A Day In the Life of Sami's Norwegian Adventures

Wednesday September 12th, 2007

2007-10-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

-We all went hiking into Sarpsborg. There was a fortress there that used to be used by soldiers. It was pretty sweet with a cement tunnel thinger and such. In the rock there were rooms with fireplaces and beds and stuff, but they have been closed off which sucks because I wanted to exploooore. The fortress was waaay up on a hill, and we could see Haugetun across the river. It was gorgeous out, so we layed on a huge rock (on top the tunnel).

-I reallyreallyreally wanted to go to the Norge vs. Hellas national fotball game, but it was TODAY, and I was only on the waiting list. I was so sad. THEN like 20minutes before they were leaving, Totum was like, “Sam, you made it!” So I ran and got dressed, then I got my face painted with Norwegian flags. We had to drive to Oslo, but the music was rockin and we were all really pumped. There were 2 minibuses from our school, and we I took pictures of the guys in the other bus screaming out the windows. Haha. We had to stop for gas, so we bought some food. I was so thirsty, so I bought a little bottle of water that ended up being $6 Canadian. Turns out it was BUBBLED water (I hate bubbled water), but I thought it was better than nothing. Then once we got to the stadium, they took it away anyways, ugh, haha. We went to the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, and it was AmAzING. The field was gorgeous and gave me instant butterflies. A guy from my school named Mats was really dressed up, so they interviewed him. We were on the screen quite a bit because we were all dressed up. The game was sooo good. I wished Shelby was there with me though. Our seats were so good, we were so close and could see everything clearly. I took lots of pictures and videos. Haha, we all got so into it, screaming and standing up. The game ended 2-2, but Norway had so many more shots on net then Greece did. All in all, it was amazing and I LOVED it. Shelby, im going to take you to a game one day. -We stopped downtown Oslo to eat. We were all just sitting on the street eating all dressed up. I liked it. -We didn’t get home until around midnight. I didn’t finish my homework… sorry Henning!

Saturday September 8th

2007-10-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

-Last night I went to have a nap at 6pm, but I slept right until Marthe woke me up this morning for frokost at 7:45.
-There is a bunch of election stuff going on, and since the Norsk class wouldn’t know what was going on, we got to go to the kitchen!
We had so much fun! We made chicken and potatoes and everything. Im going to be such a good wife. Haha. Anyways, we had a blast. We totally goofed around. Even with a language barrier, we managed to have fun and not die of food poisoning. I don’t usually hang out with people from my class because I hang out with Marthe and that group, but…haha I just had so much fun with them.
-I then had a 4hour nap. I blamed it on eating too much.

(Anna-Germany)

(Anna-Germany and Olga-Russia)

(Artem-Russia)

(Me and Artem-Russia)

(Me, Artem-Russia, Olga-Russia and Long-Vietnam)

On Friday I had climbing. We were indoors again this week. Its amazing how much more fun rockclimbing is when you trust the person holding you! Compared to Saskatoon, this place has so much less safety protection, its all up to the person doing the holding. Like, if im not careful, if the person im holding falls, I could be pulled upwards. Siri and Siril do that for fun. They basically spend the whole time there just hanging. ANYWAYS, they opened the grey wall which was wasn’t straight up, it was more uneven and came out of the wall. Totum (the person who brought us) was like, SAMANTHA, GET ON HERE. I made it up no problem. Now I want to try the hardest wall, but no one has succeeded. It jets out like a cliff so you have to go like almost upsidedown and backwards, and I don’t have the arm strength. I’ll try sometime.

Saturday September 1st

2007-10-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

-The Norsk class went to Halden for a day trip. Henning (our teacher) took us to a fortress that was used during battle. I was a place where soldiers rested, where soldiers were taken care of when wounded, as well it was a prison and a place where execution took place. It is said that the fortress is haunted by the ghost of the last women ever executed there. Apparently she was executed because she poisoned 6 people. The fortress was located on top of a hill, and overlooked the city. It was such a gorgeous view. As well, it overlooked Sweden. The land that was across the water was Sweden.

-We then stopped and walked over the OLD bridge into Sweden. We could see the new bridge a mile or so away. The old bridge was soo high up, and Henning said that it called “---” (I forget) which means suicide bridge. That was unpleasant.

-Julia who was a student of Henning’s at Haugetun a couple years ago invited us over for lunsj. She is from kazakstan, but fell in love with a Norwegian man, and never left Norway. Apparently that happens often with foreign students, they just don’t leave. She was such a sweetheart, and her husband Bjorn was really nice too. We had panakake which were acutally like crepes. We talked and laughed and had a great time. Then we headed back to the school.

-My friends and I rented a Hytte (cabin) for the night, so we got a maxi-taxi and headed out. We were first in a 5 person hytte, but we changed for a larger one, because there were us 8 girls sleeping in it. There were 3 cabins of people from our school. I had such a blast. We laughed and laughed until the wee hours of the morning and had a dance party.
-We made pizza, and we couldn’t find oven mitts, so we used the rug. Hahaha.
-Taxi’s are so stinking expensive here. I spent more on the taxi then I did for everything else that whole weekend.

Thursday August 30th, 2007

2007-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Just got back to Haugetun after a 3day “camping” trip to Sauevika, which is in the fjords. It wasn’t camping camping because we stayed in a huge retreat center.

(Tuesday August 28th)
On the way to Sauevika, we stopped and Mariann bought me an icecream called Båt Is (Boat Ice). It was a cone shaped as a boat, with jodbær syltetøy (strawberry jam), then vanilla icecream, then chocolate chunks. I was in heaven.
Suevika was goooorgeous! All you could see was orange colored rocks, and water. We had to boat across the water to get to where our sleeping cabins were.

