Visit to Pro senter

Today the class visited the pro senter in Oslo, where a Swedish lady had a presentation for us about prostitution and human trafficking. She presented some statistics that showed how many persons who had visited the Pro senter over the last ten years, and where they were from. Most of them were from Norway and Nigeria, but the Norwegian visitors hadn’t to be an ethnic Norwegian. I learned that in Norway it is illegal to by sex, but not illegal to sell sex. There are also most women who are in the prostitution marked and sell sex, and that is probably the reason why there were more female who visited the Pro senter than males.

There were fewer women who had been involved in human trafficking of those who had been a prostitute, but common to them all was that the stories they told her was sad. She also told us that it was not so much she could do when someone dropped by. She may take contact with the police, and the Pro senter had a medical station where the clients could check their health and if they had been sexually transmitted.

I think that it had been easier if the lady had visited our classroom then all of us students had come to the Pro senter. That is because she just showed us a presentation and talked and the room we sat in wasn’t very big for 28 students. However I found todays class very interesting and I learned a lot about human trafficking and prostitution.

Humans in Oslo

Today the class went to Oslo to find and have a conversation with strangers. A bit uncomfortable to start and talk to a person you don’t know at all! But Hannah and me just leaped in to it…

We started our search at Aker Brygge, and found a lovely woman from South Africa that had a lot to say, and we did learn much from her.

After that we went up to the castle because we knew that the tourists were swarming around that area.

We saw two ladies taking pictures of the castle and went towards them. We introduced ourselves to them, and asked them if thy spoke English. Only one of them knew the English language, and she had a Spanish accent. We started to ask then our questions, and it turned out that they were Brazilians. They were tourists in Norway, and had come from south in Brazil. As the conversation went on they said that they had been traveling since the 30^th of August, but not only in Oslo. They had been with a group in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and a lot in Russia. I asked the lady that spoke English if she knew what her greatest pleasure in life was. And the answer came in one word: travel. She loved to travel, and had done it since she was a little girl. She was so interested in the different cultures, food, cities and way of living. But she didn’t have a favourite place, because she thought that each and one place had something special with it.

Then I turned it the way around and asked her if she knew what her biggest failure was. She thought about it for a good, long time and suddenly said: that is a very difficult question to ask. I don’t think I know that one.

We ended the conversation with a picture of them, and they got a photograph of us too.

Ice-breaking

When I sat in my room yesterday evening and checked Itslearning, a post on the international English side said that the class were going to wear loose and comfortable clothes. So when I woke up this morning I took on a really nice and baggy dress. I wondered about what we were supposed to do this day. My expectation was that we would wear comfy clothes just to be more comfortable with each other in the class.

When I then arrived at the school people were chatting about physical activities, and that we were going to play games outside like exercise. I then looked down at my dress and I got really nervous. It turned out that the activities we were going to do was called ice-breaking. It was, as I had expected, an activity to get to know and to trust the members of the class better. At first I thought it was great, because I would love to get to know the class better. But I am a shy person and that kind of activity is not within my comfort zone.

One of the activities was to walk around in the room blind. That was very uncomfortable because everyone bumped into each other and I didn’t know whom I jostled into and where I was going. But in another activity I felt calm. I walked around with my eyes closed, but this time the class were standing in a ring and leaded my in the right direction. So after a few activities I felt more comfortable with the class members and had a really good time. I learned that the people around me don’t really care about where I go or if I bump into them, so that made me more comfortable with myself.

Who am I?

My name is Celina, and this year, 2006/17, I’m in my second year at Sandvika VGS. I am a girl who lives in Bærum, Norway, with my little brother, mom, dad and my cat, Bobby. I have played the piano for almost eleven years, and I will then say I am pretty good at it. However, the thing I like best to do in my spare time is to train, and compete in the athletics. I have specialized myself at 100m and 100m hurdles. That being said, I will actually compete this weekend in Sandnes. The last competition for this season. Looking forward to it!

The rest of the time, I am just a normal teenage girl, who loves to be with her friends, and family. Working hard at school, and listen to music too often. Think that the autumn is the best season, because it is my birthday. And I just love to live life.

Rabbit-proofe fence

Rabbit proof fence

 

In the 1930’s the Australian government had a law that gave them the right to take children with half aboriginal and half white origins away from their family and home. These children were sent to a boarding school so they could learn the right way of living. The government wanted to wash away the children backgrounds from the wild. The name of the school, Moore River, wanted to avoid an unwanted third race.

 

It was also made a film about this dark history in Australia. Rabbit-proof Fence. The movie is based on the true story of Molly, her little sisters, Daisy and their cousin, Gracie. They are the main characters and we have the opportunity to see their long journey from their home, the Moore River and the long way home after they flew. Molly was the biggest one of them and therefor the leader. She knew the way and tried to hold the spirit up.

 

Mr Neville was the bad guy in this movie although he thought he was doing the right thing whit these children. Wen he found out that the three children had escape from the school he send the police after them and wouldn’t stop until they were found again. He had the logic that if these children married a white person the next generation of children would have more white blood. That would lead to the end of the third unwanted race.

 

This movie touched me in a way with anger. How could people think like that, and what was the problem with another “race”. It is time to face that people are people and no one are born equal.

American or British English?

We all know that there are some different between British and American English. Most in the way we talk it. Today the music, films and series most teenagers are watching have normally an American English. When I talk English I think I have a switch between British and American English. For example I say better in the American way like “bedder,” but I say can’t in the British way like “kaant.” When I talk English now a days I think my English have been effected by the American influence in music, TV, films and series. Because I like to sing with the music I listen to which make me pronounce every word in American English. To summarise I will say I talk more and more in an American English because I have more American English around me.

When I write in English I use the British. I think that is because I have always learned to write colour instead of color. I have never thought, until I learned it in the English class today, that American and British is spelling them differently. However, I know that I can improve both my oral and written English, and to do that I have to read a lot of English books and news articles to expand my vocabulary.

So far in the English lesson the class have read two short stories. Lang Walk to Forever and Lamb to the Slaughter. In my opinion Lamb to the Slaughter was the best of them. That is because it came quicker to the turning point, and had a more exciting story. In short Lamb to the Slaughter wasn’t a cliché. I couldn’t predict what would happen in the short story. I got excited, and wanted to read more.

In Lang Walk to Forever the action was boring, because the whole short story was about two old friends that was walking and talking.

This is a short summary of the Lamb to the Slaughter:

It was a normal afternoon in Mary Maloney’s life. She was a pregnant wife waiting for her husband, Patrick, to come home from work. It turned out that the normal day wouldn’t be normal at all. Patrick told her he wanted a divorce. Mary, shocked as she was, killed her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. She had to act as normal as possible and went to the groceries and made a supper of the murder weapon. When she called the police she had to hide the terrible thing she had done by good acting, but realized after the initial shock, that she could just be herself as the sorrow hit her.

I have to say that I liked the story, because it was a catchy title. The turning point surprised me. Divorce was not as common in those days, especially when the wife was pregnant, and the sudden change of the character from a comforting wife to a cold blooded murderer able to fool the detectives is a bit terrifying. This is the horror part of the story. It came quickly to the point and you didn’t get bored, but you kept wondering about the strange story and what the author wanted to tell us.