Out and About

This morning, much to my dismay, I found my camera needed to be charged - so no pictures today. 

Chanthavone and I went into Old Stavanger to look around and do some shopping.  In Egypt, she and I cut a long and wide swath through the market places (along with friends, Krista, Phyllis and Bonnie.)  There are most likely shop keepers who say "Remember the good old days when Miss Laurie and Miss Chanthavone shopped here?" Well today, I bought one thing, and she bought several.  She said to me that she liked shopping with me because I don't tell her "no."  I then had to remind her of all the shops I did have to pull her out of in Cairo.

We picked up her twins, who attend a Norwegian school, and get out at 12:45.  We spent the afternoon doing various things around the house. Then Chanthavone took her twins to soccer, and I stayed home with Jamiliah, their 4th grade daughter.  She is a budding rock hound, a girl after my heart.  We spent time online looking at websites to identify two of her rocks.  She is letting me take a few home to ask a nearby expert what the others are.

After the kids went to bed, we broke out the cookies and milk and chatted. Her husband, Jamal, is away overnight on business and will be back Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I am going back to Old Stavanger with my charged up camera.

Language - Norway has two official languages:   Bokmal, and Nynnorsk. This is Norwegian.  They are very similar to each other.  Bokmal, or Riksmal, as it is also known it the main language used my over 80% of the country.  Nynnorsk is used in a few counties. I believe these two languages are part of the Germanic family of languages that also includes English.

Way to the north is the home of the Sami people, they speak their own language, also called Sami.  This is part of the Finno-Ugric language family that includes Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian.

Scandanavia - Most Americans think that Scandanavia comprises of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.  According to Norwegian-American friends of mine in Utah, Finland is seen as the "ugly stepsister" by the other countries.  Their histories don't overlap and neither do their languages.