Living in our new home has led to much less blogging. I am not sure why, I guess just getting busy in the fun of putting up pictures and organizing Maarit's special toy room. It has been fun! We are very much enjoying having a bit of space and privacy. We are much closer to town and amenities which is very nice. Although we miss the fjord view from our old apartment---we have not yet missed getting washed by the waves on our way to school. And, actually, we are still quite close to the fjord if we ever get to missing it too much. That's one thing about Norway, you are never too far from water.
I wanted to share some pictures from my trip to Gullingen with our 4th grade class. Each grade from 4-8 at our school participates in a leirskole (outdoor education) at different outdoor education camps around Norway. I was able to travel with the 4th grade class this year, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn about Norway, Norwegian culture and participate in 'the outdoor life' as is popular to say here.
Here is a view from the camp:
Our first hike as the sun was setting (at 4pm).
We were lucky to have sparkly sunshine and crispy fall air all week. That evening we went on a night hike (which was difficult due to the lack of moonlight). We learned how early people in Norway came to believe in trolls and nisse as the shadows and rocks flitted and shifted in the firelight. Sitting in the dark, deep forest that night it was easy to believe....
Here is Gullingen mountain:
The legend is that a shepherd boy was tending his lambs when he lost a few. He went to search for them on the top of the nearest mountain and there he found a pond of water. He stopped to get a drink, but the water had been enchanted by the nisse and turned everything it touched into gold. His simple wooden cup was turned to gold before his eyes. He became greedy and decided to dip more of his meager belongings into the water. He imagined he would be rich and would never need to tend to sheep again. However, he forgot the rules of the magic of nisse people. Metal destroys their magic, and when he dipped his knife into the magic water everything gold vanished. He went back to his village and told everyone that he had found a magic pool on the top of the mountain. No one believed him because he had nothing golden to show them from the 'golden mountain'. However, the name Gullingen stuck and the mountain has been known as the golden mountain ever since.
On our second day we learned to catch fish in a traditional Norwegian manner. The nets are set in the evening and hauled in early the next day. It was not a practice I was entirely comfortable with, but here it is legal and quite traditional. We were taught how to break the fishes necks upon hauling them in (I was very much unable to participate in that part of the learning. I attempted and just could not bring myself to do it.) And then we learned all about the different lake trout, their habitat, feeding and anatomy. It was the best biology lesson I have ever had.
These are pictures of the students hauling nets with their instructors.
Next we learned how to make a traditional Norwegian scout fire 4-4-2-2.
Then we cleaned our fish. (I learned that once they were 'died out', as Maarit says, I was ok with cleaning them- I just couldn't do the killing part.
Here is me, wearing 2 hats and freezing because my hands have been in the cold, cold, cold mountain water all morning. But I am proudly showing the trout I gutted, identified as a male and cleaned myself.
Then I practiced some "New Scandinavian Cooking".... I salted, peppered and packed (with fresh juniper twigs) my little trout and wrapped him up in tin foil. We roasted the fish on the coals from our fire and had the greatest little lunch imaginable. I can't wait to go fishing this summer now....
Views of local hyttes (cabins) from our hike in the mountains.
At the top of a little mountain (Tausenibba) we hiked with the students.
It was a pretty quick little hike, but we enjoyed the view. I especially enjoyed that we made pinnabrød (stickbread---literally bread dough wrapped around a stick and roasted over the fire...awesome!) and we made our own drawing charcoal in the fire and drew pictures from the mountain top.
And a view of the camp lake.
The mountains in Norway are quite magical.
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