Yesterday Karin (and her sweet dog Hilma) took me for a drive on the backroads, where we saw lots of poppies at the side of the road. We visited the Abbey at Varnhem, had lunch there (ok sandwich, yummy dessert!) then stopped at Lake Hornborgasjon. She is a fun person to hang out with, we get on very easily and she doesn’t mind me asking all kinds of questions like ‘Why do so many people have wooden stands with milk jugs filled with flowers by their driveways?’ (Answer – because in the ‘old days’ when milk was delivered directly to houses that is where it would be left and the empty containers picked up) and ‘Do people sometimes just change their last names and not because they are getting married?’ (Answer- Yes, because (long ago people took their father’s first name and added ‘sson’ to the end leading to many people with the same names. In fact, Karin’s dad chose a new last name at the age of 25 because there was someone else at his work with his exact name. He went through a list of available names and chose Grontberg – green mountain. According to Karin, people are now having to create strange last names because there are fewer names available to chose from.
I asked Karin about the TV show that Margaretha had mentioned – she knew exactly what I was talking about. It’s called Allt for Sverige ‘All for Sweden’ – in America it is known as The Great Swedish Adventure’, a reality tv show where Americans with Swedish roots compete for a trip to Sweden to meet their relatives. Apparently it’s been going for 12 seasons! Something to check out.
I knew that smorgasbord comes from the Swedish language, but I learned that moped, ombudsman, gauntlet and orienteering are also Swedish words, and of course fartlek, which I remember from my marathon training days! Seeing all the signs when I am driving that have word ‘fart’ in them makes me laugh. Fart in Swedish means speed, so I’ve seen signs that say Utfart (exit) and din fart (your speed). I asked her about the origin of my maiden name Oberg, she told me it probably means little river (O) mountain (berg) and is pronounced ‘Oh-bury’
I’m getting used to using kilometers, Celsius and the 24 hour clock again. When I lived in New Zealand I had pretty much converted to using kilometers (felt like I was driving really fast at 110 k’s/hr, kilograms (made me feel skinny!), and Celsius (it always seemed colder than it actually was). But it’s been over 30 years since I’ve lived there and it’s taking a bit of getting used to, especially in estimating how long it will take to drive somewhere. I’m so used to thinking of how long a mile takes to drive at different speeds that I arrive places much faster than I expect!
I spent the afternoon doing some cleaning in preparation for Pia and Giorgia returning tomorrow, got to know the couple from Holland who are renting the flat upstairs for the next couple of weeks, and hung out in the cool shade outside with the animals. The cows next door came over for a visit.
2 responses to “Always Learning”
I wonder if we can find episodes of that show here. I read a novel called Big in Sweden that was based on a woman going on that show. It was a fun “campy” read.
I will have to read that!