There were even some Highland cows there!!
From Stenshuvud we went to Knäbäckshusen, where the Sankt Nikolai church is.
We happened to be there while there was a wedding going on:
Loppa went swimming.
On the way home.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Kivik och Stenshuvud
The weekend after Växjö we went east, to Stenshuvud. This was the second time I've been there, the first time was with familjen Broberg in the summer.
There were even some Highland cows there!!
From Stenshuvud we went to Knäbäckshusen, where the Sankt Nikolai church is.
We happened to be there while there was a wedding going on:
Loppa went swimming.
On the way home.
There were even some Highland cows there!!
From Stenshuvud we went to Knäbäckshusen, where the Sankt Nikolai church is.
We happened to be there while there was a wedding going on:
Loppa went swimming.
On the way home.
Växjö
This week I was in Växjö in Småland, where Lena and myself on did a little släktforskning, family research, and touristed about the countryside for three days. I went to bed on Tuesday night with my bags packed and my camera batteries charging silently in a nook*.
*I think that we should preserve obscure words like nook and cranny and dactyloid** and tintintabulation*** to add interest to our language. And to confuse Swedish people.
**adjective: “Like a finger”
***noun: “a tinkling, jingling sound”, invented my Edgar Allen Poe
- - Wednsday - -
We got up early to catch the 7.30 bus from Glemminge to Ystad. We were at the station about 20 minutes later along with all the other kids who were going to school. In Sweden, there are no school buses; they just take the regular bus. All students get a JoJo card so they can travel on the train and bus for free. Lena was shocked when I told her that we have no real public bus or train system and that almost everyone has a driver’s license.
I took out money for the trip at the atm and then we waited at the station for our train. I noticed that they are rebuilding the platform, it seems to be some kind of project Skånetrafiken is doing. They also fixed up the one in Svarte a month or two ago. On the train to Malmö there were lots of noisy preenagers, as I call them. I think they were going on a class trip to Gothenburg. I tried to sleep for the hour-long ride. From there we got on the Växjö train. I kept myself amused by reading Danish newspapers, Danish is very similar to Swedish if you read it, but it is very hard for Swedes to understand when spoken.
We passed by lots of fields on the way. There are these flowers called “raps” that bloom this time of year. They are bright yellow, and all over the Skånska countryside. They harvest them for their oil, which is commonly used as a substitute for olive oil. My host family prefers it because it doesn’t taste as strongly as the latter.
As the train continued north, I could see the fields giving way to lakes and forest.
We met up with Börje at Växjö station and he took us to the apartment that we would be staying. Börje is a friend of Lena's who works in Växjö during the week and was our tour guide for the three days. They’ve known each other a long time. They did Scout Camps together and she used to babysit their kids and whatnot****. One more thing about Börje: to see him, you would probably assume that he's in his forties, but he's actually 62. It’s mainly due to the fact that he has extremely stubborn hair pigment. Blew my mind all over the proverbial wall.
(****Every time I think or say “and whatnot” I cringe a little and scream “HOORRRMMMAAANN” to myself (not out loud of course). This is because my driver’s education teacher, the venerable Mr. Horman, says this phrase (n’ whanno’) all the time. A friend of mine once documented the number of times he said it in a driving session and stopped counting after one hundred. Or so he claims.)
He took us to an apartment that his company owns and we put away our stuff and got settled in. Then we went for lunch at Spice n' Rice. It was a small restaurant, packed to the roof with people. The only thing separating the kitchen from the tables was the counter so you could see them making everything being made. While we were there, we looked at my rather complicated family tree. After we had eaten, I was conscripted as the post-lunch coffee fetcher. Swedes are constantly consuming kaffe, coffee, even when it’s sweltering outside. According to statistics, Sweden is the world’s second biggest consumer of coffee, Finland being number one. I have to say that I think statistics did a bang-up job on that one.
These are some photos of downtown Växjö:
After lunch we went driving through the småländskt, landskap, Smålands countryside. We visited a lot, (once more for emphasis), a lot of old churches. At Kalsvik, we found a grave marked "Lundin", one of my distant relatives! We searched the rest of the graveyard but they were the only ones we could find. The church itself was beautiful, both inside and out. I imagine that my ancestors must have gone to that church on Sundays. It’s a strange feeling, walking the same ground and breathing the same air as a forefather or foremother.
As we drove through the countryside, Börje and Lena pointed out typical smålandska things. First of all, there are lots of trees and lakes there. "Mycket skog", they said over and over again. Småland is also known for älgar, moose, although we didn’t see a single one. They showed me a typical house in Småland with red walls and white window frames. There is a type of fence called gärdsgård that is made by stacking thin logs diagonally that is often found in Småland. There was also lots of blå och gul, blue and yellow, the national colors of Sweden hanging from the windows and flying from flagpoles. In Skåne, they hang Swedish flags too, but Skånska flags are more common. It’s a Nordic cross, with combination of colors from the Danish and Swedish flags. This is probably because Skåne was a part of Denmark until 1658. They are really neither Swedish nor Danish and are kind of proud of it.
Småland is also known as "Glasriket", or "The Kingom of Crystal". There are lots of glassworks; one of the biggest is Kosta Boda. But I’ll come to that later. As for Växjö itself, Börje called it "Rundellens Stad", "The City of Round-abouts". There were certainly many of those. There was a rundell that had a pattern like a soccer ball. Lena noticed that, they had built a small railing inside the round-about since she had been there last. She noticed this because last time she drove straight over the thing without thinking. Växjö is a very beautiful city, with lots of trees and water, giving it a less urban look. There are about 60,000 inhabitants, which makes it roughly four times bigger than Ystad, about nine times bigger than St. Johns and over 171 times bigger than Glemmingebro.
Artwork on a building:
We came back a few hours later. Lena and I went back to the apartment and watched a bit of TV for an hour before we all went to a pub called Harry's for dinner. They had American and English food there. They had about three different kinds of ribs amongst other things. I had a burger. Then we went on a walk around the park, which was really beautiful. There is a lake right by the path and a fountain that is built into the water. We passed by Utvandrarnas Hus, the Emigrants Museum, a couple of sculptures and came through a garden before we arrived back at the apartment.
