Revision break

Hi!

I'm currently revising for my GCSEs which start next week. Argh! I don't know whether to be nervous or happy that it's almost over. When I think about the exams starting next week I remind myself that the sooner they start the sooner they finish. Also the fact that in a month's time I'll only have 4 exams left out the 19 (!) that I'm doing. I'm glad that I at least got two modules out of the way last year so that I don't have 21 exams. My teachers keep going on about how important these exams are and my thoughts are that if these exams are really important then I don't have a hope in hell of getting anywhere in life. All of my friends who are older than me say that GCSEs don't matter in the long term and I hope that's true.
On to more cheerful topics! I'm moving home to Sweden in a few months! So excited! I can't wait!
The thought of moving home is the only thing that's keeping me sane at the moment.
Also the fact that I only have this week of lessons left at my current school is a cheerful thought. Don't get me wrong, my school is very good academically but there are a lot of things that annoy me about it.  I will miss my friends though. Well some of them.......

I should get back to revision now. Teeth are so fascinating....... not

Bye Banan!

A peculiar thing

Hi!

Thanks for reading my little blog.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine today (I'm talking about you Etta) at break time. It was about a British tv show for kids that I had never heard of (one of many) which had featured in a house
quiz (more about houses in another post). She asked what colour some random character was. Everyone else said purple and she claimed that it would make more sense for this character to be blue and I won't go into the reasons why becuase they're too boring and frankly I didn't really listen (I'm such a good friend). So she asked me what colour I thought it should be. I said purple and she said that was wrong. That made me think, she asked me what I THOUGHT. Surely she can't go around telling people that their opinions are wrong. Opinions aren't like spellings. You can think whatever your want. Rant over......
I'm a bit of a history freak so I I've read a lot about the 'Great Leap Forward' in China and the USSR and North Korea.
The main thing that I consider when I read the news about North Korea now is that I pity the people. There was a terrible famine over there in the 1990s which they blamed on American sanctions. They then claimed that the American aid had been taken from American ships in Korean waters or something like that. The poor people didn't know any better. This is why I feel sorry for them. I have a thirst for knowledge and the thought of not being able to obtain balanced information on historical
and current issues is not a happy one. Naturally I also pity them becuase they have atrocious conditions and no freedoms. They are fed with information that supports the regime from an early age so that they won't oppose government policy. They don't even question the policies. It's awful.
Anyway back to the rant before I start crying becuase I feel so sorry for the North Koreans. The idea that your opinions can be wrong is not something that I agree with.
I appreciate that this post probably doesn't make sense but I'm tired and panicking about exams. I need a platform on which to vent my frustrations. This blog is perfect becuase my frustrations are often entertaining to look back on.

Bye banan!

Hejdå leverpastej!

P.S. if you can access BBC iplayer I strongly recommend watching the panorama programme about North Korea. It's very interesting!

School

Hi!

I haven't posted properly in far too long. Blame school! I just got home and am absolutely exhausted. I've been very busy with school so I haven't posted anything. I had three tests today. Physics, geography and English lit. Two of them were catching up on missed tests from last week. Humph! I also haven't had much inspiration becuase my mum is away so I haven't been listening to her complaints all weekend.
I jut realised that the title of this post is school. Oh yes! Differences between the Swedish and Guern school systems. There are plenty!

Guernsey

• Start at 4
• Start secondary school at 11 
• My primary school was 8.45 to 15.00
• We started French in year 5
• Not as much playtime as Sweden
• Ability sets in maths an English
• Compulsory until 16
• 2 years of sixth form
• 5 years of secondary school
• 7 years of primary school
• Expected to be able to read by age 5
• More advanced at primary school
• A-levels and some IB at sixth form
• GCSEs
• No free lunch
• Break
• 11+
• Lots of health and safety
• There's lots more but I need to save my brain energy for revision...

Sweden

• I started at 6.5
• 3 years at sixth form
• 3 years in secondary school
• 7 years at primary school
• My school started English in year 3 and French in year 6 methinks
• Free lunch
• We went into the forest for PE
• We went ice skating
• We finished at around 12
• We had frilufts dagar which ae days spent in the forest doing outdoorsy stuff
• Fruit at break time

There is so much more and I'll update it when I think of more (when my mother reads it and points out my errors) stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Bye banan!

Hi!

Hi!

It's a week since I set up this blog, not expecting anyone to visit it at all. I'm very grateful to anyone who is reading this.
So thank you!
Tack!
Danke!
Merci!
Gracias!

Bye Banan

It's spring!

Hi!

