"How the hell did you end up in Steinkjer?"

I think this is the question we get the most from Steinkjerites.

The short answer is: it's where the job was. 

That is, my samboer's job as a professor at Nord Universitet, here at the Steinkjer campus, since that's where Nord's terrestrial ecology group is located.  Not that you can't walk around any given Nord campus and see some terrestrial ecology in action, but what I mean is it's where the actual program (for those wanting to study terrestrial ecology) is based.

Now if you want to know more on why we decided to yank our little family's roots from the soils of Oklahoma and drop them over 7,000km away in Trøndelag without ever having even seen Norwegian soil with our own eye-peepers before, then I have to gesture in the general direction of the 2016 U.S. election.  We decided that if that many people thought that that was a good idea, then we were done.  Prior to 2016, we were still considering positions within (certain parts of) the US.  We were especially fond of the idea of living in New England, largely because of it being more European-like.  And I can't lie - I wanted me some of them beautiful fall trees!  Michael, having done a postdoc at Dartmouth, had the pleasure of living in New Hampshire for two years so knew firsthand it would be a good fit.  In fact, in... 2015..?.. he applied for a position at a place in Vermont.  They were so positive about him and talked of flying him out for an in-person interview.  I actively searched for houses in the area, and gushed over images of the little town.  Then, they ghosted him.  I was pretty crushed at the time, but to this day we say "wow, isn't it great that that fell through?"

Now seeing as we were looking at jobs away from Oklahoma even before 2016, this may lead you to wonder. "Wait!  Why was he looking for other jobs when he was a tenured professor at a big university already?"  Well, frankly, as much as we love the natural history of Oklahoma, the societal aspect of it is rough for liberal-minded folk.  And for those working in basically any kind of science (unless, of course, you specialize in some form of pseudoscience related to Bible stuff and try to convince people that Jesus rode around on a Stegosaurus).  It's not to say there aren't a bunch of wonderful people there (even outside the arts and sciences!), and people doing some great work pushing back against a religion-driven state government, but it's... hard.  The state is about as conservative as you can get, and the mainstream culture reflects that.  Or is it the other way around..?  Anyhoo, I was at least used to it - I had known nothing else, having spent the bulk of my existence living there.  But, outside of my friend circle and some of my family, I felt pretty isolated.  The only time I felt like I fit in was if I was hanging out with fellow band nerds, or with the Shakespeare group.

My samboer, however, spent most of his life well away from Oklahoma, only moving there after accepting a position at the University of Oklahoma.  Boy, did he find out quickly he didn't fit in!  The field work was good, but even then there were human hazards he had not experienced elsewhere in the country.  After over 15 years, he'd had enough.  Active job hunting began.

Even though my views and beliefs are vastly different from a big chunk of Oklahomans, I am definitely an Okie.  A younger me, who associated a big chunk of things I identified as "Okie" with staunch, repressive conservatism, would have (and did) try to push away a lot of that, even going so far as to develop verbal filters to mask as much of my accent as possible.  I remember joking to some classmates that only my dad knew how I really sounded.  Now, with such a physical distance between me and Oklahoma, I have begun to appreciate aspects of the culture I once pushed against.  I now appreciate who I am, and smile at the threads in the weave that are the memories and experiences of Oklahoma giving shape to the cloth.

Hmm... I guess my uprooting analogy is a bit complicated.  My roots in Oklahoma were definitely like a big ol' ragweed... I'm sure the tip of that taproot will forever be lodged firmly in that red dirt.  Michael's were more like moss on a rock.  There was enough to hold him in place, but they only grasped the surface.

But new roots for all three of us have pushed into the rocky soils of Steinkjer.  We quickly felt at home and for the first time felt a sense of belonging in the surrounding community and you know what?  We even bought a house. 

 

Our first breathtaking view of Steinkjer from the lookout point at Oftenåsen.