- - Thursday - -
We woke up fairly early at nine and had breakfast at McDonalds. My apologies to my mother the dietitian. Our next stop was Utvandrarnas Hus, The Emigrant Museum. They had a lot of really interesting exhibits. There was one all about the cost of immigration (often more than 10 years savings, at the least), where they immigrated from (mostly Småland, like the Lundins), where they immigrated to (the majority to New York, Minnesota and Chicago) and what it was like looking for work in America (with limited knowledge of English and little to no education, especially for the women). There was an exhibit about famous and successful Swedish emigrants such as Swan Turnblad the founder of Svenska-Amerikanska Tidningen, The Swedish-American Times and founder of the Swedish-American Institute that still stands today and which my family is a member of. There was a separate room devoted entirely to Vilhelm Moberg, who wrote a number of successful books about Swedes in America and immigration.
Vilhelm Moberg:
What I almost think was the most interesting was the sheer number of Swedes who emigrated, something like 1.3 million who left their homeland or one fourth of the whole country’s population. It has been calculated that if they hadn’t gone, the current population of Sweden would be 13 million instead of 9 million.
Unfortunately, the museum is being closed down this August due to a lack of funds. Hopefully they will be able to keep it running for many years to come. I’d like to show my family around some time.
Nearby Utvandrarnas Hus is the Glass Museum. We spent a good hour in there looking at various exhibits. There was one by a Danish artist called Vildsvin and Roboter, Wild Pigs and Robots. Or something. It was glass molded into horse heads, human heads, human torsos and computer components carefully arranged into a state of disarray. There was an exhibit with old brand names and household products, many of which Lena recognized from her childhood. There was even an old Swedish cavalry uniform. Outside the Museum there were some traditional Småland houses with turf roofs and even a windmill. It was strange to see all these old houses with a backdrop of the train station and the modern Växjö with its neon “Open” signs.
We ate lunch at a weird little place called Café de Luxe. It had an interesting vibe to it with battered old school benches as seats and black and white photos of people with mustasches. The food was good; fish, hummus, vegetables. It’s what’s called Huskarlskost, housemansfood or traditional Swedish food, plus with a bit of a foreign twist.
After lunch we drove out from Växjö to Kosta Boda, a glassworks. We went onto the working floor and watched as they took molten glass out from the furnaces and rolled, blew and shaped it into wineglasses and bottles. The glassmaking school was just across from the main building where we saw students shaping glass as well. There was a little exhibition with a lot of interesting pieces by some of their more famous artists too.
After that we went into the Kosta Boda store where they have countless plates, candle holders, pitchers, jugs, glasses and bowls. We had a little bit of fika but then it started to rain. We moved to the shelter of the overhang. they retracted it for some reason, so we had to retreat for a second time into the safety of the café. With fika done, we piled into the car with our shopping bags. Börje tried to find another, smaller glassworks, but it was closed. On the way back Börje showed us Linné University, named after Carl von Linneus who came from Växjö. It’s right outside Växjö in its own little area.
We had mediocre Chinese food for dinner and tog det lugnt, took it easy for the rest of the evening.
- - Friday - -
Friday was relatively uneventful, we woke up later than usual, ate at a café and went window shopping before we got back into the car and drove back to Glemminge. Loppa was very happy to see Lena again.
*I think that we should preserve obscure words like nook and cranny and dactyloid** and tintintabulation*** to add interest to our language. And to confuse Swedish people.
**adjective: “Like a finger”
***noun: “a tinkling, jingling sound”, invented my Edgar Allen Poe
- - Wednsday - -
We got up early to catch the 7.30 bus from Glemminge to Ystad. We were at the station about 20 minutes later along with all the other kids who were going to school. In Sweden, there are no school buses; they just take the regular bus. All students get a JoJo card so they can travel on the train and bus for free. Lena was shocked when I told her that we have no real public bus or train system and that almost everyone has a driver’s license.
I took out money for the trip at the atm and then we waited at the station for our train. I noticed that they are rebuilding the platform, it seems to be some kind of project Skånetrafiken is doing. They also fixed up the one in Svarte a month or two ago. On the train to Malmö there were lots of noisy preenagers, as I call them. I think they were going on a class trip to Gothenburg. I tried to sleep for the hour-long ride. From there we got on the Växjö train. I kept myself amused by reading Danish newspapers, Danish is very similar to Swedish if you read it, but it is very hard for Swedes to understand when spoken.
We passed by lots of fields on the way. There are these flowers called “raps” that bloom this time of year. They are bright yellow, and all over the Skånska countryside. They harvest them for their oil, which is commonly used as a substitute for olive oil. My host family prefers it because it doesn’t taste as strongly as the latter.
As the train continued north, I could see the fields giving way to lakes and forest.
We met up with Börje at Växjö station and he took us to the apartment that we would be staying. Börje is a friend of Lena's who works in Växjö during the week and was our tour guide for the three days. They’ve known each other a long time. They did Scout Camps together and she used to babysit their kids and whatnot****. One more thing about Börje: to see him, you would probably assume that he's in his forties, but he's actually 62. It’s mainly due to the fact that he has extremely stubborn hair pigment. Blew my mind all over the proverbial wall.
(****Every time I think or say “and whatnot” I cringe a little and scream “HOORRRMMMAAANN” to myself (not out loud of course). This is because my driver’s education teacher, the venerable Mr. Horman, says this phrase (n’ whanno’) all the time. A friend of mine once documented the number of times he said it in a driving session and stopped counting after one hundred. Or so he claims.)
He took us to an apartment that his company owns and we put away our stuff and got settled in. Then we went for lunch at Spice n' Rice. It was a small restaurant, packed to the roof with people. The only thing separating the kitchen from the tables was the counter so you could see them making everything being made. While we were there, we looked at my rather complicated family tree. After we had eaten, I was conscripted as the post-lunch coffee fetcher. Swedes are constantly consuming kaffe, coffee, even when it’s sweltering outside. According to statistics, Sweden is the world’s second biggest consumer of coffee, Finland being number one. I have to say that I think statistics did a bang-up job on that one.
