31/12/2009 The Last Post of 2009 Elin and Halvard Visits

Right after Christmas at Ottars house, on the 26th of Dec. I then took a bus down to Oslo to visit with Elin one more time before I go back to the states. She is living with her bestemor or grandma for now, so I stayed there for 3 days. We also got to see her mothers new house that she will be moving into soon. I had an extremely good time in Oslo, so here are some photos.





This is the view from her grandmothers roof in Oslo.





I had to put this one in there.... she will prolly hate me for that.






Elin and I were helping her mother search for new furniture for their new house and one was named Andrew... this one is for Andrew.





I am not sure what this statue is called but its in the same park as angry baby.





This is Sinnatagen or as I call him, angry baby. This was on my list to see for sure in Oslo because I have seen pictures of it in Gardermoen in Oslo before.



So now I have taken the 8.5 hour bus ride from Oslo to Børsa which is near Trondheim. I am now staying with Halvard. The first day his family and I drove to Røros which is an old mining village from the 17th centry. They mined for copper. All the mines are now abandonded since 1972ish or something like that. But it is a very very traditional little town near the Swedish and Norwegian border. It was also extremely cold there, minus 30 degrees Celsius, the tip of my nose turned white and I was afraid that I was going to be frost bitten but the color came back to my nose. After we got back to his home, we watched a movie, but then went up to this small lake in the woods and went iceskating with like 15 of his friends. It was the first time I have ever been iceskating... I only fell once, so I was proud of that. Then today we just got back from a 3 hour xcountry ski trip through the forest. Here are some of the photos.





Driving directly into the sun on our way to Røros.





This is proof that it was minus 30 degrees C or minus 22 F in Røros... extremely cold, and kids were out playing in the snow like it was just below freezing... crazy people.





A train just sitting at the Røros train stasjon.





Me hanging out at Røros train station... waiting for a train coming from Trondheim so Halvard could get a photo of it.





The church tower in Røros.





These are all the chimneys in Røros, where it was minus 30 degrees Celsius, or minus 22 degrees F. It was frickin cold.





Halvards father, myself and Halvard xcountry skiing.





Thats me xcountry skiing across Langvatne. A large lake near Halvards home.

25/12/2009

So I got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Ottar and his family. His family consists of Reidunn (his wife) then his 3 daughters (Johanna, Helga, and Velaug) and Leif (Velaug`s husband) and then 2 Grandsons (Simon and Inge) On Christmas Eve we had a good dinner of goat meat (aWeSoMe), potatoes and a bunch of other stuff. We had Christmas beer, wine, and aquavit.

In the morning on Christmas day we went to Ottar`s church where he was the priest. It is a small church, it had I think 12 people in it today. It was a good experience though... then we came back to Ottar`s after mass and had a large brunch. After the brunch I needed to come back to my flatt for final clean up and packing... so now I am ready to go, I just need to sleep here tonight, eat breakfast in the morning, take out the garbage then Im on my way to Oslo to see Elin!

So that is my Christmas 2009 in Norway.

20/12/2009 Strandafjellet

The weekend at Strandafjellet with the stips and some students from last year. We had 13 of us I think in a huge cabin. We stayed Friday night and Saturday night and left Sunday at about 12. The first night, Andreas and I just built a little jump behind our cabin.. nothing too spectacular, and then later that night it snowed a few inches. I was really pumped for the opening day on Saturday and then the Donkeyboy concert at 4pm. Well, it turned out that opening fest was really not "opening" we couldnt use the lifts to get to the top. They didnt have enough snow to open. Donkeyboy (Norwegian Band) played a concert at the bottom of the hill Saturday evening. I now like Donkeyboy. So Andreas and I hiked up for about 2.5 hours towards the top and then snowboarded down, took about 45 minutes... so we had so much fun doing that the first day that we decided to do it again but get to the peak and watch the sunrise. So Andreas, Arlend and I left the cabin at 6:45am and made it up there by 9:30 and sat on the summit til alittle after 10 when the sun finally rose... then boarded down... which was the best snowboarding I have ever done, I will never forget that. Idyll Overall it was a really really fun weekend... now more fun stuff to come over Christmas break, Ottars, 2 trips to Oslo, and a trip to Trondheim!








Our homemade home theater system in the cabin.





Donkeyboy playing at Strandafjellet Openingfest!





The bottom of the top chairlift... woulda been awesome if it had been working.





Somewhere on the mountain.






