Folkemusikkhelga i Suldal

This weekend I enjoyed a trip over the mountains to the West with two of my classmates. We descended to sea-level on the bus (I hate traveling by bus) to Sand in Suldal, which is in Rogaland.
Sveinung's mother was the course organizer for the weekend, and also let us stay at her house. Over the course of the weekend, Sveinung and I took a kvedar (singer) class with Halvor Håkanes and David took hardingfele with Arngunn Timenes Bell (who is the sister of one of our classmates here in Rauland).

After we arrived on Friday, we unpacked and then headed up to Mo Laksegard where the courses were held and where most people were staying. Like Seabeck, they have houses that people sleep in, you can order your meals whether or not you're staying there, there's a small but functional bar, two fireplaces, a pool for warmer times of the year, and a dance hall.

We got straight to work on Friday, singing a few soothing melodies; a lullabye or two and a couple of stev. I raised the excitement level by getting locked in the bathroom during the break. I, like most people, lock the door when I use a bathroom. Somehow, the wrong key had been placed in the lock. After several minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, to unlock the door, I was about ready to call for help when several other class members arrived on the other side of the door.

We sent the key out the window and they tried unlocking it from the other side. Eventually the solution became clear. I would have to exit the bathroom the same way as the key. They brought around a chair and faster than Sveinung could get my camera, I was out the bathroom window and back on solid ground.

The rest of the weekend was considerably less exciting, but fun nonetheless. We learned a bunch of good tunes (stev, ballad, and slåttestev) from Halvor. We learned Suldalspringar, which is a super peppy dance. Saturday night was a presentation of everything we had learned, plus the teachers played solo. Some folks played for dancing after the concert as well.

On Sunday, we finished the courses in the morning and then began our bus journey home. We finally arrived in Rauland and made the decision (David and I) to go straight to dance. We were already a half hour late. It's always a small crowd, but it's fun and it's good to dance on a Sunday evening. Last night was the first time I've played for dancing and that was really fun.

This morning I was going to get up early to wash at the dentist's office (at 6am). I was in the middle of a dream about being late for a doctor's appointment when suddenly I woke up and realized that it was far too light outside to be 6am. It was in fact 8am. I had time to take out the garbage and vacuum, but that was all. I guess I was tired from the weekend!