Sorry it has been so long sense my last update, but I have lots to share! The closer to the end of my trip that get the faster time seems to fly by! For the past two weeks I have been living in Southwestern Sweeden in an a town called Kalmar.
I arrived on Saturday, July 17 at about 1:30 A.M. to the Burvall Family. The mother, Tina, works for the 4-H Farm in Kalmar. In Sweden they don’t have projects like we do in the U.S. Most of the clubs have a 4-H Farm where they keep a couple of cows, horse, sheep, rabbits and other animals. Their clubs are also much larger; they may only have 1 or 2 clubs in a county where we would have 10 or 12. This gives the kids in the city a chance to be around and learn about agriculture but the animals had all been moved for the summer. The farms also provide a good venue to hold day camps and other activities for the 4-Hers to take part in. All the farms have a couple of people hired to manage the farm, take care of the animals and gardens but a lot of the work is done by the 4-Hers.
Getting back to the Burvall family… The father, Ken, use to be a professional soccer player in Sweden and Austria, but now he works in a bank. They have three girls that are also involved in 4-H. I only met the two oldest girls a few times, Linn (16) and Lovisa (14) were gone for a big soccer camp on the West Coast of Sweden where they played teams from all over the world, including the United States. Their youngest, Alva (6) was very cute and full of energy!
I spent Saturday morning getting myself and all my things washed up from camp, which made me feel much better! Tina and I took a walk around their neighbor hood, which is very close to where she grew up. Kalmar is on the East Coast so they live very close to the beach and it was nice to walk down and see the water. It was kind of a rainy day, but we also went and looked around the 4-H Farm. That night they made a nice meal and then they introduced me to the TV Series, “Mad Men” which I don’t think I had heard about before but I’m hooked now! Tina’s sister, who I met several times, lived in Florida for a year or two when she was about my age, and she was the one that introduced it to them.
Sunday morning, Ken, Tina, Alva and I went and walked along their harbor and some ice cream (remember how I said the Swedes love ice cream, which is okay with me:)! It was fun too to look at all the boat which had come from a lot of the near by countries. Then we went and took a tour of the castle that is here in Kalmar. It is over 800 years old and was built to help protect the town of Kalmar from invaders, like pirates. The castle also has a small chapel which there is a two year waiting list to get married in. Tina went with me on the English Guided tour, which was very interesting. While we did that Alva and a friend and Ken did the kid’s activities where they got to be crowned princes, they were very cute. The Burvalls also have a pool so we spent some time laying out too!
Monday morning I went to work with Tina at the 4-H Farm. Tina is the manager so she has to do a lot of office work and handling problems that come up. She also has two employees that work for her as caretakers of the animals. But so she could show me around, Tina and I took their 4-wheeler around and gave water to all the horses, goats, and sheep (the cows are out to pasture for the summer). Later I helped Olsa, one of the caretakers, check-in and then back out, rabbits that had been rented out for the week. Surprisingly enough this is a huge business for them. A lot of people have summer houses in Kalmar and when they come for here for their vacation they’ll rent a rabbit their kids to play with. I think it’s really cool how they have this facility in town and they host lots and lots of visitors everyday that have nothing to do with 4-H. For supper that night Tina made deer which Ken’s parents had given them from Northern Sweden. I really liked it!
Tuesday we went to Örland, which is an island just off the coast of Kalmar. There is a big bridge that connects Örland to the mainland, this was the longest bridge in Europe until they built a bridge from Sweden to Denmark. (Örland is also where I’m staying right now with another host family but I’ll get to that later.) We just spent the day laying out on the beach which was relaxing. The beach was pretty full due to the good weather and short summer.
Wednesday morning I went to work at the farm with Tina again. This time I went around with Olsa, we went and did some shopping for their little cafe’ and then I went with her to take water to all the animals. For lunch Tina made Body Cakes, that is the exact translation anyway. They are sausages wrapped in potatoes, they were good!
Thursday we went to the farm and I got to ride their horse Pippi. It was different than I was use to, however, because it was on an English saddle, I don’t know how good I was at it, but at least I didn’t fall off! Then I took the 4-wheeler around by myself this time to water all the animals. We ate lunch with some of the 4-Hers that had been at the camp and were just in Kalmar visiting. That night Tina’s sister and her family came over and I tried lamb and we watched popular youtube videos in the U.S. and Sweden.
Friday the market was in town so Tina and I went and walked around and looked at all the vendors. We ate lunch at Subway because it was brand new to Kalmar and unlike McDonald’s it looked and tasted the exact same. For supper that night Ken and Tina made me some Thai Food. They love Thailand and go there every year.
Saturday a very rainy day, so we went to one of their museums here in Kalmar. It is about a big war ship that was sunk in a battle. They have started to bring up things from the ruins. Because I was the only person there that day that wanted an English speaking tour, Tina and I had our own personal tour. Our tour guide was very passionate about his job and really got into the tour. He covered a lot of Kalmar and Swedish history, which was interesting to learn about. The two older girls came home that afternoon and for supper they invited some friends of theirs over and we had crawfish. Apparently the Swedish people love crawfish and they are very popular to eat in the month of August, because that’s when they were in season. However, now they are imported so they can eat them whenever they like. It was my first time eating them, I liked them though!
Sunday, there was more rain, and it was my last day with the the Burvall Family. Around 5:00 my new host family came and picked me up and I moved to their home which is on the island Öland. I’ll update more later!
