Luck comes to me (and you) in the strangest of places!
Yesterday I was getting a cup of coffie with some friends and I stayed behind for a bit when they left. This old man, I guy that I knew by name and face, was sitting just beside me. We started to talk a bout the weather as one always do with strangers, but the converation suddenly turned.
He told me he was an art instructor, teaching rosepainting a norwegian traditional folk paintingstyle. Ok, that’s interesting, but the more interesting thing was that he’s been traveling two times a year to the United States, teaching the artstyle at universities in 47 different states for the last 28 years. He is retired from his work here in Norway now, but still going strong, he’s traveling to the states to work several times a year. Wow!
An example of Rosepainting, Folk Art from Norway
The old man with the great stories -this one happend about 20 years ago if I understood him right.
He told me about a situation in class where he couldn’t remember the word “black marker”. The Norwegian word is “tusj” wich pronounced in english is remarkably simmilar to the word “tush”. So there he was, a norewgian man, about sixty or so years old, in a room full of young people, asking out loud for a “black tush” - and had no idea why his students were laughing so hard.
Over the years he made a lot of friends, going bearhunting, elkhunting, buying a new pair of teeth in Mexico and made a membership in the great (?) “Assholes International” club.
The membershipcard of "Assholes International"
This guy had a bunch funny stories to tell, i laughed so much. It seems like he had been a bit of a player, or ehm..fond of the girls so to speak, and now he was an old man with good memories, having a beer, waiting for more trips and more memories to be made.
We have desided to keep in contact. He has a lot of information about what I should do with insurance, wich airline I should have a go at, how to find info in general, and a lot of traveling tips for when I get there. Lucky me! I have to buy him a beer someday, when I’ve gotten myself some money! It could be a while tough, have been turning in applications for a job, still waiting for a reply..
Yours Karo
