Whoah! Where has the time gone?

Ok, so I've been a little busy. Let's see, since I last wrote I had a few more days in Kristiansand. I had my (very successful) shopping excursion. I bought winter boots, several work shirts, and hand cream. My last night in Kristiansand I got to attend a birthday party. The birthday girl was 92, she is the mother of the relative I was visiting (her husband was related to me).

Then I was off to Linköping and the Linköping Folkmusik Festival. If you are ever considering a Fall trip to Scandinavia, this is a phenomenal festival. Let me say that again. It was outstanding! Fantastic concerts, three dance floors with great music, and workshops during the day. It was really unbelievable how much they packed into that weekend. For me the highlights were Vegar and Patrick (like Anna and Ingrid, they don't use their last names; they just have an award winning CD or two to show for it), Frikar (OMG wow), and did I mention - THREE DANCE FLOORS!! Nätt og Jämt gets an honorable mention on the highlights list, especially since they played one of the dance stages. I recommend going with a group of friends that dance, or totally alone. I had a pretty good time getting dance partners when I was alone, but it's always more fun to dance with your dance-buddies.

I don't recommend driving to Linköping. At least not from Rauland. It took us 11 hours to get there and longer on the way home. At least we got to sing the whole way there and back!

Upon returning home, we cast ourselves back into the extremely busy rehearsal and class schedule. Our first concert is tomorrow and we hadn't really started rehearsing before then.

I, of course, also have two jobs to occupy my free time. This has a number of benefits. One of them being that I'm too busy working to spend money (or energy) partying. The other is that I'm earning money at the same time I'm not spending it! Two weekends ago, the hotel had a group of 140 members of a single's club as guests. I'll let you use your imagination regarding their behavior.

That Saturday, I started helping in the bar after dinner. I don't mean pour drinks or taking orders; I mean collecting the empty glasses and washing them, chilling them (we don't have enough glasses for them to cool to room temperature before they are needed again), and putting them back out so the bartenders can pour more drinks. This works out fine because I get a ride home from the head bartender. At 4:30am

Last week was mostly more of the same: Rehearsals, classes, cleaning at the dentist's. The highlight came mid-week with the fire drill. I'm used to fire drills where the alarm rings and everyone files out into the parking lot waits for the signal and returns to class. In the corporate setting we file out, get a latte and come back. In Rauland, we sat through a twenty minute presentation covering how quickly a room can succumb to fire and the various uses of all different types of fire extinguishers. Then we filed out into the parking lot (without an alarm). The instructor, clad in fire fighting gear, set out several hand held fire extinguishers, poured a few liters of gasoline into the large square metal container he had placed in the middle of the parking lot (at a safe distance from everything), and lit it. Then we got to practice putting out a pretty ferocious fire. Every time someone put it out, he'd light it again, until everyone had had a chance to practice putting out the fire. That's a fire drill.

More soon - I've got to check the laundry and get ready for tomorrow's concert!