I had the great opportunity to share the everyday teaching life with a marvellous teacher, Cathy Jacobo. During my stay in NJ in October/November 2014, I experienced teaching and instructing from an American point of view. I am sure my visit had been less interesting without Cathy and I am so happy to share that she was awarded the title ”Teacher of the Year”!
Congratulations, Cathy!! ♥
⇒For those of you who’d like to read about our adventures, please follow the links below! Please also note that there are no ”ninety-third” and ”ninety-fourth”, since those texts are written in Swedish… 🙂
Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the 2004, Indian Ocean Tsunami. Swedish Television will tomorrow remember the 26th of December 2004, with many different shows from the areas where the Tsunami changed so many people’s lives. I would like to send a thought to those who lost someone, but not just the Swedish families, but ALL families who lost a relative of friend. Some of the local villages or towns were completely destroyed and it was almost impossible to find any belongings worth saving in the ruins after the tsunami. Surviving tourists could go back home whereas many of the citizens close to the Indian Ocean not only lost relatives and friends, they also lost all their belongings, their homes, their chances to make an income etc. To make a fresh restart isn’t easy in such a situation. It is more likely that you end up in a post traumatic stress attack.
According to U.S Geological Survey as many as 227898 died as a result of the Tsunami. To me all of them are important. Each and every one of them. Not just the 543 who happened to be Swedish citizens. None of them is less important than the other. One single person’s death causes a termendous loss within a family and we all need to find ways to deal with losses of different kinds. I wasn’t on the site, but watched it all on TV. After a while I found it tremendously sad that most of the coverage in Swedish TV was focused on the 543 Swedes, although they are a minority… In order to get the whole picture we needed to check international newspapers online or find out through friends abroad in what way the whole region was affected. I understand why the 543 lost Swedes are important to the Swedish Television, but I don’t understand why the other 227355 aren’t. Tomorrow I will remember all of them and send a thought to their families.
Ofta måste jag fråga min yngsta dotter om saker som rör tekniska frågor, till exempel hur man kan ändra inställningar i bloggen eller liknande. Jag är egentligen inte någon teknisk idiot, utan snarare bara lite EFTER när det gäller att upptäcka olika nyheter på teknikområdet. Idag hade jag ett riktigt Hallelujamoment med just denna dotter! Jag måste bara först förklara varför…
Vi har en urgammal Toyota. Den är nyss lagad och går återigen som en klocka, så som Toyotor gör… Det kan inte finnas ett mer pålitligt bilmärke! Men… Just vårt exemplar har, i kraft av sin ålder, inte ens en CD-spelare, utan en kassettbandspelare. Imorgon ska vi åka en bra bit med bilen och då kände jag att det vore en bra idé att byta ut de får kassettband som vi nu har tjatat ut de senaste bilresorna. Därför tog jag fram två lådor med gamla kassettband för att ge döttrarna möjlighet att välja någon annan slags musik än den vi lyssnat på den senaste tiden. Endast lillasyster nappade på erbjudandet att påverka musikutbudet på långresan. Hon vände och vred på kassettbanden (jag har flera hundra) och läste mina handskrivna listor över låtar. Sedan ville hon lyssna igenom ett par av dem, för att se om de motsvarade hennes förväntningar. Har vi någon kassettbandspelare? undrade hon. Jag svarade att den spelare vi har i källaren går att använda, liksom den som är uppe i sovrummet. Hon försvann iväg men efter mindre en minut ropade hon på mig, ganska desperat, med kommentarer i stil med ”Den här funkar ju inte! Hur GÖR man???”
