Sarah and I were at odds with each other as we were working in the greenhouse tunnels today, so as we stood on opposite sides of the tunnel, taking down dead cucumber plants and not speaking to each other, I slyly took a nice, rotten cucumber and chucked it at her. It missed, and I calmly continued, as if i was completely innoccent. A few minutes later, I chucked another. Again it missed. After throwing about five cucumbers and repeatedly missing, Sarah turns to me and says "Hey Jen, remember that one time when we were in the greenhouse and you tried to throw cucumbers at me, but kept missing because you can't throw?" and then proceeded to throw a cucumber at me, and actually hit me in the arm. This caused great rage to stir in my soul and I grabbed the nearest and largest cucumber and tore through the dry crumbly plants after her, chasing her down the rows and outside the greenhouse, throwing the cucumber at the last second (of course, it missed) just as Werner Rusch (the principal) walked by with his grandson. Now, it would have been a better story if I could now say I had hit the principal, or worse yet, his grandson, with the cucumber, but luckily for me it didn't, and he just laughed at me, and I ran back in the tunnels real fast.
Back to taking down dead plants (I'm allergic to those things and now have a nice rash on the insides of both my arms), Sarah and I continued in silence until a little while later when i challenged her to a duel, and got hit in the face with a nice chunk of rotting cucumber (pleasant).
In the end, we declared an unspoken truce, but I intend to get her back the next time we have to work in the tunnels.
Life here is slow for the next week, as quite a few students are gone, as well as the agriculture program is over, and the evangelistic meetings were finished on Sunday night. We have a test on Thursday, and other than that its just all about the packing and preparing for Tanzania/Honduras, for which I am very excited, and am anticipating greatly.
Happy Halloween tomorrow :) I'm wearing my candy-corn socks and trying to get over the fact that I did not carve a pumpkin this year for the first time in... a long time. It's sad. Although I did carve one on Facebook, but somehow without the whole pumpkin guts and seeds and mess and all it's just not the same, but I think I'll manage to get over it, somehow.
<3Jen
10/30/2007
10/29/2007
I, Jen, the Candy King
This post marks the first post of a new era as such, for it is the first post written since the 19th of October, which marked the date of my birth 18 years previous. This day thankfully managed to be rather uneventful, and I managed to get through it without being sung the special EBS version of “Happy Birthday” due to my precautionary measures (i.e. threatening anyone to within an inch of their lives who even suggested doing such a thing. But regardless of this I still managed to have the song thoroughly ingrained in my brain the whole day, which caused me to be driven near madness.
“A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you!
May you feel Jesus near every day of the year!
A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you!
The best that you ever knew!
Lord keep her shining for you, Lord keep her shining for you!
In the world’s darkest night – keep her pure, keep her bright!
Lord keep her shining for you, Lord keep her shining for you!
Until she beholds Your face!”
And believe me, the tune is worse.
But anyway, it was nice, since my birthday fell on a Friday, which meant I only had to attend 2 hours of classes, and then I applied myself to the lovely task of cleaning the cafeteria, and then sheer, unadulterated freedom stood before me, waiting for me to take advantage of it. So I did.
Sarah and I went down to the boy’s dorm, where Marcus was waiting with his recent grocery purchases for us to come make nachos. The afternoon was spent pretty much stuffing our faces and me falling asleep on the couch (too much excitement I guess).
In the evening there was a meeting at Erin’s house (she is one of the teachers here; she’s real funny) for all of us traveling to Tanzania, and I taught Hugo and Andrés to put marshmallows in their hot chocolate, which they thought was pretty much the strangest (yet brilliant) idea ever. We then had a crash course in Swahili, which I sadly remember hardly any of, and learned a new song, also in Swahili. Luckily we have two guys here from Kenya who actually speak Swahili, and so they taught us the song and helped with our pathetic attempts at pronunciation.
Saturday was a nice, freezing cold day. Sarah and I missed the bus to church, so we hijacked a bicycle and with me pedaling and her sitting side-saddle on the back rack, we plummeted down the hill (we found the brakes to be rather lacking in actual braking ability) with reckless abandon and managed to arrive in one piece in a matter of minutes.