The sun is shining! So exciting!
I swear we didn't have any sun for the whole winter. If there was sun then you could expect it to rain a few minutes after seeing it. Humph!
Anyway, the weather is nice now and for that I am very grateful. I even made a smoothie when I got home from school (but don't get me started on school). I've even stopped wearing a jumper for school. It's awesome!
So I didn't post for two days as my friend Eta kindly pointed out today. My excuse for this is that I had a stomach bug :(
Anyway I've got lots of homework (groan) to be getting on with so I will y goodbye in as many languages as possible off the top of my head.

Auf Wiedersehn!
Au revoir!
Good bye!
Ciao (spelling)
Dos vidanja (spelling)

And of course;

HEJDÅ!

Fog!

Hi!

I am currently taking a break from revision after eating dinner. I just read an email from my mum who is currently stuck at Gatwick. Why you ask. The answer is fog! The flight from Guernsey was severely delayed so she missed her connecting flight. Great!
Fog is a very serious problem for Guernsey. Sometimes we can be fogged in for days and the only way to get off the island is on the ferry (which I will not discuss). The post doesn't come for several days and the shops start to become empty of stock. That's the problem with living on a tiny island like
Guernsey. There are two ways to get off the island. By boat and by plane. If it's foggy the planes are grounded and if it's windy the boats are cancelled or severely delayed (they are normally very punctual! Haha). It's not so much a nuisance as a source of entertainment. We have annual storms in the winter and this year the problem was excarcebated by the airport being closed for runway extension work (which I support). We were isolates for several days! When it's snowing the airport is closed. This year when we had a blizzard it was very rough on the boat according to eyewitnesses (my dad and sister) who were on the boat for several days straight. They got free food though.
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that........  actually I don't know what I'm trying to say.

Bye banan!

P.S. thank you for reading, it means a lot to me

P.P.S. shoutout to mum who's stuck at Gatwick and to my buddy G if she's reading this!

A bit about Guernsey

Hi!

Seeing as most of the world don't even know that Guernsey exists I figured that I should write a post about its history etc.

Guernsey is located in the bay of St Malo in the English Channel


Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands which include Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm etc. Sark and Herm belong to Guernsey. Guernsey is a crown dependancy of Great Britain. We have our own government called the states and so do Jersey. Sark and Herm belong to the bailiwick of Guernsey. Guernsey is represented internationally by the UK. Guernsey does not belong to the EU. We use the pound sterling but it's like the Scottish pound in that it is worth the same as the English pound but looks different and is not accepted on the 'mainland'. Jersey is the same. English money is accepted here and I've seen quite a few shops which accept euros too.
A Guernsey pound note:

Guernsey is seen as a tax haven by many in Britain and they have recently been clamping down on companies which are registered here in order to avoid British taxes etc. There is no VAT which is awesome. I guess that compared to some countries (cough Sweden cough) Guernsey is a tax haven but the cost of living is pretty high.

It may seem strange that Guernsey belongs to Great Britain. It certainly did to me the first time that I saw a map of the English Channel. In fact Guernsey used to belong to Normandy. Which means that technically Guernsey invaded England in 1066 but that's just a technicality. I think it's 1204 that King John (?) lost Normandy or something and Guernsey decided to belong to England. I remember writing in my history book in year six that this made the French 'boiling mad'! As I'm sure you know England and France were not exactly friends until a few decades before the First World War. Guernsey was often caught in the middle of these wars. The coast is still littered with the Martello towers that were supposed to defend the island in the event of a French invasion.


I remember my year six teacher saying something about the French invading Guernsey at some point but they were kicked out.
The English Civil War of the mid 1600s divided England. Jersey was Royalist whereas Guernsey was Parliamentarian. The most interesting part, in my opinion, was that Castle Cornet which defends Guernsey's harbour was Royalist. At that point the breakwater wasn't built yet so Castle Cornet was on a separate island.

 

 

Fast forward to the Second World War. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Germans. The islands are covered in concrete bunkers and towers which form part of Hitler's 'Atlantic Wall'. Some of the Martello Towers had concrete additions during the war.

 

 

Guernsey celebrates Liberation day on the 9th of May, after being liberated in 1945 by British forces.

Since then Guernsey has become a financial hub which is reflected by the new buildings along the seafront.

Guernsey also has a thriving harbour which is reflected by the old buildings in town.

If you haven't been here yet then you shoud definetly consider going for a few days. Just like any other place it gets frustrating to live here for too long but it certainly is a great place for a weekend getaway.

Bye banan!

My sister told me to....

Hi!

