Lexi's Semester in Sweden: May 2015

Wednesday 5/6/15

Vilhelm Moberg wrote a 4 volume series from 1949-1959 about Swedes from the Småland area who emigrated to America. The first book is appropriately titled the The Emigrants. As has been mentioned in this blog before, 1.5 million Swedes out of the 5 million inhabiting Sweden emigrated mostly to the US from the 1860s to the 1920s. Moberg based his fictional family after these Swedes. We visited a museum about Moberg, his novels and immigration during that time period. The story is now a musical written by the two Bs in ABBA.

In the museum was a recreation of Moberg's writing hut that was at his farm. Roland, our swedish teacher, wrote his thesis on Moberg and actually interviewed him. Roland sat in the chair on the left in his hut. Moberg said his book Ride Tonight is a commentary on the nazi invasion. Moberg and his books were banned in Nazi Germany and he said that is why he writes.

In the exhibit on immigration we found a picture of our school since it was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1862!

After the museum we went to a fine art glass museum and glass factory. Glass factories use to be everywhere in the area producing mostly domestic glass. Now the few that are left have transitioned partly to fine art glass which is really creative and beautiful.

We were able to walk around a factory producing glasses and vases. There weren't any roped off areas or warning signs. It was crazy! The workers were wearing shorts and no goggles or gloves. That would never happen in the US.

Glass flock of geese.

Glass chandelier. One of the many amazing art pieces on display.

After dinner Becca and I went for a walk on the beach. I drew our initials in the sand (P for my nickname Petrie)

Thursday 5/7/15

In the morning we visited a small church in the area like the one the family in Moberg's book would have attended. There Roland lectured us on the plot of the novel an the history it represents. Church at that time was filled with hell and damnation sermons and many in the community were shamed for a variety of reasons. The characters in the book were fiction but represented groups of immigrants.

-Karl Oskar: father, king of a stone kingdom, farmer, very determined and forward looking
-Christina: mother, religious, follows husband but reluctant or fearful of future. She was illiterate so knowledge through the church
-Robert: Karl's brother, free spirit, interesting in learning not farming.
-Daniel and his followers: searching for religious freedom
-Ulrika: village whore, was raped when younger and was shamed so she owned it and became the 'whore', was a voice against the church
-and others

The book story is relatable for all times as people always move. Currently middle easterners that come to Sweden can relate to the tale. Many of the immigrants that moved to America like Moberg's characters became farmers but many became entrepreneurs. These immigrants are responsible for companies such as Radisson hotels and TGIFridays.

Pat and Roland in the church

The bay where many emigrants left by boat for America

Statue of Karl Oskar and Kristina at the bay. He is looking forward, hopeful for the future, and she is looking back, longing for the life she knew in Sweden.

We visited the farm that Roland grew up on. It no longer belongs to the family but he knows the owners. They let us pet their horse and look at the rocky landscape.

To finish the day Roland had a surprise for us. Near his farm is a car graveyard on top of an old bog. There were at least 100 old and rotting vehicles. The place has been made famous by a photographer who took artsy pictures of the area. It was fun to explore and try to not step in the swampy parts.

Amelia and Anna

Ruby

Friday 5/8/15

On our last day in Växjö some of us took advantage of the nice weather by renting canoes! We were told there was castle ruins around a bend but we never quit made it. It was windy but fun to be in the fresh air and exercise. While paddling we were singing camp songs but couldn't think of more than one verse for each.

Laura wasn't the biggest fan of canoeing and pat, who almost tipped the boat over.

Becca, Me and Hannah

Hannah and Me

Pat, Becca, Me

Becca fell in…she slipped on mossy rocks when trying to pull our boat onto the shore of an island.

At night we celebrated with a bonfire. This time I did not burn my finger roasting marshmallows!

Sidney, Erin, Britta, Anna

Hannah and Becca

So…since it is the end of the semester a lot of us have clothes that are too worn out to carry home or even give away. My sweatshirt needed to be thrown away and Lindsey's sweater (nicknamed Woobie) was at the end of its life. Laura gave a nice eulogy for my sweatshirt and we cut it into strips and burned it in the fire. The same with Lindsey's sweater except at first my professor's kids got a handle on it and ripped it to shreds.

Here is Signe and Jorgen wearing parts of the Woobie holding a woobie torch. Maria, their mom, is shaking her finger next to them saying "I am a good mother!"

