The last week and up untill now.

A lot has happened since I came here two weeks ago. Mostly it's just been fun and getting to know each other, plus a lot of information about this year. Thursday last week, three of my friends (Vikki from Scotland, Kari from Maryland and Mathilde from Germany) and I went to Kristiansand together. Kristiansand is a really beautiful city... Or quaint as you could call it, and we had lots of fun. Took some pictures too.

The following Saturday the whole school went to an old fort from WWII out on an island and had lunch. To my luck I had brought a flashlight, so Vikki, Kari and me were able to explore some of the catacombs underneath the fort. Man were they deep. And pitch black.

Last Monday my class and I had our first trip together. We drove for about an hour to a place I can't remember the name of and went rafting! Man was that cool. At first I was a bit concerned. And I wasn't alone. One of the girls jumped out of the raft before we even started. I can't say I blame her, but then again I'm really happy I didn't jump out too. We had three guides - one in each raft and the last one in a safety kayak - and they were all super cool. One from Australia, one from England and one from Canada. And it was all super fun. They made us "surf" the waves that the river made, meaning that the raft was sucked under water and then spat right out again a few times. And this we did four times. The first time we went in the first raft almost tipped over and two people fell of. None of us fell in, even though the raft almost tipped on us too. That was the most frightening part. After that it was mostly smooth sailing. Well, not smooth, it was damned rough, with clean drops of over one and a half meters, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the surfing.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both spent practicing canoe-techniques, before we went on an over-night trip to the area around the WWII fort.

So it's Thursday morning. We've had a quick breakfast before we went down and set the canoes on the water. There's a small lake between the school and the ocean called Kværnhusvannet, which we have to cross. The water is calm and clear as always, waterlilies tugging and tying up our paddles. We pull the canoes out of the fresh water and carry them over the sliver of land separating us from the ocean. We're immediately hit by 8-10 m/s wind, rough waves and currents. Everyone looks nervously at each other hoping they're not the first to tip over to the foaming waves.

Incredibly enough, no one did. This was our first trip with canoes on the ocean, and despite the rough weather, it went absolutely fine. It was an exhausting but fun trip, and took about an hour. The skies were cloudless and the sun shone brilliantly, making the trip more or less idyllic. We pulled our canoes ashore and unloaded everything on the grass near the beach. After this Morten took us over to the other side and showed us a peculiar rock, and some fishing spots.

Around 5 PM there still wasn't any fish to talk about. Not even a nibble. Just some very nasty jellyfish and a bunch of seaweed. They were busy setting up tents and lighting the fires when I came back. For dinner we had hotdogs and burgers. After dinner we all went back to fishing and whatever it was the others did. Two other students, the teacher and me took the canoes out for a short paddle and found another fishing spot. The only problem I have with photographing is that you can't actually participate in whatever it is you're doing while also taking pictures of it. This was kinda annoying when the sun set, creating pretty colors in the sky, and I hooked the first fish of the day. All in all we got three mackerel and one pollack (which I caught). I also got a cod, but it was so small I just unhooked it and threw it back in.

After hours of sitting around the campfire playing a simple role-playing game called Mafia, talking and playing cards we're about to go to sleep when Morten comes back after checking on the canoes. "Alright, either someone's trying to be funny or we have just lost a 12.000 kroner canoe," he said. Everyone scrambled to their feet and begun flashing helplessly with their flashlights over the water. And quite right, we were exactly one canoe short. When we couldn't see it either he says: "well, then we have to paddle out and search for it." It was midnight and utterly dark. Without the flashlights we couldn't even see the tips of our noses. And we had to go out searching for a lost canoe? It seemed ludicrous, but miraculously we found it. Or rather, I found it :D So there. Ironically it was the canoe Morten and I had used when we went fishing earlier. Hehehe. Afterwards we went to sleep immeditely. After all we had to get home early so that we wouldn't miss cleaning the dorm rooms... Again.

The trip back home was so incredibly uneventful that I've almost forgotten about it already. There wasn't a single wave in sight, the sun shone brightly this day too, and the gentle breeze didn't really do anything at all. And that's pretty much all that's happened today.

Pictures - the few that I managed to take - will be up later.

And now that I'm all ajour, let me just complain about having lost my wallet: crap.