It is Russ (roos) season in Oslo.
Russ is a month of revelry for high school graduates in Norway. They are granted carte blanche on partying through the town for the week, a sort of right of passage for completing an important life mile stone.
Russ in Oslo follows a similar format in the part of town I live in:
- Teenagers are dressed in red or blue overalls with all sorts of badges sewn into them
- They form small clans
- The rent specially recycled Russ busses (tour coaches), and paint and decorate the busses with their clan’s colours
- The busses are fitted with high end club-like audio systems
- They drive around town all week playing very loud music, getting pissed and stoned, dancing and fucking
- It goes on 24/7 in many neighbourhoods, one being mine
Russ is an annual tradition and a Norwegian cultural phenomenon with roots in medieval carnival traditions.
In all, I am bit envious. We had nothing like this in Canada, though during high school, we spent many weekends achieving the same result.
As annoying as it is to be woken from a perfectly good sleep, I am not bothered, the kids deserve it.
I am more tempted to throw my clothes on and join the party.
Beaverboosh
N.B. Thanks for the corrections Sunflower!
14 comments:
well, they certainly could use some adult supervision. or coaching...
Well I suppose it's better than clubbing seals as a right of passage.
"They drive around town all week playing very loud music, getting pissed and stoned, dancing and fucking...'
apart from the driving around bit, this sounds very much like my average weekend.
i should probably grow up round about now...
So this is basically their last chance for fun before they join the public service and turn into pod people? Damn right they deserve it.
Too bad you did not came to Norway at an earlier age ;-)
However, the problem is (as I remember it since I'm a Norwegian) that you don't remember what happened - at least not all of it and maybe that's for good!
If the buses are rented how come they're allowed to paint them?
Over here it's called Schoolies Week and huge numbers of the graduating students head up to the Gold Coast in Queensland and go wild wild wild.
The locals hate it but it's peaceful down here in Sydney for that one week ;-)
Isn't that called "Stanley Cup Playoff" in Canada?
Shouldn't that be throw your clothes off and go and join them?
Isn't it called Russ - not to be confused with Rus (i.e. intoxication)? What do I know. As far as I remember the history of the events there used to be no such thing as buses or bigass parties, just one big one and that didn't even take place in Norway, but the students ascended on Copenhagen after exams. Shook up the Danish capital with all of that which today happens in Oslo, Hamar, Trondheim etc... Or so I have been told by older Norwegians.
Bah humbug and any other old fart expressions I can't think of right now. All this fuss just for graduating high school? Isn't that the least kids in developed economies can do these days? Sheesh. Young people are too soft these days. And they better stay off my lawn!
Russ sounds awesome! I love teenage fests! More of that!
df - i am the man for the job
sid - ja, that's high school students in Newfoundland
dorothy - don't change a thing girl... except maybe get a driver
kyk - spot on
renny - thank god I didn't, the girls are so beautiful at 16, I would be wanking at least twice a day
nm - i love you, the practical details eh! The buses are actually leased from one year to another and are specifically used for Russ. The lease entitles you to do what you want with them, etc. It ain't cheap and the the bill is usually footed by a collection of the parents!
zhu - yup
ruby - ja, throw my pyjamas off anyway
sunflower - thanks for the correctins which I dutifully made. I hate it when I make mistakes like that, in a rush and don't listen well! x
michele - grumpy old gal eh, isn't amazing how grumpy you get when you are old... and I totally hate all teenagers... except the ones that want to have sex with me of course
25bar - welcome - totally!
Hmm. Well, aside from the organized portion of the activity, it sounds like Glasgow, Scotland, every weekend. All year. Even in the rain and snow.
"They drive around town all week playing very loud music, getting pissed and stoned, dancing and fucking" would fit Glasgow's description nicely, except that here you're usually only awakened twice: once at around 1:30, when the early drunks are stumbling by and singing, and 3:30, when the serious drunks are stumbling by and cursing / weeping.
Oh - and they generally have the sense not to drive, here.
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