Hip, Hip, Hoorah!

Today is THE DAY. It’s the day, 105 years ago, Norway finally signed their own Constitution, putting an end to Sweden’s rule over them. The rain in no way dampened the spirits of the Norwegians around here and the festivities went on as if it were a fine summer day. (Double click on the photo to see just how long this parade is – Kaleb is in there somewhere.)




Kaleb joined his old classmates in the parade down Myrlandsveien (our old street). All the kids were either dressed in bunads (traditional Norwegian costumes) or their finest black attire. The bunads are regional, so everyone from the same area wears the same patterned bunad. Trying to pick someone out of a crowd on a day like today is sort of like looking in a “Where’s Waldo?” book. If people aren’t in their bunads, many are wearing black, so it was even hard to find Kaleb in the crowd, but there he was, waving his Norwegian flag with the rest of them. He didn’t know the words to the National Anthem most of the kids were singing as they walked along, but he may have yelled out a “Hip Hip Hoorah!” every now and then. He’s always so disappointed that parades in Norway don’t have anyone tossing candy to the crowd – but most of the people are IN the parade anyway, and not many are lined up on the side-lines. No floats, no clowns, maybe one marching school band and then just waves and waves of school kids and parents, walking along shouting out things that let the world know of the pure joy they feel over the significance of this day.



We decided not to go into the city this morning to see the big parade, mostly because we slept in a little, but also because of the rain. I used the morning to finally organize the bathroom cupboards and Kory went down to the storage unit to dig out some tools so hopefully tomorrow he can start building Kaleb’s wall. The supplies are in, we heard. Woo hoo. It was a wonderfully relaxing morning and would have been more so if Kaleb wouldn’t have been pestering us to either watch TV or play with electronics. He was terribly bored just sitting home. Such is life. Once I offered to fill his time with school work or journaling, he discovered a pencil and paper and began to draw cartoons.



We had planned to go visit Tante Ruth today after the parade and school festivities that follow, but we ran into Tobias’ family and they invited us to their “grill” (BBQ) afterwards. It’s hard to pass up that kind of invitation, as all of Kory’s other cousins were otherwise occupied (Turid had to work today). We also received another party invitation from Andre’s parents, but we had to turn that one down. It’s so great to be included in things here – something we rarely experience back home.



We talked a little with Morten’s mom today – he’s the kid that beat up Kaleb a lot last year. She said Morten is doing much better now that he is on medication. She also said he was SO excited when he came home from school one day with a bag full of American candy Kaleb gave to all his “best friends.” He was so proud he holds that rank. Little does he know Kaleb gave him that bag of candy as a preventative move, hoping to keep his blows at bay. It’s worked well so far, but he hasn’t been around him much. In a few weeks when Kaleb goes back to school, we’ll see if his plan worked.



The strangest thing about this 17th of May, from others we’ve been to in Norway, is how late the spring is. Normally, tulips and lilacs are blooming this time of year, but the daffodils are just now blooming and there is hardly a tree with leaves showing. It’s the norm to cut birch branches and bunch them together with a Norwegian flag and tie them to fence posts or door fronts, but this year people had to hunt a little to find any birch branches with sprigs of green – most of them are still in the budding stages. I do hope the cold weather is behind us now, otherwise all my deck plants will surely die. The locals consider 17th of May as really the first day of “spring” and now they feel summer is soon on its way.



Before we headed off to Tobias’ house, we visited with several people we hadn’t seen since last year. It was a great time of greeting and catching up a little. Our calendar is now filling up fast as people either want us over before we head home, or we invited them over to see our new digs. Good thing I brought my calendar.



While we were eating our yummy BBQ’d dinner, we asked Tobias what he is looking forward to the most about coming home with us this summer. He doesn’t know the options available, so he had a hard time answering. I do know he’s looking forward to being in America, so hopefully he won’t be disappointed. We have lots of things planned, but nothing comes close to the excitement Norwegians feel for the 17th of May. Hip, Hip, Hoorah!