My Swedish Adventure- part 2

My Job

Hi again! I hope you enjoyed reading my introduction last week about my time in Sweden. This week, I thought I would let you know about my job and the great people who have taken me in and made me such a part of their family!

I run for OK Ravinen (along with UCDO and my British club, Moravian Orienteers) who are a Swedish orienteering club based in Nacka in Stockholm. I have run for them for 4 years now and have many friends from the club. Along with that, I also know the Nacka area pretty well from being over here on training camps and for competitions. Therefore, the fact that my family lived right on the edge of the Nacka nature reserve and only a 3km cycle from the Ravinen club-hut was perfect!

The family I work for are an Australian orienteering family, both parents ran for Australia in WOC. However unfortunately, they run for IFK Lidingö which is another Stockholm club, and one of OK Ravinen’s biggest rivals. So, they tried to persuade me to switch at the beginning of my visit, but I knew where to keep my loyalties! Their children are 5, 3 and 1.5 and are really cool kids! They are fun, full of adventure, have loads of imagination, and are bilingual (so trying to teach me lots of Swedish). It impresses me so much how they can switch from playing with their friends in Swedish to talking to me in English!

During the week I work about 25 hours which includes dropping them off and picking them up at pre-school, playing with them, and sometimes cooking dinner and helping with bedtime. At the weekends we then do things all together, like going on an “utflykt” (an adventure out in the woods), or just playing around the house. There is always plenty of time for me to go training as much as I like, or to go away to competitions at the weekends.

Kathryn Barr UCDO, Moravian Orienteers and OK Ravinen!

It sounds like a dream job! Check out Kathryn’s previous installment here.