A Day in Stavanger

Stavanger is a VERY cool town. I could SO live here. Kaleb’s already planning his daily activities, should the opportunity ever present itself. It’s obvious it’s a BIG money town, as there are so many cool things here, but our favorite one is the Oil Museum. This town is home to all the off-shore oil businesses. The fact it is BIG business in Stavanger is evidenced by how well this town is maintained, the top notch parks, and the coolest museum I’ve been to in a long time. We stumbled upon it this morning as we were out on our “explore”. The town itself is just adorable with little lakes, harbors, lots of old narrow cobblestone streets, quaint white houses, beautiful churches and charm just oozing out of every nook and cranny. Any one area could draw tourists by the hoards, but there are several attractive areas all lumped into this little piece of heaven. There is water everywhere, in fact, the town is on a big peninsula so it definitely has that “sea town” feel to it. Historically the big industry revolved around the fish canning business, but now, it’s the oil, a new commodity from the sea. We fully understand how it all works now that we spent several hours at the oil museum today. We could have easily spent our whole day at that museum as it was so interesting and very fun, but we hadn’t yet explored all there was to see in town, so we forced ourselves out long before any of us wanted to go. And just outside the museum was the BEST children’s play area/park I’ve ever seen. It was all made from recycled products off an oil rig. I hope someone got a prize for just how clever they were in reusing some of the “junk.” The best idea was taking different sized floats from large ships (that are used as bumpers when they are in port), turning them upside down and securing them somehow underground, adding sand around the base for a little stability and letting them sit there upside down with just the right amount of inflation, and the kids go wild bouncing from one to the other. It was like a 3D trampoline and I even loved it. I could have sat all day watching the kids bouncing around like popcorn kernels exploding out of a kettle. It was just too fun.

Kaleb triple loved this town because besides the museum and park, they had a Sub-way sandwich shop! That’s the first one we’ve seen in Norway, so he was thrilled to be able to order his favorite ham sandwich with all the veggies, complete with honey mustard sauce. They do have a McDonalds and Burger King here, but we don’t eat at those places so they don’t hold much sentiment for him – but the Sub-way, now that was hit (to my wallet, as well.)

We could have spent a whole day just walking around all the narrow streets and checking out the town, but we only had half a day after we left the musuem. Many of the businesses were closed or on shorter hours because it’s Easter holiday, but enough was open to get a good taste of things. There weren’t many people here, which was nice. I don’t think I’d like it as much if it is as crowded as I’m sure it gets in the summer. I think this morning at breakfast in the hotel, there was a total of four people, other than us. People really do head to the mountains for Easter break so it was just us tourists from Great Britian, Germany and America in town today. Because tourism is a big deal, they have a lot of “good food” restaurants, so that made me happy.

Today was the kind of day we didn’t need to wear coats. The sun was shining all day and there was no wind, which is very unusual for this town as I’ve read that the wind is a constant. So once again God blessed us with another incredible day. The only less-than-perfect thing that happened was when Kory was spinning Kaleb around in a big tube at the playground and his hand slipped off and hit a pole. He was sure he broke it as it hurt so badly, but now he thinks he might be okay. It’s bruised and swollen, so we’ll see, but he got pretty crabby after that because he was in so much pain. Poor Kaleb, his parents are so decrepit that we tend to get injured every time we play with him. I guess it’s better than the other way around.

We heard from Turid late last night that Tante Kari finally had surgery to repair her broken hip. She made it through without complications, which was our prayer, and she’s now on the mend, so we are very thankful for that. It’s not like I wish disaster to strike us, but I can never go on a trip of any kind without some level of guilt when I know people are hurting, and I’m just off having a great ol’ time. I’ve yet to justify the “fairness” of all our splurging. What’s up with that? And why do I think everything needs to be fair?

The Road to Stavanger (via Haugesund)

After a huge breakfast at the hotel in Bergen this morning, we hit the road again. The rain showed up overnight and Bergen isn’t nearly as sweet when it’s all wet. Bergen gets more rain than any other city in Norway, so we were extremely lucky yesterday to have clear skies. We enjoyed the city very much and I’d highly recommend it to anyone visiting Norway – just don’t bring a car. We spent more on parking the car for one night than we usually spend on a hotel in The States. We also had to pay a six dollar a day fee to have the car in the city because we hadn’t taken off our winter snow tires. There was a place, as we were entering the city, all visitors had to pull over and buy something like a parking ticket to keep on the dashboard to show the fee was paid. (Snow tires are allowed in Norway until after Easter and we kept ours on because we didn’t know all the road conditions we’d be encountering.) I guess the locals have to pay their studded tire fee some other way, but the little ticket booth was an interesting way for collecting what amounts to another tax. The studded snow tires do take their toll on the roads here, however. Whenever we walk across a road, it feels like walking on waves as the concrete definitely has grooves from all the wear. And in the tunnels there is always a kind of “fog” in the winter that is the fragments of pavement being chewed up by all the snow tires. (Sometimes it’s incredibly thick “fog.”) So keeping roads in decent shape in Norway is an expensive proposition. It’s easy to understand why all the fees are so high. We crossed dozens of bridges today and most of the tolls were around $15, but they were still cheaper than the ferries, which were around $50. Our money just evaporated. There is no such thing as a “free way” in Norway. Some of the tunnels we went through were over four miles long – all under the sea – which give me the creeps every time.

Kory read about a church that was built in 982AD by Olav Trygvesen (the Viking king that brought Christianity to Norway), and it holds the title as the oldest continuously used church in this country. We went a little out of our way to see it but it didn’t make for any impressive pictures because there was scaffolding wrapped around it for the new layer of plaster being applied. Oh well. And it was closed (on a Sunday, no less.) We did find a church not too far away where we stopped for a picnic lunch, however. A lot of churches here have picnic tables near them so it makes for a nice break.

I must say the scenery heading south is far from impressive. It reminds me somewhat of the Greek Islands – just rocks and a few scrub bushes here and there. The only thing that makes this area attractive is what “man” has done to it. A cute little red boat house sitting right at the edge of the water is nice, as are all the very long, and extremely old rock fences lining the fields. There are not many farms in this area as the rocks are more plentiful than even the most optimistic person could deal with, but in the areas there are farms, they had to put all the rocks somewhere when they were clearing the field, so they make for nice borders. We saw rock cabins, rock boat houses and rock sheds all over the place. I’m sure there is some book somewhere something along the lines of “101 Ways to Cook Chicken”, only it’s “101 Things to do with all the Rocks in Your Yard,” as there were plenty of them. The Bible says something like “if my people will not praise me, the rocks will cry out.” This would be one noisy place if that every happened.

We took the main road south to Stavanger but detoured through Haugesund, just to see what it looked like. It should be LaConner’s sister city (see photo), as it has old buildings along the main drag, a channel, and even a “Rainbow Bridge.” But they are one step ahead in Haugesund as they have a wonderful boardwalk running all along the water front, which makes for a lovely Sunday afternoon stroll (La Conner is working on that idea, I’ve heard). Kory and I got a cup of coffee and sat by on a bench looking at all the old boats and buildings lining the waterway – it’s a very quaint town. Being Sunday, it was a ghost town though as nothing is open but a few restaurants on the waterfront. I liked it just fine that way.

It’s about five hours between Bergen and Stavanger, but we took all day to reach our destination. We arrived in Stavanger at dinner time and drove around a little looking for our hotel. This town is incredibly cute and I can’t wait to explore it. The hotel receptionist said everyone has left town for Easter vacation, so it will be interesting to see what tomorrow is like. The only voices we heard at the restaurant where we ate dinner were the voices of Americans. This town is definitely a vacation destination kind of place. I feel so lucky.

A Day in Bergen

People who have never been to our town of Aalesund, think Bergen is the most beautiful city in Norway. It’s a very nice city, but nothing is like Aalesund. But the good thing about Bergen is, it’s a LOT bigger than Aalesund (or I guess that could be the BAD thing about Bergen, too.) It’s Norway’s second largest city, after Oslo, with a population exceeding 250,000. (Prior to the early 1800s, it actually was the largest city in Norway.) There are more places to explore, more stores to shop in and more ground to cover. We covered plenty of it today and my feet are now crying for mercy. But we couldn’t have had better weather so the day was as perfect as days get.

The most famous part of Bergen is Bryggen, the buildings along the waterfront seen in this photo. That area of town was built in the 1200s and incredibly, those buildings are still standing (although a little off kilter), but they serve their purpose. German merchants lived in that part of town (away from the locals), for over 400 years. They came mostly to buy and sell the dried cod from Northern Norway, so that area is quite historic and special as it’s now on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sights. In the 1950s the town wanted to tear those buildings down, but the locals protested and formed “The Friends of Bryggen” group and raised the money to put the buildings back into action. They are now just full of tourist shops, but they are still quite charming. We walked around them this morning before anything was open and I took a few photos while Kory checked out their construction. Kaleb could have cared less about any of it.

