Blåögd

photo by Olga

A mix of sun and clouds; faluröd painted houses; watching deer from the window and deer watching you back; heavy skies; magic landscapes; stony lakes and thick fairy-tale forests; birch trees, crisp air; glasshouses and lit windows; the beauty of simple things; soft pronounced 'k's; the blond and the beautiful; the things vivid, almost popping with minimalism; no stuff, no burden, no identity - very reassuring in a way; lagom and how to learn swedish in 1000 difficult lessons ; this is how I remember my first days in Sweden.

Proper Winter?

Calendar winter has already begun and so have the preparations for Christmas in many countries, towns, homes, shops... and blogs! Exciting time - my absolute favourites are lights, old-fashioned carousels, red'n'green things, candles, packing presents, ginger cookies, winter decorations... Floss came up with a great idea of sharing all of this excitement - and one can really feel the preparations, expectations and the beauty of pre-Christmas days in the air now!

For me these days are all about real winter and snow and a lot of sun - this is how the winters are in Belarus where I come from and I immensely miss them. Winter used to be my favourite season of the year - proper winter that is! And I still love being outside and enjoying the weather when the sun is shining, and the snow is squeaking under my shoes, and it's -20C!

So here is some glitter and light, snow and ice and of course art also coming from a proper winter. Jukkasjarvi from Swedish Lapland is quite interesting, because it's not just a museum of Ice Art, it's a hotel where you can properly spend some days.

The Ice Hotel is situated in the village Jukkasjärvi, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden and 17 kilometers from Kiruna, the nearest town. The heart and backbone is the Torne river flowing freely through the unspoilt wilderness. Covered with a meter thick ice layer in winter time the river is the source of all the art, architecture and design. The pure water and the steady movement of the river creates the clearest ice possible.






























Images by Google

Thoughts continued...

I am now back from my Nordics trip... It was good to come back to Sweden. And I don't think much has changed since the year I spent there - 2004-05. And I got to see Denmark for the first time! It was such a useful week for me - full of impressions and people I met, somewhat dark and gloomy as well - but with lots of candle lights... with some good time on my own, plus with some reflections on the Scandinavian attitude to life.



According to one quite widely spread stereotype the Swedes - and the Scandinavians in general - are quite cold and emotionless people. I don't think this is exactly true, but certainly they know how to control themselves and be discrete with their emotions. It's not considered OK to show your true 'needy' self and complain. In addition to that it is not OK when your negative emotions or feelings are directed to other people and aim at controlling or reproaching them. Interestingly, if you translate the Swedish word 'svartsjuk'(jealous) literally into English it means 'black sick', so jealousy is viewed as a black disease and this is a feeling one is ashamed of and is not supposed to display.


Images by Camilla Engman

Also another quite interesting thing is that being single is regarded as a strength and craving for being with someone is rather a weakness. (And the question here is - is it just a good excuse to cover up the misery of being lonely?). But then lots of Swedes prefer to stay single and open to anything which might come their way in terms of new experiences and they are quite direct in terms of expressing what they want - they don't play games and are just plain honest in saying what they are up to. So the key word here is individualism. For me coming from Eastern Europe with a culture totally different from this, it is quite a difficult thing to get used to. Here we are all so much more 'social animals', we wait for each other to go grab a coffee together, we wait for colleagues to go back from work together, we make plans according to the plans of other people - look just how dependent we are!


Image by Olga

Well, the disarming thing about the Swedes is the dry and self-deprecating humour they have and they do joke quite a lot!

Thoughts from Göteborg

Greetings from Nordic Gothenburg. I'm spending this week here - and there is still a lot to discover about this city! I have found this picture in Google, and for me it's quite interesting as it gives a glimpse of the office I work from to the left of the bridge.


Image by Google

The weather was just wonderful when I arrived on Saturday, I even managed to catch some sun, but then Sunday was unbearable - it was raining really hard for the whole day plus the wind was too strong... it was impossible to survive such a combination outside!

So I have been having some time alone trying to adjust myself to the Scandinavian rhythm/lifestyle/atmosphere. Gdańsk seems to be not too far away from here, but the difference is of course huge. It is very interesting to observe the Swedes and their tranquil but creative way of arranging their lives, decorating their homes with lights and things, following the traditions and gradually getting ready for Christmas...

I spent one year in Sweden back when I was a student and I quite often come back to that time in my memories. A year in a country so well organized with people so tolerant and open was a great experience - and I did learn a lot. One of my friends who spent 5 years here said that life in Scandinavia is good, relaxing and... black and white (by which he meant 'boring'). Many Swedes admit to that and I agree to some point. Still I think the Swedish people are good in engaging themselves in various activities - and some are far from being bored :)

So far I can say that the Swedish are more forthright in speaking about their achievements, are more spontaneous in their decision-making, offer personal opinions and express disagreement more readily and of course have a greater tolerance for individual style differences, and a more flexible definition of protocol - all quite positive observations. I just wish it would be easier to socialize with them! But I think I myself can be quite a recluse at times...

God natt...