On Monday and Tuesday this week the two economics classes went out into the countryside to a camp called tygegården, which is basically a big cabin in the woods. The week before we all did a survey which was supposed to decide what kind of person we are in a group situation. There were four possible results: Relator (kind, sensitive, makes sure everyone's all right), Motivator (energetic, leadership qualities), Producer (driven, goal oriented) and I ended up as a Processor. I still don't understand what a Processor's qualities are supposed to be so I suspect that's just where they stick all the other people in.
We were divided into eight groups, each with a different responsibility. One group was in charge of lunch, one had to do an activity with everyone, one group took pictures and video, etc. My group did bean bag throwing and tug o' war.
On Monday night we watched a Swedish movie called "Ett Öga Rött", which means "One Eye Red". It was about Moroccan immigrants in Stockholm and predjustice and adapting to a new culture.
We stayed until about noon on Tuesday and that was that. I found it to be very interesting. I learned a lot, mainly how to play Swedish card games. It was an interesting two days.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Påsk
This week we celebrated Swedish Easter, or Påsk.
This påsklov we were joined by Joshua. He's from Venezuela and was an exchange student living with familjen Grahn about seven years ago. He's now in Rome studying to be a mechanical engineer. He spent påsk with us and helped with all the påsk stuff and reconnected with all the Swedes he met while on exchange. It was nice to have met him. He left this morning to catch a flight home from Copenhagen. Interestingly, it's about the same distance to Rome from Copenhagen as it is to Kiruna in Northern Sweden. And cheaper to go to Rome as well. Sweden is a long country.
During påsk Swedes eat lots and lots of eggs and sill (raw herring), of which there are many different varieties like onion, curry, mustard, french, etc. There are three major Swedish holidays when they take out the sill och ägg. Jul, påsk and midsommar, the longest day of the year. Other than those days, sill very rarely sees the light of day.
On Thursday (I think it was Thursday) we all colored easter eggs. We used normal colors for half of them, and half with onion skins. You take the egg and wrap it in onion skin and then in tinfoil and boil it for a while. When they come out they have interesting brown patterns on them, and no two are alike. There are also special påsk drinks, the most common of which is påskmust (same thing as julmust but with a different label) and påsköl which is special easter beer. I'm not actually sure what the difference between påsköl and regular beer is but I noticed that påsköl has a darker color to it.
As far as påsk traditions go, there are the påskkärringar. Little children dress up as witches with aprons, flowers and freckles and then get candy. It's a little bit like Halloween, but not really. There really isn't such a big emphasis on religion as in America. They don't really pray or go to church and there isn't the Christian symbolism of the return of Christ. Not that I'm complaining.
In Österlen, the southeastern part of Skåne, there is something called konstrundan. That means something like "Art Tour". If you were to drive west towards Ystad during konstrundan then you might have been the only one. Everyone heads off to see all the displays and above all, buy things. Apparently, it's a kind of privalidge to say so-and-so painting is from the konstrundan. In Ystad, there was a parade. They all gathered behind two drummers, a man dressed as a chicken and a man dressed as a rabbit and headed from österportstorget to stortorget. We watched. After the parade I went to Chad's house with Gabe and we ended up watching Burn After Reading, which I found to be very confusing but funny nonetheless. After that I went home to prepare for the påskfest at Annette's house. There were some excellent hors d'oevres with small halved tomatoes and blue cheese that I will never forget.
Today was Monday, the last day of påsklov. It was spent in a suitably leisurely way. Tomorrow is school and also my Rotary presentation which I'm doing in Swedish. What I will remember about påsk is that is very lugn och skönt, relaxed and pleasant. And that you must eat lots of eggs and sill.
This påsklov we were joined by Joshua. He's from Venezuela and was an exchange student living with familjen Grahn about seven years ago. He's now in Rome studying to be a mechanical engineer. He spent påsk with us and helped with all the påsk stuff and reconnected with all the Swedes he met while on exchange. It was nice to have met him. He left this morning to catch a flight home from Copenhagen. Interestingly, it's about the same distance to Rome from Copenhagen as it is to Kiruna in Northern Sweden. And cheaper to go to Rome as well. Sweden is a long country.
During påsk Swedes eat lots and lots of eggs and sill (raw herring), of which there are many different varieties like onion, curry, mustard, french, etc. There are three major Swedish holidays when they take out the sill och ägg. Jul, påsk and midsommar, the longest day of the year. Other than those days, sill very rarely sees the light of day.
On Thursday (I think it was Thursday) we all colored easter eggs. We used normal colors for half of them, and half with onion skins. You take the egg and wrap it in onion skin and then in tinfoil and boil it for a while. When they come out they have interesting brown patterns on them, and no two are alike. There are also special påsk drinks, the most common of which is påskmust (same thing as julmust but with a different label) and påsköl which is special easter beer. I'm not actually sure what the difference between påsköl and regular beer is but I noticed that påsköl has a darker color to it.
As far as påsk traditions go, there are the påskkärringar. Little children dress up as witches with aprons, flowers and freckles and then get candy. It's a little bit like Halloween, but not really. There really isn't such a big emphasis on religion as in America. They don't really pray or go to church and there isn't the Christian symbolism of the return of Christ. Not that I'm complaining.
