LearnSweden Blog

Turkey Day ......

 also known as my first Thanksgiving. As you've been reading I've been on the road. First stop was New York City but the second stop was Maryville, Tennessee.

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Budayr's.  As this isn’t a tradition we celebrate in Sweden, everything was new for me and my family. You can compare the food in a similar way with  Mårten Gås Day in Sweden. That's the day we have svartsoppa, goose with special things served with it and for dessert, apple pie.

We arrived in Maryville the day before Thanksgiving and became part of all the preparations for the big day.

           

This time I was behind the camera catching all of Valarie's cooking secrets on how to prepare this wonderful feast.

                            

          

                               

                             

So this was what was on the table for this eating session. Turkey stuffed with lemons and herbs while cooking. The birds were also covered with herbs and spices while being continually basted every 10 minutes. 

Valarie has a special stuffing she makes from fresh corn and cornbread and then fried lightly as small patties, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes,green bean casserole, spinach pies, grapeleaves, salad, sweet potatoes, rolls, and 18 bottles of sparkling juices.

          

          

         

          

          

        

Before eating, everyone stood around the table and in a short or a longer speech said something to be thankful for, a true gratitude circle. It was so nice hearing all of the things that we have to be thankful for. Both in big and in small ways.

       

        

        

After eating all of this we had to take a walk, so we could manage to eat all the pies that were served. Pumpkin, chocolate, and sour cream apple.

                     

    

 Together with coffee, we were really stuffed and finished up the day with a music session in the living room. There were pianos, guitars and a lot of other instruments that together with songs let the day be a memory forever.

    

    

     

 

 

Five of Top Ten places to see in Stockholm

     

Greetings everyone. While we are both out traveling and preparing for the thanksgiving holiday we have a wonderful guest blogger today. Sven aka LeTune from totally top ten just couldn't wait to share some of his favorite spots in Stockholm. Sven is a Stockholm native and blogger galore. To find more fun lists to look at and to see the other five items on Sven's top ten please have a look at his great site www.totallytop10.com. Today's photos were taken by Sven as well.

 Tomorrow we will have more of Per's adventure's in NYC and then he travels to celebrate Thanksgiving with me and my family. His family is with him so don't miss out on all of the fun.

5 places in Stockholm you shouldn’t miss

 City on the water, capital of Sweden– yes we are talking about the beautiful Scandinavian city of Stockholm.

Compared to other international capitals, perhaps not the largest or most inhabited, but regardless, it is arguably one of the most breathtaking towns in our modern world today. And here are our 5 of our top ten places you absolutely must visit if you are ever in Stockholm.

1. Skinnarviksberget

In the south district of town lies the highest viewing point in inner city Stockholm.

Skinnarviksberget (Skinnarviks hill) gives its visitors a amazing clear view over the city skyline. A place that makes you appreciate the absence of high skyscrapers to block the horizon.

            

2. The old town

The first stop for most tourists visiting Stockholm, Gamla Stan (The Old Town) is the oldest part of town, remained in its pre-historic 18^th century state with narrow streets, cobblestones, small cafés and the best restaurants in town. A must-see if you can discard the thick flow in the tourist streets.

            

3. Djurgården

A stroll out on the peninsula Djurgården, just a few bus stops or a 15 minute walk from city center, will treat you to a beautiful landscape with great aristocracy. Not only can you visit Skansen, the town Zoo, and amusement park, and http://www.vasamuseet.se/InEnglish/about.  theVasa museum, the boat that sank a couple hundreds years a go, got hauled up from the deep sea and placed in its own museum as the best kept 16^th century ship of modern time. You can also take a walk amongst one of Sweden’s grandest villas and semi-castles, once owned by the royal family and society’s richest and most powerful.

            

4. The grave yard of St. Maria Magdalena Church

This church, built in the 17^th century, stands squeezed in the trendy neighborhoods in the southern district of Stockholm, in its grace and magnificent history, only hold company with the most notorious and famous poets, musicians, film makers, authors and actors in Swedish history. Before you stop for a cup of warm chocolate in the nearest café, take five minutes and pay your respects to the famous dead in the grave yard of St. Maria Magdalena church.

