Tonight is the closing ceremony – watch it live online at http://www.worldscoutjamboree.se/live

Or should that be having trouble packing up your old kit bag?

So today we started packing down our camp – with the gateway and flag down I am going to struggle to navigate back to our site…….

There’s a strange buzz in the air – sadness in saying goodbye to all  the friends we’ve met on site and excitement as we look forward to HoHo in Poland.  There is also the refrains of the incredibly annoying Jambo song which has been in my head since yesterday and refuses to leave……

It’s been an incredible experience so far and one I plan to bore the heck out of people talking about on a very regular basis – parents, you may want to invest in a pair of those glasses with the eyes that are constantly open…….you can have a nap behind them whilst you hear yet another story……

Must dash…..thanks to Tom B I have a Columbian jacket I need to squash into my already stuffed cargo bag……

Katy

Ok Becky, unfortunately you can’t handle the banter
This will have to be a quick one as I only have a few minutes.

Last night was the conclusion to the Culture Festival, and as Becky has already detailed that I shall not be covering it. However, this morning we completed the People activity zone/base/kotch. Waiting 6 hours for a bus is pretty bad, and the People base was also up there in the S.T.O.J Moments I have had so far (S.. Times Of Jamboree). We just walked around doin gnot very much, in the rain, putting green bags on our heads and looking at walls painted with made up places. We didn’t even do the second part, it was so awful. We decided unanimously that a better use of our time was to pioneer a four deck version of the card game Slam (or Spit in more deprived areas of the world), and broke the cafe till after neither of us out of Ed Chalklen, Bryony Bowman and myself could scrap together a measly 90 Kr for two Diam cakes and two drinks, which pushed me into new levels of awkwardness.

All is going well, the unit communal funds are currently being artfully spent on ice creams for the unit, and I have swapped for a Boy Scouts of America shirt (truly epic). Also, it’s Pim’s o’clock. (moderator:not an alcoholic reference.)

Ed Maclean

Becky here!
First of all i would like to put out a message to one Edward Maclean… YOU ARE ONE DEAD MAN MISTER!!

okay so last night was umm…odd. there was an event on for the camp in camp hosts which meant that the entire jamboree went down to the main stage for a massive show. Beforehand there was a a mahhusssive carnival type atmosphere where all the towns were paraded down to the main stage in four huge columns of noise and commotion. there were drummers, helicopters and men on stilts- military precision getting 40,000 campers into the main arena without drowning the camp in camp hosts
once seated we were talked through the layout like an air hostess would the plane- they’ve never done that before, obvs just showing off for the camp in camp peeps!
were were briefly entertained by some more cheesy music and bmx bikers on either side of the stage. (one fell off in the main bmx show which was quite funny- yeah i’m cruel ) AND THEN THE SHOW BEGANNNN!!
the first surprise of the night, two Swedish hosts (obviously got dresssed in the dark) who were very excitable and personable. they talked us through a virtual tour of sweden and the process by how they chose camp in camp sites. appareantly this involved a comedic type performance of doktor monica and doktor marcus ( yeah i can spell doctor but thats me attempting to write in the Swedish accent) and ‘the guinea pig’. again this was quite weird, there were several segments to this with the typical predictable humor of any cheesy show but still funny all the same.
then came the ultimate shock… we were told by our swedish hosts that we would be hearing a band from sweden that had a different sound was worldwide and very famous, now if you heard that you had one of two options when you think swedish bands: ABBA or Basshunter. Us as clever and cultured scouts knew ABBA would not be making an appearance, so Basshunter was the obvious choice. There we were hoping for this incredible worldwide famous act and what did they annouce…Timbuktu ( i have been recently corrected via facebook by a swedish friend on the spelling) any of you ever heard of him before?! yeah neither had we. Yes he is just as they said, a new sound although obviously not internationally famous. He was good party all the same though and we had a great time trying to guess what he was on about. the swedes clearly loved him atleast. Then came the second band of the night, another swedish band and another internationally famous, new sound blah blah blah… yeah we hadn’t heard of these either. they were a more Swedish rock band i think. who knows but again we managed to rock our typically English moves i.e dad dancing with a mix of sex appeal hahaha. *Jacob and Atlanta*
included in all this cheese and gaiety the jamboree song was performed, dont quote me on this but i think people are starting to like it a bit. i stress the ‘bit’ alot. its a tad wet but very catchy and i for one love belting it out at ridiculous times and whacking out some of the cheesy dance moves i have heard that there are some people within camp who look to download the song as soon as they’re home and learn the dance moves. Thats dedication for you!
after this we had some free time, so what do you do on the jamboree at half nine… hmmm grab yourself a Duchess of Cambridge mask and troll around scaring the other countries half to death! (very funny whilst they’re standing in the toilet queue and you’ve just told them to point, aim, shoot and flush! shoulda seen their faces) i dont think the Irish enjoyed it much though…
I’ll let someone else tell you about today as i think this is getting long now and i’ve been told by Ben he thinks blogs should be short :/ bye guys and i’ll talk to you when i can, i dont know when that is cause its packing up tomorrow and then we’re off to poland. the end of the jamboree is nearing and none wants to go.. xx

