All settled in

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So i made it to Norway!
I am having a great time so far! I will be doing the sportline in school, I am not exactly sure what that entails, but I have been told that multi-day bike trips, hiking, camping, x-c skiing, kayaking, and all of the usual indoor activities are common. School starts monday, and for once, I am not dreading it.

So Yesterday I walked from Leira where Astrid (my host sister) works, to the next town, Fagernes, and bought a roadbike and rode it back to Vestringsbygda. It is in really great shape, I bought it for 600 Kroner, or 100 US. I think that it was a real good deal, the bike would have cost me that or more in anchorage. the shifters are super smoothe, some parts needed tightening or adjusting, but the guy at the bikeshop let me give it a tuneup with his tools and now it rides great. the rims are really straight and the tires are in decent shape so I should not have to pay for any fixing/replacement with the possible exception of the breaks, which work well but the pads are getting really smoothe.

Tonight I will Practice with the local soccer club, I called the coach last night, and she told me to just show up. the guy next door plays on the team so I will catch a ride with him. It is an all ages team and this guy is like 30ish and despite a near complete lack of english, he seems pretty cool.

I think that next weekend Astrid and I may take a bus to Oslo to buy some stuff and have a party with some of the other AFS students I met at orientation.

Today I went on a pretty nice ride on my new bike. I climbed up and up for 50 minutes, then when I reached the top of the paved roads, i turned about and came down a different road. Lots of speed. it took me maybe ten minutes to make it back down to my starting elevation, after which I had only a couple kilometers to bike back to my house.

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Photos

Top of the ride
Here I be at the top of this valley

Top of the ride
Here I be at the top of this valley.
I took both of these pictures with my new phone, not bad eh?

My Bike
100 Bucks, and things are at least half again as expensive here

Comments

[david Parker]

lucky