Skiing and More Skiing!

December has come and gone, and with it, has arrived a much awaited and over-due fall of snow in Valdres! I’ve made much use of it at the ski centre, both on my telemark and cross-country skis. In mid-December I was in Beitostølen with my “langrenn” class where we did a 10km classic time trial. I was expecting to get my but kicked by the Norwegians, but as it turns out, I managed to come within a minute and a half of second place! I’ve also experienced some fairly significant improvement on the slopes, but not without some fairly entertaining falls! During one of my more recent trips, after a 50cm “pudderalarm”, I went head over heels down the mountain side, effectively ploughing the snow away right down to the rocks- with my face. I was fairly painfully winded, and after lying there covered in snow for a minute or two, I struggled onto my feet clenching my wrist. But it was all in good fun, because I managed to recover my poles and goggles from beneath the snow and my bindings had held themselves together this time!
Valdres Alpinsenter is not the largest ski hill but its big enough and its not usually too busy, which makes it quite nice. There’s a great view from the top. I took in a nice sunset during my last run before the Christmas holidays.

Of course, as often as I`m out skiing, and as often as I write about it, there are other things at the school with which I occupy myself. After all, something must have been keeping me from posting on my blog all this time!
In pre-emptive preparation for the Christmas season, I’ve been spending many hours on the stationary bike in the school gym.
Also in preparation for Christmas, I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing guitar with my band class, practicing for the school Christmas ball at which we performed. Although we had difficulty adjusting the sound equipment, the performance went over half-decently.

The “Jul ball” continued with what, to my knowledge, is a uniquely Scandinavian tradition. I had previously thought it existed only in cartoons and Dr. Seuss. There were about 150 students and staff in the gymnasium and we all gathered in circles around a tall Christmas tree. We sang carols as we walked and ran and jumped and clapped and spun around the tree in what was at first, true Christmas spirit. There were three or four circles going around the tree in alternate directions. It was nice to experience Christmas from a slightly different perspective but by the time we started singing the twentieth song, I conveniently remembered that my only set of bedding had been forgotten in the washing machine! Not wishing to wet my bed, I mean not wishing for a wet bed that night, I ran down to the laundry room, hoping to make it before they locked the doors for the night. On my out, I was greeted by many Norwegian Grinches, who had also left the celebrations, clearly tired of the Whoville atmosphere. One friend commented:
”It’s fun with little kids. But when there are over 100 people dragging their feet around the Christmas tree, hanging their heads [like empty stockings], and no one is singing, its just…” [When I actually come up with a good simile I can’t help but use it!]
For the record, many people were singing, as I was one of them!

The event-planners took a blind-date approach to the evening, and I had been set up with Hillegonde, a girl from Holland. We had a good time and I sent her home with some poetic words (of the type only a non-native English speaker could appreciate) accompanied by a rose and some guitar. Turns out lameness is cool after all! Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that we were named King and Queen of the night! In reward we received two Norwegian “crowns”. Fitting, but not enough to buy half ‘ a chocolate bar in Norway.


I’ve also been out dog-sledding again. This time we took it off-road! Or off-piste I should say. There wasn’t yet a ton of snow, so it was a bumpy ride, but it was incredibly fun and exhilerating. The dogs love to pull and the sled miraculously held up to numerous tree stumps and clumps of earth protruding up through the snow. I’m no expert and I still find it quite difficult to steer the sled or direct the dogs (okay, I’ll be honest, I can’t direct the dogs in the slightest!) but we had a blast.
 

It’s been mostly things like this keeping me busy lately. As for the “blog-ly” Norwegian-progress update, it still seems to be improving, and I’m feeling more and more confident in conversations. I’ve decided for myself that at the ski resort, every time I sit with someone on the lift, I have to spend the entire seven minute journey speaking Norwegian. It is actually a fairly helpful tool, because it’s in short chunks, which makes it easier, and it adds up to quite a large amount of time when you ski two full days every weekend. I’m speaking Norwegian more and more often now, but it’s good to give myself some mandatory practice.