These are some photos of downtown Växjö:
After lunch we went driving through the småländskt, landskap, Smålands countryside. We visited a lot, (once more for emphasis), a lot of old churches. At Kalsvik, we found a grave marked "Lundin", one of my distant relatives! We searched the rest of the graveyard but they were the only ones we could find. The church itself was beautiful, both inside and out. I imagine that my ancestors must have gone to that church on Sundays. It’s a strange feeling, walking the same ground and breathing the same air as a forefather or foremother.
As we drove through the countryside, Börje and Lena pointed out typical smålandska things. First of all, there are lots of trees and lakes there. "Mycket skog", they said over and over again. Småland is also known for älgar, moose, although we didn’t see a single one. They showed me a typical house in Småland with red walls and white window frames. There is a type of fence called gärdsgård that is made by stacking thin logs diagonally that is often found in Småland. There was also lots of blå och gul, blue and yellow, the national colors of Sweden hanging from the windows and flying from flagpoles. In Skåne, they hang Swedish flags too, but Skånska flags are more common. It’s a Nordic cross, with combination of colors from the Danish and Swedish flags. This is probably because Skåne was a part of Denmark until 1658. They are really neither Swedish nor Danish and are kind of proud of it.
Småland is also known as "Glasriket", or "The Kingom of Crystal". There are lots of glassworks; one of the biggest is Kosta Boda. But I’ll come to that later. As for Växjö itself, Börje called it "Rundellens Stad", "The City of Round-abouts". There were certainly many of those. There was a rundell that had a pattern like a soccer ball. Lena noticed that, they had built a small railing inside the round-about since she had been there last. She noticed this because last time she drove straight over the thing without thinking. Växjö is a very beautiful city, with lots of trees and water, giving it a less urban look. There are about 60,000 inhabitants, which makes it roughly four times bigger than Ystad, about nine times bigger than St. Johns and over 171 times bigger than Glemmingebro.
Artwork on a building:
We came back a few hours later. Lena and I went back to the apartment and watched a bit of TV for an hour before we all went to a pub called Harry's for dinner. They had American and English food there. They had about three different kinds of ribs amongst other things. I had a burger. Then we went on a walk around the park, which was really beautiful. There is a lake right by the path and a fountain that is built into the water. We passed by Utvandrarnas Hus, the Emigrants Museum, a couple of sculptures and came through a garden before we arrived back at the apartment.
- - Thursday - -
We woke up fairly early at nine and had breakfast at McDonalds. My apologies to my mother the dietitian. Our next stop was Utvandrarnas Hus, The Emigrant Museum. They had a lot of really interesting exhibits. There was one all about the cost of immigration (often more than 10 years savings, at the least), where they immigrated from (mostly Småland, like the Lundins), where they immigrated to (the majority to New York, Minnesota and Chicago) and what it was like looking for work in America (with limited knowledge of English and little to no education, especially for the women). There was an exhibit about famous and successful Swedish emigrants such as Swan Turnblad the founder of Svenska-Amerikanska Tidningen, The Swedish-American Times and founder of the Swedish-American Institute that still stands today and which my family is a member of. There was a separate room devoted entirely to Vilhelm Moberg, who wrote a number of successful books about Swedes in America and immigration.
Vilhelm Moberg:
What I almost think was the most interesting was the sheer number of Swedes who emigrated, something like 1.3 million who left their homeland or one fourth of the whole country’s population. It has been calculated that if they hadn’t gone, the current population of Sweden would be 13 million instead of 9 million.
Unfortunately, the museum is being closed down this August due to a lack of funds. Hopefully they will be able to keep it running for many years to come. I’d like to show my family around some time.
Nearby Utvandrarnas Hus is the Glass Museum. We spent a good hour in there looking at various exhibits. There was one by a Danish artist called Vildsvin and Roboter, Wild Pigs and Robots. Or something. It was glass molded into horse heads, human heads, human torsos and computer components carefully arranged into a state of disarray. There was an exhibit with old brand names and household products, many of which Lena recognized from her childhood. There was even an old Swedish cavalry uniform. Outside the Museum there were some traditional Småland houses with turf roofs and even a windmill. It was strange to see all these old houses with a backdrop of the train station and the modern Växjö with its neon “Open” signs.
We ate lunch at a weird little place called Café de Luxe. It had an interesting vibe to it with battered old school benches as seats and black and white photos of people with mustasches. The food was good; fish, hummus, vegetables. It’s what’s called Huskarlskost, housemansfood or traditional Swedish food, plus with a bit of a foreign twist.
After lunch we drove out from Växjö to Kosta Boda, a glassworks. We went onto the working floor and watched as they took molten glass out from the furnaces and rolled, blew and shaped it into wineglasses and bottles. The glassmaking school was just across from the main building where we saw students shaping glass as well. There was a little exhibition with a lot of interesting pieces by some of their more famous artists too.
After that we went into the Kosta Boda store where they have countless plates, candle holders, pitchers, jugs, glasses and bowls. We had a little bit of fika but then it started to rain. We moved to the shelter of the overhang. they retracted it for some reason, so we had to retreat for a second time into the safety of the café. With fika done, we piled into the car with our shopping bags. Börje tried to find another, smaller glassworks, but it was closed. On the way back Börje showed us Linné University, named after Carl von Linneus who came from Växjö. It’s right outside Växjö in its own little area.
We had mediocre Chinese food for dinner and tog det lugnt, took it easy for the rest of the evening.
- - Friday - -
Friday was relatively uneventful, we woke up later than usual, ate at a café and went window shopping before we got back into the car and drove back to Glemminge. Loppa was very happy to see Lena again.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Herr Svensson!!!
Idag, today, is Kristihimmelfärdsdag. Kristi = Christ, himmel = heaven, färd = journey, dag = day. I think the English name is Ascenscion Day, but it's interesting to think of it as Chirstheavenjourneyday. We have today and Friday off, so we took the opportunity to visit one of Skåne's most välkänd, well-known places: Smygehuk, Sweden's southernmost point. There were a lot of interesting things to see. Amongst other things, a statue, a chalk-kiln, a viking barrow, a point from which the distance to various European cities was measured and of course, the magnificent sea, Östersjön.
