Festivaler på Sørlandet

What is it like to live and work in Kristiansand as a young professional? Is it easy to integrate? Does this town meet the expectations? Would you like to stay here? Why? Why not?

We, Egle and Will, are two students from Warwick University (UK), who came to Kristiansand for six weeks in the beginning of May in order to look for answers to these questions. Trying to experience to the fullest what Kristiansand has to offer and reflect upon it has been part of our internship at Agderforskining.

This ethnographic research is a contribution to Agderforskning’s wider project Professionalization of the creative industries in Kristiansand. Companies here know very little about their high competence employees and what they do after work - in their free time. The research project is looking into how the region can develop, using the creative indus­tries, into a place where you can feel at home even if you were not born here.

You can find the details of our research in the blog: Being in Kristiansand.

Why Kristiansand?

When the offer of internship at Agderforskning arrived at the mailing list of our MA course, we decided to apply for different reasons. Will knew very little about Kristiansand and Norway in general. He based his opinions on stereotypes and other people’s experiences (cold, very expensive, difficulties with the language, Scandinavian high quality of life and freedom, Kristiansand could be a small fishing village, red housed with white window frames). This nearly blank state about Norway was one of the main reasons why Will had decided to come here. He thought he was going to see something different, an alternative to other European countries and cities. Will saw going to Kristiansand as an adventure.

When Egle applied for the internship, she felt better informed about Norway than Will. Egle had been to Norway before - as an exchange student at the University of Oslo. Based on her experience in Oslo, she saw Norway as a country of easy access to nature (even in a city), beautiful scenery, peaceful people and peaceful life pace (which in some circumstances can be thought of as too slow…), non-hierarchical relations between people, politeness and attention towards foreigners. However, Egle did not expect to become good friends with Norwegians as she had noticed them being polite, yet not very open to foreigners.

Egle’s expectations of Kristiansand were based on her previous experience in Norway. However, Kristiansand as such was unseen and even unheard of. Therefore one of the main sources for expectations for both of us had been a job description we had received. It formed an image of Kristiansand as a small town of many cultural activities, a place with lots of festivals and a lively arts scene. It also seemed to be a popular summer resort, all surrounded by sea and full of sandy beaches. The link to http://www.sorlandet.com/, received together with the job offer, suggested that Kristiansand is also a place of beautiful scenery, picturesque views and idyllic white houses.

The first impressions

On arriving to Norway, the first thing we both noticed was the smoothness with which things are being handled here. The job of getting Will’s bag off the plane and returning it to him was done much quicker than it would have been done in England. When Egle’s plane landed, she had only one hour left until the bus to Kristiansand and was doubting if she would manage to be there in time. However, after the documents were checked in Torp airport, the luggage was already there. Egle caught a taxi quickly and, as a result of all the favorable circumstances, was waiting for the bus already half an hour prior to its arrival.

At the rail station Will found it much simpler to validate his travel than in England. He only needed to enter his mobile phone number into the machine and the entire journey was printed on a one slip of paper while in England it would take at least three separate cards. Later in Kristiansand we noticed more of such “Scandinavian inventions”, which seemed to be simple, but genius. For example, the heat absorbing sleeve is already integrated into take-away coffee cups (in contrast to the one you have to put on yourself) and the bus drivers have separate compartments for different coins of change.

Some of our expectations about Kristiansand and Norway were already dashed during the first days of arrival. Will didn’t find Norway so different from other places in Europe. The integration was painless as he found all the usual cafes and shops, and the English language was used everywhere. Even Norwegian words had similarity to their English equivalents, some of them strikingly so.

How does one find what’s on in Kristiansand?

Promised to find an active cultural life in the city, we started to look for events right after our arrival. But finding information for someone who is new (and foreign) in Kristiansand is far from easy.

Used to looking for information on the internet, we first turned to the web here as well. However, the first problem we noticed was information being scattered in different sources. There is no centralized website announcing “what’s on in Kristiansand today.” Instead, all the different bars, pubs, festivals, museums and other venues seem to have their own websites, not really interacting or linked to each other. Our observations were approved by some international students we met here. Students claimed that most information they get accidentally - from posters, flyers, brochures.

After living in Kristiansand for quite a while some students claim to have created their own “information systems”. One student tells that during the year he has got to know and saved around fifteen websites, where he constantly looks for information. The websites include the University website, Economics students’ association website, Kristiansand commune website, Agder museum website and others.

For students an important way of receiving information is also through the word of mouth. One student says he receives around 40% of information directly from his acquaintances, while another big share comes from student groups on facebook. During our six weeks in Kristiansand we ourselves got a majority of information through word of mouth. The more centralized information sources festivals.no and Kick Scene were introduced to us by work colleagues at Agderforskning, while krslive.no - by students themselves.

