Russ (The Crazy Tradition in Norwegian High School)

The time we leave high school is one of the best in our lives. normally by this time some people take one of the most important decisions in their lives, they decide about their future.
But I am not writing this post to talk about decisions, but memories that we are going to carry for the rest of our lives. 
II believe that this moment marked and still marks the lives of many people, for example, I still remember my prom, a unique moment in which many things happened :).
But this is not the reason why I am writing this post. I am writing because I want to talk about a special tradition here in Norway, it's called RUSS.
According to wikipedia "The word russ is inherited from the Danish word rus, which as an abbreviation of Latin rusticus ("rural"), in former times used to ridicule new students at a university".

Every year before final exams, teenagers in Norway  purchase and decorate old school buses or vans and then drive around the country celebrating the end of school. 

 The Russ lasts for nearly a month and can cost each student up to 9,000 USD. Many teenagers save up for the occasion and some finagle corporate sponsorships.
 

Special facts about the Russ has to be mentioned, for example the clothes, Russ (youth taking part in the celebrations) are easily recognizable in April and May, when the russeknuter season is under way. They wear baggy trousers with big pockets, and a hat or cap with a long string at the end. The color of the overall should match the graduate's line of study: Red for courses that are geared towards higher education (this is the most common color), blue for courses in Business (also higher education in economics and management), black for Engineering (such as mechanics or electrics), and green for agricultural fields. Unfortunately I didn't see the last two colors.

But the most important items in the students' outfits are the hats, and the strings on them. The more knots and objects are attached the student's hat-string, the more respect the student is likely to get from his or her peers, because earning those decorations isn't easy.

 Each knot represented a prank played or a dare met during the month. These included running naked through the city center in daylight; biting the leg of a police officer then barking like a dog; and don't say a word for 24 hours.

Another essential accessory for every russ is a large quantity of Russ Cards. Russ cards (russekort) are mock business cards that the russ will hand out to anyone that asks for them. They contain a picture, contact details, and a slogan. Usually the picture is either a funny picture of the graduate him or herself, or a drawing, picture of a celebrity, or other funny picture. The name and contact details are usually spoofs, and the slogan is a joke.

On Norwegian Constitution Day on May 17th, a national holiday (also called National Day), the Russ marched in a parade to mark the end of their festivities.

Development Issues (Poverty)

People use to say and think that poverty is an issue from developing countries. Well I used to think the same, until February.
When I arrived here, I thought that perhaps I would be moving to one of "THE BEST" places in the world. The fact is that no matter how rich or poor are you, there will always be something that you miss. This is the POVERTY.
We can't ever compare two things completely different. Everybody has their needs, so the needs of someone can be different then your needs, it doesn't mean that you are best or worse than anybody, just that we are not identical.
During the preparatory seminar, we discussed a lot about poverty, once this project aims to share experiences, nothing better than tell everybody what would be the possible lacks that we (the Northern and Southern participants) might face on each others countries.
For a person coming from Africa, like me, maybe the first thing that he/she would talk would be the economy, it affects in every single ways the whole system in a country. I came to this conclusion after having a game on which we've split into groups to talk about poverty in our countries and in Norway. In the group there was a Filipino, a Kenyan, a Norwegian, a Salvadoran. Wow, from such a big list of nationalities, for sure we are going to get different opinions!! The conversation started and we found out that for all the countries except Norway the problems are alike, slightly differences were found, but just because of the politics applied in each country. The problems that we manage to find very quickly were in the Education, health and care and transport.
Conclusion, the developing countries has almost the same problems due to what they need, that most of the times is the same thing, MONEY.
Now the tricky question, WHAT AND HOW IS TO BE POOR IN NORWAY? To answer this question we took the most of the 20min given, and suddenly one member of the group said that poverty might be the fact that you don't own your house, you cannot afford a new Mac or iPhone, and we started laughing.
But wait, lets think together, in Norway the basic needs for a citizen are costed by the government, in some point everybody has the same conditions, that was the conclusion that we came up with.
After the 20 min, we had a general conversation, where every group had the opportunity to share.
and there we got stuck in the same question, because we thought that the idea of being unable to pay for an iPhone be considered as a sign of poverty was out of question. What was our surprise, it was a sign of poverty.
Final conclusion, poverty is not only not have money until the point of starvation, poverty is not only a economic issue,  poverty can also be the an social/emotional issue, poverty is the feeling or state of inadequacy.

Theory vs. Practice

Almost two months have past since I arrived in Norway.
I spent much time trying to create the most appropriate text to start writing my blog, but then I realized that the best I can do is write things as they come.
Everyday I wake up and think "Is this really happening", then I look out of the window and  the environment around me answers me "Yes".
Ok, two months past, I keep asking myself  "was it really what I was expecting for this Exchange", of course no.
We cannot predict the unknown, and maybe my mistake was try to predict things i'd never lived.
I  do not regret, on the contrary, I am very proud of this because I think it was important for me to grow and learn much more than what I thought I knew.
Even so, still funny to know that after so many seminars, and preparation, I assumed that I was ready but I was wrong.
There is a thing that we are not taught anywhere  "life experience". Now I agree when people say that to come in an Exchange Program is not all about willingness only but also strength, because we go through situations that we need both of them.


One of the moments that touched me most so far was in the Preparatory Course provided by FK Norway, when we had a session called Conflict Management.
Peter Harris, the guy who gave us an amazing lecture, told us that to live in societies, everybody creates masks for themselves, so when they feel out of their comfort zone, they can use them to protect themselves.
I know it can sound strange, but this is what we see when something either from the organization or participants goes wrong.
The biggest problem we are facing here out of  masks is the lack of communication.
As a brief summary, I dare myself to say that what we were taught is not being used by any party, apologies to those who feel offended, but this is reality.

Welcome Everybody

Dear friends, all of you are welcome to my Blog.
As you know, I'm very crazy and sometimes direct, so don't expect me to change this in here :) .
Well, talking a little bit more about this blog, it is a way that I found to release all thoughts that I
have in my mind. I will try to write every experience that I have here in Norway and I hope you
like it. If you don't agree with something, feel comfortable to show your opinion, but please respect
my own opinion :).

PS:Forgive me if at some points i misspell something, ingen er perfekte