Monday, December 7, 2009

Ready,,, Set... Go!

This weekend was in many ways an experience. It was a weekend with skiing, guns and of course lots of snow.
Friday Kim picked me and Bryn up at school. Unfortunately I therefore missed my last class which was math. What a shame... Anyways when I got outside the snow was falling and the wind was blowing. We were going to drive to Canmore in a snowstorm! After an hour and a half we arrived safely and without any crashed car. We had seen a couple of cars in the ditches though and there had even been a camper that had parked in the middle of the two lanes. Canadians apparently have some weird camping traditions. We got some hot chocolate before we headed up to the Nordic Center just above Canmore. We had a workout there which went pretty good. The other guys on the team was getting ready for their big race the next day. I just skied around trying to keep up with them. When we were done I went with Vincent to his family's cabin a little down the road outside Canmore.

Saturday came but what met me when I came up from the basement of the cabin was a really sick Vincent on the couch. He had been up at two in the morning throwing up. So unfortunately he was to sick to go for his classic race. So me, Stan and Linda (Vincent's parents) left the poor guy and drove up to the Nordic Center. Here they were really making ready for the races. The last things were getting settled and the athletes were warming up. Kim who was doing the starting of the races had asked if I wanted to volunteer that day since I wasn't really doing anything else. So that's what I did. At all the qualifiers I was standing at the finish line pressing a button every time a skier passed the finish line. That went pretty well but after 280 skiers my fingers were getting kind of cold in the -16 degrees. I got some food and a couple of hours later at 1 o 'clock my new task was to load Kim's gun. A very exciting job, and even better I had a second task: trail-jumper! If there was a false start and the skiers continued skiing I was supposed to jump out on the tracks a hundred meters ahead and stop them!
Unfortunately there was no need for me on the trail so I only loaded Kim's gun. The good thing was that the finish line was just besides me so I could cheer my team mates on.

After a cold day as a volunteer I thought it had to be more fun to race. I asked Kim if I could join the midget boys category tomorrow but she didn't think that was possible. So me, Stan and Linda went back to the cabin to get changed before heading back to Canmore where there was a party with the ski team. It was a nice evening with good food and good company. When we came back to the cabin we went straight to bed to get some sleep before the Sunday that was another day of racing. When I woke up I took on the sexy tights that Chris (my coach and a great man!) had given me because today it was my turn to race. I didn't really feel that nervous before we arrived at the Nordic Center and found out that the sports category that I was supposed to be in had been cancelled. Instead I was now in the junior boys category where I belonged considering my age. So instead of the nice relaxed sport group I was now in group with guys who had been skiing for 10 years. This was a quite scary thought since I have only been cross country skiing for 2 months! I had three hours until my race and that was a lot of time to wait. After a long time it finally got time to do some warm up and soon I was standing at the start line with a group of other guys who knew quite well what was going on. As Kim fired the gun we all started off and after 200 meters I was behind. This was expected so I just continued going as well as I could. My only goal was to pass somebody out there. After a lap the girls that had been started after the boys started to pass me. This was my chance! They passed me with 20 meters and then I accelerated and passed them. It was a great feeling all the 10 seconds it lasted before they passed me again. But I had achieved my goal and now I only had to reach the finish before I myself was done.

After my third lap I spend my last energy passing the finish line as fast as I could. And just as the finish was reached the commentator said: "And here comes Bjorn Ubbe from... Belgium! All the way from Belgium ladies and gentlemen!" I couldn't possibly come up with a better way to finnish my 6 kilometers race and was smiling a lot when took on my warm pants and went into the lodge. I had done my first race on skis and even though i finished 15 minutes later than the winner and 7 minutes later than the second last person I was quite satisfied with my time: 34 minutes. After all I have only been skiing for 2 months and if it hadn't been 6 kilometers of uphill skiing I would have kicked their butts. It was great to race but one lap would probably have been a better distance for my small lungs. A great experience and definitely not my last race over here!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December The First

So after a nice weekend in Calgary that included a dodgeball and iced roads that really maked troubles. Darren and I went to an artshow on Friday and at that point it had already started snowing. When we two hours later left the house wearing cowboy hats, and heading out for a dodgeball tournament all the roads were full of ice. The traffic was jammed and it took a half an hour to go a couple of kilometers. We even saw a guy get "T-boned" when a car slowly slided down a ramp while he was blocking his wheels. It didn't help and a couple of seconds later he hit the car in front of us. After all this action we soon arrived safe at the dodgeball tournament which was fun despite the fact that my team didn't quite win...

After the tournament we helped pushing cars forward when they were stuck on the jammed uphills and I even had a conversation with a Canadian police officer. It went like this: Bjørn "It's going to be a long night eh.?" Police officer "Yeah..."
We saw the same officer out there a couple of times before we went back to Darren's house and went to sleep.

That was pretty much the highlights of my weekend. On Monday I had no school which was just fantastic! I slept till 11 and woke up finding Glamsbjerg City online so I started skyping with the folks in Denmark. Today went pretty good in school. In Media Arts which by the way is an awesome class we finished the sound designs for our one minute movies. That means that hopefully soon my movie will be on my Facebook profile so all of you can admire my beautiful work. Well I think that was all to report so far from the Canadian wilderness.

