A Little Lamb’s look on life (Isaiah 40:11)

Here in Canada these days it is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  I can’t get over it!  Some of the trees are flaming red, others my favourite oranges and still others lemon yellow.  It’s like some great artist went around and painted all the trees in his favourite colours   So on that note I asked Elin some Sundays ago if she would go out with me to take pictures of it all before all the leaves fall off.  Here are the results…

How do we feel about being in Canada this fall??? Woooohoooo!!!!!

Notice the singular leaf falling by Elin’s head

See the tree, be the tree =)

Notice the wonderfully Canadian children playing hockey in the background!

Stopping at superstore on the way home to buy a pumpkin!  Realizing that I was already orange I figured that all I needed to do to fit in was make myself a little rounder.  I’m not sure if it worked…

We have spent many unhappy minutes, yes even hours, waiting for buses that never come.  Here are our sentiments on that!

Back at the house we prepare ourselves to attack the pumpkin.

Peeaka-boo!  Wonder what I’ll find in there?

Mmmmm….

Mr Pumpkin taking shape.

Tadah!

And there you go, me, and the pumpkin, and a little glimpse of our neighbourhood!  (I’m standing on our little porch).

And HERE BELOW is Sami!  Our Arabic speaking LRP (Language Resource Person,) that we teach ourselves Arabic from!  Yeah, that’s right.  We teach ourselves.  He shows up to our sessions and we follow the lesson plan that we have prepared and try to teach ourselves this crazy, and incredibly cool language!  This is part of my LACA (Language and Culture Acquisition) course lesson.  We are doing an activity that I have set up.  (In yellow is Krista, in the hat Emily, and between the two people left unexplained you can probably guess which is Sami and which is me   If you need any extra help remember that my favourite colour is orange )

Well thats all for this time!  Hope your computers didn’t crash trying to upload all the pictures! =)

So the summer ended, with a big pig and a big party, and a big sigh of “why do all good things have to come to an end!?”

But although we so far have had even less time, we’ve still managed to have a lot of fun =)

Jeremy had his birthday and we surprised him by making Czech food!  (And don’t even ASK me to pronounce it ! )  It was a type of potatoe pancakes something…  Karen made a cake in two pans.  With sprinkles spelling JERE – MY.  We soon found out that it worked to switch the pans around to make “MY – JERE”  Awwww =)

Here’s the spread!  The unpronounceable pancakes, chicken, sauerkraut, spinach dip, chips, fruit salad, carrots and some other funny salad.  Mmm =)

Emily doesn’t have an apron, and unpronounceable pancakes are apparently always fried in lots and lots of oil…  Which splatters…  So we had to do what every respectable wanna-be future missionary would do.  Improvise =)  Voila la creation de Krista.  We like to call it, “l’apron stiff”!  We haven’t patented it yet, so we’re trusting that only honest people who won’t try to steal our idea ever read this blog

The creator and her willing model.

Another weekend we went for a visit to a waterfall place!

B-E-A-U-tiful British Columbia!

Krista was among those of us courageous enough to brave the cold water!

About 15 minutes after yours truly had already made her grand entrance

This is me being a fountain.  (Thanks Jeremy for the support!  Balancing on one leg on that slippery rock is harder than you’d think!)

This next picture was taken at Emily’s place at her house-warming welcome dinner.  Delicious Chinese food prepared by her awesome mother!  We even got to try “dragons eyes” a fruit that tastes almost like litchi!

These two girls in the picture below are my life-savers here in Canada: Krista and Emily.  WHAT would I do without you guys!  We wrote this poem together in commemoration of the summer session and how we were missing everybody:

…We cry ouselves to sleep,

but in class we cannot weep,

(that would disrupt our learning,

and for learning we are yearning!)

This is Emily taking a well-deserved rest that we don’t have time for

OK!  See you on the flip-side!

Ai wish ai kud rait this hol komentry in fonetiks. Tha fonetik ælfabet iso kul! But sins ai kænt, ai kæn ræthr bathr ju with an atemt æt raiting inglish æz it saunds with letrs ju wil undrstænd =) Oukai!

Hiur ar sum mor pikchers frum mai samur.  Injoi!

(If you didn’t understand any of that, the short version is, I love writing with the phonetic alphabet, enjoy the pictures! =) )

SARDINES!

The girls all huddeled together to hide, playing sardines.  I don’t know what the Norwegian name for the game is, but it involves hiding.  One person hides and everybody else looks for them.  As soon as you find the hider you have to hide with them!  Last person to find the group of “sardines” all hiding together loses that round

We got to use the school building to play!  Turned off all the lights and rediscovered the joys of hide and seek in the dark.