Bryggen sits next to an old fort built of stone, which we also walked around and took photos of this morning in the fog - which only added to the ambiance. Once the fog cleared up we took a tram up to the top of the nearest mountain and enjoyed the view from on high. They have redone the viewing platform up on top since we were here in the year 2001. It’s quite impressive and I so wish Aalesund would do something like that on top of its little mountain. Nothing like getting the bird’s eye view of things. And while we were up there we decided to go with a little Easter tradition and walk around a bit in the woods. We didn’t wander too far, but enough to see what the forest looks like. The ground has no underbrush, it’s just a carpet of moss – very elegant looking, actually. And signs of spring are popping up all over the place as crocuses and daffodils are now in their prime.

We took the tram back down the mountain and had lunch at the fish market next to the harbor. Kaleb wanted to go the aquarium so we went for a long walk to the end of the peninsula to get there. We took him there when he was two years old, but not surprisingly, he didn’t remember it, so he wanted to go again (he actually DOES remember several things from when he was two, however.) The penguins were pretty cute and the goldfish pond gave Kaleb a thrill as the fish all came and nibbled his finger when he put it in the water. We walked around the park in front of the Aquarium afterwards and discovered a NW Native American Totem pole – a gift to the City of Bergen from their sister city, Seattle. That was a nice surprise.

After we walked back to the heart of town, Kory and Kaleb went swimming in the pool at the hotel while I did a little shopping. I didn’t find anything I was looking for, but it was fun to look anyway. Kaleb needs a new pair of tennis shoes and I’m used to buying them at Wal-Mart for $15, so it’s pretty hard to cough up a hundred dollars for a pair of shoes that will barely last six months. I just can’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on one item like that. Uff da. That’s why I stay out of the stores. Most things that cost $5 back home, will easily cost $20 here. Norwegians drop a hundred dollars on something like Americans drop $20. We “dropped” over $250 today just on the aquarium entrance, the tram to the top of the mountain, lunch and dinner. Vacationing in Norway can never be done on a budget.

We got a call tonight from cousin Turid to say that Tante Kari fell and broke her hip today! Of all the three sisters, she’s the most spry, so it was a bit of a shock to hear that one. She is 80, but you’d never know it. She was checking on the progress of her grandson’s new house, which coincidentally, Kory is helping to build via his job, and she tripped over some construction material. She will be having surgery tonight to put a pin in her hip. That sure put a damper on an otherwise wonderful day.

Easter Vacation Begins!

Norwegians like their traditions. Easter vacation began today, and with it comes much tradition. First off, I think Norway has the longest Easter holiday in the world. All holidays are known as “red days” here in Norway because they are always in red ink on calendars so they get distinguished from all the other ordinary days. So officially, the “red days” for Easter begin next Thursday, when the whole country gets that day off from work, as well as “long Friday.” Saturday isn’t considered a red day here, but Sunday (1st day of Easter) and Monday (2nd day of Easter) sure are. So officially, the whole country has a five day weekend, but unofficially, all schools are off all next week so many people take a few days off from work and they have themselves a ten day vacation by only using three vacation days.

The biggest tradition in Norway for Easter vacation is to head to the hills. The vast majority of Norwegians go to the mountains – either to their own cabin, the cabin of a friend, or they rent one. Mostly people go for a little cross country ski tour as well as a hike, but they all enjoy being up in the mountains during this time of year. And as if a script has been written for everyone to follow, when they go on their hike or little ski trip, they always take two things with them– an orange, and Norway’s version of the Kit-Kat bar (called “Kwik-Lunsj” – pronounced Quick Lunch). It’s too funny as all the stores have them bundled together for a quick purchase, all the advertisements in the paper show people holding their candy bar and orange, and the funniest part is – people really keep with that tradition.

And that’s not the only thing scripted about Easter time. About a hundred years ago Norway received the first printed crime publication, and for many years, Norwegians devoured them, but were embarrassed to admit they liked them so much, so no one talked about it. It became tradition that they would hole away in their mountain cabins on Easter vacation, and read “Who-done-its” in secret. But then about fifty years ago someone thought it was okay to talk about it so they all came out of the closet over this obsession they have with crime novels, and they embraced their mutual love for the thing and have now exploited it beyond reason. Easter time is as tied to crime novels here in Norway as turkey is to Thanksgiving in America. They just go hand-in-hand. All the latest crime books written and/or translated to Norwegian get released right before Easter, so they will surely be a big seller. About fifty years ago the radio would play a bit of a story every day leading up to Easter and all the kids would sit around and try to guess who did it. About thirty years ago the TV stations in Norway started showing crime shows during Easter break and about twenty years ago, even the milk producers got in on the action – they started printing little crime stories on the “extra light” milk cartons! We read one today in class and we can’t find out “who done it” until the Saturday night before Easter. The big dairy producer in Norway has a website now (before people had to call in to find out who was the bad guy), and they let people guess who they think is “it” and then they draw a name from all those that guessed correctly and they win a prize. This whole “solving the crime” thing is a total obsession with children now and Kaleb said they didn’t even deliver extra light milk to school today, because I’m sure they are all out of that milk because everyone’s been buying up the cartons to read this year’s “crime mystery.” It’s all just too funny. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why crime is associated with Easter and one theory I have is that Jesus talked to criminals when he was hanging on the cross – or maybe its the anticipation of NOT knowing who did it is tied with the anticipation of waiting for Easter morning, when Jesus rose from the grave. No one I’ve asked has any idea why the two go hand-in-hand, but they do. Strange tradition.

So we too started our Easter break today, but we aren’t as traditional. We went on a road trip. It took exactly eight hours to drive from Aalesund to Bergen. As the crow flies, I’m sure it could be done in an hour, but we had to take four ferries and the roads have LOTS of curves and are so narrow they often have just one lane (and it's the MAIN "highway"), which means backing up to a wide enough spot to let an oncoming vehicle get by. It’s insanely slow to drive on roads around here, but the scenery is so beautiful it’s a good thing we have to go slow so we have time to absorb it all. It’s just overwhelmingly beautiful – and it never ends. It’s not like there are boring spots and we just hit scenic spots here and there – the entire eight hours was breathtaking and beyond description. And we had perfect weather the whole day. God is good! I’m so exhausted and Kory did all the driving. We are now staying in a plush SAS Radisson hotel SUITE in the heart of Bergen, thanks to Turid’s daughter who got us the “friends and family rate” so we are paying about a third the cost of the cheapest room in the hotel – but we have a two bedroom SWEET! Hello Bergen!!

Preparations

Well, as it turns out, I didn’t pass the Norsk Prøve 3 test. I passed the reading and listening, but totally failed on the writing. It was something about all those grammar rules… they just haven’t sunk in yet. But it’s pretty insulting to be a writer and fail the writing portion. The majority of our class failed the test in one way or another so The Good Teacher realizes we have some work to do before we are ready for the real test. And I think she knew that. So I had to fight off the disgust I felt with myself all day. Inga thinks I just need to give up thinking in English and be more immersed in Norwegian –reading it every day, writing it, and speaking it all the time. She said it’s the hardest for English speakers to learn the language because so many here are willing to speak English, which delays our learning Norwegian. True enough. But I must say, I’m not surprised I failed. I would have been shocked if I passed as I know I don’t even have some of the basic things down, like sentence structure, verb tenses, making nouns plural and identifying the gender of the words. It’s all just too hard. So we relaxed a bit the last hour of the class and went to an art gallery then out for coffee afterwards. We ended up talking more English than Norwegian, because it’s just so easy. Uff da.

During lunch break today I was outside on the grounds and witnessed a terrible fight between two boys about Kaleb’s age that go to the private school that meets in the same building we do. They boys were up on the cliff behind the school and nearly rolled off it as they were wrestling. I yelled for them to stop, but the one boy looked up and saw I wasn’t a teacher and just kept punching the other one. All the children standing around were throwing rocks and bricks onto the poor boy on the ground, as well as poking them both with sticks. I couldn’t believe it. One of the students from our school finally got a staff member’s attention and when the kids saw her coming they stopped, but all she did was stand there and tell them not to fight. I yelled at her and said she should be doing something more than just talking to them as the other kid looked like he needed a doctor. I was so angry after I saw that, especially knowing that there are no consequences for kids that do such a thing. And Tobias told me earlier this week some kid in his school got beat up horribly by a whole gang of kids and ended up with bruises and black eyes and much pain from being kicked hard many times while he was on the ground. I just don’t understand the tolerance Norwegians have for such violence. It hasn’t always been like that, so I can’t imagine how this behavior will play out in twenty years when these kids are all grown and they don’t think it’s wrong to beat up on other people. It makes me crazy. Ugh.

Kaleb had a big breakthrough in Algebra today as he’s been struggling so much with it lately. He was calling it “Alge-dorly” because “bra” means “good” in Norwegian and “dårlig” – pronounced “dorly” – means “bad”. He’s such a clever kid. But now that I told him he could have five minutes extra each day on either the computer or his Nintendo for every problem he gets right, all of a sudden he can do them all perfectly. Imagine that. At least his love for electronics hasn’t dimmed his love for reading. He still devours books faster than anyone I know and was up at six this morning reading. Kory told someone the other day that Kaleb is a “bookworm” and the person told Kory that in Norway, someone that loves to read is called a “leser hest” – which means “reading horse.” Pretty funny difference between the two images.