Oh and by the way outside the window there are 12 centimeters of snow and it is freezing -15 degrees! What a way to start Christmas on December the first!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Another Weekend In Lake Louise

So after 5 days without skiing it was time to get away to Lake Louise for some snow on last Saturday. We drove up there at 10 and got some sandwiches so we were completely ready for skiing when we arrived. We had brought some skis that I tested out. There were definately more speed in those skis but it didn't stopped me from getting tired. When we returned to the hostel in Lake Louise I took a shower and went to the kitchen to get some dinner.
But that wasn't the only skiing for that day. After a little walk to the candy store we took on our skis and grabbed some glowsticks. It was time for a night ski up the mountain at 20:15 in the evening. I must say that was one of the most beautiful experiences in my time here! The stars on the skies gave us just light enough to see the tracks and the trees that surrounded us as we moved up the mountain. We ended up skiing for quite a while before we started to ski down again.
That is hopefully not the last time I do that!

Back to the hostel and just eat some candy before going to bed. I must admit that skiing that much makes me quite tired so it was nice to go to sleep and relax the body before I woke up again pumped for another couple of hours on skis. We started out at 9 and started moving slowly up the mountain. It ended up being a really relaxed ski that I will not dare to complain about!
We returned at 12:30 to the car and started the two hour drive back to Bragg Creek. I was even so full of energy that I went for a run! After a little hour and nine kilometers later I had to admit to myself that three months ago that would have killed me!

I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to notice a difference happening. All that training and skiing must have started to affect me...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Early Ski Camp

So I'm back! After an intense but fun weekend I'm back. It started on Friday early in the morning where we left Bragg Creek. Soon we were heading towards Lake Louise and a white landscape. When we arrived to the hostel there was just time to get changed in to proper skiclothing before we filled the two vans with skies and drove the two minutes to the tracks. After 2 hours of skiing we went back to the vans and drove to the hostel for lunch. After lunch we watched some video taken from the tracks so we could see ourselves what we were doing right and what needed some help. My coach kind of had to make it clear what I needed to work on because I'm not that much in to skitech yet. So soon it was back to the trails and back on skies.

When we returned to the hostel it was dinnertime which was just what I needed! There was also some time to play pool before it was back to the room and try to sleep.
Saturday went as Friday except for the morning run at 7:30. When we returned from our second run on skies it was time to get a shower before the presentation about general preparedness for races and training. Good and usefull information about pretty much what the title indicates.

Today I woke up at 7:45 and unfortunately I "missed" the morning run. Luckily we were off skiing right after breakfast which cheered me up after that miserable accident. When we came back it was lunch time and then time to split up and go home. Some had an 8 hour drive which reminds me that I found out that you can fit 15 Denmarks into the state of Alberta!

It sure is a big country I have ended up in!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Late Update... Again!

So it happened again. a long time flew away without me taking care of my blog. I am especially sorry for the last post being about the H1N1 vaccine, but you can all be certain that I have not died from the sickness!

Last week was probably the most active week for a long time in my life! With 5 days of workout in only one week, I hope I am getting good at skiing! Because now I am finally on skies. Last Sunday and today we went to Lake Louise where there is lots of snow to ski on. At the moment I have only really tried classic skies and already from Sunday till today I am capable to feel a difference. Although I must admit it's hard to stop on those skies. My solution is to just crash as smooth as possible. That have already given me some guite interesting moments on skies over here.

Yesterday it was Remembrance Day and that meant a ceremony during schooltime. That included speeches, 1 minute of silence and bagpipe. Afterwards the classes continued and I took a stealth nap during Math which fortunately was not remarked by my teacher. I fell asleep on the bus too and if Bryn hadn't woken me up I would have slept on without getting off. I wonder if I get to little sleep.?

Anyways the schedule for this weekend look intense! Friday morning we are leaving to Lake Louise and I will participate in a ski camp. According to the program I have seen it's going to be quite hard to my Danish flatlander body!
But let's see, I might survive it...

Monday, October 26, 2009

H1N1

Today was the day for waiting! I went up at 7:15 am and one and a half hour later I was standing in a 200 meter long line! The vaccine against the feared flu was in the clinics so people from all over Calgary had come to get it. So had Kim, Bryn and I. Slowly the line moved forward and after five boring hours of standing in line was over we entered a room where this guy named Toby was reading up a paper about flu. It was entertaining compared with standing in line so I listened interested until the feeling of amusement had gone away from my head. 10 minutes after we were allowed into the next room and one by one we got a needle in our arms. Next time I am going to wait in line for five hours it's going to be for something more exciting than getting a needle in your arm!

I had planned to call Glamsbjerg City at 2:30 but it ended up being 3 before I got in contact with them. Exactly an hour later we left the house again heading towards Calgary for a workout. I worked hard for one and a half hour and then it was back to Bragg Creek again. The long weekends are going so fast and all the sudden it's just Tuesday...
I better soon go to bed because those workouts make me kind of tired. I'm not used to be that active!!!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Damned Terms

School today was a mixed experience. First class was math which went ok despite my Vancouver trip. Then I moved on to English and it was here my troubles started. I missed a terms test last week and my teacher, Mr. Dearden thought that I should do it today. Fact is that I hadn’t really studied these 107 terms that was all about drama and stuff like that. Yesterday I looked at them for a half an hour and that was those 30 minutes training I used today. So I started and after an hour Mr. Dearden told me to go to the test center (a fancy place where a teacher watches over you while you are doing your test. We sure don’t have test centers in Denmark by the way!) and finish off my test. I ended up spending two hours and therefore my entire lunch break on this damned test that I didn’t understood anything about. Words like “juxtaposition” and “litotes” was flashing around on my paper but I hope I guessed myself up to 30% correct answers. It was nice to have an average on 82% but I am quite sure this damned test will bring down a little. I wrote “Sorry Mr. Dearden” on the bottom of the page and added a smiley.


