Well, in case you didn't read the title of the post I figured I'd update on how the Norwegian classes are going. It's definitely a different experience for me, and getting hard very quickly. I still enjoy it, and am excited to continue learning, but I'm starting to feel like it's a huge world out there and I've been sheltered from it most of my life having grown up in the U.S. The more people I meet from other countries, the more I feel like I don't have a clue about how many people and cultures there are in the world. When I start to think about it, it's hard to even comprehend. It's partly funny partly frustrating to me when I realize almost every class that I'm the only one from North America in our class. And interestingly enough, from every place I've lived in the U.S. I have been very successful at school. I was always towards the top of my class in almost every subject, and appeared smarter than the average person. Here (at least in my class) it's not the case at all. I thought I knew my European geography, but I realize each day that we have a listening exercise where we write on a map which country each person if from that I haven't got a clue. Oh, and did I mention that almost all the countries in Europe have a completely different name from the English word? So maybe if there was a universal name and spelling for each country I would stand a better chance, but needless to say I'm struggling with that part. But it's a good kind of struggle, and I'm excited for the challenge. It'll be good for me to learn my geography, and hopefully some day I'll be able to hear (let alone say) the difference between an "o" and a "u," and now I can at least experience what it feels like to be one of the "slower" kids in the class. Overall, I'm really glad for the experience I have to live where I do. It's such a big world out there, and I'm excited to explore it!

Today I got to attend my first day of Norwegian class. I was pretty nervous about it, but it was a lot of fun. Almost all of the class was in Norwegian, but the teacher spoke slowly enough that it was ok. I did well with the lesson, but that's only because I've started the first bit of so many "do it yourself" Norwegian courses that I know the first bit really well. I'm not sure how I'll do in the future if he moves that fast though. I absolutely loved being in class! I'm such a nerd, but I love school. (Maybe that's why I chose to be a teacher.) I love being able to answer questions and see my ability to excell at something. I love the structure, and I love the work that goes into learning something.

One of my favorite parts of the class was when we were going through pronounciation of vowels. Let me first say that I've had several conversations with Glenn that involved him trying to explain the difference in sounds of the "o" and "u," with me just laughing at my inability to make the sounds, and sounding like someone with severe mental disabilities. So, imagine 10 of us from 7 different countries trying to do the same thing, and our teacher just very bluntly saying, "Nope, sorry. You're wrong!" We all just couldn't help laughing. (As I'm rereading this, I realize that I'm not very good at retelling funny stories. Maybe you just had to be there.)

I also really like my teacher. Maybe just because he's like most old man teachers I've had in The States, and it makes me comfortable. He's your typical quirky, absent-minded teacher, and kept us entertained. Oh, and one more reminder about how nerdy I am...I'm excited to do my homework! Hopefully this means I'll be successful at learning the language!

The strangest thing happened today. Glenn came home from work and said, "I feel like playing softball." This is funny for me considering 3 years ago I signed him up for the ward softball team while he was in Norway. (I intentionally signed him up for the team while he was gone so that he couldn't say no.) I'm pretty sure he wasn't excited when he found out, but I offered to teach him what I knew, and we actually had a very fun time, and our ward won the intramurals championship! Anyways, it's been fun to see him grow to appreciate and enjoy a sport that I have cared passionately about for 20 years or so. It's been a nice way for him to show he is interested in something because I am interested in it. (I snagged a pretty awesome guy!)

Well, back to the story...tonight Glenn felt like playing softball, so he tried to get some people together to play. After a HUGE effort, we got I think 5 other people to show up and play, and actually towards the end had a really fun time. (Note to self: running while pregnant and with pelvic pain is NOT a good idea...) It was hard for me to sit out and just watch, but I turned into the "umpire," so I still got to participate. So, overall, it was a fun and enjoyable night, but I do have to vent a bit about something I just don't understand...

