One More Time

Hej,

I'm writing to you with the last post of this blog. I have left the island now, and I am staying at Anna's place for the next week. However, leaving Vassaro did not mean I was saying goodbye to everyone. Last night was the 'funkmiddag' (staff dinner) where everyone met up at a restaurant for one last time for the summer. I had a really nice time, and it was somewhat amusing to see people wearing normal civilian clothes. There was good food, good company, and good beer --yes, the drinking age for beer in Sweden is 18, so I did not break the law :)

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for the rest of this week. I did all the touristy things last summer, although there are a couple places I definitely would like to go back to. Anna is gone most of the day being a leader for the freshman orientation at her university. I think I'll try to meet up with other staff whenever I can. But other than that, my schedule is very, very flexible.

I have mixed feelings about leaving Vassaro. On one hand, I'm a little disheartened knowing that I can't work there again for a long time. But, I know that as long as I am with Anna and come back to Sweden, I will be able to stay in touch with everybody.

These past 2 summers have been incredible, and I strongly recommend such an experience to anyone seeking something different out of their summer. The program I went through, the European Camp Staff Program (Or the European Scout Voluntary Programme) connects you to dozens of camps such as Vassaro throughout Europe. So maybe if Sweden doesn't sound right for you, there's no need to fear. Furthermore, the program guarantees to reimburse at least 50% of your travel costs. You can find the link here for more information:

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/International/ecamp.aspx

Once again, I can't stress to you enough about how incredible an opportunity this is. If you've ever wanted to see what Scouting looks like around the world, or if you've wanted to take your Scouting experience to the next level, then this is it. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Well, I guess it's time to sign off. Thank you for reading. Until next time?

-Lukas

All Good Things Come to an End

Tjena,

I am spending my last few days here at Vassaro for a long, long time. 4 weeks goes by so quickly, I wish I could be here every summer. Its hard to describe Vassaro in words. It makes you appreciate the simple things in life, like how soetimes all you need is good company and a peaceful setting to be satisfied. Its so different than Boy Scout camps. American camps are about merit badges, advancing ranks, buddy systems, and rules. I'm not saying our camps are bad, trust me, I've spent many great summers doing these things. It's just at Vassaro, it's just about *doing*. There's no rules because there's no need for any. People work here for less than $6 a day just because they want to. Anyways...

The past days have been spent taking care of all the scouts here. We had one afternoon off, and we spent it relaxing on an island that we rowed to. The weather has gotten better, but there have been times when thick fog suddenly rolls in, which makes it impossible to sail. There was another secret Konfirmand thing that also happened, and again it involved a lot of work, and not a lot of sleep. There seems to be a theme here...

The next few days will be devoted to preparing the camp for the confirmation weekend. We have been cleaning up Fladan and making it suprisingly neat and presentable for all the parents. Tomorrow, we will set the dining hall, and make a few hundred "church coffee" sandwiches to give to the arriving parents on Saturday morning. There won't be a chance to get a lot of sleep, but with only a few days left, it doesn't even matter. I can only hope time slows down just a little bit.

-Lukas

Hej,

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been really busy, and I think it will only continue. I heard that tomorrow is the beginning of *another* scout camp here, which of course means full bookings at Fladan.

This week has been a lot of the work for the Konfirmands. They went sailing several times, including a day trip. There is also a few secret things that we did for them that I'm not really at liberty to discuss. It keeps it special for the next group of Konfirmands. All I can say is that its involved a couple nights of late work, but I think it was worth it.

The weather has been an epic struggle between good and bad, with some mornings starting off beautiful and then turning sour, and vice versa. There's also been some really thick fog, which I don't remember from last year. But, the past 2 days have been sunny and warm, which has allowed me to dry all my stuff from the rain.

It's hard to believe I'm going to my last week at Vassaro for a long time. Next summer I have to start working at a pharmacy for my degree. I'll definitely try to enjoy it as best as I can, even if the days drain the remaining energy out of me. It's a special place here, and not something to be taken for granted.

