Magdas funderingar

Autumn at the village

2008-09-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

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

Exciting Weekend

2008-08-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

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....?

Opening Day

2008-08-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

49 kids! That's a lot of new villagers filling our dining hall tonight. Today we began our biggest session of the summer, and things are certainly busier around here. Half of the kids that arrived here today are completely new to our program. We're working hard to help these kids feel welcome. I remember my first summer at Sjölunden. I was 14 and didn't know a thing about Sweden. I'd never seen a dalahäst, nor had I heard of St. Lucia. Everything was new, and I was really nervous. But from that first night my counselors made me feel welcome, and our cabin worked as a team to write new lyrics to a favorite old ABBA song. That turned out to be a wonderful summer that changed my life forever. I hope the villagers who arrived today have the same positive experience as I had. Our staff is sure working to make sure that this happens!

Nu är det jul igen...

2008-07-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've heard the Swedish Christmas song that goes 'nu är det jul igen'. It translates as 'now it's Christmas again'. Yesterday was indeed Christmas at Sjölunden, and it caused our new Swedes on staff to chuckle. Imagine being served a warm Lucia bun on a warm July night. Or to dress up in red pajamas and a red stocking cap as you swat away the mosquitoes. Christmas at our village is truly special. Somehow we manage to decorate the dining hall enough so that you can almost feel as if you've been transported 2 seasons into the future. Watching Kalle Anka while eating rice pudding certainly helps too.

Tonight is restaurant night, and the kids have been talking all week about who they want to go with. They will all have to call in to make reservations for a table tonight. And our staff will transform from counselors into wait staff and pizza chefs. It's always an adventure! Watch for the pictures later tonight!

Staff Orientation

2008-07-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

There are a few words being thrown around liberally this week at our staff orientation. Those words include 'på svenska' (in Swedish), 'roligt' (fun), and 'jätte bra idee' (really good idea). This week our entire staff is living at Bemidji State University and attending numerous workshops on how to teach language in the village. It's also a chance for us to get to know each other, and to begin to plan things like the first night in the stuga (cabin) and which activities we will offer during the first session.
Tonight we are having a song exchange, and we've been practicing camp songs all week to help the new staff get acquainted with them before they are expected to teach them. We will also get the chance to learn songs in Italian, Japanese and Korean. In fact, there are 9 other villages here, with staff from all over the world. But you can tell us apart by our blue and yellow clothing and all that blonde hair!

Time to get ready to sing!
Magda

Summer begins!

2008-07-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hej allihopa! Summer is back, and so is my blog!
It's been a long winter here in Minnesota, and I'm excited about getting ready for camp. Are you ready? It's time to pull out the Swedish t-shirts and shorts, and gather all the magazines, books, posters and games I've collected during the year, and drive my little car up to Bemidji. We have 9 native Swedes working this summer, and so far 7 of them are in the Twin Cities. The last two arrive on Saturday. The 7 that are here are all helping out at the American Swedish Institute's summer day camp this week. I'm looking forward to meeting most of them tomorrow.

Today Annika came to my home to work on our Orientation schedule. We also talked about where we will house villagers and staff, and we are very excited about our new cabin! It makes housing so much easier! I posted some photos of the new cabin on the website, so I hope you'll go take a look.

I've seen a few of you during the year, and it's been great to keep in touch! I can't wait to see everyone else on an opening or closing day this summer. Keep checking this blog for updates about Sjölunden 2008!
Vi ses snart!
Magda

Fall colors at the village

2007-10-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

I just returned from 4 days up in Bemidji. The fall colors are slightly past peak, but the views were lovely nonetheless. Kajsa met me there to spend a few days planning curriculum and programs for summer 2008 and beyond. But the real highlight was a trip down the path to see the progress on our first residential cabin. The walls are up, the roof is on and the windows are in. It's really amazing to see. And the boat house and weaving studio both looked just adorable in the fall colors. All that was missing were the people- but fortunately the Swedish Elderhostel group arrived last night and I'm sure the village is bustling with activity now. I only wish I were there to enjoy it. I have posted some new photos on our website, so be sure to go look.

Our next Swedish program is the spring Adult week in March, followed by the Family Fun Weekend in April. Be sure to enroll so that you can be among the first to use these new facilities.

I also wanted to mention that our new Twin Cities group for high school students, På gång, is actively meeting at the American Swedish Institute. Learn more, or join here: http://www.americanswedishinst.org/educate.htm#school_groups
I also noticed they have a facebook group, so those of you who are on facebook and are curious to see what they are up to, should check that out.

Vi ses!
Magda

End of summer

2007-09-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

We are well into September and many of us are longing for those sunny summer days of camp. Recently I received new pictures of the progress being made on our first cabin. I've posted these pictures under the 'Vi bygger' section of the website, and I invite you to go take a look.