Me somewhere on the mountain snowboarding.





Me changing wet wool with dry and warm wool on the top....



Sunrise.






Sunrise.





Sunrise.





Andreas on the summit before sunrise.





At the summit of Roaldshorn.






Roaldshorn.. proof we were at the top, if the other pictures arent enough proof yet.






Group shot on the top of Roaldshorn 1230 meters or something like that. Andreas, myself and Arlend.





Andreas on his way down the mountain. Sun rise behind him.






Doesnt look like it, but this is me snowboarding down the mountain in fresh powder, an amazing experience!

14/12/2009 Julefest and Such

So it has been awhile since I have updated this thing... there has been lots going on. First of all, I met someone, well, we have known each other for quite some time now, but we finally talked and realized we both liked each other, so that was good timing... her name is Elin and now I have even more motivation to come back to work in Norway this summer. The first pictures are of us on a hike up Høgkubben where we had some hot chocolate at the top, this was right after our first snow so it was pretty cool.

Then I have some pictures of the mountains taken from a canoe.. the lighting and the wind blowing the snow was amazing so I took some pictures of it.

Finally the last pictures and videos are from Julefesten (Christmas Party)
I had to sing with the male teachers, we sang a song first from Boyzone (Irish Boyband) and then Adeste Fideles.




Snø on the pine trees





Up on Bjønnalågen and some nice sunlight





Elin and I på Høgkubben for noen hot sjokelade





Canoe seminar, wind blowing the snow over the mountains





This was taken during a canoe seminar, Im sitting in the canoe and the wind is blowing the snow over the mountains, cool lighting as well





Meg med Reindeer Antlers





Elin og Jeg etter Julefesten





Boyzone - Words Willy, Myself, Ottar, Ato, Matthias, og Anders




Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin) Same people as the Boyzone song

3/12/2009 Ottar`s Cabin... AKA Last Tipp Topp

For our last tipp topp seminar, Ottar took us to his cabin for an overnight stay. We did not get a chance to climb to a topp but Halvard and I did a tipp... we went up as far as we could in the snow to the base of a rock wall. The cabin has no electricity or plumbing and is heated by a wood fireplace... I think I could live there, it was in my top ten of favorite things I have done in Norway so far. Here are some photos from the trip.





On our way up to the cabin.





Norwegian pride!! Ottar`s flag infront of his cabin.





Climbing up the mountain... taking a break, taking in the view. While everyone else was staying warm in the cabin... Halvard and I decided to hike up a mountain in the snow.





Halvard rolling down the mountain in the snow.





Ottar`s cabin.





The moon rising over the mountains.






The sun rise the next morning.



And of course.. a video of me jumping off something.... jumping off a small dropoff up on the mountain.

29/11/2009 First Snow at Borg!

Well, this day was awesome... I felt like a little child again. Breakfast on Sundays is at 9:30, so I decided to sleep in til 9. Well, alittle before 9 I woke up to a text message from Elin that said, "Merry chrismtas! Snow snow snow :-D". So I look outside and sure as shit there is a snow everywhere. I got excited right away... I went up and ate breakfast then got dressed to go out in the snow. Jonas and I made a large snowman, about 7 feet tall (4 balls) Placed him right in front of Elins window, and on the snowman we put a scream mask. He was also a very patriotic Norwegian snowman and also had an ax.



After that, I had the urge to go swimming in the ocean. I would say the temperature was right around 32, 33 degrees F. I gathered as many brave soldiers as I could and we went down to the dock for a swim. How many people can say they have built a snowman and swam in the ocean in the same day? I can.





After that, here are a few more pictues of the day...





And of course I took a video of me jumping in... this is the second of my 2 jumps.

26/11/2009 Thanksgiving in Norway

For Thanksgiving the USA class prepared a Thanksgiving feast containing turkey, mashed potatoes, gravey, cream corn, stuffing, and blueberry pie. We cooked the meal in the admin. kitchen and then took it to Ottars house to eat. This was the first time I have ever cooked and carved a turkey. Here are some of the pictures from the day.







One of the Turkeys.






The Turkeys.






Sara making some creamy corn stuff.






Helene making something.. cant remember what she made? Potatoes?






Oddbjorn and I cutting the turkey.






Jonas and Anders making the gravey.






Oddbjorn cutting the one of the turkeys.






Working in the kitchen.






All sitting down for the feast.






All sitting down for the feast. Notice the view out Ottar`s kitchen window.