Bonus: Mega the Norsk Title

This is a short story about why I titled this email and blog “Mega the Norsk”. The first part is because Mega was my nickname in high school. That nickname had a second life when I taught high school. Students calling me Mega gave them a way to have a closer connection with me. For the second part of the title, we need to go back to my first trip to Norway. That visit was on the backend of spending four weeks at the summit of the Greenland icecap, where I was doing field work as a part of my masters at the University of Wisconsin. The support contractor flew us commercial to a town, Kangerlussuaq, which is on the west coast of Greenland, and from there it was a military cargo (LC-13) flight to the summit of the ice sheet. Flying commercial to Kangerlussuaq meant flying through Copenhagen. At the end of the trip, I was in Copenhagen for free and I quickly realized that it was an opportunity for me to go to Norway. I had a friend who was an exchange student at my high school that I wanted to visit. It was an easy train ride from Copenhagen to Oslo. The train goes along the southwest coast of Sweden and then enters Norway. At the border the immigration officers came on the train and walked down the aisle. I was paying very close attention as this as it was all new to me. The immigration officer would say “Norsk”, the passengers would nod, and the officer would keep walking down the aisle. The officer got to me, he said “Norsk”, I nodded, and he kept going. It wasn’t until probably a year later, when I was taking a Norwegian class, that I realized that in that exchange I “lied” as I said I was Norwegian. That explains why the immigration officer never asked for my passport. Therefore, when I needed a title for the posts about my extended visit to Norway, I thought “Mega the Norsk” was a good fit.