B & B

Breakfast & Bird-ringing... there's another norwegian first for me today!! well, maybe its not so norwegian but i personally never did it in canada! =)


andrew (in the picture) & trygve know so much about birds its crazy but kinda cool! they'd just see a bird and be like "siscan, male, 2 years old"



a little guy just chilling out on my hand... i'nt he cute?

kids camp!

and this weekend i went with Trygve, who's in my Bible study, to help at a kids camp by a Christian missions organization. supposedly i was going to "help" lead, but im not sure what i actually was able to do with my (non)norwegian skills! the kids were 8 to 10, and haven't learned english in school yet

luckily kids are gracious that way and they welcomed me anyways even though 99% of the time i didn't know what they were saying to me! most of my weekend was just smile, thumbs up and "Ja!" (yes!) but i had a good time with the kids anyways! sledding, snowman building, crafts, snowball capture-the-flag... and me being a dance instructer in a skit with the kids... somehow got communicated well enough =). but i did realize that while a smile go a long way, it does only go so far as far as ministry goes... i was feeling pretty useless and wishing i could talk and understand what was going on during the Bible studies with the kids, but it really motivated me more to learn norwegian, even if im only here for 5 months! =)

im thinking of taking a distance ed course from UBC over the summer, called "Education of Immigrant students", how to alter teaching to be relevant and understandable to different cultures. i think it could be interesting... maybe for my final project i could do something about teaching Sunday School =). we'll see, it depends where ill be this summer and if ill have internet access! something to think about though... i still have no idea what i will do after i finish my degree. i love what im studying, and (unlike many development studies students) im somehow still hopeful that theres something positive that can be done in the world. maybe im still just naive but i think its true. where i fit into that, i really don't know yet... i dont think i really enjoy research so much... i really enjoy economics but i dont like the idea of theorizing and analyzing behind a desk... i liked working at HOPE International last semester... projects and fundraising but maybe not as a long-term thing. but i like people and i do really enjoy working with kids. hmmm... well, we'll see!

anyways, a couple pictures from the weekend!



"God is good"... with juggling blocks! Tryve's very creative with his talks with the kids





costume night! =)







37 kids sledding down one skinny & FAST track between the trees... i guess this is just how they do it here, but im actually super amazed there were no accidents! (i went once with one of the kids, who told Trygve after that i go too slow!)





some beautiful works of art by the kids! =)

a horse








some cats






and a snow troll!





ahh, what can i say - these norwegian kids are no strangers to the snow!

okay, its bedtime for me now... god natt (good nite)! =)
xox!
rainbow =)

ps. totally unrelated, but exciting news ive just heard! my friend jen that i went to tanzania with & one of my roommates both just got engaged, and my group leader from my tanzania project and his wife are adopting a baby from ethiopia!!! =D

things that make me happy here

in no particular order
- great friends & people that care about the world
- laerer norske (learning norwegian!)... ive been learning out of a book, but im taking a course for norwegian that starts tomorrow! =)
- leaving for class 10 minutes before it starts and getting there 5 minutes early
- my new toaster that lets me have lunch in 2 minutes (simple joys of life without a microwave)
- wool underwear in the cold =)
- my monday nite Bible study group
- 2 snowboard trips planned for march
- playing sports (soccer, floor hockey, volleyball, spinning, yoga, even rockclimbing!) every day... and always with fun people!
- baking! and sharing it! and my new (old) electric beater from the Red Cross that means it'll take me 5 minutes instead of an hour to cream butter and sugar for cookies with a fork!

and theres much more, but im getting sleepy so more to come next time! yeeks, sorry for the lack of posts recently... its been a little busy (like always!) but busy with lots of great stuff, so no complaints at all.. keeping myself occupied, with lots of great people here... here's just a couple quick picture highlights!

debbie, justin (from canada! (guelph)) & i

"skied to ski" last week, the next town over from As... about 5 min by train / 2 hours by skis when you're not very good!





we came back with groceries...! which worked well...





most of the time! =)




and here's me playing hairdresser when laurent needed a haircut







not so bad, hey? (head light on for extra professional haircutting!) im going to cut Thomas (one of debbie's other roommates) hair sometime too, maybe i should start a business! =)







nighttime visit to the "Leonardo Davinci Bridge"... supposedly famous? or very pretty anyways! (ill have to get a better picture from someone who had a tripod!)




ooh and not to forget... sunday nite swing dancing!! =)

ok, more to come!
xox!
rainbow =)

happy valentines! =)

i've been meaning to post some more of my pictures, but it's been a teensy bit busy these last few days.. sorry! they will be coming soon though! but for now... happy valentines day!!



(i couldnt find icing sugar OR food colouring here... or i wouldve iced them pink and pretty!)

my international name!! =)

with so many new friends from all over the world, i started collecting my name in different languages... here's what i've got so far!!

