Hokies

Virginia Tech have a really good football team (american football of course...) They are just called the Hokies (see bellow and here) and everybody here is totally crazy about it... On thursday there were a football game here too, Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech. VT won :) That day it was totally crazy around here. A LOT of people crowded around in little Blacksburg. And Tailgating EVERYWHERE ... Fascinating concept...

Another fascinating thing was Rockey Horror Picture Show, which me and Christer went to yesterday evening. Very recommended to see a proper version with shadowplay and crowd interaction and everything :D

Me and the Hokie at Squires student centre, VT.

Virginia

Me and Christer are now in Blacksburg, working at Virginia Tech. We are visiting Diana, who are a really nice and incredible good professor in material science. Basically we are just working a LOT here (which is good, because we learn a lot and get a lot done). Last weekend however, we went hiking in the Appalachian mountains. A really pretty place if I may say so :)

Christer and the Torgersen building, where the lab is. Why do we always end up in the building with a part over the street? At least it feels like home :) Virginia Tech is generally a really pretty place. Very small town with almost only the large university. Seems like a really good student environment here.

Christer and Diana

A little fishy!

The cascades, where we went hiking.

Mountainbiking Mammoth Lakes - The story of an unplanned roadtrip

I am now in the states visiting Martin at Stanford. This weekend we wanted to go away, but we did not really know where and what to do. Just before leaving we decided to go mountain biking in the Sierras. The weather we forgot to check and the distance goggle maps claimed was about 5 hours.

We was planing on going early, but ended up leaving Palo Alto at around 5.30 pm-ish. This meant rush traffic about all the way to Livermore, which is normally an hour... When we then got to Yosemite national park and Tuolumne meadows it was really dark, and raining.... and misty... and windy road... And when we got to the pass over to the other side of the mountains, which is about 9 950 ft (quite high) it was also snowing. All this resulting in us using a lot more than 5 hours, and getting to bet at 2 in the morning.

Saturday, however, we where a bit tired, but got a really nice day biking :) Sunday, it was raining again. And it was really windy. And snowing at around 8500ft (Mammoth Lake is around 8000ft). We got some really nice biking anyway though. A bit cool only... :)

Since it was so cold and rainy, we decided to leave a bit early and get back to Palo Alto early. But as we came to the pass over the mountain, it was closed... And so was the two next passes north... We actually had to drive almost to Lake Tahoe to get back... Which meant an 7 hour drive... But we did get to see a lot, and we did have a lot of fun :)

Me!

Me and Martin with Mammoth Lakes in the background.
Martin.
Me biking in the snow on Sunday.
Completly soaking wet, cold and ready to go home. We got some comments when we went out biking in the horrible weather :)

At the gas station at the turn out to Tioga pass over to Yosemite... Where we stopped to ask what to do. Seems like we weren't the only ones wondering :)

Biking in the alps

This week I am on a conference in Freiburg, Germany. However, to get there I had to fly to either Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Zurich and then take the train. So ofcource that had to be exploited, so I asked Marianne if she wanted a visitor for a weekend. Marianne found out we should go mountainbiking, which is probably one of the better ideas ever. We got full suspention bikes and went to Vallis with Fabienne, Andy and Ruth. Andy showed us some of his favorite trails, which is just awsome! I have never been on a real mountain biking tour like this before, I have only been for training tours in bymarka and such, which is nice, but not as awsome as this. I am totally gonna mountain bike more!

Lunch day 1, biking part of the holy trail :D Andy, Fabienne, Ruth and Marianne

Fabienne


Andy

Pronounced Bitch :)

Biking second day, 1000m up from Binn, 2000m down to Brig. Got some snow, but totally awsome

Laban biking Switzerland

Rescue course

Me and Vibeke was on a climbing rescue course this weekend. Very interesting, nice to know what to do if the one you are climbing with get injured.


A butterfly didn't understand that Teresas homemade chalk bag was not a flower :)

Everyone listening to Jarle the instructor


Vibeke is coming to rescue me, as I am hanging "injured" in the wall :)

Jarle supervising Teresa getting rescued .

Sea kayaking Helgeland

Last weekend I was with the kayak group of NTNUI sea kayaking in Helgeland (almost at home!! :) A very nice weekend, and I learned a lot!

Siri making coffe while waiting for the ferry in the morning. We where supposed to take it the night before, but we where to late... So we had to sleep by the road...

Lunch :)

Eating shrimps :)

BBQ in the evening.

We paddled out to see the old stone carvings at Rødøya which is 4-5000 years old. This is probably a kayak.

This is the first proof in history of skiing!

Siri rolling the kayak

Me trying (not very successfully...) to roll... People who can roll probably see straight away what I do wrong.

ECF18 - Dresden

First week of September we where at the European Conference of Fracture in Dresden. My first conference. Very interesting, but quite scare to talk about my work in front of strangers... In October, I will go on my next conference, MMM5 (Multiscale Materials Modeling) in Freibourg. Got a lot of Germany.... But its nice there at least :)

Most of the NTNU delegation at the dinner. Christian, Bjørn, Erling, me and Christer.


I love the east German green man!!

Dresden! Pretty city.

End of summer

Some random pictures from the last part of summer 2010. Now it seems like the summer is over and autumn is here.... Temperature is down on 13 degrees, it has been raining quite a lot and i've gotten sick.... So its nice to look back on a really nice summer :)

One long weekend was spent on Martins cabin in Sandefjord. First with Martins mother and sister and then with some friends. Here is Martin on his yacht... :)

Astrid belaying in Sandefjord. The climbing there was actually really nice!


Kristin climbing. (or posing at that moment :)

Dinner! Martin, Line, Henrik, Astrid and Kristin

View from the Cabin

BBQ in Korsvika on a sunny afternoon :)

And me bouldering in Korsvika same sunny afternoon (it was unfortunately not that many of them...)
Martin :)
The world championship in orienteering was arranged in Trondheim beginning of August. I have been in the board for this the last 4 years, and it was therefore really fun to see it was a success with also really nice weather! Here is me as the mascot Foxo

Orienteering sprint in Trondheim town square! Lot of people and lot of fun! One of the best thing with the whole championship was Carl winning middle distance final! Go Carl! I most also mention that Mathilde won the norwegian championship for 14-16 year olds which was organized the same time, for girls 16! Totally awesome!