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Getting to know the local culture.

Life is a strange thing. Last week went…not much happened, and then it was over. The weekend was quite calm without too many wild and exciting things happening. Except, of course, a wee outing to watch the National Championship for Veteran Ploughing. Now, like me, you might be sadly lacking an understanding of what this actually means. So I am delighted to be able to enlighten you in this respect. It’s basically (for the “farm-language-illiterate” like myself) a competition where you use old (hence the name “veteran”) tractors and ploughs, and plough up a stretch of field which is then evaluated and the one scoring the highest sum (accuracy, depth, how well the soil is turned is all given points) wins. I must admit that this information I got by eavesdropping on a conversation next to me where a man was explaining to some of my friends how it all works. So that was a fun adventure….although we only stayed for a bit.

What is sort of occupying my mind at present is my upcoming travel abroad (that sounds very grand, doesn’t it?). Well, my 10-day trip to the USA. Contrary to popular belief, I myself have never set foot on American soil (South-American I have naturally both set foot and walked on, but not what is known as soil belonging to the United States of America). It will be exciting to finally see for myself what I have so far only known through television and film. And maybe it’ll help me understand why I was often thought to be an American in Fortaleza. It’s going to be good to get away and see something new, and of course spend time at IHOP (meaning the “International House of Prayer”, not the “International House of Pancakes” which uses the same abbreviation).

Till take-off on Friday there are a few hurdles to get over. Doing some translation the next few days (the correct term being “interpretation”) for the DTS from English to Norwegian (should be fun, and challenging. Maybe my Norwegian vocabulary will grow a bit…), and also need to do some shopping. It might seem a wee bit contradictory to do shopping before getting to the USA (they are after all big on shopping “over there”), but I wanted to post some bits and bobs to Brazil from there, and don’t want to end up spending all my time rushing around searching for shops, when my purpose for going is after all to seek God.

I think that’s enough reflections and ponderings for the day. I might do some blogging while I’m in the USA…if not there will be a small (or maybe long) report when I get back.

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