Hello again on a dreary Monday after a fantastic weekend!
The fun started on Friday evening as we celebrated the combined birthday of four of the medical exchange students - Me (may 8), Lena (may 9), Sundar (may 11) and Estelle (may 12)- all born in the same year. We booked a party room in the student housing place, invited everyone we knew, set a theme of 'colours' and arranged decorations, nibbles, mohitos and punch to top it off!
We had a great night: lots of our friends came, one of the French girls arranged a (slightly embarrassing) slide show, the Norwegians sang the hilarious Norwegian version of happy birthday (with several choruses and bits where you do actions and spin around- a small sample can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mfMhY1HdQ8&feature=related). Lots of people gave us cakes, chocolates and other treats, and a whole group of the exchange students even got together to buy us University of Oslo t-shirts.
Officially, when hiring the party room, you are required to leave by 12am. As it was a Friday we figured people would be a bit lenient, though were prepared to leave if someone complained. At 1am, the night seemed to come to a natural end as people all drifted off to the other major party on that night, held in the attic of one of the nearby buildings. We all went there, but the lack of air in the attic combined with a night of wine, mohitos, punch and vodka saw most of us off home early. The attic party was huge though, version 3 of a series of parties in the same building that are famous for their involvement of the police to close down the party on every occasion. No police apparently on Friday, but soon after I left there was a fire alarm in the building and the fireys rocked up to find revelers everywhere. It seems there were another 2 fire alarms in the same building that night as well, with some rumours that the security people used a fire alarm as a tactic to close down the party. Unfortunately for my friends who live on that side of the road, all the buildings from 40-48 are linked and so if a fire alarm goes off in 42 it goes off in all of them!
Somewhat grumpy about their uncalled-for alarm clocks, the birthday kids gathered the next morning for the clean up. Well, three of the birthday kids, with one still suffering bad after effects from the night before unable to move (not me before you get ideas!). Due to the recycling system in Norway, we managed to recoup some of the cost of the party from the cans and bottles people brought- a whole 74 kroner (around 20 dollars!)
Then it was back home to recover, chill out and prepare for the next excitement for the day- the Eurovision! It was mainly the Aussies who were excited about the Eurovision, the Europeans being embarrassed by it and unsure why we liked it so much. I'd arranged to have a party for it at my house, but when we planned our birthday party for the night before decided it would be a bit more relaxed than my original plans. So we gathered around the TV in my house to cheer, make comments about and laugh at the entries for this year. It's weird watching it here, because they dub it in Norwegian so you hear the English commentary dubbed by Norwegian comments (they don't usually do this for tv shows as they usually use sub titles, but the Norwegians wanted to make their own comments I think!). The German entry (starring a women famous for removing some of her ribs in order to wear tighter corsets and not much else) in particular received some funny comments.
We were in the middle of the Turkish entry, only 1.5 songs from the eagerly-awaited Norwegian entry, when disaster struck. The TV suddenly lost all signal and went all fuzzy! We hurriedly checked all the connections, then rushed for our shoes to run to the student pub at our housing village to watch it there. Tragically, when we arrived, the large screen there was blue and the host was frantically trying to stream it from the internet as the TV connection had apparently failed all over Sogn student village! He tried to recover the situation by playing the music of the various songs over the sound system but the massive crowds of people were starting to diminish as they dispersed to watch it themselves at home.
We left to try and get it on the net ourselves, but my faithful computer was not up to the task and so we returned to the pub briefly before settling on watching in a Norwegian friend's room. So there we all were, 5 Aussies, one French girl and 2 Norwegians piled on the bed watching the Eurovision (the connection by now having been restored and the voting results commencing). Within about 3 sets of votes we knew Norway had done it. The commentator got more and more excited, and all I can remember her saying when Norway passed the threshold it needed to definitely win was "Jeg er...Jeg er...Jeg er" (I am...I am...I am). The next thing we knew, our Norwegians were groaning as they told us she had decided (at 12am) to phone the Prime Minister to hear what he thought! She couldn't initially get onto him, but managed to see what the Minister of Culture thought and finally got the Prime Minister's opinion before they crossed to Oslo for the final votes. The winning entry is here if you're interested, but be warned it will get into your head! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME)
By this time it was 12:30 and we all headed to bed to get ready for the next day's celebrations. May 17 is Norwegian National Day, and it celebrates the signing of the constitution of Norway on May 17 1814. Norwegians typically gather for breakfast before attending parades during the day and may finish with a BBQ with friends in the evening. We gathered for our own breakfast with eggs, smoked salmon and jam on toast before heading in to town to join in the celebrations.
