New Horizons

Kory started work today! (He'll only be working half-time so he doesn't exceed his Social Security limitations.) His boss is a Christian and young enough to be his grandson, yet he is ever so thankful to have Kory on his team – the old pro that he is. Kory was up at six this morning (that hasn’t happened in recent memory), packing a lunch and preparing for the day. He was out the door at 7:15. So weird, after ten years of retirement, to send him off to work! And he even came home with a smile on his face. His boss stopped and bought him all new work clothes – special outfits all the carpenters wear here – super high quality waterproof fabric with built in pockets for everything – including knee pads and a tool belt. I’m sure the pants and jacket cost at least five hundred dollars so obviously his boss wants to keep him around for a while. Woo hoo. Kory is now wondering when he will have time for fishing, but until our boxes get here, there’s no pole anyway, so he might as well work!

Kaleb and I took the bus to town to register me for the Norske Language School. I was thinking this would be some casual conversational class, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is downright serious Norwegian grammar – five days a week for six months – four hours a day! Holy cow. I guess I won’t be getting a job any time soon as there will also be homework. On the one hand, I’m thrilled to be able to learn Norske better, read and write it, but on the other hand, I’m having a logistic problem with Kaleb’s school hours. We will be going to school at the same time but my school is much farther than his, and on the days Kory is working, I can’t leave Kaleb alone for an hour before school starts to get himself ready and out the door… so I’m in a slightly freaked out mode right now. The Registrar at the school told me I could tell my instructor that some days I’ll just be late so I can catch the later bus to see him off. So… we’ll see how things jell after Wednesday (Kory is taking that day off to help both Kaleb and I get to school on time!) I also asked if I could take days off every now and then (especially when we get company) and she said it is possible – just let the instructor know. But then they add that time to the end of my school as I’m required to go 250 hours. They will actually pay for me to study Norwegian for three solid years if I wanted it – but it’s obligatory to do the 250 hours in order to stay here. (The permission we have to live here is permanent, so they are treating me like I’m never going to leave.)

After Kaleb and I got home this afternoon we picked blueberries and had a big bowl of fresh blueberries and Vanilla Sauce waiting for Kory when he came home from work. Kaleb was very glad to see him as it was his first day to experience that feeling of waiting for his Papa to get home from work. I am glad we were gone most of the day or he would have worn me out with the non-stop, “When is he going to get here?” question. Uff da.

Tonight we got a sofa - actually two of them - from cousin Rune! Our living room has been sparsely furnished this past week, but now we look a bit more settled. Kaleb saw a store today with household decorations in it and said, “Oh look, there’s a store that has all those little things that make a house a home.” (I guess he’s used to my clutter.) Our house here looks very “Scan design” with NOTHING on the walls or sitting around taking up space. (He keeps saying this place isn’t our “home” because none of our stuff is in it. I tell him that “home is wherever the love is,” but he’s not buying it.) We just keep waiting for our boxes to arrive. One of these days we hope our ship will come in - literally.

It Takes The Cake

Kaleb decided he wanted to go to Agape Kirke this morning as they have a kid’s program, and Filadelfia Kirke doesn’t. I must be among the youngest ones at Filadelfia, as opposed to one of the oldest at Agape. They have children in abundance at Agape, and more on the way, from the looks of it. It’s a very young, hip type of place and most of the members speak English, as we found out after church. (Even the pastor is imported from England, but his Norwegian is so good you’d never know it was his second language.) They have a nice coffee and cake hour following their service and a few people with impeccable English came and sat and talked with us for quite some time (first time visitors get free coffee and cake!). It was so nice to be able to talk again! Kory thinks I talk too much in general, but whenever we have visited Norway in the past, I’m pretty quiet and he does all the talking (in Norwegian, of course) so he makes up for lost time. But it’s been three weeks now and my vocal chords were starting to atrophy so I was thankful for the friendly folks at Agape Kirke! Plus we found out all kinds of helpful information from them, as there are many Norwegians there that have married people from other countries. I got the low-down on the Norwegian Language school, public transportation, and directions to a good beach just down the street from where we live (see photo).

There were a few funny/different things about the Agape Kirke that may or may not be just Norwegian. The pastor hangs out in the parking lot before the service, and welcomes people right as they get out of their car. That was a nice touch. (Maybe it was just because it was another beautiful day here and he wanted to be outside - I’m not sure.) And during the service, when they take the offering, they pass around pots (the kind you put plants in) to collect the money. I thought that was a good visual of “sowing seeds” in the Kingdom. Kind of poetic, really. And they always announce that if you want to use your bank card, you need to go out to the lobby to their ATM type machine and you can donate that way if you don’t have cash. (Donations to charities are not a tax write off in Norway so they don’t bother with keeping records.) They have no checks in this country, and most people NEVER carry any cash on them, they just use their debit cards for everything. Pretty funny to do it in church, I think, but it’s practical here.

So after church we headed to Emblemstranda (the beach at Emblem) and soaked up some rays on this unusually hot August day (Kory and Kaleb are sitting on the rock in the photo). It was so hot we couldn’t stay out of the water (which is MUCH warmer than the Pacific Ocean, I must say). This beach is about a six minute drive east of where we live. I’m sure it’s an official “park” of the Kommune, but there are no signs directing you there. Once you turn off the main road you are on a tiny single lane road snaking through quaint little farms on the way down toward the water’s edge. It seemed somewhat like we were trespassing to get there. We encountered a few cars on the road, which had to back up quite a ways before we could pass them. Pretty antiquated, but kinda fun. And the beach was great – full of agates and beautiful stones, (I came home with more than a handful) with crystal clear water, sandy bottom and views to die for. There is just no where you can go in this part of Norway that doesn’t have a view to knock your sox off. It never ends!

We had to cut our time short at the beach because we were invited to a surprise birthday party for Kory’s cousin, Axel. He turned 58 today and his wife had a party – with lots of cakes and coffee. There is just nothing like Norwegian cakes. (If I ever learn how to make the Marzipan cake we had tonight, I’d weigh 300 pounds as it’s hard to stop eating it.) I went to take a picture of Axel and one of his many cakes (the Marzipan was the most photogenic) and he said, “Wait, I have to cut it first.” Apparently, their tradition is to take a picture with the happy smile, holding up the first piece of cake. And strangest of all – they always sing “Happy Birthday to You” - in ENGLISH! These Norwegians figured out how to cross the Atlantic five hundred years before any other Europeans could do it – and they’ve yet to write their own Happy Birthday song. Go figure.

The View From On High

We climbed a mountain this morning! I made sure we took it slow – told Kory I was out of shape (tee hee) – but really, I was making sure he wasn’t over doing it. He hasn’t climbed a mountain for a long time and I wanted to be sure we made it to the top. And we did – HALLELUJAH!

It was the perfect day for such a thing as you can see from the video below (sorry about the wind noise). Kaleb was rewarded with several dog sightings along the way. My heart broke for the poor pups – all of them on leash. It’s illegal to have dogs off leash – even in the mountains. They are concerned the dogs will scare the birds and deer away, so they must be contained. It just doesn’t seem right to be on a trail in the woods with a dog on a leash. Oh well, such is the logic of the Norske people.

We sat at the top of Emblemfjell quite a while and took in the view. It was fun to see our house from on high. We were above the tree line and could see well into the fjords. It was breathtaking. I can see why there is a deep love for this country by people who have left it. There is no other place on earth like it. And a day like today isn’t the norm – it was warm and crystal clear.

This afternoon we were invited to a birthday party. One of the cousins (Linda and Leif-Eric) have a daughter, Nina, that is 13 today. She looks 18, sweet as pie. Hard to believe she was 12 yesterday and now she’s a teenager. We had dinner outside on a lovely Saturday evening overlooking the fjords. Lots of cakes and coffee followed.