After that we had fika at a Kaffestuga on the way home where they had a buffet-setup. Lena taught me the traditional rule for eating fika-cakes. You start with the big "bullar", then move on to the cake-like things, and then finally you eat the smaller biscuits. The reason for that is that bullar were traditionally the cheapest to make, and then the cakes were a little more expensive, and the bisuits that required rarer ingredients like vanilla and butter were the most expensive. The idea was that you eat the cheapest first and then you are more full and eat less of the harder to get cakes.
After our nice fika/lunch and then continued back to Glemminge on the scenic way back from Smygehamn as evidenced by the tourist buses we passed on the way. There was also some construction on the side of the road where they were building a bike path. Skåne really is a beautiful province, by the sea with it's warm climates and old Danish castles, green fields and strange accents.
I only hope that the Kaffestuga we doesn't get burnt down. Apparently there have were two fires last night in Hammenhög, just three kilometers from Glemminge. He appears to target historical buildings and churches, things that can't be replaced. He was arrested again in Ystad today. Now the police have 14 days to find some damning evidence or else he will be released and be compensated by the state. This is probably his main source of income. Once, someone had enough of him and burned down his house while he was in prison, but the state replaced it. We heard on the radio that Soldatstorpet is back and open for business. Although the one of it's stugas has been totally destroyed, namely the old thatch-roofed one.
We got home and went out with the dogs while Rolf watched the Hockey VM, world championship on tv. Then I read a little bit in my Russian books and had a bit of dinner. We had picnic food, potato salad, tomatoes, chicken salad and a bit of cold korv, sausage.
The last thing planned for the day was Kuta & Kör, a farce that premiered at Ystads theater earlier this evening. It was really, really good. The story was about a taxi driver called Lasse Svensson who was happily married... to two different women. There were a hundred different missunderstandings: one wife thought the other was a nun, everyone else thought she was a transvestite. The police officer thought that Lasse and his friend Stefan were homosexuals, the other police officer thought that Lasse's wife was married to Stefan, Stefan tried to escape on a scooter... it was a hilarious play. I am happy to say that I understood most of what they were saying, which was Skånska(most Skåningar consider their dialect to be it's own language). We all had really good time, even Lena who thinks that farces are fjompiga, silly. The audience went crazy at the end.
Tomorrow we're going to visit Simrishamn, on the east side of Skåne, by the sea. But for now, I sit here and record my experiences on this little laptop that Rolf is scared to death that I will accidentally destroy, in a little living room where a tv is showing a documentary called Familjen Bernadotte about the royal family of Sweden, in a little town that I now call my home, all the way down in the south of a little country on the other side of the world.
After that we had fika at a Kaffestuga on the way home where they had a buffet-setup. Lena taught me the traditional rule for eating fika-cakes. You start with the big "bullar", then move on to the cake-like things, and then finally you eat the smaller biscuits. The reason for that is that bullar were traditionally the cheapest to make, and then the cakes were a little more expensive, and the bisuits that required rarer ingredients like vanilla and butter were the most expensive. The idea was that you eat the cheapest first and then you are more full and eat less of the harder to get cakes.
After our nice fika/lunch and then continued back to Glemminge on the scenic way back from Smygehamn as evidenced by the tourist buses we passed on the way. There was also some construction on the side of the road where they were building a bike path. Skåne really is a beautiful province, by the sea with it's warm climates and old Danish castles, green fields and strange accents.
I only hope that the Kaffestuga we doesn't get burnt down. Apparently there have were two fires last night in Hammenhög, just three kilometers from Glemminge. He appears to target historical buildings and churches, things that can't be replaced. He was arrested again in Ystad today. Now the police have 14 days to find some damning evidence or else he will be released and be compensated by the state. This is probably his main source of income. Once, someone had enough of him and burned down his house while he was in prison, but the state replaced it. We heard on the radio that Soldatstorpet is back and open for business. Although the one of it's stugas has been totally destroyed, namely the old thatch-roofed one.
We got home and went out with the dogs while Rolf watched the Hockey VM, world championship on tv. Then I read a little bit in my Russian books and had a bit of dinner. We had picnic food, potato salad, tomatoes, chicken salad and a bit of cold korv, sausage.
The last thing planned for the day was Kuta & Kör, a farce that premiered at Ystads theater earlier this evening. It was really, really good. The story was about a taxi driver called Lasse Svensson who was happily married... to two different women. There were a hundred different missunderstandings: one wife thought the other was a nun, everyone else thought she was a transvestite. The police officer thought that Lasse and his friend Stefan were homosexuals, the other police officer thought that Lasse's wife was married to Stefan, Stefan tried to escape on a scooter... it was a hilarious play. I am happy to say that I understood most of what they were saying, which was Skånska(most Skåningar consider their dialect to be it's own language). We all had really good time, even Lena who thinks that farces are fjompiga, silly. The audience went crazy at the end.
Tomorrow we're going to visit Simrishamn, on the east side of Skåne, by the sea. But for now, I sit here and record my experiences on this little laptop that Rolf is scared to death that I will accidentally destroy, in a little living room where a tv is showing a documentary called Familjen Bernadotte about the royal family of Sweden, in a little town that I now call my home, all the way down in the south of a little country on the other side of the world.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Gryningspyromanen
On Saturday night, the Gryningspyroman struck again at a café called Soldatstorpet just outside Ystad. He's an arsonist who has burned down lots of buildings over 30 years in the Ystad area. Unfortunately, any evidence that could be used against him burns up and so it's almost impossible to convict him. He's called Gryningspyromanen because he always is found cycling away from the scene of the fire between four and six in the morning, a time that is called gryning.
It's strange because we had fika at Soldatstorpet only two weeks ago, and now it's gone.
It's strange because we had fika at Soldatstorpet only two weeks ago, and now it's gone.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Vem Vet Mest?
On friday I stayed up and watched Gladiator for the umpteenth time. It's a great movie, a classic I would even go so far as to say. This time was with Swedish subtitles, so I memorized some of the best lines in Swedish.
"Bröder, vad vi gör i livet, ekar i evighet/Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity"
"Det var en gång en dröm som var Rom, man kunde bara viska den, den var så bräcklig/There was once a dream that was Rome, you could only whisper it, it was so fragile"
"Roms bultande hjärta är inte marmorn av senaten, utan sanden av arenan/The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the arena"
I think that most of that is right.
