It's Snowing Again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to School

It seems Kaleb and I were both missed at school. I sent an e-mail to Kaleb’s school yesterday informing them he was sick, but it never reached his teacher so she didn’t know where he was. So much for technology. At least the text message I sent to my teacher got to her so she knew why I wasn’t there for two days. Not having done school for a while myself, and not at all for Kaleb, I’m not totally sure of proper protocol for these types of things. The school said we didn’t need to contact them at all if Kaleb is out for just a day, so I waited until day two to send an e-mail as I couldn’t find a phone number on their website and I don’t have a phone book. I was also a bit worried about having to speak over the phone anyway as I’ve noticed that I can communicate a lot with my hands when I don’t know the right words to use, so talking on the phone is a rare thing for me here. Oh well. These are the little things that make life interesting.

Well, the big Norske Prøve 1 test actually takes two days, so I got in on day two – the speaking part. We had to go before a panel of teachers, four students at a time, and speak freely on the topic we were given. The teachers asked us questions when the conversation died down. Then afterwards, we were each called in separately and given a review of how we did – what we did well and what areas need improvement. The funny thing was though, it was all in Norwegian and assuming one didn’t do too well, how would they know? It would be impossible to understand the critique. I thought that was kind of funny because I didn’t know every word they used when they talked to me, but I got the gist of it all. Basically it was the same stuff that Kory corrects me on – my two weakest links – how I pronounce some vowels and how I form sentences (American style). To me, those are very basic things to being fluent in a language, so it seems rather serious that I am not doing well in those areas, but it didn’t seem to bother the teachers that much at all. They thought I was a very good communicator – that I understood all that they said, that the other students said and that I was able to communicate (although not properly) what I was trying to say. They thought I was pretty funny and they liked to hear me speak. I’m sure it was the subject matter, as they wanted us to talk about where and how we do our shopping. I talked only about food shopping as that’s the bulk of what I do, but the teachers asked about other shopping – for clothes and gifts. So then I had to explain (in Norwegian) how I bought everything I could think I’d need for the whole year in America, and I shipped it over here so I wouldn’t need to spend money here. Things are so expensive in Norway, coupled with the bad exchange rate and even though it cost $3,000 for shipping, it still saved us a ton of money. They got a real kick out of that as it’s so “American” of me to do such a thing. When I told them I even brought birthday and Christmas gifts and all of Kaleb’s clothes and shoes, the next size up to be prepared for his growth spurts, they howled. I guess planning for the future isn’t part of what they do here. The Norwegians I know think it’s funny that I have an inventory of food and paper goods in the garage. I buy stuff on sale so I have some on hand and don’t need to run out and pay full price when I’m out of something. And when I told a student today that I didn’t leave my house for two days when I was home with Kaleb, she asked, “Did you have food to eat?” Because most Norwegians wouldn’t even have enough food to last two days in their houses – they go to the store every single day to buy that day’s food. They can laugh all they want – if something is on sale for half price, I’m stocking up. So apparently I was distracting the teachers with the content of what I was saying and the process of saying it sort of slipped by them. My teacher did say I’m already ready for the Norske Prøve 2 test so I’ll have no problem with that in February. Woo hoo.

After school today I took the ferry across the fjord to Langevåg where Kory was working. He wanted to show me the house he was building in his old hometown (see photo - it’s not at all a typical Norwegian house. The photo was taken at 3:30 – it’s already getting dark by then!) He doesn’t normally work on Wednesdays but he wants to take next Monday off because it’s his 65th birthday, and I don’t blame him. So I got to travel the route between Langevåg and Ålesund that he used to take when his mother got fed up with him and literally “shipped” him off to his grandmother’s house in Ålesund, where he’d stay for a few days until his mom could tolerate him again. Imagine that. On the boat trip over, I passed by some islands that Kory used to take a row boat out to and collect seagull eggs for breakfast. The kind of boat he used to go in is now in the local museum. I told him you KNOW you are old when things from your childhood are now in a museum, and his upcoming birthday is sure-fire proof of that.

Solid Rock and Sinking Sand

The headlines today read “Here Comes Winter – Again.” I guess they usually have about seven winters around here so this is the second one. It snowed off and on all day with some hail in there, too. Poor Kory had to go to work today. Kaleb and I enjoyed the show from our toasty warm living room as he was home sick again. He was absolutely determined to go to school this morning but just as he was getting dressed he decided he might need to throw up, so that settled it. Poor guy. He loves Tuesdays the best because it’s “gym day,” but he had to just sit around at home and “slappe av” as they say in Norwegian – “relax.” (That’s actually a funny expression because when you pronounce it it sounds like “slop off” – which is sort of what you are doing.) So I didn’t get to take the big Norsk Prøve 1 test today but I’m sure my teacher will let me take it home tomorrow and do it then. At least we weren’t learning something new today that I would miss out on. It’s hard enough getting the information in my head the first time around, but trying to catch up on a new concept is nearly impossible for me. My brain has reached maximum capacity and I still have seven months of classes to go. Only a miracle will get me there.

As much as I don’t like seeing my sweet boy sick, it sure has been nice to have a few days off. I feel like I’ve been on a treadmill since we got here and these past few days have been almost bliss with nothing on the agenda and no school to attend. We just sat and watched the street explode from all the dynamite blasts in front of our house – it was pretty fun. With all the solid rock in this country I’m so surprised someone would even bother to build a house on a bog, like where we live. Theresa, a woman I met here in Aalesund, has a childhood friend that bought one of these six “Sinking Houses” when they were new. I guess most “spec houses” (as we call them in the U.S.) are sold here in Norway with just the shell of the house up and then the buyer is responsible for finishing the inside. That’s what these houses were, so there was a lot of sweat equity in them and the home owners were very attached to them. Theresa said initially when the ground under them started sinking, no one wanted to take responsibility for it and the owners were going out of their minds trying to get something done about it. Tempers flared. It took years. It was in the papers more than any other story in recent history. The builder didn’t feel it was his fault (he built according to code), the Aalesund Kommune didn’t feel it was their fault (but they issued the permit). The insurance company that insures all new buildings for the first five years didn’t want to pay up because the houses were fine, it was the ground under them that was moving and they didn’t insure the ground. In the end, all three had to share in the 15 million kroner (three million dollar) bailout. They tried bringing in truckloads of rock to fill in the gap between the houses and the ground (the houses are built on posts sitting on rock 15 feet down), but it was a never ending pit and the weight of the gravel made the ground sink even more. They had to add skirting around the foundation of the houses because the ground sank over three feet and the floors were too cold because of the never ending draft under them. Eventually, they had to buy back the houses from all the owners and put them in temporary housing until they could find new houses to buy. These are high quality houses, but even just since we moved in, the ground has gone down under our house over five centimeters (two inches), the foundation under our dining room has cracked and a sink hole has developed in our front yard (the houses are in the foreground of the photo above.) It’s such an adventure living here! As long as the toilet still flushes, I’m not complaining. My friend Teresa thinks the houses should just be torn down and forgotten, as do many other locals, but the insurance company is trying to find a buyer from outside this area for the whole lot of them. With the financial crisis hitting Norway too, I don’t think there will be a buyer anytime soon – HALLELUJAH! We just LOVE living here. (Kory still wants to buy them, however. Even though he’s a fix-it kind of guy, I’m not sure even he can stop the ground from sinking.)

This afternoon Kaleb was feeling much better so we worked on the next two editions of The Weakly Puppy – his monthly dog publication. He’s actually spent more time with kids than dogs this month so he’s hard pressed for a feature story. That was my dream in coming here – that he’d find people more interesting than dogs – and it seems to be working. (But I’m still not sure I’m off the hook for getting him a dog when we get home.) He spent the day reading “Cesar’s Way” – written by the Dog Whisperer guy on some TV show that we’ve never seen. Kaleb has recognized all the problematic traits in all the dogs he dog-sits back home and is chomping at the bit to be with them and fix their problems according to what this Cesar guy recommends. I’m thinking we might need to start dog sitting Norwegian dogs soon. We have the perfect dog run already - UNDER the houses.

