We had a lovely, if not quiet, Christmas this year. We missed our friends and family terribly of course, but I think we made the best of it and tried to embrace Swedish traditions. Here's how...
:: We bought a Tomten. Traditionally each farm or family has their own Tomten, which is a gnomey little guy with a long beard and a red hat who delivers presents on Christmas. We actually bought three (for good luck).
:: We also bought an electric candelabra for the darkened window of our apartment.Almost every window of every apartment in Umeå has one in it and it looks very pretty.
:: We ate a julskinka (ham) on Christmas eve.
:: did a lot of baking and attended a Christmas fika.
:: We watched a Donald Duck (Kalle Anka) cartoon on Sveriges Television at 3pm on Christmas Eve
:: drank glögg and ate pepparkaka
:: We had an advent candelabra in which you light one candle for each week of advent.
After having a very white, very snowy Christmas, we are off to Barcelona for a week to get some much needed warmth and sun!
Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We love you very much and think of you often. :)
There are still two weeks left until the winter solstice.
That means we are still losing light (albeit more slowly) for two more weeks.
This also means that in four weeks it will still be as dark as it now.
The thought of still a month of this darkness ahead of me made me want to go out to the Ume Älv and reenact a very famous painting by a very famous Scandinavian (Norwegian) artist.
Instead, however, I joined the local gym.To call it a gym is a bit of an understatement…It is not just a gym, it is IKSU. The biggest training facility in Europe, I think. (Look it up if you don't believe). Even to a non-athlete type person like myself it has a mind-boggling assortment of things to do.Ping pong, floor hockey, swimming, yoga, afro-dance funk, golf, aquasize… In order to promote health and wellness, my work subsidizes (of course! this IS Sweden after all!) my membership, so I get my gym membership for about $10 CAD a month.
I attended my first class there tonight.It was a yoga class…in Swedish of course! It wasn’t so difficult to follow, because “trigonasana” in Swedish is still “trigonasana”.I’m excited because it feels good to be doing Sun Salutations again. I’m also excited because going to these classes are also going to help me learn some more Swedish as well.
I’ve already learned “andra sidan” means “other side”.
Another thing I learned the hard way:
“herr omkladning” means men’s changeroom.
In doing so, I kind of reenacted that painting anyway.
Long overdue update: I spent a month living in a place formerly know as Prussia, working at a research institute, spending most of my weekends and some weeknights in Berlin.
Prussia!!!!
Ok, so technically I couldn’t have been in a country that no longer exists!
I was actually staying in Potsdam. And I loved it! Potsdam combines a really unique mix of old Prussian history, glamour, and glory with the decrepitness and decay of the city as it suffered through years of the communist regime under the GDR. In the same small city there are magnificently restored Prussian palaces –Sanssouci, Neues Palais, Charlottenhof- along with completely abandoned, decrepit, depressing buildings like the chilling KGB headquarters and prison, and watchtowers from the time of the Berlin wall.
During my whole stay in Germany I was really struck by the role Berlin has played in shaping 20th century world history. I don't think there is any other city in the world that has been so central to the events of the 20th century as Berlin. I was even lucky enough to be in Berlin during the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall!
Berlin, and Germany in general, is in a very unique position to study the merits of preservation versus restoration in the context of world history.In the case of Berlin for example -a divided city trying to emerge as one after decades of being split in half- how important is it to preserve this divided history? How much effort, if any, should be put into healing and rebuilding this division? How much effort, if any, should be put into preserving the history of this division? How much do you rebuild/remove in order for the psyche of the city as one entity to recover? How do you honor and preserve the memory of atrocities in a way in which does not celebrate the perpetrators?
The only satisfying answer I heard while I was in Germany was that in preserving history, they take the approach that EVERYTHING must be done to memorialize the victims and NOTHING must be done to memorialize the perpetrators.
This explains why there is a chilling and touching Holocaust memorial in central Berlin, but the ruins of Hitler’s bunker is now a nondescript parking lot.
My favourite example of preservation is the bombed out Kaiser Wilhelm church. It has been left ‘as is’, as a testament to the destruction of war. To me, someone who really has been lucky enough to live a life that has not known this kind of destruction, it is a truly important memorial to see.
