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.