These Norwegians love their cakes. Every kind you can imagine. It’s not like us where we serve one cake, big or small, depending on the number of people expected – they serve several cakes, chocolate cake, cheese cake, cream cake (nut cake is my favorite). They also had bowls of candy, cookies, cheese doodles (considered dessert here?) and jello of every flavor, oh, and lots of ice cream… all with Vanilla Sauce at the ready. Cousin Kari says, “We don’t leave until all the cakes are gone.” And they aren’t kidding. The only weird thing I noted about the cakes is that they don’t cut them symmetrically. If it’s a round cake, we might cut things in nice pie shaped slices… but not them, any old mis-shapen hunk out of it will do. Same thing with the rectangle cakes – no square cuts for them – you just slice of any old which way and eat as much as you want. Considering how many ways these people are orderly and precise, it surprises me they are so sloppy with their cake cutting. I guess it’s gotta come out somewhere.

Vanilla Sauce

Our boxes were supposed to arrive today in Oslo, but we didn’t hear a thing. Not good. I was hoping to have Kaleb’s school supplies before school actually started, but it doesn’t look like the boxes will make it by Wednesday unless there is another miracle in the works. I guess I should expect one, eh?

Turid and Hege walked over this morning so we got to take them to “our” beach and have a picnic lunch. In all the year’s they have lived here, they had never been down to that beach so it was fun to expand their horizons and share the beauty with them. It was a gorgeous day to be by the water. (In the photo, Kaleb is pretending to be headless and Kory is pretending to be fishing.) Yesterday it rained all day – heavy rain – so today the air was crisp and clean and the sky seemed extra blue. On the way back we picked lots of blueberries so when we got to our place, we had fresh blueberries with Vanilla Sauce poured over the top.

There is nothing in our world that you can compare with Vanilla Sauce. It’s something the whole of Norway is crazy about and as Turid says, “The blueberries are just an excuse to have Vanilla Sauce.” Actually, anything is an excuse to have Vanilla Sauce – they put it on everything! The most popular food items are jello, fresh, frozen or canned fruit, chocolate pudding or ice cream. In every house in the whole of Norway, you will find Piano brand “Vaniljesaus.” Even at the neighborhood grocery store they have our equivalent of a salad bar, but with different chunks of fruit and the “dressing” is Vanilla Sauce. I’ve yet to see a vegetable salad bar anywhere.

I can understand the craze, that stuff is good! It tastes like the custard inside a donut, only with more vanilla flavor, and it’s real runny. It’s made from whole milk, cream, sugar and powdered vanilla (of course). We’ve had it many, many times over the years as it’s a common after dinner treat (not really dessert however, because dessert is usually a fancy cake of some kind, served later with coffee.) Tine (pronounced “Tina”), a Norwegian company, makes Vanilla Sauce and on the front of the carton it says “original recipe since 1971.” Turid thinks that’s about when the craze started. She said as a kid there was a rum flavored sauce that was used on many things, but once the vanilla flavor hit the stores, it became a national sensation – for 37 years now. (Should have bought stock in that company, I guess.)

I was thinking about the whole vanilla situation the other day and I’m wondering if the reason they have vanilla in a powered form is because our liquid vanilla at home is alcohol based. Norwegians tax alcohol so much, they must have been in a quandary as to what to do about vanilla extract. If they taxed it the way they tax one can of beer (which sells for $13 by the way), no one could afford their precious Vanilla Sauce and there would surely be a revolt similar to The Boston Tea Party. Making their vanilla into a powder solves the whole problem and keeps all the alcoholics from drinking up their national supply of vanilla. Who knows. It’s fun to try and second guess the politics of Norway.

Kaleb and I sat and tried to read a children’s book in Norwegian today. We’re going to have a contest as to who can learn the language the quickest. (I think my Norske school starts next week.) Everyone entering the country between the ages of 16 and 55 is obligated to take 250 hours of language lessons – for free. (America could learn a thing or two from Norway about that one.) I guess I’ll have to thank the alcohol drinkers of this country for that, as I’m sure some of the exorbanite taxes they pay filter down to pay for my free Norwegian lessons. Tusen Takk. (Thousand thanks.)

Recycling

The person who used to live in our house apparently liked to drink, as he left behind several bags of “recyclables.” Kory told Kaleb he could take them to the store and turn them in for the deposit. I felt a little funny about it however… being Christian and all… and having our kid schlep a trunk full of alcohol containers off to the store. Had I known how much money he would get, I would have nixed the idea for sure and done the task myself, but today was the day to clean out the garage.

Inside the grocery store is a vending looking machine set into the wall. Behind the wall is an entire recycling center. There is a circular opening in the middle of the machine that goes all the way through the wall so you can see into the back of the store. You set the bottle or can into the hole onto a little conveyor belt (and it has to have the opening facing toward you or it gives a nasty alarm, as we found out), and the can or bottle gets sucked back into the machine onto another conveyor belt where it is spun around until it’s barcode is read. If it’s a large pop bottle, it goes straight on through and sets on some conveyor belt behind the machine. If it’s an aluminum can, or small plastic bottle, an arm comes down and sweeps it into a bin on the left. If there is no barcode or if it can’t read the barcode because the can is squished so that it can’t spin on the conveyor, then it is rejected. A metal arm swings down and sweeps it to the right where it is returned back to you at the bottom of the machine. Kaleb soon figured out that if the can was squished and got rejected, he just needed to set the can in with the barcode showing on the top so the scanner could read it. The machine tallies up all the credit and spits out a paper ticket that is then taken to the cash register and turned in for cash. It took Kaleb quite a while to process all those bottles and cans, but it was not what I would call “work” as he had so much fun doing it. Each can is worth one kroner (20 cents), and each pop bottle, fifty cents, so he made over fifty dollars! What a deal. And outside the store, we were told, were all the recycle bins for metal, plastic and glass (they pick up all the paper in a special bin at your house on garbage day.) We took the wine and whiskey bottles that were left in the garage to the big recycle bin outside and put them in there, only to realize a moment later, that it was a bin to recycle clothes and shoes for children and there was no way to get them back - oops. (We later found where the smaller bins used for metal and glass were located so that shouldn’t happen again.) Uff da.

Our next stop was the bank, and only after looking all over the car for my wallet, did I realize I had set it inside my canvas shopping bag (they charge 50 cents for each plastic grocery bags here) and left it on the floor by the recycle machine! It had about $300 cash, all my credit cards and driver’s license. We made a quick u-turn and went back to the store. Someone had picked it up off the floor and set it on the nearest vacant check-out stand. Everything was in my wallet, untouched, which got me to shout HALLELUJAH! today.

Kory and Kaleb spent all afternoon over and Odd and Turids. Kory helped Odd lower the ceiling in his basement to cover up some electrical wires. (That Kory is a handy guy to have around and there are no other carpenters in the family so I think he might be busier than he planned to be while we are here.) Kaleb spent the time playing with Hege and making “bolle” (bread rolls). I stayed home and had a good nap, got my desk organized, and spent time writing. The house was so quiet with the boys gone - what a treat.

I love how close we are to family here. There hasn’t been a day go by that we haven’t seen at least one of them. The picture today is Odd (pronounced Ode), Turid (Turrey), and Hege (Hay-ga), on their balcony just after dinner around 10 pm Tuesday night. They have provided our “home away from home” every time we come to Norway. Turid manages our condo and does our taxes for us every year too so I hope while we are here we can do enough things to even the score. They all have a heart of gold- for which we are ever so thankful.

Missing The Dogs

Kaleb came walking into the kitchen this morning with a red face, runny nose, tears in his eyes, asking if I could keep a box of Kleenex in his room. He had been sitting in there, clutching a picture of Duchess, his favorite neighbor dog back home, crying his little heart out. He misses her so. Even after he wiped his eyes, blew his nose and got a big hug from me, he went back in his room and cried some more, letting his tears drop on the glass of the picture frame as he stared into her eyes. He then sent her an e-mail that said how much he missed her. He was spiraling downwards into a dark pit when the neighbor girl Sabina showed up and some switch got flipped and he was out the door riding his bike up and down the streets of Myrland. He was gone all day and never even came home for lunch. I saw him through the window – flying by on his bike several times with Sabina and her friends. I tried to get a photo of all of them together but they were going too fast. I’m so thankful for Sabina!

