50 hrs continues...... can we have silence and English?

Ok.... there is not much that I ask for these days ... Yes .. Ok a full paying job might be great, but I understand my journey right now .... and the Kindergarten is it right now. I need to hurry up and learn quickly though, its hard to make "friends" there. You don't really have any time to socialize or get to know someone else.
The fact that I am working for 3 days a week earning not even enough to buy a blouse here in Norway (lol ) and then going to Norskkurs (Norwegian Course) for the other 2 days of the week AND then going to a spouse class (Social Studies) on Saturdays to do my obligation of 50 hours equates to a very FULL week.
Now, like I've said before (I think), the Norwegian Teacher has said that they usually organise it by language. So if you speak English or are very fluent in it then you would do it in English. This is because its VERY IMPORTANT information and we are all expected to join in the class discussions.
In our class we have 3 native English speakers, on and off about 5 Filipinos, 2 Ghanaians, 2 People who speak Russian, 1 who speaks Spanish and 1 who speaks Turkish.
If you wake up early on a Saturday after a full week of activities lasting at least 6 hours, and you come to something that you hope you would learn something... wouldn't you want to learn?
or at least HEAR what the Norway is going on (lol... get it ..??? France?? Norway ??? oh .. never mind!)
Well today was definitely one of those days when you start to wonder .....
While the facilitator is talking and explaining things and looking for people to have a discussion, the 2 Russians decided to have a Russian conversation... across the round table setting.
Seriously... we ALL want to know what happens in Russia .. hows about ya share? huh?
Nope, the discussion goes on in heated debate while the Facilitator is still talking .. in English. Of course it's a little difficult to focus on what is going on here!
The Facilitator sort of looks at them as in "I'm talking here" .. but nothing is really said.
How does one as a teacher/facilitator continue talking while 2 people are having their own little conversation across the table? How about showing some respect people?
After a small pause, the facilitator continues to ... facilitate.
Someone starts to discuss something with the teacher and a murmur starts, first with the Russians and then with the Filipinos. Come on people! We are supposed to be adults here. Can we all SHARE in discussions? The longer the teacher/student discussion went on while I was straining my ears to hear what was going on , the teacher was talking louder and louder, I suppose in the hope that everyone will shut up.
Fat chance. That just made the murmur grow louder and louder.
Worse yet now, all discussions are done and the Russians are still talking away ... in Russian... wow.
I was trying so hard not to look at them, but between them, I would really have expected more.  One being a very highly educated person and the other a much older woman, who should know a bit more about respect!
My patience was waning. Thank God for a BREAK!
After Lunch, I noticed that the Ghanaians decided to join us. Of course, this session is supposed to start at 8:30 - the Lunch is at 11 am. How UNFAIR is it that they join us after they get to sleep soundly and still get to sign their name on the list as having attended a 6.5 hr session. 
UGH! ... No wonder the people in your country beat the kids....
ok ... that's so not fair .... but that was the level of my disgust.

Oh by the way ... we are talking about someone who's dad used to go to the school to "beat up" the teachers if they "whipped" they kids.... which was a rule of the school .. (albeit it may have been abused), but I mean .. seriously .... what a bad representation of someone from Ghana ...
Anyhoos it gets better.
One of them has a kid with them. Oh cute! ..... she didn't have anyone to take care of her kid while she fulfilled her "obligation" today.  But that "cute" very quickly became "cut" ... as in "cut it OUT!"
If I didn't have a headache before from the Russians .... I got one now...
Between the Russians having their conversations across the table, the Filippinos jabbering away in Togalo .. or whatever it is... and the Ghanaian girls shoshoing, I had no space to tolerate the kid.

