LearnSweden Blog

A very Happy New Year !

2008 has been an incredible year for us. We have travelled all over the planet , visited eachother, and blogged our way into happiness. May 2009 bring you great success and happiness.

                              

                              

                               

                                                          

                    

God Jul

      

It is finally here.....Jul . The presents are wrapped. The food has been cooked. Now it is time for a little fun. We hope that you have a very happy holiday season. We will be back in a couple of days with updates on all of our merriment. Until then enjoy a couple of videos to keep you in a festive mood.

Today I'm enjoying "The Hotel Cafe Presents...Winter Songs.  It's great holiday music that's good for the soul. Winter Songs is performed by Sarah Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. These great songstresses have requested that we not embedd their video into our blog but are happy to provide a link here. This is not to be missed. It's really wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUO0gd7cr9o

Another holiday favorite not to be missed was created by one of our very own. Torbjörn Bergsdal has made this video of the Botkyrka Musikskolan performing during their Lucia Concert.

~Enjoy and God Jul !

Our Winter Reading Favorites

One activity that we really enjoy is reading. Not only do we read for ourselves but we read to eachother as well. On cartrips, while washing the dishes, after school, and always before bed. Some of our favorite books happen to be written for Winter , when it's the darkest outside and a perfect occasion to crawl up with a good book.

        

I've kept it to our Top Ten . It was a very difficult task but I believe we've done it. Already I'm thinking about all of those favorites I've left off the list. Sitting in a hand woven basket beside our reading bench our many holiday favorites. Here are just a few.

                                 

Can you Whistle, Johanna ? A Boy's Search for a Grandfather- Ulf Stark. There are plenty of old men who would do as a grandfather at the retirement hom, ulf suggests, when Berra wonders why he doesn't have one. They go there together to fine a grandfather-ideally one who eats pig's trotters, invites you to tea and who can teach you how to whistle.  This is a warm and funny story about a friendship between two boys and an old man. A gentle account of companionship.

                             

Christmas Treasury - Jan Brett
I can't imagine winter reading without Jan Brett's stories and tales full of scandinavian traditions. The Mitten, The Hat, and Christmas Trolls are our favorites, but I just found this treasury with a few more pulled together as one holiday collection. (As a side note - if you don't know about Jan Brett's website, and you have little ones, you must pay it a visit. It will keep you busy all winter long.)

Lucia Morning in Sweden-Ewa Rydåker: Peek inside the busy Svensson house in Sweden, where Sofie, Louise, and Carl are getting ready for Lucia Day, December 13. Follow their adventures t hrough the day and learn how to create your own Lucia Day celebration. This wonderful book includes recipes for Lucia buns and ginger snaps, words and music to the Santa Lucia song, and patterns for a Lucia gown, plus the legend of Santa Lucia.

                        

Annika's Secret Wish- Beverly Lewis: A beautiful book that will has become part of our family's Christmas heritage. Annika has wished for ten long years to find the almond in her Christmas rice pudding. Will this be her year ? Beautiful illustrations by Pamela Querin.

The Tomten-Astrid Lindgren: I have loved this book for over 40 years. The copy I have was printed in Sweden a long time ago but I am very glad that this story is available as a nicely affordable paperback because it's such a sweet and comforting tale that lots of children will love. The beautiful illustrations capture perfectly the crisp, cold, snowy atmosphere of a still winter's night as the Tomten, a small spirit and guardian of a humble farm homestead goes about on his secret rounds doing his caretaker duties in his gentle, loving way. He whispers encouragment to the sleeping animals and children. He has seen many hundreds of winters and so he knows that "winters come and winters go, summers come and summers go" and the wheel of the year turns on and on. I encourage you to read this to children to help them feel safe and cozy and snug in their beds on a cold, dark winter's night...maybe try it this Winter Solstice and be sure to keep a look-out for tiny footprints in the snow around your home.

                           

The Tomten and the Fox-Astrid LIndgren: Same them as the above book. You can't have one without the other. Moonlit scenes of the farmyard under snow show Reynard the fox prowling near the henhouse. He's hungry, but Tomten, the kindly old troll who guards the henhouse at night, shares his porridge with the fox and the hens are safe--for another night.

Snow- Uri Shulevitz: This classic is simple and sweet and beautiful. When the snow starts to fall around here we grab this book. It's great for new or early readers. It has many repetitive phrases that you will find yourself quoting whenever the white stuff falls from the sky.

