This post has to be written at least partially in Swedish since I think the key words don't even excist in the American dictionary. But before I start I'll tell you a little about why this is on my mind.
I've had some nice conversations with friends and family from Sweden the last couple of weeks, friends I haven't talked to in years that all in a way or another touch the same subject.
The hardship, difficulty and depressing mind of a Swede. And here's when I have to say goodbuy to all the English readers.... sorry!
Svåra, ångestfyllda Svenskar....
På den tiden jag var involverad i frikyrkliga aktiviteter hörde man ofta från besökande predikanter om det hårda andliga klimatet i Sverige. Knepigt nog förstod jag aldrig riktigt det, utan kände istället nån slags bakvänd stolthet över att vara svår och djup...
Under året har jag sett två svenska filmer som fått massor med ros från kritikerna. Filmer som säger på baksidan att de ska vara såååå roliga, så underbart beskrivade och jag känner inget utom ångest när jag genomlider filmerna. Vari det roliga eller komiska ligger ser jag aldrig.
Nu förstår jag... jag är inte tillräckligt svår och jag har inte ångest längre... kanske för att inga av dessa ord ens går att översätta till engelska?
Folk undrar om jag längtar till Sverige.
Det beror på,
Vad som får mig längta till Sverige:
-svensk sommar,
-ett litet torp vid en sjö,
-svensk skärgård,
-Astrid Lindgren filmer,
Vad som får mig att inte längta:
-byrokratin
-lagomheten
-radhus
-minnet av ensamheten
Vilket för mig in på min sista tanke.
Min käre man säger alltid att svenska män är antingen blinda och döva eller bara korkade.
Innan alla män rusar efter honom i ett försök att försvara sitt rykte ska jag förklara varför han säger så.
Jag var över 30 när vi träffades och hade aldrig haft ett ”riktigt” förhållade. Jag visste att jag var både tjock och ful, och hade full förståelse för att ingen fann mig attraktiv nog att vilja spendera någon avsevärd tid i mitt sällskap.
Så jag försvarade mina manliga landsmän när min man tackade Gud för alla blinda, döva och korkade svenskar som inte hade ”tagit” mig än. (han är för söt min man!).
Men nu har jag både släkt, vänner och bekanta som är över 30 och varken fula eller tjocka utan tvärtom attraktiva, roliga, men fortfarande singlar.
Den gemensamma nämnaren för alla dessa trevliga och vackra kvinnor?
De rör sig i frikyrkliga kretsar.
Låt oss fundera på det över helgen....
Är det något fundamentalt fel på svenska frikyrkliga män? Ser de sämre? Hör de sämre eller är de bara mer korkade än den icke religiösa mannen?
Min man vågar påstå att så är fallet...
Mina mycket attraktiva och trevliga men ensamma släktingar och vänner är också tydliga tecken på att så är fallet...
You go Girls
2009 will be your year!
Come on over here and we hook you up with a wonderful man.
All signs show that the problems with vision, hearing and the lack of mental clarity the Swedish Christian men suffer from, have yet not hit the American Christian man .
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A Bowl of Football
After being here for almost 9 years I finally come to term with the American sport football.
The sport that hijacked it's name from the "real" football the rest of the world cherish and love.
My husband is a big football fan, not the NFL so much but College.
So these football bowls that is played every night now for a week straight is closely watched by hubby on our new 47 inch flat screen.
We rarely fight, my husband and I, but if I criticize the sport or it's rules a big fight is at hand that can make him not talk to me in hours.
Here's my complaints about football.
1. The name, first, the name is already taken, by a sport that really use their feet and a ball.
2. Tough, strong men play 15 games per season, every game consisting of about 15 minutes of playtime, the rest is walking around waiting for instructions on what to do next from their coach. And they claim this is the toughest sport in the world... ehhh!?
3. Time, I still haven't really understood the rule for the time clock. Sometimes they keep playing after the clock has past full time, and sometime even though there's a minute left to play they just stop and call it the game... ehhh!?
4. The silly yellow napkin that's thrown at the players when they do something wrong, what's wrong with a whistle or a flag or something more manly?
