A Stressful Day

I drug myself out of a warm bed this morning and went to school, just to tell Inga I wouldn’t be there for the next three days – and she wasn’t there! So after the first break, I headed home. My mind has been on other things today and learning Norwegian wasn’t a top priority.

Kaleb and I ended up in a yelling match after he got home from school – partly because I’m stressed out about this trip to Trondheim tomorrow, but also because sometimes he just sends me over the edge. His teacher forgot to write his math homework on his homework plan for the week (Mondays he always does math), and I told him he still needed to do it, even though it wasn’t written down. He flipped a lid. I hate it when he does that – he cries and yells and stamps his feet and couldn’t be any more disagreeable. It takes a while to talk him down from those little fits. He had been thinking all the way home from school that he was going to have it easy today by not having to do any math. He flips out the most when he has expectations that don’t get met. I hate that.

Kory spent the day making signs for the car wash on Saturday he’s organizing for the refugees. He’s pretty excited about it. I just pray it doesn’t rain and that he has no side effects from the angiogram so he can be there. I spent several hours today reading about angiograms and stents and all the things that can go wrong, etc. Not good. I’m glad my faith is in God, not the medical community, as their track record isn’t so hot.

Tonight we attended the meeting at Kaleb’s school to educate all the parents on AD/HD (Attention Deficit/Hyper something… disorder). Morten has been diagnosed with this “impulse control” problem and they still haven’t put him on medication so they are now trying to evoke sympathy from all the parents as to the difficult life he must live. I could not believe it when his mother stood up in front of about 90 parents (some of them steaming mad), explaining what it’s like to live with Morten and all she’s gone through to get him help and how she’s doing the best she can. What guts that woman has. Then the teacher got up there, in tears, and explained how she tries to do the best for ALL the kids and how much she loves Morten and knows he has a problem and how she just wishes everyone would be more understanding. She also asked if any parents present had a kid that had NOT been beat up by Morten, and of course, no one raised their hand, so Kaleb is obviously not his only target.

Norway changed their philosophy on what “school” is all about a few years ago, and this is where the problem lies. Before, kids like Morten would be in a special class, removed from the others and able to concentrate in a quieter setting. But Norway insists that all kids are the same and their main focus on education is just to teach them to work together, in spite of their differences. Their schooling is not as much academically focused as it is “socially” focused, so kids like Morten provide the perfect opportunity to teach the rest of the kids tolerance – at least that’s how the government looks at it. The parents look at it like their kids have a right to an education and many of their kids don’t even want to come to school now BECAUSE of Morten – so this story has many sides. I feel terrible for Morten’s mom, she really is a good mom and she’s at the end of her rope. She just sat and cried through most of the presentation. Some of the parents there were not at all tolerant or forgiving about it all but there is really nothing anyone can do. The government insists he be incorporated into normal school so they are doing everything they can to help him and the children that end up as his victims. They showed a documentary film on children with AD/HD, they had a psychologist there to talk to the parents, and all the teachers were there – it was a huge effort to make some peace with his outbursts, but in the end, nothing will be different. It’s so sad.

We took Kaleb and all his things over to Odd and Turid’s tonight. He’s sleeping over there because we have to leave so early in the morning. On the way over to their house, we saw a hedgehog! I’ve never seen one in the wild before and it was such a kick to get out and watch it waddle around – not the least bit concerned I was so nearby. Cute little bugger.

Cousin Odd probably won’t sleep tonight, as he’s anxious for Kory and so wanting his heart to get “fixed.” Odd gave Kory a serious talking to and told him that he needs to listen to whatever the cardiologist says and DO IT because that’s what’s best for him. Kory then fired back with, “Well then, you need to go to church and do what THE BIBLE says because that’s what’s best for YOU.” They are two peas in a pod. They are both trying to save each other in the only way they know how.

A Sunny Sunday

We attended Agape Church this morning, but without our neighbor. He said he was busy today, but would go next Sunday. We’ll see. Kory was a little disappointed, but not surprised. Oh well. On the upside, there was a baby dedication at church, which is a HUGE thing here in Norway. I think when the State church baptizes (sprinkles) babies, they believe it’s the assurance that kid is going to heaven, no matter what. It’s not quite the same belief with Pentecostals here though, as they believe a person must come to faith and get baptized when they are old enough to make those kinds of decisions themselves. But Pentecostals do dedicate their babies to God just as Jesus was dedicated in the temple as an infant. But the Pentecostals here still hold out the full State church baptism tradition though in that they invite the entire extended family (and they darn well better show up whether they are Christian or not), and then they have an all day feast and party afterwards – and it’s all very formal, like a wedding. So this morning I was sitting next to three rows of the baby’s family members and they were all decked out in their bunads for the occasion. It was so beautiful.

Bunads are the traditional costume of Norway and each area has their own special design. Bunads are just worn for formal occasions – weddings, confirmations, baptisms, and of course, the 17th of May (Norway’s Independence Day.) Nearly every girl in Norway gets her bunad as a Confirmation gift (when she’s about 15 years old.) If the whole thing is purchased – already made - it costs around $10,000 (with all the trimmings), but with a relative making it (usually the mom or grandma), it’s about five grand for everything. They make the dresses in such a clever way that it can “grow” with the woman throughout her life. I’m sure someone could weigh a good 50 pounds more than they do at their confirmation, and still wear the dress. They put pleats in the back and the shoulder straps can be adjusted, etc. The blouse that goes with it is very billowy so it’s a one-size fits all kind of thing made out of linen. The bunad for women that live in Sunnmøre (the area where we live) is one of the most beautiful in all of Norway (see photo I copied from the internet). I wore Kory’s mom’s bunad for a wedding dress when we got married. The men also have a tradition bunad but it’s not as commonly seen. Boy’s don’t get bunads for confirmation like the girls do because girls are generally done growing height-wise, by that age, but not the boys. Parents will buy the boys a nice suit for confirmation, but that’s only a fraction of the cost for a formal men’s bunad, which includes wool knickers, and a very fancy vest and jacket. There were several men today wearing their bunads and nothing looks sharper than that – not even a tuxedo. But the design for the bunad for men can’t be lengthened or widened so most men don’t ever even get one because by the time they are done growing, they’d rather spend the several thousand dollars on something else.

We stayed for coffee after church and Kaleb’s Sunday School teacher made a point to tell me how impressed all the leaders were that Kaleb knew every detail about communion when they talked about it today in class. She said he pretty much quoted the Bible word for word on its meaning, but also explained it shouldn’t be taken if there is any sin a person hasn’t yet confessed. I’m always proud of him when I hear stuff like that.

After church we all went for a long walk as we wanted to make sure Kaleb knew the path to take to school and back from Odd and Turid’s house, since he’ll be there for three days this week while we are in Trondheim. It was a gorgeous spring day again and nearly 60 degrees – woo hoo. Kaleb was over at Tobias’ house all afternoon playing with him so Kory and I took a nap, as we were up too late last night. Tobias has a remote control car that can go up to 45mph and is just incredible. He brought it over to show us and he had it just screaming all over our yard doing flips and jumps and all kinds of things. What a kick. He stayed on and had pizza with Kaleb when Kory and I left to go to the last meeting at Filadelfia Church tonight by the TV evangelist. The preaching was again on the story of the Prodigal son, but this time it was about the father in the story. It was all so good. I see why he’s a popular guy. Afterwards Kory went forward and had two pastors pray for him and his trip to Trondheim. Mostly they prayed for peace, which is what we need more than anything. But we also would love it if God would just perform a miracle and clear up the clogs. Short of that, we don’t know what to do. We are mostly going to Trondheim for cousin Odd’s benefit, but Kory wants to know too what his arteries look like on the inside, so we just trust God nothing will go wrong in the process. We have a mighty God but He speaks so softly sometimes that we want to be sure we are hearing Him as He leads….

A Beautiful Spring Day

I found out this week that in Norway, spring begins on March 1st. Here I was thinking I had a few weeks to go before I could start feeling so springy, but I’m right on schedule – and so are all the flowers that are popping out of the ground and the birds that are chirping madly whenever I walk. I hope winter doesn’t return as spring is just lovely right now.

We arranged a play date for Kaleb today with a friend from school so Kory and I could run some errands. He absolutely loved being with his pals, as he gets a 4-for-1 deal as so many boys in his class live in the same neighborhood. He just went from house to house and was gone the entire day. They all have a love for Pokemon and Ninetendo, so he was in hog heaven when he came home.

While Kaleb was gone Kory and I went to buy some supplies for the car wash next week and then we visited the Aunts and gave them each a scarf we bought them in Rome last week. They squealed in delight (they are so easy to please.) Tante Ruth is doing very well and she continues to amaze us. If she were in the U.S. she’d be dead by now, I’m sure. The doctors there just wouldn’t be able to leave her alone since she is full of cancer. But here, they take a minimalist approach to everything, and they know at her age, any medicine or intervention would diminish her quality of life, so they just let nature take its course. She has a high quality of life and is able to take care of herself and our condo. She’ll probably live five more years. Sometimes it angers me that in the U.S. doctors insist on doing so much to old people, when often, it’s just not necessary. It’s sure nice to get another perspective on things.

