Norway
2005-05-18, 10:43 a.m.
Dana’s Norway Email. A continuation.
We're both *Norwegian; her dad, Tor, being from *Norway and my great Grandmother, Pauline Fitsihagen, was born in *Gudbrandsdalen. My great grandfather, August Bergstadt, was from *Sweden. My grandmother then grew up in North Dakota and was called a "half-breed" for being both. To me, being *Norwegian and *Swedish is just about the same so you can imagine how the generation in this town was towards any other nationality.
Dana’s Email:
” I am having a blast here! It is weird typing on this computer because the keys are a little bit different, I have to be careful and not hit the "x" or "f" keys!
My cousins live right in downtown Oslo in a really old building it is so neat. There are stores in the lower level. Everything is so antique looking, I have taken a lot of pics so you can see, it reminds me a little bit of the older apartment buildings in Seattle with the circular wrought iron stair cases in them.
Yesterday was the 17th of May which is their independence day (from Sweden). It was their 100th year so it was very spectacular. I have NEVER in my life seen anything like it. In my mind I had been thinking that it was going to be similar to the 4th of July, but it was NOTHING like that. All the women get dressed up in their traditional dresses from the different Fjords that their ancestors come from (a lot of the men do too, but it is not as common). They have huge breakfasts and use their best china and invite all their closest friends. There are THOUSANDS of people out on the streets and this year the parade had 122 bands in it. The parade starts kind of in the center of Oslo and it goes up to the palace where the royal family stands outside on the balcony and waves to the people. The drinking age is 18 here so needless to say there were many drunk kids out and about. The kids that are graduating (high school) rent these party buses and drive around with huge speakers on the top blaring music and inside they are partying and drinking. When you graduate, you are given a specific color depending on what classes you are taking, gold and black mean you are very smart blue and red are the more normal classes. You get these business cards (they are your "color") made with your picture on them and little kids collect them almost like pokemon cards. It is all very interesting. I hope that you are not completely bored now!”