One thing I’ve been missing is hockey. It’s never on TV and no one talks about it. Aside from myself and a friend from Sweden, it doesn’t seem as though there are many who play very much. Over the holidays, they are supposed to be flooding a rink at the school, so I will be looking forward to it when I get back. Go Habs Go!
I have been out skating once though. Some friends and I went down to the lake and skated amid falling snowflakes- at two in the morning! We had a great time and it felt nice to finally be back on skates. We glided through the snow for a solid hour and a half before unlacing and trekking back up to our dorms for a couple hours of sleep! We may have been later if we hadn’t noticed a particular sign in the middle of the lake.
”What is that sign there?”
”I dunno. Let’s check it out.”
”It looks like a person swimming.”
”No, isn’t he drowning?”
”No, he’s breaking through the ice!”
I realise that this is a serious matter, especially at two or three in the morning, and that we may have been lucky, but what’s done is done, and what is there to do but laugh? I guess next time they should think about putting the sign nearer to the shoreline so that you don’t have to go all the way out to the middle of the lake to read it!


I hope you have all been enjoying the holiday season. I wish a belated Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year! I’m currently celebrating with relatives in Denmark and I will be heading up to Sarpsborg (Norway) for the New Year shortly. Next time I will give you all the low down on what has, so far, been a very enjoyable Christmas!

And to finish, here is an updated picture of the wooden skis that I made so long ago. Varnished, signed and refitted with new bindings (after they broke as I was putting them on for their maiden voyage).



Happy skiing!

Same Old, Same Old

Potatoes and fish. Hallelujah!

Need for Speed

I returned from London last week to discover quite an exciting schedule. First thing after the holiday, we put the pedal to the metal and made the trip to Lillehammer’s Olympic bobsledding facilities! I’ve always thought bobsledding to be a fairly extreme sport. Fortunately, we did not have to expose ourselves to such a risky discipline. Instead, we tried skeleton!
In all honesty, I was not actually all that scared or nervous during the pre-run build-up. It was not until a few seconds into the first run that I began to seriously ponder my chances of survival. I’m afraid I won’t be able to provide you with the same rush that I experienced but I will do my best to describe the adrenaline.
Imagine yourself with your face only centimetres from the ice, so close that you can’t actually focus your vision. Imagine the ice shooting past you at speeds of up to about 90 km/h. Imagine realizing that you have absolutely no control of your fate, with your legs and shoulders slamming into the side walls. Imagine a sudden three “G” (plus) turn, which you notice not because you can see it coming, but because you feel it in every part of your body, aside from your hands, which are clenching the sled handles, almost literally in a death-grip.
Now imagine the overwhelming relief that rushes through you when you finally dismount at the bottom, and you realize that you’ve survived!
I’m not even going to tell you to imagine how awesome it was (or how scared I was)!
When everyone had finished their first run, we were given the opportunity to give it another go. Of thirty people, there was only one who actually had any desire to do it again… That number eventually grew to five risk-takers, of which I was one (not to be outdone by four girls). It was not until I had made my decision to take the dive once more that my friends asked me, “Did you hear what happened to Martin?”.
”No, why? What happened? Actually, don’t tell me.”
Having already experienced the terror of the track, I was now quite nervous about gong down for a second time, but once you’re on the way down, there’s no stopping. However, despite the heaviness I felt at the start line, I inexplicably acquired a false sense of confidence somewhere before the first mind-boggling turn. I made it down in one piece.

”Martin. What’s up? The others told me something happened to you on the way down!”
”… Yes… Well…”
”Well?”
”I fell off.”

It wasn’t enough to scare me! I was two for two and I needed a faster time. My third and final run got me through 1.5 km in a mere 72.07 seconds! The track record is 53 seconds so I guess I have a little work to do, but, really, what’s 19 seconds?


The Norwegian is still improving. I’m seeing some things happen that certainly weren’t possible in my first month here. Helping friends translate a Norwegian word to English for instance, or better yet, providing them with the appropriate Norwegian word! Rare events but satisfying nonetheless. Of course, there is also the other side. I sent an e-mail to my Danish relatives, giving an update and inquiring about Christmas plans. I took up the challenge and wrote to to them in Norwegian, to which I received surprisingly positive responses! Of these, my favourite is, “godt at se at du skriver en blanding af norsk og dansk! (good to see that you’re writing in a mix of Norwegian and Danish)”. Thanks Holger! (Not to worry.) I guess there’s always room for improvement.


