A Bubble

Hey,

I am writing now with only a week left until I must repeat the confirmation celebration preparations. It's hard to believe that was 3 weeks ago, and now my stay at Vassaro is more than halfway done. I think I've recovered from being tired, but with confirmation and the district camp coming up, it will be interesting to see how I hold up.

On Monday, I woke up around 3 a.m. feeling incredibly sick in my stomach. I didn't hurl, but I faded in and out of sleep for the next 4 hours. I took a half day off from Fladan, ate some Pepto Bismol tablets, and tried to sleep until lunch. I felt completely normal by lunch, so maybe it was something I ate the night before or it was a stomach bug. Either way, I was able to go out sailing with the Konfirmands for the rest of the afternoon. The weekly staff meeting had a track and field theme, with different teams competing against each other in such events as the high jump, long jump, javelin, and shotput. The teams were divided by working area, so it added a little bit more fun into it. Also on Monday, I was in charge of fika, which meant that after the staff meeting, I had to put out all the food and drink for everyone, and after everyone had left the dining hall, I had to take a tour of the island to make sure everything was locked up and in order. Needless to say, this took a while and I ended up going to bed around 2 a.m.

Tuesday was a much better day. In the morning, I started to make a new flagpole for Fladan. In the afternoon, I took a group of young scouts sailing. At first there was no wind (I mean absolutely no wind), so we had to row out into Garpen. About an hour later, the wind picked up and it started to pour rain. Meanwhile, 3 girls on my boat started to complain that they really had to go to the bathroom, and one of them even started to cry. So, I called for a motor boat, and for 5 minutes, I was sitting in a stationary sail boat, while it was raining, listening to 3 girls cry because they didn't go before we left Fladan. It was pretty bad. Fortunately, the motor boat came, picked them up, and we got back to Fladan safely.

Wednesday was still a better day. I guess somebody decided that we were going to celebrate all the major Swedish holidays over the course of the day. Breakfast was Christmas, with a group of cooks singing while we ate Swedish Christmas rolls that were really good. Lunch was Midsummer, which was a buffet that included such "delicacies" as pickled herring (something you have to try for yourself). Dinner was Easter, which was baked fish covered in asparagus. Fika was outdoors, and was a celebration of the 1st of May, with a barbeque and various games. As for work: In the morning, I was in a motor boat, keeping an eye on a group of canoeists from Holland and Austria, which was really easy. In the afternoon, I took a group of Konfirmands sailing, and we practiced anchoring in natural harbors. (In case you're wondering why the Konfirmands are sailing so much, it's because they are about to go on an overnight sailing trip by themselves). It was my first time anchoring, so it was interesting to learn something instead of always teaching.

And lastly, today, I helped take all the Konfirmands out on a day sail. There were only 3 Fladan staff including myself, so most of the Konfirmands had to sail by themselves. The morning sail was nice, and we anchored at an island for lunch. In the afternoon, the wind picked up to around 10 m/s (~20 mph), and since we were sailing against the wind the whole way back, it was a wild experience. Everyone did fine and got back to Fladan safely, although mostly everyone was wet from the water splashing into the boats.

The Vassaro experience is hard to explain, so I will summarize what another American said that I completely agree with: Vassaro is a bubble, a place isolated and free from the influences of society. Here, people do things because they want to, not because they are ordered to. It is perfect in every imaginable way...

-Lukas