16.01.17
Day trip 1 – Typical family tour in local area
On our second Monday at UiA the Norwegian Outdoor Education students organised our first common day trip to “Jegersberg” just outside of Kristiansand.
On the way up in most instances the Internationals and the Norwegians started interacting mainly through conversations and first discussions and storytelling about their home countries, their experiences in Friluftsliv etc. The atmosphere was characterised by excitement and curiosity although some students rather stayed in their own groups. From time to time, when the whole group spread over a longer distance, the first ones to walk waited for the others which I found indulgently and respectful. It was a first sign of care of the Norwegians about the Internationals who may be not as experienced in hiking as they are. They asked if everyone was alright and then kept on walking.
As we arrived at our destination everyone had a few moments to rest, sort him- or herself and to enjoy the beautiful view over Kristiansand, the sea and the landscape around. The Norwegians started to set up a fire at the same time and then gave us some of their wood which they either brought from home or collected in the surrounding area. Another sign of interacting and caring about us. Some of them watched us trying to light the fire by ourselves and if necessary gave us helpful tips. Not every Norwegian was as helpful and integrating. Few were just sitting by themselves eating their homemade food. I found it a little unlucky that our fireplaces were a couple of meters far from each other as this meant two big groups being just by themselves and not really interacting with each other. But some of the Norwegians also shared some of their food with us as they were better prepared than us (another example of our comparatively little experience in going hiking). After most part had finished eating, the Norwegians initiated games to play with the whole group. So we all were forced to interact with each other which worked out well and you could see anybody talking to anyone in between. It went like this for quite a long time until it ended up in a big snowball fight with everybody fighting everybody. Unfortunately some of the Norwegians – the ones that have been on their own for most of the time – left after a certain time right in the middle of a game which really didn’t leave a good impression on most of the others.
On our way back one could recognize a much easier atmosphere inside the whole group with everybody being tired but noticeable happy about the day trip.
In the end one could say that the general goals of this trip, which were
- most important: get to know the Norwegians
- improve fire building and organisational skills
- get to know different kind of group dynamic games and activities
- improve group cohesion in our group
- group dynamics
- physical activity
- be outside and enjoy nature
- have fun,
have been achieved.