Kory and I had a long talk today about the possibility of selling our apartment building in Seattle. The first rule in investments is that one should never be married to them. Kory is in even deeper than that with Lunde (the apartment building). I made a list of all the reasons why NOW is a good time to sell (income taxes will go up, rents are going down, values are going down, we are not totally free owning it as it’s an on-going responsibility, we have a lot of equity in it that isn’t doing us any good just sitting there, and on and on.) Kory’s reason to keep the building is “because I want to.” It makes no business sense now to keep it. Before it did, when it was an inflation proof source of income, but I feel now we are in a time of deflation and the market is going down and will continue to decline and none of us might live long enough to see it take an upturn. He is so adamantly against selling it but at least he agreed to pray about it and let God tell him what to do. It’s the first glimmer of hope I’ve had as I’m so tired of it and I can’t see any benefit in leaving it to Kaleb. I’m feeling a need to simplify our lives, but Kory is pretty stubborn, so I’m not holding out much hope my desires will prevail. I’ll be praying, too!

We all went to Filadelfia Church tonight to hear Egil Svartdahl preach again. He’s so funny, and sincere. He preached more on the story of the Prodigal Son, but this time on the older brother who never went astray. I hadn’t thought about it so much but that son was the one who was really in trouble. He related the older brother to all the legalism that’s found in religion and how far that keeps one from God. He showed a video clip of an interview he did with a State Church bishop (of sorts) and the guy he interviewed not only was a State church pastor, but leader over several other pastors in an entire area. The pastor being interviewed said he believed Jesus was real, that he died for his sins and is the son of God but neither he, nor anyone else he knows, “takes it personally.” Living their life intimately connected to God just isn’t on their radar, but they show up to church every Sunday. It was so sad, but so true of many, many people that are called Christians - but whether they are called “children” or “friends” of God, is another story. (I’m glad I’m not the judge of that one.)

We stayed for coffee afterwards and talked with people we know from Agape Church. The whole “coffee” after church here is a HUGE thing and every church has a café and they ALWAYS have coffee and cakes afterwards. Coffee is often free, but a piece of cake costs a buck or two (and is so worth it). It’s just part of the Christian culture here to have a long social time after any kind of meeting. I like it a lot. And I found out tonight I’m invited to speak again on Christian radio next Saturday. Kory will be doing the car wash with the refugees that day so I’ll have to go it alone. I need prayer, but I’ll trust God on this one. (I’ve yet to have a day when I didn’t have something to say about something.) Hallelujah!

An Odd Day

Kory got the go-ahead today for an idea he's had for a while - to have a free car wash at Filadelfia Church. From the conversations we’ve had with the refugees that are here from Africa – they are bored out of their minds and have nothing to do. They want to work but no one will hire them because people are so prejudice. Kory felt there was a need to bridge the gap between the refugees and the locals, as the locals feel the refugees are here just sucking off the system. So Kory talked with the leadership at Filadelfia Church about having a free car wash (anything free here is a huge hit), and letting the refugees wash people’s car just as a “thank you” for being part of the community. The refugees like the idea, the church likes the idea and even the guy that owns a car wash across the street from the church, likes the idea (one of the church staff members asked if it was OK with him since he’d probably lose some business.) So Kory got the green light today for this little project and he’s anxious to see what comes from it next Saturday when they give it a go. Kory has the idea to have all the refugees that wash cars write up a little paragraph about themselves just so people can see they aren’t bad guys. They all have stories that would break a heart, so he’s hoping to use the car wash as a way to help incorporate these guys into society here and possibly get work for some of them. We’ll see what God will do, but Kory is pretty excited.

Kaleb hasn’t had much to say about The Morten Report lately as Morten has been picking on other kids instead of him. Kaleb says now when he sees Morten beating up someone he just walks over to him and asks him, “why” he feels like he needs to do that. Kaleb thinks it helps, as Morten tries to answer him, which gives the kid a chance to escape, and for that, Kaleb is proud. So both my “boys” are trying to make the world a little better place and for that, I am thankful.

Today was Cousin Odd’s 59th birthday so we were over at his house for cake and coffee right after dinner. Because the evangelist is still in town and was preaching tonight, Odd’s mom wanted to go hear him again at church so Odd made sure everyone knew the party would be over at 6:45 so his mom could go to church. We were glad for that too as we also wanted to go to church. Odd and Turid let Kaleb stay at their house while we were gone as they thought it was terrible we left him alone last night (I already had plenty of guilt about that one.) The preacher gave another wonderful talk - tonight it was on the Prodigal Son - and the church was packed full. We didn’t stay for coffee afterwards since we needed to go get Kaleb, but then we stayed on at Odd and Turid’s until nearly midnight talking with them about many things, but mostly the trip to Trondheim next week. Odd has big concerns about Kory’s heart and thinks he should get a stent if he needs one. Kory doesn’t want to be on drugs the rest of his life so he’s starting to have second thoughts about a stent. God still hasn’t “led the way” one way or another for him so we’re still waiting to hear something from God about this.

While Kaleb and I were at school today Kory was home puttering around outside. For the first time since the neighbor stole one of the downspouts on the houses here, Kory saw him out in his yard. (We got the downspout back via another neighbor.) Kory started to think he should go say something to the guy, since it was obvious he got “caught.” Kory thought of the Bible verse that says “All things work together for good,” so he started to think what good came out of that situation with him stealing a downspout (of all things). So Kory walked up to the guy and thanked him for stealing it. Kory told him that since he has the job of “watchman” for The Sinking Houses, if that guy wouldn’t have stolen the downspout, he wouldn’t have had anything to put on his monthly report to the owners, and then it might seem that he wasn’t needed here. But because he was able to report a theft, and that he recovered the stolen goods and reinstalled it, it was like job security for him. The guy didn’t know what to say, as it was pretty comical that Kory was thanking him for such a thing. Then the guy started making excuses and explaining what a horrible life he’s had and on and on. Kory told him that God has the power to transform any kind of life and maybe he should come with us to Agape Church on Sunday. The guy agreed. So if he keeps his word, on Sunday we’ll be bringing a genuine thief with us to church. It would be too funny too since Pastor Mark at Agape Church preached a few weeks ago that he wanted to fill the church with drug addicts, alcoholics and thieves, and this guy qualifies as all three.

Playing Hooky

I skipped school today because I had an appointment for a mammogram and I mistakenly thought it would take up the entire morning. Something about all the waiting we do in America for any kind of medical procedure had fixed my mind on a similar situation here in Norway and I couldn’t have been more wrong. My appointment was for 8:35. I arrived at 8:32 and stood in the reception area for less than a minute, wondering what to do, since no one was anywhere to be seen. A door opened up, a nurse looking woman came out, asked me my name, checked her clipboard and then invited me into her office. I sat next to her desk, she asked me a few questions in Norwegian (which I mostly understood), then she told me to take off my shirt so she could take a look at me. It was a little awkward, as I’m so used to health care personnel in America always leaving the room for the whole disrobing thing, but she just sat there and watched me take off my shirt. She then grabbed my boobs, checked them over a few times and then told me to go into another room for the x-rays. No vanity robes, nothing, I just walked from one room to the next topless. A bit odd even for me, but apparently standard operating procedure here.

In the x-ray room were two women that spoke no English and apparently they each had a specialty – one specialized in the right breast, the other the left breast. It was the funniest thing. One of them positioned me for the right side x-ray while the other one took the x-ray, and then they switched places and the other woman worked the left side. I asked (in Norwegian) if they wanted me to smile while they were taking the picture, but they apparently didn’t appreciate my sense of humor (or my Norwegian is so bad they didn’t understand me.) I was out the door by 8:42. It took less than ten minutes for the whole thing and I planned on not going to school today because of that. (Maybe their efficiency lies in the fact they have “specialists” for each side.) I could have caught the next bus and been to school by 9am but I had already told everyone I’d be gone today so I just kicked in to “hooky” mode and Kory came and got me. We went downtown together to the NAV office to find out a few more details about the travel plans to Trondheim next week – like getting to and from the airport in both cities. Apparently they have a special bus that’s also just for medical appointments that transports patients between the hospitals and airports and back again. Amazing. The woman there also told Kory to call the hospital hotel in Trondheim to tell them we are coming. So when Kory got home he called to say we’d be there Monday night and they said we should come Tuesday morning instead. Kory told them even if we took the earliest flight possible, we wouldn’t make it on time for the 10am appointment. She said we could just be late to meet with the doctor. So I’m thankful for that because Kaleb’s teacher is holding a parent meeting on Monday night and I really didn’t want to miss it.

After we finished there, Kory dropped me off at The Praying Women’s group which was meeting this morning at ten. We had the best time, once again, soaking in prayer, then praying for each other. I didn’t ask for prayer for my knees, but one women just came over and prayed for them and all the pain went away. Hallelujah! They are some mighty prayer warriors, those women. I’m so excited I get to be in that group. Kory wasn’t too happy though when I told him that when I was “soaking” I kept getting a strong pressure feeling on my chest and I kept seeing a big red X. I take that as some kind of caution against doing a stent, but until God tells Kory that, he’s not buying it. Lord help us.

