Kory finished his latest drawing today of the Borgund Stave Kirke (built in 1180). His attention to detail is incredible. Everyone who comes over, I show them his sketch book of drawings and they “ooh and aah” appropriately and make all kinds of comments about what an incredible artist he is. He gives them a little giggle and a shrug and always says, “No, I’m not an artist. I just put some lines down on a piece of paper.” I hate his smugness, but I love the results. I’m thinking I’ll make copies when we get home and give them as gifts or make my own line of greeting cards or use them as illustrations in the book I’m going to write about Norway…. The possibilities are endless! He’s already planning his next drawing – of our dog sled trip! Woo hoo.
I had yet another mind boggling day at school. I always wonder why I forget to do my homework at night and only remember it in the morning on the way to school. I’m sure it’s because I really do want to forget everything I’ve learned that day as most of the rules go against anything that makes sense in my world. Like today we learned the two different words they use for the word “when.” One word “da” is used only if you say “when” in the past tense, like “When I was nine years old ....” The other word for “when” is “når” (pronounced "nor") and that is used for the all future references to “when” like “When I retire ....” Okay, so that’s a fairly easy rule to learn and just takes some practice to put into place. But just as soon as The Good Teacher Inga taught us this rule, she told us that this entire region NEVER uses the word “da” – they always use the word “når” for everything – that it’s part of their “dialect” but grammatically incorrect. Yet all other Norwegians use both words properly so we must learn it or we will surely fail the competency test. (I’m certain that if the locals had to take a competency test similar to the one we must take, they would all fail.) Learning this language is hard enough, but all the variations on the theme push me over the edge.
At least Kaleb had a pretty good day today. He used some of his work time at school to get ALL his homework done so he was a free agent this afternoon. I had a friend over for coffee after I got home so Kaleb played on his computer in his room waiting for Tobias to call and then he was off and running. Tobias came over here after dinner and we had quite the discussion about the whole bullying situation at their school. Kaleb had a little run-in with Morten today as Morten said something to Kaleb in a hostile tone, but Kaleb’s Norwegian wasn’t good enough to understand what he said so he just laughed, which precipitated a punch to the stomach. Ignorance isn’t always bliss, I guess. Tobias told us about what happened to his friend at school today – that some bully punched a hole in his friend’s side with a pencil tip and was called into the principal’s office for a little “talking to.” When he got out of the principal’s office he went up to Tobias’ friend and bit him hard on his shoulder and then pulled his pants (and underwear) down in front of all the kids at recess. The only consequence the bully got was another talking to, and they called his parents to inform them what happened. It’s incredible to me how much tolerance they have for this kind of behavior especially when they take pride in their “zero tolerance” for bullying! Kaleb just got his school sweatshirt with the logo and school slogan on it, and translated to English it says, “Blindheim Children’s school – where friendship is correct and bullying is not.” Gotta love that.
Kory had an opportunity to deal with a little situation of his own today too. Several days ago he noticed one of the downspouts on the garage went missing. He looked around to see who might be doing work on their house and saw it was our closest neighbor. Kory walked over there and sure enough, there was the missing downspout lying in the yard. He pondered the whole situation for days and finally decided to seek the advice of Erling, an old retired guy that lives across the street and is a friend of the neighbor with questionable character. When Kory finally saw Erling outside today he went over and started telling him about the missing downspout and before he could finish the story Erling said, “I know where it’s at,” as another neighbor actually watched the one guy stealing it and told him about it. (I guess calling the police didn’t occur to him.) Erling offered to go over and get it for Kory because he’s pretty good friends with the sticky-fingers neighbor. Erling retrieved the downspout and even installed it back in its rightful spot. Erling said that guy doesn’t have much respect for people’s property (apparently he has a little drug and alcohol problem) as one time that guy cut down all the trees across the street from his house so he had a better view of the mountains. The woman that owned the land (and trees) yelled at him like he’s never been yelled at before. According to Erling, every time the neighbor sees that woman now he runs for cover. So maybe those “talks” they give the bullies at Kaleb’s school just need a little more volume.
I had yet another mind boggling day at school. I always wonder why I forget to do my homework at night and only remember it in the morning on the way to school. I’m sure it’s because I really do want to forget everything I’ve learned that day as most of the rules go against anything that makes sense in my world. Like today we learned the two different words they use for the word “when.” One word “da” is used only if you say “when” in the past tense, like “When I was nine years old ....” The other word for “when” is “når” (pronounced "nor") and that is used for the all future references to “when” like “When I retire ....” Okay, so that’s a fairly easy rule to learn and just takes some practice to put into place. But just as soon as The Good Teacher Inga taught us this rule, she told us that this entire region NEVER uses the word “da” – they always use the word “når” for everything – that it’s part of their “dialect” but grammatically incorrect. Yet all other Norwegians use both words properly so we must learn it or we will surely fail the competency test. (I’m certain that if the locals had to take a competency test similar to the one we must take, they would all fail.) Learning this language is hard enough, but all the variations on the theme push me over the edge.
At least Kaleb had a pretty good day today. He used some of his work time at school to get ALL his homework done so he was a free agent this afternoon. I had a friend over for coffee after I got home so Kaleb played on his computer in his room waiting for Tobias to call and then he was off and running. Tobias came over here after dinner and we had quite the discussion about the whole bullying situation at their school. Kaleb had a little run-in with Morten today as Morten said something to Kaleb in a hostile tone, but Kaleb’s Norwegian wasn’t good enough to understand what he said so he just laughed, which precipitated a punch to the stomach. Ignorance isn’t always bliss, I guess. Tobias told us about what happened to his friend at school today – that some bully punched a hole in his friend’s side with a pencil tip and was called into the principal’s office for a little “talking to.” When he got out of the principal’s office he went up to Tobias’ friend and bit him hard on his shoulder and then pulled his pants (and underwear) down in front of all the kids at recess. The only consequence the bully got was another talking to, and they called his parents to inform them what happened. It’s incredible to me how much tolerance they have for this kind of behavior especially when they take pride in their “zero tolerance” for bullying! Kaleb just got his school sweatshirt with the logo and school slogan on it, and translated to English it says, “Blindheim Children’s school – where friendship is correct and bullying is not.” Gotta love that.
Kory had an opportunity to deal with a little situation of his own today too. Several days ago he noticed one of the downspouts on the garage went missing. He looked around to see who might be doing work on their house and saw it was our closest neighbor. Kory walked over there and sure enough, there was the missing downspout lying in the yard. He pondered the whole situation for days and finally decided to seek the advice of Erling, an old retired guy that lives across the street and is a friend of the neighbor with questionable character. When Kory finally saw Erling outside today he went over and started telling him about the missing downspout and before he could finish the story Erling said, “I know where it’s at,” as another neighbor actually watched the one guy stealing it and told him about it. (I guess calling the police didn’t occur to him.) Erling offered to go over and get it for Kory because he’s pretty good friends with the sticky-fingers neighbor. Erling retrieved the downspout and even installed it back in its rightful spot. Erling said that guy doesn’t have much respect for people’s property (apparently he has a little drug and alcohol problem) as one time that guy cut down all the trees across the street from his house so he had a better view of the mountains. The woman that owned the land (and trees) yelled at him like he’s never been yelled at before. According to Erling, every time the neighbor sees that woman now he runs for cover. So maybe those “talks” they give the bullies at Kaleb’s school just need a little more volume.
