More More Mora

I've been told to update my blog, so here I go...

This past week, we've done a lot of interesting things, but perhaps they were not all interesting from a photographic perspective. I can't take a picture of a politics lecture, or of an interesting Swedish conversation, or friendships and expect the picture to convey what the moment felt to me. However, I have done some fairly interesting things you can take pictures of as well this week. Also, I apologize in advance; my 'v' key is quite unresponsive and I can tell now I might get annoyed of jamming it down every time.

We've gotten to know a lot more of the school this week, as well as the people that take classes here. The folk school system is not really that present in the US, and very expensive where it is. Here, the education is free to Swedish citizens, and is far less structured than in universities or high schools. They study things like writing, crafting, woodworking, and even skiing, but do so without grades. I got to widdle myself a knife this week (not worth taking a picture of), but the cooler part was watching the instructor and students make table legs, boxes, and long pine horns (an instrument). There were also sewing crafts where some people make pillows, and someone even made a belt. We also got to sit in on an advanced English class and have some good discussions about 'hot-button' issues here in Sweden. We talked about Sweden legalizing gay marriage on May 1st, the role of the Church of Sweden in both historical and contemporary contexts, religion in general, the environment, money and success--you can probably tell that this was a really advanced English class. Usually students begin when they are 6 or 7 years old, so they have been exposed to the language for over 10 years, but still I was impressed by not only their command of the English language but also their grasp of global and local issues.

We also had some excursions off campus this week. On Thursday we went tracking with a few faculty members about 20km outside Mora. We first stopped at a village that is mostly deserted in the winter, which is historically used to graze animals for people living in Mora during the summer. Some of the houses are 500 to 600 years old, and there are still elements of Pagan religion incorporated in some of the architecture. We got to ski as well using some of the forest skis, built to 'blaze your own trail.' An older man asked me in Swedish if I was already training for the next Vasaloppet, to which I tried to respond with "I'm just coming back a week late" but may have accidentally said "I came (to Mora) a week late," meaning that I had missed it, because he stopped chuckling after my attempt at humor. All the houses and sheds were still very well kept and decorated, even though basically no one lives there in the winter. We even made hot dogs over an open flame, and a little snowball fight broke out.

Wednesday we went to Nusnas, where all the Darlana horses are constructed. You may recognize them as the Swedish horse- a red-orange horse with blue or green pattern saddle and bridle with lots of colors and a distinctively Swedish painting style using two colors on one brush. We got to take a tour of the whole factory: the band saws, the carvers, the sanders, and the painters all in one complex. We also got to see and learn a lot about older Darlana horses. This picture is of different horses from different eras, one from the late 1700s (the one with no front legs). They say they chose the horse because that was the animal used on the farms and for getting around, and originally (and still sometimes are) they were built as toys for children. Apparently, they're referenced in texts back to the mid-17th century. This particular factory had this wonderful picture of Bill Clinton with a Darlana horse on his desk, which I thought was great. You can even see the folders of 'requires Presidential action' on Clinton's desk. There were plently of horses in the gift shop, some black, blue, white, large, small, larger, smaller... but there were also moose, cows, and many other animals painted in the traditional Darlana style. Outside of these animals, they had shirts, handicraft items, Mora knives, baskets, and even some more 'inappropriate' gifts that you can only probably find in Sweden. The translation for this particular one means 'his/her best feature':


Friday, outside of having our English class, we also got invited to a street dancing class, taught by one of the students at the folk school. It was really fun and brought me back to my time learning dances back in high school for theater, and I was really thanking my years at Danish folk school camp for teaching me how to remember dance steps, because we were doing some very challenging stuff.

Today a group of us went out and did some cross-country skiing. I took some video of me going down a hill, and I apologize but I don't know how to right the camera angle so this one might get a little confusing to watch. I invented some of my own skiing styles, like sitting down on your skis while going down steep hills that turn to quickly, how not to enter tracks while going quicly downhill, and how to walk up steep slopes when your skis have iced up. I had a lot of fun. I'll probably go back tonight because the tracks are lit at night, and maybe tomorrow again. That's all for this week; I'll try to take some good pictures again this last week in Mora!