18-01-2016

This day trip is going to be different from others I already had. Today our outdoors education group is attending in Monday trip with Norwegians, which is organized by Norwegian students and lead by them too. The day was sunny and almost without any clouds, and the good thing is that there was a lot of new, not wet and soft snow, which is nice for skiing . So, like always we met at the Spicheren somewhere around at 9 o’clock, where Norwegian students was waiting for us. After we all introduced ourselves to each other, leading groups “Veileder” explained to us (outdoor education group) the plan what we are going to do, and we moved towards to Jegersberg. The aims of this trip was: to show us what means “friluftsliv”, how ordinary Norwegian people spend their free weekends with their families or friends, improve skiing skills, to know each other better. For you who don’t know what “friluftsliv” means- it is like the free life in the nature without any restriction, “It is a term in Norway that is used often to describe a way of life that is spent exploring and appreciating nature,”.

When we arrived to the main place in beautiful Jegersberg, where we have to stay for today’s by Advertise” href=”#17476108″> activities, some games and lunch, I noticed Norwegian kids, I think they was from kindergarten, who were sliding down on the snow from the hill. It was strange for me how supervisor let for the kids choose the way they want to slide down from the hill by themselves, and no reacting after really hard crashes, because in Lithuania there is totally different education system in kindergartens. Firstly- all the time supervisors can’t (maybe don’t want for too big responsibility) go further with kids than kindergartens territory, secondly they are really carefully and most of the times don’t let to kids do things with possibly danger, because If something happens to kid, parents got right to appeal against them. And that’s, I think, really not good for kids, because later they can’t measure the danger and possibly endings in different activities and situations.

I really enjoyed with the planning and organizing of this trip, because it was concentrated to reach the aims that I mentioned before. When we arrived at the main spot of this trip, we started to play some Norwegian catching, by Advertise” href=”#94521048″> racing games with skis on our feet. For example, one of the caching games was: few person catching other group of people, if chaser touch the fugitive, he needs to freeze and can’t move anymore until another “running” person squeezes through the caught player crotch, than he is free again. This game and few more was like warm up, but at the same time It helped me with my skiing abilities and let me adopt, prepare for another by Advertise” href=”#69760191″> activities.

After warm up and Norwegian games, we had some group dynamics activities. Our outdoor education group and Norwegians combined (that was the way to know each other better) and separated into 6 groups. First 3 overall Norwegian- International groups was racing in the relay, other 3 was landing with skis down from the hills with ramps. Both activities let me communicate and learn something new in skiing, because I saw what techniques was using an experienced with skis members, and I try to copy, use the same movements. In relay we got to ski the way to the 3 holes in the snow, then we need to shoot 3 oranges in it. Any missed shot is one plus lap around snowman, If you have not missed you can straight go to start/ finish line where in the way was waiting some turns and obstacles. After one team member done the whole lap, next one needs to go and repeat all the “thing” until the last teammate reaches finish line. In this game I felt really nice, because I noticed my improvement in balancing, by Advertise” href=”#64908526″> speed and movements. After racing tasks, we got to change with other 3 groups and now we was skiing down the hill with ramp. Better skiers chosen much bigger hill with much bigger ramp, I stayed on the smaller hill . There I was practicing my downhill abilities and balancing too with some other guys, and I was really happy about the small ramp in the end of the hill which provide me some new feelings related with skiing .

After we done all planed games and tasks, we got some lunch. Norwegian students provide some wood, so it was easy to set up the fire. I got with me some sausages to cook, it is not the best food again because it is not so nutritious, but around the fire, while I was cooking my sausages, there was more people than the people near the table, so I could all the time communicate and socialize with them.

When we done the lunch, Norwegian students offered us to end this Monday trip by skiing around some routes in Jegersberg. We could chose between 2 routs: smaller- 1-2 km. length skiing track or 4-5 km.  length skiing track. For my skiing skills many would recommended me to take smaller track, but I like challenges and I really wanted to see am I able to do some cross country skiing in Jegersberg in my freetime J. So I chosen bigger route, and I was really happy about that. In that route I face many uphills and downhills, literally it was the best practice for me: climbing up, landing down in ski tracks, skiing, sometimes trying to skate, but of course with the worst technique ever :D. The day, like I said before, was really very good, sun’s combination with the wonderful view of hills, lakes, rivers, trees with snow was very nice, and the feeling of landing down the uphills for 15 or maybe more seconds ,that I had never felt before in my home country, was for me more than awesome .

After this trip I felt many feelings: proud- because I done the bigger rout, I felt that it was the best day since when I came to Norway and love to skiing.