So I’ve decided that sleep can be easily replaced by sugar (chocolate balls yum yum) and am currently over in adult town having fika. Katy and I enjoyed the leaders’ Finnish sauna earlier in the week which was incredibly hot-over 70 degrees Centigrade- and we all had a great time at the cultural festival day yesterday. We sampled lots of international food and activities and ended with a massive carnival procession to the concert in the main arena. Absolutely everyone danced their socks off (Jacobs hips are still legendary) despite having no idea who the Swedish bands were!

Hard to believe it’s only a couple of days until we head to Poland. The swap shop is well and truly under way; we have swedish, mexican and hong kong kit to name but a few.

Parents enjoy your last week of freedom!
Sarah xxxxxx

Today is culture festival! An excuse to walk around the site in glorious sunshine sampling food from around the world And boy, is it good. Today, I’ve eaten Armenian Bruschetta, Swedish pancakes, drunk South African redbush tea, had some Brazilian chocolate, partaken of French canapes, had some dank Carribean split peas and tamarind and much more that frankly, I can’t even remember, it was so good.

Today, each unit has to put on something showcasing their culture. Although food is thankfully a prominent and tasty theme (no sweaty cheese sandwhiches for me), there’s also some dancing, and I’ve seen a Saudi marching band (yes, I am equally confused). The swedes also have a tradition where they fashion a pole into the shape of a giant penis and dance around it, singing songs about earless frogs. And no, I wouldn’t resort to jokes that cheap, this is real… Tonight there’s some sort of event on, but for now I have to man the Solihull offering, which consists of popcorn (not yet materialised) and signing a visitor book. To be fair, there is also a badge maker. Fun is all around though, because Becky has found her Swedish boyfriend. All is well

Ed Maclean

The Jamboree site is a buzzing hive of activity, full of people having a good time, whether organized or not. Most mornings, activities are organized for all Scouts on the site, who come and do things in one of the five activity locations: People, Earth, Dream, Quest and Global Development. As vast and expansively brilliant as these names might sound, the activities are very good on the whole. So far, we have completed Earth, Dream, Quest and Global Development, and the day after tomorrow is People.

Obviously, a whole host of other things go on at the Jamboree site. You just need to walk around to find things. Over the last few days, I have been invited to try to fit as many people as possible from different countries in a Volkswagen Passat (the record is 27 people of 9 nationalities, giving a total score of 243, incidentally ), had many campfire sing songs showcasing the hokey cokey, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and of course learning many new traditional folk songs from around the world, a Swedish beer song, been invited to a wrestling match with Georgia, USA’s number one under 18 wrestler (which I obviously declined), and played many games of Ninja, a quick fire game involving ninja movements and not much coherent English but lots of grunting. There is so much more I have done, but right now, I am currently in a boring Media tent listening to Bob Marley on Jamboree FM (which is so cool!). Consequentially I am not really in a state of deep mental recall.

Earth

The Earth forest was quite good, but was basically a Swedish version of the CAT centre in South Wales (for the travellers among you). We made a fan from a milk carton to lift a ‘heavy weight’ of 30 grams, did some rather duff filtering using soil, and had a load of fun drowning plastic animals in a sandy trench with water, all in the name of environmentalism. On a serious note.. (which is Tom Brigg’s phrase de la Jamboree) the forest was good, if rather ambiguous as to its actual message. Ironically, I thought the sandy trench where we had to construct a river valley was actually a rather good reflection of how river valleys work (the animal drowning excersize).

