Hybel

In order to avoid beginning my homework I am going to write a blog about my living situation. In Norway there is not a strong tradition of boarding schools/ dorms yet do to the largely rural and spread out population there is a need to house many students during the school year. Essentially when high school hits everyone in a large surrounding area go to the high school in the local "city". Similar to the mountain kids going to BBA for those of you familiar with the Greater Landgrove Metropolitan Area. What differs in Norway is that kids live farther away so a daily commute is impractical. As a result many families in the "city" (in my case Voss) have mini apartments within them. So while I am living in someone else's house not an actual apartment I am responsible for all living duties except laundry (the family I am "staying with" were nice enough to offer to clean my clothes though I believe many hybel children bring there clothes with them home over the weekend, not an option for me). As a result my main meals are yogurt and granola or pancakes. I have also slowly begun eating lots of bread slices as is the Norwegian tradition. Below are a few pictures that capture the entirety of my hybel (mine is definitely on the small side based on the others that I have visited). There is also another bedroom the same size as mine on the other side of the kitchen belonging to Christopher whom I am sharing my hybel with with.
Kitchen

Bathroom


Bedroom

Rallarvegen

The past three days I have been on a trip from Finse to Voss with my class 2 Toppidretts and the 2 Idretts class. The first day we took a train from Voss up to Finse dropping our large bags off in Myrdal. When we arrived in Myrdal it was raining and quite cold so naturally I was the only one wearing shorts (apparently rain pants are quite popular in Norway). After visiting the museum in Finse, pertaining to all things involved in builing the railroad up, over and through (literally) the mountains from Oslo to Bergen, we began to bike the approximately 40km to Myrda on the Rallarvegen (work road for the train tracks) with our day packs. Like any good bike ride there were a few casualties, I broke my chain, again (got props for fixing right then and there though), the birthday boy Sondre Elvebakke had his crankset come apart after loosing his bottom bracket screw (not sure if thats the right terminology but basically what keeps the crankset together) at some unknown time. Luckily at this point we were only about a kilometer from Myrdal. After arriving in Myrdal we took a short train ride to a camping area (read large flat area with tall, wet grass) at Upsette. I totally dominated camping by making myself some chicken while everyone else was having just add hot water food and then making raspberries, cream and sugar for dessert (I was in Sondre's tent and his birthday was a great excuse for a delicious dessert). Our tent team then won the Rallarvegen quiz and some sort of Norwegian inferior Sour Patch Kids.
Day two began with a prompt alpine start at 11:00. Once again I slayed the meal by making pancakes with maple syrup. We hiked about 5km to Kaldavashytte. The group then split with a few of us heading up to the top of Øykjafonn the highest mountain in the vicinity and the others returning the way they came. It was a very steep climb up Øykjafonn and for the day we went from about 800 meters above sea level to 1604 and then back down again. I'm not going to say I was the first one into the water or one of only about 5 but if you want to infer that from what you have just read be my guest. Having decided before hand not to bring along eggs and bacon (questionable decision) my food domination ended that night when I showed my lack of tour food knowledge by not using enough water (towards the end it got a bit crunchy and never really looked like Pasta Bolognese). However, my new quiz group (they had us count off in sevens) took first place once again (I was totally a help on at least 1 of the 20+ questions). This time we got the same sour patch kid things but in a crazy plot twist they weren't sour! They had plain sugar on them!
Day three (today) we packed up the tent and put our large bags on the train and biked the 50km back to Voss. Of course right when I thought we had been thrown a curveball and it was not going to rain Norway through us the obligatory 5 minute drizzle (blaming Iceland for bad weather is in vogue right now so to save face on this side of the Atlantic I must add) courtesy of Iceland. However, I really cannot complain as we had the sun at our backs for the final 30km in to Voss. It was a great ride capped off by the great Norwegian smell that can only be obtained by drafting a diesel truck while passing a dairy farm. Below are a few choice shots (out of 13) from the trip.
Chain break= falling to top tube + leg confronting big chainring. Call it a draw between me and the bike this cleaned up nice.

