For those of us here in the upper Midwest, it still looks like winter. However, you can be sure that summer is quickly approaching and it’s time to think about registering for Sjölunden. Did you know you can save 4% on your summer tuition just by registering before the end of February?! This year we also offer an online registration- and you can even pay in monthly installments.  The deadline for scholarships is also the end of this month, so be sure to fill out your application as soon as you can.

Have you heard about the På Gång Midvinterträff??

We are holding our first ever weekend for villagers ages 13-18 this spring.  The dates are March 19-21st, the place is Sjölunden (så klart!). The program is being organized together with the På Gång group at the American Swedish Institute. All of you who live within short driving distance to Bemidji or the American Swedish Institute (we will have a bus leaving from the institute) will be receiving an email with information on how to register in the next week or 2. You can also contact Ingrid at the ASI for more information.

Jag ser fram emot att se dig på Midvinterträffen och på Sjölunden i sommar!

Vi ses-

Magda

Gott nytt år! As we all begin the new year, Sjölunden begins a new tradition: The Nordic Immersion Ice Shanty Project! The Art Shanties will go out on Medicine lake in Plymouth, MN this month. The Swedish weekend is January 16th and 17th. Come by and prata svenska!

Vi behöver några frivilliga… We are looking for a few more villager volunteers to help us lead activities at the shanty on the Swedish weekend (1/16 or 1/17). Come on out!

Tack för hjälpen och vi ses på isen!

Magda

It’s time for the annual Julkalender! You can work on your Swedish by watching the Julkalender on SVT, or listen to Sveriges Radio’s Julkalender and play games on their website. 

 This year marks the 50th Christmas Calendar created by Swedish national television. The Julkalender is shown every morning and afternoon in Sweden, from December 1st through Christmas Eve. This year’s Julkalender is titled Superhjältejul!  Follow the adventures of the retired super heros and their grandchildren, Nova and Vega. You can watch a new episode everyday at the SVT website.

Sveriges Radio also offers an annual Julkalender starting on December 1st. Listen to the daily broadcasts online, and play the online games. There’s even a short text to read before listening, so you can prepare for listening to the show. Check out the fantastic website here!

You can also read ‘Nelly’s Blog‘ every day. Here’s some help to get you started. Read through the text- the  words in bold are translated below to help you out!

Hej och välkommen till min blogg!
Jag kommer skriva ett blogginlägg varje dag om vad som händer på mitt jullov här på Monster-
akademin! Fast det kanske inte händer så mycket, det är ju jul…

Tisdagen den 1 december 2009:

Mamma och pappa ville egentligen åka till fjällen med mig i jul, men jag hatar att åka skidor. De har försökt övertala mig att följa med men jag gick inte med på det. Man snubblar ju bara på skidorna när man åker i backarna. Man kan ju bryta nacken! Så jag åkte till farbror Hannibal istället.

Det kommer att bli mycket roligare. Det kommer bli skönt. Jag ser fram emot en lugn jul utan några uppdrag eller äventyr. Men jag blev verkligen överraskad när Skumma skäggiga gubben visade sig vara Robert Steen! Kul att han ska vara tomte.

Ett blogginlägg- a blog entry

vad som händer- what’s happening

på mitt jullov- during my Christmas break

Monsterakademin- the Monster Academy

att åka till fjällen- to go up to the mountains

att åka skidor- to ski

försökt övertala mig- tried to convince me

snubblar- fall down

i backarna- on the ski hills

bryta nacken- break your neck

lugn- calm, quiet

utan några uppdrag- without any tasks

överraskad- surprised

skumma skäggiga gubben- the creepy bearded old man

visade sig- turned out to be

tomte: elf

1. The Nordic Lights Film Festival  www.nordicfilmfest.com/twincities

I’ll be personally introducing the Finnish children’s Film ‘Mystery of the Wolves’. It starts Saturday, November 21st at 11am at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Come and see this very good film, and say hello to me too!

2. After the film, I’m heading to the American Swedish Institute for the annual Christmas Fair. I love to buy the cardamum bread and enjoy the music and activities. This is a great family event, and I’ll be singing with The Cloudberries too!

3. So many great events are happening at the American Swedish Institute this holiday season! Check their website to learn about the tomtenissefrukost, the julglädje and even Sankta Lucia. There will be lots of current and former Sjölunden staff and villagers around, so be sure to schedule in some of these events! American Swedish Institute Website

4. This January, we will be putting Sjölunden on ice! We are going to be hosting a Nordic Immersion Ice Shanty in Plymouth- learn more: http://www.artshantyprojects.org/

Jag ser fram emot att se dig under juletiden! Och ni som bor utanför Minnesota får gärna skicka information till mig om andra evangemang som ni tänker besöka. 

Vi ses-

Magda

The Fall Elderhostel program just wrapped up, and pictures from that program will be posted shortly. Check under our new ‘Year Round’ tab to find information about all the different programs happening between now and next summer.