Now, I've had people tell me that its easier said than done to control your kids, but hear me out before you try to defend your motherhood and especially this particular one.
This kid was an adorable mix of Ghana and obviously red headed Norwegian. He had the eyes of his mother and seemed spunky and ... well .. a normal little boy. 
"Mama ... mama ... mama..." The kid's monotone drone was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Now... I don't know .. maybe its the Trini mama in me that impulses me to say "SHHHH" at the VERY first Word.
If I HAVE to bring my kid to a class, then  that Kid BETTER stay quiet or I better STAY home. I mean, its not like no one else will be affected... I'm toting the kid to the grocery here...
How about a little " Shh .... play with your crayons??"
nope.
By the last break ... one of the guys in the class had said, "Is it just me, or have you had enough of this kid too?"
Yea .... its not just you.
This kid had tapped upon the table and his mother said nothing until I looked back VERY annoyed that she would not stop him. Then it was just a quick , "Nei"....
This kid had gone outside run down the corridor screaming.. while his mother shouted at him ... inside the class ... oh .. did I tell you that the door was closed... but maybe this was a bionic kid and could hear through walls.
This kid had come along the classroom and had tapped and banged on the glass very loudly .... While the mother got up (and I'm not here to help her out ... but she looked MOST amused at all that her son was doing) She called out to her son and got up and walked outside again.
I have to admit .. I was impressed with the kid though. At around 5 years old, he was speaking between English, Norwegian and the mother tongue from Ghana.. There certainly is an advantage for being born in a non English speaking country!
But back to this kid.
This kid had sat down and eaten a burger .. making loud slurping noises while he ate, and no one stopped him.
Now, I don't know about you .. but after 1 1/2 hrs with this kid and his mother I was started to think that this must be one of the most annoying days I've had yet.
There came a point with the talking in a million languages with a kid trying to be heard above everything else that I really couldn't take it anymore. I mean, what was the point of coming here on a Saturday if it was not going to be AT LEAST pleasant enough to LEARN something about Norway?
A Cell phone rang loudly .... and I was aghast to hear the man answer the telephone, speaking normally ... and for him normal is loud ... It was a quick call ... but still ... I'm glad he's got a job now.... maybe he's not as scary....

That was the last straw....

"Ok .... people ...... Between you guys talking in Russian very loudly might I add... you guys talking in Filipino and you guys talking in Ghanaian and your kid ..... sorry to say ... that you cannot seem to control or even keep quiet or SOMETHING... I'm wondering if you appreciate having to wake up on a Saturday morning, or that you respect the teacher in front of you????  So I don't know about you guys ... but I am here to get SOMETHING out of this session other than a feeling of total frustration and disgust of the people that were here ... so if you don't mind .. if yuh wanna talk .... talk quietly or IN ENGLISH so we all can benefit... and if you have no one to take care of yuh kid mama .... I'm sorry to hear ... but you have some work to do in order to show that you understand that you have brought your kid to an adult CLASS and not a kindergarten .... So hows about you control your kid or GO HOME!" I finally Shouted.

.......


There was silence in the class.

....

And then reality must have hit .... because I came back to it! Ah well... if only I did get riled up enough...
There was still all the murmuring in different languages ... and this kid was still talking ... almost incessantly now.
I started closing my eyes and willing myself not to live out what I REALLY wanted to shout to all these people in the class.

The kid was talking louder and louder and it was becoming almost impossible for the teacher to talk..

"Please , please , please! .. I'm sorry that you don't have anyone to take care of your kid but he's obviously not enjoying the class. Perhaps its better if you take him home" The teacher finally said.
"Yes I think so too" the Girl blurted a little too quickly. 
She perhaps is another character that I would love to expound on .. .. but I really don't think I'll give her the glory of my typing fingers ... I don't think very highly of her. She seems to be one who is only interested in what money she can get, how else she can whatever she wants and a host of other things  including that she likes or wants or needs some attention ... and that one was told to me by someone else. So its not just me.
ok that's enough of that.

She got up and took an enormous amount of time to dress her son and herself. The class was silent and I chose not to look in that direction at all. I honestly felt sorry and embarrassed FOR her. Something I'm pretty sure .. she didn't feel for herself .. but such are people everywhere right?