We live on a dead end street so there is very little car traffic going by – just a few cars to the houses beyond us. After the houses is vacant land, and then past that – a cemetery – so it almost feels like home here. (Kory’s grandparents are buried in that cemetery.) The best thing about where we live is the whole front of our house is nearly floor to ceiling windows and we can sit all day and watch the foot traffic. Everyone walks their dog or rides their bike past our house. It’s part of a huge loop that people make a few times a day, either to get exercise or to walk the dog. Kaleb sat for a while yesterday and timed the dogs. On average, a dog walks by every seven minutes. It’s nice to see so many people outside! I guess they get cabin fever with the long dark winters. Turid told me in the summer, the outdoors becomes everyone’s living room. I guess that’s why they all have tables and chairs in both front and back of the house. Most people also have a roll out awning covering the back of the house so they can still be outdoors if it rains. And as Odd says, “If it’s summer, we eat outdoors.” (And they do – rain or shine!)

I think the loneliness set in this morning for Kaleb because he was with just us for the bulk of yesterday and never saw Sabina. She was off to a friend’s house for a sleepover and Kaleb couldn’t understand why she would do that on the day they had decided it was HIS day to pick what they would do. I’m sure she never understood that agreement, as her English is pretty limited, but he swears she did. At least all is right in his world now. I LOVE that he is getting this “kid” time… something he sorely lacked in our neighborhood at home.

Kaleb and I picked more blueberries today (free food – woo hoo!). We bought a berry picking tool so it went quickly (I got two cups in about 20 minutes and Kaleb got three cups in the same time frame). It took longer to clean them, than to pick them, but now I have some in the freezer to make Lemon Blueberry cake for when company comes over. This afternoon I went for a three hour walk around the neighborhood. I love looking at all the houses and immaculate yards (not ours, however). People paint their houses with high gloss paint so they all really do shine. I timed the walk to Kaleb’s school – 20 minutes from our house. Now he will have real stories to tell his grandchildren about walking a mile through the snow to get to school, and it’s won’t be an exaggeration. (They have no school buses here – everyone really does walk to school.) Kory spent the day driving rods into the ground and getting his measuring system on the buildings set up – waiting for the ground to move. Remember that Carole King song, “I feel the earth move, under my feet….?” Well, I hope I don’t need to start singing it anytime soon.

Differences

Kaleb has always loved to cook – he says it’s just like science – you mix things together and you never know what you’re going to get. He’s declared that once a week he wants to make a special soup he calls “High Five.” You take five of any and all kinds of ingredients (carrots, onions, potatoes, celery, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic cloves… whatever) and you cut it up and add it to the pot. At home, Kory used to make a mean chicken broth after we baked an organic chicken in a clay pot, but here, we have to settle for bullion cubes til our kitchen things arrive. Kaleb made High Five Soup last night using some root vegetables he picked out at the grocery store that we’d never seen before. We have no idea what you call the veggie he is holding in this photo (it substituted nicely for a sword, however) but it sure tasted good in the soup (he only used half of it). He also added rutabagas, but didn’t hold to the FIVE rule on that one as they sell them the size of cantaloupes here so he just cut five big pieces off the thing and put it in. And it’s always so good, we give him a High Five when we eat it! He’s pretty funny about the “five” rule… five different spices (five shakes each), stir the soup in one direction five times, then reverse directions for five stirs, then repeat for five times. Nothing is ever easy with this boy. But he invited Sabina over to taste it so she stayed for dinner and asked Kory where the meat was in the soup, as they always have lots of meat in their soup. Kory explained it was vegetable soup, but the concept was lost on her. Kaleb said grace (in Norwegian) and she was a bit confused by the whole thing so last night Kaleb and I prayed for her.

Today we spent another five hours driving around looking for little things to help us get settled. We don’t know what things are called so it takes forever to find them. Asking a store employee is worthless since they don’t fully understand our poor descriptions of things, so we just do our best. And in most cases we are trying to describe things they have never seen or heard of - like a night light? Yesterday, I spent a good twenty minutes trying to find vanilla and baking soda. I had no less than four people try to help me. I’m going to assume they call baking soda “natron” for now, as I bought some and will try it out. But when I asked the employee if I can use it not just for cooking but to brush my teeth, clean things with it, etc., I got a most definite “NO.” So either they aren’t hip to the many great uses for baking soda, or I got the wrong thing. I’ll soon find out. And as for the vanilla… finally, a customer in the store overheard my repeated description (“black water” was the best I could come up with in my limited Norwegian vocabulary) and she handed me a container with some kind of powder in it, clearly marked “vanila” and wondered what my problem was. I spoke again in Norwegian, saying “no, black water” and then she told me (in Norwegian) that her daughter-in-law was from Australia and she had the same problem – she wasn’t used to cooking with the vanilla powder, but that’s all they have here in Norway. Go figure. She also told me her daughter-in-law only lasted five years here and then went back home. “Too many differences,” she said. I don’t know if she was referring to the marriage, or the vanilla.

Details

I tried to get the internet and house phone hooked up today, but that was impossible since we don’t yet have our official Norwegian ID numbers. I will surely die if I have to wait two more weeks to have internet access in my home. (Turid calls me a “blog-a-holic” since I’m constantly looking for non-secure wi-fi connections in the neighborhood to get a signal and post my blog.) She tried to help me out today but she went down every rabbit trail on Telenor’s website to find out how to subscribe via the internet, and got nowhere. She then called the company and got into voice jail for which there was no return, so she had to call again, only to hear a recording that it was a twenty minute wait to be helped (at least there are some things here that are the same in America.) When you pay 50 cents per minute to be on any phone, you don’t sit on hold for too long, so she hung up and called the store at the mall where we got our cell phones. She knows the guy that works there and he told her – thank goodness – our efforts were in vain anyway until we get our Norske ID numbers. (At least we didn’t have to wait 20 minutes on hold to find that out.) I guess they don’t have such things as illegal aliens in this country because you just can’t do a thing here without their social security number equivalent. Turid also showed me how to pay bills on-line, the Norwegian way. It’s similar to America but with a lot more security steps to jump through as it’s their only option for moving money around.

I also went to the post office today to register our address as being active again. I have to fill out paperwork and send it in to some central location so they know we are here (and yes, they need to know our ID numbers for that, too). People also take their mailboxes with them when they move, so we had to buy a new one. Axel called the Aalesund Kommune to get our garbage service activated. Odd wrote down the current meter numbers on our electrical box and called the power company to register us with them. The meter boxes are inside the house so they never come out to read them, it’s all done digitally. Can’t wait to get that first bill. Even though I now have a dryer, I still hung up clothes today to save on electricity (but I do that at home, anyway – I just only do it in the summer. They do it indoors here year round.)

Kory spent most of the day on his “watchman” job here at The Sinking Houses. He went around and talked to all the neighbors, measured all the corners of the houses and “got familiar” with the place, as he calls it. He’s going to drive some rods down into the ground on each corner, then nail a ruler to the buildings so he can measure how much the ground moves. Currently it’s sinking at a rate of two inches per month and I guess the sewer lines have broken several times as they don’t take all the movement too well. (If that happens again I guess we can call the place The Stinking Houses.) Kory managed to round up some closets, light fixtures and window coverings from some of the other houses here (he has keys to all of them now). It will be sold as a package deal to some investor so we don’t feel bad using things from the other places and it saves us thousands of dollars in not having to buy them.

Kaleb spent the whole day playing with cutey girl, Sabina (see photo). It’s so nice he likes to be with kids his age - Hallelujah! She turns 10 next week. They watched Ben 10 on her TV, rode bikes, played with Alfred the dog next door, jumped on a neighbor’s trampoline and picked more blueberries for pancakes. The pancakes they have in this part of Norway are called “Svela” (probably not how you spell it but that’s how it sounds). But figure this– Norwegians eat French fries with a fork and knife, but they eat pancakes with their hands! They sprinkle sugar or jam or a thick kind of syrup on the pancake and roll it up and eat it like a burrito. But their pancakes aren’t like ours… Svela is special to just this area in Norway and the key ingredient is something called “Hjortetakksalt.” I bought it a few years ago and brought it home so I could make Svela and it’s a powder that smells exactly like ammonia (or pee, whichever you prefer) and the scary thing is, if you translate that name Hjortetakksalt, it means “thanks to the deer salt”… so ya gotta wonder what’s in there. (It makes the pancakes a little bit rubbery so they can be rolled up without breaking.) So Sabina had her first taste of American pancakes today and she looked at me like I was crazy when she discovered blueberries in them. She preferred the ones without. I guess she’s used to the pee.

