Hemsedal

This past weekend I went on a trip with a group of new friends up to Hemsedal, Norway's second largest ski resort and it was pretty daggum awesome! For starters, this is definitely the earliest in a season that I've been able to hit the slopes. The snow wasn't amazing and only a tiny bit of the mountain was open, but it was a great time with great people and whet my appetite for more trips to come.

I drove up with Anette, who works at the office with me, and her boyfriend Jørn (pronounced yurn), this is in the car about 15 minutes outside Oslo.

It's definitely winter here kids. It got even snowier the further we went, but it was too dark to get good pics, so just imagine this but...snowier.

Anywho, the drive wasn't bad and in about 2.5 hours we were at the cabin that Jørn's company owns and it looked something like this.

Front door

Sauna!

Fireplace!

Breakfast!

Tor Andreas (left) and Jørn (right)

A sweet place all in all and really perfect for this kinda group trip. Also, regarding the sauna,Norwegians love their sauna time and for cooldowns mid sauna it's tradition to go outside and do sommersaults in the snow. Yes, it is cold, no I unfortunately don't have picks of that part.

Here are a few picks of the area immediately surrounding the cabin, which was about 15 minutes from the mountain itself.

Now some pics of the crew and the mountain.

Hemsedal condos from the lift

Sweet self-portrait

Anette and Jørn

Tor Andreas and Jørn

Tine, Anette, and Tor Andreas

2pm, it gets dark early...

Some fog rollin in, also that peak in the background is known locally as 'Little Matterhorn'

Rad skis FTMFW!!!

Hallingdal valley

Picture this with about 6 feet more snow and that is going to be February

Proof!

Apres ski :)

Super happy guy

Valley again

After skiing we would go back to the cabin and make a big dinner, play drinking games and work the sauna. That's some good living, the Norwegians say 'god stemning', which literally means 'good mood' but is used more akin to "that's the life!". Saturday night we even played the local version of what I know as Kings. And predictably we ran out of beer and resorted to filling the center cup with whiskey, rum, and wine. The results of which can be seen here...

Pretty much what you'd think

I also introduced them to the T-rex rule which was wildly popular

Good times had by all

The skiing wasn't entirely without a downside though as I did manage to do a major faceplant that almost knocked some teeth out. Please follow me on this tour of the scene of the crime (pics taken post facto):

Notice the clear path of skiing I have in front of me, what a lovely place to just cruise through on my way down the mountain...

...and the ground disappears from beneath my feet as the above pic is the last thing I see before plummeting about 12 feet straight into flat hard ground.

WTF!? Seriously, you don't mark that shit off? Landed hard, popped right outta the bindings and bounced my face off the ground. After confirming with some passersby that I still had all my teeth and my nose was straight I took a minute to compose myself and waited for my mouth to stop bleeding then went on my way. Alls well that ends well and although my face has been entertainingly swollen since then, it's starting to look more normal now.

Man I love skiing.

Lax, NYC, and back again

Lucky me, lucky you, or so my jeans say. Perhaps they are right on both counts; I've recently gotten some lax and a trip home under my belt and you dear reader get to see the pictures. Maybe I get the better half but then again I also have to deal with a crazy pedophiliac landlord (I will elaborate more on that later).

Anywho, two weekends ago the HiO lax squad and I headed down to Kristiansand to play in our first tournament. While we didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped, it was nevertheless a successful outing for the team where we snagged 2 wins and a draw with 2 losses. Those wins were in fact the first in team history so, awesome. I don't have any pictures of the games themselves yet (gotta grab them from another teammate) but I do have a couple afterparty ones that should entertain. Oh and the team colors are red and black. Yeeeeaaaaaa!

On the way down to Kristiansand we stopped to grab a bite. This is apaprently what they call "food". Looked like cowshit to me, but eh, too each their own.

These mysterious unlabelled white juice boxes were a gift from one of the players whose father is some sort of physical science researcher. He said they were untested protein drinks. Yeah. The contents were black. That being said, I did drink it. If that crap ends up giving me cancer i will be pissed.

Now afterparty, which involved nachspiel and some clubbin.

Hipster glasses and champagne chugging to start.

Then charming the nice young ladies.

And obviously finishing like this. These are college kids after all. Awesome factoid, that kid in the tux is the heir to the cheiftainship of an Ashanti tribe. I shit you not. He also always dresses in tails, gotta love it.

After the tourney I had to catch a 6.30 am redeye (drunk) out of Kristiansand into NYC for a work conference as well as to get in some friends and family time. Great success on both counts. The conference went swimmingly and the talk I gave has received a lot of positive feedback. More importantly it was awesome to be in NYC and I had a great time seeing friendly faces. I also had the pleasure of a particularly memorable dinner at Daniel which I won't soon forget, especially since I got to enjoy the delightful company of Hayley, Nick's girlfriend's friend.

That's not Daniel, but it is Hayley.

Other mementos of NYC.

Yup.

The best pizza in the world and unlike in Norway, cut into pie slices instead of squares. Heathens.

It's getting close to bed time so I will save the landlord story for later. I'm also going skiing in Hemsedal this weekend, second largest resort in Norway, so I should have some pics and stories from that as well. For now I leave you with kitty pictures and snow tonight in Oslo.