But then again, maybe this was a "special" kid. Maybe he has ADD or something.... isn't that extremely popular these days? ... Maybe she had issues as a kid and let's her kid express himself ... any and all the time?... How impressive ...
Maybe I'll have a kid like that .. that I can't control, that I lose all luster TO control; that I just couldn't be bothered to try too hard over? Or maybe it was just a bad day for the kid ... or the mom? These things happen ... no kid is perfectly behaved all the time. Perhaps I'm just being hard on the poor girl and her mothering skills... but why is it that it got to other people too?
The class got pretty quiet after that. Everyone paid attention and didn't talk.

Why is it that we have to be prodded like animals, or embarassed for us to behave... like if we are 7 or 8? How can we be made to understand that no matter where we are in life .. what country, we are called to be adults .. first and foremost... which requires a measure of respect  ... and that I think and I worry. .. is something I realise Norwegians are not very good at.

Whey yuh say?

We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary in Rome. It was a fabulous trip filled with history and awe, dirt and shopping.  The best part about it was the shopping! ... I've never been much of a shopper. I could never really get into blowing all my hard earned money on something. ... although I have to admit that when you don't have a job sometimes the window shopping becomes a happy pastime.
But this is NOT about shopping. Nope this is about Language! Yes!
Now while I have been learning Norwegian as a new language, old habits die hard. I have been struggling to have the muscle memory switch from Spanish to Norwegian.  I would be making sentences and the first thing that comes to my head is a spanish word. "Maybe" was one ... the spanish word kept coming into mind. I have been struggling to make that go away.
So I 'm very impressed when people can speak more than 2 languages .... and keep them separate to!
Heck I'm pretty impressed with kids learning these languages!

Can you imagine the language callallo my poor brain went through this past few days?..... I have been learning Norwegian, I go to a new country with a new language and I have the HARDEST time just saying No or Si .... Gratsi .... or Buongiorno! Buona sera!  For the Life of me, it took me until the very last hour (it felt like it) before I was saying the right thing!.
I kept starting in Norwegian .... going to english or spanish and hardly ever to Italian!!
My husby was having a fun time while I was wondering how he knew so much Italian! lol .
Now its always been a dream of mine to be Bilingual .. in fact  I think it was 2 days before we left Norway for Rome, we had our first full length conversation at Dinner in Norwegian. Yes yes yes ... i was very proud of myself and of him too .. for being so good at pronounciating (think a Trini dialects ... its like learning the Queen's English and someone is talking to you like they from Penal.... u get my point (not that his dialect is bad .. its just not what I'm learning)).
So now I come to Italy ... and I keep saying Nei Takk to people ... how on earth they would know what I am saying .... I'm not even saying it in English!! hahahah ... So that is how my entire trip went ... Nei .. I mean No Grazi .. or Ja .. I mean Si Grazi.
Language confused, Language dyslexia Call it what ever you want ... i was a confused little kitten ...
But it was fun, and I am even more determined now to learn this language.

I start my first introduction to the work place soon and I'm excited to see what I do. I will be working in a kindergarden. The best place really to learn a language, since the kids INSIST upon talking to you and they will ONLY talk to you in Norwegian and not kick into English if you don't understand.

Let's see how fast I learn this language now!! :)

Telling Time in Norwegian

Telling the time in Norwegian is definitely one of those things that is special to a culture ... and Language .... and when I say special .. i mean Special. Hva er klokka? As we ask here ... loosely translated from the old Celtic languages means ..what bell?
So .. we tell time by saying it is 5 past 3, Quarter past three, Half past three. Now after Half past, we have the options to say ... past the hour .. OR to the hour right? Here is a little Norwegian class for ya!
Not here.  They think of their clock in 4 quarters. The first Quarter is Past the hour (up until 15). The Half Past 3 is Half 4!! ... So they start thinking of the new hour once it past 15 mins of the hour!!! .
The 2nd quarter of the clock is minutes to Half of the hour and the 3rd quarter of the clock in Minutes PAST half the hour. The 4th quarter is pretty much the same ...

