Monday, 16.01.17 trip 1 – omvendte båt (inverted boat)

This Monday we had our first official trip with de Norwegian students. They took us to a place called ovendte båt (inverted boat). I realized why this place is called like that the day after, because our Norwegian language teacher told us. Even the Norwegian buddy students, who took us up there on Sunday didn’t told us, why this place has this name. The rock on the top looks like an inverted boat.

The topic of this first trip was “typical family tour”. The Norwegians have this lifestyle called Friluftsliv, what means spend a lot of time outdoors and have a special connection to the nature. In Norway is it common to go out with the family especially on weekends. For example, for a hike or a walk and make a fire somewhere and grill some sausages or just have a picnic. It doesn’t matter what weather it is. The Norwegians always say, that there is no bad weather, just bad clothes.  In Switzerland, there are some family who go out on weekends too. When I was young, my parents took me and my siblings also out for a hike, a walk or in the forest. But maybe not that often. There are more and more family they don’t go outside at all. The most common excuse is, that they have no time. But in my view, that is not true. Everybody can take some time, to spend it outside. A problem is, that we don’t learn how to act in the nature anymore, because no one shows us. And then we just decide not to try it. This tradition in Norway, to go outside and enjoy the nature is what I really like about Norway. I hope I can practice that later, when I have a family.

So, we met at Spicheren in the morning and had a nice hike up to the top. It took us about an hour to get there. It was very icy and we had to be careful not to fall. We took another way than the day before but I realized that when we arrived on our aim. There are several different ways to get there. The first thing the Norwegian Students did, was drink some tea, coffee or hot chocolate. They just sat down on an isolated underlay and enjoyed the sun. Some Norwegians started to make a fire and some of our students decided to make another one, because we were a lot Students up there. Even it was not time for having lunch, we started to grill sausages and eat our sandwiches or whatever we had with us to eat. They offered us to try the brown chees and the kvikk lunsj. This is typical Norwegian and they told us, that it is common to take a kvikk lunsj and an orange on a hike.

We played some games, what reminded me of my childhood. We played different types of catch or hide and seek. It was good not to get cold. It’s a long time, I played such games last time. I hope I will get to know more games in this semester, to play with the children. The children today in Switzerland don’t know many games to play outside anymore, especially in the cities. I as well don’t know that many games.

There were some moments, where we get in to a conversation with some Norwegians but most of the time they were quite separated. As well as that, a lot of the Norwegian Students left earlier, when we stayed a little longer with some of them. There is a prejudice who says, that Norwegians are introverted and not that open minded. For that day, it was true for some of them. But I am also not that person, who starts a conversation easily, what makes it not better. I hope we get to know each other better the following trips we have on Mondays with them.