On Saturday I went into Ystad to go to the gym and there were soldiers everywhere. It was very surreal, I was walking down the street and there where troopers walking by. Not to mention these giant tank-like vehicles. None of the Swedes seemed to take much notice. At six o' clock I went to see Iron Man 2 at Cinema 3 in Ystad. It was a good movie, great writing and action. That day in Ystad was when all the people camped out by the side of the road with beer a beer and a barbeque and watched all the raggare bilar drive around. Raggare bilar is the Swedish name for those old muscle cars. It was kind of like a public party or a festival. Everyone was out and a lot of people were drunk.
The next day all of us exchange students were going to be going to Malmö for our districts rotary conference, so I stayed at Chads house so it would be easier to get to the station. I went to bed at maybe twelve...
... and woke up at eight. We had to hurry to the station and skip breakfast in order to catch the train, which I slept on until we got to Malmö Central. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Pressbyrå. I had a hot dog. Then we went to the Hilton hotel where the conference was being held. It's a very fancy hotel, the Hilton. Lots of glass and plants and shiny black marble. The conference was up a floor or two. I was able to eat a complementary sandwich or two and then we filed into the big room with everybody else.
We were there for the second day of the conference which was much shorter and was basically just thank you's and a couple of presentations. We went up on stage and introduced ourselves and that was it. We said our names, where we came from and where we lived. We exchanged pins and business cards, and then took a few pictures by some elephant sculptures ("Don't sit on them, they cost 200 euros each"). We also got to meet the Swedish outbounds.
When the conference was done I went back to Ystad with Chad, Chloe and Christoffer. We all sat and watched the Hangover, which I thought was excellent humor. The rest of the evening was not very interesting. I was asleep before Lena got back from Gothenburg and "Vem Vet Mest".
Vem Vet Mest ("Who Knows Most") is a tv show that Lena and Rolf like to watch. It's basically a game show where they ask twelve participants a series of questions and those who answer right win. It's pretty simple. Lena was one of the participants this time.
"Bröder, vad vi gör i livet, ekar i evighet/Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity"
"Det var en gång en dröm som var Rom, man kunde bara viska den, den var så bräcklig/There was once a dream that was Rome, you could only whisper it, it was so fragile"
"Roms bultande hjärta är inte marmorn av senaten, utan sanden av arenan/The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the arena"
I think that most of that is right.
On Saturday I went into Ystad to go to the gym and there were soldiers everywhere. It was very surreal, I was walking down the street and there where troopers walking by. Not to mention these giant tank-like vehicles. None of the Swedes seemed to take much notice. At six o' clock I went to see Iron Man 2 at Cinema 3 in Ystad. It was a good movie, great writing and action. That day in Ystad was when all the people camped out by the side of the road with beer a beer and a barbeque and watched all the raggare bilar drive around. Raggare bilar is the Swedish name for those old muscle cars. It was kind of like a public party or a festival. Everyone was out and a lot of people were drunk.
The next day all of us exchange students were going to be going to Malmö for our districts rotary conference, so I stayed at Chads house so it would be easier to get to the station. I went to bed at maybe twelve...
... and woke up at eight. We had to hurry to the station and skip breakfast in order to catch the train, which I slept on until we got to Malmö Central. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Pressbyrå. I had a hot dog. Then we went to the Hilton hotel where the conference was being held. It's a very fancy hotel, the Hilton. Lots of glass and plants and shiny black marble. The conference was up a floor or two. I was able to eat a complementary sandwich or two and then we filed into the big room with everybody else.
We were there for the second day of the conference which was much shorter and was basically just thank you's and a couple of presentations. We went up on stage and introduced ourselves and that was it. We said our names, where we came from and where we lived. We exchanged pins and business cards, and then took a few pictures by some elephant sculptures ("Don't sit on them, they cost 200 euros each"). We also got to meet the Swedish outbounds.
When the conference was done I went back to Ystad with Chad, Chloe and Christoffer. We all sat and watched the Hangover, which I thought was excellent humor. The rest of the evening was not very interesting. I was asleep before Lena got back from Gothenburg and "Vem Vet Mest".
Vem Vet Mest ("Who Knows Most") is a tv show that Lena and Rolf like to watch. It's basically a game show where they ask twelve participants a series of questions and those who answer right win. It's pretty simple. Lena was one of the participants this time.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Kiruna (April 18th - 22th)
I spent this past week up above the Arctic Circle in Kiruna. Kiruna is built around an iron mine, which is probably the reason why Kiruna exists in the first place. I was supposed to fly up on Saturday but unfortunately there was a GIGANTIC CLOUD OF ASH. From Iceland. So we had to make last minute arrangements to go on the train and then a couple of buses.
My journey of a thousand miles (or at least it seemed like it) started in Glemminge with a single step onto the landing. Then I went back in because I forgot my boots. And then it could begin på riktigt, for real. From there it was on to Ystad station, and from there I took the Pågatåg to Malmö. I was a little early and there was no one around. Though I did watch an unconcious man being carried out by station security along with two distressed looking women. I went and grabbed a bite to eat at the Burger King. When I got back there was a gigantic crowd cueing to get on the train to Stockholm, and what's more, there was another crowd getting off the train from Copenhagen.
So there I stood like a Japanese commuter for a while. Finally I got on the train and it was a few hours to Stockholm central. While I was waiting, a beggar came along and told me his troubles. "No work for two months", that kind of thing. I told him I didn't have any money. Then I was feeling a little hungry so I bought a smoothie. After that I caught the night-train to Östersund.
From Östersund it was an age or two on the bus. It was at this point that all the traveling started to get to me. I hadn't eaten in a while, hadn't showered. Neither had I gotten any kind of decent sleep. So this part of the story is not that interesting. There was, however, a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. A sight for sore eyes you could say.
Aaaand finally, finally, late Sunday night, I arrived at Kiruna station. Tired and smelling of low tide. All in all it was a 29 hour trip.
I was picked up by a man named Ulf who drove me to the hotel. I hadn't eaten in a half day so warmed up a taco pizza I found in the Vandrarhem, Youth Hostel downstairs. I soon discovered that suffering is a dish worst served slowly... it was an extremely spicy pizza. Rotary was able to book me a nice room last minute so I slept well on a double bed. Aaaaah Gud vad skönt, how nice...
