It's really starting to feel like the end. My suitcases are packed to the point of exploding, and I will be wearing my enormous down jacket and hiking boots on the plane for lack of any other way to bring them home. All the photos and notes are down from the walls in my and Charlotte's room so it looks sad and empty, and, worst of all, Lea and Kim ( Read more... )

The past few days have gone fast, because in addition to the normal school day I've been packing and cleaning and saying goodbye. My plane leaves from Tromso on Sunday, which means I have three more full days. How weird is that? I'm really looking forward to this summer and my job as a dogsled guide in Alaska (come visit me! I'll give you a tour!) ( Read more... )

Today's my first real day of being 19, but I certainly started the year off on a good foot yesterday! Charlotte and Kjerstin woke me up by singing Happy Birthday and giving me an adorable felt dog that Charlotte sewed, and that we immediately dubbed Bingo. Most of the day was spent in the dog yard because the school has just bought six new huskies ( Read more... )

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Thursday was ocean rafting day, which we'd all been looking forward to, and it dawned rainy and stormy. Luckily rain and storms are not nearly enough to keep us inside, but the clouds were low enough that we could only see about a third of the way up the steep cliffs and dramatic mountains shooting straight out of the water on all sides of us, ( Read more... )

I´m on the third day of my road trip in Lofoten, which is turning out to be even more breathtaking than I expected. We´ve been staying at a couple of other folkehøgskoler and have been able to see how they´re different from and similar to our own, like the one I´m in now, Lofoten Folkehøgskole (of course), which offers courses in black and white, ( Read more... )

When I woke up this morning the sun was shining gloriously and it was snowing, although I'm not sure where in the bright-blue sky the snow was coming from. In any case, it was not a day for sitting inside, so I borrowed Ida's bike and harnessed up Bingo and went dog-biking all over the coast of Malangen. Dog-biking may well be my new favorite mode ( Read more... )

There's a house by the fjord that's intrigued me from the first day I saw it, an old deserted house with walls that are about to tip over and no intact windows. What i like about it is the way it looks traditionally Norwegian, almost historical, and I've always figured that there's got to be some sort of really good story behind it. Over the course ( Read more... )

Charlotte and I have been planning a surprise dog contest for all of the dogsled students, which we finally put into action this afternoon. We started with a sort of musical chairs competition in which everyone walked around with their dogs until Charlotte or I said "Stop!", and then the last to get their dog to sit (without touching them) was out ( Read more... )

All the snow on the roads has melted, and today a couple of us took out the dogs with the summer wagons for the first time since the fall. Everywhere I look I see signs of spring--a butterfly outside my window this morning, and a little bunch of grass sticking stubbornly up through one of the remaining piles of snow. The grass was special. It's the ( Read more... )