Kaleb’s fever broke last night so he was feeling a little better today. He was still pretty punky and would have stayed home if it wasn’t Thursday when he has his favorite class – forming (hand crafts). He looked terrible, but went anyway and was proud after school to give me a cutting board he’d made and a clay coaster. He didn’t feel like playing much this afternoon though, poor guy. We left him home alone tonight too, which is strange for me to do but apparently very common here in Norway. Both Kory and I wanted to go to the meeting at church, so Kaleb got himself to bed and we went to hear “Norway’s pastor” (aka the TV evangelist) at Filadelfia Church. He was good. My favorite story was when he said one day a little girl was having trouble with her skis and needed some help. She yelled to a man standing nearby – “Hey you – come over and help me!” He came over and helped. The man happened to be the King of Norway, but she didn’t know it. The speaker reminded us that God is “that guy” just standing by waiting in case we need to call on Him for some help and He’d be happy to oblige. Amen.

Another Sick Day

Kaleb woke up with a fever this morning. I’m trying not to feel guilty about making him go to school the last few days with the sniffles. He has been around 102-103° most of the day so he stayed home and just laid on the couch watching videos and/or sleeping. Kory was home with him so I went to school. The Good Teacher Inga is still sick too so we had her son for a teacher again. It was a slow day in class and half the students left during the lunch hour. I enjoyed the slower pace, as it almost allowed my brain to soak up a few new words. Man, it’s getting tough.

After school today I walked down to the harbor and there were five fishing boats in, all full of Torsk (a type of cod). The fishermen were filleting the fish right on the spot so I stopped to watch the process for quite a while. One of the old fishermen started to talk to me and then asked me how long I’d been in Norway. When I told him six months, he seemed genuinely impressed I could speak Norwegian so well. I bought some fish from him. He’s a good salesman.

The crocuses were blooming today, as the sun was shining brightly. There is a special little crocus here I’ve never seen before that’s white with some green inside that is so small and delicate and just the cutest little flower – it perked me right up to see them blooming everywhere. I saw them when I was outside during my lunch break. I wanted to get some sunshine and exercise so I set out to make it to the top of Fjellstua, the mountain behind my school – all 418 steps! I made it all the way up and back down within 25 minutes and I was so proud of myself. Then I sat in class for the last hour and thought the room was a little too warm. I hate to sweat. I also hate pain. My butt certainly needed the exercise but apparently, not my knees. My knee caps started to swell and now my knees are popping and extremely painful to move. I did a little internet research tonight and it seems I may have damaged them. Ugh. I’m wondering if I damaged them first when I fell on the ice a few weeks ago, and now I’ve overdone it with all the walking last week in Rome (they were pretty sore then, too) and now the big stair climb. I came home and just laid on the other couch all afternoon with ice on my knees so I hope that helps. Did I mention that I hate pain? I also hate immobility. Lord help me. Kory had his hands full taking care of both Kaleb and I, plus making dinner and cleaning up. What a guy.

Kory had to go in for some x-ray type pictures on his heart today. They will be sent to the cardiologist at the heart center in Trondheim. His appointment for the x-ray was at noon and he was in and out within 15 minutes. They don’t make patients wait here like they do in the U.S., it’s apparently a much more efficient system. Kory also went to the NAV office (some government place that takes care of all the socialized programs they have here.) He had to ask about transportation to Trondheim, since they don’t recommend he drive home afterwards. I still haven’t driven much since being here so that would be a heart attack waiting to happen if I were behind the wheel (for both of us). In order for me to go with him, he had to have a note from his primary care doctor here (a “fastleger”, they are called). Cousin Odd talked with Kory’s doctor and got the note so I can go along (it helps to know the right people.) But rightly so, Kory doesn’t want to be alone for this and he usually can’t remember anything doctors tell him anyway (or he gets it all mixed up), so I’m happy to go with him. NAV schedules twice daily flights to Trondheim just for medical appointments, so we will fly up on Monday afternoon (for free!). We will also stay for free at the hospital hotel until Thursday morning and then they will fly us home again. Such a deal., but it cracks me up that in the U.S. an angiogram is a couple hour out-patient procedure and here – it’s taking four days to accomplish.

Filadelfia Church has an evangelist in this week for a series of talks every night until Sunday. I so wanted to go, as the guy speaking is known as “Norway’s pastor.” He has his own TV show and used to be a Pentecostal pastor but now he just does TV and seminars. With Kaleb being sick, I had to stay home. Kory went though and said it was excellent and that the guy was super funny. He also said the church was packed out to the rafters as all the churches in the area were invited. I’m especially bummed I didn’t go because he talked specifically on forgiveness, and I need all the help I can get in that area. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow night, - but then the subject matter will be something else - perhaps healing. I could use some of that too.

An Ordinary Tuesday

Kory got up at six this morning to make his lunch and get ready for work, but he never went. He kept waiting for his boss to call him to say which job he was supposed to go to, but there was a miscommunication and a problem with his bosses’ phone, so Kory was left in the lurch. Nothing like being all dressed up with nowhere to go. So he had an unexpected day off. He’ll be off work next week too for his medical appointments so that gives him a good three week break, which I know he’s happy about. His bones are aching again. The other day he sliced some pieces of bread and groaned with each cut. I can so relate, as I’ve done my share of moaning and groaning lately too. Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies, that’s for sure.

I went back to school today after nearly two weeks off myself. The Good Teacher Inga has the flu so she sent her #1 son, Christopher to take her place and keep us in line. He was a bit green, but we all managed to help him pass the time. We have a good group of women now – we are down to about eight regular attenders. We were going too fast for the slowest members of the class to keep up, so they have stepped down into other classes. My fear however, is that now I have become the slowest student in the class. I keep having to ask what certain words mean and everyone just looks at me like, “We learned that LAST week, don’t you remember?” Uff da. I guess I only have myself to blame. All my classmates say they are learning the language quicker because they have TV and they read the sub-titles. All TV shows here use sub-titles for the American programs and movies (except kids shows, which they dub). I think that might be why no one in Italy could speak English – because they dub everything into Italian. But here in Norway, with only 4 ½ million people, I guess it’s too expensive to do that. Sometimes it drives me nuts that some Norwegians sit with their TV on and the sound muted because they just read the Norwegian sub-titles and can understand what’s going on. Kaleb’s friend Tobias is excellent at speaking English, and he attributes it to the fact he watches a lot of TV and has learned it all there. So I guess if we would have signed up for TV service when we got here, I might be further along in my language skills by now, but I’d also be $50 a month poorer as everyone with a TV in Norway must pay about $300 a year tax to have the TV signal come to their house (they sign you up in the store when the TV is purchased.) I’m too cheap for such a thing and our house would have a completely different feel if the TV was going every day, so I like it the way it is. Quiet works for me.

Kaleb still has the sniffles and a cough but he’s not moaning like he was yesterday. He came home and jumped right into his homework and got it done fairly quickly. He had to do some algebra today though because yesterday he spoke English three times and that did him in. We are still working on our agreement that he can get out of doing his Algebra if he speaks to me only in Norwegian between 8am and 8pm. The third time he slips up and says something in English, he seals his fate for the next day. He has put the same restriction on me so instead of doing algebra the next day, I’ll be restricted off my computer – no Facebook or reading the news. I blew it today so I’m on restriction tomorrow. I can’t always understand what Kaleb says in Norwegian so we designated one special rug that if we both step on to it, it’s like a cease-fire zone, and we can both speak English to help clear up the confusion (my Norwegian isn’t always understandable to him either.) We need to push ourselves like this and speak as much Norwegian at home now, or neither of us will ever be fluent. It’s fun to try anyway.

Tobias came over to play with Kaleb after dinner tonight and he brought with him a genuine American football. He got it as a gift recently, and he carries it like a prized trophy. He had it in a plastic bag so it wouldn’t get wet, it was so cute. In high school I was the manager of our football team, so I promised him I’d show him how to throw it properly. Kaleb and Tobias and I went outside for a while this evening and played “Monkey in the Middle” (keep away). I stood between them as they threw the ball back and forth and I tried to intercept it. Not being too quick on my feet these days, they were fairly successful at keeping it away from me. The ground is so uneven, I was extra cautious so I wouldn’t twist an ankle, but it was fun to be able to play catch after so many years. I can still throw that ball like a bullet nearly every time.

The photo today is one that Kaleb drew last week to pass the time on the train as we were heading to Pisa. I was so impressed with it - until I was told it’s a portrait of me.

Spring Has Almost Sprung

All the snow in the lower elevations has melted again and the sun was so bright and the day so warm, I had to open doors and windows to cool down the house as it got to be 74 degrees inside. What a day – no coats required.

