Day 1

I was awake several times during the night, the strange bed and different atmosphere. I apologised to Trude, I am sure I disturbed her. She said it is ok, she does not sleep well anyway. After breakfast I helped bring the cows back to their field. The kids had to go into town with their mother, so I had the morning to myself. I played with the dogs for some time. After lunch I helped build the bonfire. A lot of the men remembered Owe from when he lived there as a kid. Being outside, the physical work, it was nice. It reminded me of Canada. We had fika at home and then I fell asleep! Trude had to wake me to get ready to go to out! The fire was already burning when we arrived. There was a buffet in the sports hall. I was introduced to a lot of people whose names I immediately forgot. The kids were running around. There was plenty of alcohol, I had to be very careful that my glass was not automatically filled up. I had one drink, to please them. Woah, it burned. I had to sit down for 10 minutes. I was later informed it was home brew with an unknown percentage of alcohol. We stayed until 11pm. By then most people were totally drunk. Luckily there are designated people who do not drink (that much) who look after the fire and make sure it is properly out at the end of the night. The retained fire service gets a practice session.