          

          

           

5. Mosebacke

The Mosebacke concept including a restaurant, bar and music club by Mosebacke square on top of the southern Stockholm district overlooking downtown, is a great place to come for a pure Stockholm experience. Besides the priceless beer garden, Mosebacke is a summer haven for the young and the young at heart. Great food, great service and great atmosphere.

        

In Search of Coffee Big Apple Style

        

Greetings everyone ! Per here.  First stop New York City. We arrived on friday evening. It's early morning, as in very early. It always takes a couple of days for the body to get adjusted to the new time. If we were in Sweden now we would be having lunch but alas I am sitting in the lobby of our hotel with a double latte from Starbucks, which I might add taste like the Swedish Coffee Lattes. This is a very important part for me. I have a very difficult time when I'm in the States to find coffee which is strong enough for me.I always carry a jar of Nescafe with me so that I can help the coffee that looks like colored water taste a bit more like Swedish coffee.

        

Why do I start with all of this talk about coffee ? The answer is easy......my days include about 10 cups of java when I'm in Sweden. Fikatid (coffee time) is a major and an important part of every day. The most important thing is that I get the same quantity every single day of my favorite caffeinated drink. To do this in the U.S. would leave me drinking about 40 cups a day of the lovely liquid hot brown beverage. So enough about all of my coffee whinning. What did I do yesterday, my first day in NYC ?

While sitting on the plane during the long voyage over the pond, all I could think of were my two favorite breakfast places. So first thing in the morning I got up and took a taxi to the diner. In Sweden, I always eat yogurt and fruit for breakfast but when in NYC I change it up a bit and have pancakes with fruit on them, scrambled eggs, hasbrowns and other breakfast favorites. I just love sitting in the diner with all of the other early birds and my dish water coffee being filled the moment it looks like it might be going empty. I love the bottomless cup philosophy.

         

         

         

         

         

         

       

It is so extremely cold here and it got me thinking about Stockholm.  I want everyone to know that the pre-winter season in Stockholm can be considered balmy compared to here. I've never understood why NYC has to live with extremes. It is either extremely hot and humid in the summer or completely frigid in the winter. So we induldged ourselves and took a taxi everywhere. They are so cheap here that you don't even think twice about it. So I am feeling this fantastic city from the backseat of a taxi. So I went around yesterday not only by taxi but I took some short walks, did a little shopping, ate some lunch, and had a completely wonderful dinner while in a business meeting.

        

        

       

The restaurant is called Spice Market 9th Ave, 13st. What a restaurant.! One of the best I have ever eaten in. Fantastic service, stunning and chic interior, and divine food with superb drinks. We had the taste menu, which included not less than ten different dishes. They were brought to our table little by little in a relaxed manner throughput the evening. There were so many different and fantastic tastes. Each a small sensation every time a new dish was set before us.  The dishes were served individually for each person and some were served in the middle of the table for everyone to share. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are coming to New York. It's not to be missed.

        

        

       

                 

      

So this was my first day in the Big Apple. Tomorrow is another day..........

Happy Birthday to Selma Lagerlöf

                                    

Today, November 20th, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sweden's beloved writer Selma Lagerlöf. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909, Selma Lagerlöf has always been one of Sweden's favorites writers.

                                                    

~....in appreciation of the lofty idealism,vivid imagination, and spiritual perception that characterizes her writings."  From the Nobel Prize for literature presentation.

                                    

 Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was born in Östra Emterwik, Värmland, Sweden. She was brought up on Mårbacka, the family estate, which she did not leave until 1881, when she went to a teachers' college at Stockholm. In 1885 she became a teacher at the girls' secondary school in Landskrona. She had been writing poetry ever since she was a child, but she did not publish anything until 1890, when a Swedish weekly gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from the book which was to be her first, best, and most popular work. Gösta Berlings Saga was published in 1891, but went unnoticed until its Danish translation received wide critical acclaim and paved the way for the book's lasting success in Sweden and elsewhere. In 1895 financial support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy encouraged her to abandon teaching altogether. She travelled in Italy and wrote Antikris mirakler (1897) [The Miracles of Antichrist], a novel set in Sicily. After several minor works she published Jerusalem (1901-1902) [The Holy City], a novel about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land and whom she had visited in 1900. This work was her first immediate success. A book intended as a primer for elementary schools became one of the most charming children's book in any language: Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906) [The Wonderful Adventures of Nils].               

