The First Day of Advent

We all slept in this morning and barely made it to the eleven o’clock service. The pastor’s wife gave the sermon and she was fired up and let it fly. During the coffee hour afterwards, two women from our connect group asked me to pray for them. One of them had an old whiplash injury that I’m sure God healed on the spot. The other had an old childhood emotional wound that needed God’s intervention, but that one may take a bit more prayer. I was just honored they asked me to pray and I trust God to be faithful in answering. I think people sense that “our God” is a bit different than theirs and they want some of that. Hallelujah!

Tobias came over this afternoon to play with Kaleb. Kaleb showed him his dog newspaper yesterday and not only did Tobias like it, but he was inspired to make his own. He went home last night and created a newspaper for parrot lovers and he sent us a copy. Kaleb gave him a few pointers today and did a little critique of it, but mostly he was encouraging Tobias. He laughed all afternoon at the joke in his paper. Kaleb kept repeating the punch line over and over as he thought it was pretty funny. It’s so nice for Kaleb to have Tobias as a friend. Even though Tobias is a few years older, he’s such a mild mannered kid, soft spoken, and has a good heart. I think his little twin brothers must drive him nuts so he’s looking for a place with some peace and quiet, as he’s been over here a lot. We love that. I guess last night while we were gone, Sabina came over and all three of them were outside playing hide and seek in the dark. They all get along pretty well, and for that, I’m thankful! Kaleb’s world is expanding – Hallelujah!

Today is the first day of Advent. There is a real excitement around here when Advent starts. I spent practically my whole life without even knowing what “Advent” meant, so it’s a bit new for me. Good thing we’ve been going to Bethany Covenant Church for the last few years as they came out of the Lutheran tradition and Lutheran’s are all about Advent. Oh, Lutheran’s came out of the state church of Norway and Sweden, so now it all makes sense. Advent is huge. Everyone keeps asking Kaleb if he has an Advent calendar. In fact, they had him make one in school, so he’s been anxious to hang it up and tonight was the night. (See photo – it’s made of wood with little cup hooks at the bottom to hold a gift or candy or note.) Advent begins the countdown to Christmas, and the candles that get lit on the four Sundays before Christmas “light the way” in anticipation of the birth of Jesus. It’s all very symbolic and special and I’m glad we get to go through the motions here where the whole country celebrates it the same – even if they aren’t all professing Christians. It’s become more of a tradition than a religious thing, but it’s still nice everyone acknowledges it. There’s not a house we’ve passed that doesn’t have some kind of light in their window – either the lighted star, or an electric set of candles that sit on a base in the shape of an upside down v. Many houses have those candles lit in every window and they all got turned on today. It’s so funny how much conformity there is here – no one would dare turn on their lights BEFORE the first Sunday in Advent because “you just don’t do that.” (That’s a phrase I often hear about many things.) There’s a lot of pride in doing things properly, and I’m sure no one “over does it” with Christmas lights like some American’s do, or it would be just downright embarrassing. (And I’ve only seen white lights so far – no colored ones yet.)

So, the countdown to Christmas is on, and the calendar is filling up. The state church sent out a special flyer with all the different religious events going on this month and Kaleb’s school sent home a special notice for all the Christmas related activities going on there. Tonight was the kick-off event as they had the lighting of the school’s Christmas tree at five o’clock. The school band played a few Christmas songs, the school drill team performed a little march to one of the tunes, and after a quick speech, the lights clicked on the tree and everyone cheered. They handed out gingersnap cookies, tangerines and hot Glogg (a very tasty Scandinavian Christmas drink with lots of spices and maybe apple juice as a base but I couldn’t tell). And all of this happened outside on the school playground in below freezing temperatures. I’m so impressed by the hardiness of the bunch, and I’m sure had it been raining or snowing, the show would have still gone on. Kaleb said they won’t allow the kids to stay in during recess, no matter what the weather, they must go outside. And I see kids in preschool with all their raingear on, going down the slides and swinging on the swings in pouring down rain. It rains so much here that they must acclimate kids early to the elements as no one wants to live their life indoors. It’s funny that they have God in a box, but THEY sure don’t want to be.

Customs

T minus six days, as the countdown is on to the big Harry Potter birthday party we are having for Kaleb here next Saturday. Today we started setting up for it. In the Harry Potter books, all the students go to Hogwarts School and they are sorted into four different “houses” and they compete in games during the year to win points for their house. The party is going to be kind of like that, and we even have four real houses to use since our neighboring houses are all empty and Kory has the keys! So we set up one house today to be the grand ballroom where the 16 kids will be eating lunch, another house will be the game room, another will be a craft and activity house and yet another will be Diagon Alley where the kids can go shopping for their prizes based on the points they win in the games. Our house will be used for sorting the kids when they first get here and for opening the gifts toward the end. We have things pretty well worked out now but there are still a few details to do this coming week. It’s a birthday “American Style” so it should be interesting to see how these Norwegian kids handle it. I guess most birthday parties here are fairly routine and follow in the same traditions and customs, so here we go again, shaking things up a bit. Kaleb has been looking forward to this party for over a year as he thought his 9th birthday party would be in Norway last year, but the wait is worth it, since we have the ideal setting now for it take place. I’m so thankful we live where we do as there is NO WAY we could get 16 kids in our house and do anything but stand them shoulder to shoulder. Once again, God provides for all our needs.

I asked the pastor from Agape Church (who is from England) what he thought of the whole Harry Potter thing, as I know many Christians in America get pretty uptight about it and I didn’t want to have a themed party like that here if anyone would take offense or if it was going to upset any Christians that get invited. He said there are no negative connotations to the book here in Norway as it’s just fiction, no different from “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.” He said he heard an interview once with J.K. Rowling (who is a Christian) talking about how she intentionally worked in the basic gospel message and a lot of scripture into the books and how the story is all about the battle that rages between good and evil (God and Satan). So he said it was no problem to throw such a party (thank goodness). He also mentioned that a friend of his grew up in a house where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were often dinner guests, as his friend’s father was close friends with the two of them. What a life that must have been.

So today Kory ran around getting tables and chairs from cousins, and Kaleb and I got the boxes of supplies out of the attic and moved things to the different houses where they belong. Nothing too thrilling about the day, but tonight we were invited to a dinner party over at cousin Odd’s ex-wife’s house, so that was nice. Kory met her years ago when he came to Norway when he was in his 20s before she was married to Odd. We run in to her every now and then so she invited us over to meet some of her friends. (Kaleb stayed home with Tobias and they watched movies together.) I don’t know her at all, but I was thankful I didn’t have to cook dinner tonight, so it was a real treat to go out. Plus I like seeing people’s houses and to observe what the customs are for different occasions. I guess one custom is that when you go to someone’s house for dinner, you get very dressed up. We were completely under dressed tonight as everyone else was looking mighty fine. Oh well! Our sloppy American lifestyle came shining through. And the other things that’s a bit different is that when someone enters a room for the first time, everyone stands up to greet them. If you already know them, you just shake hands and say “Takk for sist” which literally means “thanks for the last” but the full meaning of it is “thanks for the last time I saw you… I remember it so well and have such good memories of it.” And if you don’t know the person, you shake hands and say your name and a standard greeting – i.e. “Mickey, så hyggleig,” (which literally means “so comfortably nice” – “to meet you” is implied and not always said.) Then that scenario gets repeated with every person they don’t know, so that the person who just walked in repeats saying their name to everyone there. I think it’s a bit strange on one hand because wouldn’t it just be assumed their name was heard the first time by all standing there? But on the other hand, it’s easier to remember their name if you hear it over and over again, so there is some logic in that custom.

There’s really nothing like having dinner and dessert in a Norwegian’s home. There is a lot of emphasis on the beautiful table setting and everyone has nice china, silverware, linens, and centerpieces. The coffee table is also “set” for dessert as everyone moves into the living room and pulls up chairs around the coffee table for coffee and dessert, with fancy china dishes and spoons and candles burning. It’s the kind of ambiance that I’m not sure was ever part of American culture, at least not the crowd I’ve hung with, but then, I was raised in a trailer court so it’s hard to compare anything to that! My ex-husband used to say, “You can take the girl out of the trailer court, but you can’t take the trailer court out of the girl.” Maybe that’s why we were under dressed tonight? I guess I’m still comfortable being white trash.