5. The only player in the team that does what the sport got it's name from, namely kicking the ball, he usually sucks at it. On High School level they even sometimes go so far that they don't kick the ball at all, because no one's good enough at it.... ehhh?
6. The need for the players to have a constant reminder from their coach what to do before each play, I use to think that Basketball players might have the shortest memory of all athletes since they have to take a timeout every 10 seconds, but after learning about the quarterback's need for coaching before every play makes me think that football players might have a even shorter attention span.
Even Forrest Gump knew what to do with the ball. Pick it up and run as fast as you can, try to avoid any of the other team's morbidly obese defense men and run it over the last line, that's called a touch down. Touch downs give you points, if you at the end of the game have more points than the other guys, you win!
Imagine if a hockey player (that I consider being one of the toughest athletes out there) had to get the coach's direction before every face off?
Imagine if they played 15 games in a regular season instead of 82?
Imagine that the 60 minutes of playtime for each game was cut up with a 20 seconds before each face off where the clock kept running.
Imagine them stop playing with more than a minute left of the game or keep on playing after the time was up?
Please don't tell my hubby that I wrote this, he won't talk to me in weeks....
The sport that hijacked it's name from the "real" football the rest of the world cherish and love.
My husband is a big football fan, not the NFL so much but College.
So these football bowls that is played every night now for a week straight is closely watched by hubby on our new 47 inch flat screen.
We rarely fight, my husband and I, but if I criticize the sport or it's rules a big fight is at hand that can make him not talk to me in hours.
Here's my complaints about football.
1. The name, first, the name is already taken, by a sport that really use their feet and a ball.
2. Tough, strong men play 15 games per season, every game consisting of about 15 minutes of playtime, the rest is walking around waiting for instructions on what to do next from their coach. And they claim this is the toughest sport in the world... ehhh!?
3. Time, I still haven't really understood the rule for the time clock. Sometimes they keep playing after the clock has past full time, and sometime even though there's a minute left to play they just stop and call it the game... ehhh!?
4. The silly yellow napkin that's thrown at the players when they do something wrong, what's wrong with a whistle or a flag or something more manly?
5. The only player in the team that does what the sport got it's name from, namely kicking the ball, he usually sucks at it. On High School level they even sometimes go so far that they don't kick the ball at all, because no one's good enough at it.... ehhh?
6. The need for the players to have a constant reminder from their coach what to do before each play, I use to think that Basketball players might have the shortest memory of all athletes since they have to take a timeout every 10 seconds, but after learning about the quarterback's need for coaching before every play makes me think that football players might have a even shorter attention span.
Even Forrest Gump knew what to do with the ball. Pick it up and run as fast as you can, try to avoid any of the other team's morbidly obese defense men and run it over the last line, that's called a touch down. Touch downs give you points, if you at the end of the game have more points than the other guys, you win!
Imagine if a hockey player (that I consider being one of the toughest athletes out there) had to get the coach's direction before every face off?
Imagine if they played 15 games in a regular season instead of 82?
Imagine that the 60 minutes of playtime for each game was cut up with a 20 seconds before each face off where the clock kept running.
Imagine them stop playing with more than a minute left of the game or keep on playing after the time was up?
Please don't tell my hubby that I wrote this, he won't talk to me in weeks....
Monday, December 29, 2008
A Year Later
A year passes so quick when you get older and hopefully wiser.
I decided to start picking my own brain again and let some of my pains, sorrows, irritations, joys and life's excitements out in the open.
Hope you want to join me.
Today my biggest concern is the Gaza mess...
Picture yourself in this scenario:
The country you live in has been occupied for over 30 years by people that not just decide what language you can speak, but where you can work, what roads you can travel and how much gas you're allowed to fill your car with, They finally left a couple of years ago but instead of occupy they instead built a wall around your country, preventing food, fuel, medicine and any other life supporting goods to come in to your country.
People in your country are freedom fighters and want to set it free, but instead of getting support from the world in your freedom fight, the world says that the same freedom wish any other people have the right to have is not for you to have, instead they call you a terrorist and ban you from getting food and other necessities.
