Alt for Norge Daily Journal: Day 25 - May 17, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today is Syttende Mai (May 17^th). This is Norway’s Independence Day and their largest and most important holiday throughout the year! Today was going to be a fun day and it definitely lived up to the hype!

The note that was left with my Bunad!

We stared the day of with a fake wakeup. Even though we had already gotten up, showered and had breakfast, they had us get back in bed and then filmed us “waking up” and finding our Bunads, which are a traditional Norwegian formal wear. Not only that, but they filmed us putting them on, which was weird since we basically stripped to our boxers on camera! (Doesn’t help that I’m doing this right next to Austin, aka Mr. Muscles!)

Austin and I rocking our Bunads shortly after "waking" to find them.

After filming us waking up, we were filmed walking out into the streets of Oslo. It was only 10:00 A.M. and already the streets were filling up! There were even small parades going on. It was pretty exciting and cool to see so many others wearing their Bunads!

We walked about ¾ mile and ended up at the Royal Palace, along with a huge crowd! Turns out there will be a parade that goes around town and in front of the Palace, where the King, Queen and the rest of the Royal Family will be watching from their balcony! Even better, we were going to get front row seats! What an experience!

The King, Queen and the rest of the Royal Family!

We walked through the crowd to a marked off section that was saved for us. About 30 minutes after that, the Royal Family came out of the Palace balcony. They did the formal waving to the crowd as you would expect, then took their places. They parade then commenced!

We weren’t able to stay for the whole thing, since we had some other things to film, but were able to stay for about half of the celebration. From what we watched, it looked like most of the parade consisted of every local school marching their band by the King along with some dancing. It was a pretty fun time!

I make a Bunad sexy! (Maybe not, but that was part
of my verse from the Bunad rap!

Next was lunch at a local restaurant. Pretty good food and beer, but my mind was occupied with trying to write a rap song called, “I’m in a Bunad!” Not sure why or where it got started, but it seemed to have a pretty catchy chorus! I would end up spending the rest of the day trying to refine it and write some additional verses. Good times!

After lunch, they did the introductions to the individual, elimination challenge. Those involved were filmed getting the intros, but the rest of us had to remain off camera, so we had to be filled in by one of the Mamas as to what the competition would be. The contestants would have one hour to prepare a Syttende Mai speech and then give that speech at a local fair, in front of a couple hundred people! The speech and winner would be chosen by two judges, both local guys that are apparently pretty high up in the political world! This would be a tough challenge and one I’m glad I’m not in!

How cute was this girl, who was hanging out
at the local fair that day! Seeing her definnitely
made me miss my kids even more!

While they prepared their speeches, the rest of us went to a small fair that was being put on by a local school. There were a few hundred people watching a talent show on a small stage, playing games, and eating some homemade food! It was a lot of fun and they filmed our team, the winning team, go out and interact with all the locals, as well as play the games and eat the food. I especially had fun, because I got to play with some local kids! (I’ve definitely been missing my girls lately and needed this!) After that, the contestants of the individual challenge came down to give their speeches.

Henriette did a small introduction to the crowd and tried to get them pumped up. They had those not in the contest stand near the side of the stage with the judges, then up came Dana. He surprised me and delivered a very powerful speech that I wouldn’t have expected. Johnathan was next to go. He had written a speech that was very focused on the beauty of Norway along with some historical facts. In terms of presentation, it wasn’t too bad. Alf would go third and had a lot of good content, but probably struggled the most in his delivery. Finally, Amy wrapped it all up. Apparently, she was on her debate team in high school, so the stage was not an issue for her. However, I felt that her content was probably the worst out of the four.

When it was all over, most of us had no idea on how it was going to go. The one thing that we were positive about was that Dana would be safe and most likely, Amy and Alf would be in the bottom two. We were wrong!

Henriette and I looking stylish in our Bunads
while waiting for the results.

About an hour later, we filmed the results. The two politicians stepped up and said that Alf and Amy would be safe! They stepped over and left Johnathan and Dana in the bottom two. After a brief explanation, they told Dana that his speech was very powerful and they would “follow him into battle”, but that it was not very Norwegian, especially for Syttende Mai. With that, Dana would be eliminated and Johnathan was safe! That was our first big “shocker!” This just goes to show how important it is to know your audience! I’ll need to remember that as we move forward. Dana’s going home!

It will be interesting to see how things move forward as a group. One thing that I think a lot of us were disappointed about was that we would always hang out as a group in our free time, but most of that time, Dana and Tara would be off on their own. We felt as if they were really missing out on the fun the group was having. Along with that, another positive side to Dana heading home, he’s proven himself to be a pretty strong competitor, so that’s one less competitor that I would have to beat out!

After the results and once Tara was able to stop crying (she was a wreck after the announcement), we did interviews and then the cast headed back to get changed and get some dinner. We went out to a Chinese restaurant and it became completely apparent that Dana and Tara were not going to keep things a secret anymore. (By the way, because we had to film scenes out of order this week, Dana needed to stick around for one more night, even though he was eliminated.) At that point, they were pretty open about their feelings for each other, even exchanging a kiss and holding hands as we left the restaurant!

I had to take a photo of my dinner that night. The coolest
Chinese dish I've ever been served!

After dinner, Jessica wanted to go out, since it would be her birthday at midnight. She had mentioned that she wanted to go to a gay-club, so she could dance and wouldn’t have to worry about guys hitting on her. Everyone was gung-ho, even Alf! Mama Christine suggested a place, so we made our way.

The MAMAS! The three of them joined us for the beginning
stages of what would be a really fun night! (As you can see,
they're a pretty funny crew! Ane on the left, Brita in the
middle and Christine to the right.)

We arrived at a bar that was only a couple blocks from our hotel and started to get our drink on. It was pretty fun, but we all quickly realized how expensive it was, so we made the decision to do some pre-partying back at the hotel and then make our way back to this club later in the evening.

We found ourselves back in Johnathan’s room (who got his own room somehow!) and cracked a bottle of whiskey. For the next hour, we hung out, all of us, had several drinks, and each of us ended up writing our own verse to “I’m in a Bunad!” with hopes that we could convince the film crew to record it the next day! (They’re having us put our Bunads back on so that we can film some more Syttende Mai scenes.) The hotel room was an incredibly good time and was probably the most fun that we had as a group! Fortunately, things got even better when Mama Christine came in to say that she could hear us halfway across the hotel and that we should make our way back to the club, which we did.

Alf giving Jessica a lift as we sing her Happy Birthday at midnight!

All of us, except for Johnathan and Barbara, went back to the gay club around 11:00. By this point, the club had really filled in and the dance floor was packed. At midnight, we were all on the dance floor and Alf picked up Jessica so that we could all sing to her! We continued to dominate the dance floor, doing our best impersonation of The Jersey Shore and fist pumping the night away! The night continued on and the drinks continued to flow! It was a really good time with many of us staying out pretty late. Dana and Tara were the first to leave, then Alf and Austin escorted Jessica back to the hotel. C.J. and I stayed back to make sure that Amy was safe, who was absolutely loving the dance floor! (Funny story here: C.J. spent much of the night buying this one girl drinks. Apparently, he forgot where he was and was disappointed when she introduced him to her girlfriend! Ha!) Eventually, Amy and I headed back, getting back around 2:30 A.M.. Great times and a great way to celebrate my first Syttende Mai!!

Day 25 Over! We’re down to 9!