A Very Rainy Day

This morning at breakfast Kory jokingly offered Henrik some Tran (cod liver oil).  Henrik said right away, “I hate that stuff – but it’s good for the body – so OK,” and he proceeded to pour some on his spoon and take it.  Kaleb has never even tasted it and has turned down every offer Kory’s made, but right away he grabbed his spoon and took his first swallow – not wanting Henrik to think poorly of him, I’m sure.  It was pretty funny. 

Henrik and Kaleb were almost stir crazy this morning, sitting in our condo with no where to go and not much to do.  Even after a few hours of electronics, they were nearly batty with boredom.  Kaleb’s new Nintendo has some game on it that gives points for every 100 steps the player takes.  I’m sure this is some propaganda by the game companies in response to parent’s complaints that kids just sit endlessly on the sofa playing electronic games. Kaleb put the gaming device in his pocket, and began to pace back and forth in the condo, counting his steps.  Sure enough, every 100 steps he got a point.  Then he paced faster and faster and finally ran out on our covered walkway, down to the elevator and back again.  Then he started hopping and fidgeting around trying to get the counter to register more steps, even when he didn’t take them.  It drove me batty.  I think I’d much prefer him sitting still in the living room quietly playing a game, than walking, running, hopping and counting as he goes, all to get a few points on a stupid game.

The weather wasn’t conducive to playing outside at all, so I had to give Kaleb an early Easter gift in order to keep them entertained.  I’d found a portable ping pong set that I thought would be perfect for days such as today, and it was just the ticket.  We set it up on the kitchen table and the boys were entertained for hours just hitting that ball back and forth (see photo).  Brilliant.  Then when it was time for Henrik to go home, we decided to drive him there so he wouldn’t get so wet riding his bike, and the boys must have played another hour with all of Kaleb’s stuffed dogs, in the process of trying to find Henrik’s socks that disappeared overnight. 

When we took Henrik home this afternoon, we stopped by Tobias’ house (they live near each other).  I lost all my photos of our time with Tobias last summer when my laptop died.  I’d sent him a thumb drive with some of the pictures on it, so I wanted to get copies from him so I could make a photo book of our trip to Yellowstone and all the things we did with him.  His parents were home, so they took a break from building their new hagestua (garden livingroom), and we had a little chat over coffee about our upcoming trip to Turkey with them.  It was great to see them again.  I guess their time in America was very influential and they are hoping to return again soon.  Bjorn is building his new outbuilding (aka “man cave”) with an American motif – stars and stripes are the over riding theme.  It will be done in time for 17^th of May, so they invited us back for a bar-b-que on that day to enjoy it.  We all got a laugh when they told us the most lasting thing from their time with us last year is that one of their (now) 7 year old twins walks around day and night, shouting HALLELUJAH!  His teachers have even said he does it several times a day at school too, which is pretty funny because they aren’t Christians, but apparently he likes the sound of it so it’s become his thing.  Hallelujah!

Tonight we were invited to dinner at my friend, Valesca’s house.  She and her husband are from Brazil.  He was working as a buyer for a shipyard in Brazil when he got recruited to come to Norway to work doing the same thing here.  He’s been doing it for five years now and just got a new job offer selling engines for ships for Rolls Royce.  Valesca was an attorney in Brazil but now sells dried fish to markets all over the world.  They are quite the power couple – both very professional and hard working.  It was so fun tonight to hear all their impressions of how different Norway is from Brazil.  They think the office environment here has to be the best in the world.  No one stresses about anything, no one works overtime, normal work hours are 8:30-4:00 and everyone gets the vacations they want, and plenty of them.  They were shocked that employees have a right to say NO if they are asked to do something they don’t want to do and it's nearly impossible to get fired for anything.  It’s weird to think Norway is so productive, but they did say there is absolutely no chit-chat among co-workers during the day.  Everyone just comes in, sits down and does their job.  There is no discussion about how the weekend went or what anyone’s upcoming plans are – not even during lunch - it’s just all business. 

Valesca said she had a problem with one of her co-workers one day and the woman yelled at her.  It was so NOT Norwegian.  Valesca didn’t like the woman anyway because she was always saying NO to things Valesca asked her to do.  So when the woman yelled at her, Valesca took home a copy of the Norwegian workers rights and read through it.  She discovered that every employee has the right to be treated with respect and not yelled at.  So the next day Valesca handed the woman a copy of worker’s rights and told her if she ever yelled at her again, she would call the police.  Apparently, that did it and the woman has been nice to her ever since.  I just wonder what the police would do if they showed up at an office because someone got yelled at.  Only in Norway.

Gustavo, Valesca’s husband, said he couldn’t believe it when they put their daughter in preschool and they were told she could only go one hour a day for a few days, then two hours a day and on and on to ease her into the all day routine.  It was going to take 14 days total before she would be there fulltime.  He was stressing about his job because Valesca had just started her new job and couldn’t take time off.  He went to his boss and told him he had a problem with the preschool and his boss said, “Do you think you are the first one in Norway to have this problem?  Everyone has this problem.  You just work from home until she’s in preschool fulltime.”  And that was it.  He was so surprised the life here totally revolves around family priorities.  But then he said he was also surprised when the preschool sent home a note they would be having a BBQ one Friday evening for all the parents of the children that go there.  He said everyone brought their own little grill, their own food, sat the whole time grilling their food and eating it, then packed up and went home.  No one mingled with others, no food was shared, no visiting took place.  He wondered why in the world they even bothered doing such a thing – but that’s just the way it happens sometimes around here.   Funny.