I shared a room with 8 other girls at the top a the chateau. The chateau was so gorgeous, and so HUGE.
Once we got settled in, we were divided into teams to do a challenge course thing that included answering questions, ring toss, walking on stilts, racing up a rock cliff, racing little 4wheeled bikes, shooting, etc. There was one challenge that was to balance a ladder, then race up to see how many steps you can climb before it fell. Hello… broken ankles. I sure didn’t try. I couldn’t even lift the ladder. Someone got to like 9or something, and that’s so high! We did some shooting, and I got the highest points in my group! I owe it all to my gopher hunting training!
For the next couple hours we layed out on the beach in the sun. We also canoed, water-skied, and tubed. Then we ate Middag and had WAFFLES. Yummy.
The rest of the night we played cards (I introduced Bug Your Buddy), and we had a chapel service and sang which was so nice. Then after the chapel service, about 8 of us stayed to sing more. We each got a song book (Syng Livet) to keep, and theres some great songs in there

(Wednesday August 29th)
I woke up and found a huge beetle on my pillow! Jorunn was laughing so hard at me, and told me it was probably dead because it was in my mouth and I suffocated it and bla bla bla. How rude was that?

Oi. After Frokost, we were put into teams to build a boat from 4 pieces of cardboard, a marker, and 2 rolls of duct tape. I had to be the captain because I was the smallest, so we named the boat “The Sinking Canadian”.

Once all the teams were finished, the captains and their boats were boated out to a floating dock, and then in front of the whole school, we had to go one-by-one and race to a finish line (we were timed). It was so cold out, and turns out the water was really cold too! The Sinking Canadian didn’t sink (thank goodness), but it wouldn’t only go in circles when I tried to paddle, so we failed. So many of the other boats sunk or broke, or the person inside was too heavy. Oh, so funny. Haha.

We basically spent the rest of the day eating and playing cards because it was pretty cold outside.

For supper, each table had a HUGE bowl of shrimp…entire shrimp with heads and eggs. So Jorunn taught me how to prepare them properly, and it was so gooooood. I love shrimp, but the eggs really grossed me out.
We were put into groups again, and had to prepare a tv show. Our group did weather. Others did sports, cooking, the News, children`s program, etc, and it was super funny! We had another chapel service, and once again, I loved it. Irene spoke, and I really wish I knew what she said, because people were talking about it after.
We stayed up late, then eventually went to bed. I talked to the fotball girls, and they`re really excited to have me play for them, and wanted to know what position I played, etc.
That night I talked/ yelled in my sleep. I am now psychologically damaged because of that beetle on my pillow the morning before, so I was SURE there was a huuuge bug crawling. Actually (I remember quite vividly), it was an ant carrying about 17 beetles. So I yelled at Marte that I needed her camera. I got laughed at in the morning.
Now we’re back at Haugetun. We had time to shower, and unpack, and now I am off for our weekly Sex og Singeliv marathon (Sex and the City). Ha det bra

Monday August 27th, 2007

2007-09-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Monday August 27th, 2007
10:13pm Fredrikstad, Norway Time
2:13pm Saskatoon Time
Today I had the most intense aerobics class EVER. Plus I went jogging yesterday, so im quite sore right now. Gah.
Marthe and I went minigolfing today. It was really fun, and I met a lot of new people. I got made fun of tho…I really suck at minigolf, BUT these Norwegian courses were so much harder than in Canada…seriously.

So we eat 4 meals a day. Frokost (8am), lunsj (11:30am), middag (3:30pm), then kveldsmat (7:30pm). And on Saturdays we have grø t which is porridge. 3 out of the 4 meals are bread. Therefore, the odds are against me when it comes to not gaining weight. We also live in co-ed dorms which is EXTREMELY weird to me, an LCBI alumni. Whenever I hear a male voice outside my room I freeze, look around, and wonder who is about to get expelled. Haha. Its weird, because like everyone smokes. Well, not the fotball boys, but everyone else almost. Even the fotball girls and the singers. Im so glad Marthe doesn’t smoke, because I wouldn’t enjoy that smell in our room all the time.
Speaking of Marthe, shes a GREAT roommate. Shes so funny, and shes got such a personality. Super attitude. Haha. Makes me laugh all the time, but shes also a really great friend, and we clicked from the beginning. By far I have the best roommate here. Yay!
I ate a new type of candy today. They are so weird! Its basically cardboard with powder in the middle. Not very satisfying.

(Siri and Ingvild)

Another odd thing about this country is that everyone tucks their socks into their pants! Jeans, sweats, everything! I think its hideous, but I’ll probably be doing it by the end of the year…I hope not.

Sunday August 26th, 2007

2007-09-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

10:41pm Fredrikstad, Norway Time
2:41pm Saskatoon Time

Well, I have survived 4 days alone in this country. The family left on August 22nd (Shelby’s birthday…what a great was to celebrate it), and the goodbye SUCKED. It didn’t help that half the school was in the parking lot watching. When I went and sat with some people at a table, they said that I made them cry too. Ugh. So the first night I had a horrible sleep, but after that I was fine. It doesn’t help when people speak only Norwegian, so I just go in a daze and daydream. Bla. Anyways, im doing really well now. Ive made so many friends, I just have a little trouble remembering/pronouncing their names. Haha. I’ve only had 2 actual Norskklassens, BUT I can already do pronouns like “THEY ate salad” or “HE writes in his book” I feel so smart. Marthe (my great roommate) makes sure people don’t speak ONLY English to me, or else I’ve never learn the language. Sometimes at meals, I can pick up (a liiiiittle bit) of what people are saying during meals, and I am like, “DID YOU JUST USE THE WORD FORK? YOU DID DIDN’T YOU?!?” Haha I’m not THAT bad. But…close.
Marthe, Marit and I decided to go canoeing on Friday. Haugetun Folkehøyskole is located ALMOST right on the river. We only had to carry/drag the canoe about 600m-ish down a hill, across a highway and through a field. We were SO tired. I never realized canoes could be so heavy! Anyways, it was so fun! There was nowhere to put it in the water, so we had to be creative. I got poison ivy on my legs.
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Old Fredrikstad. We drove RIGHT by the hotel my family stayed in the last night, and it was pretty emotional knowing that my family drove on these exact roads. Gah. The Old City was gorgeous though, and the weather was too. We went to a little market where people were selling a variety of goods. We also went to a little café and had icecream. Marthe made me order myself, and it was rather embarrassing. Haha. There was an old old bookstore that Marthe LOVED. We spent a lot of time in there. I found only a few English books, and I bought Go Ask Alice for 10kroner ($2). (Sissel, Ine and Hanne)

(Jorunn!)

