Celebrating Norway as a Norwegian

May 21, 2018

Celebrating Norway as a Norwegian

I'm struggling to find a way to start this post, mostly because so much has happened in the past week and I want to make sure I cover all of it without boring everyone reading this to death. This week, Norway celebrated it's Constitution Day with me in tow. While that was a huge highlight this week, it wasn't the only thing that happened, so bear with me as I go in chronological order as to satisfy my perfectionist brain.

Last week's post came out on Monday, but I'm not sure I actually covered the day's activities, probably because there weren't very many. Mostly just me being quite exhausted and trying to be somewhat engaged at school. During our lunch break all the russ danced out in the courtyard which was fun to watch. It was another warm day, starting off a chain of warm weather. There was probably something that happened that evening, but this week has been a whirlwind and all I remember is not really getting a second to breathe. Not that I'm complaining, though, I don't have enough time left here to slow down and breathe. Rest can wait (hopefully). OOH now I remember. I went to pick up my bunad Monday evening! More on that later, now I'm just happy I managed to remember.

Tuesday morning was the lottery for the written exams. Basically, 20% of students in the first year come up in an exam at all, either written or oral. On Tuesday, a list went public with who would have to take either the math or English written exam (oral comes in June). Our contact teacher came in with some papers and was quiet for a little while, to build up suspense, then announced that no one in our class had come up. The reaction was insane; people screamed and cried and hugged. Everyone was so relieved! Tuesday we also had our spring concert for the choir and band at school. Yep, another concert. But this one was at school and definitely not my best. Oh well. I'll blame the fact that there were a ton of people crowded in a room towards the top of the building on a very hot day. We'll go with that. Tuesday night I also started preparation for 17. mai (May 17th, Norway's Constitution Day). Anne helped me with ironing the blouse that belongs to the bunad, the national costume in Norway. Again, more on this and other 17. mai traditions later:)

Wednesday we had our last social studies test for the year, leaving only a few tests left in the school year, although there's still a chance that we'll have to take an oral exam. Wednesday evening I went to a little barbecue with some friends by a little lake thing on the outskirts of the city. The weather had been so warm lately so some people even swam. As the evening went on, it got quite windy and Mother Nature prepared for the next day. Bunads are quite warm, and apparently Norwegians have been good this year, because it cooled down just enough, just for the 17th. That evening I started feeling sick and was super worried I wouldn't be able to participate in all the fun, but thankfully I was feeling better by the time I had to get up.

Thursday morning, I got on my bunad that I had borrowed from a friend who had an extra in the family. Bunads are the national costume in Norway, and the colors and designs are based on where in Norway you or your family is from. I was borrowing a Nordlandsbunad, from a region in the north of Norway. Women wear a blouse with a sort of dress over, and some of them have apron-like things that go over the skirt. Certain bunads have other special parts, but some are relatively simple as well. Male bunads usually consist of stockings, short pants, a shirt, a vest, a jacket, and a hat. They also have different versions for different places in Norway. While almost every female I saw wore a bunad, it was a lot less common to see males in them. There will be lots of pictures of me and my friends in bunads down below!

After I got ready I headed in towards the city for breakfast with my class at one girl's house. We ate breakfast, sang 17. mai songs, and after a few hours made our way to school. All over the country it's common for towns to have a kid parade with students and russ and marching bands from all the schools, but Oslo has everyone else beat. Students and teachers from over 100 schools in Oslo marched through the city, down Karl Johan to the palace, where they wave to the royal family that's standing on a balcony. Only a few high schools participate, but luckily, Katta is one of them. A huge group of students and faculty walked from the school to a square where we waited for our turn to march. When it was our turn to go, we followed behind the group holding flags of Norway and our school. It was a very patriotic and school-iotic (you know what I mean) moment. Norway is definitely one of the more patriotic countries, and that's coming from an American. We walked in the road, separated from TONS of people by fencing. People were shoved together trying to get a view of the parade; we walked by a hotel with relatively shallow balconies but nonetheless ten people on each. We approached the palace and it was surreal to see the king, queen, and rest of their family right in front of my eyes. I waved like a true Norwegian and even ended up on national TV!

I'm going to take a little side track here to explain this whole russ thing more. Basically, russ is a term for students in their last year of videregående. They celebrate being almost done with school by wearing a special outfit (the color depends on which academic line they chose) and partying. A lot. Russetid (russ time/season) starts towards the end of April and goes through the 17th of May. Lots of russ party every or almost every night in that period, and at lots of other schools (but not Katta), it's common for friend groups to buy and decorate a bus that they party in. Part of the outfit is a hat with a tassel on top, and there's a list of things you can do to get charms/objects tied onto the tassel. They design cards that are sort of like business cards, and kids collect them. That was actually my favorite part of the whole month, watching small kids get so excited when they saw russ because they could get cards. I managed to collect a total of three, not so impressive. The part about all this that's a little dumb is that it's all happening right before exams. So, as you can imagine, when exams come around, the russ haven't studied that much. Or slept. But it's become a pretty strong tradition, even though reading through this paragraph again I realize how much it sounds like I made the whole thing up.

After the parade I fought my way through a sea of people to Espen's parents' for dinner with the family. After some good food we headed to a more local celebration that reminded me of a bigger version of the Marston Ave. 4th of July parade, but with games for the kids. I met some friends there and we spent the rest of the evening eating ice cream, swinging, and loving life while hanging out in a field. It was such a perfect end to a perfect day, and I've never felt more complete. You can bet that it wasn't my last 17. mai.

Friday we had to unfortunately go back to school. That being said, everyone was tired, including the teachers, and several of them let us out of class early. After school I headed to Oslo Central Station to pick up Hedvika, a Czech exchange student living in Hammerfest. We had met at the midyear orientation and she was visiting for the weekend to see Oslo with me as her guide. This post is already wayyyy too long so I'll spare you from a detailed description of what we did, but I must say, I've become quite the Oslo expert. It's my city now <3 Saturday afternoon after a morning of sightseeing, we met some people from my class to go swimming (yes, it's that warm here).We ended up staying for hours, swimming and playing games and talking and enjoying the sun. Our tour continued on Sunday, and today we took a trip up to Holmenkollen. It was hot. Very hot. But I think we managed to cover a good chunk of the city, so I'm satisfied! Oh, and if you're wondering why I don't have school today, it's because yesterday was Pentecost and it's Norway so we get the day off :)) If you made it all the way here, thank you for reading!!!

Word of the Post:
nordmann = Norwegian (as in a person from Norway)

TONS of pictures!