                                      

None of her later works matched the power or success of Gösta Berlings Saga. In the mid-twenties she published the historical trilogy: Löwensköldska Ringen (1925), Charlotte Löwensköld (1927), and Anna Svärd (1928) [The Ring of the Löwenskölds, 3 vols.]. She also published several volumes of reminiscences under the title Mårbacka (1922-32).

                                                 

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969

This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

I wouldn't want any of you to miss the huge celebrations happening in Sweden today.

You can actually hear Selma Lagerlöf during her Nobel lectures at www.nobelprize.org

Swedish Radio has an entire webpage dedicated to her and for the next 30 days you may hear Selma and others honor her whole life through word, play , and song. This is not to be missed. www.sr.se

The National Library of Sweden has an exhibit of Selma Lagerlöf happening now. http://www.kb.se/english/about/news/2008/lagerlof/

                                       

The exhibit is intended to create interest in the career of Selma Lagerlöf, and is based around a number of different themes. In addition to showing her working process – from preliminary draft to printed manuscript – the exhibit will also include first editions, translations, letters, reviews and photographs.

In addition to her work as an author, Selma Lagerlöf was also a committed advocate of both women's suffrage and the peace movement. She was highly respected within the cultural establishment, but also had deep ties to the common people, as witnessed by her incredible correspondence. The Lagerlöf Collection includes some 40,000 letters from some 17 000 correspondents

Please enjoy some photos of her home in Mårbacka. ~

                                       

                                               

                                       

                                      

                                       

                                      

In Search of Godis

                                               In Search of Godis

 

Jelly Rat’s in pastel colors, raspberry flavored race cars, foam chanterelles, chewy fruit squares, hard salty licorice, rhubarb sticks, Swedish fish, anything chocolate, but centers are my favorite, and of course polkagris. These are some searched for items to fulfill the Swedish sweet tooth.

             

                      

Inside any grocery store are plastic bins, filled with a variety of smågodis, better known in English as bulk candy or pick and mix. There is one candy in particular that sends me over the moon and that is the polkagris aka. Peppermint sticks. One of the oldest polkagris confectioneries is located in the town of Gränna which overlooks the magical island of Visingsö. A walk into the factory will have you watching workers in white stirring, tugging, pulling, and twisting the dough which will come out in bright colors or the traditional red and white sticks. Everyday this candy factory produces 2000 pieces, which they send all over the world.

The island of Visingsö has an enchanted history. The island itself was created by the giant Vist on his way home from an evening out with his wife.  On their way home the lovely Mrs. Giant realized she had eaten way too much food and couldn’t step over lake Vätten in one step so her kind and thoughtful husband with much effort picked up a piece of turf and placed it before her in the middle of the lake so that she might make it across.

It is worth the ferry ride to see the island of Visingsö with its rugged coastline, unusual art history and completely charming villages. A word of warning though …..it is said that the witches of Visingsö are completely toothless because they love to eat the polkagris of Gränna.  As of today there aren’t any trolls on Visingsö and the elves only come out at night.

If going to the land of enchantment is too much for you then hop on down to your local ICA store and discover små godis by the kilo, it also has it’s pleasures. If you would like to see this wide variety for yourself go ahead and have a look. These companies don't ship to the US but they do ship to certain E.U. countries. Enjoy~

www.karamellkungen.se

www.godisprinsen.se

www.cloetta.se

            

            

            

          

Jan Johansson

                                                       

 

November 9th marked 40 years since pianist Jan Johansson died at the age of 37 in a car accident. Though he is unknown to most of the world , he is celebrated in Sweden as one of it's largest and most famous jaxx musicians.  From 1961 to 1968 he produced a series of albums using famous swedish and European folk tunes interpreted in jazz arrangements.

Embracing jazz in all it's form as a composer, performer, and writing for film music, children's music and avantgarde. Jan Johansson left us a great repository of music but a life lived for such a short time.

                              

Swedish Radio (SR2) has a wonderful program to celebrate the live of Jan Johansson. You can have a listen to it here. It is in Swedish but has a great overview of his music.

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p2/program/amnessida.asp?programID=3015&Nyheter=&grupp=4408&artikel=2415875

For a further look into his life and music please visit his website where you can see some videos, and listen to some music.

http://www.janjohansson.org/      

A Walk in Stockholm

Often times early in the morning one awakes in Stockholm to fog. As the day unfolds it unlayers the gift of a beautiful sunny day. Enjoy Per's photos from his walk the other day in Stockholm.

