On Monday the 16th our class of international students were guided by the Norwegian outdoor education/friluftsliv students on a hike to Den Omvendte Båt.

The hike itself was rather mild in difficulty with gradual elevation and only a couple of spots that were slightly steeper. However the ice made the path very slippery at times with a couple students falling over, without injury though. The frozen path is something that doesn’t occur in Australia so naturally I was very amused by it, which lead to me often getting distracted touching the ice or trying to smash it with my boots. I think this in turn was some entertainment for the others as I guess I looked like a child. A happy child though! As we neared the peak we were presented with some beautiful views of Kristiansand and Jegersberg which was complimented with the snow. The peak provided more scenery including a large body of rock that resembled an “inverted boat”.

At the peak there was two fires made, one made by the Norwegian students and one by the international students. This formed two subgroups which was not ideal as the goal of this trip was to get to know the Norwegian students. After about a hour and some meals by the fire there was more communication happening between the international and Norwegian students. This soon lead to a snowball fight, another unfamiliarity to me which I really enjoyed.

After the snowball fights the Norwegian students showed us some icebreaker games for a bit of fun and to get to know each other. Games included were ones were several groups had to make shapes or letters said by one person (for example making a human pyramid) and hide and seek. I found these games were quite successful to get to know and talk with some Norwegian students, although about half of them still are strangers. I have made friends with a few of the guys including Mattias, Trygve and Martin. These guys also took us camping on the weekend in Jegersberg and their efforts are appreciated by all the international students as we have already learnt a lot about the Norwegian culture from them as well as camp craft.

Things learnt from this day include how to make snowballs, ice can be deadly slippery and learning things about Norwegian people and culture. For example I talked to Mattias and Trygve about hunting and found out about how common it is to hunt in Norway, especially compared to Australia.
In reference to Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 model of group stages I think that as a group the international students are in the later stages of the forming stage whilst as a group of international and Norwegian students we are in the early stages of the forming stage.