By Magda | Published:
August 17, 2009
Hej allihopa!
Nu är det måndag, och det betyder att vi börjar med några nya aktiviteter till vår sista vecka med era barn. Efter en trevlig helg med I-dag, disco och Midsommar, är det dags att kasta oss in på nya, spännande aktiviteter och kvällsprogram.
It’s Monday again, which means the start to a fresh new week with new activities for your villagers. After a fun weekend filled with International Day, the disco, and Midsommar, it’s time to throw ourselves into some new, exciting activities and evening programs.
Our schedule for this week is jam-packed! Yesterday we signed up for new intresse activities. I’ll be teaching weaving again, and we are also offering sailing, crafts, dalmÃ¥lning and for the first time ever- handboll! Handball is very popular in Sweden, but we’ve never really played it at camp before. But the Danes next door have a gymnasium and are going to allow us to come over and play. They will even play with our team a few times! I am excited to see a new activity like this added to our program. Let’s hope our team does well in these Nordic friendship games!
Tonight we are focusing on cultural and historical perspectives- comparing the perspective of Swedes with those of U.S. Americans. We will look at topics such as who we deem as the most important historical figures in each of our societies, and even compare the people featured on Swedish and U.S. currency as a reflection of cultural values. We will also have a ‘you know you’re Swedish if…’ segment- which is sure to get people laughing. And of coures there are areas of overlap, especially if you’re from the Midwest. For example, Swedes often say ‘You know that you’re Swedish if you feel incredibly guilty about sitting indoors on a sunny, warm day.’ I think any Minnesotan would agree with that statement too! It will be fun to hear what your villagers come up with tonight!
Vi hörs-
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 14, 2009
Here we are at International Day!
Vid I-dags Opening Program.
Hej allihopa!
International Day is the event that brings all of Concordia Language Villages together! We hosted a special event at Sjölunden in the morning, honoring the pledge of 1 million dollars to build our new dining hall. Thanks to the Comstock Land Company, Clemendtson and Kjos families, we can look forward to a grand dining hall at our new site in a few years. Hjärtligt tack till er!
After our special event, we enjoyed a fun picknick lunch before heading to the festivities at Waldsee, the German village. We ate international foods, danced the I-day dance and met new friends from other villages. It was a very steamy day, but we kept cool drinking lots of water and sticking to the shady spots.
The last hurrah at I-day is the Closing Program. I am so proud of our villagers- we were the only village who sang a song, and not only that- a song written by villagers! While the other villages all danced to pre-recorded music, the Swedes had 3 guitarists and a percussionist, and sang their hearts out.
I hope you enjoy all the pictures- it will take us a little while to get them all posted. But be assured, they are on their way!
vi ses-
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 13, 2009
Hej allihopa! Det är dagen före idag, och det händer mycket här på Sjölunden!
It’s the day before International Day, so we are very busy here at the village. It’s another hot day with plenty of sunshine. We’ve been busy painting our t-shirts using stencils and spray paint. The theme for our t-shirts is ‘home at Sjölunden’.  For closing program, we will sing a song called Hemma, which means ‘at home’. The song was written by the credit boys cabin and talks about what it’s like to be a first year villager, a credit and then a staff member. The refrains for each verse say ‘ I want to come back again’ (first year villager), ‘I will come back again’ (credit villager) and ‘I am home here at Sjölunden’ (staff member). We plan to have those boys record the song, and we will post the file when it’s ready!
Vi hörs-
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 12, 2009
 Hej allihopa!
It’s Wednesday morning here at Sjölunden, and the sun is shining brightly! Last night we enjoyed our first allsÃ¥ng- our daily song time. Then we had some cabin time, before meeting up on the dansbana for evening program. The evening program began with each of us meeting our familjer. At Sjölunden, we assign each villager to a family. You stay with that same family year after year, and if you’re related to someone at the village in real life, we put you in the same family with them at Sjölunden too. This makes our whole village feel more like home, especially as you return year after year.
The families got to know each other, and then were given a task. They had to trade little slips of paper with the other families. 2 of our families were given bad instructions (on purpose). They were told to only make 2 to 1 trades on their slips. After a while, the families they were trading with accused them of cheating, and we transitioned into our own Swedish court case! Everyone came up to the dining hall and met with their Swedish lawyers. I was judge- and got to demand ‘ordning i rättsalen’ (order in the court)! In fact, your children also learned about the court system in Sweden, including many new vocabulary. They learned that Swedes also use jurys to decide court cases, and unfortunately for 2 of our families, the jury found them guilty. But being an impartial judge, I decided on a mild straff for the offending families- they have to write some snyggpost to the other family. That’s our inter-village mail system. They all laughed at my judgement (which I tried not to take too personally), and I must say that camp counselors do not make very convincing lawyers! Perhaps it didn’t help that we were wearing goofy wigs and prop clothing…
Today we are expecting hot weather- and luckily we’ve got a vattenfestival planned for this evening. Stockholm was home to the Stockholm Water Festival for many years, and your children will have a chance to play lots of games with water today. With sunny temps in the 90’s, it will be perfect!
I hope you had a chance to watch our videos (under the ABOUT tab). Keep checking back for more pictures and updates!
Vi hörs-
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 11, 2009
Hej allihopa! Det är första dagen pÃ¥ den nya sessionen här i byn. Today is our first full day of session WB92, and the start of the 2nd half of our credit session. 30 new villagers arrived yesterday and went through customs in our village. They moved into their stugor, visited the nurse, put their pengar in the bank, and signed up for intresse aktiviteter.Â
The weather is perfect! After a very cool start to the summer, northern Minnesota is finally experiencing a heat wave! The sun is shining, and our spirits are high!
