YEPPER - March 2012 - Rotary District 9650 Youth Exchange

Hallo!
Mental note, start YEPPER earlier next month. I’m running late this month but that is mainly because
March has been hectic! It started with a Winter Holiday where I went to Sweden with the family for a
skiing trip in Arvidsjaur. After a while of coaching from Lars I was finally able to manage some of the hills
and really began to have fun. Following the trip to Sweden I flew to Oslo for Holmenkollen, a very big ski
championships that include cross country and ski hop events. Together with all the other exchange
students we sat at the finish line of the cross country event where luck would have it the winner and
national sporting hero of Norway: Marit Bjørgen walked past and we were able to talk to her and get
some photos. During our time in Oslo we visited the Nobel Peace Prize building, Oslo’s Opera House, a
museum about Norway and its involvement in the War, the Viking Ship Museum and The Maritime
Museum which unfortunately we didn’t get to spend very much time at but still all were really
interesting.
On the 31 st I travelled back to Sweden for another Ski trip this time for Påsker (Easter). Skiing at Galtis
was really good and for the last couple of days I was able to Ski leker (Ski Play) which is skiing off the
main hill through the trees and other obstacles which from experience, really hurt to run into. While we
were in Sweden we went and visited some family friends for coffee and cake, turned out they owned 4
snowmobiles so of course we had to try! In Norway it is illegal to drive snowmobiles around outside of
dedicated snowmobile tracks, however in Sweden your able to drive wherever you want even on the
roads. We drove to a large clear area which was relatively flat where we could play. 100km/h on a
snowmobile is one of the craziest and coldest things I have ever experienced!
After coming home from Sweden we left again this time further up north of Norway to Forfjord which is
close to Lars’ home town of Lødingen. We borrowed a house from a family friend however we spent
most of our time at Lars’ sisters house where I got to meet some of the extended family, including Truls’
cousin and her new daughter whose christening we were going to the following day. The christening
was nice, the church was very much the same as back home and I think the process is the same. After
the ceremony we went for dinner with the relatives and then coffee and cake with the friends of the
family.
Thinking about writing this report I thought I hadn’t done very much during March but it turns out after
going over everything it was actually a VERY busy month for me. Time, as I think every YEPPER ever
written states, is flying by!
That’s it from me for this month.
Vi Snakkes J