Exciting Weekend

Hej allihopa!
Wow- now that's what I call a weekend! It all started on Friday with International Day. We hosted a dedication ceremony recognizing the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation's generous gift of the first cabin at our new site. We named the cabin 'Visby', after the medieval walled city on the island of Gotland. Our site plan showcases the look of a Swedish coastal village, and have decided that the cabins will be named after Sweden's ancient cities of Visby, Birka, Sigtuna and Gamla Uppsala.
The ceremon was lovely- the villagers sang, I received a large key to the new cabin, and we got the most exciting news about our building campaign to date. We received a pledge of $1 million to build our main building at the new site! This gift will come over the next few years, so we aren't going into the ground just yet, but it sure is great to know that a dining hall is in the works! I am simply amazed at the generosity of our supporters! Our new main building will be called 'Uppsala'. This is fitting as Uppsala is an academic and historically significant city in Sweden. It is also just north of Stockholm, and our current dining hall at the Finnish village has always been called 'Stockholm' when the Swedihs program is in session. We are very excited about adding 'Uppsala' to this site!

Yesterday was Midsommar here at the village, and we enjoyed a relaxing summer day. We slept in, ate breakfast in our cabins, and prepared the site for Midsommar. We danced around the majstång and ate a huge smörgåsbord. Then I even found some time to go sailing while the villagers napped in their cabins. Last night we played Volleyboll and Brännboll, and finished the day singing around the camp fire. The credit villagers enjoyed some star gazing before bed as well.

And so now it's Monday, and while things are a little calmer since we are back to our normal schedule, there are many fun activities in the works for this week. Tomorrow our credit villagers are going to visit the Italian village for a Viking invasion of Sicily! The two-weekers will stay here and celebrate Christmas. On Wednesday we all have restaurant night together, and we are looking forward to our Greek meal!

Keep watching our website for pictures and updates! I'm sure you'll be interested to watch our invasion tomorrow. Now where did we put all those viking helmets....?