Syttende Mai! Seventeenth of May!

I didn't get to see the final episode of "Farmen" because my husband and I had something much more fun to do. We went to New York City and Maryland for a week in May to celebrate my father's (insert secret big round number here) birthday. It was a happy coincidence of timing that the Norwegian constitution day is May 17th, which fell on a Tuesday, which meant we got Monday off as well. Including the weekend and a few vacation days, both of us managed to get away for a whole week which was quite wonderful.

It was a very special trip, with three days first in New York and the rest of our time in Maryland. It was my husband's first time in NYC so that was kind of exciting and fun to see how he reacted to Times Square and the subway. For a farmer boy he did pretty well, although I tend to navigate through the subway stations and busy streets for us both.

Ola Magne at Times Square

I insisted on seeing a Broadway show while we were there, which is one of my passions. We saw Billy Eliot, a good show for both of us since it involved dancing (for me) and a boy plus politics (for my husband).

In January 2007 I took a class in college called Theatre in New York. It was just that--living in New York for a month and seeing 19 shows, probably about 11 of which were Broadway, some off-Broadway as well. It was a great experience and I loved getting a chance to live in the city for a limited time, without having to commit to moving there. It was nice to get back there. However, it was nice to leave again as well. It was very busy and exhausting compared to little Torpo. :-D There are however several trees in New York, as you can see in the picture below. I heard that there is even a park...centrally located...but we didn't go there this time around.

Me before getting on the ferry to Liberty Island.

We saw the Statue of Liberty, of course, since neither of us had seen it before. It was fun taking the ferry in, although it was very foggy! We almost couldn't see the Statue until we were at the Island.

We took pictures of us reading our local newspaper (Hallingdølen) in an attempt to get our picture published on the back page, but have been unsucessful so far. The paper tends to favor cute kids and animals. I guess we are neither.

Me posing for the camera...not really reading the newspaper.

We also went to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks, saw the World Trade Center site where they are rebuilding the Twin Towers, and Wall Street (the street...really not that impressive). I also spent a long time in Macy's only to find one shirt.

Wall Street.

Before we left, we celebrated Syttende Mai! We went to the Sjømannskirke (Seaman's church, which was established in many cities of port for Norwegain sailors to keep connections and their faith) to attend the service there. It was full of Norwegians, both natives and American-Norwegians. Most everyone was dressed in bunad (the traditional costumes of Norway) or nice clothes like dresses and suits. The Lutheran service was entirely in Norwegian by a female Norwegian minister. There was a lot of singing and music, including live trumpeters.

After the service they served pølser, Solo brus, and bløtkake! It couldn't have been more Norwegian! Pølser are the Norwegian kind of hot dogs known as wienerpølse, long and skinny, that stick out of the hot dog bun most inconveniently. Brus is soda, more specifically Solo is a type of orange soda--the best I have ever tasted! It tastes like actual oranges and has relatively low amounts of sugar. Bløtkake is the kind of cake they serve for special occasions, which has two or three layers of "sugar-cake" and are sandwiched with whipped cream, and often various other ingredients like fruit or nuts.

People wearing bunads eating pølser and drinking Solo brus.

After the service we had to go check out of our hotel and catch our train to Maryland, so we weren't able to attend the 17.mai parade that happened afterward. We took a train from NYC 2.5 hours to the station nearby my aunt's house. She picked us up and we stayed with her for one night, then moved to the area where my dad lives. We got to stay in our own "guest house" which was very nice.

Ola Magne, me, my aunt and my father

We had a really nice time, with more or less great weather. We went to Gettysburg to learn about the Civil War--very interesting. Getting caught in a thunderstorm out on the battlefield was one fantastic experience that made me happy to be alive afterward. We had to run to a big monument to seek shelter along with a high school class that didn't seem to mind the rain too much. I was personally more concerned about the lightning.

We also went to a couple other local museums about the Civil War, as per my request, including one about medicine during the Civil War in Frederick (horrific but very groundbreaking for modern medicine in warfare), and another museum at Monocacy Battlefield. This guy was really excited about the Civil War. He told us everything we could ever possibly need to know, or want to know, or not even really need to know, about the costumes (ahem, uniforms) worn since the Civil War until today. However, he talked so fast that I only understood about a third of what he said.

A very excited guy.

The birthday party for my dad was a very special occasion. All of his numerous siblings were present, and some had come from great distances. It was great to see all of them and get to know them better. We got to look at old pictures of the family and it was so fun to see what they all looked like as children. I hope to visit some of my aunts, uncles and cousins in the future.

Looking at old pictures with family.