I woke up full of energy ready to begin my journey into the past. To get there I would have to fly. Most importantly, I would need my father to join me—he was the key to unlocking everything. I had always imagined the places in Norway he had talked about when I was a child. With the help of a few pictures from his childhood and the stories he’d shared, I was sure I knew what things were going to look like when we arrived and I hoped there would be improvements in the electrical and plumbing departments.
Carol and I packed up the car and headed to the airport. My sister, Dawn, and her husband, Dean, were picking up our father. The five of us would fly from National Airport to Newark Airport where we had a four-hour layover before boarding a Scandinavian Airlines flight to Oslo. Our flight time along with the time difference landed us in Oslo at 8:30am the next day. Fortunately for me I slept starting 15 minutes after takeoff until Carol poked me and said, “We are about to land.” I stretched a little and was ready to get started. As I looked around at my traveling companions, it looked like only my father and I had managed to sleep during the flight.
We gathered our luggage and made our way to customs. Carol went through and then my father. I had heard the customs officer ask the same questions—“What is the nature of your visit?” followed by “How long will you be staying?”—to Carol and then my father in English. When it was my turn, I handed the agent my passport. He looked at me, then my passport, then again at me, and said, “Hva er arten av besøket ditt?”
I replied, “I don’t speak Norwegian, but I am here to visit family.”
He gave me a strange look and then said, “Hvor lenge blir du”
I replied, “I still don’t speak Norwegian, but I will be flying back August 8th.”
He smirked and said, “For someone who doesn’t speak Norwegian you do very well.”
I smiled and said, “I just assumed you asked me the same questions you asked my father. If you had asked him in Norwegian, you would have gotten answers in Norwegian.”
He handed me back my passport with a smile and said to enjoy our visit.
