Northbridge Garage Door.

Why I love Folkehøgskole.

1. The teachers chiwawa comes with us on study trips.

Her name is Carmelitta, and she is adorable. 

2. We play hide and seek in the forrest after midnight.

And drink Australian shiraz in the forrest after midnight.

3. We have a cordial drinking club.

We mix cordial, we take shots. We are hardcore.

4. We kill each other with socks and spoons.

The game is known as assasin. Everyone playing gets given another players name. The aim of the game is to "kill" your victim, and then kill their victim, until you are the only one left and therefore you are "The Assasin". Weapons include throwing balls of socks and touching people with spoons.

5. We eat tacos for dinner.

Folkehøgskole food is suprisingly awesome, and the highlight so far would have to be last Saturdays Tacos and that amazing apple crumble. 

6. We sing a song from our big blue song book every morning.

There is nothing like the sound of 100 out of tune teenagers singing at 9am.

7. The teachers have a sense of humour.

For example: It was our teachers idea today to go around taking photos of people sleeping and then show the photos at morning assembly. I'll let you know how that goes down.

8. There is unlimited free trade filter coffee.

Sadly this a year without long macs. Norwegian filter coffee however is great! It is always available, and for that I will return to Australia with caffeine poisoning.

9. Bente's home made prim.

Bente is one of the cooks in the kitchen. She melts brown cheese and mixes it with vanilla sugar, golden syrup and milk. If you are ever in Norway you have to try it!

10. Friends are never far.

If your lonely, all you have to do is go to the living room. There your sure to find someone who is up for a game of cards or table tennis.

11. We get eaten alive by a blue potato.

A game played in the dark, where one person is a blue potato and everyone else has to run away from it.

12. We count toilets.

There are 44 toilets at Agder Folkehøgskole. Which means there are 2.8 people per toilet. Yes, we found the time and energy to walk around the school and count the toilets.

13. I have the time to test out my grandmas recipes.

I shall be a professional raisin bun and cinnamon bun baker by the end of the year.

14. 1 in 3 girls knit.

Here I was thinking I was the only person who had brought knitting needles to Folkhøgskole!

15. Sex and the city marathons.

Enough said.

16. We get to wake up to an amazing view.

See photo above. It's so beautiful here. We also get to run around the lake, as well as go swimming and canoeing.

Barne Bursdag.

Last night the photo class threw us as childrens birthday party. We all dressed up as cheeky seven year olds, or as what we wanted to be when we "grew up". Hot dogs and pizza were on the menu, and were eaten off tinkerbell paper plates. We wiped our mouths with Hannah Montana serviettes and washed down the nutrition with jugs of red cordial. Some naughty kid started a food fight and within a few minutes the dining room was covered in half eaten hot dogs. After dinner we played music chairs, simon says and had a biscuit eating competition. We also played a game were you tie a ballon to your ankle, and then run around trying to pop other peoples balloons. Hil-ar-i-ous. Then it was time for desert! Chocolate cake and jelly with smarties. Yummo! To top it off we stayed up past our bed time we stayed up to watch Pocahontas. Shhh... don't tell Mum. It was an awesome night.

Emil the Mummy.

Nico couldn't decide if he wanted to be a sailor or an olympic bike rider.
Mallin was just happy to get a hot dog.

Sabine the princess fairy.

Look at Eirin and Ingvild's pretty fingernails.

Siri made an impressive Barbie-mobile and Odin was a killer robot.

Ane was a seven year old nerd.

Rasmus dreamt of being Superman one day.

While Rune dreamt of being a star striker.

Bilfri by dag.

Last Saturday the talented art class of Agder Folkehøyskole went to Kristiansand's "Car Free Day".  They spread the greenie vibe by drawing with giant clalk on the road. I couldn't help but join in,  especially since they were drawing psychedelic gummy bears, octopuses in trees and Spongebob Squarepants. The outdoor education class also came to the car free day and cooked free pancakes on a small gas stove, while the photo class commissioned portraits and the jazz class played some impromptu street jazz for the people of Kristiandsand.

The Canon Museum.

Last Friday, the international class took a trip to the Canon Museum of Kristiansand. It is home to the second largest on land cannon in the world. The largest cannon on land being situated outside Harstad in the north of Norway. The cannon we visited at Møvig, outiside Kristiansand was built between 1940 and 1945 when Germany occupied Norway in the second world war. It was built in this position because it has the shortest distance between Norway and Denmark. Even though it is not the most southern tip of Norway, there is only 116 km across the Skagerak strait to reach Hanstholm in Denmark. The cannon could shoot 55km and there was also a cannon on the Danish side of the strait. Therefore enemy ships only had 6km in the middle of the strait which they could be free from cannon fire. Of course this area was covered in sea mines. The cannon barrel is 19.76m long and weighs 110 tons.  It had a maximum altitude of 15,000 meters and used shells of up to 800kg. It took five years to build this cannon and it was only ever used for exercise. Let's hope a cannon this big never needs to be used.

