English cravings for Christmas

Just before Christmas I was hit by an enormous craving for England and anything English. Luckily there's an "English shop" in Gothenburg. There I spent more money than on Christmas presents for my family ... In the picture are only some of the stuff i miss from England:

*Christmas crackers (They exist in Sweden as a tree decoration, but there's no "gun powder" inside, just a piece of sweet if you're lucky and you're not supposed to crack it open until you take the tree out.)

*Mince pies (The first time I was offered a mince pie, I said no thanks as I'm a vegetarian and thought that the pie contained meat mince!)

*Mulled wine (I could not buy the wine itself, but I found the spices. In Sweden we have "glögg" which is similar but sweeter and is served with raisins and almonds.)

*Salt & vinegar crisps (There's a Swedish brand of salt and vinegar crisps nowadays but it doesn't even taste of vinegar in comparison to Walkers.)

*Cadbury's chocolate (I'm not a massive Cadbury fan, I just bought this in a flash of nostalgia.) 

*Flap jack

*E45 cream (A bit tragic to miss a cream! But then it's the best cream for dry skin that I've ever tried. Not very fancy, but it works.)

Merry Christmas/God Jul to all blog readers out there!

PÅ SVENSKA

Lucia: a Swedish tradition with many meanings

Lucia is only celebrated in Sweden and in some parts of Finland. A couple of times I've been to the Lucia celebration at the Swedish Folk High School at Loxdale Centre in Portslade, Brighton. The English people were amazed and asked what it all meant with people dressed in white and candles in their hair. I wasn't quite sure and now, when I've studied a bit of ethnology, I'm even more confused ...

Here are just some of the reasons we celebrate:

*Lucia means light. The day got its name from the Italian saint Lucia. She refused to marry and poked out her eyes. As a punishment she was sent to a brothel and was tortured to death.

*In the past people thought that 13 december was the longest night instead of 21 december. People thought it was a magical night when the animals could speak. There are also associations to Lucifer.

*Lucia was a feast before Christmas lent. Some people had as much as seven breakfasts! 

*Lucia was a tradition in the West of Sweden where the maids sang for their masters in the morning. Lucia didn't become an official tradition until 1890 when Skansen, a museum in Stockholm made it into a national celebration and in 1920 the first Lucia election was held.

*In the past Lucia marked the end of term at school and the school boys went round people's houses to sing and ask for money for their studies.

*Lucia could have a German origin. Some sources refer to St Nicholaus who gave gifts to children or a similar tradition called Christkindlein where a woman dressed in white with candles in her hair was a part of the Christmas procession.

Soures: God Jul by Lena Kättström Höök and Årets festdagar by Bringéus

PÅ SVENSKA

Week 30: Last Week - Creations in the Countryside of Småland

I only had three hours sleep after the Stockholm drama last week,
but there's no rest for the wicked ...
When I arrived at my last host's place I had to participate in making cheese cake.
Swedish cheese cake is nothing like English cheese cake.
The biggest difference is that the Swedish version doesn't have a crumbly base
and it contains lots of almond, both sweet and bitter.
The milk we used came from local cows that had been milked that very morning.

Making cheese cake wasn't half as difficult as making Christmas cards though.

It took me two hours to make one single card at my host's work place.

Luckily I could join the staff Christmas party the day after, including a great SPA.

And I relaxed even more taking a walk around Flisby in the county of Småland.

Minus sixteen degrees when driving to town one morning!
The Swedish winter tyres with studs were much needed.

One of the tasks my host gave me was to feed the birds.
We had some "Lussekatter" - Swedish Lucia saffron buns - left over and the birds loved them!

One Saturday morning we went out in  nightie and pajamas and made snow angels!

As a grand final I made a painting as my host is a super cool artist and she often makes art with an abundance of glitter - Christmas or not.

Now I've arrived at my parents' place. It feels unreal that I've completed my thirty weeks of staying with thirty different people. So the big question is what's next?
The most important thing is of course to write my Swenglish book based on these thirty weeks, but first I need some rest. I have some ideas about where to go and what to do ...
However I still don't know whether to settle in England or Sweden. My ultimate dream is to have a flat in Brighton and a house in the countryside of Sweden.
A journalist who interviewed me this week suggested that I marry a Swedish farmer ... no way!
I was going to milk a cow the other day though. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to illness, but I'm going to do it next week perhaps. To be continued ...

I will still update this blog weekly, so see you later dear readers.

PÅ SVENSKA