Month: November 2014

The next day we woke up and had breakfast on our own. I went jogging out by the cemetery again and ordered some room service while I organized my luggage. I was enjoying a last few minutes alone before we started the journey. We met for lunch and then were set to depart for the airport right after that.

Lunch seemed to last forever – I was so excited to just get going! Finally, we boarded a couple shuttle buses and went to the airport. Brita and Ane helped us get all our luggage checked. Brandon’s bag was a little too heavy so he gave some of his stuff to different people to carry. I ended up bringing one of his shoes and a couple books for him.

We made it to Norway after a 7.5 hour flight. Breyanne and I sat in the same row with a Norwegian fellow between us. He seemed to be very interested in Breyanne and drank a lot – which was only annoying because I kept having to get up for him to go to the bathroom. Over and over and over. It was a long flight and I didn’t sleep at all but as the light began to fill the sky I was so excited to nearing Norway.

We finally landed in Oslo and went through customs. Then, we retrieved our bags and immediately went to the hotel and had lunch. The food was wonderful – an excellent buffet. I sat by Brandon and we talked quite a bit. I loved his personality and his warmth.

As soon as lunch was over we were told that we had the afternoon to ourselves except that we would each take turns getting outfitted for the next weeks. I was one of the first to be brought to a room where there were piles of bags and clothes and we had to try on quite a bit of clothes – mostly outdoor gear – to make sure they had the right sizes of everything. Then, after we had all the coats, pants, gloves, boots, etc. that we needed, we put all of it into a Helly Hanson bag with our name on it and were told that would be ours now. I had no idea we would get to keep so much cool stuff! Not that I can wear a lot of it in Texas, but still! Free clothes are awesome clothes – and everything they gave us was beautiful, high quality stuff.

I spent the next hours going for a walk, sitting and talking with some others from the group in the hotel lobby, and trying to stay awake. We had been told to not fall asleep until nighttime and that would help a lot with the jet lag. It had been a long time since I had been up more than 24 hours in a row. We were all looking forward to going to sleep that night.

We met for supper and then afterward we began our nightly ritual of meeting with “the mamas” (Brita, Ane, and Ragnild) to tell us what to pack, prepare for the next day. They reminded us what we needed to wear and bring with us and then I immediately went up to my hotel room to try to get to sleep. The next day we would be having a photo shoot at TV Norge! I was SO excited and looking forward to it.

The flight to New Jersey took me through North Carolina. By the time I finally landed in Newark it was after 10:00 p.m. I was to meet Ane from Monster in the lobby of the hotel. I easily found the shuttle to the hotel and was very excited and nervous to meet Ane. As I walked into the hotel lobby, she stood up to greet me and I was relieved that she recognized me and I didn’t have to hunt for her. She was very nice and reminded me of a college friend. We sat down for a few minutes and she gave me a folder of information, my room information, and told me that I would be having two meetings the next day with Thor and Brita. Otherwise, I would be free to do whatever I wanted except I wasn’t allowed to go into New York City. We would also be having supper together the next day with the whole group. I asked Ane how many of the cast members were already there and she said I was only the second to arrive. I found out later that Kent had arrived first.

My phone had stopped working for some reason and so I went to the hotel computer to send a message to Chad. Then I went to my room, had a drink, and tried to organize my stuff. I noticed as soon as I opened my suitcase that it smelled distinctly like cat pee. Oh crap. Had the cat peed on my suitcase before I left? I soon realized it was my running shoes – they had been sitting by the door before I packed them and the cat must have had his way with them. I couldn’t ditch them – I wouldn’t have time to get new ones. I found a plastic bag that I could wrap them in when I wasn’t using them and hoped that would work. Maybe in time the smell would wear off?

I collapsed into bed and thought about all the people I would meet the next day. Would they be nice? I really hoped they would be nice. I wasn’t scared – just excited. I didn’t miss the boys or Chad too much – we had all been preparing for this time for months now so I just had to set my sights on moving forward now and experiencing all there was to experience. As I drifted off to sleep I thought about my church, especially those who were sick. I prayed for them and remembered that even though I couldn’t be with them, I could still pray for them. My prayers would be the same – whether in Texas, or New Jersey, or Norway. I hoped my congregation could be excited for me and happy for me. I hoped the weeks to come would be as good as I had anticipated. I was happy to finally be beginning the journey I had been looking forward to for so long.