A strange example of restoration in Berlin is the original Berlin city palace. The Stadtschloss was the seat of the Kings of Prussia and the Emperor of Germany. WWII severely damaged it, and, after the war, being in East Berlin, the GDR finished its destruction and built their own state parliament on top of the ruins.Now after German reunification, the GDR parliament building has been destroyed and plans are underway to rebuild the original Stadtschloss on top of these ruins… which are on top of ruins.A perfect example of the stratification of history in Berlin.Dig down deep enough and you see one regime replacing the other, on and on and on…
When there have been many different regimes overthrown at different times (first reich, second reich, third reich, GDR), how do you decide which version of history gets preserved?
To me, one of the most fitting memorials I saw in Berlin was a memorial for the Nazi book burnings which took place in Bebelplatz square, just outside of HumboldtUniversity. It is so unobtrusive you could easily miss it.It is just a clear plate of glass in the ground in the centre of the square.You could walk by it two feet away and not notice a thing, but if you get close enough and if you look down through the glass you will see a room of all white, with empty bookshelves on every wall.
More lighthearted highlights of my trip included seeing and climbing the Siegessaule - I was disappointed that I couldn’t stand on her shoulder like Bono does in the video (one of my favouritest songs in the world)- and finding my new favourite online radio station http://www.radioeins.de/.
I truly loved my time in Berlin and Potsdam and am already hoping to go back soon. If you have never been, you should go too.
Imagine it is dark out and you are already late for a dinner party. You’ve already gotten lost in the woods once looking for the bus stop you were supposed to transfer onto and had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus standing along a dark deserted stretch of road. Imagine also you just realized you are totally completely and hopelessly lost and you are just wandering the streets aimlessly not sure in which direction to go. These dark streets are basically deserted and all you are trying to do is find Gregor-Mendel-Straße (shout out to Mendel and his peas!!). You try to call your host to ask for directions, because although you weren’t smart enough to bring a map, you did think to write down your host’s phone number, and also to bring your mobile, only to find you can only dial 3 numbers before the network keeps cutting out. Panic is starting to set in a little bit.
Then you see it.
A guy, alone, walking towards you (also alone) in the dark.
He passes under a streetlight and you get a better look at him.
He is covered in blood…
and is slowly walking towards you…
carrying a chainsaw…
wearing a bloody hockey mask.
Seeing a guy dressed up like “Jason” from Friday the 13th might not normally scare you on Halloween.
But imagine you are in a foreign country where you have been told no one celebrates Halloween, and based on your previous experience the year before also in a European country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween, you have no reason to doubt this information.You, actually, have pretty much forgotten that October the 31st is any different than any other day of the year.
Then you see a serial killer walking towards you when you are lost and alone in the dark on the street.
And, in my own defense, that serial killer was the only person I saw all day who was (presumably) dressed up in costume.
I feel like I have neglected you. There are so many posts I write in my head, but then never put pen to paper…or fingers to keyboard as the case may be.
Going back to September:
I had a great (whirlwind) trip back to Canada, with a pitstop in Duluth to be part of a very special day for two of our bestest friends. At the wedding, we got teased a little bit about being Swenadians, and there was a minor controversy about whether a marriage certificate witnessed and signed by a Swenadian is actually legal. (It is.)
The Canada portion was fantastic, but again, far too short, and at times incredibly bittersweet. I was so happy to have time to visit with family and friends, especially my grandparents who came up from Saskatchewan.
Bittersweet, in part, because again I was leaving my husband on the other side of the Atlantic and taking my third solo trans-atlantic flight this year (out of a grand total of 7 trans-atlantic flights this year - How did I end up with this gypsy lifestyle?)
In the last 12 months I have lived in France, Canada, Sweden, and now Germany.
Germany. Which brings me now to October. I am here in Potsdam for one month doing some research at a famous (in the science world anyway) institute for pflanzenphysiology.
Potsdam.East Germany. Formerly GDR. Capital of Brandenburg. Just outside of Berlin.
Remember high school? Remember after the war was over and Stalin, Truman, and Churchill met up to discuss ‘what next?’ That was the Potsdam Conference.
The names of all the treaties like that never meant much to me in high school.The Potsdam Conference falls in the same category for me as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the British North America Act, and the treaty of Versailles - words you pull out on social studies tests when you can’t think of anything else. But now, actually being in the place where it happened, makes it much more interesting to me.
I’ve only been here a few days now, and am really looking forward to my first weekend to get some exploring done both in Potsdam and Berlin. Stay Tuned...
As I sit here watching the movie “Ghost” on Sveriges TV, I am reveling in the revealing revelation that… I actually love this movie.
Then I think about Patrick Swayze and how he starred in almost every other guilty pleasure movie of the ‘80s: “Dirty Dancing”, “The Outsiders”, “Big Trouble in Little China”. Wait – isn’t that Kurt Russell? meh. Close enough.
