Back to a more reality soon, a more vivid reality

So, after this week, which is national Children's book week in Sweden, as well as Rights of the Child week (coincidence? coordination, I do not know), I will be traveling back to the USA to visit my family and celebrate Thanksgiving.

And then after my trip, I'll be in my last month at the library. My last day of my maternity cover is December 30th. In January, I am back to my job as a fritidspedagog at a wonderful local primary school. It's literally right across the street from the library, so not too far to come back for books and to see my friends here.

So, what is a fritidspedagog, you might ask? There is not a real equivalent job in the States, because we didn't really have any real regularly planned after school programs in the 1980s when I went to primary school. We took the bus home and I had my grandma home and other children on my block had either moms or babysitters home to greet them. Nowadays, I guess they have after school teachers, but judging from the scant information I've seen on these jobs, they do not require a higher education or any kind of formal training. Nah, a fritidspedgog is more like an afterschool librarian, offering planned creative and fun more informal educational activities.

Since I've been working as a fritidspedagog, I have fallen head over heels in love with teaching. The ongoing and continual contact with the students is a gift. Being along for the journey and being a guide in the children's ongoing development is the most rewarding job I have ever had. I will absolutely take my 5 years of library experience with me to help students develop their love of reading (or to start that process), but starting in January, I'll be working more as an educator and less as a librarian in the traditional sense.

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day in Sweden, and the library is closed. We don't really celebrate All Saints Day in America, but Latin Americans do celebrate Dia de los Muertos or day of the dead. So, I guess we 'Murricans bastardized it into Halloween. It's kind of a leap how honoring ones long gone loved ones morphed into costumes and trick or treating, but what can I do about it?

Anyway, the Swedes have drunk the Halloween Kool-Aid so to speak, so we had a really fun haunted house (spökvandring) at the library where we turned the basement auditorium, periodical room and archived books rooms into a haunted house that visitors wandered through.

This week I also invited the second-graders from the school I normally work at to listen to a Halloween story hour. Although I was kind of sick, my hoarse witch voice worked and I found some great shortish funny, scary and really scary ghost stories to read. I turned out the lights in the children's section, lit LED candles and read the stories with a flashlight. These things made the atmosphere cozy and spooky. Super fun!