The next morning I slept in a little bit. It was Sunday morning and while it felt strange to not be at church, I was so glad to have some rest. I went to have breakfast at the little restaurant downstairs. We had been told to charge all our food to Ane’s room. I had some sausage and eggs, a lot of coffee, and then I headed upstairs to meet with Thor. I knocked on his door promptly at 10:00 a.m. and then he brought me into his room to sit down at a table where he shared with me some logistics and information that he needed to share with all of us who were participating. As soon as I saw him, I remembered him from the interview in Chicago – tall, thin, and a beautiful smile. I liked his manner a lot and his words helped to put me at ease in many ways. He said something to the effect of, “we picked you to be you on the show. We don’t want you to try to be someone else and if something bothers you, let us know.” There was just something about what he said and how he said it that was very comforting – like even though I was about to go and be filmed doing who knows what on Norwegian television, it was going to be okay because they wanted me to be there, and they were on my side in all of this. After Thor and I had been talking for a while, there was a knock at the door – another contestant was there to meet with him and I would finally get to meet someone else who had been picked to be on Season 5. It was Norris! I greeted him and thought about how he looked very sweet and very young! I later found out he was in his early twenties. I went out in the hall to wait to meet with Brita next and then met Marshell. I was struck by how beautiful her eyes were and as she talked, she seemed very down to earth and I thought I would like to be friends with her. We only talked for a few moments before Brita called me into her room and I was so happy to finally meet Brita (even though I knew she had been there in Chicago so I had actually met her, but had been in too much of a daze to remember) since she had been sending all of us e-mails to get us ready for our journey. She also had some information to go over with me and asked if I had any questions. I remember asking her if I was the oldest participant this year. She said no. I asked her when I would have to give up my cell phone and she said when we got to Norway they would collect our phones.

After I met with Brita, I went outside to exercise. I found that the hotel was next to a number of cemeteries. I had to laugh – I usually go jogging every day by my own church cemetery and now I was out running by the dead people again. There were some beautiful gravestones and I took a lot of pictures. After I got back to the hotel, I took the elevator up to my room to change and saw a tall, blond fellow carrying the same Monster folder I was given when I arrived. I introduced myself to him and found out his name was Kyle and he had just arrived from Utah. He was heading up to meet Thor right then. Next, I went to have lunch and found that a group of Alt for Norge participants had now clustered in the restaurant. It was time to play extrovert and go say “hello.” Sitting at the lunch table was Beth (who got up and hugged me and greeted me like we were long lost friends – love her!), Leah, David, and Kent. We all sat there and talked and got to know each other as others came and went. Marshell stopped in and sat down to eat lunch, Kyle eventually came and sat down, Kent and Beth left to do some other things, eventually Brandon came in and I met him, also Breyanne stopped by the table briefly but she needed to go write in her journal and so she said she would come talk to us later. I finally went back to my room to spend some time alone before we all met for supper. I had met everyone except Candice and Guy by then – and I was so happy they all seemed very nice.

Later that day we all met in a conference room and introduced ourselves to each other. I finally met Candice (who I thought was so beautiful and full of life) and Guy (who seemed so smart and well-spoken). As I looked around the room I was deeply impressed by what a unique bunch we were and I was very pleased that I somehow had ended up included with this group of people. I remember as I introduced myself to the others I said that it was “one of the greatest surprises of my life that I get to be a part of such a fun thing as this.” Thor briefed us on the details of our journey to Norway the next day.

We went downstairs to have supper and there was a lot of talking and laughter. I remember I had a steak and a glass of wine. Then, I went upstairs and called my boys and Chad. I was glad to see their faces as we Facetimed, I was happy to hear about their day, but I was too excited about everything that was to come to be sad about being away from them yet.

I went to sleep and dreamed about Norway.

