Week 7: The (Swedish) Culture Show

Hallå allesammans! This week I’m taking a sneak peek at that most elusive concept, “culture”: specifically, Swedish culture. Some people might argue that culture is very hard to define, and it probably is, but I think “the tastes in art and manners that are favoured by a social group” sums up culture pretty well. So what are the tastes in art and manners favoured by the Swedes?

Well, first of all, the Swedes are a decent bunch. Whilst quite a lot of people in Britain can best be described as just a little bit xenophobic the Swedes, due to their policy of neutrality, aren’t really ones to hold a grudge. They did go a bit xenophobic in the late 80’s/early 90’s, but from what I can tell, so did everyone, and the xenophobic government did so badly that they got kicked out 14 years ago.

The current PM, Fredrik Reinfeldt, has been called a “Swedish David Cameron”, in the sense that he’s trying to nudge his party towards the centre of the political spectrum. He’s also been compared to Bill Clinton, and like a lot of Swedish people, is heavily influenced by American culture: he’s also supporting Barack Obama in the upcoming US elections, so he’s definitely got my vote (though as the last election was only two years ago, I doubt I’ll get that opportunity).
Basically, the Swedes have five main ports of call for cultural influence: the US, the UK, France, Germany, and the rest of Scandinavia. It used to be quite isolationist, but since it joined the EU in 1995, its links with Continental Europe have been strengthened: however, like the UK, it has refused to adopt the Euro, with the current currency being the Swedish krona (SEK): one pound is worth about twelve krona.
So that’s the cultural influences of Sweden covered, but what about its actual culture? Well, a good starting point is Sweden’s architecture: the Oresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark, for example, is not only the longest border-crossing bridge in the world, it also includes a tunnel, and incorporates both a motorway and a railway. Simply put, it’s like crossing the Channel Tunnel with the Severn Bridge. This is just one of Sweden’s fantastic pieces of architecture, with over 70 castles, almost two dozen palaces and several cathedrals.
Music-wise, there is much, much more to Sweden than just ABBA, and death to those who say otherwise. Whilst ABBA did admittedly do much to pave the way for future Swedish pop bands, such as the Cardigans (who are famous for “Erase/Rewind” and “My Favourite Game”) and Robyn (who appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks), there are other types of music that are popular in Sweden, from folk music to jazz and from hip hop to death metal. Sweden is also the 3rd largest music exporter in the world after the US and the UK, so Swedish music is definitely popular. Moving on to media, the Swedish press seem to once again demonstrate the liberalness of Sweden, with none of the main newspapers/tabloids venturing further than centre-right. The newspaper I need to look out for at first is The Local, which reports the country’s news in English and has a rather informative website which I have already found very useful.

It turns out that there are many interesting things about Swedish culture; whether it’s their love of fish, meatballs and pancakes (not on the same plate, obviously), the fact that the inventor of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel, was Swedish (and also invented dynamite), or that they have crayfish dinner parties in August. Whichever part of Swedish culture you choose to focus on, the conclusion is the same: the Swedes are a pretty cool, if slightly eccentric, bunch of people. Even if their films do generally focus on what goes on in other people’s bedrooms. Plus, I’m not sure I can completely forgive them for creating the abomination that is Pippi Longstocking either. Or am I just being trivial here?

Next week, we’re going to be taking a look at what the Swedes get up to sport-wise, and I’ll be asking myself if I should try and take up a winter sport whilst I’m there. “Tills nästa gång”, this has been…

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley

One week, three films

Last week was eventful in several ways, but perhaps the most eventful thing that happened was that I somehow ended up going to the cinema three times: on Monday I went to see Wall-E with my brothers, on Friday I went to see Hancock with some friends from my youth club, and on Sunday I went with some friends from my 6th form to see the film they've all been raving about - The Dark Knight. And they were all very good.

Wall-E was silent yet awesome, Hancock moody yet magnificent (though the second half was a bit disappointing) and Dark Knight "awesome yet horrific", to quote a friend of mine. Heath Ledger will almost certainly get the Oscar, and he certainly deserves it on comic relief alone, but I'd be surprised if he's the only person who does get an Oscar. And Will Smith should probably stick to being funny, even though he can probably do serious just as well. If you're going to see one of the three, I'd probably recommend Wall-E, being a huge fan of Pixar films; the ending of Hancock is a bit anti-climatic, and the Dark Knight, as good as it is, did leave me feeling a bit dazed and shocked, plus at 2 and 1/2 hours it's a bit of a marathon. Go and see it anyway though, just be prepared to flinch every ten minutes or so: not really one for the paranoid!