-Lukas

Halfway Home

Tjaba,

A lot has happened these past few days. The weather has gone from rainy to really windy, which has made sailing very interesting. On the last day of the Mareld camp, I took out a group of seven 10 year olds sailing, the wind blowing about 12 m/s (~25 mph). Dressed in a full rainsuit with my hood up and gloves on, I told them that they were going to get soaked as if they were going swimming. I thought it was appropriate to warn them, seeing as they were wearing shorts and scout shirts. But, none heeded my warning, as it seemed perfectly calm in Fladan. But as soon as we cleared Fladan, the boat started thrashing about by a combination of winds and waves. Water came pouring in, both from the waves crashing over the bow, and the water coming in the leeward side from the boat's heel. So after less than an hour, I wasn't surprised to hear the kids say they were cold and wanted to go back in. But since we were downwind of Fladan (which I admit was my fault, I should have thought about it more), we had to sail upwind. But the kids were so tired and cold that they didn't have the strength to control the sails and pull them in, and as a result, I couldn't sail upwind at all. I wish I could have left the helm to help them, but there was no way I could have let them steer, as I was constantly adjusting the boat's direction and mainsail to prevent water from flooding the boat. Ultimately, we weren't really sailing any more, and I was forced to drop the sails, wait for a tow, and have the anchor in my hands ready to drop in cased we started drifting too far. At the end of the day, I think around 5 other boats also needed towing back in, which helped me not feel as bad for not planning ahead. Lesson learned, and fortunately no one suffered too much, just a damaged ego.

Yesterday, everyone at Mareld left, and we had no bookings. We spent the day fixing all the boats, inspecting the riggings, and matching the sails. That evening, there was a staff meeting at Fladan, which was a suprise. The entire slipen (the place we store the boats during the winter) was decorated with lights, sails, tables, music, and food. I guess it was Vassaro thanking us for a hard week's work. The food was amazing, and I had crayfish for the first time. A little interesting, it looked like a miniature lobster, but tasted quite good. Crayfish parties are very popular in Sweden during the summer. I am now prepared if Anna takes me to one when I get back to Stockholm.

Today was back to a normal schedule. We took the Konfirmands sailing around the island of Garpen in the morning. For those of you who don't know, Konfirmands are exactly what they sound like: people being confirmed. Each year, Vassaro has two periods of Konfirmands, each lasting 4 weeks and having about fifty, 14-15 year scouts. During this time they learn about whatever Swedish protestants learn about, and are then confirmed at the very end. Its a *very* popular thing, and the waiting list for kids is years long. In fact, I would say almost have the staff here at Vassaro were once Konfirmands, which only goes to say how amazing their experience was. In the afternoon, our "Sea leader" was gone doing errands, and he put Anna and I in charge. Which means, for an hour, I was probably the first American Sea Leader at Vassaro. Pretty cool.

I think that's it for now. I moved houses today, so I guess I'm in the unofficial Fladan house now. I know for a fact there are mice in the walls. Hopefully none of my stuff gets chewed...

-Lukas

Hejsan,

I'd like to start off with a correction. I should have said we celebrated the 100th anniversary of *Sea* scouting, not Swedish scouting. Which makes sense, being in the middle of a Sea scout camp...

Not too much new to report. As you can see from my pictures, we put the cake into 4 sections for everyone to eat after the ceremony. So I helped serve cake to 1500 scouts, and surprisingly, a lot was left over. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of it.

The weather here has been bad for the past several days, cold and rainy. I think thats the trend of Swedish weather: if it goes bad, it stays bad. But, it hasn't prevented groups from to Fladan, and we've had our hands full. I think the camp ends on Saturday, which means the last day of bookings will be tomorrow. Last year, the large camp (and the most amount of work) was my last week here, but this year it is only during my second week. It will be weird getting used to things being calm again. But at least it will mean more time for the sauna.

Anna's birthday was today, and her parents and nephew came to visit. For those of you who don't know, it's a tradition at Vassaro that you wear a "crown" of flowers around your head given to you on your birthday. Also, the Swedish birthday song is quite different, and kind of sounds like a variation on "Oh My Darling Clementine". It's a nice thing that they do, and it's definitely a memorable place to celebrate a birthday.

Well, time to run. It's so easy to get caught up in all the fun that you start to forget that the main reason you're here is to work. In other words, sometimes you just have to realize that going to bed early is the right thing to do every now and then.

-Lukas

Hej,

I've heard that my blog has been recently added as a link to a few websites. So to any new readers, let me introduce myself. I'm an Eagle Scout who is spending his 2nd summer here at Vassaro working at Fladan (the waterfront) instructing scouts how to sail, canoe, and such. I'm here because of a program run through the BSA called the European Scout Camp (Volunteer) Program. You should definitely look into it if you're seeking something a little more exciting out of your summer. Anyways, back to the blog...

