Russ 2013

Russ is a concept that is not very understood in the United States, or in many other countries for that matter. Because it is so different from anything we have in America, I will give you a fair warning now that this blog post will be VERY long in order to explain this interesting graduation celebration. All third years in Norway who want to participate in Russ are allowed to do so. Almost everyone does choose to participate in Russ when they’re a third year, because it’s something that teens in Norway have been looking forward to for years. They work to save up money for all of the things they have to pay for with Russ, because it’s very expensive and many parents expect their children to pay part of the expenses, if not all.

There are many different things that people participating in Russ have to pay for. They include: Russ clothes, your group's Russ song, Russebuss/Russebil and fixing it up, tickets to Russ weekend festivals (Tryvann, Lillehammer, & Tusenfryd), and a range of other expenses... potentially including alcohol. (In Norway, the drinking age is 18, so the large majority of Russ participants are legal to drink.)

Russ clothes can be ordered online on the Russ site where you can buy almost anything with RUSS 2013 written on it. I’ll try to explain all of this as best I can...

Overalls: All Russ participants order either overalls or a russedress (a suit kind of like a onesie). These pants are worn every single day for a little less than a month. You CAN’T wash them throughout the duration of Russetid. If you do, and anyone else finds out, one of the pant legs is cut off and you must continue to wear them everyday with only one pant leg. And that’s not just a myth, it actually happened last year to a guy from my school! These overalls can be ordered in a range of colors, and you order them based on the “track” you’re taking in high school. For example, those who are studying economics order blue overalls. Those studying farming order green, hairdressing/mechanics order black, and those studying on the normal track order red. Red is the most common, because it is for the people who are studying all of the basic subjects. 

On the Russ website, you can buy sweatshirts, jackets, t-shirts, shoes, sunglasses, hats, whistles, underwear, and a range of other crazy things... You can also order Russ cards, which is your own personal card with your picture, your name, your school/graduating year, and a few lines where you can put you favorite quotes, jokes, and/or information about your Russebuss/bil.

It is very common for buses and vans to order group sweatshirts that have their group name and logo on the back, with the individual’s name or nickname on the back as well. 

At the start of Russetid, there is something called the russedåpen where all Russ participants at our school are baptized by our “priest” and are given a nickname by the other people in their Russebuss/bil, which is then written on their russ hat and remains there for the remainder of Russetid. Our Russ hats have a very long black string that have a tassel on the end. The string is so long because throughout Russetid, we will tie things onto it. The things you tie onto your string mean certain crazy things you have done. Each school has their own “Russekrav” list of tasks that people can do in order to get something tied on (you are not forced to any of the tasks).

Each school has their own Russ system, but they are all based on the same idea. Our school is relatively small, but we still have fantastic Russ events. However, the big schools have larger events such as a Russ Prom. At our school, we have a Russ committee that plans parties, fundraisers, and a variety of other events. They also decide the themes for our themed parties, which we have once every month or two. Our themes so far have been: Army, Movie Characters, Christmas/Santa, and “Back to the 80s.” 

The national holiday in Norway (similar to the 4th of July in America) is the 17th of May. On that day, the country celebrates its independence with parades, parties, and of course, some drinking. There is a special part of the parade just for Russ goers called the Russetog. This is where Russ vans drive through the streets with their windows and/or doors open and they hand out their russ cards (as I already explained) to the young children. It is also common to just walk as a group and hand out your cards. For young kids, it’s their mission every year to collect as many Russ cards as possible. They think it’s SO cool to have the older kids’ Russ cards, so they ask the Russ for their cards at every possible opportunity. Along with my Russ clothing package, I received a box of 900 Russ cards. I don’t think I’ll be able to give out all of those, so I’ll bring some back to the U.S. as a good memory of my Russ experience! 

Next week we have something called the Russerevy, which is basically a play that all of the Russ are in. It is made up of songs, dances, and funny skits about Norwegian life and Russ. I will be taking a video of much of the play, so hopefully I can put up a video of the best parts soon after!

Russ groups often organize their own fundraisers in order to cover a portion of their Russ expenses. There are many different fundraisers, of course. Sometimes buses use a club for the night and receive a percentage of the proceeds for the night. 

Groups can also make their money by asking sponsors to donate money to them in exchange for having their advertisements on the group's Russ bus or van. A “russebil” (van) is usually a large red van that can seat a maximum of 10 people. The color of the van can vary based on the track you take at school, but as I said with the overalls, red is the most common. A “russebuss” is basically a pimped out greyhound bus. They are huge party busses that are usually painted with the group’s name written on the side of the bus so everyone knows who they are. 

