JULTREFESTEN!!

Homecoming: Day 2, Part 3

After we showered and changed from working, we walked down the street to the old school house where the Jultrefest was. Don’t worry, I was just as confused about it when I realized we were going to a Christmas tree party in January. Here’s what I gathered about the celebration:

1. It’s an annual event that basically retains all the goodwill of Christmas for one final celebration held in the small, retired school house;

2. It’s not elitist by any means, but it seemed that only those who were relatively familiar with the Wathne family knew about it [there’s no way it’d fit the whole town];

3. It felt as if this was the Christmas party for families and friends, the ones we all have before Christmas;

4. Santa Claus comes after they sing a song to “call him out”;

5. Songs of the season are sung while everyone gathers around the Christmas tree [I’ll talk more about this in a second].

I’ll tell you this much, it was a damn comfortable and friendly little school house. We had gotten their late and didn’t have a place to sit, but the place was just filled with happiness and joy. It almost felt as if it were Christmas Eve, truly. I saw Farfar being a pimp with the other elder men against one of the walls; Farmor was sneaking into hidden seats to talk with everyone; and I met a nice man and his kid who were sitting at the table with us (this happened after people brought out another small table). As we drank coffee and ate cookies, fruit, and bread, this man (whom I can’t remember) talked to me about my trip so far and how long I was here, where I studied, etc and it was nice to meet such friendly people. I tried my best to keep up the language, but in my attempts to be clear, I spoke really quietly and repeating things too often forced my hand to use language. As it turns out, the young snowboarder/skateboarder clothing line in America is alive and well in Norway. The guy’s son was wearing an LA Dodgers cap to complete his outfit and I asked him if he’s ever been to LA – low and behold- he has not. He just likes the team, but there is nothing wrong that! I used to where an NC Tarheels cap and I didn’t even like the team, I just liked the colors- they went well with most of the clothes I wore.

After the Santa song was sung and a very skinny Santa came out to give candy to the kids, we played trivia. They had a round of trivia for the kids and there was this one girl who kept saying she got the answer but I didn’t see her answer one-yet she had almost 12 pieces of candy! She’s a sneaky little devil! When the kids had had their fun, the adult round began. I was proud because I only had Christian translate a few of the questions for me, and right when I was getting the hang of it- the Ringleader of the Night calls out- “we have a visitor from America with us tonight- this question is for you!”

So naturlig, everyone turn around to see me in my red flannel shirt, Seattle-style glasses, and me looking around at everyone-because-they-were-all-looking-at-me; I was made. I was put on the spot and kind of nervous about the question ‘cause I mean, what if I got it wrong? I’d be the worst American to visit this small and beautiful town!

The question: Who is the Governor of California?

I know, right?! Perfekt question! BUT right before I answer, Christian speaks up and calls “Arnold Schwarzenegger!” What a douche! He had all night to answer and get candy, yet he takes mine! OH MAN I WAS ‘PISSED’! We started laughing and I brought it up to him, saying, “You know, Arnold isn’t the governor anymore, right? He was done in office on Monday”. Christian quickly turns to quiet me and says, “Shhh! They don’t know that yet!” Retaliation: Complete- I almost had his candy taken away. Boom! Don’t mess with me, yo!

When trivia was done, they wrapped up the night singing songs around a Christmas tree, but in a traditional manner, where the youngens hold hands and make a small, inner circle around the tree and the adults hold hands to make up the larger, outer circle. When they sing, they move around the tree, but in different directions. Usually it started out with the kids moving clockwise and the adults moving counter-clockwise, but at stopping points in the song, they would halt, sing, and change directions. Christian at first seemed embarrassed but quickly got over it as he remembered the words to the songs from when he was a kid. I also remembered one of the songs from class and joined in from the sidelines, tapped my boot a bit, and clapped my hands together.

After 8-9ish songs, they Ringleader of the Evening concluded with a “thanks for coming, it was a fun night and we are so lucky you came” kind of thing and they sang a final song and that was that.

EXCEPT afterwards, I had a TON of Norwegians flank me to talk to me about being from America and how my trip was going, if I had family, if I could speak Norwegian, and so on. I tried to use my Norwegian for a while but after a bit I couldn’t think of the words so I allowed them to practice their English.

We came home to a homemade-from-scratch pizza that Berit (my host-mother) had prepared, which was DELICIOUS! OH.EM.GEE! SO good! The crust was perfect! I don’t even know what flavor it technically was but I definitely ate too much of it to be comfortable!

The night was ended with going to Christian’s sister’s place just down the street to use her wifi and plan out our trip to the capital city of Oslo. Just saying- I’ve been having these weird dreams where I’ve been getting into a bit of trouble…I’m hoping this isn’t a premonition for my upcoming trips….

Fra Norge med Kjærlighet