Archive for 'Uncategorized'
What were your first impressions of Sweden? Posted by Gabriel on May 14, 2010
My mom and her boyfriend flew in from the US yesterday to visit the newest addition to the hoard of grandchildren (barnbarn). As always when you get people visiting from abroad, you become more aware of all the ultra Swedish things that used to catch your attention when you first got here. Clean minimalist design…
Moving to Sweden – housing words defined Posted by Gabriel on May 7, 2010
Moving to Sweden can be easy and it can be hard. One thing which is really different is the housing market. There are all sorts of strange and hard to understand names for things that there most likely is no equivalent for in your own language or country. Here’s a list to help you along…
Valborgsmässoafton tonight, May Day tomorrow Posted by Gabriel on Apr 30, 2010
So, let’s all light big fires and get drunk. I love Sweden. This is one of those Swedish holidays which is kind of funny. It derives from a number of different pagan spring customs (traditioner). It’s also celebrated in other countries like Germany and Estonia for example. Students will party hard, with their white student…
Can you find the hidden Swedish verbs? Posted by jennie on Apr 30, 2010
It’s not any random Friday in Sweden today, it’s Valborgsmässoafton (read Katja’s post about Walpurgis night here!) and it’s also the Swedish king’s 64th birthday! Grattis på födelsedagen HM Carl XVI Gustaf! As Gabriel wrote earlier this week, the king probably has his hands full at the moment – or as we would say in Swedish when…
Win a Swedish book – again! Posted by jennie on Apr 28, 2010
Anyone up for some Swedish readning? Since last month’s book contest was such a great success, I think it’s time for a favorit i repris ( “to rerun a favourite”) But this time I’m going to make it a little bit harder for you – but only a little bit. All you need to do is to to…
Folkdräkt 2.0: Re-inventing the national costume Posted by jennie on Apr 27, 2010
The Scots have their kilts, the Japanese have the kimono, the Norwegians have their bunad and well, you get the picture. But the Swedes? What do the Swedes wear on special Swedish occasions? We have a traditional Swedish costume (Sverigedräkten) and we even have 25 different varieties of that one (one for each province) and we probably have…
Madeleine and Jonas split – Do you support Sweden’s royal family? Posted by Gabriel on Apr 27, 2010
The Swedish Royal Court recently announced that Princess Madeleine had broken up with her fiancé, Jonas Bergström, after weeks of media reports about a brief affair between the groom-to-be and a Norwegian handball star during a ski trip. Yes, handball. (We’ll explain that in another post:-)) It has been quite a few exciting years for…