As one of my final weekends in Oslo, the past one was as good as I could possibly have hoped for. Beginning on Friday with the medical students' review show (thinking re-writing of popular songs into hilariously clever rude Norwegian versions and lots of nudity), and continuing onto Saturday's big event: Norway's Eurovision win! Alexander Ryback pulled it in at a record breaking score for Norway, and being in the country when they won was amazing (despite the fact my whole student village's television signal went down and everyone had to resort to internet viewing)!
Saturday was a night of great celebration for many, and Sunday was another big calendar event: Norway's National Constitution day, 17. mai. A massive day of celebration for all, everyone got on their lovely national costume, the royal family stood on the palace balcony and huge parades walked the entire length of the main street in Oslo and round in front of the palace. Despite the fact that celebrations were marred slightly last year by sudden snow, this year was brilliant sunshine all day, it was lovely! We had an early start with a traditional breakfast at a friend's: smoked salmon, prawns, gravadlax, fresh rolls, coffee, a huge range of delightful things! After that we headed out to view the parades in the company of enthusiastic parents, siblings, friends and grandparents awaiting their children walking past in the parade. After a little while watching, we met some friends, had some ice cream, enjoyed good company in good weather, and eventually headed onto a park for a barbeque, it was a delightful day all in all. Here are a few pictures from the day:
Above is one of the buses I wrote about in previous entries: on the side of the bus are rather revealing photos of the students whose bus it is, they seemed to be enjoying the attention they received as a result of their kinky photoshoot!
Anyway, the weekend was a dream, but this week hasn't been quite as good: today I had my first exam of this semester, Contemporary Literature, 4 hours of not-quite-as-successful-as-i'd-like essay writing! This weekend I have a translation conference to attend, and a bit of work to do in preparation for it, and next week another exam. Basically, work is once again taking over, but I suppose I ought not to complain after such a good weekend! A wee bit of work and a wee bit of play and a hope to make the most of the past few weeks here!
