The 4th and My First Lesson

Looking along the beach toward town

Hello again and happy (belated) 4th of July!  We had great weather here for the 4th, and took full advantage - grilling, boating, and enjoying nature.  After class, we went down to the beach to grill out with some of the Norwegians!  After we'd grilled more pølse (hot dogs) and brats than we could eat, we headed off to a public island via a boat owned by one of the students.

[Update:  I'm going to preemptively apologize for the insane formatting of this post. Blogger really doesn't let you arrange multiple pictures well.]

A view looking south on the island

One of the fields on the island.

The island was about 400 meters long and 150 wide of forest with a beach that we landed on (I'm pretty sure it was Herøya).
Most of the students hung out on the beach and grilled some more, but Garrett and I walked to the south end and ran into some sheep!  I beat up one of my feet a bit getting across the island because the island didn't have any official trails, but I'm pretty sure I just got a bad bruise.  It very worth it though - a mother and baby came up and sniffed my hand before getting scared off.  The island was a lot of fun to explore - it reminded me of some of the hiking I did in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota.

Walking through the island, I ran across
a makeshift path (that lead right to a swamp)

The sheep flee when I ask the black sheep for some wool.
I guess he didn't have 3 bags full.

The sheep from further off

This is the mother and baby (to the right) who
came up and said hi!

Having a good time fishing last night.  We caught 6 good
sized fish! (From left: Chris, Jack, Garrett)

 A few of the other students have taken up fishing a lot and have been catching quite a bit of mackerel and cod (which I've been able to steal on occasion).  I've gone down to hang out with them on the docks, but I haven't made the step to buying my own pole and lures, etc yet.


A last note, I taught my first section of class today.  Professor Martin had me prepare and present several example problems for the class.  I really liked the opportunity to get more involved in the course, as right now I've just been providing homework assistance to students outside of class.  We're introducing conservation of momentum for fluids and then conservation of energy soon.  It looks like I'll continue to work example problems for the class, so hopefully I'm doing a good job!  I have received positive feedback from the students which was really great to hear.

Walking across the island.

A nice picture of the rocks on the south end of the island.

The sun sets on another week in Norway.