My head hurts. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more confused, I got more confused. Today’s lesson was on prepositional phrases. I know for a fact I can’t identify one of those in English grammar, let alone try to figure out one in Norwegian, and I’m a writer! The reason we need to be able to identify them is because the “ikke” goes in yet a different place in the sentence, if it’s contained within a prepositional phrase. Lord, I need help! “Ikke” is the Norwegian word for NOT, and I need to use it a LOT as I am NOT good at this language, so I really need to know where to put it in a sentence. But at this point, I feel like just saying “ikke” every other word, and somehow I feel like I’ll convey my feelings. Oh wait, they don’t do that here! (convey feelings) I mean “De gjørde IKKE det!” Uff da. I came home from school wanting to bury my head under a pillow and fall asleep. In my dreams might be the only place where I’ll actually be able to speak Norwegian fluently. At least I can dream.
Kaleb dreamed of catching a fish today, but no luck. After school Kory took him to a place nearby and they caught a small one that Kory decided to use as bait. In retelling the story to me, Kaleb cried, as he thought it was so sad that Kory didn’t bonk it on the head and kill it instantly, rather, he kept it on the line til it just gave up the ghost and died. It upset Kaleb terribly. So much for the father/son bonding moment.
Kory had an otherwise relaxing day at home. He made a little reading shelf for Kaleb to use while he takes his nightly bath as that kid can’t even get clean without a book in his hand. And Kory got our “new” Bar-B-Que working so that was his thrill of the day. He’s such a clever guy. I think he should just set up some kind of “fix-it” shop as there’s not a thing he can’t fix. He used to tear apart broken clocks and things as a kid to see how they were put together. He tears apart things with Kaleb sometimes too so I hope the “gift” gets passed down. It’s incredibly handy. Now we can BBQ! Woo hoo.
My thrill for the day came from America. Kory’s second cousin, Bjørn , who lives very near us, just got back from Wichita, Kansas. He has to go there several times a year for training as he is a pilot for an air ambulance company. Ålesund is not a big enough town to have a trauma center at the hospital, so daily he flies patients up to Trondheim or down to Oslo for emergency care (or sometimes out of the country). I gave him some money to make a Sam’s Club run for me (it’s Wal-Mart’s version of Costco) in Wichita and he came over today with about twenty pounds of nuts and chocolate chips! (He used Kory’s Sam’s Club card as there is a lot of family resemblance and the photo is fairly worn down.) Now I can do Christmas baking! I wasn’t going to bake much since nuts are so insanely expensive here and they don’t even have chocolate chips in this country, but Bjørn saved Christmas. Oh, happy day. And I’m thrilled to know I can get a regular “fix” of anything from America. He’s going again in January, and flying the company airplane, so weight won’t even be an issue – double woo hoo.
Just recently the stores started having Christmas things on display. I guess women in this part of the country go crazy with cleaning and preparing for Christmas. Most of the women I’ve talked to just love Christmas. They love the lights, candles, decorations, special foods, visits and traditions. It’s also looked upon as rounding the corner from the very dark days of winter into the longer days of the spring ahead. (The sun is starting to set now around 4:00.) It gives everyone something positive to focus on while the days are getting shorter. Traditionally, gift giving hasn’t been a big part of Christmas in Norway– it’s been mostly visiting friends and relatives and eating special foods that are only available this time of year. That continues to this day, but unfortunately, Norway has sold out to commercialism. We were just talking about that in our class today – how the parents are buying more and more for their children, mostly out of guilt, because both parents work now and have less time for their kids. Our Friday teacher is from Russia and she said she can’t believe how indulged Norwegian children are in all ways – that they have no boundaries as the parents are less and less involved in their lives because they are too busy. It’s sadly become like America – with two cars in every garage and TVs in all the rooms of the house and kids left home alone after school. Twenty years ago when we were here, one of Kory’s cousins was a foster parent. The state took the children away because their parents got a satellite dish and let the kids sit in front of it non-stop. The kids weren’t getting their school work done and social services was called in. My, how things have changed! I’m a bit worried now that they will take Kaleb away due to “neglect” since we DON’T watch TV.
Kaleb dreamed of catching a fish today, but no luck. After school Kory took him to a place nearby and they caught a small one that Kory decided to use as bait. In retelling the story to me, Kaleb cried, as he thought it was so sad that Kory didn’t bonk it on the head and kill it instantly, rather, he kept it on the line til it just gave up the ghost and died. It upset Kaleb terribly. So much for the father/son bonding moment.
Kory had an otherwise relaxing day at home. He made a little reading shelf for Kaleb to use while he takes his nightly bath as that kid can’t even get clean without a book in his hand. And Kory got our “new” Bar-B-Que working so that was his thrill of the day. He’s such a clever guy. I think he should just set up some kind of “fix-it” shop as there’s not a thing he can’t fix. He used to tear apart broken clocks and things as a kid to see how they were put together. He tears apart things with Kaleb sometimes too so I hope the “gift” gets passed down. It’s incredibly handy. Now we can BBQ! Woo hoo.
My thrill for the day came from America. Kory’s second cousin, Bjørn , who lives very near us, just got back from Wichita, Kansas. He has to go there several times a year for training as he is a pilot for an air ambulance company. Ålesund is not a big enough town to have a trauma center at the hospital, so daily he flies patients up to Trondheim or down to Oslo for emergency care (or sometimes out of the country). I gave him some money to make a Sam’s Club run for me (it’s Wal-Mart’s version of Costco) in Wichita and he came over today with about twenty pounds of nuts and chocolate chips! (He used Kory’s Sam’s Club card as there is a lot of family resemblance and the photo is fairly worn down.) Now I can do Christmas baking! I wasn’t going to bake much since nuts are so insanely expensive here and they don’t even have chocolate chips in this country, but Bjørn saved Christmas. Oh, happy day. And I’m thrilled to know I can get a regular “fix” of anything from America. He’s going again in January, and flying the company airplane, so weight won’t even be an issue – double woo hoo.
Just recently the stores started having Christmas things on display. I guess women in this part of the country go crazy with cleaning and preparing for Christmas. Most of the women I’ve talked to just love Christmas. They love the lights, candles, decorations, special foods, visits and traditions. It’s also looked upon as rounding the corner from the very dark days of winter into the longer days of the spring ahead. (The sun is starting to set now around 4:00.) It gives everyone something positive to focus on while the days are getting shorter. Traditionally, gift giving hasn’t been a big part of Christmas in Norway– it’s been mostly visiting friends and relatives and eating special foods that are only available this time of year. That continues to this day, but unfortunately, Norway has sold out to commercialism. We were just talking about that in our class today – how the parents are buying more and more for their children, mostly out of guilt, because both parents work now and have less time for their kids. Our Friday teacher is from Russia and she said she can’t believe how indulged Norwegian children are in all ways – that they have no boundaries as the parents are less and less involved in their lives because they are too busy. It’s sadly become like America – with two cars in every garage and TVs in all the rooms of the house and kids left home alone after school. Twenty years ago when we were here, one of Kory’s cousins was a foster parent. The state took the children away because their parents got a satellite dish and let the kids sit in front of it non-stop. The kids weren’t getting their school work done and social services was called in. My, how things have changed! I’m a bit worried now that they will take Kaleb away due to “neglect” since we DON’T watch TV.
