During World War One, in the 1940’s, Norway was invaded and controlled by Germany. All throughout the coast of Norway you can find bunkers that were used by the Germans during this period. The main head quarters are found on the island my classmates and I stayed on through the week of May 28^th through June 1^st. We got to take a tour of the head quarters and see some of the bunkers that were around the island. Half of the group even got to stay in the building that used to be their hospital. The flora and fauna was thriving during this time. Flowers of all kinds were blossomed all around the thick green forest. There were insects of all kinds, everyone besides myself found at least one tick on them. There were spiders, daddy long legs, mosquitoes, and ants that are protected by a Norwegian law. During one of my groups day trips we even saw a dear on a nearby island.

First, my class and the Norwegian outdoor class took a boat taxi to get to the island of Randoya. We were split into four random groups beforehand, two groups in each building for sleeping. After we got our things settled in our assigned buildings my group meet at the dock to learn how to drive motor boats. Some things I learned about motor boats was that the shape of the boat effects the speed of the boat. The engine also effects the type care, such as the type of gas and if the oil is to be mixed into the gas or in a separate compartment. Driving the little motor boats took some getting used too. It was easy to go forward and backwards but turning left and right was opposite than what my brain wanted to do. Pulling up to a boat or a dock was also a challenging task on a motor boat. During this lesion we had to wear all our water proof clothing because of the rain storm that was going on. When returning soaking wet from head to toe, the sun came back out, I made some dinner, played some games with my fellow cabin mates and then hit the sheets for a night’s sleep.

On the second day, my group started out the day with a lesion on rowing. Before this lesion I had no experience on rowing, at the end I knew how difficult it is. To be a good rower you must have a good rhythm with your rowing partner.  While sitting backwards from the way the boat is going you must try to keep the boat going in a straight line, which is hard because we all have a more dominate stronger arm that pushes you one way. After rowing for two hours we took a lunch break and went onto our next activity for the day, Kayaking. During this first session of kayaking we learned the basic skills and knowledge of being in a kayak by some of our classmates. Having never been in a kayak before I learned a lot about where to put your feet, multiple way to turn, how to hold your paddle, and what to do when your kayak is to flip over. Everyone dried off ate their dinners and then some of us went to the south side of the island to catch some fish for our dinner the next night.

The next morning my group went back on the water with the kayaks. Since we all knew the basic skills it was time for an adventure. We stated off going north through some islands to keep away from the sea winds then the people who felt comfortable going on the open waters took off towards a beautiful canal. The water in this canal was so still you could see everything at the bottom. As we went through it, it got narrower and narrower until we popped out on the other side into the sea. We then made our way back to the others who sat sunbathing on a beach, then paddled back to the main island for lunch. After we ate, it was time for shallow water biology. Meeting our instructor at the beach he had water binoculars, buckets, and nets waiting for us. After collecting items around the beach for about an hour we meet back up to talk about everything we found. I saw a couple star fish, a couple different types of shells, ate some muscles, learned about hermit crabs and learned how to tell if a crab is a boy or girl. This was a very interesting long day. After eating dinner, I almost immediately went to bed knowing the next day would be longer.

First thing in the morning my group was off, we meet with the same instructor as the night before for deep sea biology. This was one if my favorite lessons. We geared up in wet suits, flippers, googles and snorkel’s. Jumping into the sea we were able to see all types of life under water. There were little and big fish swimming around the brown, green, and pink sea weed. While dodging the jellyfish we all collected things from the bottom of the sea. After we meet back up with the group, we talked about all the different kinds of life we found and removed our wet suits that were suctioned to our bodies. We then quickly ate lunch and packed a day sack to prepare for our next adventure.

This night was the night we were waiting for all week. Each of the other groups had already been on this adventure so we got their feedback and prepared better than the rest. Getting into the row boats we rowed out to the sea, placing fishing nets into a deep area. The rest of the night was based off the scenario that a bad storm was coming in, making it too dangerous to carry on rowing. Trying to make the night as real as possible we were only allowed to bring things we would on a day trip. We stopped at the tip of an island near our fishing nets to stay safe from the storm. With the two-fishing poles we brought we caught five fish to make for dinner. Filleting them the best of our abilities we cooked them up with some veggies the instructors gave us. Then as a group we went for a walk around the island before bed. Some people slept near the water, four people, including myself slept near the fire. I played with the fire for hours on end because I was not able to sleep from the sun light lingering for so long. It finally got dark around 3 a.m., I got one hour of sleep before the sun started to rise again. I sat around the fire again waiting for the others to wake. The wind was strong enough to keep the mosquitoes away but not too strong to make us freeze all night. Around 5 a.m. the wind died, and little nits swarmed everyone. Not being able to stand the bugs any longer we set off in the row boats once again. On the way back to the main island we stopped to grab our fishing nets. Only being lucky enough to catch two fish, it didn’t take us long to clean out the nets. That morning we were all very tired from lack of sleep, but we had one more lesion before we headed home.

As all the other groups were sleeping, my group learned how to fillet a fish properly. Starting out by gutting the fish, we then cut the meat off, feeling the bones rub against the knife at every cut. We didn’t have many fish to practice on but we all took turns, everyone ended up doing an excellent job of getting all the meat off in one piece. We were then provided some vegetable’s and potatoes to make a lunch with our fish. Being the last of the group to cook our meal, we were not left with much to work with, but we ate what we had. We cleaned up the kitchen, packed our bags and meet everyone to catch the fairy back to the main land.

This trip was full of information and fun. Even on the one day it was raining my group was having a blast. I wouldn’t want any changes to the group I was in. Everyone was patient with the people who didn’t have previous experience on an activity and helped them when in need. If I was able to do this trip again I think the only thing I would change was the food I brought. My class was not informed that we would have a kitchen to use for all our meals. I brought food that I would on a typical trip, the other class made things like pizza and pancakes, seeing their food made me more hungry than usual.