So in essence what I understand is that they don't like to say more than 14 minutes to something ... Its confusing isn't it? It's only now that I understand some of the misscommunication that my husband and I had.  When he says Half four in English but thinking Norwegian, he really means Half 3 in English. No wonder they are always an ON TIME people!!!

Its even harder for me to figure it out sometimes because they use the 24 hour time, but they say it in 12 hour, so if I see something like 17:38 .. I first have to figure out what 17 is!! .. yes I am getting better, but it still is not something that comes naturally to me.

But it is an interesting way to tell time I can tell you that much .... just one of those things!!....

Whey yuh say? ... Klokka?

Dear Lord, Please help me on my first day out to Kindergarten.....

For anyone who really ... and I mean REALLY knows me ... knows that I'm not a big fan of kids. It sounds horrible just writing it!! .. Its not that I hate them or anything.. and I have no idea where it came from too. My mother used to say that I had to get over my "thing" of children and old people.  Maybe because I wasn't as wonderful as she is with them... but then ... maybe that's where all this insecurity started.  She shared so much of herself with other kids ... and she often called them her kids and they often called her their mom .... maybe I just didn't want to share my mom ... maybe ... after all she was mine ... go get your own .. .
so perhaps that selfishness has manifested itself into something deeper ....
Babies  - Babies are fine ... the don't do much ... but they get heavy after a while ... (gorsh I sound like Jake's Grandmother from 2 1/2 men!) They are beautiful to look at .. the miracle of birth... But I'm grossed out by the process OF birth that I see on TV .. OH! except water birth ... that makes so much sense to me!.
Toddlers - they are fine ... but they get so unruely ... how do you tame kids? And now that I live in a country where spanking is against the law, how do you teach a child respect, draw lines and boundaries without them turning out like Politically Correct American kids who will call the police on you if you slap their hand for digging into the cookie jar?
Kids - I like well behaved kids.  Nothing drives me up a wall more than badly behaved kids. And that, I know is subjective. A badly behaved kid is not one who is running around in excitement or playing too roughly ... its the one who answers back.. Then again ... I am a firm believer in the Child Whisperer .... a child is only as badlly behaved as a parents allows them to be.
Anyhoos ... on with the story .. yes on with the story.
I needed a job, or at least some way to learn the language while making a bit of dinero to spend here in Expensive Norway (lol). A kindergarden was suggested. And thus began the plight, culminating after 2 months, in my first day of school.... barnehagen ... as its called here.
I must first admit that it took this long because I was very apprehensive. Did i REALLY WANT to work in a Kindergarten. That would mean being with kids all day long; hearing them talk and not understand them; having to deal with badly behaved kids and have no legal means of setting them straight. ..... did I really want this?
I walked in toting a bag filled with rain and warm clothes, extra shoes, rain pants .. everything that i could need for a trip outside... whatever the weather.
Norwegian names are now hard. They were not like that before. In fact, I think it was the government that prevented people from having many different names. So its NOW a fad to have a cool and different name. So of all the names that I learnt that day ... I remember ... a sum total ... of .... none.
I would be working with 1 and 2 year olds.  The ones who are supposed to sleep all day, move slowly and eat alot, and not have that big of a vocabulary.
I was banking on the fact that we were perhaps at the same level in language .. these kids and I. The one thing I totally forgot, is what they would be learning is not how to meet people and where-are-you-from sort of conversation, but animals, colours, shapes etc . I hadn't reach there yet in my studies ... so it came down to the sentence "Hva a det?" Which I really hoped was "What is that?"
Of course what ever they told me ... I would just smile... because .. chances were... I didn't know it either.
Our group had 3 teachers/Assistants and I would be the 4th.
I honestly assumed that with any new job you would either have to shadow someone, or someone would be with you the whole time.. I mean we are talking about people's children here aren't we?
I had asked one of the ladies to please speak to me in Norwegian. If I didn't understand something that she said, I would ask her.
I followed her in a maze that the kindergarden was to where we would spend the day.  Kids, as I past by, were staring at me like I was from a totally different planet.  Its hard to gain confidence when the most honest of human beings looks at you strangely.  They only show on their face what others around you are sometimes good at masking.
They are only children ... and you are bigger than them ... I kept chanting to myself ... trying to find the confidence I needed to start the day. It was obviously in some place where it could not hear me!