Det var ju HELT otroligt!!! Vilken känsla!!! Jag skrattade gott! Hon VISSTE verkligen inte hur ett kassettband fungerar… Jag kunde inte avstå från att ställa den oundvikliga frågan: ”OM du hade en blyertspenna och ett kassettband, hur skulle dessa två saker hänga ihop med varandra?” Dottern bara stirrade på mig, som om jag var HELT dum i huvudet. Sedan pekade hon på spelaren och sa: ”Sätt igång den här i stället!” Sedan lyssnade vi på några av kassettbanden, för att veta vilka som får följa med på julresan…
Det är helt fantastiskt att hon inte hade en susning om hur ett kassettband fungerar! Kanske måste jag nu be henne läsa mitt #Miniåseri om Eurovision, som jag skrev i maj, eftersom det ju var riktigt MÖDOSAMT att spela in på den gamla goda tiden… och det kan ju vara bra att veta, som ren allmänbildning menar jag… Imorgon ska vi lyssna på gamla kassettband i bilen och då visar det sig om jag har spelat in dem på den långsamma stereo jag en gång ägde. I så fall så låter alla artisterna som Kalle Anka när man spelar banden i en annan spelare… Ett av mina favoritkassettband innehåller Simon & Garfunkels konsert från Central Park och den tog JÄTTELÅNG tid att spela in, för jag har nämligen tagit bort alla publikljuden och Paul Simons småprat mellan låtarna… Tänk vad SMIDIGT det är med musiklyssnande nuförtiden! Man kan välja och vraka på t ex Spotify och verkligen ha den där obegränsade tillgången till massor av fin musik. Vilken LYX!!! Jag minns hur jag sparade pengar för att kunna köpa skivor och spela över till kassett. Då var det kassetten som var det smidiga sättet att spela upp musiken. Föräldrarna spelade LP. ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ VAD TÖNTIGT!!! Nu är det jag som är töntig antar jag, men det gör inget. Det får man bjuda på! 😀
Earlier today I wrote a blogpost in Swedish about the colours of Christmas. To give a few examples of that I added a song we all know, i.e Blue Christmas with Elvis Presley. I didn’ t plan to actually play it myself, just to add it to the blog post. But accidentally I turned on the player and then I was hooked… So from then on I have been walking in memory lane with one of the most wonderful voices ever. Over the years I cannot say I have been listening all the time to Elvis Presley, but I would be true if I’d say I never lost the feeling for some of the songs either. When I was ten years old and Elvis died, I asked my Dad for an album with Elvis for Christmas. He bought the Golden record from a concert in Canada. My fave song was this one, although here I found the Nashville edition:
in October 2014 I had the opportunity to find out what it might be like to be very close to Elvis, in Nashville, because one of my teaching friends in NJ talked about how she left NJ for Nashville. We spoke for a long time about Elvis’ music and about our favourite songs. We had one thing in common. We both enjoyed the gospel songs and also the latest recordings. How Great Thou Art is originally written as a Swedish hymn and it is often sung in funerals, Oh Store Gud. It is recorded many times, but one of the best is this one, in my opinion, mainly because the singer Christer Sjögren admires Elvis Presley and thus is a great performer of his songs in general. This time however, it is the Swedish version. Can you speak Swedish? If not… what if you can sing it??? 😉
But whatever Elvis did, he was copied by others and some of them are very nice singers, too, one of them is again a Swedish man, called Henrik Åberg who has admired Elvis Presley for a long time and manages very well to get close to Elvis’ sound:
But it doesn’t necessarily need to be a man, to sing Elvis songs. Carola is one of few Swedish female singers who keep coming back to old Elvis songs particularly because she loves them, but also because Elvis was her late father’s most appreciated choice of music. I think many of her recordings of Elvis’songs are very well performed and can stand the comparison with other wellknown singers worldwide. Do you agree?
Förra julen hade jag anledning att tillsammans med mina dåvarande elever diskutera de många färger som finns inblandade i vårt julfirande utan att vi närmare kommenterar uttryckens egentliga betydelse. Nu menar jag faktiskt först och främst på det lingvistiska planet. Jag fascineras av ord och deras betydelse och speciellt intressant tycker jag att det är när det blir tvetydigt, för just den typen av uttryck får jag flest frågor om från elever i mitt klassrum. Vi går ut lite lätt här, med sakernas tillstånd här i Ludvika… Det är en grön jul! För mig och just i år, så innebär det att julen är snöfri. Det är ganska logiskt. Men om man är en person som är rabiat motståndare till djurförsök eller kanske av religiösa eller etiska skäl tycker att det är fel att slakta djur, så kan ju en grön jul snarare innebära att den är vegetarisk. Någon annan skulle kanske hävda att om man genomgående satsar på att hålla sig hemma på hemadressen i stället för att flyga till Thailand, äta nyckelhålsmärkt närproducerat, värma sig med en kofta i stället för att elda i oljepannan firar just en grön jul…för att man värnar om miljön. Många satsar på gran, en äkta…grön… Den vita julen är för den ena personen länkad till mängden snö. Men för sällskapet Länkarna går kopplingen snarare till att medverka till att så många som möjligt får uppleva en alkoholfri jul. För mig personligen, så finns det en tredje betydelse! Jag har hemma hos mig en ganska omfattande blandning av färger och träslag och mönster, men där jag ska fira jul i år, är färgskalan ganska begränsad och vitt är den mest framträdande färgen av dem alla. Vitt är inte så färglöst som det verkar om jag tänker på hur det ser ut i det hemmet. De hade ljust och fräscht långt innan #Scyffert och #Lindström gjorde pengar på att snacka om det på en scen.
