The 17th of May is Norway's National Day. It was extremely fun to be a part of, but it was celebrated nothing like the 4th of July in the USA.
What happened:
Well, there was a marching band that walked around the city between 6 AM to 8 AM to wake everyone up. Then, at 8 AM I woke up and started getting ready. For the 17th of May everyone dresses very nice, and the Norwegians where their national costume, the bunad. But, I did not have a bunad, so I wore a blue dress (the colors of Norway are red, white, and blue). Then, at 9:30 my friend Malin came and picked me up so we could go down to the city for the Barnetoget, or Children's Parade. We got down to the city about 15 minutes before the parade started, then we watched the first part of the parade. This parade was with all the schools in Sandefjord. After the first half we walked down to the back of the parade. There we met up with some classmates. I decided to walk in the parade with Sandefjord Videregånde Skole (that is the school I attend) and Malin just wanted to watch the parade. We walked around the streets in the downtown part of the city. It was fun, because as we walked people waved their flags and yelled "hurra!" to the people they knew.
After the parade I met back up with Malin and we walked over to the park. At the park there was a stage set up where they had speeches and sang the national anthem.
After the speeches we went with her family to her grandparents house. There, we ate sausages, mashed potatoes, and cake and coffee. Apparently, that is very traditional food for the 17th of May. After being with her family, we then drove back to the city. There we bought shave ice and met up with some friends. We then went to the carnival that was set up in town. It wasn't very big, but there were some things to do. It was extremely expensive: 50 kroner ($10) for one ride and the biggest ride was 100 kroner ($20). That, I thought was insane. I didn't go on any of the rides, but we watched as some of our friends went on the ride. After the carnival we walked to Brygga, where we got ice cream. That was good :). Then, after we sat, talked, and ate our ice cream we walked back to the city center to get our spot to watch the Borgetoget, which was a parade with all of the clubs and activities in Sandefjord. My dance studio danced in the parade and my choir sang in the parade, but I just wanted to watch the parade because there was a lot of funny things to see. All of the clubs were dressed up and did what they do in the parade. For example the tennis club played tennis, the dance studio danced, the choirs sang, and the swim club had on their swimsuits.
At the end of the parade was the Russ (the graduating class). But in Norway, they have no formal graduation, it is basically a month long party before the exams and then school is done. They wear ugly red pants and hats that look like train conductor hats. They have to wear their pants everyday for almost a full month, from the beginning of Russetiden which this year was April 19th and Russetiden is done on May 17th. I think it is a very strange tradition, but it is a tradition none the less. Some of the Russ, buy and decorate party busses and others buy and decorate cars. Then, they just party and drink a lot and spend a lot of money on alcohol, clothes that they will never wear again, and busses/cars that they will never use again.
After the Borgetoget I met up with Solveig and we walked around the town a little bit. We ate sausage and mashed potatoes (me for the second time that day). Then we met up with Marethe and went to the carnival. We went on one ride, it just spun a lot, but it was fun. Then we went to the Brygga and ate more ice cream.
Then, afterwards my host dad picked me up (and thank goodness, my feet were killing me after walking so much in my fancy shoes). Then when I got home I ate some krunnsikake and tiramisu ice cream while I watched TV with my family. Then, I went to sleep and was dead at midnight.
