It’s amazing how much better I feel today! The fog has lifted. I slept for 9 ½ hours last night and I’m back to normal. Hallelujah. And I forgot to mention yesterday that Kaleb heard from nearly every kid in his class that was at the party on Saturday. They all came up to him at recess and said what a “good time” they had. Some said the word “good” about a hundred times, just to emphasis their point. So the report is in, and the party was a hit. Mission accomplished. Jeg er glad for det. (I’m glad for that.)
This week in my class, The Good Teacher Inga is meeting with all the students one-on-one to give them individual feedback and to hear their plans for further study in the course. My meeting with her was today. She was very generous in saying I was one of the best students in the class. I showed her my Norsk Prøve 1 exam results (with all the red pen marks on my writing page) and asked how that can be. She told me that my written text was at a very advanced level, even though I didn’t have all the technicalities correct. The judges look at whether I’m able to express myself in many different ways, not just at how technically correct it all is. I guess it’s common for beginner students to start all their sentences off with “Jeg…” (“I…”) and their sentences are very basic and short. But not me, I try to write like I do in English, and then figure out how to translate that sentence into Norwegian, even if there are words or expressions I don’t yet know. (Then I get all the more creative in figuring my way around it.) So she was mightily impressed, and that was good for me to hear. I know I could be so much better if I just did an hour a day of homework, but I always just do it in less than 15 minutes on the bus each morning and never give it my full attention. I feel a little bad about that, but that’s how it is. But now I’ve signed up for the Norsk Prøve 2 test in early February so I need to get serious and push myself in order to pass that as it’s much harder than the Norsk Prøve 1. So we shall see. I’m always up for a good challenge and learning this language has been the biggest one I’ve had since Kaleb was born. (Well, staying married to Kory hasn’t exactly been without its challenges, so I guess I should do fine on the test.) Inga also said she appreciates that I “include all the students” (I’m not prejudice, I guess) and she likes that she knows where she stands with me. (That trait in me hasn’t always worked to my advantage, however.) She was glad to hear I plan to stay the course and keep going until the end of the school year in June.
In class today we talked a little about Christmas in our homelands and more about Advent and Christmas traditions in Norway. The 1st to the 24th of December is referred to as “Advent” here and a lot of people wear something purple during this time. Inga emphasized again that Advent has a religious meaning but it’s become a “tradition” practiced all over this country, even if people are not professing Christians. Lighting the Advent candles every Sunday, setting the Advent candlesticks or Advent star in the windows, giving children Advent gifts every day (mostly just a piece of chocolate), those are all traditions that go with this time of year and they are very serious and special to Norwegians. They want new immigrants to “fit in” so they spend time teaching us all how to be a proper Norwegian. I like that. I’m thinking we fit in here just fine.
Kory worked yesterday and today out on the island of Giske. I took today’s photo on the way to the bus stop from my school in the city. Giske is the flat-as-a-pancake island beyond the lighthouse – and that’s the moon shining overhead. Nighttime comes quickly this time of year. (The moon is never even visible in the summer months.) Kory came home and zonked out on the couch, just like the old days when he was working full time. We both helped Kaleb with his homework as he’s more than motivated to get his week’s worth of work done sooner rather than later, as his ability to play on his Nintendo hinges on its completion. What an incredible motivator. I never knew he could move so fast. This morning he was up at 5:45 and had breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, chores done, dressed and ready for school by 6am so he could play with that game before school. Normally we can’t even get him out of bed before seven o’clock and then it takes forever to get him to eat or get dressed and we’re constantly having to hurry him along. I wonder how long the excitement of that game will last. He hasn’t read even one page in a book since he got it so I’m already thinking we’ll have to limit its use soon, but for now, I’m thanking God there is a fire under his butt and I don’t have to be the one to light it.
This week in my class, The Good Teacher Inga is meeting with all the students one-on-one to give them individual feedback and to hear their plans for further study in the course. My meeting with her was today. She was very generous in saying I was one of the best students in the class. I showed her my Norsk Prøve 1 exam results (with all the red pen marks on my writing page) and asked how that can be. She told me that my written text was at a very advanced level, even though I didn’t have all the technicalities correct. The judges look at whether I’m able to express myself in many different ways, not just at how technically correct it all is. I guess it’s common for beginner students to start all their sentences off with “Jeg…” (“I…”) and their sentences are very basic and short. But not me, I try to write like I do in English, and then figure out how to translate that sentence into Norwegian, even if there are words or expressions I don’t yet know. (Then I get all the more creative in figuring my way around it.) So she was mightily impressed, and that was good for me to hear. I know I could be so much better if I just did an hour a day of homework, but I always just do it in less than 15 minutes on the bus each morning and never give it my full attention. I feel a little bad about that, but that’s how it is. But now I’ve signed up for the Norsk Prøve 2 test in early February so I need to get serious and push myself in order to pass that as it’s much harder than the Norsk Prøve 1. So we shall see. I’m always up for a good challenge and learning this language has been the biggest one I’ve had since Kaleb was born. (Well, staying married to Kory hasn’t exactly been without its challenges, so I guess I should do fine on the test.) Inga also said she appreciates that I “include all the students” (I’m not prejudice, I guess) and she likes that she knows where she stands with me. (That trait in me hasn’t always worked to my advantage, however.) She was glad to hear I plan to stay the course and keep going until the end of the school year in June.
In class today we talked a little about Christmas in our homelands and more about Advent and Christmas traditions in Norway. The 1st to the 24th of December is referred to as “Advent” here and a lot of people wear something purple during this time. Inga emphasized again that Advent has a religious meaning but it’s become a “tradition” practiced all over this country, even if people are not professing Christians. Lighting the Advent candles every Sunday, setting the Advent candlesticks or Advent star in the windows, giving children Advent gifts every day (mostly just a piece of chocolate), those are all traditions that go with this time of year and they are very serious and special to Norwegians. They want new immigrants to “fit in” so they spend time teaching us all how to be a proper Norwegian. I like that. I’m thinking we fit in here just fine.
Kory worked yesterday and today out on the island of Giske. I took today’s photo on the way to the bus stop from my school in the city. Giske is the flat-as-a-pancake island beyond the lighthouse – and that’s the moon shining overhead. Nighttime comes quickly this time of year. (The moon is never even visible in the summer months.) Kory came home and zonked out on the couch, just like the old days when he was working full time. We both helped Kaleb with his homework as he’s more than motivated to get his week’s worth of work done sooner rather than later, as his ability to play on his Nintendo hinges on its completion. What an incredible motivator. I never knew he could move so fast. This morning he was up at 5:45 and had breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, chores done, dressed and ready for school by 6am so he could play with that game before school. Normally we can’t even get him out of bed before seven o’clock and then it takes forever to get him to eat or get dressed and we’re constantly having to hurry him along. I wonder how long the excitement of that game will last. He hasn’t read even one page in a book since he got it so I’m already thinking we’ll have to limit its use soon, but for now, I’m thanking God there is a fire under his butt and I don’t have to be the one to light it.
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