Meet Gulla, my new friend

Someone got lost on number 5

I dag løp vi orientering and it was quite muddy

Syv

Seis

Fem

IV

III

Somewhere in Norway II

Somewhere in Norway

These days

I heard some complains about my blog. In general, people agree on my superior skills for blogging but believe I should try to make it more personal. I understand that curiosity so I'll try to change from now on.

This weekend I went to the second arrival camp for all the AFS students coming to this region of Norway. We met in Hønefoss and spent an interesting weekend from Thursday to Sunday sharing some first concerns and opinions and Norway and Norwegians.

Today I had a regular school day and I'm going to have a football practice. Tomorrow there will be this school party in Oslo (first party in Norway).This Wednesday I don't have classes because once a month l have a free day and I don't really know what to do, just that I'll try to study some Maths (I finally get why people complain it's a difficult subject) for Friday's test. Thursday, instead of the regular classes, all the students will be on an Orientation in the mountains. We have a map and all that stuff and we have to go to some checkpoints. It's kind of individual but my strategy is to find someone that is running slowly and try to follow him or her. Next week there is no school so I'm trying to find something interesting to do.

I’m starting to study some things on my own such as verbs and vocabulary. Hopefully I will be able to express myself in Norwegian and understand what is being said in some months…

And that’s pretty much it, now it’s half past five so I’ll have dinner.

Kebab and other things quite more interesting

Since the majority of the 2nd graders is either in Spain, France or Germany, this has been a very different week. We only have a couple of classes each day and often watch movies in the auditorium.
Yesterday we went to Oslo. We met at 9h30 in front of the National Theatre. Then we visited an exposition about the 4000-years-old man found in Northern Italy twenty years ago. Later we went to this place where they serve kebabs that are supposed to be amazing. I realize the danger of criticizing something most Norwegians love but the honesty demands that I do so… Kebab is not good. Afterwards, we went to the building where the Nobel Prize for Peace is decided and announced. Before going back home we walked in the old part of Oslo. It was a very interesting day, although the kebab.

School in Norway

People from Portugal have been asking me about this topic and also some Norwegians have been wondering how school here differs from the one I attend in Portugal.

Education is a constant subject of discussion in Portugal and I think there are some ideas from the Norwegian system that definitely worth being tried. Some of them are impossible to implement in a moment that we are handling a lot of pressure to reduce the costs of the Public Sector. Others, that have more to do with values, are urgent and I don’t find anything against them.

In Norwegian, the same word (lærer) means both “teach” and “learn”. Indeed, teachers aren’t afraid to hear opinions that differ from the ones they had in the first place. I’ve been asked a couple of things about Portugal. In each subject this questions differ. In Social Economics (Samfunnsøkonomi), for instance the teacher inquired about Portuguese situation and I was able to discuss about it. The thing is, there aren’t owners of the reason and in general (although I also have met great teachers in Portugal) here I see more receptiveness to disagreement and therefore, the classroom is a place where everybody can learn.

Another thing that extends to other sectors of the society is that formality doesn’t mean respect. In Portugal we insist on the formality. Here, in classes, you can eat, you treat a teacher by his first name, you can take your shoes off and at the same time the teacher gets respect, no one dares to speak, homework are always done… Usually the attempts to bring a bit less informality to Portugal aren’t taken very seriously. I remember when this Government took power, the Economy Minister asked to be called by his first name and they managed to evoke some law saying that Ministers must refer to each other as Sir Minister.

The ICT’s are the future. The ones that don’t agree with that are still drawing in walls instead of reading this. It’s impossible to give a laptop to each student as it’s done in Norway due to the reason I’ve already told. Even though this, there are tools that we can use. The movies are one of them. In less than one month I’ve already seen at least five movies, most of them in Sociology (Sosiologi og sosialantropologi) and English (International Engelsk) classes. I’ve already wrote about this but the online platforms are also a way to get to students when they are spending several hours in front of PCs.

In Portugal, we are still insisting in memorizing skills (I don’t disagree that these should be worked when students are younger) whereas here people have already realized that it’s more important that students are giving the independence to find, select and resume the information. So, if someone knows Nuno Crato (Portuguese Education Minister), please e-mail him the link of this blog.

I’m writing this for you so I would like to hear if you think that I should change something on the way I approach issues, on the way I write, on what I write about…

Click on the pictures to see them in full-size

den norske opera

No, this is not Dubai.

Such an artist

Woow. Besides being a great blogger I'm also a photographer

A polemic construction in front of "Den Norske Opera"

Today I went for a boat tour around Oslo and the fjords in this area. Here are some pictures

Stabæk Tromsø i Telenor Arena

Some rambling

The Norwegian system forbids people from some things I take for guaranteed in Portugal. “Should Governments forbid their people from things considered as prejudicial or should each one have the liberty to decide for his own although there is consensus on the lack of benefit of that same “liberty” to the individual?” was the question in my mind until I realized governments represent the will of the citizens and that Norwegians find no use in a kind of liberty that is not translated in a benefit.

I don’t understand what the teachers are saying (yet) but usually I can catch what's the topic. One thing I can tell it’s being taught on classes (and I don’t know if it expresses a concern in Norwegian society) is the influence about globalization on local culture.

Today I went to a football match between Stabæk and Tromsø. The local team I was cheering for lost 4-2. I was surprised because it was actually I great football game. A privilege of being a referee in Norway is that you get free tickets for some matches. A privilege of being friends with a referee is that you get to watch a match for free. I also saved some money on the bus ticket to the stadium. There is this special price if you want to go by bus to and from the Stadium that only costs 50 kroner (6€ for two 15 minutes bus trips and yes, it’s a special price). During the match I noticed that people are very polite and they don’t complain that much about referee’s decisions. Perhaps he’s not the man to blame for what’s wrong with one’s life.

My disappointments in Norway

The satisfaction about everything, typical on the first days couldn’t last forever. After two weeks, I must say there are some things that haven’t been reaching the level of my expectations.

The first one is my pair of Salomo’s. Back in Portugal, I actually thought they were going to do great in Norway. It’s still summer (I actually prefer the other designation: Green Winter) and I can already tell that they won’t be enough. Anyway I hope they make great slippers.

Another thing that made me upset was the political day last Tuesday. I had the best opinion about Norwegian way of making politics and I find the FPU party giving vaffels. The vaffels were actually very good, though.

The third and last disappointment was during this weekend. I went to a Confirmation Party (a moment in your religious life when you’re about 15) and afterwards, the dinner was only 16 different delicious cakes.