- - Monday - -
The next morning I met up with Ulf again and he took me to the station to pick up the rest of the arrivals. We were divided into two groups and taken around on a tour of the city. Our group was just about every girl and Nick and myself. Not that I'm complaining, I'm a big fan of women in general. They showed us the town hall which looks like a cinderblock from the outside, but is beautiful on the inside. There were lots of pieces of Sami art. The architecture was really beautiful as well. We also visited a church with Sami inspired architecture. At the hotel and got our rooms sorted out. I had to abandon my beautiful suite for a bunk bed. Sigh...
Ulf took us to the school, where we were all given a presentation by the tourism program. They introduced themselves and welcomed us in five different languages although nearly all of us were English speaking, either from the US or Australian. There were a few from New Zealand and Brazil as well as one from Mexico and one from Argentina. We were given a slideshow of Kiruna that showed the nature, the mine, the Sami people and reindeer. That was followed by a pizza lunch. Swedish pizza is different than American pizza. I can’t really explain the subtle differences but I think that Swedish pizza is better.
After lunch we boarded a bus to Jukkasjärvi, the famous ice hotel. They gave us a presentation about the hotel about how they harvest the ice and build the rooms. Sometimes the hotel isn’t big enough so they just add a couples rooms to it. The nice thing about a hotel made of ice is that you don’t have to live with your mistakes for longer than a year. They also make ice plates and ice glasses and have an ice bar which is sponsored by absolut vodka.
We went in the room where they have all the giant ice blocks from which they make all of their ice furniture and everything. The interesting thing about the ice hotel are the exhibits. All the fancy suites have their own individual sculptures and themes. Every year they hire new artists from all over the world to create the pieces that decorate the rooms. One was an eagle’s nest with giant carved claws and ice eggs and one was a cutlery drawer with long iced forks and spoons in it. There were lots of cool designs.
However, true to style, I left my camera in my room at the hotel and therefore have not even a singular picture to show for trip there. All of these are from Brandons camera. We had free time for the rest of the day. Some of us went sledding, but I stayed behind with some others and played an epic game of Apples to Apples.
- - Tuesday - -
The next day I made my way down to the school from the hotel and had a Swedish breakfast of open face sandwiches and yogurt covered cereal. Then it was onto the bus and far away to Narvik in Norway. There is something of a special relationship between the cities of Narvik and Kiruna. Iron is mined in Kiruna and then sent to Narvik to be shipped out to the rest of the world. Along the way we stopped at two ski resorts and saw some beautiful mountain slopes.
When we arrived in Narvik we ate lunch on a cliff that overlooks a beautiful fjord. According to the local guides, there was a huge naval battle in the fjord during World War II. Then they let us loose into the city. We started at a multistory mall complex where we wandered for a while. There was a rather massive shoe which we had some fun with. From there we continued our wandering through the city. There were some interesting statues, a mine, and tank and a massive mirrored triangular monument. It was definitely more interesting than St. Johns at the very least.
I think that perhaps the most interesting part of the Narvik trip was the bus ride. People quickly divided into three cliques. The Swedes in the tourism program who sat in front, the girls in the back of the bus (and me) and a group of people underneath us in a little room in the bus. What’s more interesting is that they each came up with their own nickname. The people sitting near me dubbed themselves “Aussicans”, (Austrailians + Americans) and the people below called themselves “Australasians” for no discernable reason as it was Australian and New Zealanders and Americans and not even one person from Asia.
The Swedes did not participate in this racial re-identification, but they did try to give us the occasional speech about the local area. They told us about the Sami people, permafrost, ice fishing, etc. However, the Aussicans were rather more preoccupied with what they considered to be more interesting conversational material like the lyrics to Rude Boy and how great Glee is.
That night we were treated to what I understood to be a traditional Northern Swedish dinner. It was rengryta (reindeer stew), potatismos (mashed potatoes), lingon (lingonberry jam) and bröd (bread). The Australians tried to get everyone to try Marmite, which I found to be quite good actually. The Swedes were less enthusiastic, I heard comparisons to mud and fungus.
While we ate, two girls in the Estet (Art, Music type thing) program gave a truly excellent performance. Then after we had eaten they brought on a Sami singer who “jojked” a “jojk” for us. It’s a traditional Sami art form, kind of like singing and chanting combined. It’s kind of a guttural sound. The intent is to express your feelings, as it is with regular singing I suppose… The guy who jojked was pretty funny and he jojked and sang for a while. Then we exchange students went up in groups and sang something from our home country. We sang Star Spangled Banner, the Australians sang their national anthem, the Mexican girl sang La Cucaracha and the New Zealanders did the “Hukka”. Or “Hakka”. I’m not really sure, New Zealand accents aren’t the easiest to understand. I guess it’s some kind of Maori war chant adapted by New Zealander sports fans.
After that we took some photos of all of us together, exchange students and Swedes. And that was Tuesday.
- - Wednesday - -
The next day began as the first two had with breakfast at the school. Someone had dragged out a ping pong table so a couple of us played for a while. I did ok, but Dave from Australia had a crazy serve that was almost impossible to return. Some time earlier (it may have been the day before, I’m not really sure) we had an epic game of ring toss. We played three at a time while one person served as the ring-getter/traffic guard for people who wanted to get to the room adjacent. We decided that if you threw the ring in an interesting and difficult way then you would get double points. Incredibly, I was able to hit the middle pole with a backwards throw thus giving me 100 points and winning the game.
After ping-pong, we were then divided into two groups. One group went out to go on the ice and our group stayed behind to speak with the English classes about our culture and going on exchange. There were four of us (two Americans and two Australians) who talked for about an hour or so, explaining everything from sports to English slang. The class seemed pretty shy and we only got a few questions. However, the second we left the classroom, they got very loud and talkative.
When we all had finished with our class visits, everyone ate lunch together.
Then the groups switched places and we went out to a little resort-type area where we donned badly fitting snowsuits got ready to go snowmobiling. We got into these sledges that were attached to the snowmobiles and went on a bumpy, tooth jarring ride to the frozen lake. At the lake there were a couple of challenges set up. Once again we were divided into groups and each given a different task to do. It was explained that we would all compete to see which group was the best.
