NSCF-FXC Racing

Day 3- What an amazing day in Gallivare, Sweden! The temperature has been a balmy -2C uhhh I mean 28F and the trails are much much better than yesterday. With an inch of new snow, the trails up at Hellner Stadion have been World Cup quality. Throughout the trail system there are camera platforms to film the WC races that happen here and also media booths in the stadium for TV channels like EuroSport to broadcast the races all over Europe.

Hellner Stadion with the media booths and main building. Kira, Claire and Ema skiing.

We started off the day with sun shining through our window and with everyone in a much better mood than the last few days. Jetlag has finally worn off. Yay!!! After a Swedish breakfast of... Nutella, and many other things of course we were off to the trails. Nick divided us up into groups and while some went skiing, he worked with one group and filmed technique and attempted to criticize us, although he's to nice to do that. It was very cool to watch the video and see yourself skiing just like WC skiers do when they are skiing down the trails (well almost maybe not as fast though). I was amazed at the transformation the trails had undergone from just the small amount of snow that had fallen. The Piston Bullies are amazing and its going to be awesome the see the new one in action up at our ski trails in Fairbanks. After our ski everyone gathered to take pictures and play around on the fast snow. We drove back and had lunch then had homework/nap/more eating/play games/work on the computer time. 'Quite time' as Nick likes to call it, but NOT 'nap time' as that would throw off our sleep schedule, yet someone always seems to sneak by the rule.

After 'quiet time' Nick and Linky stayed behind at the Bed and Breakfast, and the rest of the crew went walking down the hill into town. I could tell that we weren't in Fairbanks anymore. The friendliness just wasn't there and I could tell that I was a tourist just by the way people acted around us. There were cases though were people would say 'hi' and stuff but it felt weird to almost be ignored... oh well though, its still an amazing place. We walked down to the walking trail by the river where there was of course a ski trail and we made our way to a big castle that everyone was fixed on getting too. Everyone in Sweden are very fit and while we were walking on the path lots of people pasted walking, running and skiing. Its cool to see that type of lifestyle here. On our way back from the walk we stopped to get Pizza that Erica insisted was the best ever. Inside the shop she had to speak Swedish (which has become a valuable asset on this trip) in order to get it. Most people here speak English but there are a few that don't which can cause a problem... But the whole team is beginning to learn. One of our favorite words so far is 'utfart' which means exit road. Many of their words here are very long so we have fun trying to pronounce the word but know we are totally butchering it. That's all from this side of the world!

Quote of the day: "It's not a team sport, that's why I do it (skiing.)" ~Mikayla

Here are some pictures from the day!

-Neill Toelle