Kory couldn’t find the parts he needed to fix our van but he finally found a place that could repair it, so he got the seal replaced and I’m thankful for that because we leave tomorrow for our big road trip around the southern coast of Norway. Plus, we soon have to take the van in for the annual vehicle inspection. If the car doesn’t pass, they give us so many days to repair it or take it to the junkyard. Many a decent car is in the junkyard because people would rather have something new that repair anything old. Strange system. I keep thinking they could at least ship them out to a third world country where someone doesn’t care about the rust spots or other such thing they don’t like about the car, as long as the car runs, but I guess the transportation costs would make that prohibitive. It just seems so wasteful. There are no junker cars here in Norway, that’s for sure.

I spent all afternoon cleaning, packing up and preparing for our road trip tomorrow. Kaleb played with Tobias while Kory was over working on Odd’s bedroom extension. Someday I want to go on a trip and just walk out the door with nothing but the clothes on my back and cash in my pocket, having done nothing beforehand, just to see how it would all play out. Sometimes I feel my efforts are not as appreciated as I’d like, but as I say often to Kory, “Planning is the key.”

April Fool's Day

This is Kaleb’s favorite day of the year. He plots and schemes all year for this very special day when he can do things to his parents that he would otherwise be blasted for. If he only set his mind to doing his algebra with such intensity, I’m sure he’d be a master.

My day began with a very sweet boy offering to make me a cup of coffee. That should have been my first clue. He giggled with excitement when he saw my face turn sour as I took the first sip. He’d mixed salt in with the grounds. He also set plastic wrap over the soap dispenser so nothing would come out, and plastic wrap over the faucet so the water squirted all over the place when I turned it on (I still can’t believe I didn’t see that wrap as he wasn’t very sneaky with that one.) He put clear liquid soap on the toilet seat and 20 pounds of extra books in my backpack. There was food coloring in my shampoo and hair conditioner and if they each didn’t cost $40 I would think that’s funny, but now I’m afraid to use them for fear I’ll have colored skin, if not hair. (At least I detected that one before it was too late.) After school he wanted to try a "science experiment" to see if butter would generate heat when salt was added to it. He melted the butter, poured in the salt and asked Kory to put his hand over it to feel the heat. Kory did, and just as Kaleb tried to push his hand down into the melted butter, Kory pulled his hand away and Kaleb’s hand smacked into it – making a huge mess and giving us all a good belly laugh. He also tried unsuccessfully several times to set a plastic glass of water on top of the living room door so when we opened it to leave the room, the water would get us. I was forever removing the glass before I walked out of the room, but that kid is relentless. One time, he’d forgotten it was there and got caught by it, and later in the evening, Kory fell victim to it as well. My bed was FULL of tiny rubber pebbles, rocks were under the sheets and books filled my pillowcase. He is something else, that prankster. Tobias was even in on some of jokes and got plenty of good ideas from Kaleb. Kaleb’s favorite one is to set the little catsup packs that are available in fast food restaurants under the toilet seat so when someone sits down, they squirt catsup out everywhere. Tobias was all set to get his sister today, but his mom didn’t know about it and threw away the catsup packs. We haven’t been to a fast food place, so fortunately Kaleb wasn’t armed for that one this year. There is no rest at our house on April Fool’s Day, that’s for sure. One year I sewed Kory and Kaleb’s flap closed on all their underwear and another year I cut up a bunch of rubber bands and put warm spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese over the top and served it for dinner. It looked like whole wheat pasta, which we often eat, and the boys were none the wiser until they took the first bite. That prank was a good one and I had the last laugh that year. All I managed this year was to put liquid soap in Kaleb’s toothpaste tube, dip his toothbrush in salt and also fill his bed with rubber pebbles (artificial dirt) from the local soccer field. All Kory did was put some paper inside Kaleb’s sandwich. I’m glad this day is now done and that it only comes once a year. It wears me out as there is a lot of clean up to do afterwards.

In other news, my class took a practice Norsk prøve 3 test today – which is a huge jump up from the #2 test which I took and passed last month. I wasn’t even going to try to take the #3 test in June because it’s so difficult and I am sure I’m not ready for it, but we all had to do the practice test, so I toughed it out. I also prayed a lot. There are four parts to the test, listening, writing, speaking and reading comprehension. We will do the speaking part later, but we did the other three today. They were all super tough, and as I was leaving, The Good Teacher Inga told me out of the 15 that took the test, only three passed the listening part – and I was one of them! I was in shock. If a person fails any one section of the test, they fail the whole test. I thought the listening was the toughest, so I just may pass the whole test, which seems unbelievable to me. I was either lucky, or God was merciful and gave me wisdom where I otherwise didn’t have it. Hallelujah.

Tonight Kaleb had his big Easter play at school (see photo of him before the show). I think it’s so cool they do Bible stories at school! They haven’t kicked God out of school here, but then again, they don’t kick anyone out – even the ones that deserve it. Kaleb was in tears for many days after they casted all the parts because he didn’t get any speaking parts – he was just in the choir, but he was great. He sang all the songs very loudly and with great expression. It was all very sweet, even if I didn’t understand all the words. The costumes were pretty much a mixture of table clothes wrapped around the kid’s bodies and dish towels draped over their heads, but they all looked adorable. I videoed the whole thing and Kaleb added extra hand motions to the songs as he kept pointing to where I should be filming. That kid likes to be in control. I don’t know where that comes from. April Fools!

The Youngsters

We were back in our routine today. Kory went to work with a brace on his wrist to keep the pain level down, and I went back to school, wishing I had something for the pain I feel when I go there. I hate to quit anything I start before it’s time, so I hope I can make it until June. Every day now just hurts my head, but The Good Teacher Inga is sure I’ll catch on one of these days. I can’t even explain what we are learning now, because I haven’t learned it yet. It’s incredibly technical grammatical rules that just make me ask WHY? I guess I should be more sympathetic to Kaleb as he is now asking me WHY he needs to do Algebra. I remember wondering that same thing when I was doing it in 9th grade, but I’ve come to realize some of the rules would be very handy to know in certain circumstances, so I keep encouraging him to press on, even if it seems hard, because one day he’ll be glad he did the work. I should take some of the medicine I’m dishing out, I guess. We all have our struggles. Like this morning when I was leaving to catch the bus and Kaleb informed me he needed a costume for his school play – TODAY! I nearly missed the bus, but I managed to drape a table cloth over his head, and put him in his bathrobe (it’s the Bible story of Easter). Uff da.

I’m now starting to understand some of the personality differences in my fellow classmates. My teacher commented to me once that she really appreciated that I got along with everyone, and honestly, I didn’t know what she was talking about. I talk to everyone, no problem, but now I’m understanding that not everyone in the class talks to everyone else. There is one woman in our class, who happens to be the youngest and just out of high school, who understands these grammar rules like no one else. She apparently has taken on a bit of arrogance over it and started bragging to the class that she’s the best student in there and we are all just a bunch of losers because we don’t “get it.” The funny thing is, she may be good with the rules, but she has a horrible speech impediment and no one, not even the teacher, can fully understand her when she talks – no matter what language she’s speaking. So all the women that sit around me just growl whenever she makes any comments and often she’ll just get up and leave the room because she can’t be bothered with all our questions about something she’s already mastered. It’s so funny to me now that I know the class dynamics. I was oblivious for a long time but now at least it gives me a little chuckle every day to watch the faces of everyone whenever she leaves or to watch her face when someone asks a question that she thinks is really stupid. (I’ve got to get my entertainment however I can.) And that same young woman got into a huge fight last week with another woman in the class who happens to be Jewish as the young one was shouting to the other that the Jews killed Jesus. The Jewish woman was adamantly defending her position that the Roman guards killed Jesus but really, it was his purpose in life to die, so really, she said, he killed himself and no one should take the blame for it. Fortunately that day I had my Bible with me so I could read to both of them the account of Jesus’ death and it stopped the arguing.

Another thing I enjoy about going to class is watching the fashion show every day. The Jewish woman has a wardrobe like I’ve never seen. She must have a dozen different coats and she comes to class dressed to the nines. She’s not the only one – there are about four other women (all from Slavic countries) that are totally into fashion and they are all tall and skinny and look stunning every day. Sometimes The Good Teacher Inga and I make eye contact and have a little giggle over what they are wearing, but for the most part, it’s in good taste and must cost a fortune, as clothes here are super expensive. I don’t know if the latest fashion in America sells those clothes with the hems that hug tight to the body so the bottom of the dress or coat puff out a bit, but it’s something else. I’m sure in 30 years they will look back at that style and wonder what they were thinking. My Pal Vestina (from Lithuania) looks totally hot everyday she comes to school, and she knows it. She even coordinates her fingernails (she paints designs on them) with her clothes and has little charms sometimes that hang off the end of her nail. Her greatest desire one day is to work in fashion design/hair and makeup. She’s a natural fit for that job. There’s one young woman in our class that could care less about how she looks (my kinda gal), and Vestina hates her just for that reason. She said, “In my country, no one would like her.” She thinks I’m fine because I’m older than her mother and no one cares that old people aren’t into fashion, but it’s an insult to their generation if one neglects their looks. Too funny.

