Tjour!: Greetings from Stavanger, Norway!

After months of planning, preparing, and much anticipation, the Penn Glee Club 2011 Scandinavian Tjour! has finally begun!

Today, the Glee Club arrived in Stavanger, Norway after 10+ hours of travel time from Philadelphia. We were warmly greeted at the airport by Siv Christensen (W'95) and her family, who greatly assisted us by helping plan our time in Stavanger and escorting us through the city.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Stavanger on Norway's Constitution Day, a national holiday that is celebrated with huge parades all over the country. We had the great opportunity to join the celebrations by participating in Stavanger's city-wide parade, bringing the music of Penn, songs of the Glee Club, and the national anthem of Norway to the masses of people lining the streets to watch the parade. Our efforts to share our music in both English and the national anthem in Norwegian were well-received by the multitude of listeners, and we enjoyed seeing the performances, parades, and traditional garb of the Stavanger locals. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that none of us will soon forget! We ended our time in the city by performing a small impromptu concert to publicize our full-length concert later this week.

When we returned to our hotel, located on the oceanfront of the beautiful Sola Beach just outside of Stavanger, we met a group of youths on a retreat with their church who invited us to perform in front of their congregation, and they even requested an encore! This spontaneous performance is surely the first of many to come during the rest of our time in Scandinavia.

Keep checking back for more exciting news and updates from Scandinavia!