Winter holiday (afterwards)

My winter holiday is over. It happened a lot.
On monday Anne Marit and me were driving til Oslo. We got tickets (Christmas present from Harald and Jessica) for the musical "Sonny" in the opera house. It is a musical about the three first albums from "Kaizers Orchestra", a Norwegian band. Click here to listen a song of them. Tormod, Nina, Harald, Jessica, Anne Marit and me, we had a good time there.

Then on Thursday drove we to Trysil. We were all looking forward to our skiing holiday. We arrived and Anne Marit and me were already going to ski. It was not that much fun for me, because I borrowed skiing equipment from a nabour and the shoes were much to big for me. Therefore it was difficult to get a good control over the skis. On the two next days I was sick and I couldn't go to ski. That was really boring. On the evenings we played "Meier". That's a game I always play in the winter holiday in Switzerland with my family. On Sunday, the last day, I was fit again and this day I skied the whole day. It was very fun. And at the evening we were driving home. It took a long time because everyone was driving home on Sunday.

Before the holiday I was being interviewed by a magazine with another exchange student and yesterday it was published. It is a really good article.

Opera house inside

Cosy evening with good food, wine and beer.

I was sick two days..

Harald's and Jessica's dog Whisky.

View on the mountain where the skiing area is.

woohoo skiing!

Anne Marit

The article. The other exchange is Mira from Germany. She goes to the same school as me, but she is in the exchange year with YFU.

Winter holiday (before)

Today I stood up really early (5 am) to make me ready for the 4 days skiing holiday. We have to drive ca. 5 hours and then we will arrive Trysil. It is one of the biggest (maybe the biggest) skiing area in Norway. Actually we wanted to drive 7 am in the morning but now it is already 10 past 7. It will last a little bit more til we're ready. I looking forward to this trip and I hope you also enjoy the winter.

Silvan

Funeral

Today I was on the funeral from the mother of my hostfather. I never met her and my hostparents said they think it would be nice if I would be with them. I could decide and of course I was with them. It is luckily a long time ago I was the last time on a funeral. 2005 died my great-grandmother. I didn't know what I have to expect, because it is a little bit strange to go to a funeral where you didn't know the person who died. But all the people were very kind. Of course in the church was the atmosphere sad but that is normal. Something which really made me happy was that some people said that I am a part of the family in their view.
The whole day was a big experience and a day I won't forget from my exchange year.

Silvan

AFS Mid-Stay-Camp

The mid-stay-camp is in the past now. It's kind of strange, because after the arrival camp you thought: The next camp is the mid-stay-camp and it's such a long time til then. But now it's over. It was as nice as I expected. I am the exchange student who lives at the southest point of our region and for this reason I had to travel very long. On Friday I took the train in Oslo and there took we the train til Hamar (direction Lillehammer). From there we drove til Lillehammer with a bus and picked up some more exchange students. Then we had to drive 1.5 hours more and finally we reached Fagerhøi. The whole journey lasts ca. 7 hours for me. Fagerhøi is a leirskole (camp school) in the mountains. It was ca. 80 cm snow there. I really like it to be with all this people. During the camp did we lots of activities. For example on Saturday drove we cross country skis. Most of the exchange students tried it the first time there, so it was not awkward when you felt. On a hill we built a jump and we jumped with the cross country skis. That was fun! Every exchange student had also a conversation with a leader. I had my conversation with a girl who was in Switzerland last year. We spoke together a mix of Swiss German, German and Norwegian.
After arriving at home on Sunday evening I was reeeeallyyy tired.

Today I began to read the blog of Eli (the girl who was in Switzerland). It's very funny to read what she experienced in the exchange year in my home country. One thing she wrote was that Swiss students speak really bad English :-) Compared with the students in Norway I can affirm this.

Nacho and Anne-Célestine from Mexico and France.

The view out of the window.

AFS creative technology

Some people wrote on those letters what they think is special about Norway.

On Saturday was cross country day.

monster attack

flotte gjengen

The exercise was to explain this the Norwegian words..

Snow bathing on Saturday night. That was fresh!

See you soon
Silvan

Cross Country and..

Now I can also say (and be very proud) that I was cross country skiing in my life. Yesterday the weather couldn't be better. So, in fact, we had to ski this day. We (Anne, Thorvald and me) drove to a lake near the city. I should make my first cross country skiing tries there. First did I practise a little bit the "downhill" skiing. You can see one try on the video below. It was one of the successful ones; I didn't fall. Then drove we once around the whole lake and this was veeeery exhausting. But after I knew the technique a bit better it was less exhausting. Today I have muscle ache in muscles I didn't know they exist before. Anyway I was once more on cross country skis today. It is really fun.

Last week on Saturday I organized a big party here, because half of my exchange year was over. Yes, half of my exchange year is already over.. I can't believe that. On the 23 January 2012 I was 158 days in Norway and there were 158 days left. It is really nice to have parties with all this people. I don't remember that something broke on any party I was with them. Yesterday I was on another party. One got 18 years. Then it is also clear that I am a little bit tired today. :-)

Last week I took a privat lesson with a fitness trainer in the fitness center. It is a free offer from the fitness center when you are member there. So we made a fitness programm for me. I will make now every day some sport. Monday and Thursday I'm going to play volleyball and on the other days I'm going in the fitness center --> summer body ;-)

Here some pictures and the video from the cross country skiing adventure: