It’s Monday again, which means new villagers arrived today at Sjölunden. We welcomed 30 one-week villagers, and 3 families coming from Virginia, Seattle and Illinois! This week is going to be full of fun and excitement aimed at younger learners and families. We are excited to be offering great activities such as vävning (weaving) and Swedish sports such as brännboll and handboll. We are also planning on baking a lot of goodies!

I know many of our villagers from earlier in the summer are going to be checking the website for lots of great photos. Keep coming back to our website for news and pictures from camp. I also am pleased to announce that fuldans is now again available as an application in Facebook- so be sure to check it out! It’s hilarious!

Even though the weather has cooled down, the fun continues here at Sjölunden!

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Magda

Last night we enjoyed melodifestivalen, the Swedish version of the Eurovision song contest. Each cabin got to choose a song sung at camp, as well as a musical style, and then they prepared a performance of that song. The villagers were incredibly creative! We enjoyed an opera, a musical, some hard rock and some country.  The costumes were fantastic too- you can see how great we looked under the pictures for yesterday.

Today is Jul (Christmas) and our village is decorated for the occasion. The choir group came around to our cabins last night and performed the traditional Luciatåg with classic songs such as Staffan var en stalledräng and Nu tändas tusen juleljus. We are looking forward to a wonderful Julbord for lunch, and while the forecast does not call for any snow today, we can really feel jul in the air!

Time passes quickly here at Sjölunden- can you believe it’s almost time for Midsommar already?!?

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Magda

Hej allihopa!

It’s our last full day with our two-weekers here at Sjölunden. Last night we had a very enjoyable and relaxing Kulturnatt. In towns like Uppsala and Lund, Kulturnatt  is a special evening when artists of all kinds share their work with the public. There will be concerts, improv shows, theater performances and more. Museums stay open late, cafes serve up their finest and the streets are buzzing with culture-goers. Last night, we highlighted the works of our villagers. We showecased painting, drawings, textile designs and film. We also enjoyed a fantastic performance by Kaj and Fritjof at the end of the evening. After such an easygoing evening, I am anticipating a wilder night tonight. It’s disco night here at Sjölunden- and the villagers and staff have been practicing their dance moves all week long.

Tomorrow morning we will say good bye to our 2-week villagers at our closing program, which begins at 10am. Please plan to arrive between 9:30 and 10:00 to pick up your child. We will open our store after the program in case you want to do some shopping.

Vi ses!

Magda

When villagers and staff arrive at Sjölunden, they have the option to choose a new Swedish name. A lot of us choose names that are very different from our real names, while some of us pick names that sound like our real ones. One great reason to choose a Swedish name is to ensure that you get to celebrate your namnsdag or names day. The two-weekers have had fun getting to know when their namesdays are. If you’re curious to know when yours is, check out this names day website.

The Two-Week villagers are also learning how to write their names in runskrift, the runic alphabet. You can learn more about runes from PBS. It could be something fun to include in letters to your villager!

The credit villagers have been very busy with a fun geneology project. They’ve been researching their roots and discovering the stories of immigrants from Sweden and elsewhere to the United States. If you know a fun fact about your own family history, you should include in your letters to your credit villagers. They are very excited to get the chance to learn more about their ancestors and to share that information with each other.

Boys compare notes about their family histories.

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Magda

We woke up this morning to our first full day at Sjölunden, and there was a lot to do!  Many of the villagers began with snabbdopp- a morning jump in the lake and sauna! The rest of us began by cleaning our cabins, and then we raised the flag and headed up to breakfast. We enjoyed a traditional Swedish meal of knäckebröd with veggies and meats, and some yogurt and musli. Then we kept busy with activities and language classses. The High School Credit students went through a series of activities that helped us determine which class they should be in. Meanwhile, the two-weekers began their actitivities and språkgrupp. We had a nice lunch, followed by some rest time. In the afternoon we started our interest activities, which we signed up for on Opening Day. Tonight, villagers are playing a choose-your-own-adventure game about viking voyages.

I hope you’re enjoying the daily pictures. We usually add more throughout the day, and even the day after. Check back often!

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Magda

The villagers are arriving and the fun has begun! I invite you to check back here every day for new photos (look under WB 62 for pictures this session) and information about the program and the staff.

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Magda

Vet du vad?!? Birka är klar!

Guess what!?! The cabin Birka is complete!

Right now the cabins at Sjölunden have Danish names, as they are being used by the Skovsoen program. Yesterday I delivered some new curtains to Birka, as well as some additional ones for Visby. The village looks great! We even have a new fire pit area near Gamla Uppsala.

Den nya brasan...

Walking into the village from the Salolampi site, you can see how the feel of the village is changing. Imagine how exciting it will be when our bibliotek and matsal are complete!

Just a couple more weeks before Sjölunden opens.

Vi ses snart!

Magda

I hope you had a wonderful Midsommar last weekend, and that you’re gearing up for a great summer at Sjölunden. I thought you might like to see an update on Birka, the newest cabin on our site.

Birka, as you approach from the new road

Birka, as seen from the 'new grassy square', with vävstugan in the background.

The inside of Birka is almost done!

As some of you know, the Danish village moved into the Sjölunden site 2 weeks ago. I recommend you follow their Village Production Page in order to see how the site looks. I think it’s wonderful to think about the site being alive with the language and culture of our Scandinavian neighbors.

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Magda

Är du redo för sommaren?

Are you ready for summer? We are- well, almost. The staff is making travel plans up to Sjölunden, and we are looking forward to a fantastic session with you.

Pia, Kajsa, Linda, Elin, Rasmus, Emilia, Åsa, Mia, Johanna, Linnea, Annika, Kaj, Alf, Marianna, and Lillemor will all be back. And for those of you who have been around for a while, you’ll remember Janina, Bamse and Bella- they’re going to work too! We have a couple new Swedes named Johannes (from Umeå, but living in Kenya right now), and Therese from Dalarna (she’ll be a credit teacher). We will also have a Finn on staff- Henri. He’ll be a credit teacher as well.

Our next cabin, Birka, is almost finished. Here are some photos from back in April. Vad tycker ni, Credit-killar? Är ni redo för att flytta ut till nya Sjölunden?

Here’s your homework before camp: be sure to watch the Royal Wedding on June 19th! You can watch it at www.svt.se (check out the link det kungliga bröllopet). Crown Princess Victoria will marry Daniel Westling and Sweden is pulling out all the stops!

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