Om vi pratar om julrött eller tomterött, så vet de flesta vilka kulörer vi menar. När vi säger att det kommer att bli en svart jul, så har vi troligen sett på nyheterna om någon tragisk olycka med dödlig utgång eller kanske en storm slog ut elen, så att vi inte kunde tända lamporna?A Blue Christmas är kopplad till Elvis Presley och jag anser att det inte finns någon vettig motsvarighet till det uttrycket i svenska språket som innehåller en färg.
Oavsett vilken färg du föredrar eller om du firar jul eller inte, så hoppas jag att du får en välförtjänt ledighet där du kan hämta kraft och inspiration så att det nya året, 2015 blir ditt bästa någonsin!
I wonder what words we use now, compared to what we used to? Being a member of a Christian Society would mean that we remember Christmas as the Day when Jesus was born. But being a member of a secularised society means being careful with religious connections of any kind, at least when being a teacher. So… we might say Winter Break instead of Christmas Holiday… In Sweden I’d say most of us still say Christmas Holiday, ”jullov”, although not all of us would cherish the memory of Jesus. I suppose some children grow up innocently thinking that we celebrate Christmas because Santa comes…?
Easter… we celebrate Easter because we need an excuse to eat eggs and have fun searching for candy in an egg hunt? I noticed last spring that instead of calling our typical Easter flowers ”Easter lilies” they had a new more neutral name; ”Spring lilies” and I suspect the reason why was that they wanted to be able to sell those flowers to ANYONE, not just the people who celebrate Easter… How clever!!!
Whatever we DO believe in, we risk to forget the reason. If we don’t communicate with our kids and remind them of reasons for our traditions or holidays, then they will grow up not knowing. But, having said that, I still think respect is a beautiful word in our vocabulary. If I teach a group of students, I’m not supposed to promote any religion in particular. So how would I then share the Swedish way of celebrating Christmas, without hurting people who have another belief? How can I possibly not at all show my own belief? Do I need to be a non believing person in order to be trustworthy? I don’t think so. I think I need to communicate the official Swedish viewpoint at the same time as I can be true to myself by not negotiating with my own belief. SO… If I meet people of different beliefs at work, I tend to be the ”cushion” in between different viewpoints. I try very hard to tell my students that whatever you believe you are free to do so, since Sweden is a society where there is no longer a state religion. You can choose for yourself to believe or not and if you believe, it’s up to you whether you’re a Buddhist or a Moslem or if your God is Jahve. And when you neighbout has another belief than you do, then just leave your neighbour in peace. You, yourself, have the same opportunity to choose, don’t you? I think the very choice to decide for oneself, is one of the best laws here in Sweden.
Many years ago, a friend from Canada visited us and we started to talk about different traditions that we couldn’t live without. The Canadian friend mentioned that The Grinch would be such a tradition for him. In October when I visited a school in NJ, I noticed that many of the kids wanted to learn more about Swedish Christmas traditions and what TV-shows we most typically would watch on Christmas Day. First of all, I needed to tell them that Christmas Day isn’t really the big thing here, although we all know about Jesus… Instead most of us do most of our celebration on Christmas Eve and regarding TV-shows I told the American kids about our tradition of watching a Walt Disney show with Donald Duck and his friends. Some of the kids I met in NJ asked how come, but that’s a long story.
