Exchange student returns for visit decade later

Ten years after arriving in Fort Frances as a 19-year-old youth, Boerge “Burger” Aanestad has returned for another visit.
Luke and Josie Schill first met the young Norwegian after he landed at the International Falls Airport, finishing the third and final flight on his journey from Norway to Fort Frances.
“I remember I had been flying quite a number of hours and I had been drinking sodas quite some time on the bigger planes but this one didn’t have a toilet,” said Aanestad as he recalled spending most of the flight sitting with his legs crossed before landing in the Falls.
“It’s the smallest airport I have been to,” he added.
It was mid-July of 1990 when Aanestad stepped off the plane with shoulder-length, curly hair and a backpack ready to begin his exchange which was organized by the Alliance, an affiliate of the local Lion’s Club.
“We had about 12 people we could have chosen from and each of these people had a list of their strengths and so on,” Luke Schill recalled.
The Schills chose to be hosts for Aanestad because he was older than some of the other applicants and already was fairly fluent in English.
“The resume impressed us and we said ‘This is the guy we want,’” added Schill, a former teacher who is still impressed with Aanestad’s grasp of the English language.
“Number one, I’m impressed with how much he’s been able to maintain his English. I was quite impressed that you’re quite fluent even after 10 years,” he said.
“I remember one word I was always having trouble with. I would say ‘wery much’ and he would always say it’s ‘very much!’” Aanestad recounted.
Aanestad quickly felt at home with the Schills, and Fort Frances, taking part in organized campouts and pickup baseball, field hockey, or football games.
“I had a good time and I got to know these people real well. I consider myself a Fort Frances, Canadian ambassador,” he said. “I was fully integrated with the family all at once and I really learned how you do things over here.
“When I was leaving, I said I hope I’m able to come back some time and [Josie] said ‘don’t worry, you’ll come back.’”
“He just fit in so easily. It was just the greatest thing to have him here,” said Josie Schill. “We think it was wonderful that he would take the time to come back . . . he said it was his millennium resolution.”
Aanestad now sports a shorter, executive-style haircut and works in the information and communication technology field.
“He’s matured, he’s got a few years under his belt,” noted Josie.
“I have changed some, I’ve learned some lessons along the way,” agreed Aanestad, who now owns his own home in Stavanger, Norway’s fourth-largest city with a population of about 120,000.
“There’s 4.2 million people in Norway. It’s just like a stamp compared to Canada,” Aanestad noted. “The size is a significant difference.”
“I think the difference is more in the culture,” he added. “The landscape could be found maybe in Norway but you live more [of] what we call ‘living it big.’
“You’re very oriented towards natural resources, the hunting and fishing.”
Since his Canadian excursion, Aanestad has continued to travel throughout North America and Europe–both through work and for pleasure.
“I’ve been travelling quite a bit since. Europe is a very fortunate place to live if you like to travel and visit,” he remarked.
After leaving Canada in 1990, Aanestad spent three days at home before embarking on his one-year military stint–a requirement of all young males in the country. He served as a dog-handler for the military police before pursuing a career in the computer industry in college.
Throughout the past 10 years, he has continued to correspond with his former hosts. He will visit with the Schills until Feb. 18 and, day by day, continues to remember even the smallest details of his stay in 1990.
“We had raspberry jam for breakfast and he said ‘Do you still grow raspberries?’ He also asked ‘do you still eat sloppy joes?’” laughed Josie.