Apr
07
2012
When I was a kid, the Easter Bunny always left a large, high-quality solid milk chocolate rabbit in our Easter baskets. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I can blame my lifelong obsession with chocolate squarely on this particular family tradition. As the chocolate bunny was by far my favorite …
Mar
11
2012
I have a love/hate relationship with Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, the annual six-week musical showdown to choose the country’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. I love Melodifestivalen because it brings so many different kinds of Swedes together at the end of the cold, dark winter. Families and friends gather on successive Saturday nights in February & …
Feb
21
2012
One never-ending source of both laughs and frustration for me since moving to Sweden has been learning the language. I am considered functionally fluent at this point and my command of Swedish is good enough to garner regular compliments from native Swedes, (though I suspect this has more to do with them being stunned that I …
Feb
08
2012
A colleague decided we needed to have “semlor” for fika today, and who was I to argue with Swedish tradition? Semlor are basically whipped-cream sandwiches made with unsweetened cardamom-spiced buns that have been spread with almond paste and sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were originally eaten on Shrove Tuesday as a last splurge before the …
Jan
27
2012
‘Old Man Winter‘ has finally decided to make an appearance in southern Sweden, in terms of temperature at least. It’s been below freezing off and on for the better part of a week now, prompting street crews to lay down pretty patterns of salt overnight on what I presume are walkways that are known to …
Jan
24
2012
While it may surprise some readers of this blog, I actually do have a real job at a large, multinational company headquartered in Sweden. Because of the aforementioned “multinational”-ness, our official corporate language is English, something for which I am truly grateful as it has allowed me to be employed as a communications professional in …
May
19
2012
How to be a Swede
As with all great satire, there is more than a little bit of truth going on in this video. I just wish this lady had been my Swedish teacher.
Tags: Swedes, Swedish, Video
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