Skiing and byvandring with my art class

I don't know how to caption that picture besides maybe "wow", so I'll let the picture do the talking. Last Saturday my host parents and I went for a ski here, about an hour's drive away. The landscape was almost surreal, it felt like skiing amongst giant marshmallows. I was in a bit of a daze the whole ski; I still haven't gotten used to so much sun! I had to dig my sunscreen out from the bottom of my suitcase for the first time since I've been in Norway.

I don't know that person; they came up from behind just as I was taking the picture

The trails were kind of odd; a good portion weren't track set, and after you got up a little ways it branched into two steep trails winding up into the mountains. I didn't really have the energy to stride properly up, and turned it into more of a hike up. The  trails were packed with hordes of people dragging or carrying  kids, dogs, toboggans, pet fish and televisions. Ok, no fish or tv's, but it wouldn't have surprised me. Half were actually on the trails, and the other half were plopped down along the trail, eating and drinking coffee in the sun. 

After the ski it was matpakke time. I don't know how I ever ate jam and bread without brown cheese at home: 

Bread with jam and brunost, and chocolate. Doesn't get better than that. They pack their sandwiches in paper here, I still haven't figured out the technique. It just ends up looking like I tried to make a paper airplane, and then shoved bread into the wings or something. So I usually use bags or containers.

My french teacher asked me what we do for school lunches at home, and I said it's pretty normal to bring food from home, although we can also buy it. He seemed surprised that Norway wasn't the only place where people pack their own lunches to school.

Now back to Friday; our art class went into Bergen to visit an illustrator/animator, and an art school.

In the art gallery that was part of the school

The cheapest I've ever seen anything in Norway; I don't remember exactly what it was

First we went and visited an illustrator's studio, Gustav Kvaal. He's done pictures of people in the local newspaper, illustrated books, and done some short films. I never realized how much work it is to make an animation! 

A scene from one of his animated films

Illustration in the Bergen Newspaper

Then we visited an art school and were shown some different types of printing, and looked through their art gallery. It's really neat to get these opportunities to see more of the city through school here!

World Cup:

I've mentioned it before; the Nordic World Cup (or VM in Norwegian) starts today. And Norwegian advertisers and newspapers have gone a little crazy. Just like with Christmas, the food companies have pounced on the event.

From chips...

...to milk 

...to cheese

to...uhh...turkey? ohhh Norway

The text below says "Great combined with ski jumping, cross country skiing, pasta or rice"

They even suggest what you should bring for lunch to the competitions. Never mind that this poster is on the opposite side of the country from the events:

And that's just a small sample.