(Marthe my roomie and Erik)
(Me and Ingvild)
(Marit and Jorunn)

(I took this picture for Shelby. haha.)

When we got back to the school, we put on our bathing suits, and biked down to the beach. I rode on the back of Jorunn’s bike. Then we spent the afternoon reading our new books. Then that evening I went for a jog. Im really, really out of shape.

Wednesday August 22nd, 2007

2007-09-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

Today really sucked...

...Happy 17th Birthday Shelby!

Tuesday August 21st, 2007

2007-09-18T06:14:00.001-07:00

10:43pm Frederikstad, Norway Time
2:43pm Saskatoon Time

So we drove from Sand to Frederikstad today. It was so hard leaving Sand. We got up earlyearly, then met them all for breakfast. Apparently Daniel hasn’t gotten up this early for years. We gave them all a hug, I was told again that I needed to come visit at some point, then we drove off. The drive wasn’t all that exciting. We stopped to take a picture of a few fjords, we visited Satre, and we stopped at Stavanger which is mom and Randi’s Folkehø yskole, and mom was so happy. In Bo, I bought a gor-tex jacket. Other than that, us girls slept.
We found our hotel in Frederikstad, then went to visit Haugetun Folkehø yskole. It was so weird being there. Still doesn’t feel like reality. It reminded me a lot of LCBI. The biggest difference is that the dorms are Co-ed. Dad wasn’t overly pleased about that. We got a quick tour of the place, I dropped off my massive suitcase, then we headed back to our hotel.
Tomorrow is going to be crazy. Ill be left in a foreign country, and then the family will be driving 10-12hours to go to Hamburg. Its going to be a long day.

Monday August 20th, 2007

2007-09-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Today was just a crazy day. We started the day super hyper, shoving Kleenex up our noses and all 3 of us jumping on sleeping dad.

We decided to go and see a dam. Sounds exciting? Well, turned out to be crazily fun. On the way, we passed a GORGEOUS waterfall into a little lake. Shelby thought she was SUCH a good photographer, but really, its just because the scenery was so gorgeous.
We drove up winding, skinny roads and saw the dam. It was MASSIVE and made of rocks…and…well…we were right beside/underneath/at the bottom of it. Its hard to explain, I’ll have to put up pictures. But basically, we were right on the bottom of the wall, so if it broke, we’d be dead.

We drove through a tunnel that was actually really scary. It was pitch black, and looked like it could collapse, or else be full of some crazy animals.
Anyways, we survived, and got to the top of the dam. We were able to walk right over it, so on one side, it was water, and the other was the rock pile to the ground.

It was SO cold out, and there was snow patches everywhere, but we were SO hyper. Us girls were running and screaming and singing and dancing. I think we had been in the car too long.

We drove back to the bottom of the dam, and decided to climb up it. If that thing broke…gah. We saw sheep, so we went out to feed them carrots. They started chasing us, and I was actually scared. Haha.
Mom was videoing us, and she accidentally videoed the ground because she was laughing so hard as we were running away. They chased us right to the car, so we were screaming to get in and shut the doors. Then, Siri and I decided we had to be heroes, so we got out and started chasing the sheep right back.

We drove some more, and saw a super nice view, so we got out to get a picture, and us girls decided to pose with our stomachs showing. Classy.

We drove more winding roads and stopped to see the other side of the dam. Mom and dad got out, but us girls stayed in the car because it was raining. On our way back, we saw those same sheep. We tried feeding them, but they just kept running away. We stopped at another area near the top of the dam to eat lunch. It stopped raining, and we saw more sheep, so we went out and tried to feed them carrots. They were scared at first, but then approached us

Shelby ran down the hill yelling “take her, she’s the biggest anyways”. So I stayed and tried to coax one to come, and it got so close, that it was about to eat out of my hand.
I then had a nervous twitch and went “AHHHH”, and for some reason it ran away. I think dad got it on video. There was a snow pile, so we went to get a picture of it…it was like we had never seen snow before.
It was pretty hard and icy, and Shelby tried to attack me on it. With my wrestling skills, I whipped her down, and started slapping her bare back.
HAHAHAHA. She then just sat there and pouted.
She then attacked me again, and the same result happened. This went on for a while, until we were laughing so hard we had no strength left. Shelby took a picture of mom, dad, Siri and I in front of the snow pile. This picture is my favorite because dad was still laughing from Shelby and my little incident. HAHAHA.

We drove back home to change out of our soaking wet clothes. We then went for a drive along the water, and got to see all the gorgeous fjords. There was an island, and on it was a house. It was so pretty!
The road was absolutely gorgeous. Norway is so pretty!
We came home to another amazing meal. We stayed up late again chatting and taking turns on the massaging chair. Its our last night here, but I don’t want to go =(

