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