So that’s part of my life here in Norway, mixing with a younger generation (I’m the oldest in our class – even older than our teacher.) Now I need to get busy and do my homework. I’m supposed to write a 200 word essay (in Norwegian of course) on when I was young. I’m sure it won’t include anything about fashion, people I didn’t like, or Algebra.

Naming Conventions

Today had a few unexpected twists and turns. Kory thought the swelling in his wrist would be down enough to go to work this morning, but that wasn’t the case. He stayed home. My usual Monday off to have some peace and quiet didn’t happen because Kory was home. I took the day off school, but it was anything but quiet. I worked on my Bible study preparations while Kory rolled around under the houses for hopefully the last time, working up his monthly report to give to the new owners of The Sinking Houses. The new owners haven’t asked him to do the report, but he doesn’t break from his routines too easily. Kaleb rode his bike to school this morning, but Kory picked him up afterwards as there was so much “stuff” coming out of the sky it was unbelievable. It was like a torrential downpour, but it wasn’t raindrops, it was huge, wet, fierce snowflakes approaching horizontally. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I didn’t step foot outside once today because the downpours came and went the whole day. I probably could have benefitted from a walk in the rain, but never got up the gumption to go. And then the refugees called to say they had to go to some meeting tonight so they couldn’t make it to the Bible study. I’m glad I worked on the study anyway because I needed it. I’m forever falling short of all I know I should be and I am so thankful for forgiveness to wipe the slate clean. It’s never wasted time to study God’s word.

Once Kaleb got home, the quiet was shattered, so I started working again on my girlfriend’s family history search. I love that stuff. The only down side to spending so many hours doing it is the kink in my neck and my dead butt from sitting so long in front of the computer. I was reminded today of several old Norwegian naming traditions that have nearly gone by the wayside. It was common in Norway, for hundreds of years, to name the next baby born, after the last family member of the same gender that died. Sometimes that would be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, but most commonly it was the child born the year or two before. I’ve seen some families that have had four children, all with the same name. Personally it would give me the creeps to keep naming a baby after all the ones that died, but that’s just the way it was. It makes it very difficult to verify birth dates sometimes as I think I have the right kid, only to find out it was an older sibling that died in infancy.

First names in Norway were also very regional. Some names were only found is certain parts of Norway – like Kory’s dad’s name, Halvor – was very big in the south. Halvor was also the same name of several of Kory’s ancestors. The oldest son would always be named after the father’s father and the second son would be named after the mother’s father. The “last name” was the father’s name, plus “sen” or “datter” which means that most grandsons and grandfather’s have the same name. Halvor Gunderson would give his son the name Gunder, with the last name of Halvorson. Gunder Halvorson would then name his son Halvor, after his father, and his last name would be Gunderson. In Kory’s family, the name Halvor and Gunder go back to Viking times and he was so insistent we give Kaleb the name Halvor. I told him Kaleb already has to deal with Slaatthaug as a last name, so it was just a bit too much to put on a kid living in America. (Kaleb did get Halvor for one of his middle names though, as a compromise.) But the whole flip-flopping of names every other generation makes finding family records quite the challenge on one hand, but on the other hand, it’s easy to know if I’m on the right path. And sometimes the mother would give the daughter her name or her mother’s name. Immigration records in the U.S. show many women and girls with “datter” as part of their last name (i.e., Halvorsdatter), but that naming convention obviously died out when the women would either marry and change their name, or not marry and die with the name. Some immigrants to America used their official Norwegian last name when they registered, and that’s why so many Scandinavians are named Olsen, Larsen, Andersen, etc. (Norwegians use “sen” while the Swedes use the “son” ending.) But in Norway a person was always identified by three names – first, last, and farm name. That farm name was important because there were so many people with the same names in an area it was the only way to distinguish who was who. Many immigrants to America used the name of their family farm, or often, the name of the farm they had just been working on, as their last name. All farm names are some geological description of where the farm is so that’s why there are common endings like “dahl” (valley), or “haug” (hill) or “vik” (bay) because they describe a location. (Slaatthaug means “harvested hill.”) One of my ancestors had the last name of “Roisen,” which has been an embarrassment to certain relatives because it means “gravel pit.” That’s obviously where they were living before they moved to America – and is obviously a good reason to move.

A Sunny Sunday

Last night was when the time changed here so we lost an hour of sleep and woke up to a blue and white day – the sky was blue but the ground was still all white. It was quite stunning, really. We went to church at Filadelfia this morning and had no time for chit-chat afterwards because we were invited to Sunday dinner by Kory’s mom’s cousin, Terje Solevåg, who lives across the fjord in Sykkelven. He picked us up at the ferry (see photo I took out the window) so we didn’t have to pay for the car toll across the fjord (it’s not cheap), and we spent the entire afternoon and evening with him and his wife Lilia, all their kids and grandkids. Terje is very good at making us feel welcome and inviting his whole family over to greet the “American relatives” is all part of his routine. We like it a lot as it’s fun to watch his grandkids grow up. His oldest granddaughter, Matilda, is just a few months younger than Kaleb so the first time we were there, they shared a playpen together. She’s now nearly a head taller than him, as she’s growing up a little faster than Kaleb. Her younger brother, Jorgen, is slim so I’ve been passing all of Kaleb’s clothes on to him. I was so hoping Kaleb would play with them today, but he was shy for some reason. On past visits he’s never been able to speak with them, but now that he can, he just sat and watched TV all day (I guess that’s what happens when we don’t have a TV at home.) Terje is the family history buff and he loves doing ancestral research as much as I do. One time when we were here visiting he took us around to all the farms on Kory’s mom’s side of the family. He’s a good resource for me and for once, I was able to understand him and talk back to him without having to use Kory as a translator. I guess the Norwegian lessons are making a difference on some level, even if my grammar stinks.

Matilda’s dad, Lars, works on an off-shore oil platform so I asked him a bit about it. He’s been doing that job for 19 years now and he works for two weeks straight, 12 hour shifts, then gets four weeks off. The company he works for flies him to wherever he is working, then takes him in a helicopter out to sea. He works with a guy from Montana who flies to Norway every four weeks for work, then flies home again. Lars said that’s normal. One guy he knows lives in Thailand and works in Norway on an oil platform. It’s good money too – more than the average wage for most workers in Norway, but I think it’s tough on marriages. Most the women I go to school with have husbands that work on oil platforms, and all their husbands are divorced and most found their new wives via the internet. Lars says life on the platform is pretty good as they have a movie theatre, internet café, the best food, laundry service, maid service, everything – and it’s all free. He said there’s more going on out there than there is in Aalesund at any given time. There are about a hundred people working on the platform he’s at right now, just off shore from Bergen. They are doing some test drilling to see if they can find oil, and if they find it, they set the pipes in for production, then move on to the next location (it’s a floating platform built just for exploration).

The oil industry is HUGE business here in Norway and it’s what makes this country so darn rich. Norway is the second largest producer of oil, just behind Saudi Arabia. They have so much money from the oil industry they don’t know what to do with it all. I think they have recently lost a lot of it in all the investments going sour around the world, but a few years ago they had enough in profit to give every person in the whole country five thousand dollars (they didn’t do it however.) Three years later that number jumped to forty thousand dollars and last year it was over a hundred thousand dollars, per person. As in America, the politicians keep trying to get their hands on the money to use for different things, but there is a special governing board that decides how the money will be used. Right now they say it’s just to guarantee the pension for all the workers in the nation, so they are investing it in different things for the long haul. I'm sure they could buy Iceland if they wanted to. I think their goal is to not use it though – it’s so typical Norwegian. I’m sure Kory still has the first dollar he ever earned stuffed in a shoe somewhere.…

Kory’s left wrist swelled up today from arthritis. He’s been moaning and rubbing it quite a bit so tonight he went over to see “Dr. Odd” –his cousin. Odd told him not to go to work tomorrow and to wrap it up and keep it warm and immobile. Kory thinks it will be better by morning. I hate when he gets these little bouts because I can see he is in a lot of pain and there’s not much I can do – or him for that matter. He usually just sits and groans. I think he likes the pain sometimes because it goes with his default mode of thinking that “life shouldn’t be too good.” And we have it pretty good.

Spring Snow Day

Most of our plans today got axed, for one reason or another. I was going to speak on the radio, but the translator had something come up. I guess that’s good motivation for me to be able to speak the language better, but I’m sure I’ll never be good enough to be on the radio. So my plan B was to go hiking up in the mountains with Kaleb and a couple friends, but that plan got changed when it started to snow, and didn’t stop all day. We now have a few inches and it’s still coming down. What a surprise that was. So in lieu of making any more plans, I spent a good ten hours in front of my computer, doing family research for my girlfriend, Paula, who is coming here for a visit in a few weeks. We want to take her to her family farm and I wanted to double and triple check this time that we got the right one before we head down there (it’s south of Oslo). But really, it was my ideal day because doing family research is such a luxury for me. I love it so much and don’t afford myself the time to do it because I let everything else go. It consumes me. I did have to stop a few hours to clean the house, go to the store and make dinner, which was a good thing. My body cried in pain when I stood up, as it had been sitting just a little too long.