For the finale we burned an old little pine tree. It was spectacular!

My sweatshirt minus sleeves and pocket. I save a small piece for my scrapbook.

Saturday 5/9/15

Travel to the town of Visby on the island of Götland in the Baltic Sea! It is our last destination before the semester officially ends. We are the first Gustavus group to go here. Before they went to Malmö which is an immigrant city in the South.

Långa Soffan or long sofa is 72 meters long from 1867. While we waited for our ferry in Oskarshamn this longest sofa in Scandinavia was hyped up. We were slightly underwhelmed when we came across this longish bench. Britta, Erin and Hannah are sitting on it in the picture above although Hannah is too far down to be seen.

Our ferry was actually a giant ship, probably the biggest I've been on.

Monday 5/4/15

For class today we actually went to a real school and classroom! To learn about education in Sweden today we visited the Karl Oskar middle school. It was a unique experience…Sweden in the last couple years has been slipping when it comes to education whereas Finland one of the top for education in the world. Private, for profit schools are very common in Sweden like the Karl Oskar school. In Sweden there is a certain amount of tax payer money that follows each student wherever they study whether at a public or private school. Therefore if the school cuts corners or is good at finances they can make money off of running a school.

Usually the charter schools have some specific focus that draws students. The Karl Oskar school has many programs with local sports teams, so the type of students that attended the school preferred soccer over science. Also the school's philosophy was grounded in the use of technology in school. All of the students had laptops and carried their phones around. I understand using computers in class for certain exercises but most of the students were surfing the internet, playing games or whatever else but listening to the teacher. At one point a student called the pencils they have 'shit' and we explained that you would go straight to detention in the US for that. The Swedish teacher said he can't give detention and the students know that. It was an extremely stressful situation for all of us. We were really uncomfortable with the lack of respect for the teacher, for us and for learning.

An inspirational poster in the hallway

Hard crafts room where they were making stools

An english learning game the 6th graders played. Paget is helping a girl in the background.

We ate lunch with the students. Anna and Amelia chatted with the sixth graders.

Recess! Sidney and I played four square but with our feet.

Becca, Pat and Hannah played a soccer game called '21'

Pat attempting to play soccer (he should stick to hockey)

Hannah in the goal protecting her face from a fierce kick!

When someone gets to 21 points all the players must race to touch the net. I caught Becca's mad jumps.

For some reason everyone had to kick the ball at another kid's behind...

Tuesday 5/5/15

Today we met Carl Linnaeus! or at least his impersonator. Carl Linnaeus is a famous Swede who invented the binomial classification system for plants, animals and minerals. He is why everything has two latin names for its official scientific name. He was born in 1707 in Småland, Sweden and taught botany at Uppsala University. Since we are studying sustainability quite a bit this semester Linnaeus's quote "if a tree dies, plant another in its place" is poignant.

Linnaeus was a brilliant and determined man with a pretty large ego. He referred to himself as the next Adam, in charge of naming nature. He had student teachers that traveled around the world doing research. These students were called his apostles or disciples. For example, Per Kalm was sent to the United States. Linnaeus had the habit of naming plants after his apostles and other people. One apostle was traveling back to Sweden from Finland. On his outward journey he had gotten seasick sailing to Finland so he decided to walk all the way up and back down the large bay extending his journey by weeks. Linnaeus named the plant Tillandsia after him because it is a plant that can't tolerate damp climates. Siegesbeckia Orientalis is named after a rival professor at the university who often criticized Linnaeus. This particular plant has a nasty odor and is rather unattractive. Linnaeus also brought the first banana to Sweden and the queen had the honor of eating the first banana.

Behind Linnaeus is the house he grew up in.

Amelia, Sidney, Pat, Zach, Britta, Erin and Rolan in Linnaeus's living room.

Linnaeus with his 'antique' IKEA umbrella on the nature reserve by his house.

Hannah and I in front of a Linden tree, or the farmer's tree.

Sidney milking a fake cow.

IKEA was founded in 1949 by Ingvar Kamprad. The first two initials of IKEA are his initials and the E stands for his farm name and the A is his village in the Småland region of Southern Sweden. Ingvar was a business man who saw a need in the community for cheap furniture so he went for it. The design aspect of IKEA came a decade or two later. IKEA opened its 300th store in Russia in 2009. Today the store is a symbol for Swedish culture as modern and innovative.