we're back, hallelujah. a week with a fin, german, an indian, an american, and 4 norwegians proved to be quite interesting.

my life in pictures

me and me friend janne

skien under snow

the new roomate in our apartment. he's small (but growing), dark, a bit hairy. his name is "mold."

jorun, kati, and iida in finland

ekki ("super ekki"), karen amalie, and anne randi at the superhero lovefeast. the theme was just an excuse for the guys to wear their underwear outside their pants.

the weeked is here (eller "helgen er her" paa norsk). we've thrown a birthday party (40so people came, which is a feat for our small apartment), teaching has been good and quite heavy, lots of meetings, a lovefeast, little sleep, and last night my students came over for a late dinner. i even cooked! meat and vegetarian lasagne, french bread, chocolate chip cookies. to top it off we had swedish cider.
i leave tuesday for sogndal for a week. i'm looking forward to go to the west coast, but am a bit tired of traveling. tonight though, a few of us are going to go see "Walk the Line."

a new calling

i think God may be calling me to work in oslo... starbucks is coming! woohoo!

much ado about nothing

just have to say... you must look at my friend sara's blog. the link is on the side. hilarious.
quite busy up until now here in vaasa. i wish i had pictures to post... i'm sure you are are barely even skimming this page because you're really not that interested in what i have to say. you just come for the pictures. that's okay - don't blame you. there will be pictures next week.
a picture i wish i did have was of me cross-country skiing for the first time in the dark and on ice. we had dinner with a very athletic family and the mother offered to take the girls skiing. mind you, skandinavians are pretty much born on skis... and i'm not. i was kicked out of ski class at the age of 4 because i wouldn't stop crying. but i did my best, fell twice, and the girls got a good laugh. i looked retarded. seriously though, the woman we were with said she had never skied in worse weather. it was fun though and worth trying again.
today one of the students walked in on me going to the bathroom. he couldn't look at me in the eyes for hours. i made it even worse when he was nervously sitting in front of a youth gathering, getting ready to speak, and i told him just to imagine everyone on their underwear.
random fact: in finland it is common to eat tuna on pizza.
and last... we were at an old ladies' mission gathering/excuse to get together, drink coffee and cake today. it made me miss my grandmother so much i almost cried. i have really enjoyed finland. in many ways i've felt much more comfortable here than i do in norway. the culture is more similar to america than norway is. there are street lights at intersections, few round abouts, big grocery stores that carry more than one brand, more restaurants. it's nice to enjoy the small things that make life "normal."

sauna land

in finland - land of saunas, dark bread, and dry humor. as for the saunas, i have yet to try one, but will be doing so in the next few days. the girls are staying at kati's apartment and of course the apartment has a sauna, but there is just something about getting naked in a steamy room with my students that just isn´t appealing. as for the dark bread, after being used to cheap, almost white bread, this rye bread is dee-licious. in the words of einar, "this bread is so black it´s almost a sin." as for the dry humor... i believe i possessed a large quantity of it before i came, but it is even more dry now. and last little fact about finland: did you know finland is the second fattest country behind the u.s.?
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cool story #1
we were at a camp about 40 kilometers away from vaasa this weekend, just to hang out with students and do a bit of teaching. the first day there i met iida, a finnish girl who was an exchange students in oskaloosa, kansas - just a couple hours away from where i grew up! it was like meeting an old friend. we talked about small town america and the funny things americans do. she is considering being a dts student next year in skien, which would be a huge blessing for me! she lives is vaasa, so i hope to go to a cafe with her this week.

cool story #2
during holy communion at the camp, i sat in the back and talked with a 16 yr. old guy named sami. we began talking when his father called him, drunk. i asked him why he came to the camp and he said he didn´t really know, but his friends were going and he was wondering if God was actually real. he changed the subject for awhile, talking small talk, and then i asked if it was hard to believe in God. immediately he answered, "yes." when i asked why, he said "most of these people here call themselves christian, but every monday they come to school bragging about how wasted they got over the weekend." again, the conversation changed, but a few moments later he asked me if i thought it was difficult to believe in God. i thought about it and said no, but if i tried to think about God with my head it doesn´t make any sense because i can´t prove much. if i think about it with my heart though, it makes perfect sense. he thought about it for a bit and replied, "huh. believing in God is something that a person has to do with their heart and if i believe, i don´t lose anything." we left the conversation at that and went to take commmunion, but wow. what an exciting thing.
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all is going well. quite tired still from the journey (32 hours by van and ferry) and just being around people all the time. but it´s worth it for the dark bread (everything else is an added bonus).