Kory was going to do the car wash again today with the refugees, but the weather sort of prevented that, so he spent the day with his cousin Odd. Now that Kory’s put in a new kitchen floor and countertops for him, Odd wants to extend his bedroom a little, so they were building the new outside wall – in the snow even. He was over there all day and came home just in time for dinner. We invited one of Kory’s cousin’s daughters over tonight. She’s a single mom and coincidentally, lives in the basement of Kory’s boss’ house. I run into her on the bus all the time, but Kory hadn’t seen her much, so it was a good day to have her over. Tobias stayed for dinner too, which was nice for Kaleb.

Kaleb cried all day that his school chums were all on a scouting adventure so he had no one to play with. I tried to get him in to scouts when we first got here but there was a long waiting list, and we won’t be living here that long. He pestered me about one thing or another all day until I got downright impatient with him. Tobias came over and they tore apart a broken remote control airplane and tried to remake it into a remote control boat. They were excited about their plans until I told them that water would short out the battery so they needed to protect it. That took the wind out of their sails, literally.

When I left to go to the store I forgot to bring my canvas bags. They charge about twenty cents for each plastic bag here, so I kick myself every time I forget to reuse them or bring the canvas bags. I also keep forgetting about the money transaction. All the grocery stores here use machines to handle all the money. If I pay with cash, I hand the paper money to the teller, and drop coins into a slot on the counter that counts them out and spits out any change. The teller takes the paper money and feeds it into a machine, and the machine spits back out any paper money change. It’s all so antiseptic. There are no cash drawers and apparently, no room for error. It’s an interesting system, but I always forget to put the change into the little machine, and feel like an idiot when I hand it to the teller and they reach over the counter to put it in for me. By the time I start remembering these things, we’ll be gone. My brain used to be my most valuable asset. I just don’t know what’s happening.

Kaleb acted a little suspicious when I left for the store, and when I came back, he and Tobias had set the coffee table with dishes and candles, flowers, hot cups of tea, toast, crackers and chocolates (see photo). The best part was the “carbohydrate salad” as Kaleb called it – a bowl full of chunks of bread, broken pretzels and munched up tortilla chips. They were sure I’d like that the best. I even got a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dunk it all in. I guess Kaleb got it in his head to do something nice for me since he’d been whining all morning. Smart boy. He got a lot of extra credit today for that one. And he even talked to me in a tone that must have been one octave higher than his normal pitch. He told me this is “almost” as nice as he is to his friend’s moms. I’m so glad I’m moving up in the world.

Personal Responsbility

We had a small turnout in class today (Fridays are usually like that), so it allowed me to get some one-on-one tutoring, which I sorely needed. It’s not that anything clicked, but at least I didn’t leave the class feeling lost. That’s a good thing. Our teacher taught us two “new” words today, with a bit of a smirk on her face. We are learning compound words. Norway takes the cake on that one. It kills me that they have these little “phrases” that mean just one word in English – like “vær så snil” (be so nice) which means “please.” But then, for some reason, they combine words to make things like this: producksjonsarbeiderlønnsforhandlingsleder or massemediakunnskapsteroribokforfatter. They are both actually job titles but I’m not sure a business card would be wise for these people. The first one means the person is the supervisor over all the payroll personal for the production workers. The second one is an author of a textbook on mass media. Learning Norwegian is just so darn much fun. I’m glad it’s Friday.

It was another beautiful day today so during lunch I went for a walk up the street from my school. I passed the place of one of Aalesund’s greatest tragedies – one year ago yesterday – part of the hillside gave way and pushed an entire condo building 20 feet out into the street, collapsing the first two floors and killing five people who were asleep in their beds at the time. Today, there isn’t any sign that a building once stood on the spot. Five red roses were tucked into the fence that blocked off the lot. There were also hand written notes and pictures from a nearby preschool that said, “We remember.” It brought me to tears. The hillside there continues to crumble as freshly fallen rock littered the ground. Unbelievably tragic, but good to help me with my perspective. I only THINK I have troubles.

Kory finally signed an agreement today with the Aalesund Kommume. We can live here until July 1st – so Hallelujah. They asked us to pay about $325 a month in rent, which is next to nothing for this place. It could easily cost $2,000 a month, so we were happy to get it so cheap. We don’t even have to keep the grass cut so I’m thankful for that. We are on the down-slide now and the end is near. Sniff sniff.

Kaleb went home from school with his buddy Andreas. He played up in his neighborhood all afternoon and then rode his bike home – about two miles. It’s weird to have him so far from home and on his own, but it’s also nice not to have to worry about him. Life here is so different - different mind-set, values, everything. The adults let the kids have a lot of personal responsibility. The school where I attend has a private children’s school using the first two floors of our building. I’m always weaving in and out of children playing on the grounds. There is a huge rock cliff behind the school and I nearly choke every time I see all these little kids at least 30 feet up that cliff, playing on the tiny rock ledges. The hillside leans back a little, so they all brace themselves by leaning back into the rock, but really, one slip and they would be dead (see photo – they go all the way to the top!). It’s just part of life here that there are dangerous conditions and they learn to live with it. Cousin Turid calls it “survival of the fittest” because if they do something dumb – they are dead. But sometimes it’s hard to get over my American mindset where I think someone else is responsible for my safety. The harbor I used to walk along everyday is just a big sidewalk right along the water with no edge whatsoever. One step in the wrong direction, and I’d be “in the drink,” as it were. Since there are no lawsuits here, and since all medical expenses are covered by the government, I guess they figure people can afford to get hurt in order to learn a lesson. Maybe it’s all part of why Norwegians are such great explorers and accomplish so many “firsts” – they are used to danger. Who knows.

We had Family Game Night tonight and Tobias came over to play Aggravation. Kaleb is getting the sniffles so we ended early so he can get a good sleep. Kaleb cracked me up this morning when I told him I had a dream last night that he wanted us to adopt a boy his age so he would have someone to play with. He said, “Why would I want that? I would much prefer a dog. They will play with you when you want, be content to just sit next to you when you want to read - and of course - there is no disagreement on what to do.” I like his logic, but I’m still not getting a dog.

Making Potato Balls

Well, now it’s official. I only FELT like I was failing in Norwegian, but today I got hard and fast proof that I really am. We had a three chapter test last week, which we got back today. Out of 39 possible points, I got 17. The Good Teacher Inga was quite concerned. She said I’m going backwards and doesn’t understand my “progress.” I told her my memory is full and I haven’t been able to find any more that will work with my brain. I’m on overload. I’ve hit a wall. She said I should relax a bit – and what? NOT do homework? NOT go to class? Then it will be worse. I’m fading fast. My classmates didn’t appreciate all the moaning I did today. Inga did say that I do OK with writing and speaking, so I shouldn’t be so concerned that I flunked the vocabulary and grammar part of the test. But she said that I must practice verb tenses, adjective endings, etc., etc., which amounted to everything we’ve learned so far this year. And that’s about right – I’m not sure I have learned ANYTHING properly – I just get by, but never get it right as it’s yet to sink it. I keep waiting for the big click, but it hasn’t come. I want to crawl under a rock.

Kory had a much better day than I. He was invited to go fishing with his boss’ father-in-law, so he was out early this morning fishing for torsk (a type of cod). The weather was perfect for being out on the fjord, but after a few hours, he didn’t catch a thing. The guy he was with caught a good sized torsk so he gave it to Kory. Kory then took it over to his aunts so they could clean it, cut it up and eat it. Tante Aslaug was elated to get the fish head. She said she hasn’t eaten a fish head in a long time and they have the best meat, so she was just tickled pink to get it. We would have eaten torsk for dinner tonight except that today was a long-awaited day for Kory as his Tante Kari taught him how to make Potato-balls. He loves those things and I have no interest in ever making them because they taste so nasty, so he got private lessons today and filled his gut with them for dinner. Lucky him.

I stopped by Tante’s Kari’s after school to see how Kory was doing in the kitchen (see photo) and they both took a little break to visit with me. Tante Kari couldn’t wait to tell me that she had coffee with a friend this week who started telling her about this amazing radio show she heard on Saturday – some woman named Mickey from America – and Tante Kari was so proud to boast that she was my aunt. That was nice to hear. I obviously do much better at talking English on the radio than I do at taking Norwegian grammar tests. Kari also said it will be just “tragic” when we have to move back to America. (She’s very expressive.) Kory visited Tante Ruth today too, who now has glaucoma and has gone blind in one eye. Tante Ruth was hoping to have surgery on the other eye to prevent total blindness but they haven’t been able to operate because her eye pressure is too high. They have tried twice now so I worry Tante Ruth may go blind altogether. I had a dog once that had glaucoma and when he went blind in one eye, it was just a matter of months before the other one went. Tante Ruth is already full of cancer, so I can’t imagine what other horrible thing can befall her. Uff da.

Kaleb didn’t have much homework today so I challenged him to an algebra contest to see who could get the most correct answers in 30 minutes. He won as I only got ONE right. I don’t know why I did that to myself, especially on a day like today when I already feel like such a loser of a student. Oh well. It gave him a thrill to beat me. Tonight he was invited to a birthday party for a kid in his class. He would have had a better time if Morten hadn’t beaten him. He got kicked, punched, scratched and his hair pulled. He said he wasn’t the only one – half the kids were crying by the end of the party. What a nightmare. And all that time I was home with the house to myself enjoying the quiet and preparing my next radio spot. I figure I may as well focus on something I’m good at to get me out of the dumps. I don’t know why I need it so quiet when I work, but this house has its drawbacks. Back at home I could just disappear upstairs for the day, but here, we are all together in the same room all the time so it’s a bit difficult to concentrate. I think I have A.D.D.