I went straight on to Media Arts where I was 20 minutes too late because of the test. The next two periods cheered me up a little. I handed in my portfolio with my 26 best pictures and got “high five” from Mr. Gaudio who said that I could use the next 30 minutes to watch “Die Hard”. Sweet way of ending the school day! Now I better get to bed so I will be all ready for English tomorrow. I don’t know how long my apologize to Mr. Dearden is good for…

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Vancouver and Vancouver Island

The temperature was -18 degrees when Kim and I left the house last Monday the 12th. So I was happy about being in the warm car driving through mountains and over big valleys. Kim was brave and strong throughout the drive despite the fact that she kind of doesn't like driving. So she was happy when we 12 and a half hour later arrived to the hostel in downtown Vancouver. It was time to stretch the legs so we tossed our bags in our rooms, parked the car and headed towards Stanley Park. After about six kilometers of walking while spotting raccoons it was getting quite dark and my legs started needing fuel. So we found a way out of the park and started searching for a place to eat. We ended up eating at a little place not far from the hostel. While we were eating a TV was on in one end of the room and the weather forecast was on. I started laughing while thinking about how ridiculous it was to have a detailed Danish weather forecast. I mean the temperature is the same all over the country + or - 2 degrees. And nobody can feel that difference anyways so what's the point? It makes sense in Canada where the temperature is + or - more than 20 degrees!


Next day we went up and ate breakfast before we left. We went down to the water and catched a tiny boat that ferried us to the other side of Vancouver. Then we started walking... The goal was the Museum of Anthropology and after approximately 15 kilometers we arrived starving to the museum. Before we even darred going in we walked a little bit further to the campus of University of British Columbia. Here we found something to eat and then we were loaded for the museum. Kim thought it was a little disappointing so we catched a bus that was going to Downtown Vancouver. We wanted to see the aquarium but by the time we arrived to downtown it was getting late and we decided to wait until the next day. We grabbed a smoothie and tried to find a cinema. We found it and got some food at a really nice Thai restaurant before we went back and saw "The Informant".


The next day we ate breakfast, packed our stuff, left the hostel and drove to the aquarium. By the time we arrived we were too early so we decided to take a little walk in Stanley Park. We ended up walking in circles in the rain trying to get back to the aquarium. We succeeded and entered the aquarium. After lots of fishes, sea stars and an amazing dolphin show we left the aquarium heading to Horseshoe Bay where the ferry to Vancouver Island was leaving from. We arrived in time and after two hours of windy sailing we arrived to Nanaimo, which I suppose to be the biggest city on the island with 80.000 citizens. After succeeding in in finding our way out of the city we soon arrived to a steep driveway that was leading to Chris and Laurie who we were going to stay with during the week. We were welcomed by Chris, Laurie and their two dogs. We dumped of our stuff in the house and left to go find some dinner in Nanaimo. While we were eating Chris ended up telling about a Danish movie he had seen. I would never have thought that "The Green Butchers" ("De Grønne Slagtere") had left Danish land but apparently Chris had seen it. He also told that his grandfather was Danish and soon we were talking about Vikings, Potato sandwich, drunken Swedes and shabby Germans.

Next morning I started with a nice shower and at 10:30 we left the house. It was time to go crab fishing with Chris and his sister and Bill who owned the boat. We left the harbour and headed toward the sea. While watching seals and sealions around the boat Bill told me about huge octopuses living under the water. 3 meters is quite a big octopus if you ask me! We tossed out the traps and marked them on the GPS. The we sailed a little further out to a tiny island full of seals laying on the beach. It was quite amazing to see but after a while we turned around heading toward the harbour. It was lunchtime so we went to a really nice bakery and ate before leaving shore again to go pull in the traps. Chris started pulling in the first trap but instead of crab a sea star had sneaked in. He took the next one but still only sea star. Then he told me to pull a trap in and everything changed. One crab was in the cage and we ended up getting three crabs out of it. According to Chris that is not many but apparently it was enough to fill all of us up by the end of the evening.


Next day we left the house with a couple of bags. We were heading towards Tofino on the very west side of Vancouver Island. On the way we stopped a by a river where the salmon was trying to come up to lay their eggs. But since it had rained hard during the night the salmon was having a really hard time trying not to get further down the river. It was really amazing to see the salmon fighting to get forward but constantly being throwed back by the water. We drove on and after some curved road where I was eating Nanaimobar (a very tasty piece of cake full of sugar) we arrived to the coast. We went down to the beach and walked for a while watching the sunset. It was nice to see the ocean again after I have been away from water for one and a half month.
After the dogs had finnished playing in the sand we drove the last bit of way to Tofino. We emptied our bags in to the flat belonging to Chris and Laurie and went searching for a place to eat dinner. We found a sushi restaurant and Chris introduced me to a fantastic piece of sushi that I don't remember the name of (maybe 'takafnugginambalugi' but I'm not sure...).


