i'm sorry i didn't put up pictures for a while, but i hadn't taken any to begin with. a couple of weeks ago, the school stopped all classes and we worked on a "solideritets projekt". all students split up into one of three groups: humanity, environment, or animails. i chose the environment and my sub group made a general movie about simple things people could do by themselves and stop wasting so much. the video was a short, funny thing made to look like a movie from the 20s. the star was a man who went around and stopped those who did bad things such as driving instead of walking, or using plasitc store bags instead of bringing one's own. i made a power point presentation using some things i learned last year Environmental Education. i could have made the presentaions go on for hours with everything i learned, but had to cut it down to 5 minutes. overall, our presentation was the best. most of the other groups made posters that weren't too informative, but the experience was nice. i was in my third Norwegian newspaper, this time for just going to a folk high school. and, most incorrectly put, "finding someone" at the school, as people who go to folk high schools often do. the other articles were at the beginning of the year when i was in the protest. i got sick one day and took some time off. it was nice to just read all day. even though the school has a very laid back environment, people are always doing things. it's as if there's an underlying rush demanding us always to be active and doing something productive, or going out to talk to people. i enjoy everything quite a lot, but a day off was nice. my class, friluslive, went a on a few more short trips. we telemark skiied a couple of times, at least they skiied and i tried to stay standing, and we prepared for our big trip that was last week. i have pictures of that on this entry, or blog, or some techie name i don't know about. last weekend was the førår fest, or the last year party. almost all of the students from last year came for a sort of reunion, and we got really good food. actually, the food has been quite a bit better this semester than last, and i'm not quite sure why. i hope i'm not merely getting used to it; i want to my exotic tastes going--exotic tastes that don't include names like "fish pudding". anyway, the førår fest was entertaining. the students stayed at the school for two nights and then left. i learned that i should have gone to this school last year if i planned to envelope grandma's fear of my finding a tall, blonde, and divinely attractive Norwegian to marry and never go back to the states. the boys from last year's class are much more attractive than this year's class. my filming class, not film class which is completely different, is nearly done with our first production. pictures: our big, yet interupted trip from last week:

begining the ski trip.

the poor girl's ski skins fell off and she had the tape them on. they created a lotof troubles for her journey. just a gorgeous view. hills that look much smaller than they really are. resting mountains across the valley. also, there is a skier on the path that we made in the snow. it is the same girl whose ski skins fell off. flattening out some snow to be able to build a tent. this trip was the same story at the last one: if you went on the snow in your skies, you only sunk 4-6 inches. if you walked around in your shoes, you fell a couple of feet. cooking dinner. cooking dinner at our wonderful kitchen table. breakfast. the pink bottle is boy scout juice. where we were heading to build our snow hole. yes, we were going to build and sleep in snow holes at a place over the smaller of the rocky hills in a rift that looked very similar to the one in this picture. we built the snow holes against one of the mountains that would be to the right if you faced the direction of this picture. i'm sorry if that does not make much sence if any. we boiled snow for drinking water in another "kitchen". here, i am trying to defrost a piece of bread and cheese on top of the boiling water. the silly German dropped his snow ball. beginning the snow hole process. my snow hole. this, surprisingly, is just the begining. we ended up digging quite a lot more. to the left of the boys, we dug two feet of snow out to create a 6.5 foot long ledge for sleeping (where the boys were kneeling). the ledge was supposed to act as a path for the colder air that came in from the upper entrance way back and to the left of the farthest boy. this picture was taken about 7 feet up and in from the initial entrance hole that you had to crawl up. the complete snow hole was about the coolest thing i had ever helped to build. it was like a small cave, but you could create it how you would like to have it. we made one ledge for a kitchen and cooked dinner on it. we were about to get the cake out and get ready for bed, when we realized that the same German pictured above was not doing so well. this was about 8.30. he passed out and would wake up for one minute or so at a time completely out of it and shaking, then fall back asleep while we tried to keep him warm and help him regain conciousness. the teacher called for help, and a helicopter was said to be on it's way very soon. it did not come until 1 in the morning. after that, we were all taken down the mountain, a 30 minute trip on snow moblies 2 at a time. i was the first to leave, and in a rush, because my earlier that day the tip of my thumb had turned blue, and the rest of my fingers showed signs of frost bite. 4 days later, my fingers are still relatively numb, and my thumb is still very blue. i went to the doctor who said there was nothing i could do but to wait, and that in the end i would be quite alright. that is the conclusion of my most eventful trip to the mountains. i am sorry about spelling errors and anything else, but it is hard to write so much and put so many pictures on the site when so many others are waiting and so many interuptions come up.