Isn’t it funny how the harder you try to stop giggeling, the worse it gets!

A nice icy after all the hard hiding work!

Trying to tie Will’s shoes to the chair…  With little success…

This is from one late night of studying, before the phonetics final.  Leah and Emily sneeking around…

But I spotted them!

This is from the top of “The grouse grind,” Canadas version of a hard climb (with stairs and railing and everything )

I am trying to imagine what type of bear I would be if I were in captivity.  I think I would switch between hiding from the tourists (haha, you can’t see me, and I’m not coming ouuuut ) and posing for pictures, (this is me chewing on a log, and me growling, me cocking my head…)  Grrr…

Another thing on the top of the mountain was a skilift.  In the summer you could ride it up and down just for the veiw!

And the logging show…

Elin and the birds of prey man with his bald eagle.

Our spunky sporty and sweet landlady Grace =)

One frisbee afternoon we girls decided to toughen up!

Krista included!

I can ride up the elevator!  (Unfortunately all I have a picture of is me getting on…)

Josh is trying to teach e how to be cool…  I don’t know if it’s working…

Leah and Dave posing.  Rachael pouting.

A happy gang =)

Can you tell how effective my leaf umbrella is?

Falling off the edge of Vancouver!

Which way to the beach?  (A perfect opportunity to show off our muscles )

Tadaaaah!  (I’m as tall as Will!)

And as short as Emily!

Hug a tree this is BC (British Columbia, Canada)

Late nights of working on a Kurdish grammar sketch can do funny things to a person…

Emily, exhibiting the sentiments of the class on our Grammar book, the exciting, “Exploring Language Structure”

Moustache day!  (Leah felt a little left out )

STUDENT PARTY!!!  I’ll let the pictures do the explaining =)

And for those who are interested in video clips from this memorable night, here are some of them.  I’m sure they’re alot more fun for me to watch, there are alot of inside jokes, but still, thought I’d put the links out

1)  This was my favourite one to act in!  I was acting with Jeremy (nr.1) and Josh (nr. 2) and as you can probably see we had music and pictures from each country in the background.  Krista (the director) is normally pretty quiet and shy but boy can she act when she wants to!  It was SO FUN!  If I ever do it again I will need to seriously work on my accents!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1iJzGi2NpPQ

2)  In this one I was just the narrator (I am the first one to speak, sitting off to the right where you really can’t see anything) and most of the jokes are so “inside” that I’m afraid it won’t be half as funny for you…  But anyway, I thought you’d like to see =)  We had A LOT of fun at least!  It’s basically making brutal fun of our grammatical analysis teacher Thomas Payne.  He has a huge tendency to go off on digressions in class answering detailed off the topic questions, telling long stories about everything and nothing.  Everything makes sense to us because he is basically copycatting bits and pieces of stuff he has really said in class.  If you can hold out for the whole “lecture,” I talk more near the end.  Do I have a different accent??  Or is it just that I’m not used to hearing my own voice??  (Just curious ;P)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5vHwh6Dk8E

3)  This next one was my second favourite one to act in.  Its a pity that they didn’t get the whole thing with…  It started with a film that they had taken ahead of time with the “Indiana” spoof-guy running around looking for a “lost sound,” (Like a sound that they make in languages.)  Basically the guy is looking for a “biglutial trill,” … a stinker noise.  You hear it once if you listen through the laughter, (its a fartmachine thing.)  I am spoofing a Nazi.  Speaking nonsense German, kissing up to the boss, and limping around due to an old war injury, yeah it was extremely fun to act
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5o73I_0a8

4)  This one was how we opened the show, like a Friday night live theme, I put it in cause I have 3 seconds of fame
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fJJkEbrLNiA

5)  This one was like an informercial, another one we had LOADS of fun making.  The point is how idiotic it is to learn languages by yourself   Leah, the main girl is hilarious.  They told me to make my “puppy in distress” sound and then smile a huge cheezy smile afterwards, sooo I did.  Then again at the end to act very very cheezy.  And the texting they put on mine was their idea too, they only showed me afterwards and I got a sidestitch laughing when I saw it.  The indonesian and the finnish lady were part of our phonetics class thing.  We had to mimic what they said.  They were our inspiration=)  : (NOTE: LACA stands for Language Acquisition something or other…  A class I’ll be taking this fall…)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=69_jn8mrzoc

6)  This one was hilarious!  I wasn’t in it, but it is a “translation” of a missionary giving a sermon…  Fantastic…  Its in two parts.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=inZWkFzUY4Q
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PNAf3gZCg_M&feature=user

7) This one was from the teachers show, I guess its most funny if you speak french, I really appreciated it
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2qD1vtQ1IQI&feature=user

8)  This one is also from the teachers show, also very funny if you have time =)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T7X5ROphoRU&feature=related

CANIL LOUNGE

What do you do when you get tired of linguistics?  Well, there are actually more options than you would first think!

