Handball European Championships in Norway and Denmark!

Every year in December a European Cup in handball for women is arranged. This year Norway and Denmark are arranging this Cup together.

For Norways team the Cup starts in Larvik on the 7th December and the competitor in this first game is France.

This is the second time in history that Norway and Denmark arranging this Cup together.

There are 16 teams who are going to fight at each other in this Cup.

Norway won last year and is the "defending champion" and they have never lost an European Cup match since 2002.

 

I am going to Denmark myself together with my mother and some friends to watch the last part of the Cup.

We have got tickets for the Bronze Final and the Grand Final.

I really hope to see Norway in the Grand Final. They appear to be in a very good shape and well preparede for this Cup.

Norway has some very good veteran players like Gro Hammerseng, Tonje Larsen and Kari Mette Johannsen; they are all going to play.   

 

Gro Hammerseng is the captain of the team and probably the best and most exprienced player. She has played for several years as a professional player in a Danish team, but now she has moved back to Larvik.

The Norwegian team have also got some very talented young players. One of them is Nora Mørk. She made a very good performences in another Cup arranged called "Møbelringen Cup" and scored a lot of goals.

However, my favorite player is Linn Kristin Reigelhuth who is playing on the left wing. She is one of the veterans and  has been a star in the Team for several years now.

 

When this Cup starts all the participating National teams are  devided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group.  They  play against each other and get two points for victory, one point for a draw and zero points for lost game.

The two best teams in each groups are now forming two new groups and continue the Cup.

The two best teams from the two new groups are qualified for the Semi Final. In the Semi Final there are two matches and the winner of each match will be the compatitors in the Grand Final. The two loosers will play the Bronze Final.    

In the Grand Final the big fight will be for the Gold Medal. The looser gets the Silver Medal and the winner of the Bronze Final will have the Bronze Medal.

So I really hope that Norways Team will be in the Grand Final bacause I have paid a lot of money for the ticket and also for the ferry boat to Denmark.

The Norwegian team

Linn Kristin Reigelhuth 

















- Silvia

Reality shows

Program such as “jakten på kjærligheten”, “71 grader Nord” and “Paradise hotel” have increased the popularity of reality shows in Norway.

“Jakten på kjærligheten” is a reality program about 4 farmers who is looking for their one big love of their life, and we get to follow their quest from the beginning. They receive letters from people all over Norway and after sorting out they will pick out 4 women or men who will stay at their farm. Every week they send one person home. He or she is voted out by the farmer himself after his evaluation. At the end they are standing with the one candidate who, during these past weeks, has fallen in love with the farmer and wants to spend the rest of her or his life with. According to my mind it is mostly the older generation who likes this program, I would reckon an age group from 30 to 50.

“71 grader nord” is a wildlife adventure program and quite different from “jakten på kjærligheten”. In this program it is an advantage to be in good shape, because they are going from the southernmost point of Norway Lindesnes to the northernmost point of Norway Nordkapp. They got to fight through tough challenges and walk, cycle or they use other ways to getting there, for example skiing. They got a time schedule they need to be in the different places, and if they manage to do so, they get a reward. Every week someone gets eliminated by the rest of the group and in the end, it is just one person who makes it first to the finish line. The winner gets a brand new car and a cottage. This is a program for both the young and the elderly generation.

“Paradise hotel” is a program where 10 participants, which are often young aged, from eighteen to thirty, who gets sent to a luxury hotel in Mexico and there they are basically just partying and having fun for ten weeks. This is a program which involves partying, sex and a lot of drama. Many participants find each other and have fun and a lot of compromising feelings of the people and it creates a lot of drama. Participants will find a partner they live with and each week there will be a ceremony which one of the participants has to leave the hotel. In this program the participants have to use tactics to be able to overcome the voice of the other participants and certain 2 people stand behind the same person, the person who has the 2 people behind have to choose one of them. Here is a good idea to find a partner they can trust. The pair who is left in the end wins a lot of money. “Paradise hotel” is probably the program that has received the most criticism. Because parents do not like their children watching ordinary people having sex and heavily drinking on TV.

These 3 programs are very different in character. One of them is to find true love, the other one is to experience an adventure and see the lovely nature of Norway, and the third one is for partying, fun and try to win a lot of money.

The one thing that is similar must be that the shows contain ordinary people, who participate and all of the shows has many viewers.

I like reality shows myself because it`s exciting to see “ordinary” people on TV where they try to win something.
My favorite programs are those where the participants need to answer questions to win money, like “vil du bli millionær?”
However, last year I watched “Paradise hotel” even I thought it is a stupid show. But it is a little fun to see people make fool out of themselves.

Jakten på kjærliheten.

Paradise hotel

71 grader nord

- Silvia Nilsen