Week 2 : Skole

Lillesand

So I've decided that writing down everything that I do everyday on here is going to get old fast. So to sum it up this week I started school, walked up some very steep hills, was at the sailing island 3 times, went exploring the city almost everyday, visited the IKEA in Kristiansand (IKEA is much more intense in Scandinavia), and went to Lillesand.

Even though I've been in school for 3 days already, it doesn't really feel like I've been there at all because I have so much less class time here than I did in Florida. Right now I am taking Norwegian, History, "Easy" Math, Gym, Visual Arts, Architecture and Design, and Printmaking and Photography. But I have more time in art class than I do in any of the "real" classes (I only have 2 hours of math, 1 hour of history, and 2 hours of Norwegian a week). School starts at 8:15 in the morning and is pretty much always out by 2:30 (expect I think there is one day my Photography class runs late), but most days I am out by 1:30. On Wednesdays I have a class in the morning, and a class in the afternoon. With a 4 hour break inbetween to do whatever I want. On Thursdays I have a 2 hour break.

Also my school has two different campuses, Tyholmen and Barbu. They are both in town, just on opposite sides of the city and on top of very steep hills. I have classes in both of them and I have to walk between them 3 days a week. Tyholmen's hill isn't too bad, well it's steep but not for too long and most of the walking up is gradual. The walk up to Barbu is another story. The first hill up to the school is straight up, it's just an almost vertical road with loosely paved gravel in some places that you have to get up. One day this week I'm going to take a picture of this hill because when you first turn the corner into the street it's on it is the most intimidating thing ever. I'm pretty sure I just laughed the first time I saw it though. But actually if it was just that hill it wouldn't be too bad. But no there's another. You get to the top and walk on even ground for about two seconds, and then you come to this other steep, looonnnnngggg hill you have to go up to get to the school. And I wish that were it, but it isn't. Nope once I get into the school, all my classes are on the third floor. But I shouldn't be complaining about this now, I'll wait until there is snow.

Well the good thing about the schools being on hills is that when you look out the window from either of them  you get a fantastic view of the city. And Arendal is a very nice city to have a view of, it's a little small but the center has a very pretty church and everything's by the water. And across the fjord from the city center are all these hilly mountains scattered with houses.

Well anyways, I've only really talked to a few people in school so far. It's kind of hard with the language barrier and all. Also I'm at least half a year younger than all my classes, which I don't mind. Except for my art classes are with the 3rd years, who are way older than me. I'm the age of a 1st year, but they put me in 2nd year because I was already so advanced with the classes I had taken in America. But anyways I'm considering sacrificing the Architecture class to switch into 2nd year Visual Arts or something (that doesn't come with Architecture) so it will be easier to make friends. I'll see how this week goes, and I'll talk to my counselor when I see her on Friday for Norwegian lessons.

I'm getting used to the way things are here. It's more different from the US than I thought it was going to be. I guess when I first arrived I never really wrote down what all the differences are, because I thought they were so small that they would sound silly. But when you put it all together, there are many more differences between Florida and Norway other than geography and climate the differences in climate and geography I was expecting. It's a different culture. I knew that before I left too, but I guess I never really understood what it meant.

Here they eat with their forks in their left hands, and their knife in the right. They speak a language that sounds like singing to someone like me who doesn't understand because every word has a specific rhythm. They change clothes a lot because the weather changes so much, but they wear the same clothes several times in a row. Everyone dresses very well all the time, if someone went to school dressed in sweatpants and a T-Shirt like most people do in America, they would probably be shunned. Malls, shops, resturaunts, ect. have a quieter atmosphere than they do in America. There is little to no poverty. Everything is either very old and classical looking or very nice, modern, and efficient. And I guess you could say Norwegians are strange, but in a good way. Norwegian's are just generally happier and more relaxed than Americans. But in the end it's not better, it's not worse, it's just different. The food is different, the people are different, the toilets are different, the grocery stores are different, the Diet Coke iss different. The money system is much different. A cheap shirt costs about 99, kr. That's equal to a little less than $20, but you could pay for the shirt with 5 coins. So basically it's all bigger numbers for anything, but it's all expensive, and the coins are worth more than American coins. The largest coin is 20 kr. which is about ~$4. So I could buy my lunch with one coin. This throws me off a lot, I'm just not so used to that yet.

There's probably a lot more cultural differences, but I've gotten so used to them that I don't notice them anymore, or I've forgotten they're not normal to me. I just remember a lot of things surprised me when I first got here.
And on another note, I can officially buy clothes and order food in Norwegian.