Gluten free

I'm trying out diets. For a few months I'll be testing out the gluten free diet. Later I’ll avoid dairy. The majority of last fall I was really exhausted, I got 8-9 hours of sleep and still had a hard time waking up and being energized. I work out twice a week and I ride my bike to school every day. I shouldn't be so tired. Talking to my family practitioner resulted in blood tests, which resulted in nothing. The doctor said he suspected celiac disease, because that can come like a thief in the night. Maybe I am allergic to something I eat. Doesn’t hurt to avoid certain foods for some time and see if there is a change.

The first thoughts I had about the possibility of being gluten intolerant, was mixed. On one hand I was upset about the cinnamon buns I would have to stay away from; on the other hand I knew Min had talked about avoiding wheat for a long time. It could have been worse, I could have been diabetic. I loves my chocolate!

Luckily we cook mostly at home. I can avoid normal flour in sauces and casseroles, use potato flour or corn meal instead. I took a look at the allergies shelves in the grocery store, and felt quite happy. There are 3 different kinds of gluten free flour, there are variations on pasta, they have cookies and chocolates and various kinds of bread without gluten.

The cafeteria at work has frozen bread rolls made with lots of seeds and no gluten. Because we have students with celiac disease, they school has decided to sell these rolls for the same price as normal bread rolls. I have lunch covered three times a week. Today I brought the German vacuum packed bread slices and had pepper mackerel as a spread. For the past two hours my fingers have smelled of fish.

Gluten free isn’t as bad as I thought. I do hope I figure out what is wrong, and if I’m lucky, I can re-introduce normal bread again. And not be a picky eater at restaurants and at dinner parties.

Bikes and pieces

Last week Min surprised me by buying a new bike. A bike for me. The two bikes we have are broken, so I joked about him buying me a "let me keep the car-bike". My new bike is white and glows in the dark. I realized that when I, without headlights nor rear lights, biked into an area without street lights and was blinded by the shiny white bar between the handlebar and the seat. I later complained about this expensive bike not going fast enough, and Min suddenly remembered that the shockers are connected and absorb 25% of every pedal stroke. Now, after some adjustments, the new bike is perfect.

Last week, I rode one of the old bikes home from work, and thought about the stories we had shared. For instance the first time Min and I went biking together and Min kept yelling at me to pedal downhill. I was terrified by the speed and potential cars. Min was frustrated that he had to slow down constantly. We one day rode our bikes from where we live into the x-ray institiute in Stavanger. Min ran his bike into a kid, because the kids heard my bell and moved for my bike, but were not ready for a second bike to blow past them. I wore jeans that day and couldn't move my thighs when we were going back home. We biked 500 meters and decided to take a bus back. The bus was crowded and went all sorts of detours, but I was very happy I didn't have to sit on that bike.

The bike that used to belong to Min was missing a front wheel after Christmas break. I told the neighbours one evening that I had a new bike, and I suspected someone might have run off with the old wheel. One of the ladies on top of the hill let me know that there is a bike wheel in her driveway. We strongly disbelieved that the storm had taken the wheel, most likely some drunk people on their way home from a Christmas party had some fun with a bouncy tire. This neighbour could also let me know that her son's kajakk was in the middle of the road, a kajakk that was normally attached to the trailer. The drunkards must have had a lot of fun with the stuff they found in our frontyards.

My new bike is always locked in the basement.

Great Britain-map-fun

The first class I had with my group of kids after Christmas, was an English class. I wished them a happy New Year and asked them to tell the class one nice thing that happened between Christmas and New Year. Some kids talked about the friends they visited. Most of the kids mentioned what they got for Christmas; money, iphones, clothes, skies, playstation games. Two of the kids with Muslim background giggled and mention something about nice food. One kid said: "We spent over 10400 kroners on firework". I didn’t believe my ears and had the child repeat what he had said. It was true; his family had spent about 1750 USD on firework.

