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Published: March 28th 2011
Sami
Traditional "sami" dressI have now officially completed a full week + 1 day here at VHSS,
despite the fact that I still can't understand most of what is being said, words I know are gradually being intermingled in the sea of words I can't understand when people are talking. Despite this, I still feel like I am connecting with some of the patients, and definitly with the co-workers (who can all at least understand and speak SOME english.) Since the program I am working with is a skiing based program, Friday involved various ski related activities that we did throughout the day such as skiing out to a Sami Hut (Sami are like inuit Linds - very good).. I have included a picture of the traditional "sami" uniform from a museum I was at in Oslo. They were famous for hunting reindeer (I still have yet to see one!), and we went to the hut, made a fire and cooked weiners. We also had a drink called "Softe" (I don't know how it's spelled, it's pronounced soof-teh, like soot) It was like warm pink lemonade and DELISH! it is made from picked berries too! nom. Today we got these giant square wooden sides
Holmenkollen Ski Jump
Who wants to go first? together into big cubes and put a person inside, then proceeded to shovel huge loads of snow in, while the person in the middle stomped on the snow. There are now about 5 giant cubes of snow in the yard, and on Wednesday, all of the patients here are going to be making snow sculptures. Should be sweet. We also went swimming, which was very fun, and played an orienteering game called 67 degrees north (any guesses at to what this could be referring to?), where we had to first look at a map, find the station, and then go there to complete the activity. The kids were really into it and everyone had a place, despite the various physical limitations people may have had. VHSS is amazing at finding out what people are good at, and figuring out their strengths and how they can contribute to a group despite their disabilities. It's extremely refreshing.
After the day I went for another ski on a path that was plowed this morning. The snow was up to my shins and I couldn't see my skiis while I was going, this is how much it snows here every day. I look forward
View from the top
you can see the whole city from the top of the ski jump, and you can see the ski jump from anywhere in the city to tomorrow where we are going on an "expedition" all day and ice fishing!
This past weekend I was in Norway's capital, Oslo. Despite my "debacle" on Sunday, it was an extremely fun weekend! Travelling without checked baggage is just heaven. I felt like I was the coolest, until I got into the airport and realized I couldn't read any of the signs. Luckily one of the students I work with here at the centre is from Oslo and made some recommendations of things for me to see while I was there. Coincidentally, the first ever world championship in sled dog racing was on this weekend and it was right beside the giant ski jump from the World Championships (2 weeks ago) in ski jumping, so I got to hit 2 birds with one stone. The ski jump is built to the west of the city on much higher ground to begin with, then it is 134m high. From the top you have an incredible view that overlooks all of Oslo. I don't think I went in the right entrance, and ended up walking up an EXTREMELY sketchy and steep set of stairs half way up.... not only was I
Sled Dog Racing
Norway in the lead, not Canada...pooor dog is just working SO hard panting like a fatty but I was pretty nervous! The you go inside and take the elevator.. they have some mercy.
Sled dog racing is different than dog sled racing, it involves a single dog pulling a sled and behind the sled is a person cross country skiing. it was GREAT to watch and they are trying to get it into the olympics so maybe you will too some day! Canada did miserably, placing 17th in the race I watched........out of 17......After this I ventured back to the city. The public transit system in Oslo is EXTREMELY easy to sneak on. Me being honest bought a full day pass, but someone, I dont know maybe like Alix..... could just weasel on and off any bus, tram or subway without being noticed. My ticket wasn't checked once all day, mind you I'm pretty sure there's a 720NOK fine if you are caught.. and apparently they do random checks?
Anyways, from Holmenkollbakken I went back to the city centre and over to Frognerparken. This is a famous park in Oslo full of statues. There are no plaques or explanations on any of them, and there are HUNDREDS around the park, the most
famous in the centre. It was a beautiful spring day for a walk, but as you will see, some of them made me a bit uncomfortable, not too uncomfortable to take pics though hehe.
At Frognerparken, I sat down to have a Kvic Lunsj - which is basically a kit kat bar but it's typical for people who are out all day skiing (as most Norwegians are) to have one and oranges on the go, so I totes had to try it,, it had nothing to do with the fact that it was a nommy chocolate bar. After this I headed down to Aker Brygge, which is at the Oslo harbour. It was packed because there was a huge football (soccer) game between Norway and Denmark that night and all the pubs and patios were crowded. Aker Brygge is basically a harbour, central meeting spot, pub place and shopping centre all in one. In other words: heaven.
From there I went to Karl Johans gate, which was REALLY packed with people on the sidewalk, like New York City packed. There were patios open with red carpets out the front (they must've known I was coming), people outside, shopping everywhere, markets,
street vendors, cops on horses, the works. At the top of the street was the King's palace. I honestly didn't know Norway had a king, but hey you learn something every day. After that I visited the opera house and then went back to Aker Brygge for a nice dinner. By then, however, the sun was going down and my determination to sit on the patio left me FREEZING for my meal. They do offer some comforts for patio sitters, however!
All in all, Oslo RULES and so does VHSS
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Oystein
non-member comment
Interesting
Interesting to read about your experiences in Norway. I dont know where in Canada you come from, but i just love Canada after travelling there, in BC and Alberta in 2008 and 2010. Nice to hear about VHSS, i had some stays at BHSS, a similar place for southern Norway as i suffer from a muscular desease, CMT. Hope you will enjoy your stay in Norway, look forward to further posts here. Pics from Canada here https://picasaweb.google.com/oysesp/Canada2010#