Sailor Man

Fiji, never been further from home and closer to get home

2006-06-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yep, this could be the last post. My plane leaves from Fiji international airport the 5th of july, and we are leaving for Vuda Point where we will leave the boat tomorrow. So the last days will probably consist mostly of cleaning and prepping the boat for takeover - there hasn't been sun since we arrived in Fiji and I'm very worried about loosing my tan before i come home, so i hope well get some tanning inbetween!

So all that's left to say now is - see you soon (some of you anyway)

party at my place the 8th of july!

BULA

Tonga The Friendly Islands

2006-06-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Yep yep.
After staying in Bora Bora for what seemed an eternity, we left for Tonga. After 10 dreadful days at sea we arrived in what James Cook called "the friendly islands". Absolutely a wonderful place, and I'm just happy wherever the locals don't speak french! The first dude we met when we went ashore in Tonga was Norwegian Kjell. Felt rather strange talking to another norwegian. Last time we met norwegians was back in the Carribbean! Tonga was Andreas' last port of call. so we said our goodbyes with lots and lots of beers while Niels and me welcomed our new crewmember - Lucy - on board. (she threatened to beat me up if I didn't write anything nice about her in my blog, had to scour my computer to find a photo where she doesnt make a face - this was as close as I could get). Lucy is staying on board untill Fiji (next stop), where the three of us will all leave the boat. Tonga has been a lot of fun, dinghyracing, soccermatch (england vs the rest), drinks, bbq's. The places just get better and better the closer it comes to the return home. Strange stuff.

Arild

Stuck In Bora Bora

2006-06-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

oh yes.. on our way into Bora Bora we blew the starter engine. We tried to get one from somewhere in FP, but we ended up ordering a new one from New Zealand... Something that has proved difficult. Right now the starter is stuck in customs in Tahiti and we are waiting for it here. been stuck here for two weeks now (well i guess there are worse places to be stuck) and really want to get moving.. Andreas has to leave from Tonga the 20th of june so we are in a bit of a hurry actually.

Get out your flags, the boys are coming home.

Young goodman Brown.

17. Mai Er Vi Sa Glad I

2006-05-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

The 17th of May is a huge thing in Norway. We all dress up in our finest and go out in the streets to cheer our wonderful country on. The quietness of the french Polynesia (stupid French) was unheard of for us Vikings so we decided to put on a big party for all that were in our vicinity.
The day started with the CP (Captains Punch) - well, at least for some of us... Andreas has already been drinking aquavit for 5 hours so he had to sleep over the CP. After a lot of CP (ingredients only known to the captain e.g. Niels) we started the games. We had the famous "potatorun", the infamous "sackrun", and not to forget the fishing competition. The only fish that bit this day was beer (un)fortunately... After this everything just was Havoc. We rented the local bar for a BBQ and completely took over the place. Then we had the "Rape and Pillage" game, here are some of the pctures from that (for more take a look at the msn site)

Anywaay, a very memorable 17th of may to say the least.

For the moment we are in a place called Raiatea. Our plan is to move on to Bora Bora tomorrow but plans do change a lot down here.

Store 17. mai klemmer fra Arild og Nielsen - Vikinger i sommarland. Stay Cool.

13 stitches, a bird out of water and goodbye to a friend

2006-05-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tahiti has proved to be a very happening place indeed. Now we are back in Papeete after a few days in Moorea, and we have successfully put the boat on ground for cleaning the hull and putting on new antifowling (thats so that the boat can move faster).After three days on land, the blackbird is finally back where she belongs - and boy does she move! Moorea was very beautiful, very nice lagoon where we anchored. One faithful event tho happened in the lost woods of Moorea. On a junglesafari where jousting was one of the main events, i was attacked by a bamboostick and I will be scarred for life! Niels put 13 stitches in me, after I had been proper taken care of by my jungelcrew deep in the jungle. There's a first for everything, and as my mom says - bones heal, chicks dig scars!
Also, after staying on the rally since sweden, out good friend Pieter decided to return home to Holland. People leaving is never fun, and the rally wont be the same without you! See you in Amster this summer bro! All the best from Nielsen and Arild.
Thats it for now. Stay cool