         

Ollie's Ski Trip and Peter and Lott'a Christmas - Elsa Beskow
Two wonderful stories by one of my favorite author/illustrators.  Everytime it snows or we get ready to go sking this book comes to mind - full of magic and wonder at the winter season. Peter and Lotta's Christmas is equally as beautiful as Beskow's other stories, and includes a few sweet Swedish Christmas traditions in the tale.

 

The Story of the Snow Children - Sibylle Von Olfers
Is there anything more magical than the thought of staring out the window at the snowflakes and having them turn into little snow children that carry you away on a magical winter adventure? Oh my. So much delight and goodness. The illustrations in this are simply stunning.

Christmas in Nosiy Village - Astrid Lindgren
This tale of Christmas contains all that I hope my children will remember from their own childhood holiday seasons - handmade gifts, baking, singing, celebrations with friends and family, and much joy. 

        
 So this is my favorite holiday reading list. I know there are many lists going on in the blogosphere, if you have a list of your own be sure to leave a link for it in our comments section so that we can see it . If you have a favorite book that hasn't been mentioned, let us know that too! We can never refuse a good read.

Have many wonderful nights of cozy reading with you and your little ones....or your young at heart !

      

SACC E-Days Savannah

LearnSweden is very happy to be a sponsor of this stellar event. Everyone is welcome. Please come and join us in Savannah Georgia April 20-22nd. Weekly we will be keeping you updated with the preparations for E-days. Until then, have a look at see what interests you.

 

 

THE SWEDISH AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BRINGS ITS

2009 ENTREPRENEURIAL DAYS TO SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

April 20-22 Event to Focus on Sustainability

The Swedish American Chamber of Commerce will host its fifth annual United States version of Entrepreneurial Days (E-Days) in Savannah, Ga., April 20-22, 2009. Based on a similar conference in Sweden, the three-day event is designed to bring together US and Swedish companies to promote trade and partnerships.

With the theme, “Accessing Growth Capital for a Sustainable Future,” E-Days in Savannah will feature conference tracks on Logistics, Industrial Design and Renewable Energy. The core of the program is a business matchmaking service designed to help companies find potential partners, distributors or agents to meet their specific needs.

A host of prominent speakers are scheduled to attend the conference, which was held last year in San Diego.  The list of speakers includes: Gunnar Wieslander, State Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs; the former CEO of Electrolux N.A., Anders Berggren ‐ recently appointed CEO of Marmon Retail Fixtures, a Warren Buffet company; well‐known Swedish adventurer, Renata Chlumska ‐ the first Swedish woman to climb Mt. Everest and circumvent the U.S. on bike and canoe; Doug Pennington, Executive Director of Private Capital Network, and Jim Jacoby, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Jacoby Development & Jacoby Energy.  

Several companies and organizations have signed up to attend the event, which will kick off April 19^th with a golfing event followed by a reception hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design.  Among the companies and organizations expected to be participate are: SAAB Technologies, SmartTrust, Swedbank, Thomas Concrete, EnergyLaunchPartners, and IKEA. The conference will end with a Vodka Tasting sponsored by Absolut on the evening of April 22, 2009.

E-Days sponsors include: the Savannah Economic Development Authority, The Creative Coast, Berlin Atlantic Capital, Miller & Martin PLLC, PartnerTech, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Embassy of Sweden, Alston Bird, Georgia Department of Economic Development, Delta Airlines, LearnSweden and Bill Marks.

For more information on the E-Days program, speakers and who is coming, please visit: http://sacc-edays.org/savannah. Please contact E-days Savannah Special Director Mee Eriksson for questions regarding sponsorship and registration: [email protected].

           

           

                               

                             

                         

A Picture is worth a thousand words

   It doesn't take long to know that we love photography here at LearnSweden. Today I would like to introduce you formally to the work of my friend, colleague, and co-owner of LearnSweden, Per Svangren. You see his work often here on the blog, in our courses, and in our e-zine. Read on to learn more about our happy photographer and find out how you can have some of his work for yourself.

      

        

  

"I have always loved the way to find a good view of things. When I was a child I got my first camera while I was quite young. A Nikon and I took a lot pictures. While at school I chose photography as a subject and spent many hours in the darkroom, producing black and white pictures. When we had a chance to job share with a professional at work , I first had a week at Swedish Television and the second time at Dagens Nyheter as a photographer. This was the first time a saw the possibilities in the photos themselves and in photography as a job. After that I took some courses in photography. Is what changed everything for me was the digital age.  When i bought my first digital camera I saw new possibilities in taking photos. I could take as many photos as I wanted just delete the ones I don't. It allows me to have a great amount of experimentation because I don't have the risk of "wasting" film.
I like to take pictures of people and especially of nature best of all is to link these two together."
 