The Russ weekend festivals are considered by many as the highlight of Russ. Tryvann is a festival where all of the buses and vans meet up for the weekend to enjoy concerts and be with the other people who are Russ from all around the country. Below is a link to the teaser for Tryvann 2013, and below that is the video for Tryvann 2012. As you will see, it’s pretty crazy, but it’s tradition! Lillehammer is the same basic idea as Tryvann, where all Russ participants meet up for concerts, parties, and the other crazy activities that go on there. Tusenfryd is an amusement park that is rented out just for Russ for the weekend, where there are concerts and rides.

There is also an event that our school’s Russ will do called the “Russerebus”. This is where all of the Russ groups at our school get together one night down by the lake and have a ridiculous competition. The groups are competing against the others to win the highest amount of points by the end of the night. These points are earned by doing a range of absolutely outrageous things at different posts along the shoreline and in the forest. Winning the Russerebus is a pretty big deal, so the buses and vans get really competitive! 

I have friends in a few different buses and vans, but the van I’m closest with is a group of girls called Rehab. I know, their name may seem a bit odd for a group of 18 year olds, but it goes with their theme and song! The Russ name that a group chooses is very rarely appropriate. If it is appropriate, they are likely referring to something else that isn’t appropriate. It's kind of hilarious what names these groups come up with, because they're really clever when you hear their whole idea! Below is a link to Rehab’s song, which was actually sung by one of my friends from school named Maria Wiik. She’s incredibly talented, so much so that she made it into the top 40 for Norwegian Idol! 

In my opinion, Russ is the world’s best graduation celebration. Contrary to popular belief, Russ is not just partying all the time. There are a lot of other fun events that come along with being Russ, so I feel very fortunate that I’m allowed to be a part of it all! I feel a bit odd creating a blog post solely based on Russ, but many people in the United States asked, so I answered! I hope this blog post conveys just how incredible Russ truly is. 

Christmas in Norway

Hello again, I’m back at blogging! I’m sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with my blog, but as you can all imagine, I’ve been a little busy lately with the holidays and a variety of other activities since my last post. I think I’m going to split this massive amount of information and pictures into three or four blog posts, because otherwise it would take far too long to read. 

To put it simply, I’m having the time of my life. As I said before, I couldn't be happier that I made the decision to take a gap year to come to travel. I've really had a great time here, and I'm learning new things everyday! However, there are also some tough times that have come along with the experience too. Along with being an exchange student comes a wide range of ups and downs, so it has been quite an adventure so far. At the beginning of the year, we were told that the Christmas holidays would be the hardest time of the year for exchange students because we are reminded of everyone and everything at home. Well, they were right. I had a tough week or so around Christmas time where I was missing everything that was familiar about my American holiday season. Thankfully, I have a great host family and friends here that kept me occupied and having fun! Below are a some pictures from our family Christmas celebration.

In Norway around Christmas time there is a tradition that young children/teens participate in where they wear white, carry candles, and sing the Christmas song “Santa Lucia”. At school, those who are Russ walked through all of the school buildings singing the song and handing out boller (sweet rolls). Below is a picture of all of us walking through the gym with our candles and singing.

We also had a Christmas concert where there were two choirs (boy's and girl's), and I sang a solo in it in front of the entire school! I can honestly say I wouldn't have done it if I were in America, but since I knew I'll only be here for a short time I just went for it! Below is a picture of the majority of the two choirs that sang the last day before Christmas break.

I bet some of you in America are pretty curious about what we eat in Norway around Christmas time, so here's a brief description of the most typical foods.

Ribbe: These are ribs that are prepared a special way so that the meat is tender but there is an incredibly hard casing around it (when you chew the outside it sounds like you're eating hard candy). I didn't particularly like the ribs, but at least I gave them a shot!
Potatoes: We eat potatoes almost every night for dinner, so it's clear that they are popular in the Norwegian diet. 
Polse: Super thick sausages that are incredible. I love them and will definitely miss them when I go back to America!
Lefse: Similar to a tortilla, made from potatoes and is eating with meat and other dinner foods (in the U.S. my family eats Lefse, but we eat it with butter and cinnamon sugar). 
Sauerkraut: We have it in the U.S. too, but it's not commonly eaten with the Christmas meal.
Laks: Salmon prepared in a wide variety of ways, all of which are delicious! 
Medisterkaker: Large meatballs that are made from meat that tastes quite different than meatballs in the U.S. and the meat is much less chewy. 
Sylte: Compacted meat in a big cube. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't too bad either. 
Risgrøt: Hot rice pudding that we eat with butter and cinnamon sugar on top. It may sound odd but it's actually super delicious.
Riscreme: Cold rice creme that we eat with fruit sauce on top. 
We also eat tons of Christmas cookies, of course! Some of the most popular are called: Krumkake (fragile cookies made into cones that you put cream in), smultring (donuts), pepperkake (gingerbread), riflekjeks (flat cookies), and many more. 

