主播大秀

This house is so strange to me still. It's nice to have some Christmas decorations hanging around making me feel festive as I continue to adjust to moving here. I cannot wait until this house and this farm becomes familiar to me - and I finally feel like I am home. Right now I feel like I am living in Erlend's house - a guest!! But one of these days it will all click and I will feel this is OUR house and I am no longer a stranger! (It will help when we re-decorate with new walpaper and some new carpet. Then we will have created something homey together.)

The Orcadian people (and my non-Orcadian neighbors) have nothing to do with me feeling like a total stranger. I have never felt so welcomed and loved in my life - and I've lived in some really nice and hospitable places! I think that the only place that compares with Orkney is the Middle East and Asia. The Arabs and Asians are extremely friendly and hospitable. The Orcadians and my non-Orcadian neighbors are the same exact way!!

I'll tell you, nothing boosts my already high spirits like having one of my neighbors say to me, "Come on down to (insert place name) and visit with us!" I just LOVE that! What better way to make a person feel like they are welcome and that they belong here? And that's important - it's not enough to feel welcome, I have to also feel that I belong here. That I haven't made a mistake leaving my country and my culture behind.

I think my main problem that keeps me from going out and visiting without first being invited is an understandable case of insecurity. I have a very hard time understanding folk when they talk. The place-names of the houses are so Norse-Scotts that I have a hard time remembering them. So when someone says to me as we bump in to one another in the Dounby Shop, "Oh come by bladyhoosewatsy and have a cuppa!" I totally forget the name five seconds after I leave the shop!!! And of COURSE I don't remember THEIR name either! So I end up with lots of really friendly wonderful invitations to visit and then I can't remember who invited me and WHERE they invited me. And poor Erlend cannot read my mind. Saying to him, "A nice lady invited me to visit her - can you tell me who she is?" doesn't cut it. Not enough information!!

I'm sure folk are beginning to think I'm half mad because I've devised a new plan: I mumble the person's house name over and over and over until I can get to Erlend. Then I pronounce a totally wacky version of what I was told (because the names are too difficult for me to clearly understand) and Erlend translates my babbling. As he tells me the correct name of both house and person I swiftly write it down, sketch a wee map and then put the note on the kitchen table. "Visit so-and-so from such-and-such house."

Last night I was given another friendly invitation to come visit. On the way out of the door I whispered to the host, "How do you say her house-name??" and then offered my mangled version. In the time it took me to leave the house and walk to the car I had to ask Erlend three times to repeat the lady's name and house name. Then when we got home out came paper and pen and I have a new note sitting on the kitchen table!!

If I keep not turning up when folk invite me to visit they'll just quit inviting me - without knowing that the reason I haven't been showing up is because I CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE!! And just recently have I gotten brave enough to A) ask people to repeat themselves 27 times and B) ask other people for help in finding said person that has invited me. Much hilarity usually results. "The name of their house was something like 'SkinahCat'..."

Don't get me started on using the telephone. For crying out loud the telephone has become my worst nightmare!! I pick it up and squeak out, "Hello?" and then receive an earful of, "Hubbadahooobadeedooowahdittylalala!" You should see me cringe as I make a call. I always say to Erlend, "Will YOU please call??"

I love the Orcadian language. But at this point in time I don't understand much of what is said to me!! Thankfully the Orcadians have a great sense of humor and don't mind me one bit. I just hope folk don't think I'm RUDE for not visiting when invited!! Hopefully my post-it-notes and wee sketched maps will help me be far more social then I have been.