Next morning was walking day. We went to take a walk in some rain forest just outside Tofino and I saw lots of huge trees! It was quite different from a "forest" in Denmark! After walking around in there we decided that the sky looked blue so we left our waterproof pants in the car and left wearing raincoats. Big mistake! When we after 2 and a half hour of walking returned to the car we were all soaked. We went back to the flat and changed our clothing and returned to Tofino looking for a place to eat. We ended up at the restaurant "Spotted Bear" which despite the name didn't hosted any wildlife.


Next morning it was time to return to Nanaimo. We packed our stuff and left Tofino City. On the way we stopped by the beach and another place Chris picked some mushrooms. Halfway back to Nanaimo all the sudden the trees seemed twice as high as the ones we had just passed and we stopped at Cathedral Grove. We took a walk among trees that were more than 800 years old and the biggest one was 3 meters in diameter! Not the kind of trees we have in Denmark!
Among all the great big trees there was this black stubble. The sign beside it said that some idiots had put in on fire back in the 70's and ended it 700 years old life! I would like to point out that acting like that is not very lumberjack! (the adjective lumberjack is used all over here in Canada about things that is simply cool, nice or in other ways fill you with a positive feeling.)
We snacked some chicken and cheese and once again Chris blaimed for being a unreal Dane because I didn't eat cheese. I told him that my Viking-skills compensated for that, he agreed and we continued our trip back to Nanaimo. That night we had good meat and mushrooms for dinner and I slept good!


Next morning was time for leaving. We packed the car said goodbye to Laurie and Chris and went down to the ferry that was waiting for us in the harbour. We left Vancouver Island in sunny weather and I enjoyed the last view of the ocean for a long time...
Two hours later we were in Horseshoe Bay and we started the drive back home to Bragg Creek. On our way we stopped at a Starbucks and I was deeply surprised about seing a "Jysk" so far from home! Who would had thought that the Danes were selling pillows so far from home.?
We stopped in Revelstoke at 6:30 pm and checked in to our hostel. Then we went to get some food at an Indian/German restaurant. What a weird combination by the way.


This morning we left Revelstoke at 8:00 am and drove away for the last bit of our travel home. On the way we stopped at Lake Louise which was just beatiful with its clear blue water! 3:30 pm we were back in Bragg Creek, Alberta. I spend most of the evening writing this instead of doing my math so I better take a look on it on the bus tomorrow. But I checked Homelogic, the website that tells you your grades, and my grade in English is 82%!
Anyways it was a great trip and now I will return to my everyday life here in Bragg Creek. I have a workout tomorrow so it's back to business!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Danish news

So yesterday was a day as all the others. I got to school and fortunately there was no workout so I could relax a bit with some homework. Today started early with some skyping with Jonas in Denmark who gave me the news about 1st grade in gymnasium. It was really nice to talk with him and discuss some Danish news. When I arrived to school I went to the office to get an extended leave form which I have to fill out so that I can go to Vancouver on Monday with Kim. I am really looking forward to that. Skipping school is always relaxing!

So after a nice schoolday which included a evacuation drill, Bryn and I was picked up by Kim who drove us to Calgary for the workout. It was snowing and my body was extremely heavy so it wasn't a very succesful workout. Fortunately I get to try again tomorrow ;)

So soon I will go to bed but first I will pack a bag so I'm ready to sleep over at Darren's house until Saturday. It's going to be nice to spend some time with him before Sunday which is Thanksgiving. Kim, Ken, Bryn and I are going to Calgary to Thanksgiving dinner at Kim's brothers house. It will be nice!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Rollerskiing

So it must be time for a status-update. My weekend went away with tough training on rollerskies and also there was time for a "little" run. It was a camp with the skiteam and that basically meant hard training for me. We arrived to Canmore on Friday and rollerskied for 2 hours. It was snowing but the flakes melted when they touched the road so it was only a little slippery. The clouds were really low and I thought it was nice to see cold weather. Especially when you consider that we had 30 degrees a week ago.
Anyways we went home and I felt that my body was tired after a week of school and the workout. I didn't know what was yet to come...
Saturday we woke up at 07:30 and went for a little jogging before breakfast. After eating I prepared myself for some rollerskiing and took on my shorts. It was still snowing and the trees was covered in snow, very nice! So we left in the cars from the hut in Canmore and drove a couple of minutes before we were dropped off. I ran with Vincent who had a bad ankle, which was fine cause then I could keep up with him. we rollerskied for a couple of hours before we went back to the hut. At that time I couldn't feel my knees but since it didn't hurt there was no problem.

We ate some lunch at the hostel and had some sparetime before it was time to go run up and down the mountain with poles. I just ran... I was pretty done after this event so I went straight to the sauna with a lot of the other guys which was really nice!
Saturday ended with dinner and a game of pictionary which included the Danish primeminister and Glamsbjerg City ;)


Sunday started with some jogging before breakfast and after dressing up we drove to Minnewanka Lake in Banff Provincial Park. It was time for more rollerskiing and little did I know that the next 2 hours were going to break my butt! Darren, Stephanie and I started out running and right away I could tell that it was going to be a cruel run. I maked it the 6 kilometers to Banff though and after looking a bit on the city we headed back. After running for most of the way back an angel came in a pickup-truck and I was rescued from my suffering. It was Vincent with his bad ankle who took me and Darren the last part of the way to the parkinglot. After a half an hour it was time to go back to Bragg Creek and I used the time in the car to take a really nice nap!

