Semester almost finished

Hello!

My last test was Thursday and it was followed by a few nights of visiting friends, having dinner together with them, and parties. Now I'm enjoying some time alone in my room. I'm leaving Bo on Thursday and feel like I have a lot to do before then. First of all, 2 assignments to finish up and then a lot of errands and planning.

I wanted to catch up on telling you what else I did this semester before I leave and have new stories to tell...

First of all, I forgot to mention that I moved! It was in the end of October. I just moved from one residence building to the one next door, where someone had moved out so there was an opening. The people I used to live with were wonderful, but I really appreciate the non-smoking, quiet and clean house I live in now.

I forced my housemates to introduce themselves on video in our kitchen so that you can meet them:

I went kayaking in the pool in Notodden a few times. I borrowed some goggles and found that it helped me a lot in improving my roll. I can roll on both left and right, but no other skills yet :)

My Norwegian class met at our teacher's house for some baking of 'school buns' and preparing for the exam.

my Norwegian class

picture from Meagan

I went to an aerobics with Terri, and it was... weird. To me, aerobics seems like almost-natural movements with completely unnatural timing. I couldn't stop laughing for the first 10 minutes. It's so weird. Why would we want to pretend to run on the spot instead of actually running? I like the music though!

Apparently it was the coldest November of all time in Norway this year. It feels really cold to me, more than in Canada. From the humidity I suppose?

Some days I felt like studying at school from early morning until late at night, and some days I just feel like staying home.

Now I'll tell you about the few attempts at skiing I've had so far this year in Bo. DISCLAIMER: I'm telling you this not to complain, but to make you smile about some (mis)adventures.

There is not quite enough snow here to cover all the rocks or plants, but when we get snow it will be GREAT, because I've already seen ski tracks:

-in the farm fields between where I live and the school

-in the field outside the school

-leading from the school to the lit trails

-around the lit trails

-up at Liheia, on a mountainside outside of town.

But even Liheia doesn't have enough snow to do more than shuffle around on. So it's not quite worth going out skiing yet. I get disappointed every time I try it.

On the plus side, I like running in the winter too.

So. Skiing adventure #1:

6 people (some of them just woken up from a party the night before) and our skis crammed into my friend's old Skoda to drive to Liheia. 1 person's bindings and boots didn't match so she went to look for others. When she came back to pick us up, it had become so windy it felt like we'd be blown off the hillside!

#2. Borrowed my friend's Skoda and it (understandably) didn't like starting in the cold weather. I managed to learn the method of kick starting it by pumping the gas pedal while holding the ignition on. The car made it to another house to pick up some friends, but then wouldn't start again! After a break, it somehow started right before I was about to give up. On the ski, my maybe-race/maybe-rock skis became definitely rock skis (sniff :'( )

#3. I got some backcountry/touring/telemark skis and boots which I need because I "studying" this as "course" next semester (awesome right?). Well I bought used ones online from a guy in Bergen, they came in the mail and I tried them out in the rolling farm fields nearby. The bases where so oxidized they were fuzzy (like having skins!), so I didn't need any kick wax.

#4. Ok this isn't skiing, but I ran to the lit ski trails to check out the snow conditions. Looked ok, but couldn't really tell. Because, uuuhhhhhh, the lights were not turned ON. Huh.

#5. Borrowed my friend's skis which she borrowed from the school so that I could be a little less cautious about where I was skiing (shhh). Unfortunately, it had RAINED on Friday and then frozen last night, so the same rolling farm fields that weren't quite steep enough for Telemark turns had become ICY SLIDES OF DEATH! Fortunately I survived the way down and also the crossing of the railroad tracks (ok I'm paranoid like that). I began trying to ski to the lit ski trails area, but soon gave up and tried to get back up the icy slides of death. I got home in time to watch World Cup ski races online :D

It's just more fun and easier to get intensity with running than skiing until the conditions improve. But I look forward to skiing later this year. :)

I will add a few more videos another time.

Here is one more way to enjoy winter in the forest behind our house, starring Eva and Kirsten:

Bye for now!