#weektwentyone

Klein, S. (2017, Apr 26). [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://dreamstop.com/internet-dream-symbol/

pinup - visualising design

Week Twenty One/Five months + one week/Just over five Months:

On the language front:

When we started the third level of my Norwegian course last week I was pleased to find that the substitute that we had when our teacher was sick was back. I like her.

She wears lots of bangles that jingle when she writes on the board.

When we don't know a word she usually doesn't tell us what it is in English, she usually keeps saying Norwegian words until we get it. Sometimes she'll translate to Spanish (and I want to improve my Spanish too, so that's a plus).

The current chapter in our book is about the weather. This should enable us to make small talk to strangers. Also, I'm technically British and talking about the weather is supposed to be something I'm into. Small talk is one of the things I miss the most. I used to love telling people that their hair looked nice or that I liked their hat. I especially liked chatting with older people they seemed to appreciate the chance to converse.

In class our teacher told us that when she was little her mother told her to count the seconds between lightning and thunder to determine how many kilometres away the storm was. When I was little we did the same for miles. My sister-in-law quipped that kilometres was probably correct because that is the correct way to look at distance.

I found that neither are correct actually: http://m.wikihow.com/Calculate-the-Distance-from-Lightning

Last week I had a better experience with shopping than I've been used to. Siste uker ringte jeg forloveden min. Jeg spurte trenger vi noe annet fra butikken. Han sa: “Tomater, brød, og svisker”. På butikken spurte jeg: "Har dere svinker?" Jenta visste ikke. Jeg sa: "Svinker? Prunes? Dried plums? Plommer?" Jenta pekte på hylle. Jeg sa: "How should I have said it?" Hun sa: "Jeg husker ikke." [Last week I rang my fiancé. I asked if we needed anything from the shop. He said: “Tomatoes, bread, and prunes [svisker]”. At the shop I asked: “Do you have svinker [a word that I totally made up because I couldn't remember 'svisker']? The girl didn't know. I said: “Svinker [not a word]? Prunes [I said this in English]? Dried plums [also in English]? Plums [I said this in Norwegian, 'plommer']? The girl pointed to the shelf. I said: “How should I have said it [in English]?” She said: “I don't remember.”]

From this I learned that I'm not the only one learning and that I'm doing that bad.

I finally convinced my co-worker to just call me 'Lee'. Up to now he has called me every combination of the letters in my name except the combination that my parents chose for me. Including: Lean Leenay Leenee Lena

Weather:

It snowed! Yay!

Proof that I'm British: I got excited and took a picture.

Culture:

Even though I was born in the UK and I'm of African-Caribbean descent, growing up in America (mostly Alabama) has heavily influenced my 'culture' (or mix thereof as the case may be). Last week I spent several hours making five bean chilli and cornbread both from scratch. The cornbread was the best I've ever made in my life and I am actually sad that it's gone. The chilli went down a treat with rave reviews from my flatmates.

Last week we went to dinner and a show:

First we had dinner at a Persian restaurant and the food was great.

After the meal we were served these delicious sweets. They are essentially chunks of pistachio nuts stuck in a nougat-like substance. The fiancé brought back a box when he went to Iran last year and I almost ate the whole box.

I had learned the phrase: “Kan jeg kjope den?” [“Can I buy that?”] as part of a card game we play sometimes (I learned to say it really fast too because initially I thought the first person to say it got the card they wanted.) So as soon as I saw this candy I blurted out: “Kan vi kjope dem i Oslo?” [“Can we buy them in Oslo?”]. And the answer was yes. The waiter told us where the shop is that sells them.

We had some time to before the theatre so we took an epic walk on the way:

First we passed by an amazing outdoor sculpture called Grass Roots. There are images and an explanation here.

We walked right past the older gentleman who is in the video for Ylvis - “The Fox”.

We killed some time in a DVD/CD store and there was a book on the shelf which had turned the lyrics for 'The Fox' into a bedtime story format. 'Ain't nobody got time to get all them made up words right.'

We also passed 'Tinghuset' which I thought was absolutely hilarious!

'Ting' in Norwegian (and weirdly also in Jamaican patois) is equivalent to the English word 'thing'.

(I'm collecting words and phrases that are similar in Norwegian and Jamaican Patois and we're going to make everyone learn them at our wedding.)

So I thought it was funny to name a building 'the thing place'. "Can you be any less specific?"

I asked the fiancé if it was a venue because when Jamaicans are having a party sometimes they just call it a ting. 'Come roun' we just holdin' a likkle ting.' [Come on over we're just having a little thing.]

He said that it's not a 'likkle ting' at all. Apparently when the Vikings held meetings to decide on laws, bring someone to trial, or punish a member of the community, stuff like that it was called a ting. So actually it's a big ting. As in, 'Big tings ah gwarn'. [Big things are happening.]

So Tinghuset is actually a courthouse and it's kind of a big deal.

When we got to the theatre I realised that my hair was HUGE but then I remembered that Norwegians are generally really tall so I probably wouldn't be blocking anyone's view.

The show was called Verdiløse Menn [Worthless Men]. It was written by a Norwegian cartoonist named Christopher Nielsen and the music was by his brother Joachim Nielsen. Joachim died of a drug overdose in 2000. The play is story about drug addicts. Obviously I didn't understand much of it because the script is in Norwegian but I did get into the music which was awesome. The band were totally punking out (I had serious concerns about the lead guitarist constantly throwing lit cigarettes onto the stage), it was lovely witnessing the juxtaposition of real punks sitting right next to septuagenarians in waistcoats and pearls, during the very last song the actors were dangerously close to the edge of the stage and I was silently praying that they did not crowd surf for fear of an audience member breaking a hip. The guitarist tickled me because the whole time his moves reminded me of something Jack Black's character would've encouraged 'Zack' to do in School of Rock then during the curtain call he played one of the riffs that Zack Attack played in the movie, I believe it was from Smoke on the Water. My only concern was that the play was obviously comedic, the audience was constantly laughing and even I got a couple jokes, but I needed to know that we were laughing with not at people with addictions. After the play I was told that the very first showing was to a crowd completely made up of addicts and alcoholics and they loved it. Also one of Joachim's friends was employed as a kind of 'Junkie Consultant' to make sure the story stayed real.

Finally, the following is a list of images I would’ve Instagrammed if I had a new phone:

The packet of 'svisker' that my fiance inserted an 'n' onto in marker as acceptance of my made up word 'svinker'. Love that guy.

My increasingly huge hair.

The sculpture: Grassroots Square.

The pretty pretty snow.

Brodder [I don't think there is an English word for this. They are spikes that can attach to your shoes (with Velcro) to prevent slips and falls.]