Best Western Gyldenlove Hotell Kongsberg

... them. It was also the first time I met Beate, who besides looking pretty gave me the impression of being very kind. The videos from her little students in Germany and herself clearly witnessed this as well. There was also an hilarious video of her in Norwegian which I would love to upload on this blog. I say hilarious but this is judging from my neighbors laughs. In fact I ...

... a cakewalk, and then in the end of the third quarter they look up and see they are trailing by 7. What!? The coach starts yelling and the players look confused and then it just gets worse from there. Casey is doing a magnificent job as coach. His boys are completely focused on his game plan, and he coaches in the moment, changing game plans and subbing to fit the real-time game situation. There is a flow to these contests that is all forward moving ...

... he's a huge man, 6-6 and 280 lbs who was on the Norwegian national basketball team for 8 years. He's now an international head-hunter for CEOs of large companies. Everyone had rave reports about their home stays. Some are in mansions with whole floors, two bathrooms, a weight room, a massive tv screen, all to themselves. All reports have been very positive, and that is certainly what Jennifer and I are finding with the Bergseths. More later.

... cold and windy, which was too bad, since the previous days we had been having nice weather. Eventually the jumping started. It was really cool to see ski-jumping in real life, since I enjoy watching on TV. But it was freezing outside. Luckily they had to cancel the finals since it was too windy, or else I think my toes would have frozen off. Even though it was so cold, I had a really fun time in Oslo with the exchange students.

I found out yesterday that Paul is sick and so we won't be going to his mountain cabin. Instead, we are going to meet up with a group and board at Kongsberg Skisenter. The highlight of the day is my epic wipe-out. I was coming down this bump/hill that has a steep backside when I saw someone standing right in my way. Having almost no time to react, I turn to the side and try to stop, which is difficult to do ...

... I also got lots of stuff from my parents in America. So that was my Christmas here. The next two days are holidays here too, but mostly we just had friends and relatives over and visited relatives too. On the 26th one of my friends had her birthday, so we had a small celebration for her. Then over the next few days I just relaxed. We finally could go skiing, and it was really fun. On the 29th Christine, the ...

... the agricultural students and their farm Blaestad aka the Farm. Bodega'n is open to the entire school in Hamar, but usually it's a pretty small crowd there. We've been maybe five times during the semester, but last night was our best night that we've had since becoming Hedmark University College students. It was the annual Christmas party at Bodega'n, "the coziest evening of the year!" as they advertised it. We showed up, and sat ...

Hei hei alle sammen! Ahhh... true peace and quiet. It's Sunday afternoon here in Norway, and I have enjoyed the weekend all to myself. The sun set this afternoon at 3:30pm with a blaze of orange and yellow and pink, and now the houses of Hamar are glowing with candlelight in their windows against the blue twilight. The only sounds to be heard in my apartment are the gentle hum of the refrigerator, and the clicking of my computer keyboard. My sole conversation for the ...

... a really long lake. It took two hours but it was very beautiful. Then we got to Eidsfos which is a old iron making town. We had a tour and watched a video about it. It was interesting, but since it was all in Norwegian, it got a little boring. Then we rode the boat back and went home. A man from my Rotary club was in charge of it, so he invited me to go.

Ok, first, let's get the one quibble of this trip out of the way. It was a lot of time on the bus - 5-6 hours each day. I'm not fond of bus tours; road trips are great, but I like to get out and explore where I want to, not where the itinerary points us. Sitting on a bus for long periods of time drives me just a bit crazy. But the stops we made were all very interesting, and overall, I enjoyed this trip. Iss offers its students various ...