It's Better Than Home!

We went to Filadelfia Kirke again this morning. It was a great sermon, given by the secretary of the church. I guess in the summer time they rotate who preaches so the pastor has time off. She used to be a missionary in Chile so she speaks perfect Spanish (and English), but her Norwegian was so fast I only understood about half of what she said. I could tell it was good though because she was talking about the power of the Holy Spirit and I could feel it in my bones.

After church was over a woman came up to Kory and I (we met her soon after we got here) and she asked us to pray for her. She didn’t say what the problem was but that didn’t matter to God as we joined with cousin Axel and Kari (and the woman that preached), and we had quite the prayer time right there in the aisle. I could barely stay vertical as I felt God moving on that spot. I’m anxious to get a report back from her on what God has done as I know it was something good!

We rushed home to get something to eat before heading out to pick berries. Before we could put one bite in our mouths, some cousins had gone on a bike ride and came by to see our place (they don’t live real close to us), so we had a nice visit with them (and Kaleb offered them a cup of tea.) Just as they were leaving, Odd and Turid and Hege came by to see how things were going for us. We never get this kind of attention at home! We had the opportunity to tell of our miracle last night with the house not burning down, and even those who may not believe in miracles, raised their eyebrows in amazement.

We finally got to go berry picking around four o’clock and I was glad to get at least three cups of blueberries, because Kaleb must have eaten twice that amount, as well as handfuls of raspberries, red currants and gooseberries. The wild berries here are like blackberries in the northwest… it’s hard to keep them out of any vacant land and there’s plenty of vacant land in our neighborhood. We’re in heaven (now I see why Kory jokingly calls this place “the holy land.” I froze some of the blueberries for later but I promised Kaleb blueberry pancakes with bacon for dinner tomorrow. It’s very Norske to have pancakes and bacon for dinner and they can’t get over the fact we eat it for breakfast.

On our walk, we ventured past our “point of panic” on the peninsula along the Vegsund Fjord where we were last night when we got the news from Kaleb about leaving water boiling on the stove… and we were even more impressed with “our” beach! It’s beyond all expectations in terms of beauty, serenity and privacy. We were the only ones there for a long time (maybe the fact that Aalesund’s soccer team was playing a game during that same time had something to do with it?) There are several picnic tables along the shoreline so we’ll enjoy many a lunch there in the next year and it’s a fantastic place to take any visitors. (It’s a view that’s guaranteed to beat anything we have back home.) We are in paradise here! I told Kory (that’s him in the photo) I never wanted to leave, and Kaleb said (as he was throwing rocks in the water), “Well, we could go home every now and then for a visit, but I wouldn’t mind staying here either!” (Remind us of that in the wintertime….)

Tonight we went to an evening service of the Agape Church, which is right in our neighborhood -- lots of young people and energy and the power of God. Kory shouted HALLELUJAH several times and I’m not sure anyone even heard him as they had an all out rock band and they were rockin’! There was only about 50 people there (not counting the kids) but I guess that size church is normal around here. I’d like to go back. Kaleb just told me (as I was writing this) that he really, “felt the spirit of God in that church we just went to.” He said he’s only been to two churches where he felt the spirit in such a powerful way (“it’s like a warm, tingly feeling inside” he says) – this church and the Russian church in Mt. Vernon. He surprised us tonight as he was entering into worship with his arms raised to heaven, eyes closed, singing and praising God (some of the songs were in English). He usually sits in church and reads books, so I know it had to be the power of God to get him to put down a book.

Oh, we are so blessed.

A Few Surprises

We spent seven straight hours shopping today for things we need. Ugh. And we spent well over $1,500 on mostly little stuff… stuff I should have packed up from home (in retrospect). But we were surprised to find a few bargains out there… like some high quality folding outdoor chairs (that will work well indoors too) for 70% off (we only paid $16.50 each). Woo hoo. We went to the hardware store, the “Linens and Things” equivalent, the grocery story, the almost “Ikea” store and the closest thing to the “Dollar Store” Norway will ever know (but nothing is under $5). I bought most everything on my list and Kaleb even found a duvet cover with nothing but dogs on it, so he was thrilled. It was fun to see what’s available, should we ever have money again.

When we got home, the neighbor girl, Sabine, was waiting for Kaleb. She’s ten and speaks some English (I’m sure she doesn’t understand much of what Kaleb says because he won’t speak slowly enough), but they played for hours together anyway. She started teaching him some Norwegian phrases, which warmed my heart. They rode bikes through the neighborhood and went to her grandmother’s house and watched a little TV. They talked about Ben 10 and Pokeman and Kaleb introduced her to the neighbor dog, Alfred. Two peas in a pod. It was exciting for me to see him kick into this whole “kids to play with in the neighborhood” thing that he doesn’t have at home. (I hope dogs will become less and less important and real people fill the void.)

After dinner we headed out for a little walk to explore the neighborhood. Just as we were leaving, cousin Kari came by with Anne Lisa (the woman we were going to rent the house from initially). Kari wanted to show her how God provided for us so she could stop feeling so guilty about changing her mind. We had a great time showing her our place and telling her how it all came about. Kaleb put water in a pan on the stove to offer them some tea, but they couldn’t stay long. I turned off the stove and after they left, we headed out again.

We were completely surprised to discover a little cove about a five minute walk from our house that’s perfect for swimming, rock skipping, fishing and picnicking (see photo). There were wild blueberry, raspberry and gooseberry bushes lining the path to get there so we’re going back tomorrow to pick more berries. We kept wandering through some woods along a peninsula and discovered yet another beach opening up into the nearest fjord. It was breathtaking.

We were enjoying the absolute serenity of the scene before us, the colors in the setting sun (at 10:30pm), the sound of the fish splashing as they jumped out of the calm water, the quaintness of the little boats along the shore, the coziness of the boat houses with grass growing on their roofs, the invitation from the picnic tables along the beach… it was all more than we could take in. Kory and I were feeling so blessed as we realized that God gave us everything we wanted out of living in Norway – kids and relatives in the neighborhood, quick access to the sea, and mountains close by. We were almost giddy with excitement but we just wanted to take deep breaths and enjoy the moment. And then Kaleb piped up, “Good thing there’s hot tea waiting for us when we get home.” “WHAT!!?” We both asked. “I turned the water back on right before we left,” he said.

Both of us went from absolute calm to unbelievable panic as we were sure the house was now on fire. We had been gone from the house at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour while we explored the shoreline around this cove and nearby peninsula. You’ve never seen anyone scramble over slippery rocks and through wooded trails faster than Kory. I’m not nearly as sure on my feet as he is so I got slightly damaged in the process of trying to keep up. I yelled at Kaleb to run on ahead and see if he could beat Kory back to the house (then I wondered why I told him that because what was he going to do when he got there?) I started yelling out prayers of protection “In the name of Jesus!” Oh, how I prayed (while looking for smoke in the direction of the house.) I only had hope in the protection that God promises and I was calling down all the angels I could to put the fire out…. Kory and Kaleb got to the house at the same time and Kory found the oven on the HIGHEST setting under a 2 quart pan that had about five cups of water in it initially. There was still a small sliver of water bubbling (about 1/3 cup) in the bottom of the pan! I was a total miracle Kaleb even told us about it!

We had quite the safety talk with Kaleb after that about heat sources and that he should NEVER leave the house with anything left on. It was a lesson we hope he never forgets. Both Kory and I are so full of adrenalin that we can’t get to sleep now and it’s well past midnight. It’s a miracle similar to Hanukkah but instead of the oil in the lamp lasting eight days… the water in the pot lasted over 45 minutes. (You’d think we’d already had our share of miracles, but apparently not.)Aug 8, 2008

We're In!