Last week, someone discovered bed bugs in one of the kitchens. Great! It was announced at lunch and we were told to pack sandwiches for supper because dinner would be cancelled. Fortunately, they were not found in the building where I’m living, so I wasn’t as worried as some. Inhabitants of the infested dorm got to opening windows and putting bedding (and even beds) outside in the cold (-20 that day). Every window in the whole building was open, in order to freeze out the pests.
Instead of dinner, there was a meeting planned to discuss the problem. It was here that we learned the whole thing was one big joke! The “meeting” was followed by a surprise “circus” put on by the school staff.
That night, windows were closed, and beds were sheepishly returned to their places. The best part is that the dorm’s heating system quit that evening!


The ski hill has opened since my trip to London so I’ve been spending the weekends there trying to improve my telemark skills. It’s a lot of fun; I’m going faster and I’m starting to make tighter turns. Of course, I have some falls too. On Sunday my ski slipped out halfway through a turn and the binding broke… It was kind of a damper on such a sunny day but I returned to the school and helped with the construction of my dorm’s Rube Goldberg Machine for yet another of the school’s many “inter-dormal” contests.


Yesterday, I returned from a class trip to the school hut just above the valley. It was quite a relaxing trip; we slept two nights in the cabin and went for a day trip up to one of the nearby peaks (it was the kind of hiking trip where people spend more time tripped up or pushed down on the ground than anything else- great time). On our way back, instead of taking the bus, we took sleds down the road, which was mostly downhill. It was fun, but it didn’t work so well and we had to carry the sleds most of the time. Mostly we just hung out, stayed up late, and had fun; it was a good trip.


My dog-sledding option class is starting to get pretty fun; last week we tried ski-jouring and this week we tied the dogs into the sleds. Ski-jouring was nice but the sledding was incredibly fun, quite difficult to steer though. And you have to dress really warm! With more than 30 dogs it got pretty loud at times but once the ropes were all untangled and you got on your way, the dogs were surprisingly cooperative. It was really nice.



All these trips and outings mean a lot of laundry. I had misplaced my woollen toque, and I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. It eventually turned up while I was extracting my clothes from the washing machine… It must have made it into my pile of dirty clothes somehow. I think I managed to un-shrink it enough for further use.



Let it snow!

Mind the Gap

I suppose I may as well start at the beginning. It feels so long ago. The beginning of our week long trek to London… We got off to a great start; Olof and I caught our flights to Stansted Airport without a hitch. We tolerated Ryanair’s (the famous European airline with seat-sales for ridiculously low prices, it’s cheaper than taking the bus) minimal legroom for a couple of hours before arriving in England where we were finally able to lie down at midnight to relax on the floor of the airport! I spent the night with stomach cramps and a sore back, pleasantries which helped me forget the noise of the cleaning machine as it droned past our sleeping quarters.

We caught the (not-so-)Easybus into London (when it finally came) the next morning and rocked out at the London Beatles Shop before snooping out the Sherlock Holmes Museum. My first impression of London was quite good. There are many nice parks.

  After checking into our hostel (which cost a mere 56 pounds for five nights!), we hopped on the tube in search of London’s main attractions.
St. Paul’s Cathedral was the first stop; a towering structure of awe-inspiring masonry on the outside, and an ornate sanctuary on the inside. Upon climbing hundreds of stairs to the top of the dome, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of the city.

I’m not certain that I can portray all that this story is worth, but I offered to take a picture for three Japanese girls at the top of the cathedral and they went absolutely crazy! They sounded like a chorus of at least 20 or 30 girls sweetly chanting (?) “thank-you you so much, awe… thank-you!”  This recurred another two times in exactly the same way as I took pictures with second and third cameras. I guess you had to be there, but it was absolutely hilarious; I could hear Olof laughing as he hid around the corner.

We meandered through the streets and then crossed the “Wibbly-wobbly” Bridge (named as such with respect to the grand opening when the bridge “wibbled” and (you guessed it) wobbled under the weight of hundreds of stampeding Englishmen. On the other side of the Thames, we toured the Globe Theatre and then made our way back across the water via the ever-famous London Tower Bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olof and I decided on London for four reasons. Flights were incredibly cheap, Olof’s brother is working there, I wanted to meet Mom’s friends, the Jacksons, and flights were incredibly cheap.
We met up with Nils (no, not my brother, Olof’s brother) that evening and had a good time.

