Monday the 18th of January.

We brought our cross-country skis with us along with our bag filled with lunch, warm drink and extra warm clothes. It was very cold outside. The Norwegians had planned the first trip and it was supposed to be all about a typical Norwegian family outing. Before we started everyone waxed his or her skis and took one piece of wood to make a fire later on. We walked up to Jegers, which is right next to the university and has a nice clearing ready for plenty of activities.

The Norwegians had planned in the beginning a few typical games in the clearing to play. We started with a simple game of chasing each other around. After a few minutes we put our skis on and then things started getting interested. The game was very good for us because it made us practice our coordination and balance with the skis on since it many of us didn’t have much experience with cross country skis. And the playing made us practice these skills in a fun way.

After playing for a while we were split into two groups. My group started with going up a small hill and sliding on our skis down a small jump. It was a little scary but after just going for it I found it to be fun. Then they made a little course with the ski poles that we tried to practice our turns on our way down, while the more experienced skiers went to find a higher jump. I thought this exercise was a lot of fun and it was good to get a little input from the more experienced Norwegians about how to improve my ski technique. Then the groups switched. My group went to the clearing and there the Norwegians in charge split us into four groups of four. We had a mini ski race with throwing oranges into a hole to imitate a ski biathlon. Complete with an extra circle around a snowman as a punishment for those who missed in the orange tossing. After going two rounds we had a lunch break. Me made fires and while we ate we spoke to and got to know the other Norwegians.

After lunch we had a choice to go on a ski tour around Jegers. I went with the Norwegian girls on a long tour and I actually managed to keep up with them!. This day was a lot of fun even though it was really freezing outside. We got a general idea about a typical Norwegian family sunday. A ski tour with playing and long lunches by the fire.

Monday the 25th of January

Me met again by Spicheren for the second Monday trip and again everyone took some pieces of wood for the fire later and those who needed to waxed their skis. We walked again to Jegers and there by the clearing we were divided into four groups.

My group started participating on a snowman building competition. Our group was split into two and my group was with Caitlin and Paige. We decided to build a snowwoman. But then when we were almost done we found out we had plenty of time so we made a decision to change the snow woman into a snowwoman-centaur -warrior. We worked very well together to build a very nice sculpture. Then when the time was up we went on to the next challenge. Still in the same two groups we had to lead each other blinding into the forest to retrieve a few objects that were laying around.  One person in them team started being blindfolded and trying to hurry getting some object listening to the directions of the other team members and trying not to hit a tree or fall into a ditch. We worked very well together and had a better time finding the objects and getting them back blind. We had a lot of fun completing this challenge because we worked really fast and showed a lot of trust to each other.  After this challenge it was lunchtime.

We used the wood to make fire and had a long and nice lunch by the fire, drinking something warm and getting warmed up.

After lunch we went to the next challenge which was to build a shelter in the woods using only a few spots of robe and a tarp. We had a bit harder time in the challenge, a little but of misunderstanding and confusion which resulted in our shelter being not as good as the other team. They had two Norwegians and their shelter was really good and proper. So we lost this round but then there was the last challenge which was a ski race with a twist. First we had to go a round with only one ski and the other two with their leg tied together. I started going on one ski against a Norwegian who was probably a professional skier because he was so good. We lost the first round by a long shot. I had fun trying to try to run on one ski since I tried to imagine it was like snowboarding. But then we switched and I had one leg tied to Paige and that was really difficult. And the ties really hurt our legs. But we had to work really well together and communicate to get through the circle.

Then afterwards they announced the winners from the snow structure competition. There were a lot of good structures, the eiffel tower, a lion, a woman sunbathing, a guy an a wheel chair and a dog sledge. But the winner was our snowwoman centaur warrior!!

Monday the 1st of February

We started as usual in Spicheren and it was pouring rain. I was not very excited for he day because we had to have a full backpack with the sleeping bag and mattress and food and i was concerned it was all going to get wet. There we were split into two groups. My group started walking behind Hokus Pokus to Jegersberg and on the way we would stop to perform some challenges. Two people from the group were given the map and had to lead the way to a certain point. During the challenges we were split into smaller groups of three people and at the first challenge was a running challenge. It might not have been such a good idea to have the running challenge because it was rainy and with the snow it made for very icy conditions and when I was running for the last time I slipped and ripped my rain trousers on the knee. Our next challenge was a challenge I liked very much I thought it was fun and creative. They had with them some building blocks and one went to the top of a hill and made some kind of structure with them. Then one in the group had to go and check how the structure was go down to the rest of the group and we had the same blocks and we had to rebuild the exact same structure as the girl had and my team won that competition! Then from there I and one other was in charge of leading us out of the forest and onto the “main road” and we had no problems navigating through the smaller trails to lead us to the bigger road where there were already some tarps set up so we could get out of the rain. There we had a challenge to build a fire to burn through a string and my team lost spectacularly. We had very bad knifes so we couldn’t cut the logs into smaller ones and every stick around us was soaking wet.  While we were trying our best to get the fire started the other group who had been walking in the opposite way of us came to the campsite and immediately tried to give us advise on how to start the fire. Saying we needed dry wood and to cut the bigger logs into smaller logs and we needed kindling all, which we knew and had tried. The advice wasn’t welcome in our state with everyone soaking wet and we didn’t have any dry wood or the right equipment and just lost the competition. That was probably the first time I felt really annoyed at the others in the class but I told myself they didn’t know it was a competition and that we had already broken two knifes trying to cut the bigger logs into smaller ones. And when we explained all that to them they backed off. Then I experienced how the weather really influences your mood especially when there is snow, raining and freezing cold, your clothes are wet through and you have very little patience for other people or things to go wrong. After lunch break we started walking again and our first challenge was to try to build the highest tower with fallen branches. We didn’t win but our team worked very well together. Our next challenge was to carry a person with an injured leg up a hill in the forest and back in a competition with the others. My group did alright and we won one round. At that point we were a little warmer but even more soaked.