Just Another Day in Norway

It feels so weird today – to not have the day off school. I count on this four day weekend to get a lot done for Christmas – so I’m a bit off my mark. I need my routines and traditions more than I realized. I must have some kind of internal annual clock that keeps me moving along, but now, I feel like I’m floundering. It probably doesn’t help I was up til 1:15 this morning and then up again at six to go to school, so my brain is really slow. At school today I could barely understand anything being taught. I just wanted to sleep. But there was one woman in the class that just broke down in tears because the concept we were working on was just too hard. I think it was best I was a bit dull in the brain or I might have cried too – but I didn’t have the good sense to even understand I was overwhelmed with the concept. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Norwegians may not have Thanksgiving, but they are still proud of their Christian heritage so Christmas is really a big deal and they go all out for it (but we are lacking in the “after Thanksgiving day sales” here.) I love all the Christmas decorations in the stores – they are so elegant (as are most Norwegian home decorations). The reigning colors of Christmas here are red and white – and everything has hearts on it. It’s like we’re approaching Valentine’s day or something, but hearts represent the love of Christ so they do hearts like you can’t believe. There are no snowmen, and I’ve yet to see a manger. I’ve seen a few angels and the Norwegian version of Santa and his wife are everywhere (Jule Nisse is his name). Some of the stores also have decorations in Purple and silver or black and silver, but you won’t find a single red and green anything here, so that’s different. And linens (table cloths, doilies, towels, etc.) are huge here any time of year, but at Christmas they go all out with stuff like that and have lots of Christmas linens in the house. They even change their kitchen curtains to a Christmas fabric that usually matches their tablecloth or placemats. Some people even have bedspreads just for Christmas.

Tradition here in Norway is that the first Sunday of Advent (this one coming up), the lights go up – whether they are on the houses or electric candles in the windows. They also have these cool paper stars with holes in them and a tiny light bulb inside so the light shines through and they hang those in the windows as well, so this weekend houses will literally start to shine around here. No one puts their tree up before Christmas Eve however, but I’m just sure I can’t wait that long so we might look a little odd with the tree up half way through December. Normally we go up to Mt. Baker on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and cut it down and get it up soon after that, but with Kaleb’s birthday coming next week, and 16 boys in our little house, I’m sure a tree wouldn’t survive – nor would any decorations. So, I’m holding off decorating for Christmas until after the 7th this year. At least all my presents are bought and wrapped and I don’t have to do that (I bought everything in America and brought it with us.)

I helped Kaleb today to finish up his latest edition of The Weakly Puppy (his monthly dog newspaper). He has such little time now with all the homework he must do, so he dictated to me a funny story he made up about Santa letting his dog deliver the presents on Christmas Eve. He hasn’t even had much time to spend with dogs this month so he was in a panic about what to write about – until the possibility of fiction entered his mind. It soon will be two years ago that he started that paper. Every time he publishes one I wonder if it will be the last one, but he just keeps on going. That stubborn Norwegian blood can be a good thing.

We all pretty much had uneventful days today (it snowed a little though and Kory drew more pictures – see photo). The highlight of mine and Kory’s day was a long afternoon nap while Kaleb was over at Tobias’ house playing hide and seek with him and his 4 year old twin brothers. Somehow, the afternoon just whizzed by so we had a late dinner and then watched “A Christmas Story” with Tobias as he came over this evening. I was able to download that movie from a website a cousin told me about, so I hooked my laptop up to our TV via a cable I bought that streams video, and wa-la – we had a high tech movie night. The only problem was, it was in black and white and I’m not clever enough to figure out why that happened, I was just glad to get the movie to show up on the big screen. Simple pleasures are the best.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hallelujah! We have so much to be thankful for! It was fun to shake things up a bit this year by having our traditional turkey day feast here in Norway. I made turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, beets, asparagus, cauliflower, cornbread, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple cake, (plus some appetizers). Everything was yummy. I must say, except for the turkey and pumpkin pie, it didn’t feel much like Thanksgiving at all though– for a variety of reasons – but we still can thank God for all our blessings.

The biggest “difference” in this day is that both Kaleb and I had to go to school and tomorrow is not a day off either. But on the upside, all the stores were open for those last minute things we needed. We did miss our hand-picked “family” back home as they make this holiday our favorite one all year (normally it lasts for more than just the meal… as some sleep over and the fun and games last well into the night.) But on the upside, all the guests at our table this year were actually related to us, so that was a new twist. We made them all say two things they were thankful for. It took some of them a while to come up with something, as giving thanks isn’t really a Norwegian thing (but cousin Odd did say he was thankful we are here!). It was also fun to watch their expressions as they tasted foods they’ve never even heard of, like stuffing and yams with marshmallows. The pumpkin pie didn’t go over too well, but we were glad for that - all the more for us. (I was worried we wouldn’t have enough.) The pecan pie was a hit. Good thing I made them both.

Last night I used a knife to test the pumpkin pie to see if it was done. I let Kaleb lick it afterwards and he said, with a dreamy lilt in his voice, “Ahhhh, it tastes like home.” And I guess that is what was missing this day for me. Thanksgiving is more about traditions than it is about the menu, so it just wasn’t the same. Kory really liked it though as he felt like it's more about the food than anything else. (Why am I not surprised by that.)

It was a great day, nonetheless, even if I did have to go to school and hurry home to get the turkey in the oven. Kory helped a lot with preparations, so that limited my stress but I was still concerned that everything would turn out OK and on time. And at the last minute some sickness affected plans for two guests so Kory was on the phone to several other relatives and neighbors trying to fill the would-be empty seats at the table. Sickness was rampant so many couldn’t come, but we did fine – Kaleb’s third cousin just down the street wanted the experience of an American meal, so he gladly came over and ate with us, as did the son of another cousin. I was glad for Kaleb to have a kid in the house, otherwise he would have just sat in the corner and read a book all night instead of playing hide and seek and slow motion kung-fu with Tobias. Then after dinner several neighbors and a few cousins came over for coffee and dessert. The party lasted until ten and the last ones to go were the parents of the kids, so Kaleb had a great time running around – outside and in the pouring rain. (He’s turned into such a Norwegian, as they don’t let anything stop them from playing outside.)

As I was putting Kaleb to bed tonight he sounded so confused and befuddled when he said, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do.” I asked what he was talking about and he said, “Stay here, or go back to America. I just love having all the relatives so close to us and being with all the friend’s I’ve made here. I don’t know if I want to go back to America.”

Uh oh.

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We've Been Here Four Months Already!

Today was another anniversary… the months just keep ticking by and we’ll be back home in Mount Vernon in a flash. I try to savor everyday but some of them feel quite routine and ordinary. Today was a bit of an exception though. The Good Teacher Inga has been sick for a week now so we’ve had a few different substitutes. The one we had the last few days is from Serbia and she came to Norway only two years ago and is already teaching the language! She admits she’s “gifted” in languages as she speaks nine of them fluently and understands about a dozen more, but can’t speak them. Holy cow. She was good too – as we could understand her perfectly and she was very good at sympathizing with the insanity built into learning Norwegian. It was also easy to see some of her feelings about the insanity of some of the Norwegian laws. The chapter we are on in our textbook now deals with “normal” Norwegian lifestyles and families so there was much discussion about what is “normal” and what is not. In Norway, you will lose your kids to foster care if you are ever seen slapping them (even their hands) or spanking them. It’s absolutely forbidden to hit your child in any manner. The government here feels that a good talking to is all that is required to keep them in line because “violence begats violence.” I see how well that’s working in Kaleb’s school. Good grief. (But I think they made that law because of all the immigrants coming into Norway, as some of their cultural norms are to beat their children, so the pendulum had to swing wide to the other side.) And there is considerable emphasis placed on what constitutes a “family” and how it’s just not the norm to get married anymore – but living together and having a couple kids – that’s perfectly normal. It seems the only ones getting married these days are the homosexuals, as last year the government made it a law that gays are now allowed church weddings. It made for some interesting discussion.

A plumber came out to our house today to “fix” the sewer pipes under our house and one other. Because the pipes are attached to the building, when the ground sinks down, the pipes go with it so they will soon separate at the joints if longer flexible pipes aren’t installed. It was downright comical when the plumber came here. He started swearing (taking the Lord’s name in vain) and practically yelling (in Norwegian) “How could anyone have built houses like this?” He just kept swearing and saying that over and over like he couldn’t even believe he was witness to such an awful thing. (Kory kept telling the guy, "We don't swear here - we say, "HALLELUJAH!") Kory finally got him calmed down so he could do the work. There is so much emotion around these houses it’s incomprehensible to both Kory and I. I guess it’s that high standard of living, and quality of building things that gets people so upset. One guy I know told me that Norway builds the best of everything as it’s the only way they can stay competitive in the world market because it’s so costly to produce anything here. So I guess if you are used to top quality everything, to see something actually break must be an insult to the entire nation.

The boy that I’ve been praying for every day has been calling me no less than a dozen times per day now. What I think is happening is that he’s actually gotten so much better that he’s not even comfortable with his own thoughts – he thinks everything is a spiritual attack. Kory and I had to laugh today as he called up for prayer because of these “attacks.” I gave the phone to Kory and he just drilled him over and over – What is the problem? What are the thoughts you’re having? What can I do to help you? And the boy just kept answering “I don’t know” to everything. Finally, Kory got a bit perturbed with him and said, “You MUST tell me what you are dealing with, otherwise I can’t help you.” Finally the boy said that he was being, ”tempted to eat food that wasn’t healthy.” So he’s come a long way if that’s all that’s bothering him now. We are both shouting Hallelujah, but that kid still needs prayer. I think he’s been so tormented for so long he doesn’t know what “normal” feels like. Poor thing. Kory told him before he calls us the next time, he must read the book of Romans, as there are a lot of answers to things that bother him in there.

