New cub scouter saying hi

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Hello!

I'm a Swedish immigrant to the US. I was a scout when I was a kid and really enjoyed it, and my family did a lot of what we in Swedish call "fresh air living", hiking/fishing/camping/biking/paddling/skiing/skating kinds of things. We went tent backpacking in Lapland for vacations. (But then again, part of my family is from the Arctic Circle so knowing that nature and landscape intimately is also knowing my roots.) My troop met on the edge of a forested hill, so we spent a lot of our time outdoors. I made some of my best childhood friends through scouting!

Anyway, because scouting meant a lot to me, I sold my child on scouting adventure and we signed up with Scouts BSA in cub scouts after a lot of waffling on my part to understand this two aligned but gender-segregated NSOs situation. I'm still not sure I understand what's going on there, but we happened to have a well-run family pack very close to our house so that and the normalcy sealed the deal for Scouts BSA.

After observing as a parent for a year, I have decided to help make sure this pack continues to be well run by becoming a leader myself to help ease the burden on those already serving. Our local council has wonderful facilities and regularly arranges suitably adventurous activities, so that's also very nice.

My only complaint is that they failed to take the opportunity to teach the kids that you don't whine and quit just because it's cold when they cancelled the last adventure day due to cold when it was still well above freezing. There's no bad weather, only bad gear, as we say in Sweden. In Texas they think they're freezing to death if they're not sweating. (Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating, but there's a kernel of truth in there!)

The Texans are teaching me about hot weather camping, though. I have now added a scorpion-finding UV flashlight to my gear along with a battery-run camping fan. International scouting adventure is always exciting!

[InquisitiveScouter]

Hej! och välkomna ombord!

Glad to have you with us.  

"I'm still not sure I understand what's going on there"... we don't understand it either.  It's akin to the fact that we still don't use the metric system here in the States 😜

"There's no bad weather, only bad gear"... we say that here, too.  (Wait, maybe I picked that up in Sweden...)

I had a wonderful opportunity as a young man to work the summer on a Scout Camp staff in Sweden.  It was an NSF camp (https://www.nsf.scout.se/), and the Scouts were also doing their confirmation into the Lutheran Church.  We stayed in a wonderful place called Höje Kursgård on the shores of Lake Vättern.  Great times...

https://goo.gl/maps/ThxioCxAgjdTWxJn6

I remember that year, about two weeks after Midsommar, the temperature got up to 34C, and they went nuts... limited activity outside for the Scouts, with frequent rests in the shade for everyone.  As a kid from Georgia, it was great... first time I could take off my sweater when I was there 😛😜😜   

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!  And again, welcome!

Is it time for fika yet???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Tack ska du ha!

It is always time for fika! I plan to teach the cub scouts how to bake a sponge cake in an orange over the coals on the next campout, and I of course always bring coffee. They might also appreciate making strövargodis.

Lärde du dig svenska på en sommar? Inte dåligt i så fall!

My kår was Ludvika Scoutkår, then run by SSF. My dad was a member as well, and I took a peek at their Facebook page and it looks like things are still going there! 

https://m.facebook.com/100064894952670/

That location near Vättern looks lovely. We mostly built our camps from the thin young trees (slanor) and ropes. One year we were so lucky that we had an international jamboree nearby outside Kopparbo (https://kopparbo.com/), for which we helped build a small city with nothing but axes and rope. That was also where I first encountered gender-segregated scouting for the first time, we met some English scouts that were all girls and were called guides. Perhaps you're onto something with the measurement systems idea. My American husband thinks he's being helpful with mnemonics for how many noses in a king's elbow, but that you even need a mnemonic illustrates the problem if you ask me. I'm all in for a combined solution to irrational measurement systems and duplication of scouting leadership effort if you have a suggestion.

Coping with the heat isn't trivial... I know the symptoms and stages of hypothermia off the top of my head and I have gear and clothes and routines for staying warm, but I'm realizing that in 30+ heat - especially over 40 - you need to know the symptoms of heat stroke in just the same way. I have gotten many horrible headaches that don't seem to go away and gotten really lethargic a couple of times, and looking around I don't see others being as affected as I seem to be. My child also turns pink and red from the heat in a way that the other kids don't seem to. (It fades quickly in air conditioning, so it's not sunburn.) I don't know if it's my limited tricks for heat or if it's really the downside of physiological cold and dark adaptations. I try to drink all the time (used to live at altitude and am trying to follow that habit) and wear a hat (and tons of SPF a million sunscreen of course), but it's often not enough to avoid feeling sick. Got any tips? I hear they will arrest me if I go naked, and I will have to spend all my time reapplying sunscreen anyway so I'm pretty sure that's not the way forward.