Camp Ground

Blue sky it is a miracle

Top of Øykjafonn

What a Way to Start the Week

After my first day of real school in which i successfully avoided going backwards in math (I think the class I'm in now is basically pre-calc again) for now (scheduling conflict with Idretts Kultur og Samfunn, read "play volleyball outside class", may cause a move backwards in math) and navigated this

I was getting ready to take a shower and settle down at 8:30ish when the kid who lives in the house my hybel (more on that later) is, Andreas, asked me if I wanted to play soccer at 9:00. I had done so once before and had fun, besides which, once you say no once you might not get asked the next time so i said yes. Thats where my weekend really got on the right track. First I had a minor collision involving the side of my shin which resulted in a lot of pain (always a great sign for nordies when seemingly benign events cause great pain in the shins) and me sitting on the side for about 5 minutes, I also did not score a single goal. Then after a classic no one scores the last goal but instead the lights go out finish I started home on my bike. After about 3 pedals I shifted gears continuing to pedal and snapped my chain in half, sweet. So I scootered the mile home no harm done. Then I realized I forgot my key and my hybel mate had locked the door and the lights where off in the main house so no way of getting a key without waking people up. Luckily I was able to climb through my window to where I am now sitting writing this blog. Tomorrow I get to look forward to more school and either fixing my chain or paying some absurd sum to buy a new one because I have a bicycle trip starting, you guessed it, Wednesday morning.

Miscelaneous Week in Review

My first week in Voss is just about over so I am going to do a quick review of events. Thursday was my first group training session, an hour run with some spenst followed by a half hour of strength. Friday was an all school soccer, volleyball, scavenger hunt, and relay. I was on the volleyball team for my class and we made the 3rd place game despite losing our quarterfinal match, we got 4th overall. I was then a late sub onto the relay team and ran a 200m leg. Once again we got 4th. I then shortly found that I had a liquidity crisis. I was able to find 65 kroner (about $10) but my Norwegian credit card has yet to arrive so that was my weekend cash supply. Thus I have already had pancakes 3 times this weekend and will probably do so again tonight (pbj has been my other main dish). Also my new phone (HTC Legend) arrived on Friday so I can now add pictures however the SIM card has not so it does not have any phone functions yet. I would liken it to receiving an iPhone and being told that for the first couple days you could only use it as an iPod Touch, still sweet but missing that key ingredient.
65 Kroner

Vanilla Sugar, a true inspiration

First Day

First off I would like to apologize for the lack of pictures I will have some soon.
Secondly, yesterday was my first day of school.  Like any first day should, it started at 10 with an assembly including at least 50 lbs of hair jell and tons of 3/4 length pants, sweet.  Naturally, I went with a flannel t, cargo shorts, and not an ounce of hair jell.  After getting introduced to the school we split up into something sort of like counselor groups.  Mine was made of those in my grade VG2 (essentially the same thing as being a junior) who are in toppidretts.  I soon met the class and we went over our schedules (I totally sort of understood what I am to be doing), teams for some all school contest on Friday I made the volleyball team (naturally the Euros looked down upon my American soccer skills probably for the better), and some details for the bike, hike, camp trip we are doing next Wednesday to Friday.  Now today I have my first training session with the team and get my books.  Regular school starts on Monday with an 1:30 of Spanish.

First Blog, Cows

Instead of having an introduction to my blog I'm just going to go ahead and start writing.  I have recently arrived in Norway where I will be living for the next 2 years.  After unpacking in my new hybel my dad and I went to visit the farm on which he learned Norwegian.  The farm is in Valdres and was once the second largest in the entire region.  We spent one night at the main farm house then went up to the seter, a farm used in the summer where cows can graze and are milked, which is situated on the top of a 900 meter mountain.  In the morning we herded cows from the seter to a pasture about a mile away through a path in the woods.  After a few small meals with fresh milk (delicious) it was time to send the cows back.  While my dad and Ola, the farmer, fixed a fence, I was charged with herding the 21 cows back to the farm.  Armed with a bucket of grain and Ola's statement that the cows wanted to be milked so baldly they would go right back, I started off.  After about half an hour of fruitless yelling and offering of grain I returned to my dad and Ola having successfully sent the cows in the wrong direction and spread them about as far apart as possible.  What ensued was over an hour of chasing cows through the woods in rain boots, getting 19 to go in the right direction only to see that the other three where heading off somewhere else or had stopped to grab a bite.  The situation went quickly from; ha ha, this is fun and will give me a good story to, I am tired and hate rain boots to, if I had a knife one of these cows would be dead.  Luckily the next we went to Skarvheimen for a hiking trip, with the warning words "You can't go into the mountains without wool" oops.
I will try to be more concise in future iterations of my blog.