Here in Saint Paul I still see many Swedish friends on a regular basis. On Sunday I met Magnus for breakfast at IKEA, and on Thursdays I sing with Sandra in the Swedish women's group The Cloudberries. Our Swedish preschool program, Barndalen, started up last week, and it's great to see so many young children learning Swedish. Did you know our teachers in that program are 2 former Sjölunden counselors?

A new young peoples group called På Gång has started up at the American Swedish Institute. Sandra, who leads the group, told me we had nearly 30 members! And most of them are Sjölunden villagers! Way to go!

Keep watching the Sjölunden website for some fall activities, including some fun Swedish tv shows you can watch on your computer. We'll keep updating the site throughout the year!
Magda

The last hurrah!

2007-08-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of our last session. 34 1-week villagers and 4 families arrived during a cool and rainy afternoon at Sjölunden. We did our best to keep the energy level high- we blared Swedish pop music over the speakers, hung blue and yellow flags everywhere and served delicious cardamom breads and coffee to our guests. But it wasn't until all the villagers had arrived that the program came to life! We sang Pippi Longstockings, ate meatballs with lingonberries and then finished off the evening with a troll story at the fire pit. Så härligt!

This week we are a smaller staff, just 12 of us are working this session. Among our staff are 2 counselors who I first worked with in 1993. Lisa was a counselor and folk dance teacher that year, which was our last year at the old site (Maplelag- now a site for our Spanish village). Now Lisa has 3 children, the oldest of which is a villager. What fun to reminisce about 1993 which was our first year on staff for both of us! Tonight we realized that Pappa Björn was also on staff with us that year, although he only worked a week. So this week is especially fun as we try to hunt down pictures from that year. If we find any good ones, we'll be sure to show you!

A final thought... in the last 2 days we noticied that the leaves are starting to turn color in the cooler weather. Here's a photo of my clogs in the fall leaves.

Our last full day...

2007-08-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's a bittersweet day at Sjölunden today. It's the last full day of the 2 and 4 week sessions. I cannot believe how fast these last 2 weeks have gone. It's feels like I just wrote the blog about the older villagers arriving. This morning I sat with all of the 2-weekers while they took a few minutes to write down their reflections about the session. We did this exercise on their 2nd day at the village too. But today it was particularly beautiful. The sun was shining and we listened to Swedish jazz music while we wrote down our thoughts on the goals we set 2 weeks ago, and what we have accomplished this session. I encourage all parents to ask their villagers about what they wrote in their CLVisa's today.

The bell has just rung for our last lunch together. Tonight we will enjoy a banquet. Our 4-week credit students will enjoy the chance to celebrate their accomplishements. Sjölunden is the only place in North America where young people can earn high school credit for studying Swedish. Our 37 students have done a wonderful job using Swedish day in and day out. This morning they made 'studentmössar', the Swedish graduation hats. You'll be able to see pictures of these hats on our website tomorrow.

Wish us well tonight as we dance at the disco, and then watch a slide show of the session. We are all experiencing the excitement of getting to see our families and friends again, but also the sadness of having to leave this very special place. But as we like to tell the kids, we don't say 'hej då', but rather 'vi ses', because we will see each other again before too long!
Vi ses!
Magda

Midsommar at the village

2007-08-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

It's Monday and we had a very exciting weekend at Sjölunden! Many of you were here for International Day on Friday. We began the day with the dedication of our first 2 buildings at Sjölunden: the weaving studio and our very cute boat house. We also have steps that lead down to the lake, and at the bottom of the steps is a lovely little spot to sit and drink your morning coffee...ahhh. That afternoon our villagers joined hundreds of other villagers at Waldsee for the International Day festivities. We wore bright yellow t-shirts and were easily the most visible group at the festival! We sang a song together with our Danish friends during the closing program. Unfortunatly I only got to see pictures of these events because I was in a wedding down in the Twin Cities that afternoon. But what I have heard from the kids and from the staff is that it was a simply wonderful experience! I am so proud of our village!
Yesterday was Midsommar at the Village. In the middle of our 2 week sessions we have traditionally celebrated Midsommar as a day of rest and relaxation. Midsommar means no language groups, no scheduled activities, and no classes for the credit students. We start our morning with breakfast in the cabins. Each cabin puts in an order for 'stug-service' and then arrives at the kitchen to pick up their basket. They eat on the porches of their cabins. It's a very calm and enjoyable experience for both villagers and counselors.
Later we prepare our Maypole and dining hall for the festivities. We take cabin pictures, and dance around the Maypole before eating our huge 'Midsommar Smörgåsbord'. That afternoon we enjoy extra long free time, and a village-wide game of Swedish baseball (brännboll). That night we have a picnick, followed by a camp fire. Last night I saw the girls cabins jumping over fences and picking 7 different flowers. In Sweden, girls pick the flowers and jump over 7 fences before placing the flowers under their pillows. Legend has it that they'll dream of the man they are going to marry!

