Jumping in the Fjord

Well supposedly it is a tradition to jump into the fjord while you're student teaching here. Today the sun was out but it was a high of 6 degrees Celsius so roughly 42 Fahrenheit. So not really your ideal swimming weather. I decided today was the day. We couldn't wait any longer as the sun is only out once a week and it is just going to continue to get colder. All of the girls were finally convinced and we all put on our fjord jumping clothes. 

By the way there is a reason for my choice of clothing. I will explain. Workout shirt: dries quickly. Army PT pants: waterproof and the outer shell dries quickly. Shirt tucked in: because I'm afraid of things in the water and I like the least amount of skin contact possible. Tennis shoes: I hate these shoes and there are sea urchins on the bottom of the fjord floor I wanted to avoid. 

Now you all know about my ridiculous fjord jumping outfit. On with the story!

 

Here I am prejump! I claimed my spot!

Hannah gave us the count down. However, this was of no importance to me. Because I am a huge wuss and have a ridiculous fear of large bodies of water, I decided I would wait until someone else started to leap off the dock. Fortunately for me everyone started leaping at the end of Hannah's countdown so I jumped just a split second after everyone else began their plunge. I wanted to make sure I wasn't the only person to go through with this crazy idea. At this time the two gentleman fishing a few docks down were very intrigued about what was going on over here. I think we might have just claimed the strangest foreigners title.

So as I stepped off I plugged my nose and closed my eyes and mouth, thinking about all of the things at the bottom of the fjord and how I am a horrible, horrible swimmer. I hit the water and thought I was going to drown. I thought I was dying and fought to get to the top of the water. 

At some point I opened my eyes under water...I have never done that in my life. It was awesome though I watched as I finally broke through the surface and didn't even lose a contact! 

Breaking the surface was an amazing feeling until I realized I was in a freezing cold fjord and I thought I was going into shock. No, don't worry. I wasn't going into shock.I was just very dramatic. I'm just ridiculous and over analyze everything. I was perfectly fine other than freaking out and thinking about how crazy I am to be doing such a thing. I realized I needed to get to the ladder because I'm a horrible swimmer and the bottom of the fjord is a long way down. I wasn't about to spend time treading so I decided to quickly swim to the ladder. Swim is funny to say when telling this story because there was really no swimming involved in anything I did. I freaked out so bad that my arms were flailing and I swear my legs weren't even working. Granted we did decide to jump in after three of us had just finished an 8.5 mile long hike!

 I had no control over my body. I literally don't even know how I stayed afloat. I remember making it to the ladder, one of the girls was reaching the top and another was about to get on. I was thinking to myself, "Oh, I will just tread here until she gets up the ladder, then I will start climbing." Hahahaha...that's funny. That thought came and went and the next thing I know I'm RUNNING up the ladder next to her! I made it on the dock and couldn't believe I survived. 

Here we all are post fjord jump. We're all happy to be alive!

Later the girls laughed at me and talked about how they knew I was freaking out before and during the jump. Jennifer said that the last minute before the jump I just shut off. I was focused and not thinking. hahaha! Kim said that when we were swimming to the ladder she saw the look on my face and said if she knew me as a crier that I would have been bawling so she decided to let me get to the ladder first. Boy, am I glad she did or I may have just given up! haha! Jennifer was the first one to the ladder. She was trying to climb but the steps were so slippery she kept sliding off. She said at one point she looked back at all of us and saw Hannah behind her, calm and making her way to the ladder, followed by me, Steph, and Kim, all frantically "swimming". She said she wished she could have taken a video with her eyes! hahaha! 

Needless to say I don't think I will be doing this again although I know I am perfectly safe. I didn't even come close to touching the bottom so no need to wear shoes and fear the wrath of sea urchins! I'm glad it's done though! One less thing to worry about! For those of you coming next semester to student teach. Get it over with! hahaha! And no, you won't touch the bottom jumping from the dock! And make sure you figure out the shower dilemma upon returning to the cabin. Five fjord soaked girls standing on a rug by the door is only so entertaining! hahaha!

Well this is my last post for the night. This week I will be sure to actually post about SCHOOL as there is much to reflect on! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Takk 

(Thanks)

Random Hike

Today Hannah, Steph, and I went for a hike to Mydral...which I think was the name of the lake. I get so confused with all the different trail names that I start forgetting what is what. We had to walk quite away from our cabin to the actual trail head. On our way I found this cute little house. The picture doesn't do it justice and not everything fit in the picture. It was very green and had tons of little buildings and a stream. It was gorgeous. It looked like a hobbit village....with houses.

Here's me next to the sign I think was referring to the lake. 

This is me posing at the lake! It was so gorgeous! You cold tell it was colder up here. There was some ice on the water and the rocks were so slippery due to the frost.