“Church” was the topic in Sabbath school, and I really appreciated it, as we deviated from the lesson and discussed the kinds of things we would want to see instated if we were to begin our own church; what kinds of things we thought were crucial to having a healthy functioning church. We also discussed the word itself and the different things the word “Church” brings to mind, and the pros and cons of using this word.
I am slowly but surely picking up Norwegian, as I always listen to the sermon in the native tongue instead of wearing the detestable headphones which are available to have translation, and I am beginning to get the gist of what people are saying. Also I have been studying “Norwegian in 10 minutes” when I get the chance and have picked up some useful words/phrases from that as well.
Oh, and to explain the title: on Thursday “talk time” turned into lunch at Erin’s house (she makes really good fettuccini alfredo, by the way) and shopping in Drammen, where I bought a bag of awesome candy from the Candy King and a new hat, both of which I was very excited about. So now you know.
Well that’s really all I can think of, and it’s not that interesting at all, but it gives you a little glimpse into my life as I prepare to pack up and head off to Tanzania – there won’t be any updates from the 7th of November until sometime in late December, but then there shall be a veritable deluge of my adventures from there, so hold tight.
<3Jen
“A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you!
May you feel Jesus near every day of the year!
A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you!
The best that you ever knew!
Lord keep her shining for you, Lord keep her shining for you!
In the world’s darkest night – keep her pure, keep her bright!
Lord keep her shining for you, Lord keep her shining for you!
Until she beholds Your face!”
And believe me, the tune is worse.
But anyway, it was nice, since my birthday fell on a Friday, which meant I only had to attend 2 hours of classes, and then I applied myself to the lovely task of cleaning the cafeteria, and then sheer, unadulterated freedom stood before me, waiting for me to take advantage of it. So I did.
Sarah and I went down to the boy’s dorm, where Marcus was waiting with his recent grocery purchases for us to come make nachos. The afternoon was spent pretty much stuffing our faces and me falling asleep on the couch (too much excitement I guess).
In the evening there was a meeting at Erin’s house (she is one of the teachers here; she’s real funny) for all of us traveling to Tanzania, and I taught Hugo and Andrés to put marshmallows in their hot chocolate, which they thought was pretty much the strangest (yet brilliant) idea ever. We then had a crash course in Swahili, which I sadly remember hardly any of, and learned a new song, also in Swahili. Luckily we have two guys here from Kenya who actually speak Swahili, and so they taught us the song and helped with our pathetic attempts at pronunciation.
Saturday was a nice, freezing cold day. Sarah and I missed the bus to church, so we hijacked a bicycle and with me pedaling and her sitting side-saddle on the back rack, we plummeted down the hill (we found the brakes to be rather lacking in actual braking ability) with reckless abandon and managed to arrive in one piece in a matter of minutes.
“Church” was the topic in Sabbath school, and I really appreciated it, as we deviated from the lesson and discussed the kinds of things we would want to see instated if we were to begin our own church; what kinds of things we thought were crucial to having a healthy functioning church. We also discussed the word itself and the different things the word “Church” brings to mind, and the pros and cons of using this word.
I am slowly but surely picking up Norwegian, as I always listen to the sermon in the native tongue instead of wearing the detestable headphones which are available to have translation, and I am beginning to get the gist of what people are saying. Also I have been studying “Norwegian in 10 minutes” when I get the chance and have picked up some useful words/phrases from that as well.
Oh, and to explain the title: on Thursday “talk time” turned into lunch at Erin’s house (she makes really good fettuccini alfredo, by the way) and shopping in Drammen, where I bought a bag of awesome candy from the Candy King and a new hat, both of which I was very excited about. So now you know.
Well that’s really all I can think of, and it’s not that interesting at all, but it gives you a little glimpse into my life as I prepare to pack up and head off to Tanzania – there won’t be any updates from the 7th of November until sometime in late December, but then there shall be a veritable deluge of my adventures from there, so hold tight.
<3Jen
10/16/2007
Bread Day!
Happy International Bread Day, everyone!
I would never have known this holiday existed, much less that it fell on today, October 16th, if I was not here in Norway, and having to clean down at the health food store/bakery/church/doctor’s office/physiotherapy building down in Skotselv. Yesterday I was whisked over to a table in the midst of my cleaning in order to inspect the display being set up for today, and upon questioning why this was being set up, I was informed that it was for International Bread Day (duh) and there was a big deal about it and bread competitions etc. etc., and that the bread from “our” bakery here usually got rather high in the rankings. Actually, the bread they make here at the Skotselv Adventist Bakery (not it’s official title, I’m sure, but that is what I shall choose to call it) is the healthiest bread in Norway at least, and the secret is that it is made with sprouted wheat. It’s not much of a secret – they print it right on the bag – so I don’t feel too bad spilling the beans online.
So I am now officially roommate-less, as my roommate, along with several other students (including Nova Scotia’s own Robert Richard James Monk) left for Bulgaria at 4AM today because they are all going to be doing evangelistic meetings over there for the next 2 ½ weeks! Our class is rather empty now, and so is my room, which is fine with me. I’ll admit it will be very nice to be able to get ready for school in the morning in complete darkness and silence in order not to disturb poor sleeping Natalia.
Now I’m just hanging out, listening to The Clash, ripping music to my computer, and eyeing Natalia’s bookshelf, thinking that Norwegian in 10 minutes a day looks like it is a worth a little closer inspection. I wish you all a Happy Bread Day and encourage you to select a healthy whole grain bread to celebrate with.
I would never have known this holiday existed, much less that it fell on today, October 16th, if I was not here in Norway, and having to clean down at the health food store/bakery/church/doctor’s office/physiotherapy building down in Skotselv. Yesterday I was whisked over to a table in the midst of my cleaning in order to inspect the display being set up for today, and upon questioning why this was being set up, I was informed that it was for International Bread Day (duh) and there was a big deal about it and bread competitions etc. etc., and that the bread from “our” bakery here usually got rather high in the rankings. Actually, the bread they make here at the Skotselv Adventist Bakery (not it’s official title, I’m sure, but that is what I shall choose to call it) is the healthiest bread in Norway at least, and the secret is that it is made with sprouted wheat. It’s not much of a secret – they print it right on the bag – so I don’t feel too bad spilling the beans online.
So I am now officially roommate-less, as my roommate, along with several other students (including Nova Scotia’s own Robert Richard James Monk) left for Bulgaria at 4AM today because they are all going to be doing evangelistic meetings over there for the next 2 ½ weeks! Our class is rather empty now, and so is my room, which is fine with me. I’ll admit it will be very nice to be able to get ready for school in the morning in complete darkness and silence in order not to disturb poor sleeping Natalia.
Now I’m just hanging out, listening to The Clash, ripping music to my computer, and eyeing Natalia’s bookshelf, thinking that Norwegian in 10 minutes a day looks like it is a worth a little closer inspection. I wish you all a Happy Bread Day and encourage you to select a healthy whole grain bread to celebrate with.
10/06/2007
Bible Studies and Tales of Talk Time
Life in Skotselv is getting a little redundant – I am not a creature of habit, to say the least, and I am finding less and less ways to break up the monotony – there are only so many adventures one can go on in a town the size of a midgets back pocket, so I’m thinking of hopping a bus if not this weekend then the next, and parading about the wondrous, yet-to-be-explored-by-Jen-Scott streets of Oslo! Hopefully this will help me get out of my rut, which is getting deeper with each passing day. But, even if I don’t get to Oslo this weekend, at least my pants will, because Tatiana is taking them with her to some meetings this weekend. My pants get out more than me, how totally wrong is that?!
I really shouldn’t be doing this right now, I should be catching up on writing bible studies (I’m two behind, oops) or sleeping, or some other equally silly pass time, but really, how dull is that? Today (as I write , it still...) is Friday and I shall be having class, cleaning and then I’ll go in search of adventure, most likely a solo one, since I am finding myself short on friends lately. Not that I don’t have friends, but they are all mostly preoccupied with other people, so I tend to one-woman it around the place, which suits me just fine.
Thursday night I frolicked about Drammen with Marcus and went to McDonalds, which felt completely wrong, since the interior was unlike that of any McDonalds I have ever darkened the doors of. It was all decked out, complete with chandeliers and mirrored walls. I felt silly chowing down on a McChicken (first once-dead thing I have eaten since coming to EBS, wow!) and fries in such an environment, but it was an interesting experience, and I enjoyed it.
