Hard workout and meeting new people

Yesterday I woke up at 1:00pm and had a casual breakfast. The Madsens are quite relaxed during vacation time and like to wake up a bit later than during the rest of the year. I went for a rollerski with Marianne and two of her best friends from team Kollen which I will be skiing for and training with. We did 5x5 minute intervals up a 10k hill which leads towards Holmenkollen as you will see in the picture I have taken. The intervals were kicking my butt. V1 technique is definitely not my best so it was a very good exercise for my fitness as well as V1 and v2. After I went home, had a snack and prepared for my biking tour of the city Oslo. Ellen, Ragnar, Marianne, and I met up with my new friend Martin (also a very good skier) biked around the city a bit and then went out to dinner at a nice restaurant. We were actually sitting next to a table with one of Norway's richest celebrities (quite cool). After dinner Martin, Marianne and I went for an ice cream cone and talked for a while on a bench down by the ocean. After, we went home, watched a bit of TV, then went to bed. A great day in all.

Today I went and played some football (soccer) with Martin and some of his friends who were all very nice. One kid Anders will be starting in my class at Berg. Marianne was away at her grandmothers all day and spending the night there so I hung out with Martin and had dinner at his place with his mom and brother. We had fish. I actually really liked the fish. Yes, you may have just taken a double take. I did enjoy the fish. After dinner I went to a Start soccer team with Andrea Rognstrand and a friend of hers. Start is one of the teams in Norway's professional soccer league. It was a great time even though Start lost the game. Now I am home and spending way too much time on this blog. Tomorrow I will leave for the Madsen's cottage in the mountains for some days where we will be hiking, running, etc. I'll definitely bring my camera and take some pictures. Here are some of the pictures I've taken so far.


Here is a picture of the view of Holmenkollen
from at the top of where we finished our intervals


Marianne and her friend from team Kollen at
the top.


Ragnar building Marianne's new closet


Marianne is quite the builder herself


A view from the plane coming into Norway


A bad picture of me with Holmenkollen
ski jump in the background. Quite tired
from uphill ski intervals as you can see.