Another Sick Day

Just as we were heading out the door this morning, Kaleb informed me that he was sick. I guess he was trying his hardest NOT to be, as he loves school and hates to miss it, but he just couldn’t muster up the strength to ride his bike all the way there. Plan B kicked in and I stayed home with him since Kory had already left for work. I needed this day at school too as we were going to review for the big test tomorrow, but duty calls. Kaleb had a headache and a sore throat and a little fever. He just laid on the couch and watched DVDs all day and I used the time to wrap Christmas presents, prepare some things for his upcoming birthday party and play with my new “toy” (a piece of software.)

Last night, Henrik, the younger teenage boy in the Bondevik home, installed a program on my computer that allows me to see American television programs. I know it’s totally contrary to my aversion to TV, but I really like watching “The Office” and I can’t get it here. The networks put their shows on their websites for free, but for some reason, only to U.S. audiences. Computers, being what they are, can be identified as out of the country, so I have not been able to watch that show over the internet since we got here. (Watching it over the internet was the only way I could watch it in Mt. Vernon too because we didn’t get TV reception there either.) So I was left hanging in the lurch when we left the country… did Jim ever ask Pam to marry him? I could stand the suspense no more, and since Henrik told me he had a solution to my problem, I got to watch the season premiere and all subsequent episodes! Oh happy day. Kory isn’t thrilled with my double standard, but I told him it’s now only 22 minutes a week and it’s a pain to download it, so it’s not like I’ll sit for hours in front of my computer watching TV shows (but I do sit in front of it for hours doing other things.) Regardless, my life just got sweeter. I don’t know why, but that show reminds me so much of my years working for the phone company….

Kory worked out in Langevaag today - his old hometown (see photo – he was working just behind the big white building near the edge of the water across the fjord). It was a cold and rainy day but he didn’t complain (he’s working hard on not doing that anymore.) Tonight he’s been working on a drawing of downtown Aalesund. I’m going to have a lot of “local” art by the time this year is done. Hallelujah!

While at home today Kaleb and I listened to the street in front of our house being blown up with dynamite. It’s not just the houses where we live where the ground is sinking – it’s sinking everywhere around here and causing the water pipes to break. Several houses across the street from us have had flooded basements as a result. One woman, who has now been displaced from her home because of it, was upset with the Aalesund Kommune that they weren’t replacing ALL the pipes in the street when they broke. I guess the original pipes were installed in 1967 and there have been no upgrades since that time. Even after all the water line breaks, the Kommune had no plans to replace the pipes so the woman most upset by the damage done to her house went down to the local newspaper and made quite a case for herself. She was in the news for several days running a few weeks ago, and by Friday of that week the Kommune said they would do something. The very next Monday they were on our street, ripping it up. Kory and I couldn’t believe they acted so quickly. It may not be a democratic society here but the squeaky wheel sure gets the grease! And now, since they need to lay new pipes, they have to blast out a new spot to put them. So all day today we were listening to alarms and dynamite blasting. Blasting is the first step in any kind of construction around here. In fact, we even watched one neighbor blasting out rocks in his front yard where he wanted to put some steps. They sell home dynamite kits for just such occasions. Big boy toys, for sure. (Jason, you’d LOVE them!)

It’s nearly 11pm and I realized I didn’t even go outside once today, not even to get the mail. I guess I was just too busy at “The Office.”

Relatives

Yesterday, Kory’s cousin, Linda Bondevik, called to invite us to go to their church with them today. Her two teenage sons lead worship. Rasmuss played the keyboard and Henrik played bass guitar. They were excellent. So was the service. Their church is a branch of the Vineyard Church in America so it had a more relaxed feel than other churches we’ve gone to here. Afterwards we went to Linda’s house for dinner and a nice long visit (see photo). It was a “full service” day. Not only did Linda make us dinner, but she cut Kaleb’s hair, too. Kaleb was more than a little uncomfortable with the fact I wanted to cut his hair again. The painful memory of my first attempt is still fresh in his mind and every time I told him he needed a haircut, he grabbed his head and shrieked, “NO!” So Linda was just the ticket, plus, she’s had about twenty years experience cutting her own kid’s hair. Thank you Jesus, as once again, God has provided for all our needs. (Kid’s haircuts here cost about $50!)

Tante Aslaug, Linda’s mom, was at their house too, so I had a lot of opportunity to speak Norwegian. It exhausts me, but I can tell I’m getting better. All of Linda’s family is fluent in English so the temptation is to just speak that, but it was more polite to include Tante Aslaug and stretch myself. I guess, since I didn’t spend any time studying this weekend, it’s my version of homework. We have a big test coming up on Tuesday and I’m not sure I’m ready for it.

(The other day I was looking at a website that gave global statistics on things and projected out where different countries will be 50 years from now in different areas. It showed the population explosion in many countries around the world, but for Norway, in 50 years the population is expected to be about what it is today. I’m thinking it’s because they made that law that says everyone coming into this country must learn Norwegian, as that’s a sure fire way to get zero population growth from immigrants, anyway. But actually, they made that law because all the Arab immigrants were forbidding their wives from learning the language.)

I see Linda’s kids almost every day at the bus stop at Moa when I change busses to go into town for my Norwegian class. I see someone Kory is related to nearly every day though. Some regularly, like the kids at the bus stop, but others just happenstance when I’m in town. I love that about living here – the small town flavor of everything. Even if we aren’t related to everyone, everyone we meet at least knows someone we are related to. (It helps that Linda’s husband, Lief-Eric [white shirt in the photo] is a radio personality here and his uncle used to be Prime Minister of Norway.) I have a feel of “belonging” here like I’ve never experienced before. Kaleb even said today, “If my friends from America could move here, I’d never want to leave, but I miss my friends and favorite dogs too much, so we can’t stay forever.”

We stayed so long as the Bondevik’s house (which is VERY nice, I might add) we needed “kvelds mat” (night food). Norwegians have an interesting habit of eating food right before they go to bed. Typically, most Norwegians have four meals a day, as they all must eat sometime late in the evening. Odd and Turid have their biggest meal of the day after 10pm, but other families just have slices of bread with things on top, or waffles before bedtime. I hate eating late at night as it makes me have bad dreams. There’s nothing I like more than to go to bed on an empty stomach and I’d prefer to skip dinner altogether. I never understood why Kory wanted late dinners, but now I know. Even though we’ve been married almost 18 years, I’m getting to know him more and more the longer we live here. I’m realizing that all his eccentricities aren’t so much unique to him as they are just the standard cookie cutter variety of Norwegian traits. These Norskies are all so much alike, it’s scary.

Kan du snakke norsk?

We got off to a slow start today because Kaleb and I slept in until ten this morning. I didn’t go to bed until one, so I’m glad I got some rest. It was a good day to sleep in because it was one of those days that never got light and it rained hard all day. Normally, I would just like to stay home and be cozy warm inside on those days, but I had a few errands to run so we were forced out into the wet. (I guess I better get used to that because days like today are the norm for this area and life goes on – rain or shine.) Kaleb didn’t want to sit in the car while we ran errands so he braved the weather, donned his rain suit and reflective gear and went for a bike ride down the street to see who was around he could play with. I gave him my phone so he could keep in touch, but I could tell by the way he acted as he was riding out the driveway that he was pretty full of himself. He’s getting more freedom and the leash is getting longer. He was so pleased that he could go out and about on his own and we weren’t even going to be home. He landed over at Tobias’ house and played there for a few hours. While we were out I saw that the new Madagascar movie was opening today and Kaleb knows enough Norwegian now that I thought it would be fun for him to go. I called him up and asked if he and Tobias and his other friend in the neighborhood, William, wanted to go. They were all available so we picked them up, dropped them off at the cinema and let Kaleb have an even bigger bite of freedom – going to the movies without his parents.

