March

So I haven't given up completely about trying to blog. I'm just very terrible at remembering to do it! It's been a busy few months. In an effort to catch up, I'll try to summarized from where I left off :)

I'll start with the gong-show of a ski trip we took ;)

At the beginning of March, I went on a skiing trip with some friends who live in my building. We rented one car, and a second one was from a norwegian guy who also came on the trip. It was just for one night, and we would be going into Sweden. The hill opened at 9 and because it was about 2 hours away, everyone decided we should leave at 5am..(I was no thrilled, I think everyone was a little over eager) But I have to make allowances too, the guys driving the second car are from the south of France, so have never experienced winter driving conditions and wanted to make sure they had time to take it slow.

So anyway, (as we pulled into the ski hill parking lot at around 7:30), we had to wait for awhile but finally got everyone's equpment ready and up on the hill. It was an alright place to ski, just a long t-bar ride to the top, but nice views and pretty good snow conditions.

After a day of skiing, we had to drive 1 hour back to our cabin (back over the norway-sweden border). But of course, we had to drive 1 hour in the opposite direction to the nearest gas station/grocery store. So needless to say, after an early start and a long day, tempers were running a little high.

The norwegian guy who came with us had been responsible for booking the cabin. We had planned to sleep 10 people in a cabin designed comfortably for 8. When we finally arrived, it turned out to be double booked and there were already 6 people staying there. So that didn't really help with the tensions that were rising. But we got every one fed and that seemed to help. Thankfully, I had packed my blanket, so took a cushion off the couch and managed to actually sleep quite well. Not everyone did, but we made sure the drivers had a bed at least. The next day was another hour drive back to the hill and a day of skiing, before heading back to Bodo. It was a bit of a fiasco, but still fun noneless and an adventure to look back on! In the pictures, there's me helping Jen after a crash and the view from the top of the hill and the whole gang of us.

Then on March 8th, we had a bit of a dinner party in honour of International Women's Day. I've never really celebrated it before, but I guess it is a big deal in many countries, especially Russia where the girls told us it's very usual for men to buy presents, flowers, chocolate for women on that day. So I was lucky enough to have my roommates do the cleaning for that day (thanks guys!) and then the French guys cooked dinner for everyone. It was really a lot of fun. We pushed the tables together out in the main hallway and had quite a nice meal.

The other events of note for March were my lab course for Molecular Ecology (15th-19th) which involved very long days (830-5ish) in the lab doing DNA purification, isolation, PCR and sequencing of fish and soil samples. It was quite exhausting, but quite a privilege too because we were allowed to use all of the new, fancy equipment. It was quite different from any lab I've taken at the U of S.

Also, on St. Patrick's day (which is not celebrated in Norway) we all headed down to the local club (PULS) to watch the North American trio Quick Pick'ns. It is 3 exchange student from this term who decided to play, John from Saskatchewan (one of my roommates), John from Tennesee (who plays the banjo) and Matt from Minnesota. They did a great job, played some Irish folk songs, bluegrass and country.

Overall it was a very enjoyable month. I also had my Easter holidays start on March 23, when I left for Ireland...but I'll save that for the next post which will hopefully be soon. I'm trying to catch up before I leave Norway ;)

Spelunking

Whew. I am really terrible at keeping a blog. I thought I'd better post a quick update before I take off for Ireland (Easter Break).

So on Saturday Feb 20, I had the opportunity to go caving with a student organization here called Arctic escape. It is lead by the counselling staff at the school. We drove about one hour out of Bodo to Fauske where we picked up our caving guides and gear. Each person had a helmet and head lamp. It was a particularily cold day!!

After about 15minutes more driving, we reached our destination. The cave is called Svarthammarhola (Black cliff cave). We actually had to hike uphill through about a foot of snow to make it to the main cave entrance. At the entrance, we had to hold a rope and walk slowing backwards down the steep, rocky slope. Once inside, we did some exploring.

It was pitch dark in there and also very cold. Not sure the exact temperature, but the guides did say it was the coldest caving tour they'd ever lead. The cave was huge! It had several rooms and we had to stumble through piles of rock as we moved through. The highlights were some ice formations called the king and princess. This cave is also unique in that it has a glacier right inside of it.

At the end of the tour, we scrambled through a very tight tunnel to reach another cave opening called the keyhole. There's an amazing view from up there.

After a light snack, we returned to the cave entrance and began our way down. However, it had become very slippery, so rather than a hike back down it was more of a slide on your bum. There was a real talent for it, so it was appropriately dubbed as a new sport "Buttluge" or "luge de Glute" with the Canadians against the Americans!!

Everyone arrived safely at the bottom, though thoroughly soaked. It was a great day enjoying Norway's outdoors.

I thought about including my Ski trip from the beginning of March in this post, but I still have some pictures to retrieve from friends. *Stay tuned*

I will arrive back in Bodo on April the 6th, after Easter, with my family in tow! Happy Easter everyone.

update

...still snowing

Snowed in!

So it has been snowing in Bodo for the last 3 days -straight! And I'm not exaggerating. It's not just been lightly snowing either. I'm talking blowing snow so thick you can walk outside for 5 minutes and your hair is covered in snow. This started on Sunday night, it was actually raining and very windy all that day because it was so warm. This made the roads and paths extremely slippery and it was just all around disgusting weather. Then Monday night, or around Tuesday morning I can't remember any more, it began snowing and just hasn't quit! I went for a walk to the lake today with my friend Heather, who is from Nebraska. It's quite warm still, even though it's snowing. We found ourselves in for quite a bit more of a workout than we'd planned, tromping through deep snow. Then we thought it would be a good idea to leave the path, and found ourselves in waist deep (for me!) snow. It was quite a lot of fun.

