Autumn in Sweden

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SHHHHH. Swedes are eating

Now this is going to sound negative, but let me first say that we love Sweden and the Swedish people. Things that may seem strange or curious in one culture are perfectly normal in another. Additionally, as a typical "loud American" the following may have little credibility...but here goes.

Swedes don't talk when they eat dinner in public. Ok, ok...I am exaggerating a bit. If you go into Stockholm to the places where the younger generations are, it is quite lively and seems pretty normal to an outsider.

However I can't tell you how many times we have gone to dinner as a family and witnessed a room full of people eating...and literally saying nothing. How can you eat without talking?

Most recently we were in Gotland (see Elizabeth's post on Gotland) staying at a hotel by the Baltic Sea. The hotel offered breakfast each morning and we would go down to enjoy some good food. But it does make it a bit difficult to enjoy you meal when all you can hear from a group of strangers is the sound of forks and knives clanking on the plates and piercing the serenity of the morning.

I am quite sure the Swedes that dine with us feel exactly the opposite. They are probably going back to their room talking about the Obnoxious Americans. That being said, why would you go and eat with your partner or your family if you aren't going to say anything?

Hmmm you are thinking...what does he mean by "silent" - by silent, I mean silent...like as in dead silent, middle of the night with everyone sleeping silent...tree NOT falling in the forest silent...funeral silent.

This summer we were in the south of Sweden on vacation. We went into the hotel restaurant and there were approximately 15-20 other people eating. Outside of a few "sighs" I am telling you they was not a word passed between the tables.

My solution? Next time we go to dinner we are buying schnapps (see Swedish wedding) for everyone within a four table radius. Hell I know our family is loud...might as well get some singing going so we can eat.

Swedish Weddings and the role of the Toast Master

Long time no post...Elizabeth has been keeping up the blog lately, but I have been wanting to share some thoughts and experiences we have had over the past months.

Recently we were fortunate enough to be invited to our first Swedish wedding. Our friends Jesper and Karin were married and their one year old daughter Ebba was Christened on the same day near Trosa, Sweden. Trosa is a beautiful little coastal town about 45 minutes drive from Stockholm.

While there are many similarities between American and Swedish weddings, I will share a few differences for fun.

At Swedish weddings the "toasts" or "speeches" as they call them are a big deal to say the least. I have been to countless American weddings where friends and family stand up to share their thoughts, memories and well-wishes. It is always a good time, but I have to say our "shoot from the hip" style is no match for Swedish wedding "speech."

You need to know this before going any further. Swedes don't go to the bathroom without a plan, and the wedding speech is no different. A pre-chosen "Toast-Master" resides over the post wedding dinner. In the case of Jesper and Karin's wedding it was 2 toast masters. The drill is as follows: prior to the dinner (maybe months prior) you contact the toast masters and let him or her know that you plan to make a speech. If the toast master agrees, then you are essentially added to the speech agenda.

(Editors note: Prior to the wedding Jesper's dad stood up and addressed 8 of us at the dinner. In English he welcomed us to the wedding and then kindly informed us that his welcome would be the last thing we would hear in English. From that point on everything was in Swedish. However, he did point out that we had plenty of great food and good wine to keep ourselves occupied.)

From this point forward the Toast master runs the program deciding when and who will speak. They are essentially the Masters of Ceremony ensuring the proper flow and energy are applied. It may sound too formal, but it actually works pretty well. If you have a good toast master (and I think we did) it keeps the evening moving along in an interesting way. Of course they could have been making jokes about the silly English speaking guests and wouldn't have known. We laughed when people laughed and looked sad when people cried. But essentially we took Jesper's dad's advice and drank the good wine and ate the good food!

The other basic difference in the Swedish wedding is that married couples don't sit together. In an attempt to have their guests mingle with other friends and family, you are separated at the sit down dinner. You have a "partner" that you share toast with and engage in conversation within between the speeches (and for all my guy friends that ask if she was "hot" I will just let Elizabeth answer that). I discovered pretty soon that at an all Swedish wedding having a Swede sitting next to you is quite important. They can help guide you through the dinner with a limited number of gaffs (remember I am from Alabama).

The last difference is the singing. It is a curious characteristic about the Swedish people. They are extremely reserved, but give them a few shots of schnapps and they become extremely social...but more than anything they can and will burst into song.

It was a very nice occasion and we had a great time. Unfortunately for us Karin and Jesper have moved to Taiwan. Unfortunately for them, they moved just in time for Typhoon season. However, we wish them the best and hope they come home for Christmas...so they can bring us lots of cheap electronics!

Our visit to Gotland

I fell in love with Gotland. We stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast right outside the walled city of Visby. It is an amazing medival city that has a beautiful sea wall and then the town is built on a hill.