"My Canon is one of my best friends and is always with me. "

           

 This year’s calendar features the wonderful work of Per Svangren. Per’s photography celebrates his absolute love of living. Per’s photos strive to cultivate an appreciation for Sweden by offering a little glimmer into the unique variety of his world, whether that be on the LearnSweden blog, e-zine, courses or now on our calendar. By clicking on the widget below you can get a copy for yourself or give it as a gift. It adds beauty to any wall. On the right hand sidebar there is a link to let you go directly and get your copy. Until then just enjoy some of Per's photos.

       

      

          

           

The Sound of Music

                          

              

The third week in Advent is a celebration of music for us. We love Christmas time, and all of us love christmas music, often times to the chagrin of our families. For myself, I start playing it the first week in advent but deep down in my heart I would start in October on Kannelbullar dag. We thought we would share a list of our favorite christmas music some Swedish, some not but great all the same

Per's List

Carola

                        

                        

Ainbusk Singers from Gotland

              

                            

 

Tobbe's List:

Nils Landgren

                      

Bing Crosby

                      

Diana Krall

                  

Valli's List:

Loreena Mckennit

            

                 

Amy Grant: If you think I love Christmas...this girl has me beat by four christmas albums

     

Rebecca's List:

Celtic Women's Christmas. If you just start singing "Ding Dong Merrily on High"Rebecca will take over the song and sing it all day wherever you are ....grocery stores, banks,Target, the kitchen, the bathroom,knitting,sketching......movie theater,not during the movie though.

                          

Many of these items are in the LearnSweden bookstore at www.learnsweden.com under the Jul category. Please enjoy ~         

We got Elves

So everyone is busy getting ready for the holidays. Here at LearnSweden, however, we are getting ready for all of the great new courses and events we will be having in the new year. Even elves need a break so have a sneak peek into what the LearnSweden Elves are up to........

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Nobel Mess

Nobel Day, yesterday Dec 10th, began with the traditional Nobel prize Award Ceremony where the Laureates receive their Nobel medals and diplomas from King Carl and the Royal Academy.

Afterwords ,1300 guests made their way through the winter darkness to Stockholm City Hall, illuminated by torches and braziers, to take part in the Nobel banquet.

Doesn't this sound lovely ? Wouldn't you love to see how this all plays out in lovely photographs? Our own Per Svangren was totally committed to bringing you photos of the above mentioned views. There were, however,...... how do you we say, a couple of problems.

From Per............

" First, a morning walk taking some photos. No bips and bloopers there."

              

                              

             

"Second.....The award ceremony was to begin at the Concert Hall at 4 pm so I posted myself there at 1:30 to see everyone coming,and taking photos as they were entering. Boy did I have a great position.

          

That was until 3 o'clock came. At this precise time the police came by to clear the area. I was moved to stand 300 meters from the Concert Hall and just when one thinks things can't get any worse, darkness fell, my flash wouldn't work, but this didn't really matter as I was so far away.

              

         

 

 At 4:15 exactly, all of the cars came,dropped off their passengers, but as for me I was too far away to see anything and everyone was under umbrellas.

         

                                   

            

Maybe I have forgotten to mention that it was cold, it was raining and I had Diesel, my dog, with me. A major point is that Diesel didn't want to be there and kept trying to leave. The photos are complete bips and bloopers."

"Third, I went home to the dog's relief. I changed my clothes, left Diesel at home this time , and walked to the City Hall. Having wizened up from the morning I arrived 30 minutes before the banquet was to start. Just as I arrived, the police were leaving because all of the guests were already there. They had arrived from under a portico where no one could see them.  There were no buses running all day so all of these endeavors I did with my own two feet. I had to walk all day."

Now on the other side of the world , in a kitchen in Tennessee, two women of Swedish and Swedish American descendant discovered that the Nobel Prize Award ceremony was being broadcast live on-line. The banquet too. :)

              

              

            

This was the first time that I had ever seen the Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony. I'm never in Sweden for Nobel Week, so it was just thrilling for me. It was so beautiful and the music was grand. To have a look for yourself please go to this link where you can learn more about the Nobel Prizes and such, plus they will have a video recording on-line soon of today's events. www.nobelprize.org  

As we were watching the "red carpet" portion of the program we noticed it was really raining and thought of Per the entire time. The only thing to do really was to eat our Nobel Medal Chocolate from the Nobel Museum. As we all know chocolate can solve any problem. So what have we learned from this adventure? It's much better on TV !

