Current location:	sofa
Current mood:	blank
Current music:	Mark Kermode
Entry tags:	everyday fluff: 2008, norway & norwegians

Life of a Norwegian teacher (33), famous Norwegians, panic of a teacher
Thank you everybody for your birthday wishes. And a specially big thank you to hierophantrix for the birthday cake! And to niora for the calorie-free cake :)

Birthday was spent in the office while the students on the beginner's level wrote their exams. In the evening I had extra choir practise for our 17th of May concert, and afterwards I went for beers with my friends, quite successfully (compared to some other attempts) trying to mingle new colleagues/friends with old friends (all language nerds). I came home late and somewhat drunk, but not feeling particularly older.


So when I - eventually - got out of bed on the 16th I had to wash my bunad-shirt before going to work, and when I arrived there I realised with some horror that I had to make all the preparations for the oral exams on that day. For some reason I had gotten the idea that I had a work day before the oral exams would start. Which I hadn't... Eventually out of the office it was home and fix the bunad.

So, 17th of May, up at 545, breakfast and getting into the bunad (still looking like this) and of join the morning parade. I went with a friend in the parade. We joined joyfully in all the singing and eviscerated equally joyfully the speeches. That is what happens when you present sloppy speeches to classical philologist before coffee. After the parade we ran around partaking in the the various wreathings of famous Norwegians and Bergensers. First it was Christian Michelsen, which was short and sweet, although without singing. Then we hurried down to the statue of (my guy) Ludvig Holberg, where we were too late for the speech, but just in time for the singing, and even better, beer. Then we wanted to join Petter Dass's wreathing, but here there was some mix up with the time. Eventually the wreath arrived and we got to listen to the most boring speech of the day, it was more or less a encyclopaedia-article of the life of Petter Dass* I have no idea who the speaker was, but she didn't know the first rule of speeches - know the audience. If people get up at horrible o'clock to watch somebody lay down a wreath at a dead person's memorial stone, they do not need to be reminded of who the person was, nor where and when he went to school.
*Actually, having read through the above-linked Wikipedia-article I have to correct myself, she was more boring than an encyclopaedia.

After this we went down to the harbour to join the wreathing of Shetlands-Larsen's statue commemorating him and all the Norwegian sailors who died during the second world war. Shetlands-Larsen being a war hero, this was a much bigger affair with people in uniform present, mostly from the Naval College which is situated here in Bergen. The speech was way better than the last one, but then I guess that they do actually learn something about holding speeches in Naval College, although it contained slightly too much politics (more money to the defence please) to my tastes.

By now it was 820, and your heroes were in dire need of coffee, so we hit the first place we found. Now 17th of May is a a day were a lot of people is up early here in Bergen, even if you don't join in the early morning parade, the main parades (there are two) starts around 1030, so if you're joining the parades or watch them you need to be up and about quite early. Also 16th of May is one of the big party nights, so pubs, cafees and anywhere that serves anything opens early. This to tell you that when we were the only ones drinking coffee in the place. And I spilt coffee on my shirt...

The coffee break was short, because the next part by the theatre where actors read poems by (play-)writers Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Nordahl Grieg and Henrik Ibsen by their statues.That was quite fun. Especially since a lot of russ - high school graduates - were slumbering in the morning sunshine by the foot of the statue of Ibsen. The actor poked some of them with the foot, and told them to listen, he was going to read a poem, one by Ibsen, that guy up there, he said, pointing at the statue.

The last wreath was laid down to commemorate those who died at the hands of Gestapo. This was by far the best speech we heard during the day, both in content and rhetorically. It managed to take the "never again"-cliché and transcend it. Very moving.

After this the city was most definitely starting to fill up. People crowded up along the route of the parades, and the bands, groups and various people who were going to join the parade started marching in. I ran along to my 17th of May-breakfast with some friends. It was the whole traditional affair, smoked salmon, cured meats, potato salad, scrambled eggs, cheeses, fruits, and of course lots and lots of champagne (or the cheaper sparking wine). We ate, drank and had a great time. I had to leave around 1430, sicen I had to go home and sleep and get ready for the concert the choir was going to hold in the evening. I went home, took off my bunad and fell into a somewhat buzzed sleep.

At 1705 I suddenly awoke. I was due in church at 1730. Never has anybody gotten into a bunad this fast, and let me tell you that getting into a bunad is a tricky thing with all the little catches and jingly silver-bits to be fastened.

Then there was concert, post-concert beer, and home to bed before 2200, since I was so, so tired.

And at 0239 I got a text message, and woke from it having forgotten to turn off the sound. It was from the woman who was going to be my censor at the oral exams which start tomorrow (as suddenly realised on Friday). She was stuck in Oslo, and couldn't get home in time for the exams. There is a strike which has closed down several airports, and of course all the trains and buses and all the other modes of transportation are full. So I didn't sleep well for the rest of the night, because finding a new censor so close to the exam, in the middle of the exam-period can be tricky. But I managed to find one after a couple of phone calls. *Phew*. Hopefully the paperwork will go easily.

So, life is busy, but good. I don't feel older, and I have got a new mobile phone. It is a Nokia E51, and so far I quite like it.