Kaleb woke up with a bad cough and a little sore throat and tried his darndest to stay home from school, but I kicked into selfish mode and made him go. I was already stressing about how I’d get my Bible study prep work done with Kory in the house, but having Kaleb home would have made it impossible. So I had a twinge of guilt as he rode off on his bike to school – knowing he wasn’t up to par, but he didn’t have a fever either. He came home complaining bitterly about his cough and the sniffles and swore he only had energy to lie on the couch and moan – until the doorbell rang and Tobias showed up to play with him. Then he found some energy and was off riding bikes with him once his homework was complete.

Kory was very respectful of my “quite time” and he didn’t make a peep all day. He crawled under the sinking houses again and measured everything. He doesn’t have anyone to give his monthly reports to now, but he wants to do them anyway so he feels less guilty about us living here for free. He called the attorney today to ask if he should send him the report, but the attorney said the Kommune is now the rightful owners and he should wait until he hears from them – whenever that might be. If they are typical governmental agencies like in the U.S. – we might live here for years before they decide to do anything about us, but we only need four more months.

I spent the day praying, reading my Bible and a very good commentary on the book of James. I thought of a few things today I hadn’t thought of before regarding Chapter 2, so I was excited to be able to share it with the Bible study group tonight. I love those “ah-ha” moments – especially when they have to do with scripture. Ledto, the woman in our group came early tonight so we had a chance to talk to her a little more about how things were for her in Eritrea before she moved to Norway. She said in the years 2000-01 there was a huge Pentecostal revival in Eritrea and many people were being miraculously healed and even Muslim were converting to Christianity because of the “signs and wonders” being performed. The church was strong and growing rapidly. The government became afraid of the Pentecostals because of this, so they imprisoned all the pastors of the Pentecostal churches, blocked access to all the money in their bank accounts and boarded up the church buildings. They made it illegal to meet together to worship God, to have a Bible or to share the gospel in anyway. They did nothing about the Orthodox (Catholics) or Muslims – just the Pentecostals. She said the church went underground and they started meeting in people’s homes but now they must be very careful when they arrive at a home, with just one person per hour showing up, as everyone now is an informant and will call the police to report a gathering. The miracles haven’t stopped, nor has their gathering together. But if someone gets caught with a Bible or worshipping God in any way they will go to prison. She said the first time someone gets caught, they put them in shackles out in the middle of the hot sun for the entire day. If they get caught a second time, they go to prison for months (but mothers of little children will get out in 2-3 weeks). She said she read just this week that the government has now imprisoned the leader of the Orthodox church in Eritrea too so they are cracking down even more on any type of Christianity, but they continue to do nothing about the Muslims because half the country is Muslim and the government is afraid of retribution from Arab nations. Amazing. We have it so good.

Cousin Odd and Turid came over tonight to talk to Kory about his trip to Trondheim next week for the angiogram. They offered to take care of Kaleb for us, as we might be gone for four days. We are so praying that the test shows NOTHING other than God has healed Kory completely, but short of that, we are still at a loss as to what to do. Kory doesn’t like being on drugs of any kind, and he most certainly will have to be on them if he gets a stent put in. Odd read the preliminary reports that were done here in Norway and he said it doesn’t show Kory has any HUGE problem, but just “something” that needs further investigation. That’s sure a far cry from the “you’ll-be-dead-in-six-months-if-you-don’t-have-surgery” routine we heard from the American cardiologist - so either that guy was exaggerating, or God really has been doing a work on Kory’s heart these last four years. I’ll always choose to give God the glory, no matter what the outcome, however.

Family Visits

We all slept about 11 hours last night, which was a good thing. No one has a fever today, and except for Kory and Kaleb’s runny noses, we all feel fine. Hallelujah! Sleep is good medicine. We went to Filadelfia Church this morning and heard another good sermon. I love the preaching here. After the service we visited with Kory’s two aunts and his one cousin, Morgan, who is visiting his mom from southern Norway. Morgan is the only cousin that left Aalesund. Over 30 years ago he married a woman from down south, so he’s the one we rarely get to see when we are here. This whole week he’s been in Aalesund, but we were in Italy. I felt a little bad about that, especially when I found out he’s leaving tomorrow to go back home, so on the spur of the moment, I invited him and his mom (Tante Aslaug) over for dinner tonight. The minute the invitation slipped out of my mouth I wondered what in the world I was doing – all the stores are closed on Sunday and I didn’t know if I had enough ingredients to throw together a meal with just what was in the house. Talk about a challenge! But I managed, and it was good. I had to substitute many things and omit some things, but the meal turned out fine. I had no dessert, or even time to make a dessert, but I had a carton of Vanilla Sauce in the house, and with that, all things are possible. Kaleb sacrificed the fruit he bought yesterday so we could smother it with Vanilla Sauce, and I had some cookies and candies from Italy, so we had dessert. Amazing how little preparation it all was and how good it all tasted. I had a turkey breast in the freezer and thanks to the internet I found a recipe for a sauce that used ingredients I had on hand. I made some rice and carrots and a salad, and wa-la – dinner was served. I wish they were all so easy. I usually stress so much about what to serve and run myself ragged getting special ingredients for this or that, but this time, it went together just fine. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

This afternoon I helped Kaleb complete his final edition of The Weakly Puppy (well, maybe not final, but last one for now). He swears he’ll start it up again when we are back home and he gets bored and has no one to play with but dogs, but for now, dogs are not high on his priority list so I’m thankful this is coming to an end. It’s been two years since he started it and it’s time for a break, but it is a little sad to have it end as it was a good project for us to do together and it gave me little glimpses into his mind. He often made me bust a gut laughing about what he wanted to write and I’m going to miss that. I hope when he grows up, he remembers what he has done, because it’s so impressive.

Our Sunday afternoon was pretty boring - Kory took a nap, Tobias came over to play with Kaleb and I cleaned house a little. Tante Aslaug and Morgan were here all evening visiting. We didn’t really know Morgan that well, so it was good to have a chance to visit with him. Nice guy. We feel so blessed that Kory has such incredible relatives here. They are all so nice and they make family their first priority – I love that. Morgan took the week off work and flew up here just to help his niece and her husband do some remodeling work on their house. I could see someone doing that for their own child, but the fact he did it for his brother’s child is more than impressive. What a guy.

Morgan took a picture of us today (see photo) as he wanted to show his wife what we look like. He used his cell phone to take the picture, then he sent the image through his wireless Bluetooth system to his laptop (which he had with him) and then copied it on to my portable hard drive (which I plugged into his PC). I love all this new technology and how quickly things can happen. But then because of its ease, I take way too many photos myself and wonder if I’ll ever get around to deleting bad ones or even looking at the ones I took. As soon as I got a digital camera, I stopped scrapbooking. In “the old days” I used to just go through all the photos and pull out the ones I liked best to put in a scrapbook, and the rest I put in an auxiliary photo album, but now I take so darn many photos I can’t print them all and I have a hard time going through them to figure out which ones to print and put in the album. One step forward – two steps back. I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere, too.

Kory got a call tonight from his boss. It seems there is no work for tomorrow so he’ll be home all day with me when I skip school to prepare my Bible study lesson. His boss is waiting to start a new house but there is some delay for now so Kory is glad to have the day off since he has the sniffles. So much for my quiet time tomorrow.

The Comforts of Home

It felt so good to be back home again (see photo taken from the top of our driveway) that none of us even wanted to leave to go buy groceries. It snowed off and on today and with the house nice a warm inside, it was great just to be home. It took all day to go through e-mails, unpack, do laundry and visit with family and neighbors about the week’s events. Fortunately for us, Turid stopped by so she was able to help translate some of the mail that came while we were gone.

I got a letter from the local Breast Center telling me that I have an appointment this Thursday at 8:30am for a mammogram. Weird. They sure take the initiative on all this preventative stuff. The letter outlined where I’m supposed to go, what will be done, and if I need to change the time, it had the number I should call. I asked Turid if this is normal, and she said it was. (I ignored the previous letter I got about going in for a Pap smear test.) She said they do these sorta health round-ups where they get all the people of a certain age and run them through the preventative tests, just to keep people informed and healthy. I haven’t had a mammogram since Kaleb was born, so I guess it’s time for one. It’ll cost me about $28 out of pocket thanks to this socialized medical system they have here. Such a deal.

We are about to discover more about the whole health care system here in Norway in the next few weeks. Kory also got a letter from the hospital in Trondheim where his angiogram is scheduled. He has to be there on Tuesday the 10th of March for a meeting with the cardiologist, and then Wednesday he has the procedure. It says he might have to stay in the hospital for 1-2 days afterwards. What a difference from the American system, where people are in and out within hours. I think he will even be flown up to Trondheim (and hopefully me too) and we will stay in a hotel at the hospital for patients coming and going that live a distance away (it’s a six hour drive from our house to the hospital.) We will be praying much between now and then for wisdom and guidance. If they find a stint will fix his blockage, they will want to put it in then and there, but Kory isn’t so sure that’s the solution for him. If they find out he needs a by-pass, then it will be scheduled for another time, if that’s the way God leads. We both have no feeling one way or another right now about what path to take - so we will pray.