Tills nästa gång…

Magda

If you are coming to pick up a villager tomorrow, we look forward to sharing with you some of what we’ve been up to this week.  We will start our parents’ program at 10 am.  We will of course be squeezing in a few last minute activities and fun stuff in the morning, so we would appreciate it if you would plan to arrive no earlier than 9:30 am, to allow us those last few minutes with your villagers.  We will have the village store open before the program to allow you to shop a bit before we get started.   Tack så mycket!

Vi ses i morgon!

—Kajsa

This week at Sjölunden we have four cabins named Hammarland, Närpes, Zmiyivka and Åland.  Never heard of those places?  Well, they all share a very interesting characteristic–they are all places outside of Sweden where Swedish is the primary language spoken.  Each year we choose a different theme for our cabin names and this year we chose places from the Swedish diaspora.  Emilia, who has been a counselor at Sjölunden for 5 years, has been encouraging us to use this theme for many years.  It’s been interesting to learn about more places where Swedish is spoken!  For example, Åland is an island between Sweden and Finland where Swedish is the primary language, but it is actually part of Finland.  Hammarland is a small village on Åland.  Närpes is a city in mainland Finland and is the largest primarily-Swedish-speaking community in Finland outside of Åland.  Närpes also produces a large percentage of Finland’s tomatoes and cucumbers, which the girls from Närpes taught us in their cabin song.  Zmiyivka is the most unique cabin name this week–it is the name of a community in the Ukraine with strong Swedish heritage.  In fact, the name translates into “Gammalsvenskby” (old Swedish village) in Ukranian!  The boys have loved living in a cabin with such a unique name and story.

You may also be wondering “varför ledarna heter så” (why the counselors are called that)?  If you’ve been watching the website for previous sessions this summer, you may have noticed that some of the counselors seem to have adopted alter egos this week.  Well, we’re still the same Swedish-speaking staff we’ve been all summer long, but some of us have decided to change names for the last week.  Why?  Well, each new group of villagers gets to choose Swedish names for themselves when they arrive at camp.  It’s always fun to see Emma become Engla and John become Johann.  But sometimes we counselors feel like we’re missing out on the fun!  Also, there are some great Swedish names that always seem to be overlooked, so we wanted to ressurect them.  So this week Kaj has become Hampus and he looks forward to celebrating his namnsdag (name day) on August 29th.  Åsa has become Åslög (namnsdag Sept 12th) and Ingrid has become My (most well known as a character in Moomin Trolls).  In a nod to the multi-culturalism of modern Sweden, Martin has also changed his name to Zunken, which is a name of Eastern European origin most well known as a character from a Swedish comedy show.   Of course, plenty of us have kept our usual Swedish names: Emilia, Astrid, Alf, Felix and Kajsa, plus our new nurse, Syster Alice.

If you have any ideas of great Swedish names that you would like us to encourage the villagers to choose (Bodil? Majken? Evert? Pontus?) or themes for our cabin names, please leave a comment!

—Kajsa

–Kajsa (writing on behalf of Magda this week)

We just said our good-bye’s and all the villagers have gone. We are already missing you all, and hope you are enjoying safe travels back home. Speaking of home, did you know that Sjölunden is still your home when you aren’t here? Here’s the audio file of Slussen’s hit song Hemma which we sang at International Day. Below is their other cabin song as well. Enjoy looking over all the pictures from the session as you listen to these two great songs!

01 Hemma

02 Slussen sång

If you’re gearing up for YOUR session at Sjölunden starting Monday, you should know that we are eager to welcome you to our program. We have all sorts of fun activities planned for the 1-week session. Take a look at all the pictures from the past weeks to get a sense of what awaits you on Monday.

Vi ses snart!

Magda

Ikväll var det Melodifestival här på Sjölunden! Det här är den fjärde sommaren som vi anordnar en melodifestival med svenska schlagerlåtar.

Hello everyone!

Tonight was our annual Melody festival. This was the fourth time we’ve held a Melody Festiva, which is based on the Swedish song contest. In order to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, every country in Europe has to first choose their best song of the year. Since Eurovision got rid of the requirement that all songs needed to be in the language of the country, Sweden’s songs have mostly been in English in recent years. But at Sjölunden our goal is to learn as much Swedish as possible, so we chose only songs sung in Swedish. This means we have to dig into the YouTube archives to get good songs in Swedish. Each cabin was assigned a song to perform a tonights contest.  This summer we heard some favorite hits, including Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola (1987), Bra Vibrationer (1985) and Ingen mår så bra som jag (Fronda- 2008). I sang my own special version of Cecilia Vennersten’s Den Vackraste (1998). My hopes weren’t high- I’ve never done well at the Melody Festival. My first year, I did ABBA’s Waterloo, and the following year it was Anna Bok’s ABC. Last year I tried to win with Diggilo Diggilej but again I didn’t place. But this was my lucky summer- I tied for FIRST PLACE with the boy band- KRAM (that would be counselors Kaj, Rasmus, Alf and Martin).

The pictures will be posted shortly, followed by some video footage. If you’re curious ot know more about Sweden’s history in the Eurovision song contest, all the videos are posted onYouTube, just search for Sweden and Eurovision.

Tomorrow is our last full day at camp, and it will be packed with activities and fun. We look forward to seeing everyone who can make it to our parents program on Saturday morning.

Vi ses snart-

Magda