The weekend of the 14th of May was a long weekend for us. Norway's National Day is on the 17th (which was a Tuesday, so the schools were nice enough to give us Monday off as well. The 17th of May is way more serious than Canada Day (which is normally spent just relaxing around the house and maybe going somewhere for dinner). We were up at what felt like the crack of dawn (in reality it was around 630am). Everton's school band was playing at a raising of the flag ceremony at his school. A lot of the people were adorned in their bunads (the traditional Norwegian garment which I absolutely adore). Some of the band mates were Russ students (Russ is the third year of what is their equivalent to our high school. The students have parties throughout the whole year. 3 weeks before the 17th of May things really kick off. They also have red overalls that they where for the whole period.) so they were looking pretty rough. The band then marched to different old-folks homes in the area playing the national anthem and other Norwegian hits. All the school and city bands gathered at my school for breakfast before the main event started. All the school children in the city gathered in the soccer stadium.In Norway, the parade that goes through the town is a children's parade. They paraded all the way down to the park in the centre of town where everyone sang songs. (Later on in the day was the Russ parade, where they go through the town with their vans and buses passing out fake business cards to the little kids (its somewhat funny because some of them have things written in English on them that are not appropriate for the kidies). A lot of the children's schools put on parties for the national day, so we went to my host brothers' school in the afternoon. I would say a good way to some up the day is ice cream and hot dogs (which we ate a lot of that day).
Another whole day test took place (I know that this is exciting), for Naturfag (Science) this time. The morning was spent in 2 workshops to go over what we need to know. The first one was informative (Chemical Reactions) since I missed some of the weeks that we were working with that and the other one was pointless. It was about Bærekraftig Utvikling (Sustainable Development, thanks to Google Translate). We were given the afternoon to write the test. The multiple choice portion was easy but I had a few problems with the long answer questions.
I tried roller skis for the first time a few weekends ago. (For those of you who do not know what roller skis are, they are 2 rods of metal with 2 roller-blade style wheels attached at both ends. You then use cross-country ski boots attached to the bindings and poles to help push you along.***Safety equipment is recommended***)Everything was going great until I tried to turn a corner. I turned it as if I was using roller blades (which have great ankle support) and ended up falling on my side. It wasn't that bad until I actually looked at the damage. The top layer of skin was gone but the real damage wasn't noticeable until 2 days later when a nice bruise developed. People were staring for at least 2 weeks.
I had the strangest gym class 2 Wednesdays ago. We showed up to class and the teacher told us that it was our choice training and we were allowed to train off campus. (I will definitely miss the freedom of school here next year.)
The next day, we had a "field trip". It was a whole day of gym. My class and another class were lead by our two teachers on a hike. We started the day of at our school and walking up to the top of the ski hill. From there we walked back down and had a "nice" 30 minute hike up to Øverby (a cross country ski track). We divided into groups and did orienteering up there for 2 hours (which was basically just walking around in circles). We continued our hike up to a electrical tower which is the highest point in town. Once up there we played some strategy games (and at that point it began to rain). We walked down the hill and back up to Tranberg Gård and finally ended up back at the Videregående Skole. I was ridiculously tired after that day.
Therese and the children went to Germany for a weekend for a first communion so just me and Wolfgang had the house to oursleves. The first night we had a dinner party for the Rotary club and the next night we had people over for dinner.
This past weekend we had a huge gathering at our house for a combo of baptism and first communion (Noa and Hanna had their baptism and Everton had his communion). A portion of the family from Germany arrived in Gjøvik on the Friday (Wolfgang's sister, Therese's parents and her brother with his family). There was a lot of German being spoken during that weekend. It was so warm that day that we had a water-gun fight. We had so many people staying with us that we had to eat our meals in the party tent that was set up outside the house. All of the kids were taken on a boat tour (while I stayed back and helped Noa and his cousin fish). A portion of the next day was spent in preparation for the party on the Sunday. I baked a poundcake (for the first time in my life which turned out beautifully). My host mom also took the godparents and the kids to the church in Lillehammer to have one last run through. All of the kidies went down to Fastland (an outdoor swimming pool that is more like a pond than a pool). It was ridiculously cold but it was nice to lay in the warm sun (since we had been having so nice weather with the exception of today). The next day we were fed, dressed and driven to the church very early. The church was jam-packed because there was another boy being baptized and the kidies had so many guests. Both the baptism and communion went smoothly. All the guests came back to our house. The food was from Tapeo (the new tapas restaurant in town). Noa, Everton and Hannah all received many gifts. All of children ran around, played fooseball and on their electronics while the adults sat around. The night came to an end with everyone leaving satisfied.
School is almost finished with just spoken exams left( the way these work is you talk about a topic to and examiner. The system is totally random so only certain people have to take them). We are done next Friday.
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| childrens parade |
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