It's the middle of Mardet right now. Days at Fladan have been *full*. There are periods when nearly every boat is being sailed, every canoe paddled, and everyone busy. Fortunately, there are no bookings in the evening, which we spend in various ways. Sometimes we get them off, sometimes we have to do other staff-related things.

Tonight was one of those other things. I found out today that this week is the 100th anniversary of Swedish scouting, and to celebrate, Vassaro has decided to bake a 100 meter long cake. Yes, you read that correctly. Enough for 1500 scouts to eat. Since this was a pretty big task, nearly everyone at Fladan was recruited to help. So, I spent around 4 hours spreading on filling and covering the cake portions in cream. The actual cake part was already baked, but needless to say it was a lot of work. Tomorrow, the cake will be assembled and layed out for all the scouts to decorate it, and then of course eat it. Nothing like seeing all your hard work be devoured right before your eyes.

Work-wise, everything has been pretty straightforward, just really chaotic. I've taken a lot of groups out sailing, although one deserves a little more attention. As I might have said before, the wind on Vassaro tends to blow directly into the harbor, or directly out. Which means that you have to tack (zig zag) either coming out or coming in. I was assigned taking out a group of small scouts around 8-10 years old with their leader. But, like most of the time, none of the kids spoke English well, and the leader didn't say much to me. I was in a Torekov, which is one of our slowest boats, and the kids didn't really know how to sail. If you've ever gone sailing, you know that tacking loses you speed, and it doesn't help when you're doing it in a narrow channel. So, basically sailing by myself, I lost too much speed, and drifted into the swimming area. A motorboat towed us out to the open, at which one point one kid said he had to go to the bathroom, in which I told him he had to wait until we were no longer being towed. But when we got out into the open, the kids decided they were too scared because it was a windy day. At this point, I kind of lost it, but obviously had to hold it in. When we finally got back to harbor and were tied up, the only words I got from the leader were "Sorry for this". I guess we all have bad days. But, life goes on, and now I can look back at it and laugh about the whole thing.

Another interesting thing I noticed. Today, Anna (my girlfriend) was stung by a wasp. She's told me before that for her, it only feels like a mosquito bite (lucky her) and that she doesn't swell up like most of us. But after this bite, she said the pain was almost unbearable, even now, almost 8 hours after the sting. We talked to a doctor, who told us that the wasps here have a much stronger venom, and that she actually had pills you could take just for these types of stings. I guess Swedish bees are uber-poisonous or something. Note to self: don't touch the bees.

I wish I could put up some pictures, but the dining hall is being closed right now and I have to run.

Happy 100th anniversary of Swedish scouting?

-Lukas

Eye of the Storm

Tjena,

These past two days have been a bit of relaxation, which has allowed me to recover enough just in time for Mareld, the sea scout camp. Yesterday, we were able to take the afternoon off and get some sleep. That evening and night, we did some secret stuff-I-can't-talk-about for the Konfirmands that resulted in us working until midnight. It went pretty well, but I think we were all tired today.

Which was okay, because there were no bookings, and we now have the whole afternoon and evening off. There is a disco tonight open for everyone, and I certainly don't plan on missing it.

Sea scouts have been slowly moving in throughout the day, filling the empty fields. All the activities begin tomorrow, along with our real work at Fladan. Around 10 boats have been added to our arsenal by Scout groups who have lent their boats for the camp to use the week. I've also heard that bigger boats are going to be anchored in outer Fladan, which should make it very interesting trying to sail out from Fladan to the open sea.

That's it for now. I'll try to keep updating (with pictures) as often as I can this coming week.

-Lukas

Pics

Hej,

Here are some pictures I've taken so far from my time here at Vassaro. The picture with the broken sailboat is kind of a funny story. A few days ago, we picked up a "new" boat donated to Vassaro by someone (probably named Sven). On its maiden voyage, the mast broke about 10 minutes in. The mast was repaired, and we'll probably test it out again tomorrow.

We finished painting the Fladan house today, and it looks really good. Now we have to finish oiling the docks and the extreme makeover will be finished.

Tonight is my first evening off so far, and I think it will be the only one for a little while. I got to take a much needed nap, and now I'm sitting here in the dining hall uploading pictures and drinking coffee.

The whole camp is preparing for the Sea Scout invasion. More and more funk (staff) are arriving, including the people planning the camp. I am now sharing a house with a family, which makes it difficult coming back to go to bed, since they go to sleep around 9 or so.

