Question 29: Do you Believe in God?

The English are more open for spirituality than the Swedes

Only one of the Swenglish project participants in Sweden and only one of the participants in England answered a straight "yes" when asked "Do you believe in God?" 

Most Swedes answered with a clear no, only a couple of people started talking about some kind of spiritual energy. And one person said:

"Only when I'm in a situation where everything is going tits up... Then I go a bit religious and start praying, as and when it suits."

The people I stayed with in England were more open for spiritual stuff. A majority believed there was "something more to it" even if they couldn't explain what it was. One person called herself a pagan and a couple of people were involved in meditation or yoga movements. A typical answer was:

”I believe there’s some kind of unifying being that connects all things, a sort of unity, nor good or bad. Like nature it can be cruel or dispassionate.”

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This study is by no means scientific, the answers are based on interviewing 15 people in England and 15 people in Sweden, aged 22-59. Look out for the next question: What's your biggest fear?

Swenglish Documentary Trailer

Film maker Adriana Sabau followed me with her camera when I did my Swenglish project. Staying with 30 people for 30 weeks to celebrate my 30th. An odd celebration, I know. It was more of an escape... 

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Swenglish - A year later

On Tuesday I'll be 31 and then a year will have passed since I started my Swenglish journey.

Last year was the most eventful and adventurous years in my life. I learnt so much from staying with 30 different people during 30 weeks. I've realised that there's no such thing as the perfect life. Everybody's got their own struggle. Some people want change. Others are quite happy.

"People often talk about being scared of change
But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same
Cause the game is never won by standing in any one place for too long."

- Nick Cave, "Jesus of the Moon"

The personal purpose of my Swenglish project was to decide whether to live in England or Sweden. It's not that black and white anymore. I'm a person who's addicted to change, but maybe that will change too. Perhaps I don't want any change once I've found a life that I'm happy with. 

This week I'm visiting Brighton & Hove. It gives me a melancholy feeling, a bit like seeing an ex lover that you still have feelings for, but you know that things aren't right. At the moment. I haven't made a final decision. In fact I don't have a "real" life at the moment.

Next week I'll carry on living in the bubble I've lived in since I finished the project: staying in my parents' basement in my hometown, spending my days writing writing writing. The first draft of the Swenglish book is completed and I have a plan for the autumn. I'm not thinking more than 6-10 months ahead, like I've always had. So that hasn't changed.

And I still like Nick Cave. He's got a new album out. He lives in Brighton. I saw his car the other day.

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Week9: Quiz Me

I’d been dreading that I would be taken to a pub quiz at some point. I like the idea of this English tradition: to gather in a pub and team up with friends and strangers alike to answers questions about anything from historical battles to the ingredients of a specific recipe. But in reality quizzes make me uncomfortable because it reminds me that my general knowledge went out of the window when I finished school. And any day I’d prefer to have a chat about weather to being trapped in a quiz for two hours.

The closest Sweden comes to quizzes are "tipsrundor" - nature trails with multiple choice questions pinned to trees. This activity normally takes place in the morning and you’re more likely to win a wooden carved horse than a bottle of wine or cash to spend in the bar. Despite my love for nature I’m not a big fan of this activity either. There’s something about playing games that I can’t get into, perhaps because I don’t care too much about winning or losing. In fact I often want to lose so I can get on with doing something else.

Yesterday wasn’t too bad though. The person I’m staying with has got a good brain. He follows the news and there are books on political, historical and social topics in his bookshelf. When he went out for a cigarette everybody had to wait for him to come back so the quiz could continue ...

There were a few questions that would be easier to answer if you grew up in England, e.g. who was the composer on the £20 note (Elgar) and which East Enders character survived being buried alive by his wife (!?). I was happy though that I knew the answer to the literature questions: in which decade the Lord of the Ring novels were first published (50s) and who the heroine was who married Mr Rochester in a Charlotte Bronte novel (Jayne Eyre).

It also helped that we were about ten people in our team and I wasn’t the only one hiding behind my glass. Funnily enough no-one at our table knew how many fluid ounces there are in a a UK pint (20). There were eight teams taking part and we came number four.

P.S. I was ashamed not to know how many stars there are on the New Zealand flag (4) as I've got NZ relatives and my brother is a flag freak!

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Week8: Caravan Fever

A lot of holidaymakers in both England and Sweden use their caravans as a second home in summer, but this week I’m staying in a caravan that is a permanent home all year round. My eighth Swenglish host has lived here for almost two years; it’s warm and cosy and feels like a mini-flat.