Today it was hard to get up and the fact that there also was a workout today after school has done that my body is really tired. So now I think I will go to bed and sllep for hopefully 8 hours before I have to get up so I don't get late for my dear yellow schoolbus...

Oh and by the way I skyped with 66% of the family on Sunday. It was really nice to hear from them all and I think I will have to call my sister Thea on of the upcoming days! I must admit that I start to miss them and Denmark a bit now... ;)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

"My legs!"

Today was business as usual through school. Lots of tests in English and I handed in my essay. But the workout today was different. It was at a run-workout so we warmed up with 10 minutes of run. (I wouldn't consider that being warm up but ok)
So after the 10 minutes we stretched a little before we took 3 minutes run. Then it was time for 150 meters sprint and then it was time for the big challenge! By 7,5 rounds on the course (3000 meters) I was only thinking of surviving! I ran and I ran and my feet felt bad and in the end I couldn't feel my legs, and it's quite a while since I have tried that!
But I came through in 14:37 which was good considered it being me running. So we had a half an hour for stretching and warm up before the 1000 meters run. When I started I could definitely feel that it wasn't my first run that day. But fortunately I couldn't really feel my legs anymore so it didn't hurt that much when I ran. I did it in 3:58 minutes which again was satisfying.

I was pretty wasted after that workout so I think it's good that I have Thursday without workout before the "camping-trip" with the team that is going to be full of training. I hope to survive it though and am looking forward to being together with the other guys.

So now I will just upload some pictures to FaceBook before I go to bed. And by the way, I have now been in Canada for a month! Incredible as time flies, cause I feel like I landed a week ago. Weird...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Late update

First of all I would like to apologize for my missing updates on this blog this week. I have no explanation for this but it might be that I have just been a little lazy... Sorry!

Anyways my week went pretty easy without the big things happening in the weekdays except for a trip to the theater with Kim, Bryn and some other guys. It was entertaining and I liked just relaxing while the actors was talking English and not me. So that was Tuesday and the next days was just school and some workouts and then Friday came. I borrowed a camera from Media Arts so that I could take some pictures during the weekend and when school ended Kim was waiting for me at the office. We went talking with mr. Reynolds about my options in math. I simply couldn't keep up with the other guys in math pure which is for people planning to go to university so now I have math applied which should be easier. It seems like Denmark need to do something about it's math-level. So when that was fixed we drove home and saw some DVD before we went to bed. Next morning was a workoutday so we left the house at 8:30 to go to Canmore. But it wasn't a workout as usual. It was a rollerski workout! So we arrived and I got some new skiboots cause apparently you need two kind of boots: classic and skate. And since I seem to have Canada's biggest feet we had to buy them from a person who once bought them for her son who ended up don't needing them cause they were to big.

Anyways I took on the boots and Chris, the coach, handed me some rollerskies which I took on. I drove forward and backwards a couple of times and then I tried to keep up with the other guys which ended up in a minor crash. It was pretty fun but I'm still looking forward to real snow. After the training I drove with some of the guys from the skiteam to Calgary. Next day, Sunday, Vincent, Darren, Vincent's friend and I were going to mountainbike so I slept over at Darren's house. We spend the last bit of the day buying lumberjackshirts because I thought that you have to have a lumberjackshirt if you are in Canada. So we bought one each despite they didn't had the real ones (red/black) and after we had bought them we wore them proud while we were participating in Lumberjack Olympics which included wood cutting etc.

We went to bed quite late so I was a little tired when we woke up next day. Darren and I headed towards Bragg Creek to get some bikes and meet Vincent and his friend. Then we headed towards Moose Mountain where we dropped off the bikes and prepared ourselves for the bikeride down. Wearing helmet and lumberjackshirts we started biking down between the trees in the dust. The first hundred meters were insane and resulted in a minor scratch when I drove into a tree with my shoulder but after that it turned into fun and it was really nice to drive down while trying not to hit a tree and fall down the mountain. I survived it to the bottom and then we headed back to Bragg Creek to bring back the bikes and me. Before the other guys left we had some time to push over some trees which felt extra good cause we were wearing lumberjackshirts.
It was a really nice day and I would like to go again sometime!

So today I slept until 10 which was really nice. I even catched my big brother, Hans, on MSN so I talked with him for the first time since my arrival. It was nice to hear from him and it even gave me an excuse to delay my essay. But eventually I had to say goodbye cause he was at work and that left me with nothing else to do than homework. When the essay was done it was time to get changed because we were going at a workout in Calgary. When I was done lifting weights we drove home and I took some pictures that I am excited to see tomorrow in Media Arts. Now it is getting late and since tomorrow unfortunately isn't a day without school I better go to bed.

I will try to keep my blog a little more updated so you will not have to read a minor book like this again ;)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Shorts in snowstorm

Yesterday was a nice evening where Vince and Darren from the skiclub showed me why Canadians are famous lumberjacks. It was a nice night with lots of people and I was as usual quite tired when I went to bed.

