Russ!

Well, if I was back in America today, this would be the day where I would attend commencement.  This essentially means that I would walk across the stage in my cap and gown, and receive a fake diploma.  What it actually means, is that I have graduated university!!!! So in the spirit of graduations, I figured it was time to do a blog on the Norwegian high school celebration - Russ.

Ka e russ på engelsk? Asks one of my students at my field work to the english teacher.  Well, there is no direct translation. Russ, is the time of year when High School Seniors celebrate graduating Highschool.  It is quite unique though.  First of all, it lasts for 3 weeks.... Yes 3 weeks.  It is officially over on May 17th, which is Norways National day.  The best part about all of this, is they party for 3 weeks straight, and write exams AFTER they have celebrated.

Now you are probably thinking, wow partying for 3 weeks straight, that must be very frowned upon.  Well, it is very traditional here, and from everyone I have spoke to, they all have fond memories of their Russ celebration.  From what I understand, almost everyone participates in the activities if you are senior/last year of highschool.  I think it is very cool, and it would have certainly been fun to have experienced Russ.

So, here comes the best party about Russ, the traditions.  First of all, they have these crazy pants, that they cannot take off or wash for 3 weeks straight.  You can take them off to go to bed, but that is all!  There are 4 colours so I have been told, but have only actually seen three: Red, Blue and Black (the other colour being green).  The colour that you wear is dependent on what stream of highschool you attended. The pants are ordered, and can be completely customized by the student who wears them.  It is also normal for people to write all over them. Here is a picture of some russ students in a parade.

On top of all of this, they also creat Russ busses which are decorated and used for partying throughout the period.  They are generally older vans, and fixed up for the occasion.  The students also have Russ Cards, that they can give out to people, that have things like their name, a picture of them, a joke etc.  They are quite humourous.  There is also a list of tasks that the russ students can do, which vary from driving around a round-a-bout so many times, sitting under the desk all day at school, and many party related tasks.

Russ Kids and their bus.

All in all, it seems like a crazy, yet really fun tradition that Norwegians share.  It is extremely funny to walk around town, and see all the kids wearing their Russ pants.  Norwegians, I would love for you to share your favourite Russ moments in the comments, and any corrections that should be made to this blog post!

Everyday life!

This blog post, is dedicated to my dad.  He has been mentioning that I should take some pictures of everyday life here in Harstad, and he is right. It has been something I have been meaning to do, and here it is.  Here are some pictures, and I will put captions of what they are of.

Here is a picture of just some houses on the hill outside my dorm.  I have always found it amazing how they build the houses on the sides of the hills here(quite steep at times).

Here is a picture of a House in Harstad.  Harstad is a fairly modern city, so the houses are not that much different from those back home.

This is the view I get to look at as I walk down to the bus terminal.

A church in Harstad.

This is the university I attend in Harstad.  It is significantly smaller than Minot State University, but inside, the Architecture is amazing!

This is the view from the school, as soon as you walk out the other side.  The Fjord comes right up to the school.

A boat chillaxin at a dock.

The back side of the school, the picture of the view would be looking in the other direction.

The school bar.

Just another view of the Mountains and the Fjords

Looking towards Harstad Sentrum

A picture of Sentrum, this is where a good portion of the stores are.

The bus terminal.

Another picture of a different area of Harstad Sentrum

 The gym that I work out in.  It also has a swimming pool that is built into a rock wall I believe.  I am not fully sure about this, so if any of my Norwegian friends read this, please comment below!

Gas station in Harstad.  The price on that day was a thrifty 15.65 NOK per liter.  This is equivelant to 2.69 dollars a liter for gas in canada, and 10.29 a gallon in America.

In this picture, you can see the student buildings I live in on the left of the picture (blue buildings), and the Grocery Store Rimi on the right.  SUPER CONVENIENT!

More houses

Another House

So those are just some general pictures of different things in Harstad.  Obviously, I could put way more up, but I hope you can kind of get the idea from these ones.  If you would like to see anything more, please leave a comment and I would love to get pictures of that for you.  I will eventually be taking pictures of my apartment dorms, and showing you that. 

Sweden Part 2!

Well, after all the issues with the train tickets, the whole trip to Kristianstad Sweden went off without a hitch. After getting my tickets in Oslo, I was able to book the remainder of my trip with my one hour layover in Göteborg, and since it was in Sweden, they are not concerned with the fraudulent aspect.

Now to discuss the rest of the trip.

Is riding the train and busses ever pleasant in Europe.  They are extremely reliable, and seem to be always on time, and arrivals happen either on time, or a little early.  The view is nice, and the seating on both the trains and the bus were quite enjoyable.  It is also reasonably priced, which makes it easy for us students to travel.

