The Island trip was on Randøya with our entire program; meaning all 22 internationals and 22 Norwegians.  We all met up and took two motor boat rides to get everyone out to the island.  The island use to be a military base camp used during World War II.  The girls all stayed in what used to be the old hospital and the guys stayed in old rooms.  We had a mess hall where we ate our meals out and just hung out with each other.

Every day we had two different activities that taught us something about outdoor education.  This trip was similar to the Helleviga trip except this time we were the students instead of being the teachers.

The first day we had Kayaking with Len.  I had never Kayaked before which was a little scary at first but I felt pretty confident after being in the water for only a little bit.  The second time we went out for Kayaking we went on a little tour around the fjord/ sea area. It was quite scary being out in the sea with 3meter waves.  I couldn’t see the kayak next to me while we were in the water which made me concerned and I really didn’t want to capsize.  Len had our group turn around because not all of our competency levels were high enough for us to be safe in the sea.

Day two consisted of Biology education. Svine was the teacher.  We put on fisherman pants and went into the water and collected different types of plants.  Once we were done collecting things, Svine told us what we caught and educate us about the plant a little more.  The next day we put on scuba suits and collected plants under water and did the same things as the previous day.

Day three it was my groups turn to go to the island and spend the night on it, with no sleeping bags.  Luckily for me Steven had an emergency shelter that we slept in.  It was still a cold night but a little warmer than having no shelter at all.  Morning came and we picked up our fish nets and rowed back home.  We were taught how to get the fish out of our fish nets and clean them.  After we cleaned the nets we gutted and cooked the fish.

The last day we learned how to work a motor boat.  I was the captain in the group, Elise was the map reader, and Steven directed the boat as well as the speed.  It was a fun experience learning how the boat worked and just relaxing and going out for a ride.

Overall the week was good. We were exposed to a lot of new ideas and experiences that week. I caught my first fish that week and killed and gutted it myself so I was pretty proud of that.  I got really good at making fish soup to say the least.  By the end of the week we were all tired of fish!  I loved having the Norwegians around, I wish we would have done stuff with them sooner in the year.