To introduce the chapter of The British Isles, I printed out large outline maps of the UK and Ireland, smaller maps of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, England and Northern Ireland. The students are already sitting in groups, so I had the seven groups focus on different countries and plot the names of cities on the big outline map. I told the kids that when I google image searched for maps, I got a really strong image in my head of the British Isles looking like a dinosaur being chased by something. The students laughed and tilted their heads, trying to see what I saw. As I walked around to see how they were doing, I noticed that one group had seen the dinosaur and drew teeth and arms on the Great British Island.

The group that got to Wales as their focus area was finished early. Creative as they were, they started making jokes about the country of Wales, based on the place names. I walked over to their table and was asked: “Where can you see swans in Wales?” – In Swansea. “Where is a safe place for fish?” – Fishguard. “What do the Welsh people say instead of ‘Oh my god’?” – Holyhead.

“Why don’t any people live here?”, one boy asked, pointing at the middle of Wales. I explained that there are mountains for hiking in the middle. The student looked up with a glance of innocence and said: “No, it’s because there are WHALES there”.

indoors firework

I started the class by telling my students: “Use of firework on the school’s property will lead to expulsion and in severe cases; police report and financial reimbursement!” Three minutes later we walked downstairs to the basement and found the corridor covered in smoke. Some of the kids got hysterical, coughing and wondered what it was. Two students crawled around on the floor, pretending to slowly pass out. I unlocked the door to the room we were going to be in and hushed my pupils inside.

Annoyed I went to get the inspector, and on my way back downstairs, one of my kids came weeping towards me. He claimed his asthma was kicking in and he couldn’t breathe. Calmly and sternly I led him to the library and told him to read a book in there. The inspector got the ventilation going again, and he inspected the smoke bomb shell that was now broken in several pieces. I could hear from behind the door, that my students said they know who threw the bomb. We examined three of the kids, but they didn’t want to tell on each other.

What was intended to be a fun class with games and teambuilding, turned out to be a class where the students had to write a log over what they have heard of rumours. How ironic that shortly after I told them about the repercussions of firework on school property, the students experienced why firework is prohibited. Hopefully the inspector gets enough information from the student log I handed over to him, and the smokebomb sinner gets expelled. First day of school after the Christmas break :-S

getting ready for a new semester

The Christmas break is over. Over a week of sleeping in, going to bed late, watching movies and eating candy is over. The new year has started, and as tradition goes; January 1st was mainly spent in bed. Today, I practiced getting up early and went to work. It was hard to fall asleep last night, and really hard to get out of bed this morning. Even though I needed to use the bathroom, it was like the air in the bedroom forced me to stay under the covers. The heated bathroom floor called for me, and half an hour after the alarm went off, I conquered the uncanny coldness and got out of bed.

Somehow the front wheel of Min's bike is missing. I rode his bike to the gym three days after Christmas, and he put the bike in our car when he came home. The bike was taken out of the car a few days later, (the wheel has to come off in order for it to fit in the back seat), and now that wheel is missing. Looking around for something that isn't there doesn't make it appear, so I had to use my own bike, the one which rear wheel is crooked and makes peaceful biking really difficult. To make sure it wouldn't hinder forward motion too much, I dismantled the breaks.

I got to work and was, for a few hours, the only person making lessonplans for the new year. Now two male colleges have shown up, and a laughterbox of a 9th grade teacher brough her two annoying kids in. They're staggering about in their too big jackets, looking for candy at the teachers' desks. In the other workroom, I can hear a 10th grade teacher's voice talking soothingly to a complaining kid. The three kids seem to bond over their destiny as offspring of educationists, and are arranging a running contest where they yell, hum and scream simulatinously. What joy!

Clearly, my work day should be over by now. I've read up on hinduism, made 26 copies the language history assignments for 10th grade, printed out maps of England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, plus an outline map for the 8th graders to plot in cities. I have also tried to decide what to focus on for German in 8th and 10th grade, but I will discuss it with the other German teacher tomorrow. Now I will rearrange my desk, wave bye-bye to the quarterpersons and try my luck on the bike without rear breaks.