In addition to time consuming search for information, another problem seems to be Norwegian language in which most of this information is put. Nowadays there are means to translate entire websites from one language to another. However, the problem is that for people, who don’t speak Norwegian, the very search is restricted. It is limited by English keywords which these people type into search engines. One student confirmed that he discovered the main sources of information about Kristiansand only when he learned the basics of Norwegian.

During the internship we tried to fix the information gap in Kristiansand, making the information both more centralized, more accessible and “more English.” First of all, we expanded the “culture” section on Kristiansand’s English Wikipedia page. Before in this section there were only several lines about the Zoo (Dyreparken).

We also used the most current trends - Twitter and Facebook for spreading information. After creating the Twitter page for festivals.no, we also set up a facebook group I ♥ Kristiansand. It was fascinating to observe how within hours around 30 people joined. Now the group has more than 140 members. When Will added pictures from the 17 May parade, people we don’t know started tagging themselves. They also started adding photos of places they love in Kristiansand. It would be great if someone based in Kristiansand and well informed about what’s going on would continue with the initiatives we have started here.

Once you get some information… What can you actually do in Kristiansand?

Even though it was difficult to find out what’s going on in Kristiansand, we still believed that the cultural life is lively, even if only the locals know about it. However, as the weeks passed by, it started to appear that there isn’t actually so much happening here.

Kristiansand and the whole Southern Norway is the region of festivals, but it appeared that all the festivals were concentrated in two summer months (July and August). We seemed to have arrived just before the festival season started, therefore we found Kristiansand rather sleepy in terms of culture.

We noticed that the town does not have a stage; therefore most of the gigs take place in the corner of some bar. As for bars, however, during the six weeks we kept on doing the same round: Charlies - Kick - Frk. Larsen. It didn’t seem there were many more as our local and experienced colleagues kept on taking us to these ones. Will checked Kristiansand’s nightlife on the ultimate travelers’ website lonelyplanet.com only to find Kick and Frk. Larsen there. The students we talked to seemed to be fans of a student club Pir6, but we never managed to get there on the right time - it was always empty for us.

We never really found a place for dancing in Kristiansand. The music in bars is very loud, but there are no dance floors. Therefore you can’t really talk nor dance in these bars. The best option then seems to sip your beer, in solitude.

The nightlife in Kristiansand also tends to finish very early. According to the government regulations, the bars and pubs have to close before 2 AM.

Exceeded expectations: Kristiansand’s outdoor life

For Egle, who expected the nature in Kristiansand to be as integral part of the city as in Oslo, Kristiansand exceeded all expectations. What seemed as a great accessibility to nature in Oslo, in Kristiansand would probably be considered as being miles away. Here the sea is simply surrounding the city centre and the coast runs along a big part of the town. What make the sea coast “picture perfect” are the white wooden houses, decorating the rocky sea shores and islands. The river Otra, several rocky parks and lakes seem to add everything that could possibly be expected from the nature.

The qualities of Kristiansand’s nature meet and exceed expectations as well. First of all, this nature is very clean. It was a pleasant surprise, especially to Egle, as in her home country people don’t seem to respect nature that much - you can find litter even in the deepest forest. In Kristiansand, meanwhile, there is no trace of litter even in the longest grass, thickest bushes or abandoned military buildings.

What can be also seen and used as an advantage of Kristiansand’s nature, is it being “sublime” in contrast to cultivated parks in many other European cities. Parks look more like forests and the diversity of landscape enable a variety of activities: jogging, skiing, sailing and even moderate climbing. It seems very unique that all these things can be done right in the city, without any need to get away.

For peaceful relaxation in the nature Kristiansand is suitable as well. It has beautiful scenery not only in the city centre (for example, on Oderøya), but in more distant parts too. It was surprising to go as far as Møvik and find a park with access to the sea and view of the islands.

One of the main reasons we came here was the expected beauty of the nature. As we talked to international students, for them the nature is one of the main incentives to stay here. When asked about their favorite places in Kristiansand, students started naming - not bars or museums - but outside places: Oderøya, the lakes, the harbor, Bertesbukta, Vågsbygd, Fiskebrygga… It seems therefore that natural environment of Kristiansand can be a good asset in branding and marketing the city. The nature doesn’t require any changes - it is already there. The decision makers can simply use it in their strategies to attract people.

