Title: In cod we trust : living the Norwegian dream /
Authors: Dregni, Eric, 1968-
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Dregni, Eric, Travel Norway.; Norway Social life and customs; Norway Description and travel.
Abstract: "Eric Dregni's great-grandfather Ellef fled Norway in 1893 when it was the poorest country in Europe. More than one hundred years later, his great-grandson traveled back to find that (mostly due to oil and natural gas discoveries) it is now the richest. The circumstances of his return were serendipitous; the notice that Dregni won a Fulbright Fellowship for a year arrived the same week as the knowledge that his wife Katy was pregnant. Braving a birth abroad and benefiting from a remarkably generous health care system, the Dregnis' family came full circle when their son Eilif was born in Norway." "In this cross-cultural memoir, Dregni tells the hair-raising, hilarious, and sometimes poignant stories of his family's yearlong Norwegian experiment. Among the exploits he details are staying warm in a remote grass-roofed hytte (hut), surviving a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, and identifying his great-grandfather's house in the Lusterfjord only to find out it had been crushed by a boulder and then swept away by a river. To subsist on a student stipend, he rides the meat bus to Sweden for cheap salami with a group of knitting pensioners. A week later, he and his wife travel to the Lofoten Islands and gnaw on klippefisk (dried cod) while cats follow them through the streets." "Dregni's Scandinavian roots do little to prepare him and his family for the year in Trondheim eating herring cakes, obeying the conformist Janteloven (Jante's law), and enduring the morketid (dark time). In Cod We Trust is one Minnesota family's spirited excursion into Scandinavian life. The land of the midnight sun is far stranger than they previously imagined, and their encounters show how much we can learn from its unique and surprising culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Machine generated contents note: A Cambridge Education -- From Colony to Homeland -- A Beautiful Day in Hell -- "Screw Yourself" at IKEA -- Janteloven -- The Chest -- Munch Is Darlig -- Aliens -- Living the Norwegian Dream -- Porridge Night -- Norsk Course -- A to A -- Cabin Culture -- A True Norwegian -- Paul Bunyan's Blacksmith? -- "Take Everything for Good Fish" -- A Free Upbringing -- Columbus Was Norwegian -- On the Meat Bus -- Bargain Babies -- Earth Mothers at the Sick House -- The Name of the Devil -- Morketid: The Dark Time -- Tran! -- Rakfisk: Riskier Than Lutefisk -- Juletid -- Fish in Lye -- Born Wearing Skis -- "The World's Most Beautiful Voyage" -- Snowbound in Bodo -- The Knitting Hall of Fame -- Doping the Baby -- In Cod We Trust -- Syttende Mai: Constitution Day -- You Can't Eat Beauty.