An Afternoon in Nacka

On Monday, Coleman and Steve and I decided to picnic in Nacka Reservat. This huge reserve, located just southeast of Stockholm, is home to a tiny, tiny ski resort, many pine trees, swamps, lakes and rocky hills.

From Steve's apartment we walked for an hour through the woods to arrive at Hellesgården. In the middle of the woods we found an old bell tower and church.

When we arrived at Hellesgården and opened up our lunch we were greeted by a friendly duck. Apparently he is accustomed to humans.

The water is clean and warm! Great for swimming.

We walked around the edge of the lake and were rewarded with this beautiful view of Källtorpssjön.

Midsommar

The biggest holiday in Sweden is this weekend! Midsommar! There is barely a drop of darkness these days and it's time to celebrate the summer solstice with a big party, lots of food and drinks and dancing around a pole!

Midsommar for dummies:

A ridiculous parody (and IKEA commercial) from the Germans:

Svennebanan

Svennebanan = En vidare påbyggnad av "svenne", med lite mer betoning p att denne/dessa präktiga, tråkiga, medelmåttiga och trångtänkta typ av personligheter med anknytning till sverige också är förbannat töntiga. Är man riktigt lat kan man dra till med bara "banan" också.

-Excerpt from Slangopedia for a "Svenne Banana" and my rough translation below: 

• An extension of a typical Swede but with a little more emphasis on the practical, boring, mediocre and narrow-thinking personalities. If you are lazy, you can just say "banana". 
• Svenne/Sven = a first name in Sweden, I think? I've never met anyone with that name. But as a non-Swede, I always heard about the Svens in Sweden. It may come from the root of the words for the Swedish language (svenska) and people (svenskarna).  Anyhow, the idea is your average Swede. *If anyone knows the real answer, feel free to chime in with comments below :) 

We learned about those considered to be a svennebanan in my Swedish class. In a not-so-flattering way, obviously, this Swede is seen as boring, shy and habitually conservative. During your first trip to Sweden you may notice that strangers won't make a big effort to interact with you. If you start up a conversation, they will be happy to chat though. I can attest to the fact that I have met more people here than in the US who seem very flustered by sudden changes of plans or when you propose an idea that requires some thinking/exploring outside the box. But I don't think it's the norm, at least not in Stockholm.  Or maybe I just don't understand enough Swedish?

So who are the real average Swedes? Well... here is a little pamphlet we got in my class.  

The basic stats:

• The typical family is a married couple with 2 kids. The live in a house and drive a '99 volvo. The parents names are Maria and Lars Frederik Johansson. Their kids are named Oscar (age 14) and Julia (age 11). They both have phones and bicycles, but Oscar likely has his own computer and TV while Julia doesn't. Lars may be a little overweight and earns more than his wife in his manufacturing job. Maria does most of the food shopping, cooking and cleaning while her husband spends more time in front of the TV. 
• The average household income is 57,481 kronor a month ($8,848) 
• In the past 30 years the consumption of fika bread has tripled, meat consumption is up 71% and milk products 43%. 

The Swedish Language

As many of you know I've been studying Swedish for the past 7 months.  Since most have never had the pleasure of hearing the Swedish language, I thought I could share a little basic info about it!

Swedish is a north germanic language spoken by about 10 million people, total.  Most of these folks live in Sweden, although there is a Swedish speaking population in Finnland.  It's pretty similar to Norwegian except Norwegian has this cool letter ø and Swedish doesn't.

• The Swedish alphabet has three more letters than English: ä, å and ö.  
• They like to combine consonants that you likely would not see in English like sj, skj, hj, gj.   
• The sound of a long i is something like "ee" with a vibration. It still escapes my skills.  
• Many words can combine into one monster word, such as totalspråksordbok (comprehensive dictionary.)  The literal translation would be something like total speaking word book. Or you can say realisationsvinstbeskattning (capital gains tax). 

To hear the different cadence of the Swedish language, Alexander Skarsgård, the hottie from True Blood, shows off his Swedish accent here: Swedish Accent

If you want to hear an example of Swedish here is a clip from a movie called the wedding photographer: Swedish

There are strong regional differences in dialects. In the south (around Skåne) people are said to speak very loudly and as if they have marbles in their mouths. This is attributed to the proximity of Denmark. If you are from the north, you will likely speak slowly and take a rapid breath of air in to signify yes.  It's very strange the first time you hear it, it's almost like the person has experienced a shock.  But it's incorporated into a normal speaking conversation.  Since I have been learning the Stockholm dialect, I can't really give any comparisons.  But I've heard it's the snobby dialect.

There are words that sound very similar to English, such as:
Hej- Hey
Hus- House
Teve- TV
Matta- rug, mat

And many more that don't.

This is a funny video explaining a little more about Swedish: Simply Swedish

A Big Week for Sweden

The first week of June was pretty exciting here in Stockholm.

The streets were filled with trucks of recently graduated high school students who drive around dancing to loud music and screaming, cheering and pouring beer on each other.  It makes the whole town feel like a party at 2 pm on a Tuesday.

It was also Sweden's National Day on June 6th! It seems like a random day to pick although it is meant to honor the day that King Gustav was elected in 1523.  It is also the day that the Kalmar Union (Danish rule) ended, but I don't think many Swedes think about that. Most seem to think it's just great to have a holiday in the middle of the week and not much else.  It was really fun to be in my neighborhood though! Everyone was outside, several bands had started playing just on the street corners.  It felt very lively.

Instead of celebrating the National Day, we celebrated Micke's birthday instead.  We went to an adorable island in the archipelago called Fjäderholmarna, did a beer tasting in Gamla Stan and then went to Smaka på Stockholm (where tons of local restaurants set up kiosks in a Kungsträgården park.)  

And Princess Madeleine got married on June 8th! Maybe you know that Sweden has a royal family? And maybe you also know that one of the royals lives in New York? Well that princess married a Brit named Chris O'Neill (who seems to be considered a bit of a douchebag around here).  It was a big affair with a huge parade and a boat trip to Drottningholm Palace for the reception.

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It's very interesting to me that Sweden still has a royal family, considering how important equality is in their society.  From talking with Swedes it seems like the royal family is quite popular, and respected, especially the crown princess Victoria.  Below is Victoria and her daughter Estelle (age one and a half) sitting on her mini chair at the wedding.  So cute!