Six days and counting before I leave on my month long trip to study 19th century Swedish farms. So many people have asked to follow the trip, that I decided to share photos and comments here.
The trip evolved as a result of the CCHS moving from vacation time/ sick time to PTO, following the county’s lead. Since I had used maybe 5 sick days in 10 years, I had about 6 weeks of PTO to use. About that time, the American Swedish Institute announced they were accepting applications for the Lilly Lorenzen Scholarship. The scholarship is designed for adults to study a topic in Sweden. I applied asking to study 19th century Swedish farms, to be applied to the newly acquired Andrew Peterson Farmstead. I was awarded $1000 last summer, and the CCHS board approved my sabbatical. Per the ASI requirements, travel has to be completed by the end of June 2017. The award paid for my airfare and much of the rental car, but the rest of the trip is on my own. Just over two weeks of my trip will consist of study time, the remainder will be visiting people I know and making the connections we need for the Peterson farm in Carver County.
My trip will be broken into 4 segments. Below, is segment number one.
May 16th, I leave with my son, daughter, and son-in-law. We will be stopping in Iceland and spending several days there before resuming our trip to Stockholm. Arriving in Stockholm on Friday the 19th, we will transfer to a plane that will take us to St. Petersburg. There, I will meet Lars Sonnegren and his wife Galina. Lars is the freelance writer from Sweden who has been writing about me in Kvallsstunden in Sweden. By clicking on the following link you can see one of the articles. Kvallsstunden His wife lives in St. Petersburg, and they invited us to visit them in St. Petersburg for the weekend. They plan to show us the Hermitage and the Faberge museums. We return to Stockholm on Monday and will visit the Vasa, Skansen, and whatever other places my daughter has lined up. My family will return to the U.S. on the 24th, and I will begin week two.
Stay tuned for photos, starting next week as Wi-Fi allows, of week one.
Wendy Petersen Biorn Executive Director Carver County Historical Society