Kaleb got up this morning and grabbed one of his History of the World books and devoured about half of it before Tobias came over to play with him. He was so interested in re-reading the history of Rome, now that we have been there. It warmed my heart as I love to see him self-educate. Information sticks a lot better when he learns things on his own initiative. Before dinner I sent the boys off to the store to get a few groceries. They were gone for hours. I gave them each 20 kroner (less than $3) to spend however they wanted so they could buy themselves a treat for making the trip and sparing me the trip (and I’ve had a headache all day). They had the hardest time deciding what to buy for themselves but for me, they were proud they picked out the cheapest of everything. I told them they could buy whatever fruit and veggies they wanted so Kaleb skimped on all the other things so he could get mangoes and a pineapple – something I’ve yet to buy here because they are so expensive. I sent them to the store with 200 kroner and got 6 in change. They spent a lot of time doing math and comparing products and prices, so it was another educational moment, if you ask me. Those boys love to shop.

We still haven’t heard anything about whether we have to move out of the Sinking Houses or not. At this point, we are squatters. The Ålesund Kommune has owned the houses for a month now and they haven’t said a thing to us one way or another, so we have no idea what the deal is. The good news is, we haven’t had to pay rent yet so we are still shouting Hallelujah. We only have four more months left in Norway and six months until we come home. Even Kaleb is commenting on how fast the time is going.

Kaleb woke up with a sore throat and both Kory and I feel like we may be coming down with something. Probably the airplane air, so we’re all heading to bed early tonight and pumping up on vitamin C. I hate being sick.

Homeward Bound

We took our last walk around the streets of Rome this morning trying to notice things we’d missed before. We were all kind of melancholy as we’ve enjoyed this trip so much. Kaleb even said, “I can’t wait to get back to America to tell all my friends about the experiences we’ve had,” so I reminded him a simple postcard every now and then could do the same. He said “Naw, I really need to tell them in person.” And that’s sort of how I feel. Writing about things sometimes just doesn’t cut it, but often retelling the story in person doesn’t do it justice either. I guess that’s why experiencing something is the best way to learn about it. The culture, history, flavor… all of it needs the personal touch. We feel so blessed to have so many experiences that enrich our lives. (I took over 1200 photos so we’re sure not to forget.)

After breakfast we went into a grocery store in search of a type of candy that Kaleb got at a restaurant one night, but we were unable to find it. We did, however, find several other goodies, so we loaded up on cheap wine (less than 2 euros per bottle – about $2.50 which is even cheaper than Trader Joe’s), olive oil, vinegar, fresh pasta, dried pasta, cookies, candy, raisins (which were incredible!), nuts and chocolate – just a few things to snack on during the day and to taste once we are back home and want to relive the memories. The extra pieces of luggage we bought came in handy (we bought another piece in Pisa yesterday). Kory started drinking wine regularly four years ago when he found out his arteries were clogged and normally we just buy the cheap stuff at Trader Joe’s and he drinks it like medicine. We haven’t bought it so much now in Norway because it’s about $20-$30 for the cheapest bottles (and they really taste like medicine), so we loaded up our luggage with cheap (but hopefully good tasting) wine to bring home. Kory was almost giddy.

Public transportation in Italy is very inexpensive and kids travel free, so we took the train to the airport and flew out of town. We didn’t have a direct flight this time so we landed in Copenhagen for an hour, then took an hour long flight to Oslo before our 50 minute flight to Aalesund. We had to clear customs in Oslo, which proved to be quite the challenge since our flights were only 45 minutes apart. We had to collect our luggage, clear customs and go stand back in the check-in line to get our luggage back on the plane. To top it off, the gate we had to take was at the farthest end of the airport and the moving sidewalks weren’t working. When we saw on the reader board “gate closing” for our flight, we sent Kaleb running on ahead to ask them to hold the flight. He ran like the wind and told me later he was a little stressed out about it, but I think it was good for him to have some responsibility like that. He said he didn’t think they even knew he was American because he talked to the flight attendants only in Norwegian and asked them to wait a little longer because his parents were coming as fast as they could. I didn’t want to run because I was worried about Kory’s heart, plus I have a nasty blister on my foot that has slowed me down but good. So Kaleb saved the day and we made our flight home. He was pretty proud of himself.

The snow that was piled high before we left Norway had all melted while we were gone, but last night more came, so there’s about 2-3 inches of fluffy new stuff covering everything again. It made me glad we had some days in the 50s and 60s while we were gone as it’s just downright cold now. Our house was 42 degrees inside when we got home at 9:30. The only room that was tolerable was the bathroom because we left the floor heat on and put all our plants in there so they wouldn’t freeze. I’d like to say it’s good to be home, but it would be nicer to have a little warmer homecoming.

Looking through the week’s worth of mail, the only thing notable was the certificate I got saying I passed the speaking portion of the Norsk Prøve 2 test. I have to wait a few more weeks for the rest of my results, but all I can say is, they have pretty low standards at this level. The front page of the big national newspaper today said that only a small portion of the immigrants required to take the 250 hours of Norwegian lessons actually complete them. I certainly understand why, but it will be interesting to see what they will do to enforce it. If only Norwegian could be easier. I don’t remember having this much trouble learning Spanish in college, but I was younger then. Kaleb noticed almost all the Italian words ended with a vowel. I’d like to end Norwegian words with something too, but it wouldn’t be a vowel.

The Last Pisa Italy

When we found out the Leaning Tower of Pisa was only a three hour train ride from Rome, Kaleb and I out-voted Kory for how to spend our last full day here in Italy. It was so worth it. We caught an express train north and by lunchtime we were having pizza in Pisa looking at the Tower of Pisa (Kaleb’s idea). We climbed to the top of the tower, which proved to be the best thrill so far as it was a very strange sensation. When we were going with the lean, we climbed up steps but it felt like they had no altitude or resistance, but when we were going away from the lean, the climb was extra strenuous. The marble stairs were so worn down from all the tourists climbing the tower for so many centuries, the pattern on each step looked like a contoured tractor seat, and they actually were quite comfortable to sit on. We were lucky there weren’t many tourists in town today, as reservations are required to climb the tower, but we got right in.

We had less than four hours in the city of Pisa but we made the most of it. We had a nice walk from one end of town to the other, as the train station is just inside the walled city on the south and the Tower and neighboring church are just inside the walls on the north. It’s a cute town, extremely old, with a lot of character. The only problem we had all day were non-natives aggressively peddling their wares and following us as we walked along. We finally decided we wouldn’t be Americans, as they could all speak English, so we switched over to our secret language and just spoke Norske as we strolled along and looked at things. It was fun to pretend we didn’t understand them when they approached and we just responded to their inquiries in Norwegian. We got a kick out of it every time as they looked so confused. I’m sure we had AMERICAN written all over us, but our plan worked and they left us alone.

We enjoyed the view of the Tuscany region of Italy as we zoomed through it on the express train heading to Pisa. It has a lot of rolling hills, farm land, and vineyards. Rarely was there some beautiful estate surrounding the vineyards, however. Most of the vineyards we saw had a small camping trailer in the midst of it and some guy out in the field walking around. Either it’s a farm worker’s home or the farmer’s little get-away from his home, I’m not sure which, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. The train went straight up the coast so we traveled through a few touristy towns nestled along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea as well. We had another gorgeous day here, which makes me feel so fortunate since the rest of Europe is getting blasted with cold and snow, but it seems Italy and Spain are being spared at the moment. Hurrah for us. The train ride back went quickly as we bought a deck of cards to pass the time, since it was dark and the view no longer occupied us.

We ate our last Italian dinner in Italy tonight in Rome near our hotel. I guess one of the biggest surprises I’ve had here is that not once have I smelled garlic! Oh how I love that smell, and not a single restaurant we’ve been in or passed by, has that smell wafting from their establishment. None of the food we’ve eaten has had garlic in it either, so I’m not sure if America has just added that to Italian foods or what. And Italian dressing here is just olive oil and balsamic vinegar – that’s it – they just put it on the table for the customer to mix themselves – no spices involved. So it’s funny to see how much America has been influenced by Italy, but also how much we have changed things. In Italy, their food is much simpler, but I’ve heard, they care greatly about the quality of ingredients. More than once the waiter has told us it was “special” cheese or “special” this or that (assuming they could speak English). So that must be what makes everything taste so good – I’m not sure, but every meal has been incredible and I’ll miss that the most – and also how good (and cheap) the wine has been. We haven’t spent nearly the amount of money I thought we would, so that’s also been nice. I guess Italy is struggling since they converted to the Euro (I know Greece has been ,too). Things used to be much cheaper in Italy than they are today, but for us, having lived in Norway now and almost thinking the prices of things there are “normal” (when they aren’t at all), Italy has been a nice reprieve. Eating out is something I’ve missed doing since living in Norway because it’s just so darn expensive so we don’t do it, but now my needs have been met. The food here has satisfied me quite well and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to eat frozen pizza again.

