The weather
is what I think to be unseasonably warm, but perhaps it isn’t. No one has
commented on it being warm, and I obviously lack the knowledge to judge for
myself. I suppose I could look at an almanac… It’s maybe 26 degrees when I go
to school. No, it’s more like 28. That’s Fahrenheit, of course. It gets into
the mid or high thirties during the day. Yea, warm. There’s no snow here. It’s
December. What the hell, I’ll just say. Since starting this post it has
continued to be unseasonably warm, which has now been confirmed by native
Swedes. Honestly I’m disappointed in the weather. Damnit, Sweden you should be
cold. And snowy. And full of blonde, horny women. Currently I haven’t found any
of the three.
It’s dark
as hell. Seriously, seriously, dark. The sun comes up just before lunch. I’m
exaggerating of course, but it sure seems so. The sun is definitely behind the
horizon at 8 in the morning. 9 o’clock I think you can say the sun has “risen”.
At its height it is still shining behind buildings. Casts long shadows so it’s
kinda difficult to stand in the sun.
And it seems like morning all day. When the sun comes up it’s more yellow than
when it’s noon. There’s more atmosphere for it to go through, there’s dust and
things in the air, blah blah blah. The wavelengths of light that reach your eye
are longer when the sun is low in the sky, put simply. That’s why it looks red/orange at
sunset and sunrise. As the sun never gets very high in the sky, it’s always
pretty yellow, and as such it always looks like morning, until about 2 o’clock
when it starts getting dark again. Right now it’s 4:30 PM and it looks like
midnight. Pretty depressing, but it’s also…I don’t know. Introspective? Kinda.
Cozy? Kinda. For those of you that have played Skyrim, you know what it’s like
to walk around outside in the dark? The moon is shining, the stars are out, the
air cool and fresh. That happens here. Not every night are the stars out
because of the f**king clouds but I’ve had some nice walks home in the star-
and moonlight. I think it’s a different kind of dark. That’s a stupid thing to
say. It isn’t different dark but the people are out and about even when it’s
blacker than Toby’s ass, which I think is cool. It isn’t a different dark but
the dark feels different. Swedish summer is much better though. Experiencing
that will be awesome to contrast with the winter.
It really
sucks being away from home for the holidays. Christmas is called Jul, like
yuletide, and it’s fun and all. I mean it’s essentially the same holiday, it is
the same holiday, albeit different by way of the fact it’s Swedish and not
American Christmas. I miss Thanksgiving. I miss Christmas. And Christmas Christmas
not Jul Christmas. Obviously I don’t miss something I’ve never experienced before (though experiencing Swedish Jul was a rush, more on that later).
I accordingly miss the people that are generally around on Christmas. Not to mention the food.
And the presents. Ah.
Jul is, as
I said, is pretty similar to our Christmas. Glögg is a popular beverage this time of year. First time I tasted it I thought, “This is amazing! They have managed to
condense Christmas into a liquid, concentrate it, sweeten it, and sell it!” You
think I’m joking, but it’s honestly what can be described as Christmas in a
bottle, or concentrated Christmas in a bottle. The most
Christmasy Christmas smells and tastes all in one. It is served warm,
so it’s cozy, it has booze in it, similar to the strength of wine (can be
non-alcoholic though; glögg translates to “mulled wine” in English, if you opened the link provided), so it’s, one
could say cozy in another way. One also puts raisins and nuts in it so
it’s crunchy and chewy (you eat them with a spoon). It’s good. The power of liquid
Christmas can be a bit too much though. I could drink it half and half with
water no problem.
I was
speaking with Andreas around a month ago about swearing in Swedish. Swearing is…well
of course one can swear in any language, but one can’t really swear in Swedish. It’s like there’s a limited amount of
vulgarity one can express with Swedish, no doubt a reflection of Swedes
politeness and generally courteous demeanor. I asked Andreas about some examples of Swedish swear words, which
include “fan” (pronounced as fAAHHn), “skit” (which is shit, pronounced hweet, think Cool Hwip),
and “jävla” (which is a name for the devil, as is “fan”). These Swedish swears
are not pleasant things to say, you probably wouldn’t want to say them in the
presence of the king, but they aren’t so vulgar you can’t say them in the presence
of your grandparents, even if you're a child. As Andreas explained it, swearing in Swedish is not like in the States,
“where you flip everything over.” When Swedes want to really express themselves
with a swear, often they use the English. Fuck is the most used, easily. They
say “shit” like we do, pronounced “sheet” with a slightly shorter “e” sound,
when they want to have a slightly more intense shit than can be produced with "skit".
I was in
the pool locker room the other day. I was changing after my workout. It’s a community
swimming pool so there are people of all ages and colors in the locker room all
the time. There was a young boy, probably three or four, there with his father.
They were also on their way out, and the little boy was dancing around on the
little counter/bench thing in front of the lockers after his father had helped
him back into his clothes. Predictably, in the boy’s spasms of childhood happiness,
he tumbled from the counter/bench. Without so much as looking up from packing
up their shit his father reached out and caught him and set him down on the
ground. He said “Nu få du stå där” which
translates literally to “Now may you stand there.” He wasn’t angry or excited,
even though he just saved his little boy from a great deal of potential pain
and unhappiness, were he to strike the ground. I was amazed. The little boy
stood in nearly motionless, both feet securely under him, no doubt a bit
shocked and confused as to what had just happened.
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