Kory and I went and visited the aunts while the boys were at the movies (they live just a stone’s throw from the movie theatre.) We wanted to hear all about Tante Kari’s trip to Israel and Egypt, and sure enough, she had the time of her life. She felt terrible that Turid and her mom missed everything as she said except for that, the trip was perfect in every way and she should have done it years ago. Tante Aslaug came over and we all went to our condo to visit Tante Ruth, who is still doing quite well and was glad to see us. I felt so accomplished that I could track the conversation 100% and even throw in my two cents in Norwegian (including correcting Kory’s version of things). In the past, I’d just sit like a mute while Kory did all the talking with them, but now I’m in full swing – able to set the record straight if he doesn’t tell something properly. It’s one of those mixed blessing things for Kory. He’s glad I can speak his language, but not so glad I speak for him when I do. (Kory thinks that’s my main motivation in learning Norwegian – so I can correct him when he’s speaking.)

After the movie we brought all the boys back to our place and made pizza and played games until bedtime. As Kory was leaving to take them home, Kaleb asked them, “Hasn’t this been just a great day?” He was so excited to have friends here and to feel so much autonomy. I’m so thankful we are here so we can let him have that kind of freedom – the kind we both had growing up, but has now been stolen from America’s children because of rampant fears they will be kidnapped. Such a shame.

This week in class we were told to write a paragraph about where we came from and to bring in photos of our hometown so we can decorate the walls of our classroom. I didn’t get any help in writing this, and my teacher only had to make a few corrections, so I was pretty proud of this effort – especially when I think that three months ago I couldn’t even have written a single sentence or spelled a single word properly in Norwegian. Now look at me! (OK, so if you can’t read Norwegian you can just skip this part, but if you can “leser Norsk” I hope you are impressed!)

Jeg kommer fra vestkysten av USA. Staten jeg bode i ligger nordvesten i America. Huset mitt ligger en time sør for Canada og en time (100 kilometers) nord for Seattle. Seattle er den største byen i staten Washington, og der bor det over en halv million mennesker. Washington er vakker, og har den samme naturen som Norge med mange fjell og skog med høye trær, og staten ligger ved Stillehavet. Huset mitt ligger på en haug og vi har fin utsikt hver dag. Jeg kan se dyrket mark, fjell, en vulkan og mye skog fra vinduet mitt. Jeg hører bare fugler. Det er stille og fredelig hvor jeg bodde. “Skagit Valley” er ekjent for å dyrke tulipaner og narsisser. Om våren kommer mange turister for å se blomstene. Byen nærest huset mitt heter LaConner, men den er bare en liten turistby. Jeg må handle i Mount Vernon, 18 kilometers fra huset mitt og kjøpe mat der, men jeg kjøper også fra bønder. Bøndene dyrker mange bær, poteter, gulrot, kål, agurk, mais, og annen mat, og mange har økologiske gårder. Jeg liker det best!

I read it to Kory and he said, “Så flink du er!” (You are very good!) And he didn’t even try to correct me. Imagine that.

Goofing Around

The Good Teacher Inga never teaches us on Fridays. She teaches English to another class, so we always have a substitute on those days. We’ve had the same sub for the past couple of weeks. Her name is Lidia and she is from Russia. I have tremendous respect for her because she is now teaching Norwegian after only living here for eight years. She is gifted in languages as she speaks English perfectly, as well as French and Spanish (and Russian and Norwegian!). We don’t have any native French speakers in our class but we sure have Spanish and Russian speakers, so she’s quite the hit with all of us. She was teaching us today about the rules involved with prepositional phrases and we all sat there with a blank look on our face. When the light bulb finally clicked for me, I asked her, in English, if what I thought was correct. She answered back in English. Then a Russian woman fired off a whole string of questions and they went back and forth like lightening in Russian. Then the Spanish speakers spoke up and she answered them in Spanish. Then we all understood what she was trying to tell us in Norwegian. She is amazing. It’s not that we didn’t understand her Norwegian, we just didn’t understand why in the world the Norwegian language would have such crazy rules about prepositional phrases. (And I think most of the class doesn’t even know what a prepositional phrase is, even in their own language.) I’m sure the best training ground these Norwegians have for setting world records and winning so many Olympic gold medals is the fact that as children they’ve all had to learn this language. When my dad was a little boy he was quite mischievous and my grandma used to say, “If he lives to be five, he’ll live a lifetime.” (And he did.) I feel the same way about Norwegian. Parents must say, “If they can learn to speak Norwegian, they can do ANYTHING!” (And they do.)

I stayed in town after school today and went to lunch with my partner, Vestina. She wanted to practice her Norsk a little more so we sat and talked about all kinds of things (in Norwegian) for an hour. Who knows if we said things properly but we both understood each other perfectly. I wish I could do that with someone who would correct my Norsk though as I worry about developing bad habits. Odd and Turid came over for dinner tonight and Turid corrected me a bit, so that was nice. She just got back from a two week vacation with her mother and mother-in-law that could probably take top prize for “Worst Vacation.” They went on a once in a lifetime trip to Egypt and Israel and her luggage got lost and didn’t arrive for three days. She couldn’t find any stores that sold underwear because women in Egypt apparently don’t use such a thing. She had to wear her mother’s underwear which wasn’t exactly a good fit. Then on day five just as they left Egypt and entered Israel, her mother got deathly ill from something she ate. Turid had to ask the tour bus driver to call an ambulance and she had to leave the tour and go stay by her mother’s side in the hospital in Jerusalem– for a week! (She never got to see a THING in Israel.) Her mom was just now well enough to come home, but is in the hospital here in Ålesund. Poor Turid, she is wiped out. (Her mom is going to be okay and may get out of the hospital tomorrow.) They all had dreamt of going to the Holy Land, and none of them had been before, so it was a very sad turn of events. Tante Kari (Turid’s mother-in-law) was the only one that had a good time as she stayed healthy and was able to keep up with the tour. I’m just glad they all made it back alive. Double uff da.

We had a bit of rain today so Kaleb played on the computer after school and Kory stayed inside and drew pictures of things. He drew the mountains out our window, he drew Mickey Mouse on the cover of Kaleb’s comic book (see photo), he drew Donald Duck, and he started to draw downtown Ålesund. His drawing skills are quite impressive but he says he’s just “goofing around” (like it’s not real art.) I love all his art work and in nearly 18 years of marriage I haven’t seen him draw a thing, except the little ditty on our Christmas cards every year. We get TV reception at home – just one channel that only plays re-runs – but it’s enough to occupy all his free time. When there is no TV, this is what I get – ART! I love it. Odd called me the “Gestapo” tonight because I still won’t bend on the “no TV” rule. Maybe I could work a deal where Kory could sell his art to pay the fees required to watch TV? Never! The Gestapo has spoken.

The Purple Heart

Kory’s day wasn’t very eventful. The worst he had to deal with was a messy kitchen and a dead battery on the car (it was my fault.) I would have much rather stayed home and cleaned the kitchen than gone to school and learned even more insane grammatical rules. And now that the results of our latest tests are in, The Good Teacher Inga went over a few things with us in our Norsk class. Obviously I wasn’t the only one who missed some of the basic concepts being taught –so today we did a little review before moving forward. I think we need to review things a bit more often, but then, I’m the oldest one in the class and we all know what that means. I’ve had many more years of brain cells dying off than the rest of them. Plus, I swear the reason Kaleb is so smart is because he sucked the brains right out of me. For some reason, once I gave birth, I got stupid. It was a noticeable difference and I guess it’s something that a lot of mother’s experience. When Kaleb was first born I was so tired of not remembering basic things and not being able to figure out simple stuff that I asked my girlfriend who had school age children at the time, just how long this mindless state lasts and when it was exactly that her brains returned after giving birth. She told me she was still waiting -- so that answered that question. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I’m having a hard time learning Norwegian. And we had quite the discussion in class today about the fact that all our Norwegian husbands are worthless when it comes to helping us with our grammar. Each and every native Norwegian husband has told their spouse, “I was never very good at grammar,” which got a big laugh from all of us. We all feel the same way but we aren’t natives. I’ve even asked the few women friend’s I’ve made here about some of the crazy rules they have for grammar and I got the same answer “I was never very good at grammar.” How someone can become a teacher of Norwegian grammar is beyond me. I guess it’s a job reserved for the select few who actually understood it all.