The neighboring country that has occupied you and now hold your borders in a tight grip get help from the world leaders with weapons and support, and when you fight for your freedom they help the former occupants tighten the grip on you even harder.
Because of the tight grip around the borders your freedom fighters are taking bad actions, firing rockets in to the neighboring country killing 1 person.
In retaliation they come in with airplane strikes, hitting the tunnels where you secretly have got food and medicine in to the hospitals and schools, killing hundreds of people
The past 20 years the occupiers have killed thousands of your countrymen, still the worlds view is that it is your fault, the occupiers have the right to do what ever they want.
All countries in the world that have a nuclear weapon arsenal are required by international law to have inspections done ever so often, not this occupier.
The reason?
You happen to be occupied by a country that can't do any wrong, because of three major reasons.
1.They themselves were treated terrible some 65 years ago. Millions of them were slaughtered, recklessly, and by some of the greatest evil the world ever seen. Does that make it right for them to oppress someone else though?
2. Three of the worlds largest religions have their center point in the area and the largest religion has got the idea that the can't do or say anything to the occupiers because they are "God's people"... what kind of God would want his/her name attached to that sort of behavior is beyond me.
3. The most powerful, freedom loving and also most religious country in the world has somehow got their balls so tight held by this occupier that they freely provide them with what ever they ask for, from a free stream of weapons to the plain "looking the other way".
So the country that help every other country in the world reaching freedom, even going to war for other people's freedom won't see your wish for freedom but calls it terrorism...
There's one more thing,
If you oppose how the Turks were treating the Kurds, well you just didn't agree with the way their government treated Kurds, there is no name calling, you don't get blamed for hating the whole Turkish people.
If you really hated apartheid in South Africa and strongly demonstrated against the minority white government there, no one called you a Dutch hater or a white hater or any other name.
But if you oppose the way Israel treat their minority, question why they get away with things no other country would get away with, then you hate all Jews, and you even have a name, you're a Antisemitic
I just don't get it
I decided to start picking my own brain again and let some of my pains, sorrows, irritations, joys and life's excitements out in the open.
Hope you want to join me.
Today my biggest concern is the Gaza mess...
Picture yourself in this scenario:
The country you live in has been occupied for over 30 years by people that not just decide what language you can speak, but where you can work, what roads you can travel and how much gas you're allowed to fill your car with, They finally left a couple of years ago but instead of occupy they instead built a wall around your country, preventing food, fuel, medicine and any other life supporting goods to come in to your country.
People in your country are freedom fighters and want to set it free, but instead of getting support from the world in your freedom fight, the world says that the same freedom wish any other people have the right to have is not for you to have, instead they call you a terrorist and ban you from getting food and other necessities.
The neighboring country that has occupied you and now hold your borders in a tight grip get help from the world leaders with weapons and support, and when you fight for your freedom they help the former occupants tighten the grip on you even harder.
Because of the tight grip around the borders your freedom fighters are taking bad actions, firing rockets in to the neighboring country killing 1 person.
In retaliation they come in with airplane strikes, hitting the tunnels where you secretly have got food and medicine in to the hospitals and schools, killing hundreds of people
The past 20 years the occupiers have killed thousands of your countrymen, still the worlds view is that it is your fault, the occupiers have the right to do what ever they want.
All countries in the world that have a nuclear weapon arsenal are required by international law to have inspections done ever so often, not this occupier.
The reason?
You happen to be occupied by a country that can't do any wrong, because of three major reasons.
1.They themselves were treated terrible some 65 years ago. Millions of them were slaughtered, recklessly, and by some of the greatest evil the world ever seen. Does that make it right for them to oppress someone else though?
2. Three of the worlds largest religions have their center point in the area and the largest religion has got the idea that the can't do or say anything to the occupiers because they are "God's people"... what kind of God would want his/her name attached to that sort of behavior is beyond me.
3. The most powerful, freedom loving and also most religious country in the world has somehow got their balls so tight held by this occupier that they freely provide them with what ever they ask for, from a free stream of weapons to the plain "looking the other way".
