Det luktet vondt her! Fy søren!

Three weeks living intensively in close contact with a small group of people can come to be very trying and tiring (especially in the company of a certain rather special girl with special quirks and personality traits!)! But in no way has it been a bad three weeks, I'll just be happy to have a week and a half easter break, time to rest and relax away from the stress of well, resting and relaxing at an outdoor life school.

It's also given me time to really appreciate the dynamic qualities of Norwegian nature. Last week we were up in the Sunnmøre Alps, skiing down mountainsides. This week, just three or so hours from Sunnmøre , we were surfing, and relaxing on the beach wearing nothing but board shorts in 15 or so plus degrees. It seemed to go from winter to spring in the space of half a moment.

STA_0989 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1051 Hosted on Zooomr

But as for our week in Sunnmøre. Fantastic. Helt nydelig vær - blue skies, sun, snow. The first two days we recieved a dump of maybe 50 - 70cm new soft fluffy snow. Then the weather cleared up, culmunating in a mind blowing last day, with air temperature of about plus 10, windstill, blue skies - just perfect. Skiing up a mountain wearing next to nothing. Looking out over the Everest-eske views - nothing but snow drenched mountain after mountain. Another clash of nature - you could see the ocean peaping out between some of the peaks in the distance. Very strange being on a snow covered mountain and seeing the sea (especially when I associate sea with 30 plus degrees!).

IMG_0960 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0929 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0906 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0946 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0970 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0942 Hosted on Zooomr

Coming down from the Alps we drove into spring. Back at school the spring flowers are starting to bloom, the grass is turning green. And the roads are dry! For the first time in months. Such a lovely feeling - I now understand why Norwegians have an almost holy relationship with the start of spring.

And then to the beach to surf. But it played with my core foundations! In my experience, if it's warm enough to lie on the beach just with shorts on, then it's warm enough to swim just with shorts on! But no, we had to struggle and wriggle and fight our way into 7mm wetsuits to brave the couple-degree-above-zero water. Warm beach, cold water. I hated getting into that wetsuit. It felt like a days work in itself. I was comepletely and utterly exhausted after fighting my way into it for 15 minutes. And what made it worse was thinking that back home i could just run into the sea naked if the thought possessed me! But apart from my now newly developed wetsuit phobia, it was a fantastic week. Perfect waves mostly, and beautiful sunsets every night. Summer style barbeques for dinner - sitting out in the sun. And lazy times reading and chatting and lazing around.

The mountains around Stadt - where we were surfing are spectacular - rising almost straight up from the sea. Jennifer and I walked to the top of one - a hefty hour hike up very steep terrain. We decided to try and find an easier way down... without much success. We had to slide down on our bums for much of the way, it being so steep. And we were never wuite sure if we would get to the edge of an impassable cliff.... Quite exiting exploring like this. But we made it down eventually.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

IMG_1054 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1085 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1120 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1130 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1148 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_1159 Hosted on Zooomr

I'll go off and try and pack for my easter holidays - the plans stand as of now - drive to bergen and stay with asgeir for a couple of days, then head down to haugasund - stay with Markus for a bit. Maybe visit asgeir's family in Hjelmeland, maybe visit May Sissel's cabin. Who knows what might happen!

Memories of a lost ski

It rained. And it rained. And there was a bit of sleet. Then it rained again. That was about the story of our week in Stranda ski resort. Oh global warming you accursed blight of the earth!

It didn't stop us skiing though! And it brought back memories of a time many years ago. A time when the Croft family were skiing in Australia. And the little Croft girl, who goes by the name of Diddy or Keo, let go of her cross country ski in the middle of a mountain side, to see it whistle away far down into the valley, only to be found again, after 2 hours of searching.

Well, I didn't let go of my ski. But it did wriggle it's way off my boot and go carreering down the downhill slope, faster than i've ever skiied with it for sure! Now you see, I had a safety strap on my ski. My left ski only. Why only one ski? Well it's a long story I won't go into. Why don't I just say because that was the only ski that had ever come off before!

But my story ended happily. No small blue eyed, blonde haired children got there legs chopped off by my flying ski. And by pure luck my ski managed to wedge itself into some blue netting..... Thank goodness for that netting....
I got a good talking to by the ski lift operator! And teased lots by my friends :S

---

It snowed lots on our last day there of course. But there was huge avalanche danger because of the warmer temperatures, and because it had been so windy. A bit scary when Hans heard a woomph sound, and i saw cracks appear in the snow above me. But it was only a small section of steepness so relatively safe. Regardless to say, we kept to the forest and the prepared tracks after that!