Thursday, I had talk-time. First, let me explain the concept: one day every week, I am scheduled, rain or shine, to sit down with a particular staff member (her name is Lindsay, she is 22 and the wife of one of the teachers of my evangelism course; she is also pregnant and expecting in December) and talk about my life, how things are going, and whatever else might come to mind. At first the very idea of this pretty much turned my stomach and I did everything I could to get out of it, but lately I have had a change of heart. I actually have begun to appreciate it. This is partly because in the beginning, Lindsay shared with me that she thought the idea was ridiculous herself, and so we agreed not to make it any worse than it had to be, and also not to probe into each others lives and follow the general guidelines of “talk-time” and make it like a visit to your neighbourhood shrink. It is also largely based on the fact that I get sick of talking to the same people all week and I run out of new topics to broach with the people I commonly associate with (which is all the students), so having a specific time to talk to someone else gives me an opportunity to bring things up that have been bugging me about a class, or something that has struck my fancy, or, if nothing is on my mind, then at times we don’t speak at all, or just tell stories (mostly she tells stories and I listen). Drinking tea is a nice pastime, and fills up the silence. She has introduced me to a glorious new type of tea, the name of which is Good Earth, and it tastes like heaven in a teacup. So I am happy to say that I now, much to my surprise, actually enjoy talk time. Hurray!
Well, my abs are burning because I have decided to begin a very strict exercise plan for myself, which so far consists simply of me doing as many stomach crunches at one time as my poor belly can handle, once in the morning and once at night. I do this in the hopes to have abs of steal (wait, I’m at EBS, I should have belly and thighs of brass [bronze]) somewhere down the road. Hey, I can dream, right?
So on this note I shall go and do some bible studies – I have most of the one for last week done, and none for this week, so I have my work cut out for me.
I leave you with this one word of advice: always know where your towel is (Douglas Adams). I say this because I don’t know the location of one of my towels. Let me rephrase this: I know where my towel is, and I want it back! So I change my advice to a new revised quote of my own: never lend your towel to someone who will inevitably forget to return it anytime in the near future. On this note, goodnight!
<3Jen
Ps.
Toilets cleaned this week – 27
Things I have been called since coming to European Bible School:
1. Jehovah's Witness
2. Norwegian
3. Danish
4. Patrick's Wife
5. Charismatic
6. Male
7. Sarah
8. Maria (Julie Andrews) from The Sound of Music
9. Julie’s sister
Favourite Smells: grass; dirt; dead leaves.
I really shouldn’t be doing this right now, I should be catching up on writing bible studies (I’m two behind, oops) or sleeping, or some other equally silly pass time, but really, how dull is that? Today (as I write , it still...) is Friday and I shall be having class, cleaning and then I’ll go in search of adventure, most likely a solo one, since I am finding myself short on friends lately. Not that I don’t have friends, but they are all mostly preoccupied with other people, so I tend to one-woman it around the place, which suits me just fine.
Thursday night I frolicked about Drammen with Marcus and went to McDonalds, which felt completely wrong, since the interior was unlike that of any McDonalds I have ever darkened the doors of. It was all decked out, complete with chandeliers and mirrored walls. I felt silly chowing down on a McChicken (first once-dead thing I have eaten since coming to EBS, wow!) and fries in such an environment, but it was an interesting experience, and I enjoyed it.
Thursday, I had talk-time. First, let me explain the concept: one day every week, I am scheduled, rain or shine, to sit down with a particular staff member (her name is Lindsay, she is 22 and the wife of one of the teachers of my evangelism course; she is also pregnant and expecting in December) and talk about my life, how things are going, and whatever else might come to mind. At first the very idea of this pretty much turned my stomach and I did everything I could to get out of it, but lately I have had a change of heart. I actually have begun to appreciate it. This is partly because in the beginning, Lindsay shared with me that she thought the idea was ridiculous herself, and so we agreed not to make it any worse than it had to be, and also not to probe into each others lives and follow the general guidelines of “talk-time” and make it like a visit to your neighbourhood shrink. It is also largely based on the fact that I get sick of talking to the same people all week and I run out of new topics to broach with the people I commonly associate with (which is all the students), so having a specific time to talk to someone else gives me an opportunity to bring things up that have been bugging me about a class, or something that has struck my fancy, or, if nothing is on my mind, then at times we don’t speak at all, or just tell stories (mostly she tells stories and I listen). Drinking tea is a nice pastime, and fills up the silence. She has introduced me to a glorious new type of tea, the name of which is Good Earth, and it tastes like heaven in a teacup. So I am happy to say that I now, much to my surprise, actually enjoy talk time. Hurray!
