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.

22/11/2009 Visit to the Syljuberget Farmsted

So Friday night Elin and I started an adventure to Lillehammer. It was a 7 hour bus ride that started at 9:30pm Friday night, we got to Lillehammer Skysstasjon at 4am Saturday morning. So there we pulled some benches together and sat down and watched 6 episodes of season 2 of The Office. We also played some cards, and we also played catch with a clementine until I through a very poor behind the back pass and it split open on the floor. At 9am Jan Amund and his wife Gunvor came to pick us up and took us to the North Farm property where my blood line came from and then to see the middle and south farms (south farm is where Jan lives). There are no buildings left on the North farm, the community of Mesnali owns it now and they have built a cancer rehab center there now. But on the South farm there were still some buildings left from the time period that my ancestors were there. They also invited us into their home, we shared some information that we both had about our familys, and it COULD be possible that we are somehow realated. Its too confusing to even try to explain right now though. And I am not sure if it even would work out anyway. But here are some fotos of the journey.







New houses built near the North Property farm.





There is a fantastic view from the North Farm property, I can see why someone would want to live there.





This is part of the north farm property, there are no buildings still here. On the other side of that road is a hospital which was also part of the North Farm. The Community of Mesnali now owns the north farm property.






This foto is taken from the North Farm properter looking towards the Middle Farm. As you can see now.. there are many more houses in this erea.





This house behind me was there when my ancestors were on these farms... this is at Jan`s farm which is on the South Farm.






Here is the Syljuberget family (minus their 16 year old daughter Stine) Jan Amund Syluberget, his son Ole Magnus (13 years), and Jan`s wife Gunvor.



Here are some other fotos from the Lillehammer excursion.





The midday sun in Lillehammer, it was almost noon when this foto was taken.





This is the ski jump used for the 94` Winter Olympics. There were people practicing on them, it was quite impressive to see people jump down those.





This is at the skysstasjon in Lillehammer, they hosted the 94` Winter Olympic games.





Train at the Lillehammer skysstasjon.

19/11/2009 Aurdalsnibba TippTopp/Flisholmen Camp

On Wednesday we did a tipp topp seminar to Aurdalsnibba. Again like last time there was beautiful light for most of the trip... here are some fotos followed by our camping trip to Flisholmen.






Some more morning sunlight.





Some morning sunlight.





The sunrise between the rocks.





Believe it or not but this is the midday sun... it was about 11:30 or so when this pick was taken.







So last night, Wednesday night I decided to organize a little camping trip out to Flisholmen, and island about 20-30 minutes paddle by canoe away from Borg. Here are some pictures and a video of our camp trip. And remember, I am getting a college education for this stuff.







Our awesome fire for the night.





Cleaning up the campsite in the morning.





Some morning fishing.






Packing the canoes to head back to Borg.





Group foto of the Flisholmen Camping Group, Standing up Left to right: Kristin, Fredrick, Marlin, Andreas, Elin, and Charlotte. Front row left to right: Guri, Synne, Elise, Bodil, and me.



And of course you knew I had to jump of another cliff... this one was near where I did the one yesterday but not quite as high. Here is the video evidence.

17/11/2009 Canoe Seminar

Not alot has happened the last few weeks because of the musical, but today we had normal seminar hours again which was really great. This afternoon we went out and canoed to Flisholmen which is an island out in the fjord. I am actually taking some of the students out there camping tomorrow night which I am really looking forward to. But today when we were out there, on one side of the island is a rock wall that goes into the ocean. Of course I wanted to jump off it and into the water. So I did. This jump was 2 times higher at least than the big one that I did at the beginning of the year. This one today was somewhere around 10-12 meters roughly 35-40ft. My butt and hip is actaully actually alittle sore from hitting the water so hard. But it was so worth it. This was believe it or not one of the scariest things I have had to do. It was more scary than jumping out of an airplane, or jumping 400 feet bungee jumping... I knew if I slipped and didnt get out far enough I could have hit a rock on the way down. I have never felt adrenaline like I did after I jumped. Im looking forward to camping tomorrow night now. Here is a video of my jump.

10/11/2009 Trondheim and then Bjonnalagen Sunsets

So this last weekend I went and spent some time up in Trondheim with Astrid and Matthias. Highlights of that trip was definitely the cheese fondu... which is fotoed below along with a ferry with the sun in the background in Molde as I was waiting for my other bus to come. Also Aalesund winning the Norway Cup 2009 over Molde was quite exciting. Thanks again Astrid and Matthias for a fun weekend!






Fondu with Matthias and Astrid.






This is the ferry at Vestnes taken from Molde as I was waiting for my bus to Trondheim.




The following pictures of the sunset from Bjonnalagen at alittle after 4pm today.


















This one above is my favorite.

5/11/2009 Solnedganger (sunsets)

I dont have alot to say but I went out for a walk... sat down on some rocks down by the ocean (same place my dad and I sat when we were here) and I smoked the pipe and took some fotos of the solnedganger. Her er noen fotoer. (Here are some fotos)