MGPjr, Kulturnatt & Co

Melodi Grand Prix Junior, also spelled as MGPjr, is a Norwegian television music competition for children and adolescents under the age of 16. The contestants sing primarily in Norwegian and last weekend two girls from Eid, Vilde and Anna, won that contest with their song ‘Vestlandet’, which means in other words the western part of Norway (where we live).

For that reason a huge celebration took place on Monday. I just came from a rapid dinner driving tour (with a guy whose name I do not remember right now – but according to his driving style he must have been a race driver once) and went straight to the school/opera afterwards to help preparing everything. We volunteers were busy all evening with moving around tables and chairs, decorating the hall with balloons, making food and refilling empty bottles. During the event the Norwegians had the chance to demonstrate their talent in holding long speeches once more, Vilde and Anna sang their song (If you want to hear it, here you go:www.youtube.com/watch?v=KloOPX12Wno) and as I expected it the mayor distributed cake to all the people who came to see and congratulate the girls again. The cake, or should I say the cakes, looked really nice, each with a different personal dedication to Vilde and Anna. They actually have been better than the awful red hearts from the community of Eid, nevertheless too sweet and with little taste, but that is the way how Norwegians like it. As long as it looks nice and it is sweet, it is good. I do not agree in that point, but just as they think…

But the celebration and the dinner driving have not been the only things I was occupied with that day. In the morning I distributed flyers in hotels, shops and restaurants together with Artur for another event – the cultural night. This so-called ‘Kulturnatt i Nordfjord’ took place on Friday and again I was quite busy.

It started with a Viking show for kids at noon and went on with a little concert from the cultural school at the residential home for elderly people and some entertainment stuff at the cultural house in Nordfjordeid. Afterwards various things happened in the opera as well as a huge concert, organized by the cultural school. And of course Vilde og Anna presented their song once more. My task was to keep the little children on the gallery quiet to not disturb the artists and to stop the door right in time before it closed loudly, because kids kept running in and out all the time. Not as easy as it sounds, trust me! Later at the local pub the Norwegian band Indigo Child gave a little concert and I wish I could have joined it, but I helped tidying up and preparing everything for the ‘First Lego League i Operahuset Nordfjord’ on Saturday.

It is a competition for teens from 10-16 years and it is about creating robots out of Lego to get them more interested into science. One thing is certain: I never could have done this. They created pretty amazing stuff out of these bricks... So now the winner will participate in the Scandinavian final in Bodø in December and maybe we will have another local winner soon. Probably there will be another celebration at the opera then, we will see :D

Ha det bra!

Alisa