So the country that help every other country in the world reaching freedom, even going to war for other people's freedom won't see your wish for freedom but calls it terrorism...
There's one more thing,
If you oppose how the Turks were treating the Kurds, well you just didn't agree with the way their government treated Kurds, there is no name calling, you don't get blamed for hating the whole Turkish people.
If you really hated apartheid in South Africa and strongly demonstrated against the minority white government there, no one called you a Dutch hater or a white hater or any other name.
But if you oppose the way Israel treat their minority, question why they get away with things no other country would get away with, then you hate all Jews, and you even have a name, you're a Antisemitic
I just don't get it
Monday, January 28, 2008
Home Alone (not The Movie)
And of course that's not even true, all my beautiful kids are right here, but it sounded good and even more it felt good to write (read say) it.
I'm home alone, as so many women and quite a few men around the country, alone while their spouses are fighting enemies or sometimes just boredom and home sickness, in a far away world, we are the only ones still at war while the rest of the country has moved on.
Why is it, that the country can move on to more pleasant and trivial things, while there are over 100,000 Americans over in Iraq and Afghanistan, are we so easily distracted as a people or are our attention span just too short?
I watch The Biggest Looser, I know I'm a nerd, but I like the show, but you know what's make me upset?
It's when they start to talk about home and how homesick they are and how much they miss their loved ones. Cameras are up in their faces when they "finally" after 2 (two) weeks away from their family get a chance to call home GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
Military spouses and their families get to talk to their loved ones maybe once a week if they're lucky, and they are gone for months, sometimes years at the time, where are the cameras then, where's the media coverage, where's the cry stories, fundraisers, and community outcries?
I'm not saying I'd like to have a camera lens up my grill when ever I talk to my husband or a camera any time, anywhere, for that matter, but You know what I'm saying?!
Today I heard on the news, John McCain, one of our country's true heroes, that I truly love and admire, but don't agree with one single bit, say three times with in 10 seconds, that there will be more wars. 3 times did he say it, with more weight put on each word for every time he said it, "There Will Be More Wars".
Again, the only ones that will pay for whatever war the maniacs decide us to fight, are the military community. Who quietly, without complains and mostly without the media spotlights step up to the plate and serve...again
My husband, that I'm so incredible proud of, has served his country for more than 22 years now.
I just hope for my family's sake, and the whole military community's sake, that they will take a little breathing moment in between the wars so we have the chance to get out of the service before they launch the next one.
I'm home alone, as so many women and quite a few men around the country, alone while their spouses are fighting enemies or sometimes just boredom and home sickness, in a far away world, we are the only ones still at war while the rest of the country has moved on.
Why is it, that the country can move on to more pleasant and trivial things, while there are over 100,000 Americans over in Iraq and Afghanistan, are we so easily distracted as a people or are our attention span just too short?
I watch The Biggest Looser, I know I'm a nerd, but I like the show, but you know what's make me upset?
It's when they start to talk about home and how homesick they are and how much they miss their loved ones. Cameras are up in their faces when they "finally" after 2 (two) weeks away from their family get a chance to call home GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
Military spouses and their families get to talk to their loved ones maybe once a week if they're lucky, and they are gone for months, sometimes years at the time, where are the cameras then, where's the media coverage, where's the cry stories, fundraisers, and community outcries?
I'm not saying I'd like to have a camera lens up my grill when ever I talk to my husband or a camera any time, anywhere, for that matter, but You know what I'm saying?!
Today I heard on the news, John McCain, one of our country's true heroes, that I truly love and admire, but don't agree with one single bit, say three times with in 10 seconds, that there will be more wars. 3 times did he say it, with more weight put on each word for every time he said it, "There Will Be More Wars".
Again, the only ones that will pay for whatever war the maniacs decide us to fight, are the military community. Who quietly, without complains and mostly without the media spotlights step up to the plate and serve...again
My husband, that I'm so incredible proud of, has served his country for more than 22 years now.
I just hope for my family's sake, and the whole military community's sake, that they will take a little breathing moment in between the wars so we have the chance to get out of the service before they launch the next one.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Shopping Exhaustion
Just came back from a weekend of serious shopping at a big outlet mall.
