BERGEN, Norway--I have almost conquered Norwegian vowel sounds, but I cannot accustom myself to Norwegian daylight. At 1:00 last night it was rather light, and I awoke at 8:00 to the same cloudy, gray brightness.
Last night, Marta, Karen and I had a delicious dinner, watched Coco Before Chanel and Inception. We could not have chosen two more dissimilar movies. The first was, as Karen described, very calm. The second was anything but calm. It stressed me out but I enjoyed it. It is rather like the comparison between Norwegian and Spanish culture. Norwegians are very, very calm. And Spaniards are not. Both the passionate warmth of Spanish people and the pleasant calm of their northern neighbors have positive and negative aspects. I like both countries and their cultures. People are people.
Another huge difference? Organization here in Norway and the lack thereof in Spain. Websites here contain easily navigable pages of information and are fairly dependable as far as I can tell. I cannot say the same for my beloved Spain and its Internet capabilities. I have learned there that the best way to get information is to ask someone personally. And if he does not know the answer to your question, his aunt, grandfather or cousin will.
Greetings: No kisses here in Norway. Hand-shakes or hugs allowed. I am perfectly alright with any of the above, though oddly enough, I am beginning to see how the hug is more an invasion of personal space than the double beso. Many Spaniards say the hug is a more personal and close show of affection while kisses are less: the Americans with whom I spoke on the subject here both agree and disagree. To each his own, I suppose. I do not hug my Spanish friends and cannot exactly imagine hugging everyone there, but then again it is the reverse when I think about my life in the States: I think you all would be rather shocked if I walked up and kissed you on the cheek, but a hug is, in general, welcome. I believe I will just continue traveling the globe so I can greet people in a variety of ways.
The coolest (as in least friendly) greeting I have yet experienced was in Guatemala last summer, when I went with Wycliffe Bible Translators to visit the K´anjobal (a Mayan people group). Theirs is more distant than a hand-shake: you merely place your hand next to the hand of the other person for a moment and then take back your own. This does not imply any less emotion within the people though: in fact, the mother of the family with whom I stayed for three days cried when we left, though we could hardly converse with her and had done no more than touch our hands together briefly. Again I find that people are people too, even though we express affection in such different ways.
By the way, what is a holy kiss? Thessalonians and other books of the New Testament instruct us to greet each other in that way. I cannot imagine any sort of kissing going on in the sanctuary at Bethel on Sunday mornings. I mean, those Baptists will not even dance, for goodness´ sake. (Mostly kidding here, people.)
My Norwegian vocabulary is up to about 20 words, maybe more, including the numbers one through ten. And today I translated the back of the milk carton with moderate success. TineMelk and my translation of the message from Mr. Melk entertained my new Norwegian friends over our delicious breakfast of quiche made by Karen.
Meet Mr. Melk here.
And hear some hilariously accented Norwegian and see some crazy stunts here.
In other news, what on earth was I thinking when I schemed up train travel all summer in Europe, alone, without a job etc etc etc? What a silly, romantic, American notion. Utterly nonsensical. I cannot even keep myself afloat on this single trip to Paris and Norway. And now that I am out of a steady job in Sevilla, what shall I do? Keep me in your prayers, friends.
A fresh and painfully true quote from my dad, ´You are going to be enslaved for a long while...I will save plenty of projects for you here, girl.´ Oh, I know Dad, I know.
I am ready to work hard those three weeks I get in the UP in August: these incredible 6 months will have been worth every penny spent and borrowed.
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