It's a Small World

My sister lives an away hour from me. The end of April, her church hosted an arts-and-craft show. One church member showed her rosemål work there. My sister suggested the woman should check out my blogs – particularly this one on my upcoming Norway trip. The woman did and left a comment on the post entitled Email Encouragment. Here's what I emailed back to Patti Goke.

Hei Patti!

Tusen takk for melding! Koselig til å høre om de norske forbindelsene dine. Takk for forslag om hvordan man skulle leie bil. Det skal jeg ordne ennå til turen vår.

Sorry it's been a while since my last Norway Bound entry. I've got a ton of other writing obligations I'm attending to at the moment. I plan to update this blog soon. We'll be on the Hurtigruten ship during our Geiranger Fjord visit and I believe it stops in Geiranger rather than Hellesylt. My husband and I rode the ferry from Geiranger to Hellesylt and back again in 1999. Unfortunately, we did not tour the community museum. I'd love to see the Peer Gynt carvings... we'll have to play it by ear as the ladies and I have our go this August.

Thanks again for the encouragement sparked by (my sister) Brenda. She knows I love connecting with other Nordic-interested folks. She mentioned you might write and that you'd asked where I'd studied in Norway.

I was at Øvrebyen videregående skole in Kongsvinger (near the Swedish border) as a high school exchange student. I spent my senior year of my UW-Eau Claire studies at Telemark distriktshøgskole (Telemarks Regional College) i Bø working on first year norsk grunnfag (foundational Norwegian) to finish out my Norwegian language and literature studies for my minor in Scandinavian Studies back home.


I've only dabbled in rosemåling at Skogfjorden – Concordia College's Norwegian Language Village in Bemidji. I've studied its history at various points in my life – including for an article I wrote in the Nov/Dec 07 issue of the Lake Country Journal Magazine on a Scandinavian Style house in the Nisswa area.

OH MY GOSH! I just reviewed those notes and realized YOU were the Myklebust's rosemåler! I have written about your incredible work – on their catwalk, front entry and range hood: "Næmen, har du sett på maken?" (Have you ever seen the likes?)

It truly is a small world.

Hilsen fra
Wendy