peace out arild

Tahiti

2006-05-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

Hi hi hi
This blogthing is starting to be a bit of a problem to me. The internetconnections around here are not very good (now that we are in Tahiti they aren't that bad actually, but still) and im lagging behind on my "assignments"... Its like being at school almost, now that we arrived in tahiti I posted an entry from Nuku Hiva, which was just after the Pacific crossing. So instead of delivering crappy papers that are way overdue, it's now time for a quick update. Well, we left nuku hiva and blabla blablalsalsab bsllasdl then we pulled up the thingamajig and jacked it through the whatchamaycallit for the grosh to become a bit better. After that we just gajhjfdsn mot the jagaa. (does anyone ever read all this bull anyway) ;) And it wass all good. Nuku Hiva was brilliant in many ways, the Tuamotos was beautiful and coming to Tahiti was just absolutely great. I'll give you some pictures that can hopefully describe it a bit better. Oh yea, and I just had my birthday - I got a delicious cake and lots of greetings from back home - thank you thank you!Nielsens new addition - a traditional Polynesian tattoo!

Nuku Hiva

2006-05-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

After a brief visit to Heyerdahl’s paradise, we moved on to Nuku Hiva. Here we met up again with the rest of the Blue Water Rally guys, and had a few days of partying. Not a very big island though, but at least they had a restaurant so that we didn’t have to make dinner on the boat again – SICK of cooking and doing the dishes when everything is thrashing about. We spent a week almost in Nuku Hiva, and it has been very good. We rented a car and drove around the island (felt good to move fast again) and we also got to see one of the world’s highest waterfalls! Next stop is the Tuamotos, "sunken islands" or atolls, looking forward to it they’re supposed to be amazing!

Nielsen, Lucy, Arild, Peter.

FATU HIVA

2006-04-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

Fatu Hiva is the first island that meets you when you are coming across the pacific, this is also the island where the famous Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl and his wife Liv spent one year of their life “like Adam and Eve in paradise” (it turned out to be something else then paradise for them, but that’s a whole other story). For me it was certainly paradise, and this is the first thing that met us when we woke up in the morning (we came in during the night as usual)

IS THAT JURASSIC PARK OR WHAT!
After 22 days confined to the small space of the SY blackbird, it was good to get out and stretch the feet a little. We went to visit an AMAZING waterfall – we had to hike a good couple of hours to get there but it was well worth it – where Nielsen and I challenged each other to jumping off the mountain into the pool. I’m guessing but I think is was about 14 meters – new record for me! (Jeg som ikke engang har hoppa fra tiern på fastland!)

We also watched the local championship in soccer between the two villages in town, and both Nielsen and I made an appearance on the home team. Good fun.
Next stop is the Tuamoto atolls, and then Tahiti.

Peace out

Crossing The Pacific

2006-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

22 Days of sailing, I have never been so glad to see land before in my whole life. Feel solid ground under my feet. I was so glad to see people that I picked up the first kid I saw and flung him up in the air and gave him a big hug. The crossing has been pretty straightforward – which in other words means boring. The three of us have been doing shifts of three hours during the day and four during the night, built up like this: 05 – 09, 09 – 12, 12 – 15, 15 – 18, 18 – 21, 21 – 01, 01 – 05. This way we rotate every day so that we don’t have the same shift two days in a row. We have also been alternating making dinner every three days including doing the dishes (this way you get to do nothing for two whole days which is nice). One day aboard could look something like this:

This is a routine that has come to be known as “eat, read and sleep” on Blackbird, cus that is mainly what we do all day! That being said, we also did some fun stuff on the way over:

Also, you should take the opportunity to take a good look at the sorry excuse for a beard I am supporting, this has taken me well over three months to grow, and it’s still very random. This means that I will never in my whole life be able to grow a real beard. This will be the closest I ever came, and in a few days – before I go out in public again – the whiskers have to go.

I miss you all very much; I really can’t wait to come home!
Good night!

(PS the net is so slow here so ill put out the remaining pictures when i get to Tahiti or something)

Galapogos

2006-03-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Galapogos is truly an amazing place. Sealions swimming around the boat, iguanas running amongst you feet, turtoises chilling in the shade. I really don`t se myself leaving in only two days... But at least we have had a good time, we have been learning how to surf, riding motorcross and had a lot of good parties. I even found a good sushibar!!! so today its sushi again - the fresh tuna is just amazing (you`d love it Dan). Well, in only two days we will head off for the Marquesas islands, we are also planning on stopping by Fatu Hiva - the island where Thor Heyerdal and his wife lived for one year as Adam and Eve. But anyway, that trip will be a long one, we are planning on using around three weeks on the crossing, all depending on the wind. The weather forecasts tells us that there is none, so we`ll just have to take it really easy. So thats it for now, here are some surferpics and stuff - bai bai!

love arild

Ecuador

2006-03-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

Vegard had originally planned to change his planeticket so that he could join the boat all the way to the Galapogos. Unfortunately, things go a lot less smooth without telephones and with Danish (shrug) people behind the organizing. So, we had to make a detour down to

Ecuador

to make sure he got on his plane.