This is me and Elin trying to teach a group, “Hurra for deg,” the Norwegian birthday song =)

Josh trying to crush me beneath his feet…  And not succeeding!  It’ll take more than that to crush a tough cookie like me!

Emily is full

“I like sensitive guys who cry when I kick them!”

(Notice the not so innocent looking bruises on the arm…)

DAVE’S BIRTHDAY!

For Dave’s birthday all the girls dressed up as ninjas and run down the boys dorms hallway with pots and pans to inform them all, in our own special way, that there was a pancake breakfast ready for them =)

Me and Elin, (can you tell?)

Find the Rachael!

In the girls dorm preparing for attack!

And he finally opens the door…

Special pancakes for Dave!

Hug attack!

Oh yeah!

And the little ones join in

OTHER:

Getting from one place to another under camouflage.

Israeli dancing!

A weekend dinner with part of the dorm-gang.

Our grammar teacher gives the following example, “John and Mary self-burned.”

Our last night all together

Saying goodbye, drama queen Rachael at your service, (I finally found my match in the drama world!  I think Jeremy looks, if possible, even more authentic than me!…)

Well, if you have made it all the way to the bottom congratulations!  This is a tiny fraction of my summer.  It has been great =)  Hope you had some fun browsing through them too!

Wow! Long time no write! And long time no see!!! (Yes anyone who is reading this is in the “long time no see” category! Well I wish first of all that I didn’t have to just bring the pictures to you, but that I could just bring you to the moments of the pictures! This summer so far has been AMAZING! It has most definitely been very intense, very academically challenging, very packed (resulting in very little sleep, very little blog writing and in general very little of everything other than what we have very much of!!), and very very fun I love the environment here. It is inspiring and encouraging to be around so many people who share the same, (yes they are a little weird) interests as I do. I think I’m going to go into some type of withdrawal when I leave this place and nobody understands my weird linguistics jokes anymore, nobody knows what a bilabial click is, and its considered impressive to know 3 languages completely fluently. Oh well I’ll just have to soak it in and enjoy it while I can, (an hope that I can readjust to the real world again when that time comes!)

Well, with my well trained linguistic ear I pretty soon picked up that the usage of the word “random,” is pretty much broader here than what I’m used to. They use it for “weird, strange, something that makes no sense, etc.” So with that I will show you some “few” pictures in random order

An “obento” at a japanese restaurant after church. Mmmm.

In an old stage wagon in town. This is me and Emily (she lives in the room across mine in the dorm and shes in my classes.)

Same stagewagon, this is Katie and Derek, also in the dorm and in my classes.

This is outside of Cloverdale Baptist church one Sunday. Me, Leah, Derek and Will =)

I love being the center of attention Here we have will and Leah framing me!

Posing on my rock

I think we were making YMCA

Here we were wandering around town and it was so hot that we went for a wade. It dropped off pretty quickly but this time I had no cellphone in my pocket to ruin…

This is the type of thing I’m studying! I loved phonetics. It was my favourite subject so far Both the teacher and the subject!

Leah didn’t agree

More phonetics…

I call this “my stall.” Its in the girls dorm bathroom. I hang up phonetic charts and maps and stuff

Practice for worship team. Its amazing playing with the violinists. Katie especially is amazing. AN inspiration that I’m sure would lead to more practice from my side if I had the time!

Every Saturday we have pancake brunch. With pancakes, bacon, berries, cream, sausages and such. Mmmmm

Katie, myself and Emily in the dorm Lounge on Friday night film watching.

Jeremy, Derek, Elin, me and Emily, looking forward to “The Princess Bride,” movie.

*erhemmm* This is me standing on Josh’s shoulders, who is getting up on a chair, about to put his hands up against the wall for me to stand on to get through the window! Will is ready to help me if I need it (which I didn’t ) This was to get into our dorm living room. For fun. Later we were happy for the practice when Elin locked the room and left for the day (with my keys inside.) Worked like a charm then too

This is on the way to a rope swing that went over a river out in a park! We swung and made tarzan noises before splashing out into the water, and in general had a great and well deserved break for studying

Worship in chapel (I’m in yellow, from the left otherwise, Henriette from the Netherlands (but living and working in China,) Jeremy from Canada (but with a heart for the Czech republic), Darryn Ma from China, (but working in Canada,) Elin (from Norway… and well… Norwegian ) And Katie from the States hoping to go to Thailand to translate!