My older sister suggested that I do a daily post titled 'outfit of the day'. A good suggestion apart from the act that I have minimal interest in fashion and it would go a little bit like this;

Monday: school uniform
Tuesday: school uniform
Wednesday: school uniform
Thursday: school uniform
Friday: school uniform
Saturday: jeans and a t shirt
Sunday: pyjamas or jeans and a t shirt

This is my school lovely (hmph) uniform
 

We also have green tights in the winter and white socks in the summer and black shoes.
Yes, it is an all girls school.
Does anyone have a uniform that's worse? Post a comment if you do!

Bye banan!

P.S. my Facebook page would like some more likes!

Hi!

Hi,

Somehow I am enjoying my day despite being in school. Naturally I didn't enjoy the actual lessons but that's only to be expected at this school. I'm going to try to attach a photo of a signpost that my friends and I found very funny.

Bye!

Yay!

Hi,

I just looked at the stats for this page and saw that I've had 88 pageviews since creating this blog 24 hours ago.

Huzzah! (my strange fiend ordered me to write that)

Thankyou if you're reading this.

Elise, Laura etc. why are you reading this when you should be revising?

Bye!

P.S. please like my Facebook page

Snow

Hi,

Check out this video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GCexKtnKcRM
No we do not currently have snow here in Guernsey. We did however have snow last month for a few days. Blizzard conditions brought the island to a standstill. It's very amusing for me because I'm used to much more snow than the small amount that Guernsey gets. It was very amusing. On the Monday I woke up and there was snow. The radio said that my school was open. I trudged to school (7 minute walk) in the cold. It was about 1 or 2 degrees Celsius outside but if felt much colder because I was in school uniform (something I will talk about during another post). My school did not have the sense to tell us on the radio that uniform was optional, unlike all the other schools, so most were in uniform although some had gotten the late message from our school at ten past eight (school starts at half past). Anyway, I was earlier than usual so instead of going straight to my form room (hut!)I went to the library. On my way up there I saw one of my friends who told me that there was a hole in the roof of the library. Yes, that's how bad the building is. A few centimetres of snow made a hole in the roof! We had our first two hours of lessons and, although they were distracted by excitement about the snow, they were pretty much business as normal. In the second hour the lights started flickering and my teacher voiced her hopes of wanting to go home. They said in assembly that the situation would be reviewed at one o'clock so naturally we were told to go home at 12. Some of my friends went with me to my house as I live close to school. When we were at the bottom of the (tiny) hill that leads to my school we noticed that there was an unusually long line of cars on the road. We predicted that there would be a struggling car at some point. There was. Right below the turning leading to my house a van was struggling to get up a tiny hill. No one was helping the poor man. We knocked on his window and asked if he needed help before pushing him up. The thing that annoyed me was the fact that it was obvious that a car was stuck but no one had gotten out to help. In Sweden it would never have happened in the first place becuase when there's snow it's just business as usual. That reminds me, England just can't seem to cope with snow at all. They get a small amount and it dominates the news for a week. This is becuase they are not properly prepared. Not being prepared can be excused on tiny Guernsey where we have snow for about three days a year but England gets plenty now. They don't have winter tyres and they don't have enough grit. On Guernsey it's pretty much impossible to clear the snow becuase of the walls and hedges on the sides of the roads but the M1 doesn't have that problem, to my knowledge. Guernsey can't put grit or salt on the roads becuase it would get into the water supply. A few years ago the States (the government over here) spent a lot of money on some de icing liquid for the runway at the airport but nothing to spread it with so the liquid was useless. Very funny in hindsight, not so funny for all the people who got stuck etc.
Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this blog that I set up on the spur of the moment this morning when I suddenly felt like it. Last time I checked there had been about 60 page views and I had 5 Facebook likes (go like my page). I wasn't expecting anyone to read my blog but please to continue to read and recommend it to your friends becuase I have a lot to write about. Please leave comments but no hate!
Upcoming posts will be about; school, weather, my amusing friends, history of Guernsey and my impending move to Swedem.
Please come back (and like my Facebook page)!

Bye!
Hejdå!
Auf Wiedersehn! (Not sure if that's right as I haven't done German in two years, please correct me if I'm wrong)