I’ve been busy today baking pies and preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow! We’re inviting over a few cousins and aunts for the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but what a challenge to find the ingredients! The biggest turkey I could find was only 9.5 pounds… and if it weren’t for the Schaubs visit in September I wouldn’t be able to make Pumpkin Pie (she brought pumpkin and vanilla and brown sugar), and thanks to cousin Bjørn's trip to Kansas, I have pecans for Pecan Pie. They might not taste just right though as some spices needed to make those pies aren’t anywhere to be found. I had to buy a bunch of spices with names I’d never heard of and open them up like Christmas presents to see what was inside. But, unfortunately, everything I needed wasn’t available. Oh well. No one will know, but me. The one big bummer is that I can’t make cornbread because I can’t find cornmeal anywhere. I thought I hit the jackpot until I got it home and opened the box and saw it was cornstarch instead. So much for my Norwegian reading skills.

The Snow is Melting...

I had a major “click” in class today. We were learning about different pronouns as the Norwegian language has different words to say “hers” or “his” in a sentence, depending on whether the “hers” or “his” is the object or subject. And when dealing with people that don’t always know exactly what the object or subject is in a sentence, these kinds of lessons can be quite painful. It’s not just knowing when you say “hennes” or “si” for “hers,” (“hennes” being the word used if one is referring to the object, and “si” is if it’s the subject) but it’s also necessary to know the gender of the noun you are referring to that belongs to “her”. “Her purse,” for example is “veske si,” “her house” is “huset sit,” “her car” is “bilen sin.” Notice that the ending of the pronoun “si” changes, depending on the gender of the word – whether it’s masculine, feminine or neutral. The click was, I finally GOT IT! Man, that felt good. I’ve been struggling with the use of pronouns because they have a lot more of them than we do in English and I could never figure out when to use what. But the light bulb came on today so Hallelujah! And it also came on for me with Kory. Often, when Kory is retelling me a story of some kind, and there are two or more people involved in the story, he completely loses me and I have no idea who did what, as he uses pronouns all the time and never refers back to the name of person #1 or person #2. Now I know why! Norwegians solved that problem by inventing other words that keep the pronouns straight so it’s easy to track who the “he” or “she” is in the conversation. Since we don’t have that in English, when Kory talks to me he just converts everything in his mind to the simple “he” or “she” and it’s perfectly clear to him, but to me, it couldn’t be more confusing. I’m always having to ask him “who are you talking about?” And often, when I’m writing about Kory and Kaleb, I have to mention their proper names in the sentence so it’s clear which “he” I’m referring to, but in Norwegian, I wouldn’t have to do that because of the extra set of pronouns used for just such occasions. At least THIS complicated rule makes some sense! I feel so much better. One major milestone down; a thousand to go.

Kaleb had a fine day today too. His teacher gave him an 8th grade math book as the 4th grade one was just too darn easy. In looking over the 8th grade one, it’s still too easy, but at least it will cause him to think more than the other one. He thinks school is laughable, and I do agree with him to some extent. Their attitude here is to make learning fun so they do a lot of creative things with the kids. It makes me wonder though when the real learning kicks in. I know their educational system is superior to the U.S., so they must make up for it in later years as the 4th grade is mostly just fun and games and very low expectations. I’m not complaining, as it’s the perfect environment for him to learn the language and develop more social skills, but it would concern me if he were going to be here the rest of his school life as it’s really “not allowed” to excel (I was surprised he got a higher level math book). They are very concerned that all the kids feel the same and do the same and have the same opportunities. We’ve heard from more than one person that not that many years ago the schools wouldn’t allow anyone to write left handed because then they would be different and not feel “the same” as everyone else – so they made them sit all day with their left hand tied behind their backs and the students were forced to learn to write with their right hand. That is socialism at its best. They don’t do drastic things like that now but I’m sure some of their policies, they will look back on in twenty years and wonder what they were thinking.

The attorney that is handling these sinking houses came out for a visit today. He told us they are unable to find any buyers for the houses so the insurance company is considering renting them out. We’ll know in a few weeks if we will get neighbors. He said we can hand pick them, so that would be good, but it sure will change our experience of living here. It’s so quiet now as we must sit on at least an acre of land and no one else is around. Kory will also have more work to do if the houses all get occupied, but the upside might be that kids could move in that Kaleb could play with – who knows. I’m just thankful that we can live here. I was worried he was coming out to tell us they sold the houses and we would have to move by Christmas… but I trusted God whatever happened would be for the best. He never lets me down.

Kory decided to take the whole week off because of his birthday and Thanksgiving, so he spent the day drawing. He finished up this very detailed (and large) drawing of the waterfront in downtown Aalesund. I took the photo of him yesterday from about the same spot I took the first photo he used to draw the picture. Cool, huh? He’s still “testing” himself and won’t admit yet that he’s an artist because everything he’s drawn so far is just “practice.” (Double click on his drawing to see the incredible details up close - especially in the reflection.) I think he prides himself on being humble.

Happy 65th Birthday to Kory!

Who would have thunk it – Kory made it to 65!!! We are so thankful that his heart keeps on ticking. He likes to say, “You’re only as old as the woman you hold,” but these days, that’s pretty old! And when you get that old, getting “stuff” for your birthday isn’t as important as getting the right food (see photo). So today was a day for his favorite foods. Fortunately for me, none of them were in my repertoire of culinary skills, so he met me after school in town and we went out for lunch (he took the day off work). There is a café in the center of town that makes all those nasty Norwegian foods that the locals love. They had potato balls (and all the trimmings) on the menu so Kory was in hog heaven. Then for dinner he had “Bacalao” – which isn’t Norsk food at all – it’s from Portugal. The key ingredient in Bacalao is dried klipp fish which is only produced in Norway – so the Norwegians borrowed the recipe and now they are hooked on the stuff. Turid makes the best Bacalao I’ve ever had but it’s possible to buy it in the store and heat it up at home, so that got me off the hook for dinner as well. Actually, for more than just dinner, as it’s a three day process to make Bacalao. First the fish must be purchased and then soaked in water for two days to soften it up and take all the salt out (so the water has to be changed frequently). Prior to the soaking, that piece of fish could be used as a lethal weapon – either as a club (as it’s hard enough to knock someone out cold), or as a stink bomb if left alone in a warm room for too long. (I’m thankful I didn’t have to have it in the house.) Once the fish is “prepared” then there’s something about adding several cups of olive oil, chopped up red peppers, tomato puree, onions and potatoes. It’s just so “complicated” I don’t know that I’ll ever figure out how to make it (tee hee.) It all cooks up in a thick stew and it’s eaten with flatbread. It has a very interesting flavor. I like about the first three bites, then I’m done, but Kory can eat enough for both of us. At least he got what he wanted, for one day a year anyway.

We were going to have a party at our house tonight with all the cousins and aunts over, but Tante Ruth wouldn’t venture out, so we asked Tante Kari if she would let us use her place so Ruth could be there since they live next to each other. Tante Ruth always remembers everyone’s birthday. Every year she calls all her nieces and nephews and their kids on their birthdays to greet them. Usually we are gone for our birthdays but we can count on the fact there will be a birthday message waiting for us on our answering machine when we get home. So it was just too heartbreaking to think she, of all people, would not be with Kory on his birthday – so we took the party to her. It was a good plan as it saved me the trouble of cleaning house and being hostess. It was also good for Tante Kari to have people in her house tonight because it was on this exact day, 14 years ago that her only daughter died.

Kari-Anne (Kari’s daughter) was always complaining about one thing or another but nothing was ever found to be wrong with her. Her brothers just thought she was a drama queen and a hypochondriac and Odd did as much as he could for her whenever she felt really sick (he’s a doctor). Well, one day she called him up complaining again about how poorly she felt and he went over to her house and checked her over and couldn’t find anything that could be causing her misery – and then she just died, right in his arms. They didn’t know until after she was dead that she had been born with some kind of heart problem that went undiagnosed all those years. So naturally, it was quite a shock to the entire family, but devastating to Odd. (He really hasn’t been the same since.) She was only 31 and had three little kids. Tante Kari mourns her loss everyday as she was always nursing her or watching her kids when Kari-Anne didn’t feel well. So it is quite the sad story and it was good for everyone to be together today laughing and having a good time celebrating Kory’s birthday rather than sitting around being sad about Kari-Anne (or so I hope.) Kory had a good time anyway, and that counts for something. (I did buy him a nice Norwegian sweater though, which he likes a lot – see photo.)

It snowed off and on today and never got above freezing. Kaleb skied all the way to school with a heavy backpack on his back and was pretty tired by day’s end. We were so proud of him for wanting to do that as it’s well over a mile to his school and it’s all uphill. He said three other kids skied today but they live very near the school. He thinks tomorrow he might just take the bus.

