17th May! Hip Hip Hurra!

The 17th of May Celebrations was something that was told to me time and time again. My husband was very anxious for me to celebrate it!
The first thing that struck me is his comment of ''What are you wearing?' almost 3 days before.
EH? Wha ah WEARING? ... Lemme see ... is 'spring' (uhh....doh mind it real HAIL and ting in de afternoon) but I was thinking .... er .. something warm? like a sweater and a jeans or something? ....
''Well I'm wearing my suit''  hm! I guess that means NO.....
eehhh heeeehhhh??? Suit? Well oui papa! ... Is celebrating watching a parade in REAL style deez people does do oui! ..
I think that MUST be a first? .. Where else in the world do people DRESS up to go watch a parade .... No one even THINKS about 'dressing up' to go watch the Independence day parade in Trinidad.... daiz real sweat marks in yuh nice Boss Suit!
No dearies .... I needed to look for my Spring best. And that was ?? .. Yea ... your guess is as good as mine! ... What is spring clothes ANYWAY? ... if spring clothes is what I see in the stores now ... that is NOT something I am prepared to wear in 10C weather! .. Unless the sun came out in FULL blast and glory I was going to look for something that would not leave me with my shoulders hunched up for the whole day ( how does hunching your shoulders make you warmer anyway? Is there a pychological reason for that?)
None the less the morning of the 17th of May I woke up to a dull blasting sound. Is that someone blasting rock? .. Hitting something? .. no ... those were the canons in Bergen heralding the beginning of the day!
I couldn't wait to put up the flag.  Yes 17th of May is the ONE day that perhaps EVERYONE who owns a flag pole in their yard is expected to put up a Norwegian Flag.  We had one too! :) And I was the eager beaver who woke up at 7 something just to put it out. 
Now if yuh know me .. just KNOWING that it was 10C outside is usually enough to make me a lady and let the guy do the cold work ... but I was enjoying my little childlike glee.

Showered and dressed I had one little summer dress (cuz I don't know the difference between spring and summer in dresses- they looked the same) with a sweater and a jacket over that and some flat boots for walking around.

The first thing that struck me is almost EVERYONE in the traditional bunad. Bunad is the traditional dress in Norway. They are made of wool and have beautiful embroidery on them.  There are many, many different types in Norway and they each represent a specific area in Norway.  So that makes for nearly 200 of more different types of Bunads there can be.... and I'm just guessing.

I was amazed at how the young and old even many young men were wearing the traditional dress.  Apparantly it has been something that was not always so popular. Bunads are very expensive things. Some bunads can take as many as 300 hours of hand embroidery for the complicated patterns on the women's dresses, and the headdress, gold or silver jewelry, broaches, purses, shoes etc must push the cost of owning one hand made for you to over $10,000kr! It makes for a very expensive 17th of May if you have too many kids .... yea ... ouch!

The parade itself, sorry Norway, was just interesting... not fantastic. It actually occured to me that it was more like a OLE MASS parade we have in Trinidad - placards and all! There was the normal stuff like what you would think - Police, Fire, Army, Marines, Marching bands, School Bands, War II Veterans  and all those great stuff in Uniform.  Then we had Pensioners with placards, Medical students with funny signs like 'Don't stop smoking, we need work', Veteran Vehicles (including an old fire truck) and convertibles (with the "wealthy" in it!!). Then they had schools -Primary and secondary schools, University students with something to say, Radio people, even a Jazz club.  Then at the end they had the Russ - Follow the link and read about it ... its graduation for school leaving students. It sounds like typical school leaving stuff .... great at that age ... questionable the year after!
They walked all along the road and sometimes having 2 sections walking past going in opposite directions ( i was not sure why).  Everyone stood on the side and cheered and waves flags in their beautiful bunads.

Afterwards, I'm told, people usually go to schools around where they live and have hot dogs and ice cream! It sounded like fun, but I'll wait until I actually HAVE to go to one before I wear myself out of the experience! LOL! ENT????

That was what was in the city. However, on our way out to the city we saw many of the children in the area (and parents too) all walking or driving over to the schools and barnehagens in the area to have their own parade in the streets followed by ice cream and hotdogs and a great ole May Fair time! ... That I will have to see later on.

So it sounds like a wonderful day! One to look forward to every year for kids and adults alike.