Well, my abs are burning because I have decided to begin a very strict exercise plan for myself, which so far consists simply of me doing as many stomach crunches at one time as my poor belly can handle, once in the morning and once at night. I do this in the hopes to have abs of steal (wait, I’m at EBS, I should have belly and thighs of brass [bronze]) somewhere down the road. Hey, I can dream, right?
So on this note I shall go and do some bible studies – I have most of the one for last week done, and none for this week, so I have my work cut out for me.
I leave you with this one word of advice: always know where your towel is (Douglas Adams). I say this because I don’t know the location of one of my towels. Let me rephrase this: I know where my towel is, and I want it back! So I change my advice to a new revised quote of my own: never lend your towel to someone who will inevitably forget to return it anytime in the near future. On this note, goodnight!
<3Jen
Ps.
Toilets cleaned this week – 27
Things I have been called since coming to European Bible School:
1. Jehovah's Witness
2. Norwegian
3. Danish
4. Patrick's Wife
5. Charismatic
6. Male
7. Sarah
8. Maria (Julie Andrews) from The Sound of Music
9. Julie’s sister
Favourite Smells: grass; dirt; dead leaves.
10/01/2007
The Life and Times of My Laundry
First off, I must give credit where credit is due. Part of the reason I have decided to devote an entire blog entry to such a mundane activity as laundry was because I recently read the blog of my dear friend Brandon (www.brandoninnepal.blogspot.com), and in it he described the long and ridiculous process he is forced to go through in order to have clean clothes whilst he is in Nepal, so I felt it was necessary for me to share with you all the wonders of laundry here.
It all begins in the washer. These washers are tiny, yet have twice as many settings as a normal North American washing machine. And if you put in more than a certain amount of clothes, the machine will simply give up the ghost and die. So you must weigh your laundry (over exaggeration)and make sure you feed it the proper amount so that it will love you and give you clean clothing. The next thing about these machines is that one load takes 2 hours to wash, and therefore you must begin your laundry at a decent time of day, in order to still be awake when it is done. Lastly, dryers only exist at the boy’s dorm (twenty minute walk down a huge hill), so we use nifty drying wracks. Oh, and then there is the great part where each tiny load of laundry costs 5NKR, which is fairly inexpensive, but when you have to do 50 ity bity loads, it adds up. Luckily, I have enough socks and underwear to go 2 weeks without doing a wash, so I’m all set.
However, for the experience (when we have extra time), sometimes Sarah and I simply use the bathtub for our laundry, and then we get to do fun things, like make a laundry rainbow. I thought it was a pretty neat idea.
So, that’s the story of laundry. The end.
It all begins in the washer. These washers are tiny, yet have twice as many settings as a normal North American washing machine. And if you put in more than a certain amount of clothes, the machine will simply give up the ghost and die. So you must weigh your laundry (over exaggeration)and make sure you feed it the proper amount so that it will love you and give you clean clothing. The next thing about these machines is that one load takes 2 hours to wash, and therefore you must begin your laundry at a decent time of day, in order to still be awake when it is done. Lastly, dryers only exist at the boy’s dorm (twenty minute walk down a huge hill), so we use nifty drying wracks. Oh, and then there is the great part where each tiny load of laundry costs 5NKR, which is fairly inexpensive, but when you have to do 50 ity bity loads, it adds up. Luckily, I have enough socks and underwear to go 2 weeks without doing a wash, so I’m all set.
However, for the experience (when we have extra time), sometimes Sarah and I simply use the bathtub for our laundry, and then we get to do fun things, like make a laundry rainbow. I thought it was a pretty neat idea.
So, that’s the story of laundry. The end.
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