Read more about this: We’ve conquered it all - to the edge

The experience we hadn’t planned: Kristiansand Sykehus

During our stay in Kristiansand, both of us had our own reasons to check out Kristiansand’s hospital. Egle had problems with eyes and Will was “initiated to the vikings” with a face bruise while hiking in Lysefjorden. Now that the problems are in the past we can see these trips to the hospital as an opportunity to experience yet one more sphere of Norwegian life.

Before his trip to the hospital Will’s expectations were based on the UK medical system. He thought the UK system was so bad with its slow nurses, miserable doctors and long periods of waiting that everywhere else should be better. Will also expected that in a country with so many outdoor activities the injuries should be treated regularly and professionally.

We have to wait for two hours in the hospital before Will gets treatment, even though there is only one patient waiting before us. However, comparing everything to the British NHS, Will found more positive than negative sides in the Norwegian hospital. Although it was slow, it felt significantly less bureaucratic, interrogatory and accusatory than the British hospital emergency. During her own visits to the hospital Egle also noticed that the staff was very peaceful, calm, polite and reassuringly smiling. The language was no issue as well - both doctors and nurses spoke perfect English.

In addition to the outdated magazines and children’s books in the waiting room, there were two LCD TVs on the wall. One of them had NRK1 on (a documentary about the Iraq war at that time) and another one - a slideshow of hospital information in Norwegian, German and English languages. We found out that the patients were grouped under three colors regarding the level of emergency - red, yellow and green. Will was green, presumably.

Coming from Lithuania, Egle hasn’t experienced the notorious British NHS yet. However, she had already been acquainted with Norwegian hospitals from the previous stay in Oslo when she had broken a leg. In Oslo the hospital emergency had been extremely busy, therefore long waiting hours seemed more or less justifiable.

When Egle first arrived at Kristiansand hospital to get prescription for eye medicine, she was relieved to see only one patient waiting before her. Egle expected that in these circumstances everything would be much quicker than in Oslo. However, nobody seemed to be in a hurry here. Smiles and politeness seem to be even cynical, when you really need help and still have to wait for such a long time. The only thing which didn’t take long was the doctor’s consultation itself. It took only three minutes, and the doctor did not even take a look at the eye, only typed Egle’s description of her situation.

Therefore arriving to the hospital for Will’s problem, Egle was already prepared herself for a long wait. She also knew that patients have to pay for doctor consultations in Norway. The fee at night being twice as high as at the daytime, was a bit of a shock, however. Will was shocked both by the fact that we had to pay and by the sum we had to pay. On the positive note, the treatment Will received was very attentive and professional. Even though disinfection of the wound was painful, Will was clearly anesthetized by the smiles and gentleness of beautiful young nurses.

Read more about this: Emergency (in Norwegian style)

It’s no fun to climb and ski alone… How does one find friends in Kristiansand?

We were lucky enough to meet work colleagues, who have accepted us into their social circle and invited to all their social events. Already the second evening here we were invited for a dinner at Kirsti’s (the leader of Creative Industries group) house. Afterwards there have been many more dinners, drinks, watching Eurovision and films, going out together. We even spent the whole 17^th of May, including the dinner, with Kirsti’s family.

All the contacts outside work circle we also got to know through the people from Creative Industries team. It started to appear that people in Kristiansand are very close knit and it is easy to meet other people once you get to know some of them. For example, when we decided to visit the Art Museum with our colleagues Sarah and Per, at the entrance we met two local artists. In the museum, meanwhile, one of our new acquaintances had an exhibition and another one’s work was among the best contemporary works in the permanent exhibition. Another case of getting to know people was watching Eurovision song contest with Daniel’s friends, who appeared to be “Kristiansand’s music elite.”

However, even after seeing many different people, the work colleagues remained the only group we kept spending time with. Meeting new people didn’t mean that they were eager to keep contact with us - different groups did not seem to mingle together. According to other people’s experiences as well, strictly defined and rather closed social networks remain the main source of integration in Kristiansand.

Some parents at school on the 17 of May told us that there are three ways to have contacts in Kristiansand: either you have a family, go to a bar or join religious activities. As for foreigners, the international students explained that they felt the locals were polite, but always kept their distance. Kristiansandians might even invite you to a dinner once, but avoid saying “hello” the following day. According to some students’ opinions, local people are not very eager to make friends with foreigners, for example, by accepting them to their clubs and societies.

In conclusion, the process of integrating into Kristiansand’s society seems as an easy process only in the beginning. At first you are fascinated by how well everybody speaks English as well as how helpful and polite the locals are. After quite a short while, however, you find yourself going out with the same ten people from work, without many hopes to widen the social circle.

Read more about this: Social and other encounters of the first week

Crazy about Eurovision

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