First Week of School

August 27, 2017

First Week of School

I had never been "the new kid" at school before this year, but I'm pretty sure I got just about as lucky as you can get. As I mentioned, I'm in the first year of Norwegian videregående, meaning everyone in my class is new to the school. In Oslo, students apply for different videregåendes and have to get in to be able to go. This means that not everyone from the same ungdomsskole (middle school, essentially) goes to the same videregående, similar to kids going to different colleges after four years in the same high school in the US. Katta, my school, is an especially social one and with kids this year coming from around 50 different schools, not many people came into a class with lots of pre-made friends. This made for an especially easy transition as everyone in my class was looking for new friends from the first day. Our whole grade was split into seven classes, each with about thirty kids with which we spend most of our days. From the first few minutes, I was welcomed to Norway and to Katta from kids I had only met moments before.

The first week was full of activities, mostly for us first grade kids, so I didn't have all that many actual classes. My last blog post goes more into detail about the first day Monday, so I'll start now with Tuesday. Tuesday began with some activities in class and during the lunch break we played some games with our "fadder", basically buddies from the second year who help us acclimate to the school. Wednesday was the really exciting day, beginning with kanonball and volleyball tournaments between all the first year classes. Kanonball is similar to dodgeball but with some differences like only using a few balls (we used three but I heard some people saying they usually use one) and having a king or queen who comes out when everyone else on their team has gotten out. I played in the kanonbal tournament and our team won!! It was very exciting and a good bonding moment for all of us. At the end of the day on Wednesday, we had a meeting in the aula (auditorium) where some more basic information was given and then all the clubs in the school presented a bit about themselves. It was very fast-paced, a little too much for my level of Norwegian, so I missed a lot of it but, luckily, Katta has lots of Facebook groups with all the info so I've been able to find out more about introductory meeting for the clubs I'm interested in! I'll let you all know which those are once I've actually joined them :)

Thursday began with a rebusløp which is pretty much a scavenger hunt. We were given clues that led us to different locations in and around the school and at each station, some upperclassmen were waiting to give us a challenge like making human pictures and holding one member of our group for a minute. The groups were made up of one person from each of the classes so I was able to meet six new people! After, the school hosted a barbecue for all students so I ate some Norwegian sausages with friends before heading back to the aula for another presentation– this one for the theater. Theater is a big deal at Katta, where they have a yearly production. There are lots of groups within the theater like set building, sound and light, makeup, budgeting, and what seems like hundreds more. I'm definitely interested in doing something but I haven't quite decided what yet! For the rest of our lunch break, my class met in a nearby park to eat popsicles our fadder had bought us for winning kanonball. Thursday ended with a math repetition course to go over some old math to prepare for this year's class. So far, the math seems pretty easy so I may switch classes but I need to talk with my teacher first. Friday was mostly a normal day but we had picture day first thing!

Friday night my class had a little get-together in Frognerparken, one of the bigger parks in Oslo. It was a sort of pre-party for this huge party for all first years in Oslo, which was supposed to be at Sognsvann, a big lake and hiking area I went to mid-week for a walk with my host aunt, but the police were patrolling the area due to things getting out-of-hand in past years so the party moved itself to the park we were in. When some of my friends wanted to go meet some of their friends from ungdomsskole, we ran into the main party which was mostly just a bunch of drunk sixteen year-olds smoking. Not really my scene so I didn't stay long but it was definitely an experience, just maybe one I don't need to have again :)

This weekend brought beautiful weather so Saturday morning, we headed to the cabin. We had a very relaxed day with midday mushroom forage and a huge crab feast in the evening! During the day I had made some cookies with peanuts, chocolate, and homemade caramel (not to Tahana's standard though. Sorry, mom). Although I used a British cookie recipe, I received reports that they tasted very American ;) Nonetheless, I don't think anyone would be upset if I made them again! Sunday morning was, again, very relaxed with lots of Norwegian pancakes to fuel the day ahead! I spent some time sitting outside in the sun looking out over the fjord, one of my favorite activities anywhere but especially with a view like that. Midday, we took the boat into the city center which is a little less than an hour of a boat ride. Definitely arriving in style! I met some friends in the center and then we walked to Akershus Festning, the old fortress in the city. It was one of the few big tourist traps I had yet to visit and seeing as one of the friends I was with was another exchange student, it seemed fitting to go before we became 100% locals. After walking around the fortress, we took a boat from the piers in Oslo to an island in the fjord and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on a beach in the sun. If you hadn't noticed, the theme for this weekend was relaxing, just the way I like it!

After my lovely weekend, I'm all rested up for the week ahead but I'm not going to complain that I don't have classes until 10 on Mondays :) I hope everyone had a great week and to everyone at Portsmouth, have a great first week of school if at all physically possible!!!

P.S. This blog has over 1000 views, WHAT??!! So cool, thank you all!

Word of the post:
et øyenbryn = an eyebrow