Sunday August 19th, 2007

2007-09-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

12:04pm Sand, Norway Time
4:04pm Saskatoon Time
We got up and went for breakfast around 10. Daniel was still sleeping. It was a breakfast we weren’t used to. Meat, cheese, fish, and eggs. We then went to church in Sand. It was all in Norwegian, so I didn’t get much out of it, but it was an experience. It was too bad though, because the church was nearly empty. People just don’t go to church anymore. There was a Baptism, so there were lots of people and little blonde kids in their gorgeous bunads. We drove around Sand and got to know the town a bit. Its Sunday so everything was closed. There is a big chess set in town, and it reminded me of Harry Potter, because it was full sized, and people were able to be the pieces.
We came back and moved from the cabin by Bjorne’s and the pool, down the hill to a cottage right beside Daniel and Borghild’s house. Bjorne took us to the salmon station where there was a waterfall/rapid area of the river, and the salmon jump up it. There was glass looking under the water, and we could see the salmon under the rapids, trying to jump up. We saw one that was 12kg. It was a MONSTER, and apparently that was normal. This river is known for BIG salmon. Barf. The largest salmon ever caught was in 1910, and it was 35kg, 75POUNDS!! That’s like the size of Siri.
Daniel and Borghild invited us for a snack once we got back. We met their neighbour, he was a cute man who came over to meet the Canadian relatives. Å sne and Helge (Bjorne’s daughter and her fiancé) came from Oslo to visit. She’s very sweet, and translated everything. While we were clearing the table he told us he wasn’t a big help in the kitchen. They were telling us how his hearing aid broke, and he fixed it with tape until his appointment which was 2 months away. When it was taped up, it made a loud buzzing noise that he couldn’t hear, but Borghild could. Daniel told us that he was happy when he got his new hearing aid because it didn’t make a noise, so he and Borghild were friends again. We looked at pictures, and saw some from when Leah, Anna, Nils, etc visited in the past. We even saw one where mom, Randi, and Ami were here 30 years ago. We saw a picture of Daniel giving Borghild flowers, and were were like “oooh, Daniel getting romantic!” and he smacked his forehead, shook his head and was like, “oooohhh”. Daniel proudly showed us his carvings, and they were amazing! We then walked up for supper. It was the funniest thing trying to walk with Daniel. We took probably 17times as long to walk up the hill as we would normally. He just chatted and chatted and chatted and chatted to mom and would stop every 4 steps to point at something with his cane and give an entire explanation. Then we would FINALLY start walking again, and he’d stop to draw a picture in the dirt with his cane to explain something. Then when we were halfway up the hill Daniel stops and tells mom (in Norwegian) that here was a good place to rest. HAHAHAHAHAHA. He’s so darn cute. Stole (Bjorne`s brother) joined us for supper. Supper was AMAZING. Salmon, potatoes, mushrooms, cooked veggies, and lefse. I`ve never eaten salmon that was so perfect. YUMMY. Stole told me I was welcome to stay with them for Christmas, so that’s definitely an option. We stuffed ourselves full, then chatted until almost midnight. Then Å sne, Helge, Daniel, Borghild, and us travelled down the hill in the pitch black back to the farm. T`was a good day.

Ps: Daniel also told us he didn’t really talk all that much. Ahem.

Saturday August 18th

2007-09-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

11:26pm Sand, Norway
3:26pm Saskatoon Time

Today was a looong day. Im super tired, so im going to do today in point form.
-We had a great sleep at the hotel in Kristianson. Mom wasn’t feeling too well
-Went to a church in Christianson. Made of wood, and sooooo nice. LOVED the smell.
-Shelby and I sat on bench by a fountain while the rest shopped...and got a nice feeling of how stinking expensive Norway is.
-Headed to Sand where our relatives are.
-We soon realized that NorwaY is absolutely GORGEOUS. Gorgeous mountains and lots of lakes.
-A tunnel we were suppost to go through was closed, so we had to take a detour along narrow mountain roads. While we were waiting, dad made friends with the men behind us. Oh dad, the social butterfly.
-So many of the roofs of the houses were grass - some even had like trees and massive bushes growing. Shelby thought they were HIDEOUS.
-Dad gave us top10 reasons why it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a cow on your roof. We laughed for like 20minutes.
-Stopped at the WC and dad made friends with some german 20year olds
-Stopped in Rose…(I forget the name of the town. We saw a really old church, and in the midsummers of the 1500’s-1800‘s, the crucifix would sweat, and it would heal people. There used to be piles and piles of crutches left by those who were healed.
-Drove along teeny roads along a cliff looking down onto a river full of rapids, hoping we wouldn’t meet any cars coming the opposite way.
-Got to Sand and found Mo Laksegard. They live on a beautiful farm right on the river, with the mountains behind. I LOVED it.
-Bjorne (who is mom’s second cousin, and owns the farm) welcomed us. We met his parents Daniel and Borghild. Daniel is Besta’s cousin, and he is the funniest man I’ve ever met. First of all he thought mom was Besta, and couldn’t understand how her 3 girls were so young. HAHA. Then he would just talk and talk and talk nonstop, even though none of us had a clue what he was saying. Just like Besta he nods his head and goes-yayayaya. Borghild was telling us how when Seth was there, he followed Daniel around like a puppy.
-Bjorne put us in a super nice cabin, right by the pool for the first night.
-After we ate Borghild's delicious soup, we headed to bed. It was the first time we had wireless, so i stayed up pretty late talking to Shaun on msn :S

Friday August 17th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T14:03:00.001-07:00

Friday August 17th, 2007
9:06pm Denmark Time
1:07pm Saskatoon Time

Right now we are on a huge ferry crossing the sea , going from Denmark to Norway. Today so far wasn’t very exiting. We got up, packed the car, said bye to Gerhart, and headed out the door. Kathi was at an appointment in the morning, so we didn’t get to say bye to her. She came upstairs before we left, but us 3 girls were still asleep. We left Hage around 10am, and got to the tip of Denmark at 8pm with only a few wrong turns. In germany we stopped for a WC break, and we had to pay .50Euros each to go to the bathroom, and we had to pass through rotating gates once we payed. Once we got to Denmark, mom said welcome to Scandinavia because everyone had blonde hair, and it was $16 Canadian for a burger at Burger King.
Our actual ferry is supposed to leave tomorrow at 2pm, but we wanted to try and get on the one that left tonight at 1am. We went and asked, and they said HURRY, HURRY, AND YOU CAN MAKE THE ONE THAT’S LEAVING NOW, so we caught the one at 8:30pm.
The ferry was way bigger than we were expecting. We all went out on the deck for “take off”. It was so gorgeous. Now we are all back in our seats because there is a Gail ahead. Big storm. Siri hates boats. The waves right now are massive, so shes not very impressed.

