The weather finally broke today and we saw patches of blue in the sky. I guess the “storm” we had over the weekend was actually classified as a hurricane Saturday night. The winds were over 100mph. The news doesn’t make a big deal out of it, because not much gets destroyed. Norwegians build things to last, but Kory said on one job site the scaffolding along the side of a house blew several hundred feet down the street and damaged a car along the way. The storm made for good conversation today in class since we have learned all the words in which to carry on a conversation about all kinds of weather… and now I see why it’s so important. Talking about the weather is the number one thing to talk about here in Norway. I guess how a person “feels” about something isn’t as important – unless it’s how they feel about the weather – or global warming. (Norway is seeing some huge changes in their weather patterns because of it.) So much for deep friendships.
Kory worked out on Giske today and Kaleb went to school. Both reported uneventful days, which I take as good news. Kaleb made soup for dinner and Sabina came over just in time to eat with us. Afterwards she helped Kaleb with his homework. The day was fairly normal in all respects.
I ran into Valentina at the bus stop today. She’s the little old Russian lady that WAS in our class. She got flunked back to start a few weeks ago because she just wasn’t “getting it.” No kidding. She speaks no English and very little Norsk. Our conversation in Norwegian went something like this:
M: Hey Valentina! We miss you in class!
V: I go on bus.
M: Are you in a new Norwegian class?
V: I live at Moa.
M: Are you taking the bus to Moa?
V: Chapter 4 in book.
M: Do you like your new class?
V: Inga teach English Friday.
M: It’s not the same in the class without you. Everyone misses you.
V: My husband, he likes boots. I shop at Moa. Shop, shop, shop.
In other words, she didn’t understand a WORD I said. At least I think I got the basic meaning of what she was saying but it was quite the challenge to carry on a conversation with her. I guess Norway can teach them, but can’t make them understand. I know she’s trying… but I’m wondering how she made it to the level of Commanding Officer in the Russian Army as it seems all the lights are on, but no one is home. We have a few more like that in our class even now so I’m wondering how long they will last. I know my brain is getting tired of all the grammar rules but I know I have to press on. I’m sure I sounded just like Valentina when I came here…as I could speak some things, but couldn’t understand much of anything. I am getting better though. I can read the newspaper everyday and understand the basics, which is encouraging for me to see I am making progress.
Reading the newspaper in Norway is right up there with talking about the weather. I read a travel book of Norway while on the ferry a few weeks ago– it was translated to English and it highlighted every town along the coast. Each city’s description started off like this: Aalesund, population: 40,000; newspaper subscriptions: 38,000. Several cities had nearly as many newspaper subscribers as they have residents. I thought about that for a while and wondered how that can be since children wouldn’t be subscribers... but then I figured it out. In just this area alone there are no less than four major newspapers, two local ones and two national ones. Everyone I know reads two or three of them a day. It’s like the national pass-time – reading the news. And the newspapers here aren’t anything at ALL like American ones where the motto is “if it bleeds, it leads.” In fact, Norwegian newspapers are mostly human interest stories and the bad news is buried somewhere in the middle and not at all highlighted. There are very few ads in these papers (the bulk of the pages have no ads whatsoever) and they are all in full color – every page. Of course, each paper costs about $4 a day, but people buy them by the handful and devour them. They have tons of human interest stories and they report on even the slightest of details. A few weeks ago the huge headlines and front page story was on a neighborhood where people weren’t picking up the dog poop. The (translated) headline read “Crap tired of dog sh—“ (only they spelled out the word.) The whole article was how tired this guy was walking around his block seeing all the piles of poop or tossed aside “doggie” bags. And they don’t have nearly the censorship in papers here as they do in America. They don’t censor a word, and swear words are often in the headlines. They also have at least one naked picture a day in the paper as nudity over here is nothing. It’s just the human body and they don’t have any modesty when it comes to that. But the papers are pretty interesting as they highlight a lot of different people and what they are doing in their jobs or with their spare time. I’m sure everyone that lives in Norway has been written up in the paper more than once in their lifetime. I guess it’s the way Norwegians feel connected to one another, without having to talk to each other and dare risk sharing their feelings.
Kory worked out on Giske today and Kaleb went to school. Both reported uneventful days, which I take as good news. Kaleb made soup for dinner and Sabina came over just in time to eat with us. Afterwards she helped Kaleb with his homework. The day was fairly normal in all respects.
I ran into Valentina at the bus stop today. She’s the little old Russian lady that WAS in our class. She got flunked back to start a few weeks ago because she just wasn’t “getting it.” No kidding. She speaks no English and very little Norsk. Our conversation in Norwegian went something like this:
M: Hey Valentina! We miss you in class!
V: I go on bus.
M: Are you in a new Norwegian class?
V: I live at Moa.
M: Are you taking the bus to Moa?
V: Chapter 4 in book.
M: Do you like your new class?
V: Inga teach English Friday.
M: It’s not the same in the class without you. Everyone misses you.
V: My husband, he likes boots. I shop at Moa. Shop, shop, shop.
In other words, she didn’t understand a WORD I said. At least I think I got the basic meaning of what she was saying but it was quite the challenge to carry on a conversation with her. I guess Norway can teach them, but can’t make them understand. I know she’s trying… but I’m wondering how she made it to the level of Commanding Officer in the Russian Army as it seems all the lights are on, but no one is home. We have a few more like that in our class even now so I’m wondering how long they will last. I know my brain is getting tired of all the grammar rules but I know I have to press on. I’m sure I sounded just like Valentina when I came here…as I could speak some things, but couldn’t understand much of anything. I am getting better though. I can read the newspaper everyday and understand the basics, which is encouraging for me to see I am making progress.
Reading the newspaper in Norway is right up there with talking about the weather. I read a travel book of Norway while on the ferry a few weeks ago– it was translated to English and it highlighted every town along the coast. Each city’s description started off like this: Aalesund, population: 40,000; newspaper subscriptions: 38,000. Several cities had nearly as many newspaper subscribers as they have residents. I thought about that for a while and wondered how that can be since children wouldn’t be subscribers... but then I figured it out. In just this area alone there are no less than four major newspapers, two local ones and two national ones. Everyone I know reads two or three of them a day. It’s like the national pass-time – reading the news. And the newspapers here aren’t anything at ALL like American ones where the motto is “if it bleeds, it leads.” In fact, Norwegian newspapers are mostly human interest stories and the bad news is buried somewhere in the middle and not at all highlighted. There are very few ads in these papers (the bulk of the pages have no ads whatsoever) and they are all in full color – every page. Of course, each paper costs about $4 a day, but people buy them by the handful and devour them. They have tons of human interest stories and they report on even the slightest of details. A few weeks ago the huge headlines and front page story was on a neighborhood where people weren’t picking up the dog poop. The (translated) headline read “Crap tired of dog sh—“ (only they spelled out the word.) The whole article was how tired this guy was walking around his block seeing all the piles of poop or tossed aside “doggie” bags. And they don’t have nearly the censorship in papers here as they do in America. They don’t censor a word, and swear words are often in the headlines. They also have at least one naked picture a day in the paper as nudity over here is nothing. It’s just the human body and they don’t have any modesty when it comes to that. But the papers are pretty interesting as they highlight a lot of different people and what they are doing in their jobs or with their spare time. I’m sure everyone that lives in Norway has been written up in the paper more than once in their lifetime. I guess it’s the way Norwegians feel connected to one another, without having to talk to each other and dare risk sharing their feelings.
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