Kaleb entertained himself all evening on a chair (see photos above).  It was the craziest thing, and I’m sure, cost a fortune.  It’s center of gravity makes it stand up like a sculpture in the living room, but it can be turned any which way and sat on.  Kaleb discovered 26 different sitting/reclining positions on it and couldn’t be torn away from it for hours.  Gustavo finally gave him his I-pad so he had games to play, as we were there until midnight and he was getting pretty squirrely. 

They have a lovely home, which they’ve totally gutted and remodeled.  “It was all so outdated and old,” Valesca said.  I was thinking – 70’s motif – but when she said, “It was all done in the 90s,” I felt pretty dated myself. 

Feeling Blessed

It’s a good thing the plan was for Paula to stay home today while I went to school because she got three phone calls in the middle of the night and didn’t sleep too well as a result. I was up and out the door as normal, Kaleb went to school, and Kory was at home to make her a cup of coffee when she woke up at ten. Poor thing. At least she didn’t have the rush to get out the door. Kory took her to the Sunnmøre Museum in town and I met them there after school. It’s a great museum as they have all the cool old buildings from this area (see photo) and it was yet another beautiful day here in Sunnmøre (the area around Aalesund). Everyone that meets Paula is sure to tell her that she’s been very lucky to be here when we’ve had such good weather, and she agrees, especially since her town in Colorado has been getting snow everyday this week. But truly, this week has been incredible here. It was so warm and sunny today I took a nap on a bench while Kory and Paula walked around the museum grounds. I think my face might even be slightly darker now as it got its first good dose of Vitamin D (a big concern in these parts).

When we got back home, Kaleb and Tobias had all the shades drawn and a blanket over the interior door windows and they were up to something. We had to wait in the hallway for the “all clear” sign, and then we were ushered into the living room, once again, all decked out for an afternoon tea party. Kaleb is desperately trying to wipe out his electronics restriction so he’s been on his best behavior lately, but I keep telling him there is no negotiating on that one. It was nice to be spoiled a little, just the same. He melted some of his chocolate candies so I’d have it to spread on garlic/rosemary crackers (the only thing he could find in the cupboard). He’d even done his Algebra homework BEFORE school today, and got all but one right. He’d come home from school and completed all his other homework without either Kory or I saying a word. The self-determination and motivation he displays at such a time as this, makes me want to cry because then I truly know what he’s capable of, and when I don’t see it too often any other time, it hurts. What’s a mother to do? I told my teacher at school today Kaleb has been so devastated that he can’t play with electronics that he doesn’t even want a playdate with other boys at their house because then there would be nothing to do with them. My teacher Inga said when she was a child, and misbehaved, her restriction was to NOT go outside. She said she’d stand in the window and watch all the other kids outside playing, and she was so sad she couldn’t join them. Kaleb laughed when I told him that, as he can’t imagine what kids would be doing outside when all the fun is found behind a computer screen.

We must have spent two hours today talking about what we should be doing tomorrow and Saturday, since Paula’s time is coming to an end so quickly. We ran every scenario, but for the most part, she’s here about two weeks too early as most of the real touristy things aren’t open yet. And we’ve been seeking out the best way for her return to Oslo to fly out on Sunday at noon, and we’ve come to realize just how small this town is. There are no flights Sunday morning, the train gets in after her flight takes off, and the night bus from Aalesund to Oslo gets in six hours before her flight, so none of the options are ideal. We offered to drive her to the airport, but she saw how long of a drive it was to get here and wouldn’t even consider that as an option, so now it seems she’ll be taking the night bus Saturday and killing six hours in a small airport before she flies home at noon. Not ideal, but she swears she won’t let the return trip home diminish all the fun she’s had while she’s been here. So we need to kick it up a notch and make the next two days really count.

Kaleb had a birthday party to attend this afternoon so while he was off having more fun than he’s had in a while, we went to greet all the aunts and to show Paula our condo. We brought them all belated Easter greetings, but mostly we wanted to see how Tante Kari is doing with her broken hip. She wasn’t feeling too well tonight and when Kory asked if there was anything he could help her with, she said, “Take away my pain,” so we prayed for her. I’m glad we got to visit, and Paula got to meet the “Tantes.” While Kory was visiting with Tante Ruth, Paula was helping me with future decorating plans, should the day ever come that we actually get to live in our condo. Tante Ruth wasn’t feeling too well either so we understand full well that old age isn’t for sissies. We’re all glad we aren’t that old yet.

We had our home fellowship group meeting tonight but instead of going to someone’s home, like we usually do, some of us met up at a restaurant for “kvelds mat” (night food). Paula came along and met some of the gang. Not all the conversation was in English but she was a gracious guest anyway. Typical Paula – easy to have around, no matter what.