A Day in My Life at Oslo Katedralskole
I have to start this by addressing a very serious problem (read: not so serious but almost gave me a heart attack). Wednesday night, as I was lying in bed falling asleep, a thought came to me. I'm really not sure how my brain settled on the topic, but it I realized that in last week's post, I had written that penguins live in the Arctic. I immediately had to get up again to change the post, but I was horrified at the number of people that could have seen that mistake. I felt I needed to redeem myself by writing here that I am aware that penguins live in the Antarctic, not that anyone had commented on it. Now that that's been covered, we can move onto a normal Wednesday for me.
6:35 am. My alarm goes off and I force myself to get out of bed, often with the help of the early-rising sun (we'll see if that's the case now with Daylight Savings Time). Side note– if I start late (10 am), I set an alarm for 8:20 but usually wake up before that anyways.
6:40 am. Breakfast time! Many Norwegians eat bread with different toppings like meat, cheese, a paté, jelly, veggies, etc., and I'll join in if I'm eating in a group, but I usually like to find something else like yogurt and fruit or oatmeal because I find that so much bread throughout the day makes me a little sluggish. I also make my lunch now, and that is bread, but I also take some fruit and usually nuts with me.
7:00 am. Time to get dressed and brush my teeth and all that jazz. I usually sit for a few minutes in bed and check social media, and it's nice to have that built-in time if I'm running late.
7:29 am. After a little trial and error, I've found that this is the perfect time for me to leave the house. To get to school I have to walk from the house to the metro, take the metro, and then walk again to school. All in all, it takes about 35 minutes but I leave myself 45 just in case something's delayed or it's slippery or something.
8:15 am. Gym class. Yay. Yep, I have gym class here. Every week for 2 hours. It's really not that bad but I was more than okay with being done with gym after 9th grade. This week we played volleyball which is one of my favorite gym activities, even though I always leave with really red forearms.
10:00 am. After a ten minute break between classes I have a single hour of math. All my classes are either in single or double form, meaning either one "school hour" (45-50 min) or two with a short break in between. I usually kind of do my own thing or work with a different book in math since the curriculum is so different and I've covered a lot of what we do, but we've started preparing for exams and "mock exams" (that's always the translation they use, but I'd never heard of a mock exam before and I don't think there's a good English, or at least American, word for them), I've been doing a little more with the class to prepare as I have to take at least the mock exam. Regular exams are a lottery system, and I won't know which, if any, exams I'll have to take for a few weeks.
10:50 am. Now it's time for a single social studies block after a five minute break after math. We did some preparing for the exam and began working with a unit about the professional world. Otherwise in the class we've covered Norwegian politics, crime and social rolls, and international relations.
11:35 am. Finally it's lunch! Even though we aren't in school that long before the break, having three different classes before (the most I have before lunch in one day) makes it feel like I've been there forever. I've usually already eaten some food because I get hungry after gym, but I use the first 25 minutes of the break to eat the rest of my lunch and talk with my friends.
12:00 noon. On Wednesdays I have an extra Norwegian class for the last half-hour of lunch with the two other exchange students at school. It's half language work, half talking about how we are and if there's anything that our wonderful teacher can do to make our exchange year better. As the year has gone by, we've started working less on concrete language things and more on just getting the chance to talk about different subjects.
12:30 pm. It's now the last class of the day, a double block of English. In English the curriculum is set up based on different parts of the English-speaking world, and we're now finishing the US and Canada unit. A typical English class can include reading short stories, watching videos, learning about issues and culture is the different countries, and language work. Norwegian students start learning English from a young age and even those that think they aren't very good at English are mind-blowingly good. Seriously.
2:05 pm. Technically, it's the start of "study time" which is a double block set off for students to be able to work at the school and teachers to have meetings, but there's nothing saying you have to be there so I usually leave school then. Throughout the week I end at different times. Sometimes it's 2:05, sometimes 3:00 and sometimes 3:50. In the winter it would only be light out the days I was done at 2:05 but now the sun doesn't set till almost 8 pm so that's not a problem anymore!
2:45 pm. If I don't do anything after school, this is about when I get home. I like to chill out, do any homework I have, and work out until the others come home from school and work.
5:00-6:00 pm. We eat dinner at different times depending on the day, but usually between 5 and 6 pm. If I have time and there's something I can help with, I'll help make dinner and usually set the table.
7:00 pm. Bjørn and Elin start getting ready for bed and I finish homework or hang out again after helping clean up from dinner.
9:30 pm. While the night is just beginning for most, I am on my way to bed. I don't start until 10 on Thursdays so you might think I could go to bed later but I promise you do not want to see me the next day if I go to bed after 10 pm...
I hope this was interesting to read! I realized I had never really talked about what a day for me looks like at school, and was inspired after reading similar posts by an exchange student I met through YFU who's in France now, Naomi! This week otherwise included some beautiful weather, normal school days, and me trying to get my life together and work out and eat healthily now that spring is here and I have no excuse! I'm on vacation now so next week's post will be one to look for :)
Word of the Post:
trening = working out/training/physical activity
A few pictures and spring has sprung (just barely)
6:35 am. My alarm goes off and I force myself to get out of bed, often with the help of the early-rising sun (we'll see if that's the case now with Daylight Savings Time). Side note– if I start late (10 am), I set an alarm for 8:20 but usually wake up before that anyways.
