Skiing on Bryggefjell

I found an old post full of pictures which never made it onto the blog, so I might as well add it. This is from the first class ski trip of the year that I was on, a day trip in February up a hill right beside Bo called Bryggefjell. Hopefully this will start posts about my backcountry ski trips in Norway (there were 4) and they have loooooots of pictures.

here we go

Up

"Dingdong church"!

watching people ski down a narrow trail

going down!

Jens the teacher

always a nice view from the top of stuff!!

down through some farm fields

Swimming on Lifjell in May

When you see this picture...

What do you think was going on?

Well, last weekend I was going on a day hike on Lifjell with Kirsten and Jesse Heckrodt, a Canadian who I met at the ski races in Turkey and is working in Ulefoss for the summer and came to visit Bø. We came across this awesome patch of snow that slopes right into a deep lake and decided to go for a quick swim.

Unfortunately I didn't realize I had my camera with me until I was trying to change into warm dry clothes... too late for proof of my insanity! But here's a video of Kirsten bravely going for a swim:

The two who dared a swim

don't slide in by accident now!

chilly day on Lifjell

Sea kayaking - Updated!

I tried sea kayaking for the first time ever! Strangely enough it was with my Basic Skiing class at school. The conditions were not so good for skiing anymore, but we still had a trip of the schedule, so...

We had two day trips, first on a nearby lake (Norsjø near Gvarv), and then on the ocean an hour and a half's drive south of Bø. Sea kayaking reminds me of road biking. You go very fast and in a straight line. It's nice to be going somewhere and watch the scenery change.

It was raining a lot but that's fine because we were wet anyway.

The day on the ocean was very windy, so we couldn't go far. Instead we tried to surf with the waves.
It was the first time I've paddled a kayak in the ocean. Mmm, salty. My hands and face were stinging afterwards!

Here are some pictures from the first day on the lake. I can get some pictures from the ocean trip from a friend and add them later.

 Ducky game

 Jens (our teacher) and Maggie

 a warm up game

 an island many gulls

 rainy weather

 Zdenek is faster than this boat

Jens teaching self rescue

UPDATE:

To see some more pictures (including from the ocean day) you can go to Zdenek the master of photos' blog post here: http://erasmusnorsko.blogspot.com/2011/05/zaklady-lyzovani-na-sea-kajaku.html

Quick update

Hi! I have lots of adventures since last writing here and hopefully will catch up on showing you some pictures soon! Just wanted to let you know I'm doing well and being good and here's some pictures for proof:

 cross training... (can you tell those are ski poles?)

and doing homework.

The beginning of the sad goodbyes to friends met in Norway has begun. Here's a video/slideshow I made for/about my awesome friend Megan who left to fly back to the US early this morning. I'm thinking of you Megan!

Today is the Norwegian national day, and it was really cool to see. But now I want to get some sleep. Bye!