Ecuador

was a really cool place to visit tho, so we didn’t regret it!

We have also heard some rumors that the prices on groceries will rice considerably over the next few months, so we did a lot of shopping here – yes, we drink a lot of Coca Cola Light.

Next stop is the Galapogos islands which I'm really looking forward to. There are supposed to be a lot of cool animals there, and especially I'm looking forward to meeting lonesome George, the 200 year old giant turtoise that is on the verge of extinction because they cant get him to mate with any of the female turtoises that they put into his habitat (no wonder maybe, considering he is 200 years old)

untill then, ta-da. Love arild

Crossing The Equator

2006-03-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

As we were getting closer to the famous “line”, the tension was to touch and feel! We had a little party with linie aquavit (Norwegian liquor that has already been transported twice across the equator in wooden barrels – and now: thrice). We were all waiting for the “equatorial flash”, where everything in a fragment of a second is upside down, because you are in the southern hemisphere, but sadly nothing happened… -duh!

Islas Perlas

2006-03-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

chilled out

Islas Perlas is a group of many small and very idyllic islands. After leaving the city of Panama with millions of inhabitants it was a delight to be out in the paradisic surroundings again. There are very little tourists around here, and the ones we meet are mostly other yachties – which is nice. We met this local guy who told us some good spots to go to if we wanted to see crocodiles and sharks, so we have been on desperate lookout the last few days but so far seen nothing – to our huge disappointment! We have been trying to hunt them out by going on jungle safaris trekking up the rivers (good thing we took the malariatablets) but nooo (well, at least we weren’t eaten!).

We also had a huge bonfire with a luxurious barbeque the other day- mucho nico!

PANAMA - Panama Canal - Panama City

2006-02-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

Start thisone off with some pictures! Difficult one to explain this

They say that a picture says more than a thousand words. im not sure I agree on that, but hell, going through the canal was a very memorable journey. Those things are huge! The difference between Gaton Lake and the sea level has to be about 20 meters, and the locks bring you aaaall the way up and then all the way down again. I had to go through the canal twice actually, because there is a rule in the canal that each boat has to be at least 5 persons on board, one to control the boat and four linehandlers to control the lines we tie the boat to the sides with. And presto, we are in the pacific! It was really weird, the water is at least 4 or 5 degrees colder here than in the Caribbean – which doesn’t really matter cus it was very hot up there! And now we are in Panama City, which you can see from the picture. It was really weird to sail in, the city has a skyline and everything, felt like I was sailing into New York. Vegard has also arrived now so yesterday we went out to do the city. And I tell you its not easy being three gringos in Panama City looking for a party, every taxidriver wanted to drive us to a whorehouse but we finally managed to end up at a decent bar where we got really wasted.

San Blas

2006-02-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

After leaving Los Roques we stopped by Bonaire and then headed for the San Blas islands outside of Panama. The San Blas islands belong to Panama but the local Kuna Indian tribes run things. The Kuna Indians are really special, they are really small! Shorter than me even. I’m a giant for the first time ever. I even got a Kuna tattoo here, that’s the picture in the top. The sail from Bonaire to San Blas was 5 days but it felt a lot longer, we got food poisoned in Los Roques and we were 24 hours cold out. Terrible. On the islands we had a kunashow, where they danced and played panflutes – I managed to nick one and I’m now practicing to be a pro panflute player. We’re gonna start a band me and Nielsen, he’ll play the bongo drum and ill play the flute he he. Btw don’t worry the tattoo is not permanent mom!

Los Roques

2006-02-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

The journey continues - Los Roques is a small group of islands outside the northern coast of Venezuela. Beautiful stuff! We left Martinique he 24th of January, and arrived in Los Roques late on the 26th. It felt lovely to get away from the French island – I’d rather that the people speak Spanish and a little English then them speaking French and absolutely NO ENGLISH. Bloody French (no offence to my French friends that speaks English - love you). When we woke up the next morning we heard that another ship from the bluewater rally had hit a reef in Los Roques, only a few miles from where we were so we decided to locate them and offer what help we could. We found them after a while and they had a story to tell! They had hit the reef around 7 o’clock and that’s just when it starts to get dark. One of the guys had to swim in with a rope so that they could get on an island. On the island they had to stay the whole night before the coastguard came to rescue them in the morning. Crazy! And the next day we drove past the boat and me and Nielsn got ashore on the island and could walk on to the boat – this is how it looked
Craxy shit, we’ll take more care from now on!