But now ... I'm jealous .... like I said the most beautiful thing was the traditional dress and the way everyone was a part of it ... I mean even the guys and old men looked sooo cute with their little 3\4 pants and stockings!!!
So another question.... Should I get one?  I'm from Trinidad .. and I thought it would be great to have a 'bunad' of my own .. one that could showcase Trinidad and the migration or something ... one that would blend .. but stand out with its own beauty .. and one that I can proudly wear to show my merging into the country ...
I looked at the Best Village Dresses and thought that might be a wonderful start!!! Including the headdress!!!
Whey yuh say?
All images of the Traditional dress are the copyright property of the photographers and/or TriniView.com, TriniSoca.com and TrinbagoPan.com

The Colours of Norway

No... this has nothing to do with the flag... which is by the way red, white and blue... nor does it have anything to do with the colour of the people here. 

It has to do with what colours are available and when.
ok .. So you know in Trini we have colours all year round right? .. Well that eh so here :( ... When I first arrived in Norway all I could find were grey, black, and purple clothes.  Brown shoes were not even heard of (as I had searched the year before for a pair of chocolate brown shoes.- .. but then again ... I suppose that would not be considered 'nude' here... hmm.. just thought of that).
Anyhoos.....  this little trini girl was preggas .... knew what she was having but we were keeping it a secret .... It was a girl ... (since the cat is out of the bag already) and I was looking around for colourful clothing .. I mean the whole POINT of having a girl is that you can dress her up in every single colour of the sun ... unlike a boy ... right? .. I mean ... we will dress a girl up in blue .. but we hesitate to put pink on a boy .. why is that anyways? .. like the baby will go ... HEY! .. I look really GAY in this ... no ... babies don't care .. and I quite frankly think it's good for their development....
So back to the story...
I'm looking for stuff for Little J'Zara and all I can find is pink....
I'm looking for stuff for me .. bright colours nah ... yuh know I iz a trini .... and greys , darks and purples ...
I wanted to decorate the baby nursery in Black white and apple green ... well I had to head to IKEA to get things apple green .. cuz apparantly that is their colour right now ... and everyone else was beginning to mourn Winter with dark colours and pinks and blues (for babies that is).
How does that compute? Dark colours for Winter when it's dark is a sure recipe for depression ... not so?
My husband then graciously told me that I had to wait for spring to find green things ......
hmm let's see .. walk into any nick nack store and sure enough ... darks and purples in Winter .. and as soon as spring came along .. the stores suddenly turned into bursts of Greens, yellows and pastelles for the Easter season ....
Well whadja know??? look at that?? .... how odd. Seems a little back to front  if yuh ask me ... but then again .. that is just the culture ... right?
I remember asking a lady at a kids store ... "when do you get more colours?" .. with Glee in her eyes she responded "spring and summer... just around the corner" ... sure ...
I had excitedly dressed my little pumpkin in the middle of winter in yellow ... (hey she looks good in any colour i think!) .. and he exclaimed ..."Oh my little Easter baby!!" .. Huh?
Really? ... I looked at her and thought she looked bright and cheerful .. he looks at her and sees Easter...
Yes... I don't know if it is like that in other temperate countries .. but I have to admit it is a little annoying ... I litterally have to plan anything I want a whole YEAR in advance .. just to make sure that I get the colour I want ... (at the right price of course .. since in Norway prices ARE ridiculous).
So the colours as I have figured it out are :
Winter start with purple, greys, blacks,
Advent  (before Christmas) Purple
Christmas .. red and green with
New Years .. white black/silver gold
Continuing winter with purples, greys,blacks etc
Spring comes along with chickens, easter eggs, yellows, bright greens, and pastelles
17th May is red, white and blue
Summer has lots of different colours ... I think it depends on the trend as well
Autumn comes along with oranges and browns
then it's winter again with greys, blacks and beiges....
And if its's one store that gets you going with it .. it would be Nille ..