As for me, I took another section of the big Norsk Prøve 1 test today. I’m sure I passed, but I’m also sure I could have done better. I only slept four hours last night so I was beat. I was up late because I was determined to e-mail the video we made on Saturday. The file was too big and FINALLY I figured out how to compress it and mail it off to our church in Mount Vernon at one o’clock this morning (maybe it had something to do with the house finally being quiet and I could concentrate better on the task?). Our church is having a Thanksgiving Eve service and they wanted us to send a message about what we are thankful for this year so they could play it during the service. We never want to miss a chance to give God the glory for all he has done in our lives. So Hallelujah, the video got there! And Hallelujah Kory is 65 – now he gets ALL the senior citizen discounts!

We Got More Snow!

We have seven inches of snow covering everything around here. And there must be at least an inch plastered to the west sides of all the buildings as well, as that’s where the storm came from. It took Kory several hours this afternoon to free our car from the aftermath of the storm. The snow is so beautiful in every direction and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky today - so that’s the upside. The downside is that the streets are solid ice with crunchy snow on top. It makes for quite the noisy walk and painful landing should one slip and fall (so says Kaleb). We walked to church this morning. Kaleb skied (see photo). I think his skis will become permanently attached to him this winter as he’s just loving his new mode of transportation. He plans to take them to school tomorrow too. Just as well for me, as it saves me two bucks for the bus fare. He skied all around the neighborhood –stopping in to see who was home. This afternoon he was out playing with Sabina and a friend of hers and he used his skis for a sled as he sat down on the back side of them and zoomed down a steep hill several times. He’s just loving this weather. I’m sure it’s in his blood.

We went to Agape Church this morning (I’m so thankful it’s within walking distance to our house.) The sermon was given by a woman that moved here eight months ago from Puerto Rico (she married a Norwegian she met at Bible school in Australia). She gave an excellent talk that I’m sure was just for me. She is feeling the same way I do about many things – the difficulty with learning the language and being able to understand all the dialects and how the language barrier keeps her from being used by God as much as she’d like. God told her to focus on making a difference in just one person’s life (she used to teach children’s Sunday school in Puerto Rico so she’s used to influencing many.) I felt fairly validated by that, and it was so good for me to hear it.

I’ve been meeting with a teenage boy regularly and he calls me at least once a day for prayer. He has a lot of self-esteem issues to work out and he is struggling with “voices in his head” telling him bad things. But little by little, he’s getting stronger spiritually and is able to see God working in his life. He said last week that he was so frustrated with a bunch of kids at school and he asked God why they are so mean to him and God revealed to him the pain each one of them has and how they are just reacting from their own pain. He then asked God what the pain was that was plaguing him so terribly and God told him it was because he has no father (he’s illegitimate and he has no relationship with his father – who lives in Israel). I got to share with him how God promises to be a father to the fatherless and how God has fulfilled that role so well in my life. He just needs constant reassurance that God loves him, that he’s a child of God, that God has forgiven his sins and God only wants the best for him. One minute he can feel all that goodness and the next he is overcome with demonic thoughts that would scare anyone. Kory has agreed to start taking him places and meeting with him regularly to have some man-to-man talks with him (he’s 15). He does need male mentoring as all his mom’s family have pretty much turned away from the two of them because of the voices in his head and what they cause him to do. So, I was encouraged that working with this boy is enough, if that’s God’s plan for me right now. But I’m also convicted that I should be working harder to learn the language as I really don’t do homework every day and if I did, I’d be much better than I am at speaking Norwegian. (It’s just so hard!)

The bulk of my day was spent near tears as I’m so frustrated with my laptop I could scream. As much as I love technology and all that it brings, it sure can bring a level of pain not experienced in any other way. We recorded a video clip and I’ve been unable to e-mail it or condense it or upload it or anything. I tried everything but even when I read the help instructions it tells me to click on options that don’t even show up on my computer. Ugh. I needed to “lufte meg” (“air myself out” – as that’s how they say “go for a walk” here), so Kory and I tromped through the frozen snow over to Odd and Turids for a little visit this afternoon. The beauty of the walk was enough to get my mind off my troubles, but they were still there to greet me when I got back home. No solution is in sight. Double ugh.

After dinner Sabina, her mom and a friend came over for popcorn and cocoa and we played a few rounds of Golf (a card game). I think that’s what I love the most about living here in Aalesund – the close proximity to people and how free everyone’s schedule is to just drop by and visit. Life isn’t too complicated here and everyone lives so close. In a way, it’s like island living, because it’s on a peninsula and the next biggest city is six hours away, so there is not often a reason to leave. And why would anyone want to?

A Big Snow Day

Last night just as we were getting ready to go to bed, I opened the front door to feel the power of the storm (it seemed too detached just watching it all through the window.) The door opens facing east so it was difficult to keep it open as the wind was very strong and blowing from the west. Because it was so tempting, I grabbed a handful of snow, closed the door, and nailed Kaleb with it. He was fresh out of a warm bath and only had on his bathrobe. He thought he’d retaliate so he ran to the back door to grab some snow off the porch there. Only problem was that that door opens to the west (where the storm was coming from) and he had such a strong grip on the door handle, that the wind got a hold of the door and flew it open full force – with Kaleb in tow. It was the most hysterical sight, as one minute he was standing in front of the door, and the next, he was literally, gone with the wind. It blew him out of the house, over the porch and onto the ground next to the steps. He was naked under his bathrobe so he got baptized in a pile of snow and needed rescuing. It was just too funny. Once he warmed up, we had an indoor snowball fight (and then had a big mess to clean up afterwards.) I’m sure he’ll remember that “Norway moment” for years to come.

The blizzard lasted through the night, but joy came in the morning! We woke up to blue skies and the prettiest white blanket lying over all the land. We enjoyed it as much as we could and we didn’t have to go far from our house to do that. Hills are everywhere – perfect for sledding and skiing. Kaleb was a natural on his cross country skis. So much so that he used them for downhill skiing as well. We have a big hill in front of our house and he went up and down it several times. (see video at the end) Sabina had her sled out but Kaleb liked skiing better as he said, “they feel more natural for me.” Boy is he ever a Norwegian. I on the other hand, haven’t skied for twenty years so I wasn’t nearly as graceful. We bought top quality cross country skis and boots and poles for me too – all for about ten bucks at a flea market and it was my first chance to try them out. Kaleb and I had several races back and forth across our lawn. He won every time but I still burned up a few calories in the process. It was a beautiful day, but it didn’t last long as the sun didn’t show up until after nine and it was gone again by three (darkness prevails now).

We had a big outing tonight as cousin Odd’s daughter, Hege, was the Fairy Godmother in the ballet Cinderella. Because the roads were dastardly, we decided to take the bus into the city. We went in a little early so we could walk around town and go have a bowl of soup at Lyspunktet – the café run by Youth With A Mission. The building where that café is housed is on the first floor of “Missions huset” which is a building owned by the Missions Church of Norway/Sweden. It’s the church that gave birth to the Covenant denomination in America (and where we are members). The building has a lot of memories for Kory because his grandparents lived on the top floor there during and after the war. It is there that he used to stay when his mom shipped him across the fjord when she got tired of him. He was quite nostalgic tonight reliving some of the memories in that place from those days.

Hege (pronounced Hey-ga) is an exceptionally gifted dancer. She loves ballet the most and it sure showed tonight. Hege’s mom, Turid, heard somewhere that if you sit for an hour or two a day in front of loud speakers playing music with a good beat while you are pregnant, your child will grow up to be very good at dancing and music. It must be true, as she did that when she was pregnant with Hege. Hege was clearly heads and tails above all other dancers on the stage tonight. She has the rhythm in her bones and it comes out of her naturally. Most of the other dancers just looked like they were trying to remember their next move. So we enjoyed that part very much, but once again I was taken aback by the cultural differences between America and Norway. The production tonight was put on by a dance club. There were over 300 kids participating so they worked in every kind of dance possible in the three hour performance. (We definitely got our money’s worth as it cost $100 for the three of us to go.) But some of the music they played was just downright obscene. They played some rap music for some of the hip hop dances and there were little boys Kaleb’s age dancing to American music that had the most vulgar swear words in it I’ve ever heard. I didn’t know they even made music like that, but then to have it be at such a “family friendly” production was incredible. I don’t know if they just didn’t understand what was really being said, or what, but apparently they are not affected by that kind of language like we are. Uff da. I know I must be getting old when I complain about the music, but I was mostly concerned for Kaleb, as he just hasn’t heard that kind of language. I asked him afterwards if he heard swearing in the songs and he said he did, but fortunately, the words he heard were the words on the mild side (and that he’s heard before). I’m sure the other words and phrases went right past him – I hope so anyway. Who would have thought we’d hear that at Cinderella? Good grief. This country is full of surprises.