Week 6: A brief history of (Swedish) time

Hallå allesammans! Now, many people reading this may know where Sweden is or what the colour of the flag is. You may even know the countries that border it. But can you name all the Swedish monarchs? And do you know how long the Swedish “Golden Age” was?

Of course not, and more to the point, why would you need to? That’s not why I’m going over to Sweden, and that’s not what makes Swedish History interesting. What makes it interesting is the same thing that makes British History and any other sort of History interesting: namely, the little quirky things, the sort of things you read in a Horrible History book. Incidentally, if it wasn’t for Horrible Histories, I wouldn’t find my subject nearly as interesting: whether it was reading about Henry VIII almost getting killed whilst pole-vaulting or discovering that the Normans only won the Battle of Hastings because they cheated, those books were fantastic.

Speaking of 1066 and all that, here’s what I thought was a rather amusing fact – England may have had three kings in 1066-7, but Sweden had four, because after the death of Swedish King #1 (Stenkil), Swedish King #2 (Erik Stenkilsson) and Swedish King #3 (Erik the Pagan) both declared themselves King, both made war on each other, and both died in battle, leading to Swedish King #4 becoming King… for about three years. Rather tokig, I’m sure you’ll agree, although Swedish King #4 presumably didn’t mind the carnage too much.

As you may have realised, Erik’s quite a popular name in Sweden, especially as far as Kings go: fourteen of them are called Erik. In fact, if you’re not called Johann, Karl, Gustav, Adolf or Erik, chances are you’re not going to become King of Sweden, so bad luck there. Still, better than being called Eric “the lisp and lame”, which is what happened to Eric XI – not only was he lame in the physical sense, but he was also a lame excuse for a king, and got booted out of his own country in 1229 by his relative Canute II, who took the crown instead! For those who feel a bit sorry for Eric XI the Lisp and Lame, don’t worry: he came back five years later after Canute II snuffed it and ruled until 1250, so maybe he wasn’t so lame after all.

So what other amusing facts are there to be found in Swedish History? Well, here’s one to make you question the sanity of Swedish women: Gustavus II Adolphus’ wife kept his body, and later his heart, in her castle for over a year. Personally, I’m amazed that women are able to put up with the smell of men at all, but to manage living with a rotting corpse with a year shows commitment. It also makes you wonder if she wanted to put off potential suitors – “Well, I may be single; but on the other hand, there’s a dead guy in my castle who happens to be my late husband.” I’m guessing it did the trick.

Another interesting thing about Swedish History is that the current Swedish Royal Family isn’t really Swedish: it’s French. That’s because in 1810, with Napoleon having a laugh and a half in Continental Europe, the Swedes realised that it would be handy if the next monarch was pro-French, so they appointed a French Marshal called Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who became Karl XIV Johann despite not speaking a word of Swedish: utterly random, but completely true. He also witnessed the French Revolution, so clearly he wasn’t one for the quiet life!

Jean-Baptiste, or Charles XIV John, also got to be King of Norway, because from 1814 to 1905 Sweden and Norway were joined together – the joint flag, by the way, is one of the most atrocious flag designs I have ever seen, and is an insult to flag designers across the globe! I’ve put it up on the photos page if you want to have a look.

Sadly, Swedish history has been a bit dull over the last century or so, mainly because they will insist on remaining neutral: the Swedes didn’t get involved at all in either of the World Wars, and stayed out of all the Cold War sniping as well, which was probably a sensible idea. Modern history hasn’t been completely peaceful though, as one of their Prime Ministers was assassinated in the 80’s – sadly, it wasn’t acceptable. So there you are: a bit of Swedish history to mull over. In the meantime, I’d best be signing off. Next week, I hope to inform you of some Swedish culture, as it were. But “tills nästa gang”, stay tuned for the next instalment of…

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley

Week 5: Swedish Made Simple

L.O! This, contrary to what my Drama Society associates will tell you, is not how the Swedish say “Hello”. In fact, there are seven different ways of saying “Hello” in Swedish, the most common being “hallå!”, “hej!” and “god dag”. So there you are.

