18.1.16
„A typical Norwegian family daytrip“
organized by the Norwegian “Friluftsliv” students
Lessons of the day
The most injuries happen during warm-up games. If there’s a campfire at lunchtime, bring more than a block of cheese. Why wasn’t I raised in Norway?
Main part
Monday mornings – always a bit of a challenge to get motivated for the day. But as soon as we met the highly motivated Norwegian guys, we also wanted to get up to Jegersberg for some outdoor skiing fun.
After arriving at the main area, which is a big flat field with some rocks and trees surrounded by a 500m cross-country lap, we gathered together for some warm-up games. We played three catching games, the first without skis, the second and third with skis on our feet.
This was the moment I learned my first lesson. “Don’t get too excited about warm-up games or otherwise you’re going to hurt yourself”. Unexperienced me of course didn’t know that and wanted to dive between some legs as only Michael Phelps could do. My finger decided to get stuck in the ground and bend over. Fair enough, some taping was done and I could move on.
What did we learn from these? Well, at first it’s unbelievable that no ski was harmed during that. Also the Norwegian guys found some good games to get us motivated to participate with enthusiasm. Further on, the more unexperienced students could get used to move on skis without poles and had to do some multitasking to get away from the hunters. Some Norwegians participated in the game, others were standing outside to observe our level of technique in an organized play.
Three fun games to start the day, not bad Norwegians. But what’ next? We split up into two groups and then had two stages of fun to go to. My group was doing the relay race with some improvised orange-biathlon first. Ski poles marked the changing are and the shooting range consisted of oranges as ammunition and holes in the snow as targets. What did we learn here? The German-Norwegian connection seems to work out quite well, winning two times in a row. And it was pretty amazing to see how fast everyone evolved some serious skiing skills so they could complete the challenging track without poles.
Afterwards even more fun was on the schedule. In a marked area, we could move free to try some jumping and downhill. Our Norwegian teachers served as mentors whenever we had some troubles or questions regarding how to get down the hill with style. After a bunch of massive jumps (some say a new world record was set) we were exhausted and looking for food.
Finally we could use the wood we carried up the hill. With our own equipment we now had to start a fire. No problem when having the fire expert Chris around. Now let’s have some barbeque! But wait… second big lesson of the day: You can’t grill a block of cheese, but it does taste pretty good!
After lunch, we made a quick lap of cross-country skiing and then went back home. A successful day to start the week off.
Reviewing the whole day, it was a pretty good organized daytrip that challenged our motor skills on skis, let it be racing downhill or moving without poles, packed in fun and therefore motivating activities. And if that’s a typical Norwegian Sunday they got me pretty jealous, because in Germany a 2-hour-hike followed by a lot of food is more common, IF you make it out of your house.