Visiting Art

The Borghese Gallery here in Rome has one of the best collections of marble statues in the world, so they say. It also has a stunning collection of oil paintings by some of the greatest artists of their day. We tried to get in to the gallery yesterday but the tickets were sold out. The gallery only takes reservations and the viewings are only two hours long. We got reservations for this morning so we were up and out the door early to see ART at it's best.

I was a bit worried about Kaleb's attention span, not having wandered through many art museums with him in the past, but once again, he amazed me. I had the Rick Steve's self guided tour book along and we walked from room to room and read what Rick had to say on the important pieces in each room. Kaleb found the whole thing fascinating. He was so in to it that it made me even more excited to see these classic works of art. At one point we laid on our backs on a bench in the middle of a room to see the fresco painted on the ceiling and Kaleb started pointing out all the things he recognized. The painting was called "The Council of the Gods" and it depicted many of the well known Greek and Roman gods, which he knows from reading about them over the years. He was able to name several of the the gods, which made me feel quite ignorant. It delights Kaleb greatly when he discovers he knows something I don't know, so today was a good day for him. But as he'll soon realize, it doesn't take much to trump his mother.

As we were leaving the gallery, we saw a small flock of parrots in the gardens just outside. That gave us all a thrill as we stopped in our tracks to watch them. We could only guess how they got there and our theory was that Borgeshe (the cardinal that owned the palacial house and art collection we had just toured), also had an aviary, so we surmised that some of the parrots escaped and started their only colony like the parrots of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. We may be all wet, but we often write our own script as to how something came to be, so it was fun working on that one. And the birds were beautiful and nothing we expected to see in Italy, of all places.

We took the subway over to Vatican City (see photo of Kaleb posing as a statue in front of St. Peter's Basilica) and once we saw how long the line was we just sat in the square and soaked up some Vitamin D. I think I fell asleep for a few minutes while Kaleb was busy chasing after pigeons. It was downright hot sitting in the sun so it felt like a taste of summer as we sat there trying to figure out our next move. Fortunately for us, we sat there long enough until the line disappeared so we just walked on in to the church and looked around. Today was Ash Wednesday and we had intentionally missed the Pope's address to the masses (which we later saw on TV). We then went over to the Vatican Museum and the Sistene Chapel and walked until I thought I couldn't walk one more step. There is four miles of art work in that museum and we saw every last bit of it as there were no crowds and we had free run of the place. Kaleb was a bit disappointed in the Sistene Chapel as he thought the whole painting of God reaching out to Adam (otherwise known as the "pull my finger" painting), would take up the entire ceiling. The fact it was nearly lost in all the other scenes from the Bible was a real bummer to Kaleb so he complained bitterly about how his perspective and expectations of the whole thing were shaped from previous information he had about it and it just wasn't what he was expecting. I too have to say it wasn't what I was expecting to see, but it still was fascinating.

So our day was taken up by ART and a thousand questions from Kaleb about the catholic religion and I'm so impressed with myself that I survived it all. Sometimes Kaleb's questions nearly send me over the edge. As soon as I come up with one answer, he wants to know the answer to all the exceptions to the general statement I just made. So by day's end, my mind is as tired as my feet and there is nothing left but sleep.

The Day of the Dead

Kaleb protested this morning. He was so tired from our long day yesterday that he just wanted to sleep in and be all "cozy" this morning. So we did. I brought breakfast to our room which he ate while watching American cartoons (dubbed in Italian). We didn't have much of an agenda today but because the forecast was for a little rain, we decided to take in some indoor activities for a change. Kaleb's dream day would be just to ride the subway from one place to another and get off at every stop and just see what is there, and we almost accomplished that. We bought a three day pass that works for the buses and subway and we took full advantage.

We finally figured out what the deal is with the buses. It works on an honor system and apparently, not many people here are honorable. The bus driver could care less if anyone swipes their little magnetic paper tickets in the reader, which is located somewhere in the center of the bus, so people just get on and get off without paying. Since it's not required, and the buses are frequently jam packed full, it makes it awkward to try and pay anyway. It's a very strange system indeed, but somehow they must make money to pay for the whole thing as the busses run quite frequently. The subway, however, has turnstiles so it's necessary to run the card through the reader to access that.

So today we took the bus seemingly to the edge of town to the Catacombs of Priscilla. We found out we were all wrong on our assumptions of what the catacombs were used for. Kory thought they were secret hiding places for the early Christians, Kaleb thought they were secret passageways under the city and I didn't know what they were. Turns out they are all just the burial grounds of Roman citizens. The catacombs we visited today had over 40,000 people in them, and it's just one of many in the city. The real estate was too expensive to put the cemetaries above ground, and since Rome is built on a bunch of soft pumice, which makes digging rather easy, they just went below ground and dug out little spots for the bodies. It is like an entire underground city though as there are hallways all over the place with bodies floor to ceiling. I guess they just kept digging down when things got full so in some places seven bodies would be buried all in a column one under the other with about six inches of rock separating them. Each burial spot would be bricked up and a plaque set on the face to show who was there. The tombs went undiscovered for over 700 years but now most of them have been opened and raided , but there were some with the bones still in them and some that haven't been opened. The cool part though was all the art work that was painted around some of the tombs, depicting different scenes from the Old Testament. The oldest known picture of Mary and the baby Jesus is in the catacombs of Priscilla - from the second century. It was all quite fascinating.

We went from there to a church that had a crypt beneath it with the bones of 4,000 monks and someone, at some point, got the idea to use the bones as decorations and to walk through that place was just downright morbid (see photo). It wasn't the kind of thing I would think would be in any way honoring the monks - since all their bones were scattered about in very artsy ways. It seemed more like something that would have been done with the bones of the Jews after the holocaust to just display them for show. Room after room was decorated with skulls and thigh bones and every bone from every body. I'm sure Kaleb won't forget that place -but it sure gave me the creeps.

It started raining just after we exited that church so we sat in a cafe and had cappuccino to wait out the squall. Kaleb read the travel book and discovered there was a Children's Museum here in Rome, so we took the subway and spent the rest of the day there.

We had more good food and wine for dinner tonight. There must be people that come to Italy just for the food and wine, as that's turning out to be my favorite part. And because of all the walking we are doing, I'm sure I'm losing weight - at least that's what I'm telling myself.

A Day in Pompeii

Today was my favorite day so far. We were up at six to catch the 7.30 high speed train south to Naples and then a commuter train on to Pompeii. The train ride down provided a look at parts of Italy I'm not sure we'd see otherwise. Besides seeing a few vineyards, a lot of olive orchards, marble quarries, snow covered mountains and rolling hills with a castle here and there perched on top, we also saw garbage dumps with people living in the midst of them in little camper trailers, many abandonded and/or delapitated old farm buildings, and a lot of greenhouses. The countryside wasn't nearly what I thought it would be and I'm sure it's prettier in the spring and summer. I think all the movies of Italy use the Tuscan countryside, which is north of Rome, as south of Rome is quite the everyday ordinary, working man's place, not the backdrop for anything Hollywood would want to film.

Naples itself has an incredibly different feel than Rome, which we discovered later today after we returned from our trip to Pompeii. Traveling to Pompeii was a dream come true for Kaleb as he has read a lot about that place also and couldn't imagine it in his mind. Walking around there for four hours and only scratching the surface of what was there, helped him absorb some of the enormity of it all. It was a town built many centuries before Jesus walked the earth and in 79AD it was covered in ash and hot lava by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, just five miles away. Some areas of the town had 16 feet of ash, so life was perfectly preserved there when around 2,000 people lost their lives that fateful day. The town originally had over 20,000 people and I was surprised by how massive the place was - 164 acres of land and every bit of it impressive. About 75% of it has been uncovered, which says something about the amount of work there has been done since the town started being excavated in the mid 1700s. For over 300 years it's been a work-in-progress and to even think the whole thing has been dug out is mind boggling. There are houses upon houses, all next to each other, laid out in a most methodical way with the central government houses on one end, a colosseum on the other, bath houses and temples sprinkled throughout and businesses lining the streets. All that's missing are the roofs, as most of the walls and interior things like the baker's ovens are still intact. The amount of "loot" discovered in that place filled the gigantic archeological museum in Naples. Things like gold coins, metal pitchers, glass vases, statues, and the most impressive mosaics I've ever seen. Even sections of walls with murals painted on them were in tact and some are still in Pompeii on their original structure. The streets are all lined with rock that still have the chariot wheel wear marks on them, like places we've seen on the Oregon trail. The part that fascinated Kaleb was that the streets are lower than the sidewalks because a few times a day they "flushed" the streets, since all the town's water and sewer would end up there. At all major cross roads, there are boulders high enough to step across so one could cross the street without stepping in the gush of water washing things out to sea (see photo of Kaleb crossing the street). It was all quite sophisticated. Kaleb and I lost Kory somewhere in the maze of the city but thanks to our cell phones we met up in the Colosseum and had a little snack in the blazing sun (Rome had rain today but not Naples/Pompeii).