We took a 3 hour ferry and walked to our B&B from the boat...passing and sampling one of the many ice cream shops. I could have walked around Visby for days - the churches, the flowers overflowing from hanging baskets, the 700 year old wall around the city, the cobble stone streets.

We had some delicious food (big portions which we haven't seen since leaving the USA) and rode bikes every where.

Time to Blog

We enjoyed a great summer in Stockholm with BBQ's overlooking the Baltic and we even ran in the "famous" Midnight Sloppet race. It is in south Stockholm on an island called Sodermalm. There were 13,000 running this 10K race and we started running at 10:40 PM. The race path was lit by candels part of the way and weaved on a pedestrian path and then through a large street in south Stockholm. It was perfect temperature to run and Dwight and I had a blast.














I can not believe it has been almost a month since our last entry. Wow - how time flies when school starts and you have family in town!

William is happily adjusting to school starting and his long summer days ending. His teacher, Mrs Jonsson is wonderful. He has two new students in his class. Another American - Max whose father works for the US Embassy and a
Swedish girl - Vendela who is just learning English.

Below are two photos from our summer trip to the south of Sweden. It was barely warm enough at night for the boys to wear there only matching outfits :-).

My first Hen Night!

Last weekend I joined a group of ladies celebrating a friend's last hurray as a single women - the Swedish version of our bachelorette party. Their tradition for the bride-to-be (and groom-to-be) is to completely surprise the guest of honor. Karin, our friend had been told a myriad of lies to get her to the start of her party and she even had an overnight bag conveniently packed!


As I side note, the stories I heard about the guys version of "surprised" is a bit more harsh. The "best men" usually go to elaborate schemes to throw the groom off by giving them instructions and an embarrassing costume to wear on a bus and sit in a bar only to wait for for no one show up! Then days or weeks later, the real "kidnapping" occurs.

I was on the team to shop for the food for the overnight. We had a detailed list from the team that was cooking the dinner. Did I forget to mention all 8 gals were Swedish...thus the list was in their mother language. I was just given an assignment and off I went in the grocery store. You can imagine my surprise when I was saw that the 8 Sea Breem fish still had scales, fins and eyes that were staring past me.

After the shopping we headed outside of Stockholm to a country club wardhus (restaurant/gathering place) where we SURPRISED Karin and had a wonderful lunch. We then traveled more into the forest to a summer house on the archipelago where we started with the wine and Karin's pampering. We had hired a skin therapist to give her a pedicure and facial. The food was wonderful even if a bunch of ladies cooked whole fish on a charcoal BBQ. I was so impressed with the "chef" and even tried replicated the fish and sauce when I got home. (OK - I admit is when I serve it for Dwight and me I bought the fish filleted already.)

As the night got later we enjoyed sitting by the water and telling stories. One of the girls had a relationship quiz that Jesper (the groom-to-be) had answered so we asked the same questions (again - all in Swedish so I just listened) to see if Karin could guess what her sambo (serious boyfriend) had said.

Several of us woke in the morning for a brisk walk in the forest and then a quick dip in the sea! I was surprise to see that I was the only one to swim in a bathing suit! The water was cold and very invigorating. With the body soap that was a staple on the dock, it turned out to be our bath for the day. We all had bread and veggies for breakfast and then headed back home to our families. Dwight, William and Davis had a fun guy's night.

NEW PHOTOS of the BOYS

After several comments regarding the photos on from the last blog entry, I decided to post a few of my own favorite photos. Yes, you are correct in assuming Dwight was the composer of the previous blog entry and although he's writing is far superior to mine, I tend to believe I am the better photographer. However, my new friend Stacey took these photos and we were very pleased!

William is riding his bike!

POSTED BY DWIGHT

Actually he learned how to ride it without training wheels almost a year ago in Atlanta. However he didn't work on it too much and wasn't "into it."

However he recently caught fire and can really go now.

See the video below.

Also other pictures which include Davis on the back of Elizabeth's bike, William with Darth Vader at Legoland, Davis with his Iron Spindle hat on and many more.

Hope you all enjoy!

More Witherspoons in Sweden?

Technically I guess the answer is no, since Rachel (my sister) is a "Long" and no longer a Witherspoon, but blood is blood and I can't believe the Swedish government allowed two of us in their country at the same time!

Rachel, Emily and Ethan were just here for about a 1.5 weeks and we had a wonderful time exploring Stockholm and the archipelago. One of our trips was to Vaxholm where we caught a ferry-boat to the island of Grenda. Once on the island we used a portable grille to cook up a picnic. The weather was a little windy right off the water, so that was a bit of a challenge, but once we walked inland a few hundred meters, the weather was really nice.