   

First international organised Monday field trip 15th of February

I and the kids from Kongsgård Allé, Martin, Marek, Joey, Michael, Jill, Chris and Dominic were organizing this Monday field trip. Trying to find something that we all agreed on what to do was very challenging. Or a complete nightmare, we all come from different backgrounds and have different ideas on what to do. What we thought would take only half an hour to figure out ended up taking the whole evening. In the beginning it was hard to decide on a what to do. We had many ideas but no one wanted to take a stand and make a decision even thought we had a lot of great ideas. We kept discussing and coming up with ways to make it bigger and better. We didn’t want to do something that had already been done and that the others would find boring. Throughout the evening there was always the same people who were coming up with ideas and there were some who had no input in what we were discussing and then some who could find a flaw in every idea or constantly disagreed. We finally had an idea that everyone was Ok with which was to start the day with my warm-up Viking games and then go on to a race between two teams. During the race they had to complete some tasks on the way and could collect points. The team at the end who has the most points would win. Just this was a headache, when we finally had the idea we had a hard time agreeing on how to give points. How many points and for what, but if it is a race how can you be faster and still loose with lesser points, what if two teams end up at the same task? After a lot of discussion we finally agreed (maybe because we were tired and didn’t want to discuss any more) to take time on the activities and give ten points to the team that is faster. The tam who completed everything the fastest got ten extra points.

 

When we got to Spicheren on Monday everyone was ready with their activity. We split two bags of wood with everyone to carry and when we got to the clearing I with help from Marek showed and got the group to play the Viking games. After a few minutes Marek took charge and split the group into two teams explained what we had planned today and started the first challenge. He then started the first challenge, which was a competition to through wood across the line of the other team. The winning team went on to the next station which was my and Michaels. The losing team started with a task that Dom was in charge of which was to carry a person down a small path that lead them in a circle. While Marek and Joey were explaining the activities

Michael and I grabbed the wood logs from everybody and with the other people walked ahead to set up our stations. Michael and me were together with on a station where the teams had to get over a crocodile lake. On the road we put fallen branches on the ground to mark off where the lake was and then explained to the teams that their mission was to get everyone over the lake without touching the ground. They had as many wooden logs as the team members were and had to use the logs to step on. This required group communication, teamwork and trust. The first group worked very well together and got the job done fast. The other group not so much. They had problems communicating and they didn’t seem very motivated to do the task or work together. Chris was a little further in one direction from us and Jill was in the other direction with Martin at the end of the circle. Chris was in charge of a making a spider net in woods and the teams had to get through a certain path without touching the net. Martin was in charge of a little climbing station and Jill had a tarp that the team had to flip over without touching the ground. After the run we made fire with the logs and then stayed in the clearing to have a long lunch. We were very lucky with the weather and the sun was shining on us the whole time so we sat for a long time in the sun just talking and eating. Overall it was a very successful day and I hoped everyone liked it and learned maybe something new or got to know each other a little better.

   

 

Monday trip  29^th of February 

The day started as usual, meet at spicheren and divide the wood between us to carry. Then we had a little quiz, where we were divided into two groups and if we had the answer we had to walk the slack line to the middle and then we could answer. That was a lot of fun even though the questions were very random and you had to guess all the answers. After the quiz we started walking to Jegers but to a different part of the forest which was nice since we had walked to the other place so many times so its nice to do something different. When we reached the lake we had a challenge, the carrot game. I don’t really like this game but all my little scouts love it, maybe because I am usually the one who is pulling the kids apart and then dealing with those who get hurt during the game. This time I got to participate in the game and it turned out to be all right even though we did the game on the sandy beach and got sand everywhere. We kept walking a little more until we had another game which was like a pulling game. We had to try to pull the people from the other team over to our side. After this game we had a running competition which was a lot of fun. We kept walking in the forest until we got to the upside boat. There we lit a fire and had lunch, after the lunch we had the final chocolate challenge where we had to work as a team to get to the bag stuck high in the tree. Unfortunately we lost that challenge and therefore we didn’t get the chocolate even though we won in the overall competitions. After that we walked back home which was a nice walk since the view was very nice. The day was a lot of fun, we had very nice weather and even though we were very few we still had a lot of fun together.

Last Monday

 It was time for the last Monday and as all the other times we met at Spicheren. But we were too few to go with the program that the group had decided. But it was such a good day, the weather was nice with clear and sunny sky and little to no wind that we decided to go to Jegersberg anyway. We had a very nice relaxed day, just friends with fire, long lunch, talk and ball games. Even though we couldn’t do the program it was still a very fun Monday trip.