Where did the time go?

Day 4 already and we're really feeling in the swing of things. The sounds, routine and people are so familiar to us now that it's as though we've been here much, much longer than a few days. As they say, time flies when you're having fun and we really are!

We've a packed day ahead of us ....and the best bit....the sun is shining and that can only mean one thing....fjord jumping again! Coming from Ireland, where we know rain, being told to come prepared for the rain was nothing new, sure how much rain could they be talking about...?? Well Bergen gets about 4 times more rain annually than Ireland so when it’s wet....it’s wet!!!!

Our music for tomorrow's concert is really coming together - the growing connection between us is evident from the lovely sound we make. For choir, we're in Team Arild - the biggest team! We're all aged 13 - 16 and our conductor Arild has selected some super music for us to sing. The choir works in 2 languanges mainly - seamlessly shifting from Norwegian to English but with the odd bit of Irish too. We're getting to know a huge amount about the Norwegian culture through it's music but we're also exploring music from outside of our 2 countries. One of the newest experiences for us all is singing a piece by a Chinese composer. What's amazing about this piece is how very time we sing it, it's different. It's taking quite some getting used to! Of course we're singing some Norwegian music and one of things that has struck us is the many similarities between our cultures - the Vikings did come to Ireland of course! One of our most favorite pieces is a Norwegian folk piece that really resembles lilting or diddling - a great dance tune! Sigrund and Toré complete the tutor team. Sigrund has really put our Norwegian to the test with a beautiful Norwegian lullaby and Toré has brought us closer to home choosing a piece by Chilcott - a composer we know and love. Tonight is house concert night - we're busy preparing for that but I think that deserves a post all to itself!!