this has been quite a busy time lately!
Reasons why this has been an interesting month:
1) I now live on a great big farm with dairy cows and chickens and cats and a bunch of feilds
2) I learned how to snowboard during spring break oon the ski mountian
3)I went on a "snow hole tour" on skis with the other exchange students
4) I went to Denmark with my host family this weekend.
My new family is really great. they have a daughter my age named helene, and we go to school together (It is at least a mile to the bus stop by the way!). my first week with them was during spring break and we were on Budor, the local ski mountian. they have a great cabbin right on the side of the slopes, so every morning I could just snowboard down the hill and start going from there! my host dad, Steen (he is danish) taught me how- he is really good!
The weekend after that I packed a big army backpack with food and extra clothes, and grabbed a pair of skis to go with the other exchange students on what quickly became the most unpleasant weekend of my life! the first problem was that I can barely ski- I can get around for a couple of miles, but it was tough here because we had the backpacks and it was straight UP the mountian. you couldnt take your skis off though because the snow was so deep you would get stuck. after about three hours of uphill progress we finally stopped, ate some bread, and started digging. it was only about ten of us students, and two norwegians a year or two older than us, and then a couple of the rotary members (they made the fire!) we dug two metters into the snow(ICE!) with these little pick ax shovels we had brought with us, and then we dug straight up, so in theory the place where we would sleep was higher than the door, so it would be warmer. the whole time we were digging and skiing, it had been snowing so we were soaking wet and it was SO COLD. there was so much snow and fog in the air you literally could not see more than a few hundred yards away the whole weekend. Anyway, we didnt get the holes done for a few more hours because it was so solid, but when they were done it was pretty impressive actually! the worst thing of all was the bathroom though---I will never complain about a port-a-potty again for as long as I live- at least the seat isn't made of ice!
when we were finally finished we ate dinner, but we were so cold and wet we ran straight back to the caves to get in our sleeping bags. that was the worst part, was trying to sleep! It was the coldest I have ever been in my life! It was four of us in our cave huddled as close as we could get, and it still wasn't warm enough to sleep! the next morning when we went to put our jackets back on, they were frozen stiff, like a block of ice, and we had to sit with all our clothes inside the sleeping bags before we could put them on! after a really quick breakfast, we went back down the mountain but those five kilometers went a lot fast downhill I tell you what!!! when i got home I took a shower and went straight to bed and slept 14 hours solid! I think it will be a long time before I would do that again, but I am really glad I got the oppertunity, and it was deffinatly worth it! (at least I thought so a few days after!)(picture above!)
Aaaaaand, Denmark!!! It was a really short trip, but I think I saw an awful lot for such a short time! we took a ferry boat from Oslo to the top of denmark (about seven hours) and it was at night, so we slept in a little cabin onboard. In Denmark we drove about halfway down the whole country (a LOT of windmills, though not as pretty as the ones you see in old books- they are huge and silver but look like they give a lot more power!) we stayed with Steen's family there, and went to a confirmation on Sunday. It was an entire day of partys and eating. after the church service we had a five hour meal uuuuhf! Danish is supposed to be like Norwegian, But I couldn't understand peolpe when they talked fast. they understood my norwegian though, so that was cool =p
also, I have just uploaded a bunch of pictures from these events onto photobucket, so you can see them by following this link if you would like. http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm166/sarahnorway/
1 comment:
Burrrrrrrr.........
Wow, and I have been thinking our 50 degree temperatures are chilly, your pictures are so neat. I can not imagine driving a dog team, how neat. It will be a temperature shock to you when you come home in July. We miss you, everyone asks about you and watch your blog waiting for something new. Things are good here, we have gotten more rain this year so I think our hay situation will be much better this year. Have you had enough snow? My request...... more pictures!
Be safe, Beth
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