Day 226: More Things

Some unexpected complications have recently prevented me from updating as much as I would like. Regardless, here we go.

Ok, so, last week was the Solfestuka. On March 8th, the sun could in theory be seen from the town. Unfortunately, the weather said no. All the same, most of the townspeople met at the old hospital steps for the ceremony of welcoming back the sun.

Some photos of the scenery:





The church, in the general vicinity:



The most awesome location for a preschool ever:



A bunch of school kids were around to participate in the going-ons, and some of them were in a formation holding umbrellas. I'm not really sure what this was about. Something...sunny.







Tons of cute kids running around. Most everyone was decked out in some kind of sunshine paraphernalia.







Kids galore:





Kid, totally passed out:



My mini-doppelganger:



Class lining up in their positions:



So many people! Lots of kids=lots of parents.



The head of ceremonies did a little interview with the young man who drew this year's logo, a happy-looking sun. From what I gathered from my translator, this fellow gave an entertaining interview...something to the lines of: Announcer - "Hey there! How did you decide to draw this sun?" Kid - "Well...I drew a sun. Then I put legs on it." [in a tone of speaking to an idiot]



MORE KIDS:





The highly-exuberant head of ceremonies:



Some Norwegain fellows from my building singing along with the songs:



A song and dance about the sun:







Cute, cute cute:



One of the hundred kids eating snow during the ceremony. Snow-eating seems to be really popular in the younger population.



I have to say, on one level, the ceremony was a little sad - it was very obvious that the sun was not going to show, and yet the master of ceremonies kept calling for the kids to wave and sing louder to make the sun come out. It got to the point where I began to wonder if they had installed a big stobe light on the mountain top, or something, to reward their screams. But no.



I think there's about a 50/50 kid to clothing ratio for most of these:



Local scallywag climbs a roof:



Kid climbs shoulders:



Man takes photos from convienient window:



Kid gets TOTALLY ADORABLE:



And then dubious.



All in all, a lovely if sunless ceremony!



Later that day, the town had an enormous sun cake given out to everyone who showed up - this record cake was measured at 6.96m.



Which, after my first bite, I realized was made of something like pure nuts (to which I am allergic, but luckily in the vomiting-way, not the dying-way). So I took a break to sit outside. On the steps, I kept hearing someone...I don't know, sniffing, or coughing, and I realized I was sitting next to a baby.



So that happened. Later I took this photo, proving Americans and Norwegains can be friends:



But we already knew that!