The time was 05:30 when I woke up today. I moved the cat that was laying a couple of centimeters from my face down on the ground. I grabbed my computer and had a conversation with Svend, my brother, for an hour. He seemed a little tired despite I was the one who he wanted to get up early so we could talk. It was nice to hear from him and it was nice to lay down in the bed again and take one and a half hours of sleep before my cellphone was bipping me up again. Kim, Ken, me and two others was going on a hike. Despite the rain we left the house at 9:30 and headed towards Powder Face Ridge. The rain was falling while I took a little nap in the car and when we arrived we took on our raincoats. We started walking up but when we reached the treeline the rain turned into hail and from hail into snow. Now I wasn't really prepared for that cause I wore shorts. Now within a half an hour the depth of the snow was about as much as we get in Denmark in a winter! We continued up the ridge and the view was beautifully grey... We couldn't see the mountains around us and the wind was blowing as we continued our hike.

We came to the top where it blew very much. We decided to go a little back on the trail where there was lee and eat our lunch. While we were eating it stopped blowing and the sky turned from grey into blue. We finished our lunch and returned to the top where the sun started shining and we could see the mountains around us covered in snow. Fantastic!

(The pictures are uploaded to my FaceBook profile)

We walked down with our feet in snow and our backs warmed by the sun. We ended up at the car putted in our backpacks and drove back to Bragg Creek.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Back again

It was about 3 am when Ken got me out of bed. We had to go and 15 minutes later I was sleeping in the car. When I woke up we were getting close to the border. That meant that I had to find my passport. We drove up by the side of the Canadian police officer and handed him our passports. He asked if we had any guns in the car which we didn't. Then he gave us our passports and told us to drive away... I felt the sweet irony and smiled. It maked good sense. Since everything that comes in to the states is checked to the least detail, the Canadian don't need to spend time on what is coming from America. We drove on and I got to see what I had missed 2 days ago when we were driving down. (Except for a little nap I took on the last part.)

We continued past Bragg Creek and headed towards the University of Calgary where Ken is working. I got to see his lab which was filled with snails. Ken is studying the memory and snails are apparently good testanimals. I sat down by a computer while Ken went to a talk. When he came back we went down to a hall where a little buffet was prepared. It was a welcome event for the new students who was going to study neuroscience. I emptied the buffet and Ken introduced me to some of the new students. He also introduced me to a Dane! I was a little confused when she started to speak Danish to me. It was nice though to talk a little Danish. After being there for about an hour Ken and I drove to another place in Calgary where a BBQ was prepared for some of the guys who work together with Ken. It's impressive how they cauld talk about snails and fish. It was a nice evening with a good steak but I was quite tired when we finally went home.

Today I woke up at 7:30. We were going for a workout in Canmore which fortunately wasn't that hard. And it helped a lot that there was pizza after the training. Now I am sitting on my room. In a half an hour there will be a lot of people here eating dinner. Tomorrow I will have to be up early cause my littlebrother prefer that I get up early instead of him. The Sunday's program is also a little hike so I guess I will be pretty tired when I go to school on Monday. But I am starting to get used to it anyways...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

In Idaho

Yesterday Ken got me out of my bed and into the car at 2:45 am. I was of course very tired so I sleept for a long time. When I woke up we were getting close to the US border. When we stopped by the american police officer he asked for our passports. He wanted to know if Ken and I knew eachother which we both could answer yes to. After asking what we wanted in the states he told us to get out of the car. The problem wasn't Ken... It was me! I had to fill out a form that asked me if I had been a part of Nazi Germany, if I was a drug abuser or if I carried any explosives in my pocket. I answered no to all of it even though I think it would give the officer an exciting day at work if I answered yes to any of them. Well I handed the form over to him and he asked me to place my hand on a glass plate. It wasn't enough for the officer. He wanted my fingerprints and a picture of my face before he gave us permission to leave the office. Now USA can keep track with me for the rest of my life so thats good!

So Ken started the car and we drove away into the states. We turned on the radio and a deep voice started a torturial about how to make a slideshow. (That is really weird! I don't think I have ever heard anything that crazy in the radio...)
So we turned of the radio and I looked out of the car to discover that the truck in front of us said "Great Dane" on the back. Well thats a nice way to be welcomed into the states!

I fell a sleep again and when I woke up the land had changed. From mountains all around us we now had hilly fields all over. The temperature was at 27 degrees and I started to think about that I probably wouldn't like to live surrounded by fields in such a heat with thousands of kilometers to the ocean. After an hour we finally arrived to Moscow in Idaho. (Not Russia!)

We were welcomed by a nice woman named Barbara. She worked at the Washington State University where Ken is talking today. We drove 12 kilometers into the state of Washington and arrived by the university. Ken and Barbara talked about there experiences with their studies while I was watching over FaceBook. We drove back to Moscow and Barbara prepared a nice dinner for her family, Ken and I.