A Blizzardy Day

It hasn’t stopped all day – snow pelting down, fueled by a strong wind from the west. It’s not the delicate, fluffy snowflakes that are fun to catch on my tongue. No, what we have today are little frozen balls of ice (like hail) that arrive with such force it feels like someone is throwing pebbles my way. Heading into the wind is a most painful proposition. I’ve never been outside in such weather. It’s best experienced from inside my igloo, but I had to go to school today. The journey there and back literally took my breath away and nearly knocked me over several times from wind gusts. Uff da. It’s an exciting storm and it’s long from over. I wore snow boots today but that only helped my feet. The rest of me needed body armor. What a day. Kaleb took the bus to school as the bike was clearly not an option, nor was Kory driving him there. Kory braved the elements and walked down to pick him up this afternoon though. It was a long walk back home. The snow is so dry it won’t form into balls for a good snowball fight, but a fight would seem pointless since every drop of snow is such an assault there would be no need for snowballs. Good times. Kaleb finally got to try out his “new” cross-country skis that we bought at a flea market. He knows how to ski downhill, but the Telemark skiing is new to him (see photo of his first lesson at four o’clock this afternoon. He did great.)

My school is doing a good job of exposing us to all the culture this town has to offer. Today we got to go to the theatre and watch a play put on by the local university called “Et rom for kjærlighet” (A Room for Love). I’m thinking it was their dress rehearsal because all the students got in for free. The play lasted 70 minutes and there were three actors. The young woman looked almost exactly like Renee Zellweger and she was extremely talented. In fact, all three actors were brilliant and the play was incredibly well done. I wish I understood more Norwegian so I could have picked up on all the good lines, as I know there had to have been some because the subject matter was so rich. It was about a young woman that falls in love with a guy she didn’t know was a crook. He gave up his life of crime when he met her, but just one last time he decided to rob a place to get enough money to buy her a ring. He got caught and the bulk of the play took place while he was in prison. The other actor was the mother of the young woman, trying to talk sense into her to stay away from the guy. It was so European. The characters in the play were smoking and drinking and swearing. The couple in love even had conjugal visits so there was partial nudity. It wouldn’t have been so bad with all of those edgy elements, but more than half the audience was junior high age kids. Somehow that didn’t seem right to me as I’m sure it would have been rated R in America, but Europeans have much different standards when it comes to those types of things. So it was all quite interesting.

The government auditors I met yesterday were in my class today “observing” how it was going. When they left, one of them said to me, “Are you sure you’ve only been taking this class for three months? You are VERY good at speaking Norwegian.” So that was a big thrill for me as these people don’t know me and they genuinely seemed impressed. Woo hoo for me. (But I still feel so inadequate!)

Sabina came over this afternoon and drank hot coco with us after school. Her and Kaleb made up a little game where one named something in Norwegian and the other had to say it in English and vice versa. It had to be something they could see at that moment, so it was very fun to listen to them expanding their vocabularies. Kaleb is doing so much better than I am at speaking Norwegian and I’m glad now he and Sabina can actually talk back and forth – not just say a word here or there. Life is good.

We SKYPEd Grammy J tonight – she’s Kaleb’s adopted grandma and our spiritual mentor and we miss her terribly. That SKYPE thing is just too much fun – free video communication over the internet – gotta love that. We have SKYPEd a few friends now and our home fellowship group back home. It sure takes the sting out of any homesickness that might be building up but I am SO not homesick.

It's Snowing Again!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning and snow is still coming down (sideways). More is expected tomorrow. I like looking at it more than I like walking in it as there are so many hills and the streets turn to sheets of ice. I need suction cups for my shoes. I had to sit on my butt to get down a hill today in order to catch my bus. Not fun. It was more than a bit stressful getting home but now that I’m in my toasty warm living room, I’m fine again. Tomorrow I’m wearing my snow boots to school and that will solve the problem (I hope).

The Good Teacher Inga was sick today so we had the Friday (multi-lingual) teacher. She’s great and I’m so glad we get different teachers in our class as we learn better that way. Today the teacher asked for two student volunteers to go to a meeting. I wasn’t quite sure what I was volunteering for, but I said I’d go nonetheless. Turns out it was an interview by government auditors hired by the Aalesund Kommune to give them a report on how things are going in the schools that cater to immigrants. Word is, Aalesund has some of the finest schools in Norway, so maybe this is how they get that reputation – they are constantly working to improve their systems.

There were about a dozen students and two government auditors in this meeting. These auditors also spoke with the teachers from all the schools so they hear both sides of the story and then write up a report for the Kommune. They asked pointed questions and we all had to answer. Some of the students were from the school for the blind, some from a college, others from a higher level of Norwegian classes, and then two of us beginners. I tried to understand what they were asking but on several occasions I needed clarification in English so I was sure I could answer correctly. They wanted to know things like, did we have enough computers in our classroom, were we allowed enough time to use them, does the teacher start the class on time, do students show up on time, how do we get to school, is the classroom adequate, are we given a weekly plan so we know what is going to be taught each day, are we told WHY we are being taught what we are taught, does the teacher use other types of learning tools – not just teaching straight from the book, stuff like that. Then they asked us what our feelings were about the class and any problems we had. Most everyone said that other students talking between themselves while the teacher is talking was the worst thing. I threw in my two cents about that guy in our class who always shows up late and never does the homework or participates in the class. It felt good to vent. That guy only comes because the classes are obligatory but he’s such a disruption it would be better to not have him there as he isn’t learning a thing and he is so disrespectful of the whole process. Too bad nothing can be done about that. So the real problems end up NOT getting fixed, but I’m sure our input will help someone somewhere – assuming the government here is more efficient than in America anyway.

Kaleb couldn’t wait to tell me about his day at school and The Morten Report. He only had three subjects today and he was gloating. He made me keep guessing over and over what those three subjects could have been, but I never could have guessed. He had two hours of reading (pure heaven for him), two hours of forming (learning to sew – which he loves) and then they watched the Norwegian version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. He was just downright giddy. He’s read that book many times, and seen the movie in English once, so he knew the story line well and could track perfectly with what was being said. So except for The Morten Report, he thought his day was incredible.

The Morten Report today was a bit disturbing for me – as Morten had a pair of scissors during the forming class and he opened them up and pushed them up to Kaleb’s throat. Kaleb didn’t report him to the teacher, but I sent an e-mail to Morten’s mom as that was a bit much. Kaleb will tell his teacher tomorrow about it and hopefully they can keep the two of them away from each other when potential weapons are at hand. One of Kaleb’s after school leaders told me that many kids are starting to NOT like Morten just because of how he treats Kaleb. I guess a lot of kids admire Kaleb and they feel he’s being singled out and mistreated too much. So that was nice to hear, and it will be an incredible witness of the love of Jesus if Kaleb and Morten actually do become good friends because Kaleb has every reason in the world to NOT want that, but he holds no ill feelings against him. We pray for Morten and we trust that God will use this relationship “for good.”

And as for Kory – he stayed home today and didn’t do a darn thing.

Back to School

It seems Kaleb and I were both missed at school. I sent an e-mail to Kaleb’s school yesterday informing them he was sick, but it never reached his teacher so she didn’t know where he was. So much for technology. At least the text message I sent to my teacher got to her so she knew why I wasn’t there for two days. Not having done school for a while myself, and not at all for Kaleb, I’m not totally sure of proper protocol for these types of things. The school said we didn’t need to contact them at all if Kaleb is out for just a day, so I waited until day two to send an e-mail as I couldn’t find a phone number on their website and I don’t have a phone book. I was also a bit worried about having to speak over the phone anyway as I’ve noticed that I can communicate a lot with my hands when I don’t know the right words to use, so talking on the phone is a rare thing for me here. Oh well. These are the little things that make life interesting.

Well, the big Norske Prøve 1 test actually takes two days, so I got in on day two – the speaking part. We had to go before a panel of teachers, four students at a time, and speak freely on the topic we were given. The teachers asked us questions when the conversation died down. Then afterwards, we were each called in separately and given a review of how we did – what we did well and what areas need improvement. The funny thing was though, it was all in Norwegian and assuming one didn’t do too well, how would they know? It would be impossible to understand the critique. I thought that was kind of funny because I didn’t know every word they used when they talked to me, but I got the gist of it all. Basically it was the same stuff that Kory corrects me on – my two weakest links – how I pronounce some vowels and how I form sentences (American style). To me, those are very basic things to being fluent in a language, so it seems rather serious that I am not doing well in those areas, but it didn’t seem to bother the teachers that much at all. They thought I was a very good communicator – that I understood all that they said, that the other students said and that I was able to communicate (although not properly) what I was trying to say. They thought I was pretty funny and they liked to hear me speak. I’m sure it was the subject matter, as they wanted us to talk about where and how we do our shopping. I talked only about food shopping as that’s the bulk of what I do, but the teachers asked about other shopping – for clothes and gifts. So then I had to explain (in Norwegian) how I bought everything I could think I’d need for the whole year in America, and I shipped it over here so I wouldn’t need to spend money here. Things are so expensive in Norway, coupled with the bad exchange rate and even though it cost $3,000 for shipping, it still saved us a ton of money. They got a real kick out of that as it’s so “American” of me to do such a thing. When I told them I even brought birthday and Christmas gifts and all of Kaleb’s clothes and shoes, the next size up to be prepared for his growth spurts, they howled. I guess planning for the future isn’t part of what they do here. The Norwegians I know think it’s funny that I have an inventory of food and paper goods in the garage. I buy stuff on sale so I have some on hand and don’t need to run out and pay full price when I’m out of something. And when I told a student today that I didn’t leave my house for two days when I was home with Kaleb, she asked, “Did you have food to eat?” Because most Norwegians wouldn’t even have enough food to last two days in their houses – they go to the store every single day to buy that day’s food. They can laugh all they want – if something is on sale for half price, I’m stocking up. So apparently I was distracting the teachers with the content of what I was saying and the process of saying it sort of slipped by them. My teacher did say I’m already ready for the Norske Prøve 2 test so I’ll have no problem with that in February. Woo hoo.

