Originally Posted by
no-backpacker
Wow, do you speak Norwegian too?
Nei. I could when I was 5-7 years old, but that was a long time ago. I also don't run on ice like a real Norwegian.
I've since re-learned to read Norwegian & also Swedish (my bosses & coworkers are with a subsidiary in Sweden). The only recent "conversation" (if you can call it that) in Norwegian was with a Pakistani girl working at the Burger King in Oslo S -- she hadn't been in Norway long enough to learn English.
Originally Posted by
no-backpacker
I didn't know there were an American School in Oslo, I have only heard about the International School which they also have in Bergen.
There were two.
The "International Schools" are run by the British with normal British curricula. "American Schools" are usually (but not always) under the auspices of DODDS (Dept. of Defense Dependent Services) or DODEA (Dept. of Defense Educational Activity).
The Stavanger American School was privately funded and developed to serve families in Norway for the oil boom in the late 60's. It is now an International School on the British model.
The Oslo American School was a real DoD school to serve the families of servicemen assigned to the northern NATO HQ at Kolsås and with MAAG (Military Advisory & Assistance Group) at Fornebu (former Oslo airport). It closed in 1994 and the facilities were taken over by the British Birklea School, which renamed itself the Oslo International School.
Originally Posted by
no-backpacker
On the other hand... A DO at Svalbard or "Hurtigruten" would have been nice....
Xxx.
We've already covered much of what a Hurtigruten cruise would see when we drove up
Kystriksveien & through the islands, etc., to North Cape a few years ago.
I'm up for Svalbard.
I would even bring my ragged old backpack (butt of a few comments on its final trip, an FT DO in Tasmania) out of retirement for Svalbard.