Killer whales, reindeers and a lot of snow

The first month is already behind me! Times passes fast when you're having fun! Especially when the sun is back again! In the mean time I've been completely settled now and have a good rhythm: during the daytime I'm having lectures, but monday evening I'm having two hours of Norwegian language courses and afterwards going dumpsterdiving! Which means that I'm going to look with my roommates, if the supermarkets have thrown stuff away that we can still eat. If so, we take it home. This makes the student life here more payable here in Norway. I didn't know about this kind of activity's, but it's a lot of fun and it seems very normal in other countries as students. On tuesday evenings I want to follow crosscountryski lessons, because that doesn't go very smooth yet. Wednesday I have again two hours of Norwegian language courses. Thursday evening we chill with some friends, for example in a tipi tent. And fridaynight we party, as I told you last time in my blog. On saturday and sunday I go sledging or making tours to places I've never been to, to see whales for example. Last time we were very lucky because there was a group killerwhales near the coast to steal fish from the nets of a fisherboat. I've also been to the polar museum, with a lot of taxidermed animals. Our guide really liked telling horrorstories about how they killed these animals. But he also told some interesting things about dangerous explorations to the arctic area and how clumsy they were back then.

This week two friends from Wageningen are visiting me: Krista van de Heuvel and Femke Hilhorst. Despite the fact I made a lot of friends here, I realised that I really missed them. Together we discover a lot of beautiful new places here in Tromsø, like the most southern point of the island (see picture on the right).

We've also been to the Samiweek from the Sami people, traditionally known as Lapps. Highlight of the samiweek was the reindeerrace in the main street (see picture). My friends really want to see the northern lights, but the weather is really bad this week. There has even been a hurricane, which is called Ole. But on the other hand is that also really impressive to see.

The result of the storm was a white frontdoor. You couldn't see a thing because of the snow blowing around!

So I still see a lot here, and there are still a lot of things I want to do! You probably won't see me in the Netherlands for a while ;)

Hilsen fra Norge!