After school today I took the ferry across the fjord to Langevåg where Kory was working. He wanted to show me the house he was building in his old hometown (see photo - it’s not at all a typical Norwegian house. The photo was taken at 3:30 – it’s already getting dark by then!) He doesn’t normally work on Wednesdays but he wants to take next Monday off because it’s his 65th birthday, and I don’t blame him. So I got to travel the route between Langevåg and Ålesund that he used to take when his mother got fed up with him and literally “shipped” him off to his grandmother’s house in Ålesund, where he’d stay for a few days until his mom could tolerate him again. Imagine that. On the boat trip over, I passed by some islands that Kory used to take a row boat out to and collect seagull eggs for breakfast. The kind of boat he used to go in is now in the local museum. I told him you KNOW you are old when things from your childhood are now in a museum, and his upcoming birthday is sure-fire proof of that.

Solid Rock and Sinking Sand

The headlines today read “Here Comes Winter – Again.” I guess they usually have about seven winters around here so this is the second one. It snowed off and on all day with some hail in there, too. Poor Kory had to go to work today. Kaleb and I enjoyed the show from our toasty warm living room as he was home sick again. He was absolutely determined to go to school this morning but just as he was getting dressed he decided he might need to throw up, so that settled it. Poor guy. He loves Tuesdays the best because it’s “gym day,” but he had to just sit around at home and “slappe av” as they say in Norwegian – “relax.” (That’s actually a funny expression because when you pronounce it it sounds like “slop off” – which is sort of what you are doing.) So I didn’t get to take the big Norsk Prøve 1 test today but I’m sure my teacher will let me take it home tomorrow and do it then. At least we weren’t learning something new today that I would miss out on. It’s hard enough getting the information in my head the first time around, but trying to catch up on a new concept is nearly impossible for me. My brain has reached maximum capacity and I still have seven months of classes to go. Only a miracle will get me there.

As much as I don’t like seeing my sweet boy sick, it sure has been nice to have a few days off. I feel like I’ve been on a treadmill since we got here and these past few days have been almost bliss with nothing on the agenda and no school to attend. We just sat and watched the street explode from all the dynamite blasts in front of our house – it was pretty fun. With all the solid rock in this country I’m so surprised someone would even bother to build a house on a bog, like where we live. Theresa, a woman I met here in Aalesund, has a childhood friend that bought one of these six “Sinking Houses” when they were new. I guess most “spec houses” (as we call them in the U.S.) are sold here in Norway with just the shell of the house up and then the buyer is responsible for finishing the inside. That’s what these houses were, so there was a lot of sweat equity in them and the home owners were very attached to them. Theresa said initially when the ground under them started sinking, no one wanted to take responsibility for it and the owners were going out of their minds trying to get something done about it. Tempers flared. It took years. It was in the papers more than any other story in recent history. The builder didn’t feel it was his fault (he built according to code), the Aalesund Kommune didn’t feel it was their fault (but they issued the permit). The insurance company that insures all new buildings for the first five years didn’t want to pay up because the houses were fine, it was the ground under them that was moving and they didn’t insure the ground. In the end, all three had to share in the 15 million kroner (three million dollar) bailout. They tried bringing in truckloads of rock to fill in the gap between the houses and the ground (the houses are built on posts sitting on rock 15 feet down), but it was a never ending pit and the weight of the gravel made the ground sink even more. They had to add skirting around the foundation of the houses because the ground sank over three feet and the floors were too cold because of the never ending draft under them. Eventually, they had to buy back the houses from all the owners and put them in temporary housing until they could find new houses to buy. These are high quality houses, but even just since we moved in, the ground has gone down under our house over five centimeters (two inches), the foundation under our dining room has cracked and a sink hole has developed in our front yard (the houses are in the foreground of the photo above.) It’s such an adventure living here! As long as the toilet still flushes, I’m not complaining. My friend Teresa thinks the houses should just be torn down and forgotten, as do many other locals, but the insurance company is trying to find a buyer from outside this area for the whole lot of them. With the financial crisis hitting Norway too, I don’t think there will be a buyer anytime soon – HALLELUJAH! We just LOVE living here. (Kory still wants to buy them, however. Even though he’s a fix-it kind of guy, I’m not sure even he can stop the ground from sinking.)

This afternoon Kaleb was feeling much better so we worked on the next two editions of The Weakly Puppy – his monthly dog publication. He’s actually spent more time with kids than dogs this month so he’s hard pressed for a feature story. That was my dream in coming here – that he’d find people more interesting than dogs – and it seems to be working. (But I’m still not sure I’m off the hook for getting him a dog when we get home.) He spent the day reading “Cesar’s Way” – written by the Dog Whisperer guy on some TV show that we’ve never seen. Kaleb has recognized all the problematic traits in all the dogs he dog-sits back home and is chomping at the bit to be with them and fix their problems according to what this Cesar guy recommends. I’m thinking we might need to start dog sitting Norwegian dogs soon. We have the perfect dog run already - UNDER the houses.

Another Sick Day

Just as we were heading out the door this morning, Kaleb informed me that he was sick. I guess he was trying his hardest NOT to be, as he loves school and hates to miss it, but he just couldn’t muster up the strength to ride his bike all the way there. Plan B kicked in and I stayed home with him since Kory had already left for work. I needed this day at school too as we were going to review for the big test tomorrow, but duty calls. Kaleb had a headache and a sore throat and a little fever. He just laid on the couch and watched DVDs all day and I used the time to wrap Christmas presents, prepare some things for his upcoming birthday party and play with my new “toy” (a piece of software.)

Last night, Henrik, the younger teenage boy in the Bondevik home, installed a program on my computer that allows me to see American television programs. I know it’s totally contrary to my aversion to TV, but I really like watching “The Office” and I can’t get it here. The networks put their shows on their websites for free, but for some reason, only to U.S. audiences. Computers, being what they are, can be identified as out of the country, so I have not been able to watch that show over the internet since we got here. (Watching it over the internet was the only way I could watch it in Mt. Vernon too because we didn’t get TV reception there either.) So I was left hanging in the lurch when we left the country… did Jim ever ask Pam to marry him? I could stand the suspense no more, and since Henrik told me he had a solution to my problem, I got to watch the season premiere and all subsequent episodes! Oh happy day. Kory isn’t thrilled with my double standard, but I told him it’s now only 22 minutes a week and it’s a pain to download it, so it’s not like I’ll sit for hours in front of my computer watching TV shows (but I do sit in front of it for hours doing other things.) Regardless, my life just got sweeter. I don’t know why, but that show reminds me so much of my years working for the phone company….

Kory worked out in Langevaag today - his old hometown (see photo – he was working just behind the big white building near the edge of the water across the fjord). It was a cold and rainy day but he didn’t complain (he’s working hard on not doing that anymore.) Tonight he’s been working on a drawing of downtown Aalesund. I’m going to have a lot of “local” art by the time this year is done. Hallelujah!

While at home today Kaleb and I listened to the street in front of our house being blown up with dynamite. It’s not just the houses where we live where the ground is sinking – it’s sinking everywhere around here and causing the water pipes to break. Several houses across the street from us have had flooded basements as a result. One woman, who has now been displaced from her home because of it, was upset with the Aalesund Kommune that they weren’t replacing ALL the pipes in the street when they broke. I guess the original pipes were installed in 1967 and there have been no upgrades since that time. Even after all the water line breaks, the Kommune had no plans to replace the pipes so the woman most upset by the damage done to her house went down to the local newspaper and made quite a case for herself. She was in the news for several days running a few weeks ago, and by Friday of that week the Kommune said they would do something. The very next Monday they were on our street, ripping it up. Kory and I couldn’t believe they acted so quickly. It may not be a democratic society here but the squeaky wheel sure gets the grease! And now, since they need to lay new pipes, they have to blast out a new spot to put them. So all day today we were listening to alarms and dynamite blasting. Blasting is the first step in any kind of construction around here. In fact, we even watched one neighbor blasting out rocks in his front yard where he wanted to put some steps. They sell home dynamite kits for just such occasions. Big boy toys, for sure. (Jason, you’d LOVE them!)

