Syttende mai translates to simply"seventeenth of May", which is the day in 1814 when Norway's constitution was signed into law. Its basically our equivalent of the 4th of July. :) Literally everybody gets out (and for many, dressed up in the national costume) and attends the local parade and/or events to celebrate. I don't think there's a kid alive that grew up in Norway and didn't have to hold a kid-sized flag every syttende mai! Unlike in the States, however, its not simply a day to shoot off fireworks and drink. ;-) Norwegians tend to be pretty damn proud of our independence - we changed hands many times over the millenia, whether it was Sweden or Denmark or whoever that had control, we didn't really have true independence until after the damn Americans did!
Anyway, if you're interested in a bit of history, Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it here. Or, even cooler, the newspaper in my family's hometown of Stavanger has a gorgeous photo reel of today's events here, where you can bear witness to the fact that not all Norwegians are white! :) But the day really does hold some fond memories for me - when we were much younger our parents would take us to the local celebration where there'd be all kinds of games and stuff for us to do, and people my dad could speak Norwegian with. :) You'd be surprised how many there are in the area! We tend to gravitate towards each other...I'll have to look through my parents' albums and see if I can find the old photos of us dressed up for that.
Funny of the week for me has to be a tie between my boss and Jacopo:
My boss, for making every conceivable joke he could today about a business contact who goes by his initials, which happen to be "K.Y." I won't cite every one, but I think my favorite had to be "Watch out, he's a slippery fellow." We were rolling. I know, high school humor, but still freaking funny.
And Jacopo, because as Chris and I were trying to get to sleep last night I kinda shoved the puppy over with my butt (as he was against my back) and made a crack about him being so kind as to share the bed, to which he promptly responded with a huge puppy sigh and quickly repositioning so that his head was now draped over the back of my neck, and his little heater of a body was even closer to me. I swear, dogs really do speak human! Chris and I laughed until we cried, it was so ridiculously apropo.
Tonight I'm attending a fashion show/fundraiser with my mom for IIDA (International Interior Design Association), which should be fun. The fashion show is actually part of a fundraising challenge to design firm teams to make clothes out of whatever traditional interior design products they're given. Plus they do a mixer and silent auction and that kind of thing. I went with her before, either last year or the year before, and had a ball - especially so since we sat just in front of these fabulous gay men who were full of wickedly funny comments. Keep your fingers crossed that happens again this year! :)
Other than that, a fairly quiet week. Spent the weekend and Monday fighting a wicked cold. Unfortunately I had to return to work Tuesday, and I'm much better but still have congestion and a slight cough. But I've been loading up on the vitamins, so hopefully I won't have to deal with this much longer. And at least I didn't completely lose my voice like I did last December! That would have put a severe damper on my value at work.
Hope everyone else is having a good week!
~Trude
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