The Blue Lagoon

Due to the Winter Olympics coming to Lillihammer, they obviously needed to build ski jumps. This is our group just outside the arena where the opening ceremonies were heald, as well as the bottom of the ski jumps. We were lucky enough to drive up there on a tour of the city when they were having jumping practice and saw some of the World Cup calibur jumpers practicing. It is amazing how far they can fly. The top of the ski jump also has a great view of the town.

Skidag was a day for all college students who wanted to go, to head out to Haefjell ski resort and hang out for the day. It was put on by the college ski club. The picture here is the ski slope where we had sled races, and a couple other random relay races throughout the day. They also set up a large stereo system off to the right at the bottom and had a DJ on it all day. The entire left side of the hill was packed with people hanging out for the whole afternoon. It was a lot of fun and a great way for us to meet a lot of new people.

On Saturday the 6th most of our group traveled north to Kvitfjell Ski Resort to watch the World Cup downhill races. It was a blast and if you ever have the chance to take in a ski competition like this, I would highly recommend it! This is a view up at what we could see of the course. We were standing down to the right of the finish line (the Audi Quatro sign is the finish line), but later went over to where the skiers were hanging out after their runs. Some of the group got autographs from Bode Miller (was leading the World Cup, but had a rough weekend coming in the high teens in downhill and 23rd or so in Super-G) and Darrin Rahlves (took 4th in downhill and 1st in Super-G) who are the top US skiers. We all decked ourselves out with US paraphanalia including flags, face paint, and american flag boxers on the head worn by me!

We took a field trip for our Norwegian class out to a common cross country skiing spot. We had a great time skiing around and we also stopped for lunch by the fire. Birger, our norwegian professor (the coolest professor ever) provided a lunch of sausages on lefsa (they commonly use lefsa instead of buns for hot dogs and the likes) and also made a nice little jump for us to go off of on our skiis....we think he made it just to get a good laugh watching us wipe out at the bottom. Good thing we had three feet or so of snow for a landing. We had a great time sitting around the fire and attempting to look like we knew how to cross country ski. The large hill at the end was a blast flying down, and I'm proud to say that I was the only one other than Birger to not fall!

Grrrrrrr.......what else are you supposed to do when you see great picture opportunities?!?! We ended up having a ton of fun at this place. It was actually interesting seeing how the forestry industry has changed throughout the years in Norway. They had a lot of stuffed animals around, which made for some high quality fun, and they also had a pretty big area of aquariums with native fish species in them. We had lunch by a fire, played on a teetor totter, and learned a lot in the mean time. I may be 21, but I'm definitely still a kid at heart!!

From March 25th-30th we traveled to Oslo, the capital of Norway, and then to Copenhagen, Denmark. The trip was an excellent time. It felt great to get away from Lillehammer for a little while after being in the same spot for a mont and a half. Oslo is a fun city full of museums, tons of stores, sculpture parks, and also holds the Congress building (The Storting) and the Royal Palace. We enjoyed visiting a bunch of museums from folk arts to viking ships. Oslo reminded me of Duluth in that it had a nice boardwalkesque walk along the harbor with large and small boats coming in and out of the large fjord every minute. The weather over the week was off and on, but overall, it was pretty nice. It did end up raining on us in Copenhagen on Monday, but it was actually kind of nice being that it gave the old military base we were walking around a nice gloomy atmosphere. I had a good time just walking around to see what the cities had to offer. Make sure you check all the new pictures out on the other site to catch of glimpse of the trip. This picture is in the middle area of a palace in Copenhagen looking back at a huge Lutheran Church. Too bad the fountain in the middle wasn't working this time of year.