A view of part of the lake. I would like to hike back here again and try to fish. The trail head guide things said the fishing was great. It better be if I'm carrying fishing gear 8.5 miles!

A view on our way down. The middle hump is Skalafijel (spelling?), the mountain we hiked our first weekend here. 

Another random picture from our descent. I liked the way the clouds looked. The contrast was fun!

It was a nice easy hike. We took about four hours but spent a lot of time stopping and taking pictures. I loved it! The forest was so green too! It was gorgeous!

Saturday Adventures

Saturday proved to be another exciting day in Norway! We started out with our new tradition of getting a pastry from the local bakery! I got one covered with coconut and custard this time! Delicious!! 

Stephan told us about a flea market taking place in the town center just a couple blocks from our cabin. We decided to check it out. I thought it was going to be more of a craft fair. No...it was more of a rummage sale which turned out to be awesome. There were so many people and so many things! I found a pair of wool socks, a sweater, a belt (that I really needed), a Norwegian flag (most prod of that find), a set of local beer glasses, and a Rosendal sailor thermometer thing. Very successful day and I spent only $18!

Later while we were grocery shopping I cam across this. It's sheep head. It is a traditional Norwegian food....supposedly no one eats it anymore. However, I found these at the store. This is one food I'm probably going to stay away from while I'm here. 

I apologize for any disgusting feelings you may have experienced while viewing this blog post! But you wanted to be a part of my experience, just remember that! :)

Friday Night

After our adventure with Stein on Friday four of us went to the local pub. We enjoyed some awesome live music. However, this pub was a reminder of the cost difference between Norway and The States. We paid $22.50 just for a cover! 

We had a great time and ran into a couple familiar faces! We did realize we were a bit young for the crowd. It seems to be a popular hangout for the middle-aged and above crowd. Not so much for the mid 20s crowd!

It was a great time! We're hoping to stop by again for one of their open mic nights that is significantly cheaper! Here are some pictures from the evening. 

Hannah and I

Jennifer and Kim

Friday's Excursion

Stein, a local principal and our supervisor, and AnnasSophie, the superintendent of the school district took us on a marvelous trip this Friday. The first stop was a beautiful waterfall! It was pretty wet so my camera has some water spots on the lens! Just pretend those aren't there!

Next stop was the ridiculously long tunnel that went in the mountain. I think Stein said it was over 11km long. I did a little singing and noise making while we took pictures! It was so neat!

Next stop was the hydro-power plant. This is super important as it helped build Norway's economy back in the day. This plant is no longer in use but is used as a tourist attraction. They restored it back to the factories original everything. So the amazing architecture...yea this is how it was built! Could you imagine if our factories were built like this?

This is me standing in a section of the piping used to transport water from the waterfalls to the power plant.

Trying to make industrial machines look artsy. It was a decent attempt. 

I was looking at the generator and realized that Siemens was written on the side. Hmmm....any relation to the Siemens plant in Southeast Iowa? Let me know if you have an answer to this question!

I tried taking a stab at getting this thing to move. It was difficult. One of the other girls helped me....as well as Stein! It barely moved until he helped us! It looked like a piece of art though. Kinda like a big sunflower!

They use the plant for performances now due to its amazing acoustics. Jennifer and I sang the ISU Fight Song as well as Season of Love from Rent while standing on the large stage. Supposedly a lady was supposed to sing from the highest one that requires a special ladder. She was afraid of heights so they used a crane to get her to the top of the stage! haha!

Then we entered the control room. So many buttons! I wanted to touch EVERYTHING!! ...I may have touched some of the buttons on the radio without asking....but nothing broke!

After our tour we went on a drive to see the dam that was built in the early 1900s. Each of these rocks were hand cut. Could you imagine?! It was huge!

Below is a picture of Stein, myself, and AnnaSophie with the amazing view behind us! They were fabulous traveling companions! 

Then we took off for a hike to the glacier. Below is the picture of the lake that the glacier runs into. You can't see it in the picture but the glacier is on the top of one of those mountains in the background. Stein said it's been shrinking through the years. :( 

This picture doesn't do it justice but the water was the most beautiful sea green color I had ever seen! Simply stunning!

Stein took our picture after we each stuck our hand in the water. Yea, it was cold!! I guess I could tell you who's who since I do some name dropping in this blog! From left to right: Kim (Iowa State), Me (Iowa State), Steph (Utah State), Hannah (Utah State), and Jennifer (Iowa State).

Then we stopped by this adorable restaurant that used to be a barn. This is the front of the building.

Here is the back where we entered downstairs. 

It was so cute inside! Just look at that table! So quaint! 

