Ciao amici!

Dear friends of Comenius. Thank you for a fantastic week in Marigliano! We are grateful for the hospitality you showed us. We met a lot of people and made many new friendships during the fantastic week in Italy.

The programme was interesting: we loved the visit to Napoli, even though it was raining. The day in Caserta was lovely. We really enjoyed walking in the garden in the sun. There is no garden of that size in Tromsø (here everything is small, except for the mountains). We learned a lot about the ancient Roman culture and one of the highlights was the visit to Pompeii.

Your theatre play was great. The great amounts of work you have put in the preparations are impressive. The costumes were beautiful, the dancing was wonderful. Even though the play was in Italian, we understood some parts and think it was very funny. We hope the premiere of your play was successful with a big audience.

Everyone we met during the week was very warm and welcoming. The food is very different from the Norwegian, so we loved tasting your local delicacies. Some of us still miss the mozzarella.

It was cold to come home to snow in Tromsø, when we had “summer”-temperatures in Marigliano. Sandra had to get right on to shovelling snow from the roof when she got home.

We are sad because this was the final meeting of Comenius and we miss all of you. You are most welcome to come and visit us in Tromsø at any time.

Hugs and kisses from the Norwegian team: Sunniva, Elen-Marie, Natalie, Trym, Sandra, professoressa Janne and professoressa Kari.

russ

We’ve got 7 weeks left in school now, our exams starts in the middle of May. In the last year of high school we have something called russefeiring. Between 1 th and 17 th (17 th of May is our national day) of May we celebrate that we have finished high school. Despite we haven’t had our exam yet, we’ve already started the celebration. Russefeiring is two weeks of pranks, partying

Russ is a tradition and cultural phenomenon in Norway. Students graduating from upper secondary school celebrate with characteristic festivities starting on May 1. and culminating on the Constitution day on May 17. During this time, the graduates are called russ.

Russ are easily recognized by their distinctive overalls, which tradition dictates that they wear from the 1st to the 17th of May without interruption (except when sleeping), and without washing it. They also have cars, vans or buses, which are painted the same colour as their overalls, and often sport large sound systems or lighting rigs.

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.

the 17th of May

The 17th of May is the Norwegian national day. On this day we celebrate our constitution which was signed on the 17th of May 1814. A group of men met at Eidsvoll, in the south of Norway, and decided what laws and rules our nation would be founded upon.

To celebrate our national day, we have big parades with children waving their flags, marching bands and banners. We eat as much icecream as we want to, and eat many wieners. Some of us have on our national costume, which is called bunad. The 17th of May is the most patriotic day of the year. We show that we love our country.

As you may have heard, our class is a part of the graduation tradition, which is called the russtime. The Russ have their own parade on the 17th of May, where they wear funny clothes, act like clowns and have fun! People laugh and we are the funniest part of the parade.

Team Norway in Pompeii

A fantastic Comenius week in Tromsø is over. See more photos in our photo gallery.

Program

Click here to view the program

A note on clothes

For the climbing wall (which is indoors), bring clothes you can climb comfortably in. Shoes and other requipment will be provided here.
Outdoor activities: gloves, scarf, hat, fleece or woolen sweater, warm tights/leggings etc, as the cold wind tends to blow right through jeans. However, there is no need to buy expensive clothes you will never use again, and you can borrow clothes here if you are cold.
Sensible shoes (with thick soles). High heels on your own responsibility;-)