             

            

            

          

            

            

            

          

Is there any Love in Stockholm ?........Per at Large

           

On November 7th 2008, we wrote a blog about man hole covers. There are A manhole covers, and K manhole covers. When walking around in Stockholm taking photos for the blog, I didn´t find any K-holes and wonderd why. I now have the answer.
K stands for kärlek (love) and they are good to step on to ensure true love, they are even better to kiss upon, just to make sure.

         

 A is the complete opposite.

        
While I was visiting Gotland I suddenly saw a K-manhole cover. After having exhausted myself trying to find a K manhole cover in Stockholm , I was wondering,how is it that I found one in Gotland  but not in Stockholm? To get an answer I spoke to Stockholm Vatten, the company which distributes water to all households in the city of Stockholm, and they told me that they have changed all the man hole covers with a K on them to covers with Stockholm Vatten instead. Why? I asked. Because it makes it much easier to see the difference between an A and a K  for the people who work with them. Not only this but it is a form of advertising to the inhabitants and visitors to Stockholm to let them know who is delivering the water.....Stockholm Vatten.

        

     
So if you belive in A-holes and K-holes, you will just have to look in another place other than Stockholm, because there you will just meet A-holes and you know what they stand for?

   

Swedex By Per Svangren

         

This weekend two of our Swedish teachers, Kajsa and Jenny together with myself went to a Swedex test training course. There were eight students from Sweden and Europe who learned how to become  test leaders. As a test leader you can educate others how to administer the tests, as well as, give the exam yourself.

         
 
So what is Swedex? Swedex is an examination in Swedish as a foreign language.When  doing it you will get an international certificate related to the Council of Europe level of attainment scale. Other European countries give the same level of exams.  The purpose of the Council of Europe level of attainment is to create a common European standard for language ability.  The tests are available in two levels A2 and B1. The scales describe what a language user can do in the language at each level. These levels are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. All of our courses at LearnSweden have been developed using the Council of Europe's Level of attainment score.
 
Each certificate test can be taken independantly and you can take the test regardless of how or where you learned Swedish. The tests can be taken in Sweden or at any other test center in the world. There are test centers in many countries in Europe and also in Asia, Africa and South America.

A surprising number of people learn Swedish as a foreign language to be able to work or study in Sweden. Many others who live outside Sweden have contacts with Sweden or with Swedish companies and need to be able to communicate in Swedish. So, for an increasing number of people, it has become important to be able to document their knowledge of Swedish. And the Swedex examinations provide an opportunity for them to prove their competence in the language.
 
Learnsweden will start administering the exams in the US. In a short while we will offer the possibility to do both tests in severel places all around the USA. Our test leaders will give the exams to individuals that need the certificate to have working privledges in Sweden, entrance to a Swedish university, to obtain knowledge of Swedish language ability levels or just for fun .
 
You can read more about this at www.swedex.info. At the site you will also be able to try some of the tests.
    

            

Martin and his Goose

        

                                                         

                                                   

Have you found your perfect goose for today ? Why you ask ? Well today is Martin's Goose Day. Who is Martin and why does he have a goose ? Though Mårtin's Gås is known throughout Sweden, it is most popularily celebrated in the southern province of Skåne. The Martin we are celebrating is the Bishop Martin of Tour,who before he became bishop was a heathen in the year 300 A.D. 

The reason we associate geese with Martin is that when the church was trying to elect him as a Bishop he ran away and hid in a goose pen. The startled geese started honking and gave away his where abouts. Martin was so angry that he had all of the geese slaughtered. He couldn't let all of these good geese go to waste, so he had feast and they ate them. Martin did become Bishop and the patron saint of Tours. 

Part of a true goose dinner is a delicacy known as Black soup. Black soup is made from goose blood, chicken bouillion, cooked apples, vinegar, and many spices. During our goose dinners we always have brussel sprouts, potatoes, and red cabbage. 

         

I can't mention goose or geese without thinking of NIls, a very famous character in Selma Lägerlof's book 'The Wonderful Adventure's of Nils'. A wonderful creative geography lesson of Sweden. You can find this wonderful book at the LearnSweden book store, www.learnsweden.com .

       

Have a great Marin Goose Day and remember to honk if you love geese. :)