Kaleb came home with a note from his teacher today. It should have been titled, “The Morten Report,” as it said, “I’m sorry to tell you that there has been an episode where Morten has really kicked Kaleb today. We have kept Kaleb here now (away from Morten), and it’s getting better and we have taken a serious talk with Morten. We will call his home and go further with the case. I’m truly sorry this happened. Have a nice day, Ragnhild.” Okay then. I’m sure glad they are finally having a “serious” talk with Morten because we know so well all the other “talks” they’ve had with him haven’t done a thing.

From Kaleb’s retelling of the story, he saw Morten on the playground pounding on one of his good friends. He ran over to rescue Håvard (I love that about him) and got Morten to turn his attention away from Håvard onto him so Håvard could run away. Morten kicked Kaleb something good then went running after Håvard again. Morten cornered Håvard by the school building and proceeded to smash his head into a window. Kaleb was astonished the window didn’t break. Håvard fell in a heap of tears as the playground supervisor grabbed Morten by the collar and hauled him off to the principal’s office for that “serious” talking to. Then as Kaleb was leaving for the day, Morten snuck up behind him, kicked him in the thigh and when Kaleb turned around, Morten stuck his fingers into Kaleb’s mouth and pulled on it so hard it split his lip. Kaleb was sure he swallowed a pint of blood after that. I’m sure it wasn’t even a tablespoon but the teacher did have to get a wet cloth to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. So he came home a wounded soldier today and I told him if he were at war he’d be awarded the Purple Heart. He thinks he might need “a room the size of Canada” to hold all such awards before the year is out. So that was Kaleb’s day. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when we moved here to socialize him, but God promises to work “all things together for good,” so we are waiting for the good to surface. Uff da.

Our Norsk Connect Group

Tonight we hosted the home fellowship group we’ve been attending through Agape Church. They call them “Connectgrupp” and they meet every other week in different homes. It’s not anything like our home fellowship group we left behind in Mt. Vernon, but it’s something. Since they speak Norwegian, and they speak it fast, and they all have dialects, I rarely understand anything they are talking about. But tonight, since it was in our home, they let me do most of the talking. I spoke in English, used easy words and spoke slowly so they all understood me. I told some of my good “God thing” stories and they seemed to be encouraged as a result. That was nice. I also made some good food, and everyone was raving about that as well (it doesn’t take much to trump Norsk food.) It’s so nice our little house can sit ten around the dining room table. Our house in Mt. Vernon can’t even do that comfortably, so it was a treat. We spent a lot of time in prayer, which was good, as God understands us all no matter what language we speak.

Kaleb had a lot of homework to do today as he “conveniently” left his books at school yesterday so he couldn’t do his homework last night. I think he got the idea on Monday when his teacher left their books at home and didn’t return them… so then he couldn’t do his homework Monday night. He thought that worked so well for him that he’d have another night like that and just leave his books behind. So today I told him he had to come right home from school and he could not go to the afterschool program because he had so much homework to do. He shed a few tears, but complied and sat this afternoon and did homework with Kory for several hours. It takes a long time to look up all the words we don’t know in the dictionary, so his homework is just downright painful. It’s not at all hard, once we understand what’s going on, but getting to that point isn’t easy.

For the last hour of my class today The Good Teacher Inga took us to an art gallery in town. She said it’s important we not just learn the language, but that we learn about the culture of Norway as well. There are a LOT of art galleries in town, and in fact, in all of Norway. Every Norwegian house I’ve been inside has at least a dozen original pieces of art hanging on the walls. Norwegians are crazy about art. And if a person goes to art school here and attains a “degree” in art, then the government has a program whereby they subsidize the artist’s salary so they can make a livable wage. There are no starving artists in Norway. Norway so values artist’s contribution to their society that they put their money where their mouth is and make sure that those who really want to be artists, can be. If the artist makes enough money on their own then the government subsidies get reduced or stop altogether, depending on the income of the artist. I think it’s a most interesting concept and probably Norway is the only country that can pull that off the way they do. (America has a similar program with its farmers, but they don’t pull the plug on the cash flow if the farmer makes a lot of money.) The art we looked at today was VERY nice and I wish I could afford to buy a painting but the one I liked the most was over two grand. Even unknown artists will charge a minimum of $300 for a painting, on up to thousands of dollars, and people will pay it. I saw some lithograph prints at the art studio we were at today done by one of Norway’s most famous artists, Ørnulf Opdahl, (who happens to live on the Island of Giske very near here, and whose son happens to be the attorney that Kory works for with the Sinking Houses.) Each print done by Opdahl sold for nearly $2,000 DOLLARS (over 10,000 kroner) as that guy is very famous and is known as “a friend of the Queen” because she likes his art work very much and has become his personal friend. His original works of art are out of this world expensive but he has no trouble selling them. Such is the affluence of Norwegians. Kory is so worried I might actually spend some of his hard earned money on original works of art, that he’s using all his spare time drawing the landscapes around here hoping to squelch the fire burning within me to have some local art. (Typical tightfisted Ålesunder mindset, but it just might work.)

Raking Crabs

Another uneventful day at school and work for Kory and Kaleb. As for me, we started learning a bit more about the land in which we live. A few interesting facts I was unaware of previously: 25% of Norway’s land is covered in forest and only 3% of the land is tillable soil available for raising crops. So that leaves 72% of the land as solid rock. That seems about right to me. The coastline, if stretched out, would go around the equator one and a half times. Half of Europe’s Atlantic coastline is in Norway. If the country of Norway was spun south, from its southernmost tip, it would reach the city of Rome in Italy. It’s a long country but not that wide. At its narrowest, the country is only six kilometers (about 4miles). So now you know.

What I found funny is what our teacher told us about each area of Norway having their own reputation among other Norwegians. The area where we live is known for two things – the people here are incredibly narrow minded, and very tight with their money (even more so than the typical Norwegians.) That explains a lot, especially since I married a man from here who has those two exact qualities. Our teacher demonstrated by saying that when Ålesunders swim the breast stroke, they don’t push their arms out away from their body, they have their arms out and then pull in everything they can that's close to them. Funny visual, but I get the sense they are proud of that reputation. One thing I love about Norwegians is their ability to laugh at themselves.

Another interesting thing I found out about Ålesund is that they pipe in water from the Gulf Stream that runs along the coast, and run that water through pipes going into an incinerator that burns the city’s trash. That heated water is then piped under the streets in downtown Ålesund in the wintertime to keep them free from snow and ice. They use that heated water as a heat source in a lot of government buildings, including hospitals and old folks homes. Our condo at Moa is also heated by that warm water running under the floorboards so Aunt Ruth doesn’t pay anything for heat, which I think is strange, but I’m not complaining.

Something else I’m not complaining about is the weather today! It was warm and sunny all day and tonight is just gorgeous with a full moon so bright we can see all the snow capped mountains surrounding our area. We decided it was the perfect night for “crab raking” – a local pastime in this neck of the woods. In the months of the year that end with an “R”, it is open season on crabs. No permit required. All that is needed is a flashlight and a rake. Supposedly, after dark, the crabs come up close to the shore and we were told by more than one person we just need to go down to the shore, shine the light, and rake in the crabs. So, we bundled up (it is pretty chilly after dark now), got our flashlights, rake and bucket and headed down to our beach. The moon was so bright it was like having a street light following us the entire way. The water was as still as it could be and absolutely crystal clear. When we shined the light into it we could see all the way to the bottom – which in some places wasn’t that deep but in others, it was at least ten feet down, maybe more. But, the crabs must have heard we were coming because they weren’t just sitting there waiting for us. We saw two small ones but they got away between the tines on the rake. It was still a wonderful night to be out and about and it added just a bit of excitement to our outing thinking we might come home with fresh crab. Oh well, we’ll try again another night.