In Österlen, the southeastern part of Skåne, there is something called konstrundan. That means something like "Art Tour". If you were to drive west towards Ystad during konstrundan then you might have been the only one. Everyone heads off to see all the displays and above all, buy things. Apparently, it's a kind of privalidge to say so-and-so painting is from the konstrundan. In Ystad, there was a parade. They all gathered behind two drummers, a man dressed as a chicken and a man dressed as a rabbit and headed from österportstorget to stortorget. We watched. After the parade I went to Chad's house with Gabe and we ended up watching Burn After Reading, which I found to be very confusing but funny nonetheless. After that I went home to prepare for the påskfest at Annette's house. There were some excellent hors d'oevres with small halved tomatoes and blue cheese that I will never forget.
Today was Monday, the last day of påsklov. It was spent in a suitably leisurely way. Tomorrow is school and also my Rotary presentation which I'm doing in Swedish. What I will remember about påsk is that is very lugn och skönt, relaxed and pleasant. And that you must eat lots of eggs and sill.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
It's Warm Outside!!
Some pictures from today. Wonderful weather, underbart väder!
Looking out at the sea
The beach going towards Malmö
The beach going towards Ystad
My little apartment/room and the Baltic Sea (Östersjön)
The yard looks out over the sea
Looking out at the sea
The beach going towards Malmö
The beach going towards Ystad
My little apartment/room and the Baltic Sea (Östersjön)
The yard looks out over the sea
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Påsklov
Sunday after next is Påsk, or Easter so we have the next week off from school. This weekend I'm moving back to the Grahn family where I will remain for the rest of my time here in Sweden. I'm sitting here watching a movie about Gandhi and his resistance in India. It's quite interesting!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Rain and Wet
Last weekend I went over and met another Australian in Skanör, which is a small town outside of Malmö. Now I've met all of our new exchange students except for one.
I've been sick for most of the week and didn't go to school on Monday. Then on Friday I developed a little conjunctivitis of the eye, or eyes rather. I've gone through two rolls of toilet paper and starting on third. So my week was fairly uneventful. Basically, I played a lot of tetris.
The weather here has taken a turn for the wetter now that spring is starting to come around. It's 6 degrees celsius which is not too cold or warm. I can't wait for summery weather.
I've been sick for most of the week and didn't go to school on Monday. Then on Friday I developed a little conjunctivitis of the eye, or eyes rather. I've gone through two rolls of toilet paper and starting on third. So my week was fairly uneventful. Basically, I played a lot of tetris.
The weather here has taken a turn for the wetter now that spring is starting to come around. It's 6 degrees celsius which is not too cold or warm. I can't wait for summery weather.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tut's Birthday
Last weekend we went to Denmark to celebrate Anette's aunt Tut's 90th birthday. We left at around noon and after about an hour we were in Köpenhamn (København in Danish, Copenhagen in English). First we had a celebratory lunch along with lots of other Danish relatives and the biggest bottle of champagne I have ever seen. Apparently, the champagne was Churchhill's favorite. The first course was some kind of fish jello that I tried but did not like. Next we had really really good steak and mushroom. Dessert was a choice between creme broule or cheese. I went with the creme broule, but almost everyone else had cheese. I thought that was interesting. It was a plate with maybe five or six different types of cheese and toasted raisin bread and grapes.
After lunch we went back to an apartment for cake and presents. The cake we had was called "lagkage" (layer cake), which is a traditional Danish birthday dessert. We also had tea, coffee and soda. I was very full by the time we went home at around six o' clock.
I noticed a lot of things about Denmark and Danes. They are much more open than Swedes. They often greet each other by kissing each other on the cheeks, whereas a Swede would usually keep you at arm's length with a handshake. According to Kjell, Danish people smoke and drink much more than Swedes and have a shorter life expectancy. They are also higher up than Sweden on the list of the worlds happiest people. Denmark is 3rd and Sweden is 18th on the list for "subjective well-being".
Then the language of course. It is genetically similar to Swedish (and Norwegian), but is pronounced much differently. It's often described as "like someone talking with a hot potato in their mouth", though I prefer the more descriptive (but probably less accurate "having gravel vomited into your ears". They also use different letters: "æ" and "ø"which are the same sounds as the Swedish (and German) "ä" and "ö". Also, Danish has a lot more toned consonants than Swedish. For example: och = og, bok = bog and söt = sød, (and, book, sweet).
After lunch we went back to an apartment for cake and presents. The cake we had was called "lagkage" (layer cake), which is a traditional Danish birthday dessert. We also had tea, coffee and soda. I was very full by the time we went home at around six o' clock.
I noticed a lot of things about Denmark and Danes. They are much more open than Swedes. They often greet each other by kissing each other on the cheeks, whereas a Swede would usually keep you at arm's length with a handshake. According to Kjell, Danish people smoke and drink much more than Swedes and have a shorter life expectancy. They are also higher up than Sweden on the list of the worlds happiest people. Denmark is 3rd and Sweden is 18th on the list for "subjective well-being".
Then the language of course. It is genetically similar to Swedish (and Norwegian), but is pronounced much differently. It's often described as "like someone talking with a hot potato in their mouth", though I prefer the more descriptive (but probably less accurate "having gravel vomited into your ears". They also use different letters: "æ" and "ø"which are the same sounds as the Swedish (and German) "ä" and "ö". Also, Danish has a lot more toned consonants than Swedish. For example: och = og, bok = bog and söt = sød, (and, book, sweet).
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