Leaving carib

2006-01-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

Long time no see

Right now we are in Martinique (still). Twelve days of party with our norwegian friends in Martinique and St. Lucia is the reason for not getting anywhere - can you ask for a better reason? Niels' 50th birthday was celebrated with 16 people coming in from norway and two boats was chartered to accomodate the landcrabs! Nielsen and myself got our own boat - a 35 feet Sun Oddysey - together with three wonderful girls, and what do you know, they where even our age (maybe they are called women then!)The boat quickly got the nickname 'young guns', and we got a rep as hard-core sailors - props to you girls!

he he
Those pictures are not representative for the whole journey, I have to admit... Here is captain mari - with a little more color!Anyywaay it was good to meet people from our own age group again - sad to see youall leave!

We have been doing lots of cool stuff, cold waterfalls, drive in volcano, hot spring bathing, climbing the Pitons (about 900 meters, but steep as a mother and not safe by a longshot! Luckily we had a guide with us who said he had climbed the Piton 365 times before who got us through the worst parts). All the other pictures from these things is on the msn site, please take a look (beware some of the pictures are not for children - honestly).

SO! Right now we are bracing ourselves for the next move. Today we got all our supplies (230 liters of water, 80 liters of Coca Cola, canned food, vacum packed food long last bread, pasta, bla bla bla bla). Now the journey towards Panama can begin and hopefully we will be ready to leave tomorrow. If we get good winds we have planned a stopover on Aruba, but if not we will head right for San Blas, where we will meet up with the other Blue Water participants. So it looks like quite a time without any updates on the blog, maybe again in Panama - where I am glad to say that Vegard will meet up with us and be a crewmember on the trip from Panama to Galapogos. and another thing i forgot to say was that on the journey to Galapogos we will usa shorter time in Galapogos than planned, and head for Ecuador - plane to Peru - and then head up to Machu Pichu! What an experience!

I hear it snows a lot back home.,.,

Love you all Hilsen Arild Og Nielsen hilser også!!

Shalom!

2005-12-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

The internetconnections on the islands we are on are - to say it the least - crap.. (or it could be my computer, or it could be
my shitty computerskills, or it could be the fact that I'd much rather lay in the sun and chill than sitting in front of a computer).
Anyway, this is the reason for not writing as much! Right now we have reached Martinique, whohoo my first time in France, and we are waiting
for Tove (nielsen's mom). Antigua was very nice, but we left at the exact right moment - I don't think either we or Antigua wanted us
to be there anymore (the last night was bad). So let's see if we can destroy Martinique!

Love you all hilsen Arild og Nielsen!

Christmas!

2005-12-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

Well, we don't have snow, but do we have christmas!

Nielsen and me went to the local butcher and got our christmas dinner. and the PigRIBS was home free!

merry christmas!

arild

Happy reunion

2005-12-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, I look like a corpse! Landed on Antigua intl airport on wednesday december 14th as planned, and got picked up by Nielsen and Kay. The flights was unproblematic, except for the journey from NY to San Juan, where I ended up behind the flight's self titled Don Juan. Even though he spoke spanish all the time, it was possible to make out some of the words (mamasita, corazon etc. - pardon me for the misspellings) followed by roaring laughter and stomping feet - all himself of course. Needless to say there was no sleep for Arild on that flight, and i had stayed up all night at JFK too! But all in all no problems.
Going from the cold of vancouver to the sandy beaches of antigua has been a super duper transition. The feeling of sticking your feet in the warm sand the 20th of december is undescribeable!
It's weird to be here during christmas, I miss the snow, but I love the sun! The following days me and Nielsen will try and locate a pig, so that we can have our christmas dinner! no christmas without RIBBE! good stuff!

All the best - Arild

NY

2005-12-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm in NY folks! 7 hours of familyguy and pizza till my next flight!

Chillin'

The Atlantic Ocean

2005-12-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

(elin)
Picture taken on the way over the Atlantic. I found this picture a good parallell to my mood these days, it's like a tropical storm; dark clouds over rippling water; a shining light in the distance - not quite reachable. I have my last exam tomorrow - aka dark clouds; I have a huge essay due for Friday - aka rippling water; and a plane ticket for Antigua on my desk - aka shining light! Wow, I didn't know I could be that poetic!

