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An Enemy of the People in Oslo

by Rimini Protokoll

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I DRINK A LOT OF COFFEE WITH A LOT OF MILK AND ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR

Name: Thoralf Meier
Age: 47
District: Bjerke
Nationality: German
I live alone, in a hotel apartment rented for me through the bus company. More than half of us living here are German, and over 90 per cent of us work as busdrivers.

I am a busdriver but mainly here in Oslo I clean buses. It's not that bad, except after weekends when young kids have had too much to drink and there is vomit every where.

I belong to the bus drivers, the ones that are named after ski jumpers, the ones that grew up in East Germany, the sports fans, the pessimists and the ones that love winter, but I do not belong to the extremists or the optimists.

I came to Oslo to work. I was here in the early 2000s as a truck driver and I really liked what I saw. And in the north east of Germany it is not easy to be a bus driver at the moment. So I was thinking about either going to Austria, Switzerland or to the north. And then I heard of these Norwegian classes that Unibuss arranges in Germany, so the choice was not so difficult. I liked the country, and also the company helped us with everything, apartment, getting here and so forth. And also I love the winter! And the snow! But I don’t know if I am living here in ten or twenty years time. It all depends really, will my parents need me in Germany as they get older? Or maybe I will move to a smaller town, I am more of a smalltown guy. Or maybe I will meet a good woman and she keeps me here. Who knows?

I think he is absolutely right about “the strongest man in the world is the one standing the most alone”. I can not explain why in Norwegian, but I think powerful people like Angela Merkel are very alone.

I am in the middle of a process where I am turning from living in Germany and moving to Norway, but I am not sure if I will turn all the way or where the process will lead me in the end.

I am going by tube to the theatre, itæs just down the road here to Linderud station, and then all the way directly to the theatre.