English: Rainbow =)
Norwegian: Regnbue
French: Arc en ciel
Italian: Arcobaleno
Spanish: Arco iris
Swahili (Tanzania, Kenya): Upinde wa mvua
Runyankole (West Uganda): Muhangazima
Amharic (Ethiopia): Keste demena
Mtawaleza (Malawi): Chichewa
Somalian: Qanso-Roob
Eritean: Kinat Adejmariam
Nepali: Indreni
Hindi: Indradhanush
Greek: Oupàrio Tóxo
Russian: Pagyra (or something like that... the letters dont actually exist in the English alphabet!)
Indonesian: Pelangi
Sri Lankan: Vanavil

like i said before, living with so many international students from all over the place is really quite entertaining, because we're so strange to each other all the time! here's a typical conversation over dinner:

Trygve (Norwegian): (about his farm at home)... we have sheep, about 24 of them
Everyone: awwww...
Trygve: and then we eat them in the autumn
Everyone: (shocked)
Chiara, who also is from a farm in Italy: what? that's waht you do!! i would like to have sheep... and a donkey too
Someone else: so you can eat that too? (everyone laughs)
Chiara: yes! of course!
Someone on behalf of everyone: you eat DONKEYS??
Chiara: YES!! they are normal meat!
Everyone: (even more shocked than before)
Chiara, to Trygve: WHAT?!! you guys eat REINDEER! i mean, POOR SANTA!!

hehe, like i said, we're always entertaining to each other here. im working on my norwegian here too... ive started piecing together my own sentences and trying to talk to my roommates in Norwegian (Hema and Shirin are from Nepal and Iran but both have been here for 5-6 years). and Chiara's husband (from italy) came to visit this weekend and doesnt speak English, but knows some French so we've been speaking in French all weekend too. i like languages! debbie (from here) and i are thinking of living in France this summer, maybe in Bordeaux and working in a vineyard or a cafe or something, and taking some more French classes. i had the idea last week of going back to France after Uganda this summer and applying to work as a teaching assistant in a primary school for 6 months, but i think i've decided against it, and ill go back home and finish my degree and see where God wants me after that.

anyways, ha det bras (have a good day, roughly translated)! more pictures to come soon (waiting for a friend to send me some pictures from yesterday)!

love you all!
rainbow =)

i *heart* school

i really do! here at least! i loved the Gender and Development class i just took in the spring... here's my paper by the way, about mainstreaming gender into Jeffrey Sach's outline of ending global poverty by 2025.

www.sfu.ca/~dplim/GenderPaper.pdf (thx to debbie from home for uploading it!!)

and now im actually in a bit of a dilemma about what to do this semester, i have TOO MANY good classes to take!! what a problem, eh?? =) im still deciding but i think my plan now is to take

Conflict and Development - about causes & links between conflict & dev, and peace buiding & conflict resolution/management... course outline looks awesome, and theres actually 4 days of Conflict Management Workshops in the semester... i wanted to go to a similar workshop on peacebuilding in Vancouver last december, and one day was $75! and i just watched "Blood Diamond" with my roommates last night, all this conflict stuff is so huge

Development Classics - past & present approaches/theories of development... including the discourse about depoliticizing development that my friend jess from Queens was studying last semester and i was so jealous of understanding! =)

Development Aid and Politics - this one starts in March, so not sure exactly yet

and sit in on Research Methods, Development Microeconomics (for rural farm households) and Political Ecology without taking them for credit, but some of the class times overlap which is too bad. and also maybe once the semester gets busy i wont be able to keep up with them all, but wow.. i almost wish i was doing my degree here! but i think i have enough half-finished degrees already, i need to finish one of them first! haha.. yah.. the classes are great, theres tons of reading but they're super interesting, and everyone actually really cares about development and people and social issues and the environment. even if you didnt before i think it'd be contagious! =) some of our social events throughout the week are even development related... if you have the chance, watch this video some of us watched together a couple nights ago... a crazy and true story about what British/US military did in secret to the people of Diego Garcia.

okay, im sure that my school posts aren't so exciting for most of you but they really are for me! =) and it'll give you a bit more of an idea of what im up to here. im going skiing again tomorrow near oslo, so ill post some more fun norwegian pictures again! (and hopefully ill have more luck this time than last weekend!)

talk to you guys again soon! thanks also for all your emails... if i haven't gotten back to you yet, im super sorry and i *am* going to very soon!! love you all!!
rainbow =)

this is why moms worry... =)

im sure you are curious to know how our ski weekend went.... i'd say it was... "eventful"! our plan originally was to go to Oslo, where we would get our memberships to a chain of ski huts in Norway owned by one company, take a bus to a town called Losby about 6km from the 1st hut we booked for Friday night, skiing about 15 km on Saturday to another hut we booked to spend the night and finally skiing a little bit to take the bus/train back home on Sunday.