Jersey

Hi,

So a few weeks ago I went to Jersey with my dad and a friend. Very fun! Fem toasters :)
It's quite interesting noticing the differences between Jersey and Guernsey seeing as most people only seem to know about Jersey and not Guernsey. They are two very different islands.
Guernsey has a beautiful harbour with lots of old buildings from centuries gone by when Guernsey was a very busy and profitable port. Jersey however looks like England with its very built up seafront and modern apartment buildings. Jersey is bigger than Guernsey so it's easier to have both a built up area and a countryside instead of Guernsey's very densely populated landscape which makes it all seem like one town. I do like Jersey but simply becuase I live in Guernsey I am obligated to say that Guernsey is better (Sverige är dock bäst!).
Anyway my friend and I have a reputation with our families for getting lost. Just for the record we didn't although we did walk all the way along the seafront to find some bottled water when there was a shop right behind the hotel, humph. She constantly claimed that she was lost so I had to always reassure her that I knew where we were. It was very entertaining because our reaction to entering the hotel room was to go "cookies!". We were ecstatic when we saw pillow mints on the pillows in the evening.
As 16 year olds we are obviously not allowed to have alcohol in restaurants without adults. That reminds me, does anyone know what the age limits are in Sweden when it comes to alcohol? If you know please help me out by writing it in the comments below :). We were offered "something from the bar" and started giggling. That was when the waiter noticed that we were probably underage.

To those who speak Swedish: have you seen the videos of Kazoo on YouTube? They are absolutely brilliant! I showed them to a friend and she found them very funny even though I had to pause it periodically to translate. http://m.youtube.com/results?q=kazoo%20in%20the%20house

Bye!

Hejdå leverpastej!

Mistake

According to my (very annoying) mother there's plenty of dry yeast here but no fresh yeast

Making cinder toffee

Hi,

I'm really excited becuase I made this blog this morning and I already have far more views than I expected. Some one very kind even liked my Facebook page! Yay!
So I just made some cinder toffee randomly becuase I felt like it. And I was thinking about the differences in food between Guernsey and Sweden.
I had never heard of cinder toffee until my friend introduced it to me back in December. Now I am hooked!
So Guernsey has quite a culinary mix because of its closeness to France despite belonging to the British crown.
My first taste of fish and chips was not successful. I had about a quarter of the portion and felt sick. It took me about two years before I dared to try it again. I love it now. I'm one of those people who take the fish out of the batter before eating it. We were very shocked when we moved here becuase at one of the restaurants we were served pizza with chips (fries to non Brits). We thought this was very strange. I guess that a Swede can't really talk about other countries havin strange eating habits though. Rotting fish is after all a delicacy in Sweden. I've never personally tried it but if I ever get the opportunity I will try it. Have you tried surströmming? If you have then leave a comment and tell me what you thought of it.
That brings me onto awesome Swedish food that we can't find here. I love salted liquorice. Can't get it here! Prinskorv is not available! No mannagryn! No nyponsoppa! No vikabröd! No filmjölk! No dry yeast! No pärl socker! Etcetera etcetera.
Anyway, if you live in a foreign country please leave a comment saying what food you miss the most!
Hum, I should get back to my revision. Neh!

Bye!

Tjing tjong cykelstång!

Back to studying

Hi,

Elise you better be reading this!
Back to revision
Tell your friends about my blog! I promise it will get better!

Bye!

P.S. I have a Facebook page, please go like it

Some thoughts

Hi,

I'm currently doing my GCSEs (boo! hiss!)
If you don't know what GCSEs are then you are lucky
GCSE stands for general certificate of secondary education
I'm studying ten subjects. Some of them are international GCSEs which are supposed to be even harder.
So basically I should be studying right now because I have a mock on Of Mice and Men on Wednesday (eek) but I'm bored of righting out quotes (humph)
I was wondering what the point of GCSEs actually are because for many subjects all we do is rote learn which will not help me in life at all. I don't think that knowing how to answer source questions and what a few million words in geography mean will help me as a nurse/ history teacher/ journalist or whatever I end up doing.
So does anyone know why we have GCSEs and primarily why there is so much pressure on 15, 16 year olds to do well in these exams which, according to my teacher, will impact the rest of my life. I know that I need 5 Cs to get to Sixth form. Oh wait, I don't because I already have a guaranteed space at a school in Sweden. So what is the point of a qualification which no one outside of Britain really knows about?

Rant over.

What do people think will happen will DPRK (North Korea), their mental leader (Kim Jong Un) and their propaganda machine (nuclear weapons)?

I think DN was saying that they might fire on Monday.http://www.dn.se/

Bye!

Hi

Hi,

I guess I'll be surprised if anyone is reading this but if you are yay!
I'm a 16 year old Swedish girl returning home to Sweden after living in Guernsey for 8 years.
Guernsey is a little known island with 64000 people in the bay of St Malo in the English Channel. Guernsey is the neighbour island of Jersey (boo! hiss!) but is far less modern.
The reason I'm writing this blog is to hopefully provide some entertainment and so that when I am older I can look back at this exciting transitional period of my life. And I've always wanted to have a blog of my own.
If you're still reading this then I will be very happy.

Bye