News from Norway: Bilateral meeting

From Olsvikåsen Upper Secondary School with love

On Saturday 16th November 17 German students and teachers arrived at Flesland airport in Bergen. The Norwegian students and their families were waiting impatiently. Saturday evening and Sunday were spent in the various host families. The host families were eager to show the guests our beautiful city. 

On Monday morning, our new friends were greeted by our headmistress, Mrs.Inger-LiseThorstensen. We started off with some ice-breaking games and a guided tour around our school. Before lunch, the students were introduced to the project. After lunch the students continued working in the suggested groups. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday followed pretty much the same pattern. In the morning the students had either breakfast at home or at school. Olsvikåsen offers breakfast for all our students during the school year. The German students and their Norwegian host students were also offered free lunch every day that week. 

A Research of National and European Landmarks.

During the week, the students were working on the first stage of our project which was to compare holidays in Germany and in Norway. This is what the groups were working on:

1.       Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

2.       May 1^st and Midsummer.

3.       Remembrance Day and Easter.

4.       Holocaust and New Year’s Eve.

5.       Reformation Day, Fastelaven and Halloween.

6.       Christmas and St Nicholas’ Day.

7.       Unification Day and17th of May

Wednesday was our excursion day and a day off from the project and school and allowed our students to relax a bit. We had planned to walk up the mountain to Fløyen, but the weather can be unpredictable this time of year (actually all year). We therefore decided to go to Bergen Science Center,VilVite, where we tried out the different activities and exhibitions.

 After enjoying our packed lunch, we continued to Bergen Aquarium where we watched the penguins and sea lions being fed outside. Indoors there are numerous exhibitions of spiders, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, life at sea in the North and the shark tunnel.

We knew that it was going to be quite busy the following day. The groups presented their work in the English classes at school. Both the German and Norwegian students were a bit nervous, but they all agreed that it was good training for them to speak in public. It was also important to make the project more visible to the rest of the school. After lunch it was time to present the projects and the results of their findings to the rest of the Comenius group. For the German and Norwegian teachers involved, it was interesting to see how they had managed to solve the tasks. All in all, the presentations were good. We see, however, that especially the Norwegian students have a challenge concerning presentations without a script. In the future, we would also like to see more in-depth project work. 

We think we can safely say that the highlight of the week was National Eve on Thursday. The evening started with an exquisite platter of typical Norwegian food carefully prepared by a chef that came exclusively for this event. Some of the delicious food that was on the menu: fish soup, smoked salmon and reindeer. After the lovely dinner, our German guests entertained us with a quiz. Olsvikåsen has got a house band of teachers that had agreed to play a selection of songs.
Towards the end of the evening, the Norwegian students had a quiz and presented a Norwegian Folk dance. Some of the girls wore their national costume, bunad, and also explained the history and tradition attached to their costumes.

Norway - Germany Bilateral Meeting. 2013

On Friday, it was time to say good bye. The German students brought their suitcases to school and were driven to the airport. In March it is our turn to visit our German friends in Garbsen, and we are looking forward to itJ.

Here is a direct link to the Olsvikåsen’s web page: http://olv.hfk.no/templates/SchoolSubsite.aspx?id=42886