I guess the best way to describe the cultural difference I encountered tonight is to just say what happened, and hopefully you can get the picture. First off, I have to say that soccer rules everything sport-related in this country. There are soccer fields everywhere, but I have yet to see even tennis courts, let alone a softball field (although there are some in existence, I just haven't personally seen one yet.) So, we ended up playing on a soccer field. There's this huge field (probably big enough for at least 3 soccer games to play at the same time) and while we're waiting for people to show up (aka getting someone to take motivation to organize everything instead of just talking about it) we just practiced hitting some balls. All of a sudden a bunch of soccer players show up, and start warming up right next to where we are playing. They didn't say anything to us (or at least that I know of, but then again, I'm always out of the loop because I don't understand Norwegian yet)! We just continue playing, and remember that there's a huge field, and I forgot to mention there's another huge empty field about 100 yards away. Well, after about a half hour of this random soccer team starting to actually play a game right where we are playing, I get super annoyed (partly due to pregnancy hormones, partly to not understanding what people are saying or wanting to do, and mainly because of stupid people). I decided this is absolutely ridiculous that Norwegians distance themselves from anything unknown or unfamiliar, that they can't even talk to some people who are playing on a field. The only words I can think of to describe it is absolutely ridiculous! I mean seriously, there's a huge field, there's plenty of room for everyone (and another completely empty field nearby) does this team really have to play right in our way? Well, the anger boils over and I steal the bat from Glenn and decide it's my turn to bat, and if they aren't going to say anything to us or move, it's their own fault if they get hit in the head by a softball. (I recognize now that this was not the most mature thing to do, don't worry.) Well, I intentionally hit the ball right at them over and over again, and they just kept on playing their stupid game, so I finally just yelled, "Ok, somebody better stop me or let me know what's going on or I am going to go talk to these idiots in English and tell them we were here first and to back off!" I was so annoyed that nobody in either group was willing or thought it normal to just say, "Hey, can you play somewhere else?" or something to that extent. Why is it so unheard of to actually communicate?! I guess it turns out that a member of our group talked to them a couple minutes before, and said they had rented the field. (Which is kinda sketchy since it's a public field, but I won't get into that...). So, easily done, we pick up our stuff and move to a different area, and then are able to have an enjoyable time. I just got so annoyed that it was so difficult to communicate! I am just as much to blame, but my reasoning behind not taking charge is I'm worried about the language barrier. Pretty soon, though, I'm probably just going to burst and yell at the next chain smoker who is poisoning me and my kid while we're at a public event. haha. But the good news is we were able to have fun, and get out of the house. I think I may have overreacted just a bit. :)

I probably also should say that this is only my opinion and version of what happened, and I'm sure there's some sort of explanation for the way the situation was handled, I just don't understand all the cultural differences of Norwegians yet. That is just how the situation was from my perspective, where I'm sure the other Norwegians in the group (including my dear husband) have a different version or opinion. It was an interesting experience tonight.

My Granny told me that her step-father's great grandfather came from Norway, and sent me info about where he lived. Yesterday, we happended to drive by the area, and it was so awesome to see! While I'm not blood related, it still was such an amazing feeling to know that that was an area where your family existed, and has contributed to who you are today. I didn't get a good picture, but thought I'd share the story anyways.

To begin this post, I have to say that my mother is the most caring, service-oriented person I know. My whole life she has spent her time helping her family and others, whether it be getting up early to make us breakfast and lunches for school, or doing anything she could possibly manage to make life easier for us. That is how she showed/s us her love for us. I'm grateful to have inherited a small percentage of her service-oriented mindset, but in recent months the mindset of expressing my love to my family by doing whatever I can to make their lifes easier.

Life was so easy in college because I only had to worry about myself, and I had plenty of time to explore and do whatever I was interested in...which most often was softball or other sports, and hanging out with friends. Whelp, things changed after I met Glenn and we got married. I no longer had myself to worry about, but my other half, and I adopted the mindset subconciously of doing whatever I could to serve him because that is how you show your love. I'm sure then you can imagine what having a child did for that mindset. Almost 2 years later, and a move across the world with a whole new language, I've realized that I've turned into a very bland person. I've spent all my time trying to show my love for my family (which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing) but I haven't saved any time for myself, and I feel like I've lost my personality. When Glenn asked me one day what I would like to do on a date, I couldn't think of anything. I don't even know what I like to do for fun anymore, because I haven't taken the time to think about it or explore it. Before I had my own family my hobbies were competitive softball and hanging out with friends. Well, unfortunately I moved to a country where softball barely exists, and I don't have the time for hanging out with friends every night let alone am in the situation of being able to hang out every night. (Does that make any sense?) Plus, you add the language barrier into the equation and most of my time lately was spent staring at a wall while others talked. So, now that my situation has changed, I don't know how to go about finding what I am interested in at this stage in my life. I've started exploring how to find out who I am other than a wife and mother. It's been an interesting process, and with a concious effort, has helped me enjoy the other parts of my life much more (the wife and mother part). But I'm wondering, any suggestions on how to "find myself?" What have those of you who have been or are in my same situation done to keep your identity outside of being a mom and wife? What are some hobbies you enjoy?