Thursday August 16th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

Thursday August 16th, 2007
10:33pm Hage, Germany Time
2:33pm Saskatoon Time

Today we lazed around the house until almost 2pm. It was pouring rain so hard outside, it felt like we were being attacked. I bought a Sudoku book for a Euro the other day, and now the entire house is hooked. Dad was so concentrated, it was his fault we didn’t leave until 2. We drove to Aurich to check out their shopping. We went to the biggest mall in the city, and it was PATHETIC. It had one clothing store that was for children. Then it had a Walmart Type store, some engraving stores, bakeries, a hair salon, a fitness center, and a movie theatre. There were Harry Potter movie posters in German, so mom asked it we could have one, and they gave us 2 posters and I fell in looooove. Lovelovelove. So we gave up on the mall. Europe is different than Canada in the way that it still has lots of small, family owned businesses everywhere instead of malls, while Canada’s small local businesses have been driven out by big American companies (I learned this all in Marketing). We drove along the coast and looked at a neat harbour. We came home all our laundry was washed and folded! Thanks Kathi! We repacked our bags because we decided to leave tomorrow morning, instead of leaving tomorrow at midnight. Its going to be a BRUTAL day. We had supper, then played cards. We went downstairs and got a picture of Kathi and Gerhart. THEY ARE SO CUTE!! I just wanted to adopt Kathi and take her home with me. I think their story is that Kathi’s husband died of cancer, and Gerhart’s wife died of some sort of cancer as well, and then when the German $ was turned into Euros, they lost everything and their pensions were cut in half because the German $ wasn’t worth anything anymore. So now they live together. I don’t know if they’re “together” because they have separate rooms, but he called her “freau“, which means wife I think. Anyways, they are so cute, but they are pathetic at English. Poor dad got a tour of the cellar downstairs with Gerhart, and dad had no clue what he was talking about. Their house is freaking massive though, with lots of windows, and all brick, and so NEAT (as in clean). I want it. Anyways, bedtime soon. Tomorrow is going to suuUuuUuuuuuuUuuck!!

Wednesday August 15th, 2007

2007-08-30T14:00:00.001-07:00

Wednesday August 15th, 2007
10:37pm Hage, Germany Time
2:27pm Saskatoon Time

HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY SIRI!!!

Siri slept with me again last night, so we were rudely awoken by mom and dad with the video camera singing happy birthday to Siri, and bringing her breakfast in bed. We decided to go to into Holland for Siri's birthday. On the way to Holland we stopped at a concentration camp from WWII. It was located in Engerhafer (Germany). All the information we had about it was in German, so we're not 100% sure what exactly happened at this camp, but there was a memorial there with all the names of the people who died there, and there were lots of names. There was a church there that we checked out, and the graveyard next to it was gorgeous. It was so well kept with fresh flowers. We had planned to visit Auschwitz, but its located in Poland, and our rental car isn't allowed to go there because of the high crime rate and corruption. This memorial was a really neat place to visit thought. We then continued our journey and crossed the boarder, heading into Holland. There were a million windmills in the fields. We went to Winschoten and checked out the city. First we had lunch by a big oldfashioned windmill. Then we went and checked out their shops. We shopped and expored for hours. We then stopped to get gas on the way back to Germany because it was a lot cheaper in Holland at 1.025 Euros/Litre for diesel, which is 1.53Canadian Dollars/Litre. And we complain about hitting $1/litre in Saskatoon for regular gas. pft. We stopped at a car dealership, and dad found a 2005 Smartcar Convertable 2 seater for 11,000Euros. It was sweet.We came home and had supper. Kathi came up with a map of Canada, wanting to know where we were from. She is so sweet. I wish we could communicate with her better so we could get to know her. The one thing Siri wanted to do on her birthday was to see that pony. Shelby HAAAAD to go on the internet, so mom and Siri went to see the pony, while dad, Shelby and I went into a Casino and checked our emails. We then came home and did dishes, i repacked my bags, and then we played cards.

Tuesday August 14th, 2007

2007-08-30T13:59:00.002-07:00

Tuesday August 14th, 2007

Mom and dad got up early and went to an information station to tell us more about Hage. Mom and dad said they had a surprise for us, so we drove to Norddeich and ended up at a Seehunds Station National Park. (Seehunds=Seals). We got to see the seals being fed, and they were so freaking ADORABLE. There were a couple different sections blocked off by glass, and this one seal was digging and trying to get under the glass to see her friend at the other side. Then the seal on the other side would try and stick its nose under to see her. We decided they were dating and loved eachother. THEY WERE SO CUTE with their little noses and big eyes. Im in love. There was a little blonde girl who was standing right by the window, and would screach everytime one came near her. She was so cute. EVERYTHING THERE WAS CUTE. Well not everything. Shelby snuck a picture of a lady whos armpit hair was quite visable even when her arms were at her sides. Anyways, after that we walked to the North Sea, but this time we were going to it from GERMANY, not Belgium or France or England. Siri and I decided to beat dad this time, so we sprinted like 100meters and got there first. Sucka. The sand was so soft. mMmMm. I love beaches. Also by the aquarium they had a segway track set up. A segway is a standing, self-propelled 2wheel cart. Weird Al rides one on his "White and Nerdy" music video. We may have all started singing that song when we saw them. All except Shelby who didnt understand. We then drove to Norden and did a bit more shopping. Not much though. Dad and I went to check our emails in a bar. It was smokey and stinky, but satisfying. We found mumma and the girls, then headed back to Hage. We stopped to buy beer and more milk, because we drink atleast 4 litres a day (milk, not beer). The milk here isnt as satisfying as at home. Here it tastes kinda like whipped cream, it just doesnt quench. FYI. Then we came home and had another WONDERFUL supper. We had schishkabobs, but here they are called gewurzter schweinvauch um einen holzspiess gewickelt.

Monday August 13th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:59:00.001-07:00

Monday August 13th, 2007

Siri crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night, then in the morning she wouldnt let me get out of bed. She's such a little cuddler. She also found it amusing picking the skin peeling on my arm from my sunburn. We FINALLY got out of bed, and headed out the door. We went to a couple shops, and then we went to a hardware store with dad. He really wants to buy a shower tap like they have here to take home. Then mom and dad dropped us girls off at a store, then went to a tourist information place. We sat on the curb for over half an hour waiting for them to pick us up after we were done in the store (and we took a long time in the store). Then we came home and Siri and I made lunch. I had the worst hiccups, but Siri helped me cure them. (She used your method Shaun, and she says, "IT'S THE BEST METHOD I'VE EVER USED! ITS NOT EVEN IN BOOKS OR ANYTHING, AND I THOUGHT HE WAS RIDICULOUS WHEN SAM TRIED IT ON ME THE FIRST TIME!"). Shelby and dad had a nap, while mom and Siri went to the store. They came back with candies, and Siri just kept feeding me them. FINALLY the lazy slobs got up, then we had a WONDERFUL supper. Props mumma. Mom and dad had went for a walk last night and told us about this little pony they found. They went to pet it, and it pushed so hard against the barbedwire fence to get closer. Dad said we needed to go and give the little guy some attention. So we got some carrots and apples and walked for EVER (mom and dad said it was a short walk...liars). We got to the place and mom was like, "PONY!", and it neighed and came galloping over. AWWWW. It was a little black thing. We went to the door to see if we could feed it, but there was no one home. Their lawn was waaay overgrown and there was a bag of probably a dozen loaves of bread on the doorstep. Did anyone even live there?? Poor baby. We went and fed him the carrots, and petted him. He just wanted some love. Shelby had a bad experience with Jamie's horse, so she didnt go near. Wuss. We came home and had to avoid stepping on stugs. I found a new friend! A frog! It was little and black and kept trying to jump out of my hand, but it loved me. Us girls did dishes while mom and dad went for another walk. Then we all played Rook, and went to bed. OH, and I successfully finished my very first Sudoku!