I got out a few Easter decorations tonight as the holiday is creeping up on me and I haven’t decorated. All the stores now have their full inventory of Easter paraphernalia and it’s slightly different than in the U.S. There isn’t an Easter Basket in sight. Every store sells cardboard eggs that open up – anywhere from the size of our plastic eggs to the size of a football – and that’s what the kids get on Easter morning - an egg next to their bed full of candy. That’s it. They don’t do egg hunts, they have no baskets – just candy, and lots of it. And all the decorations here are mostly of the chick and duck variety - not many bunnies - but lots of yellow. Easter here is all about the yellow. I think I could use some yellow.

Another Gorgeous Day

Norwegians complain about a lot of things, but on days like today there isn’t much complaining because they are in awe and so appreciative. Sunny and warm at a time of year they usually have snow. Everyone was out working in their yards after work today as the big spring clean up from the ravages of winter has begun. The air was fresh and cool. I love it.

In spite of the nice weather, we still had a class melt-down today. The Good Teacher Inga said there is a chance after Easter break that our class will combine with another, since both classes are shrinking. It would mean there is a chance SHE won’t be our teacher for the rest of the year, because one of the two teachers will start a new class. During lunch break we decided to protest and we all signed a statement that said if she wasn’t our teacher, we would all quit the class. One of the women used to have the other teacher and she said she was horrible, and that’s why she changed to Inga’s class. So we all freaked out, but I was relieved. It would be the perfect excuse to drop out myself, as I’m feeling so hopeless. Other students are also complaining about how difficult it is now, but when we unleashed on Inga she kicked in to cheerleader mode and reminded us that the learning process is like an upward spiral where sometimes we are going up, and sometimes it circles back down, but eventually we go up again. We all love that woman and she’s the only reason I keep going. We gave her the protest statement we all signed and she laughed and thanked us for loving her so much, but I’m not sure she realized we were serious. Hopefully we won’t lose her.

Kory spent the morning looking for a Chrysler dealership so he could get an oil leak fixed that started a few weeks ago on our van. We’re going on a road trip around Southern Norway for Easter break (next Friday) and we don’t want any car troubles. When he couldn’t find any place that could fix it, he took matters into his own hands and spent the afternoon cleaning the engine to see where the leak is coming from. He was quite proud of himself when he figured it out and even more proud that he thinks he can replace the valve cover gasket himself if he buys the right wrench. I hope so. Any kind of car repairs here are incredibly expensive. An oil change is about $200 and even a car wash is forty bucks. Kory thinks the wrench he needs to buy might cost as much as the repair would be in the States, but it will still be cheaper than paying a mechanic here to fix it. I have no doubts about Kory’s ability to do anything mechanical. He’s amazing that way.

Kaleb had a strange day. For quite a while now he’s only told about other kids at school that have been attacked by Morten, but he’s been spared – until today. Morten was trying to break something on Kaleb’s bike and when Kaleb tried to stop him, Morten turned and kicked him, hit him and when Kaleb ran away from him, Morten threw rocks at him. Kaleb didn’t even seem phased by it all, he just laughed when he told me about it. Then of all things, Morten showed up at our house today with another friend, asking Kaleb to go ride bikes together! And Kaleb went. Kaleb said he had fun and that Morten was very nice to him. Go figure. Tobias came over later so Kaleb went riding with him, too. It was just too nice to be inside.

When I got home from school I took a little nap then went for a walk with cousin Kari so I could practice my Norwegian while soaking up some rays. She’s very helpful and corrects me when I say something wrong, which I so need.

I got the results of my mammogram in the mail today. I opened the letter and in huge bold words across the top of the page it says (in Norwegian of course), “Mammogram pictures show no sign of breast cancer!” So that was some good news, but kind of a funny way to tell it. I also got our tax papers in the mail today. The Norwegian government does everyone’s taxes for them – they fill out all the info on every line and send everyone their completed forms. If you agree with their numbers, you just sign at the bottom and pay the amount they say you owe (or get back). But if you have additional information they somehow didn’t know about, you have to modify the form, which may involve going in to the tax office. I guess I’ll find out soon. But I won’t complain no matter how many taxes we have to pay because in this country at least, you get something for your taxes. Socialism has its benefits.

A Hallelujah Kind of Day

We woke up with an inch of snow covering our world this morning, but the sun was out all day and it got up into the 50s this afternoon. Gotta love that. We had both winter and summer all in one day.

Tuesdays are now Kaleb’s day to get himself off to school since he doesn’t do the before and after school program anymore. I leave the house by 7:40 but he doesn’t need to leave until 8:10. Because of the snow this morning he decided to take the bus and then walk home. I left him 12 kroner for the bus ride before I headed out the door. He went out to the bus stop to catch the 8:15 bus and as he reached into his pocket to get out the money, he realized he only had 10 kroner. He left the other 2 kroner at home, thinking the bigger coin was 20 kroner instead of the ten that it was. He had to think fast. I love it when he gets into those predicaments because it leaves him to solve the problems himself. He had to go back home and then his only option was to ride his bike to school in order to make it on time – on snow covered roads. They do sell studded snow tires for bikes here, but we sure don’t have any, so he had a most challenging time riding to school in a hurry, and under the worst conditions. He got to school just as the children were shaking the teacher’s hand as they filed into class. She gave him a raised eyebrow and a little smirk as he barely made it on time. He was thankful when a few other kids came in after him so he wasn’t the last one there.

I sat in my class today, barely able to track the conversation. At some point things advanced, and I didn’t. I couldn’t understand what was being said, what was asked of us, what the exercises were – not a thing. I almost started to cry as I felt so lost. It’s not good when I miss a day, and yesterday there were some new concepts introduced that are totally lost on me. I think I’m not the only one that’s struggling as a few more have dropped out of the class. I hope I can make it until June. If I had a few hours of quiet time right after school, I could do my homework uninterrupted and I would do much better than I am doing right now. But I get home the same time as Kaleb and that shoots any opportunity to concentrate, so then I suffer. The ones doing well in class go home and do homework for hours on end, but then, they are young and they have no kids. Ugh.

I met Angela (a fellow student from another class) last week in the student meetings I attended at school. She’s about my age, is from England, and has been in Norway about as long as I have. She married a Norwegian doctor and just moved to Ålesund last month. She’s a professional story teller so she’s very motivated to learn Norwegian so she can tell stories “på Norsk.” I invited her over for lunch today. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with about the language. After lunch we went for a walk down to the beach (see photo) and sat there and talked about Norwegian customs that catch us by surprise – like the formalness of parties and weddings and such. There is nothing casual about any kind of event in Norway. People dress to the nines even when invited over to someone’s house for coffee. It was so nice to make a new friend. I love expanding my horizons when I meet new people, as everyone has life stories I find fascinating. If I wasn’t going to school every day, I’d love to just write people’s stories. There’s a lot of interesting people here.

Kory worked today and was glad he was outside for most of the day since it was so nice. He hadn’t heard a word from the Ålesund Kommune about our living in The Sinking Houses all day, but then tonight the attorney stopped by to take a reading on our electrical meter. He said they closed the deal today with the Ålesund Kommune. I asked him if he came to give us 30 days notice to move out, and he said NO! He talked with the number one guy at the Kommune today and he is “quite certain” they are going to have the same arrangement with us that the insurance company had – meaning we get to continue to live here for free! Hallelujah!! He said the Kommune plans to do work on the houses for a few months, like adding extra supports under the buildings to bring more stability to them (they do sway quite a bit with the wind.) He said they will be putting renters in this summer, about the time we plan to leave, and they realize they need someone here to keep looking after things. The timing is incredible and I’m amazed that we will be living here the entire year rent free. It’s just unheard of, but God has once again provided above and beyond all we could ask or hope for. What a story. Hallelujah!

A Waffling Day

Typical spring weather here in Aalesund today. It snowed all day (but didn’t stick in the lowlands), then just before sunset it cleared up for the most amazing show of lights, colors and shadows against all the snow covered mountain tops. Truly unbelievable. I just can’t have a bad day when I’m surrounded by so much beauty. It wasn’t a bad day anyway, because I stayed home from school and had a quiet house all to myself. I was hoping to get some homework done, but didn’t get around to that. I worked on my Bible study preparation for next week as well as another talk I’m going to give on Christian Radio. I can’t do that kind of prep work when Kaleb is around as that kid knows how to make noise, create messes, and interrupt me like it was his sole purpose in life. I was short about 12 hours today from getting it all done, but I did the best I could with what I had. (That’s my motto for many things in life.)

