Impressions from Oslo, 2009
by Hanne Drejergaard Kjeldsen

At the end of my summer holidays I attended the European Conference in Oslo, which was a very uplifting experience. I enjoyed shaking hands, exchanging business cards and e-mail addresses. This was actually the first time the word international was really made flesh and blood in the sense that it was overwhelming to meet women from 8 European nations plus the USA.

Being the only Dane I was at a loss when it came to representing our country in all the relevant workshops. I hope that we shall be able to muster more than one participant in Baden Baden in 2011. This was my first conference, and I was very impressed by the huge task the Norwegian chapters had undertaken and how competently they  executed everything to perfection.

The official opening of the conference took place in the City Hall of Oslo, where many of the Norwegian hostesses were dressed in their beautiful bugnads. The City Hall is sumptuously decorated in all the rooms. This is the end wall of the room where the Nobel Prize ceremony takes place. The painting or fresco reminds me of the Danish painter J. F. Willumsen – full of light, bathing children, and a healthy and cheerful attitude to nudity.

In his welcome the Mayor addressed his guests: Ladies and gentleman! In fact there were more than one male spouse. They did not participate in the workshops, though, and so far they are not members. To my knowledge there is not even an incentive  to proselytize among men, but I did hear someone mention that they might one day become active members. Why not?