Big Kids

2007-08-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

The big kids have arrived! Yesterday was the first day of our older 2-week session and 47 young people arrived ready to learn Swedish. I am really impressed with all our new villagers who are here for the very first time. It takes courage to start learning a new language and to come into a village like Sjölunden. It can be pretty intimidating, with so many kids who have been here for SO many years. It makes me think back to my own first summer at camp. I originally ended up at Swedish because the German camp was full! And so I arrived on the first day after customs had closed. I was the last kid to show up. I was 13 years old and had never heard a word of Swedish in my life. I had never seen a Dalahäst, nor had I heard of St. Lucia. I didn't know what mormor meant, and I had never worn clogs before. When I got to my cabin there were no more beds left, so I got to sleep on a couch in the cabin.

Within the first few hours I began to get the hang of things. And then for evening program my counselors Nica and Ingrid told us we had to make up our own cabin song. Then they played a song for us and it was noneother than ABBA! I knew ABBA because my mother was a fan. But I didn't know that they were Swedish! From that evening program on, I knew that Sjölunden was the place for me. The first evening of the older session always makes me remember how scary the first day at camp can be, but also how wonderful it is when your cabin pulls together to create something new. Last night our cabins created cabin songs and I saw many new faces laughing in the light of our campfire. What a wonderful sight!

Swedish Christmas in July

2007-07-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Nu är det jul igen! This is the text from a Swedish Christmas song- now it's Christmas again. This song has special meaning at the village where we celebrate Christmas every other week. Last night Lucia came to our cabins. Traditionally, Lucia comes early on the morning of December 13th when the days are short and the nights are at their darkest. Because it's summer and we don't want to do Lucia before the sun rises (which is around 5 am in Northern Minnesota), we instead do Lucia around midnight the night before. Last night the electricity went out at our site, and indeed all around northern Bemidji, right around 11:15, making for a VERY dark night at Sjölunden. But Lucia went on as planned, and it was extra lovely to hear the chior singing outside when our whole world was dark and silent. According to my alarm clock, we must have regained electricity around 2 am.

Today we're thankful for cooler temperatures, after a long week of 90 degrees plus. Right now it's activity time and a group of kids are at the beach sailing, while other weave in our new weaving studio. There's a chior practicing upstairs and kids painting in the craft room. A group of villagers is playing ultimate frisbee out on the soccer field, and another is slinking around doing 'spy' activities. Just another day at Sjölunden!

Visiting our new site

2007-07-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today the entire staff went out to Salolampi AND to the new Sjölunden site. We enjoyed a meal together at the newly constructed weaving studio, and did several hours worth of planning and meetings. Our sailing staff headed down to the beach to practice their skills, and our credit teachers began planning their lessons. We met our new head cook, David, and also spent some time observing the Salolampi program in action. On our bus ride back, the staff broke into song as Axel played our favorite tunes on the guitar. Looking at back at the staff from the front of the bus, it was very reminiscent of a classic summer camp movie- except all in Swedish! Smiling faces, slightly pink from a day in the sun, singing happily as the bus bounced back towards Bemidji. What a beautiful sight!

Orientation

2007-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Sommaren är här!
It's finally summer, and 2007 Sjölunden staff have gathered on the campus of Bemidji State University in northern Minnesota to prepare for upcoming sessions. Our staff consists of many names familiar to returning villagers: Kajsa, Pia, Linda, Sandra, Ellinor, Isak and many more. We also have 7 native Swedes coming from Stockholm, Falun, Ljusdal, Linköping and Malmö. Our staff is excited to get to out to the Village and to create this very special place that so many of us call home each summer.

Because I am the Dean, during our orientation I stay in private room on the first floor of one of the residence halls. My window looks out onto a plush lawn where the Language Villages staff like to congregate. I am accustomed to laughter and chatter in various world languages late into the night as the staff get to know each other and debrief the workshops of the day out on the lawn outside my window. I usually drift off to sleep lulled by the happy voices outside my window. But this morning I was actually awoken by the music of my favorite band- ABBA. And not only that- outside my window were the Swedish staff doing Friskis och Svettis. Friskis och Svettis is sort of like Jazzercize- it's a national aerobics group in Sweden, characterized by it's friendly and encouraging leaders wearing red spandex shorts and white t-shirts. They were clapping and jumping and making me feel a bit lazy. One of our Credit Teachers, Ebba, is an official Friskis och Svettis teacher and she'll also lead aerobics this summer at Sjölunden. So tomorrow morning I think I'll join them!