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!!