Sunday August 12th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:58:00.001-07:00

Sunday August 12th, 2007
10:53pm Hage, Germany Time
2:53pm Saskatoon Time

We got to sleep in today. The beds here were sooo much more comfortable then in Switzerland. Dad got up early to read Harry Potter. He finished the book (it was the 1st one), and asked me question after question, and the answers werent until the 7th book, so I told him to read it himself, and he told me to quit being so damn rude. We drove around Hage to see what it was like. THen we went to Norddeich to grocery shop because everything in Hage was closed today. At one point dad pulled us aside and was like, "just listen. See, there is very little noise in this store. I can hear you girls from the other end of the store, so keep it down, we dont need everyone to know we're here". We overdid it on the groceries today. We are going to have to eat like pigs this week to get rid of all the food we bought. And it only came out to 58Euros! Food here is so cheap! But people are pushy, and thats annoying. Some lady who didnt have as many groceries as us just walked ahead of us, and went through the till first. We would have let her, but she should have waited for us to OFFER, dont just budge. Ugh. Anyways, we came home and unpacked, then dad had a little nap while the rest of us looked at all our Europe pictures so far. Mom then got her cooler and sat out on the balcony in the sun with her book. All of a sudden she calls me saying there is a boy nextdoor smoking who looks about my age. I start walking to the balcony when Shelby runs by, pushes me, and says, "you have a BOYFRIEND!" (Shelby...when you read this, you cant deny this happened). I felt like we havent had contact with people our age in forever, because we spent the next like half an hour spying. We even got out the binnoculars. How pathetic are we? We had a huge salad, then just lounged around. Mom and dad went for a walk, and Shelby, Siri and I played cards out on the balcony and listened to music for hours. We played Rhianna's "SOS" until dad sang along. Then we came inside, attempted to watch our Europe video, then went to bed.

Saturday August 11th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 11th, 2007

We go up early today and loaded the car. We said bye to the Polish family, and got a picture. Then we went down to the tourist office to sign out, and they gave us apples and water. How nice. We headed down that winding road for the last time. 9km in 12 minutes. Dad is quite confident with that road now I guess. We began our 12 hour trip around 9:30am towards a town that mom wasnt able to find on any map she had. Thats reassuring. When we left the Alps, we were sad. I think Switzerland was the favorite of us girls, but not mom, who says she is more like Besta, and likes the flatness better. We went over a bridge, and there was an island in the middle of the lake, with ruins of a castle and a church with a walkway into the water. Our drive was really long and started off pretty uneventful. Then we had a near disaster right at the German boarder. The officer pulled us over, and let us run...RUN to the bathrooms. Another officer stopped an entire row of cars to let us cross the street. What a memorable boarder crossing. We drove through Frankfurt, and counted all the Ikea's that we passed. We stopped for lunch and ate all the German delicacies like schnitzels, schweinebauch, and hahnchenschenkels. A hitchhiker stopped me and asked if i would drive him. OH, and the bathrooms automatically cleaned themselves! I dont know if I can add a video on here, but I definetaly taped it. Hahahahahaa, the toilet seat would swivel all the way around while a sponge-thinger cleaned it. Twice we stopped to call Kathi (the person who owns the place we are staying for the week to tell her we would be late). She apparently speaks english. MOM: "hi, Kathi?" KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "we just passed Frankfurt, so we are going to be late". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "We'll get there around 10 o'clock". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". She didnt have a clue what was going on. We drove and drove and drove. We were leasurely driving in the slow lane going 140km/hr. Dad would look in his rearview mirror and say, "Ruth, look at this one", then a car would speed by us like we were just sitting there. One time a Porsche sped by going probably 629km/hr (thats exaggerated), and dad just chuckled to himself. We FINALLY got to Kathi's house around 10pm...after spending the last half an hour driving around in circles. Kathi is a cute old woman who showed us where we were staying. She lives in a really big house (that had a stuffed fox in the entrance way), and we get the entire top level suite. She showed us around, but she had ZERO english. It was slightly awkward. The place was gorgeous tho. I guess our Rook and Kaiser games are going to have to be a bit more quiet than they were in Switzerland this week.

Friday August 10th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:56:00.002-07:00

Friday August 10th, 2007
11:39pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
3:39pm Saskatoon Time