Rachel and the gang also explored the Vasa Museum (see earlier post on the Vasa), learned the Stockholm transportation system (see also post on buses are for losers) and ate the local food (fish eggs are fish eggs even if you call them caviar).

They also learned how to sleep in Sweden when the sun is out for almost 20 hours per day!

Here are a few pictures from their trip!

PS - the picture you see with the crowd of people is a Swedish Midsummer celebration. They are raising the "May Pole" - yes the celebration takes place in June, but its a May Pole. Go figure.

At any rate, it is too bad we don't have sound on these pictures, otherwise you would see my wife, my sister and her family dancing around the May Pole snorting like pigs...yes...pigs.

:-)

Hi from Denmark!

We drove over "the Bridge" today and crossed into Denmark from southern Sweden. It was a really easy drive and we got turned around just once. Unfortunately our good camera lens is on the fritz, so we are now taking pictures with our phones.

Copenhagen is a beautiful city, but we noticed right away there were a lot more tourist (lots of Americans) than in Stockholm. Elizabeth and I figured out a Euro-pass will get you here, but not to Stockholm. We walked around today..weather is close to perfect. Had some GREAT ribs tonight...Davis drank beer and William got some new Knight PJs.

We will post more later this week from Lego Land! All praise Marty Moose!!

P.S. from Elizabeth

HOMESICK...BUT WHERE IS HOME?

Dwight and I have been on holiday for only 6 days and we both commented that we had felt a bit homesick for the first time since leaving the States. But we were not sure the place for which we were homesick. Honestly, I think we both missed the sugar white, sandy beaches and warm Gulf water of the Red Neck Riviera. For those who are able to make a trip to this part of the USA...it is a jewel. And to be only a half day's drive away, we were really spoiled. The beaches here are nice but we could not help missing our home away from home (away from home) in Seagrove. We actually decdied to cut our by two days because we want to get back to Stockholm and enjoy our wonderful home in Stocksund near the Baltic.

The drive through southern Sweden was beuatiful. A lot of farm land that we noticed was immaculate. I mean it looked like these farm house and fields were settings for postcards for the area. But every farm was like that...no peeling paint, no old tires, no run down trucks in yard and the land was manicured with perfection which is quite interesting since we noticed in Stockholm, yards and lawns are hardly even "kept". When Dwight bought our weed eater, he commented that his electic razor could probably do a better job at edging. Luckily, we found out weeds are quite welcome in most yards in our neighborhood...everyone seems to have embraced the natural look.

Anyway, we left the beach and were thrilled to have all gotten some sun and relaxation. Dwight and I were like kids arriving at the Royal Raddison in Copenhagen today. Dwight was excited to have a bellman, elevator and wireless broadband. I immediately dumped all my personal effects of the VANITY (imagine that...what a luxury!!!) and planned a bath for the boys and (bathtubs are scarce in Europe) and a one for me. Did I mention it was to nice to find kleenex and soft toilet paper in the room. Needless to say we are glad to be staying in an American hotel and look forward to our time in Copenhagen.

A long way down the holiday road

Those are the lyrics from the theme song of National Lampoon's vacation. That could also be the theme son for the 8+ hours we drove from Stockholm to Ystad on Tuesday.

Rule # 1 about road trips...don't talk about road trips (elizabeth: that was for you!) .

Rule # 2 about raod trips...19 month old kids aren't meant to be locked into a child seat for 8 hours.

Poor Davis...strapped into his safety seat. Any of you that know Davis know that he is full of energy. Sometimes taking Davis across town can be a challenge. He is never in a bad mood...he just wants to play.

This trip was so long that even William was ready to jump out of the car. Just add in dad's back pain and we were all happy to see the resort - well sort of.

I think we all hoped the mere site of the resort would make us forget the long, uncomfortable and 8 dollar per gallon trip to the south of Sweden. However the weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk right in front of reception was not the omen we were hoping for. Neither was a third floor room with no elevator (did I mention that we brought everything in our house on this trip?!).

Maybe customer service would save the day? Nay (Swedish for no) it wouldn't. The thing you have to realize about Swedish customer service is this: there are two kinds - slim and none. Slim is defined by asking your waitress for the check and getting it 45 minutes later. None is self explanatory.

How many resorts in America would build a deck around the pool in the middle of July? And of those, how many would let the workers start SAWING and HAMMERING at 7 AM?

If you are reading this don't dispair about our trip. It has really been pretty nice. We have relaxed, sat in the sun, swam in the sea (I will talk about the Swedes obsession with swimming in artic waters later) and had some pretty good food.

We push off tomorrow for Denmark and will spend two days in Copenhagen. The boys have been troopers and are ready to go. William is DYING to go to Lego Land.

We are on a pilgramige to see a Lego! All praise Marty Moose!

Mother's Day