However after four days of rain I’m starting to suffer from cabin (caravan) fever. On top of that I’ve come down with a tummy bug and am feeling pretty weak. To my comfort, my host is treating me very well. She had even bought some green tea as she read a previous blogpost where I mentioned what I missed from my “old life”, which is how I refer to my life before I started the project. As I’m trying to copy the routines of each person I’m staying with, I’m finding out what life-styles, including food habits, I like and don’t like. Apart from green tea I also miss muesli, which my host kindly provided.

I hope I’ve recovered fully before Saturday, so I can swap tea for wine! My host is a girl who works hard and parties hard. I understand why she describes her caravan as a sanctuary and creative space, it’s truly a place to wind down. In the midst of all the rain showers I’ve witnessed a couple of beautiful sunsets. And just as I finished writing this to snap some pictures, I noticed that the sky is blue. Finally.

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Week7: Swedish Horse in English Home

Can you spot the horse, aka "Dalahäst" in the photo? Saturday my host took me to his friend's birthday party. I'm not very good at small talk, but was relieved when I spotted the traditional Swedish wooden red horse in the bookshelf, giving me a reason to ask questions. It turned out that the birthday girl had bought it when browsing e-bay for "something red and ornamental".

Originally the Dalahäst was made as a bi-product to the furniture carpentry industry in the 17th century in the county of Dalarna. The mass industry of this horse started after it had been exhibited at the World Fair in New York in 1939. However each horse is still handcrafted and hand-painted in the kurbitz-style, apparently involving nine different people. So if you want "something red and ornamental" to put in your IKEA bookshelf, why not? To read more about the history of the Dalahäst click here.

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Week7: World Famous Squares

It’s not every day I have lunch in Trafalgar Square. My seventh Swenglish person is an arts writer, and he took me round a few galleries in London. When we stopped for a sandwich in the world famous square I felt strangely happy.

To be in a place I’ve seen on TV and read about in books makes me feel connected, puts me on the map. That’s one thing I really like about living in England, to be part of the world. People all over the planet know about London landmarks, but I doubt anyone can name a square in Stockholm unless they’ve been there on holiday. 

Perhaps it’s my job to educate people, so I've inserted a picture of ”Plattan” ("The Plate"?) ,

or Sergels Torg, a famous square in the heart of Sweden’s capital. 

And as a bonus I'll give you "Dödens's  Väntrum" ("Death's Waiting Room"), 

the "big" square (stortorget) in my hometown Nässjö.

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Week5: SwEngPolish Poetry

One part of Swenglish is that I do housework or other random jobs in exchange for food and a roof over my head. Since I started the project five weeks ago I've done everything from collecting firewood on the beach to cleaning a mouldy cupboard, from playing with a child to helping someone sort out an e-mail list. But my absolute favourite job so far was to translate a poem from English to Swedish, and stand in as a reader at a poetry event.

Last night I truly shadowed poet and playwright Maria Jastrzębska when she did a reading at the Pighog Press poetry event at the Red Roaster in Brighton. Maria is originally from Poland and she was supposed to read a poem in Polish at the same time as her partner read the English version, but sadly her partner wasn't very well on the day so I covered for her, reading the English bit. The poem is called At The Border and is published in Anthologia - a Polish English bilingual publication.

In the second half Maria and I did both an English and Swedish version of her poem Why do you laugh? I really enjoyed translating this dark poem and was honoured to be asked. I hope to able to do more interesting jobs like this during my Swenglish year! (But honestly I don't mind doing the washing up for people!)

To find out more about Maria and her latest poetry collection, Everyday Angels, please click here


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Week3: Sea Swimming

Sea swimming is an old tradition in England and the Brighton Swimming Club, founded in 1860, was the first club in the country.

Yvo Luna - the woman I’m staying with this week has been swimming in the sea every day for eight years and she keeps going all through the winter. Mainly she does it because of the mental health benefits it brings, and as a performer it also helps her with stage nerves.

’It’s a humbling experience,’ she says. ’To be part of something that’s bigger than yourself.’

I’ve been cycling down to the beach with Yvo in the mornings and it’s an amazing feeling to get up at seven and be by the sea before everyone else wakes up, but I’m not tempted to go in the water! At the moment the temperature is about five degrees Celsius and the swimmers stay in for ten minutes – it’s not just a quick dip as I’d expected. And Yvo is very hardcore; she doesn’t even have a hot shower after.