We just got home from a day of exporing! The sun was shining today! We started by going to St. Pierre de Clages which was a book village. It was boring. The only excitement was the cutest, happiest little puppy. Reminded me of Tori. She was so adorable. Then we drove to Sion which is the capital of the province we are in, which called...Valais...i think. When we drove into Sion, we saw 2 mountain tops, each with a castle on top of it. We parked and walked up a huge hill to get to the entry of the 2 castles. We first went up 10,000 stairs to Valere. It was built in the 11th century. It was gorgeous, and so high up! We took lots of pictures off the edge. There was a church at the top that we went through. We were getting so annoyed with dad because there wasnt much battery left in the video camera, and we didnt want him to waste it on the church. Then we went down, and our legs were rubbery. We decided to hike up to the 2nd castle which was twice as high as the other one, with 3 times the amount of stairs. It was called the Tourbillon Castle, and it was built in the 13th century. We had to walk atleast 100000000 stairs to get to the top of this one, and all the stairs were uneven rocks on the edge of a cliff. We FINALLY got to the top (sweaty and unable to breathe...we are SO out of shape), and discovered it was all ruins. It was gorgeous though, and it was my favorite. It was way higher than Valere castle, we could see right down into it. We took so many pictures off the edge of this castle, and (thankfully) it was absolutely gorgeous out. Shelby saw a soccer field, so we got a couple pictures of that too. On our way down, Shelby and I climbed up some of the ruins. Note to self...quit wearing flipflops when we have to hike up 3 miles to get to a castle. Im surprised my $1 flipflops have lasted this long. We then drove into downtime Sion and stopped at an information place, and we saw a map of Switzerland. We found Ovronnaz on the map, and we are 1590meters high, and near us there are villages as high as 3250meters!! Then we went out and shopped! Poor dad. While we were in H&M for "apparently" over an hour...dad sat and read his Harry Potter. So we shopped until the stores kicked us out, then headed back to Ovronnaz. We stopped in an Ikea-type store on the way back and attempted to communicate with the non-english speaking associates, but failed. We came home and ate supper. Then Shelby and I walked over to the spa where the internet is. We checked our emails, and I called Shaun with the end of our Swiss calling card. Shelby and I walked home, and it was dark. We saw the lights of little towns even higher on the mountain than us! It was so pretty! A car almost hit us while we were walking. I was sure I saw people hiding in the bush in the dark, and Shelby and I freaked out a bit, but we didnt see anyone. Turns out it was Siri and mom taking out the recycle, then spying on us. We played cards for waaay longer than we were supposed to, then we repacked our bags and put everything by the door. Early morning tomorrow. 12 hour drive to northern Germany!

Thursday August 9th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:56:00.001-07:00

Thursday August 9th, 2007
9:21pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
1:21pm Saskatoon Time

We got up early, and headed out the door for Italy. It must have snowed last night because the tops of the Alps were covered in snow. It was kinda cold out and drizzling, so going down the mountain was a bit questionable. The part of Switzerland right by Italy was COVERED in snow, and super cold. We had to go through a tunnel to get to Italy from Switzerland. We went through the tunnel and saw a huuuuuge dam out the side. It was insanely huge. Once we got out of the 6km tunnel, the weather in Italy was quite nice. Sunny atleast. We drove to Aosta and spent the day downtown. We went to bakeries and tried new goodies, all us girls bought a new outfit (or 3), dad checked out the hardware stores, and we visited old churches. In the middle of the day it was nice enough to just wear a t-shirt. We walked so much we were exhausted. On the way back to the tunnel, we stopped at an alcohol store because mom needed to buy ItALiaN wine. In the tunnel on our way home, my job was to video that inanely huge dam. Unfortunately we were in a cloud, and it was all white. It was so snowy. Shelby and I realized we have only showered 3 times so far this trip. Ah, the joys of having nongreasy hair and a boyfriend =) On our way back to Ovrannaz, we stopped at a lot that had a bunch of machines used to clear the snow on the mountain roads. The machines had either lots of wheels, or a track like a skidoo. Dad made me video them. We also stopped in Montigny to look at an old, rundown coleseum (sp?) It was so neat! It was rundown, but it still had the benches, and showed where the lions were let out during the fights. It was like a mini replica of the one in Rome. It had perfect acustics, and it sounded like you were on a loudspeaker when you talked, so for some reason the Sestak family decided to sing and yell, giving the other tourists a show. We survived the 24 switchback road up into the cloud called Ovronnaz. We had supper then played cards. We are all worn out from all the walking we did today. So, hopefully its bedtime soon.

Wednesday August 8th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesay August 8th, 2007
7:41pm Ovrannaz, Switzerland Time
11:41am Saskatoon Time

We followed our Polish friends to Montigny to see a castle. We parked at the bottom and had to walk up and up and up. I am so out of shape. The Polish father was like "you're like Americans. They have to drive everywhere, we know what they're like". Dad whispers to me, "lets show them we're not American". There were cemented paths to the castle, but there were shortcuts straight up the hills that the Polish father and the Polish son decided to take to show off. So dad and I joined them. My flip flops were too slippery, so I went up the mud barefoot. I went through a patch of poison ivy, and burnt my legs. FINALLY we got to the top of the damn hill where the castle was. It was really sweet. There were catapolts, and a cliff thing, and it was pretty neat. We couldnt go inside though which kinda sucked. We looked in the keyholes, and tried to break into a window, but failed. Then the Polish people went to France to see where the Olympic games were held, but it started to rain, so we decided to drive to Aigle to see another castle. It was raining really hard, so we went to the grocery store. We bought lots of chocolate, and lots of different kinds of beer, plus of course yummy food. There was the CUTEST old lady there that was so tiny, and asked Siri to get someting for her off a top shelf, and I wanted to adopt her. Once we were done at the store, we headed to the castle. This castle was so SWEET!! We went up a winding staircase up the stone turret. There were 78 stairs, and 6 different floors. Each floor had a different purpose, and the attick was a torture chamber. There was a dungeon going under the turret, but it was blocked off (thank goodness. it was so dark and creeeeepy). The fourth floor had a secret passageway to a dining hall. There were wine cellars, and servant quarters, and weird passageways that led to small little rooms, and up to rooms full of windows. We went up this dark passageways that was a skinnyskinny flight of winding stairs, and up at the top there was a little room with little windows on each side. People had carved and written their name in the wall, and we found so many signatures that said in the 1800's. We took a picture of a signature from 1855. It was thundering and lightning out, and it was really dark in the passageway we were in. Mom hid in the shadows, and jumped out at us. We screamed so loud, and Shelby told her that made up for all the times we scared her. Then Shelby and dad both smacked their heads on a doorframe at the same time. Basically, it was a pretty sweet castle. It was raining, so we had to run to our car. We came back to Ovronnaz, up the winding roads in the rain. I counted and there are 24 switch-back turns (hairpin turns? When you have to basically make a 360 degree turn to climb the next steep part of the road). Its freaky deaky. Ovrannaz is right in the cloud. Siri and I made supper, and now we're about to play kaiser. Im getting yelled at to come play, so ill talk to you later! ITALY TOMORROW!!

Tuesday August 7th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday August 7th, 2007
9:38pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
1:38pm Saskatoon Time

HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY GRANDMA SESTAK!!!