It’s 10:30 on Friday night and Kory and Kaleb just sat down to their first dinner in our new house! Kory wasn’t too happy about cooking dinner at the end of a long day, but I don’t know how to make Fiskeboller (fish balls) and Kaleb really wanted some for a celebratory meal. Food is supposed to taste better when it’s cooked with love, so I’m steering clear of this meal….

Kory met with the attorney today and signed an agreement for our living arrangement. He will give us 30 days notice if someone wants to buy this place, so I’m now praying no one buys it for at least a year as this moving business is a lot of work. But I have to say, I’ve never experienced so much family support in all my life. Axel and Kari loaned us a big bed, lamps, rugs, living room chairs, footstools and an office desk and chair, bookshelves, washer AND dryer, microwave, night stands, TV, heaters, stereo (and temporary linens until our boxes arrive). Odd and Turid loaned Kaleb a bed and a few small tables and Rune gave us a kitchen table, chairs, couches and coffee table. We are set! I wouldn’t have needed to ship any kitchen items as Axel and Kari have everything times two or three, but who knew? And things went so fast with so many hands participating. Hallelujah! It’s good to get the big stuff in before our boxes get here but it’s kind of like camping right now as we have minimal supplies. But this house is cozy and quiet and just downright “dreamy” as my friend, Joni, would say. Thank you, Jesus!

The View From Myrlandvegen

This would be the view from our house if it weren’t sinking! Actually, this is the view from the roof of our house. We can see the tops of these mountains from our living room, but as a friend that used to live on Mercer Island once said, “I don’t have a view, but I have a view of a house with a view.” And such it is in our neighborhood. We move in tomorrow!

Today was a big day. Kory had a job interview and got a job! A nephew of a cousin here has a building business and he needs more carpenters. Kory told him he doesn’t want to do anything that will hurt his body (he is getting old, you know), and he only wants to work part-time, and all that was fine with the guy. He has a house he’s building about a five minute drive from our new home, so it’s a sweet deal. Kory thinks all the money he will earn will be his own “pocket money,” but I know it’s God’s way of providing for the things that completely blindside us – like getting the oil changed on our van and getting a $220 bill for it… stuff like that. (How does Wal-Mart do it for $13.97?)

The other big thing that happened today was a meeting we had at Kaleb’s new school with the rector and the school principal. They are two very serious men and they seemed quite concerned that we decided to put him in their school. They talked rather sternly to Kaleb about how important it is for him to obey the rules and not be a disturbance and they questioned our reasons for homeschooling him all these years. It was a little stressful for me as it was a bit like an interrogation, but I understood their concerns. At this point Kaleb would be a tough fit anywhere, but I do believe he’s a quick learner and he’ll buck up. The Blindheim Skole, where he will go, is a sort of experimental school in that it has NO classrooms – it’s all open teaching – big areas where the students congregate and move from area to area depending on the subject. So one student acting up can disturb 70 kids all at once and they have zero tolerance. How sweet is that? It’ll be like boot camp for his social behavior. And one really great thing is that a girl Kaleb’s age (named Victoria) came from America last year and goes to the same school. They will put him in her class and she can help him learn the language (similar to what Kory did after he moved to America and another kid – Roar Danielson - came over from Norway the year after… they are still friends to this day and it’s through that connection I met Kory.) So we shall see how it all goes for Kaleb. (Victoria’s father is Norwegian, and her mother, American, and she’s here to stay.)

We also went downtown to one of the few second hand stores in the area and bought a few things. It was fun to do a little nesting. Thankfully Kaleb didn’t notice the person that owns that store sounded very much like a man but looked an awful lot like a very ugly woman. I think the sex change operation didn’t do what he/she was hoping and he/she certainly needs to take more hormones to pull the whole thing off. Welcome to ultra liberal Scandinavia.

Kitchen Sweet Kitchen

This is my soon-to-be new kitchen. Sweet! (I took the photo while standing in the living room.) Can you find the refrigerator and dishwasher hiding behind their wooden facades? It’s totally high buck stuff, Bosch appliances, and a touch control totally flat stove top. Hot dog. I love that the whole house is so small it cleans up in no time. I went over and finished cleaning it today while Kory completed the finish carpentry work for Odd and Turid. Kaleb came with me but he sat up in the attic reading books. He asked if the attic could be his “domain” since it’s so cozy up there and has the cool “secret staircase” leading to it (it’s one of those things you pull down from the ceiling.) The attic is unfinished but pretty large and it could be a good romper room up there. At least it will be warm in the winter and it adds at least 50% to the square footage of the house. Nice.

There are some interesting differences in houses here versus the ones in America. In Norway every room as a door threshold that sticks up from the floor anywhere from half an inch to several inches. It’s hard to get used to stepping over it to enter a room and it’s a great way to stub a toe. Bathrooms don’t come with towel racks or toilet paper holders. (They are stand alone items that you take with you.) Windows don’t have screens on them here – they pivot usually in the middle -- and open up so half the window is inside the house and the other is sticking outside. Everyone hangs their bedding out the window on either super hot days or super cold days as they say it kills the bugs (they all use down comforters so who knows what bugs may live in there.) No one has wall-to-wall carpeting – everyone has tile or wood floors (or linoleum) and they all take their shoes off when entering. Usually the entry ways have heated floors to dry the shoes quicker. And the most expensive difference (besides the fact that you have to buy all the light fixtures and heating elements) is that rarely does a bedroom have a closet in it. Everyone has to buy closets for each room! I think we’ll be OK because we can borrow closets from different places, but that’s a funny piece of furniture to be packing around with you when you move. Why don’t they just build them in since everyone needs them anyway?

Kaleb met the dog next door today and I must say he’s in heaven. He has found “The Norwegian Duchess,” as he says. Duchess is our old neighbor dog (brown lab) that he just adores and the main reason he didn’t want to go to Norway -- because he didn’t want to be without her. But God had his back covered and we will soon live next door to a 10 month old Boxer named Alfred. Kaleb and Alfred ran around his yard today for at least an hour before they wore each other out. Alfred’s owner, Matt, was thrilled Alfred has someone to play with. I met Matt yesterday when we were searching for “the lost boy” (Kaleb), and he’s a friend of Joseph Kloven… and as it also turns out, Matt is probably a 4th cousin to Kory! In talking to him today (he’s from California and his English is PERFECT – ha), I found out his mom is from the Østrem farm just up the street here. That’s where Kory’s grandfather is also from so once I get the family tree uncovered and connect the dots, I’ll be able to prove it for sure, but at this stage I’d bet money on it. How funny is that? We’ll be neighbors with another cousin! But around here, that’s not too hard. In fact, Matt told me that once he starts dating a girl, and before he kisses her, he has to get a bit of family history from her to be sure they’re not related.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Last night we went back over to the “sinking houses” (aka – our new home) and there was a double rainbow stretched out across the sky – right over the place. Coincidence? Not. God has kept his promise once again (He never fails). HALLELUJAH!

Apparently we are moving into the most talked about piece of property in all the land (at least in this state, anyway). Turid knows the builder and he’s had more than his share of stress lately. The same guy that built these places also built a multi-story condo building near downtown Aalesund that just a few month ago was knocked off its foundation by a huge rock slide. The building slid twenty feet into the street, collapsing the first two floors – instantly killing five residents asleep in their beds. Turid’s daughter’s boyfriend’s mother lived in that building – on the fourth floor – but she survived. It was huge news in all of Europe. The builder once again, built it solid (the fact that the top four floors survived intact is amazing), and to code (same as with the sinking houses), but the piece of the hillside that gave way was so massive no one could have predicted what was to come. Around here, parts of the mountains “calve” off like glaciers and every time it happens, something devastating ensues.

The most recent catastrophic event was in the 1930s at a place called Tafjord – not too far from here. A colossal chunk of the mountain side went crashing into the fjord below. It created a monstrous tidal wave that wiped out an entire town – only a few people who were up in the hills above the reach of the killer wave, survived. Buildings, people and livestock were forever gone. The town was rebuilt and there’s now a roadside marker to remind all who pass by, what happened. Too sad.

