A Hallelujah Kind of Day

We woke up with an inch of snow covering our world this morning, but the sun was out all day and it got up into the 50s this afternoon. Gotta love that. We had both winter and summer all in one day.

Tuesdays are now Kaleb’s day to get himself off to school since he doesn’t do the before and after school program anymore. I leave the house by 7:40 but he doesn’t need to leave until 8:10. Because of the snow this morning he decided to take the bus and then walk home. I left him 12 kroner for the bus ride before I headed out the door. He went out to the bus stop to catch the 8:15 bus and as he reached into his pocket to get out the money, he realized he only had 10 kroner. He left the other 2 kroner at home, thinking the bigger coin was 20 kroner instead of the ten that it was. He had to think fast. I love it when he gets into those predicaments because it leaves him to solve the problems himself. He had to go back home and then his only option was to ride his bike to school in order to make it on time – on snow covered roads. They do sell studded snow tires for bikes here, but we sure don’t have any, so he had a most challenging time riding to school in a hurry, and under the worst conditions. He got to school just as the children were shaking the teacher’s hand as they filed into class. She gave him a raised eyebrow and a little smirk as he barely made it on time. He was thankful when a few other kids came in after him so he wasn’t the last one there.

I sat in my class today, barely able to track the conversation. At some point things advanced, and I didn’t. I couldn’t understand what was being said, what was asked of us, what the exercises were – not a thing. I almost started to cry as I felt so lost. It’s not good when I miss a day, and yesterday there were some new concepts introduced that are totally lost on me. I think I’m not the only one that’s struggling as a few more have dropped out of the class. I hope I can make it until June. If I had a few hours of quiet time right after school, I could do my homework uninterrupted and I would do much better than I am doing right now. But I get home the same time as Kaleb and that shoots any opportunity to concentrate, so then I suffer. The ones doing well in class go home and do homework for hours on end, but then, they are young and they have no kids. Ugh.

I met Angela (a fellow student from another class) last week in the student meetings I attended at school. She’s about my age, is from England, and has been in Norway about as long as I have. She married a Norwegian doctor and just moved to Ålesund last month. She’s a professional story teller so she’s very motivated to learn Norwegian so she can tell stories “på Norsk.” I invited her over for lunch today. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with about the language. After lunch we went for a walk down to the beach (see photo) and sat there and talked about Norwegian customs that catch us by surprise – like the formalness of parties and weddings and such. There is nothing casual about any kind of event in Norway. People dress to the nines even when invited over to someone’s house for coffee. It was so nice to make a new friend. I love expanding my horizons when I meet new people, as everyone has life stories I find fascinating. If I wasn’t going to school every day, I’d love to just write people’s stories. There’s a lot of interesting people here.

Kory worked today and was glad he was outside for most of the day since it was so nice. He hadn’t heard a word from the Ålesund Kommune about our living in The Sinking Houses all day, but then tonight the attorney stopped by to take a reading on our electrical meter. He said they closed the deal today with the Ålesund Kommune. I asked him if he came to give us 30 days notice to move out, and he said NO! He talked with the number one guy at the Kommune today and he is “quite certain” they are going to have the same arrangement with us that the insurance company had – meaning we get to continue to live here for free! Hallelujah!! He said the Kommune plans to do work on the houses for a few months, like adding extra supports under the buildings to bring more stability to them (they do sway quite a bit with the wind.) He said they will be putting renters in this summer, about the time we plan to leave, and they realize they need someone here to keep looking after things. The timing is incredible and I’m amazed that we will be living here the entire year rent free. It’s just unheard of, but God has once again provided above and beyond all we could ask or hope for. What a story. Hallelujah!