My host mom and host sister baking donuts (and tons of them!) before Christmas.

Getting dressed up and going out around Christmas time/New Years is a really big deal for teens here, so on Christmas day we went out to the local club called Rozarin and I had a good time with many of my closest friends. This was after all of our family Christmas festivities, of course! We also had a Christmas Russ party, so the picture below is a picture of most of the third years in their costumes in our cafeteria. I don't think many people in America understand the concept of Russ, so I will make a blogpost in the future where I explain everything about this crazy graduation celebration (well, almost everything).

For AFS, we had a "Juletrefest" (Christmas tree party) where sang and danced around the Christmas tree together. It was one of the weirder Christmas traditions I've participated in, but it was still pretty fun anyway.  Over break I also went skating many times, went sledding at a huge icy hill with some friends, celebrated New Years with many of my closest friends and ate a ridiculous of delicious food. It was a great holiday break, and it was fantastic to experience Christmas the way that Norwegians typically do.

I think that's about all I can say about December in Norway, so I hope you enjoyed this and come back again to read the second edition to this post which will be coming soon, I promise! 

Until next time,

XOXO Karma

Go big or go home!

Hello again,

I have now been in Norway for a little over 3 months, and it has been truly incredible. I decided that rather than just telling you what life is like here, I’d show you! Hope you enjoy the videos.  

I also made a video for AFS that includes clips from many of our different AFS fall events. 

 Below, is our AFS Hamar group at our weekend camp in Rena. 

THE FIRST SNOW! I was so excited for the snow, so I tried to go snowboarding on the downhill right next to our house. Although it was a huge fail since the snow wasn't slick, it was still worth a try! As you can see, the board was completely buried in the snow, so I couldn't get very far. 

    

Below is a picture of Åse and me on Halloween. We were Pippi Longstocking together! Although Halloween isn't such a popular holiday here, we still went out Trick-or-Treating and got a ton of candy. Yes, I'm definitely still a little kid at heart. 

Andréane and I were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by a teacher from our school.  She is American and her husband is Canadian, so they still celebrate Thanksgiving even though Norwegians do not. We ate all of the typical Thanksgiving foods, and then some other new foods that were extremely good (marshmallow sweet potatoes? Surprisingly good.) Below is a picture of some of the foods that we ate for the delicious dinner!

There are a few things I noticed that are a bit different from life in the United States. For example, I saw a guy riding a Mercedes-Benz tractor to school the other day, so I think it’s fair to say that farming is on a whole new level here... I’ve also seen many guys wearing Uggs here and girls wearing Timbs (Timberland boots), which I’m definitely not used to.  Another trend that is ridiculously popular here is converse shoes. On any given day, at least 3/4 of the school is wearing them, it's crazy!

We had Father’s Day a few weeks ago here in Norway (in America, Father’s Day is in the summer).  For Father’s Day, we had a nice dinner together and had family time after dinner, which was very nice!

Below is a picture from one of our traditional Friday night pizza dinners.  My host mom's pizzas are incredible, which help make Fridays even better because I look forward to it all week!

Also on Father’s Day, we went to my sister’s soccer game in Hamar! She plays on Fart, which is in the top league in Norway. I know, in english Fart sounds like an odd name for a team, but in Norwegian fart means speed! Anyway, the game was a very big deal because it was announced on a Norwegian television show that plays nationally.  The man who announced it on the tv show was at the game leading cheers and keeping the crowd excited. Although Fart lost, they played a very good game- easily one of their best this season! 

I was on TV for the Fart game! My host mom and I are pictured in the top left corner of the screen.

The last Russ party we had was a costume party for halloween, which was awesome! Everyone went all-out, so the costumes were really cool to see. We wore the costumes to school and then joined the festivities at night. The thing about Russ is that only third years are a part of it, so it’s a bit awkward when I go to my second year classes all dressed up... It’s definitely worth it though! There’s nothing that is similar to Russ in America, so I’m really happy I get to be included in it this year, even if I don’t get to participate in all of the events. 

Here is what I wore for the Russ costume day, I was an Avatar!

