Sights and Sounds from Stagnes 8-13: Week Five

     Once again I have had another great week here in Harstad. And, if I had to use one word to describe the week, it would be snow!! We have gotten so much snow this last week it is absolutely crazy. Like  I mentioned last week, I am from ND, so I am used to some crazy winter weather. But I don't know how long it's been-if ever-that I have seen so much snow coming down from the sky at one time! Thursday I was sitting in class when I looked out the window to see the clear winter day. Not even five minutes later (no joke!), I looked outside again, and couldn't even see the yard right outstide the school as it was snowing so hard. It was crazy! Luckily, the last couple days we have not had much, so it's been a nice little break! But I've been told their is more snow on the way!

There is definitely something in these skies! After going into one of the shopping centers to run an errand, we returned outside to dark skies, that while looking a little scary, were beautiful to look at! 

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day, but once we got to the pier, we could tell there was more snow on the way! The white on the left which looks kinda like clouds was actually snow that was moving into the city! 

     The highlight of my week at school was being able to go and observe another station. This week, I had the opportunity to go and observe the Farm and Coast station. In this station, students go to a farm outside of Harstad, where they learn about a variety of topics. Students are also expected to help with chores on the farm on the day they are there if there are any to be done. The day I was there, the students were learning about wind and weather. It was definitely an appropriate topic for the day, as there was plenty of wind! Let me say, out of the three stations I have observed so far, this one has been my favorite. I was really impressed with the set up at the farm. There is a small classroom that is used to teach the students the "theory" for the lesson. There is also a small stove in the classroom, where the students have cooked some food from an animal that they watched being slaughtered (That was earlier this year-I didn't have to watch that thank goodness!). After learning the theory about the lesson of the week, the students and teachers then go out onto the farm to do practical things. It was very cool to see! Not only that, but the farm has a cool tee-pee where they have a fire going for the students to cook their lunches on! I am definitely looking forward to going back to this station again! 

Took a little trip into the Norwegian countryside (kind of) for this week's station

Enjoying a day out on the farm, where it was, guess what?? SNOWING!

These pictures are kinda dark, but this is the tee-pee on the farm where the students eat lunch. All  of the benches have real furs on the to help keep warm!

     The last five weeks that I've spent at the school have really been great. And I am always noticing little ways in which the school here is different from back home. Here are a couple things that I have noticed, and that stick out with me:

     -All of the necessary school supplies (pencils, paper, rulers, etc.) are provided to the students.    When they fill up one notebook, they simply ask the teacher for a new one. 

     -The students call the teachers by their first names. For me, this is different since I have never called a teacher by their first name!

And finally for this week, a little fun fact I learned from the 8th grade students this week. On Monday when in English class, I was helping groups prepare to read aloud a short little poem in English. I had an 8th grade student come up to me and ask what the word "caught" means. I explained best I could, that it means to get something, like catching a fish. He seemed to understand, then he giggled and said, "That's not what it means in Norwegian!" He then proceeded to tell me what it means, and just a word to the wise-if you are planning on doing any traveling in Norway, be VERY careful if using the word "caught"! It's constantly blowing my mind that the same sounding word (even though spelled differently) can mean two very different things in different languages! If you're really curious as to what it means, type the word "kåt" into Google Translate! 

P.S. Just a little update on last week's winds-I asked a teacher if she knew how fast the wind was blowing last weekend, and she said at it's highest point, the wind was clocked at going 30 meters per second, which is equivalent to about 173 mph!!!