Gosh, why not? I love the Swedes and Swedish life. I guess I am predjudiced, since I
am 7/8ths confirmed Swede, and my mother, who raised me most of the time, exposed me
to a little of the Swedish culture. I grew up knowing about Saint Lucia, tomtegubbar,
cardamon, Orrefors, Vikings, and the horror
of Lutfisk (which my mother said was "Salmon dipped in cement"... although the true
horror of this culinary mutant is far too terrible to really describe). Over the
years, I wondered about my Swedish relatives, but I didn't get to know them in full
until my grandmother moved there. Most of my relatives live in
Luleå,
Boden, and
Örnsköldsvik.
Recently, I have been discovering my roots, both in Sweden and on the web. Being a
Swedish-American (sort of) has opened a world of interesting subjects and
avenues, but not as much information as I would have hoped. So when
I visited Sweden, I had some difficulties
with language and tradition. Luckily, I had wonderful and friendly relatives who
translated and explained everything.
But there are some links that did help me a little:
There are a lot of places to go in Sweden. Some places have set up web sites
describing Sweden, and places to go. Not many mention anything North of Dalarna,
but there are a few things. Here is a list of Swedish Info and Touristy sites:
When I was in Sweden, I watched some of the TV, but the culture is not really
media-centric like the USA is. It's really humbling to see your country as
nothing more than a by-line in some official broadcast where your country's
current events comes after a story about a salmon fishery's latest earnings.
There are a lot of Swedish Media Sites on the Web, here are just a few (having
Real Audio may help):
There are a lot of Swedish Newspapers on the web these days. Most are in Swedish, but especially if you miss home, these are really good to read, and brush up on the mother tongue.
I am not the only one with Swedish links. Thereare a lot of other people who have culled the svensk from the Internet:
Stuck in someone else's frames? Click here!
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