Friday Nights

My Friday nights in Norway are spent much differently than I spend them in USA.  On Fridays in USA, I would probably go out with my friends to the movies or hang out at somebody's house.  In Norway, Friday nights are when all of the special one-night-per-week shows come on: reality shows, comedy shows, music shows, etc.  In my first host family, we weren't too interested in watching those shows.  The first time I was exposed to those shows was when I visited Cathrine and Didrik in Oslo in early October.  We spent the Friday night watching those shows and rating the music and laughing at the comedy shows.  The second time I saw the shows was at Alice's house within the next few weeks.  We all sat down for dinner, but ate and watched the shows at the same time.  Here in my second host family's house, we sit down in the living room for dinner on Friday nights and watch the shows while we eat.  Remember, this only happens on Friday nights!

One of the shows that just started again is Eurovision.  This week they were picking people to represent Norway in the all-Europe singing show.  In the 2009 show, Alexander Rybak, a Norwegian, won the show.  Here's the winner performing with Frikar (for those of you who don't remember, it's a Norwegian dance group that specializes in Norwegian dances... kicking hats off of sticks etc):

And don't tell me he's not cute...  ;)  Norway is so proud of him.  I have heard a bit about him.  Also, when we went to visit colleges in Oslo in November, one of the professors sang and played the song. 

The shows have a bit of an impact on the culture that you don't really see on the surface.  It is very cool how proud Norway is of Alexander Rybak and Frikar and winning Eurovision. 

-----

Saturday to today I spent the night at Alice's house and we watched the new Karate Kid movie.  Phil: add that movie to the Rotary list (if you haven't already)! 

ALSO: I dreamed in Norwegian last night!  I dreamed I was reading out loud from the book Sondre lent me: "Fluenes Herre" aka "Lord of the Flies".