I am not only interviewing strangers. Sometimes it is lovely to sit down with a friend and listen to her story too. This is Sigrid. She is one of the coolest people I know:

My friend Sigrid Fangel who lives in the same town and we spent the better part of an hour chatting at my kitchen table.

But before we sat down, she lured me into the sea with her.

What we talked about

Sigrid is an avid chillswimmer, she swims in the sea all year. As I am fascinated by the weirdness of this strange sport, I asked if I could join her. And before you could spell goosebumps, I was swimming around in seawater, learning how to breathe calmly even though the water is only 10 degrees (Celcius, not Fahrenheit). And I survived, and grudgingly had to admit that it was strangely invigorating and I might actually do it again with her. Chillswimming will not dethrone my favourite hobbies of drinking wine and reading a book while looking out at sea, but interestingly enough it did not scare me from doing it again.

We also talked about being scared and doing it anyway, and about anxiety, and about finding your own style by just becoming yourself, and of course we talked about chickens. As one does.

The darker side of Norwegian culture

Janteloven - The Law of Jante, the unwritten Scandinavian societal norm. The Author Aksel Sandemose wrote about a fictional town called Jante, and the rules of conduct according to the Law of Jante are:

* You're not to think you are anything special

* You're not to think you are as good as we are

* You're not to think you are smarter than we are

* You're not to convince yourself that you are better than we are

* You're not to think you know more than we do

* You're not to think you are more important than we are

* You're not to think you are good at anything

* You're not to laugh at us

* You're not to think anyone cares about you

* You're not to think you can teach us anything

It’s basically a crash course in How To Acquire Impostor Syndrome. This is a part of Norwegian culture that we are not particularly proud of……

Books we talked about

Unquiet by Linn Ullmann

The eighth life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

On The Calculation Of Volume by Solvej Balle

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