Below are pictures of some of my friends in their costumes/some of the best costumes of the day.

    

                       

Helene and me at school in our Avatar costumes, which took over 2 hours to put on!

Many of my friends have had their birthdays recently, so we typically get all the girls together and have a small celebration, and then go out on the weekend to celebrate as well. 

Above, we are dressed up to go out for Ida's birthday. Below, we are celebrating Stine's Birthday at her house!

Below, left: The view from my back deck of the mountains and Lake Mjøsa.

Below, right: Our family pet, a bunny rabbit named Snoopy. He's so cute! 

                 

This place is incredible, especially at night when the snow makes the whole city glow!

Below are some pictures from my day trip to Sjusjøen skisenter with Andréane.

I am extremely happy that I decided to come here, because it’s already been the best year of my life.  This is an experience that I could not have had if I had just traveled around Norway as a tourist, because my host family and friends have both helped make this year so fantastic.  The things I've experienced in these first three months are things I will remember for the rest of my life. 

This month will be full of festivities, and I'm so excited for all of it! Some things that I'm really looking forward to are family time, music, desserts, and of course, Christmas! 

That's just about all I can talk about now, so I hope you enjoyed the videos and pictures, and I hope to upload another blogpost by the end of the month with a Christmas edition. 

Until next time, hadebra!

XOXO Karma

på engelsk vær så snill?

I find it hard to believe that I’ve already been in Norway for over a month, it’s really flying by! Fair warning, this first blog post may be a little boring to read because it will be a lot of explaining.  However, my posts in the future will likely be a bit more exciting :)

To tell my story about my time in Norway, I’ll start from the very beginning. It’s nearly impossible to put into words how difficult it was to say goodbye to my family and friends back home in Minnesota, knowing that I wouldn’t see them again for almost a year.  There were many tears shed, I’ll put it that way.  

Many people have asked me since I got here if I miss home.  I do miss it, but to me, it’s worth it.  It’s tough being away from everything that’s familiar for me, but having an experience like this is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life and I’m so thankful for this opportunity.

From Minnesota I flew to New York, where we had the AFS-USA orientation at the Hilton.  Here, I met many interesting people who were on their way to a wide variety of countries (mostly European countries).  From New York, we flew into Oslo.  In Oslo, we had a 3-day orientation with all AFS students in Norway (148 I think?) where we played games, learned some basic Norwegian phrases, and were prepared by our leaders for the year ahead. 

A group of leaders and AFSers at orientation when we went on a nature walk!

Also at orientation, while we were waiting to meet our host families!

At the end of the orientation, I met my host family.  I was introduced to them in front of a room full of people and I finally got to see them in person for the first time.  It was so fun to finally meet them, after months of knowing them just through Facebook.  They are incredible people, and I feel extremely blessed to have been placed with them!  We get along great, and they’re already teaching me many things about the Norwegian culture! I also love their house, which has a mini ski hill (with a lift) in their backyard!  It’s also up the hill from sentrum, the center of town, so we have a beautiful view of Brumunddal every day. My family has a lot of family time, which is great for getting to know each other.  One of my favorite family events is the Friday night pizza.  Every Friday, my mom makes two delicious pizzas, and we have a nice, long family dinner.  Another thing that I do with my family is work in my mom’s store, called Gurimalla.  It’s a gorgeous interior decorating store in the mall in sentrum.  Most days after school I stop in there on my way home to see if it’s busy and if they need help, because I really like working there! 

My host parents, Henry and Aud. Such great people!

School is definitely not as easy here as it in the US, mostly because I have a hard time understanding what any of my teachers are saying.  The classes here are also harder because the grade I get in a class is almost completely based on how I do on the tests. Homework doesn’t count for any part of my grades, so the tests are really important in order to get good grades.  Right now I’m taking math, spanish, english, design & architecture, norwegian, photography, history, and gym.  Thankfully, there’s another exchange student at my school.  Her name is Andréane and she’s from Québec, Canada.  We are very close friends, and we have many of the same classes which is nice so we can work together if we don’t understand something. I’m so happy that I was placed with another exchange student in my school, because I don’t think I would have been as comfortable in school if I was alone (especially in the first couple weeks). 

Andréane and me on her birthday, before we went out to dinner.

Andréane and I were put in the 2nd year, even though the students my age are 3rd years.  This often is the case for exchange students because our exchange program (AFS) doesn’t want the exchange students to have to take the tough end-of-year exams that the 3rd years have to take.  I think we still have exams towards the end of the year, but they won’t be nearly as hard.  

