*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.
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