The most heart-wrenching story I’ve heard yet is about a farm right at the water’s edge. The small piece of tillable soil could only support one small farm but the family there had about 13 kids. Across the fjord was the nearest town so they had to row the boat over regularly to get supplies. I guess it was an otherwise calm, peaceful day when the parents rowed over to go to the store, leaving their children at home for the afternoon. The hillside above their home and all the rock supporting their farm just suddenly dropped into the sea. Their house, farm, land, animals and all their children were gone in an instant – as they looked on helplessly, from across the fjord. (I’m sure they must have been thinking about the book of Job in the Bible after that happened.) It was more than a hundred years ago but when the story is told by the locals, the emotion in which they tell it is as if it happened yesterday. Beyond tragic.

The houses where we will live have posts under them sitting on solid rock 50 feet down, so they aren’t going anywhere, but as the old Christian hymn says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand…” and that’s pretty much the case at Myrlandvegen 83B (our new address). And who should be surprised – “Myr” in Norwegian means BOG! So our new street name literally translated is “Bog Land Street.” Anne, from our home fellowship group back home, e-mailed me yesterday to say she is sending us life-jackets. Ha ha. I do think I’ll try to find a life-ring from a boat though and nail it up to the outside of the house – just in case we need it.

I know many prayers were said on our behalf over this whole housing situation as I’ve received so many e-mails of encouragement. I must say, living relatively FREE in Norway is above and beyond all my expectations and is a HUGE blessing, so if you prayed for us – thanks so much! God didn’t just answer the prayers to provide us with one house, we actually now have six of them – and they are all FREE. Who could have imagined that? HALLELUJAH!

I spent the day cleaning the one place we will live (eventually I’m sure I’ll clean them all) but I’m preparing the way for Friday’s onslaught of furniture that all the cousins are more than anxious to loan us. (Today’s photo is my soon-to-be new bathroom – so European – I love the cool shaped sink set into the Corian-like countertop – oh la la.) All the money I set aside to buy little things we need to set up a home is still sitting in the bank. I don’t think I’ll need to use it for that after all. Maybe it’s time for another Hallelujah party?

Kaleb spent this rainy day reading and playing on the computer. Kory spent it putting up trim around some bedroom doorways for Odd and Turid (we feel we should earn our keep at this point).

Tonight we had a visitor from Seattle – Joseph Kloven and his new Norwegian wife, Camille. Joseph’s father and Kory’s father were best friends in Seattle, and now both the “boys” are back in Norway (Joseph is young enough to be MY son, however). Joseph works for Youth With A Mission here in Aalesund and he married a woman from Kory’s hometown of Langevaag, where they now live. We took them over to see our new place and Kaleb decided to ride his bike over. There was a bit of miscommunication about the path he was to take to get over there and we ended up losing him for quite some time. I was starting to panic, but I prayed instead. Kory was driving around looking for him and Joseph, Camille and I were walking the streets asking neighbors if they had seen him. I did get to meet one of our immediate next door neighbors, who is a guy from California, no less, and a friend of Josephs, coincidentally. Or not. (Small world stuff.) Anyway, it turns out Kaleb headed back to Odd and Turid’s when he couldn’t find us and Turid drove him back over to where we were walking the streets in a daze. I was starting to cry by then, but Kaleb was sobbing. He didn’t follow the plan we had so I hope he learned a lesson in all that. The only consolation for me was knowing that someone hadn’t stolen him… and that eventually he’d turn up… but it was one of those parenting moments I hope don’t happen too often.

Oh, The Difference a Prayer Can Make

I wish I could say I was as thrilled as Kory about all this, but it seems God has provided us with a place to live. Yes, it’s a miracle, but it’s also sinking. If you read the blog from a few days ago you know what I’m talking about.

I’ll spare the details for now, but this is how it came about: Kory’s cousin Odd (who we are staying with) is a doctor. One of his patients is the attorney handling the settlement for the owners of the duplexes where the ground is sinking not far from where Odd lives. (The houses are sturdy, but the ground is not.) Kory’s other cousin, Axel, knew about these places because he lives just down the street and he is a surveyor for the Aalesund Kommune (who is one of the parties involved in this disaster), so he told us about them.

All of the owners of these buildings (there are actually three duplexes all next to each other), just moved. There has been about three million dollars paid out so far in buying the home owners out, putting them up in temporary housing until they found suitable replacement housing, and various reports done for insurance purposes. There is still a chance there is some value to these properties but it’s uncertain at this point, as the ground keeps sinking around them.

Odd called the attorney last week to inquire about the property because Kory thought it would be a good investment to buy them. They aren’t ready to be sold yet and they can’t rent them out, but the attorney called back today to talk with Odd. Odd told him the situation with us and explained Kory and his construction background and the attorney said he would LOVE to have us live there – for FREE no less, if Kory could just keep an eye on the place. They are worried rocks may go through windows and trash may get dumped there. Also, the attorney has to pay big bucks for an inspector to come out every week or month or so to check how much the ground has sank, so if Kory were there, he could just measure it himself and send a report to the attorney.

I can’t even describe how deliriously happy Kory is about all this. It’s like getting a job that takes an hour a month, at most, and getting paid $1,500 for it (which is what they would rent for… maybe more.) Plus, I think it also includes utilities and electricity (which is another $700 a month), and, we don’t have to buy appliances, heaters, window coverings, closets, lights or a vacuum (there is one built in). I don’t think either of us would need to get a job now, and if we did, we’d have more than enough money to live here, so that’s the up-side. The down side is it’s so far to walk to the school or store; we’ll need to keep adding steps to get in and out of the doors, and I’m sure we’ll be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. No respectable Norwegian would live there (although they are cute places inside and extremely high quality). The yard needs a lot of work. It is on the bus line. It’s in the neighborhood where Odd and Axel live (so there are relatives nearby) but it isn’t Solevaag. I’m a bit distressed today thinking about not living at Solevaag, when my heart was so set on it. Plus, the other five units there will be empty – so no neighbors, which could be good or bad. Kory will be the “manager” of the place so we’ll have all the keys and Kaleb can certainly play in the empty units, which might be handy in the long dark winter ahead of us… and the car can’t make it into the garage (unless it spouts wings). I’m just rambling here. (The unit we’d live in is the middle building and in the photo, the unit on the right.) You can see the skirting that was added to the foundation of the buildings – the ground used to be there instead, so it has sank a good three feet in the last two years. Uff da. And if they do manage to sell them in the next year, we’d have to move right away (another down-side.)

The attorney Kory talked to owns other properties and he was excited to hear that Kory is a “fix-it” kind of guy so he said he might have some jobs for him over the next year, so that’s a bonus, too. I’m sure once I’m living there, I’ll stop complaining. It really is a blessing beyond words that we can live in Norway for “FREE” as the cost of housing is right up there with the cost of food as far as big monthly expenses go. And Kaleb would attend the Blindheim Skole – the very same school he attended with his cousin, Hege, for a week, two years ago, when we were visiting in May. At least it’s someplace familiar. Kaleb did give two thumbs up to this place (he’s way more flexible than I thought he’d be), so I’m obviously outnumbered. I think we move in on Friday.

Sundays in Norway

Kaleb went with us to church today – with three books under his arm. Good thing, as the service was two hours long. An evangelist was visiting Filadelfia Kirke (Church) so there was a lot of time spent in prayer and singing and preaching. The speaker was very good and he even got a few HALLELUJAHs out of Kory --although the guy said they weren’t loud enough. Imagine that - someone around here who welcomes the HALLELUJAHs.

After church we went for a visit to Solevaag (pronounced Soo-la-vogue) to some of Kory’s mom’s cousins. They are such nice people but their Norwegian is so different than anyone else’s that I can never understand a word they say. They slur their words together, have a heavy dialect, and use a lot of local slang so the whole conversation was lost on me. We told them we hope to buy a place just down the street and they were thrilled beyond words. Kaleb is also thrilled as he would be related to so many people in that area that he’d have the run of the place. It really is an ideal setting and would fill Kaleb’s head with many memories of his year in Norway. (The photo above is of Solevaag from a different angle than the one a few days ago. The place we hope to buy is in the distance, smack dab behind the red barn in the middle of the photo. The house where Kory’s mom was born is the white house, toward the right, with the highest pitch.) Instead of being close to all the commercialism (library, swimming pool, shopping mall), where our condo is, we’d be close to the best in nature that Norway has to offer – farms, mountains and the sea.