When we were at orientation, we were warned that Norwegian people are often very shy and sometimes cold around new people.  Thankfully, that was completely wrong when it came to the people at my school. Everybody was so welcoming and warm!  This was such a pleasant surprise for me to have people be so outgoing and ready to help.  I now have some really close friends in both the 2nd and the 3rd year at my school, both boys and girls.  All of my friends are such fantastic, fun people and I’m so glad they were all kind enough to reach out to me when I arrived!  They are always willing to help me when I need it, and they invite me to many events with their friends, which I’m so thankful for because it has allowed us to become even closer friends!  Also, it has given me a chance to meet more people, which is always fun! There are two girl who have been especially helpful since the very beginning- Synne and Marika.  Synne is a 3rd year and Marika is a 2nd year, and they are both very nice and outgoing girls who I can’t thank enough for all they’ve done! Below are a few pictures of some of my friends at Ringsaker. 

Below are a few pictures with some of my friends from Ringsaker!

Here are some exciting things that I’ve done since I arrived in Norway: 

With much help from my parents (both my natural parents and host parents), I was able to track down my Norwegian relatives (many of them live very near where I live in Norway).  It turns out that I am 100% Norwegian, because when my ancestors immigrated from Norway to the states, they continued to marry Norwegian people. This was really cool to find my roots and visit the farms that my family comes from! 

I also went with some friends to a skateboard competition at a park called Koigen, where I learned how to skateboard on a mini board! It is definitely a more popular sport here than it is in Minnesota, so it was cool to see a real competition. I hope to learn how to longboard or skateboard on a regular sized board while I’m here as well!

Marika and me at Koigen on a rainy day!

I’ve been to many soccer games, both boys and girls, and I am also playing on the Brumunddal girls soccer team here, which is extremely fun but hard since I haven’t played soccer since last fall. I really miss playing hockey and lacrosse, but lacrosse and girls hockey are both sports that are very rare in this part of Norway. 

Fans at the Brumunddal/Moelven soccer game!

Last Friday I went to Hamar Mart’n, which is similar to a mini Minnesota State Fair! There were many food stands, a midway, and a concert at night.  I went with my younger sister, and we went on a couple of rides (my favorite was the teacups), as well as to the concert, for which we were in the front row!

My host sister, Åse, and me at the concert!

A few weekends ago I went to the mountains about 2 hours away for a gorgeous daytrip with my family.  The picture here shows me after running through what I thought was going to be a field, which turned out to be a swamp. This was probably my favorite part of the trip because we got such a good laugh out of it!

Last weekend we had the AFS camp in Stange, where we played games, ate a ridiculous amount of food, had a dance party, ran on big bails of hay wrapped in white plastic which we named ‘marshmallows’, and a bunch of other shenanigans! It was nice to meet back up with everyone again and hear their stories about their different experiences in their families, schools, and extracurricular activites. It will definitely be interesting to see what everyone has done when we meet up again for the mid-year camp!

AFSers at the Stange weekend camp!

I’ve had the chance to go to a few parties since I arrived, and they have all been extremely fun! The difference between American parties and Norwegian parties is that in America, the party is at one house and everyone stays at that house for the entire time.  In Norway, there is the pre-party, the party/going out to a bar or club, and the after-party. This is normal for every weekend, which is much more exciting than the American party schedule.  Party music is also different, because here they have a lot more dubstep. This also means that they dance a bit differently here, but I won’t get into that... :)

A couple of things that I’m excited for that are coming up are:

The Russefest that’s coming up this Friday! Russ is a celebration that all 3rd year Norwegian students get to participate in.  It’s basically 2 months of concerts, costumes, parties, and other fun things.  Russ is an extremely important part of Norwegian students’ lives, because they’ve been waiting anxiously for their Russ year since they were young. Thankfully, Andreane and I get the chance to be Russ this year even though we’re only 2nd years! 

I'm also looking forward to skiing and snowboarding this winter! I love both, so hopefully I get a chance to ski and snowboard at least a couple times this winter.

Here is the view from our kitchen window of the mountains and the lake!

As far as learning the language goes, Norwegian is really tough. Since my friends and family know that English is my first language, they usually choose to speak to me in English because it’s easier and they think it’s fun to speak English.  This makes it tough for me to learn the language, however, so I like it best when people speak Norwegian to me (but very very slowly)!  So I guess another thing I’m looking forward to is for my Norwegian to improve so communicating with my friends, family, and teachers will be much easier. 

I think that’s all I can talk about for now, so until the next post, hadebra!

XOXO Karma