RUSS is a
title you get when in the last of three years in a
Norwegian highschool. Well, it is not exactly a title, it is more like a
name that students are called when they are getting close to the end of their time at highschool.
As Russ, (yes, that is both sinle and plural) students dress up in different colors depending on what kind of studies they have been doing and party! Red is for accademic studies and such, green is for agriculture studies, blue and black are for some other form of education that come under the definition of Highschool in Norway. The Red-Russ is the most common of these. Students buy special suits, pants, sweaters, overalls etc in their russ-color, and then print their names and whatever else they wish on them (iron them on) in great white letters. Often there will be "naughty" cartoon-drawings like nude women with beer-bottles on them, and white hands with the words "put your hand here" are often found on places that would otherwise be considered private. Caps are verrrry important. They are round, almost flat caps with a smal black front \ brim, and a thin rope or string hanging down from the top with a kind of ball of string in the end. On the front \ brim a name will be printed, some nickname that your friends dicide suits you.
So, what is the big deal about being Russ?
For one you become tighter friends with the people in your class. When all of you run around together wearing the same red uniforms you will feel like a small army, a band of "merry brothers in arms". =o)
It is expected that the Russ will start waterfights with younger students, and that they will wage wars of different kinds on each other through out the year. The climax is the 16. and 17. of May. The 17. is our National Independance Day (We got our freedom in 1814), and the Russ will generally stay up and party and drink from the 16. and throughout the night.
(Unfortunately many student flunk on their final exams a few days later because of too much partying in the days before it...)
Many of the Russ will give out cards, like business-cards only they are the color of the Russ and have their picture, name, and some funny quote, motto or comment on them.
(Mine said something like: Knowledge is power, but a white lie produces the same effects). Kids in Norway simply LOVE collecting these things.
Another big part of being Russ is collecting "knots" in your hat, or rather in the string on your hat. The different schools agree on certain rules and missions that you must accomplish, and for each one you recieve something to tie to your hat. Examples of missions can be crawling across the street on all four in front of a car, tying your shoelace on the front of a car (Yes, on the car) that has stoped at a red light, bying condoms by only using signlanguage, drinking 15 bottles of beer in one night, smoking in the principals office, and so on. The list is endless, and so is the fun of it all.
So, what more is there to say? With lots of beer, lots of partying (and lots of sex in some instances), I guess one could say that this is the year when norwegian teenagers can behave as if they were back in the 70`s. To be honest, nobody expects the Russ to behave otherwise either...