Cross country skiing

Since this will be my last winter in Norway for the duration of my PhD programme, I decided to try as much as possible winter sports in here. I did ice skating few weeks ago with Yeliz and Asma. I don't have any picture for the moment, so I'll talk about it later(insyaAllah).

Last week, Asma and I had a plan to go skiing for the first time. A female Professor had offered me her ski equipment to lend for the weekend. However Asma couldn't fine a set for her. So for not wasting my energy walking to the professor's house to get them last Sunday and send back (which I have to do this week) , I decided to try skiing by myself, just around my house (there're very thick snow). I looked for basic lessons in YouTube. After went through several videos, I was uncertain whether I could do it there. I called Kak Idah, a Malaysian doctor married to a Norwegian and work in a hospital in here, in order to clarify myself. She said that people don't ski in front of the house. They go to places where tracks are provided. Hence she invited me to come to her place and then we could ski together.

She lent me her water resistance pants (so I won't get wet very quickly), less thick jacket (while skiing, one usually sweats. Thick jacket will make me uncomfortable after sometimes), a 'leg warmer kind of' to protect the snow from getting inside my shoes and also a snow hat. It was about minus 10 celcius and snowing. I put on 2 layers of long legs, 1 layer of long sleeves and 1 wool shirt inside. Also a wool 'serkup' under my 'tudung' and wool socks for my feet.

We skied for 2km before stop for a small reward; a cup of hot chocolate. Unfortunately as we approached the counter, we just realized that both of us left our money inside the car. Huhu. So no reward. We decided to continue skiing for another 1 and half a km before turned back. That means we had skied for 7km. We could actually make a circle, but it would take us more than 4 km longer. We didn't have much time as we had to head home for asar prayer.

It was such a wonderful experience. I didn't have that much problem to move on flat surfaces and climbing hills. However I really need to improve on my downhill skill. I felt down several times on my butt as my feet moved faster than my body (I should bend my body forward more next time). None of them hurt me except one when the front part of my skies accidentally crossed together while going down a quite steep hill. That time I landed on my ski. Ouchhh!!!

Today, I started feeling some more pain; my arms and thighs, as I already expected. However, I'm not frigthened off. I will try it again some other times when I'm available.

At the only 'reward' center.

Thumbs up for cross country skiing.

Thanks to Kak Idah for guiding me.