I am a firm believer in the idea that if you are going to stay in a country, the least you can do is learn the language. In my case the need to do this is obvious: I may be doing an English-speaking course, but I do need to learn at least some key phrases in order to get by in Sweden: for example, knowing that “Vilken tid är det?” means “What time is it?” in Swedish is extremely useful. In fact, simply knowing “tid” means “time” is a start. Another plus about learning a foreign language is learning silly phrases, such as “Stopp! Hammer Tid!” – And if you can’t work out what that means in Swedish, then you clearly “can’t touch this”.
Still, that’s not to say that learning Swedish is a doddle, because it blatantly isn’t: if it was, I wouldn’t be doing an English-speaking course. A good example of how tricky Swedish, and indeed any foreign language can be, is the problem of shopping – to go shopping in Swedish is “shoppa” by the way – because it’s not just a case of having to ask “Hur mycket är det?” (How much is that?): it’s also a case of knowing what the Swedish for pasta, bread, milk, cereal, fruit and meat is (pasta, bröd, mjölk, spannmål, frukt och kött). There’s also the problem of how big the dairy section is in Sweden: previous Exeter students have apparently found it nigh-on impossible to find semi-skimmed milk, horror of horrors. Still, once you do know those sorts of phrases and words (and you’ve found the milk), making a trip to a Swedish shop for food is as easy as falling off the proverbial log, so learning the lingo is well worth the effort.
Phrases such as “Var vänlig och tack” – which means “Please and Thank You” – can be very useful as well: being able to speak a language is good, but being able to speak politely is even better. With this in mind, “Roligt att träffas!” which means “Pleased to meet you!” is a phrase I’m endeavouring to use in earnest. In any case, it’s not generally a good idea to be rude to some random Swedish person you’ve only just met, especially if they happen to live in your flat, or if they have some other means of making your life a personal hell. In short, displaying rudeness abroad is as the Swedish say, “dum”. Or possibly “tokig”, which means crazy.
Mind you, learning a few insults here and there can also be useful: quite a lot of people I know would spend hours poring over French and German dictionaries just to find new swearwords so they could use them on unsuspecting classmates. I’ve not been quite that crude, but a couple of insults/exclamations will undoubtedly come in handy, such as “Tusan också!” (Damn it!), or “Du olidlig svin!” (“You insufferable swine!”) In my opinion, these will be eternally useful: after all, knowing that someone’s insulting you is always a handy piece of info.

In order to ensure that my Swedish doesn’t get rusty, I’m going to be using a few Swedish words, and possibly phrases, in the Blog from now on. They are:

hallå allesammans! = hello everyone!
lämplig = good
förnämlig = excellent
dålig = bad
Bra nyheter och dåliga nyheter = the good news and the bad news
lycklig & olycklig = lucky/unlucky
otrolig = unbelievable
farväl = farewell
Tills nästa gång = until next time
Uppdrag Omöjligt = Mission Impossible

So there you are: you learn something new every day. Next week we move on to Swedish culture. I’m off to practise my Swedish, so “Tills nästa gång, farväl!”, and stay tuned for next week’s instalment of...
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley

Week 4 – Uppsala Uncovered

Hello again folks! This week I don the persona of your stereotypical Tour Guide in order to give you a bit more of an idea about Uppsala, “the big city with the small-town charm”, where I’ll be for the majority of my five months abroad. Just to give you an indication of how far away I am, Uppsala is:

1,483 miles from Tremough Campus,
1,331 miles from Stroud,
1,219 miles from London, and
453 miles from Copenhagen.

According to Google Maps, if I were to travel by car/coach, it would take me over a day to get from Cornwall to Uppsala, and I would also have to travel through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark in order to do so. It would take me seven hours alone just to get out of the country, so my location is in ways very remote!
Uppsala itself is located in South Central Sweden, about an hour's drive north of the capital, Stockholm. Unsurprisingly, it is the capital of Uppsala County, is based in the province of Uppland, and is an hour ahead of Western European Summer Time at the moment. It is the fourth biggest city in Sweden – after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö – and is about the same size as Oxford. Uppsala is home to the imaginatively titled Uppsala University, the oldest University in Scandinavia: founded in 1477, it’s older than all but four of Great Britain’s Universities, so it’s fair to say it’s ancient. More to the point, it’s huge: there are about 40,000 undergraduates, which is four times as many undergraduates currently at the University of Exeter.
Uppsala also has Scandinavia’s largest church/cathedral, the Domkyrka, which dates back to the late 13th Century and is a staggering 118.7m tall: that’s taller than St Paul’s Cathedral, but shorter than Wembley Stadium. The Domkyrka is home to the Archbishop of Uppsala, who’s the Swedish equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury: the current chap is Anders Wejryd (whose surname alone would win you a game of Scrabble), who’s been there since 2006. The post of Archbishop of Uppsala has been around since 1164 – in other words, ages – and from 1531 until 1557 had the unusual distinction of having two archbishops, due to a bit of a ruckus over the Reformation. Anders is the 74th Archbishop of Uppsala, and if he manages to reach the average reign, he’ll be in the job until at least 2018.
It’s fair to say that Uppsala is a lot like Oxford: a fairly large city with a thriving student population, a historic University, a large cathedral and only an hour or so from the Capital of the Country. Both cities have a noteworthy river as well, with the river Fyris in Uppsala dividing the city into two parts: to the west of the river is the historic quarter and to the east, the administrative, commercial and residential area. Of course, I’ll probably be spending most of my time to the west of the river, which is where the cathedral is situated, as well as several parks.
Uppsala does appear to be everything that Falmouth isn’t: close to the capital; huge; home to an enormous university and cathedral; a decent train service! Oh yes, and without a coast or beach for miles. Hmm. Still, not that I’d want to visit a beach between the months of October and January anyway, but I will probably miss having a view of the sea from my bedroom window. But then, Uppsala also seems a large, noisy, busy and most of all, cold place, so whilst it seems to have a fair few advantages, the tourist would do well to realise that, like all places, it ain’t perfect. But from the looks of it, a trip to Uppsala should be well worth however much I’m spending on this blasted study-abroad programme. Next week, I’ll be discussing the joys of the Swedish language, and how learning a foreign language can be extremely handy, especially when it comes to making a good first impression. But until then, stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley

Week 3 – Back to the Shire

What a difference ten hours can make. At half past eight in the morning I was asleep in Glasney Parc, Cornwall: at half past six in the evening I had arrived at Stroud Railway Station, Gloucestershire. A lot happened in those ten hours, but to cut a long story short, I packed everything, managed to get down to Penryn Station on time (with help from Dan Scholes and Fred Troen), then realised I’d left a bag behind. Whoops. And there wasn’t time to go back for it. Bother.

Mind you, I doubt I would have been able to manage another bag, seeing as I had seven of them already; along with a suitcase and violin, of course. Suffice to say, getting things off and onto trains was not easy, and I did need a bit of assistance at Truro getting the darn things over the stairway and then onto the train. I then bade Cornwall farewell at about 1:45, passed through good old Exeter, and then hauled all my stuff off the train at Tiverton Parkway. Fortunately, Tiverton Parkway only has one platform for trains to the Shire, so getting on the next train was easy enough.
It was only when I got to Cheltenham Spa that problems started. Incidentally, I always find that the easiest way to tell you’re in Gloucestershire is if the trains are being rubbish – and they were. The train to Stroud from Cheltenham was cancelled (bah) and went from Gloucester instead, I had to haul my entire luggage up and down two separate flights of stairs, get on another train to Gloucester, haul all the stuff down the longest platform in Britain to the next train, and then I noticed that a bag of sugar I was carrying had exploded. Gah. Still, after that, the journey was smooth, although bear in mind that the remainder of the journey was only 20 minutes.
So, back in the Shire – what’s it like? Well, I could say it’s dull, but it certainly isn’t. It’s more peaceful in Gloucestershire, I’ll admit, but I still have a fair amount of stuff to do: apply for a new passport, book flights (probably from Heathrow to Stockholm), go back to Cornwall to pick up this damned elusive bag… oh yes, and I may call in on a few of my friends who are doing their “annual” vacation in the Devonshire village of Woolacombe: they’re not quite as intrepid as me, but bearing in mind how out-of-the-way Woolacombe is, they are pretty intrepid nevertheless. So, this next week will probably involve me getting the nitty-gritty stuff sorted, making sure I’m not having a last-minute panic session with regards to getting to Uppsala for August 20th, and having a bit of a break as well: don’t want to exhaust myself before I get to Sweden!
As you also may have noticed, I’ve changed the day of the major blog: seeing as I’m leaving for Uppsala on a Wednesday, I thought I’d move the “major” blogs to Tuesday. There is another reason for doing this: specifically, that August 5th (my sister’s birthday), October 7th (my birthday) and November 4th (US Election Day) all happen to be on a Tuesday this year. So there you are.
Finally, I wanted to make a comment on Gordon Brown’s first year in the last blog, seeing as I posted it on his 1st “Anniversary” as PM, but couldn’t quite fit it in. So I’ll do it now. Quite frankly, for Brown and Labour to be doing so badly against a party whose leader makes most people I know very uneasy about voting Conservative, and to get less votes than the BNP in a by-election, is a rather damning indictment on both the leader and his party. I don’t think getting rid of him will help, because I don’t think Brown’s the problem: the Labour MPs seem to have a habit of tearing the party apart, and at the moment they appear to be doing it again. Brown, in my opinion, should be allowed to get on with the job, but unless he turns it around within the year, I can’t see him winning the next election. And if, for some reason, he calls a general election whilst I’m in Uppsala, I’ll be rather annoyed with the Right Honourable MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. But at the moment, that seems rather unlikely, and I’ll be amazed if he’s not still in power by the time I come back from Sweden. Which is rather depressing. Righto, best be off. Take care people, and tune in next week for another instalment of…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley