We got some unexpected weather during the night – IT SNOWED! We woke up to about three inches on the ground and it was still coming down hard. What a shocker. It wasn’t even forecasted as a possibility and I guess it’s pretty early in the year for what’s “normal” around here. The photo shows Kaleb at the bus stop by our house, with our yard and house in the background – at 7:30am. (See how well that reflective gear works?) Downtown Aalesund had less than an inch but a woman on the bus told me that Myrland, where we live, always gets the most when it does snow. Woo hoo! Kaleb was so excited he was out before daylight throwing snow balls around (it was the perfect kind of snow for such things.) Needless to say the bus this morning was crammed packed so I’m glad we live at the beginning of the line or I would have been standing all the way into town. Kaleb rode with me on the bus just a mile down the street as it was impossible to ride his bike (cars were spinning out all over the place). He still had to walk about a half mile to school from there so now he gets that quintessential Norwegian experience of walking through the snow to go to school! And he had so much fun during recess – making snowmen and forts and sledding. Most people thought the snow would be gone by this afternoon once the sun came out, but it stayed on all day and was just beautiful (but it’s cold!). Kory started his day off helping his boss change the tires on the work truck so they could get out to the jobsite. (The laws here state that all vehicles must have winter tires on by November 1st.) After work/school Kory and Kaleb were outside for quite some time having a snowball fight. Sabina brought over her sled and that kicked things up a notch. So the day had quite a bit of excitement to it, and it seems that winter is here and it might last until April. I’m so thankful we aren’t homeless!
Tonight we had some drop in company. A woman that we know from church came by and asked us to pray for her son. We’ve prayed for him before at church so it was a privilege to pray for him again. We both loved being able to help them tonight and we trust God to answer our prayers for them. It was such a cool feeling to have people show up at our door needing us to help them! Hallelujah!
I had Theresa, a new friend, over for lunch today after school. I met her our first day here, as she had a studio apartment for rent in her basement that we looked at but thought it was too small for us. We stayed and had coffee and chatted with her a lot that day. I ran into her again at a flea market and she asked if we could get together sometime, so today was the day. I spoke Norwegian to her and she spoke English to me, so it was fun for both of us to work on our language skills (but she’s WAY better at English than I am at Norwegian.) She is quite interesting and had many thoughtful things to say about life in Norway. She’s lived in Sweden for eight years and in Spain for a year but has never been to America. Having lived outside the country she has made her own observations about Norwegians and why they do what they do. (She chastised me for not speaking more Norwegian at home and said she kicks herself for not learning any Spanish all the time she was in Spain, but it was so easy to just speak English to everyone. She doesn’t want me to make the same mistake while we are here.)
Tonight we had some drop in company. A woman that we know from church came by and asked us to pray for her son. We’ve prayed for him before at church so it was a privilege to pray for him again. We both loved being able to help them tonight and we trust God to answer our prayers for them. It was such a cool feeling to have people show up at our door needing us to help them! Hallelujah!
I had Theresa, a new friend, over for lunch today after school. I met her our first day here, as she had a studio apartment for rent in her basement that we looked at but thought it was too small for us. We stayed and had coffee and chatted with her a lot that day. I ran into her again at a flea market and she asked if we could get together sometime, so today was the day. I spoke Norwegian to her and she spoke English to me, so it was fun for both of us to work on our language skills (but she’s WAY better at English than I am at Norwegian.) She is quite interesting and had many thoughtful things to say about life in Norway. She’s lived in Sweden for eight years and in Spain for a year but has never been to America. Having lived outside the country she has made her own observations about Norwegians and why they do what they do. (She chastised me for not speaking more Norwegian at home and said she kicks herself for not learning any Spanish all the time she was in Spain, but it was so easy to just speak English to everyone. She doesn’t want me to make the same mistake while we are here.)
The funniest thing she said was about how Norwegians feel about the food they eat. She said it is very important for them to feel “safe” and in control of what they eat, and they get great comfort from the predictability of it all - having the same foods over and over their entire lives. She said her grandfather who is in his 80s only wants his fish cooked a certain way – boiled in salt water – with no sauces or other flavorings on it. Boy does that sound like Kory! When we were first married I made some kind of blackened fish which I thought was fantastic, but Kory said, “I like my fish to taste like fish.” And so it goes… these Norwegians aren’t much into spices or fancy foods… they just boil something and call it good. Theresa said her grandfather has refused to try any of the “new foods” that have entered the country these past years – like pasta and rice – but she did talk him into having a piece of pizza. She’s sure he only did it because she asked him to eat it, but he never would have done it if his wife had offered it (that also sounds pretty typical for a Norwegian.) I think the food thing here is so weird (and boring), but they obviously got used to some standardized foods and it works for them. In America, we want different things all the time and the packages are always changing because things are “new and improved,” but here, they brag that they DON’T change the food - “original recipe since 1971,” is says on the package. Change is NOT good when it comes to food. They find something they like and they stick with it. I guess it comes from a tradition of not having many options, as it’s only been recently that faster transportation has been able to bring other kinds of foods here… AND change obviously happens slowly when such stubborn people are involved in the process.
Kory was very pleased when I told him what Theresa said today. He felt so validated! But he was even more pleased when I made salmon for dinner with boiled potatoes and carrots using no spices whatsoever. Our marriage is safe.