            

           

Nobel Day 2008

                           

Every year since 1901 the Nobel prize has been awarded on Dec 10th, the anniversary of alfred Nobel's death, for achievements in physics, chemistry,physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

                          

The Nobe Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The peace prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.

From the moment the 2008 Nobel laureates arrived in Stockholm they have participated in an extensive program of events including press conferences, receptions, Nobel Lectures, concerts and a royal banquet which will take place this evening.

                         

                        

                        

                      

The Nobel Laureates for 2008 are:

Physics: Yuichiro Nambu. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihido Maskawa.

Chemistry: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien.

Physiology or Medicine: Harald zur Hausen. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier.

Literature: Jean-Marie Gustave le Clezio

Peace: Martti Ahtisaari

Economics: Paul Krugman

Each Nobel laureate recieves as Nobel priz diploma which is a unique work of art, created by leading Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers.

Nobel Prize Medal which is made of 24 karat gold plate on 18 carat green gold.

Nobel cash prize award of SEK 10 million (Over 1 million USD)

The above information was obtained from www.nobelprize.org . For more information on the Nobel Laureates as well as a live broadcast of the award ceremony today 4:30-5:30 CET please go to www.nobelprize.org .

Tomorrow we will have our own Nobel photos from the festivites.

                            

The Magic of John Bauer

Often we read out loud at night. The place always differs....sometimes in front of a fire, sometimes on the top bunk of a bed, under a make shift tent, but always we are together and always out loud.

One of our favorite books is Swedish Folk Tales. The stories are enchanting but what really draws the reader in are the incredible illustrations of John Bauer. We had a lengthy discussion about him tonight and realized for all of the years we have enjoyed his paintings we know very little about him. Thus began our journey into the magical world of John Bauer.

           

John Bauer was one of the world's greatest illustrators of fairy tales.  He was born in 1882 in the Swedish city of Jönköping. His father came from southern Germany; his mother was Swedish. As a boy, he showed an interest in and a gift for drawing, and his school books are filled with caricatures.  He also diplayed a warm feeling for nature, and often made long excursions on foot, alone, through the deep forests that line Lake Vättern, on the shore of which Jönköping is situated.

       

When he was no more than sixteen years old he went to Stockholm, seeking to enter the Royal Academy of Arts; but while his great talent was obvious, he was too young to be admitted. He had to wait two more years, during which time he further improved his skill as a draftsman.

At the Academy, Bauer soon achieved a respected name, among both teachers and pupils. He drew with serene and sure strokes, with spirited detail, and with a pronounced feeling for form.

       

In his spare time Bauer studied historic costumes, weapons, and buildings, and the value of this reserach shows itself particularly in his later fairy-tale illustrations. These also reflecty his strong feeling for his native land---the deep forests with mossy boulders, the smiling glades, the low houses, the tarns, and the mountains.

      

While still a student at the Academy he received his first big commission as an illustrator of fairy tales: it was Anna Wahlenberg's book Länge,länge Sedan (Long, Long, Ago._ Three years later he made his real breakthrough when the annual Julstämning (Christmas Spirit), under the aegis of Cyrus Graner, began publishing the collection Bland tomtar och troll(Among Tomtes and Trolls) which came out once a year. Of the first ten editions, eight were illustrated entirely by Bauer, and his clumsy, strangely natural-looking troll figures were soon beloved by every Swede. During his short lifetime, he illustrated the work of almost every well-known swedish story teller, the best of whom are  represented in the collection of swedish tales titled,"Swedish Folk Tales". Generations of Scandinavian children have been brought up among his pictures, both in their books and on their walls.

      

John Bauer did not wish to remain illustrator of children's books forever. He had long felt a strong urge towards other kinds of painting but was never able to fulfil this ambition. With his wife and their two year old son, John Bauer was among the passengers on the steamer Per Brahe which, on a dark November night in 1918, sank in Lake Vättern, drowning all on board.

       

You can find your copy of the book Swedish Folk Tales in the LearnSweden bookstore, www.learnsweden.com.

For more information about John Bauer have a look at these sites as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John-Bauer

www.Jonbauersmuseum.nu

http://Bauer.artpassions.net

http://runeberg.org/jbauer

www.artsycraftsy.com