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Everyone in the world has heard of Sweden. Some people may mix it up with Switzerland. Most often, people will say that all sweds are blonde and tall living lives of love surrounded by nature. This is stereotypical of a blurb in the turist books Lonely Planet or DK Travel Guide. Perhaps this view of the sweds was desired even during National Romanticism in 19th century Sweden. At this time, sweden was being transformed from an agricultural society to an industrial one. And many of the romantics feared that Sweden would loose connection to its roots. So, many people, such as Carl Larsson, the painter, and Jenny Lind, a famous singer seen on the swedish kronor, tried to incorperate old swedish culture into their work. The focus was on getting back to nature. The Sweds tried to depict themselves as tall and blonde because it was pure like nature. They even made Carl Linnaeus (1628-1707), creator of the binomial nomenclature naming system, into a tall heroic blond figure in many school history books. He was actually a short, stout, balding man. The use of light pastel color in homes and large windows letting in the natural light changed swedish architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries. So, you can see that because the Swedes feared loosing their national identity to the industrialization of Sweden, bringing back nature became their focus. Linnaeus’s features were falsely recorded in school books so that children would have a local hero that better represented sewdish culture.
I am studying in Uppsala, Sweden for July 2006, and I find this to be completely untrue. In fact, to be a brunette is a hot commodity. Thus, the idea that all swedes are blond is false.
Next year is the 300th year anniversary of Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist and previously chief gardener of the Linne Gardens at Uppsala University. There will be a lot of money going into celebrating their hero in Uppsala. Today, sitting in the Linne café on Linnegatan (a street across from Linne Garden), I met a man, Hans, who ironically is the face on every free tourist book in Uppsala posing as Linnaeus. We were given a copy upon arriving at the Hotel, and in the photo, Hans is wearing a blond wig. I know it is one of those stories that you almost wouldn’t believe me, but I promise! To top it all off, my friend was eating a Linne bun! I had ice cream.
source linkSelma was born in 1858 and will die in 1940. During her life, she will be the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in literature from Uppsala University. (Uppsala was the home of the ceremonies, which will later be turned over to Stockholm and has remained there since.) At age 14, Selma was reading a poem for a wedding and so impressed Eve Fryxell, she paid for selma’s schooling in Stockholm. She won a prize from the government in 1890 for her “Gosta Berling’s Saga.” Selma then traveled to Denmark, and Italy. In italy she was horrified by the poverty and blamed it on the church. She loved the scenery and hated the people. She then lives in Jerusalem for a year and grew to love the farming community, having grown up on a farm herself.
Once Selma Lagerlof moved back to Sweden in 1901, the National Teacher’s society commisioned her to write a series of short stories for 9 year old children illustrating the geography of Sweden. Instead, Selma gave them “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.” It is a story of a boy who is turned into a changling for his bad behavior and travels with geese on their adventure to Northern Lappland. It is a classic story of guilt, repentance, and reconciliation. Today, this book is read by every Swedish child during their early school education. But, in 1901, the book was not well received. It was highly criticized because schools said it would teach children to be naughty, and they worried that it contained too much poverty.
Finally in 1911, Selma uses her money from her Nobel Prize, buys back her childhood estate and remains there until her death.
As I wrote in an earlier entry, I am in Sweden right now. I have been traveling since June 22nd. This is the first time I have been out of the country on my own. Before classes started I went to Gotland, an island off the east coast of Sweden. There I stayed in a Vanderhem Hostel that was in an old prision they had converted. It was one of the plusher hostels that I have been to so far. (Copenhagan was the worst, go figure!) I loved this island because there were endless bike trails and places to go explore both in the city walls and outside. There is literally a wall around the entire town, Gamla (meaning “old”) Visby. From the top of the wall you could see all the way down to the Baltic Sea. The day after I arrived, I rented a Volkswagen Golf from a used car rental company and drove up North to the stone formations that line the coasts. Faro, a Norhtern town, is home to Bergman, a swedish film producer, who happened to be having his Bergman Film festival that same week. I learned that Ang Lee, producer of Brokeback Mountain and Bergman fan, was there as well.
I also went to stockholm and explored the city. I kept seeing signs with the words infart, meaning entrance, but I thought it looked funny in english! Also, there were old men peeing in the public parks because is costs 5 Kronor to use the toilet. The exchange rate is 7.5 kronor to the US dollar.
check out Destination Gotland!I am currently doing a project on how to start a garden. Since I was little, I have helped my mom in her gardening and yard work. I think that it gave her a sense of pride or ownership because she conquered her goal. Since we moved into out house her garden has grown more beautiful with each year. The plants get larger and you can move what doesn’t look right to a new place and you learn about what to plant with the land you are given. There are a lot of things to consider when starting a garden.
First, you must assess the site by considering the deminsions for the shape, topography and division of the garden. The climate is a major factor in successful gardening. You need to know if it frosts in the winter and how much wind the garden is exposed to. Also, the type of soil will affect how well the plants grow because it provides necessary nutrition to the roots. There are many ways to improve the soil if it doesn’t drain properly, etc. Many plants require at least a minimal amount of sun exposure. To increase the sun exposure in a dense area of shade, you can prune the trees or just move them out into the sun if you choose to leave them in pots. These are just a few things to consider.
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