We took the commuter train back to Naples, went to the museum for about 90 minutes to see all the best treasures found at Pompeii, including a scale model of the place that was made in the 1800s and then we walked around town. We took a wrong turn, which landed us in the middle of a working class neighborhood that reminded me of what New York city might have been like 60 years ago - small little businesses along the street fronts, each selling their speciality. One sold meats and cheeses, another pasta, a baker, a fruit stand, a place to buy paper products and cleaning solutions, a toy store, a small grocer with candies that caught Kaleb's eye. The people couldn't have been nicer and even though Naples has the highest crime rate in Italy, and is the birthplace of the Mafia (and pizza), we felt perfectly safe (unless we were trying to cross the street). We finally corrected our course and headed down toward the water (but never quite made it all the way to the beach). We dodged mopeds on the sidewalk, listened to people yelling at each other, street vendors hawking their wares, cars honking and be-bopping around pedistrains trying to cross the street. There was an amazing energy there as the streets are so incredbily narrow and the buildings several stories high. I'm sure the sun has never reached down to the streets below for all the laundry hanging out the windows from the apartments above. It's definately a city with character, even more so than Rome. I felt like we were perhaps the only tourists there, opposed to Rome, where it feels like it's mostly tourists. I liked Naples, but I wouldn't want to live there.

We ate pizza for dinner at a place that's been making pizza for over 125 years and their menu hasn't changed in all that time. Pizza with tomato sauce and no cheese; sauce with a little cheese; or sauce with double cheese. That's it. And the only thing in the sauce besides tomatoes was a small piece of fresh basil somewhere in the center of the pizza. The mozzarella cheese was set in globs all over the pizza, not grated, like we serve. The pizza crust looked burned and actually, not very appetizing, but it couldn't have tasted better. Pizza here is never cut in pie shaped pieces, because it's eaten with a knife and fork. For five bucks at that place it's possible to order a 14" pizza and a beer. We ordered two. The place was full of locals and had the ambiance of a cafeteria with a bunch of old guys walking around taking orders and delivering the pizzas. There was some Godfather looking character sitting at the register taking in the money. What a place. The locals were lined up to get in there and because the menu is so limited, service is almost immediate since the pizzas are always in the works. People walk in, eat, and within about 15 minutes walk out again. Fast food at it's best.

Our train home from Naples was delayed by 50 minutes so Kaleb was pretty tired by 8:30 when it finally arrived and he fell asleep on the way home. We are all exhausted from all the walking, my feet are crying out for a massage or hot soak but I know we'll all sleep good tonight. What a day.

Carnival

Ash Wednesday is fast approaching so today in Rome, it was Carnival (Mardi Gras)! They had parades (which we missed), music and festivities in all the large open squares (which we hit) and little children dressed up in costumes just like American kids do for Halloween (which we couldn't miss.) It was the cutest thing. The difference from Halloween though was that the kids just walk around the streets throwing confetti at each other, there isn't really any candy involved in the day. But everyone was out celebrating, that was for sure. In fact, it got a little nerve racking around sunset when the hoards of teenagers were hanging out in huge crowds making lots of noise. But the police were out in force too, so hopefully nothing got out of hand. I think the biggest employer in this town must be the police as there are thousands of them all over the place. In Norway I think I've seen one police vehicle in six months. But here, there are at least three police cars that pass by for every block we walk, and more officers standing on street corners just watching people. It would almost feel safe if every store front didn't have big garage door like things over all the doors and windows that they pull down when they are closed for business. Crime must be something here to have things shut up so tightly. But we haven't had any bad experiences, so that's good. Even today when we went to the big Sunday morning flea market, which is known for it's pick pockets, nothing happened. Kaleb thought it would be funny to put a small pack of kleenex in my back pocket, like it was a wallet or camera or something, and just see if I still had it by day's end. I did. But he kept stealing one pack of kleenex I had in my coat pocket, presumably to perfect his own pick-pocketing skills, or just to get a reaction out of me. I'm not sure which.

We were up at the crack of dawn today and took a bus to the seedy part of town to go to this flea market that has to beat all other flea markets in the world. It went on for miles and we barely made it through half of it in three hours and then we were exhausted. I bought a lot of treasures, however, so I was glad for that. Some nice scarfs, a leather wallet, crystal from old chandeliers, prints of old art sketches of Rome, some nice old serving utensils and an extra piece of luggage, just in case. Kory found lots of things he would have loved to buy but getting them home posed too big of a problem so he came out empty handed.

We tried to take a tram back to the center of town but got tired of waiting for the one with the right number, so we decided to go on an explore and just take the next one that came along and see where it took us. As it turned out, it was a good thing we were so adventuous because the tram's last stop wasn't far from the Pantheon, which we intended to see anyway - an incredible structure built over 2000 years ago (see photo of Kaleb running around inside it). We then went on a long walk north and ended up in a huge square just at the edge of the old city walls by a park. We watched people for quite a while as the kids were in costumes for Carnival, music was playing and people were just out for a stroll on yet another incredibly gorgeous day here in Rome.

We took the subway back to our hotel and rested for about an hour just so we didn't wear ourselves out too much, then took off again, heading back to the Spanish Steps to see what was going on there for Carnival. Massive amounts of people, that's what was there, so we sat on the steps and just watched the crowd. Kaleb chased bubbles created by a guy trying to sell automatic bubble making machines and Kory and I rested our feet. We went to dinner afterwards and had a leisurly stroll back to the hotel.

I have been desperate to post my blog for days and finally found an internet place that worked (others I found were horrible). I certainly didn't expect to have the kinds of troubles I've had with the hotel's network, or the other internet sites, but finally tonight I found a place that will do. I couldn't use their wireless network so I had to bring the laptop and re-type my blogs straight on to the web, not able to copy and paste like I usually do. It was a challenge with an Italian keyboard. I'm almost used to the Norwegian keyboard by now, but the Italian one threw me for a loop. It took over two hours to just post three days worth of blogs and I was happy I could post photos too. Ugh. Such committment I feel to keep people posted on how we are doing. Sometimes I feel like our life is a slow motion reality TV show - without the ratings.

A Day in the Country

It was another early-to-bed night last night from exhaustion so getting up early this morning was fairly easy. After breakfast at the hotel we took our first subway ride to the end of the line to catch a bus out to the country. The guy at the hotel told us the wrong stop, so we had to backtrack a little to get the right bus, but fortunately, it's only one euro per ticket. In Norway, riding the bus is around seven dollars, just to go a little ways, but here, we can go all the way across Rome for about $1.25, so at least public transporation is affordable. And the weird thing was, we went to the ticket counter and bought bus tickets to go to the Village of Tivoli, but once on the bus, we were never asked for them. In fact, no one getting on the bus paid or showed any kind of pass whatsoever, all the way out to Tivoli (45 minutes) and the same coming back. Strange.

Kaleb was pretty excited about getting out of the city today and the village we were at was spectacular. There is a villa - an old private residence called Ville d'Este - built in the 1500s by the grandson of Alexandar VI (the Pope) - that is now open to the public. It was the most decadant place I've ever seen with room after room of mosaic floors and painted walls and ceilings. They didn't have any furniture in the rooms, which was just as well because each room was a work of art unto itself. So the "house" was unbelievable, but the surrounding gardens were a work of genius. Apparently this villa was built on top of a waterfall, and those clever Romans (that first invented indoor plumbing, flush toilets and running water in a sink) had a hey day at this place. They managed to contain all the water coming from this waterfall (which is now not visible) and channel it all throughout several acres of land with hundreds and hundreds of different fountains spouting up everywhere. In fact, one sidewalk that ran nearly from one end of the complex to the other, had one hundred different animals heads carved out of marble with all of them spurting water (see photo of Kaleb running next to them). Several of the fountains were dedicated to pagan gods and goddesses, which is why the owner, who eventually became a Cardinal, wasn't too popular in Vatican City. In the middle of the garden was something like the mall in Washington DC with different reflecting ponds and a massive water feature at the end. Every nook and cranny had naturally spurting water fountains, it was just unreal. Kaleb was in heaven, just thinking it was the coolest place ever (and I'm sure in the summertime it's VERY cool up in those hills). He kept asking me if I wanted to move in there, and wouldn't that just be the best place to live. I told him I was happy just to visit for the day, but he didn't want to leave. Fortunately, he finally got hungry enough to precipitate our exit, but he couldn't stop talking about it. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and we saw it early enough that we had the place practically to ourselves. Just as we were leaving, hoards of tourists were entering.

We went in the village square and sat in the warm sunshine and ordered lunch at a sidewalk cafe. It is just too funny to order things here because no one speaks English. We get things we don't order and we don't get things we do order. It is funny everytime, and the food has all been good so we're not complaing. The wine has been fabulous and it's not like me to be drinking wine for lunch, but I can't help myself - it's cheaper than bottled water or pop. In Norway, a glass of wine with a meal can costs about $30 so we never order it, but here, it's less than four bucks and tastes better than anything I've ever had. What a treat.