Tjejer på väg till matsalen. Girls on their way to the dining hall.
Last night we had a campfire down by the lake. It was very calm and cozy. Each cabin shared a cabin song, and we rang our ceremonial klocka to ring in the new summer. Today your children are getting to know their language teachers, beginning their activities and becoming familiar with all that the village has to offer.
We posted a cute video made by villagers last session- it’s all about shopping at Sjölunden. Look under the ‘About’ tab to find our videos. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch it. Also, we will be posting new photos every evening, so check back regularly.
Vi hörs-
Magda
p.s. Just after I posted this blog, I was sitting behind Visby and 3 humming birds were feeding on our flowers. I thought you might enjoy seeing them.
 
Kolibri = hummingbird
By Magda | Published:
August 10, 2009
Hej allihopa!
It’s opening day here at Sjölunden, and the villagers are going through customs. We finally have some warm, sunny weather, so I can tell that this session is in for some great summer fun!
Tonight we will enjoy a campfire down by the lake. We will have each cabin create a cabin song, and we’ll share those songs during the campfire. Tomorrow our activities will be in full swing. Sailing, weaving, sewing and sports- it’s all happening here at Sjölunden.
Check out our new videos that were created by our villagers last session, and watch out for new videos and daily pictures during the coming weeks.
Vi ses,
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 7, 2009
Discodags means time for the dance! Tonight is our last night with the two-weekers, so we have to celebrate! We will have a normal day, but will finish with a disco and slideshow for the whole village. These first two weeks have flown by! And it’s truly amazing to hear your children speaking Swedish at every turn. This year we have a special activity called supersvensk. If you decide to put a supersvensk name tag on at breakfast, that means you can only speak Swedish throughout the day. No English with anyone- not even during fritid or in the stuga. The first day we did it, there were just a few braves souls who tried. But slowly, it’s been gaining popularity. Last weekend, we had to paint more supersvensk name tags because 12 wasn’t enough. Yesterday morning we had over 20 villagers trying to get supersvensk, and by the end of dinner (when the challenge ends), a total of 14 villagers had done it! That includes both 2-weekers and credits! Amazing!
We also had a special kvällsprogram last night. We met up with Skogfjorden and Skovsoen, the Norwegian and Danish programs. We learned about our shared cultural and historical knowledge, including language, geography and even Eurovision! It was great to see everyone realize just how much norsk and dansk one can understand when they speak Swedish. It’s like 3 languages for the price of 1!
We hope you’re enjoying the updates and pictures, and we look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 10am for the parents program.
Vi ses snart!
Magda
By Magda | Published:
August 3, 2009
Hej allihopa! We’ve reached the midway point in the session and we are having a blast! Yesterday was midsommar which was a lot of fun. We got to sleep in a little bit before having frukost i pyjamas (breakfast in pyjamas). Then we all helped out to get the site ready for the big celebrations. We have a lot to celebrate at Swedish camp this year. Not only was it midsommar, but it was also the day when we celebrated Pia’s 25th anniversary as a staff member. We had a lot of special guests at the site for that event, including Torsten, Magnus, Janne, Millan, Astrid, Joanna och Tor. We also took some time to recognize our newest cabin Gamla Uppsala. Ken and Doris Berglund of the Berglund Family Foundation joined us for the dedication of that cabin. It was great to see them again- they are also responsible for the building of our weaving studio!
Pia och Torsten dansar mot midsommarstången.
It’s a Concordia Language Villages tradition to recognize a staff member’s 25th year by adding something to the facility. For Pia, this meant a beautiful white bench. But that’s not all- we also gave her a hot dog cart which will soon be painted with Pias Korvar to commemorate her 25 years on staff! Anyone who has traveled in Sweden knows just how prevelant hot dog carts are.
The villagers chose new activities for the week, so soon you’ll see pictures of your kids doing things like segling (sailing), väva mattor (weaving rugs), dalmÃ¥lning, sport och hem och trädgÃ¥rd- a new activity which draws inspiration from Martha Stewart and involves cooking, hosting parties, crafts and more! They are planning on videotaping it and hopefully we can add it to our website soon!
The 2-weekers have been working on a couple of exciting extended projects each morning as well. They have been videotaping commercials for Sjölunden, and as soon as they’ve been edited together, we will post those. They’ve also been building fÃ¥gelholkar (bird houses).
Painting our birdhouses.
We sure know how to keep busy around here! Keep checking in for more updates!
Vi hörs snart igen!
Magda
Doris Berglund, Magda, Ken Berglund och Sheila Koser utanför Gamla Uppsala.
By Magda | Published:
July 28, 2009
Hej allihopa! Idag var det en helt vanlig dag på Sjölunden. Men vad betyder det, egentligen? Visst är det alltid åtminstone lite tokigt här, eller?
Hi everyone! Today was a normal day at Sjölunden…wasn’t it? What does that even mean? Aren’t things always at least a little bit crazy here? Of course they are! We had some goofy meal presentations (has anyone ever heard of yoga-poses named after food?) and some very silly skits during allsÃ¥ng. Even the weather was goofy today- it rained, it hailed, it was sunny and hot, and then it rained a little more. The fun continues tonight with our own version of the game Clue which we call Cluedo. One of the counselors has been kidnapped, and your children have to figure out who did it!
Keep watching for new photos- they are under the tab WB72/74 pics.
Vi ses-
Magda
