La Unión Hispano Helena de lengua y cultura en Tynset

 

Saturday, 12 of March 

The Greek team started its long journey to Tynset, Norway from Thessaloniki, Greece. Our first stop was in the city of Oslo where we had the chance to walk around the city center, see the Opera house and enjoy the - not so common - sunlight from its beautiful roof overlooking the entire city. Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to do a short tour to the Oslo fjord by boat, an experience which we will never forget! 

Sunday, 13 of March 

Our trip continued by arriving at our destination, Tynset, 263km heading north! The landscape was breathtaking. We were “glued” to the train windows looking at it during the entire journey. All six members of the Greek group were very excited to meet and work together with the rest of the teams. Visiting Norway means hunting the northern lights! So, we didn’t waste a second! The minute we left our luggages to the camping we were staying, we put on our warmest clothes and started our expedition late at night, since the locals informed us that they are visible only if there are no lights around! Unfortunately, we were not so lucky as it was too cloudy, but we did not lose hope! Tomorrow is another day! 

Monday, 14 of March 

Today was our first day of the weekly schedule arranged by our partners in Tynset and a very warm welcome from Sergio and the rest of the Norwegian team was planned! We had the opportunity to meet all the participants as each and every one presented themselves and said some words about them and we even played some ice-breaking games all together. After a lovely Norwegian lunch, we were honored to have a really interesting chat with Bersvend Salbu - a regional advisor in Tynset. We learned a lot about the history of Tynset and its local attractions, the Norwegian way of thinking and customs and, also, he explained to us how the Norwegian public system works. As a result, we had a much better idea of what Norway is. After a long day, our expedition to see the northern lights went on. We prepared ourselves and tried to find the perfect location to see them hiking even further high up the snowy hills! Unfortunately, we were not lucky enough today either, but no problem, we did not give up!

 Tuesday, 15 March 

On the second day of our project, we met at the adults education Center of Tynset where the city manager and the mayor of Tynset spent some time with us, welcomed us and shared with us their perspective of Tynset and Norway in general. We heard really interesting information regarding administrative procedures, other running projects of the community, the main resources of the country etc. Afterwards, Sergio gave us a video editing course using an application called iMovie. We learned how to add photos, videos, background music, titles, crop a video etc. and in pairs we created a small video based on what we’ve learned. What an exciting experience! After a short lunch break, all teams presented their work and one learned from the other! In the afternoon we had a surprise, and we were invited to an art workshop in the center of Tynset! We were taught specific techniques on how to create a stump, provided a tote bag and created our own and unique bag! We worked in small groups of two or three people and their result was almost professional! Mario’s from the workshop informed us that today is the day to see the northern lights, so we got prepared and went up the hill, set up our camera and wow, we witnessed this amazing phenomenon! It was worth it! 

Wednesday 16 of March 

The Norwegian group had organized a guided tour to a city close to Tynset called Roros. Roros is a picturesque village and our guide told us all the important details of its culture and history while walking around. Then, we had time to enjoy a hot coffee and traditional sweets, we bought souvenirs and returned to Tynset. On the way back we enjoyed the route, and we were surprised because we saw a small reindeer. In the evening, we went to a nice cafe near our camp. There we were divided into pairs, commented on some videos, and worked on their subtitles. Teamwork bonds teams, helps get to know a pertener better and makes the entire experience much more interesting! 

Thursday 17 of March 

On our fourth day we met again in the adult education center. Sergio showed us more details about the use of the application iMovie and then we created another one-minute video. We had a lot of fun with the presentation of our videos since by now we all knew each other and tried to make our videos even funnier. In the evening we were all invited to the Tynset Hotel for dinner. Everything was so tasty! The main course was a deer, something we tried for the first time, and we absolutely loved it! After our dinner, we danced to Italian, Spanish, Greek and Norwegian songs at the bar of Tynset Hotel. 

Friday, 18 of March 

This was our last day in Tynset. The Norwegian team had organized a day full of outdoors activities such as a snow-racer and cross-country skiing and funny games in the snow, so we were all excited about it. Friday was the warmest day of all, and the sun was shining, and it had just snowed last night so everything was perfect. The most amazing was the game of going down the hills on plastic mats. It was so amazing that we did it a hundred times! Then they showed us how a traditional barbecue in Norway is. After this funny day we returned to the Adult Education center where we all said our goodbyes. We took photos all together and returned to our campsite to prepare our suitcases to catch the train to Oslo. On the train ride we were tired from playing in the snow, but we were all feeling happy and content for this unique experience in Tynset.