After the camera crew left, it was Holy Week, so I didn’t have a lot of time to think about anything aside from church and doing the final hospital and homebound visits before my departure. I left a lot of instructions for the deacons and the secretary and also for the pastors who would be subbing for me on Sundays. We had services on Thursday and Friday and on Sunday we had a wonderful Easter morning complete with an Easter egg hunt for the children, breakfast, and decorating a cross outside with fresh flowers. I was relieved when church was over that day – exhilarated, actually. I hadn’t taken a Sunday off in over six months. I knew I needed a break and I was so grateful that I would soon be getting one.

I didn’t know what to expect in the weeks to come but I knew whatever it was, it would be a different time, an alternate circumstance to the one in which I had been living. I needed that so badly. I think stepping apart from one’s own life for a time is valuable in so many ways – especially when one is starting to feel stale and stagnant. I love my work and my family and my church deeply, I have been given so much that is so good – I will not tolerate myself seeing any of it as stale or stagnant. My most heartfelt prayer in those days was that being away from my life for a while would give me fresh eyes and a renewed heart again.

In the final days before I left, the boys stayed home from school so we could be together. We went to the zoo in Fort Worth and I got to meet up with a friend who came to visit from Wisconsin. I figured out the last-minute things I needed to get. I found myself worrying a lot about little things – like how much my hair would grow while I was in Norway and if I would ever have the chance to color it there. My natural hair color is very gray and I knew within a few weeks I would have a distinct line visible on my head where the brownish red lowlights stopped and the natural gray came in. I invested in a hat that I thought I might wear at some point to cover it all up. I brought it to Norway and back and then gave it away – it was an ugly hat. I never wore it.

The morning I left, my sons and I played baseball out in the yard for a while. They took turns asking if I really had to go. I kept saying I would probably be back very soon – just a few weeks. I said if I was gone longer, I would just have to stay to the very end so I could win the prize for them and then they could come to Norway, too. They seemed somewhat satisfied with that answer. We drove to the airport, stopping on the way to have lunch in Hillsboro. I felt so excited and sad at the same time. I never for even a moment considered not going, but I knew my heart was going to burst right in two when I had to say goodbye to my boys. I had envisioned our parting many times and had thought about how I would try my best to be cheerful and upbeat so that they would hopefully not take it all so hard. When we finally stopped at the airport and got out my luggage and it was time to part, however, I was distinctly and unashamedly crying. They clung to me and it was all terribly sad. Still, as I hugged them and Chad and then watched them drive away, I felt pretty good – because I knew that now I had already completed the most difficult challenge I would face in this whole Alt for Norge experience. Next, I just had to go have some fun.

I was so shocked to be selected. I am quiet country pastor in my early forties. I’ve always gravitated toward the academic and the introspective far more than lights, camera and action. Some of my closest friends were astounded I had even wanted to apply to be on a reality show in Norway. I can’t even explain how much I wanted to do it, and how once I applied, I longed to be selected. I had absolutely no doubt I should do it and that it would be an immensely good experience.

The next months were mostly fantastic as I prepared to go. I studied some Norwegian in the car on my way to and from hospital visits. I ran four miles every morning and was feeling great. I tried to prepare my church for my absence – which was the most difficult part. When I told the church council what I had been accepted to do, they gave me their blessing and seemed very excited for me and I was so happy and relieved about that. As I had hoped would be their reaction, they were glad that I could learn more about Norway and make connections with the country of our origin. They agreed to let me use my vacation and then if I was gone longer than my allotted vacation, I agreed to pay for pulpit supply in my absence. Unfortunately, as time went by, I found not all were happy for me and some were even upset that I hadn’t told them before I applied. I heard grumblings that some felt it would be a bad thing for me to participate in a reality show. Of course, this began to dampen my spirits but I knew I had to keep everything in perspective. I couldn’t make everyone understand why this was so important for me to do. I couldn’t make everyone agree it was a wonderful thing that their pastor could experience such a thing. Not everyone automatically saw my point of view – that our church had been here for 140 years before I ever arrived and they would be fine without me for 2-10 weeks. I didn’t want to upset anyone – but I also knew I couldn’t plan my life around the reactions and feelings of a few who thought this wasn’t a worthwhile venture. I needed to go. Those who didn’t understand that would learn to accept it. I was going to Norway! Woo-hoo! For the first time in a very long time I had something so deeply cool and it was all for me! I chose to be happy about that.

