This summer we rethought bygdedans. Instead of having traditional dances at set stations, the deltakere were give VIP passes and allowed to wonder from club to club, learning different dances at their own pace. Some of the dances included the international day dance, polka, and tango. Each club was also given a different theme, such as hip hop. While walking from club to club the deltakere also got to experience various street performers and street artists. Check out our flickr page to see more pictures.

FRED!

We are starting off the final two weeks of the summer with Fred PLUSS, which consists of in intensive look at peace in terms of what it is, how it can be created, and how it can be maintained. To start of this focus, we had an evening program that allowed the deltakere to experience different forms of fred in order to come to a more complete definition. The different forms included:

1. Indre ro
2. Konflikt megling
3. Fred i samfunnet (filmer)
4. Fred i industri
5. Fred i internasjonal kontekst
6. Fred i miljø

After experiencing inner peace, conflict management, and how peace can be created and maintained in society, industry, environmentally, and internationally, the deltakere worked together to create new definitions that then compiled into peace poems. These peace poem definitions can now be found at http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred.

One example of a peace poem is the fred symbol above. The deltakere wrote their definitions on strips of paper and then taped them together in the shape of a peace sign. Another example of a fred dikt is below.

Fred er…

…veldig viktig for ikke bare verden, men også for daglig livet. Man kan finne fred inn i seg selv og så rundt deg i naturen og med venner og familien. Det er viktig for oss til å lage fred og støtte fred mellom hverandre. (esp. her  på Skogfjorden så vi kan gjør det hjemme).

…friendship and cooperation for the greater good.

…compassion and an understanding of everyone’s beliefs and ways of life (AKA love).

…en god ting for hele verden.

…cooperation and a better way of life.

This year we are starting a brand new program called folkhøgskole. Folkhøgskoler er unique to Scandinavia because they allow people from 19 years of age and up study a subject of interest for an entire year without having to worry about grades or exams. Here at Skogfjorden, that means that the folkhøgskole deltakere get to experience four full weeks at Skogfjorden without having to worry about working towards high school credit. They participate in all of the normal two-week programs, but also have time that is specific to them to work on projects of interest.

The first two weeks of folkhøgskole has had a theater focus. The deltakere learned about theater techniques and read different eventyr and myths. After this introduction, they were able to take a classic myth and modernize it, resulting in a play. They wrote the script, painted and designed the set, chose the costumes, and planned the end performance. See if you can guess which myth they modernized.

Last thursday we had a day honoring Odell Bjerkness, the former head of CLV. He helped Concordia Language Villages to grow and helped Skogfjorden obtain many of its priceless works of art and buildings, for example, our Stave Church, our immigrant houses, and many fantastic works of art in our dining hall building, Gimle. The campers were amazing hosts, greeting out guests and listening attentively to the presentations and speeches presented to honor Dell.

Ei uke siden, dedikert vi en dag til å beære Odell Bjerkness som har    tidligere vært sjefen av CLV. Han hjalp Skogfjorden på mange måter og hjalp oss å få våres Stavkirke og mange fine kunstverk som finnes i Gimle. Deltakerene var flinke som verter og vertinner og vi er veldig stolt av dem.

Making a delicious, yet beautiful smørbrød can take years of practice. One must experiment with different flavor combinations and different ways of setting the pålegg on top of each other. Below is an example of a several beautiful and delicious smørbrød.

In addition to ham, cheese, egg, and tomato, we have also had shrimp smørbrød, laks smørbrød, and many more combinations. To see even more smørbrød options, click here.

Painting: World in his eyes. By Ola

One of our recent evening programs focused on samtidskunst, or contemporary art. The goal of the program was to introduce the deltakere to the world of contemporary art with a specific focus on Norwegian artists and artists from Skogfjorden. Everyone was invited to nasjonal museet in Oslo to view the art on display. The deltakere then worked with their hyttes to make their own art based on a particular theme, such as language, and using a particular material, such as paper clips. Below are several examples of art created by the different hytter.

We also discussed the different forms of art that are present in the contemporary art genre, including film, painting, and performance art. The picture below shows some deltakere who were so inspired by the picture on the wall, they decided to make their own interpretation.

For more information, or to see what is being exhibited in Oslo, check out museet for samtidskunst

The last three days of humaniora were spent using what we had learned about energy and oil to make some decisions. The videregående participated in a simulation that required them to decide which political party they wanted to vote for based on their energy politics and were often swayed by lobbying environmentalists and industrialists.

The next day they were asked to develop an idea for a grant proposal to improve either Skogfjorden or the world in general. Ideas varied from developing a small farm to provide Skogfjorden villagers with dairy products and a great way to use the food that is left over after meals, installing solar panels on the major buildings of Skogfjorden to provide us with alternative energy, and contacting companies around the world to promote reductions in pollution and CO2 emissions.

The last day the videregående took a tour around Skogfjorden meeting a farmer from the 40s, a hippi, a person from the future, and an oil platform worker. Not only was this tour amusing, but it providing the videregående with the challenge of deciding whether to tell the farmer about the oil that could be found of the coast of Norway, or trying to keep in the dark as long as possible.

Fredag

On Friday we started learning about alternative energy resources. We learned that statoil has been working hard towards developing several different forms of alternative energy, such as geothermal energy which can be seen in the picture above, tidal energy, wind energy, and solar energy. We also developed our own renewable energy devices. The picture below shows a machine that can draw energy from the gulf stream.

Lørdag

We have also started learning about what we can do to offset some of our energy use, such as turning off lights, unplugging computers, and coming up with gifts that focus on doing something nice instead of purchasing something that will eventually be thrown away. We also watched several commercials from Norway stressing the importance of being environmental activists. The key line of each of these films is “Jeg er ikke sint, bare veldig veldig skuffet.”