Dream

Dream is a very unsettling experience, but nessecary and very enlightening all the same. You leave your tent at 11.30 and walk into a lamplit forest, where you walk through a green and eerie smoke filled tent, where you are told you have died, and are going to live your life backwards. With the aid of a log and blacked out swimming goggles you feel how it is to lose your senses when old. You walk backwards through the years, gradually creating a persona, or discovering a future for yourself, where you imagine eventualities such as your home being lost, death of loved ones and your life situtations, all the way to your birth as a young child. Although the actual activity is understandbly not well carried off, the actual message, and the way you scrutinise your entire life is quite worrying and depressing. I went away not wanting to be a forgotten and dead old person, with no contributions to life and no achievements. Ed Chalklen and I pondered this under the stars that night as we slept outside (which I hope will be a regular thing).

Quest

Quest was a really cool mediavel/Viking themed activity centre, with loads of new but ‘Simply Scouting’ activities set up and run by the wonderful IST in full mediavel regalia. We threw hammers at targets, threaded objects through twine mazes, played huge versions of the ball roll game Labyrinth, requiring ten people to move, and parkoured the ass off a forest assualt course. The amazing thing about the Quest, which we did today, was the fact that all the equipment was actually handmade, like the entire assualt course had been knocked up over a week, for example.

Global Development

Global Development was a set of more humanely minded activites, involving understanding problems from the world like child soldiers, landmines, other’s cultures and world health. We had to build a bridge but acknowledge that the team who we were instructing could not do certain things like pick up scissors or talk in a certain way. This just made me feel more frustrated at the fact that at the Jamboree site, we are not allowed to go shirtless because some people might get offended, even though I feel quite offended at the burka. Ah well, life’s hard.

The Jamboree is really amazing, and I am really enjoying it. Oh, please look out in the Solihull News: I sent in an article called ‘Greetings from the Jamboree’.

Ed Maclean

Hi again, Its Becky.
i could get to use to this media correspondant thing, means i get to spend as much time as i like talking to you guys (and unlimited facebook) without a gazillion other people peering over my shoulder all the time

anyways onto today’s activities…
Today was another scorcher and this time we were out in the sun most of the day. Todays module: Quest!
When we arrived at the ‘terminal’ ( i.e another big clearing surrounded by trees- seriously how big is this site??!) we were greeted by thousands of other tanned/sunburnt campers all gathered together infront of the quest stage dancing along to some truly cheesy tunes. Jeez it was great, sun, sweat and some cheesy tunes! here we were issued some really attractive hot pink wrist bands that would undoubtedly become another white mark on ours wrists in days to come, we’re beginning to look unwashed now! hahaha
Quest  consisted of four worlds, conquest, medieval, viking and cave. in these four worlds there were a range of activities for us to complete. To earn our bead for the module we had to spend an hour in each world and complete a minimum of four tasks- except conquest which was a pretty awesome assault course made entire from pioneering poles. Medieval as it suggests was run by IST dressed as knights/squires and the tasks included completing a puzzle whilst most of the patrol was blindfolded. (One casualty here..Poor Rob, honestly Joe Evans is a hazard anywhere! lol) Cave was a huge maze with a load of small activities in various dead ends, once completed we would be given a number which would be needed for our ‘escape’.  Overall we collected three numbers and successfully managed to make our exit. Viking included hammer throwing, saving a local vikingess from a tower and rune reading- yup us scouts are THAT good
once that ended we were allowed some more free time to explore and make/visit new friends. then it was back for what i must say was a brilliant dinner. My patrol Corny Big are fast learning what it feels like to cook a dinner that everyone enjoys. We made Swedish meatballs, cooked about five 1-2kg bag,  approx 200+ meatballs with mash and mushrooms, carrots and a rather interesting gravy. I cannot honestly tell you what was in it because it was kind of a follow-the-recipe-to-a-certain-point and then add whatever and hope it looks like the picture/taste good.
Then for pud, boy we gave them a treat! Loads of swedish chocolate balls and a fruit salad with custard. Parents don’t be surprised if your kids come back atleast a stone heavier or without teeth. ITS THE SWEDISH WAY! i was told personally by a swedish friend that eating loads of sugar is common, even got its own title: Fika. Now isn’t that every child’s dream!

Loved the sun today really hot maybe to much but is a lot better than all the rain we have been having. Went up the huge tower today, quite scary when your high in the air and the whole thing is shaking under your feet from the people bellow. However the view from the top was AMAZING!!! You could see the whole site and got some great photo’s.