Since I am not, nor aspire to be, Perez Hilton- I generally wouldn’t make an entire blogpost about Patrick Swayze a.k.a. Sam Wheat, Johnny Castle, Captain Ron - but there is actually an Umeå connection.
There is a random building in downtown Umeå which has a Patrick Swayze related neon sign on it…for absolutely no reason that is apparent to me – or most likely to anyone else either.
Where else in the world would they have random “Dirty Dancing” quotes written in noble gases on the side of a building? It would be funnier if it were in Swedish. Ingen kropp sätter barnet i hörnet
Uh oh. Carl Bruner just “spilled” on his shirt.
“No Molly! No! Don’t believe him! He’s in league with Willy Lopez!”
Go With It
Go With It
Jam
It Ain't Too Much Stuff
It Ain't Too Much
It Ain't Too Much For Me To
Jam
-Michael Jackson “Jam”
As the typical author of this wonderful blog is currently away gallivanting throughout North America I have been given the great honor to come in to do a special edition post to keep all the avid readers happy until her return.So sit down, strap in and hang on because we are about to rock your world.
First I’d like to tell you a little about myself.On the outside I am like any other person you know.Well, I guess in reality I am nothing like anyone you have ever met but I do my best with what I have.I have no desire to be trendy and to keep up with the times because really you can’t improve on perfection.I don’t wear my hat sideways, I don’t have bling and I would not be caught dead in jeans of any color but blue.Seriously, they are called blue jeans for a reason.Don’t fool yourself into thinking they were cool in 1994.They weren’t.And trust me they aren’t any cooler now.But that is a topic for another time.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand.As your mom will always tell you, it is not necessarily what is on the outside but better yet what is inside that makes a person special and I am no different.I find that I give and give and give but never really expect anything in return.That’s just the way I am.But don’t worry about me.I always find a way to “refill” myself so that I can dole out more of what I have to offer to the world.
As I am only here as a special guest this is where I will leave you for now and maybe one day I will be asked to come back to tell you more about the trials and tribulations of my life but I guess you never know.Hopefully Melissa has a great vacation and will have a new post upon her return.
“Spread” the love!!!
BOB
Okay, Bob is just the jam they have here in Sweden and not a real person but it is awesome jam none the less.I won’t go as far as to say that it is better than my mom’s but it is definitely a contender.The refill tubes are awesome, a little weird but great.
Here is my typical menu of how I’ve been converted to eating a traditional Swedish diet.
Breakfast (frukost) : I usually have muesli with runny yogurt and, of course, coffee. The yogurt is more liquidy than at home, which I much prefer to using milk. The yogurt is thick enough that it takes much longer for your muesli to become soggy.
My coffee used to be ‘Nescafe instant’, but now that I have a coffee maker - (free! with the purchase of two second hand sofas. but wait: buy now and the special offer also includes a rolling pin) - I make real coffee and treat myself to Arvin Norquist Classic mellan blend. On special occasions I would have some knäckebröd (crisp bread cracker) covered with gräddfil (slightly soured cream), then topped with fresh smoked gravlax (lox) and capers. mmmm.
Fika: Later in the day, between breakfast and lunch, and also between lunch and supper, comes fika.Fika is basically a coffee break, but also usually includes a sweet treat to eat as well. Swedes drink a lot of coffee and therefore also have fika every few hours (so important is fika, that the lunchroom is actually called the ‘fika room’). My favourite fika treat is a kanelbulle. (Cinnamon bun, with the most delicious speckles of cinnamon-ey sugar on top).
Also they seem to really love green marzipan here. You can buy entire cakes covered in it, or even little cupcakes, or little rolls with the ends dipped in chocolate.
Dinner: Special meals like midsummer’s eve usually have herring (I haven’t tried it yet, but I promise I will) in dill sauce, or the brave even try surströmming, a rotten fermented herring that smells like hot garbage. Surströmming must be eaten outside, preferably deep in the forest away from civilization, opened under water to temper the stench, and is illegal to bring on airplanes due to the risk of exploding and potentially killing people if the stench is contained in a small place for too long of a time. I don’t think I will be trying this 'food', no matter how adventurous I feel. I don’t think I could ever pollute my insides with something so horrible. My tastebuds would never forgive me.
The most typical Swedish meal would have to be the following: meatballs with gräddsås (cream sauce), fresh forest chanterelle mushrooms, new potatoes and lingonberry jelly.