I walked into a large play area filled with 11 kids. All of different ages and heights from 1 to 2. There was one child crying. I remembered her from the first time I came there. She had cried for the whole time.  She cried playing in the sad .. she cried ... oh no .. she actually was screaming. But she was screaming and doing things! It was like that was the way she breathed! She walked around doing things and screaming. So odd.
The Kids were darling.  It was hard for me to get close to them because they were so afraid of someone new.
"Ok. We go outside now" the main teacher said.
"Everyone?" I asked..
"Everyone!" she replied.
I had to go and put back on all the clothes that I had. I knew that what u wore to work at Kindergarden with small children and what you wear as "home clothes" is going to be pretty much the same. I couldn't really sit on the ground too much because my jeans were a little too tight. I didn't have a pair of tights to destroy OR a sweat pants.
"Can you dress that one?" Someone said to me
I looked at the organisation. Every kid had a section, had their name on their pram, had  a box for diapers with all their own stuff in it. The organisation alone is amazing! And Overwhelming.
I took the clothes out of the box.
Now, let's put this in some perspective. I am from Trinidad. We have summer clothes. We only wear summer clothes and when it rains .. some people think "it making cold' and put on a sweater.  All this tights and jacket and gloves and understockings and fleece and ting ... I have no idea about.  I could barely dress MYSELF here and I have to dress a child?  Hmmp!!.. Learn Jaemie .. Learn ... "
A little direction and I dressed the little boy. I couldn't believe the things that I should know! How on earth do you buy clothes for kids??? It must cost a fortune! Of course I put things on back-to-front and ting. And it was only after we were outside playing in the rain that I realised the little strap at the end of the rain clothes was supposed to go over the shoes .. and NOT the socks ... no worries ... it stays cleanner that way.
 All bundled up we took the kids outside.
It was not as cold as I thought it would be, although I know that I had on alot of clothes for the first day because I was not sure how cool the inside of the kindergarden would be.
Long story short I stayed with 2 of the little boys. One was moving on his knees around the swing area leaving a line as his little boots dragged along the mulch. The other was on a little cycle trying to push. Neither of them was into walking. Two of the other teachers were with about 5 of the kids playing in the sand, while the other teacher was playing with the rest of them on a big tyre swing.
I think this was the time when I started wondering to myself....
What the hell am I doing here? I didn't know what to do with them?
Everyone, as if by queue, went inside, and I was left with these 2 kids. Trying to get them to walk was obviously not the right thing, as one of the teachers came along and whisked one away in her arms. I continued walking with the other. I'm a firm believer in making kids walk. I think its good for them. All these strollers and prams for kids is over done. (I say this now... but I know the real benefit to parents when arms are free and there is extra "drop stuff" space)
Inside we headed for lunch. I think it was the most eye opening point. Everything is sanitized, I'm sure. There was food on the table, on the floor, in the hair, on the clothes and everywhere. Only one kid gets fed. Everyone else can eat for themself.  But yet again, I felt helpless and pretty much like a fool.. How does one communicate with kids, if one is supposed to be in the business of teaching them their OWN language; stimulating them with their OWN words????  I couldn't even ask "Do you want more" ?
Once lunch was over ... it was time to change diapers. Oh joy.
"Can you change her diaper, Jaemie"
"Sure"
I took her to the spot where the diapers are changed. She explained yet again an important documentation of what happened in the particular diaper.  I was impressed. You document that? interesting...
She walked away.
I looked at the child looking up expectantly at me. I looked back at where the woman had walked away.
The last time I changed a diaper I was SEVEN! And this lady leaves me alone like if I've had 10 kids and knows just want to do.
Ok ... Ok .. no problem .. How hard can it be? ... I picked up the kid and started to the process. Between the time when you take off a diaper and put back on another one, I started back agast...
"Oh my Gorsh!" .. I stepped back. I stared horrified at what I saw.... did I cause that? .. this is disastrous..
"His pee pee is broken!"....  I thought to myself that that could not be. Surely he would be crying. I took a closer look. Oh .. no ... its just very very small.
What did I really expect from a 1 year old?
N.B. The last time I changed a diaper I WAS SEVEN!!!.. This is NOT like learning to ride a bike.
I put on the diaper, and saw 5. .. hmm .. 5 .. what did that mean?? ... was that for the front or the back? ..
Some how the diaper didn't look quite right. So I turned it over and started again ... hmm .... still ... is this right?? ... Why does this look so wierd?
"How ya going in there" I heard a voice over my shoulder.
" Ummmmmmm .... which way is up?"