Equipped with Norwegian national flags and dressed in our nicest clothes (we were warned beforehand that we wouldn't fit in if we wore a Norwegian t-shirt and jeans) we set off for the train station. The weather was stunning and the spring flowers and green, green grass made the day look perfect. At the station there were people everywhere, all dressed up in the national costume and carrying flowers, flags and ribbons pinned to themselves in the red, white and blue of Norway. Everyone was immaculately dressed and there were very few people with face paint or flag boxers or Norwegian tattoos to be seen! Even the dogs had very formal little bows on their collars!
The Norwegian national costume is called a Bunad. I say national costume, but actually there are hundreds of variations to the costume, depending on where the wearer comes from. People can tell where you come from by the costume you wear. Women wear a dress which is a bit like a skirt with a waistcoat on top; as well as an elaborate white shirt underneath, a little bag that matches the skirt and other extras such as silver brooches, a silver belt and pointy shoes. Men wear trousers that go just below their knees, with long socks and a jacket a bit like a tuxedo jacket. They also have a waistcoat and shirt underneath. The dresses alone cost 30-40,000 kroner (around 9-10,000 dollars) and are worn on May 17, as well as at balls, weddings, dances etc. I believe a Norwegian racing driver recently wore one to a gala at which he expressed concern he wouldn't be let it as he would be too overdressed.
Oslo on May 17 looks so different to every other day. There are more Norwegian flags than I've ever seen in my life, people absolutely everywhere, food vendors and balloon sellers and no cars on the streets! The main street, Karl Johans Gate, leads up to the Palace and it is here that a parade (lasting about 3 hours) runs. All the school children in Oslo get to be in the parade, playing music in their school bands, twirling batons, waving Norwegian flags or just marching along singing 'hurra hurra'. The littlest kids are each holding on to a loop of a string in order to keep in line and all are immaculately dressed in their finest clothes or mini Bunads. The Russ then follow with their own parade afterwards, all following the route up the hill to wave at the royal family and get a wave back.
After watching the parade for half an hour or so we began to feel a bit sorry for the King's elbows and retired for a while to enjoy the sun on the pristine lawns. Despite huge crowds everywhere, it didn't feel like too many people. Everyone was relaxing with their family or friends and watching the parade or enjoying the sunshine whilst listening to the singing and marching bands. Hardly anyone was drinking alcohol, and if they were it was half a glass of champagne. Even the severely hung over Russ were not being destructive or anti social- they were happily handing out their cards to the swarms of children who approached them. Other groups of teenagers and Uni students were spontaneously gathering to sing various national songs (including the Norwegian version of God Save the King), and 'Fairytale', the winning Eurovision song was very popular as well!
We headed over to the palace to see the Royal Family's drooping arms as they stood on the balcony and it was then I realised that I didn't have my phone on me, despite having it about 20 minutes before. We called it and messaged it to no avail, although it took a number of tries to get through as the networks were all clogged with people wishing each other 'Gratulerer med dagen!'. I retraced my route to look for it, crossing the parade in the meantime and despondently returned without having found it. We tried calling it again, and this time someone answered. Luckily, he was just where I'd been looking for it, and I crossed the parade again and was reunited with my phone by a friendly man who responded to my profuse thanks with his assertion that it was "absolutely a pleasure!"
An afternoon enjoying the sun concluded with a pleasant stroll around the harbour area with its flags everywhere, which looked absolutely magical in the shimmering sun. We then headed back to Sogn for a rest in the sun before setting up out dinner for the evening- grilled vegetables and sausages (with salmon) on the portable grill. We had a very nice evening following the sun, with music playing through our open window (including several repeats of Fairytale) and concluding with a movie before bed.
Norwegian National Day was a fantastic day and an interesting experience. It's determinedly non-militaristic, full of national pride without going over the top and is all about kids. The parade was full of blond, blue-eyed Scandinavians, but also represented the slowly increasing ethnic diversity of Norway with gorgeous kids of all races in their nicest clothes or Bunads waving the flags and singing along. The royal family is very highly respected and it is a very exciting thing for the kids to get to wave to the king. Furthermore, the parade was definitely the main attraction and the streets were lined with people waving to the kids, enjoying the music and strolling in the sunshine. People were also allowed to join the parade at the end and get their own wave from the King. Coming home on the train at the end of the day, it was lovely to see all the groups of families all dressed up off to have a BBQ or a nice dinner somewhere. I guess also the positive experience of finding my phone added to my regard for the honesty of the people here!
Pics coming soon: more computer mischief.
Anneke
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