Norwegian Meeting

Before we arrive at the Mr. C. story, I forgot to mention that I was scheduled to attend a business development meeting with a government organization that promotes Norwegian business growth abroad. The upside was that their offices are located in our office park. The downside was that all correspondence was written in Norwegian. My boss has said he would be running a little late for the meeting.

I managed to find the meeting location. We were a small group, maybe ten men. This is notable in that it was all men- except a woman who served in a secretarial manner and was affiliated with the organisation that sponsored the event. Maybe I had worked in human services too long, or maybe the US better represents women- I don't know. Maybe it is the industry itself (tech related). Even in the cafeteria, there are far more men than women.

Back to the meeting. Much to my shock, we all had to introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. I spoke in English. I thought it only made sense, since the meeting was geared toward English-speaking markets. Fortunately, the man across from me was from the UK and spoke English as well in his introduction. Our presence seemed to throw the presenters for a loop, and he offered to present in English. I could sense the Norwegians freaking out, so I offered that I understood well enough for them to present in Norwegian. Thankfully, all the powerpoint material was written only in English. By this point, my boss arrived. I wouldn't exactly trust my understanding to be adequate for mission-critical details, but I managed to get by. Of course I didn't really participate either. At least I managed to get through this anxiety-creating situation. I was later told that it was possible that the presenters wanted to present in English. The leader sounded like he had an Oslo dialect. I was told that they sometimes have difficulty understanding west-coasters. For some reason, I found that amusing.

Work flew by. I met Mr. C., who lives in London, and speaks no Norwegian, but we really didn't have much time to dig into any details. Our work day was interrupted when the power in the building went out. Thankfully they had a backup system to operate all the door locks. Every lock in the building is electronic. I need my passcard to get everywhere, and I have to activate a switch to open any door. It was already too dark for any outdoor light to be helpful. It seemed to be a good time to wrap up the day's work.