The literal image of Sweden is very often a little red cottage. As are volvos, midsummer and cinnamon rolls. Other things might be dala horses, an IKEA building and Swedish fish. Blond people, Pippi Longstocking, elks and lucia are others. What are yours?
Here are a few red little cottages for you!
What are your images? Share in the comments (the bubble image next to the headline or below).
Vetebröd. Sweet (yeasted) bread. Cardamom? Of course!
Vetebröd is a traditional component of the Swedish fika (drinking coffee and eating something sweet with it).
And the grammar.
I love spending time in the garden. I love to be able to just open the door and step outside. As a Swede I can sometimes feel the pressure of seizing the not rainy days; “we need to go out and play kids”! I found it very relaxing on the weather front (;)) living as an expat in Switzerland- so what if we stayed inside on a sunny day; I knew there would soon be more to follow!
I actually quite enjoy yard work. There is something truly meditative about it. You can let your thoughts wander or simply not think about anything at all. The one thing I could do without though is going after the slugs …
The garden season started this week. So far it’s been about cutting down last year’s dry and dead plants, and inhaling the smoke from the neighbor’s garden fire. And I got to wear my new garden gloves.
Because you just can’t keep track of where your spouse is.
The working expat spouse often travels a lot.
Listening to the radio you probably can’t avoid the news. The news are usually read in a fast pace, and what I find after having returned to Sweden, contain a lot of slang words that didn’t use to belong there. Only the other day I heard them use the Swenglish word “hosta” as in “to host” talking about a major sports event on the news.
If you are learning Swedish you might want to try to listen to Klartext. Klartext is a news program by the Swedish Radio channel P4. The news is easier to follow than regular news since the pace is slower and the words used are easier to understand.
You can either listen to the radio (18-18.10 on weekdays), via the web page, as a podcast or via an app on your phone. The app is called SR Play. Listening to Klartext is a good way of practicing your understanding of spoken Swedish, perhaps in addition to your Swedish classes.
You can also read their news on the website.
Visit Klartext’s website to practice your Swedish! You will find links to the news, the app and pod casts here, as well as the written news.
For English info on Klartext go here.
Please leave a comment – have you tried it? Did you find it difficult?
Easter and Saturday. Snow in the air and a cold, rather uninviting yard. But that does not stop our tradition of egg hunting. Our plastic eggs from expat time in Michigan have served us well and still do. We also hide the larger Swedish eggs filled with candy – my favorite is marcipane eggs with a thin chocolate layer and a pastel colored crust.
In the morning I boil the breakfast eggs with some yellow onion peel to make them yellow. We also paint some eggs for lunch using food coloring pens. Real messy but a must.
Lamb is a favorite for lunch/dinner!
What are your traditions for Easter?
It was believed that the Easter witches during the week of Easter flew to a place called Blåkulla and then back again. In order to try and scare them away on their return bon fires were lit. We still have the tradition of the fires, mostly on the West coast and south of Sweden. Fires are lit on the Saturday of Easter.
Last year I remember we had a very vivid discussion in my expat network about the Swedish tradition of dressing up as an Easter witch. People were appalled by the thought of it; seeing Easter witches as something dark and scary. It can be hard to understand and accept other culture’s traditions and it can be equally hard for a person familiar to them to get why they can be provoking or upsetting. We are usually so caught up with and used to the traditions (hence the word) that we don’t really think about the whys and hows and what it can possible look like to an outsider.
I tried to explain that the Easter dressing up is like Halloween – kids knock on doors, sometimes leaving a homemade Easter card and hope for candy in return. But we all have different references to witches (come on, we do!) and it wasn’t until I googled pictures of cute little Easter witches that we all agreed that it wasn’t such a bad thing after all! Boys and girls dress up in long colorful skirts and headscarves (the most important attribute) and red colored cheeks and lots of freckles. Lately we also see little Easter Men and Bunnies.
The word “påskkärring” actually does not even mean Easter witch but rather “Easter Old Woman”. There is very little in common with the witches people believed in during the 17th Century – also people did not drink coffee in Sweden at the time, and a dressed up kid usually carries a coffee pot around accompanying the broomstick; sometimes even a black cat.
So, when can you expect them to arrive – the kids, not the witches? On the West coast of Sweden it is mostly common to be visited by påskkärringar during Easter Saturday, whereas Thursday is more common in the rest of the country.