I got my latest test results back today. Bad news if I were keeping score, as I only got 46.5 points out of 63. I really tanked on the past tense verbs. There are particular rules about whether the verb ends in “et” or “te” and I got them mixed up so I was 100% wrong on that section. Originally, when I was taking the test and realized I couldn’t remember which was which, I did half of them one way and half the other way, figuring I’d work the odds, but then I changed my mind and it wasn’t a good move. But there was also an ungraded section on the test on just writing text and my teacher said my level of writing is higher than “Norsk Prøve 2” – which is a competency test given in February. We are going to take the Norsk Prøve 1 test next week to see how we are doing, so it was a little encouraging that I’m ahead of the game in writing. As my teacher said, who cares how I do on the exercises, it’s being able to clearly communicate in writing and in speech that makes the difference. She was quite proud of me, and as usual, she cheered me on and said I was doing great… my own personal cheerleader. I’ve always wanted one of those.

Art

Today was a fairly ordinary day, except for the weather. It’s been unusually warm and no rain the past several days –NOT at all normal November weather so everyone is talking about it non-stop – oh wait, they do that anyway. Never mind. Other than that - Kaleb went to school, Kory went to work. Both reported uneventful days, as was mine. But Kaleb did get to bring home his work of art today (see photo). His afterschool program had all the kids paint a landscape with acrylic on canvas. Kaleb has been talking about it for weeks as he thinks his is the second best and he’s been so excited to have us see it. He decided to take a few liberties with the view out our living room window, so he painted the mountain tops, as seen through the window, but set against very still water so there is a mirror image (I think he got that idea from several photos I took up in the Lofoten Islands.) It is pretty good, if I do say so myself. And he has been glowing over all the nice compliments he got from kids at school as they had them on display like a real art show. At the end of the “show” all the parents got the opportunity to buy the works of art for 50 kroner (about $10) How clever is that? All the money they raise goes to the children’s wing of the local hospital, so all-in-all, a good idea.

I’m still struggling with school and it does me no good to have Kory help me with my homework. He is “old school” Norske and speaks a different language – literally. I’m learning the new, hip version of Norwegian and nowadays, they do things differently. It’s sad for me on one hand because it would be nice to have help when I need it, but on the other hand, it keeps me from cheating. But I really need a private tutor now or something as the class is zipping right along and I got left in the dust somewhere and I feel like I’m floundering again.

We were discussing this dilemma at dinner tonight and Kaleb was a bit confused as he had yet to figure out there are two versions of Norwegian being taught in schools today. His 4th grade class is broken up into 4 separate groups, two of them are learning “Ny Norske” (the old language that Kory speaks) and two are being taught “Bokmål” (what he and I are learning). He was devastated at the news. He just started crying and said, “But what if you want to become friends with one of the kids in the other class and you won’t be able to communicate with them?!” I agree (but the differences are not HUGE – it’s mostly just spelling and grammatical differences.) But it is the most bass ackwards system anyone could ever think of and it’s starting to get to me. There is one upside though to the two different languages and the 400 different dialects … Norwegians are VERY tolerant of grammatical errors in conversation. They could care less if you speak properly as every pocket of this country has their own bent on the language. Even last night during the sermon at church, the pastor misspoke and then just said it was his “dialect,” as that is the common understanding here when people don’t say something “right” -- it’s just passed off as dialect. But the one thing Norwegians will NOT tolerate, and they think it makes one sound incredibly foreign and just downright stupid, is pronouncing certain letters improperly.

The University of Bergen did a nationwide study a while back and interviewed over 5,000 native Norwegians and the top three things that grate on them the most is the way certain letters are mispronounced – grammar isn't even an issue. So we were warned in class to be sure to say “g”s properly – not a hard “g” like in “get” but like the sound of a “y” like in “yes.” Apparently that is the number one pet peeve. I guess it's similar to the folks in the Northwest hearing someone say Puget Sound as "pug-et" - not "pew-jet" like we say... or hearing Skagit County called "Ska-get"- stuff like that. And the number two irritant is the way some people (German’s mostly) pronounce the “s” like a “z”. At least I don’t have that problem. And the third top sign that marks one as non-native is the way the “r” is pronounced (I guess American's have this problem quite a lot, but at least we can say "r". No one from Asia can even make an American "r" sound.) To say the "r" properly here in Norway, it MUST be rolled and the tip of the tongue must linger at the roof of your mouth til it downright tickles. Kaleb has it down pat. I do OK but still get corrected on occasion. It’s an art form unto itself. So I guess the lesson for me is to pay less attention to my grammatical errors and concentrate more on my pronunciation. One of these days, maybe… one of these days… it will all click.

Friends

The photo today is of Josef and Camille Kløven, our dinner guests this evening. Josef’s dad was pallbearer at Kory’s dad’s funeral in 1968 – long before Josef was even born, but his father was a good friend to Halvor (Kory’s dad). Josef’s parents left Norway and moved to Seattle in 1960. Josef moved here eight years ago to attend Youth with a Mission in Ålesund, and ended up staying on and working for them. He met Camille, who is from Kory’s hometown of Langevåg, and they were married last year. She’s currently going to school to be a nurse but they both work at the café that is run by Youth with a Mission. Josef also has his own coffee bean roasting business on the side so they are two very busy people and we were lucky to find a time they could fit us in their schedule. We just met Josef for the first time briefly last year when we were here visiting, as we’d heard there were some other Seattleites in town so we called him up out of the blue and had coffee with him. Tonight was a quick dinner but it was still great to get to know them and cross generational friendships and it’s always good to meet folks from home. It’s funny that Josef just turned 30 and Kory is soon 65, and their father’s were friends. Josef’s mom celebrated her 75th birthday today and he felt a little sad he couldn’t be home to celebrate with her. (He is a “late in life” baby like Kaleb.) We had a nice visit and we hope to meet up with them again. We did a quick check of the family tree and at this point anyway, it seems Kory isn’t related to either one of them – a rare thing in this neck of the woods.

We double dipped on church today – we went to Filadelfia this morning and to Agape tonight. Agape folks were still recovering from the big concert last night so they delayed their service so they could get the concert hall cleaned up. I wish we could go to both churches every week as we like them both so much but now we have to flip flop back and forth. And therein lies the worst problem we have these days – having to pick which church we go to every Sunday. I actually feel like I have survivor’s guilt or something over how great our life is. This week I’ve gotten e-mail after e-mail from people back home about tragic situations unfolding in their lives and here I sit with nothing to complain about. I’m talking death, cancer, divorce, job loss… big stuff going on with people we love right now and, not that I could do anything about it, or that I have control to fix any of it, but it still feels like it would be nice to be more available. So all I can do is pray. Fortunately, it’s not the LEAST I can do, it’s the MOST I can do, but I still feel guilty that we have it so good. It’s like a little bubble of bliss and it sure is nice. Thank you, Jesus! (It’s not like I haven’t had my share of grief in life. Maybe I’ve just had so much that it’s hard to get used to The Promised Land.)

Marketing

It’s nearly midnight and we just got back from a three hour praise service in downtown Aalesund. Agape Church did an outreach to the community and asked all the other churches in the area to come together to just worship God in the biggest performing arts building in the area. It was a free Christian concert called "Aalesund Unites" where people could invite their friends to come along. The place was packed. They had great music and special effects – it was a huge success. I’m sure we were the oldest ones there as it was mostly teenagers and young people and many made a commitment to live their lives for Jesus. The pastor only spoke for about five minutes in the middle of it all and he started his talk off with: “America just voted in their first black president - history was made this week," (and the audience went wild), "and Obama's slogan was 'it's time for a change,' and that's what I'm asking you all tonight - is it time for a change in your life? Time to accept Jesus as a Savior? Time to surrender and let God be in control?" Interesting marketing. I invited my pal, Vestina, from school, and she came with her boyfriend, so I got to meet him. They both really liked the music but they cut out at the half time break. I’m sure they had their fill, as I went to a church service with them just before the concert. She had told me about a “meeting” she went to a few times in the city, but she was thinking it might be a “cult” so she wanted me to go with her to check it out. So, I took the bus into town late this afternoon and met up with her and we went there. It wasn’t a cult at all, it was just a modern day church. (I saw one of Kory’s cousins’ sons there as well.) It was definitely geared for the younger set with very loud rock music, lights turned out, candles burning, fog machine, the whole nine yards. I’m guessing, based on my experiences tonight, that buying into a company that makes hearing aides will be a good future investment. Come thirty years from now, I’m sure the majority of the population will be deaf or hard of hearing, as my ears are still ringing from all the loud music (I could feel the drums vibrating off my chest and throat).