6:40 am. Breakfast time! Many Norwegians eat bread with different toppings like meat, cheese, a paté, jelly, veggies, etc., and I'll join in if I'm eating in a group, but I usually like to find something else like yogurt and fruit or oatmeal because I find that so much bread throughout the day makes me a little sluggish. I also make my lunch now, and that is bread, but I also take some fruit and usually nuts with me.
7:00 am. Time to get dressed and brush my teeth and all that jazz. I usually sit for a few minutes in bed and check social media, and it's nice to have that built-in time if I'm running late.
7:29 am. After a little trial and error, I've found that this is the perfect time for me to leave the house. To get to school I have to walk from the house to the metro, take the metro, and then walk again to school. All in all, it takes about 35 minutes but I leave myself 45 just in case something's delayed or it's slippery or something.
8:15 am. Gym class. Yay. Yep, I have gym class here. Every week for 2 hours. It's really not that bad but I was more than okay with being done with gym after 9th grade. This week we played volleyball which is one of my favorite gym activities, even though I always leave with really red forearms.
10:00 am. After a ten minute break between classes I have a single hour of math. All my classes are either in single or double form, meaning either one "school hour" (45-50 min) or two with a short break in between. I usually kind of do my own thing or work with a different book in math since the curriculum is so different and I've covered a lot of what we do, but we've started preparing for exams and "mock exams" (that's always the translation they use, but I'd never heard of a mock exam before and I don't think there's a good English, or at least American, word for them), I've been doing a little more with the class to prepare as I have to take at least the mock exam. Regular exams are a lottery system, and I won't know which, if any, exams I'll have to take for a few weeks.
10:50 am. Now it's time for a single social studies block after a five minute break after math. We did some preparing for the exam and began working with a unit about the professional world. Otherwise in the class we've covered Norwegian politics, crime and social rolls, and international relations.
11:35 am. Finally it's lunch! Even though we aren't in school that long before the break, having three different classes before (the most I have before lunch in one day) makes it feel like I've been there forever. I've usually already eaten some food because I get hungry after gym, but I use the first 25 minutes of the break to eat the rest of my lunch and talk with my friends.
12:00 noon. On Wednesdays I have an extra Norwegian class for the last half-hour of lunch with the two other exchange students at school. It's half language work, half talking about how we are and if there's anything that our wonderful teacher can do to make our exchange year better. As the year has gone by, we've started working less on concrete language things and more on just getting the chance to talk about different subjects.
12:30 pm. It's now the last class of the day, a double block of English. In English the curriculum is set up based on different parts of the English-speaking world, and we're now finishing the US and Canada unit. A typical English class can include reading short stories, watching videos, learning about issues and culture is the different countries, and language work. Norwegian students start learning English from a young age and even those that think they aren't very good at English are mind-blowingly good. Seriously.
2:05 pm. Technically, it's the start of "study time" which is a double block set off for students to be able to work at the school and teachers to have meetings, but there's nothing saying you have to be there so I usually leave school then. Throughout the week I end at different times. Sometimes it's 2:05, sometimes 3:00 and sometimes 3:50. In the winter it would only be light out the days I was done at 2:05 but now the sun doesn't set till almost 8 pm so that's not a problem anymore!
2:45 pm. If I don't do anything after school, this is about when I get home. I like to chill out, do any homework I have, and work out until the others come home from school and work.
5:00-6:00 pm. We eat dinner at different times depending on the day, but usually between 5 and 6 pm. If I have time and there's something I can help with, I'll help make dinner and usually set the table.
7:00 pm. Bjørn and Elin start getting ready for bed and I finish homework or hang out again after helping clean up from dinner.
9:30 pm. While the night is just beginning for most, I am on my way to bed. I don't start until 10 on Thursdays so you might think I could go to bed later but I promise you do not want to see me the next day if I go to bed after 10 pm...
I hope this was interesting to read! I realized I had never really talked about what a day for me looks like at school, and was inspired after reading similar posts by an exchange student I met through YFU who's in France now, Naomi! This week otherwise included some beautiful weather, normal school days, and me trying to get my life together and work out and eat healthily now that spring is here and I have no excuse! I'm on vacation now so next week's post will be one to look for :)
Word of the Post:
trening = working out/training/physical activity
A few pictures and spring has sprung (just barely)
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| Sun shining bright over Katta |
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| I got a little bored in math the other day... |
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| On Thursday, the leader of one of Norway's political parties came to school and gave a little talk about whether Oslo is a divided city. It was really interesting to hear, especially because he used to go to Katta! |
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| Cool wall art at the University of Oslo we passed on our way to go swimming today. Anne got a mini version of it as a present for finishing her doctorate degree and it was cool to see the inspiration! |
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