A Fine Fall Day

It was 79 degrees today in Aalesund! I wasn’t sure if I was having hot flashes or if my classroom really was hot, but I was overdressed for this day, nonetheless. Kory stayed home from work with Kaleb as he had a fever again this morning. Kory didn’t want me to miss any of my class since they are moving so quickly through the material. He can work any two days he wants so it didn’t cramp his style to stay home and I think he was glad to just hang out on such a sunny day.

W e have 28 students in my Norsk class, from 18 different countries but English is a language we all can understand and speak (some better than others). It makes for some interesting coffee breaks. I have had the chance to talk to a few of the people in my class and they each have a story I find quite interesting. The woman that sits behind me is from Germany. She’s 31 and is a pediatric doctor, her husband is a dentist. The Norwegian government solicited them to come work here because there aren’t enough medical professionals here. (German dentists are the norm, I guess.) The woman that is my partner and sits next to me (we get to practice our pronunciation together) is from Lithuania. She is 22 and came here with her boyfriend to work also, but on the opposite end of the scale from the doctors and dentists. Many service jobs and fish factories hire people from Eastern Europe to do the grunt work that no Norwegian citizen wants to do. My partner, Vestina, works in a fish factory. Then there is the woman from the Ukraine who met a Norwegian on the internet and moved here to marry him. (They only speak English at home and she can barely speak English.) They’ve been married a year now and they still act like love birds (I saw them together during lunch one day). He’s a balding forty-ish almost okay looking guy and she is an early twenties hottie. These Norwegians aren’t dumb, that’s for sure.

Today, during break, Mai, a classmate from Thailand, offered to share her snack with anyone brave enough to try it. She had some apple slices she was dipping into something, and then eating it. The “something” was a mixture of sugar, salt and a dry Thai spice mix. I tried it. It was better than a cup of coffee to wake me up. She said people in Thailand always like to have a little “hot” with something sweet. Boy, she’s not kidding. No one else that tried it asked for a second slice, but I did. I only had five hours sleep last night (I was up after midnight helping Kory get out his report on The Sinking Houses), so I needed the extra “wake-up” call. I think I’ve moved to a new level of respect in the class now as everyone looked at me in awe as I took the second bite.

The photo today is of the harbor I walk up and down on my way to school every day. Every day there are fishermen that tie their boats up to the dock and sell fresh seafood right on the spot, caught that morning. Twice a week a guy is there with cooked shrimp; today it was a guy selling whole torsk (a type of cod). I could smell the boat from blocks away. I watched him fillet those fish in no time flat while the lineup of old men waiting to get the goods continued to grow. He had sold out and was gone by lunchtime. It’s all part of the charm of being in a sea town. I love it.

Kory was raking up grass tonight and found a huge hunk of mica in the yard. It’s a very cool type of mineral or rock or something that peels off in layers. It used to be used for the “glass” on old lanterns, as it won’t burn, and when the layers get peeled apart, you can see through them. Certain parts of Norway have mica everywhere. I guess this is one of them. I only remember one mica mine in New Hampshire in all our travels around the US and I was fascinated by it. I never get tired of all the things God has put in nature for us to enjoy.