Kory and Kaleb had a far more interesting day than I did. Kaleb went to yet another birthday party this afternoon then went over to Tobias’ house and watched him assemble a new remote control truck his dad just brought him back from America. He also read a 743 page book in his spare time. Kory spent the whole day over at his cousin Odd’s house putting trim around a door and installing new kitchen countertops. It was a beautiful day today too and I am still feeling guilty about the fact I didn’t even go for a walk outside. I wrote a story for an Advent devotional for our church back home, went grocery shopping, spent a lot of time praying and took a nap. Not exactly my ideal Saturday, but tonight made it a bit more memorable.

Oh, the Ice Cream Truck came around– a combination of our kid’s Ice Cream trucks in America and the Schwanns frozen food home delivery service. The ironic part about the truck here is that it sells food WAY cheaper than it can be bought in a store. One dinky ice cream cone (or popcicle) sells for about 24 kroner in the store (just under $5), but if I buy it from the guy who drives it to my front door, I can get one for less than 5 kroner (under a $1). He also sells frozen “organic” salmon and uncooked shrimp – all much cheaper than the stores. (Buying wild caught salmon is no longer possible in Norway – all the fish is farmed! But now they have “organic” fish farms.) So we pay the highest prices for things when we buy them in a supermarket. If we were to go to all the individual sellers of things (the fish market, the bakery, the butcher), we could buy them all for less money. We pay for the convenience of only having to make one stop, I guess. It’s so opposite of America. But I find that to be true of a lot of things here. In America, the price for electricity goes up in the winter when we use it the most – same with the water prices going up in the summer and then they drop prices in the “off” season. It’s the opposite here – even the price of gasoline goes down every weekend because they know people are more likely to take a road trip then. And the funniest thing is that employee’s paychecks are the fattest when they are on vacation. The government doesn’t tax vacation pay because they know people need a little extra money to spend during that time, so their take home pay is higher when they AREN’T working. What a concept. It’s funny to me, but it’s all very “normal” for Norwegians. I guess we all tend to think what we are used to is normal, and that must be why Vestina thought that church service was a cult – because it isn’t something she is used to. I know Kory is used to me by now, but something tells me he still wouldn’t think of me as “normal.”

Kaleb is 9 and 11/12ths today!

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.

The Challenge

I feel like I’ve moved into the “it’s all Greek to me” mode in trying to learn this language. In Greek, there are many words for something we just have one word for in English. Take LOVE for instance, the Greeks have six different words for it – English just has one. Norwegians have two. We just have one word for “this” or “that” or “them” or “you”, Norwegians have several different words for each of them, and there are very specific rules about when you use which version depending on if you are talking past tense, present tense, future tense, and if it’s the object or subject in the sentence. I have a hard enough time just trying to remember the basic words I need to translate, then TRY to figure out where it’s supposed to go in a sentence let alone think about whether it’s an object or subject – but if I knew, I’d know where they go in the sentence as there are specific rules about that too. (And adjectives are a whole other headache.) A common answer to a question that starts with “Are you … “(fill in the blank, hungry, tired, etc?) is “Nei, det er jeg ikke” – which means “No, I’m not”… but literally translated is “No, that is I not,” – hence the problem I have in constructing a “Norwegian” sentence. It’s all Greek to me.

Kory has set up a contest between Kaleb and I as to who can speak the best Norwegian by Christmas. For a while, I was in the lead, but Kaleb came home today proud as a peacock that he talked for about an hour non-stop– all in Norwegian! He said some girls from the 5th and 6th class found him on the playground and were asking him tons of questions about himself. He was not only able to understand all they said, but he answered back in Norwegian so well that they understood him, too. Yikes. After he got home from school we sat at the table drinking tea and talked about our day – in Norwegian. Kory began to test us and it was clear we each have our strengths and weaknesses. I know more vocabulary words, but Kaleb has the whole sentence structure down, which is my weakest link. Kaleb is determined to win the thousand kroner (the $200 prize) as he wants to buy a Ninetendo DS (a handheld video game.) At one point he was against such things as he felt children were addicted to them because anyone he knew that had one preferred playing with the toy over him whenever he went for a visit. He swore he’d never own one, but now he sees every child in Norway has one, and he’s changed his mind. (He spent a lot of time explaining why it is OK that he changed his mind about that.) I guess it’s easy to be an island when you really are an island – like he was in America being homeschooled and all, but now, he’s in with the masses and has succumbed to the need to fit in. I’m just glad he’s trying to fit in. Therein lies the reason for our living here.

We had cousin Odd over for dinner tonight as his wife, Turid, is on a tour of Israel with her mother and mother-in-law. After dinner Odd spent a great deal of time trying to get our TV working, as it bothers him deeply that we don’t watch the news. He’s sure our Norwegian will kick in once we have the TV going. I couldn’t disagree more, but I let him try nonetheless. He was successful in figuring out Kory’s cabling mistakes but in order to watch TV we must pay big bucks for the “box,” as well as monthly and annual fees. I can think of a host of other things I’d rather do with the money. I hope I don’t get out-voted on that one.

The Morton Report today consisted of Kaleb telling me he actually talked to Morton in Norwegian. This is a huge breakthrough as I was sure part of Morton’s violence toward him is because Morton really does like Kaleb and doesn’t know how to express himself when he can’t use words. Kaleb said today all went well with Morton until he was heading home and Morton asked him if he was going to stay for the afterschool program. Kaleb told him “No” (he only goes Monday to Wednesday) and Morton hauled off and kicked him. So now I’m sure my theory is correct as I remember being in 3rd grade and only kicking the boys I really liked.

(I just read this to Kaleb and he said, “Unfortunately, she still does that.”)

The Day After

My goodness, this country is just downright giddy over the election results. It was the most festive and jubilant day I have experienced since being here. Everyone was congratulating me like I was as happy as they are about Obama being president. I must say, I’m not thrilled, but I wasn’t thrilled with the alternative either. The biggest newspaper in Norway had a full front page photo of George W. biting his lower lip, looking rather sour, and the headlines read: “Ugh! We survived the times worst president.” All the newspapers are full of article after article about the election. One story was a slam against McCain because he had “accused” Obama of being a socialist – as if that were a bad thing. The whole of Norway took offense to that comment, as they are quite proud of their socialism. So Norway has breathed a sigh of relief and they are thrilled that “change” is coming. And most people I talked to today are almost in awe that we have a black president now, as they know for a fact, that wouldn’t happen in Norway. They are still just too prejudice about such things, but they had a woman prime minister decades ago. When my teacher today (a “retired” substitute) asked why I wasn’t as happy as everyone else, I told her about some of Obama’s horrendous policies – like supporting later term abortion and she said, “Oh, that’s murder, that’s not good… but other than that, he’ll be good for America.” Then I told her about him supporting gay marriage and she said, “That’s already legal here,” as if we were behind the times on that one. She said she was worried about McCain becoming president because he’s so old. She said he is the same age as she is and then she confessed that she has a hard enough time running her own life now, let alone a country or the “world.” Honestly, it was a day like no other. Everyone that knew we were Americans only wanted to talk about how happy they are now that things will be different with Obama. I had no idea how our country affects people outside America on such an emotional level. Kinda scary.

Kory started the day off by telling Kaleb what an “abomination” is and how we now have an Obama-nation. Uff da. Kaleb went back to school armed with several packs of Kleenex. Kory was home today and met with a locksmith to break into one of the sinking houses here. The attorney he works for couldn’t find they keys to one house and Kory was worried about frozen pipes, so the attorney said he should call a locksmith. Sure enough, once he got in, there were broken pipes from that deep freeze we had last week. I’m not sure what he does now, but at least he shut off the water and cleaned up the mess.