We named ourselves “Super Svenska Apa Mariner”, which means super Swedish monkey sailors or something. We started off with fire making. Fortunately, Christoffer is a boy scout so we got it going fairly quickly. After that we drilled an ice fishing hole in the ice, ran through various obstacles with drunk-o-vision goggles and did cooperative skiing. The last one was just two two-by-fours with four sets of shoelaces attached to it which we had to take around a set of cones.
We were convinced that we were the fastest for all the challenges but as it turned out, we didn’t even make third place. I think Team Massively Stimulating, composed mainly of Aussicans, came in first in the end. Afterwards we sat around a fire and ate hotdogs. Before we went back, they gave us a chance to go out on the snowmobiles. It was the first time I’ve ever driven one, it was really fast!
It was tacos for dinner later that night. Swedes tend to eat tacos with a knife and fork, which worked better actually, given that I’d loaded so much onto my tortilla. The last thing we did that day was a scavenger hunt around the school. I was not very enthusiastic about it, but I went around with my group and looked for the clues that they’d hidden. After that, it was just free time. Chad tried to get a game of Ghost in the Graveyard going, but it didn’t work out so well. Then they played Hide and Go Seek, or something similar. Ian stayed in hiding for nearly twenty minutes. I just played ping pong the whole time.
- - Thursday - -
The next day was a day for goodbyes. I was scheduled to go
home around one o’ clock on the plane along with three others. The rest were going home later on the train. I went from Kiruna airport to Arlanda in Stockholm. I slept for most of the trip, ate some awful Chinese noodles from the airport 7-11 and slept some more. Then from Arlanda to Ängelholm in Helsingborg, then a taxi to Malmö and the Pågatåg home to Ystad where Lena picked me up and took me home. I slept for a very long time after that and stayed home from school on Friday.
Now I have seen Sweden top to bottom, or perhaps bottom to top would be more accurate. Sweden is a long country; you could compare it to the distance from the southernmost point of Texas to the Canadian border in the north. I met lots of new people, from all over the world living all over Sweden.
I experienced a lot of new things, reindeer on the side of the road, reindeer in a stew, Norway, snowmobiling, Sami traditions, and seen the wild beauty of the north with its mountains, forests and fjords. It was an incredible journey, helt och hållet.
Authors Note: This blog post is definately one of the longest ones I've ever written, so that is why it is so late. Apologies.
My journey of a thousand miles (or at least it seemed like it) started in Glemminge with a single step onto the landing. Then I went back in because I forgot my boots. And then it could begin på riktigt, for real. From there it was on to Ystad station, and from there I took the Pågatåg to Malmö. I was a little early and there was no one around. Though I did watch an unconcious man being carried out by station security along with two distressed looking women. I went and grabbed a bite to eat at the Burger King. When I got back there was a gigantic crowd cueing to get on the train to Stockholm, and what's more, there was another crowd getting off the train from Copenhagen.
So there I stood like a Japanese commuter for a while. Finally I got on the train and it was a few hours to Stockholm central. While I was waiting, a beggar came along and told me his troubles. "No work for two months", that kind of thing. I told him I didn't have any money. Then I was feeling a little hungry so I bought a smoothie. After that I caught the night-train to Östersund.
From Östersund it was an age or two on the bus. It was at this point that all the traveling started to get to me. I hadn't eaten in a while, hadn't showered. Neither had I gotten any kind of decent sleep. So this part of the story is not that interesting. There was, however, a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. A sight for sore eyes you could say.
Aaaand finally, finally, late Sunday night, I arrived at Kiruna station. Tired and smelling of low tide. All in all it was a 29 hour trip.
I was picked up by a man named Ulf who drove me to the hotel. I hadn't eaten in a half day so warmed up a taco pizza I found in the Vandrarhem, Youth Hostel downstairs. I soon discovered that suffering is a dish worst served slowly... it was an extremely spicy pizza. Rotary was able to book me a nice room last minute so I slept well on a double bed. Aaaaah Gud vad skönt, how nice...
- - Monday - -
The next morning I met up with Ulf again and he took me to the station to pick up the rest of the arrivals. We were divided into two groups and taken around on a tour of the city. Our group was just about every girl and Nick and myself. Not that I'm complaining, I'm a big fan of women in general. They showed us the town hall which looks like a cinderblock from the outside, but is beautiful on the inside. There were lots of pieces of Sami art. The architecture was really beautiful as well. We also visited a church with Sami inspired architecture. At the hotel and got our rooms sorted out. I had to abandon my beautiful suite for a bunk bed. Sigh...
Ulf took us to the school, where we were all given a presentation by the tourism program. They introduced themselves and welcomed us in five different languages although nearly all of us were English speaking, either from the US or Australian. There were a few from New Zealand and Brazil as well as one from Mexico and one from Argentina. We were given a slideshow of Kiruna that showed the nature, the mine, the Sami people and reindeer. That was followed by a pizza lunch. Swedish pizza is different than American pizza. I can’t really explain the subtle differences but I think that Swedish pizza is better.
After lunch we boarded a bus to Jukkasjärvi, the famous ice hotel. They gave us a presentation about the hotel about how they harvest the ice and build the rooms. Sometimes the hotel isn’t big enough so they just add a couples rooms to it. The nice thing about a hotel made of ice is that you don’t have to live with your mistakes for longer than a year. They also make ice plates and ice glasses and have an ice bar which is sponsored by absolut vodka.
We went in the room where they have all the giant ice blocks from which they make all of their ice furniture and everything. The interesting thing about the ice hotel are the exhibits. All the fancy suites have their own individual sculptures and themes. Every year they hire new artists from all over the world to create the pieces that decorate the rooms. One was an eagle’s nest with giant carved claws and ice eggs and one was a cutlery drawer with long iced forks and spoons in it. There were lots of cool designs.
However, true to style, I left my camera in my room at the hotel and therefore have not even a singular picture to show for trip there. All of these are from Brandons camera. We had free time for the rest of the day. Some of us went sledding, but I stayed behind with some others and played an epic game of Apples to Apples.
- - Tuesday - -
The next day I made my way down to the school from the hotel and had a Swedish breakfast of open face sandwiches and yogurt covered cereal. Then it was onto the bus and far away to Narvik in Norway. There is something of a special relationship between the cities of Narvik and Kiruna. Iron is mined in Kiruna and then sent to Narvik to be shipped out to the rest of the world. Along the way we stopped at two ski resorts and saw some beautiful mountain slopes.