long story short, we never made it to Losby... or any of the huts for that matter!!! we trained to Oslo, got our memberships and picked up the key with relatively few mishaps



(except running for the 1:36pm train, and only me and Debbie making it on, so Audrey and Laurent had to catch the 2:36!)... and after sorting out our memberships and picking up our key to the huts, we hopped on a bus that would get us to Losby. when we asked the driver to tell us when we got to Losby, he told us no buses go right to Losby but he would get us close and we'd have to walk maybe 20-30 min. so we got off the bus, probably about 4:30 or 5pm at this point, and pulled out our map of ski trails in the area (which would turn out to be THE BEST investment of 112NOK (about $20) i've ever spent!).

we were about to head off towards Losby when a guy walking his dog passed us, and we thought we'd play it safe and ask him the best way to go. He recommeded instead of walking, to head directly for the ski trail across the road, which would take us to Losby.

i guess it was about two hours or so into our ski adventure that we started wondering whether we'd missed a turn to get to Losby, so we stopped another cross-country skier to ask. he looked at our map and told us we would have been much better going the OTHER way to Losby... and the quickest way there from this point would be to head back to where we started!! but given how far we'd already come, maybe we could head for Mariholtet, another hut about 5km ahead of where we were. it was maybe not owned by the same chain, and of course, we hadnt made reservations, but he was "SURE we could stay there for the night".


so we took a tea and cookies break and onwards we went!! we finally arrived at the hut around 9:30pm, about 10km or so from our intended hut... a little tired but super excited & proud to reach our destination. but then.. .we knocked on the door, and a lady peered her head out of the door, told us it was a privately owned (motel-sized?!!) house and told us to go to the next town 8km north to find a place to stay and shut the door in our faces. ai yah!! we tried to map out our plan, but before we left, me and Debbie tried to knock on the door again, put on our best puppy-dog faces and ask as sorry-ly and diplomatically as we could if there was any possible way we could even sleep just in the cafeteria for the night. negative... i think its the first time my little-people-discount didnt work for me!! haha..

we bundled up and got back on the ski run, and stopped another passerby-er to tell him we were lost and looking for a place nearby to get to to stay (half secretly hoping a more compassionate soul would take us in for the night!)... he didn't but recommended a better option of skiing 5 km to a town called Oppsal where we'd be able to catch a train to Oslo, and from there back home to As!

so thats what we did... we skied our way to Oppsal, where a super nice Somalian man giving us directions to the train station ended up giving us a ride there because he was afraid we didn't understand his english directions... took the train to Oslo, Oslo to As,


and... made it back home (deadtired on the kitchen floor) around 2am!

so that was our ski weekend!! quite the adventure (and exactly what my mom was afraid of... hehe!) !! not quite as planned... but we all really had a great time, smiles & laughs all around all night, owl calls, yelling over a huge (and beautiful and frozen) lake to hear echos

and even breaking out into Hakuna Matata, and a


3am dinner and sleepover at debbie's when we got back....




an adventure to be remembered for sure!!

a few more pictures from the evening...

big beautiful frozen lake by moonlight so bright there's shadows from the trees!






late night picnic at the Olso train station while waiting for our train!





safe and sound... just minor battle wounds with the snow! (on an additional plus side, id say we all got a LOT better at skiing by the end of the night! at first, a crash was imminent with every downhill slope (hence the cuts and scrapes), but by the end of the night we were actually skiing, yay!)




and there you have it... our wonderful ski adventure! and i wouldn't trade it for the world!

just as a disclaimer, i DID talk to my mom before putting this story up! =) hehe.. love you all!!

til next time,
rainbow =)

weekend get-away!

my Gender & Development class is officially over... and my paper is done and submitted. i really liked writing it actually, it took a lot of time but it was one of those papers where you get a lot out of the process. =)

if you want to read it (i know you probably wont, but just in case you do!), it will soon be here:

www.members.shaw.ca/rainbowchoi/GenderPaper.pdf

.... as soon as i figure out how to get it onto the site. i used to use my webspace at SFU... but 2 years after not being a student there anymore, they've officially expired my account. =)

and now, as a well-needed break, me, Debbie, Laurent (from France) and Audrey (from France) are taking the weekend for some cross-country skiing! we're taking a train into Oslo, and skiing from there to a cabin to stay the night, skiing from that cabin to another cabin on Saturday to spend the night there, and eventually skiing back to take the train home on Sunday! our ski skills are still quite amateur (as me and Debbie found out today skiing with Ola, who's a native norwegian that learned to ski before he learned to walk (but fortunately is very patient!))...


(Ola's just posing... it's usually just me and Debbie on our bums!)

anyways this weekend should be great, some time to hang out with friends, explore a bit more of norway, and just a nice break from school! pls pray for a safe weekend for us! ill tell you guys about it when im back! =)

love you all!
rainbow =)