Wish me luck.
Arild.

yummy in my tummy and snowy days

2005-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

Wow look what I found, norwegian food! Delicious!
Today I delivered two essays and I'm starting to see the end of things! one exam and one essay left. ONE WEEK left in school, TWO WEEKS and I'm on the beaches of Antigua.

This is what I woke up to the other day: snowy snowy beautiful snowy! Im really glad I got to see some snow before I left, no winter season for me! This is the view from my room actually, nice little suburb community.

1 Desember: Nielsen har bursdag. gratlurere med dagen sjokolade i magen! hvis du ser det her da.. regner med det er dårlig internettforbindelse midt i Atlanterhavet!! alle må tenke på Nielsen i dag! hipp hurra!

Femme Fatale

2005-11-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

Oh Yea

work work work work

2005-11-23T23:47:00.000-08:00

Im busy... Exams are getting closer and this is my desk. It has been a weird term, like, I have a lot of work to do now, but it doesn't feel like its a big deal cus it has basically been like this the whole semester. 5% on participation, 10% on presentation, 35% on first essay, 50% on research essay. It's a lot different from back home, and it kinda makes you work harder during the term - which is a good thing for me, the Procrastinator.
So, right now i just finished an essay on Hemingway, I have to start one on James, Hawthorne and Lippard pretty soon (tonight maybe?), and anotherone which I havent decided yet. I like doing the research but I hate writing the paper.
Only have one final, which is good (December 8th), and then a lot of administrative stuff before I can ship all my warm clothes back home and stuff my shorts and singlets down into my backpack and head for sunnier shores.

The Blackbird is on its way over the Atlantic ocean now, I read on the Bluewater Rally webpage that they have encountered some bad weather. Guess they will be hard-boiled sailors when I meet up with them!

Take a deep breath, and plunge back into the books. *gaaaaasp*

Arildo

Tickets!

2005-11-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

The tickets have arrived! ARRIBA.
Well, its getting even closer to departure. The date on my computer is today November 11th, on the tickets that now lay before me flashes the date December 13th. One month and two days to-day!
December 13th - 1425, Leaving Vancouver Airport
Landing at JFK (NY) 2230. I'll have to kill eight and a half hours in NY - probably sleeping since its night and all - and then:
December 14th - 0700, Leaving JFK (New York)
Landing In San Juan (Puerto Rico) at 1145. And have approximately two hours to haul my ass to the next terminal - and then:
December 14th - 1330, Leaving San Juan Airport.
Landing at VC Bird International, Antigua at 154o. Hooking up with Nielsen as soon as possible, and its all good!

But first: Exams. Right now i have 5 books in front of me: Ernest Hemingway - "The Sun Also Rises", Matthew Bruccoli - "Conversations with Ernest Hemingway", Carlos Baker - "Hemingway", Peter Hays - "Ernest Hemingway", Miriam Mandel - "Reading Hemingway" and Peter Hays - "Teaching Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises." I guess thats 6, I have to learn how to count. Good thing I don't study economics or something like that. Anyway, its actually pretty interresting, so I guess I'll go back to work!

I'm a happy happy boy, in the warm California sun.

Whistler weekend!

2005-11-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

whee!
Tomorrow morning we are going to whistler;) Due to an unexpected dump of snow, parts of the Blackcomb mountain will open tomorrow! This picture is taken October 31st (I know, its u-n-be-l-i-e-av-a-b-l-e!) Hopefully we will have some similar pictures to show at the end of the weekend!

Hope you are all having a wonderful time! I'm superstoked, didnt imagine I'd hit the slopes at all this season!

lotsaluv - arild

Halloween

2005-10-31T23:28:00.000-08:00

ANY CÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆSSSSAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSS???

Halloween is a b.i.g. deal in North America. Party the weekend through... Start on thursday (well, they start on monday actually) and dress up and get drunk untill next tuesday. Saturday was a good night.
This is the gang before takeoff!
Top - Arild / Thomas -(Kool and the gang)
Bottom - Aron (don diego dela vega ops blew your cover) / Pierrick / Steph / Soph / Steve / Jack
We went on an event called the "pubcrawl" which meant being driven around town in schoolbuses from one bar to another. I think we stopped by 5 bars before the night was over. We need to get this shizzle going on in Norway too, it was crazy. Everybody dresses up, no pickupline is cheasy, everybody knows everybody, wicked! We started at 5pm, so by the time we hooked up with Daniel the coffin and the other guys we were pretty beat! Daniel was in good shape tho! Good party.

