May Day

1 May 2013

Today was a “red day.”  That’s how they describe holidays in Norway – because they appear on all calendars in red, rather than black ink.  People are free from their jobs, all businesses are closed and schools take a break.  It’s their “Labor Day,” so we were treated to a marching band (above) in front of our condo building and Norwegian flags flying high overhead on an otherwise very quiet day, except for the strong winds whipping everything to and fro.

Kaleb was still feeling a bit punky, so he expected to spend the day in bed again, until his friend Daniel called, then all of a sudden he was up and out the door.  Kory was gone all afternoon working at his cousin Odd’s house repairing a hole in their flooring, which left me home alone.  It was glorious.

I spent most of the day packing up more dishes and glass things I want to bring home with me, so I’m getting suitcases and small boxes of things ready in case any future visiting Norwegians come with empty suitcases.  Glassware is heavy, so I can’t pack too much in one place, but I got a good deal of it tucked away today so that takes some stress out of the coming weeks.

I’ve invited a few friends over for lunch tomorrow so I spent another few hours today making food for that event.  In the midst of my cooking, the doorbell rang and it was our old neighbor, Sabina (above), who stopped by for a visit.  She was about to attend a confirmation meeting at Philadelphia Church next door, but had an hour to kill so she thought she’d come see us.  I loved visiting with her while I was chopping up things.  We talked about all her good memories from her visit to us in America 18 months ago, and about all her memories of us as her neighbor almost five years ago.  We spoke in Norwegian, so it was good practice for me.  It’s nice to see she’s all grown up and I was glad she stopped in.

Tonight we were invited to the 40^th birthday party for Pastor Mark from Agape Church.  We went a little early and stopped by Cousin Bjørn’s house to drop off some tools Kory borrowed.  We talked with Bjørn about the possibility of them coming to visit us again next year in America, and we also got to see Tobias (above) for the first time since we’ve been here this year.  He’s all grown up, too!  They want us to hike up Norway’s highest mountain with them next month, but the part of walking over the top of a glacier for one hour just doesn’t set well with me.  I take about twice as long as the normal person when out on a hike, and I hate to slow them down that much.  They are mountain climbing folks and I’m just a newbie to it all and not in that great of shape… Ugh.  Maybe I’ll feel differently after I hike up a few mountains this month, but so far the weather hasn’t cooperated with our schedule.  Maybe it’s a blessing that it hasn’t.

So Pastor Mark’s birthday party was well attended and once again we got caught off guard.  None of us dressed up, as that church is very relaxed and even Mark wears torn jeans and a t-shirt to preach on Sundays… but we forgot about how formal Norwegians are for parties and people were wearing fancy clothes, suits and ties, and here we were in our regular street clothes we’d had on all day showing up like something the cat drug in.  I hate that.  But it was fun to be there anyway and to hear the speeches and to sing along with a song they re-wrote the words to for Mark’s benefit.  That’s a very common event at confirmations and weddings, to rewrite familiar tunes and make it a personalize kind of thing, but I hadn’t heard it at a birthday party before.  It was a Christian song we sing on Sunday’s but they were making fun of the fact that he’s not a young man anymore. 

Last week I was at Agape and watched a movie that included very risqué scenes of people having sex, to show the tragedy of human trafficking, and this week I’m at Agape singing a song written for the pastor that included American swear words.  Those are things I just don’t expect to experience in church.  I had to skip over the swear word or I would have had to pay Kaleb a dollar, since we have a deal that if I say a word I don’t want him to repeat, I pay him.  We both thought it was pretty funny they used the “sh” word in a Christian song (above), sung to the pastor at church, though, but here in Norway it’s just an ordinary word and has no bad meaning.  Still, I wouldn’t say it and it was kind of embarrassing.  I’m such a prude!

I had a nice relaxed visit with a few folks at church before we rolled out of there at 11:15.  Norwegians stay up late and we haven’t been to bed before midnight for several nights in a row now.  It took Kaleb a while to burn off all the sugar he’d eaten from all the cakes they had – 28 cakes for about 100 people!  Every kind of cake imaginable (above is just one of two big cake tables) and Kaleb fixed himself three plates full of them as he wanted to sample them all.  Good grief.  To say he was bouncing off the walls was not a figure of speech.  That kid couldn’t settle down for anything.  I just hope I can sleep now that I had to have some coffee to go with those cakes and I’m trusting it will be nothing but sweet dreams for me.