With everything closed in Norway on Sunday, options are limited, which is probably a good thing. There is a kind of freedom in having limited options that I’m sure I’ll come to enjoy over the year. I wish I could have taken a nap as we are up til after midnight every night (we don’t even eat dinner until around 11pm). The timing of things is very different for me, but it’s more the custom of the cousins we are staying with than all Norwegians. But there are some differences that all Norwegians do – like keeping all the doors to all the rooms closed at all times. Every room has a door (to retain heat in the winter?) and it’s weird to always close the doors behind me. Electricity is very expensive here and most people spend about $600 a month on it, so I can understand retaining the heat, but they do it even in the summer when the heat isn’t on.
Most every bathroom in Norway has a heated floor. The bathroom in our condo at Moa is as big as the bedroom. From looking at floor plans of places for sale around here, that is not uncommon. People have washing machines in the bathroom, but most don’t have dryers (which are very different than ours). The reasons the bathrooms are so large is because everyone has an indoor clothes line and they hang up the clothes to dry – year round. I’m doing a few loads of laundry right now and the clothes have been in the dryer for over two hours… as there is minimal heat to it – it’s more like a water extractor so you have to keep emptying the water bin when it gets full. I guess the design of that kind of dryer works when there is no place to have an outside vent for the heated air. I think it’s a bit strange, but if we don’t get a dryer I think I’ll just be a lazy American and lay all the clothes on the bathroom floor and they’ll be dry in less than two hours, I’m sure.

When people move from place to place here in Norway it’s common to take EVERYTHING with them – all appliances (frig, stove, dishwasher, washing machine), all light fixtures and all heating elements. A central source of heat is unheard of. Each room has a radiant heater that plugs into the wall so they detach easily – as do the ceiling light fixtures (they put plug-ins in the ceiling). So when you buy or rent, you get a place that is stripped naked. It can add thousands and thousands of dollars to the cost of moving when you have to buy all that stuff the first time (most appliances cost around a thousand dollars with today’s exchange rate) and heaters and lamps aren’t cheap either. At this point, I’m getting numb to how much things cost. I just want a place to call our own. Keep praying!

A Road Trip (or as the Norskies would say...Kjøretur)

Since nothing new showed up in the paper today for us to go look at to either rent or buy, our host cousins, Odd and Turid, decided, rain and all, we should take a road trip. The Tall Ships Race had landed in the town of Måløy, several hours south of here, and it was decided we should go see the ships in port. Just as I woke up and before I understood the plan for the day, we were out the door in a caravan of cars full of cousins heading south. I lost track of how many ferries we were on or how many tunnels we went through, but I know we went through the world’s deepest tunnel (nearly a thousand feet under the water through the bottom of the fjord). There was a sign before entering the tunnel that said they would send us a bill for 79 kroner ($16) in the mail for the privilege of going through it (it just opened up three months ago.) I guess they send you the road and tunnel tolls the same way they dish out traffic tickets via the road side cameras.

In Norway, the final destination is NEVER as important as the trip itself, as the landscape that unfolds around each corner is worth every penny we spent coming here. I had several great “drive by shootings” as I call them – where I hold the camera out the car window going 50 miles per hour past some incredible landscape, and shoot. Today was a bit more challenging because I was in the backseat and my window doesn’t roll down so I had to hold my camera out of the front seat passenger window and couldn’t even see what I was aiming at. But it rarely mattered as any old “point and shoot” in this part of the world generates a photo worth framing (the above photo is proof of that but maybe we were only going about 40 mph.) There never seems to be time to stop and properly frame a shot, as most ferries are timed so that you can catch them all perfectly if you go the speed limit between them (and there’s nowhere to pull over anyway).

We left around 11:00 this morning (yes I slept in as I was up til 2:30 last night trying to get the blog posted… the internet here isn’t working anymore on my computer…) and it’s now 10:00 at night and we just got home. We stopped to see the tall ships for only about 90 minutes – if that gives you some clue as to how much we were in the car today. We went all the way to the next “state” so it would be a similar day trip going from say, Seattle to Salem, Oregon and back again… except that there are no freeways and you’re on a road that if you drift off just a snitch to the right, you’d go crashing down to your death at the bottom of the fjord. Some of the roads are only wide enough for one car so I’m glad I wasn’t driving as there are often no guard rails, either.

Kaleb cried today because he is out of books to read. We were hoping our boxes would be here by now (I shipped four boxes of books and I know it won’t be enough) but they won’t show up until the 14th (we hope). He’s read every book we brought at least three times this week but I had a few surprise books tucked away in some suitcases, so that pacified him for now. I doubt he saw much of the scenery as he was perfectly entertained reading books. He did ask me to tell him before we entered a tunnel so he could hold his breath, but when the tunnels here go through several mountains and can be over five miles long, that childhood entertainment becomes downright impossible.

The ships were beautiful and the town was jammed packed with people. Even hearty northwesterners might have been deterred by the hard rain we had all day -- but not Norwegians. They have a famous saying that, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes,” so they were out in droves. Kory felt the trip was worth it because he got to eat one of his favorite Norwegian foods – whale! He found a street vendor making whale stew and he dove right in. Norway is so proud of the fact that they kill those majestic creatures that one of their politicians designed a T-shirt with a drawing of a whale on it that says, “Intelligent people need intelligent food.” Kory bought ten of them a few years ago and gave them to the Makah Indians to wear when they go out on a whale hunt (he had a co-worker friend that’s from that tribe.) I haven’t noticed that eating whale meat has made him any smarter, however.

Plan B

The sellers of the house we wanted to buy didn’t accept our offer. When God closes one door, he opens another. We’re back to square one, regrouping, and trying to figure out what to do now.

Before we came here we were told by the consulate that we can only live in the Aalesund “kommune” (county) because that’s where our condo is, but as it turns out, we can live outside that area if we just register with the police when we move. So, knowing that now opens up at lot more possible places for us to live. Hallelujah! And the further away you get from Aalesund, the cheaper the housing prices and the more things are available.

The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in Norway is the area where Kory’s mom comes from – Solevaag (That’s it in the photo – her birthplace is a white house on the grassy slope on the right side of the photo.) It doesn’t get any more picturesque. It’s just outside the Aalesund Kommune so we didn’t consider living there before, but now with the closed door on the only house that would work for us in Aalesund, we feel we can consider it. We took Kaleb over to Solevaag today (he’s actually been there many times) and we checked out the one and only place for sale in this ideal setting (one of the buildings on the left side of the water in the photo – if you double click the picture it will get larger so you can see the details) and he decided it would be OK to live there. Hallelujah! (We were so worried he wouldn’t want to be so far from a library, but there were other things that changed his mind – like three dogs next door, boys his age behind the place and all that water to splash around in.) Oh how I wish we could have bought that condo on the spot, but once again, the systems they have in place here are far different than anything we know about in America.

The condo we saw at Solevaag just came on the market a few days ago and is advertised to have an open house this coming Thursday. It’s the law that the real estate agent cannot accept any offers until 24 hours after the end of the open house. So that means we have to wait an entire week to make an offer on this place and for me, it feels like an eternity. The start of school is fast approaching and we need to know where to register Kaleb. Pressures are mounting but I can’t even say how thrilled I would be to live at Solevaag. There is water all around, mountains behind and relatives in every house in the neighborhood. Kaleb would go to school at the same place Kory’s mom went. The views from there are breath taking. And it’s a ten minute drive to Moa, where our condo is located. We need to keep looking for places to live but we trust God to lead us to the right place (and oh how I hope it’s this place!)