My girlfriend Jami e-mailed me yesterday to say she heard my name on the radio! Last week I sent an e-mail to KMPS (country station 94.1FM in Seattle) to tell them I listen to them every afternoon when I’m home from school. They have a real “good news” theme going on for their morning talk show so I sent them a copy of a story I wrote that was published in a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. The story was called “The Monday Good News Lunch Club.” They read it on the air yesterday – the one day I didn’t have the “radio” on because Kaleb was home sick and I was out of my usual routine. But today, one of the DJs e-mailed me a podcast of it and it was very fun to hear them discussing my story. (I tried to upload it to the blog but it wouldn't work.) They even played a snippet of the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood” and they said, “This is for you, Mickey!” How fun was that? It was almost the biggest thrill of the day, until…

We got a package in the mail! Our friend Nancy Schaub sent us three pounds of good “American” coffee! For all the coffee Norwegians drink, you’d think they could at least have some decent coffee beans to grind, but they don’t. (Every time we’ve come for a visit in the past, we “bring our own.”) Norway has the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted. We brought along some coffee when we moved here, which lasted until the Schaubs came to visit in September. Then they brought us more and I just ran out THIS morning, of all things. As long as we can get good coffee, I could stay here forever, but when the coffee supply runs out, I might actually get homesick. But for now, I’m good to go for another six weeks or so. Talk about TIMING! I think I now understand the marketing behind Starbucks. A good cup of coffee goes a long way toward starting the day off right – even days when I find out the next “world leader” isn’t someone I voted for.

Election Day

Kaleb woke up with a fever and as much as he wanted to go to school today, he couldn’t muster the strength to get dressed, so he just stayed in bed and moaned. I had to stay home from school with him this time because Kory needed to go to work. It was actually a lovely day for me, as I never got out of my jammies and I had nothing on the agenda. I helped Kaleb with his homework later in the day when he felt better, and we did some birthday party planning for his big 10th birthday coming up next month. Where have the years gone?

Kaleb’s homework now consists of READING. He thinks that’s laughable. They have a big reading challenge going on and he has to read a lot of books in the next five weeks. I usually end up having to curb his reading as “punishment” because sometimes he’ll just sit around and read non-stop and does nothing else (including getting dressed), so he’s in hog heaven these days because he has a lot of homework reading to do! I had to order up some English books from the library in Oslo as he’s already read all the English books in both libraries near us. He is reading Norwegian also, but it’s a slow go and quite painful, but I was impressed today by how much he can translate. One night I was up until 11:30 reading “Matilda” by Roald Dahl (a famous children’s author who is Norwegian but grew up in England – he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and many, many others.) Kaleb’s teacher gave him an English copy of the book to read and it was due back the next day. Then she gave him a Norwegian copy to read so he could compare the languages. Kaleb found the book so exciting he begged me to read it so we could talk about it. Matilda is a very bright little girl who loves to sit and read books all day (Kaleb read that book three times). He always gets a thrill when he finds a character in a book that has some of his same qualities. He’s decided he loves Roald Dahl and has read all his books at least three times each since we’ve been here. That kids loves to read, and now his writing is progressing as well. He said he feels like he might become a writer because he’s always thinking of interesting things in his head, and he’d like to put them on paper. I’m all for that! Today he wrote his first paragraph in Norwegian without any help. I couldn’t believe it – his sentence structure was perfect. I’m jealous. I have a test tomorrow and I’m so not ready for it… if only Kaleb could take it for me….

So the headlines this morning in the local paper said, “Only a Catastrophe Could Stop Obama Now.” All the world is watching. (We sent in our absentee ballots last week.) We will be getting a new President, but they are getting a new world leader that will affect their lives as much as ours. It’s a strange thing. A while ago I went to a special meeting at Filadelfia Kirke. They had a speaker there from Kenya who gave a report on how the Bible school is going in Africa that was started fifty years ago by some Pentecostal missionaries from Scandinavia. (He said they’ve estimated there has been a “harvest” of over three million Pentecostal Christians in Kenya and the surrounding countries from the seeds that were planted fifty years ago.) He was a dynamic speaker and he connected the dots in some Bible passages that I hadn’t made or even heard before so it was very interesting to listen to him (and he spoke in English!). Afterwards we hung around and talked with some other folks there and one guy really bent my ear on the financial crisis that has hit America and how that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come. Not that I disagree with him – I do think that America will fall from their power position in the world someday -- but I’m not sure of his timing. He claims there are several prophecies that say that the next president of America will be the last, and that the year 2012 will be the end of the good old U.S. of A. (whatever that means.) He seemed quite concerned that we are moving back to America next year. He has a brother in Wisconsin that’s stocking up on supplies already. I guess if America does come to an end, I’m not sure there are any supplies I could buy that would really make a difference. I just told him I trust God to supply all my needs and that He daily directs my path, so if California really is going to break off and fall into the ocean, I’m sure I’ll be elsewhere that day… but even if not, heaven ain’t so bad. My future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Hallelujah!

Money

In class today we learned all the special words one would want to know if they are pregnant (gravid) in Norway. And the reason they are so important, is because they mean money! I can’t believe it --they actually pay women to have babies, and then they keep paying for those babies until they are 16 years old – no matter who you are or how much money you have. Norway is, I believe, the most progressive country in the world when it comes to maternity leave. All working women get 80% of their pay (fødselspenger) for the first year after they give birth – and their jobs remain secure. If they chose to go NOT go back to work after that first year, they can take another year off and keep their job, but they get no pay during the second year. If the woman was NOT working prior to giving birth, then the government makes a nice one-time deposit into her bank account to help with the expenses of raising a baby (that money is called “engangsstørnad”) – to the tune of 90,000 kroner (about $18,000 – tax free!) And all medical expenses here are paid by the government so it doesn't need to be used for that. The father of the baby also gets a paid maternity leave for eight weeks. And once the baby is born, the government gives the parents several hundred dollars every month until the baby is three years old, and then the amount goes down to about $200 a month until they are 16 years old. All “baby/child” money is tax free and is given for every child in Norway, since the government here realizes that it takes money to raise a child. So we went around the room today and everyone told about the maternity leave policies in their home country. Of course, everyone in the class is from a country where the medical expenses are free or miniscule and several countries had many months of maternity leave. I was embarrassed to tell about the policies in America and how we have none of the above and that I had the privilege of paying over $8,000 to the hospital just to give birth. The gasps were audible -- but I choose to believe you get what you pay for and I have a boy worth every cent – and then some!

Kaleb came home with the sniffles. He had a good day otherwise, but he’s over tired and not feeling well now. He’s determined to go to school tomorrow because he has gym during school and swimming during the afterschool program. I do hope he doesn’t have a fever in the morning. He was home alone for a few hours tonight while we went to a meeting at school and he’s very upset he spent the whole time doing homework and had no time to himself. The meeting was about traffic safety for the kids going to and from school. They made a presentation to the “kommune” (city planners) about the dangerous intersections and paths the kids encounter on their way to school. As advanced as Norway is in so many areas, they are really behind in the area of sidewalks. New neighborhoods being built even now don’t have any sidewalks, so the kids have to walk and ride their bikes to school in the street along with the cars. There was much discussion and emotion around the whole deal even though there have been no accidents. The school wanted the parents to present their case to those who have the power to change some things. It was very interesting for Kory as he loves that kind of stuff, but I should have stayed home and slept.

After class today I took the bus from downtown Aalesund to downtown Sykkylven– a city across the fjord (see the photo I took from the ferry of the mountains around Sykkylven – the snow is almost gone!). Our friend, Ole-Petter, is the manager of Nordea bank over there and we finally decided to put some of our cash in the bank. We’ve been pulling out money from America because the exchange rate is so favorable right now, but it makes me nervous to have too much cash on hand. I went there to set up a CD for three or six months, only to find out they stopped offering them a few weeks ago when the financial markets went crazy (all the banks in Norway did that). The best I can do is a variable rate savings account until the financial world calms down a bit, I guess. Oh well. I opened a savings account anyway and deposited the money. Kory and I had a huge discussion about it because Norway taxes money that is just sitting in the bank to the tune of 2.5% so if the money wasn’t in the bank, we wouldn’t be taxed. We will pay 28% on any interest earned, and 2.5% of the principle amount – but considering the bank pays 7% interest, it still works out to be a better deal than keeping it under the mattress. (I hope!) Kory has an aversion to banks, for some reason, so I’m hoping this was a good move. If it wasn’t, I’m going to apply for some of that money they hand out for all the kids in Norway so I can get back some of those taxes. Money comes and money goes.