Upon arriving in London, we each purchased a London Pass which admitted us into most of London’s main attractions. We were anxious to get our money’s worth, so we found ourselves running around the city via the tube, the bus and the sidewalk for hours on end. We made a visit to the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels before taking the boat down the river towards Chelsea FC Stadium- to find out that the last tour of the day had already left. We further explored the city that night, along with Nils, taking in some of China town and the Green Park area.

 

The following day, we made Chelsea a priority and headed there first thing in the morning, ascending the Wellington Arch and checking out Royal Albert Hall en route. It was a nice stadium, but what stood out most was the contrast between the away and home dressing rooms. According to the guide, this particularity has made at least some contribution to the team’s impressive success. While Chelsea enjoys a flat-screen TV and fancy lockers, the opponents have to squeeze into the corner of the room to see the drawing board- which also happens to be right behind the door- which in fact has to remain open at all times for fire safety reasons…

This was the last day that we could use our passes, so in the afternoon, after having seen most of what we wanted to see, we stood outside the most expensive attraction and sold our passes for twenty pounds to a couple of fellow tourists. They got in cheap, we got some of our money back, everybody’s happy!

That evening, we asked Nils’ boss at the hotel about a good place to eat fish and chips. A quick trip in the tube, and we were sitting down at the Shakespeare, waiting for London’s best.
And now, if I can give a small piece of advice. Never read a restaurant review online when you’ve already ordered your food! The comments we`re so negative I was almost convinced they were written by high school students studying Hamlet!
”Do you get a free pair of wellies with every pint? Because you need them to use the Gent’s.”
”… yet another soulless pub…”
”Malaria appears to be growing in the toilets.”
”A truly horrendous pub on every level.”
”Avoid this place like the plague. No, really do.”
”The food will probably kill you.”
In the end, the food didn’t kill me (although I haven’t heard from Nils since we left London") but I did decide against visiting the men’s room.

Another promenade brought us through Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. Here we witnessed a street performer juggling a running chainsaw with his pants off (not without a painstakingly long build-up in which there was nothing worth seeing). Typical English…

With the expiry of our London Pass, it was time to seek out London’s free attractions. We made our way to the National Gallery where we toured the numerous halls at an increasingly brisk pace (there was lots of fine art but there was lots…).

Oxford Street-Primark-British Museum-Harrod’s-Regent’s Park-Tate Modern-Natural History Museum-De Hems-The Monument-Changing of the Guards… We saw it all. The museums and galleries were enormous and we could have spent the entire day in any one of them (if we had enough mental stamina).
As I said to a fellow spectator at the Changing of the Guards, “Well, we can say we’ve been here, but that’s about all.” The crowd was far bigger than I expected, and, standing at the very back, all we could see was Buckingham Palace and the black “hats” of the guards.
We didn’t make any purchases at Harrod’s, but we did see a 275 000 pound watch and some New Zealand beef for 198 pounds to the kilo!

As little time as we spent at the hostel, we had some good conversations with the Italian and the Spaniards who were rooming with us. The former was there looking for work but he repeatedly told me how much he wanted to go to Vancouver. He said this almost as many times as he mentioned the scenic beauty of Italy (although he also expressed a passionate dislike of Italian culture).

It was great to meet people in London. We spent our last evening in England with Dei Jackson and her husband Daniel. We were a little late meeting them. We discovered that the tube is not always as straight forward as we first thought. At busy times, it is busy! We had to wait for the third train to finally get on. Then, just outside the entrance to King’s Cross, Olof’s 150 Euro contact lens fell out on the sidewalk. Surprisingly, from amid a city of 10 million corporate-minded, tourist-ignoring inhabitants, there happened to be a very kind, eagle-eyed lady walking by who bent down and picked up Olof’s lens! I still can’t believe she found it. Was Olof ever happy!

We had a great time with Dei and Daniel at a quiet old English pub around the corner from the British Library where Dei works. We shared updates and talked about numerous different things. It was a very nice evening and it was nice to sit down and relax for more than five minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   Invading London aboard the HMS Belfast.

