Swedish has a great word, avslutning, to describe what we did on our final day. They are special final activities, but may or may not include a ceremony. On our final morning of school we met for the first time in the upstairs music classroom. Music students in all prior years have used the larger upstairs classroom. But this year we have been downstairs in what was the library, to be away from the hammering sounds on the roof.  Our class has never seen the building without the scaffolding over it.

We met for an hour with our three main music teachers, Ditte Andersson, Olov Johansson, and Sonia Sahlström. We played tunes together, one from each teacher, and talked about the year we spent together. It was really lovely. The dance students met at the same time with their teachers in another room.

Then we gathered in the big salon with the dancers and all teachers for a final ceremony with diplomas. Teachers played and sang and danced for us all. We played Schubert’s March Militaire together, which we had played in Musiklära ensemble. This is a school tradition for avslutning.

After that we enjoyed a really nice lunch together. I ran off to meet my daughters coming on the train, but came back and had some.

We gave Olov a T-shirt with a silverbasharpa painted on it by Amy.

The dancers gave their teachers some beautiful posters they had made by hand.

All together in the large salon.

Meeting with the teachers in the upstairs classroom.

I’m giving Olov a big hug when he gives me my certificate.