Just when you thought it was safe….

Two weeks ago I sat my first language exam since ooh, 1985? My teacher at the school had forewarned me that she thought I might be ready to sit the A1/A2 language exam at the end of October so I was aware of this looming possibility. However I then got a message on the Wednesday evening that it was to be the following Monday. Massive panic ensued. The calls went out "can I come and visit to have a chat and practice" and much time was spent with vocabulary lists as I tried to learn/ remember as much as possible. Some of this last minute panic was put to good use, one of the new words I learned was "optimistic" so I was able to use this quite a lot in my conversations eg "I am not optimistic" about this.... Hence writing about this now - if it's never mentioned again in the blog, one can assume I crashed and burned.

On the Friday I got a wee note through my door confirming the exam and all the rules etc that were to be followed. I thought it would defeat the object to use google translate on this letter so just read it as best as I can. I later relented and did put it through the app - just as well as what I thought said "don't turn up earlier than 30 minutes before hand" actually said "don't turn up later than 30 minutes beforehand"

I turned up bright and breezy on the Monday morning just in time for a warm-up/ exercise programme in the school hall. I can now add "doing stretching and bending exercises to "Eye of the Tiger"" to the list of things that I didn't think I'd ever do.

The exam itself was in 4 parts - reading/ writing/ listening and conversation. Going in to the exam I thought I'd do ok in the reading and conversation but be a bit iffy (at the very least) with the listening and writing. As an aside, the Norwegian for "ok" appears to be "greit" which I really struggle to use. Using "greit" to describe my performance just seems to big it up too much but there you go...

It turned out that I thought I didn't too badly with the writing and conversation while the listening and reading may have been a tad beyond me. We had 3 writing tasks - write a message to a friend/ write about a picture/ and then write about a job in your homeland. Well, when I say it said "write about a job in your homeland", that's what I think it said and that's what I wrote about. In a similar way to "skilpadde" (turtle) that I wrote about in a previous post, another word which I have never had occasion to use but remember is "sparkesykkel" (scooter). But would you believe it, there was a scooter in the picture I had to write about? Result. Of course I spelt it wrong but hopefully they'll think it was a slip of the finger.

Don't remember much about the listening apart from the 1st question was fairly straightforward and that I lost my nerve with the second and changed it from what in retrospect I believe was the right answer to the wrong one.

I fear the less said about the reading the better!

After a wee break Svitlana and myself had to sit down with the examiner and talk a lot. We were given a picture each to talk about - mine was a bus queue and I was able to drop in the word for pavement which I had finally learned properly during the panic revision. Then we talked about about food - v kindly Solveig and Einar had invited me up for Einar's birthday meal the night before where we ate traditional Norwegian dishes which I was then able to wax lyrical about in the exam. I also had to talk about my neighbours so I talked about the family I'm renting my apartment from. Examiner then asked me about my other neighbours and I had to explain that I was actually fairly anti-social/ shy so don't actually know any of my other neighbours.....

Anyway, it's done now and I should find out the results in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed!

At the end of the same week was Sandnessjøen Storband 50th anniversary concert in the Kulturbadet. It was great fun playing with them and the concert seemed to go well. Taking part in all the rehearsals was also good for expanding my comprehension of Norsk. I've never quite got to grips with the individual letter sounds of the Norsk alphabet. However, I am now very clear on how to pronounce the letter "I". It's pronounced "ee". I learned this during a rehearsal and couldn't understand why what I was playing was sounding so terrible. Of course I was playing from "E" while everybody else was playing from "I".

After the concert there was a reception and meal at the Seven Sisters Hotel. It was a rather fabulous meal and it was very much enjoyed. The courses were understandably punctuated by speeches including a couple from returning musical directors. No complaints about that but I did have to miss dessert to get the ferry back to Dønna In a later message Kari did reassure me that I had missed a fabulous course.

In my previous post I forgot to thank Jen for helping me to avoid an embarrassing faux-pas. When telling her about the arrangements I had made for the games night with Steffen I had told her that I was going to offer him the white wine that she'd left behind on a previous visit. Now I don't want to cast aspersions on Jen and suggest that she's an alcoholic or anything but with the cost of alcohol in Norway I have to admit to being surprised that she'd not drunk it while she was here. Much shame (and a dodgy stomach for Steffen) was avoided when she pointed out that it was in fact white wine vinegar and not really designed for drinking with crisps.

I finally took advantage of the library card I signed up for and visited the Sandnessjøen Bibliotek for the purpose of borrowing books. One of the reasons I finally braved this was that on the day of the Storband concert I was walking past the library and noticed a group of people being lectured to about a model of a World War 2 aircraft carrier. So the following Monday I went in for a wee nosey at it and while I was there I thought I might as well have a look at the books as well. I indeed eventually borrowed one (much to my shame it's in English and much to my chagrin it's also a book that I've read before!) and took it to the lady. She gave me a flyer for the Språkkafé that was taking place the following Thursday. This is run by various organisations and it gives a chance to people whose first language is not Norwegian to come and practice. I feel bad about going across the water to this one as I'm pretty sure there are some here on this island but it's so convenient for me to just potter down to the ferry and walk up to the library.

Locale wise it certainly is very convenient but talk about well outside my comfort zone. In fact, I had told quite a few people that I was going to go to it as extra motivation to make sure I did. I had about 40 minutes to kill before it started so went for a walk but when I arrived back at the library I really had to make a strong conscious effort to force myself to go inside. I stood for a wee moment looking lost until one of the ladies in charge took pity on me - pointed out the cake and coffee (of course) and pointed to a chair. There were a wide variety of nationalities represented - people from Ukraine, Pakistan, Syria... I think it went ok ("greit") but for a while I was sitting there thinking that I was bringing the mood of the whole place (well my table anyway) down as I struggled to think of anything to say. However, towards the end it picked up again and conversation started to flow again so at least it finished well.

The next night I found myself in Sandnessjøen again, this time for Swim-in Kino. It was the first event of Kulturbad Uka 2023 and what better way to start than showing Jaws 2 in the swimming pool. TBH in any other circumstances I wouldn't be at all interested in seeing a Jaws movie but I thought this was a such a magnificent idea that I duly purchased my ticket and turned up at the appropriate time.

Originally I had thought that we'd all just get into the water but fortunately the pool laid on lots of inflatables for people to sit in. I seemed to chose the only duff one in the building. Everybody looked like they were chilling nicely floating on top of their swim rings with their legs casually hung over the side whereas I looked like I was being eaten alive. Course that'd be quite appropriate for the movie. Even the lifeguard near me commented about my one not working. Nonetheless I just stuck with it for the show. The movie was shown in the original language with Norwegian subtitles as is the custom here. From where I was the sound wasn't great but it was good to try and understand as much of the text as possible. A good time was had but I must admitted to It getting a tach chilly towards the end. And of course if any of the young ones paddled past it made your ring spin round. And indeed for the first 30 mins or so I had to watch the movie at right angles till I managed to grab the side of the pool and haul myself around.

Otherwise I'm continuing to enjoy my job and modesty aside I think I'm playing quite well. Even got a "whoop" from one of the confirmants in Herøy at the end of my voluntary one Sunday. Of course while I'm taking it as "that was great" (it was a Prelude and Fugue by JG Walther after all), equally it may have been "thank god that's finished, I'm dying for cake".

Next weekend I'm off island hopping again to Husvær and Sandvær which of course means THE dreaded harmonium again. Well, at least I'm prepared this time!

Thanks to Kari, Sabine, Erle and Helena for some of the photos.