With an enthusiastic response from my mentor who thought this story would be very interesting to read, I decided to create a post on it.
Mamma = Mother
Pappa = Father
Farmor = Paternal Grandmother
Farfar = Paternal Grandfather
Mormor = Maternal Grandmother
Morfar = Maternal Grandfather
*Can you see the pattern? Far = father, mor = mother. For example, farmor is father’s mother.
Let me start with my extended family. My pappa’s side, huge. My mamma’s side, quite small. Every year my family returns to Sweden, the country, despite our (my whole extended family) different cultures and nationalities is something we can connect to deeply. Fortunately, we all can speak great Swedish. My family, as well as my aunt (lives in France), are the only ones who do not live in Sweden. Luckily, everyone else lives in southern Sweden, in the region of Skåne. In a way, it feels as though our family as a whole is moving in closer and closer. My pappa’s brothers live a 10-second walk from each other and my aunt lives a 1-minute walk from my farmor who is a 30 minutes drive from my farfar and only an hour from my maternal grandparents. We are very close to each other as a family and summer, which in my minds means Sweden, is the best time of the year. Jul (a combination of Christmas, Hanukkah and other celebrations) is second.
Malmö, a quite eco-friendly city and where two of my uncles live.
We do the same things each year in Sweden and we try to be there as long as possible. I would rather have all the holidays crammed into the summer because, for me, it is almost what keeps me sane nowadays with all the school work, expectations and that stuff. Here is a breakdown of my summer:
After arriving at Kastrup, Copenhagen airport, we travel to Malmö by train on the Öresundsbro (a bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark). We might first go to my maternal grandparents in Höör, which is literally going to my grandmother into the woods. Mormor, a survivor of World War II during the Nazi occupation in Germany, and morfar, a ballet dancer but had to quit his career because of polio, are always so welcoming. There I get my yearly dose of National Geographic magazines which my grandparents have collected for over for what seems like 50 years. They actually collect a lot of things, but they have got a huge red house. It drives mamma crazy, though. My mormor and I might have some lengthy discussions or my brother Alex (almost 13) and my sister Leia (8) might go out into the woods. Although I am not scared of cats in general, there is one cat, the neighbour’s called Simba. We have a tension between us since we had a fight a few years ago. But anyways, we’re there to just relax and explore.
The Flag of Skåne
Where is Skåne in Sweden and the communes in Skåne?
Öresundsbro
After that, we might go near the southernmost point in Sweden in Beddingestrand where we have a 400-year-old cottage. This is where I might play tennis, golf and mini golf. It is also there I build the tree hut. There we might meet my mamma’s only brother Johan, an engineer, married to a music teacher called Jenny. They have two girls Sofia (14) and Karin (11). We might also go to Malmö and other towns. In some years we might go down to Europe, mostly France or we go to my pappa’s friends house, Micke and we stay there for a week. This is close to my paternal grandmother’s house who has a bed and breakfast and is an artist. Then there is the moment that my whole family has dreaded for: syskonveckan (siblings week) which should more accurately be known as kussinveckan (cousins week). This is where all my pappa’s sibling’s (2 brothers and 2 sisters, sometimes even his half brother and 2 half sisters) families come together as a family. This is the most action-packed moment in the summer holiday. My siblings and the cousins which are Hampus (12), Casper (8), Estelle (7 and a half), Ellen (7), Karla (6), Jonathan (4) and Edit (almost 4), and I go and play tennis with the Algerian Karim except for Lilla Lou (1 and a half). Every day there is a new activity and one of those is going to Hallands Väderö, an island that we travel by boat with our favourite boat captain (I forgot his name but he really looks like an old sailor). We rent the camping place owned my Matts (he is a must (a joke from Henrik)). We swim in the ocean, which we do almost every day in Sweden. We might kayak to the seals or explore the island. We might play an old Viking game called Kubb or even fish crabs and fish.
Kubb (The Viking Game)
All the images above are images of Hallands Väderö
My tree hut. The newspapers is for the outdoor mattresses that can be put there. However, I fractured a bone in my left foot when using traditional wooden shoes and so I couldn’t finish.
Farmor’s B&B
Some of farmor’s paintings
Själderviken, the harbour where I sail
Hembygdsparken. A park. The red cottage is displayed there and it was my farmors father’s house who financed the city of Ängelholm with his shoe factory.
