The Good Teacher Inga never teaches us on Fridays. She teaches English to another class, so we always have a substitute on those days. We’ve had the same sub for the past couple of weeks. Her name is Lidia and she is from Russia. I have tremendous respect for her because she is now teaching Norwegian after only living here for eight years. She is gifted in languages as she speaks English perfectly, as well as French and Spanish (and Russian and Norwegian!). We don’t have any native French speakers in our class but we sure have Spanish and Russian speakers, so she’s quite the hit with all of us. She was teaching us today about the rules involved with prepositional phrases and we all sat there with a blank look on our face. When the light bulb finally clicked for me, I asked her, in English, if what I thought was correct. She answered back in English. Then a Russian woman fired off a whole string of questions and they went back and forth like lightening in Russian. Then the Spanish speakers spoke up and she answered them in Spanish. Then we all understood what she was trying to tell us in Norwegian. She is amazing. It’s not that we didn’t understand her Norwegian, we just didn’t understand why in the world the Norwegian language would have such crazy rules about prepositional phrases. (And I think most of the class doesn’t even know what a prepositional phrase is, even in their own language.) I’m sure the best training ground these Norwegians have for setting world records and winning so many Olympic gold medals is the fact that as children they’ve all had to learn this language. When my dad was a little boy he was quite mischievous and my grandma used to say, “If he lives to be five, he’ll live a lifetime.” (And he did.) I feel the same way about Norwegian. Parents must say, “If they can learn to speak Norwegian, they can do ANYTHING!” (And they do.)
I stayed in town after school today and went to lunch with my partner, Vestina. She wanted to practice her Norsk a little more so we sat and talked about all kinds of things (in Norwegian) for an hour. Who knows if we said things properly but we both understood each other perfectly. I wish I could do that with someone who would correct my Norsk though as I worry about developing bad habits. Odd and Turid came over for dinner tonight and Turid corrected me a bit, so that was nice. She just got back from a two week vacation with her mother and mother-in-law that could probably take top prize for “Worst Vacation.” They went on a once in a lifetime trip to Egypt and Israel and her luggage got lost and didn’t arrive for three days. She couldn’t find any stores that sold underwear because women in Egypt apparently don’t use such a thing. She had to wear her mother’s underwear which wasn’t exactly a good fit. Then on day five just as they left Egypt and entered Israel, her mother got deathly ill from something she ate. Turid had to ask the tour bus driver to call an ambulance and she had to leave the tour and go stay by her mother’s side in the hospital in Jerusalem– for a week! (She never got to see a THING in Israel.) Her mom was just now well enough to come home, but is in the hospital here in Ålesund. Poor Turid, she is wiped out. (Her mom is going to be okay and may get out of the hospital tomorrow.) They all had dreamt of going to the Holy Land, and none of them had been before, so it was a very sad turn of events. Tante Kari (Turid’s mother-in-law) was the only one that had a good time as she stayed healthy and was able to keep up with the tour. I’m just glad they all made it back alive. Double uff da.
We had a bit of rain today so Kaleb played on the computer after school and Kory stayed inside and drew pictures of things. He drew the mountains out our window, he drew Mickey Mouse on the cover of Kaleb’s comic book (see photo), he drew Donald Duck, and he started to draw downtown Ålesund. His drawing skills are quite impressive but he says he’s just “goofing around” (like it’s not real art.) I love all his art work and in nearly 18 years of marriage I haven’t seen him draw a thing, except the little ditty on our Christmas cards every year. We get TV reception at home – just one channel that only plays re-runs – but it’s enough to occupy all his free time. When there is no TV, this is what I get – ART! I love it. Odd called me the “Gestapo” tonight because I still won’t bend on the “no TV” rule. Maybe I could work a deal where Kory could sell his art to pay the fees required to watch TV? Never! The Gestapo has spoken.
I stayed in town after school today and went to lunch with my partner, Vestina. She wanted to practice her Norsk a little more so we sat and talked about all kinds of things (in Norwegian) for an hour. Who knows if we said things properly but we both understood each other perfectly. I wish I could do that with someone who would correct my Norsk though as I worry about developing bad habits. Odd and Turid came over for dinner tonight and Turid corrected me a bit, so that was nice. She just got back from a two week vacation with her mother and mother-in-law that could probably take top prize for “Worst Vacation.” They went on a once in a lifetime trip to Egypt and Israel and her luggage got lost and didn’t arrive for three days. She couldn’t find any stores that sold underwear because women in Egypt apparently don’t use such a thing. She had to wear her mother’s underwear which wasn’t exactly a good fit. Then on day five just as they left Egypt and entered Israel, her mother got deathly ill from something she ate. Turid had to ask the tour bus driver to call an ambulance and she had to leave the tour and go stay by her mother’s side in the hospital in Jerusalem– for a week! (She never got to see a THING in Israel.) Her mom was just now well enough to come home, but is in the hospital here in Ålesund. Poor Turid, she is wiped out. (Her mom is going to be okay and may get out of the hospital tomorrow.) They all had dreamt of going to the Holy Land, and none of them had been before, so it was a very sad turn of events. Tante Kari (Turid’s mother-in-law) was the only one that had a good time as she stayed healthy and was able to keep up with the tour. I’m just glad they all made it back alive. Double uff da.
We had a bit of rain today so Kaleb played on the computer after school and Kory stayed inside and drew pictures of things. He drew the mountains out our window, he drew Mickey Mouse on the cover of Kaleb’s comic book (see photo), he drew Donald Duck, and he started to draw downtown Ålesund. His drawing skills are quite impressive but he says he’s just “goofing around” (like it’s not real art.) I love all his art work and in nearly 18 years of marriage I haven’t seen him draw a thing, except the little ditty on our Christmas cards every year. We get TV reception at home – just one channel that only plays re-runs – but it’s enough to occupy all his free time. When there is no TV, this is what I get – ART! I love it. Odd called me the “Gestapo” tonight because I still won’t bend on the “no TV” rule. Maybe I could work a deal where Kory could sell his art to pay the fees required to watch TV? Never! The Gestapo has spoken.