Scheduled for the next morning was another trip on the not-so-Easybus. We eventually found the pickup point (which was not at all where the map said it would be) only to discover that there were about three times as many people as seats. To the train we went; it turned out to be five pence cheaper and a lot easier!
At the airport I decided I may as well get rid of the seven pounds I had left, so I bought some Double Deckers, Twirls and Wispies to satisfy my craving for chocolate. I also purchased a five pound, European adapter for the four pound, English cell-phone that I bought during the trip. Yes! Four pounds!
As good as the chocolate was, my small shopping excursion nearly gave Olof a heart-attack and I think it likely taught him some new English words (he’s Dutch if I haven’t mentioned that yet); I came back to the place we’d been sitting only to find that Olof and our bags had disappeared! I looked around for a bit and when I finally found him (looking for me), he was in an obvious panic.
”The gate closes in five minutes!!!”
We made it. And I’m not sure what the deal was but it seemed we could have waited another 20 minutes to get on. Olof did show me after, however, on our Dutch boarding passes, that the gate closed at the time which he had thought. Anyways, although Olof almost breathed his last breath, we made it back to Oslo- where the story didn’t end!
I had arranged a ride with a friend from the airport back to the school, but the day before our return, her car had been broken into, so she had e-mailed me to say that she might not be able to come. The plan was that she would text either me or Olof. But as Murphy would have it, Olof’s phone died, and mine decided not to work in Norway (it works now)! I used the payphone to call her but I got the answering machine (she later told me that her phone had also died!). So we sat in Oslo for a while wondering whether we should wait or take the train. Fortunately, she showed up! The first thing they said (she had another friend with her as well) was that on the way to pick us up, their skis had fallen off the roof of their car! We got on our way and stopped at a gas station for a bite to eat, and after driving for a half hour or so, we realized that it would most likely have also been a good idea to fill the tank! Thankfully, we held out until the next pump.

And finally, we made it back after a very busy, but enjoyable week in London!

  That red spot in the middle is Olof. (Taken from the top of The Monument.)
 
           And that’s me. (Taken from the bottom of The Monument.)

                        And no, it’s not photo-shopped.

Inside The Monument… (And Mom, before you ask: yes, that is the real name. I’m not just calling every monument “the monument” because I can’t remember the name…)

                              Tower of London.

I Hope it Doesn’t Rain

I took this picture on an amazingly calm day three or four weeks ago on a hiking trip in Vossforet, south of Valdres. I’m trying to pick a name for it. Rocky Skies? Pictures in the Clouds?

Tiden Flyr

Wow! Time flies! It has been over three months since I was last in the homeland. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that I’ve had a lot of different experiences in this time.

It’s been crazy here since my last post. I spent an unfortunately significant portion of the week before last in the kitchen doing dishes (each student has a one week duty to clean up after approx. 150 people after every meal for the entire week). Despite this setback, I still managed to get to Lillehammer for some indoor climbing with my class and then to Beitostølen for my first cross+country ski of the season! Climbing was a blast and it was definitely worth the blisters, which now, even after almost two weeks, remain as cracked, bleeding scabs, decorating my fingers. This reminds me of some recent news (involving more elaborately decorated fingers) which all the more emphasizes how quickly time passes. Congratulations Eziah and Alison on your engagement!

Working the dishwasher was apparently not enough. Last weekend was the Valdres Rakfisk Festival, involving 25 000 people crowding the streets of Fagernes (population 3000). I signed up to work amid a variety of odours emanating from fish which had been rotting in water since August (literally). I set up a number of tents on Thursday and then worked in the tasting tent Saturday morning. I started at 9:00 am and worked straight until 1:30 that night doing a bunch of different jobs. After taking down all the tents I had put up only two days earlier, I worked the rest of the night as a guard in the concert tent (basically listening to Norwegian music like the rest of the crowd, only I was wearing a bright yellow security vest and I was getting paid, not drunk). Oh, and I was backstage with Norway’s biggest bands…

 

Sunday morning was difficult- in part due to a late night after 16.5 hours of work, but mainly because I awoke to the news that I was apparently departing for a three day trip five minutes later! I was aware that the plan was to make skis last week but not a word had been mentioned about traveling anywhere to do this! I must say I was more than a little frustrated. After the fact, I discovered that the rest of the class had been provided with a sheet of paper disclosing this minor detail.
In any case, I ate, packed lunch and stuffed my bag in ten minutes and headed to Beitostølen to make my very own wooden skis. In light of the rough start, the rest of the trip went quite well. It was a lot of work but worth it to see the finished product.

