Race Day #1

I finally finished my poker players!  They are not all brilliant but now they don't fold with double aces!  I really can't believe I made that happen.  Pretty cool.  So after pushing through and staying up way way too late staring at the computer screen, debugging, I have finally made it to Bjorli for the races.  

We managed to catch the train and had a cozy little cabin waiting for us at the base of the mountain when we got here.  Not a bad setup.  

We skied a little bit yesterday afternoon.  Our tickets were good until 4:30 but there was only one trail with lights and the boys were racing on it.  By 4, it was like skiing with your eyes closed.  It was fully night.  And people were still going up the lift.  

Bjorli is a really cute tiny town.  There is one dinner pub, a Bunnpris and a pizza place.  You can walk across town in about 10 minutes (which we did when we got off the train).  The roads are not sanded and are just ice.  People nordic ski to get everywhere and they can just go down the road.  Also, to get groceries, we saw a lot of people using spark sleds.  

We woke up this morning at about 7:00 and when we went to the mountain at 7:30, the mountain looked like this:

But the course was set and ready to go.  Emily and I were a bit nervous as we hadn't trained very much and not so recently but it was a fun race.  Emily skied well but there was a quick hairpin that kicked her out of the course.

I thought I skied well first run.   The course was 1:12!  So it was pretty exhausting.  The second run was decent but I was not as clean as I had been during first run... But hey! Finishing two runs - I'll take that for a first race.  It felt good to be up on the mountain again.  

Good day of racing!

Summer Days Drifting Away

Now that Trondheim is becoming dark and snowy (it was acutally rainy when I wrote this blog but now it is snowy!! That is fun but I still want to show the summer days), I thought it might be appropriate to reflect on a warmer, sunnier time here in Norway:  Language course.  Four weeks of intensive classes in Norwegian.  It was where I met most of my best friends here.  We learned a bit of Norwegian and took some really cool trips.  

It took a lot of efforts by a few people to get me in, past the man:

ASLAK RODDER

He turned out to be a twenty year old, not so scary boy.  But I got into the course.  Summer in Norway was phenomenal!

This was my class

This is Dragvoll, where we had language class

and where I currently attend my 

Norwegian Society class.  The roof opens

and I have been rained on inside.

Me and Sam going to class

The course provided us with lots of food!  We often had cookouts and we ate more hot dogs than in the rest of my life put together I think.  

Fabienne

Sam

One of our trips with the language course was with Sovasli.  It was a massive cabin that was right next to a lot of lakes.  Can not get much better than that.

Everyone heading down to the beach for the time of many

Emily, in front of the lake where we spent most of our time

After some late night paddling

We paddled to an island and hung out while the sun went down (around eleven) 

Me, Basti, Geert, and Emily

The next day, we went zip-lining.  I am getting ready to go.

Sam is just making funny faces.

There I go!

Emily

Emily Zipping

At the bottom of the rock wall

Simon dominating the wall

Here I am on the wall.

Getting ready for an another evening paddle

Dinner.  More hot dogs!!

The English room (two US - two Brits (well, three if you can count me in)).

We managed to fill it up with clothes hanging to dry from spontaneous dips.

Then we went on an all day hike that was a lot of fun.  We kept making it to the top of peaks and then realizing there was another behind it that we were to climb.  It was hot but a lot of fun.  It was a good chance to get to talk to people and get to know them.

Our train over the Norwegian countryside.

Luckily, there were lakes along the way to cool us off and keep us going.

Matpakke (Lunch) - Nutella sandwhiches up in the mountains.

Also, we could drink the delicious water running down the mountains!

The final destination of our all day hike.  The water felt great.  And then we just relaxed in the sunshine.  Life is pretty tough.

The weekend after Sovassli, we went on the viking hiking.  The goal of this was to go swimming in all the lakes we could in a day around Trondeim.  We showed up at beaches, took over, swam a bit and then left.  People looked at us a little strangely.  It was fun.  

Simon was very proud of his Norwegian hat.

Fabienne

Sam

Taking over a beach.  Most of their beaches are actually made of grass.

The only thing that makes them beaches are that they are next to the water

and people go there so lie in the sun and swim.  It was called

a Viking Hike.  Do you think the vikings relaxed in the warm sand??

just grass

We also learned new games, like the classic Norwegian game of Kub.  Basically you throw wooden sticks at wooden blocks and try to knock them over before the other team, finally trying to hit the big king in the middle.  It has a similar feel to croquet or horseshoes.

And we just hung out too.

Christoph and Sam