Sweden, Day 13: Bollnäs & Växbo

I really must be quick about blogging tonight. Did I mention that this computer has some problems with malware? It is only a matter of time before some incredibly inappropriate window pops up with extremely obnoxious sound effects. I haven't been able to figure out how to turn down the volume so the whole sleeping household will suspect that I am (once again) visiting porn sites.

Another reason to be quick is that it is already past 11 pm & I must be up at 5:30 am to catch the train to Stockholm. Our time in Hälsingland is pretty well over (far too soon) & the next stage of our exchange trip includes 3 days in Stockholm. We will be attending some meetings & doing a little sightseeing.

We didn't knock ourselves out working today. We started off with a visit at the Gymnasiet (high school) where we met Elisabet, one of the headmasters. Like Canada, Sweden suffers from a shortage of health care professionals & they have devised some innovative programs to address the problem. Elisabet looks after the healthcare programs (we would probably call them Practical Nursing programs) at both the high school & Komvux centres. Students at the high school can take Healthcare as one of their program options for (senior) high school completion. Adults can take the comprehensive Healthcare program at Komvux. For the Gymnasiet students, the program is 3 years long & includes all the other necessary high school courses. For the adults, the program is 1.5 years long & is concentrated solely on nursing. It is definitely a different kind of high school - postsecondary partnership than we are used to, & I can imagine the arguments. Do students at the Grade 10 level even KNOW what they want to do yet? Isn't 18 a bit young to tackle the realism of nursing...? It seems to be working for our Swedish partners.

Afterwards, we met with one of the Gymnasiet nursing instructors who is a self-proclaimed techie. Like our friend Per in Söderhamn, she uses the SMARTboard to teach her students. However, her focus seems to be less on the preparation of comprehensive lectures & more on immediate, on-the-fly interaction with her students. We found it a bit funny to be learning about SMARTboards here, on the other side of the world from Canada, when the SMARTboards are actually made just over the border from us in Alberta.

In the afternoon we all went to Växbo to visit the linen mill there. For a fibre junkie like me, it was like a pilgrimage. We saw how the fibres were treated & saw a mechanical loom in action. Then I had a chance to handle all the finished materials -- both yard goods & finished products -- & finally bought a few items, mostly as gifts. Ewa also bought me a beautiful table runner which has to be seen (& felt) to be believed.

But the best was yet to come. In the evening Ewa's mother-in-law, Kaisa, took us on a tour of the immediate neighbourhood. We went into the kyrk (church) & viewed some of the ancient statues & bas-reliefs. Then we went to the 'weaving house' (vävstugen) where we saw 15 - 20 looms, each one in the process of weaving some fantastic linen article. The pieces varied from delicate curtains to sturdy woven linen hotpads to modern wall hangings to traditional Bollnäs weaving patterns to rag rugs. Again, for a fibre junkie it was the treat of a lifetime. Finally, we went to the old building (gården) which has been the town hall for Bollnäs for maybe 500 years & looked at the furnishings which have been used by families in the community, continuously up until the 1940's or '50s. We are talking about furniture, cloth, cooking materials etc. etc., some of which are hundreds of years old, & they are sitting around as if the family just left for a week's vacation. We could touch stuff, open drawers, look under the covers on the beds, leaf the pages of books. Of course, this is a super-lucky treat because Kaisa was, & still is very active in the community & has keys to all of these buildings. I have touched so many incredible things today I'm reluctant to wash my hands.

But that's what I've got to do: wash up & go to bed. Did I say this was going to be short entry???