She laughs and tells me the tabs are always at the back. Note to self. When yuh ha yuh baby.. de tab is to de back!
That accomplished, it was sleep time.
That meant a whole new set of "sleeping clothes"  pacifiers, Cuddle Clothes, stuffed animals and all the things that will make them sleep. All very warm clothes.
"We have to get them in very warm clothes and they all sleep in their prams outside" one teacher said.
"Outside" .. I was looking at her with disbelief
"Yes!"  hmm.... interesting
And they all slept outside. The temperature was 9C and they slept outside. They slept outside.... I'm still trying to get over the fact that they all slept outside. Except one.
She finally stopped crying and was loving the attention that she got from 3 teachers. She was brilliant with reading and words and sentences for a 2 years old. Perhaps she is a little Einstein in the making? Who knows ... you never know with kids.
This is the only time that it was quiet. Each teacher had their "paperwork" to do. It was filling out internet updates for parents, filling out books that they do for each child to ensure that their parents have a picture documentation of what their kids were doing each day.
The documentation is amazing. Its very good as well. I'm sure it puts the Parents at rest and makes them feel like they are not missing out on their kids development so much.
It was lunch time for me and it was a time of meeting other teachers...They all seemed very nice, friendly and many of them knew each other from before or were related. It must be such a pleasant place to work.
Things really slowed down from there.
For the rest of the afternoon, I started wondering if this was something that I wanted to do for a long term; if by some miracle, I would turn into this child magnet and be able to communicate fluently, be as comfortable around kids as my mom. Perhaps that would happen one day ...  .. Oh Pleeeease .. who am I fooling?
At the end of the day it was just 2 of us.  We were having fruit with the kids. I think I had had alot for the day already. I was tired and very overwhelmed.
There was no conversation or communication between us 2 teachers. She manned her side of the table with the kids and I manned mine. At one point in time I thought maybe I wasn't there. Silly me. Maybe she's just not good at talking.
She reached over and broke apart some fruit for one of the kids on "my" side.... I could have done that... Just ask me.  Would you like me to leave? Would you like these kiddies all for yourself? Gorsh ... she didn't even look in my direction .... I really might have just been a piece of fruit ... chewed up and spat out but a very hungry boy.
Maybe I should have been more talkative. This was really not making the day have a "happy ending".
Once food was done, we went back in for play.  I finally got some of the kids playing with me and having fun. One by one Parents came along and it was wonderful to see their faces... both the kids and the parents of a reunion.
I hadn't stop looking at my watch waiting for 4 pm to come along ..... since 12:30pm.
It was now 3 pm. I had 3 children playing and I was actually starting to feel that I could do this ... albeit in very small doses.
Suddenly things start getting packed around me by the teacher. She seems a little angry to me. I have no idea what is going on. I assumed that we have to pack things back up .. but I'm not sure where .. how or why... I started helping her ... or at least trying to.
I wish she would just say what she is doing. Maybe she didn't want my help? Maybe I was a thorn in her side. Whatever it was, she was not being very friendly.
By the time I realised that she was taking everything off the floor and clearing it for proper cleaning, she had done it all already - No help asked for there. No problem superwoman.
After that it was watch and follow. No direction. I was left to figure out what was happening.
The last kids left and I still had 20 mins to wait.  At this point, the friendliness had made me start to melt... in my eyes at least.
A cute Half chilian boy came up to me and asked me something. I had no idea what he said... I looked back at an older boy working there for a short while with a helpless look on my face...
The little boy repeated what he said ... There were adults all around .... Why couldn't anyone translate for me what this little cutie said? Maybe that was the last straw for the day for me... I fought back irritation in my eye...
At 4 pm.. I looked for the teacher to tell her that I was leaving. She spoke to me in Norwegian  asking if I was ready.  Yes I was. I was very ready ... you can't imagine how ready I was to leave.
As I packed up my things I cleared everything that I had planned to leave away, convinced that I would not spend another day in this place. This was not for me .... not all these kids and certainly not these feeling of incompetence and inability or unfriendliness.
I wish that I could say that it was a funny, exciting, thrilling or even just exhausting day. The whole day was one that I don't think I would ever forget... althought I would really like to..
I got into the car and was so overwhelmed with all the feelings that I had... I started to cry.
I cried all the way home and then cried some more at home.
I couldn't believe how horrid it seemed to me.  It was just like a horrid first day of school.

