culture (28)

Blog entries on cultural curiosities, including notes Scandinavian (or other) people, language, books, cinema, music, art and similar. Also includes some general posts about life in Sweden.

Sorted chronologically, newest first. 28 posts.

Sällskapsresan
09/12/30
Sällskapsresa (-n [definite form], -or [plural]. Noun). (1) A trip arranged for many people to a common destination, e.g. from a travel agency that organizes tours; (2) A group vacation or charter trip; (3) A conducted tour. Etymology: sällskap (company), resa (travel). Read more>>>

The price of immunity
09/11/25
As some of you might have already heard, a number of countries, including Sweden, have bought in H1N1 flu vaccines for their whole populations in anticipation of a possible next wave of (a stronger variant of) the flu. The risk groups – children, health care workers and people with chronic illness and their relatives – were the first to be vaccinated, and the rest of the population will start getting in line for it in the next few weeks. Read more>>>

Monopoly - and Mellanopoly
09/10/15
As we were cleaning out Marcus' dad's old storage room looking for old stuff that used to belong or have been handed down to Marcus, we found, among other interesting childhood memorabilia like old handwritten projects (in the days before everybody had printers), a very old Monopol board in a yellowing box... Read more>>>


What makes us go ouch on Thursday mornings
09/1/21
It's a new year and I thought that I would finally learn how to swim. Instead (but not regrettably), I found myself trying out a new sport I haven't even heard of until I got to Sweden: innebandy a.k.a. floorball... Read more>>>

God fortsättning!
08/12/29
When Christmas is over, Swedes greet each other with "God fortsättning!". Literally, it means "good continuation" – it's a wish for a good continued holiday season and a positive exclamation that there is indeed a lot of good things to look forward to even after the big day... Read more>>>

A different kind of street art?
08/9/23
I've been seeing a lot of cute lamppost "leg warmers" around town lately. Whoever had been knitting and attaching them has a lot of wit, time, and not to mention balls of colorful yarn to spare! Suddenly, the lamppost, bridge rail and gate grill you never knew were there start to get second glances from you... Read more>>>

Feels like I'm eleven again
08/9/13
No matter what my opinion is about "vandalizing" public property – such as the underlining of words in library books – it's charming to see which words the previous reader underlined in this page of The Oracle Night: "scraps", "stagnant", "torpid", "greenish", "skies", "fumes", "exhaust" and "slab". Words that I wouldn't open the dictionary for nowadays. But 15 years ago perhaps?... Read more>>>

"That'll be 560 today and 620 the next time"
08/9/3
Man, going to the dentist in Sweden costs big bucks. When I brushed my teeth about a month and a half ago and found out that I had a little hole in one of my premolars, I got so bothered by the fact that I literally had trouble sleeping... Read more>>>


To raise the bar and turn the steak in the pan
08/8/21
As a learner of Swedish, my ears seem to get attuned to picking up new phrases, especially when the words are repeated by the speaker. The case isn't different watching the Olympics. Several times in Stefan Holm's game, I heard the commentators say two figures of speech, "att höja ribban" and "att vända på steken," and began to wonder how these idioms are translated to English... Read more>>>

The saltiest fattiest food you can eat
08/7/16
In the village of Orrefors, is the Swedish National School of Glass. Their website describes glassmaking as the hottest education program in the country -- with the pun intended, as ovens here reach more than a 1,200 degrees C! As a traditional activity here, tourists can go here or in other glassblowing halls on some evenings to partake of the Hyttsill, a traditional dinner with old-style meals from Småland... Read more>>>

Världens dåligaste språk (The world's baddest (sic) language)
08/6/18
I just read a book on the Swedish language by Fredrik Lindström, a Swedish comedian and turned linguist. The book, translated as "The world's baddest (sic) language" debunks some myths that Swedes believe about their own language: that it is inferior to English because it has fewer words; that people of past generations spoke more correct Swedish than young people do now; and that young people have become more and more careless with the use of Swedish... Read more>>>

Umbrella = Paraply
08/4/19
Looking in the internet for some spoofs of Umbrella, I actually found an unexpectedly brilliant Swedish version! My disbelief that it wasn't a spoof (it's on MTV?!) was soon replaced by a realization that it was being performed by really serious artists! I mean, they're quite sensitive guys it seems, and the singer's affected voice and pained sad-puppy expression just makes a moving interpretation of the original song... Read more>>>

Not your regular day in the mall
08/3/29
Army trucks came roaring down the street. And guys in camo riding motorcycles. Then an emcee, a marching band, and people handing out brochures. It's the hemvärnet (Swedish Home Guard) recruitment day, they said. The soldiers are advancing towards Vasaparken, where they have display booths and exhibitions... Read more>>>


