Saturday, 6 March 2010
Karneval på Voksen skole!
Yesterday there was a Carnival party for the children at Aktivitesskolen :)
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Living costs in Oslo
The University of Oslo estimates that the living costs for a student in Norway for five months and on a "modest budget" are approximately NOK 43 800 -> 5 446 EUR (at the moment), which represent around 1 100 Eur a month. This includes housing, food, Books & supplies, transportation (although this amount is for students who are less than 30 and therefore pay less) and other expenses.
The Comenius scholarship for Norway this year is 813 Eur/month, as anyone can easily find on the Portuguese National Agency's (PNA) website. According to the PNA the European Commission decides the amounts. I wonder where they get their information from to estimate the scholarship amounts, because according to a survey from 2004/2005 where assistants mention the scholarship is not enough, this has been a problem for Comenius assistants for a long time. To make matters worse (in Norway's case specially), no matter where you go, you are paid in Euro and therefore lose money in exchange and so on.
The question is, should they accept less assistants in order to make the experience better for everybody, or does (as in anything else is life) quantity matters more than quality? (the more assistants the less amount for each, but the more people they have doing Comenius the more successful the program looks)
Two things that could help though, would be to be able to stay at students residencies (because they are usually cheaper) and have free guaranteed language courses (like those provided for Erasmus students). Most of Comenius assistants have just finished their degree and are coming from University. This means that most people neither have a job nor a nest egg.
Fortunately, most of us either find a second job during the traineeship or ask their parents/family for help.
The Comenius scholarship for Norway this year is 813 Eur/month, as anyone can easily find on the Portuguese National Agency's (PNA) website. According to the PNA the European Commission decides the amounts. I wonder where they get their information from to estimate the scholarship amounts, because according to a survey from 2004/2005 where assistants mention the scholarship is not enough, this has been a problem for Comenius assistants for a long time. To make matters worse (in Norway's case specially), no matter where you go, you are paid in Euro and therefore lose money in exchange and so on.
The question is, should they accept less assistants in order to make the experience better for everybody, or does (as in anything else is life) quantity matters more than quality? (the more assistants the less amount for each, but the more people they have doing Comenius the more successful the program looks)
Two things that could help though, would be to be able to stay at students residencies (because they are usually cheaper) and have free guaranteed language courses (like those provided for Erasmus students). Most of Comenius assistants have just finished their degree and are coming from University. This means that most people neither have a job nor a nest egg.
Fortunately, most of us either find a second job during the traineeship or ask their parents/family for help.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Norwegian alphabet
Norwegian phonetics in particular is a bit difficult and it may take some time until one is able to pronounce things correctly. And, as I have experienced so many times before, if you don't say it right, people won't understand you. You might as well have a paper with the name of the place you are looking for if you are lost and need to ask for directions :)
Friday, 19 February 2010
19 February
Today was the last day before the Vinterferie (Winter holidays) - which is a one-week break in Norwegian schools (as well as other northern European countries).
The children had a very relaxed day. Instead of classes, they watched the film "Kiki's Delivery Service" and had some popcorn.
In the afternoon, the ones who stayed in the Aktivitesskolen (after school care) have had an ice-sculpture contest, as well as outdoor barbecue and warm apple and berries juice (yes, warm juice!). The weather was really terrible, very cold and windy, but it was lots of fun!
The contest winners had a small gift and all the children who participated got to eat one small chocolate.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
So, how do Norwegians sing Happy Birthday?
One of the first things I have learned in the teachers room was the happy birthday song. People were having lunch and suddenly and for no reason(or so it seemed to me) everybody stood up and started singing:
"Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!
Ja, deg vil vi gratulere!
Alle i ring omkring deg vi står,
og se, nå vil vi marsjere,
bukke, nikke, neie, snu oss omkring,
danse så for deg med hopp og sprett og spring,
ønske deg av hjertet alle gode ting
og si meg så, hva vil du mere? Gratulere!
Høyt våre flagg vi svinger. Hurra!
Ja, nå vil vi riktig feste!
Dagen er din, og dagen er bra,
men du er den aller beste!
Se deg om i ringen hvem du vil ta!
Dans en liten dans med den du helst vil ha!
Vi vil alle sammen svinge oss så gla'
og en av oss skal bli den neste - til å feste!"
(in http://ingeb.org/songs/hurrafor.html)
It was very strange to me because at that time I still didn't understand much Norwegian, but they were in fact singing Happy Birthday to someone. «Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!» is one of the songs Norwegians sing on birthdays and it was written by Margrethe Munthe. It sounds something like this:
"Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!
Ja, deg vil vi gratulere!
Alle i ring omkring deg vi står,
og se, nå vil vi marsjere,
bukke, nikke, neie, snu oss omkring,
danse så for deg med hopp og sprett og spring,
ønske deg av hjertet alle gode ting
og si meg så, hva vil du mere? Gratulere!
Høyt våre flagg vi svinger. Hurra!
Ja, nå vil vi riktig feste!
Dagen er din, og dagen er bra,
men du er den aller beste!
Se deg om i ringen hvem du vil ta!
Dans en liten dans med den du helst vil ha!
Vi vil alle sammen svinge oss så gla'
og en av oss skal bli den neste - til å feste!"
(in http://ingeb.org/songs/hurrafor.html)
It was very strange to me because at that time I still didn't understand much Norwegian, but they were in fact singing Happy Birthday to someone. «Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!» is one of the songs Norwegians sing on birthdays and it was written by Margrethe Munthe. It sounds something like this:
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