A Day of Ministry

Last Friday in class, my partner was telling me that she felt a little sad inside – that nothing was making her happy. I said, “Maybe you’d feel better if you went to church.” And she said, “OK” so this morning we picked her up and brought her with us to Agape Church. She’s new to the Norwegian language like I am and I so appreciate the pastor’s ability to speak the language clearly and slowly enough for me to understand (it’s his second language, too), so I was excited to bring her along. The only problem was, the pastor didn’t preach this morning… a member preached, and he’s a local guy with all the local dialect and he spoke fast and a bit faster than normal because he was nervous. He lost us both. Better luck next time. The music was still good though and afterwards we had her come over for coffee and banana bread and we had a chance to visit and talk about God things. It was all very nice, but she said it didn’t do much for her and it would have been better if she could have understood the message. I guess that was the point of going. Oh well.

One of the leaders of Kaleb’s afterschool program goes to Agape Church. He mentioned a few weeks ago that he’d like Kaleb to meet his little brother, William. They are the same age, but Kaleb is a year behind him in school because of our decision to put him in 4th grade. They met for the first time today as Andreas (the older brother) took them both to a café downtown and then back to his house where they played together all afternoon. Kaleb taught William how to play chess, William showed Kaleb how to play Pokemon on his Nintendo, and Kaleb read the rule book for playing the card game of Pokemon and explained it to William (it was written in English). It was all good – as they both had to work at speaking a foreign language and they both had the exact same interests – and are only a few months apart in age. And best of all, (besides the fact that William has a DOG) is that they live only about a half mile down our street! So the world just opened up for Kaleb today as he finally found a boy his age to hang out with – HALLELUJAH! And they like each other. Imagine that. I’m thrilled beyond words.

While Kaleb was gone today we had over a teenage boy and his mother. This boy has been having lots of bad thoughts lately (suicidal) and we have been praying for him fairly regularly. It occurred to me as I was praying for him one day that he has a lot of unforgiveness in his life, as many people have hurt him over the years. The last time I prayed for him I asked him to make a list of everyone that has hurt him that he hasn’t forgiven. He came today with two pages of names and it took us three hours of praying to get through the list. He had a few other things that came up that he felt he should also ask forgiveness for so it was quite a productive time and we are trusting God to work miracles in his life. He left here feeling much better - Hallelujah! It felt good to feel so useful. I think they were more comfortable coming to us because we are NOT Norwegians. It’s just not the norm here to share your problems with the world, so it was nice that God used our “weakness” (of not being Norwegian) for his strength. The language barrier was a bit of a challenge, but thank goodness for biblegateway.com as I was able to look up appropriate scriptures for him and just with the click of the mouse, pull up the Norwegian translation and show him the verses to memorize. (All the names of the books of the Bible are different in Norwegian – like the book of James is called “Jacobs brev,” so it’s hard to even know where to start when using the Norwegian Bible.)

The photo today was taken a few days ago from the end of my street at school. It was early in the morning so the lighting was very dramatic. I thought for sure a storm was coming that day, as the clouds seemed like a wave, ready to break over the land… but the storm never came. Kind of like tonight -almost. We stayed up until 11:30 – waiting for a SKYPE call from our home fellowship group back home (they were getting together today in Mt. Vernon at 2:00 for a cider pressing and they were going to call then – which was 11pm our time). But the call didn’t come. Then just as we were just heading off to bed –they called! It was so nice to see their smiling faces again! And it was only the baby in the group that made us aware of the passing of time. For the two years we met together every Sunday night for dinner and fellowship, they were all so supportive of Kory and his “heart healthy” diet, but they are now so relieved they can eat fatty foods again. They gave us the run-down on the menu and I think they are making up for lost time. Bon Appétit and thanks for the call!

A Very Social Day

Kaleb got his share of social training today. Sabina was over right after breakfast and then Benjamin came before lunch and they both stayed until long after dinner. Benjamin is a foster son to one of Kaleb’ second cousins. He’s a high needs kid as his parents are drug addicts and his mom was on drugs while she was pregnant with him. He’s a sweet boy though, just requires a lot of tending. He was here for ten hours and the three of those kids got pretty rowdy. We took them to the indoor play land in the area and let them run off some steam as the ground and streets were covered in ice all day. Even though we had beautiful sunshine today, playing outside wasn’t such a good option – too dangerous. So I sat in with the kids while Kory went and picked up a bar-b-que grill that my friend Theresa gave us. And that’s a good story.

When Theresa came over this week for lunch, I was telling her just how God provided all we needed to live here – furniture and everything – via the cousins and some good sales and flea markets. The one thing I hadn’t mentioned was that we really wanted a BBQ but they are super expensive (hundreds and hundreds of dollars). The gas tanks are sold separately and they cost over a hundred dollars themselves, so we gave up on the idea of having one while we are here, but we really do miss it. So while I was bragging that we have all we need, she very politely asked me, “So you don’t need a Bar-B-Que grill?” I told her that was the ONE thing we didn’t have because we couldn’t afford to buy it. She said “Well, I have one that you can have if you want it.” And that’s how our God supplies all our needs. They had just bought a new one and were ready to take the old one to the dump. She said something wasn’t working quite right on it and they wanted a bigger one. I told her Kory can fix anything and we’d love to have it, so today was the day we got it. How amazing is that? I love that God loves me that much that he even supplies a BBQ. And it looks brand new, so Kory is already starting to take it apart to see where the problem lies. We’ll be bar-b-queing out in the garage all winter long, I’m sure. Thank you, Jesus!

Yesterday Kory finally went and bought some tool that was the key to getting the snow tires on – and just in time, too. Today was the deadline and now we are legal. The streets today were like an ice skating rink but tonight things warmed up (it’s gone from 27 degrees at breakfast to 50 degrees after dinner) so tomorrow we’ll just have wet streets back again. I can’t believe people can drive on pure ice like they do, but I guess if they didn’t, the country would cease to exist, as ice is part of life here. When I was taking the bus home yesterday it was slip sliding around on the streets when it tried to stop, even with snow tires, so we might be in for an interesting winter. I’m glad we have car insurance.

Tonight we had Axel and Kari over for dinner. They are the cousins who came to America to be witnesses at our wedding. They live just a few minutes walk from us and we love them dearly. Their daughter is the foster mom to Benjamin so they came over to pick him up and they stayed for dinner. I made fresh salmon that I bought yesterday off the docks in Aalesund. I was so surprised to see salmon for sale because I was told it’s not possible to buy wild salmon here (it’s all farmed). I asked the fisherman if it was farmed fish or caught in the wild – and he said “both.” The hurricane we had last week broke apart one of the fish farms and all the fish went free. It didn’t take long before the area was swarmed with fishing boats, so those fish didn’t enjoy their freedom for too long.

We loved having Axel and Kari here tonight as they are a very calming force and the evening was wonderfully relaxed – even though Kaleb, Sabina and Benjamin were wreaking havoc in Kaleb’s room and they brought their 21 month old grandson along (a total sweetheart, though). Kaleb got several opportunities today to learn patience, forgiveness and tolerance. I love that. But it was also good for Kaleb and I to listen to the kids talking to each other and try to join the conversation. I love hearing Sabina speak English as she uses Norwegian sentence structure, and she gets the tenses of the verbs wrong – just like what I do when I try to speak Norwegian. (“Kaleb, where is you?” or “Now go we.”) Is it possible this is what Jesus was thinking when he said, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven?” If so, I’m set.