But that doesn't mean that I won't give it another try.  If its one thing that I must be here ... its step out of my comfort zone .... and I must learn this language ... or... By George... I won't make it here....
Besides .... Whey yuh say?    its better I break someone else's kid ... and not mine .... right?

50 hours of Social Studies .... with an attitude..

Yes ...yes .. yes .. I know .. its been AGES!! ... I've missed you too .... :)
Not much is happening in my neck of the woods ... but things are picking up. 
Last 2 weeks in my Norwegian class, my teacher speaks to a Canadian Guy and I who are both spouses (why couldn't we say spices???? Do you think that would make marraiges last longer??? Food for thought) and tell us that we have to do 50 hours of Norwegian social studies.
Mind you ... this is going to be a social studies class.... and there is a book AND the internet on all the chapters. So pray tell this lil chile... WHY must these people tek up meh Saturday? ... its just not fair!! Not Fair I tell thee!.  So grudgingly I wake up at some horrific hour on a Saturday to trapse my little frozen bum to the same place I take it for Language ... To tell you how early it was ... I usually look at my neighbour's light in the morning while I'm doing something at the kitchen sink ..... there was no one blinking back at me ... who wakes up at 6:45am for a 8:30 am Class on a Satuday????? .... oh By the way! .. telling time in Norwegian is a language in itself! ... I heard that Denmark has a hard counting system .... well Klokka  here is pretty horrid too....
At the class there are some recognisable faces from my language class and this is not a teacher student class the teacher tells us... its an interactive one.  This is great. I leave my warm home for an interactive class with an interactive Teacher instead of interacting with the same thing on the computer ... .geez . Computers are so much more sensitive of our time.  humpf!
There is nothing exciting about this class .... save one thing.
An American Man.  This blog is dedicated solely to my friend ... who seems to .... well... here's the story from my brown eyes.
He walks into the class after being on the phone "Found it!" he says loudly ... as Americans do.  He slumps down annoyed into a chair ...
The teacher asks kindly to come over to the other side so that we can all see each other ... there were after all .. only 2 of us sitting on the opposite side.  He moves to the chair next to him facing the teacher in the "U" formation of chairs. 
The teacher explains and forms our deepest darkest thoughts .. why they would bring us out on a Saturday .... it turned out to be better for 7 Saturdays than many evenings... I could dig that. It will be done soon too! Thank God!.
Anyhoos ... the end all and be all the story is we need to do this in order to complete the 'program' for immigration ..if we don't want to be kicked out .... put it bluntly.
"What if you don't care?"
Ah yes .... my American  comrade....  of course an American would say this ... I am not against US .. just let me make it clear ... but honestly ... the people there have a pride and glory thing that while admirable is sooo ohhhh sooo annoying!.
He rephrased his question to say " What if it didn't matter to you?" ...
Poor teacher .. she did such a good job of being nice ... but I can just see a Trini teacher telling de man..
"Well den bro .. doh waste my time, your time and de res ah people in de class time... if yuh eh tink it worth coming to .... ride out broddah!"
But that's not what she said.  I think from then on he just became an annoyance to me ... and the more he was there .. the more he annoyed me.
Why is it that he annoyed me so much?