Kaleb had a fine day at school and came home beaming that his homework today involved making waffles. Pancakes and waffles here are NOT what they are in the States. I guess it’s some right-of-passage here that ever kid learn to make their own waffles, so today was the day for Kaleb. It was part of his math homework as he had to measure out all the ingredients in grams and liters. (All the recipes here use grams, not “cups” to measure dry ingredients.) He really wanted my help but I told him it was his homework, not mine. I sat in the corner in a chair pretending to be busy while I watched him go to work. Just at the point he was going to break the eggs, and I knew he needed help, the doorbell rang, like a gift from heaven. It was Tobias, with incredible timing. He’s been making his own waffles for years, so he offered to give Kaleb a few pointers and those boys had the best time making a mess in the otherwise very clean kitchen. The first waffle, hot off the press (see photo) was eaten by cousin Odd when he stopped by.

Waffles in Norway are the most common food eaten with “coffee.” Every time we’ve been invited over for coffee, no matter what time of day or night, waffles are served. They are floppy waffles, and they are rolled up and eaten like a burrito with either sour cream and sugar inside, or a little jam. They are also very popular “road food” and always taken along on day trips because one must stop for coffee several times before arriving at the final destination. I usually cheat and just buy the mix at the store, which is often on sale and only requires adding water and melted butter, but Kaleb made the whole thing from scratch today and I could taste the difference. I broke from tradition and used a knife and fork and added some maple syrup to my first waffle, which really got Tobias’ attention. He’d never tasted maple syrup before and wanted to know where I got it. I found it at a specialty shop in Aalesund and it cost a pretty penny but I was willing to share a little with him. He loved it. Then he asked if we eat pancakes in America and he couldn’t believe it when I told him we eat them for breakfast, with bacon. That is dinner food here – pancakes and bacon. He thought pancakes and bacon for breakfast was just too weird. I told him we do all kinds of weird things in America.

In Norway they have two kinds of pancakes. What a Norwegian calls “pancakes” is what Americans call “Swedish pancakes” – the very thin kind that are stuffed with berries or cream and rolled up. That is a pancake. But there is another pancake that LOOKS like what we can normal pancakes, but they call it “Svela” and it’s eaten like the waffles here – rolled up with something inside – butter and sugar or goat cheese are the most common “stuffings.” And Svela is also a common food in this part of Norway to have with coffee. Often on the ferries if the little café isn’t open there will be a thermos of coffee and a platter of homemade Svela and a little box to put in ten kroner for each. It always reminds me of the self serve flower and veggie stands in Skagit Valley as it totally operates on the honor system. I love that.

So that was the big happening of today – Kaleb’s foray into the world of cooking. He’s been cooking for years, but I’ve always been nearby to help. It’s a good thing Tobias showed up when he did because I was just a little too comfortable in my chair to get up. Kory was over at Odds all afternoon once he came home from work. He’s putting in a new sink and countertop in their kitchen. Kaleb stayed home alone with Tobias while I went to the “Jesus Women” meeting at church. I love the idea of Jesus Women – it’s a multi-denominational gathering once a month just to encourage women in their faith. They always have a good speaker, great music and a wonderful meal afterwards. I didn’t stay for the “kvelds mat” (night food) because I knew there were more waffles at home waiting for me. Gotta love that.

A Sweet and Sour Day

It was a good day for visiting. Everything is closed on Sundays and it rained, snowed and/or hailed the whole day. They say in Norway it was a “sur vær” day (sour weather). But sitting inside the comforts of our cozy little house, it was just fine for me. Kory and I had a quiet morning home alone, getting things ready for his cousin Linda and her family, who all came over after church to have an early dinner with us.

We went to pick Kaleb up at Andreas’ house before church. Andreas’ mom said Kaleb is the most polite boy she has ever met. What’s up with that? All the mothers are just falling for my little bundle of joy, who is not so sweet at our house. He’s been wanting to be the star of a play for a long time, and now I see why – he’s very good at putting on a show. He even told me himself that he knows when to pull out all the stops and go for the gold. As much as I want to see that side of him, I’m very thankful he at least knows how to behave around people when we aren’t there. We brought Andreas back to our house for the day as the boys weren’t ready for the sleepover to end (see photo).

We attended Agape Church today and heard a speaker from Hillsong in Australia. He gave a talk on the Good Samaritan and said that maybe we have misunderstood the story in the past. It’s the parable that Jesus gave on loving God, first and foremost, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And when asked “who is our neighbor,” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan that helped the poor man on the side of the road. The speaker said it was a common misunderstanding that everyone thinks the injured man on the side of the road is the “neighbor,” but, he said, we need to read the story again to realize the “neighbor” is actually the Samaritan that stopped to help the man. What a surprise. He gave some very good illustrations about the Samaritan that I hadn’t thought of before so it’s been on my mind all day.

After church we stayed a little while for coffee and cake and several people told us they heard us on the radio yesterday and they thought the stories I told were just incredible. I shared about my friend Julie and her struggle to have a baby. I asked her one day if she had told God it was OK with her to NOT have a baby, and she said she could never do that, because she wanted one so much. I suggested God might have other plans for her that didn’t include a baby, but she didn’t see it that way. After I left she said she realized she was trying to control her life, rather than letting God decide what was best for her so she asked for forgiveness and told God it was OK if she never had a baby. Within a month, she adopted a little girl (total miracle on how that came to be), and a few years later she gave birth to a little boy, and now she’s pregnant again. God is good! But the lesson there was how we get so focused on what WE want, which leaves no room for what God’s will is. But the Bible says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I looked up that word “delight” in the Greek and the definition of it is “to be pliable, flexible,” so really the verse in English should read, “Be flexible with God and he will give you the desires of your heart.” It wasn’t until Julie let go of wanting a baby, and trusted God with her future – however that might look – did she really get the desires of her heart – three fold. So everyone liked that story, and others I told with the same theme on trusting God. One woman asked why I don’t write the stories down in a book because she really wants to buy it. Now there’s an idea.

So we rushed home from church to get dinner in the oven because Kory’s cousins were coming at 2:30. I had things timed impeccably to have food on the table at 2:30, but no one showed up. It turns out Kory told Linda dinner was at 3:00 or 3:30, but he told me he told her it was at 2:30, so this is why I usually do all of our social planning. The food wasn’t too hot by the time they arrived, but I sure was. They didn’t seem to care and they liked everything, so that was good. I felt bad though because we had plans this evening, which left very little time for visiting with them. We went to the Aalesund Symphony’s Spring concert. Normally we wouldn’t spend money on such a thing, but we found out the son of one of our friends composed the music to the first song they played, so we had to go listen as it was its debut tonight. It was incredible. We also ran into several other people we knew there so we invited one couple back to our house for coffee afterwards. The day was definitely of the sweet and sour variety.

On The Radio

I was so tired last night after everyone left that when I sat down to write my blog, I got half way through it and fell asleep with the computer sitting in my lap. I had to finish it up the blog this morning with a cup of coffee at my side after a good night’s sleep, which I almost didn’t get. When I went to bed last night, I pulled back the sheets only to discover a large quantity of tiny rubber pebbles scattered around where I was about to lay down. I knew right away where they came from. The other day when Kaleb and I walked to the store together, we walked past the soccer field near our house. They use a type of artificial turf on that field, but they also use a type of artificial dirt – which is probably made from some recycled tires. Kaleb found it quite intriguing as there were a bunch of the pebbles spilled out on the sidewalk. He picked up a handful of them, played with them a bit, and then threw them at me. I asked him NOT to throw them at me, so then he took another handful of them and held them above my head and dropped them on me so they got in my hair, went down my shirt and some landed in the canvas bag with the groceries. I lost my patience with him and told him I had asked him to NOT throw them at me, to which he quickly responded, “I didn’t THROW them, I DROPPED them.” And this is why that child makes me crazy. He always finds a way to do what he wants to do without disobeying exactly what I SAID. I’ve had so many talks with him about the “spirit of the law” and the “letter of the law” and how he spends too much energy on avoiding the letter of the law but misses the spirit altogether. He’s always so proud of the fact that he doesn’t disobey, when in fact he does, by disregarding the intent. So, just to tweek him a bit, I dumped the few rubber pebbles out of the canvas bag onto his sheets the other night. When Kory went to put Kaleb to bed he saw the pellets and swept them out of the bed (on to the floor, of course...) before Kaleb even knew they were there. I told Kaleb what happened, which apparently gave him the idea for a payback. So yesterday when he went to the store by himself, he must have filled his pockets with those pebbles and then dumped them on my side of the bed as a practical joke. It would have been funny if I wouldn’t have been so tired, but there were too many to just sweep onto the floor, so I had to painstakingly remove each and every one. (I’m sure he’s just warming up for April Fool’s Day which is his FAVORITE “holiday”.) So Kaleb came into our room this morning and asked me how I slept last night, then he ran his hands around the sheets, trying to feel for the pebbles, but I never said a word. I too have a few plans up my sleeve.

Kaleb arranged a playdate today with his friend Håvard from his class. Kory drove him over to Håvard’s neighborhood and he spent the entire day over there playing with several boys from his class. He had a great time as he took his bike along so they really made the rounds. We went to pick him up at six tonight but he begged to spend the night with another friend, so he came home and grabbed his pajamas and toothbrush and went right back over there and is now having his third sleepover since being in Norway. We are so thankful for the opportunities he has to play with the kids here. It’s really only been possible lately since his language skills have kicked in. He lights up when he’s around a group of kids, and I love to see that. Hallelujah.

