Ben Franklin Christmas celebration in Norway (January 9, 2009)
The summer of 2008, the U.S Embassy sent Kenneth Sydhagen (19) from Lørenskog to the U.S. as our participant to the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellow Summer Institute. During his 4 weeks on the program, he got to know students from both sides of the Atlantic, and this Christmas, three of them came to visit him and experienced a true Norwegian Christmas. Here is their greeting to us:
“Season’s greetings from Oslo!
Christmas break is finally upon us, and we are fortunate enough to be able to spend our holiday together here in Oslo. Some of us travelled a long way to get here. David came all the way from Texas, Laura from Germany and Adrien from Belgium. Our friendship started this summer when we were handpicked by The U.S. Department of State through its embassies to represent our countries at the Ben Franklin Institute.
The Ben Franklin Institute is an U.S. Department of State-funded program that promotes cultural understanding, and the Institute rejuvenated our interest in cultures that are different from our own. It has been great to get to know the Norwegian lifestyle through Kenneth’s family, and we appreciate their hospitality.
We have had a great time exploring the Norwegian culture and meeting friends and family of Kenneth. David and Laura attended the annual Christmas dinner with Kenneth’s family at December 26th, where they were exposed to Norwegian Christmas delicacies such as kransekake, geitost and julebrus. We spent a lot of time in Oslo and got particularly impressed by the millennium old vikingships at Bygdøy. Besides, we have enjoyed typical Norwegian activities such as ice-skating on the lake close to Kenneth’s house, baking and decorating gingerbread and visiting nearby cities like Drøbak.
Even though our time at the Institute has expired, we greatly enjoy continuing the Ben Franklin experience, and we are looking forward to seeing all our fellows again on the summer conference in 2009.
With the best wishes for a Happy New Year,
David Restrepo, Laura Ströbel, Adrien Rorive and Kenneth Sydhagen”
Read more about Kenneth's experiences in the Ben Franklin program.
Adrien and Kenneth cooking a Ben Franklin Christmas meal.
Kenneth took his friends ice skating.