Cuz he was a black man.  Why is it HE.. of all the people.. had to have no behaviour... steups... geez and ages!
Now I LOVE to delve into people's minds, cultures, past etc to figure out what makes them behave the way they do.  Caribbean Black men and American Black men do not behave the same way in their Country (Very important fact there).
The guy started claiming that Norwegians were discrimiating against language etc  and that he couldn't get a job.  I understand and sympathize.  I can imagine what it must be like for a guy to be home stuck without a job while his wife is the breadwinner for the whole family.  It must dig into the ego... but this guy seemed to bring his grips of American back to Norway. He tapped the table with his pen, Moved and shifted in his seat a million times.  Honestly .. it took everything I had in me to not get up calmly and walk accross to him with my book and wakk him accross his head telling him" Chile yuh better get some manners here and behave yuhself or I'll throw you out dis class eh."
Between 3 of us I realised that I was not the only person who was having stories to tell about the Norwegian system. And truth be told I think the teacher was seriously embarrassed about the stories that we could tell her. She said that we should write a book ... Of course I told I already had a blog! .... :)
Poor guy ... I kept thinking to myself that he must be going through a really tough time here ... he couldn't even get a job as a cleaner or a bus driver.
I would like to tell him what his down fall is.... his attitude.  Can you imagine someone coming up to you and telling you that you can't get a job because you don't speak the language? and then that person raising his voice and getting pretty scary about it in front of you... I imagined him like that ...yes that is judging ... but don't tell me you have not looked at someone's behaviour for 7 hrs (as I did) and decide that he was his own worst enemy.
At lunch time, I decided to try to be nice ... since I was another red person in the room :) ...
Trying to be calm, understanding etc, I asked him ... "So ... Why ARE you here then?" ..
"Same reason as you are" He retorted, never looking up from the Norwegian book he was reading.
I looked at him for a few more seconds .... then looked away with a tiny sigh to the book that I was pretending to thumb through.... but there was one thing and one thing only that I wanted to say to him ....
"And THAT Ladies and Gentlemen .... is why YOU can't get a job .... yuh Addiduuuuude.... it stinks!!!..." in typical Monique the Comedian Fashion. But instead I calmly got up, went meh way with a little smile...


A few says after the class, I saw him in the grocery.  He was at the cashier ...about to leave. I was walking in.  I looked at him and smiled and waved, then continued on my way.
Suddenly he was behind me, as I was looking at the lettuce, with his hand outstretched to shake mine.
"I'm sorry about the other day. I was having a bad day"

I was totally confused... ... what did he do to me??? I just kept staring at him bewildered.
"I was very short when you asked me a question" ..
"OH THAT!" ..  don't worry about it" I replied and shook his hand.... albeit unwillingly, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking that I hoped he got up in class and made that same apology.
It was not just me that was subjected to his "bad day" ... it was everyone.
I was not in class the next Saturday so I can't say if there was a change ... but I'll see this Saturday if there is any change, and maybe ... just maybe... I might drum up enough courage to tell him to put his ego aside and see if he has better luck getting a job...

Whey yuh Say? ... Addidude people ..... addidude!!