watching their faces as we spoke -- nervousness mixed with that goofy grin parents get when their kids are doing something fairly unremarkable in the grand scheme of things but stupendously challenging for their limited skills. I mention this because it struck me how much of a family we've become in the last few days due to their kindness and boundless generosity. I will miss my Vaaler family a great deal.

2. I had heard that Scandinavia has some of the strictest laws on driving under the influence, but it's quite another thing to see it in person. It's a strange and very cool thing to hear a group of adults asking each other "Are you driving home tonight?" in a mark of group accountability. Maximum legal blood alcohol content = 0.02%. According to one of our hosts, any higher and you'll be sobering up in jail for the next three weeks and paying fines up to 1 1/2 months of your salary. But penalties alone can't explain Norway's low rate of DUIs. Like my host dad said to me post-party: "It's not so bad getting caught by the police, you know. Imagine if you hit another driver or a biker or a pedestrian. Think about how that would affect the rest of your life." Yes, America, think indeed!

Thank you Vaaler Rotary Club for a great evening!