November is closing in, and I'm starting to see an end to my Vancouver era. Nielsen has already boarded the ship, guess they are out on the ocean now, heading for tenerife - godspeed- and in about 7 weeks I will (hopefully) be close to my new era, the pirate era! But first: exams! 3 research papers, one final exam, and one presentation away from doing a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y-n-o-t-h-i-n-g!

(hear you have miserable weather back home)
Kiss - arild.

Pokernight

2005-10-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Poker Night! From the left: (partly hidden) Dave, Thomas, Arild, Jack, Nir, Aron and Josh. Texas hold'em tourney. I was ready to hustle! First out was Nir; following him, Jack; Thomas, Dave, Aron - which left us with Josh and me heads up. I thought I had him there, but he lucked out! take a look at the last hand! (both all in with pretty similar stacks - guess we were pretty tired of playing at that time) My hand is the one on the bottom!Damn that last 7 of clubs!!

aiai

2005-10-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

sorry about the huge post. I just couldn't stop going!

Rockie Mountains

2005-10-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

Thanksgivings weekend was spent in the Rockie mountains, pretty petty. We rented cars and left friday morning, back on monday night. Tell you, the scenery was amazing. We started in Jasper (8hour driving from Vancouver - for us... 12 for Jack Attack and Hans. booh). Stayed one night in Jasper, where we lived near a gorge called Maligne canyon. Stayed at a pretty cool place, no water, no tourists ('sept for us tho, dont like to call myself one right), no nothing. The cool thing was that it was supposedly a bear path going right by it, they had seen a lot of bears only a few days before we came! This on the left here is the house that we lived in, well, actually it is the kitchen but they were all the same. Had to put all our food, including toothpaste in the kitchen, so the bears wouldn't smell food and accidentally eat us instead he he. This day we also visited Maligne canyon, Pyramid Lake and Patricia Lake, I'd like to put all the pictures out, have loads of beutiful ones, but hey. To the right, Pyramid lake - crisp, cold and sunny. Just like home;)
Next stop; Lake Louise. Not a very long drive actually, but as we were - not tourists - willing to explore, we used practically the entire day to get there. We stopped by a lot of places, Athabasca Falls, Columbia Icefield (glacier) and Lake Peyto, to mention a few. Athabasca falls was beautiful! This is me and Thomas peering into the abyss before we got chased back up by a very angry park guard or whatever. "But we didnt do anything wrong!!" and our lookout point from another angle, the red arrow. Crazy mofos. or something like that. This post will be way to long so im gonna divide it into to parts [day1 and day 2] and [day 3 and day4.] It's getting late to, so have to go bed soon. You, know I am actually going to school even though it doesn't look like it on this blog.. Pictures of midterms and papers, I don't think that would be very interresting. Maybe I'll post my essays just for fun. Man, I thought I had my English writing skills _down_! but hey, shows how wrong I was. "You have some writing issues, I think it could have to do with the fact that English is your third language" one of my teachers told me. Third language??? that was a blow, Im telling you. But I'm learning. Its like starting all over at university you. "Here we follow the MLA guide" - the what?? "here you can only use the OED" - the WHAT???was pretty confusing the first month.. sorry I'm sidetracking!

So, back to the 2nd day of the rockies. After we looked at the beautiful waterfalls of Athabasca - thats a native name for something cool that I can't remember - we headed for the columbia icefields. I have been on a glacier before, and I am pretty used to snow. But some of the travellingcrew were pretty stoked about that part. Rachel - New Zealand - loved it. And I have to admit, it was pretty neat;) This is the whole crew, on the left, as far as we could get. (Names from left to right on the grup shot : \\Thomas\\ \\Steph\\ \\Karen\\ \\Rachel\\ \\Hans\\ \\Sophie\\ \in front \\Arild\\ \\Jack-Jack\\)
- on the right, Jack attack experiencing an Arild Attack!

After the chill of the icefields, we continued to the more temperate Mistaya Canyon. The sun came up, and we decided to camp out. Canned Jambon ham and spicy noodles.. mmmmmmmmmmmm! It was pretty idyllic there actually. Im gonna put all the pictures out on my MSN blogsite, so if you want to see more just go there, there's a link on the right side there, (you have to be a hotmail user i think to get logged in). So that brings me (finally) to the last stop, Peyto Lake. This lake was amazing, i don't think i ever saw a lake that blue. Iwould put a picture out of it, I was trying to put together a panoramic view picture of the it, but my brain isn't working anymore, so im not gonna bother. And then I found this picture of this neat snowman.. PLUS I'm in it too!!! so the lake has got to go!
Guess thats it for now!

