BRA. DÅLIGT. och ÄCKLIGT. (GOOD. BAD. and DISGUSTING).




Oh my dawg! What a week.

In this edition of Adventures of Gino the Dog, I'm ecstatic to report that I took zero actual adventures.  This is a good thing. I actually stayed in the same city and slept in the same apartment for an entire week. And what's even better: the snow has melted and the sun came out a few times, which gives me a chance to show you some of highlights of my very Swedish neighbourhood. //PAUSE: Notice the British spelling of neighbourhood in that last sentence?  It's because I'm in Europe now, and my computer autocorrects the American spelling, and I'm too lazy to fix it and I think it's kinda cool. How many British-English words can you find in today's entry? UNPAUSE//. Also in this edition, I report on some very  Swedish novelties : I categorise them into BRA (good), DÅLIGT (bad), and ÄCKLIGT (disgusting).

A tour of the neighbourhood: Kvillebäcken. 

The humans and I live in a neighbourhood called Kvillebäcken (pronounced KvEEla-beck-en), on the island of Hisingen (pronounced hEES-ing-en) which forms the northern half of the city of Gothenburg. One fact about Kvillebäcken is that the historic meaning of kville is something to the effect of the smallest branch of a river system; Coincidentally, ManHuman's hometown of Northbrook is so named because it is on the north branch of the west fork of the Chicago River. Another cool fact about Kvillebäcken: it is maybe the last place on the planet where you can find knölnate also known as 'hairlike pondweed' which looks like...a hair-like pondweed. My humans have really enjoyed the neighbourhood's fantastic bicycle paths and walkable access to the city's bus system and a gigantic mall. 

My neighbourhood. This is a walking path lined by open space and multi-family apartments. A very typical Swedish neighbourhood. 

Me. I found a mossy rock. 

 Translated: ''BEWARE OF THE CHILDREN.  THEY ROAM IN PAIRS.'' 

BRA. DÅLIGT. och ÄCKLIGT. 

Okay. Now it's time for my new segment called Bra, Dåligt, och Äckligt (Good, Bad, and Disgusting) where I reveal something good, something bad, and something disgusting I've discovered in Sweden this week.

BRA (good): Kultur Kompis and Humans' free trip to the Symphony

On Friday night the humans took a trip to see Gothenburg's symphony orchestra...FOR FREE. How for free? A charitable organisation called Bilda (basically a coalition of independent churches in Sweden) administers a program called Kultur Kompis (Culture Buddies) in 16 different Swedish cities. The program matches up long-time city residents with newcomers, and covers the bill for you to get out of the house and enjoy 'culture' in your city. There are really no strings attached, except you have to be willing to go out and enjoy new people, new experiences, and spend time speaking in Swedish about it. ''It was great,'' say the humans, ''we made a new friend and Robby spoke Swedish (almost) all night.'' (Suffice it to say, the humans' new kompis was a patient saint, and probably could have had a perfectly fun night in English, but was willing to put up with ManHuman's very rough Svenska). 

The symphony played a fantastic set, including a world premier percussion concerto and Sibelius' 5th symphony. 

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. No olde timey cell phones allowed.

BRA (good): Crock Pots.

Also bra? My human's pre-furnished apartment came with a slow cooker, which neither of them had ever used, but holy moly they're using it now, and they've got delicious vegetarian lunches packed up for the next week and a half. And I get to enjoy the smell of slow-cooking meals all day while the humans are out doing whatever they do.

DÅL IGT (bad): Scroll down. What do the following images have in common?







If you guessed that they are all logos for online casinos, then you're CORRECT. My humans don't watch a ton of TV. But when they do, OH MY DOG, every other commercial is for an online casino. The logos above just skim the surface of the vast ocean of online casino options.  And what's infuriating is that the commercials are FANTASTIC and unforgettable. Take this one for Ojo Casino, which seems to have taken a page directly from Camel cigarettes' marketing campaign. Others feature regular humans going about their boring lives and then experiencing some kind of magical euphoria, like this commercial. Anyway, they're smart commercials for a sinister cause.

Now, my humans and I aren't sure whether this is an exclusively Swedish phenomenon, whether it's something infecting all of Europe, or whether it's just illegal where they've lived in the United States. What my humans also learned is that these video casinos are all operated out of Malta to avoid Swedish laws that I suppose would prevent them from setting up shop in Sweden. But it's the internet, so...what gives? Anyway, it seems super predatory to me and can't be good for anyone. I don't know what a recipe for disaster looks like if not a world filled with bored humans glued to their smart phones and able to access the thrills of gambling 24 hours a day.

ÄCKLIGT (disgusting): Scroll down. What do the following brand names have in common?

Catch
Ettan
General
GRANIT
GROV
Göteborgs Rapé
Jakobsson's
KNOX
Mocca
Nick & Johnny
Skruf
Thunder

Did you guess they were brand names for snus? Snus is chewing tobacco in small, dime-sized pouches stored in a hockey puck sized plastic container. One places the pouch behind one's upper lip, lets the nicotine slowly drain out into ones bloodstream, and then spits it out when it's expired. It is not a new concept.  It is extremely popular among Swedish men (apparently it has not crossed the border into Denmark), and it is disgusting on two levels. Level 1: When people insert/spit their snus in front of you, including at the workplace hashtag save-it-for-the-bathroom. Level 2: It's a serious litter problem. In addition to Europe's already heightened smoking habit and consequent cigarette litter issue, there is an extra layer of discarded snus pucks and expired pouches. They're everywhere. Now, it's probably not my place to judge people for their bad habits, but there's a boundary crossed when bad habits become the public's litter catastrophe.

ManHuman's bike's back tire in an ocean of cigarette butts, outside the public library, which is otherwise a beautiful building.


Me. Standing next to a snus puck, looking away because...gross.




That's all for this week! Stay tuned for more adventures.




Comments

  1. HershFebruary 17, 2019 at 2:02 PM

    Thanks Gino for keeping us up to date. Tell your humans I said hello.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gino the DogFebruary 17, 2019 at 11:37 PM

      For sure! Hope everything's well with you, Hersh. Sincerely, Gino the Dog.

      Delete
  2. Steve HeislerFebruary 17, 2019 at 3:37 PM

    Yes but are there leash and pick-up laws?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gino the DogFebruary 17, 2019 at 11:36 PM

      Hey Steve. Not sure, but there's no shortage of dog poop on the ground in this neighbourhood, so if there are laws about picking up, there are also human law-BREAKERS on the loose. Sounds like the leash is on the wrong species, IAMRIGHT?! or am I right?

      Delete
  3. UnknownFebruary 18, 2019 at 11:46 AM

    Interesting similarity between NC and Gothenburg in terms of the chew. You can't escape it! Also heard the Gothenburg symphony on Davidson's classical music station:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gino the DogFebruary 18, 2019 at 11:51 AM

      Thanks unnamed friend aka Hey Truman ;). I actually never noticed it in NC. Maybe I'm blind. Oh that's right! I AM blind. Did you hear the GBG symphony on the radio recently?

      Delete

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