A new challenge: learning to row

I spent this weekend in Ålesund, a beautiful town on the coast of Norway. It is famous for its buildings in Art Nouveau architecture. But this time I was not in the city to enjoy it and what it has to offer, but to learn a new sport: rowing.

When I told my grandmother that I was taking up rowing, she instantly called my crazy. In some way I think she is right: learning a new sport at my age is not the same as learning it when you're child. First of all one is not as fearless and second  one is more conscious about what one is doing and whether it is right or not. But I had to give it a go. And man it was hard! First of all I had to overcome my fear of falling into the water, then I had to start working on a getting it right. As it is a lot of new things to think about, it was very exhausting to concentrate about every movement I did. But in the end, when I managed to relax a bit, it got better and started to be fun=) A big thanks to everyone who tried to make me understand what rowing is! And for being patient.

Apart from the training, I got to know a lot a nice people and I ended up having a really nice weekend. The rowing is through the student sports club, NTNUI. There are a lot of sports offered at the club, and every group is open for new members that either has or has not tried the sport before. During my time here as a student I have tried several other new sports for example tenshi tsume and boogie. To join a group is a great way to make new friends and this weekend two exchange students from the Netherlands joined us rowing.

Other highlights from the weekend was rowing just meters away from a killer whale family, rowing for are bare lifes to get away from a huge passenger boat and a walking trip up to Fjellstua which gave a beautiful view of the city. As we were on top of Fjelltstua we also got to experience how fast the weather in this part of Norway changes. Luckily we managed to get back to our cars before it started hailing.

Sadly I don't have any photoes of the actual rowing as I was occupied holding on to my oar the whole time, but I can assure you the scenery was indeed very nice:)