I hope everyone back in the UK is having just as much fun and good weather as we are see you soon,
Rob

*YAWWWWWN*
Last night the remainer of the unit that had gone to camp in camp and returned successfully, went on to complete the next module, called Dream. As it can be assumed it was to take part during the night. Basically it consisted of wandering around a lantern lit forest with your patrol for several hours. However there comes a twist, it is not all as it seems….
Its a bit odd to be told the first base that it is death and you ‘die’ whilst walking through a smoke filled marquee. (can i point out that Bertie got scared at this and casually grabbed the nearest hand to him during this group death, of course it was vehemently denied later on:) ) From there we were to experience life in reverse, growing old then travelling through life( the forest) til birth. At each milestone in ones life there were bases that made all who attended think and reflect ( sometimes fall asleep *ahem tom roberts ahem*) stations included old age, adulthood, youth, childhood and birth.
Honestly i found the whole thing slightly odd and bemusing and generally preferred the option of finding the nearest tree, cotching and casually sleeping whilst everyone else was discovering their identities and what not.
By the time we reached the end i was less than impressed with my ‘birth’ it did not seem as spectacular as my actual birth undoubtedly was but still i am still reborn all the same. i am slightly confused as to how much of an impact the activity was intended to have on 38,000 sleepy scouts as we were told by other participants there were IST members lined up incase we needed counselling? Although i was not altogether impressed by the actual activity itself, the concept was good, the forest was beautiful at night and i was rather tired.
We reached our tenbts at roughly 2.30 in the morning and we were told to sleep til whenever, which is great as getting up for 8 would have been killer. However even this did not go to plan as the UK issued tents are like saunas in the morning and most people were out of their tents by 8 due to sheer overheatedness. Preferably we would have all stayed asleep that bit longer i.e til at least lunchtime but those tents made it impossible.
honestly in the rain those tents leak and in the gheat they boil us to death- true british design!
Right off for dinner now, stir fry yum, bye
Becky xxx

Our patrol, recently self christened McGill’s Mystery Machine by Luke McGillicuddy (under Sarah Glover) has just returned from an amazing 2-3 days of chilled, then supremely relaxing Swedish nature in Camp In Camp. We have all agreed that we have had the best last two days of us all, having really bonded as a patrol and having had an amazing time.

Camp in Camp is a venture organized by the Swedes wherby they have persuaded many Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Scouts to locate their summer camps within 2 hours of the Jamboree site itself. This means that groups from the Jamboree can visit them to, ‘bring the Jamboree experience to others not fortunate enough to be attending’. However, this didn’t quite go according to plan. The organisers, having booked out all the coaches in Southern Sweden over the last few days, found even this was not enough. Many were left sitting waiting for a coach to take them to their relative destinations, of whom we were a part. We were left until about 3pm, 6 hours after we were told we were going to be leaving, when we were told that we would not be going on Camp in Camp (despite the fact the all the other patrols had gone, leaving us), and were given a Special K bar as consolation. But thanks to the hard, and very English work, of Sarah Glover, complaining at literally every information centre, the organisers were humiliated into putting us onto a coach the next morning. But every cloud has a silver lining, and we had a lot of random bursting into song (aided by the ukulele), a huge campfire with other patrols from around the world, and a night under the stars.

The following morning, we departed, refreshed and excited, for Camp in Camp. After a short and sleepy coach ride, we arrived at a large forest clearing in glorious sunshine, in God-Knows-Where, Sweden. The lake was obviously our first port of call, and we had a couple of hours in the huge lake, fishing freshwater mussels (probably against Sweden’s notorious environmentalist laws…) and chilling on the rock. Completely relaxed already, we then wandered up to a small tent on a hill and did some Swedish weaving and stone carving, then forged an iron hook in a decidedly elven manner. Dinner, a very good bean chilli on an open fire, went by quickly with the help of some Irish, and the evening followed in a long blur of songs, the guitar/ukulele, campfires and the patrol, with whom we have become very close to in the last few days. The Swedes at the new site also had set up a candlelit trail, which we followed through the woods in ones and twos, all the way to the lakeshore, late in the evening just after the sun set. It was really beautiful, and served as a great chance to just reflect, or as I did, have a closer conversation with someone. We simply sat and slept under the stars, and left early next morning after another swim. I feel really positive about the Jamboree: I have really bonded with those in my patrol, and the sunshine now has served as a great time to just enjoy people’s company, from strangers from different countries, or those we have come to know and will soon miss. The Jamboree is a really amazing experience.