Today I sleept 12 hours which was absolutely great! I spend my day working on my blog and by running for a while around the neighborhood. I have to train a little cause I miss two workouts by being here and I have to keep up with the unhuman skiclub... So now I will leave the computer and leave into the city with Barbaras son Neil who is the same age as me. The difference is just that he has a drivers license and I don't...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Going to the US

Today was a good day at school. Last friday we had a quiz in math and today we got the results. 8 out of 14 is really good considered the fact that my last quiz gave me 3 out of 20! Unfortunately we also had our unitexam today... I am afraid I did not managed that well but who cares.?
I also spend my time in school hunting signatures from my teachers. It showes up that you have to fill out a couple of papers just to get free from school for three days! The reason why I am going is that Ken is holding a lecture on a university in the state of Washington. Kim got that great idea that I could skip school and join him on the roadtrip down there which will take about 10 hours. I hope to see some of Canada and a little bit of USA. So in 5 and a half hour Ken is going to knock on my door and then we will leave. (That's at 3 in the morning!)

Anyways I ended up getting all my signatures and now I should be good to go. On the way home with the bus we stopped to let some students off and three meters from the bus a deer was standing, eating grass by the road. It wasn't afraid cause when the students stepped out it just moved a bit away. I have to get used to see the deer everyday. It's weird though cause im not used to be three meters away from a deer in Denmark...

Well I think I will now hurry in bed before Ken comes down to pull me up!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Monarch Mountain

Yesterday was a hard but fantastic day!
I woke up at 06:05. Then I fell asleep and woke up by Ken knocking my door. It was 07:04 and I had to get some clothes on. 30 minutes later we were sitting in the car, Kim, Ken and me. Fortunately Kim had some cake in the car so it was a nice ride to Canmore. At the parkinglot we met the four friends of Kim and Ken that was following us on the hike. After saying hi to the new guys we went off on our travel towards the top.
After walking between trees for a time we finally came out in the free and we could now see Monarch Mountain. We continued for a while until one of the others spotted a moving thing in the landscape. We stopped and looked at the Grizzlybear that was walking a couple of hundred meters away. Soon it was hidden behind a tree so we went on.

After a couple of hours walking we stopped for lunch at the top of the ridge. It was sun and 27 degrees and the sky was blue. We had a fantastic view to the mountains and lakes that was surrounding us and it was the perfect spot for lunch. After we had ate we continued down the ridge starting the retreat. I was getting quite tired and when we came to a creek on our way down we stopped to stick our toes into the water. It was cold but refreshing. I dipped my feet and face and then we continued the final kilometers down through the forrest. When we came down Kim told me that I had now experienced more of the mountains tham the most people living in Calgary. That was nice to hear that after 25 kilometers of mountain walking!

On our way home some goats decided to cross the road in front of us. They didn't seemed to fear cars and humans so they took their time. Which gave me some space to take a couple of pictures that are now ready on FaceBook. When we came home we got some hamburgers for dinner and watched a movie. We were all pretty tired so it was nice to sleep 12 hours last night.
Today I have been relaxing a bit and Kim showed me the creek that runs through Bragg Creek. I have made my homework so I think I deserve some sleep before I go to school tomorrow.

So goodnight everyone!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Homework

Monday was Labour day so there was no school. Therefore we went to climb Nihani Ridge. It was not as steep as Moose Mountain but still I was a little tired when we drove home. On the top of Nihani Ridge there was actually a little snowflakes in the air!
After climbing we went home and relaxed a little before tuesday came.

Kim had helped me with the math so after the two periods of math my teacher said that I was making progress and as a way of appreciation she gave me homework... So I ended up doing three hours of math homework before I could go to sleep.

So today started as the often do over here. Up at 06:15 and then some breakfast before leaving with the yellow schoolbus. Today I brought music which was nice on the 45 minutes drive. I also saw a lot of deer on the way which I have to start consider being normal. Anyways I struggled through math and after school Kim picked us up outside the front of the school. We had a workout in Calgary which ended up being just as hard as the last one... I hope I am going to get in shape soon cause I think I deserve it now!
When we were done Ken picked us up and we went home to a delicious dinner prepared by Kim.
Now I am sitting here catching up with the last couples of days.

In a moment I will go to bed which I after the days workout am looking forward to!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sunday

After a great hike to Moose Mountain yesterday I went to bed being a little exhausted. It was a great trip and after a hard climbing it was a fantastic view into the big Rocky Mountains in Alberta/British Columbia. It was me and Ken who went up there and it was a great start of my new outdoorlife here in Canada. (The pictures have been uploaded to FaceBook just now if anyone would be interested)

So today I woke up as late as 08:20 and took a shower. When I came back to my room Skype was ringing on the computer and my mother got here first virtual sign of life from me. So after a talk with Glamsbjerg City I went upstairs to have some breakfast. The days program was a trip to Calgary with Kim to buy SIM-Card for my phone and a pair of runners. So we went in there and on the way I played some Danish music for her. Which she liked! (although Kim thought it sounded like "disaster" when Steffen Brandt was singing "de første kærester på månen")

Anyways I got both shoes and card and when we came home Kim and I went for a walk with Blizzard. (the dog) It was niced and the shoes fitted great! When I got back I thought it was time to unpack the suitcase so that is also done know ;)

Know I will go eat dinner that Kim have prepared!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Calgary

Today I got to school and everything was going great until Art. I was sitting and waiting for the class to start but it took like a half an hour. I thought it was weird but perhaps something is wrong. Finally class started and I realized that I had missed the lunch-break. Stupid!
So instead of having lunch between 3rd and 4th periode the break was now between 2nd and 3rd bacause there were only four periods instead of five...

