By Barcley Owens
As a new century began in summer of 2000, my wife and I were looking for a family adventure, when we heard about the Fulbright program. A month later, after sending in the application, I was given an interview by the selection committee. Then, in April of 2001, a package arrived offering us the chance to live on the west coast of Norway for a year, with a position teaching English composition and literature at a vidergaande skule. The Fulbright Exchange had matched me with a Norwegian teacher with similar credentials. After a flurry of emails, my counterpart and I agreed to exchange houses and cars as well. We bought a map of Norway and pinned it to the kitchen wall. We had two months to uproot ourselves and fly, fly away. On the way we attended a conference in Washington, D.C. organized for all Fulbrighters who were outbound. A year later, we again attended this conference, this time as seasoned presenters, to help orient the new recruits.
Upon our arrival (twenty-some hours on four flights), we realized that we also had a new set of friends. Our first night there, they were, in fact, already in our house, waving bottles of wine, having a party. The following year was the most exciting experience of our lives. Our children went to Norwegian schools, and my wife began substitute teaching. We embraced the new culture and did our best with the sing-song Germanic language. We began walking, biking, and skiing whenever possible. I have fond memories of the hike to school, two miles along a spectacular fjord nestled between snow-capped mountains. We were living in a painting.
Most of the townspeople had never been around Americans before, so our family became local celebrities. We were interviewed on TV, made a presentation to the community about American schools, and had endless dinner invitations. After a couple of months, we began to adjust. This was more than a vacation. I was teaching five classes of English composition, literature, and media. It was full immersion, a baptism into a new culture. We learned the Norwegian educational system, which produces lessons for every teacher nationwide, and taught to the tests. In return, we gave them a taste of our culture: we played baseball, football, hosted a Superbowl party, and a Thanksgiving dinner. They had never seen mashed potatoes. During the year abroad, we also were given opportunities to travel to France, Germany, England, and Ireland, and attend conferences in Oslo. Furthermore, this experience gave us the impetus to seek out new vistas upon our return to the states. Although we had never been to the Great Lakes, we discovered Traverse City—a beautiful college campus, a picturesque town, skiing, boating, sandy beaches, and even fjords! We left the high desert of Eastern Washington and pointed our wagon train east to here, bringing some of our relatives along, where we are now living the dream.
If you are at a point in life where you are seeking a change, a new perspective, why not give it a try—and apply!