Nyckelharpa

In Swedish, nyckel means "key", and harpa means....harp.

Several weeks ago, John (my husband) and some friends were playing together and one of the musicians brought her nyckelharpa.

The nyckelharpa is a  traditional Swedish instrument, dating back ~ 600 years, predating the violin by about 150 years.

If you would like to listen to a brief description of how it makes sounds and listen to a demonstration of it being played, Griselda Sanderson does a nice job in the following YouTube video. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgbMVIYv57I

Hello again,

Apologies for my absence in the last few months.

Anyway - so - life in Malmö. 

A friend of mine was singing in a gospel choir on Saturday.  Not just any choir. This choir was composed to 1000 people from southern Sweden who came together  for two shows put on in one evening. 

I took the bus part way to the concert hall.  On the bus I saw the following poster put out by Sweden's Marabou chocolate company, established 1916. 

The poster reads, 

I ett århundrade har vår chocklad fått people att komma varandra närmare. Så när vi fyller 100 år vill vi bjuda in hela svenska folket till att göra samhället lite snällare. Det finns nämligen en gest som du bäde blir gladare och mer generös av:kramen.

Och det finns sannerligen ingen brist på månniskor som skulle må bra av mer generositet. Därför lovar vi att skänka en krona till Rädda Barnen varje gång du hashtaggar en krambild med #kramkalas.

Då gör du inte bara dig själv något gott, utan också de som behöver det som mest - barn på flykt.

Which translated (via google translate as I wasn't 100% sure of every meaning) 

For a century, our chocolate got people to come closer. So when we celebrate 100 years, we want to invite the entire Swedish people to make society a bit nicer. There is in fact a gesture that you will make you be happier and more generous: the hug.

And there is certainly no shortage of people who would benefit from more generosity. Therefore, we pledge to donate a dime to Save the Children every time you hashtags a hug image #kramkalas.

Then you will do good for both yourself and also those who need it most - child refugees.

Nice right?!  - Don't get me wrong - all of Sweden isn't all huggy and lovey and generous. Sweden is not heaven on earth.  That said, this is terrific and I wanted to tell you about it. . 

As I was walking from Malmö's Central Station to Malmö Live - the brand new hotel/theater/restaurant/ convention center etc., I was struck again at what a lovely city this it.   Here are a picture from my walk.  The very tall building on the right is Malmö Live. 

Also along the walk was the new home of the UN's World Maritime University.  - Yes, the UN's!

And then on to the concert house and the concert. The choir was both on stage and filled the balconies. 
Choir director, Jonas Engsröm
Guest director, Gerald T Smith from Washington, DC
Soloist Aaron Marcellus NY,NY - Terrific.  I couldn't find a link that did him justice
Soloist Laila Adele, Stockholm - Also terrific, and I couldn't find a link that did her justice either!

Football (Soccer), Zlatan, and Stortorget (The Big Square)

A local hero and football (soccer) megastar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the son of Bosnian immigrants, was born and raised in Malmö.  Zlatan played in Sweden from 1994-2001, and currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).  Although he plays for France, his face is everywhere here and he is well loved.  Thus, when the PSG was scheduled to  travel to Malmö for tonight's second leg of their Champions League competition, fans were disappointed and frustrated when tickets quickly sold out.  Thus, hero to the rescue: Zlatan, feeling it is a pity that the entire city could not fit inside the stadium, generously booked Malmö's large square to publicly broadcast the  match live! Pretty cool!

image borrowed from thelocal.se

Noon in Stortorget.  Setting up for the the upcoming game.

Rapunzel?

I was in Lund a few weeks ago and saw this at Lund's cathedral.  

: )

  

Refugees and immigration

Anyone who is even semi-conscious is aware of the refugee situation that is happening in Europe.  

In 2015 Sweden has taken in 10,000 unaccompanied children.  

In the past week, 6,500 refugees (of all ages) have arrived. 

(source: http://www.thelocal.se/)  I am impressed with the Swedish attitude toward these people who are, as I understand it, running for their lives. 