Havsbaden, the beach at Farmor (the people are not anyone I know)
Farmor’s B&B
Furthermore, every dinner is prepared by a different family. One day we might have the designers Sara and Jens or the engineers Henrik and Tessan, now an economist. Or the doctors, Marcus and Lea. The artists, my farmor and Sofia, will cook on another day and they are a painter and musician respectively. As you can imagine I love the summers in Sweden which are not too warm but has been very hot this year. It is always so hard to come “home” in Singapore. And as a very nostalgic person, I miss everything from the shops at ICA Maxi to the radio at my grandmothers, to the sound of my extended families voices to everything that is in some way connected to Sweden. It is so hard for me to illustrate to you how wonderful it is in Sweden. Everything from cycling in Ängelholm or sailing in the Skälderviken, to skateboarding to Vejbystrand to walking to the tennis courts to play golf with pappa to everything. I have gone way off from what I wanted to start but for me, this is such a huge deal. I hope you can relate to me somehow. I think it is very important for all of us to appreciate what we have, especially given the opportunities as us students at UWCSEA. It feels in some way so revitalising and refreshing to get this all out of my system to share with others. I felt as though I needed to write this down. Writing for me is so much easier than talking because I can think and get in the mindset. Also, I am multilingual so all the languages in my head can be confusing. I wrote Swedish (just a bit) in a Spanish exam because I was thinking in like 4 languages at once and so I got jumbled up. There is so much more I wish to tell about Sweden and more, but I will leave it there. However, this is only the first part of this story.
As mamma said:
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard”
— Winne the Pooh
Quick References of Images:
Sommartrafik på Bjäre: linje 4 till Havsbaden i Ängelholm, kvälls- och helgtrafik på 523 Torekov-Båstad. (2018). Mynewsdesk. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/skanetrafiken/pressreleases/sommartrafik-paa-bjaere-linje-4-till-havsbaden-i-aengelholm-kvaells-och-helgtrafik-paa-523-torekov-baastad-1419118
Väla skog | Naturskyddsföreningen Skåne. (2018). Skane.naturskyddsforeningen.se. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://skane.naturskyddsforeningen.se/hittaut/nordvastra-skane/vala-skog/
Cottage / Vacation rentals in Ängelholm, Helsingborg, Skåne County, Sweden for rent.. (2018). Stugknuten.com. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.stugknuten.com/stugaeng.asp?stugid=17267
Flag of Scania. (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scania
Øresund Bridge. (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98resund_Bridge
Regeringen backar om stängd Öresundsbro. (2015). ETC. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.etc.se/inrikes/regeringen-backar-om-stangd-oresundsbro
Skåne County. (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%A5ne_County
Skåne County. (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%A5ne_County
Ängelholms Hembygdspark – Family park in Ängelholm | GuidebookSweden. (2018). GuidebookSweden. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.guidebook-sweden.com/en/guidebook/destination/aengelholms-hembygdspark-family-park-in-aengelholm
Viking Game. The ancient Viking would play Kubb. Why keep your eye on the Kubb? Kubb is a wooden block used in the game with the same name. Its bee… | Icelandic viking camping | Pinterest | Ancient vikings, Viking age and Gotland. (2018). Pinterest. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/236579786647514978/?lp=true
Designer portrait: Sarah Fager – IKEA Today. (2016). IKEA Today. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from http://ikea.today/designer-portrait-sarah-fager/
Jens Fager design. (2018). Finnishdesignshop.com. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.finnishdesignshop.com/Jens_Fager-d-216.html
Galleri Hyttstigen. (2018). Boka.engelholm.com. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from http://boka.engelholm.com/sv/se-gora/a344485/galleri_hyttstigen_344485/detaljer
photo5.jpg – Picture of Hallands Vadero, Torekov – TripAdvisor. (2018). Tripadvisor.com. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g1144023-d3967075-i202251326-Hallands_Vadero-Torekov_Skane_County.html
Hallands Väderö. (2018). Sydsverige.dk. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from http://www.sydsverige.dk/?pageID=280
SHL – Malmö Live. (2018). Shl.dk. Retrieved 17 August 2018, from http://www.shl.dk/malmoe-live/