 

This weekend was Beitosprinten 2010, or the Norwegian cross-country skiing and Biathlon opener, right here in Valdres. I was fortunate enough to join a group from the school to be forerunners at Friday’s free-technique 15km race. It was a great time, and we saw all the Norwegian big-shots (although the Russians took 5 of the top ten spots). As a volunteer, I received a “VIP” pass which I made use of for the rest of the weekend, sneaking into the lounge for hot soup and smoothies! I went again on Saturday fully equipped with a Canadian flag to watch and cheer (even though the Canadian team wasn’t there…). The cameras focused in on me and the group I was standing with more times than I can count; we were on the big screen in the stadium but also on hundreds of thousands of Norwegian television sets across the country!
 

On Friday, I was sitting in the cafeteria making my Canadian flag when one of my friends came in to tell me I had visitors wanting to see me?
”Hva?” (What?)
”Du få en besøk.” (You have visitors.)
”Hva?”
”Du få en besøk. They’re waiting for you upstairs.”
”But who would be visiting me?”

Turns out, Tor Loken, a Canadian from another Folkehogskole and whose brother I had been e-mailing, was passing through and he stopped to check out the school and say hi. It was nice to talk to a fellow Canadian again! We had a good chat and discovered that we had been having many of the same experiences:
-Gaining a lot of weight, likely due to a diet of bread and cheese.
-Finding it impossible to remember or pronounce even half of the names.
-Staring blankly into space while attempting to comprehend an indiscernible
Norwegian message. (These occasions are becoming much less frequent.)
I asked Tor what he missed most about home.
”The flat.”
He’s from Saskatoon.

I met up again with Tor at the races the next day. We then ran into, not one, not two, (not three) but four more Canadians! Norway just keeps getting better and better!

 

Sunday, I bit the bullet and put down some Kroner for gas and lift tickets in Hemsedal, an hour’s drive from here. It’s the only ski resort in the area that’s open as of yet and I was anxious to try out my new telemark skis!
As expensive as it was, I can’t say it wasn’t worth it. Det var kjempe gøy! The technique was difficult at first but by lunch time I felt pretty comfortable. I woke up this morning wanting to hit the slopes again! I guess I got hooked pretty quickly.

And before I go, I’d like you to meet my room mate!

We get along perfectly!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

A belated Happy Halloween to everyone! I’m afraid it seems to come and pass without any tricks or treats here in Norway. And now that the 31st is past, I’m pleased to announce that this post will reveal the winner of www.hasfeldt.blogspot.com’s very first online contest! First, a thank-you to everyone who participated! As promised in the contest rules, I now award each one of you the satisfaction of having done your best! And now for the grand prize!

The judging panel has put forward what seems to be a fairly clear winner; only one contestant correctly answered all five questions (although there were some close runner-ups). There has been some low-key debate concerning matters of eligibility, but careful review of the fine print has allowed us to determine a rightful winner.

To refresh your memories, I am pleased to award the contest winner with a “genuine Norwegian postcard”. I must admit I am slightly disappointed with the results, as postage to a Norwegian address would have been much cheaper.

But enough of that, let’s get to the business!

The correct answers are:
1. The picture is upside-down. This can be determined by comparing angles;
   the reflection shows less of the waterfall than the real image.
2. I knitted the toque, carved the spoon, and cooked the meal.
3. My side is the right; you could have determined this by the guitar and
   by the Habs jersey in the far corner (although I would understand if you
   were to assume my room mate is also a fan).
4. The photograph pictures a mug of hot chocolate, reflecting the inside of
   a Norwegian “lavo” (a type of tepee). I stayed in this on my riding trip.
5. This is a view over Leira, a municipality in Valdres. The picture is
   taken from the top of a cliff, where I did some climbing earlier this
   fall.
Click here to take another look at the photographs.

And the winner is… Henrik Asfeldt!

I’ll have to edit the eligibility criteria for next time to make it a little more interesting.

In any case, well done Dad! If I can find your address, you’ll have a postcard arriving shortly!

And just for kicks, here’s another photo! This time, feel free to enter answers as comments to this post.

What is the object at the centre of the photograph?