I was in our central train station on September 10th.  It was crowded with immigrants and immigration police.  There were also volunteers distributing water bottles and fruit.  

The concept of immigration is not new to Americans.  All my grandparents were born in Europe.  In the United States, if you ask Americans about nationality, you are typically not asking if they are American citizens, but rather are asking about their ethnic heritage. 

To learn a little more about immigration in the United States, here are a few sites  This is, of course, the tip of the proverbial iceberg on this subject.

• Immigration 1789-1930  (Harvard University) http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/timeline.html

• Scandinavia to U.S. immigration 1789-1930 (Harvard University) http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/scandinavian.html

• And just to give more current news: Specifically regarding refugees and asylees in the U.S. in 2013 (U.S. Dept of Homeland Security)  http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_rfa_fr_2013.pdf

•  From 1892 to 1924, Ellis Island was America's largest and most active immigration station, where over 12 million immigrants were processed.  I have visited Ellis Island and it tells of wonderful, inspiring, and heart-breaking stories. It was especially interesting and personal to me as my father, at age 12, passed through Ellis Island with his family in ~ 1935.  They were returning to the U.S. after spending 7 years back in Poland. http://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/historyculture/index.htm

Drinking fountains.

Having lived my life in the U.S., I took drinking fountains for granted.  For those of you not familiar with the U.S., let me explain that it would be hard to find a public building that does not have at least one drinking fountain.  Buildings of significant size, like shopping malls or schools, would have several.  In Sweden, and this may be the norm in all of western Europe, drinking fountains are hard to find.

This is a picture of a water / drinking fountain in stortorget (the big square) in town.  I am sure there are more, but as I write this, I can only think of one other location in the area which has one.  To be fair, there is a large, chain department store which has plastic cups in their lavatories.  The other day, when at the mall which has a fountain - I was so surprised and pleased to see one that I took a drink "just because".  ; )

Summer vacation in Sweden / Europe

Have I ever written about this?  First let me say that I honestly think that the U.S. has to up its game when it comes to vacation.  The U.S. has no minimum number of guaranteed vacation days and I think that is wrong.  Since so many seem to misunderstand the U.S.'s system, let me offer a little clarity.  Although there is no guaranteed minimum vacation, and many starting jobs have only one to two weeks vacation per year, as one gets older one earns more vacation time.  My husband, for instance, when in his 50's had 5 weeks of vacation per year.

The Swedes, depending upon their age, are federally guaranteed 4-6 weeks of vacation per year.  A Swedes right to take ~ 3 of those weeks consecutively during the summer is guaranteed by federal law.  That sounds great right?  Well, as I have been known to say many times about many situations, there is good and bad to everything.  For instance:

I know of  a couple who in July of two different years had to wait ridiculously long to get medical care because (aside from the fact that the Swedish healthcare system requires waiting) it was July.  I will give specifics so you understand: The husband was diagnosed with a very small blood clot in a secondary vein of one leg.  He was immediately put on a blood thinner and the next day was given a standard tight stocking to wear on that one leg.  He was also given an appointment for 5 days later to be fitted for another sturdier stocking.  The stocking fitter stated that due to size, the stocking had to be made specifically for him (he wears a size 14 US - big but not crazy big).  He was told the stocking would arrive in around 10 days.  Now for those not in healthcare - let me tell you that basically all this would have been done prior to the patient leaving the US hospital on the first day!  Except that in the states he would have been given a stocking for each leg,not just the affected one.)  Anyway the stocking was due to arrive in about 10 days.  It arrived 4 weeks later and by then the doctor had told him he didn't even need to wear it.  Yup.  And then there was the time I went to a city office (let me restate that - a government office) that in July was only open two hours a day.  I recently read that due to increased violence, the city is increasing its police force.  We currently have 706 police-persons.  But since during the summer 1/3 of them are on vacation at any one time...!  

Below is the sign from a local restaurant.  Even during the year this resturant is only open for lunch, Monday - Friday.

This sign, posted in June, basically translates to, "From tomorrow and for the whole summer we are closed.  Wishing you all a sunny and nice summer.  See you in August !"  Yup.  I will never get used to this.