School Life

So I've just started my second week of school, and I have a better idea of how things work. There are many differences between American schools and Swedish ones. The schedules are much less rigid, you might have one class in the morning, then a half hour break, then maybe another class for an hour and a half then lunch. Tomorrow on Tuesday I have about a two and a half hour break before my gym class. Last week I came home and took a nap.

The teachers are much more laid back. The common opinion is that you are responsible for your own education so they aren't really concerned if you show up late or just wander our during the class to go to the bathroom or whatever.

The school is pretty much open campus. Today me and some friends went to a pizzeria for lunch because they didn't want to eat the free school lunch because it was fläsk-pankakor, or pork pancakes.

I was very surprised by the language choices. At St. Johns, we have French and Spanish, but at Österport Gymnasiet there's:

Danish, German, Russian, Italian, Latin, French and Spanish.

Here's how language classes work: The teachers have about nine hours a week each that they are in Språkvärlden (Language World), which is a big library/classroom for all the classes. It's up to you how much time you want to spend there, because like the rest of Swedish education, the responsibility to learn is in the hands of the students, not the teachers. I really like this situation because it's so flexible and it allows me to work at my own pace, whether it be faster or slower than everyone else.

Right now I am taking Russian, and I might take some French at some point. So far, I've only been to one class, and I am starting to learn the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet (Русский Алфавйт). It's pretty interesting as well as challenging. There are 33 letters, and you have to learn the print version and the handwritten version of each one, and each has and upper case and a lower case.

Here is my name in Cyrillic: Филип Осцар Едвин Витевин, or Фил short.