We got an internet connection in our house today! Woo hoo!! This is an exciting moment. I may not sleep tonight as there is so much catching up to do. We got a land line phone too, so now we can call America much cheaper than using our cell phones. Double woo hoo. (Anyone can now call us at home at: 011 47 701 4 5255.) Today’s photo was taken a few weeks ago on the island of Vigra and it just feels symbolic, for some reason. It isn’t exactly the information super highway, but it’s a road that will get you there, nonetheless.
In all my excitement to get home by 2:00 today when the installer was coming, I got on the wrong bus! I had stopped off at the shopping mall at Moa to buy some things. One of the stores was having a killer sale on many non-perishable items so I couldn’t resist buying Kleenex for 10 kroner a box ($2) when I have been paying $5 a box for it, stuff like that. I was quite loaded down with my huge canvas bags full of heavy items and barely able to walk (I spent $200 in total and most everything I bought only cost $2 if that paints a picture here). I only had to make it out the door of the supermarket to the bus stop across the sidewalk, which I did, rather laboriously, and then off the bus and down my driveway and I was home free. I was so excited to catch the 2:00 bus for my seven minute ride home that the second I saw Bus 618 pull up, I headed straight for it. The only problem was, when the bus pulled out of the station, it turned the wrong way! It headed back into town, and I wanted to head out of town to Myrland, where we live. I was in such a rush I hadn’t noted the final destination of the bus – so here I was, with more groceries than any native Norwegian would ever get on a bus, taking up the entire aisle and a seat and a half, going the wrong way. I pressed the stop button and rather clumsily got off at the next stop and just stood there like an idiot. The worst thing was I was so worried I’d miss my internet guy, who was coming just after 2:00, as scheduled. Fortunately, Kory was working on a jobsite today that is about five minutes drive from our home, and fortunately I had my cell phone, and fortunately he heard his phone ring. I called him up and told him the error of my ways and he quickly ran home and let the guy in – probably scared to death to have to live with me one more day if I didn’t get internet access in the house. So then I waddled across the street with all my bags and waited 30 minutes for the next bus to come by that was headed in the right direction. “Stakkars, Mickey,” is all I can say. (“Stakkars” is an expression that means “poor thing” – it’s like “Uff da”.) And that bus I took was crowded with high school kids coming home for the day so I had to stand in the aisle and move my stuff every time a kid got off. I’m sure they knew I was an American, because no self respecting Norwegian would buy that much stuff in one fell swoop. Norwegians are used to going to the store everyday and just taking care of their most immediate needs, but I like to stock up and have a bit of inventory. Today that didn’t seem like such a wise idea, so there is lesson number two in “benefits of thinking like a Norwegian.”
My mood quickly changed however when I got home and there sat a young man at my kitchen table configuring my laptop. I was downright giddy and I nearly kissed him. (Kory thought he deserved the kiss for letting the guy in.) But enough about my elation… because the rest, they say, is history. I’m finally connected! Kaleb had a fine day of school – gym day – one of his favorites as they have a rock climbing wall in the gym. He had no encounters of the worst kind so that was a plus, but then he had soccer practice tonight, and he got initiated into the ultimate childhood humiliation – a kid pulled down his shorts while he was in the middle of the soccer field. And then another did the same… so he was crying and pretty upset when he got home. Stakkars Kaleb. Who would have thought he’d get so many opportunities to forgive? I let him use the internet once his homework was done to help ease the pain. (I now have my favorite discipline tool back. If he gives me grief, he can’t get on-line.)
My school was good today, but I can tell we are turning a corner and it’s going to get even harder. I got my homework back and again my teacher said I’m trying to write things that are too advanced for my level, but she appreciates that I’m stretching myself and that’s probably how I’ll learn the language. But Vestina sat next to me beaming that she had no red marks on her paper and she got a bigger smiley face than me. That girl makes me laugh. I had completely forgotten about doing the assignment over the weekend so I just wrote a few pages while on the bus into town yesterday morning. Considering I didn’t have any help and no one to proof read it for me (like Vestina did!), I thought I did OK. But the sentence structure is still a killer for me, and now we are starting to learn different rules about sentences that have more than one verb in them. Lord help me.
Kaleb and I have off school the week of October 6th for Fall vacation so I bought tickets last week to go on the Hurtigruten (the Coastal Ferry) leaving October 1st. We’re going to ride the ferry for two days north to the Lofoten Islands (which are supposed to be spectacular), and then drive our van back down over the next seven days. I want to stop off and see the farm where Halton Molvik came from as I wrote a book about him growing up there. The ferry was full every day except October 1, so both Kaleb and I will have to skip school for a few days. My Norsk teacher told me I could miss the two days if I write a report about our adventure and read it to the class – in Norwegian of course. Stakkars, Mickey.
