Kulning

This past weekend I attended a two-day kulning course with Ulrika (first host mom) and Monika (Ulrika's sister/ my host aunt) led by music teacher/kulning expert, Britta Röjås. The course was an incredible experience, tons of fun, and I learned a lot, however, in order to understand the complete awesomeness of my weekend, I have to explain what kulning is, or at least attempt to explain kulning. 

This is Britta Röjås, the woman who taught our kulning course.

Kulning is a Swedish folk tradition that roughly translates to "herding calls" in English, I think. There aren't any words in English that can really describe what kulning is but if you imagine a mix of yodeling and opera singing, that's sort of what it sounds like. Kulning is a musical technique that is used to call livestock home from distant pastures.  Kulning is very high-pitched and thus the sound is able to travel long distances. Kulning often sounds quite eerie and sad, but also loud and powerful.

 It is almost impossible to describe if you've never heard it before. If done properly, the strength behind the singing will come from the stomach and not the throat, although this technique is difficult to master. Kulning often follows the melody of a song, but what differentiates kulning from singing is that you don't sing any words, just the melody of the song. 



This is how I imagine kulning would look if done traditionally. This is also one of the first images that appears if you Google kulning. But it gives an idea of what I'm writing about.

Kulning is not just music, it is used to communicate important messages between livestock herders. An example of this would be a melody I learned this weekend: "Lever du? Lever du? Ja' trodde du var långa långa död", which in my head translates to: " Are you alive? Are you alive? I thought you were long, long dead". Another example is " Leta ej mer, leta ej mer, korna e hemma" which in my head translates to: " Look no more, look no more, the cows are home". I can't guarantee that either of my lyric translations are accurate, but the idea comes across, just how important the melody is to kulning. Kulning is a tradition that has been used in livestock raising since medieval times. Kulning is not as prevalent today, but it is still significant.

Now that I've explained kulning, it's possible to understand how great my weekend was. But this weekend was not my first experience with kulning. I also attended a one day kulning course in November with Monika, also taught by Britta. That was my first experience with kulning. I thought it was challenging, but ultimately rewarding and fun! Here are some pictures from the course in November:

 
Britta teaching us the basics.



It's all about attitude



And being expressive



Britta is the queen of attitude and kulning. She's wonderful.

In January, Monika and I organized our very own kulning course. We gathered in Lugnet in the afternoon with about 20 people including my first host family and their relatives from Stockholm and Uppsala, my second host family, and my fellow exchange student Beth. Monika remembered a lot more of the details from our course in November and she bravely taught all of us the kulning basics. I was the assistant teacher, for sure.

Beth and I had a lot of fun with our torches during our kulning promenade.

 After the lesson, we split into two groups: one group walked to Sunnerstabacken (the ski hill in Uppsala) and the other group walked along the river until we were across from Sunnerstabacken, but on the other side of the river. We had lit torches and we did kulning for each other, and got quite a few strange looks from passers by. After our outdoor kulning evening, we all walked together back to my first host family's house and we had a lovely potluck dinner together. 

Our kulning party in January was such a great experience, I could hardly wait for the 2-day kulning course in February. Ulrika, Monika, and I had a blast together on Saturday and Sunday working on our kulning skills. We sang, practiced kulning, and laughed. This past weekend was absolutely terrific and it was an exprience I will certainly never forget. 

Thank you Monika for the photos of Britta! 

A post about cows. Yes. Cows.

Although I've yet to update my blog about Jullovet (Christmas Break), I thought I would share this. While in Västergötland with my second host family, we spent some time on a farm. This farm had many cows. I took pictures. Enjoy!

 Cute Calf

Close-up of the same cute calf

Mamma and new-born baby calf

This calf was born at 8:00 in the morning, and I met the calf at 14:00 in the afternoon, on the same day. I've never seen a new-born calf before but it was adorable and tiny, and also a wee bit slimy and gross, but mostly adorable! 

So those are just some of the many cow pictures I have on my iPod, I only uploaded the cutest ones. I forgot to even mention the milk robot. How did I not mention the milk robot?! It's as you might've guessed a robot that milks all the cows. Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of the robot. My bad.

Meeting all the cows was just one of the many cool things I did while in Västergötland. I'll update my blog later with more adventures from Christmas Break.

Långfärdsskridskor Äventyr- Lake Ice Skating Adventure

Today I went on an adventure and tried something new that I've never done before: ice skating on a lake with long ice skates. I actually have no idea how to translate "långfärdsskridskor" into English but they are essentially these really long ice skates that you strap onto cross-country-esque ski boots. I think each blade is about 12 inches long, so it's actually easier to balance than regular ice skates. The basic idea is to move the same way you would while waiting in the ski lift line and moving towards the ski lift by moving your skis in sort of a v-shape, I am awful at describing this, but that's how you're supposed to skate with long ice skates. I understood the technique in theory, but I found it to be much more difficult in practice. 

As stated above: easy in theory, harder in practice. ( I'm on the left of this photo and Beth is on the right)

I went ice skating on Lake Ekoln near Uppsala at a place called Hammarskog with Ulrika and Bengt-Ove (my first host parents), Axel (little brother from my first host family) and Beth (RYE student from California). I am so happy that they invited me to go ice skating with them, although I am not going to lie, I felt really nervous when they called the night before to tell me about the gear I would need for the following day which included: an apparatus that you put around your neck so if you fall through the ice you have two ice picks to dig into the ice and pull yourself out again (I have no idea what this is called in English), a backpack with a buckle around the waist so that if you fall through the ice, the backpack does not go over your head and push you further underwater, and in the backpack it is also important to include extra clothes in a plastic bag so you have something dry to change into if you fall through the ice. Needless to say, after this phone conversation I was both nervous and excited for the next day, having no idea what this adventure would have in store. 

Ice skating on the lake.

I ended up having an absolutely wonderful afternoon on the lake, even though Bengt-Ove lapped Beth and me a few times. I made it around the path on the lake three times, and I only fell down twice! This was my first time ever ice skating on a lake with long ice skates, so I was pretty happy that I only fell two times and only got a little bit wet.  After ice skating, we went inside the lodge for fika and I had a little sandwich and a coffee as well as a great conversation with everyone. 

From left: Me (clearly psyched to be ice skating), Beth, Bengt-Ove, and Axel. 

Overall, today was an adventure and a whole new experience for me. Before coming to Sweden, I would've never had the opportunity to go ice skating on a frozen lake with long ice skates, and even though I was afraid of falling through the ice at any moment, I had a terrific time ice skating. I would like to thank my first host family for taking me ice skating on the lake today, helping me up when I fell down, and for today's yummy fika. I am definitely looking forward to having more chances to go ice skating this winter both at the skating rink and on the lake. I'm sure I'll have plenty more stories about my ice skating adventures in the future, so stay tuned!

Thank you Ulrika for these great photos!