Husnes.

How I miss Aust-RAH-lia.

I miss Triple J.

I miss dates with Alex squared.

I miss Yum Cha.

I miss Kakulas Brothers.

I miss sunsets and fish and chips Cott.

I miss New Edition book shop.

I miss my coffee machine.

I miss going out for coffee.

I miss King Street cake.

I miss Saturday mornings at the Greenhouse.

I miss watching Skins on the Wikis couch.

I miss the Fremantle hobos.

I miss admiring the city skyline while riding across Canning Bridge.

I miss waffle breakfasts.

I miss the wit of Ella.

I miss Jus Burgers.

I miss having a big kitchen to cook in.

I miss the sofas of Moore and Moore.

I miss pots of soy chai with honey.

I miss wearing 80s clothes to the Norfolk basement.

I miss Sunday mornings at Il Lido with Ron and gang.

I miss pad thai.

Street Stavanger.

Tante Åse's Garden.

Stavanger Canning Museum.

Norway is now well known for being one of the richest countries in the world. In the 1960s large oil reserves were found and the Norwegian economy has been booming ever since. Before this time however, Norway was relatively poor and relied heavily on it's fishing and whaling industries.

Between 1890 and 1960, canning of fish was Stavanger's most significant trade. Stavanger was home to more than half of Norway's canneries. In 1922, it's canneries provided employment for more than half of it's population. At it's peak there were 70 canneries producing cans of mackerel, sardines and fishballs. They were exported all over the world, even to Australia!

Our class went on a tour of the museum and watched an explanation of all 12 processes from the fish being washed and salted, to them being labeled and packed onto trucks. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the museum however were the sardine labels. Having an appealing label was paramount if the cannery wanted to sell any sardines. Therefore there were competitions between the different factories to design the best labels.

Over 40,000 different labels were designed and used to sell the same boring old product. I love how they used names like "housewife" and "Prince Albert" and put photos of traditional Norwegian ladies in typically sceanic Norwegian landscapes. Basically the cans had anything but sardines on them; people, sports, places. Here are some photos of the pretty labels.

Shroom Trip.

Last Saturday the coolest of the Agder Folkehøgskole students had a seminar about mushrooms. First Inspektor John Åge taught us some theory about mushrooms; all the different types of mushrooms and their characteristics. Then we went down into the woods and collected some. It was awesome. We even found one of the most eye catching but highly poisonous mushrooms known as the fly agaric or in Norwegain the "rød flue sopp". I think of it as the mushroom that is always in Disney movies and in fairy stories, see a photo of it below. We also tasted one of the poisonous mushrooms, we chewed for about 15 seconds and then spat it out. It had a jelly like consistency and a very strong chilli flavour. I think I will have to add mushroom hunting to my list of awesome ways to spend Saturday morning.

Saft Kveld På Dagen.

The fantastic thing about Fokehøgskole is that you get to spend time doing the things you love. Whatever your passion, there is time to embrace it. For three girls at Agder Folkehøgskole that passion was cordial. Mallin, Eirin and Ingvild went to the local shop and bought cordial. Then they experimented with mixing different cordials and created "cordial cocktails". They were so delicious that they couldn't keep the cordial mixing secret to themselves. They had to start a club so that all the kiddies at Agder Folkehøgskole could embrace the joy that cordial brought them.

So was born "SAFT KVELD PÅ DAGEN"....

In English "CORDIAL EVENING DURING THE DAY".

They placed a sign up sheet on the school pin up board, tens of students excitedly wrote their name, class and favourite cordial.

Then came 5.30pm Thursday. It was time for saft kveld på dagen to begin. There was orange, apple, blueberry, blackberry and homebrand red cordial. As an initiation to the cordial club you had to do a full strength shot of the cordial of your choice. Then the cordial mixing experimentation began. The possibilities are were endless, but the favourite was blackberry mixed with homebrand and a dash of lemon.

After some time drinking our favourite cordial mixes we played some cordial team sport. We had to run between cups of cordial, then pick up the last cup with only our mouth, drink it without our hands, then crawl under the football goals and run back to our team. The winning team won cordial icey poles.

Next time at saft kveld, there are plans to see who can drink the most cordial before needing the toilet, as well as testing whether people really run faster after drinking red cordial. Then are plans for a Christmas version of "Saft kveld på dagen" whereby we drink mulled cordial, known as gløgg in Norwegian. Do you have ideas for saft kveld på dagen? Visit the official blog: http://huleboerne.blogg.no/