It's as hot as a sauna in here!
08/1/29
Actually the sauna originated from the neighboring country, the word actually being Finnish. Here, it's called a bastu, but is nevertheless a common part of the culture that you can even conjugate it into a verb: to basta (to be at the sauna). So far, it's the only place I've been to where people voluntarily sit down in unusual heat and don't even bother to wipe the sweat off their faces. Temperatures here even beat desert proportions, meaning that people happily sit down at, well, about 60-80 degrees C... Read more>>>

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
07/12/1
I’ve heard from many that November is the most tiresome month for Swedes. At this time of the year, one goes to work in the darkness and goes home in the darkness, spending what little daylight hours there ever was indoors. Outdoors, one is even lucky to see the sun at all behind a grey sheet of raincloud... Read more>>>

Saattaa sisältää pieniä määriä pähkinää!*
07/11/19
Finnish -- the language spoken by our neighbors out here, of course -- must be the weirdest Western language I've ever encountered. The blog title above reads from a bottle of Choco Nussa, a kind of German-made Nutella rip-off. Does it look like an easy language to learn?... Not! Really, two Ä's in a row? Three of them in a single word? Two A's on each side of a consonant? In longer sentences, it just gets even weirder... Read more>>>

What do Vikings and YouTubers have in common?
07/10/24
"Blood of the Vikings"is a BBC documentary that we found really interesting! It's one part historical documentary on whether the brutal viking stories hold water, how the vikings built boats, what they did on the islands they traveled to and how their remains became discovered. It's another part genetic investigation on how many people in the British isles today actually descended from vikings, by comparing the y-chromosomes of Norwegian and English volunteers... Read more>>>

It Ain't Necessarily So
07/9/27
In a fit of nostalgia, I'm listening to the family's oldies album, dubbed "Sunday listening" -- even if it's a Thursday -- and I'm wondering if I should get in touch with more Filipinos nearby. I'm ambivalent... Read more>>>


Leisure reading
07/9/3
Sometime early last summer, I told Christianne that I would post about my summer project. I planned to read as many Swedish children's books as I can, which I thought was a good way to get into Swedish culture and to understand (to a certain degree), how it was to have been a Scandinavian child of the 80's... Read more>>>

The H-Day
07/9/3
This morning, I drank my morning tea while listening to the radio. The hosts discussed the 40th anniversary today of Sweden's biggest collaborative project yet, the so-called "starting point for safer traffic" that took 4 years of costly government propaganda before its execution on September 3, 1967. It was the day when Sweden changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right side -- Dagen H... Read more>>>

Inventive inventions #3: Taxonomy
07/8/29
It is Carlous Linnaeus' 300th anniversary this year (the anniversary month was last May, I believe), so it's about time to have some space for him here before the year actually draws to a close. It's soon -ber months after all... Read more>>>

For our karaoke nights
07/6/4
You may not believe it (I didn't at first) but the Swedes are apparently very popular in the international music scene. I'm not only talking about ABBA, who brought us those good ole karaoke hits "Dancing Queen" and "Take a chance on me" (as well as endowed us with their tacky fashion sense... Read more>>>

Acculturation as children
07/5/28
I borrowed some books on Swedish culture from Karin. They are published by the Swedish Institute and feature Swedish children's books, Swedish pop and Swedish cinema. I'm going to try to write something short about each theme. You might have guessed that I will want to start on the theme closest to my heart among the three: children's books.... Read more>>>


A slice of the Philippines
07/4/14
I've been down with some kind of flu or allergy all week. Actually, neither the school nurse nor the call-in hospital service could tell me what is actually wrong with me. My eyes have been swelling since Monday morning -- only yesterday did they start to look vaguely like normal, but last Wednesday my nose bridge looked completely flat... Read more>>>

Asterix på svenska
07/1/18
I had just borrowed some Asterix comic books from our friend Gertie, in an attempt to get back to learning Swedish. It happens to be one of my New Year's Resolutions, as a matter of fact, though I don't think it's been very obvious yet, sadly :-P... Read more>>>

Pelle the Tail-less
06/11/11
I have been reading some very educational books these days: children’s books… in Swedish. (BTW it has nothing to do with the Muppet Show and by no means involve someone called the Swedish Chef! :-) )... Read more>>>

The Jackie Chan Guide
06/10/2
Marcus and I have been on a Jackie Chan fest all week. It's great entertainment! Jackie Chan does all the crazy stunts himself. (You can see the making of the stunts at the end of the movie. Some of the stunts look really risky--even deadly--and there are some images of bloody... Read more>>>

Seeing stripes
06/06/17
Belated fashion alert... the 80's are back (and I hope, not for long!) As soon as the design industry decided that black-and-white (jailbird) stripes were "in" once more and that it was the look of the season... tahdah! (whatdoyouknow...) everybody's wearing them!... Read more>>>