One with Nature

I have officially survived three days alone in the wilderness! Before leaving, I challenged myself to build an oven and bake a loaf of bread. About halfway to my intended camping area, I ran across a spot covered in lots of flat rocks. Perfect for building an oven! I stocked up and started on the second, much longer half of the trek.
Without much help from the typically poor Norwegian map, I made my way to the end of a small lake where I set up camp. I spent the afternoon gathering wood and setting up my oven (several times as it was not the most stable structure). I treated myself to a gourmet meal of pølser og lompe before crawling into my sleeping bags for the night.
Up bright and early at seven o’clock! I was way too warm in two sleeping bags and there was fresh snow sneaking in through the tarp I had wrapped around me. It was a combination that made me quite uncomfortable. Breakfast over the fire was a nice refreshment.
I gathered more wood, and undertook the bread baking project on the second day. I thought it went surprisingly well, but I’ll let you make your own judgements by the pictures. I even thought it tasted okay! The oven only caved in once while I was baking. I made two “loaves”.








While whistling away, enjoying the heat of my “oven”, two fellow soloists had come across my tracks in the woods. Cleverly following them back to my camp, they attempted to sneak up behind me as I waited on my bread. But as a seasoned survivor of rugged wilderness, I heard their footsteps approaching before they could get close enough to really surprise me.
Most of my time was spent either getting firewood, cooking, eating, or sleeping. That evening I made an absolutely delicious campfire meal. Salmon grilled in butter with potatoes, carrots and green onions, wrapped in tinfoil in the centre of the fire. Mmmm. And for dessert, a hollowed out orange filled with chocolate muffin mix, cooked in the same way as the salmon. Fantastic.
Nothing new, but the landscape is just as beautiful.

Overlooking Fagernes

 




Some of my favourite singletrack runs along this creek.



































The school has started a program on Mondays called Tro og Tvile (Faith and Doubt), where small groups of students go to the teachers’ houses for an hour or two. This last Monday, as we were were leaving, I said “Takk for alt”, which means “Thanks for everything”. The teacher replied, “Vil i fred”, or “Rest in peace". Apparently it's a phrase normally used only on tombstones. You can also say it when you’re dying.
Today was Familie Dagen. Most students’ parents came to enjoy slideshows, coffee and tea, a presentation by the students, and a buffet featuring “rømmegrøte” (basically pudding made of sour cream- even my Norwegian friends had more brown sugar in their bowls than grøte). The parents of my friend Olof were here from Holland, and I visited with them for while. Mom and Dad, did I mention they came all the way from Holland?
We’ve started our winter schedule now so I have three new classes: Dogsledding, a band class, and swing dancing. The dancing was actually quite fun. I was talking with one of my classmates after, and he said that he found the steps really hard.
”I was having a lot of trouble, so I always had to watch you.”
”No, I think you were always watching me, so you were having a lot of trouble!”
It’s always very difficult to find time for everything you’d like to do and everything you have to do. For instance, you finally find time to go for a run and you come back all sweaty and ready for a shower. Only then, when you’re half-naked, do you realize that you were only half-finished doing your laundry and that your towel is downstairs in the washing machine… Or you finally start writing a blog post when you realize it's two in the morning. Or you finally get to sleep and before you know it, it's time to drag yourself out of bed (but daylight savings time ends tonight so we get an extra hour of sleep!). This last week was absolutely crazy. The solo trip made for a tight schedule. I came back on Thursday in time for a chapel type meeting around the campfire down on the beach. That was great, except that I was supposed to be playing guitar. I raced to print off the lyrics and chords and we practiced right up until the meeting started. It went alright and I even sang some Norwegian songs!
One of the songs we sang was Blowin’ in the Wind. While walking back to the school, my good friend Elise continued the tune:
”How many times must the dodge-balls fly, before they are forever banned.”
I believe she meant cannonballs?
The weather has unfortunately consisted mainly of rain and sleet. But it hasn’t stopped me from training! I’ve been running with a few other people lately; it makes it a lot more enjoyable.
I cannot wait for the snow to come! An hour’s drive from here there’s about 500m of manmade snow for cross-country. A week from now, I think it will be worth the trip. There is no question that the snow is due; the stores have started selling julebrus (a carbonated Christmas drink) so I guess Christmas is supposedly on its way. It would be nice if the snow followed the commercial calendar.
All for now.