Since I love taking pictures of my food here is one of my meal! Homemade breads on the left, beta suppe on the right, and cranberry juice in the glass. It was delicious! I had thirds on the soup!

Then we had a very well known Norwegian dessert, melke kakke or pannkakka. I've heard both words used to describe this dessert. I'm not sure if there is a different between the two but either way it was delicious. It is similar to a pancake but much thinner and spongier. You sprinkle sugar in the center, fold it, and spread jam on the top. Then when you sit down you roll it or fold it so that the jam is in the middle. This avoids a mess! It also comes with another Norwegian favorite: coffee! It was all delicious! 

This was a fantastic trip! Stein is an amazing tour guide! He knows so much about this area! I felt like I had my very own professional tour guide who told me all sorts of dates and names that I was hoping to remember! AnnaSophie was great too! I loved hearing her stories about her traveling and cross country skiing adventures! They are awesome! 

Thursday Night Gaming

Thursday November 7th was so much fun! All of us student teachers met in Husnes for Komle! Jennifer's cooperating teacher, Ruene, and our principal, Einar both joined us for Komle. Once again, it was delicious! I ate it all! It was great to be with the other three girls as they ate it for the first time. YUMMY!!!

After Komle Jennifer went to a meeting with her classes while the other girls and I went to the shopping center. I bought.....more Norwegian chocolate! After that we headed to the local library and used some free WiFi and checked out the Norwegian book collection. Well others did. I checked out the local literature and children's section! I even ran across a book that had pictures of my cooperating teacher. But for her sake I will not add those to my blog! :)

After Jennifer and Ruene's meeting they met us at the library for a game night. Ruene is a big board gamer and brought a few games for us to play. The first was a pirate game. It was quite a bit of fun. In this picture we look really bored but we were actually focusing on the rules! I'm pretty sure Jennifer won....I did horrible!

Then we played my new favorite game, The Resistance, which I will be asking for Christmas this year! Just saying my team would have won the game if anyone would have listened to me! :) I'm not bitter, I swear!

It was a great time! I hope we didn't scare Ruene away!

Sailing!

On Sunday, November 3rd 2010 Stein took us sailing. I was rather nervous about sailing as I'm not a huge fan of large bodies of water. Plus, the two student who went on the excursion last week talked about how the sailboat would "tip" and move and make you feel like you were going to fall out. They may have been exaggerating a bit! Nevertheless I bundled up and headed to Uskedal, Norway where Stein keeps his boat. Below is a picture of Stein getting the boat ready! 

We eventually took off for our adventure! But not before Stein put me in charge of throwing ropes off the boat and onto the dock. He warned me not to get them in the water. All I could think was, "Great!" Fortunately I was successful and even made it back to the other side of the boat while it was moving! That's quite a feat for me! Here is a view from the beginning of the trip! 

We even ran into a troll on our way to sea.

For some reason Stein thinks that because I'm in the Army that I'm smart and can sail. I double checked to make sure that he know the Navy was the branch with the boats! He trusted my helmsman skills when I didn't. But guess what? I actually didn't do to bad. He even had me steer pretty much the entire way back once we turned around. I was freaking out a bit inside...but I remained calm on the outside. Below is a picture Hannah took of me!

Once someone else took over steering I tried taking a picture of Stein. At first he turned away. Then, he decided to turn back and give me this look while I took his picture. I don't think he was very excited! By the way I've considered stealing his stocking cap when he isn't looking. I really really like it!

After awhile Stein made us coffee and tea and gave us the brownies his wife, Elke, made us! Oh everything was soooooo good! Here we are enjoying our sailing snack! Don't mind the mouth full of brownie look I had going on!

Below is a picture I tried getting with my phone. It's zoomed in so not the clearest but Rosendal, the town we live in, is located under that waterfall! We live right on the shore of the fjord over there. Pretty cool!

A little while after this Stein had us turn around. Sadly, we lost the wind. Literally, no wind! That's not good for a sailboat! We fought and fought...excuse me....Stein fought and fought to find it again but it was completely still. After waiting around Stein decided to start the motor. Well, it wouldn't start...for a very long time. I thought we were going to be sleeping on the sailboat that evening. Fortunately he got it to start and we headed back to shore. Stein was telling me that he has had this boat for about 30 years! It's gone on many many sailing excursions! Here is a picture of the bay as we "pulled" in.

And another!

I had such a great time with Stein! I just love talking to him and enjoy all of the adventures he takes us on! I may have been nervous before getting on the sailboat but seeing his confidence, passion, and ability to sail was so stress relieving! I never once thought I was going to tip over or die! :) He was even confident enough to let me steer and do a bunch of other crazy tasks on the sailboat! It was a blast! I'd love to go sailing with him again someday! Maybe when I bring Micah back to visit Norway!