I'm not meaning to sound like I am complaining, because I'm actually really enjoying this weather. It makes all the trees and houses look so pretty. I just think it's crazy how much snow this place gets. As long as it doesn't turn into that horrible rainy/windy/stormy weather again I'm happy.

The pictures show the snow around the small cabin that is beside the lake. Also a movie of the snow outside my window.

Weekend in Tromsø

Hello everyone!

From Feb 4-8, I went off with 6 friends north to Tromso. We were lucky enough to make contact with 3 Saskatchewan students at the University of Tromso. They let us sleep on their floors and helped guide us around the city. Their help made the trip much more affordable and enjoyable!

This is 4 of the Bodo students I travelled with. Left-right Tomomi from Japan, Jen and Ellen from Ohio and Missouri and Alina from Poland.

Tromso is a city in northern Norway that is a bit larger that Bodo. The reason for going on this particular weekend was a Sami festival (Indigenous people in Scandinavia). On our first day there, we went to the University of Tromso to have a look around and have some waffles with other international students studying there. I also had my first taste of Brunost (brown cheese) here. It is very popular in Norway, and I thought that it was delicious. It is basically just cheese that is a bit creamier and smoother than regular mozzarella. It is toffee brown colour, hence the name, and has a bit of a sweet cinnamon and nutty taste to it. Very yummy on waffles with jam.

After the brunch, we went downtown to visit the Sami market. The picture shows some Sami shoes. I'm not sure exactly what they are made of but are very wwarm and have curled over toes. There were a few guesses as to why they wear "elf shoes" with the best guesses being to keep their skis from sliding off (before ski boots) or to make it easier to walk through very deep snow.

Later that same day, some of our group made it over to the polaria museum which is essentially an aquarium with some other exhibits about climate change and marine biology. It was very neat, we arrived just in time to see the seals getting their dinner. The polaria is the only aquarium in the world that has bearded seals grown in captivity.

The other events of the Sami festival were "women throwing" (not nearly as exciting as it sounds, merely the women's lasso competition) and reindeer racing. The reindeer racing was quite exciting, they would put the reindeer into a box and then a skiier would come in behind and hold the reins. When the race started, the lid of the box would fly off and the reindeer came rushing out pulling the skier behind. They went so fast. The only pictures I took were quite blurry.

We also paid a visit to the Polar Museum. This held exhibits about the history of the Polar region, exploration and expeditions. It also had a great deal of trapping, sealing, whaling and hunting exhibits. It was extremely well-done and very interesting, but quite graphic and disturbing too.

The last big adventure of our weekend was a trip up the cable car to view Tromso from above. The pictures themselves tell the story! It was beautiful with all the snow covering the city.

Maple Syrup/Poutine

So mostly it's been same old, same old around Bodo. We had quite a bit of free time last week because of cancelled classes, so there are a few things I can update on:
On Weds, we went to the waterpark downtown (as I said in the last post!) and it was really quite neat. They gave you an arm band with a little microchip in it which was your access to the change rooms and lockers. You would wave your wristband in front of the machine and a locker would pop open. Then you could put in your things, close the door and wave it again to close. I thought it was pretty cool. The water park itself had 4 pools (lanes, wavepool, kiddie pool and wading pool) also diving boards and 3 water slides. One of the slides even had different light effects as you slide down (strobe, rainbows, stars), it was alot of fun.
Then over the weekend, Tomomi and Laoka who are 2 students studying here from Japan, helped everyone to make sushi. We used smoked salmon, artificial crab, cucumber and even managed to get ahold of an avocado. The salmon around here is amazing, nothing like I've ever had at home, it's so fresh!
To repay everyone for the sushi, John and I (a fellow Saskatchewanian) made some poutine on the next day. It was quite good, and everyone liked it even though we used regular cheese instead of curds and powdered gravy. Also, thanks to my wonderful parents, some maple syrup arrived yesterday so I shared that as well. In Norway, they don't often use syrup like we do at home, they have corn syrup and a really thick molasses-y syrup for baking. They tend to eat pancakes/waffles with jam, fruit or a sweet brown cheese. One of my Norwegian friends tried maple syrup for the first time. I saw maple syrup once in a grocery store (Made in Canada was on the label!) but it was very very expensive.
And finally today I took an AfroPower Jazz dance class at the local gym. It was all in Norwegian, but still easy to follow along and really great fun. I've taken a few fitness classes there so far and am glad that I decided to join up.

The most exciting news of the week is that I am leaving Bodo tomorrow to travel to Tromso, which is quite a bit further north. I am going with 7 other international students and 3 other U of S students who are studying in Tromso have graciously offered to be our guides and provide floor space. The reason we are going is a Sami festival that takes place this week. The Sami are an indigenous northern people in Norway. We will return on Monday evening, and hopefully I will have some more great pictures to post.

Ick

So today we got hit by a bit of a wind and rain/snowstorm. In the morning, I had to walk down to the bus stop down a large hill. I fell really hard on my ass within about 20 steps away from the door since it's still really icy. And because of the rain of course I fell right in a puddle. About 2 minutes later, because the universe obviously decided I should be equally soaked on all side of my body, I faceplanted into another puddle. So all in all in was a beautiful day.

...Funny part is, we were heading to the swimming pool downtown.