Although it may sound cliched, Swedes really love their meatballs.
Narrator (in the voice of one of those animal safari nature documentaries):
Watch how the native berry picker hunts the noble blåbär, eyes quietly scanning the forest floor for blueberry plants. She stops, stands still, and then realizes the entire forest floor is covered in blueberry plants as far as the eye can see.
The delicate blåbär hides, slightly protected under it’s own leaves, hidden from clumsy eyes of bicyclists riding by too fast to notice.
The hunters instantly spring their traps, using their red blueberry pickers to comb the undersides of the leaves, harvesting the shy blåbär, while leaving it’s mother plant intact for the next season’s crop. It is backbreaking work for the hunters since the blueberry plants rise only to a modest 30cm above the ground. The picking becomes addictive.There are so many plants, with so many berries, the hunters are in a frenzy. Though tired, they don’t want to stop picking.They nearly pick more than they can eat or carry.
Tired and satisfied with their bounty, shoes and socks stained with the blood of the blåbär, the hunters begin their retreat.
Until one hunter eyes a sparkling ruby poking through verdant green underbrush, and the frenzy starts all over again.
Ok. Sweden is great, there are berries, mushrooms, trees, socialism. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I am missing home. Not just my family and friends, and not just having a house to sleep in which contains luxury items like sofas or wine glasses.
But I actually miss Canada.
I miss the prairies.I never realized that I would feel so closed in -living deep in the forests of Northern Sweden-
but sometimes I feel like I can’t see the landscape around me because all the trees are blocking the view.
On the surface, Northern Sweden is very much like Northern Alberta. Beautiful nature, low population density, long summer nights, cold dark winters. But as time goes on, we learn each place has its own distinct way of doing things. These are a few of the things that remind us -to quote Dorothy- we aren’t in Kansas anymore.
:: every grocery store has its own automated bottle depot. and you don’t get cash back, you get a coupon which counts as money in the grocery store.
:: stores close for “summer”.
:: you can’t “spontaneously” go to a movie. you have to book your tickets (and even pick your seats) in advance, and you need a Swedish credit card to do it (discrimination!). Foreign ones won’t work. I don’t think I’ll ever get to see “Harry Potter och Halvblodprinsen”.
:: you can pay for the bus over your mobile phone. then you show the bus driver the receipt you got by text message that says you paid.
:: Bus passes are also electronic and you can recharge online (this is life-changing! I can’t tell you the number of times in Edmonton we had to run around at 11pm the last day of the month to 3 different 7/11s just to find a bus pass)
:: you cannot put cash into an ATM. you can only take out. to deposit cash or cheque you must go to the branch. people thought I was crazy when I wanted to put cash into the machine.
:: since I have to go IN PERSON to put money in my account, I figured I might as well pay my bills while I was there. Bad idea. It costs substantially more to pay bills in person than to do it electronically. 80 SEK surcharge per bill.
:: showers have no shower rod or curtain. water just flies everywhere and there is a drain in the floor. we have to squeegee the floor. I hate it.
:: meat percentage legally must be listed on food. generally it is a good idea to buy meat with a high percentage of meat. hotdogs range from 45%-80% meat.
:: grocery stores sell instant grills that you can take anywhere for a picnic. It is an aluminum foil pan full of charcoal soaked in lighter fluid. They are so popular that there are special “instant grill” garbage cans in public places.
When we moved here, I thought… "it will be so awesome living in Europe, we can travel every weekend" and we made a huge list of all the places we wanted to see in Europe.
It’s 3 months in now, and we are finally making our first trip, just one hour away by plane from Umeå, to Stockholm- “the capital of Scandinavia”.
Or at least that is what to tourism website says.
I, personally, didn’t know that Scandinavia had a capital, and I’m pretty sure that title really pisses off people in Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Oslo.
(Helsinki and Oslo are also on the list)
It is the most populous of all the Scandinavian capitals, so maybe that gives them the right to claim the title for themselves.
Stockholm consists of something like 14 different islands, and so is also called the “Venice of the North”. North? Yes. Venice? I’ll let you know.
(Add Venice to the list.)
I am so excited for this trip, we are going to relax, sight-see, eat delicious food (I’ll have to write another post soon about how I am falling madly in love with Swedish food -potatismjöl aside), sleep in a comfortable bed, and best of all – we are going to the Ikea in Stockholm to order some furniture for our apartment. Finally!!!
So, Stockholm here we come. May it be the first of many wonderful travels…
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