16 Dec Lucia, leprechauns and AFS visit

Dear reader,

It has been the most beautiful December week, where the students have enjoyed themselves with many activities and preparations for the cultural trips in January. The atmosphere has been very good after a successful student party, even though several students have generously shared viruses with each other. On Tuesday morning, a large Lucia procession lit up the morning exercise and the assembly. The girls have also had their very own friendship evening with cosiness, games and girls-talk, and it is really nice that several expressed that they had formed new friendships. This weekend we have wellness Saturday and on Sunday we have teaching and assembly from 16.00, where all students must participate. We do not have Christmas holidays until Wednesday at 14.00 and we are looking forward to really enjoying the last days. In the assemblies, we have drawn today's Christmas present together with the second Christmas competition, which runs on Facebook, which has received a fantastic reception and participation.

Remember the vest on morning exercise
It is very dark in the morning during the winter months and therefore the students have been given a yellow reflective vest with their name printed on it. It's important that they wear it on morning exercise, but some people struggle to remember it, so we've given them until Monday to find it. The pupils will then receive a new one at their own expense, so that we can minimise the risk of an accident when the pupils cross Seminariej.

On Tuesday, we were visited by AFS Denmark Interkultur and a number of local associations. They showed the school and then two AFS exchange students gave a presentation to our students about coming to a foreign country and staying with a host family. Many students were interested in learning more about the possibility of going on an exchange with AFS and there are still places available - including to the USA for the coming school year. Locals showed interest in our year-round program and will work to find more host families for our year-round students from Mexico, Thailand, and China, among others. If you would like to be a weekend family for a student at Ranum Efterskole College, please write to us.

The Lucia procession was a great success and the parades went around all the houses and to the community gathering.

Nepal dinner and lecture
On Wednesday evening the two Nepal teams cooked a Nepalese dinner and decorated the dining room with prayer flags, pictures from the Nepal Friendship School and the Himalayan trekking trips. The food was of course rice with vegetables and tasted very good. The former student Amalie H. gave a great presentation after dinner about her visit to the twinning school in January. She was so enthusiastic about her trip that her mother was also interested and so they went to Nepal to visit Amalie's host family during the autumn holidays - also this year.

Devil hats and felt socks for the poorest in Nepal
A group of women in Løgstør heard about the school's visits to orphanages and the poorest villages in Nepal last spring, and decided to support the project by knitting 84 hats for babies. The many hats will bring great joy, as many families still live in primitive tents or tin-plate houses, where children in particular are plagued by colds and infections.

In the photo, a representative of the group hands over the hats to teacher Lise Ramløse.

Our cultural guest from Nepal, Mailo Bal, returned home this week. He participated in the Nepal lessons, on the street tours and especially in the Christmas bakery and the performance week. He was presented with a joint gift from the school consisting of a laptop with 8GB ram, fast SSD disk and wild quad-core processor, so we can keep in touch between his family and the school, without performance issues. 

Toothpaste production
As part of the school's focus on sustainability, students were able to learn how to make their own toothpaste one evening, and about 20 students produced their own flavour. 

In the coming week the focus is of course on Christmas cheer and several subjects are finishing their courses before the holidays. The students start already on Sunday afternoon with assembly at 16.00 and then there is a really exciting lecture on Sunday evening with author, researcher and coach Søren Lynge. The lecture is about building a strong community through inner control, healthy self-esteem and positive thoughts. 

On Tuesday there is a Christmas chief's ball and the theme is film stars in the evening there is a big Christmas lunch followed by a Christmas service in Ranum church, where efterskolen's choir and pupils will sing Christmas carols together.

At the last community gathering, Christmas rooms in all the houses are crowned and there is a fight to the finish. In the last week all means including sweets for the warden must be used. 

On Wednesday we will decorate all rooms and hallways, and maybe Santa's rabbit will land at the Tree of Life again this year, of course it always depends on how nice the students have been during December.

Have a great weekend

Olav Storm Johannsen
Principal