---

Because of the revolting weather, we slacked a lot in the cabin, watched a lot of films. We saw Pirates of the Carribean for the millionth time. And i found out that I really really really want a cannon! And a grappling hook. A grappling hook mostly - just think, all those walls you could climb, all those ships you could commandeer.... Ahhhh
Oh, and a telescopic nose would be cool as well...

---

My search for a summer job in Norway isn't going that wonderfully... looks like I might have to accept a "job" (real of course! *cough*) from Asgeir's brother and use this "job" to get my working visa. Or I could become an illegal immigrant.... (tempting, tempting).

Though I did get one positive answer - but they want to see me in person next week at their office.... I'll try calling them and see if I can do a phone interview.

---

NEWS BREAK!

My hair has been cut for the first time since leaving Australia! I no longer look like the abominable snowman, or a young Bono. Thanks to Liz and Jennifer, my hair is now short again, and i can get through a day without recieving multiple wounds to my eyes from my hair :)

Ice and snow and ski

It's been a hectic, adrenaline, excitement and emotion driven week.

A week ago today I was ice climbing in Hemsedal. A unique way to celebrate my birthday actually - halfway up a frozen waterfall. I haven't had so many birthdays like that in my time...

Ice Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0858 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0879 Hosted on Zooomr

And then four days of fantastic skiing in Hemsedal ski resort. As we seem to be, we were blessed with good weather. Tuesday it snowed all day, Wednesday dawned foggy, but we rose above it in the ski lifts, to be met with a stunning view - bright blue skies and sun one way, and a sea of cloud and fog the other. Thursday was just superb. But Friday was bad. A small price to pay.

View of hemsedal Hosted on Zooomr

There were many a jolly laugh we had, and many a clod of snow to pull out from inside my jacket, or down my ski pants....

There was a stupidest-thing-done-in-the-day-competition, in which the winner had to wear some 80's style sky blue ski pants, a pink skirt over the top, and a fluro pink/orange 80's ski jacket. The first winner was Trond. You see, going through the flapping gate to the ski lift, trond managed to get one ski, weaved in and out between the metal poles, with the plastic flap flapping backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, between his legs. It was so well wedged that Halgeir, the school principal, had to unclip his skiis for him to free him from it's dreaded clutches!

Another high contender was Hanna Beate, who, not realising the implications, rested her ski pole over the safety bar infront of the chairlift. Reaching the top of the mountain, the safety bar was lifted. Up went the ski pole, to get stuck jam tight in the roof of the ski lift. Try as she might, Hanna Beate couldn't get it out, and only succeeded in snapping her superduper telescopic ski pole. Oh, and she skiied into the only tree within about 200m of her :)

And finally, came Halgeir himsellf. Admittedly there were others who had done stupider things that day, but we just couldn't resist the temptation to see Halgeir, our 50-late-something principal dress up in the shocking outfit. Really, all he did was ski into the back of someone whilst skiing through some forest. But it was fantastically funny him wearing the costume. Every 8-man chair lift trip up the mountain he took, he was the only person on the lift. Not a single sould dared ride with him!

And as for me, I had my share of ridiculous doings. One trip down i will never forget. Me and my friend Pål were skiing through some forest, which kept getting tighter and tigher and steeper and more deep with powder snow as we went. So tight that there was only one possible path downwards we could take. Now there was a tree stump in front of me. Maybe half a meter tall, and 20cm wide. Now there was absolutely no reason to fall, but fall i did. With the back section of my skiis around one side of the stump, and my legs and body around the other. Now it was relatively steep in this section, meaning that because of gravity pulling my body down the hill, my skiis were 100% trapped! There was no way out. Thankfully Pål was there to save me. Which he did, not without a fair deal of laughing!

We finally made it through maybe 300m of forest, taking maybe half an hour!

Many other fun things happened, and I feel I learnt a huge amount in telemark technique that week.

Fantastic week.

IMG_0895 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0889 Hosted on Zooomr

IMG_0893 Hosted on Zooomr

+

+

3 Nordfjord Boys

=

There was mustard up my nose, shaving cream in my eyes, and strawberry jam on my face....