Anyways I survived math despite the fact that it was crazy algebra. I really need to catch up with this subject.
But after school I got picked up by Ken. He brought me to Calgary where I was going to meet an exchangestudent who came home from the Netherlands. His name was Paul and he was really nice. He showed me downtown Calgary and we went up to Calgary Tower. It was all really exciting and it was nice to see everything from above. After showing me Calgary Paul took me home for dinner. Hamburgers and Corn. That must be some sort of Canadian food right?

So I had a great time there and in the end of the day Paul's mom took me back to Bragg Creek. On our way home I asked a question that was coming up to my mind again and again. "What is the problem between Canada and USA?" The answer was that it was hard to tell in few sentences but it was something with being confused with eachother. I have not really got to know what the differences is between the two countries but I hope to find out someway...


Tomorrow I will go hiking on Moose Mountain with Ken which I am looking forward to!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Day 1 at school

Finally after arriving to Calgary last night I have started to school. Even though I was really exhausted after the travel it was nice to get started. By the I need to say that planes should me made bigger cause even my tiny body could not fall a sleep on board. Anyways at 07:20 the schoolbus arrived so Bryn and I had to run fast. (Bryn is my hostsister)
We managed to get on board so soon we were heading towards school 45 minutes away. When we arrived Bryn dropped me off at the office where Mr. Reynolds was waiting to take a look at my passport and select courses. After that was done he showed me the school which was about four times as big as my school in Denmark. There was even a place for curling and a hockeycourse!

So after the tour I went to my first class which was Art. After drawing some stones which was funnier then it sounds, I went to Media Arts which I really am looking forward to participate in. I am going to learn how to take pictures and make movies so it is going to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was late because I could not find the room, but my teacher showed mercy to me and I was not among the four students who had to stand up and sing "Oh Canada". I ended my schoolday with English. Our teacher showed up with a test which I really did not understood much about, but he told me that is was only to get a feeling of where we was in the subject so I stayed calm.

After school I went to the library to wait for Ken (my hostdad) to pick us up. We were heading towards Calgary where we were going to workout with the skiclub. It was 30 degrees hot so I ended up being really exhausted. After 45 minutes of running and sprinting it was really nice to have that smoothie that Kim (my hostmom) had prepared for Bryn and I. You can imagine a golfer out of shape training hard in 45 minutes in 1300 meters hight...

Anyways it was nice to come home and after a delicious dinner and finishing homework I am now sitting here at my bed writing this post. Now I think I will go to bed and sleep well after a long day with a lot of impressions!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

At 07:00 on the 29th August my plane left the ground in Copenhagen Airport and I started my travel towards Canada where my next year as exchangestudent would be spend. After a very short flight I landed in Frankfurt and I had good time to find both a poweradaptor and some candy to the upcoming flight. At 10:45 I left european ground and a travel on 8 hours was ahead of me. It was a long flight but movies and food maked the trip more pleasant.
After the long flight I stepped out into Toronto Airport and was received my Canadian officers who wanted to know what I was there for. After showing my personal VIP-card they bowed deep and let me walk away to take care of my suitcases.

After getting my bagage I went out to the arrivals where YFU-Canada was standing ready to take care of me. After spending some time searching for the car, me and another student left with an YFU-voluntary heading towards the place where we were going to sleep the next couple of days. Because of the horrible time differences I soon ended up sleeping in the car but after 1,5 hours I woke up and we were far out in the middle of nowhere. Everything was flat and all the fields where full of corn. Once in a while we passed a farm laying beside two silos. Finally we stopped by one of them and we took out our suitcases from the car. We were welcomed by three nice people who helped us with the bagage and in the livingroom we found three Japanese students sitting in the sofa.
I spend the rest of the day and the night there and next day all the YFU-students left for a half hour of driving to the place where the orientation was going to take place. We entered the building which was placed opposite the local church, and in the communitycentre we found other students waiting for us to come so we could start the orientation. We were 12 students and after being fed with donuts and cookies we started the orientation by going through all the rules that I had heard before in Denmark. Fortunately there were breaks and good advices too so it ended up being funny and interesting hearing about other countries. For example there was a Japanese boy who thought Denmark sounded great as soon as he heard about the drinking age and that we in Denmark just called our teachers by their first name.

We all slept there and next day we had a Canadian officer to tell us about the Canadian law. While I was wondering if it was only in the states they ate donuts, he told us about being arrested and what not to do in Canada. After an interesting sunday and monday we left the communitycentre and headed back to the farm where we spended the last hours of the monday. After a good sleep me and another Japanese student was picked up this morning. We said goodbye to the other students who slept at the same house as us and filled our suitcases into the car. We left the farm and headed toward Stratford where a Belgian girl who was driving with us was supposed to drop on a train going to Quebec. After driving for about an hour we were by the Stratford trainstation and we started to empty the car for her bagage.

We waited untill 08:55 where the train arrived and after wishing her a good trip we left Stratford and headed toward Kitchener to the YFU-office in Ontario. It is also here that I am writing this post to my new blog which I will try to keep alive during my stay here in Canada! At 18:10 me and the Japanese girl named Yuko is leaving Ontario by plane and tonight I will meet my hostfamily in Calgary. I am really excited about meeting them and about going to school tomorrow. But right now there is nothing to do except waiting so that is what I am going to do.