Settling In

I arrived in Geilo as safe as can be expected: and am settling in nicely to my new place. Compared to Whistler this place is heaven. Accommodation-wise at least. A decent sized room, my own bathroom and a big shared kitchen/living area. There are 8 rooms in total but so far I am one of the first to move in: we'll see if I get so lucky with house mates...

After spending my first night unpacking and taking it easy I leaped into organisation mode on day 2. Got my lift pass, a Norwegian phone number, new boarding clothes, my new uniform, submitted my visa application, did a few runs of snowboarding (despite having done none of the stretching/preparatory exercise that I had planned - it felt pretty good) and to top it all off I was in the right place at the right time and inadvertently started working because they needed extra help. I wasn't due to start working for another week.

After I finished doing a few easy runs down the slope one of the group organisers came in and grabbed me. Before I knew it I was helping set up and run an activity evening for a conference that was gathered in town for the week. Basically consisting of crazy snow games and group-building activities:

One was a game called Penguin Football: just like soccer only the players were wearing these weird cone things on their faces so they could only see through a little hole. It was hilarious to watch. The ball would be right next to someone's feet and they would stand there looking around randomly like a retarded penguin.

Easily the funniest thing however was the Bungy Run: one end of a bungy cord was tied to a tree while the other was tied to the person via a harness: they had to try and run as far as they could and stab a flag into the ground. They would get to a point where they would be basically horizontal: grabbing onto the ground, digging their feet into footholds as though they were rock climbing along the ground. Obviously once this reached a certain point they would fly backwards along the snow. Some of them shot up into their air and flipped over backwards while others just slid along on their asses. Gold. I laughed so hard.

Aside from laughing at the expense of others, I spend the evening riding around on a snowmobile, drilling poles into the ground, lighting bonfires, laying out deerskin rugs, riding snow bikes down the hill, sliding around after way-ward soccer balls in the snow. You know. Typical first day on any job ;)

I have a good feeling about this place.