Winter is Coming

Last week, a doctor from Fagernes came and did a full day seminar on first aid. There was a lot of information which we put to use the following day in practical exercises ranging from vehicle accidents to frost bite incidents. We practiced our knowledge in six different situations like these, all of which consisted of student actors playing dead, unconscious, or severely injured. However, most of the “unconscious” laughed, smiled, or cringed when we decided CPR was necessary.

Last year’s students held a reunion here last week. On Friday, we were locked in the cafeteria after kveldsmat (evening meal) for no apparent reason. Group by group, we were led outside by torch light at which point we discovered the reason for our imprisonment. We entered the old school building, and were welcomed by candles, cobwebs, and numerous ghosts- murdered by a student in 1929 immediately preceding her suicide (as the story goes). It was quite an impressive setup, consisting of ghosts springing down from the ceilings of bathroom stalls and pitch black tunnels, barely tall enough to crawl through, made interesting by countless hands reaching through the darkness to grab you. While two girls at the front of our group screamed and shrieked around every corner, I only jumped while stepping over a ghost twitching on the floor. With one leg over him, he sat up and grabbed me, nearly lifting me off the ground by my crotch! I never liked ghosts.

The quality, if not quantity, of my sleep here is normally quite good. Saturday night, though, at 1:30am, I was abruptly awoken by extremely loud music in the hall, of the Dr. Seuss genre. They marched up and down the hall harping on their noise-makers for a solid ten minutes in the middle of the night before continuing to disturb other victims. All we could do was laugh ourselves to sleep.
This is actually the second time I’ve been unceremoniously awoken in the wee hours of the morning. In a previous incident, I jumped with a start (almost right out of bed) when my ears perceived some extremely loud, sudden yelling six feet from my bed. The source of the noise turned out to be my room mate- struggling for air as two of our friends mercilessly used him and his bed as a trampoline. Once they’d had their fun, we were once again left alone to sleep peacefully.

Winter seems to be on its way. Temperatures are dropping and the snow is falling- just in time for my solo-trip. Each student in my class is hiking alone for three days. Not everyone is looking forward to it but I think it will be a relaxing and enjoyable excursion.
Yesterday, Olof and I ripped up some snowy singletrack. It was a great ride! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take my camera along, but making the first tracks through the snow is always an irreplaceable experience. I hope to get another ride in before the snow accumulates too much.

If you read a particular blog of mine some time ago, you no doubt remember seeing the disastrous state of my room. I also mentioned that I posted the picture in the name of blogger transparency. I’ve been contemplating and I’ve decided that it would be healthy to abide by certain values outside of the blogging world as well. Please allow me this opportunity to show off my new lifestyle (even if temporary and infrequent).

Don’t miss your chance to win a Norwegian postcard! The deadline is approaching! Please refer to the previous post for contest details. E-mail your answers before the end of October!

Look Carefully

I have just returned from a four day hiking trip. As relaxing and enjoyable as it was, there is not much to tell you about aside from how nice the weather was, and how loudly the girls screamed when I jumped out from behind a tree. So rather than going on about the warmth of the afternoon sun and the cold of the morning frost, I’ve come up with this. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: (Left) Is the photograph right-side up, or upside down?
Question #2: (Right) Which 3 items in this picture have I made myself?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #3: (Left) Which side of the room is mine, left or right?
Question #4: (Right) What has been captured in this photograph?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #5: In what region is this municipality located? (Hint: That’s my
             school to the left.)

 

The contest rules are as follows:
-Each competitor must properly answer every question.
-Answers must be e-mailed to hansasfeldt@gmail.com and NOT posted as
comments on this blog.
-Competitors must include their mailing address in the e-mail following
their answers.
-Only the first e-mail received from a competitor will be considered.
-Answers must be submitted prior to midnight of October 31.

Criteria used in determining the winner:
1. The competitor who correctly answers the most questions is considered the
   winner.
2. In the event of a tie, the competitor who answers earliest is considered
   the winner.

Eligibility:
-Competitors must be human. Google and other search engines are not permitted
for contest use.
-Competitors may participate only if they have agreed to the Terms and
Release of Liability Agreement.

Prizes:
-The contest winner will be acknowledged in a later blog post and will
receive a genuine Norwegian postcard.
-All other participants will be awarded the satisfaction of knowing they
have done their best.

Good luck!