After lunch we were going to walk around the village and look in some of the shops, but our timing was off. All the businesses in Italy close down between 1-4pm or 2-5pm and then open back up again in the evening. It must have to do with the heat of the day in the summertime or something, but not a thing was open so we just walked around a bit and tried to find the entrance to a huge castle in the middle of town, but never did find it. We also read in the travel book that buses back to Rome don't come too frequently after 4:30 so we hopped on one around three o'clock and got back to town before dark.

Inside the big subway/train station in the heart of Rome by our hotel, we discovered the biggest bookstore any of us has ever seen. It's about 3 times the size of the biggest Barnes and Noble so that ate up the rest of our day as it was impossible to get Kaleb out of there once he discovered the English book section. I bought him a book on Pompeii as we will be heading there soon. I'm hoping he can be our tour guide and save us some money. He devoured the book when we got back to the hotel as he's been desperate for a good read for quite a while. We went to dinner across the street from our hotel and had pizza and pasta. No surprise there.

A Day In Ruins

We had a wonderful, but exhausting day in the heart of Rome today. Our hotel couldn't be in a better spot. We can walk to all the major sights, but we opted to take an open topped double decker bus to get the feel of the city first, at Kaleb's request. So first thing this morning we were bopping along the very narrow streets of Rome, watching the traffic from a bird's eye view and ever so thankful we don't have to drive to get around. Many of the streets had orange trees lining them and Kaleb begged Kory to try and grab an orange as we passed by, but he never quite made it. It gave Kaleb a thrill as the architecture wasn't anythinghe was that interested in today. Kory however, couldn't get enough of it.

We got off the bus near the Colosseum at a place called Circus Maximus. For over a thousand years it was the "Ben Hur"horse/chariot race grounds. It was also the place where thousands of Christians were martyred. Kaleb and Kory both picked up stones as a somber reminder as we walked along on our way over to the Colosseum (see photo). Rick Steves' travel book gave us many tips for our stay in Rome and so far, all of them have been good ones. One of them was to pay for a tour of the Colosseium so we would by-pass the ticket lines. I'm sure we were done with the tour and on to the next thing before those standing in line even entered the building. Nice tip and it only cost $25 extra, so well worth it as Kaleb would not have survived otherwise.

I do think Kaleb was slightly thrilled about actually being in the Colosseum but he woudn't admit it. He knew everything the tour guide told us, and then some. We found a fantastic history series of books when we were in England a year or so ago, called "Horrible Histories!" and they are just the ticket for 10 year old boys as they include comics and gruesome details and stuff normal history books won't cover. Kaleb's favorite book was on the Rotten Romans so he came well prepared for this trip as he read it at least three times and knows way more than Kory or I. Over two million people were killed at the Colosseum over the years as a spectator sport. Most of the gladiators were slaves or prisoners and they could win their freedom if they won the battle. Ift they died, they were probably better off anyway. Lovely. (All the animals that died were more worrisome for Kaleb than the humans.)

The tour of the Roman Forum, the heart of the civilized world in it's day, was also quite interesting. The Forum was in more of a ruinous state than the Colosseum as many of the structures (but also including the Colosseum) had their building materials "recycled" into what is now Vatican City. On that tour we learned how many of our wedding traditions come from ancient Rome, which was a bit of a srurprise. All that was needed to marry in those days was a common handshake, so the groom would ask "for her hand in marriage" and the father had to grant it. Once the handshake occured, they were married. And Rome, when first populated, was just soldiers, so they ran off and stole the woman (and killed the men) from the nearby Sabine Hills and carried them into their homes, kicking and screaming. The celebration of the populating of Rome became the custom of carrying the bride over the threshold on her wedding day. And the tradition of wearing a white dress and which side the bride and groom each stand on in the church is also from Roman days but it's complicated.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier here in Rome is extraordinarily elaborate and has been updated with an elevator to the top to get a breathtaking 360 degree view of the city, so we enjoyed the blue skies and amazing city scape for quite a while up there. The view of the thousands of satellite dishes were almost comical however, as there were just so darn many of them. And Kaleb tried counting the number of church tops visible, but lost count many times. We waandered into a few more churches today and once again, Kory was itching to shout Hallelujah but signs were posted all over the place, no talking and no photography. God is too sacred for such things, I guess.

We took the tour bus to the very famous Trevi Fountain and then walked over to the Spanish Steps, all just as the sun was going down so we had a nice after dark look at those two amazing places (which were packed with people). We ate good food today (lots of lasagne and fresh pasta), tasted new flavors of gelato and drank some fine red wine. Kaleb held up incredibly well considering how much walking we did and that we were at it for over 11 hours straight. I'm the most out of shape so I'm definately feeling the extra exercise but it's the kind of pain that feels good in a way. Tomorrow we head out to "the country" as Kaleb thinks Rome is just like any other big city and he wants to see Italy. "Rome isn't Italy," he surmised. "Just like the Pope isn't Catholic," I responded.

Rome-ing Around

We were up at 4am to catch the ferry to the airport this morning and with just a quick stop in Oslo, and only a 2 1/2 hour flight to Rome, we were here before noon and walking all over the place with dropped jaws. By 8pm tonight, however, Kaleb was already done with the place and ready to see the Italian countryside. Too funny, especially since none of the places we have seen so far are even in the travel books as recommended sights, and we were blown away by them all. Beautiful churches on every corner with at least a dozen picture perfect scenes inside every one. Kory was so inspired by their beauty he just wanted to shout HALLELUJAH, but that wasn't allowed - which had him chuckling that no one can really praise God properly in Rome because "silence is golden" (and flash photography prohibited.) Too funny for both of us since I love to take pictures. But the Roman architecture displayed in every building impressed even Kaleb.

We had to take care of business when we first arrived - exchanging dollars for euros - which ended up being a couple hour pursuit with minor results. No banks here want American dollars! The most I could change ws $300 at a time and it took about 20 minutes for each transaction. And the banks here are more secure than Fort Knox. Every one has a guard station at the front door and the bank entrances are highly secured. I had to push a button to get the door to open, then I stepped inside a rounded booth with the door I entered from the sidewalk on one side, and another door that went into the bank on the other. Both doors could not be opened at the same time, so for a moment, I felt like I was encapsulated in something that resembled the whole "beam me up Scotty" pads from Star Trek. Kaleb thought they were a hoot, I thought they were a bother. But obviously it's a security measure so no one could rob the bank and just walk out the door since they'd be trapped in the tube already imprisoned before they could enjoy the cash. Some banks wouldn't even open the doors when I pressed the button, assuming they didn't like the looks of me. If I understood Italian I would have known why they wouldn't open the doors, but I could see the tellers on the other side of the window just looking at me like I was an idiot and some loud speaker went on and on in Italian, saying something or another. I was in a bit of shock over the difficulty of the money exchange here so I'm hoping it doesn't pose a problem as I can tell from today's adventures that we'll be going through a lot of cash. Rome ain't cheap.

Kaleb could probably leave tomorrow as all he wanted was real pizza in Italy (which he had for lunch - see photo) gelato (which he had for an afternoon snack), and real Italian lasagne (which he had for dinner.) That boy has simple pleasures and they are all met so now he's "been there, done that" and doesn't even want a t-shirt. He's a good traveler though and I'm sure he'll enjoy tomrorow just the same. Today he insisted we go see the "Time Capsule" - some special effects movie they made to show the history of Rome which said more than once "the past is still present." It was a selective overview of Roman history, but then we had to listen to Kaleb for an hour afterwards correcting all the things they got wrong. According to the movie, Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome, were left in a basket in the woods for the wolves to eat, but instead the wolves adopted them and rasied them up. Kaleb said they ere set afloat in a basket down the river like Moses and washed up on shore and then taken in by the wolves. He also said the movie showed Julius Ceasar getting murdered during a counsel meeting, when in fact, according to Kaleb and his sources, Ceasar was killed in front of a theatre. That kid is just too funny. He's read a lot about Roman history and he remembers every bit of it. I can't tell if he's all wet or what, as I haven't read a thing on the history of Rome, but it's fun to listen to him spouting off, just the same.

I am so spoiled in Norway because everyone speaks English as a backup language, but not so here! So far, only the hotel personnel have been able to tell us anything. Everywhere else we've gone, we just get Italian, shaking heads, shrugged shoulders or lots of finger pointing, but no real conversations. Ordering food in a restaurant has been interesting as we never know what we will get. The whole language thing might be a challenge, but then, it's as it should be. I'm glad for Kaleb to experience that and for us to try to figure things out on our own.

We had a beautiful day today, but it got chilly when the sun went down. Kaleb and Kory were both asleep by 8:15 as it was a long day. Our hotel is rigth in the heart of town, walking distance to everything so it's very handy and it was a good choice (thanks Rick Steves), but the one drag is their wireless network is outdated and it won't work with the latest operating system (which I have and therefore, can't get internet access at the hotel!) It's fun to be here as a family and to experience the history, art, food and culture like this. Kory's cousin Linda said before we left that we are giving Kaleb so many experiences in his childhood, when he grows up, all that will be left for him is the moon. Perhaps, but there's a big world out there now just waiting for us tomorrow, and it's called ROME.