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.