So .. go figure if you want something red and green you have to wait until Christmas to get it.... cuz in Autumn you should have oranges and browns up ...
And the thing is that people have been doing it for years here ... it's such an odd occurance .. maybe they do it because they need the colour to realise what season they are in ... or going into ..???
But I have noticed that alot of people have a white base for their homes .... so I guess that makes adding colour for the seasons a possible thing to do ... whereas in Trinidad you can find any colour curtain etc ... and more importantly clothes and anytime of the year ....
Maybe the sun has something to do with it? ... Maybe cuz we live in a permanent summer we don't notice that we are so colourful? .. Someone once remarked on the dresses in the pictures from my wedding ... Wow .. look at all those colourful dresses.... huh? Oh yea .. I didn't even notice .... it was just assumed that you would dress....merrily ....
Maybe we wear bright colours cuz it works with our skin complexion???? Who knows .... all I know is that Norway has their season done to a colour ...
I guess it gives us something to do with each season ...??? who knows??
Whey yuh say?

Out Drinking Teams

Utdrikningslag is what it's called in Norwegian .. and how odd that it translates literally to Out drinking Team!!! Fantistic not so?? So funny ...anyways .. I'm sure that it came about because of the origins of it all... being... back in the day people lived so far from each other that celebrating someone's union to another was a real cause for GOING OUT .. out of the way ... and drinking in the local pub .... as a big ole team ... I'm just assuming here ..

anyways ... I've been to one .. and it is soo different from the way that we do ours in Trinidad.  It's very much planned ... and they do a whole day of activities ... For example. My husbands Bacholer party... or out drinking team .. (its too long ok .. so I'll just type Bacholer/Bacholerette Party) was to pick him up from his home, took him to a biplane ride (I think it did flips and stunts) all the while there might have been a little drinking in some where.... admittantly ...then headed over to a big barn where they played sumo wrestling ... in big blow up sumo wrestler outifts .... Don't mind that some guy who was over drunk (or 'full' in norwegian) decided to knock him out so that he was passed out on the floor ... much to the forlover's (best man's) dismay.  But really woudn't you want that instead of people making you dress skantily and giving you lots of lingerie??? i love that word ... since it almost never lingers.... you dont really GET anything big .. i think ... at least not at the one that I went to... Although ... I have a usual Bachelorette party gift that I give .... no matter what .... Needless to say ... it was VERY embarrassing when My good ole friend who invited me to her bachelorette party is opening simple gifts and the game is that she should guess who gave it to her ... and I had no idea that it was supposed to be hard .. so I gave her an obvious picture of her and her fiance from our wedding ... and a edible underwear tucked in the back .. (since I HAD to get that in) ... so of course .. from little snacks and the such that she got from other people .. I was a little red... purple...crimson what ever colour we reds get when embarrassed and need a whole to jump into.  It was apparantly NOT the occasion for an edible underwear ....
But other than that .. she got picked up in one of those Side Cars on a motorbike and got a ride around.. then it was to a spa for treatment then we all met up for lunch in the city, followed by a class in Belly dancing then, dinner at someone's home, then party into the night..... while the guys on the other side were out braving the high seas in a speed boat, the groom's gliding lesson got cancelled because of too much wind, then they were in a cabin in the woods with my husband as chef cooking steaks on open stones outside ....
If this sounds like fun and very much a memorable experience ... then I think so too! ...
This last one we saw the results at the wedding.  It was a music video that involved Madcon's Glow. Very impressive and it shows that there was so much thought and work put into the single night ... And this was something that was planned for AGES before .... VERY impressive ....
I have to admit .. If every I get married again (Tough luck with that ... I'm happily stuck to hubby) I would definitely want my well ... Bachelorette party planned by a norwegian .. :) ... Can I order a night in the ice hotel with that????
Whey yuh say??

First of all... sorry. Consistency is not my very best quality :) ... It has been way too long since I last wrote something.  The Reason .... well .. I had a BABY! lol! .. Yes yes yes .. it was a wonderful 9 months ... or 10 months ... well actually 42 weeks! ... since she was not interested in coming out to see the world on her own ... we had to do a little coaxing :)
But JahZara is here ... Her name means Blessed Princess in African ... and it could not be more perfect for her :) ...  She is divinely beautiful.... She changed everyday that I look at her .. and my heart melts each time she smiles at me ....
A card from my good friend, Debra in Trinidad says it all ... you WILL fall in love all over again ....
She is ... as they say here ... Snill (kind) meaning I suppose that she behaves herself well :) .. and for that I am grateful .... :) .
So ... Now I will continue the blog (as long as she lets me by sleeping) with the new adventures of motherhood...
Join me as my journey expands into new facets of life .... and Norway  :) .. and their quirky little quirks :)