When we arrived in Narvik we ate lunch on a cliff that overlooks a beautiful fjord. According to the local guides, there was a huge naval battle in the fjord during World War II. Then they let us loose into the city. We started at a multistory mall complex where we wandered for a while. There was a rather massive shoe which we had some fun with. From there we continued our wandering through the city. There were some interesting statues, a mine, and tank and a massive mirrored triangular monument. It was definitely more interesting than St. Johns at the very least.
I think that perhaps the most interesting part of the Narvik trip was the bus ride. People quickly divided into three cliques. The Swedes in the tourism program who sat in front, the girls in the back of the bus (and me) and a group of people underneath us in a little room in the bus. What’s more interesting is that they each came up with their own nickname. The people sitting near me dubbed themselves “Aussicans”, (Austrailians + Americans) and the people below called themselves “Australasians” for no discernable reason as it was Australian and New Zealanders and Americans and not even one person from Asia.
The Swedes did not participate in this racial re-identification, but they did try to give us the occasional speech about the local area. They told us about the Sami people, permafrost, ice fishing, etc. However, the Aussicans were rather more preoccupied with what they considered to be more interesting conversational material like the lyrics to Rude Boy and how great Glee is.
That night we were treated to what I understood to be a traditional Northern Swedish dinner. It was rengryta (reindeer stew), potatismos (mashed potatoes), lingon (lingonberry jam) and bröd (bread). The Australians tried to get everyone to try Marmite, which I found to be quite good actually. The Swedes were less enthusiastic, I heard comparisons to mud and fungus.
While we ate, two girls in the Estet (Art, Music type thing) program gave a truly excellent performance. Then after we had eaten they brought on a Sami singer who “jojked” a “jojk” for us. It’s a traditional Sami art form, kind of like singing and chanting combined. It’s kind of a guttural sound. The intent is to express your feelings, as it is with regular singing I suppose… The guy who jojked was pretty funny and he jojked and sang for a while. Then we exchange students went up in groups and sang something from our home country. We sang Star Spangled Banner, the Australians sang their national anthem, the Mexican girl sang La Cucaracha and the New Zealanders did the “Hukka”. Or “Hakka”. I’m not really sure, New Zealand accents aren’t the easiest to understand. I guess it’s some kind of Maori war chant adapted by New Zealander sports fans.
After that we took some photos of all of us together, exchange students and Swedes. And that was Tuesday.
- - Wednesday - -
The next day began as the first two had with breakfast at the school. Someone had dragged out a ping pong table so a couple of us played for a while. I did ok, but Dave from Australia had a crazy serve that was almost impossible to return. Some time earlier (it may have been the day before, I’m not really sure) we had an epic game of ring toss. We played three at a time while one person served as the ring-getter/traffic guard for people who wanted to get to the room adjacent. We decided that if you threw the ring in an interesting and difficult way then you would get double points. Incredibly, I was able to hit the middle pole with a backwards throw thus giving me 100 points and winning the game.
After ping-pong, we were then divided into two groups. One group went out to go on the ice and our group stayed behind to speak with the English classes about our culture and going on exchange. There were four of us (two Americans and two Australians) who talked for about an hour or so, explaining everything from sports to English slang. The class seemed pretty shy and we only got a few questions. However, the second we left the classroom, they got very loud and talkative.
When we all had finished with our class visits, everyone ate lunch together.
Then the groups switched places and we went out to a little resort-type area where we donned badly fitting snowsuits got ready to go snowmobiling. We got into these sledges that were attached to the snowmobiles and went on a bumpy, tooth jarring ride to the frozen lake. At the lake there were a couple of challenges set up. Once again we were divided into groups and each given a different task to do. It was explained that we would all compete to see which group was the best.
We named ourselves “Super Svenska Apa Mariner”, which means super Swedish monkey sailors or something. We started off with fire making. Fortunately, Christoffer is a boy scout so we got it going fairly quickly. After that we drilled an ice fishing hole in the ice, ran through various obstacles with drunk-o-vision goggles and did cooperative skiing. The last one was just two two-by-fours with four sets of shoelaces attached to it which we had to take around a set of cones.
We were convinced that we were the fastest for all the challenges but as it turned out, we didn’t even make third place. I think Team Massively Stimulating, composed mainly of Aussicans, came in first in the end. Afterwards we sat around a fire and ate hotdogs. Before we went back, they gave us a chance to go out on the snowmobiles. It was the first time I’ve ever driven one, it was really fast!
It was tacos for dinner later that night. Swedes tend to eat tacos with a knife and fork, which worked better actually, given that I’d loaded so much onto my tortilla. The last thing we did that day was a scavenger hunt around the school. I was not very enthusiastic about it, but I went around with my group and looked for the clues that they’d hidden. After that, it was just free time. Chad tried to get a game of Ghost in the Graveyard going, but it didn’t work out so well. Then they played Hide and Go Seek, or something similar. Ian stayed in hiding for nearly twenty minutes. I just played ping pong the whole time.
- - Thursday - -
The next day was a day for goodbyes. I was scheduled to go
home around one o’ clock on the plane along with three others. The rest were going home later on the train. I went from Kiruna airport to Arlanda in Stockholm. I slept for most of the trip, ate some awful Chinese noodles from the airport 7-11 and slept some more. Then from Arlanda to Ängelholm in Helsingborg, then a taxi to Malmö and the Pågatåg home to Ystad where Lena picked me up and took me home. I slept for a very long time after that and stayed home from school on Friday.
Now I have seen Sweden top to bottom, or perhaps bottom to top would be more accurate. Sweden is a long country; you could compare it to the distance from the southernmost point of Texas to the Canadian border in the north. I met lots of new people, from all over the world living all over Sweden.
I experienced a lot of new things, reindeer on the side of the road, reindeer in a stew, Norway, snowmobiling, Sami traditions, and seen the wild beauty of the north with its mountains, forests and fjords. It was an incredible journey, helt och hållet.
Authors Note: This blog post is definately one of the longest ones I've ever written, so that is why it is so late. Apologies.
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