17.mai!!!

Well I know I said that I was going to write only in Norwegian until the test but this post is going to be a lot more interesting for everyone back in the states so it makes more sense to write it in English. Anyway this post is mostly going to be about the Norwegian National Holiday syttende mai (17th of May).

For those that don't know it is a very big deal in Norway, everyone puts Norwegian flags out in their yard, anyone that owns a bunad (the traditional dress of Norway) wears it, basically everything is shut down except for a few stores. They have this parade called a barnetog that is a parade that is made up of children from every elementary, middle and high school in the area.

So of course I joined in and I must say it was a lot of fun, I actually carried the school banner which was an interesting way to join in. So I got to walk in front of everyone else from the school carrying this giant banner. The parade goes for a few kilometers before ending at a big park area where there is a few speeches along with singing of the national anthem and the town song.

After the parade is finished everyone goes to different areas of the town to elementary schools for different little activities and stuff there. Last on the main agenda for everyone is the russetog, which is a parade with only those that are russ (the last year students in high school).

The russ is a totally Norwegian thing, they all buy these red pants (they can also be blue, black and green but red is the most common), and they wear them from no later than May 1st all the way to the 17th. The two weeks they wear these pants there is lots of partying, crazy antics and a lot of other nutty stuff.

It is a really funny thing to see and something that you won't see anywhere else in the world. So for their part of the 17th they walk through a different part of town, but almost all of them carry around squirt guns and these things that are called russekort. Russekorter are these little cards that most everyone carries around and hands out to kids who try to see who can get the most.

A lot of the kids along the sides also had water balloons and squirt guns to spray the russ. It ends at the same park as the other parade but instead has a bunch of these buses that some of the russ have saved to buy and make improvements on, with lots of loud music and more crazy people. It is definitely a cool thing to see.

That pretty much finishes all of the stuff that happens in town for that day. Next for me was a dinner party with my host family at our house, not super exciting but it was cool getting to talk with some different people. Later that night I headed out with a friend, watched the fireworks when they went off then headed back home to sleep.

Now that covers Tuesday the 17th, the rest of the week was pretty chill, just school, some training and hanging out with friends. I did also see the new Pirates movie on Wednesday night, pretty sweet movie I have to say, cool in 3D also! :D

Well that is it for now, hope you enjoy see you next time!
Jon

Første del av mai

Hallo alle sammen!!!!!
Det er umulig å tenke at det har vært nesten to uker siden min siste innlegg, tiden går så raskt!!! Uansett det har vært en spennende par uker, jeg hadde to prøver men jeg tror de gikk bra! For første gangen jeg føler bra om hvordan de gikk, det er en kjempebra følelse. Resten av skolen har vært litt kjedelig men bra, jeg er nesten ferdig med min matematikk klasse så det betyr at jeg bare har en økt på onsdag.

Siste helgen vi var i Sverige for å gjøre litt arbeid på hage og noe annet men for det mesteparten det var bare tid for å slappe av. Jeg leste ferdig Legenden om Narnia på norsk, og studerte til en prøve jeg hadde på tirsdag som jeg tror gikk veldig bra.

Resten av uken var ikke så spesielt, bortsatt fra lørdag og søndag. Lørdag var spennende fordi det var en grillfest med noen venner min fra skolen, det var kjempehyggelig. På søndag var det utrolig spennende, familien min og jeg reiste ned til sørland for en dags tur for å se hvor familien min egentlig kommer fra!

Det var helt fantastisk!!! Første stopp var i Kristiansand for å se en gammel bygde som var en butikk når familien min eide den. Vi hadde sett rundt i Kristiansand for en time eller noe annet, gikk ned til brygge, sett noe andre steder og vi var på veien vår igjen.

Neste hoved stopp var i Arendal, men vi hadde en kort stopp for middag på en restaurant i Lillesand. Etter middag det var tid for å kjøre resten av veien til Arendal for å se hvor de andre del av familien hadde kommet fra. På en øy som heter Tromøy.

Vi hadde litt problemer for å finne huset men vi nesten klarte det med hjelp fra noen av de som bodde i nærheten, kjempehyggelig folk der. Det var en veldig koselig dag i sørland og jeg hadde en kjempefint tid, det er så nydelig der.

Det er alt for nå, jeg skal kanskje ha annen innlegg om ett par dager fordi i morgen er nasjonal dag til Norge 17.mai, og jeg skal bære fane til skolen min, foran hele skolen, eeeeks!!

Takk for nå,
Snakkes
Jon

Life and all of its adventures.

A friend of mine mentioned something yesterday that really got me thinking about going home and what it will be like. All he did was mention one little thing but I can't get it out of my head, that thing is how much people change. I have been gone for nearly a year, everyone has had a year to grow up and change, but these changes are not noticed by themselves or the people they are in constant contact with. However for me it could very well be a large shock, I have not only been gone for a year but I have been gone for a year with very minimal contact. So I wonder, how have my friends changed, how I have changed and how things will be with me and my friends after I come home. Just some food for thought.

Anyway back to my post and I want to start by saying, my gosh does time sure fly when you're having fun! Things have been going by crazy fast, and no matter how much I want it to slow done it just seems to go by faster.

Nothing much exciting happened from Monday to Thursday last week, expect that I biked to school everyday and on Wednesday I woke up early and went for a run before school. I really wish there were some more trails on gravel and or in the woods, because for the most part there is only asphalt to run on.

Friday was actually a lot of fun, I went to Oslo with another class and one of the other exchange students, we toured the Nobel Peace Prize center, wondered around for a little while in Oslo and finished with going to the NRK studio/broadcasting center(it is the Norwegian form of NBC, however with absolutely no commercials!).

After coming back I packed very quickly for a hyttetur with 4 of my friends from school. It was a lot of fun, we started with picking up food and then a two and a half hour drive out to the cabin. Saturday we chilled out went for a hike on the mountain we were on, cooked some burgers and watched a couple movies.

Sunday we actually woke up to light snow if you can believe it, we then cleaned up and headed home, officially finishing our first road trip. I had a lot of fun and hopefully we can do it again before I leave.

Anyway that is my update for now, just an FYI point here that I will probably just be writing in Norwegian on here until the second week of June, because I will be taking a Norwegian writing exam that I want to be ready for and if I write in here in Norwegian I think it will really help me.

There is now a direct link to google translate on the right hand side of my blog, so you can use that and just change it so that it translates from Norwegian to English. So there you have it, talk to you guys later!
Jon