Kaleb had another run-in with Morten today – actually, Morten kicked some large rocks at Kaleb and hurt his ankle. Morten then later took an even larger rock and smashed it down on Kaleb’s backpack. All in a day’s work I guess. At least nothing was broken - on the foot or in the bag. That kid is something else.
Kory went under the houses today to take measurements and do his monthly report – possibly the last one he’ll do, as the houses now have new owners and our future is uncertain. The attorney called today to see if we’ve heard from the Ålesund Kommune, but we haven’t. We’re hoping Kory can continue to be the watchman, and that we can continue to live here. We might know more tomorrow.
I had the speaking part of my “practice test” today so I had to stay after school an hour and talk. I passed with flying colors even though I was grammatically incorrect in nearly every sentence. They care more that the idea gets across than they care about proper grammar, so that saved me. We had to carry on a dialogue with other students about all kinds of things. The only comment the judges made to me was that I need to “make room” for the others to talk… that’s the nice Norwegian way of saying I talked a little TOO much. I felt like I was in 1st grade all over again getting in trouble for talking. I had them all laughing though, so I’m sure I got extra points for being so entertaining. Tee hee.
Today in class during our discussion time, we broke into small groups to practice our conversational Norwegian. One new woman to our class is from Brazil and she was in my group. She moved to Norway two years ago when her husband’s job relocated him here – he does something with shipping companies – I’m not quite sure what. She was an attorney in Brazil but she can’t even dream of being that here unless she becomes fluent in the language and goes back to college to learn all the Norwegian laws. She could only say that she had to give up her dream job to come here and she has no idea what she will do with her future, other than raise their one year old daughter. She is a stunningly beautiful woman, dresses in high fashion and speaks many languages. She’s Jewish so she speaks Hebrew, and she’s from Brazil so she speaks Portugese and Spanish. Her English is flawless and she’s also very good at Norwegian. I have such a hard time understanding how people can be so good at so many languages when I struggle so much with one! So much for feeling smart.
When we were talking today she said she had just one brother, but he died two years ago in an airplane crash. She told us that a smaller American executive jet collided with the wing tip of a much larger Brazilian plane. The American jet was able to land safely, and no one on that plane was injured, but the Brazilian plane went spiraling out of control down into the jungle and crashed. All 154 people on board died, including her brother. It took 20 days to locate the plane. He had become a father just 11 days before the accident. She said something that I thought was interesting, because it shows just what the world thinks of America on some level. She said that if the smaller plane was a Brazilian plane and it crashed into a larger American plane, they would have called it a “terrorist attack” even though it was an accident. As it was (I read this on the internet tonight), the Brazilian government detained the American pilots for two months as they were going to put them on trial and charge them as criminals. It was the worst airplane accident in the history of Brazil, and it was America’s fault, in their estimation. But from what I can tell, it was the air traffic controllers fault, and some gauges that didn’t work properly that would have warned both planes they were too close. I don’t know how much news coverage there was of this in America (we don’t watch TV), but it’s been huge news in Brazil. I felt so sad for my classmate as she was telling us where she was when she heard the news and how it’s been since then. Everyone has a story that will break your heart. But then she turned right around and cracked us up as she told us that her mother is a feminist and refused to teach her how to do any kind of housework or cook any food because, her mother reasoned, if she knows how to do it, she will be expected to do it her whole life. So here sat before me today an incredibly gorgeous woman, very intelligent and educated who honestly can’t (and won’t) do laundry or cook a meal to save her life. Her husband does it all, she says, or they hire it out. Amazing. It reminded me of my great Aunt Clara in North Dakota who refused to learn to drive a car because she feared her whole life would be running into town to get things for the men out on the farm and she wouldn’t have a life of her own. (She’s one smart cookie, too.) But when she was 72 I taught her how to drive because her husband was dead by then and SHE needed to get to town. Life happens. Things change.
Kory went under the houses today to take measurements and do his monthly report – possibly the last one he’ll do, as the houses now have new owners and our future is uncertain. The attorney called today to see if we’ve heard from the Ålesund Kommune, but we haven’t. We’re hoping Kory can continue to be the watchman, and that we can continue to live here. We might know more tomorrow.
I had the speaking part of my “practice test” today so I had to stay after school an hour and talk. I passed with flying colors even though I was grammatically incorrect in nearly every sentence. They care more that the idea gets across than they care about proper grammar, so that saved me. We had to carry on a dialogue with other students about all kinds of things. The only comment the judges made to me was that I need to “make room” for the others to talk… that’s the nice Norwegian way of saying I talked a little TOO much. I felt like I was in 1st grade all over again getting in trouble for talking. I had them all laughing though, so I’m sure I got extra points for being so entertaining. Tee hee.
Today in class during our discussion time, we broke into small groups to practice our conversational Norwegian. One new woman to our class is from Brazil and she was in my group. She moved to Norway two years ago when her husband’s job relocated him here – he does something with shipping companies – I’m not quite sure what. She was an attorney in Brazil but she can’t even dream of being that here unless she becomes fluent in the language and goes back to college to learn all the Norwegian laws. She could only say that she had to give up her dream job to come here and she has no idea what she will do with her future, other than raise their one year old daughter. She is a stunningly beautiful woman, dresses in high fashion and speaks many languages. She’s Jewish so she speaks Hebrew, and she’s from Brazil so she speaks Portugese and Spanish. Her English is flawless and she’s also very good at Norwegian. I have such a hard time understanding how people can be so good at so many languages when I struggle so much with one! So much for feeling smart.
When we were talking today she said she had just one brother, but he died two years ago in an airplane crash. She told us that a smaller American executive jet collided with the wing tip of a much larger Brazilian plane. The American jet was able to land safely, and no one on that plane was injured, but the Brazilian plane went spiraling out of control down into the jungle and crashed. All 154 people on board died, including her brother. It took 20 days to locate the plane. He had become a father just 11 days before the accident. She said something that I thought was interesting, because it shows just what the world thinks of America on some level. She said that if the smaller plane was a Brazilian plane and it crashed into a larger American plane, they would have called it a “terrorist attack” even though it was an accident. As it was (I read this on the internet tonight), the Brazilian government detained the American pilots for two months as they were going to put them on trial and charge them as criminals. It was the worst airplane accident in the history of Brazil, and it was America’s fault, in their estimation. But from what I can tell, it was the air traffic controllers fault, and some gauges that didn’t work properly that would have warned both planes they were too close. I don’t know how much news coverage there was of this in America (we don’t watch TV), but it’s been huge news in Brazil. I felt so sad for my classmate as she was telling us where she was when she heard the news and how it’s been since then. Everyone has a story that will break your heart. But then she turned right around and cracked us up as she told us that her mother is a feminist and refused to teach her how to do any kind of housework or cook any food because, her mother reasoned, if she knows how to do it, she will be expected to do it her whole life. So here sat before me today an incredibly gorgeous woman, very intelligent and educated who honestly can’t (and won’t) do laundry or cook a meal to save her life. Her husband does it all, she says, or they hire it out. Amazing. It reminded me of my great Aunt Clara in North Dakota who refused to learn to drive a car because she feared her whole life would be running into town to get things for the men out on the farm and she wouldn’t have a life of her own. (She’s one smart cookie, too.) But when she was 72 I taught her how to drive because her husband was dead by then and SHE needed to get to town. Life happens. Things change.