A camera crew was sent to our home a couple weeks before I left for Norway. First, they interviewed me and then they filmed us as a family – playing basketball, playing a game, the boys helping me pack, and me jogging down to the cemetery. I have never looked over my house with such a critical eye as I did when I knew there would be cameras filming in those rooms. I realized with dismay that many of my decorations, well, just suck. I have never invested any time, money, or energy into decorative items and so my house was basically decorated in a rag-tag bunch of items I had been given over the years: a dream catcher here, some colorful scarves there, a whole LOT of ugly religious art bestowed upon me by dear parishioners whom I love. I decided if I was ever going to put any thought into how I would like to decorate my rooms instead of just hanging up some things by default since there was a nail there and someone gave me something to hang on it, the time was now.

I started scouring pinterest for inexpensive decorating ideas. I made some cool wall hangings for the bedrooms and they turned out great. I cleaned and straightened and purged all the rooms until everything was so tidy it looked like we were half moved-out and the children were afraid to touch anything for fear of me getting after them for upsetting my precisely staged household.

It was the day before Palm Sunday when the director, Astrid, and three members of a camera arrived at our house. After filming at the parsonage all day Saturday, they came to church on Sunday and filmed there at worship and lunch. Some of the church ladies made some Norwegian foods and we sang the Norwegian national anthem. It was a very lovely day. The director wanted to film the congregation waving “goodbye” to me and so we did that. I was so glad to have the church featured in the filming because it was really my church’s love for all things Norwegian that had made me more interested in my own heritage. Growing up in Minnesota, I had really taken my Norwegian heritage for granted because so many people there had Scandinavian roots. Leaving that behind for many years and then coming to live here felt like coming home in many ways and these years here have taught me so much about my own history.

I absolutely loved the camera crew and the director – they were so nice and pleasant to work with. After they left I felt even more peaceful about being a part of Alt for Norge because it was already such a good experience. I was certain there would just be more good stuff to come. Soon.

Here is the beautiful video Alt for Norge made from their visit to my home in Texas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQYgiT9Wq_8

(I’m going to take some time to recount my experiences leading up to and participating in Alt for Norge for any who might care to know about this wonderful journey. Here is my first entry:)

I was on a Norwegian Reality Show.

I still can hardly believe I did such a fun thing. I hope that when I am old and reclining on my death bed, my children will share that story with the nurses tending to me or the chaplain visiting that day. They’ll say, “Yes, she was a pastor and a great mom…and this one time she was even on a wildly popular Norwegian reality show.” I treasure this story like a precious gem among all the lovely stories I’m collecting in this life.

The reality show is called “Alt for Norge”. It has been on the air in Norway for five seasons and they select 12 U.S. citizens with Norwegian ancestry to come over to Norway and participate in challenges while learning more about Norwegian culture and history and customs. I wasn’t most interested in the competition (although I have to say, the competitions in which we participated were so good-natured and positive that I very much enjoyed them) or because there was the chance I could win $50,000 (although if I had won it certainly would have been a nice nest-egg for my sons’ college education) or even that I had the chance to meet my living Norwegian relatives (although it would have been stupendous to meet them – and I do very much hope to meet them someday, without cameras rolling). I was mostly deeply enchanted by the idea of doing something so different and fun, getting to experience Norway, and connecting with the land that my parents always wanted to see but never got a chance to do so while they were alive, the land my ancestors left in the late 1800’s.

I filled out the application and filmed a short audition video right after Christmas. I had heard about the show through a fellow I dated for about two seconds back in seminary. He posted an article about the show on Facebook and I clicked on it – and the more I learned about it, the more interested I was. I devoured episodes of the show I could watch on youtube. The more I watched, the more I believed I needed to be a part of it. Maybe it was because the people they had selected to participate in the past had all seemed like people I would like to know – they seemed like people who would be great to have as friends. Maybe it was because I liked the heart of the show so much and it always seemed to be about so much more than the silly competitions. Maybe it was because I had been learning more about Norway in recent years and I felt like this was a great way to expand on that. Or maybe it was just because a new adventure sounded, really, really good. Whatever it was, I was as certain as I have ever been about anything that I wanted to be on Alt for Norge.