It’s nearly 11pm and I realized I didn’t even go outside once today, not even to get the mail. I guess I was just too busy at “The Office.”

Relatives

Yesterday, Kory’s cousin, Linda Bondevik, called to invite us to go to their church with them today. Her two teenage sons lead worship. Rasmuss played the keyboard and Henrik played bass guitar. They were excellent. So was the service. Their church is a branch of the Vineyard Church in America so it had a more relaxed feel than other churches we’ve gone to here. Afterwards we went to Linda’s house for dinner and a nice long visit (see photo). It was a “full service” day. Not only did Linda make us dinner, but she cut Kaleb’s hair, too. Kaleb was more than a little uncomfortable with the fact I wanted to cut his hair again. The painful memory of my first attempt is still fresh in his mind and every time I told him he needed a haircut, he grabbed his head and shrieked, “NO!” So Linda was just the ticket, plus, she’s had about twenty years experience cutting her own kid’s hair. Thank you Jesus, as once again, God has provided for all our needs. (Kid’s haircuts here cost about $50!)

Tante Aslaug, Linda’s mom, was at their house too, so I had a lot of opportunity to speak Norwegian. It exhausts me, but I can tell I’m getting better. All of Linda’s family is fluent in English so the temptation is to just speak that, but it was more polite to include Tante Aslaug and stretch myself. I guess, since I didn’t spend any time studying this weekend, it’s my version of homework. We have a big test coming up on Tuesday and I’m not sure I’m ready for it.

(The other day I was looking at a website that gave global statistics on things and projected out where different countries will be 50 years from now in different areas. It showed the population explosion in many countries around the world, but for Norway, in 50 years the population is expected to be about what it is today. I’m thinking it’s because they made that law that says everyone coming into this country must learn Norwegian, as that’s a sure fire way to get zero population growth from immigrants, anyway. But actually, they made that law because all the Arab immigrants were forbidding their wives from learning the language.)

I see Linda’s kids almost every day at the bus stop at Moa when I change busses to go into town for my Norwegian class. I see someone Kory is related to nearly every day though. Some regularly, like the kids at the bus stop, but others just happenstance when I’m in town. I love that about living here – the small town flavor of everything. Even if we aren’t related to everyone, everyone we meet at least knows someone we are related to. (It helps that Linda’s husband, Lief-Eric [white shirt in the photo] is a radio personality here and his uncle used to be Prime Minister of Norway.) I have a feel of “belonging” here like I’ve never experienced before. Kaleb even said today, “If my friends from America could move here, I’d never want to leave, but I miss my friends and favorite dogs too much, so we can’t stay forever.”

We stayed so long as the Bondevik’s house (which is VERY nice, I might add) we needed “kvelds mat” (night food). Norwegians have an interesting habit of eating food right before they go to bed. Typically, most Norwegians have four meals a day, as they all must eat sometime late in the evening. Odd and Turid have their biggest meal of the day after 10pm, but other families just have slices of bread with things on top, or waffles before bedtime. I hate eating late at night as it makes me have bad dreams. There’s nothing I like more than to go to bed on an empty stomach and I’d prefer to skip dinner altogether. I never understood why Kory wanted late dinners, but now I know. Even though we’ve been married almost 18 years, I’m getting to know him more and more the longer we live here. I’m realizing that all his eccentricities aren’t so much unique to him as they are just the standard cookie cutter variety of Norwegian traits. These Norskies are all so much alike, it’s scary.

Kan du snakke norsk?

We got off to a slow start today because Kaleb and I slept in until ten this morning. I didn’t go to bed until one, so I’m glad I got some rest. It was a good day to sleep in because it was one of those days that never got light and it rained hard all day. Normally, I would just like to stay home and be cozy warm inside on those days, but I had a few errands to run so we were forced out into the wet. (I guess I better get used to that because days like today are the norm for this area and life goes on – rain or shine.) Kaleb didn’t want to sit in the car while we ran errands so he braved the weather, donned his rain suit and reflective gear and went for a bike ride down the street to see who was around he could play with. I gave him my phone so he could keep in touch, but I could tell by the way he acted as he was riding out the driveway that he was pretty full of himself. He’s getting more freedom and the leash is getting longer. He was so pleased that he could go out and about on his own and we weren’t even going to be home. He landed over at Tobias’ house and played there for a few hours. While we were out I saw that the new Madagascar movie was opening today and Kaleb knows enough Norwegian now that I thought it would be fun for him to go. I called him up and asked if he and Tobias and his other friend in the neighborhood, William, wanted to go. They were all available so we picked them up, dropped them off at the cinema and let Kaleb have an even bigger bite of freedom – going to the movies without his parents.

Kory and I went and visited the aunts while the boys were at the movies (they live just a stone’s throw from the movie theatre.) We wanted to hear all about Tante Kari’s trip to Israel and Egypt, and sure enough, she had the time of her life. She felt terrible that Turid and her mom missed everything as she said except for that, the trip was perfect in every way and she should have done it years ago. Tante Aslaug came over and we all went to our condo to visit Tante Ruth, who is still doing quite well and was glad to see us. I felt so accomplished that I could track the conversation 100% and even throw in my two cents in Norwegian (including correcting Kory’s version of things). In the past, I’d just sit like a mute while Kory did all the talking with them, but now I’m in full swing – able to set the record straight if he doesn’t tell something properly. It’s one of those mixed blessing things for Kory. He’s glad I can speak his language, but not so glad I speak for him when I do. (Kory thinks that’s my main motivation in learning Norwegian – so I can correct him when he’s speaking.)

After the movie we brought all the boys back to our place and made pizza and played games until bedtime. As Kory was leaving to take them home, Kaleb asked them, “Hasn’t this been just a great day?” He was so excited to have friends here and to feel so much autonomy. I’m so thankful we are here so we can let him have that kind of freedom – the kind we both had growing up, but has now been stolen from America’s children because of rampant fears they will be kidnapped. Such a shame.

This week in class we were told to write a paragraph about where we came from and to bring in photos of our hometown so we can decorate the walls of our classroom. I didn’t get any help in writing this, and my teacher only had to make a few corrections, so I was pretty proud of this effort – especially when I think that three months ago I couldn’t even have written a single sentence or spelled a single word properly in Norwegian. Now look at me! (OK, so if you can’t read Norwegian you can just skip this part, but if you can “leser Norsk” I hope you are impressed!)

Jeg kommer fra vestkysten av USA. Staten jeg bode i ligger nordvesten i America. Huset mitt ligger en time sør for Canada og en time (100 kilometers) nord for Seattle. Seattle er den største byen i staten Washington, og der bor det over en halv million mennesker. Washington er vakker, og har den samme naturen som Norge med mange fjell og skog med høye trær, og staten ligger ved Stillehavet. Huset mitt ligger på en haug og vi har fin utsikt hver dag. Jeg kan se dyrket mark, fjell, en vulkan og mye skog fra vinduet mitt. Jeg hører bare fugler. Det er stille og fredelig hvor jeg bodde. “Skagit Valley” er ekjent for å dyrke tulipaner og narsisser. Om våren kommer mange turister for å se blomstene. Byen nærest huset mitt heter LaConner, men den er bare en liten turistby. Jeg må handle i Mount Vernon, 18 kilometers fra huset mitt og kjøpe mat der, men jeg kjøper også fra bønder. Bøndene dyrker mange bær, poteter, gulrot, kål, agurk, mais, og annen mat, og mange har økologiske gårder. Jeg liker det best!

I read it to Kory and he said, “Så flink du er!” (You are very good!) And he didn’t even try to correct me. Imagine that.

Goofing Around

The Good Teacher Inga never teaches us on Fridays. She teaches English to another class, so we always have a substitute on those days. We’ve had the same sub for the past couple of weeks. Her name is Lidia and she is from Russia. I have tremendous respect for her because she is now teaching Norwegian after only living here for eight years. She is gifted in languages as she speaks English perfectly, as well as French and Spanish (and Russian and Norwegian!). We don’t have any native French speakers in our class but we sure have Spanish and Russian speakers, so she’s quite the hit with all of us. She was teaching us today about the rules involved with prepositional phrases and we all sat there with a blank look on our face. When the light bulb finally clicked for me, I asked her, in English, if what I thought was correct. She answered back in English. Then a Russian woman fired off a whole string of questions and they went back and forth like lightening in Russian. Then the Spanish speakers spoke up and she answered them in Spanish. Then we all understood what she was trying to tell us in Norwegian. She is amazing. It’s not that we didn’t understand her Norwegian, we just didn’t understand why in the world the Norwegian language would have such crazy rules about prepositional phrases. (And I think most of the class doesn’t even know what a prepositional phrase is, even in their own language.) I’m sure the best training ground these Norwegians have for setting world records and winning so many Olympic gold medals is the fact that as children they’ve all had to learn this language. When my dad was a little boy he was quite mischievous and my grandma used to say, “If he lives to be five, he’ll live a lifetime.” (And he did.) I feel the same way about Norwegian. Parents must say, “If they can learn to speak Norwegian, they can do ANYTHING!” (And they do.)