It's amazing how shopping can fill your whole body with a sense of euphoria.
Stepping in to a store with unbelievable bargains lit the light in the eyes of my husband even, and he's normally not a big fan of shopping sprees.
We quickly filled the trunk of our small rental car with bags and sacks from our favorite stores,and despite wind shills on down to single digits we kept going and going like the little bunny off the commercial for batteries, until the the little car cried for mercy and our stomachs screamed for food.
Took a break from shopping and went to a bar, ordered some hot coffee with spirits and some warm soup to thaw out our frozen bodies and discussed our day , kicked back, and called it the day.
It's amazing how shopping can fill your whole body with a sense of euphoria.
Stepping in to a store with unbelievable bargains lit the light in the eyes of my husband even, and he's normally not a big fan of shopping sprees.
We quickly filled the trunk of our small rental car with bags and sacks from our favorite stores,and despite wind shills on down to single digits we kept going and going like the little bunny off the commercial for batteries, until the the little car cried for mercy and our stomachs screamed for food.
Took a break from shopping and went to a bar, ordered some hot coffee with spirits and some warm soup to thaw out our frozen bodies and discussed our day , kicked back, and called it the day.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
All The Wonderful Children
I have had the opportunity to sub at the world's best pre-school that also happens to be the school where my two youngest have been enrolled for the last 3 years.
The very first time I walked in there to meet with the director I was totally absorbed by the atmosphere and love that flows in the hallways and shine through all teachers and children.
I'm not a Baptist, and will probably never be one, but if there's a place where God's love shine through the floors of heaven it will be at this First Baptist Pre-School.
So, with that said, it was with a great deal of nervousness I entered the classroom for the first time, what if I mess up those young hearts and they'll have to go through therapy for the rest of their lives because of me, well that would really suck.
The first day came and went without any bigger drama and yesterday I went back for a second time in an other class. What a reward!!! Oh, not the money, I'm talking about the kids!
Their love, hugs, offering of secrets and funny comments worked like a conditioner on my mind that has been absorbed with pitiful thoughts way to long and my soul got untangled while wrestling with 9 wonderful 3 year olds.
The best thing, I'm going back tomorrow !!!
The very first time I walked in there to meet with the director I was totally absorbed by the atmosphere and love that flows in the hallways and shine through all teachers and children.
I'm not a Baptist, and will probably never be one, but if there's a place where God's love shine through the floors of heaven it will be at this First Baptist Pre-School.
So, with that said, it was with a great deal of nervousness I entered the classroom for the first time, what if I mess up those young hearts and they'll have to go through therapy for the rest of their lives because of me, well that would really suck.
The first day came and went without any bigger drama and yesterday I went back for a second time in an other class. What a reward!!! Oh, not the money, I'm talking about the kids!
Their love, hugs, offering of secrets and funny comments worked like a conditioner on my mind that has been absorbed with pitiful thoughts way to long and my soul got untangled while wrestling with 9 wonderful 3 year olds.
The best thing, I'm going back tomorrow !!!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Gloomy Weather, Gloomy Thoughts
It's rainy, cold, foggy, and the kind of weather that usually would make me feel cosy and homey.
But not so today.
There are a lot of things on my mind that makes the weather fit in as a miserable decor in my pathetic play of life.
-My very best friend are moving away, not just to the town next door or even the state next door, but across the country.
-My Dear Hubby is leaving for a tour to defend his country across the globe at the same time my friend moves.
-Hillary and McCain won NH
-I had to give away two of our pretty roosters
-My thighs hurt from exercising, and I'm freezing my fingers off
But not so today.
There are a lot of things on my mind that makes the weather fit in as a miserable decor in my pathetic play of life.
-My very best friend are moving away, not just to the town next door or even the state next door, but across the country.
-My Dear Hubby is leaving for a tour to defend his country across the globe at the same time my friend moves.
-Hillary and McCain won NH
-I had to give away two of our pretty roosters
-My thighs hurt from exercising, and I'm freezing my fingers off
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