We woke up this morning in a cloud! It was all white looking outside, we couldnt even see the edge of our balcony. It wasnt very nice outside, so we decided to go to the Thermal Baths Spa. Its called ThermAlps or something clever like that. There were 2 outdoor swimming pools, and one indoor, plus a hottub. The outdoor pools were soooo nice and warm, and had theraputic areas with bars and bubbles and mMMmMm...it was so nice and relaxing. It was awesome looking at the tips of the Alp mountains, and being surrounded by a cloud. So turns out we are 1590meters high or something. Im not sure if i told you that already. So the pools were awesome. We spent $80 getting in, so we decided we may as well spend the entire day there. My sunburnt arm is so sore today. There is more blistering, and I cant even raise my arm without it hurting. Every little touch I got in the pool, i FREAKED. We had lots of fun. We had handstand competitions, and took turns with the goggles. We carried eachother around the pool and would fall asleep while they carried us. Poor Siri. I made her carry me everywhere.
After the thermal baths, we checked our emails, then came home and had supper. After supper dad, mom, and Siri went for a walk with our new Polish friends. Shelby and I stayed home, we are SO antisocial. oh well.
I think the plan is to go castle exploring tomorrow, so im going to header off to bed soon. Night all!

Monday August 6th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

Monday August 6th, 2007
7:00pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
11:00am Saskatoon Time

Dad woke up Shelby and I at 6am because he "couldnt sleep". Well thanks dad, now we cant either. Then like 15 minutes later we heard him snoring. Atleast he was able to fall back asleep. Bugs me. Oh, and my arm felt like it was on fire.
We got up and had breakfast, then mom and dad went to the tourist information place while us girls played 100 rounds of President Gopher (card game). We attempted to do laundry, but ive never seen so many buttons on a damn machine, and they had instructions in every language but english. So frustrating. So mom and I attempted to figure out the french. THEN we didnt have the correct amount of Swiss Francs, so mom had to go ask our new Polish friends in suite 10 that mom and Siri picked up on a walk. They gave us the change as long as we went back and visited them. Shelby and I hid in our suite while mom forced dad and Siri to go visit. Poor Siri came back tainted. She said the Polish girl (whos 16) would never start a conversation, she's just stare at Siri. HHAHAHAHHA. oh dear. So the dryer didnt work, so we hung out all our wet clothes off our balcony. We went into town, and it looked like a bunch of hillbillies lived in our suite with our clothes draped everywhere. Mom made us walk to the internet, which was all uphill. Stupid mountain. We each checked our emails, and watched people go by while we waited our turn. There are some oddball people in this world. After the internet visit, mom and dad went for a walk while Shelby made supper. Siri and I werent allowed to help her make supper because she wanted to take all the credit. After supper we watched It Takes Two. It was english with Dutch subtitles. Dad felt bad for poor Claurice. Then we went to bed. Another wonderfully lazy day.
ps: My sunburn in horrible!! Its only on the right side of my body, plus patches on my legs where the sun came through the balcony. Dad thinks its 3rd degree. Tonight it had big blisters on my shoulders. In all my sunburns, i've never blistered like this. Who woulda thunk, the place where we get color would be at the top of the Swiss Alps.

♥ Sunday August 5th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 5th, 2007

We did a whole lot of nothing today. We went to the tourist information place, and they spoke zero english. We asked about any interesting sights we could see in the area, and she looked at us confused then took out a map that had a point that said "Sailles", and looked at us questionably. Not quite. We walked around a bit. It was so hot out. I cant believe how high up the mountain we are. I sat out on our balcony, and we can see the ski lifts at the top of the mountain, which isnt too far above us. We spent the afternoon reading. I read Harry Potter for 5 hours and finished it (so far this trip, my plan was to read really slow, and limit the amount i read everyday so the book would last longer, but I couldnt stop today). I got a hooooorrible burn on my right side. My chest is half red, half white. Mom and the girls played cards all afternoon, and dad slept. Anyways...back to Harry Potter. Is it bad that I feel slightly jealous of Ginny?

Saturday August 4th, 2oo7

2007-08-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 4th, 2007
10:19pm Somewhere In Switzerland Time
2:19pm Saskatoon Time

We got up early this morning, loaded all our stuff in our vehicle, said bye to Albert and Gretta, then headed out on the highway. We drove through France, and stopped at these HIDEOUS bathrooms. Ive never been to anything so rank. Everytime the door opened, water splashed everywhere, so we freaked out when we first went to go in. Then there was no toilet seat, girls had to like.,.back in and stand on little steps to avoid being in liquid. Uuuuugh, everyone who walked out had a disgusted look on their face. barfbarfbarf. Ok, anyways, then we continued our journey towards Switzerland. We finally hit the Swiss Alps. They were GOOoOoooOOoooRGEOUS. Not as huge as the Rockies, but still gorgeous. We drove by this huge lake, and it was amazing. Shelby wanted to go there for a quick little swim. We probably over-videoed this lake. We drove deeper into the Alps, and saw a HUGE bridge connecting 2 mountains. We also saw waterfalls, and it was crazy because there was farming right up the sides of mountains..and each field was so neatly layered and organized. Lots and lots of grapes. We had a bit of trouble finding our town of Ovronnaz. We drove in a cirlces a few times, and tried to talk to non-english speakers who would point up. Way up. We asked this one man directions, and he said he didnt speak english, but his son did. He called over his...extremely goodlooking...son and he said that Ovronnaz was like wayway up the mountain. We saw a town waaay up, and he said it wasnt that one, it was one above it. Umm...ok. So he pointed us in the right direction and we started our journy...up. We went up steep hills, and around so many switchback turns. We stopped at that town which isn't even half way up, and dad said he didnt know if we should go any higher. But, we did anyways. We drove uphill for like 20minutes and went through 3 towns before we got to Ovronnaz. The view was aaaaamazing!! We are so close to the tips of the alps, and we can see itty bitty dots in the bottom of the valley which are houses. We got to our cottage thing. It was called Beau-site, and it reminded me of Memorial Lake..hey Mare? Our house was one floor up, on the corner. It was a cute little suite, made of wood (im not sure what kind...oak?), like a cabin. Our view off our balcony was the tips of the mountains. It was so nice. So we unpacked, had a bite to eat, then went to bed. We were all uber tired.