Today Kory and I had the opportunity to be back on the Christian Radio station here in Aalesund. I prepared a couple of stories to share and Kory had a few things on his mind, so we talked this afternoon for an hour. It went very well, once again, and the woman translating for me was very excited and said my stories were so nice because they all had a good point to them and a solid ending, so that was good to hear. She had trouble translating a few words and as she was hesitating, trying to find the Norwegian word to use, I gave it to her, so it was funny for me to be able to help her out (she did a great job.) Kory also spoke for a few minutes about the car wash he did with the refugees and that he’ll be doing it again this Saturday - so he invited everyone to come get their car washed.

The best part about talking on the radio is the hour beforehand when Esther, the host of the show, prays. She’s incredible as she walks up and down the office waiting room shouting out to God, talking to him, praising him, asking for listener’s lives to be changed – everything possible, she’s praying for it. We joined her for that hour and while I was praying I kept thinking of the Bible story of the 99 sheep and the one that wandered away. My prayer was that the “lost sheep” would be listening today and that what we shared would make a difference. We might not know this side of heaven, but someday we will know.

Spring Equinox Day

There were just a few of us in class today. Friday’s typically have low attendance anyway but it probably didn’t help that it was another gorgeous day. I’m sure everyone would have rather been out walking around in the mountains or down by the sea, than sitting in a class learning about prepositions and adjectives. I went because I am getting too far behind and I’m worried I won’t be able to catch up. I got a test back today and only got 55 out of 80 points, but as always, I learn best from my mistakes. We are learning how to change the endings to some adjectives, because they have to match the gender of the noun. I never did memorize the gender of all the nouns, so naturally I’m not doing well with this new little tidbit of grammar. Some adjectives get even different endings depending on whether the noun they are referring to is identified specifically, or just used in general terms. I hate this stuff. For example, “Maten i Norge er ganske sunn,” means, ”The food in Norway is extremely healthy.” The word “sunn” means “healthy” and it will always end with an “n” when it’s used to describe a noun (mat) that ends with “en” (“en” means “the”.) Because the noun “food” is identified specifically as “the food,” then the ending of the adjective is “n”. But if there is just a general statement like “Mosjon er sunt,” (motion is healthy), then the ending of adjective changes. The word “sunt” (healthy), ends with a “t” here because the word “motion” is just a general word, not specifically identified with “the,” so the ending of the adjective has to be a “t.” This stuff just kills me because not all adjectives use this rule and of course, we must memorize which adjectives do. I haven’t even memorized the rule about changing adjectives to match the gender of the noun, nor do I remember to change the ending of the adjective if the noun is plural. The deeper I go, the scarier it gets.

I mostly wanted to cry in class today because it’s all so hard, but I did at least hear something that gave me a good laugh. Most Norwegians identify lemons as a vegetable. I triple checked that fact as it seemed unbelievable to me, but it’s true. They consider it NOT a fruit because it’s not sweet. I argued the point, that it’s grown on a tree, etc., but the teacher said that here, they consider it a vegetable and that’s what they teach the kids in school. Go figure. Then I asked her how they classify avocados, and she said as a vegetable. I had to laugh, as I do too, but it also grows on a tree. A woman in our class from Brazil laughed at me and said that of course avocados are fruit because they grow on a tree… and that got us in to quite the discussion about food, which was the only redeeming thing about going to class today.

We are down to only 13 weekends left here in Norway, so we want to utilize them to the max. We are inviting friends and family to come over as often as there are empty spots on our calendar. We decided tonight was a good night for company so we combined it with Family Game Night and invited over Sabina and her mom, Tone, as well as Tone’s two teenagers, plus Tobias and Inger (cousin Odd’s ex-wife.) Kory has known Inger since he first came to Norway in 1967 so it was nice to have her over. Inger is an artist, as is Tone, so we thought they might like to get to know each other better since Tone hangs some of her art in Inger’s art studio. It was a good choice.

There wasn’t as much time as I would have liked to get the house clean, table set and food made, as I only had a few hours after school to pull the whole thing off, but I did the best I could. Kaleb helped me out and went to the store (by himself!) to get a few things. It was almost a right-of-passage for him as I used to go to our little neighborhood store for my mom when I was a kid (mostly to buy her cigarettes), and now Kaleb gets to do the same (but certainly not to buy me smokes!). He loves that kind of responsibility and I love that I don’t have to worry about him being kidnapped.

The food tonight was yummy and only the teenagers didn’t like it. I made Spaghetti Carbonara and Sabina only ate it after she covered it with catsup. I guess it’s common here that kids squeeze catsup all over any type of pasta dish. The teenagers didn’t even stick around for Blueberry Cobbler and Ice Cream, but at least it was nice to meet them. We’ve lived by them all these months and I’ve only seen the daughter a couple of times, and never the boy. After dessert we all played the card game “Golf.” Kory made Kettle Korn (popcorn with sugar) and after nine rounds of Golf (and I won), we sent the kids to bed at 9:30, then all the adults stayed up playing cards until midnight. One other neighbor came over at ten and joined us, so it was very fun to have a house full of screaming and laughing people, as Golf isn’t for sissies. It’s the ultimate game of chance, with very little skill involved - quite the opposite of the Norwegian language.

A Wonderfully Calm Day

The news of today is that there is no news – Hallelujah. Nothing bad, nothing new, just the same ‘ol, same ‘ol and that’s just fine for me (oh, the dollar is dropping so that’s not so good). We did have an incredibly gorgeous day that started out with frost on the ground but ended up feeling like summer. The sun was shining so brightly that even the tulips and daffodils started popping up out of the ground. The sun set after seven tonight and woke up before I did this morning, so the winter has past and everyone is smiling again.

The Good Teacher Inga has been in Oslo for two days so we’ve had Astrid, a “vikar” (substitute). Yesterday Astrid played the song “Cat’s in the Cradle,” but it was in Norwegian and it wasn’t Harry Chapin singing it. I usually can’t understand the words when they play Norwegian songs, but this one was easy because I knew it. Today Astrid played a Norwegian song and she put the words up on the overhead so we could follow along. It was a song about a Norwegian man’s dream – and the dream consisted of leaving this “bad country” to spend a winter where firewood or electricity were not needed, sitting on a warm beach in Spain sipping wine. It was funny for me because my dream has been to come here – and his was to leave. It’s terrible that human nature always wants what we don’t have (like my eternal desire for straight hair.) Astrid also wanted us to have a discussion today about the news, but none of us wanted to talk about it because it was all so terrible. We wanted to talk about good things, so the conversation ended up revolving around Norway’s very generous social programs and just how much cash they dish out for all kinds of things. Norway’s unemployment insurance pays 70% of a person’s salary and their pension program begins at age 67 for everyone (whether they have worked outside the house or not) and the minimum amount is about $25,000 per year. If they worked a lot and made a lot of money, they get much more than that. (I heard U.S. government officials were here last week seeing how Norway “works” as they want to model some of Obama’s programs after Norway’s.)

It’s good Norway has so many basic things paid for by their taxes, because it makes up for how incredibly expensive other things are. My neighbor, Lizbeth, rides the same bus with me in the mornings into the city. This morning she showed me the silver she has been buying (as she can afford it), that attaches to the belt of her bunad (traditional Norwegian costume.) Each piece of silver looks like a large broach and the design on it is patterned after the Art Nuevo buildings in Aalesund, and there are some dangling gold fobs hanging below it. I asked how many pieces are required for the belt and she said, “It depends on how thick you are.” But the cost for all that silver, plus the belt was almost a thousand dollars. I nearly choked. I found out the linen blouse that goes with the bunad also costs nearly a thousand dollars. And today in class I found out the cost to get a Norwegian driver’s license is about six thousand dollars, so it’s a good thing people here don’t need to save for retirement, pay for their medical insurance and expenses or their children’s education (there is also no property tax here). It shocks me every time I hear the price of things because I just don’t go shopping, except for food. I’ve gotten very good at not even looking at how much food costs or we would surely starve because it’s hard to buy things when I see how expensive they are. But it is what it is, and it’s all part of the experience. I’m just glad God provides for what we need so we can live here.

I went to The Praying Women’s luncheon today and skipped the last two hours of class. We had another incredible time of soaking prayer. The hostess’ sister was visiting from south of Bergen so I prayed for her (at their request) and God just gave me the exact words she needed to hear as she started crying as I prayed. I have no idea what the “deal” was, but I am glad I prayed and that prayers change things.

When I got home Kaleb and I walked to the grocery store (while Kory made dinner) talking Norwegian all the way and he made his first play on words in Norwegian. He is excellent at playing with the English language so it was fun to have him transfer those skills over to Norwegian. The word “bra” in Norwegian means “good.” And just like in English, we say, “very good” (veldig bra) or “really good” (kjempe bra) - they say those same things. So Kaleb said (I’ll translate), “I have heard of “veldig bra” and “kjempe bra”, but I have never heard of “algebra” before. I thought that was funny.

(The photo today is of a typical “husman’s” home from 100+ years ago – where the poor folks lived on the farm.)