LearnSweden Blog

Spooked

It's Halloween weekend. Tomorrow night everyone will be dressed in costumes and going door to door to gather as much candy as possible. Today,however, is the Halloween Eve as my son calls it. So this calls for a treat of a different order and that is spooking.

     

Together we prepare little packages of little goodies. When it is dark we set them before our friend's front doors,ring the door bells and run. Here's the poem we put on gift cards that we place inside of the bags. Our gift bag is white with a ghost drawn on the front. This is the true signature that you have been spooked. The spookies then tape the ghost bag to the front window and then spook two more houses. It's very fun to see all of the ghost in neigbor's front windows. Happy Halloween and many lovely treats to you and yours.

The phantom Ghost has come to town,

To leave you some goodies, I see you have found.

If you do not wish a curse to fall,

Continue this greeting, this Phantom’s call.

 

First, post this Phantom where it can be seen,

And leave it there until Halloween.

This will scare other Phantoms who may visit.

Be sure to participate, you don’t want to miss it!

 

Second, make two treats & two copies of this Ghost with a grin

 Deliver them to two neighbors where this Phantom hasn’t been

Don’t let them see you, be sneaky, no doubt….

And make sure they put their Phantom Ghost out!

 

Next, you have only one day to act, so be quick!

Leave it at doors where the Phantom hasn’t hit.

Deliver at dark when there isn’t much light..

Ring the doorbell and run, and stay out of sight!!!

 

And last, but not least, come join in the season.

Don’t worry, be happy, you need no good reason.

This is all in good fun and we are just trying to say…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND HAVE A GREAT DAY

Today

By Valarie Budayr

is the beginning of the weekend...... so off we go for a little relaxation and time together,because in 4 days it will be time to... (stay tuned)

Happy Weekend. See you Monday !

The Stockholm week

Every year for one week in July, Visby is filled with young and beautiful people from Stureplan in Stockholm. This week the harbor is full of big fast yatchs. The town is full of people partying all day and night and the town is full of police.

 

This year the week that usually is after Båstad tennis week, was the same week, so the jet set people had to choose either Visby or Båstad. Well, it seemed most of them chose Visby, as the town was crowded all week.

 Many people dislike this week in Visby. Because of  all the parties means a lot of work for the police, with fights, stealing and drunk people. The restaurant owners and Systembolaget  (packaging store) have a very good week as they sell a lot of food and drinks and most of the drinks and bottles are champagne.

Near the water is Kallbadhuset, were you can dance from early morning until very late and when you are warm you can just jump into the sea and get cool to be ready for dancing again. 

Midsummer

Even though it is still summer, we are having less daylight for every day. Still there is long lit evenings and light early mornings. So it is still a lovely time. Midsummer was the longest day of the year or should be, but as Midsummer was placed on a Friday, it could be a couple of days after or before. This year the longest day was two days after Midsummer. But we celebrated the day anyway.  Midsummer was a lovely day and night.

       

Most Swedes will go away over the weekend and celebrate it with friends in the countryside somewhere.  The celebration is very traditional, just as Christmas, Easter and all the other holidays. We were talking about it during this Midsummer and said there aren´t many differences between Midsummer and Christmas.

       

       

                           

We wake up early, because it is a special day, we celebrate together with friends and family, we dance and sing the same songs and at Midsummer around a pole and Christmas around a spruce. We eat herring and we drink snaps. But at Midsummer we eat new potatoes and that we can´t find at Christmas. But the big difference is the weather, hopefully. This year we had mostly bad weather at Midsummer in Sweden. Gotland was lucky with a very sunny and warm day, but in the evening the temperature was just a few degrees over zero, just like it could be during Christmas.

                                                         

            

             

              

             

Hejsan!

 

Greetings everyone! We are back from semester. As you can see, we are head over heels in love with summer. Over the coming days,there will be a lot of sharing going on. Like what did we do during our vacations? What's new at LearnSweden? and many more trival things which happen in our everyday lives.

Most importantly, we've missed you and have appreciated your daily support of our blog. We'd like to know what you've been up to this summer? Just leave us a comment. Have a great weekend and we're back on Monday.

Hooray Tomorrow is National Day!

    

National Day is celebrated on June 6th. This is a new tradition which started only a few years ago. Before that June 6th was flag day. I can't think of a better way to share National Day on the LearnSweden blog than to leave you with a most beautiful look at this incredible country. May you have a very festive weekend wherever you are.

    

            

Here are the words to the Swedish National Anthem Du Gamla Du Fria

                           

Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord,
du tysta, du glädjerika sköna!
Jag hälsar dig, vänaste land uppå jord,
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna,
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna.

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
då ärat ditt namn flög över jorden.
Jag vet, att du är och du blir vad du var.
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!

Thou ancient, thou freeborn, thou mountainous North,
In beauty and peace our hearts beguiling,
I greet thee, thou loveliest land on the earth,
Thy sun, thy skies, thy verdant meadows smiling.
Thy sun, thy skies, thy verdant meadows smiling.

Thy throne rests on mem’ries from great days of yore,
When worldwide renown was valour’s guerdon.
I know to thy name thou art true as before.
Oh, I would live and I would die in Sweden,
Oh, I would live and I would die in Sweden.

Steamboat Day

       

An early June tradition of setting sail on one of Stockholms white steam ships happened yesterday. It is known as Skärgårdsbåtens dag. The whole fleet of old steam ships as well as other passenger boats leave Stockholm and sail to the small town of Vaxholm. The voyage last 90 minutes. Once in Vaxholm, all the shops and restaurants are open. Live music fills the streets and live folk-dance teams perform for the occasion. The steamboat parade returns to Stockholm after a couple of hours.

                             

         

        

        

Today's photos by Torbjörn Bergsdal

For my Mother on Mother's Day

By Per Svangren

           

Sunday ,the last of May, it was Mother´s Day in Sweden. In the US it was a couple of weeks ago and in Poland it was last Sunday. My children celebrated their mother (my wife) two weeks ago, because, she was away this weekend.
So is this day important? Well I don´t know? .....but for some it is, for me it is not. I rather like my children giving me a dinner or so, any day of the year, than on a special day, decided by someone else. I am sure they who think the day most important are the dealers, who want to sell flowers, chocolate or whatever it is.
 
So what did I do this day for my mother? I invited my mum, together with my sister to a picnic in Kronobergsparken, at Kungsholmen in Stockholm. My dad came along as well. Remember his celebration for father's day ?
 
It started up very well with  fantastic weather, warm and sunny, so we had to find a place in the shade and with a bench so my parents were able to sit and eat. I had cooked all morning and together with my sister and daughter, we had carried all the things to the park, which is just outside our flat.
 
The day was perfect, we sat there for five hours, eating, drinking and chatting. the dinner was: Salad with gorgonzola, pears and walnuts and after that oven baked fish and vegetable bags with shrimps and cream sause. To end it all up we had  cheesecake with pear and coffee.

I hope you and your family had a wonderful day too.

                        

      

     

     

    

                                        

In celebration of Motherhood

In the US it's mother's day. Wishing all of you and your's the very best of times and memories.