It's a small world after all.

Awhile ago at work a girl about my age seemed a bit shaky with her Norwegian as she ordered a hot cocoa with whipped cream. I shrugged it off, assuming that she spoke a dialect I wasn't familiar with. The girl who accompanied her however didn't even give it a try and just asked for her whipped cream cocoa in English with an obvious and striking American accent. I of course, eagerly accepted the offer to speak in English and asked her where she was from. The conversation went as follows:

"The United States." She answered.
Duh, I thought. "Where at in the U.S.?"
"Washington State."
"Oh yeah? Where at in Washington?"
"Well I am from the south of the state, but I go to school in Tacoma."
I couldn't believe it. "Tacoma huh? PLU maybe?"

It was her turn to be shocked and surprised. I told her that I graduated from PLU and we kept chatting. Then to my surprise, more and more obviously American students (the hooded sweatshirt and sneakers really give us away) came in and began to sit down. They were all from PLU, and were on a J-Term trip touring Sweden, Iceland and finally Norway. What a small world! What are the odds that 15 PLU students would be in Hamar, and then decide to come into my coffee shop?!

Their professor approached me as she had heard that there was a PLU alum working behind the counter. I told her my name, and she said she had heard of me. She then told me her name: Claudia Berguson. Oh ho, then I remembered her well. She is a Norwegian language and Scandinavian studies professor. I had communicated with her via email before I graduated while I was gathering information on potential job opportunities in Norway. She had told me in so many words that it was impossible to get a job in Norway as a non-Norwegian speaking American (that is of course unless you marry a Norwegian). Her email had really deflated my sails when I was first investigating my options. Needless to say, I assumed that she was more than a bit surprised to see me working there in Hamar. :)

But I didn't feel much like gloating. I didn't feel like I had proved her wrong at all. However, it is seeming more and more like she is right. While I have been working, I am not sure it is correct to say that I am employed. I haven't had a paycheck or much of an income at all since August '08. It has been MONTHS and I still have not heard anything promising from UDI. All they have told me thus far has more or less followed what Pf. Berguson warned me about. While I was bitter in our communications last spring, suddenly I was grateful for her honest and blunt information that she gave me. It was, after all, and unfortunately, the most useful and realistic thing anyone told me.