Leah, Will, me and Emily up in the common room. (Here there are amazing couches EVERYWHERE!) Sink down deep and fall asleep they are so comfy type couches!)

ULTIMATE frisbeeeeee!!! My newest favourite sport!

I’m the happy one in yellow! Can you see me itching to start running around?

Jeremy and Dave from the dorm. All the guys shaved off their beards/moustaches one evening and they have been growing them ever since. They are waiting til they all have a good length to them to have a “moustache day,” when they all shave them down to moustaches. Jeremy’s comment, “NOBODY looks good in moustaches. This’ll be hilarious.” Some sort of male bonding thing I think Us girls debated growing out our leg hair but pretty quickly ruled that out as been just plain wacky (and random )

On an outing to a lake and mountain area! This is Josh being pretty. I think one of the kids gave him that flower…

Audrey, myself, Karen and Krista were all staring at Josh to make him feel self-conscious. It didn’t work, (I guess hes used to it )

Impromptu worship service in the woods.

Me, Suddarsen, Krista and Kathleen recouperating after a LONG hike!

John, a missionary kid from, Israel, Germany and the Solomon Islands. Does it show?

Krista LOVED the nature, she just kept stopping to stare with her jaw almost dropping off. Very cute =)

Henriette =) Great girl!

Marilyn, a tiny little Brit who has lived in Bergen for the past I don’t know how many years!

Emily has a car, and we take advantage of that fact OFTEN! For Starbucks runs, trips, shopping and church.

Road trip back from the lake outing. Dave was tired. I was scared!

Emily, Leah and Anja sitting and subbing for frisbee.

Some of our phonetics class gathering for a picture after the final exam.

Anja, our Russian friend (who grew up in Canada.)

Lea and I are going to watch fireworks! (On Canada day)

Leah and I, middle East style!

Leah and I being cool. Almost as cool as the guys who stood up in front of where we were sitting right when the grand finale of the fireworks started…

Elin and I came prepared. Living in Stavanger can do that for you

Emily and I!

On Canad day we went into town for the festivities! I asked these mountaneers, in Norwegian, if we could take a picture. Very surprised and a little bewildered they acquiesced, to our great delight:)

Oh CanadAAAAAAAA!!!

Aren’t they happy to be Canadians? Wait a minute… Leah isn’t… I guess shes just happy!

Krista and Kathleen, two girls who are beautiful inside and out =)

Me, where I belong =)

Will joins me in my natural habitat.

I started this a couple of weeks ago, and there are so many more pictures since then, but this is a tiny sample.

Wish you were here!

Rachael =)

I have “great” plans of publishing pictures from different gatherings here at our dear Madlatuå, but so far my time has been amazingly full without the extra time used on blogging… But nevertheless! Here are some pictures from Easter egg decorating a while before Easter

Leif-Arne and Lars Kristian working hard on blowing out the eggs!

Erik and I washing and blowing the empty eggs.

Lina and I decorating eggs.

After decorating the eggs with crayons we held them under in hot water with food colouring and vinegar to dye them. (Under we have some of my japanese “practice sheets” Waste not want not! )

Kenneth is… sitting. Ingvild is knitting!

Lars Kristian chilling.

Paul-Arild tunes the gitar with the gitar tuner on Ingeborg-Marie’s keychain!

Our masterpeices on display

Erik challenged us to show off our yoga/lotus positions. Leif-Arne gave up without trying, and hes the one behind the camera We think we’re pretty good

Greeting: Morning yah! How da body? Possible responses: Thank God! /or: No fault on God…

Translation from Liberian English:

Greeting: Good morning! (used throughout the day) How are you? Possible responses: I’m fine thank you! /or: Could be better…

I thought it would be appropriate to start this new blog with some Liberian English, since that was where I was born, and where my whole story begins.

Now let’s take a HUGE jump from there, (through Norway, the states, back to Liberia, back to Norway and the states, on to Botswana (where we stayed for 10 years), to Norway, Mali and back to Norway again), down to western Norway, the rainy city of Stavanger! In this new city I have found many things! A new school, a new place to live, a new church and lots of new friends!

And after this fun-filled new start I thought that it would be fun to have a fun sight where I can put in some fun pictures of all the fun things I’ve been up to in this fun new student existence! Who knows? Maybe I’ll even publish some of all the fun(ky) crazy thoughts I have! I might even consider having fun expanding my vocabulary and making this fun to read! We’ll see =) For now I’d like to welcome you to my sight and say that I hope that whoever you are, that we can do something fun together soon so I can put a fun picture of you in here to!

Signing off!

Rachael

P.S. Just to clarify a little, the church history was NOT “fun.”