Lessons learned in Quincy

Lessons learned in Quincy

Tammara Green/writer@qvpr.com
June 16, 2011

Kurtis J. Wood/sports@qvpr.com

Julie Storjord exults after making a dazzling recovery from a near trip when she walked down the ramp during the QHS graduation ceremony on June 3.

January of 2010, Julie Storjord contemplated taking the trip of a lifetime.

“I always wanted to go to the United States, but I was scared. My mother encouraged me. She wanted to go when she was young, but never went,” said Storjord.

She set out finally in the middle of the August heat of Central Washington on a 20-hour flight. It took two hours to fly from Oslo to London, then 10 hours to Chicago, which was followed by the last six-hour stretch to Seattle, ending with a short 45-minute trip to Wenatchee.

“I slept in the airport or on the plane. I can sleep anywhere. I could sleep in this chair if I wanted to,” Storjord joked.

Storjord comes from a little town called Ornes, set between two mountains near the northern coast of Norway. The population is just shy of 2,000 people, and there were 70 students altogether in Storjord’s school, grades 11-13.

“I thought Quincy was huge when I came here. I thought I was going to get lost. There were a lot of people in the school,” said Storjord.

She also had to get accustomed to calling teachers by their last names, since in Norway, the custom is that students call teachers by their first name, because they believe that the last name is more personal. After arriving in Quincy, she held back on her English skills, unsure of how people might react to her, but she admits that once she started talking, she didn’t stop. Storjord made an easy adjustment overall, thanks to her host parents, Rick and Sue Stetner.

“They were awesome, and so easy to get along with. They had the same sense of humor,” said Storjord.

At QHS, Storjord enjoyed calculus, and a weight-lifting class, which is not offered at her school back home. In Ornes, they go to P.E. twice a week, and do very little, if no, exercise. They mostly learn about the rules of different games.

Storjord appreciates the experience she has had in Quincy. She learned to be more independent and open to other cultures. Her stay in Quincy also helped her to further immerse herself in the English language. She has established herself as somewhat of a world traveler, with trips to Denmark, Finland, Bulgaria, Greece and Germany. Two weeks after her return to Norway, her family will travel to Turkey.

During her stay in Quincy, Storjord claimed a gain of 20 pounds due to the American foods on her diet. She got used to eating burgers and fries, and her favorite beverage was the “Big Train” from Gotta Have Java (formerly Cup of Joy). She can’t wait, though, to get back to her hometown and eat fish and blood pancakes (pancake batter with beef blood in it).

Thanks to scholarship companies in Norway, it was possible for Storjord to have this once in a lifetime experience. She claimed that it was not all that hard to get into the exchange program. “You just apply for a scholarship and send it to one of the scholarship companies. As long as you have a C grade or above, they may sponsor your trip, and they pay for everything, including the flight,” said Storjord. Her goal once she gets back home is to continue studying in medicine at the University of Tromso. She plans to be a doctor.

“The people in Quincy are awesome, and my friends here gave me the best time of my life. I also enjoyed Quincy High School,” said Storjord.