A Blizzardy Day

It hasn’t stopped all day – snow pelting down, fueled by a strong wind from the west. It’s not the delicate, fluffy snowflakes that are fun to catch on my tongue. No, what we have today are little frozen balls of ice (like hail) that arrive with such force it feels like someone is throwing pebbles my way. Heading into the wind is a most painful proposition. I’ve never been outside in such weather. It’s best experienced from inside my igloo, but I had to go to school today. The journey there and back literally took my breath away and nearly knocked me over several times from wind gusts. Uff da. It’s an exciting storm and it’s long from over. I wore snow boots today but that only helped my feet. The rest of me needed body armor. What a day. Kaleb took the bus to school as the bike was clearly not an option, nor was Kory driving him there. Kory braved the elements and walked down to pick him up this afternoon though. It was a long walk back home. The snow is so dry it won’t form into balls for a good snowball fight, but a fight would seem pointless since every drop of snow is such an assault there would be no need for snowballs. Good times. Kaleb finally got to try out his “new” cross-country skis that we bought at a flea market. He knows how to ski downhill, but the Telemark skiing is new to him (see photo of his first lesson at four o’clock this afternoon. He did great.)

My school is doing a good job of exposing us to all the culture this town has to offer. Today we got to go to the theatre and watch a play put on by the local university called “Et rom for kjærlighet” (A Room for Love). I’m thinking it was their dress rehearsal because all the students got in for free. The play lasted 70 minutes and there were three actors. The young woman looked almost exactly like Renee Zellweger and she was extremely talented. In fact, all three actors were brilliant and the play was incredibly well done. I wish I understood more Norwegian so I could have picked up on all the good lines, as I know there had to have been some because the subject matter was so rich. It was about a young woman that falls in love with a guy she didn’t know was a crook. He gave up his life of crime when he met her, but just one last time he decided to rob a place to get enough money to buy her a ring. He got caught and the bulk of the play took place while he was in prison. The other actor was the mother of the young woman, trying to talk sense into her to stay away from the guy. It was so European. The characters in the play were smoking and drinking and swearing. The couple in love even had conjugal visits so there was partial nudity. It wouldn’t have been so bad with all of those edgy elements, but more than half the audience was junior high age kids. Somehow that didn’t seem right to me as I’m sure it would have been rated R in America, but Europeans have much different standards when it comes to those types of things. So it was all quite interesting.

The government auditors I met yesterday were in my class today “observing” how it was going. When they left, one of them said to me, “Are you sure you’ve only been taking this class for three months? You are VERY good at speaking Norwegian.” So that was a big thrill for me as these people don’t know me and they genuinely seemed impressed. Woo hoo for me. (But I still feel so inadequate!)

Sabina came over this afternoon and drank hot coco with us after school. Her and Kaleb made up a little game where one named something in Norwegian and the other had to say it in English and vice versa. It had to be something they could see at that moment, so it was very fun to listen to them expanding their vocabularies. Kaleb is doing so much better than I am at speaking Norwegian and I’m glad now he and Sabina can actually talk back and forth – not just say a word here or there. Life is good.

We SKYPEd Grammy J tonight – she’s Kaleb’s adopted grandma and our spiritual mentor and we miss her terribly. That SKYPE thing is just too much fun – free video communication over the internet – gotta love that. We have SKYPEd a few friends now and our home fellowship group back home. It sure takes the sting out of any homesickness that might be building up but I am SO not homesick.

It's Snowing Again!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning and snow is still coming down (sideways). More is expected tomorrow. I like looking at it more than I like walking in it as there are so many hills and the streets turn to sheets of ice. I need suction cups for my shoes. I had to sit on my butt to get down a hill today in order to catch my bus. Not fun. It was more than a bit stressful getting home but now that I’m in my toasty warm living room, I’m fine again. Tomorrow I’m wearing my snow boots to school and that will solve the problem (I hope).

The Good Teacher Inga was sick today so we had the Friday (multi-lingual) teacher. She’s great and I’m so glad we get different teachers in our class as we learn better that way. Today the teacher asked for two student volunteers to go to a meeting. I wasn’t quite sure what I was volunteering for, but I said I’d go nonetheless. Turns out it was an interview by government auditors hired by the Aalesund Kommune to give them a report on how things are going in the schools that cater to immigrants. Word is, Aalesund has some of the finest schools in Norway, so maybe this is how they get that reputation – they are constantly working to improve their systems.

There were about a dozen students and two government auditors in this meeting. These auditors also spoke with the teachers from all the schools so they hear both sides of the story and then write up a report for the Kommune. They asked pointed questions and we all had to answer. Some of the students were from the school for the blind, some from a college, others from a higher level of Norwegian classes, and then two of us beginners. I tried to understand what they were asking but on several occasions I needed clarification in English so I was sure I could answer correctly. They wanted to know things like, did we have enough computers in our classroom, were we allowed enough time to use them, does the teacher start the class on time, do students show up on time, how do we get to school, is the classroom adequate, are we given a weekly plan so we know what is going to be taught each day, are we told WHY we are being taught what we are taught, does the teacher use other types of learning tools – not just teaching straight from the book, stuff like that. Then they asked us what our feelings were about the class and any problems we had. Most everyone said that other students talking between themselves while the teacher is talking was the worst thing. I threw in my two cents about that guy in our class who always shows up late and never does the homework or participates in the class. It felt good to vent. That guy only comes because the classes are obligatory but he’s such a disruption it would be better to not have him there as he isn’t learning a thing and he is so disrespectful of the whole process. Too bad nothing can be done about that. So the real problems end up NOT getting fixed, but I’m sure our input will help someone somewhere – assuming the government here is more efficient than in America anyway.

Kaleb couldn’t wait to tell me about his day at school and The Morten Report. He only had three subjects today and he was gloating. He made me keep guessing over and over what those three subjects could have been, but I never could have guessed. He had two hours of reading (pure heaven for him), two hours of forming (learning to sew – which he loves) and then they watched the Norwegian version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. He was just downright giddy. He’s read that book many times, and seen the movie in English once, so he knew the story line well and could track perfectly with what was being said. So except for The Morten Report, he thought his day was incredible.

The Morten Report today was a bit disturbing for me – as Morten had a pair of scissors during the forming class and he opened them up and pushed them up to Kaleb’s throat. Kaleb didn’t report him to the teacher, but I sent an e-mail to Morten’s mom as that was a bit much. Kaleb will tell his teacher tomorrow about it and hopefully they can keep the two of them away from each other when potential weapons are at hand. One of Kaleb’s after school leaders told me that many kids are starting to NOT like Morten just because of how he treats Kaleb. I guess a lot of kids admire Kaleb and they feel he’s being singled out and mistreated too much. So that was nice to hear, and it will be an incredible witness of the love of Jesus if Kaleb and Morten actually do become good friends because Kaleb has every reason in the world to NOT want that, but he holds no ill feelings against him. We pray for Morten and we trust that God will use this relationship “for good.”

And as for Kory – he stayed home today and didn’t do a darn thing.