Differences!

I will now write my first blog post in English, so sorry mom! I'll be talking about several differences I can see between here and Norway. Or at least Houston and Saltnes.

School/Sports:
The marks here are really unmerciful. You have A, B, C, D and F, and if you get less than 70% correct on your test, you fail (F)! Which means that you really have to study for each test. Books here are also insanely thick; 1000 page long history book. And teachers here love giving homework. Right now, for instance, I have to make a poster with pictures and sentences for my Spanish class, I have to write down all terminologies and examples from 120 pages of math, make a time table thing for English class, do one page of math, and start practicing some English vocabulary. Teachers here also go nuts if they catch anyone with their cells in class. On the other hand, people here actually like school and support it and represent it in so many ways. School starts at 7:45 and ends 3:35 (2:50 on Fridays) every day, but the classes/subjects are different from day to day as well, which is nice. Your classes are also mixed with people that are younger and older than you! For instance, some people in my Hebrew class are born in 1995!! And if you're a senior (avgangselev), you have to make tons of essays to send out to different colleges. And colleges are expensive!!

In Norway I'd say you have to get at least 30% right on tests in order to not fail. Our marks are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 where 6 is the best and 1 is fail. Books here are what I would use to call normal-sized, but I now choose to call tiny; 200 page long history book. Teachers back home love being merciful about homework! 90% of the time, homework is what's left of the work you do in class which is'nt done yet. Meaning that if you just focus and do your work, you won't get any homework. In addition, you can protest if you think the teacher gives you too much homework, and they almost always waive it. If you have your cell on at home in class, the teacher won't want you to be using it of course, and if it rings, and it's your parents, it's okay. And if it isn't your parents, the teacher will just tell you to put it away. School starts either 8:00, 8:50, 9:45 or 10:40. School ends either 1:25, 2:20 or 3:10, and classes/subjects are already made for their repsective days. Meaning on Tuesdays my first class is French at 10:40 all the time. If you're a senior, you have to get good marks and apply for a college or university which are free.

Food
Three meals a day; weekdays at 6:30, 12:30 and finally dinner around 8-9:00. Weekends at 12:00, 4:00 and 10:oo. They barely eat any bread whatsoever! And what I concider dinner, they wast for lunch. Breakfast here is always cereal and dinner is always humongous. People here eat out a lot! And they mix peanut butter and jelly which is absolutely disgusting... I had to throw up when I ate it... but I heard vegemite is worse though. When eating out, it's hard to find places that serve dishes that are not greasy. They put butter on everything... even on the hamburger buns! I mean, is the frying oil for the meat, and the salad oil for the lettuce enough in itself?

Three, four or five meals a day; weekdays at 6:30, 11:35, 3:30-4:30 and finally at 7-8:00. Weekends at 11:00, 4:00, 7:00. I miss my loaves of bread! We eat bread for breakfast, lunch and "evening food", or the last snack before bed. Our portions are therefore very small. People here eat out perhaps once or twice a month.

That's it for now... I am not sure what more to write, so I'll say some more differences in my next post!