My next door neighbor knits and tells WW2-stories

I imagine it looks incredibly sad to see a person walk back down the stairs after ringing the doorbell with one hand, while holding a tray of cookies on the other hand. In my case, I felt stupid. The lights were out in the kitchen, and as I could see when walked around the garden, the lights were off in the living room too. I even felt surprised and disappointed, thinking to myself that the old lady next door should have provided coffee and the delicious raisin bread that her freezer is full of. But of course, she has birthdays to attend to, grandkids to play with and sisters to visit, just as other people.

When I studied psychology, I read that the factor that mainly decides who you become friends with, is distance. You are more likely to become friends with people that live next door, or if you live by the stairs, people in the story directly above or below you. My friend, the eighty-something-next-door widow, was introduced to me by my grandma. This woman knits amazingly fast, and she knits beautiful hats, sweaters, baby blankets, gloves and miniature dresses. One of her friends lives up the road, and I see her when she visits my neighbor, but I wouldn’t automatically show up at her door and expect coffee.

Ok, sometimes I can knit with the cat on my lap.

Saturdays I go grocery shopping, and this past Saturday I went by my neighbor to ask if she needed anything. When I dropped off her bananas and milk, I told her I’d be by Sunday or Monday to let her read the transcripts of her memoir. The woman’s memory is fading slowly, and I want to save the first-hand experiences from her Norwegian WW2-childhood. It was only 8 or 9 months ago that she gave me a continuous retelling of the events, whereas last week she left out large parts and hesitated a lot when I asked for the stories I remembered.

I hope my neighbor is home on Wednesday. I will bring my yarn and needles and continue knitting the socks that only can be worked on accompanied by fellow knitters. The cookies on the tray will probably be stale by Wednesday, but I suppose Min and I can finish them on our own. Being a little paranoid, I can only hope she is doing okay.

substitute teaching yeah

I had a substitute class yesterday. It started with a fight outside the classroom and four kids blaming a small pakistani guy for starting it and bruising them badly. Inside the classroom two kids were throwing pens and markers at each other. I walked over to them and told them to stop it. Five seconds later I saw objects flying from one side of the classroom to the other. "You and you, come on out of the classroom with me". In the hallway I told them that I didn't want them in the classroom and they could spend some time with the principal. The guys refused and judging by the size of one of them, it would be very difficult to carry him downstairs to the administration.

The majority of the class were to be spent in the computer lab. I spent most of the time standing behind the guys in the last row, separating them when they started to play fight and interrupting when the insults became too bad. The big uncarriable kid didn't want to work and played computer games the entire time. He went on facebook, which is strightly prohibited, and I had no sanctions. Reprimands he has plenty of, so that threath isn't real. He didn't want to go to the principal, and couldn't lift him from his chair and drag him either. Eventually he closed down facebook and complained about being bored and school being like a prison.

"Most teachers would have freaked out and gotten real mad by now", one of the kids said. "She's pre.. Hey, are you pregnant?" I answered that no, I am not pregnant. Some of his friends gasped and asked why he would ask me such a question. The kid held his palms open and explained: "The one teacher who didn't get all upset and yelled at this class was pregnant". So I figure the kids believe that the only reason to stay calm when the class is a riot, is to have another creature living inside you. You know something is going to be a lot worse very soon. When I told Min later, he laughed and said: "I bet that kid is in for a surprise if he believes pregnant equals calm".

When the class was over I went to the inspector's office and had a debriefing. She told me that if I encounter a situation like that again, I should come get her or the principal and they can have the kids get out of the class. To me it feels like loosing face, having to get someone else to take control in the classroom. The inspector pointed out that it is not fair to the other students that two kids get all the attention. I agree, at least I am an experience richer