Hi friends! What an exciting week to share. In this edition of the blog you'll learn about my first full week as a dog in Sweden, including navigating the snow, a trip to LadyHuman's parents' home, a trip to the beach, and assorted other very Swedish encounters. SOOO many pictures below.
But first, a game! Can you find me in this picture?
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| Can you find me? Hint, I'm dog-shaped. |
How about here? Can you find me here?
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| Me. Camouflaged. |
A week of more weirdness.
We began our week with more weirdness! Just as I was beginning to feel comfortable in my new Gothenburg home, the humans began that familiar process of packing my world and theirs in bags. I'm used to it by now. They placed me in my carrier and began a journey on foot, then a bus, on foot again, and finally a fresh rental car that we'd drive three hours through a minor blizzard, through the gentle landscape of southern Sweden, to the city of Malmö.
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A scene from our walk to reach the rental car.
A Swede! Walking their bike in the snow. What could be more Nordic? |
Arriving in Malmö, my first observation out of the car were signs for "Fitness 24 Seven". Now, as an old dog, my memory stretches just far back enough to remember Blockbuster Video chains all over the US. And I'm pretty sure that Fitness 24 Seven- a nation-wide chain of workout storefronts- stole both Blockbuster's signs and Blockbusters storefronts.
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At Fitness 24 Seven, you can rent a VHS tape workout, all day, any day! |
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Signs for Fitness 24 Seven.
A familiar feel to the American movie-renting public of the 1990s and early 2000s.
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| Blockbuster Video...in case you needed a reminder. |
And then we were happily greeted by whom I deduced from the hugs and kisses, was LadyHuman's mother. I was happy to finally meet her in person. She was very cautious to keep me separated from their immortal cat, Papaya, who typically has free rein of the apartment. The home was otherwise a delight. I was spoiled with treats, walks, and an abundance of new-neighborhood dog pee to smell! In the evening I snuggled while the humans played Swedish-language Codenames, which was a fun vocabulary lesson for ManHuman, who is working hard to use and understand the new language.
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| Me. Being held and admired by LadyHuman over a game of Swedish-language Codenames. |
The Garage: a library with "more people than books"
In the evening, the humans took a walk around the neighborhood and visited
Garaget (The Garage) which used to be a commercial garage, but is today a branch of the Malmö library. As LadyHuman's mother described, "It's a library with more people than books." Not literally, but Garaget was quiet the Tuesday night scene, complete with language circles, children playing games, and assorted other patrons. Explains ManHuman: "The libraries in Swedish cities impress me more and more." In this particular library branch, much of the shelving is movable, and community groups regularly reserve the space and re-arrange the space for their own purposes. Group leaders have to attend a training to learn how to return the space to its default setting.
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| A scene from Garaget. The sign that reads "SPELA" is filled with board games. |
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| Language circles of adults learning Swedish and English. |
Our trip to Rosengård
On day 2 of Malmö, the humans and I took a quick trip to the Rosengård mall. Rosengård is a neighborhood that has earned global fame as the childhood home of Swedish football (soccer) sensation
Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It has also gained some notoriety as a high-crime neighborhood in Sweden, although its rate of violent crime is
low in comparison to American cities and the US as a whole. What's immediately apparent in Rosengård is its national and ethnic diversity. Ethnic diversity is evident throughout the Swedish cities my humans and I have visited, but Rosengård is the epicenter of immigrant and refugee resettlement in Sweden. If ever you imagined Sweden as a racially/ethnically homogenous place-- a generalization ManHuman often hears from Americans as an explanation for why social services like single-payer healthcare and universal post-secondary education
work in Sweden-- I imagine a trip to Rosengård would force you to at least reconsider. The neighborhood of about 24,000 inhabitants is home to a population that is an estimated 86% foreign born, including residents from Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, Denmark, Poland, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, plus a recent wave of Syrian refugees. It felt like the UN, in an old mall.
A trip to Grandma's and the beach
After a few days in Malmö, we packed up and headed back north, this time through LadyHuman's birth place outside the city of Halmstad. It was here that I was delighted to meet LadyHuman's mormor (mother's mother). In Swedish aunts, uncles, and grandparents are labeled to avoid any confusion.
I've created a list for your convenience:
- Mor = mother
- Far= father
- Bror = brother
- Syster= sister
- Barn= child
- Mormor = mother's mother, grandma
- Morfar = mother's father, grandpa
- Farmor= father's mother, grandma
- Farfar= father's father, grandpa
- Morbror = mother's brother, uncle
- Moster= mother's sister, aunt
- Farbror = father's brother, uncle
- Faster= father's sister, aunt
- Barn = child
- Barnbarn = grandchild
- Barnbarnsbarn = great grandchild
Mormor's home is very close to the coast, and the human's and I took a trip to enjoy the sun and fresh air. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
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| LadyHuman on the beach north of Halmstad. |
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| My humans. |
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| Me. Off leash. Enjoying the salty breeze. |
That's all for this week. I should mention that ManHuman began spending more and more time during the day away from the apartment as his "workplace". I'll have more to say about this next week.
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