I stayed in town after school today and went to lunch with my partner, Vestina. She wanted to practice her Norsk a little more so we sat and talked about all kinds of things (in Norwegian) for an hour. Who knows if we said things properly but we both understood each other perfectly. I wish I could do that with someone who would correct my Norsk though as I worry about developing bad habits. Odd and Turid came over for dinner tonight and Turid corrected me a bit, so that was nice. She just got back from a two week vacation with her mother and mother-in-law that could probably take top prize for “Worst Vacation.” They went on a once in a lifetime trip to Egypt and Israel and her luggage got lost and didn’t arrive for three days. She couldn’t find any stores that sold underwear because women in Egypt apparently don’t use such a thing. She had to wear her mother’s underwear which wasn’t exactly a good fit. Then on day five just as they left Egypt and entered Israel, her mother got deathly ill from something she ate. Turid had to ask the tour bus driver to call an ambulance and she had to leave the tour and go stay by her mother’s side in the hospital in Jerusalem– for a week! (She never got to see a THING in Israel.) Her mom was just now well enough to come home, but is in the hospital here in Ålesund. Poor Turid, she is wiped out. (Her mom is going to be okay and may get out of the hospital tomorrow.) They all had dreamt of going to the Holy Land, and none of them had been before, so it was a very sad turn of events. Tante Kari (Turid’s mother-in-law) was the only one that had a good time as she stayed healthy and was able to keep up with the tour. I’m just glad they all made it back alive. Double uff da.

We had a bit of rain today so Kaleb played on the computer after school and Kory stayed inside and drew pictures of things. He drew the mountains out our window, he drew Mickey Mouse on the cover of Kaleb’s comic book (see photo), he drew Donald Duck, and he started to draw downtown Ålesund. His drawing skills are quite impressive but he says he’s just “goofing around” (like it’s not real art.) I love all his art work and in nearly 18 years of marriage I haven’t seen him draw a thing, except the little ditty on our Christmas cards every year. We get TV reception at home – just one channel that only plays re-runs – but it’s enough to occupy all his free time. When there is no TV, this is what I get – ART! I love it. Odd called me the “Gestapo” tonight because I still won’t bend on the “no TV” rule. Maybe I could work a deal where Kory could sell his art to pay the fees required to watch TV? Never! The Gestapo has spoken.

The Purple Heart

Kory’s day wasn’t very eventful. The worst he had to deal with was a messy kitchen and a dead battery on the car (it was my fault.) I would have much rather stayed home and cleaned the kitchen than gone to school and learned even more insane grammatical rules. And now that the results of our latest tests are in, The Good Teacher Inga went over a few things with us in our Norsk class. Obviously I wasn’t the only one who missed some of the basic concepts being taught –so today we did a little review before moving forward. I think we need to review things a bit more often, but then, I’m the oldest one in the class and we all know what that means. I’ve had many more years of brain cells dying off than the rest of them. Plus, I swear the reason Kaleb is so smart is because he sucked the brains right out of me. For some reason, once I gave birth, I got stupid. It was a noticeable difference and I guess it’s something that a lot of mother’s experience. When Kaleb was first born I was so tired of not remembering basic things and not being able to figure out simple stuff that I asked my girlfriend who had school age children at the time, just how long this mindless state lasts and when it was exactly that her brains returned after giving birth. She told me she was still waiting -- so that answered that question. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I’m having a hard time learning Norwegian. And we had quite the discussion in class today about the fact that all our Norwegian husbands are worthless when it comes to helping us with our grammar. Each and every native Norwegian husband has told their spouse, “I was never very good at grammar,” which got a big laugh from all of us. We all feel the same way but we aren’t natives. I’ve even asked the few women friend’s I’ve made here about some of the crazy rules they have for grammar and I got the same answer “I was never very good at grammar.” How someone can become a teacher of Norwegian grammar is beyond me. I guess it’s a job reserved for the select few who actually understood it all.

Kaleb came home with a note from his teacher today. It should have been titled, “The Morten Report,” as it said, “I’m sorry to tell you that there has been an episode where Morten has really kicked Kaleb today. We have kept Kaleb here now (away from Morten), and it’s getting better and we have taken a serious talk with Morten. We will call his home and go further with the case. I’m truly sorry this happened. Have a nice day, Ragnhild.” Okay then. I’m sure glad they are finally having a “serious” talk with Morten because we know so well all the other “talks” they’ve had with him haven’t done a thing.

From Kaleb’s retelling of the story, he saw Morten on the playground pounding on one of his good friends. He ran over to rescue Håvard (I love that about him) and got Morten to turn his attention away from Håvard onto him so Håvard could run away. Morten kicked Kaleb something good then went running after Håvard again. Morten cornered Håvard by the school building and proceeded to smash his head into a window. Kaleb was astonished the window didn’t break. Håvard fell in a heap of tears as the playground supervisor grabbed Morten by the collar and hauled him off to the principal’s office for that “serious” talking to. Then as Kaleb was leaving for the day, Morten snuck up behind him, kicked him in the thigh and when Kaleb turned around, Morten stuck his fingers into Kaleb’s mouth and pulled on it so hard it split his lip. Kaleb was sure he swallowed a pint of blood after that. I’m sure it wasn’t even a tablespoon but the teacher did have to get a wet cloth to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. So he came home a wounded soldier today and I told him if he were at war he’d be awarded the Purple Heart. He thinks he might need “a room the size of Canada” to hold all such awards before the year is out. So that was Kaleb’s day. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when we moved here to socialize him, but God promises to work “all things together for good,” so we are waiting for the good to surface. Uff da.

Our Norsk Connect Group

Tonight we hosted the home fellowship group we’ve been attending through Agape Church. They call them “Connectgrupp” and they meet every other week in different homes. It’s not anything like our home fellowship group we left behind in Mt. Vernon, but it’s something. Since they speak Norwegian, and they speak it fast, and they all have dialects, I rarely understand anything they are talking about. But tonight, since it was in our home, they let me do most of the talking. I spoke in English, used easy words and spoke slowly so they all understood me. I told some of my good “God thing” stories and they seemed to be encouraged as a result. That was nice. I also made some good food, and everyone was raving about that as well (it doesn’t take much to trump Norsk food.) It’s so nice our little house can sit ten around the dining room table. Our house in Mt. Vernon can’t even do that comfortably, so it was a treat. We spent a lot of time in prayer, which was good, as God understands us all no matter what language we speak.

Kaleb had a lot of homework to do today as he “conveniently” left his books at school yesterday so he couldn’t do his homework last night. I think he got the idea on Monday when his teacher left their books at home and didn’t return them… so then he couldn’t do his homework Monday night. He thought that worked so well for him that he’d have another night like that and just leave his books behind. So today I told him he had to come right home from school and he could not go to the afterschool program because he had so much homework to do. He shed a few tears, but complied and sat this afternoon and did homework with Kory for several hours. It takes a long time to look up all the words we don’t know in the dictionary, so his homework is just downright painful. It’s not at all hard, once we understand what’s going on, but getting to that point isn’t easy.

For the last hour of my class today The Good Teacher Inga took us to an art gallery in town. She said it’s important we not just learn the language, but that we learn about the culture of Norway as well. There are a LOT of art galleries in town, and in fact, in all of Norway. Every Norwegian house I’ve been inside has at least a dozen original pieces of art hanging on the walls. Norwegians are crazy about art. And if a person goes to art school here and attains a “degree” in art, then the government has a program whereby they subsidize the artist’s salary so they can make a livable wage. There are no starving artists in Norway. Norway so values artist’s contribution to their society that they put their money where their mouth is and make sure that those who really want to be artists, can be. If the artist makes enough money on their own then the government subsidies get reduced or stop altogether, depending on the income of the artist. I think it’s a most interesting concept and probably Norway is the only country that can pull that off the way they do. (America has a similar program with its farmers, but they don’t pull the plug on the cash flow if the farmer makes a lot of money.) The art we looked at today was VERY nice and I wish I could afford to buy a painting but the one I liked the most was over two grand. Even unknown artists will charge a minimum of $300 for a painting, on up to thousands of dollars, and people will pay it. I saw some lithograph prints at the art studio we were at today done by one of Norway’s most famous artists, Ørnulf Opdahl, (who happens to live on the Island of Giske very near here, and whose son happens to be the attorney that Kory works for with the Sinking Houses.) Each print done by Opdahl sold for nearly $2,000 DOLLARS (over 10,000 kroner) as that guy is very famous and is known as “a friend of the Queen” because she likes his art work very much and has become his personal friend. His original works of art are out of this world expensive but he has no trouble selling them. Such is the affluence of Norwegians. Kory is so worried I might actually spend some of his hard earned money on original works of art, that he’s using all his spare time drawing the landscapes around here hoping to squelch the fire burning within me to have some local art. (Typical tightfisted Ålesunder mindset, but it just might work.)