31 Aug Warming up for Vilsted lake race, visit from Hong Kong and a look at the future

Dear reader,
After a pleasant reunion with family and friends during the first long weekend, the students returned to Ranum with renewed energy on Sunday evening. The week has included an encounter with a new culture, some extra exercise in addition to the daily morning walk, and an early farewell to our AFS students. 

Motional races
The time is approaching Vilsted lake race and therefore we had on Tuesday a small exercise race of 3.5 km. The students got out their running shoes and completed the course in some impressive times. At the finish line, Olav was ready to greet the students with smiles and high fives. 

If you're sitting at home and want to race with our students, here's your chance at the Vilsted lake race. The start will be from our beautiful afterschool, where we hope to see a lot of students, teachers, parents and siblings for a run around Vilsted lake.

Visit from Hong Kong
This week we were also visited by Simone from Hong Kong, who will be here for seven weeks. Simone is here as a volunteer, which means she will be doing various activities with the students. All the way from Hong Kong, she has imported exciting culinary ingredients that she hopes the students will help turn into delicious dishes inspired by Simone's home country. On Wednesday, Simone gave a small introduction of herself to the daily community gathering. In beautiful English, she started off with "Hi. It's nice to meet you!", which was followed by an exciting introduction in English. We have to take our hats off for that.

Bridging the gap: a peek into the future 
Even though the school year has just started and life as an afterschool student has only just begun, this week we were going to talk about the possibilities after a year at Ranum Efterskole College. The 10th graders were introduced to bridge building, which is a mandatory part of this school year. Meanwhile, the 9th graders were gathered in the multi-hall, where they also talked about secondary education. One of the topics discussed was the importance of choosing an education with heart and brain instead of just choosing according to where your friends or the types you like best should go. The theme gave many students food for thought and during the autumn there will be more talks and presentations on the choice of secondary education.

Goodbye to AFS short course students 
For the past four weeks we have been visited by a lovely group of AFS students. It has been a really nice week, where they have been part of the community here at Ranum. We have enjoyed their company and good humour. Not least we say thank you for the fantastic masterpiece in the seminary building. With precision, colours and a little bit of hurry with the last brush strokes, the masterpiece was luckily finished in time.

In addition to a minor battle with time to get their Comic Strip finished in the Seminary building, our AFS students have been out bowling and eating together with their Danish host students. Today we had Danish hot dogs for lunch and then they are ready to go home to Hong Kong, Italy and Belgium We hope they all have a really good trip home tomorrow. 

A weekend of water sports 
This weekend we have a full focus on water and sport. We're going sailing, surfing and wakeboarding - it's going to be good!

Next week

The coming week will be full of activities. We'll be doing another run on Tuesday, in preparation for the Vilsted lake run on Saturday. On Thursday, we will be visited by Sanne Søndergaard, stand-up comedian, lecturer and author. She will give her talk 'Fuck normal', which is about life as a teenager. 

At the same time as the Vilsted lake race next weekend, we will also have our annual family weekend, which we are really looking forward to. It will be a weekend of fun, with the possibility for families to spend the night in and around the school. Friday night will be games, Nepal banquet, movies at the cinema and football, so there will be plenty of opportunities for family fun.

Remember to register for the Vilsted lake race 
It's almost time for us to get back into our running gear for the Vilsted Lake Run and we encourage all parents, siblings and students to sign up. The race will be held on 8 September, where you can run between 5 km and a half marathon, or simply walk in the beautiful surroundings along the lake. There is a fantastic medal for all participants and you can sign up on the school timetable, where there will also be more information about the race. We look forward to seeing you for a really nice day. 

Day of the Afterschools
On 30 September, we open the doors to the Day of After-Schools. We are ready to introduce you to cultural subjects, residential subjects, travel and what life at Ranum Efterskole College is like. Students will be on hand to show you around, answer your questions and tell you about their everyday lives. We look forward to seeing you. 

We still have places available for this school year! If you have a son or daughter who would love a year at afterschool, we'd love to hear from you! 

Greetings all of us at 
Ranum Efterskole College