I went to the sauna for the first time last night. The pure shock of a 100 degree temperature change running from the sauna into the ocean is a pretty awesome adrenaline rush having not done it for a year. Definitely something worth doing over and over again.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to keep upadating as often as I can.

-Lukas

Hejsan,

Things haven't settled down yet at Fladan, and I don't think they will for a couple more weeks. Next week, over 1300 Sea Scouts are coming to spend a week at Vassaro. And trying to fit that number of kids over that small amount of time means nonstop morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, and supposed (I hope they're only rumors) dawn and midnight sessions as well.

The past two days have involved taking care of large groups. Monday was sailing all day with 50 scouts part of a "Spy Kids" themed camp. It turns out the whole theme didn't really work, because no one ended up dressing up, and the surprise that happened for the kids was a big boat driving around pretending to be a party boat, but no of them understood it. It was kind of awkward. Monday night involved us cleaning the outside of the Fladan house so that it could be repainted again. It's a big project, not to mention the house was built before the U.S. became independent.

Today again involved taking groups out. The "spy kids" took out canoes, boats, and optimists all day. The afternoon was dominated by taking care of a group of about 20 Belgian girl scouts in optimists, who of course could not speak English and had never sailed before . Since the wind was blowing out of Fladan as it usually does, it was only a matter of time before all of them had drifted out into open water and onto shore. So the rest of the afternoon involved taking out all the motorboats and towing everyone back to Fladan. It was kind of ironic because I was teaching someone new in the morning today about how to use a motorboat and how to help swamped canoes and boats and how to tow stuck boats. I think he got a lot of practice in...

Tonight, we continued painting the house and started oiling all the wood on the docks. Again, something that is a pretty big project and will take up a lot of time. Its a different experience this time, being a lot more busy and not having an evening off yet. Its definitely more tiring, but a lot more rewarding.

Tomorrow should be more of the same, I'll try to put up some pictures soon. I forgot how much light there is at night. It's incredible, there's almost no need for a flashlight unless you go into the woods. But, I guess in the winter, its the opposite, and everyone gets pretty depressed. To be a Swede...

-Lukas

Round 2

Hey Everyone,

I'm back for another summer at Vassaro, but it feels like I never left. The year has gone by so fast that nothing here seems out of place or surprisingly new. It's still beautiful here, but I didn't get that feeling of awe like I did last year. That's not to say I'm not excited, because that is definitely not the case. What makes Vassaro truly special is not just the location, but the people that choose to volunteer their time for 4 weeks (or in many cases more) out of the year to come to this place.

I'm glad to be back, it feels like a second home. Getting here was a litte interesting, though. Before I left, I was with my girlfriend Anna (who I met last year at Vassaro and is Swedish of course) who visited me and came with me to my family reunion. We got to my local airport, only to find out our flight was delayed indefinitely because of thunderstorms in Newark. To make things worse, all flights the next day to anywhere from my airport were full, so we were stuck with our flight. After waiting for around 4 hours, we missed our connecting flight to Stockholm. However, the airline showed us that two more flights left to Oslo and Munich about 3 hours later and that there was a "very likely" chance that we could make one of those flights.

Wrong. Instead we waited for about another hour and a half and got on the plane. With the flight time being about 45 minutes we thought we could make it with little time to spare. But instead, we sat in the airplane on the tarmac for another hour and as a result we missed the other two flights. When we finally landed, the weather was miraculously clear and all the flights were on time. It seems Newark was trying to catch up on its schedule and decided to ignore the flights from smaller airports no matter how long the delay was. Thanks.

Fortunately, we talked to someone at the ticket counter who got us seats on the same exact flight to Stockholm. Same time, just one day later. With some help (Thanks Mom and Dad), we spent the night and good part of the day at a hotel. We got on the flight next day and landed in Stockholm on time. A few days later, after spending some time at her summer house, we met up with the rest of the staff members and took the bus & boat to Vassaro.

I will admit I was suprised how fast things are getting started. I'm working at Fladan (the waterfront again), and today we spent the afternoon and evening fixing things on this giant list of things-to-do. Tomorrow, we spend all day with 50 scouts taking them sailing around the islands. The camp has a secret agent theme, and tomorrow, all of us instructors are going to be dressing up and acting as agents. This should be pretty interesting, and I think there will be some good pictures here soon.

I'm still jet-lagged, but right now, life is pretty good and I can't complain.

-Lukas