Memories from Sweden

As a person who has a mother from Sweden, I have many wonderful memories of visiting Sweden as a child. After all, I spent plenty of summers there growing up. Sweden is a small country with a cold climate, with its own distinct culture.

One of the misconceptions about Sweden is that the people there do no not know English. In fact, almost everyone there who was born in 1940's or later know English fluently. After all, it is taught at a young age in elementary school. In fact, education as a whole is a very strong cultural value in Sweden.

In Sweden, it gets dark quite early in Sweden in the winter. I remember as a child I played with my cousins in the snow, building a snowhouse in the dark. And is was just noon. It was actually quite fun, though as someone from Indiana, the weather was colder than my comfort level.

Because of the cold weather in Sweden, skiing was a national pastime when I was a child, and it still is. There are ski slopes all over the place. One of my fondest memories of Sweden as a child was skiing with my aunt in Sweden.

Part of Swedish culture is eating potatoes with every lunch and dinner. And it is the same type of potatoes, boiled potatoes. I was teasing my uncle about the lack of variety. Also, it is not uncommon in Sweden for people to have many little meals, such as coffee breaks. Swedish people eat more often, but they eat less during each meal than we do.

When I was a child in the 1970s we as a family had plenty of fun picking cloudberries, and blueberries. In fact it was a national pastime. Almost everybody did it. My brother sent a postcard to a friend of his with a picture of cloudberries on it. However, times have changed. Now people in Sweden are too busy to pick blueberries and cloudberries. For the most part, only people who are in their 60s or older do so.

I still visit Sweden regularly, and it changed a lot since my childhood, like most places. The drinks that are shaped like triangles are gone. The weather is getting warmer, and political sentiment has changed. Unfortunately, my grandparents from Sweden have passed on, one of them when I was 9, the other in 2001. However, the more that changes, the more stays the same. Swedes are still very friendly, have their own sense of humor, and enjoy children. I am looking forward to going back.