Upon my arrival to Kristianstad, I realized that southern Sweden was going to be a lot different from Northern Norway.  There was no Mountains, no snow, and…… everyone biked everywhere.  I could not believe how many people I saw biking around.  It was quite cool.  My incredible Minot friends were waiting for me when I got off the train, and we headed off to their place.

It was really neat to experience their study abroad experience.  They showed me their university, their international crew, and the city of Kristianstad.  It is bigger than Harstad, and the sentrum(city center) was absolutely beautiful.  The shopping was good, and the prices were better than Norway.  There dorms were definitely different than mine in Harstad, but they have such a cool international group there as well.  It was really neat to meet their friends, and they were super friendly to talk to.

Tube Food anyone?

Bacon and Cheese Tube food?

In Kristianstad Sentrum!

5 MSU'ers in Scandanavia!

To sum up the trip, it was relaxing, and it was very enjoyable to experience what the girls study abroad experience was like.  It was also very nice to meet up with some friends back home, and catch up.  I just want to thank Kari, Shanda, Mariah, and Brigitte for inviting me to visit them, and for the lovely vacation J.

Sweden Part 1!

I thought I should give all my faithful blog followers an update.  Currently in Norway, it is easter break.  Which means that my praxis has a week break, and I am able to travel.  I decided to go visit the four MSU students studying in kristianstad sweden, to get a glimpse of how their study abroad experience is going.  This is how the process has gone so far.

A week prior, go to book my ticket online, Swedish railways will not book my ticket due to card issues, but their office is closed, and have to call in the morning.

Call in the morning, card will not work over the phone, as their has been lots of fraud with international cards.  Lady helps me, and says that I can just pick it up at the central station in Oslo.  Gives me a booking number, and I feel like I am good to go.

Depart for oslo at a beautiful 4:50 in the morning.  The trip starts by boarding the bus in Harstad, getting to the airport and checking in, then depart at 6:40 from the Harstad airport.  This goes amazing, I slept the entire duration of the flight, which is one of the first times I have been able to sleep on a plane.

Arrive at Oslo, it is a beautiful day.  Get on the express train from the airport to Oslo S, and get to the Swedish Train booth.  Excited to finally get my tickets, my card fails once again.  It still will not work.

Call SJ, and we cannot figure out a solution to this.  There is nothing they can do about it, and the lady sugguests that I try to book the ticket through Norwegian railways.  She says if there are any issues with that, give them a call back.

Go to Norwegian railways, and have some success! I can book the first 2 tickets, but the third one cannot be booked.  The customer service rep says that I can book the last one in sweden, and that it shouldn't be an issue at that point.  So relieving! I even have an hour break in between two of the trains, so I can do it at my first layover. 

I must say, this has been a slighly frustrating process, but it has all worked out.  Although the swedish railway reps could not get the tickets, they have been very helpful in finding alternative solutions.  To sum up this whole process, it has been a learning experience for me, and I will still get there :)

Norwegian Concerts

Prior to coming to Norway, I had no idea what the music scene was like here.  To be completely honest, I had never knowingly heard of a Norwegian band.  Turns out the band, "Aha" is Norwegian. You may remember their one hit wonder in North America, "Take on me".  I then found out that the female lead singer of Aqua, is Norwegian as well.  Who could ever forget the song, "Barbie Girl". But to be completely honest, I had no idea that they had Norwegian roots till I moved here.

Lately, I have gone to 2 different concerts. From what I have heard, rock is the preferred music here in Northern Norway.  I do not listen to the radio often, so I really have no idea how true that is.  From what I have experienced, I sometimes feel like I am back in Canada.  The school I work has Bieber Fever, and has been listening to Carly Rae Jepsen a lot lately.  I guess there really is no way to escape Justin Bieber.

The first concert I went to was at a cafe in Harstad.  It kind of reminds me of the bagel stop, but a little bigger.  The Hot Chocolate I had there was absolutely amazing, and I have had some of their sandwiches before, and they are also fantastic.  So I knew that if I didn't understand a word they were saying, I would still enjoy the experience.  The band "Oh!" took stage, and I was really surprised.  They sang all of their songs in English, and were really really good.  The music had a Jazz feeling to it, and it sounded amazing. It even reminded me a lot of my Jazz Band Days. They even did a covers, and one that stuck out was a Rihanna cover of Umbrella.  They did an amazing job, and I really enjoyed their music. Unfortunately I was not close enough to get a picture, and I cannot seem to find a link to a video of theirs.  If I come across one, I'll post it here :)