So far, I have discovered a passion for logic puzzles (yes, those fun puzzles that we did in Middle School Math), and I still like to read. I like to be up-to-date on current events, and I still love History and Geography, but I'm not one to do a lot of studying of it in my free time. It's been interesting, and I'll try to keep you posted on my journey.

With the launch of the new blog, I thought I'd take a moment to explain the process of making a comment. We love comments, and would love to have some! My wonderful husband designed a simple way for us to keep some sort of content management on a public blog. In order to leave a comment, you just click on the "comments" tab at the bottom of a post. Then, you put in your email and a password of your choice, and click "register." After that, you just have to login each time you want to leave a comment. That way, if some creep wants to leave some nasty comment, we can just delete them as a user. Just email me if you have any questions!

If this blog still has any readers, one may recall a similar post to this one about two years ago. Well, I've hit the third trimester of pregnancy, and once again my electronics are breaking. When I was pregnant with Nico, I couldn't get any sort of cell phone service regardless of my location. Glenn, who had the same phone and same carrier had no problems whatsover when standing in the same exact spot as me. The only conclusion we could make was that somehow the pregnancy was messing up my ability to make phone calls. As soon as Nico was born the problem went away. Crazy, huh? Well Oddly enough, I think the same thing is happening now. Last week my phone (not just any phone, but my iphone) completely died. I picked it up, tried to turn it on, and got the screen of death. (Thankfully Glenn was able to make it possible to use my old phone from The States.) Then, I opened up my dishwasher, and a part just fell off. How does that just happen? Later in the week, my computer has now just giving me the black screen of death sporatically. So, I think for the rest of the pregnancy I'll stay as far away as possible from my electronics, and hope that nothing else breaks!

I know I really need to update. And there are tons of things for me to update about. But, for now I'm just going to give a link to a photo album with captions about the photos. A few of the many things we've done in the past months. Hopefully another post to come soon.

From 2010-07-26 iPhone

Well, May 17th is the equivilent to the 4th of July in The States. We had a fun day filled with parades, ice cream, BBQ, and a tivoli (carnival). While it's Independence Day, things are done much differently here in Norway. First off, you dress up for the day. And I'm talking men wear suits with ties. Glenn laughed at me when he saw that I was planning on wearing a t-shirt and cargo pants. At least he guided me in the right direction afterwards. :) Also, if you have one, people wear bunads, which are traditional costumes. They are very expensive, hand made, and very fancy with a ton of silver on them. The kids normally just wear "fake" bunads that you buy at any store (there's a better name for it, I just don't remember the Norwegian word. But Nico wore one, so you can see it in the pictures). Anyways, here are a couple links to pictures:

Misc Nico Spring '10

2010-05-19 17 Mai 2010

Finally! I have something to blog about! Well, in case you didn't get it from the title, I went to the pharmacy yesterday and got a good laugh out of a language barrier experience. I wanted to find some motion sickness medicine for our upcoming trip, and so while my sister-in-law was talking to a pharmacist she pointed me in the right direction and I decided to try and find it on my own. Well, of course there was a sales associate right where I was looking, so when she asked if I needed help my first response was, "Do you speak English?" "Yes, that is fine," was her reply. I explained that I wanted some motion sickness medicine, so she led me to the other side of the store and showed me a very organice-looking bottle. I looked at the price tag and did a double-take due to the roughly $50 cost, but thought to myself, well some things here are ridiculously expensive. Then I asked her if it was safe to use on children, and the sales associate said with a somewhat shocked look of her face, "No! You only give something like this to children after they have seen a doctor, and only the doctor can prescribe something like this to a child.!" Well, I thanked her for her help and she moved on. At about that time my sister-in-law came over to me and I showed her the medicine. Her reply was "What? This isn't what you need!" Turns out it was for menopausal mood swings! Now wonder the lady looked at me funny when I asked her if I could use it on kids!!

Not only do I still laugh when I think of the experience, I was able to find what I need, and it's 1/8th of the price.