Today was a very full day. We found out while we were visiting Solevaag that one of Kory’s mom’s cousins had died and the funeral was going on at that moment. The man who died is one of those old men that give all Norwegians the reputation for being hard headed. He was never married and was difficult, to say the least. We decided to crash his funeral and got there just in time for “coffee” afterwards. Kory wanted to see some relatives he hadn’t seen in a while so it was a good opportunity for that, and I got to see how Norwegians do funerals. I didn’t see the church part, but the reception afterwards was quite interesting. It was a formal sit down meal (Norwegians are VERY formal in all they do). It was catered, so after we all sat at a fancy table, platters of open face sandwiches were brought out and passed around. I wish I had my camera. The sandwiches were a work of art themselves and they couldn’t have tasted better. The pastor made some comments about the deceased and then offered anyone who wanted to talk about him to clink their wine glass with a knife and stand up. So, for at least one hour we sat there and ate food and drank coffee (some yummy cake was served after a time) and occasionally you’d hear the clinking of a glass and then someone would stand and tell a long story about this man who was their neighbor or old childhood friend. No family spoke of him that I am aware. Then someone played the piano and sang a beautiful song about heaven and then we all sang a song from the songbook and it was over. Lots of informal visiting of relatives followed and then we took Kory’s aunts home.

We had to rush from the funeral to catch a ferry as we were invited to dinner tonight across the fjord at the banker’s house (Kory’s old childhood friend). We had a delicious meal sitting out on their deck overlooking the fjord – you just can’t beat the views around here. After dinner they drove us into the mountains to have cake and coffee at their cabin. Kaleb was in heaven as they have many secret passages around their cabin and he loves to disappear through one of them and reappear in another. They were so kind to indulge him. On the drive up in the mountains we had to stop more than once because cows were wandering in the road; their bells tinkling a beautiful rhythm. Then after cake and coffee, as the sun was starting to sink in the horizon (around 10pm) we drove another road back to the ferry and stopped off to watch some fishermen catch fish at a rather historic old port. A cat was there jumping up trying to be the first one to get the fish off the line (very funny to watch.) Dolphins were swarming all around in the fjord just off shore. The setting sun was turning the sky shades of pink and lighting up the rock faces by the water. I took so many photos today that it was hard to decide which one to use for the blog. Everywhere I looked was like a postcard.

Some friends are coming from Seattle next month and the woman asked me what there is to do in Norway. “Just drive around and look at everything,” was my answer. How true that is. It’s such a beautiful place.

Trusting God

We looked at a few places today and made an offer on a house (half a duplex) at Moa (where our condo is). It’s in God’s hands as we offered 15% less than they were asking. Our offer was for 2,000,000 kroner (that’s $400,000 to me and you). Another person had offered the same price a month ago but the owners turned it down but we’re hoping they’re more eager to sell by now. They are asking 2,290,000 kroner ($60,000) more than we offered, but it’s a slow market for sellers as the interest rates in Norway are climbing and many people can’t afford these prices. We can only manage it if we get an interest only loan at the bank, which we were told we could get. (Kory’s old childhood neighbor is the president of a bank here and he can fix us up with whatever we need. It is nice to know the right people.) But it’s all a bit scary as we have tried so hard to get OUT of debt, now we’re going back in. And the house is about 920 square feet– tiny thing, but really cute inside.

Anything we rent would be 10-12 thousand kroner a month ($2,000-$2,400) so we figured we might as well “rent from the bank” as our payments would be about 12,000 kroner. It’s a bit of a risk that in a year we can maybe break even, but at least we get the tax advantages of owning and being able to deduct the interest from our income. We gave the seller 20 hours to make up his mind so we’ll know by noon tomorrow (3am Seattle time). We are nearly out of options. School starts in less than 3 weeks and we must know where we are living in order to know where Kaleb will go to school. He’s already registered with this school district and this house is almost as close to our condo as the house where we were going to rent – it’s just a few doors down from it and right in the same neighborhood.

I told Kaleb today about the housing dilemma we are in and he was more than excited that we might have a place of our own, so he took the news rather well. Thank you, God. There is a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 on the other side of this duplex and a boy about 7 or 8 in front of it – and there are several trampolines in the neighborhood, so it’s rich with socializing opportunities. We are praying God softens the hearts of the people with the house and they will be willing to sell at our price. The best thing is – it’s not sinking!

On the way home from the “megler” (real estate) office, we stopped by Odd’s other brother’s house to look at some furniture. He’s moving in with his girlfriend and they are each throwing out all their stuff and getting new furniture together. So, assuming we get a house soon, we will also have a nice couch, love seat, coffee table, and dining table with six chairs to go with it. Other cousins have been holding beds and dressers for us, knowing we are coming. They don’t do much recycling here – or trying to sell things used (it’s a little bit beneath them to take hand-me-downs) they’d rather just throw the stuff out. But we’re Americans and we have no shame.

Hopefully our search for a house will end tomorrow and we can start looking for jobs. We are trusting God for all our needs….

Downtown

Kory is an alien in his native land. We officially registered today with the “alien” office downtown Aalesund (at the police station). We also applied to get a new ID number so at least we will be marked as “residents” and can get all the benefits of a full-fledged Norwegian citizen (except vote). I was worried about the rule they have that we need to produce a signed lease within seven days of arriving to show where we are living, but we explained the situation and the woman just nodded her head and said when we find a place, let them know our new address. First miracle of many more to come, I hope. I was worried we’d be tossed out of the country if we didn’t follow the rules to a tee, but apparently there is a heart somewhere in the government here. HALLELUJAH! So the initial pressure is off – Praise God! But we still need to find a place to live before we over-stay our welcome with Odd and Turid.

We left Kaleb in the downtown library for about 40 minutes today. He wasn’t too pleased with their English book selection but he managed to keep himself entertained while we went to the employment agency. (It’s so cool to not worry about someone stealing your kid. Life is definitely different here.) The man at the employment agency seemed rather pleased we came in. He said there is a LOT of work and he perked right up when Kory said he had a background in construction, and also when he heard I had a background in computers. He seemed to think finding work would not be a problem. I think our problem will be that we will need to turn down work as we don’t want to work more than 20 hours a week (maybe 10 for me).

Odd’s brother, Ketil , came over this morning for coffee. We visited with him a while and got to talking about God things. (We were engaged in his house on New Year’s Eve 1990 here in Aalesund.) He used to be on the board of directors at his church but when he got caught embezzling from his company and put in jail… he pretty much gave up on God. He lost everything – including his house and wife… Kory was telling him how godless this country seems to be now and Ketil said if you asked, most people would say they are a Christian but “they don’t take it personally” – meaning they believe in Jesus and the truth of the Bible, but they don’t do anything to live it out. I had to laugh at that expression, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t take it personally.” What a good way to put it, but also, so sad.

We are seriously considering buying a place to live for the year as rental options are just not there. It seems we will pay 10.000nok ($2,000) a month if we rent, and potentially we could pay less than that if we bought something. Even if we had a mortgage of $2,000, we could sell it in a year and at least break even, if not make a little money. So tomorrow we will go look at a few places. There aren’t many houses available within our price range (the cheapest townhouses start at $300,000 and you can’t even touch a stand alone house for under $500,000.)

There is one duplex not far from where we are staying now that we walked over to see. They call it the “sinking house” because, well, the land is sinking all around it. When the builder built it he drove pilings into the bog to keep the house stable and things were fine for a while. (They would never allow building on such wetlands in America.) But later, another builder downhill from there, blasted out some rock to put in a house and apparently the rock was the cork that held back the water table. Water came gushing out of the side of the hill and the bog where the sinking house sits, drained. Now the sinking house is a good four feet above ground as the bog just keeps draining… it’s a funny sight. The house sits on stilts so it isn’t really sinking just yet, but the ground sure is. All geological reports say the ground will never stop sinking so at some point there will be big problems with the building slanting and possibly cracking in half. Naturally, Kory wants to live there. Actually, he wants to buy the place! (He thinks he can fix the problem??!!!) The owners are long gone and the builder had to pay back their money and now some attorney is handling the paperwork. Kory sees opportunities in other people’s disasters (and obviously, it would be cheap), but this is one disaster I’m not feeling too good about. This all reminds me of when Norway was short on housing after World War II because the Germans had bombed out so many buildings and people were living crammed together wherever they could, sloping floors and all. I hope we can do better than to live in a house that needs a new step added every other day just to get in and out the front door. What is he thinking?