The second concert I went to was at the on-campus bar called Ludo.  I actually had no idea that there was a concert till the day of.  I was hanging out with some friends, and they seemed really excited to go see Lise Karlsnes.  So I decided this was another great opportunity to see some more Norwegian music, and tagged along.  Am I ever glad that I went.  The only disappointing part was that not many people showed up for the concert.   I am really not sure why, as she is quite famous in Norway. Apparently she puts on fairly big shows in southern Norway, but that may be because of bigger population. The concert was amazing.  The size of the crowd did not deter her, and she put on an amazing show.  She reminded me of a Norwegian Katy Perry.  She had loads of energy, and her band was also really good.  Here is a video of one of her songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQViTxiUWs

Sverige!

Well, I can officially say that I’ve been to 4 countries now.  After talking with international students, they stated that landing in a country, and not leaving an airport does not count.  So there goes my amazing visit to the German Airport, and sunk my country total from four to three.  To say the least, I have been dying to increase this number. When the opportunity to go to Sweden arose, I was very excited to check out Sweden, and increase my countries visited number.

 Although this trip was more for economic reasons, it was a great adventure.  My friend from Norway who has a car, invited me to come a long, and get cheap grocery items. This really reminded me of the days when I would make weekend trips to the States in order to save money on things.  The great thing about going from Norway to Sweden is that you do not need to stay for 48 hours; you can leave whenever.

Saturday rolled around, and we departed for Sweden.  The trip to Sweden is rather pleasant; there are mountains and beautiful scenery to look at.  It sure beats the plains going to Minot.  Once we got to the border, I realized that this trip would be very different from going to the States.  There is a stop light at the Toll/Tull(Board Crossing), and unless it turns red, you are good to go through without any interruption.  Norway and Sweden even share the same boarder building.  So just like that, we were in Sweden and off to Abisko.

The Swedish/Norwegian Boarder Building

After arriving in Abisko, we went straight to the grocery store.  It was very clear that this grocery store was set up for Norwegian shoppers, and the parking lot showed that.  There was only one Swedish car, and the rest has Norwegian license plates.  We went inside, and did our grocery shopping.  The main things that are cheaper in Sweden are alcohol, meat, and certain grocery items.  To me it appeared that everything was cheaper, but some things were a better bargain than others.  I got some meat, and beer as well as other random grocery items.  The three others (2 Russians, and a Norwegian), got essentially the same, except the Russians loaded up on Candy.  The store even had an American section! And the best part was they had cherry coke! Even Canada doesn’t have that.

The American Section!

Cherry Coke!

The Lone Swedish Liscence Plate

After getting all of our stuff, it was back to Norway for us.  Once again going to the boarder, you just had to slow down, and as long as that light doesn’t turn red, you are good to go!  We didn’t even stop long enough for me to get a good picture of the building.  Overall, Sweden was a great trip, and I cannot wait to go back there Skiing/Snowboarding!

Russian-Canada-Russian Passports! Even though we didn't need them haha

Why not bring food?

Hello to my fellow Blog followers! It has been awhile, but I have been very busy with skiing, and well.... skiing haha. 

This past week, the international students decided to go for a mini cook-out, as the weather was so beautiful.  I was not fully sure what to expect, but I knew that we would be cooking hot dogs and marshmellows at a remote site that you had to hike to get to.  Now it was no huge hike, but it was up the side of a hill.  When we arrived there, we went up the hill and all I can say is the view was beautiful.  You could see the fjord, and the mountains in the back ground.  It was simply breath taking. 

In Norway, or at least in Harstad, there are these lean-to kind of shacks all over the place.  I have seen them on skiing trails, as well as hiking trails.  They basically have three walls and a roof, and a table in the middle.  What is really cool is there is often wood already there, and even cooking utensils.  Depending on where it is, sometimes all you have to do is bring food. The one I went to with the international students actually even had seats to sit on.  It is really cozy.  Just outside of the lean-to, is a fire pit and you can cook food on.  They are absolutely great, and it makes for a great time with friends.

The lean-to with fire pit

Me!

View

Kathrin and I, the amazing person who organized our get together.

So today, I got invited to go cross country skiing with my awesome co-worker, and her friends.  They had decided to ski to this one part, and have a cookout with sausages and hot chocolate.  It was really fun, we all had our backpacks(except me haha).  We ski'd for a bit, then plunked down, made a fire and enjoyed this awesome food.  It was the same kind of lean-to, there was firewood already there and it made for a great morning, early afternoon.  I cannot thank everyone enough for inviting me to all of these amazing get togethers.  They are truly amazing.

It tasted a lot better than it looked haha!