Stay tuned for day three

arild

Private School Party

2005-10-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, this is about all I can remember from that party. But i guess some other stuff happened too, here I am with Sarah and Karen, I think we are as drunk as we look;)

This weekend we spent in the rockies, rented two big ass cars and drove 1600 km! thats a good drive for one weekend. Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise - Amazing. I'll try and get some pictures up during this weekend, gotta sort them first. After all, we took over 1000 pictures alltogether.

Enjoy your weekends everybody. This is October 14th!! I cant believe how fast time flies by. Nielsen leaves for Gibraltar in a week, and then I will only have about one month left here in canada. ONE MONTH?!??!?!?!! unbelieveable.

Fo'shizzle.

Arild

Steinar, Tom and Me

2005-10-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Steinar came in to visit this weekend, because of the Audioslave concert. We had a wicked time on thursday after the concert, and on a desolate bar in the outskirts of town guess who we met!
Tom Morello. Wicked. So, the bar was not very crowded so we had a chat about touring Norway and about Steinars beautiful sister which Tom met this summer at Quart. (He said he was a perfect gentleman... Anna?)
Loved having Steinar over, felt good to see a face from back home!
Today is "Private school party", I just bought a shirt and a tie, and tomorrow is the octoberfest. Phew.. hard weekend!

Arild

Hjemlig glede

2005-09-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

En liten hjemlig notis for de som ikke har fått det med seg. Børre og Monica har blitt stolte foreldre til ei lita jente. (GRATULERER).

Terry Fox Marathon

2005-09-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

Funny, i was reading dagbladet.no today, and I came across this thing about Terry Fox.

http://www.dagbladet.no/magasinet/2005/09/16/443568.html

Was funny, because its the only thing they talk about over here these days. Terry Fox was a student at SFU when he got cancer and lost his leg. We are all running the Terry Fox run next week, its kind of a tradition at school that everybody runs it. So go ahead, y'all can do it back home and think of the good cause that you are supporting, and think of me at the same time!

lol
luv arild

Saxen

2005-09-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Jeg har fått meg slips!!!

To stykker tilogmed! he hehe

fytti.

Pimp and Ho Party

2005-09-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a 'pimp and ho' party, have a looksee, (I'm Hugh Hefner on the right there), ill try and get some more pictures from the party, (just as much for my part as for the blog, somehow the night is kinda blurry!)
And yes, i know, what is the sailor doing there?

koz å klemz

International boat cruise

2005-09-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

Nice ey? you'd think it was the carribean though it isn't, it's just outside Vancouver! On friday, all the international students went on a boat cruise, big boat, the ABITIBI. nice boat, nice weather, horrible DJ. all together a pretty ok night.

The Grouse Grind!

2005-09-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

HI THERE

Grouse mountain is 4005ft high (that's 1200 meters) , and on sunday we mounted her. By bus by skytrain by seabus and last but certainly not least, by foot. This is the group at the foot of the mountain: Elise, Sophie, Arild, Dannyboi, Hans and Rachel. The sign says something like "if you die, dont blame us, it's steep, there are black bears in the area. Its dangerous." (only in nicer words). The sign wasn't lying either, it was very steep indeed. The whole group of 8 people used about one and a half hours to get up there, (we didn't start completely at the foot of the mountain to be completely honest. But in either way, we were proud of the accomplishment. Daniel was group leader, and I was crowd control. Not easy to keep track of the sheep you know. Wouldn't want no wandering around when there are bears in the area! At the top, Daniel had treats for the group, crackers and some strange asian fruit that i cannot remember the name for but it looked kinda like a grape. This is the proud moment when everybody was at the top!Angeline, Daniel Elise
Diane Rachel Arild Hans
Sophie

At the top there was something else waiting, A BEAR, i was hoping to see a bear all day long, but all the noise from the people hiking up the mountain must have scared them away. But at the top they had a bear in captivity, (they had saved him cause his mother was killed in a car accident) Look he's taking a bath!
They had wolves and all there too, two timberwolves, one white and one grey. They were a little shy, so no good photos of them. To get down the mountain we took a cable car instead of walking, (it was 20$ to get up and 5$ to get down, reward for the hikers). The wiev from up there was amazing, could see all of Vancouver! We were lucky with the weather too as you can see.