In all my excitement to get home by 2:00 today when the installer was coming, I got on the wrong bus! I had stopped off at the shopping mall at Moa to buy some things. One of the stores was having a killer sale on many non-perishable items so I couldn’t resist buying Kleenex for 10 kroner a box ($2) when I have been paying $5 a box for it, stuff like that. I was quite loaded down with my huge canvas bags full of heavy items and barely able to walk (I spent $200 in total and most everything I bought only cost $2 if that paints a picture here). I only had to make it out the door of the supermarket to the bus stop across the sidewalk, which I did, rather laboriously, and then off the bus and down my driveway and I was home free. I was so excited to catch the 2:00 bus for my seven minute ride home that the second I saw Bus 618 pull up, I headed straight for it. The only problem was, when the bus pulled out of the station, it turned the wrong way! It headed back into town, and I wanted to head out of town to Myrland, where we live. I was in such a rush I hadn’t noted the final destination of the bus – so here I was, with more groceries than any native Norwegian would ever get on a bus, taking up the entire aisle and a seat and a half, going the wrong way. I pressed the stop button and rather clumsily got off at the next stop and just stood there like an idiot. The worst thing was I was so worried I’d miss my internet guy, who was coming just after 2:00, as scheduled. Fortunately, Kory was working on a jobsite today that is about five minutes drive from our home, and fortunately I had my cell phone, and fortunately he heard his phone ring. I called him up and told him the error of my ways and he quickly ran home and let the guy in – probably scared to death to have to live with me one more day if I didn’t get internet access in the house. So then I waddled across the street with all my bags and waited 30 minutes for the next bus to come by that was headed in the right direction. “Stakkars, Mickey,” is all I can say. (“Stakkars” is an expression that means “poor thing” – it’s like “Uff da”.) And that bus I took was crowded with high school kids coming home for the day so I had to stand in the aisle and move my stuff every time a kid got off. I’m sure they knew I was an American, because no self respecting Norwegian would buy that much stuff in one fell swoop. Norwegians are used to going to the store everyday and just taking care of their most immediate needs, but I like to stock up and have a bit of inventory. Today that didn’t seem like such a wise idea, so there is lesson number two in “benefits of thinking like a Norwegian.”
My mood quickly changed however when I got home and there sat a young man at my kitchen table configuring my laptop. I was downright giddy and I nearly kissed him. (Kory thought he deserved the kiss for letting the guy in.) But enough about my elation… because the rest, they say, is history. I’m finally connected! Kaleb had a fine day of school – gym day – one of his favorites as they have a rock climbing wall in the gym. He had no encounters of the worst kind so that was a plus, but then he had soccer practice tonight, and he got initiated into the ultimate childhood humiliation – a kid pulled down his shorts while he was in the middle of the soccer field. And then another did the same… so he was crying and pretty upset when he got home. Stakkars Kaleb. Who would have thought he’d get so many opportunities to forgive? I let him use the internet once his homework was done to help ease the pain. (I now have my favorite discipline tool back. If he gives me grief, he can’t get on-line.)
My school was good today, but I can tell we are turning a corner and it’s going to get even harder. I got my homework back and again my teacher said I’m trying to write things that are too advanced for my level, but she appreciates that I’m stretching myself and that’s probably how I’ll learn the language. But Vestina sat next to me beaming that she had no red marks on her paper and she got a bigger smiley face than me. That girl makes me laugh. I had completely forgotten about doing the assignment over the weekend so I just wrote a few pages while on the bus into town yesterday morning. Considering I didn’t have any help and no one to proof read it for me (like Vestina did!), I thought I did OK. But the sentence structure is still a killer for me, and now we are starting to learn different rules about sentences that have more than one verb in them. Lord help me.
Kaleb and I have off school the week of October 6th for Fall vacation so I bought tickets last week to go on the Hurtigruten (the Coastal Ferry) leaving October 1st. We’re going to ride the ferry for two days north to the Lofoten Islands (which are supposed to be spectacular), and then drive our van back down over the next seven days. I want to stop off and see the farm where Halton Molvik came from as I wrote a book about him growing up there. The ferry was full every day except October 1, so both Kaleb and I will have to skip school for a few days. My Norsk teacher told me I could miss the two days if I write a report about our adventure and read it to the class – in Norwegian of course. Stakkars, Mickey.
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