‘It can make you feel colder having a quick, hot shower afterwards. If I get in the shower, I don’t want to get out!,' she says, towelling herself dry. After all the sea-swimming is meant to be a Cold Water Cure.

In Sweden it’s a tradition to cut a hole in the ice in winter, have a dip in the lake and then run into a steaming hot sauna. After seeing the sea-swimmers, that’s cheating in my book.

Yvo is putting on a show in the Brighton Fringe Festival called ”Luna’s History of Madness” where she’ll talk more about the Cold Water Cure and other ways to look after mental health. So after the swimming and breakfast I usually follow Yvo to The Apple Store where she's got a work space. At the moment she's working on her press release. Very exciting!

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Week 1: The Quirks of English Toilets

 Before I moved to England I was warned about English toilets. 

“They have carpets in the loo!” people told me, looking appalled. “What if you’re sick? Or spending a penny when you’re drunk? It’s not like you can wipe the floor with disinfectant soapy water after …”

 

The toilet in the house where I’m staying this week is to my relief carpet free, but there’s another problem: there’s no sink. 

Sometimes dirty (and I mean literally dirty) business happens in the toilet and you want to wash your hands straight after you’ve been. If the sink is located next door, this isn’t that easy; someone might be having a bath and there you stand with the p-word on your fingers not knowing what to do. Of course you could wash your hands in the kitchen sink, but that’s not very hygienic.

Another quirk about English bathrooms is that in a lot of places there are still separate taps for hot and cold water, and the hot tap is often so hot you burn your fingers. There are warning signs everywhere, but I still forget. If you just want to wash your hands it seems like a waste to put the plug in and mix the water, so most of the time I end up washing my hands in either freezing cold or scorching hot water. (But I’ve seen people having both taps on at the same time, moving their hands between them.)

I pointed out the problem with sink free toilets to the person I’m staying with and she agreed it wasn’t very convenient, but said that nowadays, for health and safety reasons you’re probably not allowed to build a room with just a toilet in it.*

She didn’t really have a comment about the separate taps as she’s so used to it, but her Swedish housemate who’s a care worker said the scorching hot water ruins his skin because he has to wash his hands all the time. And talking about health and safety, he also mentioned that mixing the water in the sink isn’t very hygienic as you wash your hands in your own dirt, a bit like having a bath which is still very popular in England. (For four years I lived in two different flats in Hove with no shower, only a bath with no shower hose!)

I think a little bit of dirt is good for you though; Swedish people tend to be too clean and that’s probably why a lot of people suffer from allergies in Sweden. I’m already excited about what the toilet conditions are going to be in the next place I’m staying. Funnily enough, after writing this, I’m almost hoping there’ll be a carpet as it will at least keep your feet warm(er).

*Just had a comment on Facebook from Liz saying "But - separate loo means not having to wait while someone finishes their shower/makeup/cleansing ritual etc." Fair enough!

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Where My Life in England Started

I was nineteen years old and had just graduated from school  in Sweden. All I wanted was to leave my boring hometown (Nässjö) and have an adventure. Signing up for a 3 month English course might not sound like a classical adventure, but it changed my life forever. From the moment I got off the coach at Pool Valley, I knew I wanted to stay in Brighton.

Yesterday I went back to Loxdale Centre in Portslade where I did the previously mentioned English course back in 2001. For the fifth (!) time I was invited to do a talk, titled "Life after Loxdale" where I told the students about my experiences of living and working and writing in England. I also introduced them to performance poetry through my stage persona Lou Ice. Even though most of the students were Swedish, I did the talk in English which is quite nerv-racking as I feel more "judged" than if the audience had been English. (Most Englishmen seem impressed that people can speak English at all as they're not very interested in learning languages themselves, but this is one of the stereotypes I want to explore through my Swenglish project)

I have really fond memories of Loxdale and still remember my time there vividly. Some bizarre things stick out in my mind, like my teacher's voice when she read us an extract of Dorian Gray from our textbook. I thought she had the most perfect English accent and could happily have listened to her reading all day. (In the window you can spot Gill and Sue who were two of my teachers.)

So, ten years later I'm still in Brighton & Hove, but the question is: do I stay or do I go? To quote from The Journal of a Recovering Taiwanoholic:  "After 10 years you either stay or go. Become a lifer or get a life."