Autumn at the village

Hejsan alla!
It's been a couple weeks since I last wrote. In that time we had a successful 1-week session which was followed by 2 days of packing and cleaning Sjölunden and Salolampi. It was difficult to say good-bye to the villagers, and even harder to say good-bye to our wonderful staff. I feel truly fortunate to have been able to work with such a wonderful group of Swedish teachers from across the United States, Canada and Sweden! Let's hope that they all come back next summer! Tack för iår!

Some of you know that I began a new position this fall at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, a school located about 1 hour north of the Twin Cities. As an Assistant Professor, I'm teaching 2 sections of an intro to education course, and 1 section of 'World Languages Pedagogy'. I was delighted on my first day of classes to see that I have student who spent his summer teaching Spanish at El Lago del Bosque! He recognized me immediately! I will be subjecting these future teachers of French, German and Spanish to the occasional Swedish lesson during the semester, to remind them of how it feels to be a beginning language learning. Also, I feel it really is for their own good. I mean, who doesn't need to learn Swedish?

Speaking of learning Swedish, if you're looking for some good websites to keep your Swedish up, check out my favorites:
www.aftonbladet.se (a popular newspaper, with a tabloid feel)
www.dn.se (the largest Swedish daily paper, definately not a tabloid)
www.svt.se (the television website- I love the show 'sommartorpet' where they renovate an old Swedish sommer cabin. Gosh, it sure would be fun to have an old Swedish summer cabin...but I guess I'll settle for our new Swedish cabins in Bemidji!)

I hope everyone has made a smooth transition back to school!
Vi hörs snart igen,
Magda