National Day

I've found out how proud of their country the Norwegian are. I've spent the Norwegian National Day there and they all really celebrate it. it's not like ins Spain, where we just don't go to work on the national day but not many people celebrates it. in Norway, most of the pople dress in their "traditional robes" and have a "special Norwegian breakfast". in my case, i attended a ceremony near a lake and then had breakfast with my host's family; her grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins... and all of them speaking in Norwegian while the Irish girl and I tried to understand something. we coulnd't. We  were on a parade, waving the Catalan and Spanish flag, as well as a banner we made of our School. then we saw another parade in the afternoon where the Russ made quite and spectacle.

Our Outing on wednesday instead of Preikestolen

Are You Ready For A Close Encounter?

Wendnesday 16, our third day in Norway. It hasn't stopped raining. Not even today althought i wished it had.

We were ment to take a walk of three hours to one of the most important visits in Norway, but due to the weather we couldn't. Yet I found it necessary to talk about that place: Preikestolen (Pupit Rock). It's one of the most impressive fjords and spectacular views in the world from CNN GO point of view. I'm just so disapointed we couldn't go, and just because rain loves Norway too much! It even snowed, in May! It was a pitty we couldn't go to such a wonderful place which I won't see in my life if I don't come back to Norway someday... But nevermind, we were able to apreciatte al least a bit of the Norwegian landscape by climbing and walking in the forest for about 30 min, not much really. We stayed in aplace in which we could see a lake and a white mountain because of the snow. it was really cold and foggy up there but freezing for a few minutes was worth the experience

Sandnes School is quite small, I may say, but I have found it comfortable and welcoming. They told me about only 600 people attend this school. Its really diferent from most schools in our country, but the the good thing about visiting a school like this for the first time is that you don't get lost, not like when i attended the one in wales... 
The classes weren't big either and people sat in large table, alltogether. they worked on laptops, not on notebooks like we do and they finish school at one o'clock. But the main difference between schools in Sandess and schools in Spain is that we do our "parcial exams" and our "final examens" at the end of every term. they, instead, do a single exam at the end of the year, and only for a subject. My host, for example, was taking her english exam on the 31st of May. 

The second day, I acompanied my host to one of her lessons. English lesson, in fact, because the other lessons were taught in Norwegian, and i can assure you Norwegian is impossible to understand! in five days i only learnt how to say a few words like: hello, thank you,bye... and a song named "Per Spelmann". 

The students from Sandness school, in Norway, are really good at art. They’ve filled a whole room- that used to be the canteen, so it’s quite big- with paintings. I have to say I enjoyed seeing them cause they were full of emotions and wanted to say so much. There was one that caught my attention anyway. In that room, there were chairs, decorated and painted by some students, they were nice, some of them showed landscapes or persons with some sayings. But there was one  of a student who went to Barcelona and did really like “La Sagrada Familia” so he decided to painted. And he did perfectly!

The morning was spent between presentations about renewable energies. The Irish girls talked about the high amounts of peat production in their country. The Dutch students talked mostly about Solar, wind energy… in their own country, as we did, and then performed a song for us. The Estonian people said they didn’t use much renewable energies and they weren’t proud of it, but I personally thing they could have find many things to be proud of in Estonia. Later came a famous professor, also to speak about renewable energies and how we should help because we were “The-clean-up-the-mess-generation” as he said. It was an interesting topic and he said some really certain things we should think more of and be conscious. The only “problem” was that it was way too long and it didn’t really have a point, it was more like lots of good information but mixed up. Anyway, I was able to learn more about energies.

 

Have you ever been to Norway?

Yes? Great, you don’t even have a clue of how lucky you are.

No? Then you have to go and visit this wonderful land.

I’ve always wanted to travel to Norway, now, five students, an English teacher from Agora school and I, have the great opportunity to be here in a Comenius Project.

In the moment I just arrived, I had the feeling this experience would be amazing. Now, the very first night, I know I was extremely right.  The welcome and presentation of all countries- Norway, Ireland, Estonia, The Netherlands and Spain- gave us the chance to meet each other, students and teachers. In the first activity the Norwegians teachers prepared for us, we worked in groups with one person of each country to represent it, so that we could start talking with everyone and learn a bit form all the countries. And then they taught us a song in Norwegian which we sang and dance together all around the school. There’s just one thing that got me annoyed and, is keeping me awake this late: it’s 1:00 in the night and it’s bright! They just have very few hours of completely dark, so perhaps I’m not sleeping much.  And next month, they’ve got something called “The Midnight Sun” which means the sun is not coming down for days… I would be nice to see it!

I’m just in Norway since 17:00 pm and I could say that, if it was up to me, I was not coming back so soon ! I’m just looking forward to see what they have prepared for us tomorrow !!