Ed Maclean

Finally we’re all back from our various camp in camps and have swapped stories – sounds like everyone had a good time and international relations remain strong! I think that everyone in Patrol 4 has the basic grasp of my name and surname now having spent a full day with me……There are too many people with the same name so often, it’s just quicker to turn round even though it’s not your name….

After all that rain we now have glorious sunshine ‘except for a slight rain intervention late yesterday afternoon when all you heard was squealing and the sound of people rushing to the washing line – yes, your kids are doing their laundry!!)

So far this afternoon, the leaders had an interesting lunch of “smelly cheese” and bread followed by lard on bread, courtesey of the Czech cafe. Yummy.  Sarah and Richard have had a go at whip cracking (Sarah was unsurprisingly very good at this…..) and Paul has been badge swapping.  Sarah and I are off to the Faith area in a bit to find some spiritual guidance before Patrol 3 goes off for a Dream session later tonight.

There is still so much to see and do so we will catch you later!

Katy and Sarah

So yesterday the entire unit was supposed to go off site to another camp in sweden hosted by swedish scouts who could not make it to the jamboree. however when i say supposed to i mean that one patrol only left today. We ourselves were considering abandoning the entire trip as swedish organisation is practically none existant and we were bounced from bus stop to bus stopå for three and a half hours!!!! Just as we reached our personal deadline a bus came, and now in hindsight it was silly to think we could waste such a great experience. The `corny big´ patrol as we call ourselves hgad an AWESOME time!! when we finally got on a the bus, we were driven for about an hour to a beautiuful campsite by a lake. The forest surrounded us and the silence was welcome from all the commotion on the jamboree site. The swedish camp was a quaint little camp with scouts from several llocal villages who had come together to host us jamboree lot. They were most welcoming and as soon as we arrived we were allocated a host. she would help us in the camp and direct us where we needed to go. First activity was an art and crafty type thing, swedish style so making wool bracelets and jewellry from reindeer antlers. the boys enjoyed this especially as it involved power tools and manliness from there we had time to ourselves to makle tea and to generally explore the area, which included hiking in the woods and making dinner- root vegetable stew yum…NOT. definitely not a recipe we will be doing again, it basically consisted of boiled vegetable in water. ( we forgot ther stock cubes´) we added cheese and ham( both of which i do not like) just to had taste to our vegetable water. After that was the campfire. this turned out to be really funny, and wet… our unit and another bham unit did england proud by leading ging-gang-gooly and the beaver song. there were also songs or sketches from the host and the other visiting patrols. the two main hosts of the campfire fun were two swedish camp called andreas and andreas that literally had us crying from the word go. after and opening luike that it was bound to be a good night, which it was. After the campfire we hadf more free time to socalise and mingle with the hosts and the other units until 11 where it would be quiet in camp. Corny Big decided pretty early on that swimming in the lake at a ridiculous time of day would be one of their goals of the camp. Either it was either to be 11pm or 5am, they promptly succeded the next morning at roughly 6.30 the next morning after deciding 5am was really stupid and sleep was more preferable. The lake in all in visual beauty turned out to me kinda icky. most of the group came out dirtier than when they went in, hehe. the next day, our last anmd final activity was to be canoeing around the lake in two man canoes and honestly it was one of the most relaxing things we’ve done so far. the lake was still and the sun was shining, cant get much better than that, although not to forget some of the hosts acting as lifeguards (shirtless) just added to the scenery.
i think i speak for my entire patriol when i say it was a brilliant time. The hosts were helpful and fun. They gave us a real swedish experience including the new favourite camp food, SWEDISH CHOCOLATE BALLS aswell as cinnamon buns and pancakes. I know i for one will be gutted that we only met them for 24 hours. This jamboree keeps getting better and better especially since the weather has picked up and now its TOO hot. hahaha.
Hope to write soon, as i have discovered the media tent and as a young spokesperson can cut the huge queues and blog when i like. So see you later and thanks for all the support every parents and ist and leader has given us. Becky xxx

Wow! what an amazing few days its been. Having been completely soaked for the majority of the past week, the sun is finally out and shining in Sweden, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Just arrived back from Camp in Camp, and the scenery there was spectacular, I know people always says wow that’s an amazing view, but this really was an amazing view. Out in the middle of nowhere in the Swedish countryside is this magnificent forest, hiding a hidden secret, set in the middle of the forest is the most spectacular lake I have ever seen, it stretched for miles, and was just beautiful, so much so it deserved a swim in, and a nice morning canoeing. Awesome! I could write loads more, but Becky is sat next to me, so I’ll leave her to fill you in Looking forward to the next 10 days, see you later, Ben

Now why am I not surprised that Joseph has found some home comforts , I just hope he is trying out the international cuisine also…..

