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.