Day 10: Skiing!!!

Today was a really fun day.  Erlend teaches P.E. for 4 periods and then an outdoor education class for the last two periods.  I ended up playing soccer with kids during the first class and then midway through the second period I decided that I would go back inside and get some preparation done for the economics lesson tomorrow.  That was a good idea because then I was able to talk with Erlend about it once 3^rd period came around.  Lunch was good with Kylie, Brooke and Siv Hege.  We got some ideas for what we could do while we are in Poland.  I also talked to students about other travel.  They really like the idea of going to Gothenburg, Sweden and the amusement park there.  Then for outdoor education we went on a walk that turned to a run that turned back to a walk.  There used to be a post road from Stavanger to Trondheim but only this portion in Husnes has been restored.  It was good to see that and the history.

I taught the same lesson on functions to another 9^th grade class and that worked out really well.  It was better than the other 9^th grade lessons.  The teacher that was in the room really liked my PowerPoint presentation.  He even asked for a copy of it.  After that class we went back to his computer and I gave him a copy of the presentation.  He was appreciative.

The view out from Erlend's house.  The
highway is right where the railing is.

The real fun and memorable experience happened after all of that.  Yesterday, Erlend asked me if I wanted to go skiing with him today.  I was super excited and said yes.  After school we went over to his house and hung out and then ate dinner and then went skiing.  I felt like it was a very personal thing for him to invite me over to his house and I was very thankful for his generosity.  He had remodeled the house and it looked really good so I made sure to comment on that.  Also he cooked me dinner (meat, kumla, carrots and juice) and that was super nice.  Then we had a banana, a mint and some chocolate for dessert.  The funny phrase that came from the dinner was “if you pay in bananas then you are going to get monkeys.”  He wasn’t serious and I thought that it was funny.  I didn’t have skis, ski pants or poles but Erlend hooked me up.  It was great!

Then after dinner we drove to the ski resort which is small but that was fine.  This was my first time going downhill/alpine skiing and so I was fine with whatever.  Erlend was great about teaching me how to ski.  Now I claim that I learned how to ski from a Norwegian in Norway.  I think that that is awesome!  Halfway through the first run I was feeling bad because Erlend had done the teaching and now it was up to me to practice so then I told Erlend to “show me how it is done.”  That was my subtle way of letting him off the hook of sticking by me because I was going really slowly.  I was impressed with his skiing abilities as he was skiing away.  Erlend commented on how much better I got after the 2 hours that we were at the ski resort.  Then Erlend drove me home.  It was a great time to get to know each other and hopefully we will be able to work better together in the next couple days before he goes off on his ski trip with the rest of the 10^th grade.

Each time I went down the mountain I went faster.  The last time down took about 20 minutes.  I had fun though.