A small corner of Sweden is offering UK Scouts a taste of home. Scouts from Yorkshire have built a Medieval Castle……….

Tom, Joseph and Edward from Solihull were munching through chips, a bacon sandwich and some ginger cake with a pot of tea.

‘We are amazed that the food house is still open. The others have closed for the afternoon, but in true British style they battle on regardless. We queued up for 20 minutes and it was worth every minute.’

Full article http://scouts.org.uk/news/409/food-for-thought

Sally-Anne

What a fantastic time we’re having despite the constant rain! Last night Patrol D “Can’t touch this” joined scouts from Belgium, Japan and Taiwan at the Taiwanese camp, sampling curry, noodles and the Taiwanese classic – burgers! After mingling with our hosts and the other countries we stepped outside for a good old sing song and dance – top marks to Kirsty, Sarah C, Adam, Holly, Will, Tom C, Tom B, Jenna and Beth B for stepping up and leading with some English classics – The Hokey Cokey and A Pizza Hut……we’re off to camp in camp tomorrow – keep your fingers crossed for a little bit of sunshine!! Katy

We visited the site today and even though it was raining very hard all the Solihull Contingent were having a good time.  The Jamboree town is now the 4th largest town in the South of Sweden and everybody on the site was really friendly.  An amazing experience for everyone involved and the tented town seems to go on for miles and miles.  All the youngsters seemed happy but are hoping it will finally stop raining soon.  The weather forecast for Sunday seems to be improving so keep your fingers crossed!! 

Piers, Becky & Kristian Bennett

ps Adam’s gate does look fantastic but then we are biased!!!

So I spoke too soon… After yesterday’s glorious sun the rain is back!!! Our camp is fully built though and looks amazing, particularly the gate (Matt if you read this can I upload photos from my iPhone?!)

Thirteen members took part in the flag ceremony last night, which was a great honour. The opening ceremony is later on- fingers crossed the rain holds off!

Off to gather the scouts for dinner. Some of the girls were last seen making a beeline for the American camp……

Sarah xxxxxxx

Our camp looks really good now with Adams gate and many flags. A lot of people are taking pictures of it. Hats off to Adam. We’ve met many people from different countries and swapped alot of badges. Looking forward to opening ceremony tonight after amazing Copenhagen! Matt Brookes

Rainy day today here in site. Not stopping the fun though, at least not at Simple Circus in Winter Town Centre!

Been an interesting few days on site with staff training and staff opening show…ABBA Tribute!!!

Opening ceremony tonight should be really good! Despite more rain expected! Mat.

It has already been an amazing few days, and it seems it is only going to get better from here on in! Over the past 3 days we have been in Copenhagen, visited Tivoli Gardens, been on a speedboat trip, had a very wet, cold and windy beach party, and have explored the capital of Denmark. All concluded by a massive party last night, where there were performances from amazing bands such as the Copenhagen drummers, Kings Ov Leon, The KMK, and the actual real Alphabeat! So arrived on jamboree site now having got up again for 4:30!, but i’ve already met so many people from so many countries, really looking forward to everyone arriving, exploring the site, and the opening ceremony tomorrow evening! It’s going to be an awesome 12 days here in Sweden! Ben

I really never expected the jambo site to get so big so fast!! Autumn town is only a small part of the actual camp yet its massive! Every scout we’ve met so far has been great , its kinda awkward to be sayingt HI! so many times in the space of 5 minutes, sometimes you that they’re talking to you Its weird to think we as english people are not such a comodity as everyone else as we have the largest contingent here other than the swedish! the australians have said its weird the reaction they get when people ask where theyre from, its understandable though theyre so cool!!
We’re currently taking an initial explore of the site now so will write back soon   Becky xx

Only four days to go! Seems a long time since September 2009 when I got selected for Sweden – what a journey – but a fun & immensely rewarding one.
Just a few more pairs of unit trousers to sort (what a saga that was!), a couple of late nights at work & oh yes …my packing…I knew there was something else…     Paul  :0)