Aight thats it for now. tonight we are going to a "pimp and ho party" stay tuned for the pictures from that night ey;)

lotsa love arild.

Saxen

2005-09-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Skal jeg sende deg en 3 litring med melk??? nam nam.

hiya!

2005-09-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

My first week in Vancouver has been so amazing! The trip was all right, apart from that I ended up next to an Aussie who wouldn`t stop talking! I gave her my sudoku book to get her to shut up, but she had so much trouble trying to solve the puzzles that I ended up as her tutor...
When I got to the airport I was met by some people from SFU that guided me to the right place, and drove me all the way up to my place at campus, Townhouse 63D. The first week here has been really busy, I`ve been attending the orientation program, which means that students at SFU are guiding us around campus and around town. wednesday and thursday was orientation around school, friday we walked around in town, and on saturday we visited Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley park, that place was so amazing, check this guy out!
This funny animalthingy is called aBeluga, i have never seen anything like that! it lives in the arctic, and has a lot of fat on it. Good ting too so it doesn`t freeze to death. They had all kinds of funny animals there, sea otters, seals, dolphins, octopuses sharks giant Fishes from the amazone clownfish it was so cool. The beluga tried to squirt water on us, but we didn`t get too wet, look at Rachel she is trying to hide from the water!

Rachel is such a nice girl, she makes me dinner cus she doesnt want me to eat junk food all the time. She is from New Zealand which supposedly makes her a kiwi. Up till now I actually thought that was a fruit tho! I have met loads of nice people here, this is me with some of my new friends, from the left Angelina from France, ME, Joannie from BC, and Karen from the UK.

we all went to see the Belugas. I wanted to buy a toy beluga, but it didnt do the real one justice, so I left it there. On Saturday we went out in downtown Vancouver. That was really funny I think, cant remember all that well. tomorrow, on monday, we are going to go hiking up Grouse mountain. I`m really looking forward to getting out there, the scenery here is so unreal, even for me as a Norwegian! We`ve got monday off because it`s labour day, so classes doesn`t start untill tuesday. Can`t really say that I`m looking forward to it no. But it`ll be all right i guess.

More pictures! this is some of the guys that I hang out with, from the left; Rachel (Kiwi), Hans (he`s from Oslo as well), Stephanie (my roommate, she`s from France) Elise (Oslo), and Daniel (scotland. He's a real joker fo' sho'!) Its a bad pic i know but its all I got:)So, as y'all can see, im doing quite all right! I miss you all tho, I can't wait to see Nielsen in december! The trip for them hasn't gone as planned so far, but they seem to take it all with a smile, good going! don't forget to check out their progress at http://www.syblackbird.blogspot.com.

later skaters!

love arild.

Well there

2005-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hello
Don't worry Im all safe, write more later.

love

Packing Hell

2005-08-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Packing for a whole year aint easy... Especially when the scenery will be so different. From rainy/snowy Vancouver to the scolding heat in The Caribbean to windy days at sea crossing the pacific. My room is filled with stuff, if some fucker hadn't stolen my camera I would have shown y'all. Raingear, bathingshorts, schoolbooks, sunblock, wintershoes, flip floppers. (get it?). Well, tomorrow is the big departure day, landing in Vancouver around four o'clock. Then its just to shake off the jetlag and get ready for a week of partying.

Next stop; Vancouver.

2005-08-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

So one year away from Norway begins. Starting off with 4 months on studying English at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (http://www.sfu.ca). While I am here, I will hopefully get some skiing done, back to Whistler, whohoo (http://www.whistler-blackcomb.com), and probably also some studying;)
In December, after the exams are passed (hopefully), the trip continues down to the caribbean blue. Here I will meet up with my best mate Nielsen and his family, on the boat 'Blackbird' (http://www.syblackbird.blogspot.com) that will be my home away from home from home for the next 6 months. For more information about the trip, click the blacbird link, or go to http://www.bluewaterrallies.co.uk.
Anyway, this is the route I will be joining 'the Blackbird' on

Caribbean cruising 20.12.05. 31.01.06
San Blas 31-06.02.06. 03.02.06. 05.02.06.
Panama 07-24.02.06.
Galapagos 05-16.03.06. 12.03.05. 15.03.05.
Marquesas 02-12.04.06.
Tahiti 01-06.05.06.
Moorea 06-11.05.06.
Tonga 16-28.06.06.
Fiji, Savu Savu 01-09.07.06.

Nice, 'innit?

see you all soon