More fun was to notice that they all were astonished when I said kids in Sweden actually MEET Santa (called Tomten in Swedish). He doesn’t just drop things through the chimney or come during the night to put gifts under the Christmas tree. Instead he comes knocking the door, asking whether all the kids were kind or not… Every kid yells YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! and Tomten comes in to give his gifts from a large sack. But what if he doesn’t come? the American kids wanted to know… He does, I said. I then said that since he comes on Christmas Eve in our homes and he is offered plenty of rice porridge and saffron buns, he will for sure be a lot bigger when he arrives in Americe, because Tomten isn’t at all a fat and tall man, saying Ho ho ho! He wears clothes that is more close to the outfit the Grinch has in the above picture… The idea is for the people in the house, to be kind in general and also to be good to each other. Then Tomten will be kind, too, but if any child is naughty, Tomten will for sure not at all be kind! So, beware of Tomten… Apart from the Disney show we can also watch a more traditional show, more solemn and quiet with a whole lot of wintery feeling. Viktor Rydberg wrote a long poem, called Tomten. A famous Swedish writer, Torgny Lindgren reads with great passion and the lovely paintings are made by Harald Wiberg. Suppose you have never heard Swedish before… Then take this advantage and listen to a poem that is like a fairy tale…
Saint Lucia or Saint Lucy of Syracuse, from round 300 AC, is today’s protagonist in many different settings… The legend says that Saint Lucia was born in Italy in Syracuse. She was of noble family, but since her father had died Saint Lucia and her mother didn’t have any other solution to support themselves but for the young Lucia to marry a rich man. Lucia, however, had already dedicated her heart to God and did everything in her power to prevent a marriage. According to the legend, Lucia’s eyes were very beautiful. She even tore her eyes out and gave them to one of the men who came to propose, because she wanted to discourage the man. When Lucia was buried her eyes had been restored through miracle and that was also why she was honored as a Saint during the Middle Ages (1).
Why would a country like Sweden celebrate a saint from Italy, you may think? In the winter Sweden and the other Nordic countries long for the summer not only because of the cold and snowy winter, but also because of the darkness. Saint Lucia is celebrated every year the 13th of December and in Sweden the tradition is still very important for Christmas celebration. Many of the traditional songs are sung not only the 13th, but also during Christmas.
Lucia processions are organized all over Sweden and throughout all different sectors in the society. Kids celebrate in pre-schools or schools and adults celebrate if they are choir members for instance. Many towns or cities i Sweden have their own Lucia processions and on TV they show the official Lucia show of the year.
As a young girl I was in my first Lucia procession when I was a few years old. As a teenager I started to sing in a girls choir called Bjursåsflickorna. We gave many Lucia concerts every year. One of the years we were asked to perform at a dinner in the Royal Castle in Stockholm. It was very exciting and a memorable moment. Princess Madeleine who is now a Mom herself, was climbing on the chairs and crawling under the table and was quite an active little girl at the time. The very same choir also performed a traditional Lucia concert at Lugnet’s sports stadium in April… We were pretending it was winter, because of some honorable guests from the International Olympic Comittée. One of them was the chairman at that time, Juan Antonio Samaranch. The idea was for us to sing to bring the Olympic Winter Games to Falun… Obviously that was a mission impossible. Falun lost.
Singing for Lucia in strange places seemed to be one of the habits of this choir. I remember we even sang in the Falu Copper Mine, in almost complete darkness and with the damp vitriolic scent in our noses, helmets on our heads and just a candle to light our way down there. Very exciting and completely unique at that time. I know that later on, many other choirs have sung in the copper mine, too. Nowadays I come across Lucia processions ”by accident”, like for instance today when I visited the shopping mall Kupolen in Borlänge, or when students at school perform. I have also accompanied my own children on different occasions, but for myself, I would say my celebration of the Saint Lucia is found in memory lane…
Before I let you go, let’s just glance at a picture of a typical saffron bun, called ”lussekatt” in Swedish.
But hey… Why invent the wheel??? Please check this link from youtube in order to finally understand this topic!
In 1980, I was only thirteen years old, when I heard a long row of John Lennon songs. The songs were all masterpieces and that made me listen. I wanted to know who sang… They played the Beatles, too, and after a while the many interviews accompanied the lovely music. In just a couple of days I discovered that there had been a singer/composer/writer called John Lennon AND that someone had put his life to an end. I have missed him, although I never knew him. I have enjoyed the many tunes he gave to the world and I wish for real, that his thoughts already had become truth. A month ago I commented on the Berlin Wall Memorial in my #ninetyninth åsic, by sharing the lyrics to Imagine. For all those who suffer in wars, worldwide, for all those who live in despair for a reason. Imagine!
From a teacher's point of view, some is old and some is new! 